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...
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