"For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." [Ephesians 2:10]
Our true identity before God is summarized by Paul in this verse in chapter 2 of Ephesians. The underlying reality is that at the creation God created man and woman to care for the creation by living in harmony with it and prospering by multiplying. It is this "good" that God desired for humanity and it is this "good" that evil ultimately undermined in the lie of the serpent to the first man and woman.
We were created complete with a strong sense of good with God's desire that we walk in that goodness and so do good works that cultivate the beauty and grandeur of creation. It is for this reason that God, through Christ, has rescued us so that we might recover our true identities.
Evil tore away the true identity of humanity by veiling humanity's understanding of God and relationship to Him. By that veiling, a great distrust entered into the heart and mind of man and woman that caused them to doubt the goodness of God and the good that they were created to do and created for. This veiling plunged the human race into a darkness of spirit and heart that demanded God's intervention. As we saw in chapter one, God planned that evil would not undermine humanity by choosing to create humanity in Christ to be holy and blameless in full relationship with Him.
Regardless of how broken our lives have been, we can be assured that God has never stopped loving us nor stopped desiring that we live out our true identity. Paul makes it clear in the passage from Sunday's message [chapter 2:1-10] that God loved us in our brokenness and alienation. He took our broken humanity and raised it up in Christ [through Christ's death and resurrection] so that we now are transformed in Christ with His Spirit working our transformation in us now with the hope of full transformation and renewal in the end.
Think about how God has changed your life and changed us as His people and think about what good we are capable of with Christ and the Spirit to help us! We have the ability to live out of our true identities and so do good in our world. Paul affirms that God has intended for us to walk in the good works that drive back evil in our world and bring transformation through our being the body of Christ in our world. If we truly grabbed hold of this what could be the possibilities?
Imagine as God's people in North Oakville living as a community that does good works so that evil is driven back and transformation happens in the lives of others? What would North Oakville look like if as God's community we committed ourselves to living like this?
I dare you to dream the dream that God has put in our hearts by His Spirit so that we can live as God's people bringing life to those who are walking dead people!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
A Big Change - Changing from the Inside Out
What is clear in chapter one of Ephesians is that Paul the Apostle speaks of a big God who has a big plan. In fact, this plan is none other than recovering all humanity and adopting them into God's family. Along with this adoption is a change that God affects in the heart of every human being. He does this through the change he initiated through Jesus' incarnation. By Jesus taking on human flesh, God is able to begin a change in the human race.
What is this change?
The change that God affects in the heart of every human being is one of perspective. God reveals to us his plan of recovering humanity and the world and ridding both of evil. He accomplished this already through the life of Jesus as He lived on this earth and with each step said no to sin and remained faithful to the Father and the Spirit. It is this relationship that Paul points out is now ours in Christ. As the Spirit lived in Jesus while on earth, now the Spirit has been given to us as a down payment ensuring that what is coming will be a place where heaven and earth will be under the authority of Christ.
Going Deep into Our Hearts
God changes us by going deep into our hearts; to the place where we comprehend ourselves and everything around us. He opens the eyes of our hearts to the hope that He has set before the world. That hope is an existence where we are free from evil and free to be what He created us to be. Can you imagine for one moment what a world it would be without evil? Imagine living your life, living our lives, without evil hindering us. This is what God calls us as the church to imagine as we live out the life of Christ in our world. Although evil is still present and still working in our world, its end is certain. It will one day be no more. And as people who God is orienting toward such a future, we can live that kind of life on earth right now. As His community, we can push evil back by living out of the good that God has placed in our hearts through Jesus and by the Spirit.
What would your world look like if you lived like this?
What would your neighbourhood, workplace, family look like if you lived with this perspective? How would the world change in light of the change that God affects inside you? Its our imagination in cooperation with the hope that God reveals that will achieve glimpses today that will speak of the Kingdom of God that is coming. I challenge you to start living like this now. If we are waiting for the fullness of God's Kingdom to come now, why wait living in it until it comes? Look at Jesus' life on earth. He lived like God's Kingdom had arrived. In fact, his presence revealed this very truth - that it had arrived.
God has begun a "good infection" [C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity] that is advancing his Kingdom in the hearts of men and women. By beginning this in their hearts, the goal is that it will change the world. We have the power, in Christ, to change the world. In fact, as Paul points out at the end of chapter one, we have the power, in Christ, to bring life to the places that are dead, and to raise to life what has had no life for a long time.
There is no stopping what can be with such a change occurring in us. As His church, we are his body and so extend to the world the perspective that God has revealed to us in our hearts. Through us God's desire is to open the eyes of others so that they might see the hope of what is coming and taste of the down payment of His presence in life right now.
What is this change?
The change that God affects in the heart of every human being is one of perspective. God reveals to us his plan of recovering humanity and the world and ridding both of evil. He accomplished this already through the life of Jesus as He lived on this earth and with each step said no to sin and remained faithful to the Father and the Spirit. It is this relationship that Paul points out is now ours in Christ. As the Spirit lived in Jesus while on earth, now the Spirit has been given to us as a down payment ensuring that what is coming will be a place where heaven and earth will be under the authority of Christ.
Going Deep into Our Hearts
God changes us by going deep into our hearts; to the place where we comprehend ourselves and everything around us. He opens the eyes of our hearts to the hope that He has set before the world. That hope is an existence where we are free from evil and free to be what He created us to be. Can you imagine for one moment what a world it would be without evil? Imagine living your life, living our lives, without evil hindering us. This is what God calls us as the church to imagine as we live out the life of Christ in our world. Although evil is still present and still working in our world, its end is certain. It will one day be no more. And as people who God is orienting toward such a future, we can live that kind of life on earth right now. As His community, we can push evil back by living out of the good that God has placed in our hearts through Jesus and by the Spirit.
What would your world look like if you lived like this?
What would your neighbourhood, workplace, family look like if you lived with this perspective? How would the world change in light of the change that God affects inside you? Its our imagination in cooperation with the hope that God reveals that will achieve glimpses today that will speak of the Kingdom of God that is coming. I challenge you to start living like this now. If we are waiting for the fullness of God's Kingdom to come now, why wait living in it until it comes? Look at Jesus' life on earth. He lived like God's Kingdom had arrived. In fact, his presence revealed this very truth - that it had arrived.
God has begun a "good infection" [C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity] that is advancing his Kingdom in the hearts of men and women. By beginning this in their hearts, the goal is that it will change the world. We have the power, in Christ, to change the world. In fact, as Paul points out at the end of chapter one, we have the power, in Christ, to bring life to the places that are dead, and to raise to life what has had no life for a long time.
There is no stopping what can be with such a change occurring in us. As His church, we are his body and so extend to the world the perspective that God has revealed to us in our hearts. Through us God's desire is to open the eyes of others so that they might see the hope of what is coming and taste of the down payment of His presence in life right now.
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