The 260 Journey

Day 173

Today’s Reading: Ephesians 5

In today’s chapter Paul reminds us of something that will take our Christianity to another level.

When we become Christians, we don’t simply get church, we get God. And God is not limited to Sundays for a few hours. Religion wants a few hours on Sunday. A relationship with Jesus is God every day. That’s what today’s revolutionary verse out of Ephesians 5 is about. And it breaks away from denominationalism norms.

This is pneumatology gone rogue. Pneumatology is the study of the Holy Spirit—something we keep bound in church or restricted to the classroom. But today Paul is telling us to break free of those boundaries. Listen to Ephesians 5:18 from the Contemporary English Version: “Don’t destroy yourself by getting drunk, but let the Spirit fill your life.”

Devotional writer Oswald Chambers said this about the Holy Spirit: “The Spirit is the first power we practically experience, but the last power we come to understand.” I want to help you understand His power today. We don’t do this often, but it’s worth taking a little journey into the Greek.

First, the verb fill is in the imperative mode. That means it is a command. It isn’t an option for certain Christians; we all need to be filled. Since this is a command, are we free to disobey any commands of God? This is as strong as, “Thou shalt not kill.” Thou shalt not kill and be filled with the Spirit are in the same category. Do you negotiate with the kill command? Of course not. Don’t do it with this one either.

Second, the tense of the verb is present. Present tense in the imperative mode always represents action going on. It is not filling for preaching and doing stuff in the church but for the believer’s life every day in every task, moment by moment.

Now get ready for the really revolutionary part. After Paul says to be filled with the Spirit, he tells wives to submit to their husbands, and husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the church. He then tells children to obey their parents, parents to bring up their children in the instruction of the Lord, and workers to work as unto God. Remember, the original New Testament had no chapter or verse divisions, so from talking about being filled with the Spirit, Paul moves right into marriage, parenting, children, and working.

How can we be a great . . . wife or husband? son or parent? worker on the job? We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit is not for Sundays, it is for every day. We need the Holy Spirit in our homes, our marriages, our parenting, and our jobs.

Third, the verb is in the plural, which teaches us that this command is addressed not only to the preacher and the deacon but to every Christian. As A. W. Tozer reminds us, “The Spirit-filled life is not a special, deluxe edition of Christianity. It is part and parcel of the total plan of God for His people.”

Fourth, the verb is in the passive voice. This grammatical classification represents the subject of the verb as inactive but being acted upon. This teaches us that the filling with the Spirit is not the work of man but of God. That means it’s easy. It is not a difficult command, because it is not you doing it but you receiving it.

All this being true, we realize how important those words are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Some have said that the most accurate interpretation of that verse is “Be being filled with the Holy Spirit” or “Keep being filled with the Holy Spirit.”

The great American evangelist of the nineteenth century, D. L. Moody, was once asked why he urged Christians to be filled constantly with the Holy Spirit. He said, “I need a continual infilling because I leak!”

A friend of mine was asked if he believed in the “second blessing”—the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He said, “Of course I do! And in the third, fourth, fifth blessing, and so on.” He believed in “be being filled” because he leaks. We all leak.

Day 172

Today’s Reading: Ephesians 4

I love these words from Corrie ten Boom: “When we confess our sins . . . God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever. . . . God then places a sign out there that says No fishing allowed.” She is giving a unique way to describe Isaiah 43:25, which tells us something so important about God’s forgiveness. God says in that verse “I will not remember your sins.” That’s incredible when we think about God’s forgiveness of our sin.

Today in Ephesians 4, we are going to see that incredible forgiveness, that is bestowed on us, take one giant leap forward in a direction that will blow you away. Think about this. God sees the people who have cursed Him and blasphemed His name but yet have been forgiven of their sins. He never says to them, “Oh yeah, you’re the guy who said this about me” or “I remember you, you committed that sin.” Not once does God bring up our past. He chooses to never remember what we did.

Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross, was reminded one day of a vicious deed someone had done to her years before. But she acted as though she had never heard of the incident. “Don’t you remember it?” her friend asked. “No,” came Barton’s reply. “I distinctly remember forgetting it.”

God remembers our sin no more. That’s forgiveness. Think of the biggest sinner you know and what God’s forgiveness looks like for them. God never turns down anyone who asks to be forgiven and He never places limits on what He will forgive. How amazing is that kind of forgiveness?

Now get ready for Ephesians 4. I want you to think of the biggest sin committed against you. Someone and something that hurt you to the core. What has been the hardest thing for you to forgive? Have you ever turned down someone’s request to be forgiven? Now we take God’s forgiveness to a crazy place. Paul tells us, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32).

Did you catch that? Forgive each other just as God has forgiven you. I know, I know, you are already thinking of the crazy list.

But it was adultery.

It was sexual abuse.

That man hit me every day.

She betrayed my confidence.

He raped me.

She stole thousands of dollars and put my family at risk.

They fired me.

These are big deals. I am not minimizing these offenses. But I don’t want you to minimize what this verse says either. Augustine said something powerful. Ponder these words: “If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.”

Here is what Paul is saying—and it’s revolutionary: if God would forgive the offense, then you must forgive it. This is not a suggestion. This is the way a Christian is supposed to live. Keep in mind that Ephesians 5:1, the verse that follows Ephesians 4:32, says, “Imitate God.” Or The Message says it like this: “Watch what God does, and then you do it.”

C. S. Lewis reminds us of the why: “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” When it comes to imitating God, we would love to imitate some of His attributes that would make us big-time important: His sovereignty, so no one bosses us around; His power, so we are in control; His healing so we can be adored; His teaching, so we can be stand outs; His holiness, so we can be admired. But imitate His forgiveness? Seriously?

But as Andy Stanley tells us, “In the shadow of my hurt, forgiveness feels like a decision to reward my enemy. But in the shadow of the cross, forgiveness is merely a gift from one undeserving soul to another.”

In 1948, a group of communists led the Yŏsu Rebellion in Korea. Taking over one city, they grabbed Pastor Son Yang-Wŏn’s two sons, Matthew and John, and executed them. Before they died, the boys called on the persecutors to have faith in Jesus. Later when the communists were driven out, Chy Soon, a young man of the village, was identified as the man who fired the murderous shots that had killed the pastor’s sons. Chy Soon was convicted and sentenced to be executed. But the Pastor requested that the charges be dropped and that the boy be released to him as his adopted son. “I thank God that He has given me the love to seek to convert and adopt the enemy that has murdered my boys,” he said. The young man was adopted and accepted Jesus. Did this young man have a choice? Can you respond to that demonstration of forgiveness any other way but to accept Jesus?

All because someone forgave him as God forgives.

I am forgiven to be a forgiver.

I am forgiven to be an imitator of God.

I am forgiven to forgive as God forgives .Our reason to forgive is not because the person is forgivable or the offense is forgivable. We are to forgive because we have been forgiven. And because we are to imitate God in forgiveness. Forgiveness is not just for us but must come through us.

Day 171

Today’s Reading: Ephesians 3

I knew her for more than a decade. When she finally accepted Jesus into her life, I asked her, “How did it happen? We talked about Jesus a lot, but why did you finally commit your life to Him? And then you just stopped living a lifestyle you knew was destructive. How did all this happen?”

She looked at me and smiled. “You never told me what I was doing was wrong. You told me how right Jesus is. You just kept talking about Jesus.” She was saying in essence that Jesus was so attractive, why would she want anyone or anything else?

That is Paul’s message in Ephesians 3:

"This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God’s way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities. And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ." (Ephesians 3:7-8, MSG)

Paul wants to talk about Jesus—“the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ.” The New American Standard Bible calls it “the unfathomable riches of Christ.” Too often we want to talk about other things. Author D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says: “A great danger confronting us all at the present time is to keep on talking about Christianity instead of talking about the Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul said talk about Jesus.

Christianity has never been about encountering the right church but the right Person. I know sin is awful. But sin really speaks for itself through its consequences. Our culture may not call it sin, but they know consequences for wrong actions. We live in a society and a time that has misinterpreted and misrepresented Jesus. Why make the bulk of our preaching and sharing be about how awful something is (when people already know), when they don’t realize how wonderful Jesus is?

I want people to see the real Jesus and know about the real Jesus, not the twenty-first-century Jesus, not the Western Jesus, not the denominational Jesus, and not the religious Jesus. Famed Christian writer Dorothy Sayers talked about the real Jesus:

The people who hanged Christ never . . . accused Him of being a bore—on the contrary; they thought Him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up. . . . We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified Him “meek and mild,” and recommended Him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies.

Let’s consider some of the impressive records Jesus inspired. I read recently about someone who took Jesus and stacked Him against the greatest painters, musicians, and philosophers of the world. These are the results:

• Socrates taught for forty years, Plato for fifty, Aristotle for forty, and Jesus for only three. Yet the influence of Christ’s three-year ministry infinitely transcends the impact left by the combined 130 years of teaching from these men who were among the greatest philosophers of all antiquity.

• Jesus painted no pictures; yet some of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci’s finest paintings received their inspiration from Him.

• Jesus wrote no poetry; but Dante, Milton, and scores of the world’s greatest poets were inspired by Him.

• Jesus composed no music; still Haydn, Handel, Beethoven, Bach, and Mendelssohn reached their highest perfection of melody in the hymns, symphonies, and oratorios they composed in His praise.

• Every sphere of human greatness has been enriched by the humble Carpenter of Nazareth. His unique contribution to the race of humans is the salvation of the soul! Philosophy could not accomplish that. Nor art. Nor literature. Nor music. Only Jesus Christ can break the enslaving chains of sin and Satan. He alone can speak peace to the human heart, strengthen the weak, and give life to those who are spiritually dead.

C. S. Lewis is considered one of the most influential authors of the twentieth century. The way he went from atheism to a relationship with Christ is what Paul is reminding us of in Ephesians 3. Lewis was able to put aside the contemporary and the religious Jesus and come to terms with the real Jesus. That’s why his words from Mere Christianity are so important to us and help us remember the real Jesus:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Let’s heed Paul’s plea to remember who Jesus is—and share those “inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ” with others.

Day 170

Today’s Reading: Ephesians 2

I love the bumper sticker that says, “No Jesus, no peace. Know Jesus, know peace.”

Ephesians 2 reminds us what real peace is and the source of it. “Peace is not the absence of problems but the presence of God in the midst of our problems.” Paul tells us that in verses 13-17:

"Now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near."

Three times Paul mentions “peace” in those verses:

1. “He Himself is our peace.” That’s the Source. He is.

2. “He came . . . establishing peace.” That was His mission. Peace between humans and God.

3. “He came and preached peace.” We are the recipients.

When Jesus came and preached peace, these are the recipients: “To you who were far away and peace to those who were near.” This is really important that Paul uses these two phrases: those who were far and those who were near. They are good reminders that whether you were far or near, you still needed Jesus to bring you to God.

Some people are born far from God. They were not raised in a Christian home. Some were from a country very antagonistic to the gospel. They needed Jesus to die for their sins to bring reconciliation between them and God. We see that clearly. They were far from God.

The part we sometimes forget is that you could have been born in the church pew or in the choir loft, like I almost was, and hear about Jesus in your childhood and throughout your life, but make no mistake, no matter how close you think you were to Jesus, you still need Jesus’ death on the cross to get you to God. The close are not close enough regardless of how close you think you are.

The far and the near can be best explained by a contest that’s prize is one million dollars to anyone who can swim from Los Angeles to Hawaii. Let’s say several great swimmers—the best swimmers in the world—enter to win the money. Obviously we all know that all those swimmers will ultimately fail. But each one will try really hard. Some will get farther than others. Regardless of how far you get, though, you will not make it to Hawaii, because you can’t make it to Hawaii on your own swim stroke. Some are far away from Honolulu, and some closer to it. Remember, it doesn’t matter how far you swim, you can’t make that swim. That distance needs outside help—a boat, a plane.

The distance from here to heaven is even farther than Honolulu and LA. No matter how hard you try, you do not have the capability to make it to heaven on your own; you need outside help. Enter Jesus. The far and the near all fail but He came to get both groups to God. As Brennan Manning said, “The gospel declares that no matter how dutiful or prayerful we are, we can’t save ourselves. What Jesus did was sufficient.”

In the article, “Perfection Required for Acceptance at Stanford University,” Brian Kohout wrote:

Stanford University ranks as one of the toughest schools to give an acceptance letter. The university recently updated their admission standards and stated that only five percent of applying students are accepted. In 2017, 42,497 students applied, and 2,140 were accepted.

On their website, they give students realistic answers for the question “What is the academic standard to be accepted?” An ACT score of 33 or higher will put you into the top 50 percent of applicants, however the average score for accepted students is 35. The perfect score is 36.

Accepted students will also need an average SAT score of 1520 (out of 1600), an average GPA of 4.18 (out of 4.0), plus a robust “resume” of extracurricular activities, leadership qualities, references, and recommendations. Of course new students also have to pay for Stanford at $60,000 per year.

Thank God He doesn’t have the requirements of Stanford. The far don’t have a shot and the near aren’t close enough. Because Jesus came, we all have the opportunity to get in—regardless of where we live, what we have done, and who we know. The far need Jesus and the near need Jesus. Just remember, the one place that matters to be accepted is not Harvard, Yale, or Stanford. It’s heaven. And Jesus has made that happen.

Day 169

Today’s Reading: Ephesians 1

Today people use a lot of hyperbole. From their social-media posts to their arguments with their families, people say words like every, never, and always to “prove” their points.

Hyperbole is exaggerated statements. It sounds like this:

You never pick up your dirty laundry.

Every time we talk you never listen.

You do this to me every time.

You always make us late.

This is all impossible.

Why can’t we make those hyperbole statements?

Listen closely. We can’t because no one on the planet can ever be that consistent. There is only one who can be that consistent, and that is God Himself. God never lies. God is always faithful. And in Ephesians 1, Paul associates another word of hyperbole with God: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (verse 3).

Every spiritual blessing. Wow! The word every is what makes this verse and the ones following amazing. Every spiritual blessing belongs to you. Paul is saying, What else do you need when you’ve got all you need!

Every is a strong word. It’s hyperbole, and it’s all God.

Every spiritual blessing means, nothing is missing for you and me to win in this Christian life. It means that since God says it, we can trust it. And every can be fulfilled only by a consistent God.

What Paul shares next shows us how incredible God is—how much He loves us and cares for us. After Paul goes all hyperbole about God, He tells us why we have received every spiritual blessing:

Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. . . . In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:4-8, 10-14)

He has blessed us how?

Here are some of God’s amazing blessings in Paul’s list:

He chose us before the foundation of the world. To be chosen is to have God already have us in mind before we were even born.

He predestined us to adoption. He is our Father. What an amazing thing to know in a fatherless society. We have a Father when we get saved.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. What do you think about when you think of lavish? I think of a rich father who keeps giving to his children. God our Father never stops giving to us; He is a lavish God. It means giving to overflowing.

You were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise. You were given the Holy Spirit the moment you became God’s property. The Holy Spirit in you is a seal and a pledge that you are going to heaven and you belong to God. When people in the first century wanted to claim something they had purchased, they would put their family seal on it. God’s seal is the Holy Spirit.

God is all that. He is amazing. That’s why it’s okay to go all hyperbole with God, because He can be that. Our God is a 100-percent kind of God. This is no hyperbole—He leaves nothing undone or unattended. Remember, nothing in this life is that consistent. Even if we can be 99.9 percent accurate, the result can still be catastrophic.

If 99.9 percent is good enough, then . . .

• 2 million documents will be lost by the IRS this year.

• 22,000 checks will be deducted from the wrong bank accounts in the next sixty minutes.

• 12 babies will be given to the wrong parents each day.

• 268,500 defective tires will be shipped this year.

• 14,208 defective personal computers will be shipped this year.

• 2,488,200 books will be shipped in the next twelve months with the wrong cover.

• 2 plane landings daily at O’Hare International airport in Chicago will be unsafe.

• 18,322 pieces of mail will be mishandled in the next hour.

• 20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions will be written in the next twelve months.

• 114,500 mismatched pairs of shoes will be shipped this year.

• 107 incorrect medical procedures will be performed by the end of the day today.

The God we serve is 100 percent. Every, never, always is who He is.

I think that’s why Paul starts us off in verse 3 with praise and then proceeds to tell us how amazing God is. The Living Bible says verse 3 like this: “How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every blessing in heaven because we belong to Christ.”

We praise God because He is worthy.