Tuesday 30 July 2013

Making desciples

I love the Word of God!  Not only do I think that every word is inspired by the Spirit of God, I believe that this Word is the essence of God's life.  This Word is what He sent to the earth to save it, this Word  is the thoughts and intentions of God made known to us.
This is Jesus whom was generated by God in His thoughts and spoken into existence.  Jesus walked according to this Word making sure that nothing was left hidden about Gods intention towards men.  Jesus had to manifest Gods intention, making sure that His heart was shown, not spoken but displayed.  

I want to invite you on a journey of discovery, a journey of listening, of hearing what God revealed about His intentions toward us.

Let's start with Ephesians.
This is a letter, not statements or wise sayings, the intention for a letter is that it should be red in one go.  We are not going to do that but it means that you should keep track of what was said to understand the progression of the letter. 

Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for the spiritual blessings that Christ has brought us from heaven! (Christ brought something, he didn't come empty handed, there's a gift)
Before the world was created, God had Christ choose us to live with him and to be his holy and innocent and loving people. (Gods intention for man: chosen, holy, innocent and loving, His heart never changed towards us, Never punishment, distance,disease or hatred) 
God was kind and decided that Christ would choose us to be God's own adopted children. God treated us with undeserved grace because of the Son he dearly loves, and so we should praise God. (Praise God for what? Undeserved kindness, His decision not our reward or works, thats how He will always treat us) 
Christ sacrificed his life's blood to set us free, which means our sins are now forgiven. Christ did this because of God's gift of undeserved grace to us.(the price was blood,the gift is grace)
God has great wisdom and understanding,(God knows exactly what He is doing, He understand the effect of His actions, He is responsible. We serve a God with intelligence, He did all of this without us interfering or our council.)
   and by what Christ has done, God has shown us his own mysterious ways( it is not cause and effect, His ways are guided by His character and kindness, His understanding of love not punishment)
Then when the time is right, God will do all he has planned(His plan is that everything He thought about and said will be found in that word,his plans is revealed in His Son), and Christ will bring together everything in heaven and on earth(That His will be done, His Spirit in all.  Our inheritance is sonship). (Ephesians 1:3-10 CEVDCUS06)

God always does what he plans, and this is why he appointed Christ to choose us. He did this so we Jews would bring honor to him and be the first ones to have hope because of him. Christ also brought you the truth, which is the good news about how you can be saved. You put your faith in Christ and were given the promised Holy Spirit to show you belong to God. The Spirit also makes us sure we will be given what God has stored up for his people. Then we will be set free, and God will be honored and praised. (Ephesians 1:11-14 CEVDCUS06)

So if we except that what God gave us in Christ, His power that raised Christ from death, the Holy Spirit, which is the foretaste of what is stored up for us, His People, then we will bring honor to God.  Living trough faith, in a life God planned by taking Him on His Word.  Just believe Him.

I have heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God's people. So I never stop being grateful for you, as I mention you in my prayers. I ask the glorious Father and God of our Lord Jesus Christ to give you his Spirit. The Spirit will make you wise and let you understand what it means to know God. My prayer is that light will flood your hearts and you will understand the hope given to you when God chose you. Then you will discover the glorious blessings that will be yours together with all God's people. I want you to know about the great and mighty power that God has for us followers. It is the same wonderful power he used when he raised Christ from death and let him sit at his right side in heaven. There Christ rules over all forces, authorities, powers, and rulers. He rules over all beings in this world and will rule in the future world as well. God has put all things under the power of Christ, and for the good of the church he has made him the head of everything. The church is the body of Christ and is filled with Christ who completely fills everything. (Ephesians 1:11-23 CEVDCUS06)

No comments:

Post a Comment