Ephesians- Sit, Walk, Stand Wk. 1

Your comments aren't creating communication. (Wow, alliteration is fun!)

So you haven't finished Ephesians or "Sit, Walk, Stand" yet. Take this as an opportunity to pick it up and at least start skimming.

I guess I'll need to start.

chapter 1 verse 3 "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."
I have always felt like I fall pretty short of spiritual blessings. Yet, here I'm told that I have EVERY spiritual blessing...in Christ. I think my vision isn't wide enough. I've always had a tendency to get tunnel vision. I still remember Mr. Bill, when he was teaching me to drive, telling me if I would look up and farther down the road I'd have an easier time staying in my lane than if I kept my focus on the couple of feet right in front of me. I very literally and metaphorically get tunnel vision. I see the standard or perfection in Christ that we as Christians are striving for and see myself in comparison and how completely short I fall from that standard. I don't open up my view to what Christ has and is and can do in me. All the perfection I desire is His and will never originate in me. I don't know if any of you read Ann Voskamp's blog but she had a great article today on procrastination and perfectionism. http://www.aholyexperience.com/2015/01/dear-you-who-doesnt-want-to-do-that-hard-thing/

Yeah I think this blog of mine is going to be more compilations of great links and quotes from others much further ahead of me.

Anyway, we'll continue to talk more about this finished work of Jesus. That't the basis of the beginning of Ephesians and the first part of our book...the "sitting."

verse 6 "...to the praise if His glorious grace(!)"
I love that phrase and it's repeated three times in the first half of the first chapter of Ephesians.

Verse 17 starts the first of Paul's prayers that I encourage you to pray for each other and that I pray for myself as well. "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe."

Then come our "Sit" verses, verse 20, "...which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and SEATED Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms..."
Chapter 2 verse 6, "And God raised us up with Christ and SEATED us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus..."

And another of Paul's prayers begins in chapter 3 verse 16, "I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

I could go on but as Watchman Nee says "...this epistle falls naturally into two sections...The doctrinal section (Chapters 1-3)...setting forth the believer's position in Christ...we note the word sit..." There He points out chapter 2 verse 6 which I mentioned above, "which is the key to that section and the secret of a true Christian experience. God has made us to sit with Christ in the heavenly places, and every Christian must begin his life from that place of rest." So I'll save the other sections for next time.

Finally, I love the very beginning of the introduction Nee gives. "If the life of a Christian is to be pleasing to God, it must be properly adjusted to Him in all things. Too often we place the emphasis in our own lives upon the application of this principal to some single detail of our behavior or of our work for Him." There's that tunnel vision I was talking about in the beginning. Nee goes on to say, "Often we fail, therefore, to appreciate either the extent of the adjustments called for or, at times even, the point from which it should begin. But God measures everything, from start to finish, by the perfections of His Son." Ephesians 1.9-11 "to sum up all things in Christ...in whom also we were made a heritage."
So right now, pick up Sit, Walk, Stand and your Bible and tell me at least one thing that impacted you in the comments. No procrastination :)

And read this blog post from a friend of mine.http://jeanwilund.com/sit-walk-stand-part-one-sit-that-moment-when-most-christians-blow-it/

"Sit, Walk, Stand" Week 1

Alrighty, y'all. (Yes, I use y'all now, all the time. I've been in SC for almost 7 years now!)

The book is called "Sit, Walk, Stand" by Watchman Nee.

Tiny little book, huge topic. I hope it challenges you as much as it has me.

Since Skype isn't working for most of you I thought blog might be the best way to all communicate together. Let me know what you think and if you have any other ideas. I'd love to continue doing Bible studies together so we need to figure something out. I will type up an overview, our "homework" and hopefully some study questions to get us started. Then we'll try to do most of our communication in comments. We'll try it and see how it works.

Sit, Walk, Stand is based on Ephesians. Did you all get my text about reading over Ephesians and noting anything that jumped out at you or impacted you?
Next, read over Ephesians again and mark all the conjugations of the verbs "sit," "walk," and "stand." The NIV (New International Version) does not translate "walk" instead it has "live." I believe the NAS (New American Standard) has "walk." Blueletterbible.org is an awesome online Bible study tool especially if you want to make sure you don't miss a word. It compares translations and can show you everywhere in the Bible a word is used.

Do you all have the book? Now would be a great time to read the Intro.

Finally, here is your chance to share with us your notes and thoughts on Ephesians! Please, lots of comments. I believe you can get notifications every time someone else comments so we can respond to each other. Next week, let's aim for Tuesday again, we'll start with Chapter 1.

I'm excited, I hope this works out!

Love y'all!
Cass