Ephesians 5:2-4 speaks very strongly about the difference in our lives while living in a sinful world. We are not called to be isolationists, but to be light. We want to engage our culture, and even be aware of its "arts" and media, and yet often we don't like what we see and hear.
I've learned about a new way to watch DVDs, that can make them cleaner than airplane movies, its called ClearPlay. Using a downloaded file, you can play any DVD in a ClearPLay enabled player, and it will seamlessly skip scenes or language, according to settings you set, for the content you don't want to hear or see? See the video at: http://www.familysafemedia.com/clearplay_in_the_news.html
(click on the play button for Clear PLay in the News)
Have you used ClearPlay? How has it worked for you, what do you think? I would appreciate hearing your experiences. It seems like this could be a great way to help families keep from being "surprised" by a scene in what they thought was a clean family movie...
living out new life - ephesians 4 17-32
We heard things were going to be new, different, not like the past, and yet it looks like the same old thing we've known before. That's not what we wanted to see in DC; thats not what we wanted to see closer to home, in my home, in me! God has clearly said the past is enough for the old, it's time to live new (1 Pet 4:3). Paul agrees, and inside of you and I, the new you agrees too.
Because we've been made new, we can live new, and we should, we must, others need to see Christ in us. Given the chance to live, why slip back into the old default of everyday death?
In this passage, godly living stands on gospel truth. Because we've been made new, God gets specific about anger, giving, words we say, things we do--how to live new.
I dare you to ask the question of verses 25-32, "What's new for you?" What should new look like? I don't want this passage be more of what we know, I want it to begin to describe who we look like.
In these very specific and personal ways, we live out new life in Christ, that by His grace looks like Christ, and brings Him praise.
Because we've been made new, we can live new, and we should, we must, others need to see Christ in us. Given the chance to live, why slip back into the old default of everyday death?
In this passage, godly living stands on gospel truth. Because we've been made new, God gets specific about anger, giving, words we say, things we do--how to live new.
I dare you to ask the question of verses 25-32, "What's new for you?" What should new look like? I don't want this passage be more of what we know, I want it to begin to describe who we look like.
In these very specific and personal ways, we live out new life in Christ, that by His grace looks like Christ, and brings Him praise.
a prayer psalm from eph 1-3
God had a plan
God has always had a plan
It was a secret plan that he and only he knew
But now at the end of time God has chosen to reveal it
To reveal it…to us
This was God’s plan:
Before the universe even existed
Before a single star dotted the black velvet of space
God set out to display his glory
And this is how he chose to do it:
He would create a people for himself
He would send his Son to create this people
His Son would give his life to create a holy an blame-free people
And these people would display God’s greatness for all of heaven to see
Sovereign Lord
You alone can open our eyes
To see your awesome design
Help us to see and to grasp and to love
And to you be the glory forever.
So Before he even made the world he chose us
He chose us to be that people
He chose you, he chose me
He didn’ have to
He didn’t need to
But he chose us in his love
Oh it wouldn’t be easy
No, we would run away from God
We would run so far from God that we couldn’t even run back to him
In our rebelion we died
Our souls were dead
We had no hope
God wasn’t even a distant memory
But that didn’t stop God
No, he reached down raised our souls from the dead
He lifted us up from death
And breathed the life of heaven’s blessing into our souls
God made us his children
He made us heirs of a glorious inheritance
Then he handcrafted our lives one by one
He made us his eternal artwork
Artwork for the angels to see and admire
Sovereign Lord
You alone can open our eyes
To see your awesome design
Help us to see and to grasp and to love
And to you be the glory forever.
And this wasn’t just for us
No God is calling all peoples to join this great new people
People with a great heritage of faith…he is calling them
People who’ve never even heard of God or his law before…he is calling them
The old distinctions are gone
Everyone can come
Listen to the voice of God calling out
“There is peace for you if you are close by
There is peace even if you are far away.”
Sovereign Lord
You alone can open our eyes
To see your awesome design
Help us to see and to grasp and to love
And to you be the glory forever.
And God is using each person who comes
Each new member of this people of God
God is building them into a building
God is building a temple, a monument, a cathedral
Jesus is the cornerstone
Another Christian is an archway,
One person is tapesty and another is stained glass
Together we are becoming the grandest structure of all
We are the house of God
And God’s own Spirit will live inside its walls
Then God’s plan will be fulfilled:
We will live in him
And he will live in us
Sovereign Lord
You alone can open our eyes
To see your awesome design
Help us to see and to grasp and to love
And to you be the glory forever.
-Pastor DJ Jackson
God has always had a plan
It was a secret plan that he and only he knew
But now at the end of time God has chosen to reveal it
To reveal it…to us
This was God’s plan:
Before the universe even existed
Before a single star dotted the black velvet of space
God set out to display his glory
And this is how he chose to do it:
He would create a people for himself
He would send his Son to create this people
His Son would give his life to create a holy an blame-free people
And these people would display God’s greatness for all of heaven to see
Sovereign Lord
You alone can open our eyes
To see your awesome design
Help us to see and to grasp and to love
And to you be the glory forever.
So Before he even made the world he chose us
He chose us to be that people
He chose you, he chose me
He didn’ have to
He didn’t need to
But he chose us in his love
Oh it wouldn’t be easy
No, we would run away from God
We would run so far from God that we couldn’t even run back to him
In our rebelion we died
Our souls were dead
We had no hope
God wasn’t even a distant memory
But that didn’t stop God
No, he reached down raised our souls from the dead
He lifted us up from death
And breathed the life of heaven’s blessing into our souls
God made us his children
He made us heirs of a glorious inheritance
Then he handcrafted our lives one by one
He made us his eternal artwork
Artwork for the angels to see and admire
Sovereign Lord
You alone can open our eyes
To see your awesome design
Help us to see and to grasp and to love
And to you be the glory forever.
And this wasn’t just for us
No God is calling all peoples to join this great new people
People with a great heritage of faith…he is calling them
People who’ve never even heard of God or his law before…he is calling them
The old distinctions are gone
Everyone can come
Listen to the voice of God calling out
“There is peace for you if you are close by
There is peace even if you are far away.”
Sovereign Lord
You alone can open our eyes
To see your awesome design
Help us to see and to grasp and to love
And to you be the glory forever.
And God is using each person who comes
Each new member of this people of God
God is building them into a building
God is building a temple, a monument, a cathedral
Jesus is the cornerstone
Another Christian is an archway,
One person is tapesty and another is stained glass
Together we are becoming the grandest structure of all
We are the house of God
And God’s own Spirit will live inside its walls
Then God’s plan will be fulfilled:
We will live in him
And he will live in us
Sovereign Lord
You alone can open our eyes
To see your awesome design
Help us to see and to grasp and to love
And to you be the glory forever.
-Pastor DJ Jackson
Living in the Gospel Ephesians 4:1-16
I don't feel quite up to it this week. It seems the Lord's apostle, by being in a worse place than I, is in a better place than I to urge what needs urging, to "Make the ask."
Many translations don't quite capture the word order of the first verses of Ephesians 4. My free translation from Greek is: Therefore I urge you--I, the prisoner of the Lord--that you live in a way that well represents the calling with which you were called, living with all humility and gentleness, with all long suffering and forbearance toward one another in love, jealously guarding the unity the Spirit has given in our bond together in peace.
Paul is asking for something radical, he is urging us to dive to the bottom of the pile, to take the worst for one another's best. He's asking for much more than here a little, there a little. But Paul can ask, he's given his all--held nothing back.
In comparison, I'm a little embarrassed to urge the same, it seems I've given so little. And yet, hiding in God's grace, I will ask, I will urge, I will call and encourage us all to live in light of our calling. I have to, for I need the reminder--we all do. And by God's grace, he reminds us, calls us, urges us...to Live in the Gospel...
Many translations don't quite capture the word order of the first verses of Ephesians 4. My free translation from Greek is: Therefore I urge you--I, the prisoner of the Lord--that you live in a way that well represents the calling with which you were called, living with all humility and gentleness, with all long suffering and forbearance toward one another in love, jealously guarding the unity the Spirit has given in our bond together in peace.
Paul is asking for something radical, he is urging us to dive to the bottom of the pile, to take the worst for one another's best. He's asking for much more than here a little, there a little. But Paul can ask, he's given his all--held nothing back.
In comparison, I'm a little embarrassed to urge the same, it seems I've given so little. And yet, hiding in God's grace, I will ask, I will urge, I will call and encourage us all to live in light of our calling. I have to, for I need the reminder--we all do. And by God's grace, he reminds us, calls us, urges us...to Live in the Gospel...
Valley of Vision prayer
The following Puritanesque prayer was part of the worship service last Sunday. Several have asked for it so here it is. I hope your somewhere quiet where you can read it, prayit, out loud. May your sould be filled and your prayer answered...
Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory.
Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine;
let me find Thy light in my darkness,
Thy life in my death,
Thy joy in my sorrow,
Thy grace in my sin,
Thy riches in my poverty,
Thy glory in my valley.
Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory.
Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine;
let me find Thy light in my darkness,
Thy life in my death,
Thy joy in my sorrow,
Thy grace in my sin,
Thy riches in my poverty,
Thy glory in my valley.
part of something BIGGER ephesians 3
I was thinking this morning about how I respond when things don't go as I wanted. I tried to do good and yet it was thrown back at me. You gave yourself for someone, and yet it wasn't good enough, your kindness was rejected. We give ourselves for the best of reasons and yet at times bad comes from it. Where is God? Right there. What is He doing? Hmmmm.
The old, and not so satisfying, saying goes something like, "God works in mysterious ways." Its not so much a mystery to be solved as a mystery to wait and see, like a street artist whose initial splashes of paint look like chaos, but in the end, when what we thought was the central part of the image is covered over and something else, much grander, like Christ Himself, is seen instead.
Paul is in prison, his friends feel badly for it, but he wants them to know it is not by chance, but fro God, who is working His plan. And that pan is much more than just leading events on the world stage to His intended end, it is working His intending end in each of us, His children, saints, set apart ones. His greatest, above and beyond power is not just working around us, or even for us, but is working in us, for and to His glory, in the misdt of whatever "stuff" is happening.
The old, and not so satisfying, saying goes something like, "God works in mysterious ways." Its not so much a mystery to be solved as a mystery to wait and see, like a street artist whose initial splashes of paint look like chaos, but in the end, when what we thought was the central part of the image is covered over and something else, much grander, like Christ Himself, is seen instead.
Paul is in prison, his friends feel badly for it, but he wants them to know it is not by chance, but fro God, who is working His plan. And that pan is much more than just leading events on the world stage to His intended end, it is working His intending end in each of us, His children, saints, set apart ones. His greatest, above and beyond power is not just working around us, or even for us, but is working in us, for and to His glory, in the misdt of whatever "stuff" is happening.
Christ-centered community, Ephesians 2:11-22
Remember - the only command given in the first three chapters of Ephesians. We're not told to fix anything, but to fix this thing in our minds. What thing? Grace.
It is by grace that we, who were far away from God and without any hope, have been brought near, boldly before the throne, as if we belong there - and we do - in Christ. Grace in Christ made peace between people and between people and God. All have the same access into His temple, through the torn veil, by faith in Christ's death for us.
If we continue remembering that we began by grace, we are more likely to continue in grace (2:19-22). We continue together as the family He has made us: I belong and I'm needed. We continue founded on His word, that that is centered in Christ himself - its all about Him. Together, by His word, we are formed into a growing temple.
The thing that joins us together and which together we must join in is God's grace in Christ!Trophimus was denied access to the temple (Acts 26), but by grace he is now not only in, he is actually part of the true temple, where God dwells.
And by grace, so are we.
Don't forget it.
It is by grace that we, who were far away from God and without any hope, have been brought near, boldly before the throne, as if we belong there - and we do - in Christ. Grace in Christ made peace between people and between people and God. All have the same access into His temple, through the torn veil, by faith in Christ's death for us.
If we continue remembering that we began by grace, we are more likely to continue in grace (2:19-22). We continue together as the family He has made us: I belong and I'm needed. We continue founded on His word, that that is centered in Christ himself - its all about Him. Together, by His word, we are formed into a growing temple.
The thing that joins us together and which together we must join in is God's grace in Christ!Trophimus was denied access to the temple (Acts 26), but by grace he is now not only in, he is actually part of the true temple, where God dwells.
And by grace, so are we.
Don't forget it.
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