Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

We start today in the reality of separation from God, alienated, a stranger, in a STATE OF HOSTILITY. We end as brought near, at peace, unified and reconciled to God.  How did we go from from enmity to rainbows? " But now in Christ Jesus..." Thru Jesus, of course. But here's the catch: His intervention is one of violence, suffering, bloody, sacrifice. Why? The degree of the cost is...

We can get our relationship to WORKS wrong.   Before salvation, we might lean on our activities "for God" as some sort of a merit badge that gains us access to God's reward system.  This betrays an ignorance of the person: that we are part of the zombie apocalypse, children of wrath.  Also, it betrays an ignorance of how difficult the fix of the problem is.  If it was easy God would...

Here's the was the difficult part of faith for me: That my sins were nailed to a cross that I was not on. First, my sins are offensive.  (Even that thought is unpalatable to me) (that was difficult enough to view myself as sinner, offensive, separated)  Then, a necessary remedy and payment for them was enacted by Someone who was not me. The fix was above my pay grade. I could not work myself...

We interrupt a zombie apocalypse of dead men walking with: BUT GOD.... God intervenes. God shows up. God does stuff directionally toward us. Today we find out why. Today we find out what it is that is at God's core. I think it reasonable to think of this as the nuclear power core of God .  In it we discover GRACE, MERCY, LOVE and KINDNESS . " Ephesians is a book about the KINDNESS of GOD...

The Zombie Apocalypse of THE WALKING DEAD TV show is based on a comic book by Robert Kirkman. He got it from the book of Ephesians, I think.   It is there that an epic Zombie Apocalypse of all mankind wandering in mobile deadness, following this spiritually evil leader; a part of a dark family is described.  It sets the stage for a spiritual horror drama. They are wrecking havoc of mind and body a...

Paul charges the Ephesians to KNOW GOD'S POWER because they are going to need it.  They need to KNOW IT, because they are going to NEED IT. They need to know that God's power is directed toward us for a purpose. It is a power that is as powerful as the resurrection power; it is a finished, seated power; it is a heavenly, otherworldly power; it is beyond category, person, era or exception...

Think about prayer like a lamp plugged into an electrical outlet. First, you gotta know that the outlet rectangular box on the wall is special.  A baby doesn't know that behind it is all the power of the entire electrical grid.  It possesses and accesses all the nuclear, renewable, hydroelectric, and fossil fuels of this country. In our picture today, the box on the wall is God. Then there is...

There is a call for real faith and real effect in today's passage; The highest complement you can give someone is to really remember real people in real prayer The prayer should ask for real knowledge of the real God Prayer might then ask for real application of that knowledge in wisdom Prayer is to ask with a power that is ultimately not our own for effects that are not our own Listen and su...

I was surprised by the Holy Spirit today.  We have been sitting in a passage that describes a boatload of benefits we get in Christ: Blessing, Love, adoption, knowledge of previously unknown stuff, forgiveness, redemption, and today: an INHERITANCE.  At this moment, though all that is completely true positionally, it is not quite completely true practically. So... we get a down-payment now, with p...

Like the Ice Bucket Challenge of 2014, we are being asked to POUR OVER OUR HEADS a whole bucket of God's goodness.  It is His love, His choice, His plan, His Blessing, His Redemption, & His forgiveness all at once.  It is quite overwhelming.  I think that is the point. After you poured the Ice Water over your head to raise awareness and $ for ALS, you were supposed to "nominate"...

Buckle in! Let's join Paul as he has a front row seat to the grace of God.  He is the #1Fan of what he sees and shares with us.  This is the book of Ephesians.  Paul has spent 2 years living there in fruitful ministry.  He obviously loves and cares about them.  He cannot wait to share the accomplishments and character of God. Eventually, he'll call them to walking in a manner worthy, but...

What if every bit of Romans was for God's glory? What if all of our 78 bites of the elephant were bites of His glory? Perhaps God looks down upon us and says: Yup, that is Me. Yup. I am pleased with you knowing all the parts of me.   How do you end a Masterwork? You repeat and reinforce themes that you said you were going to talk about from the first paragraph.  Here is the activity of the Go...

God is a peacemaker. He's going to make all things right and fix the rebellion of mankind. As part of that, He's going to do away with Satan, evil, death, tears, sickness etc. He promised it on the 3rd page of the Bible, and promises it again today. Join me as we look down the road a bit to see Satan crushed, and all his minions triumphed over. It is the God of Peace that does this.  We...

Sgt. Phil Esterhaus called out to his police force colleagues every week on H ill Street Blues .  After the roll call, the assignments,  & the updates, he'd shout, "Let's be careful out there ."  Paul does the same at the end of his letter to Rome. Your understanding of God is betrayed by your behavior. Your behavior betrays your understanding of God. So, we can watch behav...

Today we honor motherhood. Paul is  mothered by a woman who has taken a special role: "go mother the apostle Paul." This is a concept we all understand: she cared for him, made a big deal about his birthday, listened to his concerns, maybe bandaged a wound, and made him TATER-TOTs because he had a hankering for them. The church is characterized by warmth and family and mothering.  Let&ap...

If you were  invisible except for the moments where you loved others, would anyone ever see you?  Listen 7 minutes today as Paul pours out his love for a whole list of people.  In fact, it is so over-the-top it'd be inappropriate in any other context. The starting engine is God's love. He loves His church. He loves the people in His Church.  We are supposed to resemble the character and...

If your participation in the life of your church makes you TIRED, you might be on to something.  The body of Christ is to strengthen the inner man, but it is also to make the outer man TIRED.  Growing tired with the toil of using your gifts in the church is a wonderful thing.  Use it as a marker.  Lean INTO TIRED.   We do so with a heart of affection. I hope you have people who are happy to see yo...

Paul notes that he is indebted to a wife and husband team, Prisca and Aquilla. He notes that not only he personally is in debt to them, but all the gentile churches . Essentially, everybody in the scope of Paul's ministry owes them a debt of gratitude, that they probably don't even know about. First, they have a 20 year history of co-ministry with Paul, and are of only a few friends left...

2000 years ago, Paul commends a woman named Phoebe to a group of people that have not yet met her.  I am doing the same today.  She is a person who has been tested.  It is not her first day. She is described as a patron .  This is a person who uses their position of power, their resources and their knowledge of systems to help people .  What kind of people? People who are not in positions of power...

Paul asks the Romans, who he has not visited yet, to PRAY for his deliverance from the  unbelievers in Jerusalem so that he might joyfully come to Rome. In an unexpected way, Paul's prayer was answered. He was only in Jerusalem 7 days before these unbelievers seized him and began beating him with the intention of his death.  Ironically, it is the ROMAN soldiers who "deliver him from unbe...

We've worked thru 15 Chapters of Paul's passion for the ROMANS and now we discover that what is on his heart is SPAIN. Who knew? The geography is striking as he is writing this letter from Corinth to Rome, about 1000 miles to his WEST. He says I want to visit you, 1000 miles to my WEST, and keep going to Spain, another 1000 miles WEST past you.  Here's how I am going to do it: I&apo...

On one hand (People)...you are mature, but you still would benefit from some reminding. On one hand (Endpoints)...I have fulfilled the ministry, but I still have ambitions and am planning on more On one hand (Ministry)...I minister, I write, I serve, I do stuff, but  God gives grace Christ accomplishes Spirit empowers In other words, I work, but the TRINITY shows up for the heavy lifting. Join me...

Everybody in the New Testament seems surprised that the gentile, the NON-JEWS, are welcomed into God's kingdom.  Perhaps they shouldn't have been.  God has been hinting all along that this was going to happen.  It has been a 2000 year not-so-secret reveal.  It is a big kingdom that welcomes "All nations," ie: the Gentiles. What we learn today will help us correctly read, and mo...

Don't be surprised if you encounter a KNUCKLEHEAD in your church. What better place on earth is there for them?  If you are a knucklehead, run to a church. For those slightly more mature, when you find one of these characters in your church, what should you do? Run for the hills? No, you should bear with 'em; help 'em; walk with 'em, and build 'em.  In short: WELCOME the k...

Bad brother Cain, just after he kills his brother Able, asks the Lord, "Am I my brother's keeper?"  1000 pages later in the book of Romans, we find the answer is YES.  Like our bad example of Cain, we can hinder, harm, grieve, and even  destroy the one for whom Christ died. We can come to sin in using our Christian liberty to stick our thumb in the eye of less mature Christian famil...