Sunday Report
This Old Testament passage carries New Testament doctrine! Did you notice how the top is like a choral refrain in heaven while the bottom is a response from earth? There is a relationship connection!
The eye of our living Lord is upon us who have His living hope in our hearts. Our hope is because we have received His love poured into us so that our faith may be renewed in hope since we have now been joined, His Spirit to our spirit, and redeemed.
Our three “L”s form a nucleus of Spiritual identity. They speak to the essential Life of Jesus Christ, God’s Love shared in us and the Holy Spirit’s Light to guide our glorification in Jesus producing His fruit.
In our last discussion of Christ’s Life in us, we described our created center in the knowledge of Jesus, receiving supernatural resources to grow God’s grace. Love, Life and Light are all part of our singular wholeness in Christ but each contributes qualitatively to our culture of Jesus’ grace in us. We want to now turn to “Light” and see how God illumines our natural soul and uses His word of truth.
Our ministry trip was totally different than in October 2015. Diverse as they are, God’s grace is abundant in both. It isn’t geographic differences, our Lord provides according to the needs of His Body. Our God is working in both ministers as well as the ministry.
In October we traveled daily out of Addis Ababa. This May 2016 trip was based in three geographical ministry regions. It was long and physical. But more than that, it was a faith trip through the “redwoods” of Ethiopia. Our Father continues to shape us into the image of His Son through varied communities within His Body. Love reigns! Our loving Lord is preparing His Church for a wedding. Our trip is one small token step in His Bride’s preparation of a forth coming eternal event.
Greetings from San Francisco,
I apologize for the seeming demise of Grace Notes. It was nice to hear some actually missed it! Hopefully, we will tack to a recovery.
Our near term is a little bumpy as physical circumstances are in a bit of flux. But we know “all things” are moving toward a good closure somewhere down the road. I have re-located my VA “stuff” to a local storage facility in McLean. Daughter Kimi will be getting her DVM this spring, relocating from Pullman, WA to Alaska where she and husband Fred have their old home. They are already planning their move. Dr. Kimi will begin her new vet practice in Christochina, AK. :)
Meantime, my trip to Ethiopia is looming with tickets bought and dates firmed. I’ll be gone for two weeks only on this October trip, 10/03 thru 10/20. My itinerary will be sent to me shortly. Our initial focus is expositional content pastoral directed.
Our life in Christ operates in two scriptural modes. One is grace, the other is faith. Grace is God’s love to us and faith is our response. It is God’s power making them effective.
We launched our In Christ discussion from a verse platform written by Paul to the saints in Corinth,1Corinthians 1:30:
And because of him (God) you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification and redemption,
We observed these “carnal Christians” are in Christ Jesus. This relationship in Christ Jesus brings a wisdom defined as righteousness, sanctification and redemption. We identified these “wisdoms” being associated with the work of the Father, the Holy Spirit and Jesus the Son, operating in our life. Spiritual wisdom is God’s grace cultivated by our faith. Grace is a spiritual capacity but faith is our soul’s ability to receive and apply it.
Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth and became the Son of Man. He was both man and God. He became God’s Lamb so that He could become God’s Shepherd. This is both beautiful and profound.
God put Himself sinlessly into our fallen state so that He may righteously redeem and justify a new kingdom of mankind. Adam is the head of our natural temporal state and we are all born into sin through him. When we enter into 2 Corinthians 5:17 as a believer, we are born a second time into the second Adam, Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 15:45. The first birth is a natural birth and the second birth is a spiritual birth, 1 Corinthians 15:42ff, “the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”
We are spiritually dead in Adam. We are spiritually alive in Christ. In
Adam we are naturally hostile to God and we shun spiritual things. Yet, while in Adam and hostile to God, Christ died for us and reconciled us back to God.
This is the argument Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 15 and in Romans 5 but notice this astounding announcement in verse 10 of Romans 5:
Last week we explored our origins. We saw how the scripture pilots the prologue of our very life into eternity, existing before creation. The Lamb’s Book of Life already existed and in it names of people like you and I, people who accept by faith God’s provisions for salvation.
God provided through visual creation, the written record of men like Abraham, and His own Son a revelation of who He is and how we participate in what He is doing. He has also given us a will to choose our own paths. Lets take one thin slice of Abraham lemon meringue pie and savor the truth the Holy Spirit may provide about His love so that we can make righteous choices.
Abraham’s name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life along side of yours and mine. God used His story to illustrate truth about our lives. Abraham is prominent in the Biblical account of man’s journey on earth. The story of Abraham and his son Isaac demonstrates how our eternal God reveals eternal plans in lives who have faith in Him.
Lets review the context of Abraham’s story. Abraham was Abram when he was born in the region of Ur of the Chaldeans. Ur is located in the valley of the Euphrates River toward the Persian Gulf. Abram’s father Terah took Abram and his cousin Lot toward Canaan by way of Haran. Haran was a northern city in the Euphrates River Valley. They stayed in Haran for an extended time and Terah died there.
