Relationship Dynamics

 This past Sunday at Lord of Life, we focused on adopting a lifestyle of submission to the good of others. We see this dynamic at work in the relationship between Jesus and the Church, where mutual submission for the good of the other is at the heart of all that each does for the other. This then extends into the relationships we have with each other, as Paul points out in the last part of Ephesians 5 and the first part of chapter 6.

Today I would like to focus a lot on the last part of this brief selection, specifically Ephesians 6:5-9. Now, the wording that you likely find in there is sure to raise a few eyebrows in our day and age. After all, we simply do not talk that way, and it makes us think back to a part of American history that is not viewed in a positive light. While that may be the case, what Paul is talking about here is the dynamic of the worker and the person over the worker. For the sake of clarity, I will simply use employer and employee, though there are many nuances to this relationship.

What would it look like if your employer were submitting to your good in order to make your work environment the best it could possibly be for you and others? I encourage you to think about that for a moment before proceeding on. Even write it out on paper. (Here is where you pause to do that!) You have ideas for what would make a vibrant workplace, don't you? You have things that would make going to work something that you look forward to on a day by day basis. It would be great if your employer did that for you, right?

So, suppose you took that picture and went up to your employer and demanded such a work environment. How would those in charge react to such a demand? While there might be some value that they would take from the picture you paint, the fact that you are demanding might cause them to raise their walls of defense. They might look instead to show you why they do the things that they do now, rather than looking at the picture you are painting. In general, demanding that things be done the way you envision likely will not lead to ready adoption.

Now, consider this. What if you demonstrate that you are looking to do good for your employer? Not that you cross boundaries of work and home, or overwork yourself, but that you simply show that you dedicate yourself to your work and to the good of your employer as you should. If you prove to be an employee who is looking out for the good of your employer, you are likely to gain an audience when you have suggestions. Rather than demanding, you can show them the benefit of the changes they could make to encourage people such as yourself to work in similar fashion. 

Looking to the good of others is a lifestyle that mimics what God did for you in Jesus. That applies to your work environment as well. Whether you are employee or employer, God would have you work for the good of your work environment, but even more, especially for your coworkers and their good. God has redeemed you for such an outlook, and believe it or not, such an approach is likely going to stand out in your workplace. Don't be surprised when it is viewed both with suspicion (people wondering what you're trying to gain for yourself) and with disdain (at people who just don't like seeing others doing what they are unwilling to do). After all, Jesus simply did what the Father had sent Him to do, and it resulted in your redemption and salvation. It might not amount to the same in your workplace, but you just never know what doors might be opened when you look to the good of others there.

So what is appropriate?

 "Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving." Ephesians 5:4

I love the phrase Paul includes in here, "which are out of place." As he considered what it meant to be one of God's people, he knew that God has set apart His people for a different way of life. God had redeemed them and given them new purpose. Being re-created in Jesus, they would have the design for which God had created them as their new walk.

One of the realities of those who are God's people is that we are set apart. We are HOLY, and that word bears a bit of explanation. In its bare meaning, the word holy means to be set apart. If you have a recipe for mashed potatoes that you only use at Thanksgiving, that recipe is holy. It is set apart. And such is the same for God's people. We are purchased by God through Jesus, made new through His sacrifice and resurrection, and are now set apart. We are holy people.

Being holy, being set apart, means that there are simply things that God has set us apart to do, and things that God has set us apart that we will not do. There are things that are simply out of place for us to engage in. In the verse above, Paul lists out filthiness (more than just being dirty, but rather having a mindset that looks to degrade the dignity of being God's special creation), foolish talk and crude joking. These are just not appropriate for God's people.

I'm going to jump on a soapbox for a moment that may challenge a few of you reading. It is inappropriate for God's people to speak sarcastically. Sarcasm is always hurtful. We might think that we are only joking, or that we shouldn't be taken so seriously, but the very nature of a sarcastic remark is to hurt, to damage. It is condescending to others. It doesn't look to build them up, which is what God designed our speech to do. Being fluent in sarcasm may very well be an indicator that we have some spiritual soul-searching to do when it comes to our attitudes toward others.

That's why we ask ourselves a simple question. As God's set-apart people, is what I am about to say appropriate? Is this what God has set me apart to do, or to say? If you cannot reasonably come up with an answer in the positive, then it likely means that it is inappropriate. My hope and prayer is that God guards our thoughts and our tongues from the inappropriate, and instead tunes them to thanksgiving and building up.

Walking as One

 As we consider the first half of chapter four in Paul's letter to the Ephesians, we start to realize that there is a lot of content in the first 16 verses. At Lord of Life, we covered a few things, mostly dealing with maturity and our growth into Jesus as the head, but the reality is, we barely touched some of the other parts of this meaty chapter. So today we're going to dive in to a bit of this that we didn't touch earlier.

As Paul concludes his opening thought in chapter four, we have this statement. "...eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call--one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." As you read this statement, a particular word likely stands out: one.

Paul makes a great emphasis here on unity and being one. As Christians, we are brought into one body through the work of the one Lord, our Lord Jesus. As God claims His people, His one Spirit resides in those who are His people. This claiming finds its origin in baptism, which is a connection to the one primary baptism, that of Jesus, and now we are connected to Jesus through that one baptism (read the first part of Romans 6 to get a good idea of how this happens). 

In that same way, we aren't brought into the one body because of a bunch of different beliefs, but because we put our hope and trust in one thing, God the Father, His Son Jesus, who is our Lord, and the one Spirit that the Father and Son give to His people. We are joined in the one body because we have a common belief that Jesus has done what is needed to restore us to God and to give us the hope and promise of being made new. 

Paul points this out because there are a lot of things out there that try to tell us that the specifics of what you believe don't matter, that you simply have to believe in something, and that all roads lead to the same place. It was no different in Ephesus some 2,000 years ago, and it's the reality we find ourselves in today. If you try to say that there is one Lord, one Savior, and one hope, at best you might be looked at as naive or misguided. There is a strong push to simply coexist with others, not to be specific, but to speak generically about beliefs. 

Yet, that has never been God's design. He points to Himself as the one true God, the only one who actually exists. (As an aside, the name of God that He spoke to Moses and that is indicated by the word LORD in the Old Testament is actually the root of the verb, to be. In other words, God's name is "The One who actually is." Pretty cool, eh?) All others are human creations, intended to submit to our will and design, rather than have a claim on our lives. 

As Christians, that one faith in one Lord through one baptism stands out. It makes us different, and that means that we will find ourselves standing out from others because of it. As difficult as we may find that to be at times, we still have the hope and comfort of the one God who has rescued us through His one Son, that we share a common life with Him that will never end. 

Inner Strength

 If you listen for it, you can hear a lot out there in our current society talking about inner strength. Phrases like "you got this" seem to abound. The message behind them is that you are stronger than you think you are. All you have to do is dig a little deeper and you'll find that you already have what you need inside of you. It's basically a message saying that you are your own master, and you don't need to rely on anyone else. You just have to focus, dig deeper, and find that strength and commitment within yourself.

That all sounds really good in our ears. After all, who doesn't want to think that we have everything we need, and we just have to look inside ourselves to find it. Then we don't have to depend on anyone else. We are sufficient for ourselves. Sure, we may need cheerleaders along the way to help us find it, and perhaps coaches or therapists to give us a little assistance. But we don't have to rely on them. We have all we need.

As you read through those two paragraphs, you'll notice that the attention and focus is on the self. So it sounds really strange to hear something like what Paul wrote to the Ephesians when he wrote, I bow my knees before the Father...that...he may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being (Ephesians 3:16-17). It sounds like we need God the Father to strengthen us with his Spirit. It sounds like we aren't the source of the strength or power. It comes from somewhere outside of us.

The reality is that Paul is hitting on something we'd rather not be the case. We simply do not have strength or inner power in ourselves. If that were the case, then why aren't we all super-disciplined people who are able to solve our problems easily? If it's inside of us, then why hasn't someone shown us the trick to unlocking all that power? Doing so would seem to eliminate a lot of the problems we see in this world.

But then, if you keep reading, you find it even stranger. What is the strength and inner power that Paul is asking that the Father would give? It's that you would know the love of God in Jesus. It's that you would be rooted in Jesus. Essentially Paul is saying that God gives us power and inner strength to be rooted in the love that God has for us in Jesus. God gives us power so that we will know how much God cares for us, and so that we will be firmly planted in God's grace toward us through Jesus, his life, death and resurrection for us.

That sounds like a strange way of looking at power and inner strength. It comes from outside of us, and it is utilized by God to grow us in knowing what we mean to God and what God has done for us in Jesus. And yet, that is where strength and power is found. When we know that we are God's, that God has made us His own in Jesus, we have the strength of knowing who we are. We have the inner power to know that God has a sacrificial care for us that He has shown in Jesus. 

God gives us the power and inner strength to know Him, to know Jesus, and to know what God has done to give us an identity and make us His own people. That identity is then a source of strength as we face the world in which we live. That gives us strength when hard times happen. It keeps us grounded in our identity in Jesus when good comes our way. When the unexpected comes up, we have the security and strength of knowing that we have our grounding in the God who knows all things and is working for our good in them all. That is inner strength worth having. 

Talking Stewardship

 ...assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you... Ephesians 3:2

Many Christians may cringe when they hear the word Stewardship raised. It brings up thoughts of things such as a congregational treasurer (who would rather not be in the situation to begin with) standing in front of the assembly to show the numbers required for ministry and to ask for people to support the congregation through their gifts and offerings. A few typical bible texts get pulled out, we hear that God loves a cheerful giver, and everyone hopes that the talk is over fairly quickly.

That may be something of what you think when you hear the word stewardship. And if so, I am truly sorry for that. Today in reading and discussion I have already come across the word stewardship at least two or three times, and it has not been in the realm of the scenario described above. I was reading a book about being faithfully connected in the digital world, and the author wrote about the stewardship of being aware of sharing things like credit card and social security numbers, as well as stewardship of what you are considering as a purchase. In a conversation, a colleague and I were talking about the stewardship of overseeing ministry matters, seeing to it that things are done in a good order and being aware of our responsibilities to do so.

For Lord of Life, this past Sunday we heard the verse above from Paul's third chapter to the Ephesian Christians. Paul also speaks of stewardship, the stewardship of God's grace. Paul was given responsibility to see that God's grace was administered to the Ephesians. Such an administration, such a stewardship, was for the good of the Ephesians. It means that Paul was responsible for stewarding the good news of Jesus to the Ephesians, as well as helping them to see how to grow as a response to that grace from God in Jesus. Paul had stewardship of something marvelous.

One of my contentions for quite a few years has been that we too narrowly restrict stewardship talk to money and offerings. Our whole life as a Christian, including our possessions, our families, and even our mindsets, are to be seen as part of our stewardship. My words are part of my stewardship, and so I have a responsibility to use them wisely. My actions are part of my stewardship, and so I have a responsibility to be aware of my actions and how others see me. How I spend my time is part of my stewardship, and so how I allot my time is something to be aware of. 

The reality then comes to the forefront. Everything we have is something given to us by God. That calls for responsible stewardship. It's not just money, though money is part of what we are responsible for. Even how we share the good news of Jesus is part of our stewardship. God gives this stewardship to us because He wants us to be a part of His working in this world. This is truly something to be thankful for, even as we see that it calls for responsibility on our part. 

Knowing Wisdom from God

 ...so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Ephesians 3:10

I have a LOT of books on my bookshelves. In fact, since I recently moved I discovered that the number of bookshelves in my new office aren't actually enough to hold all the books I have in my possession. Sure, you could say I have too many books, but the thing I have discovered over the years is that there is a lot of godly wisdom out there in the world and, for me at least, books are a great way to find that wisdom and learn it.

Before I dive too deeply into our topic today, I want to make one important distinction, the difference between knowledge and wisdom. My working definition of the two words is that knowledge consists of the facts of what we see and observe. Wisdom is how we apply that knowledge to our life. As a quick example, I know how traffic lights work, with green and red and yellow lights. Wisdom teaches me to plan trips around making right hand turns more often than left.

God created this world according to His wisdom, and He planned it so that His wisdom would be found in the world. There are many matters of this world that fall under God's wisdom, more than we can ever know. And yet, there are also those elements of God's wisdom that either seem hidden, or that run counter to how things seem to work in the world.

Jesus is God's prime example of His wisdom that is hidden and that runs counter to the ways of the world. The fullness of God lives in Jesus, and yet that fullness was so hidden that God's own people handed Jesus over to be crucified. Jesus likewise shows us that God's way of working in this world tends to be the opposite of what might seem best. Those who want to lead best do so by making sure that they are taking really good care of those who work under them. The best way to receive love from another is to set aside your desire to be loved and instead to love that other person and serve them. The best way to be honored is to look to honor others and build them up, rather than trying to do things that simply impress others.

In our verse above, Paul states that God's wisdom is revealed through the church, through God's people in Jesus. It's not going to be obvious to people who do not know God's grace and God's design. That wisdom is also known and shown in a couple of different ways. First, it is known because we realize that wisdom ultimately comes from God and we seek to pattern our lives according to His wisdom. We love others even at the expense of ourselves. We look to do good even when others don't do good to us. We talk of others well even when they speak poorly of us.

God's wisdom is also known and shown because we are a people who find our identity in God's wisdom. God's wisdom was to forgive and renew, and so we know and show God's love because we are a people who acknowledge that we are not perfect. We ask for forgiveness because we are forgiven by God through Jesus. We care for others because God has cared for us in Jesus. We serve others because our God has served us, especially through the cross and resurrection of Jesus. We have a new identity, which was God's wisdom to grant to us, and in our lives, we find our identity in the God who has done this work for us.

God's wisdom shines as His word goes forth through His Church, and as His Church looks to be defined by His wisdom. Our prayer is that others see God's wisdom at work when they see the manner of our lives, and that they are then drawn to that wisdom which defies the way the rest of the world works. 

Building a Mystery

 Generally speaking, as people we like mysteries. We like something that challenges us to figure out who did "it". One of my favorite movies is an old one simply called "Clue", and it plays out much like the board game of the same name. In it, you try to figure out who did the crime and with which instrument.

When you read Ephesians 3:1-13, you come across the word mystery a few times. Now I will admit, figuring out what Paul means by some of the words he uses is not always the easiest of things. His sentences are not typically as grammatically correct so as to be easy to understand. However, in this case he makes it pretty clear what the mystery is. The mystery that had been hidden for ages past was that God intended for the Gentiles and the Jews to both receive His promise of entry into His kingdom that never ends. 

So that's it. Mystery solved, right? Well, not so fast, my friend. Yes, God's intent that all people would receive His inheritance is something that can be seen throughout the Old Testament. However, the means by which this would be accomplished was a bit more hidden. The sacrifice and resurrection of God's own Son, the Messiah, was spoken of, but was a bit more challenging to discern. At the same time, figuring out exactly who that would be also proved challenging, as pretty much everyone missed it when Jesus was born and then ministered. (Think of it, if people had really, really known that Jesus was the Son of God and Rule of all Things, would they really have crucified Him? They missed it, just as you and I likely would have missed it too.)

The other part of the mystery is figuring out what it looks like for Gentiles and Jews to both receive the inheritance that Jesus came to bring to light. Do Gentiles have to become Jews first? That was a question that the earliest Christians wrestled with. Another one that made its rounds while I was at the seminary studying to become a pastor was the question of just what exactly do you need to believe in order to receive the inheritance. Are there particular teachings that are "necessary" to believe? (To be honest, I'm not sure that any of us human beings know God's mind enough to be able to definitively say we know even the bare minimum, but that is a discussion for another day.)

So the mystery persists. How could the sacrifice of one individual on a cross outside Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago win an inheritance for all people of all time? It's still a mystery in many respects, and simply calls for us to say that God has spoken and told us what He did and how He did it in Jesus, and that is sufficient for us. 

Alienation and Separation

 Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Ephesians 2:12

As we think back on the past year plus, one thing that we see is what it means to be separated. COVID caused us to be separated from each other in drastic ways that were previously unfamiliar to us. We had to stand six feet or more apart from each other. We had to wear masks. For a vast majority of people, we were even told to work from home if at all possible. In other words, be separate from each other. 

That led to alienation. Think about just the past few months. As we have started to get back to a place where we can be in contact with each other, there has been a great deal of uncertainty. Mask or no mask? Do we shake hands and hug, or not? Can we sit beside someone at a table, or do we still keep distance? We still feel alienated, and in some respects, we need to learn how to interact again.

Paul paints an even greater alienation in the verse above. God had a people that He had chosen to be His people, and they were to be a blessing to all families on earth (see Genesis 12:3). However, they had not accomplished that task. Instead, walls of separation and hostility had been built up between them and the rest of the world, a division Paul highlights between the Jews and the Gentiles. Those on the outside were alienated from God's people and thus were separated from Christ.

It's no fun to be alienated or separated. Ask the kid at school who is off by himself or herself. Or think about the person at your work that most people avoid. Alienation hurts. Separation is painful. When we think of separation in a family or marriage, there is usually a great deal of pain involved. Even more so when it comes to the God who created and redeemed all things.

Jesus took God's wrath at us building up sinful walls of separation and alienation. When Jesus' body was broken on the cross, so also were the walls that separate us from each other and alienate. Now Jesus is our peace, as Paul wrote two verses later. Jesus restored that which was never to be separated. Jesus brought back those who were never intended to be alienated. His death on the cross and resurrection to new life created a new oneness between those who were separate and alienated from each other.

As you think about those from whom you are separated and alienated, consider how those walls of division have been broken down by Jesus. Are there ways that you can work to bring those walls down, so that others may know the peace that is theirs in Jesus? What is the first step you will take in breaking down those walls? When will you do that? May God's Spirit give you wisdom and guidance as you look to share that new creation in Jesus with others. 

Run-on sentences

 Continuing our journey through Paul's letter to the Christians in Ephesus long ago, we venture into the latter part of what is numbered chapter one. In some of the research I have been doing for our look at this book, I came across a very interesting point. In Ephesians 1, we have the two longest sentences in the entire New Testament. The first one, verses 3-14, consists of over 200 words in Greek! Can you imagine writing a sentence with 200 words? The second longest is verses 15-23, with 169 words in Greek. That is just staggering to think about, or at least for someone like me. Of course, I am a bit of a grammar person and find such things as that fascinating.

What I also find fascinating is how focused Paul is on God and His work in Jesus. When you read through chapter one, you find Paul almost exclusively talking about what God has done, what Jesus has done, and for the Ephesian Christians to know God's work and how that is meant for them. After having Jesus personally confront him on the road to Damascus and re-orient his life to serve Jesus, Paul seems to devote everything to pointing to Jesus. He wants everyone to know the same thing that he came to see: Jesus can take even the most hardened of people against Him and turn them to Him in grace.

It's easy for us to think that Paul had it kind of nice. He got to see Jesus personally after His resurrection and ascension. "If only Jesus would appear to me, then I wouldn't doubt anymore. Then I would be more sure of how I live my life or do what God wants me to do." Such thoughts are easy to intrude, and I would suggest that we should look at such thoughts critically. When Jesus went out of His way to reveal Himself to someone, He usually had a task for them that required a great sacrifice from who they were and what they were previously doing. It also meant that they stopped looking to their own good, and instead looked to the good of others almost to extremes. Think about that for a moment next time you have one of those moments where you wish Jesus would just show Himself to you.

Still, that doesn't take away those momentary doubts that pop up from time to time. We still would like a bit more certainty about what we believe. After all, we believe a dead man came back to life and His death covered everything that is wrong with the world. That is a fairly unbelievable kind of thing, and in fact, it is unbelievable without God's Spirit inspiring faith within us. We only come to believe by God's grace. Humbling, right?

That calls for thankfulness on our part. I'm planning to do another blog post about thankfulness and prayer, and hope that it proves helpful as you read it. For now, though, I encourage you to take a few moments to calm yourself and talk to God, thanking Him that He has called you as His own child in Jesus. 

Kicking off Ephesians

 This summer, I am working on a series of messages on Paul's letter to the Ephesians. For this post, I want to focus on a few interesting items from the letter overall. Future posts will look a little more deeply at different parts of this letter, in an effort to help us grasp the different things that Paul was trying to communicate to the Ephesians about their faith in God and in the grace of God demonstrated in Jesus.

A common theme throughout this letter is how God brings all people who put their faith in Jesus into one body, with Jesus as the Head and the Church (the whole community of those who come to believe in Jesus and His sacrifice and resurrection for them) as Jesus' body. There is a significant unity and togetherness that he makes a big deal out of throughout this letter, and we would be wise to consider what that means for our lives together as Christians. If God is so concerned about our lives together in unity in Jesus, then perhaps that means we should open up our ears to hear what He has to say on it.

One interesting thing about the Ephesian Christians is that they seem to have been Gentiles, or non-Jewish people, primarily. The astonishing thing that Paul writes about is that the promise of God to them is just the same as it is to the Jewish people. At that time, that was an astounding thing to consider. But the grace of God in Jesus meant that God was making all people into one in Christ Jesus, with Jesus at the heart of that unity.

Since that is what God has done for all people, then that means that we have to consider the conduct of our lives. What we do, what we say, how we interact with others, all of these are impacted when we realize that we are included in Jesus' body along with all these other people. There is no place for some of our sinful tendencies, and even when we find ourselves engaging in those tendencies, we respond with grace and kindness and forgiveness, even as we are corrected.

Life together in the body means that we look to place the good of others in just as significant of a place as we do our own. Paul uses a word that we tend not to like a lot, the word submit. As Christians, our whole life is one of submitting to the good of others. Yes, we are still called to be responsible with our own lives, but we are to expand our outlook beyond our own selves, and see what we can do in grace for others.

Because that is such a challenge for us, God gives us significant defenses to equip us for living this kind of life. We are clothed in armor to protect us, and this armor is given by God. 

Since we will be looking over this all summer, we will be diving much deeper into these sections in future weeks. Hopefully this brief summary helps prepare the way for our journey together. 

Armed for the Battle

How well protected are you?  I would dare say, we could look at a number of different places in our lives, and see that we are "armed" in different ways, and to different degrees.  How armed are you against identity theft?  Against actual theft in your home?  How armed are you in case of an accident?  In case of death?  How armed are you when it comes to eaching your family the faith?

Just these few examples show us that being armed for the battle means a lot of different things.  It also shows us that our armament will look vastly different from one battle to the next.  The armor you have for your home probably is far different from that of your identity.  Both are important, but they also require different armor to be of any use.

This applies, also, to our faith lives.  We may we well armed in some respects, and woefully lacking in others.  For example, we may be armed with great biblical knowledge, but woefully lacking in being armed to help our neighbor in need.  We may be armed with great compassion, but woefully lacking when it comes to actually knowing the content of what we believe.  We may be armed with regular worship and Bible study attendance, but woefully lacking when it comes to having the faith be active and present in our homes.

When we look at the armor of God (look at Ephesians 6:10-20 for a great list of what it looks like), one thing we realize is that our need for protection runs far deeper than most of us may ever think.  We may feel we are well armed for the battle, only to find that there are unprotected areas of our lives that we didn't even consider. 

That's where the role of the Body of Christ comes in.  When our weak spots get exposed, it sure is much nicer to have it pointed out by someone who wants to build up our protection rather than someone who will use it against us.  The Body of Christ may also be the ones who will hold up a shield while we expose ourselves to that weak spot, so that we are protected while we may be engaged in another battle in another area of life.

Just like the armor works together to protect, so also the Body of Christ.  That's the unity that Paul calls for us to have in Ephesians, even when it comes to our armor.  May that be one of the reasons that we strive to gather together in the name of Christ Jesus. 

One Shining Moment? Or A Lifetime of Shining Moments?

Every year, when the NCAA basketball tournament reaches its conclusion, one team stands above the rest as the NCAA championship.  March Madness ends with a flurry of confetti falling down on the victors, as they climb up ladders to cut down the nets as a reminder of their shining moment.  They are the champions!  They are on the top of the world, in a manner of speaking.  And for as long as I can remember, as these festivities are taking place, a song begins to play.  A song which contains the line, "one shining moment."

For these players, this is their shining moment.  For many of them, they will never again acheive such heights in their life in terms of accomplishments.  For some, it might even be the final competitive game of basketball that they play in their lives.  For others who move on, there is no assurance that they will once again stand as the ultimate victor on the last day of the season.  This is truly their one shining moment.

Reading through Ephesians 5, you come across verse 8, where Paul writes that Christians should walk as children of light.  Our lives are not to be a reflected glory of one shining moment.  Rather, we are to shine with God's glory, with the glory of being God's children, with the glory of being forgiven and redeemed by Jesus, and not just once or twice, and not just on Sundays, but every moment of life.  We don't have one shining moment.  Instead, we live a lifetime of shining moments, shining out God's grace in Jesus.

That's only possible for us because Jesus has redeemed us and made us God's own children.  We shine a reflected light, but it's to be constantly shining in our lives.  That is why we pay particular attention to the manner of life in which we live.  We don't do it to draw attention to ourselves, but to show others that we are redeemed by God in Jesus, and that the light that shines in us is His light shining through us, every moment of every day.

Walk as children of light, my friends.  Let God's light shine in you, and then through you, that people may not see one shining moment, but a lifetime of shining moments.

If you don't know it exists, can you be guilty of it?

In Ephesians 5:3, we have an interesting thought written by St. Paul at the inspiration of the Spirit.  "But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among the saints."  The thing I find so interesting here is that Paul basically says that the Ephesian Christians are to be so far removed from things like sexual immorality and impurity and covetousness that they don't even know what such things are.  It's almost as though they don't know what to call it, since they haven't ever experienced it before.

Of course, you and I sit back and laugh at Paul here.  How can they not know these things?  The world seems to throw such things our way.  And doesn't our sinful nature want these kind of things by nature?  How can they not be present, much less have no name?  All good questions, and really, ones that I think we ignore at our peril.

One reality for us Christians is that we cannot escape the fact that we have these desires within us.  We covet.  We have sexual sin.  We aren't pure, but filled with imperfections.  So if that's the case, then is Paul's point here negated?  Does Paul simply not know what he's talking about?  Is this one more of those condeming "contradictions" that the Bible is supposedly so filled with?

Or, is it that, as God re-creates us in the image of His Son, our Lord Jesus, we are to actively be working so that such things aren't a part of our life anymore?  Let me be the first to admit that it's difficult for me to imagine that we would be rescued at such a high cost by God, given the greatest inheritance of all, and then basically be told that it's okay to be unchanged.  Go back to what you were doing before as if it didn't matter, since you are saved by God's grace, not by being good.  Let's just say that I have a really tough time with that kind of thinking.

Instead, since we have been redeemed and lifted up to such a place of high standing, isn't our life worth more than clinging to that which brought us death in the first place?  If we are worth so much to our God, then why would we want to be immoral, or impure, or covetousness, as much as it lies within us to control such things?  What does it say about us if we really don't make any effort to change such things within us?  While our reality may be that they will never leave us, our reality is also such that we don't stop trying, just because we can't.  And sometimes, that means that we work to live as though such things didn't even have a name among us.

I'm at War With Myself

"...put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires...put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."  Ephesians 4:22-24

I daily face a challenge.  I have things that I want to do, which I know and believe God would have me to do.  And yes, I really do try to do them as often as I can.  But I face another reality that is at work within me.  I have a rather significant part of me that wants to do what it wants to do, and not what God wants to do.  I have an old self, that lives for its own good, and at the same time, I have a new self, which wants to do what is good for others.

I make a lot of efforts to put off this old self, to a lot of mixed results.  There are certain things that just simply are not greatly tempting to this old self, and in that, I thank God that He gives me strength in such areas.  Yet, there are also those things that really do seem to speak powerfully to the old self.  The old self wants to get involved in them, and to put off the new self when it comes to those things.  Shoot, I even find the old self making what sounds almost like a godly excuse.  "Go ahead, because you know you're forgiven by Jesus.  Just give in, and that will take away the temptation."  And I have to admit that I find myself sorely tempted. 

Putting off the old self isn't easy.  In fact, one of the things that I have discovered as a pastor is that one simply cannot do this on our own.  That's why God gives us the Body of Christ, our fellow brothers and sisters.  If we try to put off the old self on our own, we're simply going to slip back into that same thing time and time again.  However, when we ask someone to help us bear the burden, to keep us accountable to our God and to each other, we have a source of strength that we would not have on our own.

Where are those areas in which you have a tough time putting off the old self?  Is it some sinful behaviour you are caught up in?  Is it something you know you should be doing, but simply aren't?  Who is there within your body of believers that can share the burden with you, holding you accountable, and yet lovingly walking with you through it?  I would dare say that such a person would be one of God's greatest gifts when it comes to putting off the old self.

So What Do You Expect?

As I write these various blog entries, I hope and pray that you remember that I don't toss these out to others as though I'm doing them perfectly, and expecting everyone else to get on board.  Rather, these are quite often my way of thinking out loud, and even expressing some of the challenges that I find myself personally facing as I engage what God tells us about Himself and about our lives and how He designed us to live.  So there's no 'holier than thou' thing going on here, but instead, a confused guy simply asking the questions, knowing that they probably affect others just like they affect him.

So with that said, let me present today's question.  What do you expect from God on a daily basis?  I have to admit, this is one of those questions that isn't really that easy to answer.  There's the easy answer of, "well, God gives me everything I need each day, grace and love as well as the physical necessities of life, so I expect everything from Him."  At the same time, though, we could look at how we go about our daily lives and discover that we may say that, but our lives might betray that we look an awful lot to ourselves to provide and take care of the things we need.

I realize that this really can be one of those questions that more easily condemns than encourages.  And that's why I think Paul had some profound wisdom in Ephesians 3:20-21.  God can, and does, far more than what we ask or think.  God is doing things that we cannot even fathom, much less see and give Him credit for.  We don't see everything that God protects us from.  We don't see God's hand working to provide everything we need in life.  We don't see God's hand in nurturing our lives, our families, and the like.  And yet, there is God, doing it all, even if we aren't expecting it.

At the same time, it also seems that God is truly waiting to do even more.  Imagine if your father wanted to give you a million dollar inheritance, and yet, all you asked for was enough to fill your car with gas.  You're barely scratching the surface on what He wants to give, and you're settling for far less than what He wants to give.  I do believe that we sometimes have that kind of expectation of God.  We expect to have an okay marriage, when God is waiting to make it a dynamic, outstanding marriage.  We expect to have an okay gathering of believers, while God is waiting to make it a place where His grace and forgiveness flow into the lives of many.  In other words, we so often seem to be the ones shortchanging God in our expectations, not Him shortchanging us in what He provides.

So what do you expect?  What can you expect God to do in a greater way than what you have expected before?  How will your eyes be opened to see how God is doing far more than what you think or ask?

I Need More Power!

I almost feel like starting this post off with some kind of a Star Trek quote, something to the effect of Captain Kirk telling Scotty that he needs more power, and the accented engineer replying along the lines of, "I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain!"  Okay, maybe that's the Star Trek nerd in me coming out, but some things influence you so much in childhood that they never go away.

At the gym I used to work out in when I lived in another state, they had a T-shirt that you could buy which simply said, "Lift heavy things."  I don't remember the picture, just the saying, but the implication was that, if you wanted to get stronger and have more power, you had to lift heavy things.  As you can imagine, that would be a common perception in a gym.

Now, we humans can take a good idea like that and over-apply it to our lives.  I've heard, on any number of occasions, that people should strengthen their spiritual lives.  I've heard and read too many approaches to give them any press here.  But it basically always seems to boil down to one thing.  YOU pick up something and start doing something.  YOU dedicate yourself to reading the Bible more regularly.  YOU devote yourself more to prayer, and perhaps a few other spiritual disciplines.  YOU, and YOU, and YOU.

The only problem is, that doesn't seem to be the biblical way of growing in power and strength, either in faith toward God, or in love toward others.  I think St. Paul hits it on the head in Ephesians 3:16, when he prays that the Ephesian Christians would be granted  to be strengthened with power through God's Spirit.  In other words, Paul recognizes where any growth in power or strength comes from.  Not from extra Bible reading (how would that work for people who either couldn't read, or who didn't have the full Bible like we do now?), or from extra dedication to prayer, but as God grants it.

Our human conceit is that we want to be the ones who do the strengthening, and not relying upon God to choose how strong or powerful we are.  So these words from Paul truly do humble us.  We're only as strong as God grants us to be.  But what we also discover is that there is a lot of good news in that.

First, God does indeed give us strength and power.  We aren't powerless, but are given power by God's granting.  And, we also find that God does grow us in that power and strength.  Sometimes He does so through our study of His Word and our prayer, but He does it according to His granting, not according to how fervent we are, or how pure our desire may be.  He does it as He grants it.

In the verses around Ephesians 3:16, Paul also makes it clear why God grants growth and power in faith and love.  It's to grow our love for others.  It isn't for us to show off how powerful we are, or how strong of a faith or love we have.  It's to humbly look to the good of others.  And in the end, that's probably why it comes at God's granting.  In it all, we're guided right back to what God does, and how God chooses to work, so often through us, but according to His power and granting.

You want me to do WHAT?

"...so that through the Church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made know to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places."  St. Paul in Ephesians 3:10

Who as the last person with whom you talked about your faith?  I don't mean the last person you saw at church with whom you talked about the things going on there.  I mean the last person with whom you discussed why you believe in Jesus and what He has done for you.  Chances are, if you are like so many Christians in our nation, you may not actually be able to remember when that last conversation took place.

I don't say this to make you feel bad (though there is a place for us to feel righteous guilt at failing to do the things God would have us do).  Rather, I want to look at this from another standpoint.  If God wants to communicate the message of Good News to the world, how is He going to go about doing that?  He could show signs and wonders in the skies, but we have a way of explaning those thing away.  He could speak individually to every person on the planet, but it seems that He does that kind of thing fairly rarely. 

Instead, God has chosen to spread His message through those who belong to Him.  That's what Paul wrote about to the Ephesian Christians in the verse above, a verse which still speaks to our role in the spread of the message of Good News.  God spreads His Good News through the Church.  That's you and I.  It's not merely those who are called and gifted to be evangelists, or pastors, or missionaries, or the like.  It's all of us.

I would argue that the reason so many of us are uncomfortable with that thought is simply because we haven't regularly done it.  Really, all I say we need is to practice at it.  True, it's going to the Spirit who guides the response on the part of the other person, but our sharing of the Good News is something that becomes less frightening when we actually do it.  We may never get over the butterflies in the stomach, but it gets less daunting when we've actually done it a few times.  Sure, we'll find that the conversations will go in vastly different ways, but only doing it, only practicing it, will get us used to doing what God created the Church to do.

Who doesn't love mysteries?

As far back as I can remember, I've always loved mysteries.  I read the Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys books growing up.  The movie "Clue" became one of my favorite, and I still love playing the board game.  Trying to figure out who done it piques my interest.  I like the challenge of figuring out the mystery.  I would suppose that's even part of the reason why I like Sudoku, trying to solve the mystery of what numbers should be in which square.

By and large, we humans like mysteries.  Rather, I should say that we like solving mysteries.  We don't tend to like loose ends.  We want to know why things happen, how things happen, and how to get them to happen.  We don't like living in the mystery, we like to see the mystery solved.

I would suggest that some of this thinking is the reason behind many people's reluctance to believe in the matters that the Bible speaks about.  Really, there are a lot of mysteries in there that just cannot be solved.  How could God create everything simply by speaking it into existence?  How can one man's blood pay the price of sin for all people?  These are mysteries that God has chosen not to reveal to us, and since we cannot understand them, I believe many look to see if they can find some tangible explanation.

The thing is, there is one rather large mystery that isn't a mystery for us.  Jesus's blood, His perfect life, death, and resurrection, have indeed served as God's means of restoring His fallen, sinful creation back to Himself.  That's not a mystery.  Sure, the mechanism for how He could do such a thing might be a mystery, but as God reveals it, it's not a mystery that God has done this for all people of the world.

We have plenty of mysteries to be solved, and really, I have come to believe that God doesn't answer all our mysteries, simply to remind us that we aren't ones who are God.  There are things about Him that we cannot comprehend or understand.  And, while the mystery solver in me doesn't really like that, the faith in me says that it's okay that God is God, and I am not. 

Strangers and Aliens

I admit that I have been fascinated by space, aliens, and things of that nature since I was very young.  I still have a tough time passing over a headline that says something about UFO's.  Not that I necessarily believe them, but I just find them fascinating.  After all, space is the final frontier, and these are (not) the voyages of a starship, but a little boy's mind still at work, even in a more grown up body.

Aliens and strangers are different.  I remember the cantina scene in the original Star Wars movie, and still find them all fascinating.  They are so different, and yet, appealing.  Star Trek, and especially Mr. Spock, have always stood out to me.  Alien, yet enough alike to be able to fit in (and who knows, pointy ears could just be a conversation point rather than a point of difference).

When I read Ephesians 2:13-23, especially verses 19-23, we see a picture of aliens and strangers being brought together.  In Jesus, all us human beings are no longer aliens and strangers, but are part of the household of God in Jesus.  We are fellow citizens with the saints. 

What does that mean for us?  It means that we may look different, sound different, act different, and even prefer different things (music styles, chairs vs. pews, etc.), but we all belong together.  We are in a household, and just like a household has variety that is accomodated, so also in the household of God.  God brings people of radically different backgrounds, likes, and thoughts, and unites them together in Christ Jesus.

The thing is, we may no longer be strangers and aliens, but we still have to deal with the differences that arise.  And that's where we learn to deal with one another in Christian love.  Yes, we will still sin against our household, and yes, we will still need to not only confess and ask for/receive forgiveness, but we will have to figure out how to resolve those differences in loving, tangible ways.  But we do so guided by love.  After all, we are part of the family.  The family is to be stronger than our disagreements.

So I guess you could say that I am still fascinated by aliens and strangers.  Only, now I find my fascination to be in how to bring them together in Christ love, just as Jesus has brought them together into His eternal household. 

Kindness

Quick, without looking in a dictionary, how would you define the word kindness?  Think about it for a moment.  I would even suggest that you write down your definition before you go any further into this post.  Reflect on why you chose the words you did, and what they say about what you understand this word to mean.

A quick search of the ESV Bible reveals that the word kindness appears 29 times in the Scriptures.  One in particular stood out to me.  It's from Psalm 141:5.  It talks about being struck by a righteous man, and that is a kindness.  Now, in our day and age, we might wonder at that.  It hardly seems to be kindness to be struck by anyone, even a righteous man.  And that's where, when we dig in, we start to see the depth of this word kindness.

Anytime someone turns you from a dangerous path to one of safety and wisdom, you can say that the person struck you in kindness.  They took the risk of confronting you about the path you were headed down, and guided you toward a path that would be far better for you.  In truth, that's always difficult for us humans to hear.  We don't like to hear that we're going the wrong way.  We resist is, sometimes even to the point where we know we're wrong, but we just don't want to admit it.  And yet, it is kindness that risks such a confrontation to turn us to the right path.

In Ephesians 2:7, Paul writes about God's kindness toward us.  Only, look at the words that Paul uses to surround that word, kindness.  In the coming ages, God might show to us the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  God's kindness is to show us the path that leads to the immeasurable riches that are ours in Jesus.  God's kindness is to reveal to us the way to have access to His immeasurable riches.  God's kindness is to show us what He has done for us, pointing us to Jesus, the cross, the resurrection, and His ruling and having all authority.

God's kindness calls for our humility.  God wants to do great things for us, and to give us far greater gifts than what we could ever have in this world.  And that's why we started this post out by defining kindness.  God shows us, not that he is nice, but that he richly cares for us.  Kindness goes beyond simply being nice to someone, but sinks into the depths of a deep, abiding care for them.  You want to see the best for them.  You don't want to see harm and danger brought to them.  You want to show them everything that they could have.  And that's the kindness of our God toward us.