Father, here I am still in this passage of Eph 4.
Eph 4:3 Be eager and strive earnestly to guard and keep the harmony and oneness of (produced by) the Spirit in the binding power of peace. (NAS bond of peace)
Col 3:14 And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
John 17:23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
Eph 4:13 until we all attain unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
The word unity is used four times in the N.T.
The word “bond” by itself is used only twice in the N.T., in Eph 4:3 and in Col 3:14.
Its meaning is “that which binds together”.
In the passage of John 17:23 Jesus says “I in them and You in Me.”; Your fullness and completeness in Jesus IS perfect unity. You are the perfect example to us of unity, of oneness. Jesus is the bond by which we are united to You, Father. We have perfect union with you through His blood by which we have become a dwelling of Your Spirit.
And Your Spirit produces the bond of peace (Eph 4:3).
Peace is what the world desires. The love is what it seeks. The lost do not know they seek Your divine Love. As believers we seek the same, but we have the truth. We have You, and we have Jesus, and we have the Holy Spirit Who leads us in the Truth. We have perfect Love.
In Col 3:14 You say “And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” “All these things..” are the wonderful characteristics of Your Spirit. But love is the uniting bond of perfectness. It is Your love for us which enables us to have the perfect peace that only believers can have. And as we learn to walk, to experience Your love for us moment by moment, it will open the gates of our hearts and allow it to flow to the world and other believers also.
Love is the perfect bond of unity because the Spirit’s indwelling us enables us to love in a divine way. This divine love produces peace through which the unity of the Spirit is bound together. This peace from You, Father, flows into our hearts and binds us to other believers. It brings unity and harmony to Your people.
Love, unity and peace cannot be divided. If we have one, we have the others.
This is Your desire for Your Body. Without these we are unable to see people as You see them—redeemed, forgiven, and accepted.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
He Led Captive
You have had me “stuck” in Eph 4 Father. Unity of the Body of Christ.
Especially today :8 which says He ascended on high,
He led captive a host of captives.
And He gave gifts to men.
Jesus captivated a host of captives. He defeated, He was victorious over all the enemies of God and man. He defeated death, sin, devil, and freed us from all curses.
What is coming to my mind is what Your Son went through to gain my freedom and to have a Body that walks in the love and freedom You and He paid such a high price for.
It cannot be measured….this price.
How can my finite mind understand, know the depths of suffering and pain Jesus went through, what He had to suffer, to free those who were chosen to be His?
All things in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible (Col 1:16) were created by Him and for Him. He reigned in Heaven, glorious, magnificent King of all the Ages.
How can this human mind comprehend the LOVE that compelled Him to become as we are and to go to the Cross and suffer as He did?
Jesus took upon Himself every wrong thought I have ever had ; He took every selfish, sneaky act, all my words spoken in anger, frustration, unbelief and every act done with wrong motives or emotions; He took all the times I heard Your Spirit’s prompting and failed to obey. There is not one transgression that He did not take into Himself for me. And for the world. To multiply one person’s life of sin by the billions…..and to comprehend the cost it took for Jesus to obey You Father, is something impossible for my finite mind.
But Praise to my King, Your Spirit is able to lead us in this understanding. And with each breath of understanding, comes the transformation of my heart to the image of the Risen King. Each word of truth brings light to the Cross.
Open my eyes to Your truths today.
Especially today :8 which says He ascended on high,
He led captive a host of captives.
And He gave gifts to men.
Jesus captivated a host of captives. He defeated, He was victorious over all the enemies of God and man. He defeated death, sin, devil, and freed us from all curses.
What is coming to my mind is what Your Son went through to gain my freedom and to have a Body that walks in the love and freedom You and He paid such a high price for.
It cannot be measured….this price.
How can my finite mind understand, know the depths of suffering and pain Jesus went through, what He had to suffer, to free those who were chosen to be His?
All things in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible (Col 1:16) were created by Him and for Him. He reigned in Heaven, glorious, magnificent King of all the Ages.
How can this human mind comprehend the LOVE that compelled Him to become as we are and to go to the Cross and suffer as He did?
Jesus took upon Himself every wrong thought I have ever had ; He took every selfish, sneaky act, all my words spoken in anger, frustration, unbelief and every act done with wrong motives or emotions; He took all the times I heard Your Spirit’s prompting and failed to obey. There is not one transgression that He did not take into Himself for me. And for the world. To multiply one person’s life of sin by the billions…..and to comprehend the cost it took for Jesus to obey You Father, is something impossible for my finite mind.
But Praise to my King, Your Spirit is able to lead us in this understanding. And with each breath of understanding, comes the transformation of my heart to the image of the Risen King. Each word of truth brings light to the Cross.
Open my eyes to Your truths today.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Absolutely Amazing
Father, I have just read a story about Your amazing love.
It is When Heaven Weeps by Ted Dekker.
It came to my mind this a.m. when my thoughts turned toward Your deep love for me and for Your body.
You have a passionate love for us. Passionate is defined by Webster as an intense feeling.
You pursue us with this passionate love of Yours toward us. You desire us to experience it to the fullest measure.
The main character is addicted and dependent on her supplier. She repeatedly, over and over again, returns to drugs and the one who keeps her in bondage. Even when a man comes into her life and who pours out to her the God given love You put in his heart.
Even when this man blesses her with gifts, with compassion, and even marries her, she still returns over and over. At one point I even said "...not again!"
He continues to pursue her, to forgive her, even in the face of deathly circumstances.
But as this came to my mind this morning, it just reaffirmed to me how unconditional Your divine love is. How amazing that even as we walk so imperfectly in this life's journey, You continue to pursue us by loving us as we are.
We try and try and try to overcome our weaknesses by our own discipline or strength. Yet the core of the power to overcome flows from the fountain of Your life within us. Out of that fountain flows Your love, Your forgiveness, not only of ourselves, but of others.
Yes, Father, You are an amazing God; the only One true and living God who has loved me with an everlasting love.
Jer 31.3 The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore, I have drawn you with lovingkindness.
It is When Heaven Weeps by Ted Dekker.
It came to my mind this a.m. when my thoughts turned toward Your deep love for me and for Your body.
You have a passionate love for us. Passionate is defined by Webster as an intense feeling.
You pursue us with this passionate love of Yours toward us. You desire us to experience it to the fullest measure.
The main character is addicted and dependent on her supplier. She repeatedly, over and over again, returns to drugs and the one who keeps her in bondage. Even when a man comes into her life and who pours out to her the God given love You put in his heart.
Even when this man blesses her with gifts, with compassion, and even marries her, she still returns over and over. At one point I even said "...not again!"
He continues to pursue her, to forgive her, even in the face of deathly circumstances.
But as this came to my mind this morning, it just reaffirmed to me how unconditional Your divine love is. How amazing that even as we walk so imperfectly in this life's journey, You continue to pursue us by loving us as we are.
We try and try and try to overcome our weaknesses by our own discipline or strength. Yet the core of the power to overcome flows from the fountain of Your life within us. Out of that fountain flows Your love, Your forgiveness, not only of ourselves, but of others.
Yes, Father, You are an amazing God; the only One true and living God who has loved me with an everlasting love.
Jer 31.3 The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore, I have drawn you with lovingkindness.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
The Proper Portion
Eph 4:7
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Eph 3’2 ..if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you.
Father, You stopped me on these two verses. I don’t completely understand 4:7 but ask You to help me with it.
In Eph 3:2 Paul says that the stewardship of Your grace was given to him….that is what caught my heart.
For whom was it given? For us, for believers. I have admittedly thought of grace as something that enables us in our weaknesses, in times of our need; something for us and extending it also to others. This is all true.
But this verse clearly states that Paul is a steward of your grace, which also means that I am a steward of Your grace.
Thinking of it as something to steward is a little different than how I thought of it before. It truly is a gift, something to share with the body of Christ, with the lost.
Oikonomos is the Greek word used for steward. The definition is:
the manager of household or of household affairs esp. a steward, manager, superintendent (whether free-born or as was usually the case, a freed-man or a slave) to whom the head of the house or proprietor has entrusted the management of his affairs, the care of receipts and expenditures, and the duty of dealing out the proper portion to every servant and even to the children not yet of age.
A steward was to manage and oversee his boss’s business. The words “proper portion” seems to me to be a key thing. We are to give out the proper proportion of what You have given to us, according to Your purposes.
You have given us above all else – Your love. I am to be a steward of Your love. It is given to me for a purpose, for many purposes. And one of those purposes is “dealing out the proper portion to every servant and even to the children not yet of age.”
Proper portion. What is the proper portion? There is no set measure is there Father? Because Your love surpasses human knowledge (Eph 3:19) and its depth has no end.
Only you know the “proper portion” at any given moment. Your Holy Spirit tells us what that “proper portion” is as we go through our day.
Your Holy Spirit leads us in our “stewardship” of Your love. You are a generous God, Father. You have a deep well of love that You pour out to us every moment of the day and You desire that we not only receive every bit of it, but that we steward it out to the world. Even to the “children not yet of age”; this reminds me of brothers and sisters in Christ who are struggling, who have not matured, who need the expression of Your love in their life.
Help me Father, to be a good steward of Your love for the sake of Your Body.
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Eph 3’2 ..if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you.
Father, You stopped me on these two verses. I don’t completely understand 4:7 but ask You to help me with it.
In Eph 3:2 Paul says that the stewardship of Your grace was given to him….that is what caught my heart.
For whom was it given? For us, for believers. I have admittedly thought of grace as something that enables us in our weaknesses, in times of our need; something for us and extending it also to others. This is all true.
But this verse clearly states that Paul is a steward of your grace, which also means that I am a steward of Your grace.
Thinking of it as something to steward is a little different than how I thought of it before. It truly is a gift, something to share with the body of Christ, with the lost.
Oikonomos is the Greek word used for steward. The definition is:
the manager of household or of household affairs esp. a steward, manager, superintendent (whether free-born or as was usually the case, a freed-man or a slave) to whom the head of the house or proprietor has entrusted the management of his affairs, the care of receipts and expenditures, and the duty of dealing out the proper portion to every servant and even to the children not yet of age.
A steward was to manage and oversee his boss’s business. The words “proper portion” seems to me to be a key thing. We are to give out the proper proportion of what You have given to us, according to Your purposes.
You have given us above all else – Your love. I am to be a steward of Your love. It is given to me for a purpose, for many purposes. And one of those purposes is “dealing out the proper portion to every servant and even to the children not yet of age.”
Proper portion. What is the proper portion? There is no set measure is there Father? Because Your love surpasses human knowledge (Eph 3:19) and its depth has no end.
Only you know the “proper portion” at any given moment. Your Holy Spirit tells us what that “proper portion” is as we go through our day.
Your Holy Spirit leads us in our “stewardship” of Your love. You are a generous God, Father. You have a deep well of love that You pour out to us every moment of the day and You desire that we not only receive every bit of it, but that we steward it out to the world. Even to the “children not yet of age”; this reminds me of brothers and sisters in Christ who are struggling, who have not matured, who need the expression of Your love in their life.
Help me Father, to be a good steward of Your love for the sake of Your Body.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)