1 Kings

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In Christ Jesus - March 22

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I was trapped! Trapped in my own cave, I couldn’t see how to get out of this passage. It’s a cave carved by Elijah’s scriptural experience and his human boundaries. How could this man experience God in such extreme, demonstrative ways, personally and graciously subjected to God’s power with the wind, earthquake and fire, go to the front of the cave, in response to God’s personal presence, and repeat the tripe justification of fleeing for his life after abandoning God’s station for him in Jezreel?  This is the “Elijah Complex”, and ours as well! It is being loved beyond our comprehension even though standing comfortably in our wobbly reasoning.

How often do we interpret our reason as God’s light? How often do we use God’s blessings to confirm our own desire? Even as we drill down within our own humanity, exposing frail vulnerabilities, we layer a veil over our heart, hardening against the effects of God’s wind, earthquakes and fire, His righteous love is administrating.  Without God’s mercy, without God’s grace, we are lost! We have no means to see God’s righteousness and even more blatantly, we are powerless to walk in His truth without continuous and constant grace. 

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In Christ Jesus - February 22

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We have been “Drilling Down” this past year unlocking God’s word in our heart and mind. It has been percolation time for God’s word within our very soul, “dwelling richly,” filling us with the fullness of God.  However, as we began looking at Paul’s Ephesian prayer, in chapter 3, we began “fracking”  from inside at different angles.  We recognized how variable is our own capacity according to God’s grace and purpose.  Now, we want to observe God’s spiritual geological formations surrounding His fullness. Paul paints a cross-section of love, in this prayer passage, that encapsulates God’s fullness.  Penetrating God’s love is a requirement. Filling our fullness is receiving love out of His fullness.   

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In Christ Jesus - Feb 1

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This isn’t our last probe into being “filled with the fullness of God.”  But we must start “drilling up” to the love of Christ surpassing knowledge (Eph. 3:14-19). The way Paul puts it, love is a condition for being filled with the fullness of God. But first, we want to be realistic about what Paul means by  “filled with all the fullness of God”. We won’t leave our discussion with all the answers but perhaps we can measure its meaning within our understanding.  As we journey in faith, God is ever increasing our capacity to receive more grace (Romans 5). So, since we are not removed from God’s spiritually organic activity, “being filled with all the fullness of God,” we focus our soul’s attention in other directions as God maintains His work within us. Let us not forget, it is God working within us, to will  and do according to His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). His faithful work in us continues while our mind is otherwise engaged (Philippians 1:6). This is pictured for us in 1Kings 17ff as we probe this remarkable man Elijah. 

After about two years alone with the birds, the brook and God, Elijah is now ready to be strengthened in his faith and tempered for Ahab at Zarepath. First, the widow who did not have the resources to do what Elijah required. Exhausted of resources, the widow submits to God through Elijah and proves God’s faithfulness. Second, bringing back to life what God  had already promised to sustain. God seals Elijah by putting divine power into Elijah’s hand for use restoring life into the widow’s son.  God affirms Elijah showing His power to others through him and allowing Elijah to experience God’s reality in God’s service of love and judgment.

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In Christ Jesus - Dec 21

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We began a  “reverse drill down” last week on the following prayer of Paul to saints in Ephesus: 

 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith – that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
– Ephesians 3:14-19.

Paul is giving us the things necessary to be “filled with all the fullness of God”.  This is the climax of his prayer so if we start with the premise that, indeed, we do want to be filled with the fullness of God, lets reverse engineer Paul’s prayer from the “fullness of God”, working our way backwards to where Paul kneels in prayer for the saints. In this way, we can identify the hinge points, the markers Paul uses, from praying on his knees to being “filled with all the fullness of God.”

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In Christ Jesus - Dec 14

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This is one of Paul’s prayers for the saints in Ephesus:

 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith – that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
– Ephesians 3:14-19.

This is a marvelous prayer. It is spiritually layered from bowing on Paul’s knees to that upward place of being “filled with all the fullness of God.”  On the surface it may seem artificial or symbolic. How many people do you know who are filled with all the fullness of God?  Yet, Paul didn’t speak in euphemisms. He was focused on being a pastor rather than a theologian. His constant desire was people to experience life in Christ Jesus in very practical ways. The early Christians were actually called people in “the way” (Acts 9:2).