What Your Words Reveal About Your Heart

Ephesians Study
Chapter 4

Ephesians 4:29-32
Amplified Bible:

29 Do not let unwholesome [foul, profane, worthless, vulgar] words ever come out of your mouth, but only such speech as is good for building up others, according to the need and the occasion, so that it will be a blessing to those who hear [you speak]. 

30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [but seek to please Him], by whom you were sealed and marked [branded as God’s own] for the day of redemption [the final deliverance from the consequences of sin]. 

31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor [perpetual animosity, resentment, strife, fault-finding] and slander be put away from you, along with every kind of malice [all spitefulness, verbal abuse, malevolence]. 

32 Be kind and helpful to one another, tender-hearted [compassionate, understanding], forgiving one another [readily and freely], just as God in Christ also forgave you.

These verses really show us a pattern:

• Words need to bless others.  They are evidence of who has our allegiance.
• They are connected to our relationship with the Holy Spirit and our calling and redemption.
• They are connected with the awareness of the oneness of everyone.  Freely we have received, freely give.

Science has now proven the effect on the body, mind, and spirit of words spoken to and by us.  Some words can be a curse.  Some words can be a blessing by building up.  Even body language speaks loudly to us for good or bad.  

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. “ Proverbs 18:21 KJV

Luke 6:45:  “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”  It is more than just a good idea to speak honorably; it is a cosmic law.  

We show by our words  who has our allegiance.  Our words show where our heart is.  

James 3:10 (KJV)  Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

Taking this a step further, let us remember that before a word is spoken, it has been a thought in our mind.  The battle is for our minds…mind control.  When we find that our thoughts are not those that build up others and ourselves, then we are to take every thought captive unto the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).  I want to take this as a command and as a promise.  God’s bidding is His enabling.  

We are to build up others with our words.  Our words are to be a blessings to others…and even our thoughts.  A negative thought can weaken the self and the one about whom you are thinking. Here is just one website that gives some specifics of our thoughts.  There is so much information available to us, and we are blessed to know these truths.   http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/how_negativity_affects_the_body.htmla

These verse are a great example of the scriptures ability to go deeper.  Jesus said, “You have heard it said…but I tell you.”  If we let the example of Christ witness to us, we will see that He was not just speaking of surface relationships and behaviors.  He was telling us about the spiritual implications…if you think it, you have done it.  This is exactly what science is validating.  

Paul speaks as a spiritual father.  We are standing in a place of intercession for all of us.  This is about the other and ourselves.  Our words are to build up.  That doesn’t just mean the other.  It means in building up others (obedience), we are also building up the self.   Love others as you love yourself.  The relationship with the Holy Spirit and our fellowman and ourselves is respected when we understand and apply the fullness of these scriptures.  

Prayer for the end of the year:

Holy Father in Heaven,
Your love surpasses all love and compels us to come up higher.  This agape love of wonder, worship, and sacrificial giving of Yourself invites us all into your fullness of doing and being.  As is done in Heaven, so be it on earth in each of us.  The great I AM — the always present One — is with us.  Teach us to be always present with You.  Live in us.  Love through us.  As You do so, fill us with delight to know Your will.  May our obedient witness be salt and light to all those in need, and may it speak over us of Holiness unto the Lord.  May we internalize living in the fulness of communion with you.  May we daily live by the power of Emmanuel, God with us.  In His name.  Amen.

To Catch and Stop a Thief

Ephesians Study

Chapter 4

Amplified Bible:

Ephesians 4: 28 — The thief [who has become a believer] must no longer steal, but instead he must work hard [making an honest living], producing that which is good with his own hands, so that he will have something to share with those in need. 

   

At first glance this text seems to be talking about behavior.  I want to suggest that it is about so much more than behavior.  The thief who has become a believer must not steal…we are all thieves that become believers a little at a time. We can take this literally (you have heard it said) or we can start seeing more deeply (but I tell you).

I believe that Paul is still calling us to a higher place than a mere assent to some standard of behavior.  There are many different ways of stealing.  There is a actual physical stealing of something, and there is a stealing from self and others that involves stealing identity, time, parameters, order, and harmony.  These are often passive aggressive behaviors, but they do not have to be.  There is the stealing from others because we have set a standard that is too high or inappropriate for the age and experience level…even the spiritual experience level.  

Has the feminist movement or mankind stolen from women their intuition and inner knowing of what is true and how the world should be?  We need to balance man’s knowing and doing with the intuition and ability of just being that helps women create their miracles. 

When you receive the text on this level, it has something to say to each of us…not just the literal theft of things.  A believer wants to steal no more.  The working hard, I believe, may be the deliberate and painful work that comes from an outward gaze balanced by an inward gaze.  We are looking at the behaviors that are stealing from ourselves and others, and the inward gaze asks the questions, why and how am I doing this or that?  

In Matthew 5:45- 48, we are told that God sends the sun and rain on the just and unjust.  He shows no partiality.  You cannot by your “good works” buy the rain or sunshine.  We are loved, and as a consequence the rain and sunshine is given to all.  I bring this text in because the thief has a belief in poverty, inadequacy, lack, entitlement, insecurity, and invalidation in some way.  Sometimes even our invalidation of self causes us to bring disharmony and disorder to the lives of others to be validated in that way.   It is like the child who wants attention and even bad attention is better than no attention.  It is a very subtle form of control (theft)  no matter what age we are.    We have all done it.  

The purpose of this internal gaze is so that we will produce what is good with our own hands/heart.  Instead of taking, we have something to share with the community or our sphere of influence to those in need.  We are all in need.  And as we stop thieving in these ways, the internal gaze helps us love ourselves and others.  This love is the greatest gift that can be given to all of us…including loving ourselves. Do this exercise right now:  tap on your heart, say: I’m sorry and I love you.  Do it about a dozen times.  Part of this experience is to see our connection to responsibility for everything and everyone.  We all play a part in experiencing what we experience with each other.  If we can honestly and lovingly say: I am responsible for this.  I’m sorry and I love you (self and others), we will feel a profound sense of freedom and release.  Change happens one person at a time, and it begins with you and me.   I believe it is the living out of the love that we are to give ourselves and each other about which Jesus spoke/modeled.  

How else are we thieves?  Control over life and over others is a type of theft.  It can and does move into manipulation of all kinds which is really fear.  In John 1:16: “And of His fullness we have received, and grace for grace.”  I use this verse because it reminds of what we already have, what we are seeking by our control efforts…His fullness.  We are rich if we quit comparing ourselves to a perception of others and their things and life.  The extremes of lack or arrogance is just our measurement against each other and it is perception….not truth.  The truth is in this verse that we have received of His fullness.  

Another theft we experience is to be held captive by the past…traumas, hurts, lies, hardships, wounds, emotional and spiritual inheritances…anything that steals the joy and quality of today and tomorrow.  Sometimes, we get stuck there…like an inheritance of non-joy in life because it has been received as a genetic template of sorts.  It is not really yours; it’s your ancestors.  More often than not, when you or someone else is stuck and cannot get out of the trap, it is inheritance.  
You can do all the positive affirmations and positive thinking techniques, but this stuff is not yours.  It’s hitch hiking so to speak.  

All physical, spiritual, and emotional inheritances do that you know.  While all of this may be true, the greater truth is that we have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.  To not give God the credit and honor of this deliverance is another type of theft.  One of the greater forms of theft from God is to remain a victim when He has done so much to set us free and instead of walking in faith of the freedom, we continue to walk in the senses (feelings).  In this way, the external is always controlling us…another theft that we allow.

There are the examples of studying counterfeit money or studying healthy blood cells.  They spend a great deal of time looking at the true.  They cannot look at all the false because it is always being created.  Many of us have had lives that seem to be an endless revelation of the bad stuff.  This steals our joy and, therefore, our  present and future.  We have to become more grounded in what is true of us in Jesus Christ.  That is based in fact and we walk in the faith of Jesus Christ not the feelings that are from the pit of hell.

Second Corinthians 6:1 tells us that we are God’s co-workers.  First Corinthians 12:27 says that we are members of Christ’s body.  These are some of the truths of our identity.  Do not steal from that identity and believe a lie about yourself and others.  The devil is a thief, liar, and murderer.  Stand your ground in the truth.  

How to be Angry and Sin Not

Ephesians Study

Chapter 4

Ephesians 4:26-27 Amplified Bible:

26 Be angry [at sin—at immorality, at injustice, at ungodly behavior], yet do not sin; do not let your anger [cause you shame, nor allow it to] last until the sun goes down. 

This is beautiful!  It is full of wisdom and truth.  Notice that anger is not the problem.  We can be angry about things and situations.  Yet, do not sin because your anger can push you to dysfunction.  We may observe things that upset us, but we do not want to internalize these things in our being…do not let the sun go down on anger because it becomes internalized.  Do not allow anger to have mastery…becoming its slave.  

From the place of observation to mastery, we have an opportunity for discernment.  There is nothing to take personally.  The moment we begin to take something personally, ask why.  Why has this triggered me?  It is one thing to say to not let the sun go down on our anger and another thing to discern that there is no need to internalize this anger.  How do we do this?  We have counsel in this verse.  His bidding is His enabling.  This will likely not be resolved at the intellectual level.  It will come from the Spirit.  The intellectual is defensive and argumentative.  It is too concerned about “its rights.”  Not so the Spirit.  Internalized anger leads us to the next verse.

In the beginning, God asked a simple question:  Who told you that you were naked?  I suggest that since that time, we have felt that there was something wrong with us. and we have been in defense mode.  We feel naked and inadequate.  This is not something that God did.   It came from the enemy.

27 And do not give the devil an opportunity [to lead you into sin by holding a grudge, or nurturing anger, or harboring resentment, or cultivating bitterness]. 

Here is the list of what happens when we let the sun go down on our anger.  It is an opportunity for evil.  It festers into something that holds us captive by becoming grudges, nurturing anger, resentment, bitterness.  This is a progression of pain that results in a root of bitterness.   We may pamper it by using the thoughts and words that it is not fair…that isn't right…and other judgements.  These judgements keep us captive.  They are saying that we would rather be “right” than be free / righteous.

Understand that it is the devil that is pushing the buttons on anger…that he is seeking an opportunity to enslave us.  There is nothing to take personally.  There is nothing to hold against anyone.  We wrestle not against flesh and blood.  We wrestle against powers.  The quickest way to victory is to know this.  This is a type of seeing through the lens darkly.  We may not see the whole picture, but we have The Word that gives us discernment…reading between the lines so to speak.  

When we feel anger, rage, resentment or a shutting down emotionally (even passively), remember that these senses are opposite our faith.  Our faith tells us we are a son//daughter of God.  We are a redeemed child of God.  Our feelings, when triggered, causes us to abandon the truth about who we are.  The anger is due to some perceived threat to our identity.  If our identity is in this world (people, places, things), then we are more likely to wear our feelings on our sleeve.  

It is a practical application of scripture into life that helps us come up with “How To” guidelines.   It is not that we want to make this a works orientation…that would be self-oriented.  We want to take what faith we already have and the opportunity that is threatening us and grow in faith, knowledge, and truth.  Honestly, it might seem easier just to kick into blame, shame, and guilting other people than to own up to our part in the drama.  Always ask yourself: Why does this matter to me?  You may have a really good answer, however, keep asking yourself: Why does this matter to me?  At some point, your answer will take you back to yourself and not to the “other.”

It has taken a long time to write this post because I kept wrestling with the idea of our illusions versus abundance.  The illusion is that we are lacking something or some knowledge.  That was the temptation in the Garden of Eden.  The abundance truth was that they had everything that they needed.  The lie of not having enough (as good as others or better than others) or of not knowing enough (being threatened by fear of what we do not know or knowing the correct answer) drives us to respond in anger.   It is directed outward to others when at its core, it is anger towards self for being inadequate.  

The “How To” guidelines could be a list of behavior modification steps that we have probably all seen before.  Changing the behavior does little for changing  the heart.  Living from a place of abundance covers the having, doing, and being of who were are in Christ.  We think of abundance as a measurement of prosperity.  That is not true abundance.  True abundance is gratitude in the moment.  All we really have is that…one moment at a time. 

Renewing the Mind / Rejecting the False

Ephesians Study

Chapter 4

Ephesians 4:23-25 -- Renewing the Mind /  Rejecting the False

Amplified Bible:

Verse 23 And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude],

Verse 24 And put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God's image, [Godlike] in true righteousness and holiness.

Verse 25 Therefore, rejecting all falsity and being done now with it, let everyone express the truth with his neighbor, for we are all parts of one body and members one of another. [Zech. 8:16.]

There are so many things that sound true but are not.  Paul is giving us the pathway in this scriptures:  Mind, new nature (identity), rejecting that which is false.  Science has proven this very concept…as a man thinks, so is he.  Romans 12:2 says:  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

If I had but one day to share something vital with you, it would be this.  And, we never know if this will be our last day or not.  That is sobering when you think about it.

In the community that we are in, I have seen an older couple on their walks.  He pushes her part of the way in a wheel chair.  She walks part of the way pushing the wheel chair.  You can tell that this is more than exercise; this is recovery.  I see them every morning going up the sidewalk with its slight incline.  I say a prayer for them.  I do not get the impression that they speak English as I spoke to them one day, and it was obvious that they did not know how to respond.  It reminds me of our recovery walk with Jesus…sometimes we walk, sometimes He pushes us until we can walk again.  Instead of a wheel chair, I think He just carries us. 

Paul is giving us this pathway of being made new which leads to living honestly from this place of healing and oneness.  Some of us do not know how to receive the help of the Lord in our recovery process.  Often, our sense of responsibility pushes us to do or to be without help.  Sometimes, we see receiving help as weakness.  The Lord and anyone else can only push the wheel chair for us if we allow.  

This renewing of the mind that Paul speaks of means that the lies are being released and the truth of personal identity in God as well as the truth about God are becoming flesh in us.  When it boils down to it, this truth is simple: Jesus loves me!  Knowing and feeling this love changes us.  We love because He first loved us.  Be that child again who knows how to freely give and receive as the moment demands.  In His presence, be that child who is free to love, forgive, and play.  After the tears of a hurt, the trusting child returns to play.  Beautiful and full of lessons for us.  

Victimization and its protective heart walls have left many of us in need of the spiritual wheel chair.  We need to see and know the truth that He is always there, and that He will push the chair until healing happens.  Are we learning Christ in truth that we may share with each other in the body? Paul keeps calling us to return to the truth in Christ.  

Functional Versus Dysfunctional

Ephesians Study

Chapter 4

Ephesians 4:20-22 — Functional versus Dysfunctional

Amplified Bible:

Ephesians 4:20  But you did not so learn Christ! 21 Assuming that you have really heard Him and been taught by Him, as [all] Truth is in Jesus [embodied and personified in Him], 22 Strip yourselves of your former nature [put off and discard your old unrenewed self] which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusions

“But you have not so learned Christ.”  Verse 20 is a balancing verse.  We ended last time with a description of the unregenerate person who has not “learned” Christ. We have so much to unlearn and much to learn in Christ.  Be proactive instead of reactive.

Live life on purpose!  Live life with purpose.   Learn Christ.  There is the Truth in Jesus…in words and example.  When Christ was here, He was a living example of the call to live a renewed life.  In all He did and said, it was about leaving off the former nature and grasping the concept of identity as God had purposed it from the beginning.  

At our house, we have discovered the Mechanical Translation (MT) of the Bible and the Revised Mechanical Translation (RMT), both of which give the original Hebrew meanings.  The Revised Mechanical Translation puts the words in an order that can be understood in English.  

This is a fascinating.  Here is the website:  (http://mthb.ancient-hebrew.org) — “The meaning of a Hebrew word cannot be conveyed completely through one or two English words, each word found in the MT will be included in the dictionary located at the back of this book. This dictionary will more accurately define each word within the context of the Ancient Hebrew language and culture.  Also included at the back of this book is a concordance allowing the reader to search for each occurrence of a word within the book of Genesis.”

At “our” house (living with a son-in-law and daughter and family while I recover from Lyme Disease), we have started at the beginning of Genesis to learn the story in the original Hebrew.  We have just started, and already it has opened our eyes to some deep lessons.  We are grateful.  One of those lessons is that in the Hebrew, the Tree of Knowledge and Good and Evil was not called that.  Here is the Hebrew translation:  “and “YHWH [He exists]” of “Elohiym [Powers]” made all of the trees spring up from the ground being a craving to appearance and functional for nourishment and a tree of the life in the midst of the garden and a tree of the discernment of function and dysfunction,…”

What we all especially like is the idea that it’s “functional and dysfunctional” rather than good and evil.  That takes away the judgment and condemnation about things.  We may choose to do something that is functional for us and feels dysfunctional to others.  It is not a matter of being evil.  It is just where we are at this time. And, it is OK that others are at some different place. I so totally agree with this!  The Lord said that He did not come to condemn.  This helps you understand that better also.  

What does this have to do with this week’s scripture?  It seems to be such a good explanation of functional and dysfunctional living.  That which takes us to functional living is to know Christ. The only standard of truth is Christ.  If it is truth in Him, then others may talk of the same thoughts or ideas and it is still true whether they have encountered Christ yet or not.  That is the story of the Gentiles who did the correct (functional) things without knowing Christ at that time.  It was counted to them for righteousness.  

What Paul is saying is that we need to move from dysfunctional to functional living:

• Strip yourself of the former nature…the unrenewed self.

• Discard your previous life which is corrupted through lusts and desires that spring from delusions.  What are delusions?  Dysfunctional beliefs and patterns of living.  

Adam and Eve were living a delusion when they took the fruit.  They were looking to gain what they already had.  They thought they had some lack in their connection with God.  A delusion!  They lacked nothing.  Neither do we.  We have the fulness of the Godhead and the mind of Christ.  

Man has created God in his own image, and that is a very dysfunctional god.  He looks a lot like you and me.  Let’s go back to the beginning, and learn Christ as is stated in verses 20-21.  We absolutely need to know Him in truth so we are moving from dysfunctional to functional!

This is at odds with religion which seeks the destination of a religion’s perfection.  It endeavors to bring predictability into the life., and it is also at odds with faith.  Functional living is spiritual maturity…a growing away from dysfunction.  It is the journey to wholeness/completenes.  It is union with God now because of the answered prayer of Jesus in John 17…prayer for oneness.  

Like Adam and Eve, we already have what we are seeking.  Jesus had a way of showing us God in the disorder and imperfection all around Him.  We can do the same.  The tree of the discernment of function and dysfunction is very different than the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  That is again destination oriented instead of being about the journey out of our dysfunction and into discerning how to function.  That is what we need…discernment.  We now know way too much of the evil.  Paul is calling us to a higher standard.

Burning our Plows

Ephesians Study

Chapter 4

Ephesians 4:17-19 — Burning Our Plows

Amplified Bible:

Verse 17: So this I say and solemnly testify in [the name of] the Lord [as in His presence], that you must no longer live as the heathen (the Gentiles) do in their perverseness [in the folly, vanity, and emptiness of their souls and the futility] of their minds. 

Verse 18: Their immoral understanding is darkened and their reasoning is beclouded. [They are] alienated (estranged, self-banished) from the life of God [with no share in it; this is] because of the ignorance (the want of knowledge and perception, the willful blindness) that is deep-seated in them, due to their hardness of heart [to the insensitiveness of their moral nature].

Verse   19:  In their spiritual apathy they have become callous and past feeling and reckless and have abandoned themselves [a prey] to unbridled sensuality, eager and greedy to indulge in every form of impurity [that their depraved desires may suggest and demand].

A quote from my last post:  “Paul calls us to a higher standard of selflessness to edification of the whole body.  He starts with speaking the truth in love and ends in verse 16 with the body maturing in love. It is love that compels.  It is love that convicts and converts.  It is love that cleanses us from unrighteousness.  It is love that grows us to maturity.  When we love, we do not want to hurt the Lord and those for whom He died…”

I start with this quote because there is such a huge jump from what Paul is calling us to and to what is expressed in this week’s verses.  I have been looking at these verses since last weekend.  What amazes me about them is the depth of knowing of the human spirit that Paul has.  He is talking about other Gentiles, the unconverted, and really shows the difference between the old man of sin and the new man of recreation.  

A heathen is one who is perverse in the folly, vanity and emptiness of their souls and the futility of their minds.  Their understanding is immoral and darkened.  Their reasoning is beclouded.  They are self-banished from the life of God because of their deep-seated ignorance…due to their hardness of heart. In spiritual apathy, they have become past feeling and abandoned themselves (become a prey) to the senses.

These words leave me stunned because they are such a clear picture of the world of Paul’s time and the world of our time.  No wonder Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”  This is a description of those who in their spiritual apathy would not give Jesus Christ a second thought.   And, yet, it can be a description of each of us.  How often do we take communion without a heart felt understanding of rightly discerning the body and blood of Christ.  In the living of life, has spiritual apathy made is prey to the sensual...TV, movies, books, magazines, conversation, feelings, (Romans 1:32).

We can be honestly ignorant…we don’t know something or Someone. 

Or we can be ignorant because of the hardness of the heart.  Think of pharaoh.  The arrogance of ignorance.  

Are you changed  by being a Christ follower or are you not?  Have we completely transitioned from the description of this week’s verses, or, are we bringing some of it with us into Christianity.  Baptism alone does not make for this transition from old to new.  Repeating the “sinner’s prayer” does not necessarily create of new heart.  

These verses are shocking after we have read so much of what it means to be a new creature.  The beauty of Oneness with the Lord is juxtaposed with the selfish, ego-centric descriptions in these verses.  It is so easy to not see ourselves in this description.

There comes a time when, like God’s call to Abram {Genesis 12:1}, we are to leave the father’s house, our culture, who we think we are because it is not who we are called to be.  An example of this can be found in the story of Elisha who burned his plow and offered a sacrifice upon it to follow Elijah.  You might say that he burned his bridges behind him.  There was no turning back to his old ways.

This transition is costly…economically (the rich young ruler went away sorrowing).  It will cost us emotionally and in our belief system.  Enhanced vision has a way of doing that.  Are we ready, willing, and able to burn our plows?  Are we ready to “leave” our culture behind?  What about our money?  Does it stand between us and the call of God?  I do not mean that it is wrong to have money, but if it causes us to “go away sorrowing” when the Lord puts His finger on it, then that is idolatry.

It would have been so easy to write something that was all about the “other” instead of touching on these points of being “heathen.”  All that resonates with the heathen, they will recognize in those who are calling themselves Christian.  They do not see that what we believe or have makes any difference in our lives.  Often, we major in minors which have little more substance than to give us a platform for argument…pride, arrogance, ego.  It would have been easy to take these verses apart and discuss how this “heathenism” has infiltrated the church…so subtle.  And yet, the below article says a great deal about how the world measures religion...the witness of Religion.  Notice, I said religion…not Christ followers.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0115-zuckerman-secular-parenting-20150115-story.html#page=1

Paul, in Romans 2:12-16, talks about those that are not Christian but have the law in their hearts.  His comments mirror what the above article is saying.  He is saying that Gentiles who do not know are better than the Jews with all their knowledge.  

This week, Paul calls us again to come up even higher.  This call is about being honest with ourselves…have we burned our plows and fully committed to following Christ?

Starting with Love / Ending with Love

Ephesians Study

Chapter 4

Ephesians 4:15-16 

Amplified Bible:

Verse 15 Rather, let our lives lovingly express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly]. Enfolded in love, let us grow up in every way and in all things into Him Who is the Head, [even] Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

Verse 16 For because of Him the whole body (the church, in all its various parts), closely joined and firmly knit together by the joints and ligaments with which it is supplied, when each part [with power adapted to its need] is working properly [in all its functions], grows to full maturity, building itself up in love.

In these verses, Paul calls us to a higher standard of selflessness to edification of the whole body.  He starts with speaking the truth in love and ends in verse 16 with the body maturing in love. It is love that compels.  It is love that convicts and converts.  It is love that cleanses us from unrighteousness.  It is love that grows us to maturity.  When we love, we do not want to hurt the Lord and those for whom He died.  What is this call to a higher standard?  What is being built up in love?  This says that it is the “body” of Christ that is being matured in love.  What does that mean?  We have grown up with the word “church,” and think that we know what that means.  But, do we?

The first complete English bible was the Tyndale bible in about 1524, and that bible did not use the word "church" anywhere in its pages, it used the word "congregation." Sometime after this bible, they started replacing the word "congregation" with the word “church."

When you go to Tyndale's bible, which was the first English Bible, he translated ekklesia as "assembly." In the George Ricker Berry Interlinear Greek/English New Testament (it's a literal translation of the Greek into English), which was written in the late 1800's, he translated ekklesia as "assembly," and you won't find the word "church" anywhere in there. Christ only used the word ekklesia three times. It's not recorded in the book of Mark, John, or Luke. Matthew is the only one who recorded it.

This is important because to use “church” as in the quotation above (Amplified) and most others translations is to lose something important to the meaning of “assembly”.   An assembly is the people.  A church may be seen as the building, the organization, a business, a group of people of a particular denomination, and other things.  It is important to understand that in Matthew 16:18 Jesus called His called out ones  the ekklesia (assembly).  He was not referring to what man has done.  This calling out was accomplished by the Holy Spirit.  Let me hasten to add that I am not against any church!  To see the challenges that we face is simply honest.  

This understanding helps me better use the imagery of a physical body…joints and ligaments knit together.  I can more easily grasp the idea of oneness and the accomplishment of that oneness by relating to a called out group of people called an assembly instead of hundreds of denominations speaking different things with different creeds, doctrines, and theology.  Church  did not start out this way.  Even King James was invested in the outcome of replacing assembly or congregation with church because church is something over which he had some ruling control.  This understanding gives a more clear picture of how this developed.  To lovingly express the truth to a called out assembly seems more like it could really happen.  “Truth” (Jesus) is the goal… not doctrines, creeds, and theology.  The truth about Jesus is full of love.  

Last week, I wrote about the struggle the church is having with people leaving the church.  People want to put the blame on everything but what it is.  There is a calling out by the Holy Spirit (as in the days of Christ) which is happening.  No matter the excuse  or reason for the leaving of the church, the underlying reason is that the hearts of people are hungry for something…correct and incorrect. The reaching for this something may look different for different people.  All the disciples joined Christ based on motivations which were “self” interested.  He still loved and matured them into a group that received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  That group were in one accord when waiting for Pentecost.  There was a unity of purpose.  That group had some differences of opinion later on.  Some wanted to mix the legalism of Judaism into the message of Jesus Christ.  Paul was very verbal about this being wrong.   

Our call to this particular dilemma (for self and others) is a call to love…not judgement and condemnation.  We do that because we are uncomfortable with what others choose because it threatens us.  In that respect, all our arguments and defenses are “self” motivated…showing a lack of peace and trust in God who will finish that which concerns all of us.  I consider this a “call” at this time because it “calls” us to come up to a higher place than judgement and condemnation.  Why we haven't learned that these motivations (guilt and shame) are not Heaven’s is a good question to ask ourselves.  Our discomfort with others is not about them!

It is easy to get lost in all of what is going on in and out of the church.  By this they will know we are Christians…by our love to one another.  

Hebrews 13:3 ESV  “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.”  What wonderful counsel!  There are different ways of being in “prison.”  Paul was in a literal prison.  Others may be in an emotional prison.  Others may be in a physical (the body is not well) prison.  Others may be in a prison of religion. Others may be in a prison of non-belief. Those who are mistreated are in prison as well as those who are doing the mistreating.  We are called to remember because we are in the “body.”  When we judge and condemn others, we are in prison.  We hurt the body.

If you look at the example of Jesus in dealing with the disciples, we can see that although one betrayed Him to the Jews, the others betrayed Him passively when they disowned Him and fled.  The Lord knew what was in their hearts.  He still worked with them in love trying to bring them to maturity.  In the way we treat others, He is our model. 

James 1:27: "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”  I think the reason this is “pure” is because orphans and widows cannot pay you back in anyway…speaks to motivations.  If I pray with people and then invite them to church…what is the motivation?  If I do anything with people, is it freely given and unspotted from the world’s agenda?  

• Paul starts with love (as motivation) 

• Lovingly expresses truth (as behavior)

• Enfolded in love (do we feel the arms of Heaven around us?  This love we can share with others; we love because He first loved us.

• Let us grow up into Him Whom is the Head (as children being led by our model…our compass, our Master)  Grow up into Him…no one else.  

• For because of Him the whole body (all parts) grows to full maturity (Christ focus; not self or others).

• Building itself up in love!  Read 1 Corinthians 13 again…the love chapter.  

We are told to love others AS we love ourselves.  When we love ourselves, we love others.  Then we edify each other.  We can have peace with what is happening because it is God’s message, God’s people, God’s process in God’s time.  He will finish that which concerns each of us.  We can have peace with each other.  

We Are Not Children Anymore

Ephesians Study
Chapter 4

Ephesians 4:14 — We Are Not Children Anymore
Amplified Bible:

Ephesians 4:14: So then, we may no longer be children, tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, [the prey of] the cunning and cleverness of unscrupulous men, [gamblers engaged] in every shifting form of trickery in inventing errors to mislead.

We will no longer be children — Children are beautiful in their innocence and simplicity.  Jesus said to suffer the little children to come to Him.  You see, the problem is not that we are children.  It is that abusers abound trying to confuse and mislead.  That is what happened in the Garden of Eden.  The Accuser distorted God’s very own words to confuse and mislead the Garden children.  We are spiritual children, and we now find ourselves in this world of error.   We need a teacher (Christ) who is simple enough for children to understand.  Given that, His teachings gain depth as we mature.  The truth will be understood in direct proportion to the study of it.  

Paul has been leading us through the great grace and love of God and Jesus Christ.  Now, he wants us to be aware…be careful of the things that can trip us up on our spiritual journey.  He writes about being tossed about and wavering with changing winds of doctrine.  Below is information that shows us how valuable Paul’s counsel is…and wise.  There are so many ways to be tossed about and wavering with changing winds of doctrine.  We are seeing unscrupulous men; inventing errors to mislead.  Let Paul’s counsel sink deep into our hearts and make for wise choices in what we face today.

The Barna Group researchers have been studying church attendance trends for over twenty years.  Barna is a Christian concerned about what he has been seeing.  Many reasons are given for this trend.  It is a complicated mess that the church is in.  From self-centeredness/entitlement mentality to a pulling away because  people are in search of depth, truth, and spirituality instead of just religion and religious rhetoric.  Some say that church has become a production that has nothing to do with real spirituality.  Society's entertainment orientation has been brought into the church.  It is not working.  Can you see Jesus taking a “needs” assessment when He can meet every need of mankind?  

The following is quoted from a Barna article:  “Six in ten young people will leave the church permanently or for an extended period starting at age 15, according to new research by the Barna Group.  Today's young adults are marrying later, if at all, are technologically savvy, and hold worldviews alien to their upbringing. Barna Research president David Kinnaman says that church leaders are unequipped to deal with this ‘new normal.’ 

Leaders miss the significance of the shifts of the past 25 years.  But the opposite reaction is just as problematic: ‘using all means possible to make their congregation appeal to teens and young adults.’ This excludes older members and ‘builds the church on the preferences of young people and not on the pursuit of God.’  

Kinnaman prescribes intergenerational ministry. In many churches, this means changing the metaphor from simply passing the baton to the next generation to a more functional, biblical picture of a body - that is, the entire community of faith, across the entire lifespan, working together to fulfill God's purposes.”

Do you know that roughly 10 million born again Christian adults (in the US) are unchurched.  (www.barna.org).  Reasons given for this trend include that the system is  unfulfilling, misleading and full of error.  

Quoting the Barna study: 

“The early church leaders didn’t have the things we now consider essential for our faith. They didn’t have official church buildings, vision statements or core values. They had no social media, radio broadcasts or celebrity pastors. They didn’t even have the completed New Testament. Christ-followers were often deeply misunderstood, persecuted and some gave their lives for their faith. Yet they loved and they served and they prayed and they blessed—and slowly, over hundreds of years, they brought the empire to its knees.”

How could the early church capture the imagination of the Roman empire while we, with all our resources and rigor, are slowly losing influence in our culture?”

I encourage you to read the entire article at the following website:

http://notforitchingears.com/2015/01/21/barna-study-even-christians-are-leaving-our-churches/ 

Let us close with some more of Paul’s counsel…1 Corinthians 13:

¹ Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

² And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

⁴ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

⁵ Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

⁶ Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

⁷ Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

⁸ Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

⁹ For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

¹⁰ But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

¹² For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

¹³ And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

God's Perfecting and Equipping of the Saints

Ephesians Study

Ephesians 4:11-13 — God’s Perfecting and Equipping of the Saints

Amplified Bible:

11 And His gifts were [varied; He Himself appointed and gave men to us] some to be apostles (special messengers), some prophets (inspired preachers and expounders), some evangelists (preachers of the Gospel, traveling missionaries), some pastors (shepherds of His flock) and teachers.

12 His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ’s body (the church),

13 [That it might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him.

We were given gifts and gifting by God; His intention:

• Our perfecting
• Our full equipping

so that:

• We should do a work of ministering and building up the body of Christ
• We develop oneness in the faith
• We comprehend the accurate knowledge of the Son of God
• We might spiritually mature to the standard of Christ’s own perfection
• We might have a standard of measurement that is the fullness of Christ and the completeness found in Him.

Wow!  Do you find anything about self and self-actualization in this list?  As God through Christ and the Spirit has given us everything…Oneness with Them, identity in Them, fullness in Them…so we are to receive the gifts and gifting to be made perfect and be fully equipped.  You see, we are perfected and fully equipped by doing the work of ministry of building up Christ (Christ’s body).  

This happens in the most amazing ways.  When using the gifts, we usually have expectations that are coming from our own neediness…need for significance, need for support, need for safety, need for appreciation, admiration, respect, and so on.  This neediness (expectations of others) sets us up for what looks like failure.  It is God’s way of perfecting and equipping us.  It is His way of Temple cleansing us.  

We so often measure ourselves by others.  Actually, we are taught from the beginning to do this.  Be like brother/sister, be like mom/dad, be like aunt/uncle, be like teacher, and so on.  After a while we rebel because we are ready to try to be ourselves instead of a member of the tribe.  Only, we have not been taught the Standard of Righteousness that is Christ.  So, in being ourselves, we just join different tribes and be like them.  It seems that we only really know how to reflect others.  That teaches us both correct and incorrect programming.  Our neediness has to be unlearned and that is what is being addressed in the "so that" above.

Not knowing better, we have allowed the world to make us a counterfeit temple (den of thieves).  God  knows that spiritually mature saints understand that following in Christ’s footsteps means that we will not commit ourselves to the neediness of others.  This means that we will serve others without personal neediness; we can do nothing about the personal neediness of others.  

John 2:23-25: “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.”  In other words, He knew His identity as the Son of God.  His identity was not defined by proving Himself.  So, He not only knew all men, He knew Himself as God's Son.  

Another way of saying this is inappropriate expectations of self and others.  None of us can be what we are not.  We cannot do what we have not learned.  We cannot give what we do not have.   This is why Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”  Our forgiveness is based on our ignorance!  It is also why He said that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, and that our weakness is made perfect in His strength.

In the comprehension of a full and accurate knowledge of the Son of God, we will become a mature (complete/whole)  personality.  This is knowledge that is relational; not just intellectual.  This oneness of intent and process of God creates an involvement  with others that has appropriate expectations and is  not based on our  or their neediness.  Through this, Christ meets every need that we have.  We were created in His image originally.  In our recreation (which is the "so that" above), He is the mirror into which we look to see ourselves.

Homework:  take each bullet point and develop it further asking God's guidance for what this means to you and your personal development in Him.  I would enjoy hearing your revelations.

The Gifts of Mercy

Ephesians Study

Ephesians 4:7-10 — The Gifts of Mercy

Amplified Bible:

Ephesians 4:7 — Yet grace (God's unmerited favor) was given to each of us individually [not indiscriminately, but in different ways] in proportion to the measure of Christ's [rich and bounteous] gift.

Ephesians 4:8 — Therefore it is said, When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive [He led a train of vanquished foes] and He bestowed gifts on men. [Ps. 68:18.]

Ephesians 4:9 — [But He ascended?] Now what can this, He ascended, mean but that He had previously descended from [the heights of] heaven into [the depths], the lower parts of the earth?

Ephesians 4:10 — He Who descended is the [very] same as He Who also has ascended high above all the heavens, that He [His presence] might fill all things (the whole universe, from the lowest to the highest).

Christ’s rich and bounteous gift is the standard of measurement by which we have received the grace of God.  That touches my heart and my spirit.  There is nothing of you and me in this equation.  The Godhead has not asked us to deserve anything.  That is the way of man.  If there was anything we could do, we would find a way of taking credit for it…and the glory.  All the glory goes to Christ who gave Himself for us.  This grace has been given to each of us individually.   

John Wesley’s explanatory notes:  “[8] Wherefore he saith — That is, in reference to which God saith by David, Having ascended on high, he led captivity captive - He triumphed over all his enemies, Satan, sin, and death, which had before enslaved all the world: alluding to the custom of ancient conquerors, who led those they had conquered in chains after them. And, as they also used to give donatives (noun: a gift or donation, or a benefice capable of being conferred as a gift; adjective: like a donation, being or relating to a benefice) to the people, at their return from victory, so he gave gifts to men - Both the ordinary and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit (Psalm 68:18).  

[9] (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?  Now this expression, He ascended, what is it, but that he descended — That is, does it not imply, that he descended first? Certainly it does, on the supposition of his being God. Otherwise it would not: since all the saints will ascend to heaven, though none of them descended thence.

Into the lower parts of the earth — So the womb is called, Psalm 139:15; the grave, Psalm 63:9.

[10] He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

He that descended — That thus amazingly humbled himself.

Is the same that ascended — That was so highly exalted.

That he might fill all things — The whole church, with his Spirit, presence, and operations.”

These verses are full of explanation for us.  Paul wants us to understand how rich is the love and mercy of God that He would send a part of Himself, His Son, to descend to our level and experience life as a man.  That He would be killed by those He came to save.  That He did ascend…He returned to Heaven…forever carrying the marks of humanity; the scars of His death.  

“That He might fill all things…” I find this to be beautiful…the potential of a return to understanding the truth of our creation parameters of fullness of Christ.  Do you ever fill void and empty?  Remember who you are and that He fills us with all of heaven.  It is this truth, His Spirit, and the other gifts that He has given to each one of us.  Rejoice!  The empty spot in our hearts is a longing for something that we already have in Him.  The loneliness that we feel is a hungering for Him, and His truth says that He never leaves us or forsakes us.  Move from the feelings of life to the faith of Jesus.    

How easy it is to take all of this for granted; to not even think about the details.  There is so much richness in these verses.  As always, just a few sentences and you must read between the lines to get the fullness and beauty that is there.  His mercy continues to be poured out even in the most difficult times.  Our faith is not based on feelings…senses.  Celebrate this mercy at all times.  Our hurts and wounds (others or self), are because we expect things that are not so.  See Jesus before crucifixion, He alway knew what was in man.  He knew crucifixion was coming.  Rejoice!  We have this mercy loving us back to His fulness.  We have healing in Him.  

Praise God for this model of how to be born from above, live, and die daily, We can live in the ascension power now because of Christ.  To wait for some other place and some other time, is to miss the power of Christ to live in us today.  Christ has made it possible in all the fullness of love, life, Spirit, and gifts with which He has blessed us.  It is so amazing.  When you are feeling anything but powerful in Him, call on the Spirit for more filling of that which He has already started.   

Let us do a repeat of Ephesians 4:10 — “He Who descended is the [very] same as He Who also has ascended high above all the heavens, that He [His presence] might fill all things (the whole universe, from the lowest to the highest).”  Because the Lord ascended, we have a promise that everything is filled with His spirit (presence)…the whole universe.  Amazing!  We are included in this infilling…in fact, we are His temple...the place of His presence.  

Romans 8:10-11:  “And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin (a relationship with the Accuser), but the Spirit is life because of righteousness (through relationship with the Lord).  But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in you.”  We have been given the Spirit, and we can ask for more (Luke 11:13).  Thank God daily for His gift in you and ask for a continued refreshing of the richness of what He has already started.

The fact that when we do wrong that it grieves us is an indication that the Spirit is transforming us…we used to do wrong and it did not bother us.  Do not beat yourself up because of this; rejoice that you are not where you used to be.  The Accuser would have us focusing on the wrong and feeling defeated.  Remind him of the Truth that the Lord has already handled this and that you and I are coming into agreement with Him.  “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them”  Matthew 18:20.  

All these verses show us that we have been given the Lord’s fulness…everything we need for His overcoming within us.  1 john 5:20:  “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.”

1Corinthians 2:16:  “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

All that God has given to us and done for us is His IDEA.  He wrote it in His Word and gave it to us.  It is the way, the truth, and the life.  Man does not do it this way.  It is God’s idea to share the fullness of the Godhead with us and that includes the mind of Christ and His Spirit.  The mercy of God has overtaken the evil of the Accuser.  Believe in all that is true of you in the Godhead!