Whispering the Lyrics

Ephesians 6:18-20
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.




Focus Thought
After completing his teaching, Paul touches base with the Ephesian church about prayer. He emphasizes looking outside of ourselves and looking out into the harvest. Living with that mindset helps us to see the big picture and keeps us from getting sidetracked by the details of the moment.

The Next Step
In the 50's and 60's, Jimmy Reed was the name and face of Electric Blues. Tony Russell, in his book, "The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray" wrote that Jimmy's "lazy, slack-jawed singing, piercing harmonica and hypnotic guitar patterns were one of the...most easily identifiable sounds" of that era (pp. 76-77). Many experts believe that it was Reed who caused "The Blues" to be recognized as a musical genre.

No one could do Blues like Jimmy Reed.

As Mr. Reed rose in popularity and more and more people began to listen to his records, reports began to flood in that as people listened they could hear a faint, female voice in the background of the music. She didn't sing with everyone else and her words weren’t very clear. No, instead, she would quietly murmur the next verse of the song a few seconds before it was sung.

It was later found that the voice was none other than Jimmy Reed's wife, Mary. The story was that Mr. Reed tended to get caught up in the moment when he played. He would get so absorbed with playing his music that he would forget the words as he sang. Knowing he needed help with the lyrics, his wife would patiently sit by his side, whispering the words to his songs in his ear in advance, devotedly coaching her husband through the recording session as he sang. It was Mary's voice that kept Jimmy on track. Without Mary, Jimmy would have been lost in the moment and the music would have come to a screeching halt.

Mary chose to whisper the lyrics. Mary chose to keep things in order. Mary chose to keep things on track and look at the bigger picture. And the world benefited as a result.

After all the teaching that Paul has done, he asks Ephesus to hone in on the ultimate purpose of the church: to spread the Gospel. Everything that Paul asks for connects with the purpose of sharing the message of Jesus. The Gospel is our mission. The Gospel is our goal. The Gospel is the set of lyrics that keeps the song of our lives on track. It's the lyrics of the Gospel that keep us from going off on our own little tangent. They keep us from being enamored with the here-and-now moments of the song of our lives. They keep us from getting so wrapped up in our preferences and our problems and our circumstances, that we neglect to look around us; that we neglect to see the bigger picture. Without his wife's coaching, Jimmy Reed's music would have come to a screeching halt. Without the Spirit of God whispering the lyrics of the Gospel in our ears, our efforts will do the same. It's not enough to play church, we have to know the reason why we do what we do.

The lyrics give us the reason why we sing.

Without lyrics a song is just music. It may convey feelings and tug at the emotions, but it doesn't convey a message, not in and of itself. Without the Gospel or a Gospel mentality, we have no message and the church becomes nothing more than a social club with the name of Jesus tacked on the door. We feel good, we look good, we sound good, but we don't DO good. Why? Because, like Paul said here in our text, we're not speaking "as we ought to speak" (Eph. 6:20).

It amazes me that Paul's first course of action is to challenge Ephesus to look outside of themselves. In verse 18, he asks them to pray "for all saints" and in verse 19 he asks that they would pray for him specifically. He challenges them to look beyond themselves.

And that's important because many times we get so wrapped up in ourselves that if it doesn't fit into our mentality, if it doesn't fit into our ideology, if it doesn't fit into our preferences, our style, our way of doing things, then to us, it doesn't exist. But Paul tells Ephesus to take the opposite approach. Paul tells us to look beyond ourselves and to look toward the Gospel.

Looking at the Gospels, it’s interesting to note that all four record Jesus' statement about the harvest being great and the laborers being few. But John, who was in Jesus' inner circle, takes a vastly different approach from the other three Gospel writers. Matthew, Mark, and Luke write Jesus' words as a general statement as if Jesus is just stating a fact, but John takes it a step further. Listen to what he says:

"Say not ye, 'There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.'" (John 4:35)

John takes it from being a simple statement of fact to being a command. He presents it as a challenge to change a mentality. Make a change. Lift up your eyes. Look on the fields. Re-align your focus.

And one of the primary ways to do that is through prayer.

When Jesus was in the Garden right before He was arrested, He started off by praying “Remove this cup from me” but ended by saying “nevertheless, not My will, but Thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). His humanity experienced a change in mentality. And if Jesus needed to undergo a change in mentality, how much more should we?

All throughout his writings, Paul tends to use the same Greek word when he writes about prayer. It's a compound word, the first half of the word means "with” or “in relation to” and the second means “desire.” And so the word literally means “in relationship to my desire.”

The interesting thing is that in Greek culture, the pagans used the same word for prayer. Except that they used it to describe the elaborate ceremonies they would use to “butter up” their god before asking him or her for something. The would offer their god or goddess the best things they had. They would slaughter their animals. They would pour out their wine. They would make vows. The greater their desire for the need, the more elaborate their ceremony and the more costly their sacrifice. To the Greeks, worship and prayer were tied together so closely that they were in many cases seen as one and the same. In fact, Strong’s concordance actually defines the word “prayer” in Ephesians 6:18 as “worship.”

True prayer cannot take place outside of worship.

But Paul was not the only one to express prayer in this way. Jesus does it too. In Matthew 6:9-13, we come across Jesus teaching His disciples to pray. This text is the most complete version of the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus prayed the Lord’s Prayer to be a template for his followers. It was never meant to be an empty recitation. It was a pattern they were supposed to follow.

In the KJV, the Lord’s Prayer has 66 words. Of those words, 28 are used to talk about needs and 38 are used to talk about worship. I don't care how bad you are at math, everyone knows 38 is larger than 28. 42% (less than half) of Jesus’ prayer deals with needs. 58% deals with worship. Majority of Jesus' prayer is focused on God, yet we tend to do the opposite. When we pray, majority of the time is spent focusing on us. When we pray, we pull out our little lists and we just start naming off needs. When we pray, our eyes are inward on ourselves. Then at the last moment, we tack on a little worship for good measure.

We make worship an afterthought when it's meant to be a starting-point.

In reality, everything starts with worship. It starts with looking beyond yourself. It starts with lifting up your eyes and focusing upon your God and as you do, your eyes gradually gravitate downward until they come to rest upon the fields of harvest. Lift up your eyes. Look on the fields. Hear the Spirit of God whispering in your ears. Let the voice of God, speaking the lyrics of the Gospel, keep you playing in tune.

Here are some things to do this week:

Reflect
Think over this past week and the situations you've faced. How have you furthered the Gospel this week? How many times have you heard the voice of God. How many times did you respond to it?

Reflect Again
One of Jimmy Reed's biggest problems was that he would get wrapped up in the moment. Do you feel that happens to you? Do you feel that sometimes you get so focused on what's happening in your life in your little corner of the world that you miss the big picture? I think we all do. Thankfully, God is persistent and He continues to whisper direction into our ears.

Pray
Pray that God would help you to see the opportunities taking place around you. Pray that you will hear his voice and be willing to follow. But most importantly, simply bask in His Presence and worship. Take your focus of of yourself and your life and your needs and place it on your God and on the harvest.

Full Access

Ephesians 3:12
“In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him.”

Focus Thought
We all have full access to God. However, full access does not equal free reign. God has always had a pattern, He has always had a plan, and His People have always had to follow the pattern to gain the full access He has promised.

The Next Step
Locked out. We’ve all been there…some of us more than others. Whether it is our car, our house, our computer, or all of the above, there’s nothing like the sinking feeling that comes when the very object we use as an access point becomes an impassible barrier, standing between where we are and where we desire to be. In a world of locks and keys and secret passwords and in a society that highly values privacy, being locked out is a common phenomenon.

It’s with this mindset that we look at Ephesians 3:12:

“In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him.”

Paul writes that we have access to God. Total, complete access. But go back two words…actually four words…yes, right there.

We have boldness.

Boldness.

It’s not a word we use very often. In fact, in today’s context, when we think of someone who is bold we think of someone who goes against the grain of society. Someone who is loud. Someone who is outspoken, unchallengeable, unwilling to back down. But the word “boldness”, as Paul defines it, is better translated as “confidence.” We can approach God freely and with confidence. We don’t have to fumble around checking our pockets for the ever-illusive key in order to get in with God. But before we go overboard with that idea, we need to realize that “full access” does not mean “free reign.”

There is a difference between boldness and belligerence.

Boldness says, “I am confident.” Belligerence says, ” I’m better than you.” Boldness says, “I live life to fullest without pushing the envelope.” Beligerence says, “Your rules don’t apply to me.” Boldness says, “I color with a passion, but stay inside the lines.” Beligerence says, “My passion for coloring is better than the lines.”

No matter who we are in Christ, no matter what He has done for us, no matter how wide He has opened the door, and no matter how loudly He calls for us to come, He is God and that realization should affect how we approach Him.

There are some lines we have to stay within.

From the beginning of time, and even really before that, God has always been a God of details. He has always had a pattern, He has always had a plan, and He has always required that His People stick to that plan.

Probably the best example of someone with full access to God is the High Priest of Old Testament times. Generation after generation, the man occupying the office of High Priest would be the only person to feel the Presence of God. He had full access, but he didn’t have free reign. There were still some ground rules, some lines that the colors of his life could never cross. And those ground rules still apply to us today.

The Gate
The priest would start his journey to the Presence of God at the main gate of the Tabernacle. It was the only entry way into the Jewish place of worship. He couldn’t climb over the linen walls that surrounded the outer court. He couldn’t burrow under them. The only accepted way of access was through the door. For us, the only acceptable way to God is through Jesus, the One who called Himself “…the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)

The Altar
The priest’s next stop was the Brazen Altar–a short, stout, altar made of, you guessed it, brass. It was here that the priest would make a sacrifice for the sins of his people. For us, the Brazen Altar is the place where we take the tangled mess of our lives, we slice it and dice it and throw it onto the altar, telling God to burn it, to consume it, to take it and to do whatever He wants to do with it. It’s bloody. It’s messy. And as we dig deeper and deeper into our past acts it begins to stink. And then with bloodied hands covered with the residue of our sin, we walk with the priest to his next stop.

The Water
We find the High Priest standing at the edge of the Brazen Laver, a large bowl-shaped piece of furniture that is filled to the brim with water. And as we watch, the priest reaches down and washes off the residue of his sacrifice. The smell of flesh disappears and the blood on his hands runs off into the basin. The Brazen Laver is where we wash off the residue of our life before Christ. It is where we wash our sins away. That’s why Ananias told Paul, “And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” (Acts 22:16) We are baptized at the basin. Washed and made clean. It’s more than a rite or a ritual. It’s more than a way to join the church. It’s where we wash our sins away.

The Lamp
The priest then steps into the Holy Place, the first of two rooms in the Tabernacle. He could have felt privileged to have gotten this far. He was stepping into territory that no one outside of himself and his predecessors had ever seen. He could have stopped having more than most. But it wouldn’t have been enough. Not for him.

Before the priest went anywhere else, he would stop and tend to the Golden Candlestick, the Menorah. He would top off its oil, he would trim the lamp, and anything else that was needed to care for that piece of furniture. The ground rule was that the light was to never go out.

The Menorah was the light of the Tabernacle. It was fueled by oil and oil in Scripture always represents the Spirit of God. Everything that the priest did was illuminated by the light of that candlestick. Before he did anything else, he took hold of the candlestick and tended to it. We also need to be able to take a hold of truth, the revelatory truth of God, and tend to it, to preserve it, to do whatever is necessary to keep it from going out. Yes, there is still only one God. Yes, there is still Divine Healing. Yes, God is still Holy and He requires the same of His People. These are the truths that we cling to and do whatever is necessary to preserve them and to never, ever let the light go out.

Not only did the light never go out, but the Menorah lit every portion and every part of the Holy Place. It illuminated the priest as he went to the Table of Shewbread and ate. It illuminated the priest as he went to the Altar of Incense and worshiped. And like the priest it is our responsibility to let God’s revealed truth shine in every aspect of our lives. Not just on Sunday, but every day.

The Table
After tending to the Golden Candlestick, the priest would go to the Table of Shewbread. On this table was special bread that was only for the priests. It was bitter to the initial taste, but also sweet and sustaining. The shewbread is the Word of God. And like shewbread, the Word is bitter to the taste because it convicts, but it is sweet in that it sustains. It was also illuminated by the Menorah. And just like the priest with the shewbread, when we partake of the Word of God it has to be illuminated by God’s Spirit, the light of revelation. It’s not enough to sit and to mindlessly read your Bible. It requires an attitude that says, “God reveal Your truth to me. God, reveal Yourself to me. Illuminate the words I read.”

The Incense
The last step before full access was the Altar of Incense. Incense represents prayer, praise, and, on a deeper level, worship. Worship is the gateway to God’s Presence. For the priest, worship was mandatory. It didn’t matter how bad his day was. It didn’t matter how tired he was. It didn’t matter if “his song” was played in the worship service. All that mattered was that he needed to get into the Presence of God. And just like the shewbread, the altar of incense was illuminated by the Menorah.

Let me say that again: The altar of incense was illuminated by the Menorah.

It is impossible to worship without revelation. You can’t worship if you don’t know Who you’re worshiping. You can praise. You can enter His Presence. But intimacy, the key ingredient of worship, cannot happen without revelation.

The Process
It didn’t matter if the priest “felt like” doing any of this. It was required. He couldn’t say, “That baptism stuff really isn’t necessary.” He couldn’t say, “I really don’t feel like getting my hands dirty with that sacrifice.” He couldn’t say, “No shewbread for me. I had a big lunch.” It didn’t matter how he felt. His preferences had no bearing on what he had to do. But after all of that, the priest was then ushered into the Presence of God. He had full access. He was able to experience something that no one else in his lifetime would be able to experience. He saw it as precious, as sacred, as something that needed to be protected and safe-guarded. We have access to the same experience. We have access to God through the cross, but are we willing to go the distance? Do we view the Presence of God like the priest did? Do we see it as something sacred, something that needs to be cherished? Or do we take it for granted and only do what we want to do when we want to do it?

With that in mind, here are some things to do this week:

1. Reflect
During the Middle Ages, what some call the Age of Workarounds, a false legend originated about the High Priests. It said that they would tie a rope around their ankles in case they died because of entering God’s Presence with sin in their life. The idea was that if he died, others outside could pull the body out using the rope. It makes sense that this idea would emerge during a time known for workarounds and compromise. It’s much easier to just tie a rope around your ankle than it is to go through the effort of doing things right. It sounds silly to us, but how many times do we do that in our own lives? How much time do we spend looking for workarounds, looking for the escape hatch, looking for the loophole, looking for the rope to tie around our ankles…just in case? Is that how you make your approach to God? How haphazard are you in His Presence?

2. Reflect Again
God was very specific in His Pattern for the Tabernacle. He was very specific all throughout the Old Testament. He was very specific even while He walked upon this earth. Why should He change now? Does your life meet the pattern? Have you put your faith in Christ? Have you been to the altar of repentance? Have you been baptized in Jesus’ Name and washed your sins away? Have you allowed God’s Spirit to shine in your life? Do you spend time in God’s Word? Do you worship or just ride on everyone else’s praise? Does your life fit the pattern?

3. Reflect Yet Again
Moving beyond the Tabernacle, salvation, and living right, does your life fit the pattern God has designed for your life? Are you willing to go and do whatever He asks, no matter how inconvenient it may seem? Do you have a calling? Do you have a purpose you are striving toward? Does your life line up with God’s Master Plan for you? If not, where do you need to make adjustments in your life to better align yourself with God’s pattern?

Crossing God Off of the List

Ephesians 3:8
“Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”

Focus Thought
Paul writes that the riches of Christ are unsearchable. In essence, God and His riches are unlistable; they are too big to be contained. God does not break down to fit into the neat and clean parameters of our world and God should never become just another item on the inventory list of our lives. Knowing God is more than just listing concepts and ideas about Him, it is knowing Him intimately in His Fullness by way of relationship.

The Next Step
One of my current favorite worship songs is “How He Loves Us.” I say “current” not because I think I’ll change my mind about it in five minutes, but because it is a fairly recently-written song that I have been enjoying a lot lately. I love the lyric that says, “When all of a sudden/I am unaware of these afflictions, eclipsed by glory/And I realize just how beautiful You are/And how great Your affections are for me.” I don’t know for sure, but I think that pretty well describes how Paul felt when he wrote Ephesians 3:8.

He starts off saying he is less than the least. He isn’t just the least of the least, he’s smaller than that. He is smaller than the small. It’s interesting that a verse beginning with a statement like that would end by talking about the unsearchable riches of Christ. But it happens and it’s awesome. It’s awesome because God uses the “less than the least” to preach the message of “more than the max.”

The Greek word Paul chooses to use to describe our riches in Christ–the one translated “unsearchable” in the KJV–literally means “so vast that it can’t be comprehended.” Another way to put it is “unable to be listed.” It means that if we were to try to list all of the riches, all of the blessings that God has poured into our lives, we could go on forever and never reach the end. And if we ever did find a good stopping point, it would be because we either left some things out or failed to realize just how blessed we really are.

We serve the unlistable God. I say this because lists, by definition, limit.

Let me say that again: Lists limit.

The whole point of a list is to break down what you do or do not have and make it manageable. We make a grocery list to say, “This and only this is what I want.” We make an inventory list to say, “This and only this is what I have.” Lists set limits. Lists cause everything to fit into certain parameters. Lists create categories. And one of the biggest mistakes Christians make is trying to fit God onto the list of their lives. Yes, I said it. God should not be present on the list of your priorities in life.

It’s time to cross God off of your list.

God should not be present on your list, He should permeate it. God should not be separate from your home, He should feel welcome to dwell there. He should not be separate from your workplace, He should be your source of strength and wisdom as you work. He should not be separate from your family, He should be the glue that causes it to stick together. He should not be separate from your church, He should be its driving force. God should not be a separate category of life, He should be…your…life.

In Hosea 4:6, God’s man of the hour writes that his people, God’s people, are destroyed for their lack of knowledge. But the knowledge Hosea refers to isn’t knowledge as we think of it. He isn’t referring to facts or figures or an IQ level. Instead, the word he uses is found all throughout the Old Testament and it refers to the knowledge that comes from a relationship. Relationship as in “And Adam KNEW his wife…” (Gen. 4:1)

Hosea writes that his people are destroyed because they lack an intimate relationship with their God. They had all the rules and regulations. They had religion. They had tradition. They had their lists, but they lacked relationship. And because they lacked relationship, they lacked the intimate knowledge of God that comes through that relationship. Knowing God is more than quoting facts and figures about Him. It’s knowing Him. Not just His commands, the “thou’s” and “thou shalt not’s” of life, but even knowing His preferences, His likes and His dislikes.

When David repented for his sin with Bathsheba, he fell on his face before God and rehearsed God’s own preferences back to Him. He said, “…A broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:17). David wasn’t drawing on his religion; it said his sin merited death. He wasn’t drawing on the traditions of his people; they said that because of his sin, he couldn’t have access to God. Instead, David drew on his past experiences, his relationship, with God. He said:

“God, you’ve seen me broken before and I remember that even back then, you didn’t leave me. Yes, this time it’s my fault. Yes, this time it’s my own sin that’s put me where I am, but I know You personally, I know Your preferences, and I know that you have a soft-spot for brokenness. So, here I am, broken, at Your feet.”

And the God of the Universe, the God Who does not have to bend His Will, the God who was usually so cut and dry with his madates, speaks to David through his prophet and says, “I have taken away your sin. You shall not die” (II Samuel 12:13, paraphrased). God reaches down and breaks His own law. He shows David grace 1,000 years before it is accessible to everyone else. And He does it because of relationship.

I don’t know about you, but I think the prosperity preachers have it all wrong. Who cares about the blessings of God, when you can have access to the “God Who Blesses”? Who wants things that are limited and can be broken down, dissected, and listed, when we can have access to the unlistable, unlimited God? God is greater than our little lives with our little lists. It’s time to cross God off of the list and give Him free reign.

Here are some things to do this week to put this lesson into practice:

1. Read
Read Psalm 51 and as you do notice how personal the Psalm is. David isn’t just writing a flowery song or praying some pre-written prayer, he’s pouring out his heart. Notice how well he seems to know God and His preferences (vs. 16-19).

2. Reflect
Is your relationship with God like David’s? Can you honestly say that you know Him personally? I don’t mean as your Savior or like Christians are expected to know Him, but do you really KNOW Him? Could you honestly say you know His preferences, not just because of passages you read in a book, but from personal experience?

3. Reflect Some More
How have your past experiences with God helped shape your relationship with Him? For example, do you see God as a Healer because the Bible says so or because you’ve also experienced that in your own life? Do you see Him as Savior because you read it or heard it somewhere? Or do you call Him Savior because that’s what He is to You? Yes, the Bible is our authority on God and what He says, but what instances in your life have made those concepts come alive? Let’s move beyond facts, figures, and clichés and make it personal.

Spin

Ephesians 3:1, 7
“For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles...whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.”

Focus Thought
Politician’s may “spin” the truth, but God does not and we shouldn’t either. When opening Ephesians 3, Paul could have legitimately portrayed himself as anything from a miracle-worker to a church-planter to an author. But he doesn’t. He calls himself a prisoner. Paul emphasizes that his extraordinary life is nothing more than God adding some “extra” to his ordinary existence.

The Next Step
Welcome to the season of politics! There’s nothing like this time of year. The closer we get to Election Day, the more we are bombarded by radio spots, TV ads, shiny mailers, and telephone surveys. Over and over again, the two (or more) politicians that are running for each office take the same situation and interpret it in vastly different ways. We call it spin. Each person takes each specific situation and “spins” it to say what they want it to say.

Spin goes beyond the political realm as well. We see it on our job recommendations. We see it on our resumés. We see it at our dinner tables or at the principles office while we sit with our children. Spin has become an integral part of our lives.

Thankfully, God doesn’t do spin. And if God doesn’t do it, chances are we probably shouldn’t either. Paul illustrates this point in his opening of Ephesians 3. As a missionary, miracle-worker, church-planter, apostle, and author, Paul could have described himself anyway he wanted. But he opens Ephesians 3 by saying, “I’m a prisoner to the Gentiles.” Period. No commentary, no illustrious title, no spin, just “I’m a prisoner.”

Even in Ephesians 3:7 when Paul calls himself a minister, he quickly adds that it’s only by the grace and power of God. In other words, Paul is quick to point out that the part of him that everyone admires, the part that everyone is inspired by, the part that everyone vies for and wants to claim, is the part of him that has nothing to do with him at all. Without God, he’s just another man in chains.

The Bible goes to great lengths to give the back stories of the people God chose to use all throughout history. It points out that Abraham was the son of an idol-maker who was in his seventies and was married to his sister (and you thought you had family problems). Abraham’s sister-wife Sarah is a barely-converted, former idol-worshipper. She was also manipulative, barren, and in her 60’s, not to mention in her 90′s when she has her first child. But God looks at these flawed human beings and He says, “I’m going to make a nation out of you.”

The Bible points out that Peter was rejected by the Jewish Scholars as having what it takes to be a religious leader. According to Jewish culture in Peter’s day, the children who didn’t show an apititude for Scripture or who didn’t stand out as having potential were sent to be tradesmen. That’s why he was a fisherman; He didn’t make the cut. He was a reject, a not-good-enough, but God says, “I’m going to send you to reach the very people who said you have no future outside of a fishing boat.”

But the most amazing thing of all is that God doesn’t cover up where Abraham or Sarah or Peter came from. He doesn’t cover up the fact that Paul was in chains. God forgives their sin, but He doesn’t “spin” their story. He doesn’t censor their lives or rewrite them to where everywhere they walked they saw rainbows and sunshine and angel babies falling from the sky.

God doesn’t rewrite our story, He rewrites US.

And just like Abraham and Sarah and Paul and you and me, the things that people admire, the gifts and callings and talents that God has placed in our lives, the things that people take for granted when they look at us are not a result of where we came from, but they are a result of the grace and power of God working in our lives. God takes our ordinary lives and makes them extraordinary. Extraordinary is nothing more than ordinary with a little “extra” thrown in. You turn in your “ordinary” to God, He’ll throw in the “extra.”

When God called Moses and David they were tending sheep. When God called Elisha he was plowing a field. When God called Matthew he was sitting at his desk at his dead-end job. Where will you be when God invades your Monday? Where will you be when God turns your Tuesday upside-down? You don’t need a “spin”–you don’t need God to censor, embellish, or rewrite your life story–you simply need God to rewrite YOU.

Think about that and while you do, here are some things to do this week:

Invite
Invite God to invade the “Mondays” in your life. Invite him to take your ordinary existance and make it extraordinary.

Share
Share your story–uncensored–with someone this week. Use it as a witnessing opportunity. People are not looking for fairy tales. They’re looking for real people with real lives who have had a real experience with God. So take someone out and share a real pizza, a real burger, a real coffee, a real whatever…and talk about the real life you’ve found in Christ.

Plugged In

Ephesians 2:21
“In whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”

Focus Thought
Paul ends Ephesians 2 by emphasizing that we are a community. We are individuals who have been brought together to form One Nation, One Family, and One Temple. As such, we are called to be “plugged in,” not only into Christ and into the church, but also into the needs of those around us.

The Next Step
There’s a certain Peanuts comic where Lucy has a wishbone and wants to use it to make a wish. Unfortunately, as everybody knows, it takes two people to break a wishbone or else a broken-wishbone-wish becomes null and void. And so Lucy decides to recruit Linus, her wimpy, blanket-dragging brother, to help. Before they start, Lucy explains to Linus how a wishbone works and she takes it upon herself to be an example and to make her wish first. She closes her eyes, clinches the wishbone in her hand, and says:

“I wish for four new sweaters, a new bike, a new pair of skates, a new dress and $100.”

Linus has been watching her intently the whole time. And on his turn, just like Lucy, he closes his eyes, grips the wishbone, and makes his wish:

“I wish for a long life for all of my friends. I wish for world peace. I wish for great advancements in medical research.”

About that time, Lucy snatches the wishbone from Linus and throws it away, yelling, “Linus! That’s the trouble with you! You’re always spoiling everything!”

Linus spoils everything.

Linuses always spoil everything…for the Lucys.

When our little life with our little dreams and our little wants and our little needs come in contact with someone who cares more for those around him than he does for himself, it causes us to realize just how self-centered we really are at times.

It’s no mistake that Paul heavily emphasizes the idea of “community” at the end of Ephesians 2. He avoids the pitfull of having the blessings of God spawn a “gimme, gimme, gimme” mentality. Instead of continuing in the vein of what God has done FOR us and running the risk of puffing us up, Paul closes the chapter by emphasizing what God does AMONGST us.  He brings things around full circle, pointing out that what God does, He does in us all and for the good of us all.

Paul describes us as a nation without boundaries, as members in a family of success, and as a holy house where God’s Presence can dwell. But we become all of these things by plugging in to Christ, by plugging in to the church, and by plugging in to the needs of those around us.

In Charles Shutlz’s comic strip, Linus and Lucy are both plugged in, but to drastically different things. Lucy is plugged in to what is happening in her closet; Linus is plugged in to what is happening in his world. Which one are you?

Here are some things to do this week:

Read
Read Ephesians 2:19-22. Take it slow. Think about what Paul is saying. Read it in a different versions to get a better grasp of what is being said.

Compare
Compare the ideas that Paul covers in the above verses (the church as a community, individuals coming together to work as one, seeing everyone as an equal, etc.) with how Luke describes the Early Church in Acts 2:44-47. It appears that the Early Church did more than just shake each other’s hands each Sunday morning. In these few verses, they literally live out everything that Paul describes.

Take Note
Notice the last phrase of Acts 2:47. That’s the end result of “plugging in” to the needs of those around you.

Take Action
Live out Ephesians 2:19-22 and Acts 2:44-47 throughout this week. Specifically, the “focusing on those around you” part, not so much the “selling everything you have” part (although, if you feel led…). By taking action, be on the lookout for Acts 2:47 opportunities all around you. How can your sensitivity to someone else’s need impact that person’s eternity? After all, to quote the cliché, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

The Twilight Phenomenon

Ephesians 2:13, 17-18
"But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ...And [He] came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father."

Focus Thought
We live in a blood-saturated society. From books to movies to sports to our news programs..."if it bleeds, it leads." But the world's obsession with blood is a symptom of a deeper, unconscious desire--the desire to be cleansed. And the only way to be cleansed from sin and to gain access to God is through the Blood of Christ.

The Next Step
It's no mistake that Paul talks about the Blood of Christ (v. 13) before he talks about everyone having "access by one Spirit" to God (v. 18). In Leviticus 14, God gives the guidelines for declaring a leper to be "clean," i.e. healed. Lepers were outcasts to society. They had a disease that was lethal, seemingly unstoppable, and thought to be extremely contagious. At the moment a person was found to have been infected with leprosy, he was seperated from the rest of the camp. He no longer had access to his family, to his people, or to the House of God.

But if he was ever healed, he would be allowed to re-enter society. Being "clean" was every leper's dream. In order to come back into the camp, a leper had to do a certain multi-part ritual. At one point, the priest would take blood from an offering and put it on the leper's right ear, right thumb, and right foot. Two steps later, the priest would go back and apply oil to the leper's right ear, right thumb, and right foot. The catch was that the oil could only be placed where blood was present before (v. 17)

As gruesome or primative as it may seen, the symbolism is profound. I'm sure the average person wouldn't have objected to applying oil to their body. It felt good. It smelled good. It represented God's Spirit, His Favor, and His Power. But I'm also just as sure that the average person wouldn't have enjoyed having blood smeared on their ear, hand, and foot.

The amazing thing, though, is that the lepers didn't care. They had a disease and they wanted to take care of it. They weren't happy to be seperated from those around them and to be seperated from God. They didn't care about convenience or what everyone thought. They didn't care about how bad the blood smelled or how weird it felt. They wanted to be clean. And once they had the blood, they could move on to the oil.

In our lives, we really can't expect the awesome, powerful, attractive things of God until we've dealt with the not-so-attractive parts of our lives. In one word, sin. We need to experience the blood before we experience the oil. We need an attitude of repentance--an attitude that says we're sorry and want to change--before we expect the Spirit of God to be active in our lives. It starts with being cleansed. We need to deal with our own leprosy--the sin that seperates us from God and affects our relationships with those around us--and we do that by repenting, by turning away from our sin.

Here are some things to do this week to take Sunday's message one step further:

1. Read
Read Leviticus 14:1-20. Leviticus can be a difficult book to digest. Some parts have the plot of a dictionary. But you can do it and, trust me, it'll be worth the effort.

2. Compare
Compare Leviticus 14:9, 14:14, and 14:17 with Acts 2:37-38. Both texts deal with cleansing, forgiveness, and access to God. Moses mentions water, blood, and oil as being part of the cleansing process. Moving in the same vein, Peter mentions Repentence (blood), Baptism in Jesus' Name (water), and the Infilling of the Holy Spirit (oil).

3. Reflect
Are you a leper or are you clean? Think about the verses we've covered. Do they describe your experience with God? What things that are mentioned are missing from your life? No matter where you stand, the first step is repentance. That's where it all starts. In fact, even if you've experienced everything that's been covered, it still comes down to repentance. It still comes down to saying, "God, reach down and work in my life. Make the changes that need to be made." It doesn't matter if you've been in the church for 5 minutes or 500 years, the concept still applies. we need to deal with our sin--our leprosy, our human nature--and we do it through repentance, through the Blood of Christ.

The Crippling That Crowns

Ephesians 2:16
“And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:”

Focus Thought

God very rarely uses comfortable situations to work in our lives. The disciples witnessed this at the crucifixion; Jacob witnessed it at Peniel; Paul witnessed it through his thorn in the flesh. G. Campbell Morgan called this phenomenon "The Crippling That Crowns." It may not look or feel good in the moment, but the end result is worth it.

The Next Step
The things that God uses to change us are usually the things that hurt the most. The Golgatha’s, the crosses, the wounds, the pains are the things that make the most impact upon our lives. Jacob walked away from his encounter with God "halting" on his leg. He limped. Jacob traded in the way he had always lived and the way he had always thought and he walked away with the name Israel, which some translate to mean “The God-mastered Man.” Jacob’s ways and ideas had gotten him a large family and immense wealth, but it had also ruined his reputation and his relationship with his extended family. So he traded it in. And he got a limp. What a deal.

But Jacob understood that his limp was the receipt of a transaction with God. He limped for the rest of his life not wanting to inflame the thigh that was permanently out-of-joint. But every time he turned the wrong way or miscalculated the simplest step, he felt the same immense and intense twinge of pain. But Jacob didn’t rant about his “bum leg” or criticize God for his “curse.” Instead, every twinge of pain, every moment of discomfort, was evidence that he had been touched by God. He had seen God’s face, His Essence, and lived. What everyone else saw as weakness or a sorry situation, Jacob saw as the fingerprint of God upon his life. It was a badge of honor that he carried proudly.

What about you?

While you wrestle with that question, here are some things to do this week.

1. Identify Your Limps
What are the limps in your life? What are the situations that in the moment felt unfair, painful, or uncomfortable, but looking back you see it as the hand of God? What situations are you facing now that could fit that same description?

2. Read and Reflect
Read Genesis 32:22-32. Think about Jacob and what his actions mean to our lives today. He refuses to let go of His God even when it hurts (v. 25-26). He cares more about the Blesser than the Blessing (v. 29). He recognizes God even in the midst of his pain (v. 30). Looking over your life, could you say the same about yourself?

3. Pray
Pray for God to adjust your mentality. Pray that you will see the crosses, the limps, and the thorns as blessings and not curses. Pray that you will see the Fingerprints of God and residue of His Glory in every moment of your life.