Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged Christ, Ephesians, love, Paul, unconditional love, way of Jesus on October 28, 2010| 1 Comment »
These dimensions are what we use to understand our world. Anything outside of them is “spirit” or thoughts or feelings: wind. Scripture implies that unconditional love gives us our only true glimpse or foretaste of God. Except for Christ, who entered our dimensions to show us the the way beyond.
Ephesians 3:17b-18
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, . . .
Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged Christ, Ephesians, God, Holy Spirit, inner life, Paul, Spirit, strength, way of Jesus, weakness on October 27, 2010| 1 Comment »
I cannot really strengthen my inner being on my own. About the only thing I can do with that part of myself is work toward discovery. This place is where the Holy Spirit joins with my own personal spirit. And that kind of strength within is a gift.
Ephesians 3:16
I [Paul] pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, . . .
Because I have such a terrible tendency to start projects and peter out, I’m much more tentative about long term commitments than I used to be. I know myself that much. I have started and stopped diets, exercise programs, methodical housecleaning, vegetable gardening, interior decorating, and a score of hobbies. In most cases, I go great guns for awhile and then, eventually, the enthusiasm dwindles and I am stuck with half-done projects or worse, I am further back than I started (one step forward, two steps back).
Fortunately, my prayer life and time with God has held a certain amount of consistency that heretofore has been missing. It’s not perfect, but it’s one of the more stable uses of my time and energy. All the same, this relative success has come from a certain determination along with a greater imparting of grace from God.
I believe I will need something more now to step up to the next level, to integrate and implement the truths I have uncovered these past three years, I will need a different kind of strength and power from within. I don’t believe that more prayer or more reading (as in physical exercise) will necessarily give me the power/strength I seek or require. It would be an error on my part to think I can pull myself up to this next stage of devotion and submission to Christ.
Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged Christ, Ephesians, gentile, Jesus, love God, Love others, Messiah, mystery, Paul, promise, promises, way of Jesus on October 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Many people like to talk about the “promises of God,” like the various covenants God made with his chosen people from rainbows (not destroying the earth by flood after the time of Noah) to multiplication (the many children and heirs of Abraham). But then, through King David and the prophets, the ultimate promise begin to take shape.
Ephesians 3:4, 6
In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, . . . This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
This singular promise is about relationship to God, the creator and sovereign head of the Earth. This promise is mystical and eternal. The revelation of this mystery has been a slow unfolding.
God began the process with a small group of people in Israel. Although the initial oracle was fairly simplistic (as in only ten commandments), the message grew into a rather unwieldy collection of laws and interpretations that bogged down the initial intent: Love God: Love Others. Eventually, through hardships, exiles, and even silence, another small group of people of Israel grew hungry for truth and looked for the promised solution: the Messiah who would reopen the door to God.
Hidden within the Messiah solution was a greater mystery: everyone would have now have access to God.
There is something about the idea of “everyone” that is not always palatable. If everyone can have it or do it, there is nothing special about it anymore. And what about the bad people, won’t they abuse it? And what about the ugly people or the smelly people or the people of different color or shape or ability?
It would be like a board of directors of a bank: they have the combination codes for the vault. They are the keepers of the depository and they can decide when to open the vault and when to close it. That is, until some guy comes along and says he’s the one who made the vault in the first place. He’s changing the code to make it easier to open. Sure enough, those directors start freaking out when some real low-lifes from town start opening the vault and taking what appears to be more than their fair share. These new folks are so cavalier about the door, they don’t even bother to close it sometimes. The leave the door ajar. Good grief, anyone could get in there and take everything. The directors keep closing the door and changing the access codes. But then, along comes one of the old directors, some called him Paul and some called him Saul, he starts passing out the universal code, even to people from out of town. The most amazing thing happened, instead of a run on the bank, a lot of people didn’t believe the door could be opened, so they didn’t bother to look.
The mystery is that the vault is never empty. There is always enough in the vault.
It’s the law of plenty.
Most of us think, including me, “if I give it all away, there won’t be enough for me.” [I Kings 17:7-15]
Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged access, creation, Creator, Ephesians, God, holiness, Paul, sovereignty, way of Jesus on October 20, 2010| 1 Comment »
The term, access, is such a contemporary word. We think of computer access and Internet access and it’s clear that there is a direct way to get or use these services. And yet, here we have a promise for direct access to God by the Christ. This is really the gospel (good news) for me.
Ephesians 2:18-19a
For through him [Jesus Christ] we both [gentiles and Jews] have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household . . .
It’s funny. If someone said to me, in order to meet or talk with Bill Gates, I’d have to go through a particular secretary, I wouldn’t bat an eye. That would make sense. Or, in order to meet with the President, I’d have to go through a series of requests to various intermediaries before I could get that prized meeting. Or, if I wanted to have an audience with the Pope, I’d have to have very good reasons and very good contacts.
And yet, if I say that the Christ is the access point to God, there is much push back. “God is available to anyone,” they say. And in some ways, that is true. Certainly, all of creation is within God’s purview and if God, as Spirit [John 4:24], wants to communicate or connect with anyone, anywhere or any how, who am I to belittle the idea.
But scriptures are clear that this mysterious “work” (or sacrifice) of Jesus, the long awaited Messiah, is the planned gateway to God. It’s a direct path: easy, loving, and dependable.
For me, the question is not so much about accepting Jesus but whether or not a person really wants to be in relationship with God, big God, Spirit God, Universe God? Do I, as a grain of sand (or even smaller) in relationship to the suns and planets want access to the Creator? Do I have any questions . . . fears . . . hopes? Do I want to know about my place, my role, my meaning?
I do. And I thank this same God for giving me the access code in Jesus.
Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged Christ, Counselor, Ephesisans, Grace, Paul, renewal, salvation, sanctification on October 18, 2010| 3 Comments »
Sometimes my computer is so messed up, the only thing left to do is reboot: shut it down and restart it. And I’m thinking this was God’s plan as well. Humans needed a a restart, a clear way to reboot the system, a specific point in time to begin fresh. Christ is grace personified.
Ephesians 2:4-5
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
Of course, a reboot will take care of the current glitches but it doesn’t erase all the old stuff. Right now, my computer is running really slow. I kept thinking it was the Internet connection or the router, but I finally had to go poking around the “C” drive to determine what else might be the cause. Since I’m not a computer expert, this investigation is always a little daunting.
As I scrolled through the “Add/Remove programs” section, I found a number of old programs I no longer use. They were just taking up space. They weren’t hurting anything, they were just memory hogs. As a Christian, there are the same kinds of things that are no longer part of my daily life. I don’t need those rule-sets for anymore. So why hang on to them? Click on remove program.
A second place I looked for memory wasters was the files themselves. Since my family sees the desktop as a “family computer,” I have discovered they leave a bunch of unnecessary files on the hard drive. Many of those were easy to dump since they weren’t mine. However, many other files represented special times in my life. But how much is too much to carry around and store? In our basement, I still have my files from graduate school. OK, that was ten years ago. Isn’t it time to take these boxes of old homework, term papers, and dated books to the landfill? Same for the old computer files.
The biggest file folder turned out to be a music folder of my daughter’s (3.5 gigabytes). I vaguely remember trying to help her salvage her I-tunes from a damaged (trojan/virus infected) laptop. In the end, we put them on the desktop for safe keeping, a holding tank. I was reminded of the times I’ve tried to help other people emotionally and taken on their stuff. I’d forgotten that I had to pass that stuff along to the God who is willing to carry it all. Click on delete … empty the wastebasket.
After I did all this deleting and emptying, I did another reboot, a refresh. Computer is running better.
Same for me. First reboot at accepting Christ was life-changing. But I still need to refresh my system along the way. Sometimes I need a technician to help me ferret out the problems, but sometimes, I just need to delete the old stuff: prayer, confession, thanksgiving.
Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged Ephesians, filling of the Holy Spirit, Jesus, love, Paul, spirit-filled, surrender, way of Jesus on October 15, 2010| 2 Comments »
The idea of fullness always brings up Thanksgiving dinner for me. I see us all, draped on various couches, sated and more, loosening belt buckles and trying to lie as flat as possible to give more room for all the plenty just consumed. Supposedly, this is what is available from Christ.
Ephesians 1:22-23
And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
But we’re not full. At least I know I’m not.
Some years ago when everyone was on the Toronto Blessing bandwagon and everyone was “soaking” on the floor and asking God for more, more, more. Now, I can’t help but think God was shaking his head, “How much more do you want? I’ve given you everything!”
It’s not that God is stingy with the stuff, with the power, with the blessings, with the anointings, it is our cap. In order to fill up with all of goods, we gotta make room. Goes back to the hoarding issue: keeping things we don’t need: thoughts, blame, anger, old scripts, pain, shame, ambition, judgments, and so on.
A sponge full of dirty water can’t take on more water no matter how tasty and abundant the spring.
Empty first, then fullness…
Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged authenticity, Christ, divine power, Ephesians, eyes of the heart, glroy, God, heart, Jesus, knowing God, knowledge, Paul, power, understanding, way of Jesus, wisdom on October 14, 2010| 4 Comments »
I pray for my eyes to be opened! I pray for enlightenment (knowledge, understanding, awareness and clarity). And I pray that this awakening would not be an isolated event but a groundbreaking moment that prepares the way for a turn in my story.
Ephesians 1:18-19
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
Power is promised and I consider power dangerous, particularly for humans untethered by the seal of God. In some ways, I want power and control. If I said otherwise, I would be lying. I struggle with “control issues” all the time. And successful control translates into power. But that is power abused and we see that every day in our culture. The power of influence or money or position.
But here, we are told that an enlightened heart, eyes wide open, understands power in a new way. It’s an inheritance from God in Christ. It’s a focus. And as I’ve written a million times before, I’m sure there’s a paradox involved. Power is probably in letting go of one’s own “power.” It’s submitting to divine power. And of course, that power will not be the way I would expect. Would I even recognize that kind of power?
Will I recognize what I see when those spiritual eyes are opened?
When the prophets of old described all the unbelievably fantastic things they saw in their visions, they could only use their limited understanding. Am I any different?
And yet, it is my heart’s cry today. Open the eyes of my heart Lord.
My personal mission is to inspire meaningful change, build faith in God and connect people with resources that make a difference in their lives. Librarian, Writer, Blogger, Follower of Christ.
Meditations from Zion 