Wives and Husbands

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My readings in Ephesians started with chapter 5, verse 22 to verse 33. A very popular portion of this epistle. Not!

As Paul addresses issues and problems facing the church in Ephesus, he gets to the question of marriage and some of the realities sometimes encountered in it. The church has always had in it either a very active, church-going and God-Believing wife with a non-active, nonbeliever husband; and a husband who was also very involved in the life of the church, but married to a nonbeliever, non-churchgoer. Paul seeks to encourage those with the view he believes is best in those cases, and best for the work of Christ: A shared ministry view, if possible, between the two for the good of Christ's work. Love should be key, as well as respect, where the issues and challenges of the marriage be seen as central to their spiritual lives. Paul wanted the church to be a model of service where Christ is the head of the body of believers. Wives are urged to respect and support the work and role of the husband, and vice-versa. In some homes, the reality is that the wife is the head of the home in spiritual matters, and husbands should respect that.

Husbands were urged to love their wives. The kind of love important for this relationship is the love that builds up and cleanses each in the marriage. The man who marries should of his wife in a positive, caring way; attending to his wife's needs, seeing that she is deprived of nothing. Christ, Paul reminds us, cares and provides for the church. And Paul shares a reminder from Genesis 2:24, where Adam takes Eve as his wife, and ends the passage with these words: "This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you must also love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband."

EAT-TO-YOUR-FILL PRAYER: Loving God, for the institution of marriage, we are thankful and blessed. We pray for healthy, strong marriages, and we lift up those marriages where struggle and discord are realities; bless them, too, Loving God. Those those marriages found within the church we pray they be ones that glorify You. May each one in the marriage love, honor, and cherish the other, as You, Loving God, do the church. We pray that You make love real, genuine, and spirit-filled so that in each problem and challenge faced by these marriages be done in a way that give You honor and praise. May each home truly be a worship center and mission site; where all who reside there might be involved in worship, study, and service to You and Yours. In Christ Jesus we pray, amen.

Live a Life that Pleases God

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My readings in the Epistle to the Ephesians continues with a reading in 5:1-21

The greatest joy for a parent or grandparent, is when a child or grandchild, tries to imitate something that parent/grandparent does. In my case, it was a grandson that too to wearing pens in his t-shirt or in his shirt pocket, just like Grandpa. Another, my granddaughter, had her mother buy a black journal which she presented to me, "As you new preaching book, Grandpa!" Imagine, then, the joy of God when we seek to imitate Him. The greatest imitation God expects from us is to be people that love like God, who love without condition and without exceptions.

Our lives should also please God, with our seeking to be holy and pure before Him. It is very difficult because, like the people of Ephesus, we find distractions and temptations at every turn. The writer warns we should avoid even a hint of sexual immorality, or greed; these things are not pleasing to God. Our conversations with all people should be those that edify the work we seek to do for the Lord - empty words used to deceive others have no room in Christ's work. Our obedience to God should be our only goal.

We should remember that our life in Christ is to reflect Christ's light on us. When we were pulled out of the darkness of sin, we leave those sins in the past. When we awoke out of our sins, we found ourselves living in light - the light of Christ shining on us; making us that attraction to others to come join in faith.

We should live wise lives, taking every opportunity to please God and help bring others into the relationship with God they should have. Foolishness or bad choices will only get us into trouble. Trying to seek comfort or answers in substances, such as alcohol or drugs, will result in emptiness. Our aim is to seek the power and peace of the Holy Spirit.

For all believers, music praise to God should be part of our daily living, seeking always in song and praise, to give thanks to God in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, working together for the betterment of the world.

EAT-TO-YOUR FILL PRAYER: Loving God, loud and clear is the message that we find in this passage, to find ways to imitate and please You. This then, is my prayer: Guide me to obedience, faithfulness, and fruitfulness. Help me to be nonstop in my praise to You. I give you thanks for all things in the name of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.

Sensitivity or Sensuality?

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Our readings in Ephesians continued this morning in chapter 4, from verse 17 to 32; here are my thoughts:

Our life in Christ should be a new life always; each and every day. It should be a holy, pure, and completely dedicated to God, life. Our daily prayers should be to ask God to help us leave behind our old self behind, seeking new understanding and attachment to God. We should choose sensitivity to the spiritual things, and renounce our having chosen sensuality. We should let Christ lead us to a place and point of surrender of lust, for we know when we were once there it only made us desire it more and more; and that is not a way to live!

Our having come to Christ Jesus was a coming to life in Him and receiving from Him the fullness of His truth. Our surrender to Jesus meant our turning over to Him all of our negative and evil things of our past, and seeking to be truly new in Him. We need a new life in righteousness and holiness.

In our relationships with each other, we should exhibit the same things as we should towards Christ like honesty and commitment. We are all in this together and we are all a part of the body of Christ.

If we get angry, it should not be a sinful anger and we should let the anger go down with the sun; sleeping on anger makes for a terrible bed. We should not take what is not ours. We should be productive members of society, caring and sharing all to make life better for all.

Our words should speak life and build others up. We should not grieve the Holy Spirit, for it was in the Holy Spirit that we were sealed, marked and ready for the day of redemption.

A checklist of unnecessary baggage for our life journey: bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, and malice.

A checklist of necessary and wanted things for this journey: Kindness, compassion, mercy, and forgiveness towards others.

EAT-TO-YOUR-FILL PRAYER: Awesome God, let me truly live an exemplary life in which I bring honor and glory to You. Help me die again to self, especially the wretched self that I once was. Let me instead be one who seeks to build up others, and one who brings others to Your love. This I pray in Christ Jesus my Lord, amen.

Seeking Unity in Christ Jesus

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My reading this morning was in Ephesians 4:1-16 and these are my reflections:

Paul believed the greatest witness of the Church was its unity under and with Christ. This is the greatest witness we can give to those outside the Church that we do indeed believe we are one in Christ. And part of what keeps us together is the gift of God's grace given to us through Jesus Christ. This grace came as a working gift; we are called to live a life worthy of our calling, and that gift of grace makes it possible. It is grace that helps us be humble. It is God's grace that lets us be gentle with one another; patient and loving with each other. Through us should run the bond of peace, reminding us that there is one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, on God and Father of us all. We are all under God, who is in us all.

It was the gift of grace that set us apart with different roles and responsibilities as Paul says, some as apostles, those who learn and do the work of a disciple and go to make other new disciples; some as evangelists, those who go and tell others the good news about God's love in any and every setting they can; some as pastors, those who tend the flocks in churches, caring for and loving the faithful, but seeking those outside the flock to come and be a part of the work as well; some as teachers, who help the pastor in teaching and leading the faithful to mature in the faith - all with the goal of getting God's people ready to do works of service for those not yet in the body of Christ.

The goal of unity should also be maturity. We cannot stay in our faith content in thinking we know and do enough; no, we should mature into wisdom and service, building up daily the body of Christ.

EAT-TO-YOUR FILL PRAYER: Loving God, let me live a life worthy of Your call upon me. Let my life reflect humility and gentleness, seeking unity in You. Whatever my role and responsibility, let it be done in the grace You shared with me. Help me to grow and mature in You - help me to prepare all around me for works of service. This I pray in Christ Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen!

Come and Know!

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This morning's reading was from Ephesians 3:1-21:

Through the gift of reading and studying God's Word, we are blessed in knowing how some, like Paul, received special insight into the mysteries of Christ Jesus. We read how Paul was one, like Peter, to understand that God wanted all people, Gentiles included, to know they mattered to God, and were heirs along with the Jews, in the promise of Jesus (read Acts 10).

Though Paul considered himself least among all of God's people, he knows that he was called to preach because of God's grace, and even now, while imprisoned, he was still a recipient of that grace, which he used to share these words found in this chapter of his epistle. Paul understood his role as preacher to be the one who shared with all who would hear him, the wonderful, immeasurable riches of Christ Jesus. He knew that folks needed someone to preach to them how the Good News was meant for them, and that, through Jesus Christ, we all have access to God, free and clear. Paul wanted all to be always encouraged in their faith.

Paul was a man of prayer, kneeling daily before God, asking for others. He set a model for our prayer life, in which we should pray for all people, especially those inside and outside the church. Paul recognized the power of God and so should we; knowing that for Paul, God was so awesome he says, "from Whom all in heaven and on earth derive their name," and he asked that all believers be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit living in them. We, too, should pray this for ourselves and for those in our lives. Paul prayed that Christ would indeed dwell in their hearts through faith. His desire was to see believers rooted and established in love, with power to truly understand how awesome was the love of God for them and us. Paul said it was beyond measure; so high, so wide, and long, and deep, that we cannot begin to understand it. One preacher once said it was like coming to the ocean with an empty soda can and trying to fill it with water from the ocean and believing we had enough in that can to truly understand the awesomeness of the oceans. We should pray and live so that all honor and glory be given to God who is at work in us.

EAT-TO-YOUR-FILL PRAYER: For those called to be your preachers and teachers, loving God, fill with Your grace. For those called to be servants of Your kingdom, also fill with Your grace so that the work to which they were called be made plain and clear: That You love us all through Jesus Christ, Whom we preach and share as we live. May our prayers be prayers of faith and hope asking that we might make clear the awesomeness of God's love. That love is higher, deeper, wider, and longer than we can ever imagine. To You, loving God, be all honor and glory, amen.

The Divisions Are Gone

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Good Sunday morning to you all. This comes from reading Ephesians 2:11-22:

In life we sometimes encounter situations or people who exclude others, sometimes us, because of this or that, and we're just expected to receive those exclusions as the way things are. Sadly, these exclusions sometimes occur in the realm of religion where groups have been formed, and this one group does not like or allow other groups to interact or belong to the first group. One such division occurred in the early church, where some people came to faith in God through Jesus Christ, and those already in faith were Jews and believed these new Christians had to become Jews in order to have this new faith. They argued the Covenant between God and them was not theirs unless they too, submitted to the practice of circumcision. Paul argues this division has been erased through Christ on the cross, with the flesh of Christ taking care of, and erasing that demand on the flesh of new believers.

"Christ is our peace," Paul writes and has made the two divisions one. The barrier and dividing wall of hostility has been destroyed by Jesus, and a new humanity has been established. We, who were once far, are now near; and those who were near, now have peace. So, terms such as foreigner or alien have no place in this new humanity of faith, for we are all now citizens of the kingdom of God, and members of God's own household. The foundation of this home has been built on the foundation of the teachings and work of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone, joining the whole building together as a temple in the Lord. And in Christ Jesus, we too, are being built up to become the dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.

EAT-TO-YOUR-FILL PRAYER: Loving God, for the work and sacrifice of Christ Jesus, we are thankful. For all He did, we are blessed. We pray that whatever divisions or exclusions remain here on the earth established against us be destroyed. Please forgive us for the ones we have tried to set up, or for the kingdoms we have established apart and away from Yours. Instead, let us be truly the dwelling place for You and may we bring You honor and glory. In Christ Jesus we pray, amen.

Coming Alive in Jesus Christ

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Not too many of us like to take trips to the graveyard, but this passage from Ephesians 2:1-10 does just that; a journey back to when we were dead in Christ. We had no idea Who Jesus was or what Jesus could do. We were content in our sins and our giving in to sinful cravings and the transgressions we were committing against God and others. Yet, Paul says, it was while we were dead that we came alive in, and through, Jesus Christ; the product of God's prevenient grace at work in our lives, seeking us and inviting us to life. It was that grace that brought us to that point where we said yes to new life, yes to a spiritual life, and yes to Jesus Christ. At that point of our surrendering our all to Jesus, justifying grace was at work, removing our sin, and making us new and alive in Jesus Christ, helping us to die to the old nature. The reign and rule of the prince of the air was taken away. We were brought to newness of life by grace, and Paul says that twice, in verse 5b, and again in verse 8; we can boast not on our power or works, we boast only in the power of God through Jesus, to do what was done to save and renew us.

Our new life has taken us to the heavenly realms, the spiritual realms, where we have a seat next to Christ Jesus. Again, all of this, the work and gift of grace, not by our own doing, not by works, for all the credit, honor and glory, belongs to God. However flawed Satan may tell us we still are, rebuke him, and remind him and ourselves, that we are still God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works to fulfill God's plan for us.

EAT-TO-YOUR FILL PRAYER: Loving God, as thoughts may sometimes take us back to painful or sinful memories, our present reality is right here, right now, with You. Allow those journeys to remind us only of Your awesome grace which lifted us from there to get us here, this new life in Christ Jesus, and dead to the trespasses and sins of long ago. Thank You for Your awesome grace that works even now to remove our sin and leads and guides us to new places in which I can give witness to what You can do in all lives. I praise You and love You, and lift this prayer of faith and thanksgiving in the precious and powerful name of Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior, amen.