Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus)

Status is important to humans.  We want to know where we fit in any given social or professional situation.  If we are not satisfied with our rank and status, then we will instinctively work hard to gain status in our community for the purpose raising our rank.  That’s what status is and what it means to obtain it.  Status is defined as a social or professional position, condition, or standing to which varying degrees of responsibility, privilege, and esteem are attached.  Status is the relative position or standing of a person or thing. 

Given this information, what is your current status? What is mine? How much of our time is spent on clinging to our status with hopes of raising our rank in our people groups or in society at large?  What happens when we give our hearts, minds, and souls to Christ?  How does that affect our human status seeking behaviors?

Paul has the answer with an example!

Philippians 2, The Message

He Took on the Status of a Slave

2 ^1-4 If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

^5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

^9-11 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.

Rejoicing Together

^12-13 What I’m getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you’ve done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I’m separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.

^14-16 Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing.

^17-18 Even if I am executed here and now, I’ll rejoice in being an element in the offering of your faith that you make on Christ’s altar, a part of your rejoicing. But turnabout’s fair play—you must join me in my rejoicing. Whatever you do, don’t feel sorry for me.

^19-24 I plan (according to Jesus’ plan) to send Timothy to you very soon so he can bring back all the news of you he can gather. Oh, how that will do my heart good! I have no one quite like Timothy. He is loyal, and genuinely concerned for you. Most people around here are looking out for themselves, with little concern for the things of Jesus. But you know yourselves that Timothy’s the real thing. He’s been a devoted son to me as together we’ve delivered the Message. As soon as I see how things are going to fall out for me here, I plan to send him off. And then I’m hoping and praying to be right on his heels.

^25-27 But for right now, I’m dispatching Epaphroditus, my good friend and companion in my work. You sent him to help me out; now I’m sending him to help you out. He has been wanting in the worst way to get back with you. Especially since recovering from the illness you heard about, he’s been wanting to get back and reassure you that he is just fine. He nearly died, as you know, but God had mercy on him. And not only on him—he had mercy on me, too. His death would have been one huge grief piled on top of all the others.

^28-30 So you can see why I’m so delighted to send him on to you. When you see him again, strong and strapping, how you’ll rejoice and how relieved I’ll be. Give him a grand welcome, a joyful embrace! People like him deserve the best you can give. Remember the ministry to me that you started but weren’t able to complete? Well, in the process of finishing up that work, he put his life on the line and nearly died doing it.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

If we love Jesus and want to be like Jesus more and more each day, we must lay the pursuit of our own personal status and the innate desire for prestige in this world.  “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…” says Jesus, Matthew 6:33 “…and all these things will be given to you as well.”  What will be given?  All that God has—even His One and Only Son! 

The status we seek most demands that we wear the right clothes, drive vehicles that show high prestige, while we climb over everyone on the ladders of success in our profession.  We must be seen eating at only the finest restaurants.  Jesus addresses the aggressive stress this causes as we live a self-seeking pursuit of status, value, worth, and rank in this world.

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” –Jesus, Matthew 6:28-32

God knows we need clothes; God was Adam and Eve’s first clothing designers as I recall! (Genesis 3) God knows we need food to eat and provides ways to for us to grow it or buy what we need from each other.  In our country, we have more than enough, with enough to share! Jesus addresses our generosity as well!

Above all, Jesus sets the supreme example concerning status.  Paul explains and clearly lays in on the line for us:

“He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.”

Because of His great love for us, Jesus willingly and obediently laid down his life for ours.  Let the humbling status that Jesus chose so that we could be redeemed and set free, sink into our being this morning.

What is our current status?  Pause to prayerfully consider what we seek most.  Are we living in “responsive obedience” to God/Jesus/Holy Spirit?

Lord,

May what you did for us permeate our hearts, minds, and souls all day long and into the night.  Cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, refresh our souls with your new mercies for today, and restore the joy and peace of your salvation always at work with us to transform our thinking and ultimate behaviors.  May your Holy Spirit fill us and guide us with all the status that a believer needs—all of You in all of us/me.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

Do we believe what God says to be really real?  Do we believe that God did indeed sent a part of Himself, His One and Only Son, Jesus, to earth to demonstrate His love for us as a living sacrifice for our sins?  The depth and reality of our inner belief with be reflected in our behaviors—especially when pushed into a corner by circumstances that challenge our entire being. 

The more we get to know God by reading His Word while listening to His Holy Spirit speak to us in the stillness of our desire to know; we can only begin to scratch the surface of the way God thinks and why He does what He does for and in us.  Isaiah, the prophet, is told by God that His thoughts will always surpass the thoughts of mankind in this world!

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts”. –Isaiah 55:8-9

David wrote songs from his heart to God’s ears about God’s character.  David’s psalms declare the merciful actions of the God he loves.  David declares God’s greatness and power in humbled praise.  His songs help us understand more about God—who is unfailing and unchanging in His love for us!

Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.

If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.
I wait for the Lord, more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.

Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.
He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.” Psalm 130

Now Paul, centuries later, is sitting in a prison cell for preaching the glorious Good News of salvation made possible by the sacrifice Jesus. In Paul’s current situation he learns even more about God.  We hear in his writings, that Paul is becoming certain of God whose thoughts are so opposite than mankind’s that God can make a bad situation work for His glory and our good through those who serve Him!  Paul is gaining even more God-confidence as he watches God at work from his jail cell! 

God’s upside-down, right-side up Kingdom thinking easily turns a bad circumstance in a beautiful opportunity to proclaim that Jesus is alive and well and that all our sins have been paid in full!  Yes, that’s who God is and how He works!  God rises above all, is in all, and loves us through it all.  Man plans; but God decides.  And where God guides; He provides.  Here is report from God’s eye-witness with proof and evidence—

Philippians 1:12-30, The Message

They Can’t Imprison the Message

^12-14 I want to report to you, friends, that my imprisonment here has had the opposite of its intended effect. Instead of being squelched, the Message has actually prospered. All the soldiers here, and everyone else, too, found out that I’m in jail because of this Messiah. That piqued their curiosity, and now they’ve learned all about him. Not only that, but most of the followers of Jesus here have become far more sure of themselves in the faith than ever, speaking out fearlessly about God, about the Messiah.

^15-17 It’s true that some here preach Christ because with me out of the way, they think they’ll step right into the spotlight. But the others do it with the best heart in the world. One group is motivated by pure love, knowing that I am here defending the Message, wanting to help. The others, now that I’m out of the picture, are merely greedy, hoping to get something out of it for themselves. Their motives are bad. They see me as their competition, and so the worse it goes for me, the better—they think—for them.

^18-21 So how am I to respond? I’ve decided that I really don’t care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on!

And I’m going to keep that celebration going because I know how it’s going to turn out. Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done. I can hardly wait to continue on my course. I don’t expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn’t shut me up; they gave me a platform! Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his prize. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose.

^22-26 As long as I’m alive in this body, there is good work for me to do. If I had to choose right now, I hardly know which I’d choose. Hard choice! The desire to break camp here and be with Christ is powerful. Some days I can think of nothing better. But most days, because of what you are going through, I am sure that it’s better for me to stick it out here. So I plan to be around awhile, companion to you as your growth and joy in this life of trusting God continues. You can start looking forward to a great reunion when I come visit you again. We’ll be praising Christ, enjoying each other.

^27-30 Meanwhile, live in such a way that you are a credit to the Message of Christ. Let nothing in your conduct hang on whether I come or not. Your conduct must be the same whether I show up to see things for myself or hear of it from a distance. Stand united, singular in vision, contending for people’s trust in the Message, the good news, not flinching or dodging in the slightest before the opposition. Your courage and unity will show them what they’re up against: defeat for them, victory for you—and both because of God. There’s far more to this life than trusting in Christ. There’s also suffering for him. And the suffering is as much a gift as the trusting. You’re involved in the same kind of struggle you saw me go through, on which you are now getting an updated report in this letter.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

There’s far more than trusting in Christ!  There will be times of trouble and suffering as we follow Christ!  Not to worry, embrace those times because God is still work.  Our best lessons are learned in the challenges that get our attention.  We grow stronger in our resolve to follow the One and Only who willing died for our sins and rose again to give us hope for eternal life! 

^“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”           —Jesus, John 16:33, NLT

We live to please God while delivering the message of Jesus Christ with confidence that comes from knowing and believing in Jesus.  We daily offer ourselves to Him so that His Holy Spirit can go to work to help us become more and more in every way like Jesus!

We stand firm because Jesus willingly hung firmly on a cross for us.  Jesus, beaten beyond recognition, could have called ten thousand angels to rescue Him in power—but He did not—love held Him there.

So, do we really believe God or not?  What is imprisoning our witness to tell?

Lord,

I believe.  I believe in Your Word that reports some of the ways you think with how you respond to mankind with a love that is beyond this world’s thinking.  The more we live in this world that lives the opposite the more we see the difference of Kingdom thinking and living. There is a difference—a stark, definite difference.  Help us to know the difference by knowing you more and more.

In Jesus Name, Amen

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” –Paul, Romans 8:28, NIV 

“Go with me back in history a couple of thousand years. Let’s go to the city of Rome. The thrilling metropolis of gladiators, chariots, and empires. But don’t stop at the coliseum or palace. Go rather to a drab little room, surrounded by high walls. Let’s imagine that we can peek into the room and look. Inside we see a man seated on the floor. He’s an older fellow, shoulders stooped and balding. Chains are on his hands and feet. And chained to him is a guard from the Roman army.

It is the apostle Paul. The apostle who has traveled all over the world. The apostle who has liberated people in every port. The apostle who was bound only by the will of God is now in chains—stuck in a dingy house—attached to a Roman officer.

Here is a fellow who has every reason to be in a slump!

He is restricted by walls. He is afflicted by friends. He is conflicted by danger.

He is writing a letter. No doubt it is a complaint letter to God. No doubt it is a list of grievances. No doubt he is writing the New Testament version of Lamentations. He has every reason to be bitter and complain. But he doesn’t. Instead, he writes a letter that two thousand years later is still known as the treatise on joy.” –Max Lucado, Encouraging Word Bible

This is a letter of joy and rejoicing through all circumstances of life.  Jesus told his followers before leaving earth to go back home; “in this world you will have troubles, but relax, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) We must ask ourselves;

Do we truly believe in Jesus as the overcomer of all that is here on earth?  Paul did.

Philippians is my favorite book of encouragement.  I have used the words of Paul over the years, numerous times, to encourage others as they live for Jesus.  “Every time I think of you, I give thanks for you…”  No matter what Paul is going through while sitting in jail, he teaches us to be like Christ, who thought of others, putting aside His own interests, giving His life for ours.  Jesus is the Source of our joy!  Paul thanks believing friends who also decidedly follow Jesus and receive His joy in the work.  Paul is a committed servant of Jesus Christ.  He rejoices when believing friends also serve Jesus by telling the Message of redemptive salvation for all.

Dear brothers and sisters all over the world, I thank God for you right now! 

For you who read this daily and receive the peace that God gives to us; I thank you God for you!

For some of you who pop in once a while seeking encouragement; I thank God for you! 

For some who have read God’s Word with me over the years and passed it on to others; my heart is filled with joy! 

For you who have given your whole being to Jesus as Lord and live to serve Him; I rejoice with you! 

Every time I think of you, those I have met face to face and many I have not; I thank God for you.  I pray for and with you.  Pray for me as I continue to write words of joy and encouragement by the guidance of His Holy Spirit.  Pray, too that others will come to know and follow Jesus.  It is with a glad heart that these “Daily Manna” messages that proclaim Jesus’ salvation for all are written. 

Brothers and sisters, I thank God for you and pray that God who began this work in us would help us to keep at it until that glorious Day when Christ returns to take us home for eternity!

Philippians 1, The Message

^1-2 Paul and Timothy, both of us committed servants of Christ Jesus, write this letter to all the followers of Jesus in Philippi, pastors and ministers included. We greet you with the grace and peace that comes from God our Father and our Master, Jesus Christ.

A Love That Will Grow

^3-6 Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart. I am so pleased that you have continued on in this with us, believing and proclaiming God’s Message, from the day you heard it right up to the present. There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.

^7-8 It’s not at all fanciful for me to think this way about you. My prayers and hopes have deep roots in reality. You have, after all, stuck with me all the way from the time I was thrown in jail, put on trial, and came out of it in one piece. All along you have experienced with me the most generous help from God. He knows how much I love and miss you these days. Sometimes I think I feel as strongly about you as Christ does!

^9-11 So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Pray with and for each other as God’s way of loving Him and each other!

Pray for all who God brings to our minds. God knows who could use the encouragement of knowing someone is praying for them.

Pray with joy and thanksgiving on our hearts.  Rejoice in the honored privilege to boldly come to the throne of God who hears and answers with compassion and knowing what is best for us.  Thank God for listening to our hearts as well as our words.

Pray in all the details of life for God delights in us who pray believing.

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephania 3:17, NIV

“The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the LORD holds them by the hand.” Psalms 37:23-25 NLT

Paul relentlessly and continually pointed to Jesus as his strength and his protector. He told the church in Philippi that they must trust God at all times, even when things seemed difficult.  When we truly rejoice in God, we can find peace in the middles of our storms, knowing that God is sovereign, most holy, and is always with us through it all. 

“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” –Jesus, Matthew 28:20

Lord,

Thank you for all who are coming to you this morning with praise on our lips.  I will rejoice in this day you have made.  And again, I say rejoice.  I am glad for your Presence in our lives.  I am grateful for your guidance.  Cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, and continually restore the joy of your salvation at work within us.

In Jesus Name, Amen

FUN FACT:

The Vulcan “salute” was devised by Leonard Nimoy, who portrayed the half Vulcan character Mr. Spock on the original Star Trek television series. Nimoy said in that interview that he “decided that the Vulcans were a “hand-oriented” people”.  In his 1975 autobiography I Am Not Spock, Nimoy, who was Jewish, wrote that he based it on the Priestly Blessing performed by Jewish Kohanim with both hands, thumb to thumb in this same position, representing the Hebrew letter Shin (ש in Square Script, or Paleo Hebrew 𐤔‎), which has three upward strokes similar to the position of the thumb and fingers in the gesture. The letter Shin here stands for El Shaddai, meaning “Almighty (God)”, as well as for Shekhinah and Shalom. Nimoy wrote that when he was a child, his grandfather took him to an Orthodox synagogue, where he saw the blessing performed and was impressed by it.

Paul also takes us back to what the Jews then should know well—the original Ten Commandments given to Moses by God.  He reminds his readers that one particular commandment comes with a promise— “so that you will live well and have a long life.”  In other words, “live long and prosper” by honoring your father and mother!

To honor someone generates from our deep love for them.  Respect for who they are follows our love and grows an admiration for who they are becoming to us and to others.  We regard those we honor as important to our lives, placing great value on the ways they contribute to our wellbeing.

God gives us the commanding order to honor the ones who gave us life on this earth.  We are to hold our parents in high esteem “so we live long and proper.” Life is much harder and heartbreaking when parents and children frustrate each other in ways that destroy loving relationships that God wants us to have and to hold. 

Paul will close his letter with how to resist evil by knowing the Enemy exists to destroy our relationship with God. Know the attacks will come and be prepared. Know the weak spots of our Enemy—he knows ours!  What Satan hates most are believer in Jesus, crying out in the Name of Jesus.  God answers this prayer with the power to resist evil.  We are promised this power, the same power that raised Jesus from death to life! Tap into it.  Satan cannot handle this power that God have given us full access to in our battle with evil.  We cannot defeat the Enemy of God by ourselves or by sheer will power—only in the Name of Jesus who is our Victor over the Enemy.

Believers who trust in God as our Source of strength with unlimited Power are overcomers with Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord!

Ephesians 6, The Message

^1-3 Children, do what your parents tell you. This is only right. “Honor your father and mother” is the first commandment that has a promise attached to it, namely, “so you will live well and have a long life.”

⁴ Fathers, don’t frustrate your children with no-win scenarios. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master.

^5-8 Servants, respectfully obey your earthly masters but always with an eye to obeying the real master, Christ. Don’t just do what you have to do to get by, but work heartily, as Christ’s servants doing what God wants you to do. And work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you’re really serving God. Good work will get you good pay from the Master, regardless of whether you are slave or free.

⁹ Masters, it’s the same with you. No abuse, please, and no threats. You and your servants are both under the same Master in heaven. He makes no distinction between you and them.

A Fight to the Finish

^10-12 And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no weekend war that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.

^13-18 Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.

^19-20 And don’t forget to pray for me. Pray that I’ll know what to say and have the courage to say it at the right time, telling the mystery to one and all, the Message that I, jailbird preacher that I am, am responsible for getting out.

^21-22 Tychicus, my good friend here, will tell you what I’m doing and how things are going with me. He is certainly a dependable servant of the Master! I’ve sent him not only to tell you about us but to cheer you on in your faith.

^23-24 Good-bye, friends. Love mixed with faith be yours from God the Father and from the Master, Jesus Christ. Pure grace and nothing but grace be with all who love our Master, Jesus Christ.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

We respond with love that gives honor to our parents, no matter who they are or what they have done, we honor and give respect to those who gave us birth.  As children our command is to love, honor, and respect our parents. As parents we lead our children with love to the Father God who so loved us He sent His Son to save us.  To honor is hold each other in high esteem with value for their existence.

God, our Father, demonstrates this holy relationship to us through Jesus, His Son.  If we need to know how to honor our parents, look to Jesus who honored His Father in Heaven consistently with high esteem and praise!  Look to Jesus with how to treat each other so all will go well with parents, children, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends and even our enemies!  Be led in all relationships by His love in us.  Look to Jesus with a desire to love like He loves us and everyone else in the world!

We respond to the Enemy who hates all loving relationships that begin with Jesus at the center, by being prepared for his attacks.  The Enemy has limited power with the same old tools of distraction by shiny objects of self, deception with lies of destruction with efforts to destroy our loving, faithful relationship with God and others. 

Paul reminds us that we are given God’s “weapons” to sustain us in battle and give us the victory over the Enemy of God.  We respond with knowing full well that we will need God’s unlimited strength and power to help us when the attacks on our faith will come.  We must encourage each other in the battle to overcome with Christ! 

Lord,

Thank you for reminding us of the power you offer us in our daily battles with evil. Thank you for “arming” us for the war you have already won!  Thank you for teaching us to not love only each other but to honor the ones who gave us birth with respect for their existence by your command.  May we live long and prosper in your love, mercy, and grace!

In Jesus Name, Amen

When you wake with an idea that will help someone else, God is probably leading you to listen and respond. I have noticed that He will also lead unbelievers to do good to help someone until they come to believe and know that God is good and the One who prompted them!  When we wake up with someone on our mind; God’s Holy Spirit has put that person in your thoughts for a purpose. Maybe they need prayer or a call.  God always speaks with purpose.  God always has a plan with steps to take.  The steps will seem daunting at first.  The direction God presents us might seem unlikely for us given what we currently know about ourselves from our momentary perspective. 

Sometimes what God says seems so weirdly out of our daily routines and character; we wonder if it is God we are hearing!  It is, if it lines up with what Jesus taught us to be and do.  How will we respond?  Do we ask why and not do anything until we He tells us why? Do we question until the opportunity to do what He tells us passes us by?  We can be a stubborn people, right?!

Seriously though, what is our first thought and response?  Will we respond with love or hate, graciousness or sarcasm, gentleness or impatience anger, kindness or meanness?  It probably depends on who’s doing the leading!   

Ephesians 5, The Message

Wake Up from Your Sleep

^1-2 Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.

^3-4 Don’t allow love to turn into lust, setting off a downhill slide into sexual promiscuity, filthy practices, or bullying greed. Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, those who follow Jesus have better uses for language than that. Don’t talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn’t fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect.

⁵ You can be sure that using people or religion or things just for what you can get out of them—the usual variations on idolatry—will get you nowhere, and certainly nowhere near the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God.

^6-7 Don’t let yourselves get taken in by religious smooth talk. God gets furious with people who are full of religious sales talk but want nothing to do with him. Don’t even hang around people like that.

^8-10 You groped your way through that murk once, but no longer. You’re out in the open now. The bright light of Christ makes your way plain. So no more stumbling around. Get on with it! The good, the right, the true—these are the actions appropriate for daylight hours. Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it.

^11-16 Don’t waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It’s a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ.

Wake up from your sleep,
Climb out of your coffins;
Christ will show you the light!

So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!

¹⁷ Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants.

^18-20 Don’t drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge drafts of him. Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.

Relationships

²¹ Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another.

^22-24 Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands.

^25-28 Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They’re really doing themselves a favor—since they’re already “one” in marriage.

^29-33 No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.” This is a huge mystery, and I don’t pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

We are learning that our response to God depends on what or who we allow to monopolize our thoughts and come into our lives to fill our hearts, minds, and souls.  Afterall, our behaviors flow from what it is our hearts, Jesus teaches.

Are we drawing from the His ever flowing well of Living Water that will sustain and nourish us for eternity?  Are we following the Light or groping our own way through the dark jungle of tangling obstructions that form when we go our own way? Are we leaning on the wisdom of God who demonstrated His relentless love in the life of His Son, Jesus who saved us because He loves us no matter what?  

Could it be that we learn how to respond to God and to others by studying how Jesus responded first, then learn to love like that?  I’m pretty sure that is exactly where Paul is headed as he awakens us to love like God loves us—extravagantly, unconditionally, and faithfully.  God pursues us with mercy in His heart. Wake up to the love, mercy, and grace of God!  He is waiting with open arms—look for Him and respond with honor and respect to God and then to each other.  The rest will fall into place when we place our souls in the loving care and nourishing work of our Lord. 

We cannot save ourselves.  We cannot live to be like Jesus without the power of God’s Holy Spirit, the same power that raised Jesus from death to life, to help us.  We’re just not that good. But God?  God is good.  Only God is good.

Lord,

Thank you for teaching, convicting, challenging, and drawing me to be still, know you, learn about you so I can be more like you in every way.  Transform me from the inside out.  My heart, mind, and souls is yours.  I’m yours and you are mine.  Thank you for all that you do, all that you provide, all because of your love.

In Jesus Name, Amen

“Oh, grow up…”  Admit it.  This has been said to us more than once while getting through those adolescent years, right?  This phrase from parents comes as their beloved adolescent has rolled their eyes when corrected, asked to do something to help the household in which they live, or by merely trying to communicate.

At times, as parents we feel and can almost hear the eyerolls of our adolescents as they walk away in disgust at our wisdom in raising them!  Parents and other significant, caring adults heave loud sighs as adolescents gripe and complain about life, their siblings’ behaviors, while daring to confront their parents with their “rights” as individuals while still residing in the home provided for them.  But they are kids who have not yet grow up to realize what life is all about, right?  As adults, we no longer live like adolescents—do we?

As new believers, there comes a time when we must decide and commit to who we are in Christ.  Who are in Christ was plainly outlined by Paul at the beginning of his letter to the church and continued through chapter 3.  In chapter 4 we come to the “therefore” portion of Paul’s teaching that will clearly explain how believers, confident in their new life in Christ, need to behave.  Our belief in Jesus should be in sync with our behaviors as we become more like Jesus.  Who we are leads what we do—with the help of God’s Holy Spirit guiding us! 

Paul could be saying, “no eyerolls, please;” we must grow up in Christ, listen to what God wants, and then do what He says!  Live to avoid the “sigh” of God and instead live to please God—not because it looks good or feels good but because of our sincere love and gratitude for God—the One and Only who is Good!  Thank God who so loved us He sent His Son, Jesus to save us!  Yes, it’s time to grow up—from the inside out!

Ephesians 4, The Message

Be Mature

^1-3 In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.

^4-6 You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.

^7-13 But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is,

He climbed the high mountain,
He captured the enemy and seized the plunder,
He handed it all out in gifts to the people.

Is it not true that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.

^14-16 No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are easy prey for predators. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.

The Old Way Has to Go

^17-19 And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can’t think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.

^20-24 But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

²⁵ What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.

^26-27 Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.

²⁸ Did you use to make ends meet by stealing? Well, no more! Get an honest job so that you can help others who can’t work.

²⁹ Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.

³⁰ Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted.

^31-32 Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Pause to pray asking God to transform us to be all He created us to be.  This will cause a disturbance of habits, expect it.  This will require putting self-interests aside in the process of growing up to be more like Jesus in every way.  Our new lives of believing and behaving like Jesus begin on the inside, flowing from our hearts.

I’m reminded just now of a new song written by Miranda Curtis, “Let Praises Rise”

Let praises rise
From the inside
From the inside of me

May you delight
In the inside
In the inside of me
Come fill my life
From the inside
From the inside of me

Set me on fire
From the inside
From the inside of me
All I want is for you
For you to be glorified
For you to be lifted high
All I want is for you

For you to be glorified for you to be glorified
Let praises rise from the inside
From the inside of me…

New Life begins with the heart.  God sees and knows our hearts.  He knows what is real and what is not.  “The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. What a fool you have been! From now on you will be at war.” 2 Chronicles 16:9, NLT  We can avoid the foolishness of being at war with evil who teaches us to be unloving to each other—cling to what is good by being committed fully to Who is Good—The One who has already won the war!  God strengthens the fully committed who trust Him.  Be real, it’s time to grow up…

Lord,

Thank you for helping us grow up from the inside out each day we commit ourselves to you as an offering.  Help us to embrace who you are working in us so that we may become more like you in every way from the inside out.  Help us to mature as we live a “life renewed from the inside and working itself into our conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in us.” 

I pray that the world will see you in me today and that you will be glorified through me.  I believe.  Transform my behaviors to match my belief in You.  Help me to grow up!

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen. 

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. Genesis 1:1-4

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:1-5

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”—Jesus, John 14:6

 ^“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”      –Jesus, Revelation 22:13

“The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.”—Paul, Ephesians 3:6

Ephesians 3, The Message

The Secret Plan of God

^1-3 This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you’re familiar with the part I was given in God’s plan for including everybody. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.

^4-6 As you read over what I have written to you, you’ll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God’s Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I’ve been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.

^7-8 This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God’s way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.

^8-10 And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!

^11-13 All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we’re free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don’t let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!

* * *

^14-19 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

^20-21 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

PAUL BRINGS THE SECRET OUT IN THE OPEN!  The secret is Jesus came to rescue everyone!  This was God’s plan from the beginning. God knew we would need a Rescuer!  God created each one of us so He knows us well—from the inside out!.  He knows us by name, even down to the number of hairs we have on our heads on any given day!  Mind-blowing, I know!

God so loves his created people, who are made in His image.  He knows our thoughts, sees our hearts, watches as we grapple with decision making while sorting out the choices offered to us daily.  God delights in all the details of our lives!  From the beginning, God also knew we would need a way back to Him when our decision making failed us when relied only on ourselves, refusing guidance from Him.  Although we break His heart as we stumbled onto dark paths, His love never changes, His plan never fails. 

God knew before we did that the “darkness” of His enemy would try to overcome us.  Hence, God’s plan was put in place to save us from ourselves and from the Enemy who hates God. 

God loves everyone and His desire is that NO ONE perish in the darkness.  That’s why EVERYBODY is welcomed to come to Him.  Yes, from the beginning, we were on God’s mind.  He had this plan to bring all who believe and trust Him to be brought out of darkness and into the Light of His love, forgiven by His unfailing mercy, and unending grace.  The plan was divinely executed in Jesus who willingly came to earth to seek and to save the lost who were without God, reconciling all who believe to God.

This message of reconciliation, rescuing and reconnecting us to God, our Creator by believing in Jesus, His Son, compels Paul, along with others down through the ages, who are called and equipped by God to passionately and tirelessly go and tell the Truth of who God is, what Jesus did, along with proclaiming the gift of God’s Holy Spirit provided to help us live God’s best.

We are called to go and tell, too!  We are created to give God glory!  We were created to love like He loves us—that includes everyone!

I pray our response is like Paul’s—

“My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.”

In Jesus Name, Amen!  Yes!  Be our strength by day and our song in the night!

We get used the smell the longer we live in it and assume that’s just the way life is.  We accept the broken parts of our lives, limping along, because we don’t know how to heal.  We live like this until the day comes when we discover a place where the air is different, sweeter without the stench which we have become accustomed.  We take a deep breathe to fill our lungs with this new smell of fresh, pure air, and suddenly come alive!

We see, hear, and feel stronger. We are drawn to stay where the air is cleaner and more refreshing.  This new air is healing to our souls.  Broken parts are mended and made whole.  We are attracted to the fragrance of others who are breathing in this fresh air.  The freshness of this air causes us to be kinder and gentler, more loving, and less judgmental, humbler, and less arrogant.  So, we linger in the life-giving air.  We take another deep breath of this fresh, pure air and decide right then and there to never leave.  This place is called Truth, the Way to real Life—Forever! 

Ephesians 2, The Message

He Tore Down the Wall

2 ^1-6 It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

^7-10 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

^11-13 But don’t take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways had no idea of any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.

^14-15 The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.

^16-18 Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.

^19-22 That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.

WHAT DO WE LEARN?  HOW DO WE RESPOND?

First, take a deep breath.  Inhale God’s Holy Spirit, the clean, pure air of Life everlasting.  Exhale the impurities of our souls that does not give or sustain Life in Jesus.  Christ in us is our daily breath of fresh air.  Jesus who saved us is the air we breathe!  And Jesus who resides in us, working in and through us, is the fragrance that attracts others who seek Him.

“For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.  2 Corinthians 2:15-17 ESV

Paul goes to work to encourage the Ephesians.  What was once broken can be healed.  What the believers accepted as “that’s just the way life is” is no longer a valid way to live.  Jesus tore down the wall between Jews and non-Jews by His sacrifice, redeeming all of us “once and for all for all the sins of the world!  Jesus set free all who believe making us free to love each other like He loves us.  We are all equals!  All who believe are “joint heirs” with Jesus who died and rose again for us.  What a breath of fresh air! 

“…we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:10, NIV

Paul shows how Jesus, the Messiah, is eternally and tirelessly bringing everything and everyone together!  And we are invited to be participants in the God’s work in the Name of Jesus! 

“Now that we know what is going on, that the energy of reconciliation is the dynamo at the heart of the universe, it is imperative that we join in vigorously and perseveringly, convinced that every detail in our lives contributes (or not) to what Paul describes as God’s plan worked out by Christ; ‘a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in Him, everything in deepest heaven; everything on planet earth.’” –Peterson, Introduction to Ephesians, The Message Bible

Lord,

Breath by breath, brick by brick, you are teaching us to daily breathe in your fresh air as you build our faith.  You are teaching us to be more like you, having the same fragrant aroma of your love which attracts others to your saving grace.  You truly are the air I breathe.  When this life offers something else, something that doesn’t smell right, lead me to take a deep breath of pureness as I remain in you and you abide in me.  Make yourself at home in me.  You are a breath of fresh air.  You are life to me.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

“What we know about God and what we do for God have a way of getting broken apart in our lives.  The moment the organic unity of belief and behavior is damaged in nay way, we are incapable of living out the full humanity for which we were created.”

“Paul’s letter to the Ephesians joins together what has been torn apart in our sin-wrecked world.  He begins with an exuberant exploration of what Christians believe about God, and then like a surgeon skillfully setting a compound fracture, “sets” this belief in God into our behavior before God so that the bones—belief and behavior—knit together and heal.” –Eugene Peterson, “Introduction to Ephesians”, The Message Bible

Oh church, I have lived long enough to see many churches and individuals, including me, broken by behaviors unbecoming to God and in need of restoration of their belief in God. No one is exempt.  We have seen the results of the “bones of belief and behavior,” as Peterson says, left unattended or our spiritual problems patched only by human efforts and self-help programs.  We have watched with sadness as the Body of Christ limps through life, disjointed, dysfunctional, and left paralyzed by fear of change. 

Paul cannot and will not stand by and watch while the Body of Christ flounders, in need of the healing and restoration of our Great Physician.  He writes of the One who sets the “broken bones” back into place!  Paul is called to write letters to the churches to remind them who they are in Christ (belief) with what they must do (behavior).  Paul is giftedly called to begin with who they are and thank God for them.  Paul will then shift from belief to behavior with a “therefore” in most translations at the peak of his letter.  Paul loves the Body of Christ because of his love for Christ!

Ephesians 1, The Message

I, Paul, am under God’s plan as an apostle, a special agent of Christ Jesus, writing to you faithful believers in Ephesus. I greet you with the grace and peace poured into our lives by God our Father and our Master, Jesus Christ.

The God of Glory

^3-6 How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

^7-10 Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

^11-12 It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

^13-14 It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This down payment from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.

^15-19 That’s why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn’t stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I’d think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!

^20-23 All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND

WE ARE ON GOD’S MIND

“Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love.” We were on God’s mind before He created the earth!  And if that isn’t enough to blow our minds, Jesus was right there with God as He created the earth and all that is in it.  God had designed a plan to save us while He created the earth and the humans who would occupy it.  Why?  All because of His great love for us.  Let that sink in! 

IN CHRIST

“It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for…” As the Body of Christ, our belief and behaviors are the bones of our existence in Christ. The Body of Christ is built on the foundation of Christ who died for us and set us free!

Believing in Christ, we are “signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit.”

It is in Christ that we find out our purpose for living.  It is in Christ that we find the strength, wisdom, and boundless energy to do what God has called us to be.

Everything begins and ends with Jesus Christ our Lord.  It is in Christ where new life begins.  God put Jesus in charge— “no name and no power exempt from his rule.”  Forever! 

The powerful energy used by God to raise Jesus as the victor over death has been given to us so that we may live generously and love extravagantly—just like He loves us.  This glorious living and loving can only be found and lived in Christ.

JESUS—THE SUM OF ALL THE PARTS OF THE BODY

It is in Christ alone that we find forgiveness of our sins.

It is Jesus who resets the broken bones or our faltering belief and sets us right with God personally and as the Body of Christ.  While healing, it is God’s Holy Spirit in us who transforms our behavior to match what we say we believe.  Healing and restoring takes time.  Forgiveness happens the minute we say we are sorry. 

Repent and believe and we are saved and made whole and holy by Jesus.

“He (God) set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.”

“The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.”

We were created to love God back both personally and corporately as the Body of Christ.  We need God.  We need each other.  “And love Each Other as I have loved you,” says Jesus.  In Christ, we are able do that—love like He loves us.

Lord,

Thank you for these words that have stirred my heart. Thank you for resetting my bones of belief and behavior throughout my life as I remain in you and you in me. Continue to cleanse my heart, renew my mind, transform by behaviors, refresh my soul with your daily, tender mercies, while you restore the joy and peace while your salvation that is at work within me.  I delight living your glorious life that can only be found in You.

In Jesus Name, Amen

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain:
O precious is the flow
that makes me white as snow;
no other fount I know;
nothing but the blood of Jesus.

(Author—Robert Lowry, 1876)

We believe and are forgiven, saved for eternity—all because of Jesus!  Paul helps to know how to live this redeemed life as we believe, trust, and obey our Savior who is now our Lord—the Lord of our being!  Here is the simple Truth with how to respond to Truth—Jesus.

Galatians 6, The Message

Nothing but the Cross

6 ^1-3 Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

^4-5 Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

⁶ Be very sure now, you who have been trained to a self-sufficient maturity, that you enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you, sharing all the good things that you have and experience.

^7-8 Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

^9-10 So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.

^11-13 Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ’s suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don’t keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible!

^14-16 For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!

¹⁷ Quite frankly, I don’t want to be bothered anymore by these disputes. I have far more important things to do—the serious living of this faith. I bear in my body scars from my service to Jesus.

¹⁸ May what our Master Jesus Christ gives freely be deeply and personally yours, my friends. Oh, yes!

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God forgave my sin in Jesus’ name,
I’ve been born again in Jesus’ name;
And in Jesus’ name I come to you
To share His love as He told me to.

Chorus
He said: ‘Freely, freely, you have received,
Freely, freely give;
Go in My name, and because you believe
Others will know that I live.’

All power is given in Jesus’ name,
In earth and heaven in Jesus’ name;
And in Jesus’ name I come to you
To share His power as He told me to.

(Copyright © 1972 Bud John Songs/ EMI Christian Music Publishing/ Adm. by CopyCare.)

Paul, led by God’s Holy Spirit, has illuminated our response with dynamic verbs of commanding actions to take in our lives, coupled with the power given to us to do what God says.  These commands should permeate our being as we become “first responders” to others with God’s love flowing through us.  These words of clarification for the church then and now, of living our lives in obedience to Christ, helps us to know specifically how relate to each other in ways that please God. 

OUR FOCUS:

• Live creatively.
• Forgive and restore—minus critical comments.
• Stoop down and reach out—the posture of the compassion of Christ in us!
• Share burdens—we’ve all “been there, done that,” don’t act as if you haven’t.
• Sink into exploration of who you are and the work you have been given with focus on completing.
• Take responsibility for your own life lived for God.
• Share the good that has come to you, courtesy of God, with others longing to know God more.
• Plant the seeds of salvation and watch God provide the growth!
• Expect God’s harvest of real life—eternal life!
• Work for the benefit of all—don’t get tired, avoid giving up and quitting when weary in the work but not of it.  God will provide rest when needed. Trust Him.

OUR MOTIVATION:

• Be led by God’s Holy Spirit in all the details of life.
• Desire and seek to obey God’s Law of Love. “Love God.  Love Others”. 
• Realize our sins of forcing our rules on others.  This does not please God—at all!
• Live for Jesus who fulfilled the law of God’s love completely, once and for all!
• Have the courage to live by faith knowing we will share in the sufferings of Christ.
• Humbly and gratefully boast only of our crucified Christ who freely gave His life for ours, setting us free to live a life redeemed from our sins.  So we forgive others.
• Seriously focus on “what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life!”  God guides all we think, say and do in Jesus Name for His glory!  Yes!

Lord,

Cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, refresh our souls with your tender new mercies for today, and restore the joy of your salvation at work within us.  Then send us to freely give what you have given to us—the way home to you!

In Jesus Name, Amen