Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.
Ephesians 1:15-18
Okay, so just as I appreciated the NLT version of the last section of Ephesians I tackled, today I find it somewhat lacking compared to the NASB, especially the latter part, verse 18. Here's the NASB take on verse 18:
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, . . .
I realize that the NLT was trying to get away from the somewhat poetic (and potentially confusing) "eyes of your heart" phrase, but that's the very thing I like about the NASB version. I appreciate the image it conjures up in my mind, of our heart seeing the truth of our hope and knowing our hope in Christ, being flooded with the light of understanding like a 1000-watt flood light blinking on over our heads.
So there ya go, one of the reasons I like to read from several different translations of the Bible. I get the best of both worlds, so to speak, and since I don't speak Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic, by comparing English versions it brings me closer to understanding what the writer was really trying to say, or so I believe and hope.
I started to take this post in one direction, but as so often happens, I have found my thoughts sidetracked. And as I have learned to do here, I will follow the sidetrack wherever it leads me.
The phrase that sidetracked me is in verse 16, "I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly..." And it's appropriate, I guess, because the whole thrust of this section is Paul's prayer for the folks in Ephesus. As you probably know, he almost always includes this sort of section in his letters, a prayer for the people he's addressing. Paul had a lot of people for whom he was "constantly" praying!
How does that work? When did he have time to write his letters if he was sitting around praying all the time like that? Am I supposed to pray constantly, too?? According to 1 Thessalonians 5:17, we are supposed to "pray without ceasing" or to "never stop praying," depending on which version we're reading. Some folks I've talked to have suggested that means that if we're praying 5 minutes a day, we should never stop doing that. Personally, I think that's sort of a copout, and believe he really does mean that we are supposed to be praying at all times. Paul says that he prays constantly, and I assume he would strongly suggest that we follow his example. (See Philippians 3:17.)
So again, how does that work? Well, to me, praying without ceasing or being constantly in prayer simply means being in constant communion with God. Being with God. It means to realize and recognize that God is constantly with me, right beside me, within me no matter where I am or what I'm doing. And his desire, his will, is that I acknowledge his presence and simply talk to him, communicate with him, commune with him, be with him.
Then, whenever someone or something comes to mind that concerns me, I can immediately hash it over with my good friend, the Creator of the Universe. Paul alludes to this in his letter to the Philippians when he says "Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God." He is in constant prayer, so he prays about anything that comes to mind, whether it's the Philippians, the Ephesians, or his ingrown toenail. It's a continuing conversation between two loved ones, and that's the kind of relationship God longs to enjoy with all of his children.
It's sometimes referred to as Practicing the Presence of God, but personally, that sounds a little too mystical to me. I'd rather just think of it as simply being with God. But it is something that requires practice, no doubt. It's so easy to go on as if God isn't even there. It's so easy to get distracted by life and to find myself ignoring the one who gave everything for me, who loves me beyond comprehension, who never shouts at me but rather whispers to my heart and speaks to me through his word and guides me with his creative hand, the one who is always with me even when I fail to be with him.
I just need to be aware of him, to know the truth of his presence, to have the eyes of my heart opened in order to see and comprehend his constant love and the confident access we have to him, in him. As we grow in that comprehension and as we learn to be constantly with him, all of our concerns naturally turn into prayer. Constant, unceasing prayer.
One more thing, though. Notice that Paul prays that God will open the eyes of the Ephesian's hearts. He doesn't tell the Ephesians to do that because they cannot. And neither can I. It has to be God's work and we simply need to surrender to him. In prayer. And we have confident hope - an assured hope, hope in a sure thing - that he will do what he says.
Father, open the eyes of my heart to the confident hope I have in you and let me be constantly in prayer, constantly in conversation with you, constantly with you.
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
money-back guarantee
And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.
Ephesians 1:13-14 NLT
Ephesians 1:13-14 NLT
As a life-long, card-carrying Gentile, I feel quite blessed indeed, knowing by way of the Holy Spirit that I, along with believing Jews, am truly one of God's own people. Lately, I have been reading through the Hebrew Scriptures (a.k.a., the Old Testament), and it's amazing how "God's own people" back in those days continually failed to follow his instructions, ignoring the prophets, and generally living as if they weren't his own people at all. And yet, God never gave up on them. Oh, they paid for their rebellion, but even when the whole lot of them (almost) were exiled to Babylon, God promised that he would bring them back, and by golly he did.
I hear a lot of folks grumbling these days about the God of the Old Testament, how he bears little resemblance to the Jesus of the New Testament. But the Old Testament God was ever faithful and extremely merciful to his people, no matter how rotten they were acting. Sounds like Jesus to me!
But anyway, that wasn't what I wanted to focus on from today's selection from Ephesians, because I have always been a bit confused by the whole idea of how the Holy Spirit was given to us as God's guarantee of our inheritance in Christ, and I wanted to take some time to think through it, pray about it, and ask God to speak to me about it today.
The NASB says it this way: "In Him, you [Gentiles] also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory." That's the version I've been used to reading for most of my life, and it might just be the main source of my confusion. Yes, I must say that the NLT has helped me understand it better.
The idea that the Jesus "identifies you [me, us] as his own by giving you [me, us] the Holy Spirit" reminds me of a verse from another of Paul's letters:
"For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him." Romans 8:15-17 NLT
Paul is almost saying the same thing in Romans as he does here in Ephesians, but he comes at it from the opposite direction, starting with the Holy Spirit who confirms to us that we are God's children, and therefore heirs. In Ephesians, Paul is saying that God has made us heirs in Christ, and has given us the Holy Spirit to confirm (guarantee, pledge) that fact to us. It's the same thing but turned around.
That Paul, he was pretty consistent, wasn't he? But he does like to turn things around from time to time.
So let me see if I can put this whole thing into my own words, avoiding all the churchy-sounding stuff.
When we put our faith in Jesus and all he accomplished when he died for us on the cross and was raised from the dead, God adopts us into his family to be his heirs along with Jesus. And since it's hard for us to wrap our heads around that, he gave us his Holy Spirit to live inside of us, and part of the Holy Spirit's job is to keep us convinced that we are indeed children and heirs of God in Christ, to remind us of who we really are, even when (especially when) we aren't following the path God has laid out for us.
I think that's right, more or less, although I added a little more than what Paul actually says in Ephesians. But one thing I do believe is that it's never the Holy Spirit's job to "convict" us when we sin, but rather to remind us of who we are, to encourage us to walk with God, and to celebrate with us when we show evidence that we are growing in Christ. To "convict" carries a connotation of guilt, and I do not believe that the Holy Spirit ever makes us feel guilty. The exact opposite is true, in my opinion; he inspires us to walk in a manner worthy of our calling.
But I'm getting ahead of myself again.
Father, thank you for adopting me as your child and for giving me the amazing gift of your Holy Spirit living in me, encouraging me, reminding me of who I am and whose I am. Open the ears of my heart to listen more closely to you and to walk in the Spirit, because the Spirit knows who I am and who you are. I love you, my "Abba," my Father. Thank you for speaking to me today.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
purpose
"In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory." Ephesians 1:11-12
Glioblastoma multiforme, according to the all-knowing Wikipedia, is "the most common and most aggressive malignant primary brain tumor in humans," and I believe it to be true. It's on the internet, so it must be true, right? But besides that, I have personal experience with this dreadful disease. My first wife, Linda, was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme in the spring of 1989, and after one year and one month filled with surgeries, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, torturous agony and unbearable heartache, along with the heartfelt prayers of literally hundreds of friends and family, she died on June 20, 1990.
And when I mention agony, I am, of course, talking about Linda's experience, but I am also talking about the agony that Linda's family experienced, her devoted mother and siblings, as well as the agony of my own parents and other family members on my side of the aisle, including our children, Gabe and Libby, ages 10 and 8, respectively, on the day Linda died. And, of course, I am also talking about my own personal agony and heartache as I watched my full-of-life, fun-loving, devoted bride of 15 years deteriorate over that last year of her life and eventually simply fade away.
So why am I bringing this up today in the context of this section of Paul's letter to the Ephesians? Well, partly because that was such a life-altering experience for me that I view almost everything through the lens of that event. But particularly because it understandably caused me to question God's faithfulness, whether or not I could actually trust him. I would say that I never actually lost faith in God nor even truly doubted his faithfulness, but the experience made me think through (to chew thoroughly, in keeping with this blog's theme) the ways in which he deals with his people and how he responds to prayer and what it means when it says that we were chosen, predestined according to his plan, and that he "works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will..." In short, it made me think through why or why not I ought to trust God.
And by the way, I realize that there is a lot...A LOT of meat in this passage of scripture that I ought to be tackling, but this is what struck me first when I read through it again this morning. I might camp out on this particular passage and revisit it in at least one more posting, but for now I'm going to follow this path and see where it takes me, which is how I always write these things, in case you hadn't noticed.
When you're going through an experience like mine (and again, it feels and sounds quite selfish for me to talk about it as if I was the only one affected, but for this post I'll stick with that just to keep it simpler, besides which, I'm talking about my own reactions and lessons learned, not anyone else's), it seems inconceivable that the God who created everything there is and claims to love me more than I can imagine would let something like that happen to someone I love so dearly. At the time, it seemed inconceivable that God chose to ignore the multitude of prayers given on Linda's behalf, asking, begging for healing, for a miracle.
See, the phrase that strikes me is this one: "having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will..." It fits with what I have always believed about God, that he is personally involved with us and has always had an ultimate plan for our lives, a plan that is for our good and one in which we ultimately prevail because of what he has done for us, a plan that is somehow connected and responsive to our free will in a kind of cosmic dance where we make our own choices but he continues to "work out everything in conformity with the purposes of his will" anyway.
But what about things like this? What about when we have as much faith as we can possibly muster and seemingly do everything right, but it still turns out all wrong? I guess it boils down to this age-old question: Why do bad things happen to good people? And why does God heal some folks and let others die? Or most succinctly and to the point, why did God let Linda die?
And those are some mighty big question to tackle in one little blog post by this humble turkey, but I do have a few things to say about it, things that God has taught me through his word, including this passage, and the experiences he's led me through in my life, the suffering and death of Linda in particular.
For me, it boils down to three points.
1. God is able to do whatever he wants to do. He can heal.
So if Linda was not healed, it isn't because God was unable to do anything about it. Read through the Bible and you'll find evidence of God's absolute power, not the least of which is stated on the opening pages, that he is the creator of the universe. He created all that there is out of nothing, and as the creator, he has ultimate power over his creation.
And not only that, I personally know people who have been the recipients of seemingly miraculous healing - they were sick and/or dying, people prayed for them, and God healed them. So it isn't like I don't believe that God is capable of it - there's plenty of evidence that he is.
But if that wasn't enough, he proved it to me personally on a much smaller scale.
Several months (or maybe as much as a year) before Linda got sick, I had been experiencing a nagging pain in my right elbow. I didn't know if it was bursitis or arthritis or what, but I figured it probably had something to do with overuse at work. It wasn't so bad that I ever went to the doctor for it, but it did bother me quite often. Well, one Sunday in church (we were attending Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, CA, at the time, Greg Laurie's church) during a communion service, the pastor read this verse from Isaiah:
"But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."
The pastor suggested that if we were suffering from any affliction, the communion time was a good chance to pray for healing, since the scripture states that "by his wounds we are healed." Now, I happen to be of the opinion that this is a misrepresentation of what that particular verse is saying, but nevertheless, I did take the opportunity to pray that God would heal my elbow, since it had been bothering me a lot that morning, and then I immediately forgot all about it.
It was weeks later that I realized that my elbow wasn't bothering me any longer. That it hadn't bothered me since I prayed that prayer. So yes, I believe that God healed me. Furthermore, I believe that God healed me for the very purpose of preparing me for the experience that I was about to go through, so that I would know and believe without a doubt that God can and does heal.
And I do believe it. God can heal. I can trust that it's true. God heals when it's in conformity to his will.
2. God does what he does for a reason and he knows what he's doing.
As the verse says, God has a plan. And as I've said before, it isn't like he exists along our timeline and simply knows what's coming, I believe he exists transcendent from time and space in an eternal "now" where he exists in our past, present, and future simultaneously, eternally. For God, the concepts of before and after, then and now, sooner and later, have no real meaning except for how they relate to us, his time-line-constrained creation. So when I say he has a plan, what I mean is that when he created, he created eternity, which from our perspective looks like a long, long line, from the beginning, eternity past, to the end, eternity yet to come; but from his perspective, it all looks like one big now, his eternal present.
It's a tough hunk of meat to chew, but I think it's true. Oh, it's just an opinion, but it makes sense to me. So the thing is that God not only knows what the future holds, he exists there right now, so his "plans" are perfect. We can trust that he knows what he's doing because he's already done it! From his perspective at least.
I have a friend who says that, if it's true that God is in control and "works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will," then it must be true that everything that has ever happened in the past must have been God's will. He feels comfortable saying that Nazi Germany and the attempted genocide there and things like that must have been God's will, since they actually happened and since God is in control. Well, I understand what he's saying, but I humbly disagree. The verse doesn't say that God makes everything "happen" according to his will. It says that he "works out" everything in conformity to his will. We have free will, too, just as God does. We are free to screw up and we do it all the time, and when I screw up, I cannot say that it's God's will. BUT, because he is truly in control, existing as he does in an eternal now, he is able to take my screwed up life and make it work out according to his will anyway.
He knows what he's doing. And he has an eternal plan that, for him, has already come to pass. For us it's still in the working out phase, but for him, it's a done deal. We can trust that he has a plan, he will make it work out in conformity to his will. He knows what he's doing.
3. God loves me.
This is, of course, the most important point. Because if the other two points are true, but I don't understand that he loves me, I am left with a rather unsatisfactory answer to my basic question as to why Linda suffered and died. Since God is capable of healing and has demonstrated that fact over and over again, and even to this humble turkey, and if it's true that he is working out everything according to his plan, then the answer I'm left with is that God didn't want to heal Linda - it wasn't part of his plan. And I'm still left with an aching heart wondering why not.
But the truth of the matter is that God loves me more than I could possibly understand.
"...and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge..." Ephesians 3:17-18 (Yes, I know I'm jumping ahead, but it works here - I'll come back to it later.)
And what's more, God has proven his love for me over and over again, and ultimately so on the cross of Christ.
"Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." Romans 5:7-8
So then if God loves me that much, so much that Jesus would die for me even when I am acting as if I was God's enemy or worse, simply ignoring him altogether, he must have my best interests at heart, much like a loving father acts according to his children's best interests, even when (and maybe especially when) they are being rebellious. His children can trust in their loving father's plans, even when they don't understand what's happening, even when it hurts, because they know that he loves them. Think of the child wracked by cancer whose father ushers her into a life-saving surgery that that nonetheless leaves her in agony from the procedure as she recuperates. She still trusts her father even though she cannot comprehend the reason he allowed her to suffer. Why? Because he is her father and she loves him, and because he has demonstrated over and over again that he can be trusted and that he has her best interests at heart. In the same way, God has proven that he loves me and I can rest assured that no matter what happens, he has my best interests at heart, even when it doesn't feel that way, when I can't understand why there's pain and agony and heartache.
I can trust in God's plan even when I don't understand it because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he loves me and wants what's best for me.
"'For I know the plans I have for you,' says the Lord. 'They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.'" Jeremiah 29:11
If those points are all true, and I believe they are, that God is capable and has a plan, and loves me with an indescribable love, that his plans are for my good, then no matter what happens, no matter how it feels, I know I can trust him. I can trust in his love for me. If things don't work out the way I think they ought to work out, I can still trust that God is in control, that he knows what he's doing, and that he loves me and wants whatever is best for me. If my wife is diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and hundreds of friends send fervent prayers for healing heavenward, but she still suffers agony and dies, leaving her two little kids motherless, then I know that I can still trust that God loves me and cares about me, even though it makes no sense to me at all. He will love me through the pain and into his glory.
So do I believe that it was God's will that Linda suffered? Of course not! But do I believe that he will "work out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will?" Absolutely. I have no doubt whatsoever, because I trust my loving Father, whatever may come.
It seems like I got a little sidetracked from the point Paul is getting to here in Ephesians, but like I said, I write what strikes me as I'm going through this. This too, I think, comes from God, since this whole thing, this blog thing, is about my relationship and focused time spent with my Father. I'll get back on track, but don't be surprised if I meander on a regular basis. That's why I'm here listening.
Thank you, loving Father, for loving me with an inconceivable love - far beyond my understanding. Thank you for being in control and expressing your love in so many countless ways, the most dramatic of which being the redemption of my very life by the sacrifice on the cross of Christ. I am yours, Father, in a relationship of pure love. Help me surrender myself completely to you. To act on the trust I have in you. To live my life according to the faith I have in you. To be the person you redeemed me to be. I love you, Father.
Glioblastoma multiforme, according to the all-knowing Wikipedia, is "the most common and most aggressive malignant primary brain tumor in humans," and I believe it to be true. It's on the internet, so it must be true, right? But besides that, I have personal experience with this dreadful disease. My first wife, Linda, was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme in the spring of 1989, and after one year and one month filled with surgeries, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, torturous agony and unbearable heartache, along with the heartfelt prayers of literally hundreds of friends and family, she died on June 20, 1990.
And when I mention agony, I am, of course, talking about Linda's experience, but I am also talking about the agony that Linda's family experienced, her devoted mother and siblings, as well as the agony of my own parents and other family members on my side of the aisle, including our children, Gabe and Libby, ages 10 and 8, respectively, on the day Linda died. And, of course, I am also talking about my own personal agony and heartache as I watched my full-of-life, fun-loving, devoted bride of 15 years deteriorate over that last year of her life and eventually simply fade away.
So why am I bringing this up today in the context of this section of Paul's letter to the Ephesians? Well, partly because that was such a life-altering experience for me that I view almost everything through the lens of that event. But particularly because it understandably caused me to question God's faithfulness, whether or not I could actually trust him. I would say that I never actually lost faith in God nor even truly doubted his faithfulness, but the experience made me think through (to chew thoroughly, in keeping with this blog's theme) the ways in which he deals with his people and how he responds to prayer and what it means when it says that we were chosen, predestined according to his plan, and that he "works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will..." In short, it made me think through why or why not I ought to trust God.
And by the way, I realize that there is a lot...A LOT of meat in this passage of scripture that I ought to be tackling, but this is what struck me first when I read through it again this morning. I might camp out on this particular passage and revisit it in at least one more posting, but for now I'm going to follow this path and see where it takes me, which is how I always write these things, in case you hadn't noticed.
When you're going through an experience like mine (and again, it feels and sounds quite selfish for me to talk about it as if I was the only one affected, but for this post I'll stick with that just to keep it simpler, besides which, I'm talking about my own reactions and lessons learned, not anyone else's), it seems inconceivable that the God who created everything there is and claims to love me more than I can imagine would let something like that happen to someone I love so dearly. At the time, it seemed inconceivable that God chose to ignore the multitude of prayers given on Linda's behalf, asking, begging for healing, for a miracle.
See, the phrase that strikes me is this one: "having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will..." It fits with what I have always believed about God, that he is personally involved with us and has always had an ultimate plan for our lives, a plan that is for our good and one in which we ultimately prevail because of what he has done for us, a plan that is somehow connected and responsive to our free will in a kind of cosmic dance where we make our own choices but he continues to "work out everything in conformity with the purposes of his will" anyway.
But what about things like this? What about when we have as much faith as we can possibly muster and seemingly do everything right, but it still turns out all wrong? I guess it boils down to this age-old question: Why do bad things happen to good people? And why does God heal some folks and let others die? Or most succinctly and to the point, why did God let Linda die?
And those are some mighty big question to tackle in one little blog post by this humble turkey, but I do have a few things to say about it, things that God has taught me through his word, including this passage, and the experiences he's led me through in my life, the suffering and death of Linda in particular.
For me, it boils down to three points.
1. God is able to do whatever he wants to do. He can heal.
So if Linda was not healed, it isn't because God was unable to do anything about it. Read through the Bible and you'll find evidence of God's absolute power, not the least of which is stated on the opening pages, that he is the creator of the universe. He created all that there is out of nothing, and as the creator, he has ultimate power over his creation.
And not only that, I personally know people who have been the recipients of seemingly miraculous healing - they were sick and/or dying, people prayed for them, and God healed them. So it isn't like I don't believe that God is capable of it - there's plenty of evidence that he is.
But if that wasn't enough, he proved it to me personally on a much smaller scale.
Several months (or maybe as much as a year) before Linda got sick, I had been experiencing a nagging pain in my right elbow. I didn't know if it was bursitis or arthritis or what, but I figured it probably had something to do with overuse at work. It wasn't so bad that I ever went to the doctor for it, but it did bother me quite often. Well, one Sunday in church (we were attending Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, CA, at the time, Greg Laurie's church) during a communion service, the pastor read this verse from Isaiah:
"But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."
The pastor suggested that if we were suffering from any affliction, the communion time was a good chance to pray for healing, since the scripture states that "by his wounds we are healed." Now, I happen to be of the opinion that this is a misrepresentation of what that particular verse is saying, but nevertheless, I did take the opportunity to pray that God would heal my elbow, since it had been bothering me a lot that morning, and then I immediately forgot all about it.
It was weeks later that I realized that my elbow wasn't bothering me any longer. That it hadn't bothered me since I prayed that prayer. So yes, I believe that God healed me. Furthermore, I believe that God healed me for the very purpose of preparing me for the experience that I was about to go through, so that I would know and believe without a doubt that God can and does heal.
And I do believe it. God can heal. I can trust that it's true. God heals when it's in conformity to his will.
2. God does what he does for a reason and he knows what he's doing.
As the verse says, God has a plan. And as I've said before, it isn't like he exists along our timeline and simply knows what's coming, I believe he exists transcendent from time and space in an eternal "now" where he exists in our past, present, and future simultaneously, eternally. For God, the concepts of before and after, then and now, sooner and later, have no real meaning except for how they relate to us, his time-line-constrained creation. So when I say he has a plan, what I mean is that when he created, he created eternity, which from our perspective looks like a long, long line, from the beginning, eternity past, to the end, eternity yet to come; but from his perspective, it all looks like one big now, his eternal present.
It's a tough hunk of meat to chew, but I think it's true. Oh, it's just an opinion, but it makes sense to me. So the thing is that God not only knows what the future holds, he exists there right now, so his "plans" are perfect. We can trust that he knows what he's doing because he's already done it! From his perspective at least.
I have a friend who says that, if it's true that God is in control and "works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will," then it must be true that everything that has ever happened in the past must have been God's will. He feels comfortable saying that Nazi Germany and the attempted genocide there and things like that must have been God's will, since they actually happened and since God is in control. Well, I understand what he's saying, but I humbly disagree. The verse doesn't say that God makes everything "happen" according to his will. It says that he "works out" everything in conformity to his will. We have free will, too, just as God does. We are free to screw up and we do it all the time, and when I screw up, I cannot say that it's God's will. BUT, because he is truly in control, existing as he does in an eternal now, he is able to take my screwed up life and make it work out according to his will anyway.
He knows what he's doing. And he has an eternal plan that, for him, has already come to pass. For us it's still in the working out phase, but for him, it's a done deal. We can trust that he has a plan, he will make it work out in conformity to his will. He knows what he's doing.
3. God loves me.
This is, of course, the most important point. Because if the other two points are true, but I don't understand that he loves me, I am left with a rather unsatisfactory answer to my basic question as to why Linda suffered and died. Since God is capable of healing and has demonstrated that fact over and over again, and even to this humble turkey, and if it's true that he is working out everything according to his plan, then the answer I'm left with is that God didn't want to heal Linda - it wasn't part of his plan. And I'm still left with an aching heart wondering why not.
But the truth of the matter is that God loves me more than I could possibly understand.
"...and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge..." Ephesians 3:17-18 (Yes, I know I'm jumping ahead, but it works here - I'll come back to it later.)
And what's more, God has proven his love for me over and over again, and ultimately so on the cross of Christ.
"Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." Romans 5:7-8
So then if God loves me that much, so much that Jesus would die for me even when I am acting as if I was God's enemy or worse, simply ignoring him altogether, he must have my best interests at heart, much like a loving father acts according to his children's best interests, even when (and maybe especially when) they are being rebellious. His children can trust in their loving father's plans, even when they don't understand what's happening, even when it hurts, because they know that he loves them. Think of the child wracked by cancer whose father ushers her into a life-saving surgery that that nonetheless leaves her in agony from the procedure as she recuperates. She still trusts her father even though she cannot comprehend the reason he allowed her to suffer. Why? Because he is her father and she loves him, and because he has demonstrated over and over again that he can be trusted and that he has her best interests at heart. In the same way, God has proven that he loves me and I can rest assured that no matter what happens, he has my best interests at heart, even when it doesn't feel that way, when I can't understand why there's pain and agony and heartache.
I can trust in God's plan even when I don't understand it because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he loves me and wants what's best for me.
"'For I know the plans I have for you,' says the Lord. 'They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.'" Jeremiah 29:11
If those points are all true, and I believe they are, that God is capable and has a plan, and loves me with an indescribable love, that his plans are for my good, then no matter what happens, no matter how it feels, I know I can trust him. I can trust in his love for me. If things don't work out the way I think they ought to work out, I can still trust that God is in control, that he knows what he's doing, and that he loves me and wants whatever is best for me. If my wife is diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and hundreds of friends send fervent prayers for healing heavenward, but she still suffers agony and dies, leaving her two little kids motherless, then I know that I can still trust that God loves me and cares about me, even though it makes no sense to me at all. He will love me through the pain and into his glory.
So do I believe that it was God's will that Linda suffered? Of course not! But do I believe that he will "work out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will?" Absolutely. I have no doubt whatsoever, because I trust my loving Father, whatever may come.
It seems like I got a little sidetracked from the point Paul is getting to here in Ephesians, but like I said, I write what strikes me as I'm going through this. This too, I think, comes from God, since this whole thing, this blog thing, is about my relationship and focused time spent with my Father. I'll get back on track, but don't be surprised if I meander on a regular basis. That's why I'm here listening.
Thank you, loving Father, for loving me with an inconceivable love - far beyond my understanding. Thank you for being in control and expressing your love in so many countless ways, the most dramatic of which being the redemption of my very life by the sacrifice on the cross of Christ. I am yours, Father, in a relationship of pure love. Help me surrender myself completely to you. To act on the trust I have in you. To live my life according to the faith I have in you. To be the person you redeemed me to be. I love you, Father.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
mystery
"With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ." Ephesians 1:8b-10
We had an interesting discussion a few weeks ago in our small group Bible study regarding the events recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures (a.k.a., the Old Testament), and whether or not we ought to view them from a prophetic perspective. Obviously, some of the Hebrew Scriptures are prophetic in nature. Isaiah comes to mind, as well as Daniel - all of the "prophetic" books, in fact. But we were studying Genesis, and the story of Noah and the flood and the ark and all of that messiness.
Some of us in the group suggested that there are profound prophetic meanings behind the whole story; the ark representing Jesus, while Noah and his family represent the church, as an example of one way of looking at it, and that the entire reason God chose to do things the way he did and then see to it that Moses included that story in the scriptures was to point the way to Christ. Others in the group insisted that we shouldn't try to apply things we know now to things that happened back then, and the proper way to study these stories is to take them at face value and try to learn the lessons that God intended for those who lived through it at the time.
So which is it? Lessons learned or prophetic messages? I know the answer. The answer is both.
But one of our fellow small groupians asked me this question after I made the point of saying that I believed that the ark was a "type" of Christ. He asked me, "But did Noah think that?" Well, no, I don't think Noah thought of the ark as pointing to Christ and his church. Maybe, I guess, but probably not. But this is my whole point regarding today's scripture.
Things like Christ and his church, the grace of God lavished on us through his (only begotten) son, the redemption of the entire world through faith in Jesus; these are all mysteries that were unknown to people in Old Testament times. Oh, I think that they understood that a savior was coming, but they had no idea how it was going to all work out. It was a mystery, the mystery of God's will, the plan that he had before the foundations of the earth, the mystery that he made known to us in Christ "in all wisdom and insight."
So no, I don't believe that Noah really understood that the ark he was building might represent the grace of God that will carry those who enter in by faith through to life after death. It was a mystery that was yet to be revealed. But now God has made known the mystery of his will to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
I mean, do you ever why God does things the way he does? I mean, if God could create the universe, if he could make it rain and flood so much that the waters covered the entire world, you'd think he could have saved old Noah without that big boat. But no, God had a reason for doing things the way he did, and I believe it was to help us see how he redeems those in whom he finds favor, a.k.a., gives grace. (Uh, that would be us.) We have to get into the boat!
And why did he do all of this? What is the purpose of his plan? Well it says why right there! "To bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ." God had a plan from the very beginning, and that was to provide a way through the flood, a way to reconcile us to himself through Jesus Christ, so that he can claim us as his adoptive family in Christ. It was a mystery that is now revealed in Jesus, is continually being revealed until the day of Christ, revealed in us and to us according to God's good pleasure, which to me means that he planned it this way because he wanted to do it this way, because he loves us and wants to prove that to us.
Father, thank you for the lessons you have taught us through the stories found in the Hebrew Scriptures, and thank you also for revealing the mysteries that lie underneath the stories, the mysteries that point to Christ and his church and your abundant love and overwhelming grace that you have lavished on us in Christ Jesus. Thank you for a way through the flood and thank you for allowing me to get in the boat and then shutting the door behind me.
We had an interesting discussion a few weeks ago in our small group Bible study regarding the events recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures (a.k.a., the Old Testament), and whether or not we ought to view them from a prophetic perspective. Obviously, some of the Hebrew Scriptures are prophetic in nature. Isaiah comes to mind, as well as Daniel - all of the "prophetic" books, in fact. But we were studying Genesis, and the story of Noah and the flood and the ark and all of that messiness.
Some of us in the group suggested that there are profound prophetic meanings behind the whole story; the ark representing Jesus, while Noah and his family represent the church, as an example of one way of looking at it, and that the entire reason God chose to do things the way he did and then see to it that Moses included that story in the scriptures was to point the way to Christ. Others in the group insisted that we shouldn't try to apply things we know now to things that happened back then, and the proper way to study these stories is to take them at face value and try to learn the lessons that God intended for those who lived through it at the time.
So which is it? Lessons learned or prophetic messages? I know the answer. The answer is both.
But one of our fellow small groupians asked me this question after I made the point of saying that I believed that the ark was a "type" of Christ. He asked me, "But did Noah think that?" Well, no, I don't think Noah thought of the ark as pointing to Christ and his church. Maybe, I guess, but probably not. But this is my whole point regarding today's scripture.
Things like Christ and his church, the grace of God lavished on us through his (only begotten) son, the redemption of the entire world through faith in Jesus; these are all mysteries that were unknown to people in Old Testament times. Oh, I think that they understood that a savior was coming, but they had no idea how it was going to all work out. It was a mystery, the mystery of God's will, the plan that he had before the foundations of the earth, the mystery that he made known to us in Christ "in all wisdom and insight."
So no, I don't believe that Noah really understood that the ark he was building might represent the grace of God that will carry those who enter in by faith through to life after death. It was a mystery that was yet to be revealed. But now God has made known the mystery of his will to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
I mean, do you ever why God does things the way he does? I mean, if God could create the universe, if he could make it rain and flood so much that the waters covered the entire world, you'd think he could have saved old Noah without that big boat. But no, God had a reason for doing things the way he did, and I believe it was to help us see how he redeems those in whom he finds favor, a.k.a., gives grace. (Uh, that would be us.) We have to get into the boat!
And why did he do all of this? What is the purpose of his plan? Well it says why right there! "To bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ." God had a plan from the very beginning, and that was to provide a way through the flood, a way to reconcile us to himself through Jesus Christ, so that he can claim us as his adoptive family in Christ. It was a mystery that is now revealed in Jesus, is continually being revealed until the day of Christ, revealed in us and to us according to God's good pleasure, which to me means that he planned it this way because he wanted to do it this way, because he loves us and wants to prove that to us.
Father, thank you for the lessons you have taught us through the stories found in the Hebrew Scriptures, and thank you also for revealing the mysteries that lie underneath the stories, the mysteries that point to Christ and his church and your abundant love and overwhelming grace that you have lavished on us in Christ Jesus. Thank you for a way through the flood and thank you for allowing me to get in the boat and then shutting the door behind me.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
lavished
"...to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us." Ephesians 1:6-8a
Back when I was a wee tot and up until my teenage years, my family would gather with my grandmother, my aunt and uncle, all my cousins, and other a few other miscellaneous shirttail relations to celebrate Thanksgiving Day every year, usually at my aunt Helen's house. (Almost everyone I know who is close to my age has had an aunt Helen. Do you? I think maybe it's the law.) We would, of course, consume turkey and dressing, and there would always be mashed potatoes.
Mashed potatoes AND dressing! Did we really need both?? Do we now? Yes, I believe we do.
But one thing I always remember about those dinners, and indeed many of my Thanksgiving dinners even to this day, is the gravy. I would (and still do) enjoy ladling that rich, thick, light brown turkey gravy over the potatoes, dressing, turkey, any adjacent vegetables, and sometimes even the jello salad, although not on purpose. So, whenever I read the word "lavished" I think of that rich gravy at Thanksgiving dinner. I lavished the gravy on my plate, just as God, according to this verse, lavished His grace on us. He poured it out, covering us under a rich coat of thick, Godly grace. Without our covering of Godly Gravy, we were quite unpalatable to God, but once he has ladled a heaping helping of gooey gravy over us, once he has lavished us with His rich grace, His mouth waters for us.
Uh, I think I'd better let that analogy end there before I have God consuming us, which doesn't sound quite right - it's only an analogy, people! On the other hand, there's that passage from Revelation 3 where Jesus tells the church of Laodicea that he's going to spit them out of his mouth because they're lukewarm, the assumption being that if they were nice an hot, He would go ahead and eat them, which in that context seems like a good thing. So I don't know about that, but I do like the idea of his mouth watering when he sees us covered with His rich grace gravy!
Here's something I notice about this verse. It begins by saying that he adopted us as sons (according to the previous verse) "to the praise of the glory of His grace," and then says that we have redemption according to the riches of His grace. Glory of His grace...riches of His grace. Makes me wonder why Paul chose to make that distinction. Is there a difference? Is it simply literary license? I took a look at all the popular translations and they all seem to use the words "glory" and "riches" in one form or another in these verses, so evidently it isn't just a quirk of the NASB.
I suppose that the "glory of His grace" is something we witness when we see it at work. In other words, when we witness God's incredible grace at work in the world, bringing the world back to Him and working to restore all things through Christ, and how His grace works through His people to accomplish His will in the world, we're witnessing the glory of His grace. The "riches of His grace" is something that we experience when it's working in our own lives, when he lavishes his grace on us.
We can enjoy the glory of a nice turkey gravy, steaming hot in the gravy boat in the middle of the Thanksgiving dinner table, its aroma filling the air with spicy goodness, and we can even appreciate how good it looks poured out on someone else's plate. But in order to enjoy the richness of that gravy for ourselves, we have to ladle it over our own potatoes and take a good healthy bite, savoring the richness in our own mouths, our own bodies.
In the same way, we can appreciate the glory of God's grace when we see it at work, but in order to truly experience the riches of His grace for ourselves, we have to allow him to lavish it over us, covering us with it while it's piping hot, making us palatable to God, His mouth watering for us so that he doesn't have to spew us out, but that He'll savor us, enjoying us, longing for more of us, loving us through the covering of the blood of Christ, God's holy gravy.
Father, cover me daily with the rich, glorious gravy of your grace through Christ Jesus. Help me to always experience the riches of your grace and to appreciate the glory of your grace at work in this world. Help me to allow you to work your grace through my life for your sake, for your glory, to the riches of the glory of your grace. You might need a napkin.
Back when I was a wee tot and up until my teenage years, my family would gather with my grandmother, my aunt and uncle, all my cousins, and other a few other miscellaneous shirttail relations to celebrate Thanksgiving Day every year, usually at my aunt Helen's house. (Almost everyone I know who is close to my age has had an aunt Helen. Do you? I think maybe it's the law.) We would, of course, consume turkey and dressing, and there would always be mashed potatoes.
Mashed potatoes AND dressing! Did we really need both?? Do we now? Yes, I believe we do.
But one thing I always remember about those dinners, and indeed many of my Thanksgiving dinners even to this day, is the gravy. I would (and still do) enjoy ladling that rich, thick, light brown turkey gravy over the potatoes, dressing, turkey, any adjacent vegetables, and sometimes even the jello salad, although not on purpose. So, whenever I read the word "lavished" I think of that rich gravy at Thanksgiving dinner. I lavished the gravy on my plate, just as God, according to this verse, lavished His grace on us. He poured it out, covering us under a rich coat of thick, Godly grace. Without our covering of Godly Gravy, we were quite unpalatable to God, but once he has ladled a heaping helping of gooey gravy over us, once he has lavished us with His rich grace, His mouth waters for us.
Uh, I think I'd better let that analogy end there before I have God consuming us, which doesn't sound quite right - it's only an analogy, people! On the other hand, there's that passage from Revelation 3 where Jesus tells the church of Laodicea that he's going to spit them out of his mouth because they're lukewarm, the assumption being that if they were nice an hot, He would go ahead and eat them, which in that context seems like a good thing. So I don't know about that, but I do like the idea of his mouth watering when he sees us covered with His rich grace gravy!
Here's something I notice about this verse. It begins by saying that he adopted us as sons (according to the previous verse) "to the praise of the glory of His grace," and then says that we have redemption according to the riches of His grace. Glory of His grace...riches of His grace. Makes me wonder why Paul chose to make that distinction. Is there a difference? Is it simply literary license? I took a look at all the popular translations and they all seem to use the words "glory" and "riches" in one form or another in these verses, so evidently it isn't just a quirk of the NASB.
I suppose that the "glory of His grace" is something we witness when we see it at work. In other words, when we witness God's incredible grace at work in the world, bringing the world back to Him and working to restore all things through Christ, and how His grace works through His people to accomplish His will in the world, we're witnessing the glory of His grace. The "riches of His grace" is something that we experience when it's working in our own lives, when he lavishes his grace on us.
We can enjoy the glory of a nice turkey gravy, steaming hot in the gravy boat in the middle of the Thanksgiving dinner table, its aroma filling the air with spicy goodness, and we can even appreciate how good it looks poured out on someone else's plate. But in order to enjoy the richness of that gravy for ourselves, we have to ladle it over our own potatoes and take a good healthy bite, savoring the richness in our own mouths, our own bodies.
In the same way, we can appreciate the glory of God's grace when we see it at work, but in order to truly experience the riches of His grace for ourselves, we have to allow him to lavish it over us, covering us with it while it's piping hot, making us palatable to God, His mouth watering for us so that he doesn't have to spew us out, but that He'll savor us, enjoying us, longing for more of us, loving us through the covering of the blood of Christ, God's holy gravy.
Father, cover me daily with the rich, glorious gravy of your grace through Christ Jesus. Help me to always experience the riches of your grace and to appreciate the glory of your grace at work in this world. Help me to allow you to work your grace through my life for your sake, for your glory, to the riches of the glory of your grace. You might need a napkin.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
blameless
...just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. Ephesians 1:4a
This verse completes the sentence started back in verse 3, but the last couple of words (which I have not included here) actually belong to the next verse. Eh, I didn't make up the verse numbers, so don't blame me. I am, after all, blameless (see below).
But anyway, if you'll remember from last time (eons ago), Paul started off by exclaiming blessings upon God for blessing us with "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ," so I figure that the "just as He..." part here is intended to tell us that he chose us in Christ just as he blessed us in Christ. It's all God in Christ here, folks. You and I haven't done anything. God chose us and He blessed us, all in (through) Jesus Christ, and not because of anything we've done or anybody we are or anything we think or say or accomplish. God chose us. Us. You and me.
Why, you ask? I have no idea. But thank God (literally) he did! I guess it's just because he loves us, no? He loves us, so he chose us.
And, to prove that it isn't because of our accomplishments, Paul goes on to point out that God actually chose us "before the foundations of the world," which means, I assume, before God created this here existence, he had already decided that we were going to be his.
I only have one little problem with this, and here it is. God is eternal, and I've always sort of had the notion that means that time has no meaning for God. Eternity for God doesn't exactly mean that he existed eternally in the past and will exist eternally in the future, along a sort of never-ending timeline, but rather that God exists everywhere at once along that timeline, and apart from it, transcendent from a time/place existence, if you please. He exists in an eternal NOW where he is in the past and the future at the same time, so that for God, "before the foundations of the world" coincides with our present and beyond our future into eternity...all at the same eternal moment. It's a tough hunk of meat for me to chew, but to me it means that the concepts of before and after, then and now, now and later, and other such time-sensitive expressions have no real meaning to God...other than as he understands it through his creation, which now that I think about it is a rather important point. God may not be tied down by a timeline, but he knows that we are and understands the way we see things. "Before the foundations of the world" might mean very little from God's perspective, but it sure means something to us, and tells us something about God and the way he works and thinks - he knows what he's doing and has known all along. He has a plan that was laid down before the foundations of the world (from our perspective, at least) and since he exists eternally (then and now, now and later meaning nothing to him), his plan has already been accomplished and fulfilled in Christ Jesus for all eternity. Why would I not trust him???
So no, I don't really have a problem at all. Sometimes I just have to remember that the bible, though God inspired, is written by people, to people, from a people perspective, and although God has revealed himself through it, he did it in a way that we can understand from our limited, timeline-constrained existence.
So anyway, on to the good part: "that we would be holy and blameless before Him." So this is why he chose us? Yeah, I think so! This verse reminds me very much of something I just read in Gensis: "Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless.'" I had read that verse many times before, and somehow had the idea that when God said "be blameless" it was sort of a command, like "Make your bed!" or "Take out the trash!" Like God was telling Abram that he'd better stop messing around clean up his act: be blameless! But now I see that God wasn't telling him to be blameless, God was saying that Abram WAS blameless!! Now, Abram wasn't actually blameless, you know. I mean, he screwed up time and time again by failing to fully trust God to keep his promises. But God declared that Abram was blameless in spite of anything Abram had done, good or bad.
You might say that God chose Abram before the foundations of the world, that he would be holy and blameless before Him. Just as he chose us. Abraham was declared blameless. We are declared blameless. You are declared blameless. I am declared blameless. Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. I believe I'll believe God, too. How about you?
Remember now, these are simply my thoughts here, and I write them down as they come to me. Don't expect consistency or great prose or good writing at all. I'm not really worried, since nobody is ever going to read this but me.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
blest?
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ... Ephesians 1:3
Blessed be...who has blessed us with...blessing... Have you ever wondered what bless really means? What it means to be blest? I mean, how can we bless God and what does it mean when God blesses us? And if we are blessed with blessings, what in the world does that look like in our day-to-day lives. And for that matter, which is it anyway, blessed or blest?
I looked it up in my handy-dandy Fund & Wagnalls and here's what it says:
bless (bles) v.t. blessed or blest, bless-ing 1. consecrate; make holy. 2. honor and exalt; glorify. 3. invoke God's favor upon (a person or thing). 4. bestow prosperity upon; make happy. 5. endow, as with a gift. 6. guard; protect: Bless me! [ME blessen consecrate]
bless-ed (BLES id) adj. 1. made holy. 2. enjoying the happiness of heaven. 3. blissful; happy. 4. causing happiness. Also spelled blest. bles'sed-ness n.
bless-ing (BLES ing) n. 1. an invocation or benediction; grace. 2. the bestowal of devine favor. 3. that which makes happy or prosperous.
So, first of all and least importantly, blessed and blest are interchangeable, or so it seems to indicate (even though Blogger's spellchecker is unhappy with blest).
But the definitions are quite interesting to me, and although the true meaning of the whole deal still eludes me just a wee little bit, I want to try re-stating today's verse while avoiding the word "bless" and any form thereof, just to see if I can clarify the meaning as I understand it. I'm not promising anything, but here goes my attempt:
Exalted be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has endowed us with every spiritual favor in the heavenly places as a gift in Christ.
Maybe, huh? I'm not sure that really cleared it up for me, but it helped a little.
The point is that God has in Christ Jesus given us everything he could possibly give to make us happy, every spiritual blessing. He has bent over backward for us, so to speak, and Paul is taking this opportunity to give God glory and praise (blessing) for all he's done for us.
A friend of mine once asked me this question after we had a conversation about Jesus and salvation and such. He asked, "If God loves us so much, how can he sit back and let us go to hell? I mean, if you saw me drowning, wouldn't you rescue me? Why doesn't God do as much?"
In a rare moment of inspiration (from God, without a doubt) I answered, "Why, of course, I would do everything I possibly could to rescue you, my friend. And the fact is that God has already done everything he possibly can to rescue you, too."
And it's true. God, in Christ Jesus, has done everything he can to bring us back to him. Everything. There's nothing more he can do! He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. Every. There's nothing more he can give!
How can we not praise him? How can we not bless him? (And this is where Paul is going for the next couple of chapters, but I don't want to get ahead of myself here.)
Bless your holy name, Father God. I love you so much. You have given me everything. Everything. Every spiritual blessing. And I praise you, Father. It is my desire to make my life a blessing to you, and that you would bless others through me. Help me to understand what that means and to live it out every day, every moment.
Blessed be...who has blessed us with...blessing... Have you ever wondered what bless really means? What it means to be blest? I mean, how can we bless God and what does it mean when God blesses us? And if we are blessed with blessings, what in the world does that look like in our day-to-day lives. And for that matter, which is it anyway, blessed or blest?
I looked it up in my handy-dandy Fund & Wagnalls and here's what it says:
bless (bles) v.t. blessed or blest, bless-ing 1. consecrate; make holy. 2. honor and exalt; glorify. 3. invoke God's favor upon (a person or thing). 4. bestow prosperity upon; make happy. 5. endow, as with a gift. 6. guard; protect: Bless me! [ME blessen consecrate]
bless-ed (BLES id) adj. 1. made holy. 2. enjoying the happiness of heaven. 3. blissful; happy. 4. causing happiness. Also spelled blest. bles'sed-ness n.
bless-ing (BLES ing) n. 1. an invocation or benediction; grace. 2. the bestowal of devine favor. 3. that which makes happy or prosperous.
So, first of all and least importantly, blessed and blest are interchangeable, or so it seems to indicate (even though Blogger's spellchecker is unhappy with blest).
But the definitions are quite interesting to me, and although the true meaning of the whole deal still eludes me just a wee little bit, I want to try re-stating today's verse while avoiding the word "bless" and any form thereof, just to see if I can clarify the meaning as I understand it. I'm not promising anything, but here goes my attempt:
Exalted be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has endowed us with every spiritual favor in the heavenly places as a gift in Christ.
Maybe, huh? I'm not sure that really cleared it up for me, but it helped a little.
The point is that God has in Christ Jesus given us everything he could possibly give to make us happy, every spiritual blessing. He has bent over backward for us, so to speak, and Paul is taking this opportunity to give God glory and praise (blessing) for all he's done for us.
A friend of mine once asked me this question after we had a conversation about Jesus and salvation and such. He asked, "If God loves us so much, how can he sit back and let us go to hell? I mean, if you saw me drowning, wouldn't you rescue me? Why doesn't God do as much?"
In a rare moment of inspiration (from God, without a doubt) I answered, "Why, of course, I would do everything I possibly could to rescue you, my friend. And the fact is that God has already done everything he possibly can to rescue you, too."
And it's true. God, in Christ Jesus, has done everything he can to bring us back to him. Everything. There's nothing more he can do! He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. Every. There's nothing more he can give!
How can we not praise him? How can we not bless him? (And this is where Paul is going for the next couple of chapters, but I don't want to get ahead of myself here.)
Bless your holy name, Father God. I love you so much. You have given me everything. Everything. Every spiritual blessing. And I praise you, Father. It is my desire to make my life a blessing to you, and that you would bless others through me. Help me to understand what that means and to live it out every day, every moment.
Monday, August 3, 2009
to you
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:2
Of course, if you've ever read through the New Testament, this verse might seem familiar, since it appears in most of Paul's epistles in one form or another, and it's easy to simply pass it over as nothing more than Paul's usual way of saying "hello." But let me see if there isn't something I can learn from Paul's ubiquitous greeting this morning.
When all else fails (not that it has in this case), I use the standard 3-question approach to scripture reading. Namely, I read the verse and ask myself these three questions about it:
God grants grace and peace. That's the first thing I notice and it seems profoundly important and makes me think of a passage from another of Paul's letters, his epistle to the Romans, chapter 5, the first few verses:
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
So, according to this verse, God grants grace through faith in Jesus, whereby we have peace. Peace with God, that it, as opposed to opposition against him.
Notice that it goes on to talk about our sufferings as if they are something to be expected. So the peace he talks about has nothing to do with our situation in the here and now. I mean that our peace will not come about as a result of peaceful circumstances. Just the opposite, I guess - we can have peace in spite of our sufferings because we have peace with God...through grace...through faith...giving us an eternal hope that will not disappoint no matter what this life throws at us.
So when Paul says hello by saying "grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," it isn't really the same thing as when I wish someone a "good morning." He is stating a fact, that peace is ours through the grace of the loving Father, which he has lavished on us (as he says later in this same chapter...which I'll get to one of these days) through faith in the cross of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
He isn't wishing us grace and peace, he's saying that we already have it, if we'll only accept it.
At least that's what I think.
Father, thank you for the little verses that I sometimes overlook. Thank you for helping me to think about your grace and peace today, and help me to live in your peace through your grace by faith in your son. You are an amazing God and I love you and am awed by your grace. And as I face today's inevitable sufferings, whether great or small, help me to be focused on your presence in my life, your love for me and the certain hope I have through faith in you. Keep my mind ever present with you today, Lord. I want to include you in my every thought. I love you, Father.
Of course, if you've ever read through the New Testament, this verse might seem familiar, since it appears in most of Paul's epistles in one form or another, and it's easy to simply pass it over as nothing more than Paul's usual way of saying "hello." But let me see if there isn't something I can learn from Paul's ubiquitous greeting this morning.
When all else fails (not that it has in this case), I use the standard 3-question approach to scripture reading. Namely, I read the verse and ask myself these three questions about it:
- What does the verse teach me about God?
- What does the verse teach me about me and/or my relationship with God?
- Is there anything about the verse I don't understand or something that challenges me?
God grants grace and peace. That's the first thing I notice and it seems profoundly important and makes me think of a passage from another of Paul's letters, his epistle to the Romans, chapter 5, the first few verses:
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
So, according to this verse, God grants grace through faith in Jesus, whereby we have peace. Peace with God, that it, as opposed to opposition against him.
Notice that it goes on to talk about our sufferings as if they are something to be expected. So the peace he talks about has nothing to do with our situation in the here and now. I mean that our peace will not come about as a result of peaceful circumstances. Just the opposite, I guess - we can have peace in spite of our sufferings because we have peace with God...through grace...through faith...giving us an eternal hope that will not disappoint no matter what this life throws at us.
So when Paul says hello by saying "grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," it isn't really the same thing as when I wish someone a "good morning." He is stating a fact, that peace is ours through the grace of the loving Father, which he has lavished on us (as he says later in this same chapter...which I'll get to one of these days) through faith in the cross of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
He isn't wishing us grace and peace, he's saying that we already have it, if we'll only accept it.
At least that's what I think.
Father, thank you for the little verses that I sometimes overlook. Thank you for helping me to think about your grace and peace today, and help me to live in your peace through your grace by faith in your son. You are an amazing God and I love you and am awed by your grace. And as I face today's inevitable sufferings, whether great or small, help me to be focused on your presence in my life, your love for me and the certain hope I have through faith in you. Keep my mind ever present with you today, Lord. I want to include you in my every thought. I love you, Father.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
a new start...maybe
Okay, here's what I'm going to do. One of my favorite books out of God's Word just happens to be Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, and I had an idea that maybe I'd take that book verse by verse, more or less, and jot down some thoughts that occur to me...assuming they will. So, I'll start at the beginning, I guess, because it wouldn't make much sense to start anywhere else:
"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus" Ephesians 1:1
If I remember correctly from all my long years of Sunday School, Ephesus was not exactly what you'd call a Bible belt town. It's where Paul got into a lot of trouble for disrupting the sale of silver Artemis idols to tourists who came to see the big Artemis temple there by preaching the one true God and the good news about Jesus. So Paul's address here, "To God's holy people in Ephesus" might not have included a very big group. But I'm not sure.
In a way, old Ephesus and the rag-tag group of the faithful there sort of remind me of America today, you know? I mean, there are still a heck of a lot of the faithful here in America these days, it's true, but don't you agree that it sometimes feels as though this country is slipping into some kind of pagan abyss?
Maybe this will make me sound like the old dude I really am, but I'm talking here about things like the disintegration of marriage, where today's generation seems to think that marriage in a sexual relationship is optional...a nice thing to do after you've lived together for a while, but hardly important. And not to mention the whole idea of same-sex marriage...which I just mentioned, didn't I?
Have you noticed the emphasis lately in our culture on acceptance of "family" in whatever form it happens to take? Like a person's "family" can be the people he works with or his neighbors or a friendly old man down the street, while "real" families (i.e., Mom & Dad & kids) are more often than not shown as dysfunctional. Hey, I'm all for making kids feel okay about their situation in life, but it seems like in the process we're devaluing the importance of the real deal here and giving lousy parents a way to opt out of their responsibilities by telling them that junior will be fine as long as his teacher or Aunt Martha is around to watch out for the little tyke.
And there's this. On most television shows these days, if there happens to be a character who is a professing Christian, or worse yet, a preacher or priest, I can just about guarantee that he or she will be the murderer/rapist/child molester/crook/bad guy in the end. And, on the other hand, every prostitute on television these days has a heart of gold, loves her children and is really a much better mother than the blond suburban soccer mom christian...who is probably a murderer anyway or at least has an entirely dysfunctional family.
The good has become bad while the immoral has become the expected. I remember watching an episode of Cold Case a while back about a high school girl who had been murdered. It seems as though she belonged to a club on campus that practiced abstinence and vowed to stay that way until they were married. When the main characters (police detectives) on the show were told about the club, they literally rolled their eyes and smirked at each other. And yes, the teacher/chaperone of the group turned out to be a pedophile and the girl had been murdered by the rest of the members of the group because she threatened to blab. Or something like that. But it was a perfect example of how our culture has turned away from something that is obviously good and made it something suspicious.
So then, what am I saying? Am I just lamenting the loss of our Christian heritage here in America. Well, maybe a little. But let me get back to the verse up there, specifically where Paul refers to God's people in Ephesus as "holy" and "faithful in Christ Jesus." See, I can't really do much about what's happening here in our culture these days, and complaining about it is counterproductive at best, but the thing I can do is to remain faithful and to be holy.
I can take one day at a time and remember that no matter what, God is in control. I can remember that he loves me and that he loves America and indeed the whole world (remember, "For God so loved the world..."), putting my trust and faith in God and living each day for him. I can set myself apart and do whatever I happen to be doing for his glory, as an act of worship to God.
I might live in Ephesus, but I want to be one of God's holy people, faithful in Christ Jesus.
Lord, I live today for you, no matter what I do. I pray for this country, that your people here will be faithful and holy...that I will remain faithful and holy, and that your grace will be sufficient for the days ahead, whatever they may hold. Thank you for this country and for your presence here, touch the lives of those I come in contact with today and let your grace be seen through me. I love you, Father.
"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus" Ephesians 1:1
If I remember correctly from all my long years of Sunday School, Ephesus was not exactly what you'd call a Bible belt town. It's where Paul got into a lot of trouble for disrupting the sale of silver Artemis idols to tourists who came to see the big Artemis temple there by preaching the one true God and the good news about Jesus. So Paul's address here, "To God's holy people in Ephesus" might not have included a very big group. But I'm not sure.
In a way, old Ephesus and the rag-tag group of the faithful there sort of remind me of America today, you know? I mean, there are still a heck of a lot of the faithful here in America these days, it's true, but don't you agree that it sometimes feels as though this country is slipping into some kind of pagan abyss?
Maybe this will make me sound like the old dude I really am, but I'm talking here about things like the disintegration of marriage, where today's generation seems to think that marriage in a sexual relationship is optional...a nice thing to do after you've lived together for a while, but hardly important. And not to mention the whole idea of same-sex marriage...which I just mentioned, didn't I?
Have you noticed the emphasis lately in our culture on acceptance of "family" in whatever form it happens to take? Like a person's "family" can be the people he works with or his neighbors or a friendly old man down the street, while "real" families (i.e., Mom & Dad & kids) are more often than not shown as dysfunctional. Hey, I'm all for making kids feel okay about their situation in life, but it seems like in the process we're devaluing the importance of the real deal here and giving lousy parents a way to opt out of their responsibilities by telling them that junior will be fine as long as his teacher or Aunt Martha is around to watch out for the little tyke.
And there's this. On most television shows these days, if there happens to be a character who is a professing Christian, or worse yet, a preacher or priest, I can just about guarantee that he or she will be the murderer/rapist/child molester/crook/bad guy in the end. And, on the other hand, every prostitute on television these days has a heart of gold, loves her children and is really a much better mother than the blond suburban soccer mom christian...who is probably a murderer anyway or at least has an entirely dysfunctional family.
The good has become bad while the immoral has become the expected. I remember watching an episode of Cold Case a while back about a high school girl who had been murdered. It seems as though she belonged to a club on campus that practiced abstinence and vowed to stay that way until they were married. When the main characters (police detectives) on the show were told about the club, they literally rolled their eyes and smirked at each other. And yes, the teacher/chaperone of the group turned out to be a pedophile and the girl had been murdered by the rest of the members of the group because she threatened to blab. Or something like that. But it was a perfect example of how our culture has turned away from something that is obviously good and made it something suspicious.
So then, what am I saying? Am I just lamenting the loss of our Christian heritage here in America. Well, maybe a little. But let me get back to the verse up there, specifically where Paul refers to God's people in Ephesus as "holy" and "faithful in Christ Jesus." See, I can't really do much about what's happening here in our culture these days, and complaining about it is counterproductive at best, but the thing I can do is to remain faithful and to be holy.
I can take one day at a time and remember that no matter what, God is in control. I can remember that he loves me and that he loves America and indeed the whole world (remember, "For God so loved the world..."), putting my trust and faith in God and living each day for him. I can set myself apart and do whatever I happen to be doing for his glory, as an act of worship to God.
I might live in Ephesus, but I want to be one of God's holy people, faithful in Christ Jesus.
Lord, I live today for you, no matter what I do. I pray for this country, that your people here will be faithful and holy...that I will remain faithful and holy, and that your grace will be sufficient for the days ahead, whatever they may hold. Thank you for this country and for your presence here, touch the lives of those I come in contact with today and let your grace be seen through me. I love you, Father.
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