Ephesians 2:5-7 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
Our God, who is rich in mercy, has indeed made us who were dead alive together with Christ!
What amazing grace that proclaims! ......but that was not all He did!!!!........
He raised (us) up together!
*******......and............*****
He made (us) sit together in the heavenly .... in Christ Jesus!
Amazing.......... My mind cannot quite wrap itself around all of that heavenly togetherness.... How could anyone here on earth really begin to grasp that? It's other worldly! Still.......... Whatever that is, it must be amazing! (more on that in a bit.....surprising bits, that is.......in the meantime.....)
Praise His Name! Praise God Who is Rich in Mercy!
...........
Just be still and know....... Be still before God! God Who is Rich in Mercy! Oh! He sent His Son to die......... to die.......... so that we might live!
In order that we might have Life, and that more abundantly!
So, while it is good that my mind knows these things (at least in part)......... do I live Life more and more abundantly?
...........
It's time to live more of Life ...... each. and. every. day! So.......... How do I do that?
What is The Way? Where is The Way? Do I know the answers to those questions fully enough?
What is The Truth? Where is The Truth?........ The Way and The Truth .......... It is time to find out more....... much more about whatever this thing is......
.........this thing called The Life!
...........
So what now? Really....... So, ........ like........ well.......
Who really knows what else to do? ...........
Our mind might say something like, "Let's simply say our Hallelujah's and be done with it, right?"
After all He said He gave us life (past tense). He said He raised us up (past tense).
And He has..... but am I walking in all he means me to walk in? In all of that 'life more abundantly' kind of living that He ....... well, that He died to share with us!
My mind might be quick to say:
'Yes, I've been (somewhat) changed already.
'What more of that?
'He also said that He made us sit. What more could there be.....???
'Besides........ Again........
'This is all past tense...... He already did all of...... all of whatever that is...... for us! Yeah! That's it! He did it ......... for us! And....... again...... He made us sit, right?
'It's a done deal. Relax! ........ right.........., right?'
...........
But wait, is there more? and.... should we take this for granted?
What is it to be fully alive? Really, think about it a bit.....
Is it to be:
In a spiritual coma maybe? That would be 'alive', wouldn't it?
.....to be........ Spiritually handicapped maybe? That would also be 'alive', no?
So let's ask again: What is it to live? What is it to live..... in the moment to moment -- moments....... what is it to live The Life? To be IN the moment...... to be IN...... The Life?
....... I don't think I've begun to scratch the surface of it all.
Now, if I am honest, I can admit humbly that.............
I have begun to live..... And what's more........ at least in my mind, I do seek more life.
To be more specific, the spirit in me has indeed begun to live. That life force which only comes from him? ...... that life force has indeed been birthed in my spirit! In my spirit? It's kinda cool...........
But is there more? And............ Should I find....... you know....... Should I find even more?
Really, should I learn about more of life, and.. ...
Like......... well...... finally moving on to other questions worth asking....... that are all related to The Life......
What is this thing? Raised up? Raised up together!? Raised up together with Christ!? .......and........ Does even my mind know enough about that, let alone my feet and hands?
And whether or not I know enough about that... am I living what I know about...... about being raised up together?............
And........... oh!..... more questions......
What is this? Made (to) sit together in the heavenly....... in Christ Jesus?
I don't know about you, but by now I've rather noticed that this world is a broken place, and it seems very much as if chaos, suffering, pain, death, and destruction are all about us!.........
Worse yet...... chaos, suffering, pain, death, and destruction......... they all....... all of them......... break. my. heart. every. day!
How is it, then, that we are 'raised up together with Christ', and yet more.... 'made to sit together in the heavenly........ in Christ Jesus'?
What all can this mean? At least, how much of that can we understand while we are here on earth? Is it just a matter of faith,.... or is there more to it that the great Hope!? ..........and.............
Even if one does find the answers (the real answers) to those questions (or any portion thereof)........
There are the more troublesome questions! Aye, much more troublesome, indeed........
Who am I that I should be raised up? Who, me? I would willingly bow low before Him for eternity just worshiping Him for the majesty of His grace that brought life to me! -or- I would willingly scurry to the recesses of His kingdom to serve in the corners with all due diligence if need be.
For me that could be so much more than enough!
Yet God wants more of me to live more of Life, and to live it together with Him!........ He does not simply want me to live before Him! He does not simply want me to live for Him! He wants me to live together ........... with Him.......!!!!! ............?
Perhaps that makes sense in some promised dream of an ethereal, perfect world..........
Yes, perhaps so.
However, promises of that longed for utopia can seem......... like so many things in this world......... just another wished for promise......... just a pipe dream......... another dream to be crushed, right?
I mean, so many of us have noticed by now that........ well....... After all, this is such a broken world! A broken world filled with chaos, pain, suffering, death, and dying.
In this place of suffering, death, and dying, how can we really become more and more familiar with life and living? What can it mean, this idea that "He wants me to live together with Him"........
Who? Me!? I know all to well what it is to be dead in trespasses..........
Do I really know what it is to be alive in any way..........?
Alive together with Christ!?
What can that mean today!? Here!? Now!? When we live here, in the midst of the pain and struggle?
Ahhhhh, but if we have bowed down low before The Passion of The Mighty Warrior?
If we have seen the majesty of His love which He demonstrated for us so clearly by fighting, dying, and being raised up from that death again for us........ If we have seen through the Word, how he faced down chaos, pain, suffering, death, and dying? How He allowed Himself to be broken by chaos, pain, suffering, death, and dying? I mean, really .......... dying!
But then overcoming death and dying! ......... By Living!?
Then perhaps we can finally at least begin to ask how it is to live, and to grow in living, and even, through Him, conquer the power of death and dying in our *lives*, even in the midst of our own chaos, pain, and sufferings.
............
Just this week, when visiting with the mother of some of my students, the young mother made the comment that she didn't really start living until she reached her thirties. My eyes lit up, and I listened intently, wondering what treasures she must have unearthed. I listened eagerly as she described Life and her path to finding how to finally begin to live Life.
This precious young mother had begun to find Life when she walked away from one lie-of-this-world, and then another, and then another and more and more...... In place of the lies, she sought out and began to find out a small, little bit about the Truth, and then more of the Truth, and then more and more....... Then she sought the means to follow this Truth. The more she did so, the more she knew that she finally began to live Life! She is still seeking to know more truth. She knows she has not arrived, but she knows when she finally began to live Life!
What a blessing she must be to her young family! She has begun to learn to walk with Him! to be raised up together with Him! ........ and in that she has learned to rest in Him!
........
Oh, and what a thing to rest in Him! Is this not 'seated with Him in heavenly realms'?
Hmmmm. What does that really mean? After reading the English rendering, it's surprising to look more closely at the Greek.........
kai synekathesin en
and / caused to be seated together (within & operating in) [us]
tois epouraniois
the heavenly realms "properly, heavenly, referring to the impact of heaven's influence on the particular situation or person"
en
from within which operates
Christ Jesus
Jeshua HaMeshiach
My mind asks, "How can this be?"
My spirit cries forth, "Hallelujah!"
This precious young mother had opened herself up to being guided by the 'impact of heaven's influence' on the particular situation(s) or person(s) in her life. Moreover, Christ Jesus was the one which has been and continues to be operating from within that heavenly realm which is having such an impact within her, and within the situations in her life, and within the people in her life!
This new Life in her, yes, The Life - in her - is so clearly an expression of the work of His love in her life! I couldn't help but hear (without resorting to legalism, I assure you....... I rather hate it.....), anyway, I couldn't help but hear one particular joyous song resounding in the hinter-choir-chambers of my mind, "God's law* is perfect and converts the soul in sin that lies! God's testimony is most sure and makes the simple wise!" (Psalm 19:7 - as per the Scottish Psalter - punctuation altered - oh, and personally, I usually sing this psalter setting using the Kingsfold melody - though I sing it much faster than this recording)
My heart rejoiced at the work of His hand being manifested in this young mother!
.........
How then do we begin to learn more of what it is to live Life?
Oh....... we begin to learn to live Life when we walk as those Raised Up Together!
What are we raised out of? Sin and Death!
Who are we raised up 'together' with? The Mighty Warrior who conquered Sin and Death!
Sin and Death are no longer:
.......seated together (within & operating in) [us] ----
Sin and Death are no longer:
..........the impacting influence on any particular situation or person...... ......... in The Life ........ which lives in me!
They were embedded within us! Deeply embedded within us!
But thanks be to God, The Mighty Warrior conquered them, and credited us with righteousness for our faith, as He did with Abraham.**
Because of that, we may meet with Him... with the new life in our spirit! Life in our spirits which had been dead in trespasses, but which have now been made alive in Him!
And now, we not only meet with Him in our minds..........
We meet with Him........ spirit to Spirit!
And His Word illuminates our spirit! And our spirit takes in more of life......... and more of light!
And our spirit begins to walk........... in........... life...........
.............even though.......... we are in a world of chaos, suffering, pain, death, and dying.
.............even though.......... our hearts and minds, and yes, even our spirits, carry the burdens of chaos, suffering, pain, death, and dying.
And as I reread these last several lines, I can feel a rather tremendous dance, a noble dance, yes....... but...... a resounding stomping dance, which announces the defeat of death in our Life!
But we are not alone. We are not dying!
We are given life in Him!
We are raised up in Him!
We have in us, seated in us, the full force of the heavenly realms, which have within them......... the life force of Jesus Christ Himself! Jeshua HaMashiach! The Savior! The promised one!
A promised one whose promise could not be overcome by death any more than He could be vanquished by death!
And now, ......... in celebration ......... yet in closing for now........
Keeping in mind that it is as we seek The Way, The Truth, and The Life that ... The Life is manifested in us, step by step........
Here is my prayer for (us):
May He cause the heavenly realms and their influence which He has already caused to be seated within each of us, so that Christ Jesus, who operates within the heavenly realms, Christ Jesus, who is The Way, The Truth, and The Life ........ May The Life in all of that heavenly togetherness guide each of us with the Light as He works His will in each situation with each person in our lives!
Amen! ........ and ........ Amen!
Glory be to The Living God!
Glory be to The God Who is Rich in Mercy!
Glory be to The Way, The Truth, and The Life!
.................
* - "God's law is perfect and converts the soul in sin that lies"? God's law? Yes, the law......... the direction.......... the instruction.......... That which the Jews tell us is the way to restore fellowship. This is what Jesus fulfilled........ the way to restore fellowship! We have no idea just how much it can mean to be fully restored to fellowship with God. We do know that back when God made man in His image? ....... yes, back then? We walked with Him! What must that have been like? We do not know! What will that be like in heaven, rather than a lovely, but rather finite garden? Who can fathom?
But He promised it! What grace!
What is it again that helps bring about that restoration? A restoration that provides something more magnificent than what we broke? What can restore any of that brokenness? God's law:
God's direction........ His instruction.......
** - It's not a matter of keeping the law, Abraham couldn't do that, but God credited righteousness to Abraham simply because he trusted God. Did God call upon Abraham to walk justly? Yes, of course, but if Abraham had to be responsible for His own righteousness, he would have utterly failed.
Rather, God extended 'credit' to Abraham. Abraham had a debt with God from the time God 'credited him' righteousness. It was a debt that he couldn't begin to pay, but that was okay with God (because Jesus was going to pay the debt), so that was okay with Abraham....... It was humbling for Abraham, but he was willing to receive hope from ...... well, from the only source of any real hope.
Are you?
If you are, believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died for your sins that you might receive the righteousness of God.
Then seek the Way, the Truth, the Life....... the Light.
........
*** - Life and Light!
John 1:1b, 4 "....... and the Word was God. ...... In him was life, and the life was the light of all men."
This young mother? Praise God for His work in her life! She heard the truth from the Word, from Him, which brought life and light!
In this scientific age, we believe that light brings about life, but the light that is vital is that light that makes it into the soul and spirit and mind and heart. No light can enter the soul of a dead man. No light can enter the spirit of a dead man. No light can enter the mind of a dead man. No light can enter the heart of a dead man.
But, praise God, He has given us Life through Christ Jesus....... Jeshua Ha-Meshiach, and thanks to that Life, we can receive light into our whole being!
...............
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.
Ephesians 2:1-10 "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
"But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
..................
S - Ephesians 2:(5), 6-7 "(But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His indness towards us in Christ Jesus."
O - By God's grace, we have been raised out of sin and death and into life!
By God's grace, we have been raised up together with Him and with the power of the heaveny realms within us.... (and with His Kingdom...... that is, * together with * those who believe in Him)!
By God's grace, by God's influence, we have seated (much as in a county 'seat') within us the heavenly places, with Christ Jesus operating as the influence/ruling-force within the heavenly places - and Christ Jesus is the power behind the heavenly realms' influences the situations in our lives....... and thus He is together with us in those situations in which He is, by His loving kindness and by His grace, tending to our every need, to every circumstance, and to every person in our life......
A - First, I am to be like Him, extending the influence of His kingdom in grace and love.
Secondly, I am to walk as one alive, not as one walking in sin and death (which He conquered for us).
Thirdly, I am to walk as one raised to living Life in light of the Light of His glory!
Lastly, I am to seek fellowship with Him and with those in His kingdom whom I am called upon to encourage. I am to pray for all those I cannot reach out and touch.
But Constantly: I am to constantly be a witness that:
"He (has shown and continues to show) the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus."
P - God, help me to watch for little lies in my life which I might not have yet detected, because they can produce great harm. Help me also to watch for ---- The Way, The Truth, and The Life..... so that I know which way to be heading. Send me The Light each step of the way, and open my eyes that I may see any dangers along the path, so that I may avoid them or call upon you for deliverance as need be, all for your glory's sake.
Then, as I walk along in your Light, help me to love those whom you have raised up together with me ....... together with Him. And help them to love each other..... me too..... So that......
Others may know we are Christians by our love...... that they may see what you have shown: 'the exceeding riches of Your grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.'....... that they may receive the great deliverance you have offered all of us......... that they may be raised up ....... together with Him........ grow in your truth, and shine the Light and Life.......... the exceeding riches of Your grace!
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