Good stuff!

“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”  Ephesians 3:14-19

My Bible study led me to this these verses this week. And when I was finished reading and studying and thinking about the passage, I sighed to myself – “man, that is good stuff!”

Let me give you a peek into what God laid on my heart.

Before I get into the nitty gritty, let’s set up the scenario – Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus. He is reminding them that the Gentiles (that would be non-Jewish folks) have access to the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. He is asking God to provide for these people these things –

1) That they be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man (vs. 16). Paul knows that man cannot strengthen man on his own accord. He knows and understands that all strength comes from God. And this isn’t a physical strength that Paul is referring to. This is a spiritual strength. In my mind, it also refers to a mental and emotional strength. This kind of strength also comes exclusively from God. A person needs to keeps the inner version of yourself strong to face the wiles of the devil and ward off temptation. Remember, we are fighting against enemies that are unseen (Ephesians 6:12).

2) That Christ would dwell in your heart by faith (vs. 17a). “Dwell” gives the indication of being at home. Christ cannot be at home in your heart without faith (which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen – Hebrews 11:1).

3) To comprehend the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of being rooted and grounded in love (vs. 17b & 18). Do we truly comprehend what having Jesus in our hearts truly enables us to do? I don’t think I do. Sometimes I feel that I accept His love as a byproduct of my salvation. When actually it is the whole of my salvation. His love for me is the reason I have salvation in the first place! He doesn’t love me because of my salvation; He loved me before it.

4) To know the love of Christ, which passeth all knowledge (vs. 19a). You cannot reason out God’s love. It is a principle that goes beyond anything you can reason out by education.

5) To be filled with the fulness of God (vs. 19b). I think, in my mind, this is a great example of trusting God. This is drawing on all God is to allow Him to guide you through everything He brings you to.

I cannot finish this blog without verse 20 & 21- “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abudantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”

God is able/capable of doing so much more than we can ask or imagine. Think on that for a moment. We can imagine going to the farthest corner of space – God can do more. We can imagine curing cancer – God can do more. Anything…and I mean anything…we can imagine, God can do more. But it is not in our power that He does them – it is in HIS power working thru us. We are capable of being His conduit. And because of all this, we should praise Him – not alone, in a field – but in the capacity of a local New Testament church within our family of God.

Now, I’ll tell you this – if that doesn’t get you fired up, your wood is wet!

Contemplations

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭55:6‬ ‭KJV‬‬ – “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:”
It is a simple idea – seek the Lord. If it is so simple, why do we make it so hard? 

God has told us that He is near us.  ‭‭Lamentations‬ ‭3:57‬ ‭KJV‬‬ -“Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.” Why do we feel He is so difficult to find? It seems that all we have to do is “call upon” Him. Why is that so hard?

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭13:5‬ ‭KJV‬‬ – “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”  Jesus promised to never leave us…nor forsake us (that means to leave us by the wayside).

So, why do we neglect to seek the Lord? 

Pride. 

We like to look into a mirror to see what we look like. There are people that spend what seems like hours in front of a mirror trying to achieve just the right look. And then, once they walk away, it seems as though they completely forget what they look like because each time they see a mirror, they are gazing in it once again. 

What if we did that with the Word of God? What if we spent, what seemed like, hours in it allowing Him to make us into who He wants us to be and then every time we had the opportunity we looked in it again to determine how we needed to tweek things to make ourself even better for Him?

Sounds crazy, right? Or maybe ideal? 

You know, I get up almost every morning and read my Bible. But do I let it change me? Do I take it’s words to heart? Do I consistently go back to it to allow it to continually change me? Sadly, the answer is no, not always. 

Jesus is waiting for me to come looking for Him. He wants to be found. He wants to have a special relationship with me. He wants to talk to me, share with me and be my absolute, very best friend. 

So why do I make it so hard for Him?

I don’t know that I have an answer today. I just wanted to throw that out there. The day is drawing near when Jesus won’t be so easily found. Oh, He will still be there but it won’t be so easy. Now is the time to build that relationship. Now is the time to seek Him out. Now is the time to call upon Him. Tomorrow may be too late.

Ruminate while He illuminates

John 12:35-36 – “Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.”

John 8:12 – “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

Well, hello there! It has been a while! I know. I have been distracted. With Christmas comes travel and vacation. I have enjoyed both, last year. Now, it is the first Monday of the new year and I am ready to go. Life is getting back to normal. So, bear with me. You know how life can go.

Light. We all love light. It was raining all day yesterday and we had no sun. Today, I feel drained and cold. Light does something for us. It provides necessary vitamins that we need to be healthy. It gives us the ability to see long distances. It usually makes us happy. I love the sun. I miss it when it is not visible. Besides, I love wearing my sunglasses. I think they look cool. 😊

I was thinking about an old Disney movie the other day. Remember the one with the genie? When the character found the genie and was trying to determine what the genie could do, the genie said, “Ruminate whilst I illuminate.” (Just roll with me. I do have a point in all this!)

Ruminate means to meditate or ponder – something we generally are not too good at, at least I’m not. I have to make myself recall what I learned in my devotional every morning. I have to purposefully choose to recall daily lessons. Otherwise, they go in one ear and out the other.

But pondering is something that God wants us to do. He wants us to ruminate on His word. Yet how can we ponder if we do not see? How can we think on His love and His principles if we do not do not allow Him to shine upon us?

Jesus describes Himself in these verses as the Light. He is the Light that illuminates our darkness. Now, we don’t physically have Him with us today, but we do have His word. And we have the Holy Spirit. These two things work together to guide us and lead us. But they can’t do Their thing if we don’t actively participate. It’s like buying an exercise video and some equipment and then expecting that act alone to make you lose weight. They don’t work if you don’t engage in them. Well, the word of God and the Holy Spirit do not assist you if you don’t spend time with them and engage them.

But engaging the Holy Spirit is not enough. You have to ruminate in the Word for a bit. You need to think about what you have read. You need to remember what you have read. You need to apply what you have read. And it’s not just you. It’s me. I need to do all those things as well. I need to be more diligent at ruminating on His illuminating.

So let me encourage you (and me) on this very first Monday of 2016 to ruminate. Just ruminate whitest He illuminates.