Racist attitudes of any sort can have no place in the Christian church. Simple.
Olio!
10 months ago
Showing posts with label The body. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The body. Show all posts
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
All one, in one Body
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26 - 28, NIV
Racist attitudes of any sort can have no place in the Christian church. Simple.
Racist attitudes of any sort can have no place in the Christian church. Simple.
Monday, 11 May 2009
I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20(NIV)
What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. (The Message)
FREEDOM!
What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. (The Message)
FREEDOM!
Sunday, 10 May 2009
A challenge
Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
With promises like this to pull us on, dear friends, let's make a clean break with everything that defiles or distracts us, both within and without. Let's make our entire lives fit and holy temples for the worship of God.
2 Corinthians 7:1-3
With promises like this to pull us on, dear friends, let's make a clean break with everything that defiles or distracts us, both within and without. Let's make our entire lives fit and holy temples for the worship of God.
2 Corinthians 7:1-3
Thursday, 7 May 2009
A life of obedience
2 Corinthians 4:7-11 today: in three different translations:
We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.
We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. (New Living Translation)
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. (NIV)
If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us. As it is, there's not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we're not much to look at. We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us — trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us — he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus' sake, which makes Jesus' life all the more evident in us. While we're going through the worst, you're getting in on the best! (The Message)
Three versions: three reminders of God's love,Jesus' sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit in our bodies.
We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.
We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. (New Living Translation)
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. (NIV)
If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us. As it is, there's not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we're not much to look at. We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us — trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us — he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus' sake, which makes Jesus' life all the more evident in us. While we're going through the worst, you're getting in on the best! (The Message)
Three versions: three reminders of God's love,Jesus' sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit in our bodies.
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
Be careful of the body
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 (New International Version)
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.
This is how the Message puts the last verse: The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.
This is about sexual sin but for me, it also applies to good health. In my book, that means taking enough exercise, rest and eating the right food.
I don't honour God with my body as much as I should.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.
This is how the Message puts the last verse: The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.
This is about sexual sin but for me, it also applies to good health. In my book, that means taking enough exercise, rest and eating the right food.
I don't honour God with my body as much as I should.
Saturday, 2 May 2009
Alive - as Christ is!
This is truly a great encouragement, when it seems as if we can't do anything right...
But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!
Romans 8:9-11, The Message
But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!
Romans 8:9-11, The Message
Thursday, 30 April 2009
Do not sin with the body
Romans 6: When Death Becomes Life
So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!
That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace-sovereign country.
Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did.
That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God.
What Is True Freedom?
So, since we're out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we're free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!
I'm using this freedom language because it's easy to picture. You can readily recall, can't you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God's freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?
As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn't have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you're proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end.
But now that you've found you don't have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God's gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.
So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!
That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace-sovereign country.
Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did.
That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God.
What Is True Freedom?
So, since we're out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we're free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!
I'm using this freedom language because it's easy to picture. You can readily recall, can't you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God's freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?
As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn't have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you're proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end.
But now that you've found you don't have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God's gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
The Body’s response to evil
Isaiah (21:2-4, NIV) talks about what happens in our bodies when we get bad news:
A dire vision has been shown to me:
The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot.
Elam, attack! Media, lay siege!
I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.
At this my body is racked with pain,
pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor;
I am staggered by what I hear,
I am bewildered by what I see.
My heart falters,
fear makes me tremble;
the twilight I longed for
has become a horror to me.
What is the answer?
Trust God.
Rely on his promises.
Recognise fear, but don't give in to it.
Don't give in.
A dire vision has been shown to me:
The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot.
Elam, attack! Media, lay siege!
I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.
At this my body is racked with pain,
pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor;
I am staggered by what I hear,
I am bewildered by what I see.
My heart falters,
fear makes me tremble;
the twilight I longed for
has become a horror to me.
What is the answer?
Trust God.
Rely on his promises.
Recognise fear, but don't give in to it.
Don't give in.
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
The effects of sin on our bodies
Whew - this could be a long subject! I thought I'd start with Proverbs 14:29-31
A patient man has great understanding,
but a quick-tempered man displays folly.
A heart at peace gives life to the body,
but envy rots the bones. (NIV)
A sound mind makes for a robust body,
but runaway emotions corrode the bones. (The Message)
The mind, the heart... separate yet interlinked, at the core of our being. How to get a sound mind?
2 Timothy 1:7 says: For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline
Somewhere - maybe in the Good News version - I have read 'self-discipline' as 'sound mind'. God has given me a sound mind - which I need to discipline. Then my body will indeed be 'robust'!
A patient man has great understanding,
but a quick-tempered man displays folly.
A heart at peace gives life to the body,
but envy rots the bones. (NIV)
A sound mind makes for a robust body,
but runaway emotions corrode the bones. (The Message)
The mind, the heart... separate yet interlinked, at the core of our being. How to get a sound mind?
2 Timothy 1:7 says: For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline
Somewhere - maybe in the Good News version - I have read 'self-discipline' as 'sound mind'. God has given me a sound mind - which I need to discipline. Then my body will indeed be 'robust'!
Monday, 27 April 2009
Obtaining health for our bodies
Proverbs 3:5 - 12
Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don't try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he's the one who will keep you on track.
Don't assume that you know it all.
Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health,
your very bones will vibrate with life!Honor God with everything you own;
give him the first and the best.
Your barns will burst,
your wine vats will brim over.
But don't, dear friend, resent God's discipline;
don't sulk under his loving correction.
It's the child he loves that God corrects;
a father's delight is behind all this.
Proverbs 4 (20 - 22)also says:
Dear friend, listen well to my words;
tune your ears to my voice.
Keep my message in plain view at all times.
Concentrate! Learn it by heart!
Those who discover these words live, really live;
body and soul, they're bursting with health.
Listen!
Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don't try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he's the one who will keep you on track.
Don't assume that you know it all.
Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health,
your very bones will vibrate with life!Honor God with everything you own;
give him the first and the best.
Your barns will burst,
your wine vats will brim over.
But don't, dear friend, resent God's discipline;
don't sulk under his loving correction.
It's the child he loves that God corrects;
a father's delight is behind all this.
Proverbs 4 (20 - 22)also says:
Dear friend, listen well to my words;
tune your ears to my voice.
Keep my message in plain view at all times.
Concentrate! Learn it by heart!
Those who discover these words live, really live;
body and soul, they're bursting with health.
Listen!
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Taking time to rest our bodies and, therefore, our minds: take a Sabbath time out.
Rest...
Psalm 16:8-10 (The Message)
The wise counsel God gives when I'm awake is confirmed by my sleeping heart.
Day and night I'll stick with God;
I've got a good thing going and I'm not letting go.
I'm happy from the inside out, and from the outside in, I'm firmly formed.
You canceled my ticket to hell— that's not my destination!
Or the NIV...
I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
Psalm 16:8-10 (The Message)
The wise counsel God gives when I'm awake is confirmed by my sleeping heart.
Day and night I'll stick with God;
I've got a good thing going and I'm not letting go.
I'm happy from the inside out, and from the outside in, I'm firmly formed.
You canceled my ticket to hell— that's not my destination!
Or the NIV...
I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
Saturday, 25 April 2009
The body’s response to God – his wrath
Our bodies do not just respond in praise to God: look what happens when we sense His wrath: David expresses how we feel so well...
Take a deep breath, God; calm down— don't be so hasty with your punishing rod.
Your sharp-pointed arrows of rebuke draw blood; my backside smarts from your caning.
I've lost twenty pounds in two months because of your accusation.
My bones are brittle as dry sticks because of my sin.
I'm swamped by my bad behavior,collapsed under gunnysacks of guilt.
The cuts in my flesh stink and grow maggots because I've lived so badly.
And now I'm flat on my face feeling sorry for myself morning to night.
All my insides are on fire, my body is a wreck.
I'm on my last legs; I've had it — my life is a vomit of groans.
Lord, my longings are sitting in plain sight, my groans an old story to you.
My heart's about to break; I'm a burned-out case.
Cataracts blind me to God and good; old friends avoid me like the plague.
My cousins never visit, my neighbors stab me in the back.
My competitors blacken my name, devoutly they pray for my ruin.
But I'm deaf and mute to it all, ears shut, mouth shut.
I don't hear a word they say, don't speak a word in response.
What I do, God, is wait for you,wait for my Lord, my God — you will answer!
I wait and pray so they won't laugh me off, won't smugly strut off when I stumble.
I'm on the edge of losing it — the pain in my gut keeps burning.
I'm ready to tell my story of failure, I'm no longer smug in my sin.
My enemies are alive and in action, a lynch mob after my neck.
I give out good and get back evil from God-haters who can't stand a God-lover.
Don't dump me, God; my God, don't stand me up.
Hurry and help me; I want some wide-open space in my life!
Psalm 38(The Message)
Take a deep breath, God; calm down— don't be so hasty with your punishing rod.
Your sharp-pointed arrows of rebuke draw blood; my backside smarts from your caning.
I've lost twenty pounds in two months because of your accusation.
My bones are brittle as dry sticks because of my sin.
I'm swamped by my bad behavior,collapsed under gunnysacks of guilt.
The cuts in my flesh stink and grow maggots because I've lived so badly.
And now I'm flat on my face feeling sorry for myself morning to night.
All my insides are on fire, my body is a wreck.
I'm on my last legs; I've had it — my life is a vomit of groans.
Lord, my longings are sitting in plain sight, my groans an old story to you.
My heart's about to break; I'm a burned-out case.
Cataracts blind me to God and good; old friends avoid me like the plague.
My cousins never visit, my neighbors stab me in the back.
My competitors blacken my name, devoutly they pray for my ruin.
But I'm deaf and mute to it all, ears shut, mouth shut.
I don't hear a word they say, don't speak a word in response.
What I do, God, is wait for you,wait for my Lord, my God — you will answer!
I wait and pray so they won't laugh me off, won't smugly strut off when I stumble.
I'm on the edge of losing it — the pain in my gut keeps burning.
I'm ready to tell my story of failure, I'm no longer smug in my sin.
My enemies are alive and in action, a lynch mob after my neck.
I give out good and get back evil from God-haters who can't stand a God-lover.
Don't dump me, God; my God, don't stand me up.
Hurry and help me; I want some wide-open space in my life!
Psalm 38(The Message)
Friday, 24 April 2009
Physical benefits:
A different take on The Body today.
Mine.
Wonderful to think that, in the midst of a hectic and occasionally stressy life, it is not just my soul which benefits from my trust in Jesus. My body does too:
This is what Psalm 16:8-10, NIV says:
I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
because you will not abandon me to the grave, [a]
nor will you let your Holy One [b] see decay.
I liked the Message version as well...
The wise counsel God gives when I'm awake is confirmed by my sleeping heart.
Day and night I'll stick with God; I've got a good thing going and I'm not letting go.
I'm happy from the inside out, and from the outside in, I'm firmly formed.
You canceled my ticket to hell — that's not my destination!
Mine.
Wonderful to think that, in the midst of a hectic and occasionally stressy life, it is not just my soul which benefits from my trust in Jesus. My body does too:
This is what Psalm 16:8-10, NIV says:
I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
because you will not abandon me to the grave, [a]
nor will you let your Holy One [b] see decay.
I liked the Message version as well...
The wise counsel God gives when I'm awake is confirmed by my sleeping heart.
Day and night I'll stick with God; I've got a good thing going and I'm not letting go.
I'm happy from the inside out, and from the outside in, I'm firmly formed.
You canceled my ticket to hell — that's not my destination!
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Peace
There is something incredibly attractive about a peaceful person: someone who is at ease with themself, at peace with who they are.
There is something incredibly attractive about a group of Christians who are at peace with one another. People entering the walls of a convent or monastery sense this: there is often an air of serenity which reaches beyond the obvious. An intangible sense of harmony seems to pervade the stones.
Attaining peace has to be worked for:
So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.
Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.
Colossians 3:12-1 7, The Message
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
Ephesians 4:3-5 (New International Version)
Make every effort
There is something incredibly attractive about a group of Christians who are at peace with one another. People entering the walls of a convent or monastery sense this: there is often an air of serenity which reaches beyond the obvious. An intangible sense of harmony seems to pervade the stones.
Attaining peace has to be worked for:
So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.
Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.
Colossians 3:12-1 7, The Message
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
Ephesians 4:3-5 (New International Version)
Make every effort
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Being truthful to our body: ourselves and each other
Truth.
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (NIV)
God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love — like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.
Ephesians 4:15-16 (The Message)
Now that is a challenge. To speak the truth IN LOVE. Home truths are not, usually, in love. Our truths are often coloured by anger, aggravation, impatience... how often do I really speak the truth IN LOVE? Even when that means saying truths when I would rather keep quiet so as to avoid upsetting someone and hurting their feelings?
Can I do this? Speak truth in love?
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (NIV)
God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love — like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.
Ephesians 4:15-16 (The Message)
Now that is a challenge. To speak the truth IN LOVE. Home truths are not, usually, in love. Our truths are often coloured by anger, aggravation, impatience... how often do I really speak the truth IN LOVE? Even when that means saying truths when I would rather keep quiet so as to avoid upsetting someone and hurting their feelings?
Can I do this? Speak truth in love?
Monday, 20 April 2009
Our responsibilities to the church
What does being part of the Body of Christ here on earth mean for us?
Ephesians 4:17 (New International Version)
From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
The Message puts it like this: We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.
Imagine that. As the song puts it: Every breath we take, we take for you, Jesus.
Imagine being so close to him that I breathe in time, so that I scarcely know when I breathe and when he does. When I was first married, I used to lie against my husband's chest and try to breathe in time with him. I could only achieve it for one or two breaths - his lungs are twice the size of min - but when I did manage it, we seemed to breathe as one being, not as two separate people.
Then, admonitions like these become easy to follow:
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts...You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry... and so it goes on.
Ephesians 4: 17 - 18, 22 - 26
Ephesians 4:17 (New International Version)
From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
The Message puts it like this: We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.
Imagine that. As the song puts it: Every breath we take, we take for you, Jesus.
Imagine being so close to him that I breathe in time, so that I scarcely know when I breathe and when he does. When I was first married, I used to lie against my husband's chest and try to breathe in time with him. I could only achieve it for one or two breaths - his lungs are twice the size of min - but when I did manage it, we seemed to breathe as one being, not as two separate people.
Then, admonitions like these become easy to follow:
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts...You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry... and so it goes on.
Ephesians 4: 17 - 18, 22 - 26
Saturday, 18 April 2009
So...stay connected!
Colossians 2:18-20 (New International Version)
Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules...
or, as The Message puts it:
Don't tolerate people who try to run your life, ordering you to bow and scrape, insisting that you join their obsession with angels and that you seek out visions. They're a lot of hot air, that's all they are. They're completely out of touch with the source of life, Christ, who puts us together in one piece, whose very breath and blood flow through us. He is the Head and we are the body. We can grow up healthy in God only as he nourishes us.
It's very easy to become so enthusiastic about our own beliefs that we take pride in them: we want everyone to agree with us and pursue the same goals, however spiritual they are. But in the end, we have to defer to each other as being part of the body: For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:3 - 5, NIV)
Philippians 2:3 sums it up beautifully:
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules...
or, as The Message puts it:
Don't tolerate people who try to run your life, ordering you to bow and scrape, insisting that you join their obsession with angels and that you seek out visions. They're a lot of hot air, that's all they are. They're completely out of touch with the source of life, Christ, who puts us together in one piece, whose very breath and blood flow through us. He is the Head and we are the body. We can grow up healthy in God only as he nourishes us.
It's very easy to become so enthusiastic about our own beliefs that we take pride in them: we want everyone to agree with us and pursue the same goals, however spiritual they are. But in the end, we have to defer to each other as being part of the body: For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:3 - 5, NIV)
Philippians 2:3 sums it up beautifully:
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
Friday, 17 April 2009
Our attitude
So what attitude should we have? Here is the answer:
In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.Romans 12:4-6, The Message.
It's hard to do that sometimes. Yes, it's hard not to compare ourselves - wishing we were like someone else; and it's equally hard, sometimes, to understand and accept someone who is very different. Remembering our 'connectedness' and 'being-part-of-ness' and 'we're-in-this-all-together-ness' does help!
In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.Romans 12:4-6, The Message.
It's hard to do that sometimes. Yes, it's hard not to compare ourselves - wishing we were like someone else; and it's equally hard, sometimes, to understand and accept someone who is very different. Remembering our 'connectedness' and 'being-part-of-ness' and 'we're-in-this-all-together-ness' does help!
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
We are all joined together: we need each other
1 Corinthians 12:14 - 27, The Message:
"I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.
But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?
The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything."
"I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.
But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?
The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything."
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
The body has a head
A body has a head: the position or place of leadership, greatest authority, or honour.
Jesus is our head: Colossians 1:15-18 (The Message) explains how Christ holds it all together:
‘We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.’
So, whatever we do and however we do it, we should always be looking to the head of our corporation of life, the manager of our business for living, the headmaster in charge of our learning, the foreman in charge of our working, the director of the institution that is our church, our leader, our chief… looking to that extraordinary human being who is Jesus.
And acknowledging his rightful position in everything we do at every moment of our day.
Jesus is our head: Colossians 1:15-18 (The Message) explains how Christ holds it all together:
‘We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.’
So, whatever we do and however we do it, we should always be looking to the head of our corporation of life, the manager of our business for living, the headmaster in charge of our learning, the foreman in charge of our working, the director of the institution that is our church, our leader, our chief… looking to that extraordinary human being who is Jesus.
And acknowledging his rightful position in everything we do at every moment of our day.
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