Some centuries ago a nobleman decided to build a church for the people of the surrounding area. On the day of the dedication everyone was awed by the splendor of the architecture and design. But then someone noticed that an important element had been overlooked. There were no lampstands to light the interior of the church. “What will light the church?” they asked. Continue reading
Category Archives: Ephesians
30 Days To A Happier You
I recently ran across the most amazing book. And, let me just say up front, this post is NOT selling a book. In fact, I only have one copy of the book and there is no way you are getting mine from me. But, I can tell you where you can get a copy and it’s not expensive – but it will change your life.
If you want to develop a more positive outlook on life and just be overall happier every day, you must get this book. I guarantee … did you hear that … guarantee this book will change your life in just 30 days – or less. And, it’s not a big book, an expensive book nor hard to read. And, it is NOT the Bible, though I highly recommend that one for a changed life, too. Continue reading
The Message of the SuperMoon
Blood Moons, the SuperMoon, signs in the heavens … I don’t know about all the prophetic insights some folks see in these things. (After all, I have already lived through the end of the world several times – the comet Kohoutek, Y2K, 99 reasons the Lord will return in 1999, the alignment of the planets in 1982 and again in 2000, end of the Mayan Calendar December 21, 2012 and a few others.) I have no idea what the cosmic meaning of a SuperMoon is, I just try to live every day ready for his return.
But, I do know the SuperMoon is caused by the moon being closer than normal to the earth and I saw a message in that.
Are you a missing piece?
Puzzles frustrate me. I find a piece that I know should fit right here and it never does. I could enjoy putting them together if I could use a pair of scissors to modify the pieces and make them go where they should go.
Imagine working for hours to put together a huge puzzle only to find one piece missing. Now that would be doubly frustrating.
Logic would say, “It is only one piece out of a thousand. It isn’t even a central piece in the puzzle. It’s off in a corner. My picture is just fine without it.”
But it doesn’t work that way. There is no way around it, when one piece is missing, that hole becomes the most important spot. Your eye is immediately drawn to that empty space. The 999 pieces are all where they belong but that one missing piece becomes our central focus. Continue reading
I wonder ….
In 1 Kings 2, Solomon takes vengeance on his father’s enemies. God does not condone or condemn it, He just tells us what happened. I wonder if the Lord might be giving us a prophetic picture of what is to come when the Lord Jesus ascends to the throne and takes out all the enemies of the kingdom. For example …
1. Abiathar, the priest.
David said he wanted Solomon to be king but that wasn’t the proper protocol. The law of succession said David’s oldest son should be king. Solomon was not the oldest and, in fact, wasn’t even a legitimate son. Abiathar tried to follow the law and keep Solomon from the throne. He only wanted to obey the law but by doing so he was putting it above the expressed will of the king. Abiathar’s life was spared but he lost his priesthood – ability to minister before the Lord.
Will there be those who inherit eternal life but are not permitted to minister to the Lord because they insisted on clinging to the law refusing to embrace grace? Hmmm … I wonder. Continue reading
What were they doing?!
Reading Acts 13 this morning I was impressed again with the phrase “they were ministering to the Lord.”
As a young believer I was reading Psalms and came across the phrase “Bless the Lord”. I stopped. What? Me, bless Him? I knew He could bless me. But me bless Him? Acts 13 is even more unbelievable – they were “ministering” to Him? How do you minister to the all-powerful, transcendent God?
Then I discovered the problem. I was reading one of those new versions. So I got out the trusty old King James to see what those verses really meant. Guess what. They said the same thing – bless the Lord, minister to the Lord. I sat back in my chair astounded. I don’t want to lose that sense of wonder that we, mere specks of dust in the cosmos, can minister to the Creator of it all. What an unbelievable concept. We can please Him. We can “grieve” Him. What we do impacts Him emotionally. Think about that. What you do today makes a difference in the heart of God. Isn’t that unbelievable?!!
(Zeph 3:17, Eph 4:30, Gen 6:6, Is 62:5)
We couldn’t know that if He hadn’t told us in His Word. Obviously He wants us to know that we matter to Him. We matter so much that what we do touches His heart. We can make His day – or grieve Him. So, I have a choice today – and every day. Will I bring a smile to the heart of God today or be a source of sorrow for Him?
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Zephaniah 3:17
For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.
Real Rolex for 20 dollah!
Ephesians 5:1
Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.
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“Is that a genuine Rolex watch for $20?” Street vendors in Thailand are known for responding to such questions with, “Same. Same. But different.” It is the exact same … only different. It is an imitation.
The Holy Spirit tells us to be imitations of God. To be the “same, same” as God even though we are “different”.
There are cheap imitations that look good on the outside but their inner workings are not the same. Such fakes won’t last. At the first test, they break. Lord, I don’t want to be a cheap imitation.
The Holy Spirit is not telling us to be fake, to masquerade as something we are not. In fact, He is telling us to be what, in Christ, we genuinely are. We have a new nature, a divine nature. We are new creatures, spiritual beings. We have a new mind, the mind of Christ. Imitate God. Be genuine. Live like what we truly are, born again, drawn from God’s gene pool, “his dear children.”
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1 Peter 1:14, 15
So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.
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Living inside out
John 3:1-3
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
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He prayed long, hard and sincerely. He gave faithfully to the work of God. He fasted regularly and was at church every time the doors were open (probably even had a key to get in when it wasn’t open). He had a profound, unshakable belief in God that drove him onward and impacted his daily living. He studied and memorized Scripture and even believed Jesus was sent from God. Sounds like a guy you would want to welcome into your church.
But without pleasantries or pats on the back for all his religious zeal, the first thing Jesus told Nicodemus is that he couldn’t even see the kingdom of God if there was not a radical change in his life. He had to be “born again”. Continue reading
Did God choose me or did I choose Him?
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Ephesians 1:3-13
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit…
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He chose us. When did that happen? Ephesians 1:4 – For he chose us in him before the creation of the world …
But we also had to choose Him. When did that happen? Ephesians 1:13 – And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, … When you believed … Continue reading
The Greatest Miracle in the Bible
“So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped … the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and did not go down for about a whole day.” – Joshua 10:13
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The sun stopped for a day! This is even more miraculous than raising Jesus from the dead. For Moses he stopped some water but here, the sun stopped! Did all the stars and planets stop rotating, too? What of the tides and gravity and all the implications of this complicated cosmic system suddenly grinding to a halt. How about folks on the other side of the planet who had two nights back to back. Absolutely amazing! Why would God do such an astounding thing? Why does it get so little press coverage in the rest of the Bible? Continue reading