Challenges

 

(photo credit Frida Lannerström)

“Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another.” (Galatians 5:25-26)

Since we have died to ourselves and live in Christ, we have the Spirit living in us, with resultant spiritual fruit. So why then do we seek glory and act conceited about our status, income, heritage, discipline, et cetera? Conceit is sin, not a fruit of the Spirit. Living conceitedly becomes an open challenge to a contest, which leads to battles internal and external, battles waging in our being and with other people. Conceit is our desire to set ourselves up as better or greater than someone else.

That is not all that happens. Conceit can cause other people to sin. Our attempt to grasp glory on earth causes others to believe striving for more attention, for whatever reason, is something to which to attain. This striving comes from envy. Envy is not a spiritual fruit but shows our discontent with and distrust of God and His provision.

The person who seeks glory challenges others to battles. He envies other people’s status. This person's actions create obstacles for others, as they promote their own lifestyle as the ideal. This conceited lifestyle leads to people competing for preeminence in various aspects of life. It causes envy among themselves and discontent and distrust in God.

Jesus Christ does not advocate living in a way to appear superior to others. Consider what Paul wrote about Jesus in Philippians 2:6-7. “(Jesus) who existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant, being made in human likeness.”

Instead, we should live like Jesus through the guidance and gifts of His Holy Spirit who lives in each Christian. Instead of being conceited, quarrelsome, and envious, and instead of causing other people to stumble and follow that same way of life, live life with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Which fruit will you produce: the fruit of the Holy Spirit or the fruit of the flesh?

What do you need to confess to God and give to Him in voluntary submission today? He gives you the ability through His Spirit to take that first step. 

The Reward

The “end” is over,
Timeline erased.
Life ran o’er its course;

Heart completed the race.

One last beating.

One last exhale.
One final eye-blink.
Life ends its brief trail.

What more can be done?

What remains beyond?
Mere mem’ries recalled
At setting of sun.

A psalm said o’er life.

A psalm said o’er death.
Prophecy fulfilled,
Shepherd’s love begets.

Mem’ries of Shepherd’s love;

What was now and not yet,
Becomes now and always
As with Shepherd, they sit.

The Lord is my Shepherd,

Said with understanding in full.
He laid them down in green pastures,
Just as He led them by waters still.

He refreshed and restored them

And led them on righteous paths.
The Shepherd gave them peace and calm,
Walking with them, with His rod and staff.

Before eyes of their enemies

Made He a table for His own.
Anointed their heads with oil;
Son and daughter, He made it known.

Faithful and faultless,

Merciful and good,
The Shepherd never left them;
Through their days of life, He always stood.

Breath and heartbeat gone forever.

Timeline faded away.
Eternity stretched before them,
Because of the Ancient of Days.

Surely goodness and mercy followed them

Through the length of their days.
The “not yet” is now theirs,
To God, we now praise.

     For being their Shepherd,
     the One who gave rest and led.
     For being their Savior,
     their Restorer and Righteousness.
     For being their Conqueror,
     their Peace, Rod, and Staff.
     For being their Provider,
     their Defense and Holiness.
     For being their God
     all their days and night.

To them, all that was, their timeline ran out.

The days of their “not yet” have begun without end.

The reward of a life consecrated by God?

Forever hearing “well done” and eternity with the King,
Singing with the angels, “Praise God and Amen!”

In their lives, they sang with men.

Now with the angels, this song never ends:

The Lord is my Shepherd;

I did not want.
He laid me down in green pastures;
He led me beside still waters.
He restored my soul.
He led me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Yes, though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death, I did not fear evil because You were with me;
Your rod and staff comforted me.
You prepared a table for me in the presence of my enemies.
You anointed my head with oil; my cup overflowed.
Surely goodness and mercy followed me all the days of my life.
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.

Waiting Requires Action

“Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning.”

“Blessed are those servants whom the master finds on watch when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve and will have them recline at the table, and he himself will come and wait on them.”

“You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.” (Luke 12:34, 37, 40)

What do these verses mean? Based on what Jesus taught and lived out, we can understand the meaning. The next paragraphs explain them.

Verses thirty-five challenges it’s readers and hearers by stating the following. Prepare yourself to serve the Master. Know Him. Be in relationship with Him. Grow in knowledge of Him and His Word. Become more like Jesus daily. Tell other people about Jesus and salvation. Have the mind of Christ and prepare to serve God and people by preparing yourself to obey Him. And KEEP doing these things. Don’t give up or faint in your devotion to God.

Verse thirty-seven explains the promise of God by saying the following. Blessed by God from His storehouse of abundance are the servants of the Lord of lords—the Master—when He returns and finds them watching for Him, seeking Him, growing more like Him, and serving Him and others in attitude, thought, and action. Most assuredly, I tell you, the Master, Christ Himself, will be in relationship, will welcome, and will serve His servants as He promised by welcoming them—His saved and obedient followers—and having them sit and recline at His own table, as joint heirs with Him.

Verse forty explains the imperative by meaning the following. You, servants of the Master, must prepare yourselves daily, moment by moment, by being in relationship with God, growing in knowledge of Him and His word, becoming more like Jesus, proclaiming the gospel, and having the mind of Christ, so that you obey Him by serving Him and other people. Why? Because Jesus the Christ will come when you don’t expect Him.

So, expect Christ’s return, be prepared by growing to be more like Him; this is waiting in anticipation for Christ’s return. You will receive His just reward of an eternal inheritance.

Do you know Jesus? Have you believed in Him and received salvation from Him?

If Jesus returns today, will He find you prepared, waiting, and obeying?

"But God"...Love

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)…” (Ephesians 2:4-5)

At the beginning of this two-verse passage, Paul penned, “but God.” He leads readers and hearers to recognize and understand several things in this chapter. Most writers do not write one sentence, then move to another topic. They write so that what they penned before and after a sentence helps give context and understanding to the one sentence considered. In considering this study, we examine verses four and five. Readers and hearers of Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church should strive to understand Ephesians 2:4-5 in context with the other chapters in this letter and the other verses of chapter two. Studying these two words alone does not bring forward the total meaning of the text. Only one two-word sentence in the Bible does not need context to have meaning. John the disciple wrote the famous two-word sentence in John 11:35; it records, “Jesus wept.” This sentence gains context in the surrounding verses. Yet, as a stand-alone sentence, it gives great understanding about Jesus, too. Consider now what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2 by studying verses four and five, along with the surrounding verses.

First, the two words that begin this passage, “but God,” highlight the need to examine Ephesians 2:1-3. Second, verses one through three tell people what they are. For Christians, the three verses tell them what they. These three verses reminded each group of people that they were morally and spiritually dead because of their wrongdoings—their sins. Because people crave for, think about, and act upon things of the flesh, they grow farther away from God. This prevents their relationship with God. In light of these reasons, Paul penned, "but God."

Third, the two small words, “but God,” lead people to consider their present and future. It tells them God intervened in their lives by sending His Son, Jesus, to live and then die a sinless death. God did everything necessary to save people from their sins. People can do nothing to remove themselves from their fleshly ways of thinking and acting, but God can and did.

Fourth, “but God” leads into the action God performed that people cannot do. Paul wrote, “but God…made us alive.” Yes, God made people alive at creation. For Christians, He remade them. God resuscitated them with His divine power, so they are not dead; they are spiritually reborn. God making the believers in Jesus alive renews His and their relationship by removing their wrongdoings (sins), a list next to each person’s name.

Each person deserves judgment because each person sins. Sin separates a person from Holy God. Holiness and unholiness cannot occupy the same place, like light and dark cannot. God's actions bring believers back to life. His action gives a righteous relationship with Him for whoever believes in Jesus, His Son, as their Savior. His death paid the judgment price for each person’s sins.

“But God” tells readers and hearers of Ephesians 2:4-5 about more than what God did for them. It tells them what He is doing and will do for and in them. “But God” tells each reader and listener of God’s promise and gives them their basis for hope. Yes, God saved each Christian by His Son’s death when they trusted in Jesus. Christians need God beyond that one time. We live in a world where Satan and his demons exert power over individuals. We still need saving from the temptations and trials we face daily. God gives Christians His power through His Holy Spirit, who dwells in them from the time of their new birth. He gave them the power to make the right choices. God gives Christians the strength to endure trials as He walks with them through those challenging times. “But God” leads Christians to the promise God gives each of His children; He said he would never leave or forsake His them (Deuteronomy 31:6 and Hebrews 13:5).

That leads us to the future view of “but God.” God did not create people, then leave them to flounder in life, then die. He did not make Christians alive again, only to walk with them on the day of their rebirth. God existed, exists, and will always exist. He is eternal. “But God” tells us of God always being with us. How? By the rebirth (being made alive through faith in Jesus) God gives righteousness in His book of life. God making believers alive gives them life forever with Him. Nothing ever can impede a Christian’s relationship with God. God gives Christians eternal forgiveness, eternal new bodies after their mortal death, and an eternal togetherness/relationship with Him in His kingdom. Believers in Jesus receive eternal life with God: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

“But God” reveals God is working for us and in us, then, now, and forever. God’s activity in a Christian’s life started then and continues into the “not yet.” For this reason, Christians have hope.

More than anything, “but now” opens our eyes and reminds Christians of God’s motivation—His love and desire for a close and personal relationship with each person. Feeling God's love to the fullest, people can rejoice, praise, and thank God for this reason. The feeling you get when you hug a dearly loved one is the feeling believers can have always and during every part of their lives. Paul wrote in verses four and five, “because of His great love with which He loved us…God made us alive even when we were dead in our sins.”

Understand this: God LOVES YOU with the overflowing, unending, super-abundance of His love! “But God, because of His overflowing, timeless, super-abundant love made you alive.” Nothing can separate you from His love, ever. John stated, “For God loved you so much that He sent His only Son that when you believe in Jesus, you will not perish forever separated from God, but you will have eternal life with Him in heaven” (John 3:16).

“But God” tells Christians that He saved and remade them, is with them, and will always be with them on earth and in heaven. God wants an eternal relationship with each person and did everything needed for it to happen.

Ultimately, “but God” tells and reminds each person about God’s overflowing, everlasting, super-abundant love for each person. God daily leads each Christian. God’s leading results in peace because of being in a deep love relationship with God. It leads believers to do the “good works” of God on earth, too.

Paul dictated to his scribe a final lesson in this chapter. He stated that each Christian’s saving relationship with God leads to God building believers together into a holy dwelling place. This dwelling place is in Jesus Christ for God in the Holy Spirit (verse 22). God intended Christians to grow in their relationship with Him and be built with each believer into the body of Christ…

ALL BECAUSE OF GOD’S LOVE.

God’s love was with us and worked for our good in the past, is with us now as we believe in Jesus, and will always be with Christians into eternity.

 

Immediate Belief

 

If You can?” echoed Jesus. “All things are possible to him who believes!” Immediately, the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:23-24)

Belief is not a static activity. You don’t receive it then not use it in life and expect it to be strong. Belief requires the person to exercise faith for it to grow. The father in this passage believed Jesus could do miracles. He was unsure if Jesus would do a miracle for him and his son or if He would do this particular miracle.

Was his uncertainty because he felt lower in status than Jesus? Did he feel he didn’t deserve to be in Jesus’ presence? Was the father afraid people would laugh at him if his son wasn’t healed? Or had the father not grown in his faith so that his belief would include trusting in God’s care for his demon-possessed son’s life?

What keeps you from going to Jesus? Unbelief? Lack of faith growth? Feeling unworthy? Fear of what God and/or people will expect of you from that point? Never giving your dreams and hopes to God, like the hopes the father had for his son’s life? Each person can have these and other blocks to growth in faith in God.

God gives belief to anyone who will accept it. Belief resides in your heart, but it’s not belief until it is acted upon. Faith must be lived out. Each person must wrestle with his doubts of faith and grow stronger in his belief in God. The wrestling is internal. When the wrestling with doubts and faith in God results in positive actions of belief, faith grows.

Will you act upon the belief God gifts to you? 

Wrestle with and toss off your doubts. Grow in your faith in God. Give your doubts to God, like the father in this passage did, and grow closer to Him. You are never alone; God is always with you. Become like the father and immediately believe God can do that for which you need.