Ephesians 1:11-14 (MSG)
11 It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living,
12 part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
13 It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit.
14 This signet from God is the first installment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.
Yesterday I "mused" out loud about what it would mean to walk more intimately, knowingly, aware of, with Christ on a day to day, hour to hour basis. I believe it can be done, and I believe it has been done.
When the early Monastics began their community lives it was with a desire to create a space where they could work, worship, and walk with Christ in all that they did. There have been lots of people who've criticized the Monastic lifestyle, and some of it is deserved; but the overall goal is good. That's what we were created for.
Genesis 2:7-8 (ESV)
7 then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
8 And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
The garden was a place of communion - the man and woman lived where God walked and communed with them. That's the way it was designed. With the Fall of mankind into Sin, that intimate communion was abruptly changed. Now the man and woman were driven from the garden and the way back to God was not in place.
So, where do we go from there?
Jesus.
Paul said it above, "It is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we're living for..."
Christ Jesus is our identity
Christ Jesus is how we find our way back.
Christ Jesus is what defines living...what we're here for.
Which changes everything, if we're willing to see that.
Life with Jesus is not a life built on a 21st Century materialist, consumerist, Westerner. That's how our world is shaped, but that is not the life of Christ - nothing in scripture could be more clear than that.
That's the issue - we've become consumers of religion rather than cultivators of a Spiritual life.
Where I live the ground is waiting to awaken...snow covers the land and the ground is frozen. We're all sick of the long winter and any day of sun above 32 degrees brings hope. We look forward to the snow disappearing, the ground warming up and the frost disappearing. Then the ground will be ready to receive the seed and plants will begin to emerge and grow - but all of us know that throwing the seed into the ground isn't the end, there's still work to do.
I remember as a kid the tractors with their long steel toothed cultivators driving down corn rows to tear up the weeds that were potential destroyers of growth.
So also, we need those things in our lives that will root out the vestiges of the fallen nature and turn us more completely into the person God designed us to be - that person who reflects more clearly and fully the image of God.
It's there.
It's waiting to grow and be strong.
We were made for this...
And settling for less is like looking at a field of corn with stalks three feet high and small, nubby ears of corn are all that exist...that's not what it was meant to be.
The end of it all is this - we were meant to commune with God.
Some think that we were made to get ready for heaven - all of it is yet future...but the Kingdom of God is at hand...it is now, and heaven is here among us...
If we have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to seek.
Peace
11 It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living,
12 part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
13 It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit.
14 This signet from God is the first installment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.
Yesterday I "mused" out loud about what it would mean to walk more intimately, knowingly, aware of, with Christ on a day to day, hour to hour basis. I believe it can be done, and I believe it has been done.
When the early Monastics began their community lives it was with a desire to create a space where they could work, worship, and walk with Christ in all that they did. There have been lots of people who've criticized the Monastic lifestyle, and some of it is deserved; but the overall goal is good. That's what we were created for.
Genesis 2:7-8 (ESV)
7 then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
8 And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
The garden was a place of communion - the man and woman lived where God walked and communed with them. That's the way it was designed. With the Fall of mankind into Sin, that intimate communion was abruptly changed. Now the man and woman were driven from the garden and the way back to God was not in place.
So, where do we go from there?
Jesus.
Paul said it above, "It is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we're living for..."
Christ Jesus is our identity
Christ Jesus is how we find our way back.
Christ Jesus is what defines living...what we're here for.
Which changes everything, if we're willing to see that.
Life with Jesus is not a life built on a 21st Century materialist, consumerist, Westerner. That's how our world is shaped, but that is not the life of Christ - nothing in scripture could be more clear than that.
That's the issue - we've become consumers of religion rather than cultivators of a Spiritual life.
Where I live the ground is waiting to awaken...snow covers the land and the ground is frozen. We're all sick of the long winter and any day of sun above 32 degrees brings hope. We look forward to the snow disappearing, the ground warming up and the frost disappearing. Then the ground will be ready to receive the seed and plants will begin to emerge and grow - but all of us know that throwing the seed into the ground isn't the end, there's still work to do.
I remember as a kid the tractors with their long steel toothed cultivators driving down corn rows to tear up the weeds that were potential destroyers of growth.
So also, we need those things in our lives that will root out the vestiges of the fallen nature and turn us more completely into the person God designed us to be - that person who reflects more clearly and fully the image of God.
It's there.
It's waiting to grow and be strong.
We were made for this...
And settling for less is like looking at a field of corn with stalks three feet high and small, nubby ears of corn are all that exist...that's not what it was meant to be.
The end of it all is this - we were meant to commune with God.
Some think that we were made to get ready for heaven - all of it is yet future...but the Kingdom of God is at hand...it is now, and heaven is here among us...
If we have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to seek.
Peace
Comments