Mission Faithwalk

       In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will,   in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory . (Ephesians 1:11-12)           Getting back to the chosen and predestined thought line… it results in praise and glory for Christ. Once again, this isn’t the Narcissistic “praise me so I can feel good about myself “ or “give me a trophy for participation” sort of praise and glory. It’s not done for God’s benefit. It’s done because it’s an acknowledgement of truth. God doesn’t need to be propped up by our praise, but He is worthy of it.           Our problem as fallen Humans is that we want that sort of praise. Oh, it might be fine to praise God. The songs praising Him are uplifting, beautiful… some of the most beautiful music in the world. We love to sing them. We especially like to sing His praises when they reflect well

           With all wisdom and understanding, He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ,   to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. ( Ephesians 18b-10)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16)           But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:26)           Some folks dream of unity. That’s really the utopia of the song Imagine . [1] This is the siren call of some: everyone living in peace and at peace. The problem with this is that peace requires submission. You have to lay aside your agenda, or I

     In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace   that he lavished on us.  (Ephesians 1:7-8a)               But the king said, “He must go to his own house; he must not see my face.” So Absalom went to his own house and did not see the face of the king. (II Samuel 14:24)             The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”       So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.” (Hosea 3:1-3)        After I rambled on yesterday, I realized that I hadn’t addressed something important. We learn in this passage that we have redem

          In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace   that he lavished on us .  (Ephesians 1:7-8a)            Many years ago, I read something that stuck with me better than the name of the book or its author. The story was that someone had given her husband a membership to a country club. That meant that he was in the club. He hadn’t paid a cent, but he could go to the club, use all of its facilities, and do everything that any dues-paying member of the club could do, and had to obey the same rules as everyone else in the club. She said that this is what it is like to be “in” Christ.           In theory, another person could go into a country club and make use of the facilities. Looking like one is in doesn’t mean one is, and eventually, the fraud will be revealed. We watch this drama play out on TV all the time. Someone walks into a hospital or government facility. They procure the right clothes and an i

          In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—   to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.  (Ephesians 1:4b-6)           Having done my rant on predestination, we can continue with the verses in question. Yes, we’re predestined, but look at the modifier: “In love.” Often, when people struggle with the idea of predestination, they speak of it as if the purpose of predestination is sinister. But according to our passage, predestination, whether it is you who are predestined to adoption to sonship, or those who are saved (of which you happen to be one) are predestined to adoption to sonship, the goal is blessing to all – even those who are not saved – through the lives of those who are saved.           Because He loves you, He predestined you to sonship. Because He loves those who aren’t saved, He predestined you to sonship, so that He can love them through yo

          In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves .  (Ephesians 1:4b-6)          For some, “predestined” means that we have no free will. We’re robots who must do what we’re programmed to do. Predestination is seen as a bad thing because it gives us only a pretense of freedom. However, those who accept evolution are being taught that we have no free will, that we are simply responding to our genetic programming and chemical responses of our bodies. Somehow, that’s not supposed to be as offensive as when God denies us a will. Being programmed by a series of accidents is better than being programmed by an all-wise and loving God?         Their answer? It could be, “Well, perhaps not, but that’s just the way it is, so we may as well accept it.”          Why doesn’t that answer work both ways? (One-way traffic imposed in

          For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. (Ephesians 1:4a)           Many years ago, I applied for a job at a store, and, as usually happens when I’m going to get the job, I got it at the first interview. It’d be nice to think that somehow I was such a clear and obvious choice, a cut above all the others who had applied. I’d like to think that the woman who hired me got together with the other members of the management team and crowed “Whoo hoo – I got me a good one!” (perhaps more grammatically correct than that.) If she did, it was probably short-lived. Before long, I think her attitude would have been more of “What did I do?”           My reaction may be even more to the point. I remember thinking, “Oh no, they’ve hired me. Now I have to work here. What am I going to do?” I needed a job, so I took it, thinking that within six months I would find something better. Thirteen years later, I left that job to take care

            Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ . (Ephesians 1:3)           I’m supposedly privileged. I grew up in an economic boom that allowed the son of a coal miner and a washer woman, and the daughter of greenhouse florists and bus drivers could, as high school graduates, get and keep good (but stressful) jobs for a long time. My parents loved one another and stayed married – for richer, for poorer, for better or for worse, in sickness and health, for as long as they both lived. It helps that by the time I was a teen, my siblings were grown and on their own. Thanks to my parents’ faithfulness, I got to go to college, which at the time was another privilege (even if I didn’t treat it like one.) I’m also privileged in that I know my family’s history going back more than two hundred years in most of the branches.          I know what it feels like to be supposedly privileg

          Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3)           Why do you praise God? He’s God. He’s so different from us, and so superior to us that our praising Him would be parallel to one one of the skin cells of a dust mite praising you. It might make sense to thank Him for what He does – and that is what Paul will lead us into in a moment but why do we praise Him? What does it even mean to praise someone? According to the folks at Oxford, praise is the expression of approval or admiration for someone or something; the expression of respect or gratitude.” So the folks at Oxford don’t make the differentiation that I do.           Their definition doesn’t solve the problem. Why should we praise God? Let me ask it another way – what does it matter to God if we do or don’t praise Him? What does it matter whether we praise God or not? God is God. He’s omniscient,

            Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so. We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.           The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp.    And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.    Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.    For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. (Hebrews 13:9-14)           I’m going through some books that deal with spiritual temperaments. One of them is called “The Sensate” and they experience closeness with God through symbols and their senses. They like communion, baptism, and liturgy. They probably like wearing a cross because it

           Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13: 7)           October is Pastor Appreciation Month. We should not wait until October to appreciate our pastors. We shouldn’t even wait until October to express our appreciation. We should pray for them at least daily, and we should do a much better job of encouraging them. I’m not suggesting that we should blindly do everything they tell us or believe everything they say. We should never turn off our brains or fail to treat Scripture as our guide.           No, we shouldn’t see our pastors as more than mere men, but we should keep in mind that they are mere men, who need our prayers and our encouragement. As I think about the pastors at my churches, and about my relationship with them, I see that I’m not doing a good job. Not with them, nor with the elders. I’m doing a litt

         Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you;     never will I forsake you.”           So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.     What can mere mortals do to me?”  (Hebrews 13:4-6)           The second instruction in this passage is a double whammy: keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have. Those can be really hard to do, probably as tough as avoiding sexual immorality. I notice this most when I go to Florida. There, I walk by RVs that people have been living in for thirty years (like mine), and double-wide park model mobile homes with easily twice as much room or motor-homes that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. I am fond of the people at the park where I live in Florida, but t

          Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you;     never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.     What can mere mortals do to me?” (Hebrews 13:4-6)           Why does God have to meddle? That’s what one pastor I know called it any time he started speaking about sins. He attributed the perspective to those who are comfortable in their sins, who want a pastor that always talks about happy things and good self-esteems. The answer, of course, is that the things that we think we should be left alone to enjoy – the subjects of the meddling – are sins that aren’t as good for us, or to us, or for or to others as we want to believe. We’re back to the devil saying, “You shall not surely die…” So, we bite, and

         See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”   The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.               Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,   for our “God is a consuming fire.”   (Hebrews 12:25-29)            How’s your kingdom? Is it shaken? Is it easily shaken? Mine is. Disrupt my day and I’m likely to feel as if I have to rebuild my whole life, That’s part of why the last six months have been both a respite, and a trial. For most of my life, I had some sort of identity. My queendom might have been il

          Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.    Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.    Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering . (Hebrews 13:1-3)           Loving one another as brothers and sisters, huh? I get along pretty well with my sister, but my brother and I were… well, let’s put it this way. One day I pulled into the garage with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture blaring on my stereo. He happened to pull in right after I did. I don’t remember what song he was playing, but it was Rock. I’m not saying anything against Rock, but I prefer classical to it. Roy and I were opposites and often didn’t get along very well and that’s not atypical for siblings. So when the author of Hebrews says we’re to love one another as brothers and sisters, I don’t picture fond but vacuous

          You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm;    to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them,    because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.”   The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”           But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect   to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:18-24)           For the Jews, the defining moment has always been Mt. Sinai. Yes, the ten

         After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide:    “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites.   I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.    Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.    No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them . (Joshua 1:1-6)           Four years ago, I saw my life as parallel of Abraham’s, leaving the only home I’ve really ever known to go somewhere I didn’t know. I haven’t been able to shake that parallel, and that’

          Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.    “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.   Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.    See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.    See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.    Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done . (Hebrews 12:12-17)           See that no one … is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.    Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what h

          Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.    “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.   Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.    See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.    See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.    Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done .  (Hebrews 12:12-17)            "See that no one is sexually immoral ." Oh boy…can of worms. We’re supposed to stay out of other people’s bedrooms – even if they invite us in by discussing their sex lives or engaging in what they consider socially acceptable pdsa (public displays of s

      Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.    “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.   Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.    See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.    See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.    Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done . (Hebrews 12:12-17)           See to it … that not bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.           Many years ago, I got some Lemon Balm. It was in a pot, and I had planned to put it in a bigger pot but in my planting mania, it went into the ground. A couple years ago, I planted Br