Posts
timewithgod.blog-city.com — March 2007
Ephesians 1:5-10 What it feels like being a scrub player, yet getting a permanent spot on the first team
amazing
Because of something God did in my life, I am able to better get a handle on something He's talking about here.
My two boys were both living in Ukrainian orphanages, and the potential for their lives was dismal. At 16, they would have most likely been put out with a monthly payment of $25 on which to get by. Having no family or home (and no prospect of getting either), they would truly have been out on their own and likely would have either turned to a life of crime, or been entrapped by alcoholism as they simply attempted to endure their miserable existence.
Simply getting them to America and saying, "Okay, you're on you own, now" might even have been a step up for them. It would have "saved" them from much of what they might have experienced otherwise. But I didn't stop there. I also made them my sons. They gained the privileges and responsibilities of being in my family and someday what I have will be theirs. Even now they share indirectly in what I own.
My commentary says that's the extra step God took with us, too. He could have simply saved us. That's what verse 4 said He did before the world was made. That official term is "election". It says, "He chose us before the world was made so that we could be His holy PEOPLE...." Election made us His willing subjects. But God didn't stop there. Verse 5 continues, "Because of His love, God had already decided to make us His own children.... that is what He wanted to do and what pleased Him." That is called "predestination" according to my commentary, and it added: "Why did He do that??? Simply because of His good pleasure. He couldn't be satisfied until He had surrounded Himself with sons, conformed to the image of His only begotten Son, with him and like Him forever."
I didn't travel to Ukraine and adoption them just so others would think that I'd done some great humanitarian deed. I WANTED sons! It pleased me to think that I could have sons! That's what God was wanting with us!
Though I hear it more about Josh than Joseph, still today people are quick to remark about how much my sons look like me. I remember early on I was telling a receptionist at a dentist's office about Josh's adoption, and a woman listening in almost fell out of her chair. She couldn't believe that he wasn't my bio son, we resembled each other so closely!
And that's what God desires for us. He has one BIO Son, and He chose to adopt us into His family to be like Him, so that when people see us, they know we are part of God's family without a doubt.
Verse 7 brings up a separate additional matter -- redemption. In the adoption of my sons, besides the cost of traveling to and from Ukraine, and my living expenses while I was there, I had fees to pay all along the way. Any failure or refusal to do so would have meant that the boys could not have become mine. It wasn't quite like they had "a price on their heads" that had to be removed, but Ukraine certainly would not allow them to leave if all fees had not been paid. With no money of their own, I stepped in and paid the fees for them.
Likewise, we could not possibly pay the price for our sins -- past, present and future -- we were spiritual orphans. Jesus stepped up and paid everything in full with His blood and death on the cross, and bought us for Himself and for God. Just as Ukraine no longer had a monetary claim on my sons once I paid, sin no longer holds a claim on us because of Christ's payment.
My commentary adds, "The measure of our forgiveness is given in the words "according to the riches of His grace." If we can measure the riches of His grace, then we can measure how fully He has forgiven us. His grace is infinite. So is His forgiveness."
Thanks for helping me understand these terms, Father, and for using what You've already don in my life to help me see a picture of just what You and Jesus have done for me and planned before the world was made -- even before I showed how totally undeserving of Your love I really am. Now I have an idea how my boys must have felt....
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Ephesians 1:11-23 Prayers for understanding
Boy, I need them
Paul's prayers asking God to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation are certainly needed here. There's a lot that ordinary folks like me won't be able to understand about all of this. I can only pick out small pieces as examples:
In verse 12, my commentary says that we are "trophies of the grace of God, exhibiting what He can do with such unlikely raw materials, and thus bringing glory to Him." I never thought of myself as one of God's trophies!
Paul prays both prayers of thanksgiving and intercession. It says, "Thanksgiving is for the foundation already laid, but intercession is for the superstructure going up.... Thanksgiving is for the actual in their experience, but intercession is for the possible in God's purposes for them."
One writer said something like this: "Just think about the rapid discoveries men are making right now, revealing the structure of the universe down to the tiniest subparticle of an atom. Now, imagine what there is that God could show us about Himself that would make that pale in comparison!"
About verse 18, it also says, "It's certainly an exhibition of unspeakable grace that vile, unworthy sinners, saved through Christ could ever occupy such a place in the hart of God that He would speak of them as His inheritance!"
And one more regarding verse 20: "The location is described as in the heavenly places. This indicates that the phrase includes the dwelling place of God. That is where the Lord Jesus is today in a literal body of flesh and bones, a glorified body no longer capable of dying. Where He is, we soon shall be." I now that He was given a resurrection body, but how often do I wrap my mind around Him being flesh and blood yet living with God!
Father, please expand my ability to know and understand more about You. Already it is far more than I can stand!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Ephesian 2:1-10 Refreshed concepts of sin and how others will take hearing about it
wow
I am stunned once again by just how deep all of this is -- like peeling back layers of an onion! My commentary amazed me with the additional insight it provided!
It said that what is described in these verses makes Cinderella's rags-to-riches story pale in comparison. This is how it described us before we were saved: "Lifeless toward God, having no vital contact with Him, living as if He didn't exist, indulging in sin, led around by Satan and willingly obedient to Him." What a shame that can often still be said about us when we get away from Him.
It continues: "Paul himself had lived an outwardly moral life on the whole, but now he realized how self-centered it was. And what he WAS, IN HIMSELF, was a LOT worse than anything he had ever DONE."
I'd been relooking at sins of thought this week as part of the Downpour Bible study, wondering just how sinful they really were, if no act was ever committed. F. B. Meyer says, "It is as ruinous to indulge the desires of the mind as those of the flesh. By the marvelous gift of imagination, we may indulge unholy fancies, and throw the reins on the neck of the steeds of passion -- always stopping short of the act. No human eye follows the soul when it goes forth to dance with satyrs or to thread the labyrinthine maze of the islands of desire. It goes and returns unsuspected by the nearest. Its credit for snow-white purity is not forfeited. It is still permitted to watch among the virgins of the Bridegroom's advent. But if this practice is unjudged and unconfessed, it marks the offender a son of disobedience and a child of wrath."
Wow! Guess I got my answer! What I really hate is not so much that, after reading it, I want to say, "Darn it!", but instead I hate the fact that the sin in my mind causes me to WANT to say "Darn it!" I should be wanting to agree with God, rather than arguing "No harm, no foul" with Him.
Verse 6 says that, being saved, we are seated in Him in the heavenly places in Christ. "This is how God sees us. If we appropriate that by faith, it will change the character of our lives. We will no longer be earthbound, occupied with the trivial and transient. We will seek those things which are above. ..... Christ Jesus is our Representative; therefore His triumphs and His position are ours. George Williams exclaims: "Amazing thought! That a Mary Magdalene and a crucified thief should be the companions in glory of the Son of God!"
One other thing really got me. Our sin-based minds here on earth cause us to recoil with the thought of others knowing our sins. Yet verse 7 indicates that, in heaven, they will gladly be used as teaching tools! The commentary says, "Throughout the ages, God will be unveiling to the heavenly throng what it cost Him to send His Son to this jungle of sin, and what it cost the Lord Jesus to bear OUR sins at the cross. Now it follows that if God will be disclosing this through eternity, then we (and all others, of course) will be learning forever and ever. Heaven will be our school, God will be our teacher. His grace will be the subject." And we'll all be constantly saying, "WOW!" as He reveals what that grace did in bringing each sinner with all of his sins into life with Him. What a change from the way our minds react to that news here and now!
Father, thank You for providing such a direct answer to a direct prayer request. Your timing is so amazing. I can't wait to be in Your class forever in a body that will be capable of paying full attention and never feeling sleepy!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Ephesian 2:11-12 Orphaned and didn't even know it
that was us
These two verses really hold shock and awe for us if we stop to think that they applied to us as non-Jews before our conversion.
So many of us have never had to endure racial or ethnic slurs, yet here my commentary says that the name "uncircumcised" was an ethnic slur -- one can almost imagine the Jews needing to spit to cleanse their mouths after uttering it. We weren't God's chosen earthly people, set apart for Him. We were foreigners to God, and if we wanted to worship Him we'd have had to convert to Judaism to do so, because the Jewish Temple was the only place on earth where men could approach God, and Gentiles were forbidden to enter it.
We were truly without hope. My commentary adds that nationally, we had no assurance that our government would survive, and individually we had no hope beyond the grave. We were without God in the world, with no expectation of a Messiah. We did not KNOW the one and only true God.
Realizing all of this, rereading those verses really brings it all home -- but for Christ, we had no hope:
"You were not born Jewish. You are the people the Jews called 'uncircumcised' ..... Remember that in the past you were without Christ. You were not citizens of Israel, and you had no part in the agreements with the promise God made to His people. You had no hope, and you did not KNOW God."
As my dad often said about his family's circumstances with 11 kids on a dirt farm during the Great Depression, "We didn't know how poor we were!" It's only in the looking back that we can really realize from whence we've come.
Father, it's way too easy to take for granted what we have in You now. Spiritually, as non-Jews before finding Christ, we had even less hope than my boys did before You brought me to them in their orphanages. Help us never, ever to forget nor take for granted the absolutely incredible riches we've been given by the mere fact that we've been adopted into Your family by the sacrifices Your Son made for us.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Ephesian 2:13-18 Recognizing Daddy
don't let it take too long
Paul helped the Ephesians discover several incredible privileges posses by those "in Christ" which are totally undeserved. Non-Jews had always been far from God. And even Jews had felt a distance from Him. Their one-man-one-day-a-year system of talking to God through the High Priest was over for those now "in Christ". They'd discovered a nearness they'd never known. Now the Gentile believers could do the same!
The peace Jesus brought was remarkable. My commentary says that a Jew who believes in Christ loses his national identity, since he is now a Christian. When a Gentile believes in Christ, he too is no longer a Gentile but instead a Christian. Jesus also broke down the wall of hate between the two, for those of each group who are now "in Him".
The Law that the Jews had embraced was completely satisfied in Christ. "Now the Law has nothing more to say to those who are 'in Christ'," my commentary says. "It still speaks to Jews and Gentiles, but not to this new, third class of people -- the church of God," it adds.
It also noted that "God never needed to me reconciled to us; He never hated us. But we needed to be reconciled to Him."
Something else new occurred with Jesus' resurrection. For the first time ever, believers could address the God of the Universe as "father". "No OT saint ever knew God as Father. Before the resurrection of Christ, man stood before God as creatures before the Creator. It was after He rose that He said, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father." Our adoption was complete.
In the same way, in Ukraine, Josh could call me "Papa" all he wanted, but until the act, it wasn't a fact.
Father, thank You for the incredible thing You did -- taking both Gentiles like us who had no hope, and Jews who only hoped, and gave us both peace and assurance that we could call You Father, if we believed in Your Son. I just hate it that it took so long before I finally understood, with You, what my son understood about me the minute that we met. Forgive me for taking so long.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Ephesian 2:13-18 Construction and adoption
both happening with every believer
Paul wants us to realize how incredibly privileged we are in our new position compared to how the Gentiles stood before Christ:
1) We are no longer strangers and foreigners
2) We are now fellow citizens of God's kingdom
3) We are now members of the household of God
4) We are now members of the church -- stones in the construction of a holy temple
In something that reminded me of my boys' adoptions, my commentary says, "Not only have they [the Gentiles] been "super-naturalized" into the divine kingdom, they have been adopted into the divine family." My neighbor was a Canadian who had to wait years to get to become a naturalized American citizen. But my boys were both "super-naturalized", for the instant they set foot on American soil, they became American citizens. But not only that. They were also adopted into my family.
Paul's building analogy gives us a lot to think about. First, the [NT, not OT] prophets and apostles, my commentary says, were not the foundation (that is Christ), but they laid the foundation for the church through their teaching.
The word for cornerstone used to describe Christ, has 3 possible meanings, it says, with a wealth of info contained in each. If it means our traditional cornerstone at a lower front corner of a building, it's something that sets the trueness of the walls and the rest of the structure seems to be supported by it. It also joins 2 walls together [Jews and Gentiles??].
If it means the keystone of an arch, it occupies the highest place in the arch and provides support for the other stones. It's indispensable -- remove it, and the rest will collapse.
If it means the capstone of a pyramid, it occupies the highest place in the structure, it is the only stone of that size and shape, and its angles and lines determine the shape of the whole pyramid.
They are all pretty accurate descriptions of Christ's role as head of the church!
It also noted the unity and symmetry of this temple: "...the whole building, being fitted together." "Each member has a specific place in the building for which he or she is exactly suited. [Get ready -- this next sentence bowled me over...] "Stones excavated from the valley of death by the grace of God are found to fit together perfectly." Wow!
This building also grows -- not like my house has over the last few months by adding concrete and wood, but in the way that a living organism grows. Imagine a home where you could turn a dial and "size-up" a room, watching it stretch and expand, rather than having a too-small room with another added on!
A final comment I liked: "The tremendous dignity of the believers' position is that they form a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. This is the purpose of the temple -- to provide a place where God can live in fellowship with His people." Perhaps we should regularly check to see that our purpose is being fulfilled or hindered.
Father, thanks for showing me that I am an integrated part of the whole, "working together to form a center from which praise, worship, and adoration ascend to You through our Lord Jesus Christ."
An additional side note for today: Yesterday I received word that Ukraine just passed a law that effectively ends adoption by single parents who are not Ukrainian citizens. I count myself to be the most blessed man on earth, that God got me there twice, in His timing, to find my sons before the world closed off that opportunity. Thank You for my wonderful sons, Father, and for loving all of us enough to keep the door open until we found each other!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Ephesians 3:1-12 and our inheritance (we're billionaires)
spiritually
I think Paul wanted to more than assure us that we "Gentiles" were more than just adopted orphans who'd been given a chance by God because we believed in Christ. In verse 6, he said that God had revealed to him that we are fellow heirs, fellow members, and fellow partakers of His promise in Christ. An Old Testament Jew would have laughed at such a suggestion. But my commentary says that what they couldn't see was that "Israel was primarily though not exclusively called to temporal blessings in earthly places while the church is called primarily to spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Israel was called to be God's chosen earthly people, while the church was called to be the heavenly Bride of Christ. Israel will be blessed under the rule of Christ in the millennium, while the church will reign with Him over the entire universe, sharing His glory." I think we are getting the better end of the deal!
In v. 8, Paul calls himself "less than the least of all the saints. My commentary says this isn't "mock humility". "Actually it is the true self-estimate of one who is filled by the Holy Spirit. Anyone who see Christ in His glory realizes his own sinfulness and uselessness." That goes right along with our Downpour Bible study.
He also mentions in this verse the unsearchable riches of Christ, and my commentary adds: "Two attractive words ... conveying the idea of the things that are most precious being infinitely abundant -- riches of compassion, of love, of merit, of sanctifying, of comforting, and transforming power, all without limit, and capable of satisfying every want, craving, and yearning of the heart, now and evermore. When a person trusts the Lord Jesus, he immediately becomes a spiritual billionaire."
Finally, I love verse 12, which says that, because of what Christ did for us, we now have "the unspeakable privilege of entering into God's presence at any time, in full confidence of being heard, and without any fear of being scolded."
Father, thank You for allowing me to share in all of these wonderful privileges -- to think that I can call the Creator of the universe "Father" and come before You at any time, unbidden, and still find Your welcoming embrace!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Ephesians 3:14-21 I never dreamed what he was asking
huge request
My commentary blew me away, telling me the incredibleness of what Paul was asking for believers. Everything below is from my commentary. I'd never thought of "processing" this prayer in the way it did:
Paul asked that God would grant us "according to the riches of His glory." He's asking that we be spiritually strengthened. How much so? Not according to the narrowness of our hearts, but according to God's riches. And it says that Paul did not say "out of God's riches." "Out of" simply could be a $5 contribution from a billionaire. But "according to" is "in proportion to." Imagine that! "Since the Lord is infinitely rich in glory, let the saints get ready for a deluge! (shades of Downpour!) Why should we ask so little of so great a King? When someone asked a tremendous favor of Napoleon, it was immediately granted because, said Napoleon, "He honored me by the magnitude of his request."
Paul's requests should be thought of as a pyramid, it says -- one building on another:
1) spiritual power -- the spiritual vigor needed to be mature, stable, intelligent Christians.
2) We are strengthened like this so that Christ may dwell in our hearts -- "It's a question of His feeling at home there -- that He might have full access to every room and closet ... making our heart the home of Christ -- the place where He loves to be -- like the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.... This involves constant dependence on Him, constant surrender to Him, and constant recognition of His "at home-ness".
3) He asks that as a result of all this, we become rooted and grounded in love.
It also mentioned a pyramiding of words in verse 20, and it unstacked them to help us see how superabundant these blessings are when God is granting such a vast request:
Able
Able to do
Able to do what we ask
Able to do what we think
Able to do what we ask or think
Able to do all that we ask or think
Able to do above all that we ask or think
Able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think
Able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.
It also adds, "The more we are yielded to Him, the greater will be His effectiveness in conforming us to Christ."
What a PRAYER, Father..... for me, too!! I'll ask this huge request for myself and honor You in doing so. Send the deluge, Father!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Ephesians 4:1-3 What not to do
no scrapping in church
In walking the Walk, we are shown several traits that we should exhibit so that others will see Christ in us (from my commentary):
1) Lowliness: genuine humility that comes from knowing the Lord ... it makes us conscious of our own nothingness and enables us to esteem others better than ourselves.
2) Gentleness: the attitude that submits to God's dealings without rebellion, and to man's unkindness without retaliation.
3) Longsuffering: an even disposition and a spirit of patience under prolonged provocation
4) Bearing with one another in love: making allowance for the faults and failures of others, or differing personalities, abilities, and temperaments. And it is not a question of maintaining a facade of courtesy while inwardly seething with resentment. It means positive love to those who irritate, disturb, or embarrass.
"The spiritual reaction when differences arise is this: In essentials, unity. In doubtful questions, liberty. In all things, clarity."
And this sentence from my commentary should scare each of us: "There is enough of the flesh in every one of us to wreck any healthy church or any other work of God. Therefore, we must submerge our own petty, personal whims and attitudes, and work together in peace for the glory of God and for common blessing."
Father, please remind me when I fail to exhibit these traits, and help others to understand their part in any disagreements as well. Build us up in unity. Don't let me ever tear down through stubbornness what You build up.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Ephesians 4:4-12 Appreciating the role of others
needed
"One hope" sounds terribly forlorn and desperate, almost as if its failure to occur would result in sure doom. In fact, that is what unbelievers are facing. The verse says that God called all believers to have one hope -- eternal life through His Son Jesus Christ. Indeed, hoping in anything or anyone other than Him is missing not just God's absolute best for us, but also the very least we could expect from Him -- eternal life. And with that one hope snuffed out, how hopeless life would be. But so many fail to see it that way.
Verse 6 likewise speaks of One God. He definitely IS God over all creation, but He is only Father to believers. He rules everything, and He acts through everything, using everything to accomplish His purposes.
Best of all, the Bible says that God Himself is in everything, meaning that "He dwells in all believers and is present in all places at one and the same time."
Paul looked at how believers should relate to one another in the church. Yes, there is supposed to be unity among believers. But there is also to be diversity: "Each member has a particular role assigned. No two members are alike, and no two have exactly the same function." How we need to realize that about others!
I love the way this next part is worded, too: "In order to assist EACH child of God to find and fulfill his function, the Lord has given some special gifts of ministry or service to the church." In other words, we are to be used by God to help others to find Him, and find His will for them, so that they can fulfill in Him their functions. It's not all about us then, is it?
Finally, this caught my eye: "We should be careful to distinguish between divine gifts and natural talents. No unsaved person, however talented, could be an evangelist, pastor, or teacher in the New Testament sense. Neither could a CHRISTIAN, for that matter, unless he has received that particular gift. The gifts of the Spirit are supernatural. They enable a man to do what would be humanly impossible for him."
Father, too often I focus on myself and my role in Your church and as a result I fail to see, understand, and appreciate the role others are playing and how their ministry or service helps me. Give me a deeper appreciation of them, Father.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
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