Sunday Report

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BodyLife: The Three “L”s. (#2,Life)

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LIFE is the second thread in our BodyLife trilogy of “L”s.  We are speaking, of course, of Jesus’ resurrected LIFE in us. This common term in the evangelical community has lost its cutting edge. The living Life of our resurrected Jesus is literal. Not a mystic concept or theological idea, Jesus  dwells in believers,  Colossians 1:27, 2Cor. 1:22, Romans 8:1cf.

This truth is absolute! Do we see Jesus in believers or do we hear them pleading for Jesus’ help? No wonder Christianity is viewed as mystic and off the wall!  How would you answer this? Valid or not?  

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Grace Reigns, part 2

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This verse is like our view of the Redwoods.  There is much more than meets the eye.  Sin cannot overwhelm neither can circumstances be so impossible that grace is not waiting on scene to do “so much more.” Grace is a personal relationship working inside-out as well as outside circumstances - in.  It is about two persons in relationship! One person is you and the other person is too amazing to describe!

The other side of our grace relationship is God Himself. Not the image of God who is in our mind, nothing that small. It is The Eternal Reality of God Himself. The I AM Who creates out of nothing!  This  is the person on the other side of our personal relationship because we are in Jesus Christ. It is not only GOD, it is The Holy Spirit, it is The Lord Jesus Christ, it is the Triune Godhead Person!  I know! How can it be? Yes, it is the God of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses and the God of Jesus. Our grace is from out of God, our personal God, who provides power for us to accomplish His will ...  and so much more! This grace, the Grace of our Triune God, is “this grace in which we stand,” Romans 5:2.  How glorious is our God!

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Grace Reigns

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In our last discussion we focused on the new creation each believer experiences when born from above in Jesus, God’s only begotten Son.  It is righteousness, the risen life of Jesus, from the dead, gifted to us through our faith, by His grace.  His LIFE, in resurrection power, is created in us. This powerful Life is what we need to release His life Inside Out. This is one degree of Glory!

Do we realize the glory of our Lord God has been created in us? The Lord, who is a Spirit, has placed His Shekinah glory within each believer but it is only a taste, it should whet our appetite. 

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Inside Out

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Clearly, God’s glory is seen in physical light piercing the dense, living redwood fence reaching upward into God’s kingdom.  Much more than this, His organic glory within each believer connects us with each other as we grow consuming grace.  His eternal glory within us often escapes our attention.  His glory becomes our glory as our oneness in Him and each other is manifested even in our own flesh, Romans 8:11.

Here is one mystery of Godliness unlocked for the believer who “has ears to hear.”  Our soulish tendency is to rely upon self but the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple, Ps. 19.  When we “will” open the faith door into our mind and heart, we enter into God’s own sanctuary of counsel, Rev. 3:20.   His Truth is light into our soul so we can discern His “good” and become wise, Heb. 5:14. This is where we need to spend personal time! His glory becomes ours since we are His.

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FAITH, Growing in it!

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Faith is one of the most pivotal elements in the life of God’s people since it determines destiny and qualitative growth in our created existence of grace.  We are  Drilling Down  faith.

When I was a boy, we drove our 1935 two-tone grey Plymouth through a redwood tree. They had a one way road through one of these behemoths in northern California. A few redwoods are still alive today “who” were just beginning life when Jesus was born. It is hard to imagine how massive these ancients become.  I wonder how large we can grow our faith?

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Faith, What is It?

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Faith is one of the most pivotal elements in the life of God’s people since it determines  the destiny of our created existence AND our qualitative growth in grace.  We are  drilling down  faith.

January Grace Notes  listed 12 commonly known faith verses. One of many omitted is the following:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”  -Romans 1:16-17, (See also Habakkuk 2:4, Hebrews 10:38, Galatians 3:11).

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We Should Walk In Them

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God grows faith through grace. Once we are born into His care, we become part of God’s grace culture.  This unique system of living is sourced in God Himself. Every circumstance of our life reaches into His personal nerve center because we have been bought and brought back into God’s personal family becoming children of God. His loving response to His children, who are in Christ, is an ability gifted to each believer according to God’s purposes  and our need. This is called grace. 

Our faith is joined to grace and has divine purposes.  We grow in Christ through our faith by His grace. Growing in Him is preparation, while in our flesh, for ruling with Him during His earthly millennium kingdom and then reigning with Him eternally. 

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God’s Faith Forest

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What a privilege to participate in God’s righteous nature and while actually being absorbed in His grace, gaining a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. This is what happens when we are born  spiritually of God. God is a Spirit and His Holy Spirit reveals spiritual things of Christ to us after we become a child of God, not of the flesh or the will of man, but of God Himself. We become Spiritually alive when we are born of God.

This puts our life at a very high level. Our life embarks into a Spiritual strata which can be mystifying and difficult to grasp.  Our new Spiritual eyes do not easily discern spiritual things.  We become Spiritually aware  but  often it is easier to revert to a habit of personal comfort and natural living.  The walk of faith is not for the faint. There is a battle here.  It is not mystic, but real.

This is our third consecutive faith discussion. We are still in the parking lot of  this great Faith Forest of redwoods.  But even in the parking lot a whiff of the air draws us into the wonder of something far larger and profound than mere humanity. On foot, under 300 feet high redwoods, old enough to have been alive while Jesus walked the earth, is a provocative setting to consider faith. These massive trees suggest powerful purposes and the God of this forest is our living Redeemer  soliciting our participating in what He is doing. And we say, “I’ll think about it. Can I get back to you?”  Oh, the darkness of our small minds!

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Walk by the Spirit (part 2)

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We took a look at this verse last time as an introduction to faith. It suggests by context both living and walking are different, living does not necessarily equate to walking.  The scriptural record is clear, our faith  links the resurrection power of Jesus to both living and walking.  Faith not only establishes us in righteousness but also provides the power to bring Jesus into our very soul so that we can live and walk in the Spirit. 

The question becomes, why do we want to move mountains and mulberry trees? Faith not only moves mountains, it does much more, it makes us righteousness. The task of making us righteous is greater than moving mountains and this is exactly what we are called to do.  We have been given the power to be righteous by faith. 

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Grasping Love by Faith ... in Christ Jesus

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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.

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Grasping Love by Faith in Christ Jesus

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Paul has layered steps into the fullness of God from the posture of prayer. We have been looking at each step starting at the bottom, the fullness of God, and moving up, one step at a time, back to the top, leaving a staircase for our understanding into God’s love. Last time we looked at faith. It is our door allowing Christ to “dwell in our  hearts” allowing us to experience the fullness of God.  

Now we want to look more closely to what the apostle Paul means by dwelling in our hearts. The word he uses in the Greek is a compound word meaning House (οικοs) and down against (κατα). It is not uncommon in Greek to combine a preposition into a word in order to convey a nuance or emphasize a meaning. In this instant, the emphases is not just living in a house or dwelling in it but with the κατα formed into the front of the word, Paul emphasizes the full weight of God’s presence is meant to impact our soul-self. He is saying Christ may come against our heart so that we can know the full content of Jesus’ presence within our soul-self. 

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Grasping Love By Faith ... In Christ Jesus

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Paul layers steps into the fullness of God from the posture of prayer.  We examined rooted and grounded in the previous layer; its a similar couplet used in Paul’s letter to the Colossians, Col 2:7. But here, in Ephesians, its one deliberate layering of God’s requisites, including, knowing the love of Christ surpassing knowledge, the breadth and depths, having the strength to contain Christ, being rooted and grounded and now the dwelling residence of Christ by Faith within our hearts.  Here, in this layer, to know the fullness of God as a personal experience faith is vital.

The dwelling presence of Jesus within our heart is accomplished by unlocking faith. But this unlocking is accomplished in strengthening with power through the Holy Spirit, Eph. 3:16. But for the moment we are looking through glasses of faith and will look at  strengthening with power another time. 

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GRASPING LOVE BY FAITH: In Christ Jesus

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Our faith is based upon our knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him as a person.  A regenerated believer, one who has been born again, knows what it means to have new life. It is easy to identify by our experience of faith when Jesus Christ came into our life. But this new birth is an embryo of life in Christ. It begins a gestation period introducing us into grace accessible by faith.  Being born again is receiving Jesus factually! We literally receive the resurrected life of the person, Jesus Christ.  How is this possible?  … Love!  What has love to do with it? ☺

In human terms it is ridiculously absurd. This reality contradicts natural laws and our sense of what is possible. The colossal nature of what God has done is a measurement of how gargantuan our God of love is!  The regenerate person has within “self” a witness and testimony of the saving power of Jesus Christ as well as God’s immense love which drives grace. Paul says it best in Romans 5, it is so “much more!”

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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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Fullness of God

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I’m still in AZ … until Tuesday and we are still doing the “fullness of God” in Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians. Last week we offered a thought on the subject in lieu of our regular GN-SR. This week we would like to do the same plus offer last week’s comment, edited!

There is another very important aspect of this passage requiring our attention. The translation,”filled WITH all the fullness of God” give us the sense that we can be filled with all that God is. This is not what the Greek text wants to convey. It is generally agreed by scholarship that what is intended is “with respect to God.” In other words man can not contain all that God is but there attributes of God that can be conveyed to people while others cannot. For example, God is everywhere at the same time while man cannot experience this state of being. God is immutable, unchangeable, while people are not only fickle but change to accommodate their knowledge and God is already all knowing.

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Praise God from whom all Blessings Flow

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In Chandler, AZ sitting at daughter Kristin’s kitchen table feeling a little remiss for not turning out a GN for 01/11/15. 

To relieve my guilt I thought I would just share a current thought. 
The internal probing of our eternal soul is, for most of us, a life time journey. On the surface this appears to be oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. Anything “internal”  must by definition have external boundaries and not limitlessly eternal. Yet, this is the nature of contradictions that is reality for the person who is in Christ. 

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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).

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In Christ Jesus - Dec 7

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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.