Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

Certain things that seem evident to us were MYSTERIES for ages. A spiritual mystery is something we never would have figured out on our own. First and foremost is the Gospel. 

Next is that the body of Christ is to be made up of Jew and Gentile.  The two to become one, and then one before the Cross.  Though it seems obvious to us, the transition to this thought took quite some time.  When Jesus hinted at it in his hometown, they were so offended about the Gentiles being under the favor of God, that they tried to throw Jesus off a cliff. 

No one is excluded from the family of God if they join by faith. I never want to take this for granted! bewithme.us please.

God's dwelling place is constructed of bricks in which He indwells.  God's temple is made up of people in whom He tabernacles.

I so wish for you to see it! Don't let Covid, or kidney stones, or age, or grief, or wounds, or betrayals, or shame keep you away from it. 

To see the functioning church,  with its' fingernails dirty, is to see an aspect of God's presence that is nowhere else revealed.  He doesn't want us just to read about and intellectually understand his temple.  He wants us to be a part of that organization and growing organism. 

We love God "beingwithme" around here.  But WHY? Well, so we can take that indwelling presence, and join it to other individuals who are doing the same, to create and display an aspect of God one cannot see anywhere else.

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We start today in the reality of separation from God, alienated, a stranger, in a STATE OF HOSTILITY.

We end as brought near, at peace, unified and reconciled to God.  How did we go from from enmity to rainbows? "But now in Christ Jesus..." Thru Jesus, of course.

But here's the catch: His intervention is one of violence, suffering, bloody, sacrifice. Why? The degree of the cost is proportional to the depth of the hostility.  Jesus's crucifixion is a proportional response to the degree of the enmity.  It is Jesus who has to KILL THE HOSTILITY.  A killer was born on Christmas Day. He kills the offense.  I never thought I'd say it in this particular way but: MAKE JESUS YOUR KILLER. If I didn't scare you off with that, come back tomorrow by going to bewithme.us and leaving an email. 

We can get our relationship to WORKS wrong.  Before salvation, we might lean on our activities "for God" as some sort of a merit badge that gains us access to God's reward system.  This betrays an ignorance of the person: that we are part of the zombie apocalypse, children of wrath.  Also, it betrays an ignorance of how difficult the fix of the problem is.  If it was easy God wouldn't have had to mount an intergalactic rescue for you.

However, after salvation, we learn that God is sovereign in gifts, in tasks and should be LORD LORD LORD over our works.  In fact, we were CREATED for it.  So, rightly exercised, works are at the center of what God has for us.  Go Work Hard! Do so first by subscribing so I can encourage you tomorrow if we both get another day @ bewithme.us or write at bewithme.us@gmail. Share this, retweet, spam it to everyone who is your social media friend. ;-)

Here's the was the difficult part of faith for me:
That my sins were nailed to a cross that I was not on.

First, my sins are offensive.  (Even that thought is unpalatable to me) (that was difficult enough to view myself as sinner, offensive, separated) 

Then, a necessary remedy and payment for them was enacted by Someone who was not me. The fix was above my pay grade. I could not work myself out of this pickle.

If you had just one verse from the book of Ephesians to cling to, today's verse wouldn't be a bad choice.  For by grace you have been saved through Faith...
bewithme.us to subscribe, which is the fancy word for have access to this podcast and blurb tomorrow. If that sounds palatable, leave an email please.

We interrupt a zombie apocalypse of dead men walking with: BUT GOD....
God intervenes. God shows up. God does stuff directionally toward us. Today we find out why. Today we find out what it is that is at God's core.

I think it reasonable to think of this as the nuclear power core of God.  In it we discover GRACE, MERCY, LOVE and KINDNESS. "Ephesians is a book about the KINDNESS of GOD." Here is where I get this.

Let's stand before this nuclear-grade core and be affected. Let every cell be exposed and changed.  Let others see that we have seen that God is kind, He is merciful and loving and gracious toward us. Be changed enough to come back tomorrow for the most famous verse in the book of Ephesians. Do this by subscribing at bewithme.us or any podcast provider. 

The Zombie Apocalypse of THE WALKING DEAD TV show is based on a comic book by Robert Kirkman. He got it from the book of Ephesians, I think.  

It is there that an epic Zombie Apocalypse of all mankind wandering in mobile deadness, following this spiritually evil leader; a part of a dark family is described.  It sets the stage for a spiritual horror drama. They are wrecking havoc of mind and body as they follow this evil master.

Listen 7 minutes for this scary cliffhanger.  I'll only tell you two words of what happens after we get back from commercial break tomorrow: BUT GOD... To join us, subscribe at bewithme.us or write at [email protected] or Apple Podcasts or Audible.

Paul charges the Ephesians to KNOW GOD'S POWER because they are going to need it.  They need to KNOW IT, because they are going to NEED IT.

They need to know that God's power is directed toward us for a purpose. It is a power that is as powerful as the resurrection power; it is a finished, seated power; it is a heavenly, otherworldly power; it is beyond category, person, era or exception.

As we'll see further in this book, we'll need this power to THINK right, BE right, ACT right, PRAY right, and FIGHT right.

Let's know the power correctly.  We are going to need it.  Join me tomorrow for more at Bewithme.us or write to subscribe at [email protected].

Think about prayer like a lamp plugged into an electrical outlet.
First, you gotta know that the outlet rectangular box on the wall is special.  A baby doesn't know that behind it is all the power of the entire electrical grid.  It possesses and accesses all the nuclear, renewable, hydroelectric, and fossil fuels of this country. In our picture today, the box on the wall is God.

Then there is the plug that attaches to the source. "The prayer of a RIGHTEOUS person has great power." But you don't know any righteous people, and neither do I, except as clothed in the righteousness of Christ. We attach to the unlimited power of God by attaching with the righteousness not our own.  What do "the righteous" look like? Humble, bowed, weeping and desperate.

So all of that is way above our pay grade.  It is also important that we ASK. That is, after being attached to this great power source, we gotta turn the appliance on.  Know the source. Attachment by His righteousness. Turn the power on.  That is how we get GREAT POWER. Listen 7 minutes bewithme.us

There is a call for real faith and real effect in today's passage;

• The highest complement you can give someone is to really remember real people in real prayer
• The prayer should ask for real knowledge of the real God
• Prayer might then ask for real application of that knowledge in wisdom
• Prayer is to ask with a power that is ultimately not our own for effects that are not our own

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