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/
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7 comments:
Okay, so I have read Ephesians and started sit, walk, stand. I just keep forgetting to post on here (also I don't like going first and I guess no one else does either). Anyway I do think this is a good idea Cass, and I think once we get started it will be easier.
The first thing that stood out to me as I read through Ephesians was that God chose us to be part of his family from the very beginning and he sent Jesus to redeem us because it pleased him to and because he loves us. Of course I already knew this, but I guess I needed the reminder:) I took lots of notes about Ephesians, but it would take forever to go over everything so I will skip to the book. I read the intro and I think it is going to be really good. I like how it breaks up Ephesians and can't wait to read the first chapter. I will try to do better with comments this week, no more procrastination:)
Yay, Pat! Good job being the first one to comment :) I understand about needing the reminders. That's what I like about being in Bible studies. Even though I know Jesus loves me, for the Bible tell me so, etc. I still need the reminders frequently.
Sorry, I'm just a slacker. I jinxed myself the other day when I said the kids play well together. They have been fighting constantly and I keep needing to break up fights every time I sit down to write.
Anyhow, I agree with you both. I need to the reminders too.
I also have tunnel vision and need to work on having better visions and not focusing on one blessing.
So iv'e read Ephesians. And the into to the book Sit Walk Stand and the book is going to be so good and iv'e taken lots of notes on Ephesians. there is alot of things that stood out and impacted me as i was doing that. one thing is what it said about being chosen as part of Gods will and that we are Gods workmanship created in Christ to do good works which he created in advance for us to do. before the creation of the world. that is just amazing. It took me a long time to realise that but now that im going to be teaming for a Chrisalis weekend i really believe. that i have been chosen and called to do that as part. of his will. i alse agree with you all about needing reminders. sorry i took so long to comment. i will try to work on that!
"We began our Christian life by depending not upon our own doing but upon what he had done. Until a man does this he is no Christian; for to say, "I can do nothing to save myself; but by his grace God has done everything for me in Christ" is to take the first step in the life of faith. The Christian life from start to finish is based upon this principle of utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus. There is no limit to to the grace God is willing to bestow upon us. He will give us everything, but we can receive
none of it except as we rest in him. "Sitting is an attitude of rest. Something has been finished, work stops, and we sit. It is paradoxical, but true, that we only advance in the Christian life as we learn first of all to sit down."
I never thought of it like this. There is nothing I need to do, nothing I can do for God. He has done everything for me and will give me all I need. All we need to do is sit and "rest our whole weight- our load, ourselves, our future, everything- upon the Lord. We let him bear the responsibility and cease to carry it ourselves."
Some of my favorite verses are Ephesians 2:8-9, "for it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and it is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast." I love that it is written so clearly that nothing we do can save us, only God. It is a gift not something that we can earn. No one can say that they saved themselves, only God's grace can save us. Watchman Nee says that we begin with sitting and enjoying what God has done for us. Putting our full burden on God and depending only on him.
Ephesians 5:20 says "always give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." I have a problem with just taking things for granted, I need this reminder to take a minute and say thank you.
In the intro to the book I like the way it is explains Ephesians. We start with sitting in a place of rest, then we are challenged to walk as Christians and finally to stand against the enemy.
Ok, Pat and Leen. I'm not really playing devil's advocate here, but something I've been thinking about...James 2.24 "You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." A church I drive by has that verse on their sign at the same time as I was working through "Sit". What do you think?
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