Live as people of the light!

/ Craig / Leave a comment

 

IMG_1264
8For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! 9For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.

10Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. 11Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. 12It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. 13But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, 14for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said,

“Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”
Ephesians 5:8-14

 

When I wake up my kids on a school day, not only do I call out to them, but I also turn on the lights! The light works longer than my voice!

In Christ our lives have been flooded with light. Jesus described the transformation this way, “You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14) Belonging to Jesus causes us to live as people of light. Light is powerful. Even a little bit of light shining in the dark can lead us forward. Jesus has not been stingy with the light, He says our lives have filled up with His light.

However, even as His followers we can dim the light. And that is tragic. As a follower of Jesus we are making 1000’s of small choices to either keep the light bright and unhindered or to turn it down. Paul highlights two of those processes.
1. Carefully determining what pleases the Lord.
2. Determining not to participate with other people in the pursuit of “worthless” empty deeds of evil and darkness.

The presence of Jesus is light. Exposure to light creates unease in people because of the disease in their hearts. Its no wonder that accusations fly against the light when there is a confrontation of light into the darkness. But we must keeping hoping that the love, purity, honesty, humility, goodness, faithfulness, and joy produced by the Gospel in your life exposes and dispels the gloom of darkness.

God says today to me and to you, “Wake up O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

Get close to God with freedom and confidence

/ Craig / Leave a comment

 

IMG_9505

8Though I am the least deserving of all God’s people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. 9I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning.

10God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.

12Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence. 13So please don’t lose heart because of my trials here. I am suffering for you, so you should feel honoured.  Ephesians 3:8-12

 

“Sometimes its tempting to believe prayer is futile.” Never let this thought take over as a belief; it will derail your life with Jesus. The Apostle Paul is aware that we can develop a “because-I-have-trusted-Jesus-life-must-be-easy” idea. Our expectation of comfort unhinges us from mission and from prayer. So Paul reminds them, “Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.”

Paul is telling the church in Ephesus that his service and his suffering as a follower of Jesus is part of God’s plan for the church to display God’s wisdom. Paul has become a beneficiary of God’s amazing mysterious plan. Paul is living in the presence of God because of Christ. Paul is living boldly and confidently in God’s presence. This is your opportunity as well.

Take a moment now, to enter in God’s presence through your faith in Christ. Approach Him with freedom and confidence. Meet Him and ask Him to show you more of your endless treasures available to you in Christ Jesus. Speak to Him of what is on your heart and mind.

Built together by and for Jesus.

/ Craig / Leave a comment

 

origin november 24 2013 005 - Version 2

19So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. 20Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.  Ephesians 2:19-22

Jesus has radically altered the landscape of humanity with His death, burial and resurrection. Now together with all those who call on Him, we are being built together for a purpose that will culminate in His return and the redemption of all creation in Him. Now our lives are being altered by His grace. Such that together we are “holy building.” Jesus is the cornerstone; the apostles and the prophets are the foundation. Now we are being built up and inhabited by the Spirit of God. Now the church is made up of Jews and Gentiles united by faith in Christ as the people for God.

In carpentry, joining is an incredibly skilled process of linking two or more boards together. The craftsmanship when this is done well — is beautiful! The church is meant to display the beauty of God. The knowledge that I am being “carefully joined together” with others as the church by a master craftsman changes the way I see the church. Now, my participation in the church is not just an optional part of my life. You are an essential part of the church! This reality is meant to be an essential part of your identity in Christ.

God is not keeping you on the outside.

/ Craig / Leave a comment

 

IMG_9868

11Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. 12In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. 13But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.

14For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. 15He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups.

We must understand that the Gospel has its roots in the Bible; and by that I mean specifically the Old Testament as the testimony of God’s work with Israel for the blessing of all the nations. God chose to make a people for himself, Israel, from those who were not a people in order to bless all the nations. From the Scriptures we see the great grace of God to choose and to make the way of holiness available to Israel. Jesus, according to these Scriptures, was born, lived, crucified, buried, and raised on the third day in order to open the way of holiness “once and for all” for Israel and for the Gentiles who were “far” from God. Now in Christ we have been included. We who are not Jewish have been “brought near.”

What was the Gentile condition before Christ? We were outsiders. We were people without a family that mattered. We were apart from Christ. We were excluded from citizenship with the people of Israel. We did not know the covenant promises God had made. We lived without God and without hope. But now God has made a new covenant for the forgiveness of sin through the blood of Christ and we have been brought near to God.

The Gospel of Jesus declares that something has changed! You have been brought near to God through the blood of Christ! God is not keeping you on the outside.

Graced by God’s kindness.

/ Craig / Leave a comment

 

IMG_1237

5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast.   Ephesians 2:5-9

Incomparable, immeasurable, riches of His grace.

This is what God is showing to you. Together with all those who have received Jesus as Lord, we have become evidence of God’s grace. He is a gracious God. He is a kind God too! He intends to show kindness shown to us over and over from now through eternity with Him. This is what He has accomplished through Jesus the Messiah.

God is kind.

Its possible that each of us wrapped “god” up in a distorted idea of who God is. Each one of us has a view that left to itself is inadequate and not quite true. For you, we might call it, “god-according-to-(name).” But the Gospel of Jesus is always seeking to reframe our view of God because everything changes for us when we see Him as He intends—even our understanding of ourselves.

Paul is writing to the Ephesians and he reminds them: now and in the future,  God, is going to show you the “immeasurable riches of His grace;” He is going to show it to you with kindness! Kindness — now that’s a different view of power in action! God’s power is shown to us in undeserved, unmerited, unwarranted kindness all derived from the elevation of Jesus the Crucified to the throne of God as Lord of Heaven and Earth!