Category: Ephesians

  • A Fish Tail – Lessons in Humility

    I stared off to the west at an unusually shaped cloud. It looked  just like a giant fish tail. It was as if a big fish was chasing the sun over the horizon.

    I had read Jonah recently, and that story came immediately to mind. When we think of biblical characters we want to be like, Jonah never comes to mind. He does not fare well in the biblical account. He ran from God at the beginning of the story, finally obeys, and ends up pouting because God didn’t do what he wanted.

    I thought about the places where our hearts were more like Jonah than like Christ—far more places than we like to admit. When I say our and we here, I include myself. Sometimes my heart is far more like Jonah than Jesus.

    One of the wonderful things about being a Christian, though, is that we are works in process. We are not yet perfect. Nor do we have to be.

    For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

    And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11

    Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17

    That means we can lighten up on ourselves a bit. I am not advocating that we keep our worldly ways, far from it. I am simply suggesting that we lighten up a bit on unneeded guilt. We do need to repent of our sins. We do need to let the Holy Spirit transform us from the inside out. Many changes need to be made in all of us.

    We simply need to accept that it is a process and we are not going to get there all at once. When we are confronted with sin in our lives, we need to take it to God. We need to work with Him to remove it. We do not need to carry the weight of it around our neck.

    True humility is not walking around with the chains of bondage around our neck, clanking like Jacob Marley and moaning about what worms we are. It is about accepting that we are flawed and truly giving those things to Jesus to change. 

    True humility is recognizing that while we are less than perfect, the one who dwells in us is perfect. It is not about being proud of how good we think we are. It is about recognizing that the goodness in us is a gift from Him.

    Take note of your faults. Give them to Christ and move forward. You cannot change the past, but Christ can change your present and your future.

    Until next time, give Him the room to work and change you.

    Kevin

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  • The Last Goodbye

    Blue sky superimposed with the text "The Last Goodbye"

    Over the past few weeks, I’ve written a bit about life in glory and  our journey to get there (The Journey and Better Than Eden). Those posts generated a fair amount of feedback.

    People are looking forward to their eternal time with the Lord. They don’t necessarily want to go immediately, but there is a deep-seated longing to be in glory and to meet Jesus face to face.

    That longing is hard-wired into us. Adam and Eve walked joyfully with God in the Garden. It wasn’t until sin entered the picture that they began to hide from HIm.

    And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Genesis 3:8

    It was humanity’s choice to be apart from the Lord. He had warned them of the consequences, but they chose to listen to the whispers of the evil one instead. That choice has cost untold suffering and destruction for billions of people and even to the fabric of creation itself. Fortunately, God was not surprised by this foolish choice and did not give up on us. He knew before anything was created that He would need to send His Son to redeem us. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight , making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ. Ephesians 1:3-9 ESV

    The world He has designed for our eternal home will be free from the presence, practice, and penalty of sin. There will be no possibility of us ever falling and being separated from Him again. Perfection and security forever more.

    A dear friend reminded me of something besides sin that will be absent from glory. There will be no more goodbyes.

    When someone dies, there is grief. Those goodbyes are painful even if we know the departed one has graduated to glory. It is even more so when we don’t know, or are sure that they rejected Jesus. Our hearts break doubly at that passing.

    That’s what makes this passage such a delight to read.

    And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:3-4 ESV

    There will come a time when we experience the last goodbye and say so long to death and sorrow. I can hardly wait.

    Be blessed

    Kevin

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