Tag: bsf answers

BSF Genesis: Week 5, Day 3

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

7.
a.
If you do what is right will you not be accepted? Sin is crouching at your door but you must rule over it

b.
God talked with him one-on-one. He doesn’t lower standards but offers him a second chance and confirms Cain has the power to rule over sin

8.
a.
Repent and try again (instead of being sad, make it right). Warning: if you don’t, then you will carry this as darkness in you and it (sin) will take you over – if you shut out the path of light, you will be swallowed by darkness – rule over it, fight it, go the other way.

b.
Any one who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor anyone who does not love brother/sister. Anyone who loves passes from death to life. Anyone who hates is a murderer. Jesus laid down his life for us, we should lay down our lives for our brothers/sisters.

 

My Daily Journal:

I was struck by the visual of sin crouching at the door.  It brought to mind the game show, The Price is Right.

Host: Well, Cain, I can see you have your mind set on door number 2.  But before you choose that door, let me tell you a little bit about what’s behind it.  You see, sin is crouching just behind that door.

Cain: (continues to stare at door number 2)

Host: You know you can choose door number 1, right?

Cain: (continues to stare at door number 2)

Host: You cannot even imagine the prize package We have assembled if you choose door number 1?

Cain: (continues to stare at door number 2)

Host: You know we offer free do-overs, right?  You can just go back and start the whole sacrifice/offering thing all over again.  What do you say?

Interesting that the bible notes that Cain’s face was downcast.  We learned in the garden that our actions follow our eyes.  Cain’s eyes are cast downward and the only door He can see is the door downward, going the wrong way on the one way street that is supposed to lead to God.  He isn’t opening a prize door, he is staring at the exit.

When I face struggles, do I stop and look to God for a better door or do I see only one way out?  When sin is crouching at the door to my heart do I try to fight it on my own or do I enlist as a soldier in God’s army?

BSF Genesis: Week 4, Day 4

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

10.
a. They realized they were naked

b.  They hid because they were afraid because they realized they were naked

11.
a. The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it — Absolutely not

b.
The serpent deceived me, and I ate.

c.
Adam and Eve – all of mankind bears the responsibility to this day, outside of the saving act of Jesus, who bore that responsibility on the cross for those who believe.

12.
Sin changes my perspective, as it did theirs. I’m also convicted by their denial of responsibility because I do that as well.

My Daily Journal:

Sin changes our perspective.  It changes not only what we see but also how we see it.  The verse says, “then the eyes of both of them were opened.”  We tend to assign positive traits to open eyes, but that is only accurate in positive situations.  Open eyes around a welding torch results in permanent loss of vision.  Open eyes in a sand or dust storm results in pain and suffering.  Strongs dictionary explains that one use of the word open that appears in this verse is “to enable to see things, which otherwise are hidden from the eyes of mortals.”  There are things we are not supposed to see, things that are better that we don’t see and things that we will only see in heaven.  Having our eyes shielded in not a bad thing, any more than sunglasses or safety goggles are bad things.  Because, as we see from Adam and Eve having our eyes open when our focus is not on God streams in things that fill our heart with fear.

This brings up my other observation about perspective.  Because of their ability to see shame and nakedness and fear, that is where their eyes and heart went.  In the process, they missed out on the amazing beauty hidden in these verses.  Take out all of the stuff about sin, nakedness, shame, fear, and blame from these verses and what you are left with is the following: “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?””  Can you even picture the beauty of that scene?  But it was totally missed.

Finally, a nugget that I didn’t realize before, but that I think will help with day 5 of our lesson this week.  In verse 7 it says, Then the eyes of both of them were opened.  I didn’t recognize, before, that this came onto them simultaneously.

BSF Genesis: Week 3, Day 4

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

10.
a.
The fruit that comes from and unites us with God, the divine. The fruit of the spirit and the tree of death (cross) conquered by Jesus to give us everlasting life.

b.
They were prevented from, not allowed to have the choice. To live forever without justice would be eternity apart from God.

c.
Yes, not only to eat of the fruit but believers have been “grafted to the vine”. John 15:5, and thus we also may bear fruit Gal 5:22, We also eat of the fruit of the divine through communion John 4:43

11.
Rom 6: 23: the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord; 1 Peter 2:24: He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed

My Daily Journal:

What does it mean to die?  As anyone who has spent any time pondering the question has concluded, there are things far worse than physical death.  We understand that the time we have on this earth is not even a dot on the timeline of eternity.  We know that our existence in the physical world is a dead end street.

However, we learn that (1) we weren’t created to end and go away and (2) we don’t have to stay on that path.  Yes, our cells and organs and flesh will cease to grow and will die, but we have been given the opportunity to eat and drink in the gift of salvation and to once again unite with our divine creator.  Jesus became man and paid the price of just punishment to buy us back from the choice man originally made and all men since have repeated.  And, he has offered to make us one with Him, for us to “remain in Him and for Him to remain in us (John 6:56).  He offers for us to become the branches of His vine and to live in Him for eternity.

But eternity doesn’t start after we draw our last breath.  In the same way someone turns off a dead end road as soon as they know it dead ends, so to are we given the opportunity to turn off the dead end road of mortal death and onto the path of eternal life.  Why wait to begin living until death – we are called to live in Him now with a well of living water flowing from us daily.

BSF Genesis: Week 2, Day 5

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

10.

  • God spoke to Himself, the trinity: Make man in our image and likeness
  • Rule over the fish, birds, livestock wild animals, all creatures
  • God create us male and female
  • God blessed us and spoke to us – fill earth and subdue it,
  • God gave us rule over every living creature

11. a.  Increase in number, fill and subdue earth, rule over living creatures, all plants with seeds for food (bummed about navel oranges and seedless watermelons)

b.  bible, church, teachers, knowledge, love of family, food, shelter, and so much more at every level

12. We are made in God’s image, made to rule (as He is sovereign) God knows everything about us, even while we are still in the womb, even all the days of our lives. God made all the nations, all boundaries and appointed all times of history so that… we would seek Him and reach out for Him and find Him. We are His offspring.

My Daily Journal

Again I am drawn back to the “in” word.  We are made in God’s image.  Not like God’s image, not from His image, not a representation of His image, but IN the image of God.  We are also made unto this world.  Interesting then that the two commands we are given are to (1) be fruitful and increase in number – the same command given to the other living creatures of this world and (2) to rule over the other living creatures as is the nature of God in whose image we are made.

Continuing, it is all the more interesting that of those two commands, we did pretty good at the first one, and failed at the second – we allowed the temptation presented by the earth to rule over us. In Adam and Eve’s desire to be “like God” they gave up the sovereignty that had been a gift given exclusively to them which made them the most like God.

And, to save us from that fall (and what a fitting word that is once you think about it), God’s Son had to step down, becoming lower than the angels, to lift us back up into the position we were originally created into, the offspring (the family) of the King of Kings.

BSF Genesis: Week 2, Day 4

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

8. a. God said, lvng creatures in water, let birds fly, accdng kinds, blessed them and said be fruitful, incrs in #, fill / land wild/lvstock

b. According to its kind. Created sea creatures then flying then land animals. Not sea which changed into land changed into flying, Each created uniquely.

9. a. The light of salvation and the spirit, the spring of living water. What I try to fill it with too often though is busy work and stress.

b. Drawn to the beauty and depth of His word to the truth that it contains and to the peace that comes from trusting and relying on Him. Also that all creation is good as God desires it to be, it is our sinful perceptions which turn it dark.

c. Increased prayer, reduced stress, increased trust, reduced calculation, increased view of God’s power, reduced view of worry for times of trial and tribulation either in my life or others. I’m sad they are going through it but no doubt of God’s strength.

My Daily Journal:

I like the discussion of the fulness of God.  Life is this incredible gift from God given to His creation.  It amazes how it obedient the creation has been in fulfilling His blessing and command.  There are few places on the planet where life does not exist.

I think it is also important to understand that God created each according to their kind.  This scripture has been misused to justify discrimination and racism.  I like to look at it more from the beauty that it communicates.  When I see all the different forms of life on this planet, in the sea, in the air, on the land, including humans, I can recognize that none are an accident, none a mistake, none better or worse than any other because all of each kind are of the same kind.

BSF Genesis: Week 2, Day 3

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

5.
1st day: intrinsic light – light that will never end. 4th day: the vessels that deliver light to the earth: sun, moon and stars – Psalm 147:4, He knows the number of stars and calls them all by name

6. a. Separate day from night, signs to mark sacred times, give light on earth – Give testament to God’s glory (Ps 148:3)
b.

  • The size and majesty of God compared to man
  • Declare the glory of God
  • To tell the appointed seasons, the requirements of the Lord
  • Saw a star, come to worship the king of the Jews
  • Mark the end times, 1/3rd turn dark

7. a. He gathers the waters. He reveals it in the plants. He marks it from the sky: seasons, lights and patterns that sing His praise.

b.  In the areas that are out of balance. More time praying and trusting in Him and seeking His direction.  I would be far more efficient if I simply accepted His word as fact up-front rather than the circuitous route that I take to get back to it.

My Daily Journal:

I am delayed this week, in part because I spent too much time digging into the challenge question/discussion about Day 4 of creation.  This is such a stumbling block to so many and one I felt I needed to wrestle with to fully understand.

The quandary is that on the 4th day God creates the sun and moon and stars; after He creates the earth and even after He creates plant life.  Commonly accepted scientific theory/evidence is that the stars date back far before the earth and even far before our own sun.  Science says that the universe is vast and the earth is a relatively insignificant spec in the cosmos.  The bible account says the universe is vast, but it exists for the significant souls that God places on the earth.  But, how do we reconcile the timing.  Which came first, the stars or earth?  Which came first, the sun or the earth?  What do we do when the “scientific evidence” doesn’t match the biblical account?

Very noted biblical scholars take varies approaches in answering this question.  Some profess that what Genesis is really saying isn’t that God created the stars on the 4th day, but that there was a cloud or haze that blocked them from the earth (separated the waters below and above) so that their light only became visible on the earth on the 4th day.  Some profess that, because there isn’t clear distinction in the Hebrew words used between past and past perfect tense that it may be saying that God created them on day one but is just referencing them on Day 4.  Some argue that the days are not meant consecutively, but that they just reference distinct phases or periods of time and not necessarily order.

Could these be right?  I don’t know.  But I’m not comfortable with any of these approaches.  To me, they seem a little too loose in bending the words of the bible to match commonly held belief.  They seem a very slippery slope in flexible interpretation, one that naturally lends itself to a re-writing or at least a re-interpretation of any part of scripture that doesn’t match commonly held understandings.

I studied economics in college and my professors drilled into us that in any economic theory it is absolutely critical to always remember what the assumptions are that the theory is based upon.  I think the same applies to any scientific theory since all theories accept some things, whether stated or implied, as given assumptions.

In my understanding of current day scientific theory on the age of stars in comparison to the age of the earth or the sun, three of the key assumptions are:

  1. The “earth” was then (at formation) essentially what we define as the “earth” today (i.e., the third planet from the sun, similar in shape, mass, atmosphere, etc to what it is today)
  2. The stars, sun and moon were, at their formation, essentially the same as what we would define as stars, sun, moon today.
  3. We have sufficient information to reliably predict and test our assumptions.

Where I am going with this is that I believe we (mankind) draw boxes in our mind of how we understand things and then try to make God fit into those boxes.  For example, when Genesis 1 says the earth, is it talking about this ball of mass that we call home?  Yes, I believe it is.  Is it specifying that ball of mass has all of the exact properties that it does today?  Clearly not.  How could it if it was without form?  How could it if the sun and moon did not yet exist?  The same goes for assumption 2 in regard to the sun, moon and stars.

However, I think the most critical, and obviously most arrogant on the part of man, is the assumption that we have sufficient information to treat our theories as fact.  Within the past couple of decades science is just discovering that all of what we know, everything about matter and mass and energy that we understand across the universe, accounts for less than 4% of what is out there.  We are now finding that 96% of the universe is “other” (dark matter/dark energy) that we barely have any understanding of at all.  (see The 4% Universe by Richard Panek).

Call me whatever name you like, but I’m sticking with God’s account of creation as it is written.  I trust in God and I trust in His word.

By the way, if any others may be under the assumption that this is a new argument or that belief in the bible is “out-dated” based on our advanced scientific knowledge, it is important to observe this writing by Theophilus of Antioch in 181 A.D.

“On the fourth day the luminaries came into existence. Since God has foreknowledge, he understood the nonsense of the foolish philosophers who were going to say that the things produced on earth come from the stars, so that they might set God aside. In order therefore that the truth might be demonstrated, plants and seeds came into existence before the stars. For what comes into existence later cannot cause what is prior to it” (To Autolycus 2:15 [A.D. 181]).

BSF Genesis: Week 2, Day 2

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

3.

  • Said let there be light and there was, Light was good, sep’d from darkness, called “day” and “night”
  • Keep my lamp burning, turn darkness into light
  • With you is fountain of life, in your life we see light
  • Word is lamp to feet and light to path, unfolding of words give light; understanding to simpleminded
  • In him: life; light of all, shines in darkness, not overcome. JTB came to testify re: the light, JTB witness to it (JTB=John the Baptist)
  • Light has come into world but people loved darkness (evil) evildoers hate light, exposed, truth->light
  • Jesus is the light of the world, followers will never walk in darkness, but will have light of life
  • Unbelievers blinded, not see gospel light=glory of Christ/image of God, light shine 2 know God
  • Chosen people, royal priest, God’s possession, called out of darkness into His wonderful light
  • Walk in Light=fellowship and purification for sin, if confess sin, He is faithful/just & will forgive

4 a. GREED: the eye is lamp of body, healthy (generous) eyes fill body with light, stingy eyes with dark; IDOLATRY: Light cannot have fellowship w/ evil; DEEDS: Live as children of light, expose deeds of darkness, shameful what disobedient do in the dark; FAULTLESS: shine like stars; FORGIVEN: walk in light, if say in Christ but walk in darkness you lie; ETERNAL: God’s glory is the light of heaven.

4 b. To help me be a better witness in and with my emotions. The worry and stress I carry and that I, at times, allow others to see does not convey the trust that I have that God is in control. I find my mind and emotions at times in a dark place despite knowing that God’s light will overcome all darkness and worry.

My Daily Journal:

On opening night of BSF we discussed that the bible as a whole is the method God has chosen to reveal Himself to His creation.  That is true for it as a whole and for each part or element of it.  Everything in the bible is suitable to teaching and learning about God.

In week 1 of BSF we focused on the big question: Who is God?  Specifically as revealed in the first chapter of Genesis.

This week we look deeper into: What can we learn about God from what He did? Again, with a focus on Gen 1.

So, after going from eternal nothingness to creating ALL of the heavens and the earth (all mass, matter and laws that govern it), God wasn’t ready to call it a day.  No, he said, “let there be light and there was light.”  Then He separates the light from darkness, calling the light day and darkness night.

We can go a lot of directions with this.  Light is just light and it is also not just light.  Light is the shekina glory of God that was a pillar of fire in the desert.  Light is justice and mercy of God shining on all.  Light exposes darkness.  Light is a word that encompasses all of glory and goodness and power and energy.  Jesus is the light of life and the light of salvation. Scientifically, light is unique.  According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, light is the only constant.  We won’t even get into the Particle / Wave Duality of Light and Matter & Quantum Entanglement discussion.  But, let’s just say that light is a much bigger thing than most of us recognize as we live our daily lives.  There is nowhere anywhere that does not contain some light either in a visible or invisible spectrum.

And what of darkness?  We learn in these first few verses that God allowed choice far before He created anyone capable of making that choice.  His light, His glory is capable of penetrating everything.  As we peer deeper and deeper into space, it is impossible to find any space where there is not light.  Scientist are even now making discovers through analyzing light bending around galaxies.  But God allowed there to be darkness, for there to be a place where people can choose to not be in His light (even though that is an illusion because the waves of light always penetrate the darkness).

We can follow lots of discussion and dissect the Hebrew words used for light and darkness, but what strikes me is something for more simple and one that we almost always miss in reading God’s story of creation.  Look at Gen 1:5b, “And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.”  When I think about the end of a day, I might think about midnight.  I might call it a day when the sun sets.  But look at what God did.  And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

See, the important message is that from the very beginning God never left His creation in the dark.  He never called it a day until it was morning and the light shined again.  He didn’t leave his people in the darkness of sin, His Son Rose from the darkness on Easter morning.  He will not leave His creation and His children in our current state, but take us up to the new heaven for all eternity, to live forever in His perfect light without darkness and without night.  Now that’s a good day!

BSF Genesis: Week 1, Lecture

Genesis StoriesIn the beginning God created.  Let’s spend some time and really look at those 5 words.  There is so much that is answered just in this statement.  It addresses the when, in the beginning.  It addresses the rarity, the beginning not a beginning.  What? Created.  How? Created, as in out of nothingness from the creator.  It answers what existed before the beginning, God.

Actually, this is the key word, God.  Everything else in these first few words of the bible, fittingly, centers around and flows from this word.    In our lesson today we are going to focus on the first few verses of the bible and see what they tell us about, “Who is God?” As we understand from our discussion last week, the entire bible is God’s design to reveal Himself to man, so it shouldn’t be surprising that there is so much of that message packed into this first chapter.

As an aside, this language of God packaging the revelation of Himself into these words and pages for us to unpack it is such a great metaphor and parallel to the gift that it is.

First, let’s look at the fact of God as creator.   For God to have created, He had to be before the beginning.  He was not created or formed.  For those of us who grew up in the church, this is familiar, but to any other religion it is an unfathomable concept.  The greeks believed the earth and heavens and their gods were formed “out of chaos”.  The Egyptians believed the gods and earth were formed from the waters and the sun.  Baal worshippers believed there was a battle between the god Baal and the god Yam and the land of the earth is made up of the dismembered parts of Yam, gross, right?  Many people of our generation believe everything was some accident flowing out of the power of “the Universe”.  Not so different than the people of the apostle Paul’s day who built a temple to worship “the unnamed god.”  And, as in Paul’s day, we Christians actually know the name of the one and only God.

We know from the very first words that God is singular.   There weren’t multiple gods, just the one.  We know that creation occurred by God’s plan and by His action.  We know that creation was both instantaneous and completed over time.  There was nothing, then there was the heavens and the earth.  But it wasn’t a finished work.  The earth was without form.  God continued His work for 6 days.

People often talk about leaving a legacy.  Parents talk about the legacy of their children.  Sports teams and athletes talk about the legacy of championships and records.  But a legacy is something we make, something that remains that is bigger that tells something about the best that we are.  In that same way, all creation is God’s legacy.  Not that He has left it behind, but that it is a completed work by His will and effort that He made and which tells something about who He is.  All of His created work is good.

When you look at a new day, do you see the good that God created or do you have a hard time seeing past the “stuff” of the day, your tasks and chores?  Do you ask God each day to show you the good He has planned for you today?  Are you under estimating God’s power and what He can accomplish in a single day?

Was God alone in creation?  Yes and no.  We can draw a lot of analogies to try to understand the concept of the trinity, but there is nothing in the physical world that is the exact same as this heavenly host.  We know from John 1 that Jesus (the word) was in the beginning, that He was in God and that He was God and He was with God.  So both the Father and the Son, together and unique were not only at the creation but created.  Colossians 1 tells us that all things were created by Jesus and created for Jesus.  This tells us that before anything existed God already knew that His creation would choose sin over Him and that He, Jesus, would need to become lower than even the angels and become a human in the creation to save and redeem it, buying it back for Himself.  And from Hebrews 1 we learn that creation was not just set into motion and abandoned but that it is continuously being sustained by the word of Jesus.  All things were made through Jesus, all things were created by Jesus, all things are sustained by Jesus.  The emphasis in these different sections is not only on God and Jesus’ presence in the trinity, but on the word “All”.  If all was created by and for Christ, that is a very broad stroke of the brush.  That means no mistakes, no throw aways, no do overs, no trash.  What a challenge to our thinking.  Does my compassion extend to all?  Do I see the potential for salvation of all or are there some that I have written off before they have taken their last breath?  According to the word and revelation of who God is, my acceptance that some are meant to be saved and some not is faulty.  All are meant to be saved, but some will choose not to – I pray that someone’s choice to not accept the gift not be influenced by anything I do or fail to do with the power of the spirit in me.

Which brings us to the third part of the trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The spirit of God is often described as the breath of God and/or the wind in that you see the influence and impact of the Spirit even though you do not see the invisible nature of the spirit.  This is a good reminder to the skeptical doubters of this world who deny the presence of God because “they want to see God with their own eyes… they want proof.”  Can they see the wind?  No, but you can see the outcome of the wind and the power that it holds.  Few question that the wind exists based on these results.

In God’s work of creation, the Holy Spirit is at the forefront in the creation of life.  It is this pouring out that is the critical leap, the spark that cannot be fathomed without the divine, going from inanimate to alive.

But we know the Holy Spirit to be much larger and deeper than this.  The Holy Spirit of God is the creator of physical life and the source, the giver, of spiritual life.  When we humans turned from God in disobedience and sin (something I am guilty of daily, so I can’t get too mad at Adam and Eve), we stepped out of the design of being “in” God’s image that was His original design and creation.  But Jesus paid the price to buy us back, to redeem us, through His sacrifice of death and through His power to defeat death in the resurrection.  When we accept this gift of salvation, the separation from God is removed and the holy spirit indwells in us transforming us back into the image of God.

When you wake each morning, do you push the presence of the Holy Spirit to the back of your being so that you can “focus on stuff”? Do you seek and use the power of the Holy Spirit to guide and direct your life?  If you have accepted the gift of salvation, then, in you right this very second, is the full power of the Holy Spirit of God, the exact same power that defeated death.  With that power, what can’t you do?

The “in” of God is a critical component of not only who God is but what He desires.  He is “in” as the unity of the Father is in the son and the son is in the Father and the Spirit is united in the Trinity and God seeks for us to be rejoined into that unity, that image, by Him and with Him   We are not designed simply to be by or with God, but to be cradled in His arms.

BSF Acts: Week 24, Day 5: Ephesians 5:22–6:9

Questions:

12. At the center is love, and not just any love, but the love like Christ had to sacrifice all for those He loved.  Christ became fully man.  A man invests himself fully in his wife, holding nothing back.  This isn’t 50/50 it is “all in”

13. How often my first thought is “I want them to” or “I need them to” whether at home, work or even church.  When my focus is on receiving I cannot be focused on giving or loving.

Thoughts:

There is a very significant call to husbands in these verses.  I think, too often, people get stuck on the wives submit to your husbands line.  But the expectation and call that is placed on husbands is hugely significant, and goes hand in hand with this statement to wives.  Verses 25 and 26 state, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy…” This isn’t a theoretical I would be willing to die for my wife sentiment.  (I would catch a grenade for you, fall on a blade for you – sorry, broke into song there for a minute.)  This is a decision to love so much that you step down from every right and honor that might be due to you for the purpose of loving and serving and building up another to make her holy, clean, without stain or wrinkle.  It is not, what would you do, but what have you done and what are you willing to do every day.  As a husband, how much of your time and life is focused on yourself.  If we choose to marry we are judged by the holiness of our household.

Do men know how to love like that?  Only through Christ and only through examples of God-fearing men in the church.  This is not something promoted by society, culture or schools.  But it is what is right and true.

I love my wife and I find that my love for her grows deeper the more I learn of the bible.  I can see so many ways that God is working in her life and it is easier and more natural for me to give thanks for the blessings I see flowing through her even more so than in my own life.

And Paul doesn’t stop with husbands and wives.  He included instructions for children and parents, particularly fathers:  Don’t exasperate your children.  What an interesting verb: Irritate intensely; infuriate.  How do fathers irritate and infuriate their children?  how do they fail them? When they fail to “bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”  Children want to do what is right, but how do they learn and know – only when the parents provide opportunities for them to learn.

The same principles apply in those we work with.  Never forget, we all report to the same boss, the same Lord and master and He does not play favorites because of any earthly positions.

BSF Acts: Week 23: Lecture

Aim: God has a purpose for me and for you

Why?  Why?  Why?  We love to ask that question.

Why do I have to?  Why did you?  Why did that happen?  Why didn’t that happen?  Why am I here?  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Why do bad people do well?  Why? Why?

But, so often we approach that question not really wanting an answer we just want to gripe and complain.  But, here is the answer, even when we are only fake asking:  Why?  Because it is part of God’s plan. Period.

Now, we may not always understand God’s plan and we sometimes may not like God’s plan, but who do you think is better at a making a plan?  Us or God?

Let’s look at how He communicated this to the Ephesian church through Paul:

1st Division: Eph 2: 1-10 We are made alive through faith in Christ

Principle: God has work for us to do

Illustration: Our job is to work – that is what it means to have a job – that is what it means to have purpose – that is part of the answer to the question “why?”  The work we do is not to earn something (wages or favor), it is simply what members of the family do.  In your family you have jobs.  They are not things others need you to do – let’s face it, your parents have far more experience and skill at doing most of the things than you do and sometimes they could do them faster than having you do them.  (sorry to burst your bubble).  But, if you do not participate, you are not part of the family – see that word participate – it starts with “part” and means you have to do your part.  If you don’t you aren’t.  God gives us work so we can be part-icipants in His family.

Applications: Are you doing work to be a part or to get something special?  Are you doing work gratefully or grudgingly?  What is God asking you to do but you are denying or hesitating?

2nd Division: Eph 2:11-3:13 Christ provides unity for believers

Principle: Christ’s church was a mystery

Illustration: Have you ever seen a magic trick?  A magic trick is kind of like a mystery.  To people on the stage, there is  no mystery, they know what, when and how everything happens.  But to people that choose to just sit and watch, they don’t understand, it is unclear.  The difference is perspective and revelation.  Jesus revealed to Paul the mystery.  God revealed it to Paul, Peter, Isaiah, etc. etc.  There was no lack of information.  But there were lots of people who chose to view things from their comfy seats in the audience.

The church of Christ – Jews and Gentiles, was always God’s plan.  It is not, “for God so loved the Jews”  God loved the world – and, thank God, because otherwise we would not be on the stage and part of the show!

Application:  Are you curious or just wanting to be entertained?  Have you made up your mind or do you continue to ask and learn?

3rd Division: Eph 3:14-21 Paul’s prayer for Ephesus

Principle: God is glorified through His power in His church (you and me)

Illustration:

“Filled to the measure of all the fullness of God”.  What an interesting statement.  It is easy to pass over because at first glance it sounds common.  I’m old enough to remember my dad pulling up to the filling station.  ding, ding.  The station attendant jogged out and my dad would say, “fill ‘er up with ethyl.”  But, wait a minute – while that is where this verse starts, it actually says more.  Let’s take a deeper look.

In greek, the first filled is the word πληρόω plēroō, (strongs G4137).  This literally means to fill it as full as is possible – that another drop would over flow, that another grain would fall off.  Literally that there can be no more.

Now, most of us would look at that and say – filled is filled. Anything over filled is spilled and wasted, right?

But Paul doesn’t go there.  He goes on to say filled to all the fullness of God.  The second fullness is πλήρωμα plērōma (strongs G4138).  In the New Testament verses, this word takes on additional meaning: the body of believers, as that which is filled with the presence, power, agency, riches of God and of Christ.  In particular, it is the same word used in Colossians 2:9, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form”.

See, even in this seemingly simple verse Paul is continuing to emphasize this important message.  He doesn’t want us to be filled in accordance with what our earthly selves can hold.  He is praying that we are filled to the fullness that Christ in us can hold – He is praying that we are filled with the fullness of the Deity in bodily form – He is praying that we are filled not to the level we can manage but to the level God can manage, not with human limits but with holy limits (are there holy limits or is it limitless?)

But what a contrast that is to how I think – I think that I have a tank that holds a certain amount, just like the tank on our car.  Filling it any fuller just would overflow on the ground and be wasted.  But I am no longer just me when I am a Christian.  I am no longer just me when I am a Christian.  (that repetition was on purpose – don’t make me say it a third time :-) ). I am the church.  I am the body of Christ.  I am the body of believers.  I am the power, agency and riches of God and of Christ.  I am limitless in God’s eyes.

Application: How are you asking God to fill you up?