Novermber 30

Ephesians 4:16 (NIV84) — 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Let’s look for some insight as we look a little closer at this verse. First of all we see that Jesus is the REAL subject. It is from Him that everything comes from. Even as we do our part, it is His supply, energy and ability that makes things happen.

Next we have this word sunarmŏlŏgĕō: to join together so as to form a coherent entity. This word is compound made up of harmeo – which we get the word harmony from. Held together is interesting, sumbibadzo - : to bring together into a unit—‘to bring together, to cause to be a unit, to unite, to combine. Bibadzo has the meaning of forcing things together which brings an interesting twist. It is as if Jesus is pressing us together by the power of His love with the purpose to be joined together to form a harmonious entity which operates….

Ligaments are connective tissue, very strong ones that hold bone to bone. These ligaments that Jesus is talking about have a supply line that fulfills the “joined and held together” operation that comes from Jesus himself. So who or what are the ligaments? Why don’t you answer that!

The next phrase in the Greek is by the operation (energy) of each one (person), as in not the whole, but as individuals uses their energy (work) to do something, which is that which Christ has called you to do. The point here is that EACH ONE, not some, work. That is God’s plan in order to bring…

As the believers in Christ are joined together in a group, with each part having a particular function, they cause (because of operating in their function with the energy of God) to increase is size and dimension and also to increase the potential by building something that wasn’t there, all within the context of unconditional (not judging people according to the flesh) love.

Now, put this all together and see what you come up with! I bet it will be a people who can no doubt change the world.

From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:16 NIV84)

I think God is giving us this verse as a theme for our church in this next season.  We all want to grow and be built up!  We want to see the church grow and be built up!  Who wants to stay where they are right?  There is this magnificant priviledge that God has given us to grow into something bigger and better, fulfilling more of God's call on our lives - thank God for that!  So let's do it right?  Let's see ourselves and the church become more of what God has intended!  Let's watch the church grow numerically as we have to add another service to accomodate the people.  Let's see the church grow spiritually as people realize who they are in Christ, the depths of God's love for them, the authority and the ability to change things on this earth as God's representative.  We want to see an "open heaven" and experience the touch of the Spirit regularly to save, deliver and heal those who need it, and for any who comes to have an undeniable sense of God's manifest presence.  We want to be built up into a fantastic organization and organizm that functions like a "well oiled machine" so nothing hinders the ministry, and more than that, that the ministry is all the more propelled! Sounds good huh?  It will only happen as ".... as each part does its work.  Everyone is important here - EVERYONE!  If we are to attain the goals of our hearts in Christ ----

Ephesians 4:16 - ...... grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does it work.

November 27

There is a concept of nearness (closeness) that few have understood and few have meditated on. I encourage you to meditate on this today.

Ephesians 2:13 (NIV84) — 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

God is everywhere right? He is omni-present. Colossians tells us that He “holds all things together”, so it makes sense that He is everywhere. He is like the gravitational force that actually keeps our bodies from coming apart and floating away. This verse in Ephesians and others(like in James 4), talk about the distance we are from God. If He is everywhere, then how can anyone be “distant” from Him.

Think about your relationship with a spouse or someone who is close to you. Have you ever been in their presence and yet there has been a distance between you? Let’s take it further, even though there is come closeness that takes place, can’t there be a “closer” closeness? It seems that in a marriage, that may never end. By my observation, there is always a “closer-ness” that is to be attained. It is the same with God.

Some people don’t get why we worship and pray and just spend time in His presence – it is all about getting closer! First we were far away from Him, then He brought us close through Christ. Now He continues to draw us closer to Him and when we respond, we become closer. We can also get further away from Him through our own devices, but our life must be spent getting closer – and when we think we are really close, we see there is still a “closer-ness” to be attained. Get in His presence and experience Him close, and then go closer still.

November 26

Galatians 6:14 (NIV84) — 14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

This morning I can’t help but yearn to be different, to be completely sold out. I don’t have glaring “worldliness” as we would think of (those who are in Christ), yet I know that I have so far to go. When I read this passage I felt this yearning inside of me to be more sold out. There is within me a remnant of this world (the system of practices and standards associated with secular society), and in order to operate in the Spirit like Paul did I must get rid of it. Maybe being in danger of death all the time was helpful for him to make the cut with all of it, I don’t know. I just know this – I want more of God, more of the Spirit, more of Jesus shining through me, and in order for that to happen “I must decrease and He must increase.” Come Lord Jesus!

November 25

Galatians 5:17–21 (NIV84) — 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. 19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

There is a battle that goes on between the flesh (sinful nature of ours) and the Spirit (our new nature from God), we all get that. We all understand and shun sexual immorality and all that sex sin stuff along with idolatry, witchcraft, drunkenness and the like. Yet something tells me that we have allowed in some of the other 8 things that have to do with interpersonal relationships as something that is acceptable or things that are not good, but tolerable. As long as you are not getting drunk and having a threesome, you are doing ok. After all, everyone struggles a little with not liking someone, (conflict, resentment and ill will) it’s only human! Right?! It is the base or lower part of our humanity and it all comes from us setting ourselves up as judges and holding others to our laws. When we operate in the sinful nature we cannot operate in the Spirit! Our problem is that we think we can compartmentalize our sinful nature, (especially the part that is acceptable) and then we can turn on the Spirit and flow in the anointing – WRONG! Paul goes on to warn that those who operate continually in the sinful nature (hold their judgment against a person which produces all kinds of sickness) will NOT inherit the Kingdom of God. He seems to be talking about heaven, but could it be that he is talking about the Kingdom of God on earth, exactly what Jesus came to bring to the earth? Could it be that people who are drunkards and people who “have a problem” with someone will NOT be able to walk in power and display the Kingdom to others? It is something to think about. (I would also challenge you to define all words in verses 19-21, I think you will surprised)

Galatians 5:24 (NIV84) — 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

Here is the freedom right? If you belong to Christ, you don’t struggle with this anymore because your sinful nature is DEAD! So if you are feeling anything but love toward anybody, the KILL YOUR SINFUL NATURE. That is what you do because that is who you are, a person that says NO to the feelings of anything but love toward another. Enjoy walking in the Spirit today – it feels so good to be free from any ill feelings towards another!

Thanksgiving

I have a Thanksgiving challenge for you! Be thankful – continually – all day – only thankfulness. Last night at Life we enjoyed being thankful. It was meaningful and fun to do. Today – be thankful! Start with what you are thankful that God has done. Be thankful for His work in your life, what He brought to you with NO help from you. Then expand it to include His work in your life and include the things that you do partner with Him in. Then thank him for your surroundings, including but not limited to the material things. After this you may need a drink because you have probably gone on for close to an hour. Don’t just hit the big stuff, think small as well. Thank him for your body and all that you are able to experience in this life because of it. Thank him for the things you don’t experience because of where you live and the time in which you live. Finally, thank Him for the things that you know are coming. They are promises either in His Word or what He has spoken to you. Thanks is the language of faith – so speak some faith!

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 24, 2011

Galatians 4:15 (NIV84) — 15 What has happened to all your joy?.....

When we start following rules and regulations, religious dogma that is based on keeping something, or the law itself, then we lose our joy. It shouldn’t be hard to understand why. It is precisely because we become a slave again and who doesn’t lose their joy when they are in slavery. It is so insidious, so slick, so controlling that we tend to be swooned away by what sounds good only to be enslaved into some behavior by rule. It is not the behavior that is necessarily wrong, it is our motivation, where our heart is, that establishes us under slavery of “DOING” again.

Galatians 4:30 (NIV84) — 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”

God wants us to “BE” and not “DO”! There are any number or reasons for this but I’ll give you a big one, because being will always end up doing something accordingly, while doing will never change who we are in Christ.

November 23

Galatians 3:16–17 (NIV84) — 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.

Galatians 3:26 (NIV84) — 26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,

Hidden in Christ really comes into play here doesn’t it? Being hidden or “in” Christ is vital! It is the very WAY we participate in the Abrahamic covenant. You may have thought that those promises were to Israel, but if you will examine verses 16 & 17 you will see that some of those promises in the covenant are made to us who are in Christ. We ought to search out and see what is included in the covenant that God has with us – don’t you think? You will have to make some distinctions between the “seed” and his bodily descendants, but I think you will find some wonderful promises to stand on, especially having the full rights as sons!

November 22

Galatians 2:20 (NIV84) — 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

This is the point! We and all of our preconceived notions about how things should be done are dead. We aren’t living anymore without Christ, or more properly it is Christ who is living through us. We live a life of faith and not law.

Paul confronted Peter, which is interesting as to why the Holy Spirit included it in the scripture. What has happened is that people and ministries have now been built on the premise of open confrontation. Never mind what the rest of the Word says, (doing it in love, in person and so on), the practice of public vilification seems to be growing. Here is the issue, Paul confronted Peter because he was being legalistic, applying an old religion to the new life of the New Covenant, and shunning people publicly. That was the egregious thing that Peter did to deserve a write up. Are you getting this? Peter was acting as though he believed he was ABOVE those other people and thereby he shunned them publicly. Isn’t that what is happening today by the people who are publicly calling out others by name? We put rules on how people preach and minister and we can barely find anything wrong with their doctrine, and when we have a point of disagreement, they are called out and made to be akin to the devil.

Jesus and Paul strongly resisted the religious people of the day because of the death that religion causes through the pride of “being good”, and through the guilt of “being bad”. Let’s not use this instance as a pretext to call people out, but rather guard ourselves against drowning in guilt or thinking we are better than we ought.

November 16

Galatians 1:4 (NIV84) — 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

Jesus gave himself up for us! There are so many things that He did it for – so many benefits, but here Paul through the Holy Spirit gives us such an important one! Let me give you the literal translation of “present evil age”. “The time period which we are in which has a system of practices and STANDARDS that are morally bankrupt and evil.” Jesus gave Himself up so we would be “set free from the danger” that comes from the effect of sin. Our sin makes us open to the system of practices and standards of this world that are evil (by the way they all are evil – all the practices and standards of this world), and Jesus wanted to set us free so we were not taken in by them. Did you get that? We are not supposed to practice or shoot for the standards of this world! Whether or not we are talking about outright evil or falling short of the standard and practices of God, we have been set free from the draw that woos us into settling for anything less than what God has for us.

It is the will of God that we live way beyond the world’s standards and practices. God has so much for us, so much promise, so much blessing, so much favor – why settle for less? Since we have been set free, I think we should act like it and live in the full blessing of God!

November 10

How has your time been going? As always, mine has been tough to tame, especially after teaching on it. However, nothing has “gone off schedule” this week. Do you hear what I am saying? I think sometimes all goes as planned in our week and we still don’t “feel” like we have accomplished enough. What gives?

Wonder Woman had a cool invisible plane, but Superman didn’t need a plane. In fact, Superman could fly around the world so fast that he could turn time backward. I think my problem is I think I am Superman! I may not be flying around the world but I fill out my calendar according to my priorities from the Lord, stay that course and I am still unsatisfied – I am insatiable! Maybe you don’t even care if you get anything done – I would rather be me – except in the stress department. Would you join me in loving mercy and justice and walking humbly before our God? Isn’t that what He requires? I guess we could talk about all the things that God requires and many I am sure would be right. However, if we made a list of what the Bible says, I doubt very seriously that anything about fulfilling your weekly schedule perfectly, or even exceeding it would be on our list. I think loving Him would be at the top of the list. Loving Him……

November 1

Are we really in November? Just thinking about the holidays gives me shivers. Thinking about that (that I have shivers) draws me to think about keeping my focus on Jesus Christ and His Kingdom and His righteousness.

It seems the older I get the less I like the holidays. My question is who stole my joy! The holidays are fun and enjoyable! I see people I don’t see that often, I spend more time with my family, I intentionally bless people with gifts, I see people come to church who normally would not, and I get the shivers because…? If you are older like I am you can probably guess the answer. It means I have to shell out more time and money and I am a little short on both! What in the world are we talking about here? Could it be that 2 “gods” are ruining what THE God wants for my life? YES!! God wants me to enjoy today but I am think about tomorrow, and tomorrow’s tomorrow! In fact I am thinking all the way to Christmas! There is no doubt that we have to plan and think forward, but instead of strategy, we tend to project stress and projected stress always stresses us out today!

Matthew 6:33–34 (NIV84) — 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Each day has trouble. So what? With effort go after the Kingdom of God! Think about your righteousness – the one God has put on you because of Christ! The battle for the holiday joy is in the mind – you CAN win it. Focus on the Kingdom!