CHRIST'S INHERITANCE

SATURDAY, JULY 21   "God of Angel-Armies!"
Psalm 24: 7-10 (The Message and TEV - blended)
"Wake up, you sleepy head city!  Wake up, you sleepy people!
King-Glory is ready to enter!
Who is this King-Glory?
God - strong and mighty; God - mighty in battle. 
Lift up your heads, O gates; King-Glory is ready to enter. 
Who is the King of Glory?
God of the Angel-Armies.

He is King-Glory!
     As I noted yesterday, end with an accolade of praise to the glory of God!  And it seems our d365.org writer does just this for the week using Psalm 24!  Majesty, glory, praise, and triumph to the God of All!
     Part of our inheritance as heirs of Christ is to enlist in God's army.  We are 'weapons' that God uses to defeat sin.  While the church has shied away from all military references, I still remember teaching my kids the song, "I may never march in the infantry, ride in the calvary, shoot the artillery.  I may never fly o'er the enemy, but I'm in the Lord's army.  Yes, sir!"  The hand motions made it great fun to sing!
     The crowds at Jesus' entry to Jerusalem were 'fired up' to join the revolution against Rome.  They wanted to join the Lord's army and fight the occupation.  They found a different battle on hand: a kingdom in which God isn't going to 'make it happen', but will use us to bring forth that inheritance.  We have a job to do, army of God!  May we 'arm' ourselves with the weapons of Christ and get started in some small way....today!

d365.org GO! for this week:
"May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light." (Colossians 1: 11-12) 

FRIDAY, JULY 20   "A Baptismal Stamp of Ownership"
Ephesians 1:13-14  (TEV)
"And you also became God's people when you heard the true message, the Good News that brought you salvation.  You believed in Christ, and God put his stamp of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit he had promised.  The Spirit is the guarantee that we shall receive what God has promised his people. ... Let us praise his glory!" 
     A 'stamp of ownership' and the gift of the Spirit.  Seems like just what baptism signifies: the adoption ceremony into the family of God.  It gives one a sense of arriving where God has called you to be from before you were born.
     I don't remember my baptism.  I was an infant.  But I know I was probably held in the arms of my minister father and Christian raised mother as my minister grandfather 'sealed me into an inheritance of faith'.  I became part of a universal family of God.  I like to remember this heritage frequently when praying the Lord's prayer - in Spanish as I learned it from my Grandfather's Spanish Bible.  (He did Spanish missionary work in addition to his pastorates.)
     I do like the fact that Paul ends many of his phrases in this section (as much as any of them 'end'!) with words of praise to God's glory.  Ours is a faith of joy.  The more we express it, the more contagious it becomes and the family grows stronger and larger!

THURSDAY, JULY 19   "Keep It Simple, Paul!"
Ephesians 1: 11-12
"All things are done according to God's plan and decision; and God chose us to be his own people in union with Christ because of his own purpose, based on what he had decided from the very beginning.  Let us, then, who were the first to hope in Christ, praise God's glory!" (TEV)
    "In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plans of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory." (NIV)
"It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we've been living for: long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone." (The Message) 
     "In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory." (NRSV)
     I could just keep finding more translations of these two verses and it wouldn't help!  They are Paul at his finest with run-on sentences, and so many clauses and modifiers, you have no clue what the point is when you get done reading!  In retyping them all, I did pick up some key words: PLAN, CHOSEN, PURPOSE, HOPE, GLORY:  CHRIST!  I am not a deep convoluted thinker.  I want Paul to keep it simple!  Maybe these key words are all I need.
     The reflection in d365.org didn't really relate to the text for me.  It commented that we are all heirs to the kingdom of God through our big brother Christ.  We don't have to worry about succession battles for the throne.  We all inherit.  That makes sense as part of previous verses in this passage.
     Faith in Action commentary confirms these verses as part of Paul's extended opening prayer and blessing (see Katy's Sunday sermon on Ephesians 1: 1-14!)  FIA also speaks of the difficulty of relating to a spiritual Christ when you might have known the physical Christ:  "How difficult it must have been for these early Christians to think of themselves as "in" a person who had been alive with them only a few years earlier and whose earthly brothers they knew.  Similarly, how difficult it is for us to think of ourselves as "in Christ", when we often explain salvation as having invited Christ into our hearts, to live in us." (Faith in Action Bible, p. 1932)
     So, who's living in who?  We in Christ or Christ in us?  I guess it doesn't really matter to argue linguistics.  We are one in and through Christ with God - THAT relationship is ALL that matters.
     Whew!  Paul gives me headaches sometimes!
     

WEDNESDAY, JULY 18   "A Rich Inheritance"
Ephesians 1: 7-8  (The Message)
"Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people - free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds.  And not just barely-free, either.  Abundantly free!"
     What is an inheritance but an unearned gift?  We usually think of it in terms of the assets passed on by our elders when they die: land, heirlooms, jewelry, CASH!  Unearned by us, yet earned through hard work and toil by those who came before us.
     The grace of God is an inheritance, unearned by we who receive it, yet gained by Christ through his sacrifice.  This is an immeasurable gift beyond compare.  If we stop to really consider the value of God's grace, how can we not strive to express our thanks by way of service and thanksgiving!  May we never be those who simply live OFF their inheritance, but strive to live into and through God's gift and into the Kingdom of Heaven.


TUESDAY, JULY 17    "Adopted by God"
Ephesians 1:5-6  (The Message)

"Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ.  (what pleasure he took in planning this!)  He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son."
     We spend so much time and effort trying to impress others - often by being something we are not.  Clothes or riches do not 'make the man'.  The heart is what matters.  There is only one who we need to 'impress' - God.  And the beauty of it all?  He loves us regardless!
     The thought that I am a child of the ruler of the entire universe is mind boggling.  Take a good look at the stars on a clear moonless night - you can literally see forever.  How big is our God?  How incredibly vast is the universe?  And yet...we have been claimed, adopted as sons and daughters, into this vast kingdom.  Individually and personally, no pretenses necessary.  What else can possibly matter but coming before our Adopted Father with a heart filled with celebration and praise!  "Our God Is an Awesome God!"

Monday, July 16    SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS
Ephesians 1: 3-4 (The Message)
"How blessed is God!  And what a blessing he is!  He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him.  Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love."  
     How often when we 'count our blessings' do we include those of the spiritual realm?  We note our family, close friends, shelter and food, perhaps natural events like sunsets and butterflies and the smell of a good pine forest.  At least, that's what MY list looks like.  I have my stress management class make a blessing list - it's good to remind ourselves and be grateful for those positives in our life.
     But Spiritual blessings?  Those are harder to identify!  Grace, forgiveness, faith - these also are gifts from God bestowed on us from the beginning of time.  The greatest spiritual blessing?  The gift of being LOVED as a Child of God; the unchangeable joy of adoption into God's family.  Really wrap your mind around that blessing, brothers and sisters!


Sunday, July 15  
Psalm 24:1, 3-6 (TEV)
"The world and all that is in it, 
Belong to the Lord;
The earth and all who live on it are his. 
Who has the right to go up on the Lord's hill?
   Who may enter his Holy Temple?
Those who are pure in act and in thought.
Who do not worship idols or make false promises. 
The Lord will bless them and save them. 
God will declare them innocent. 
Such as the people who come to God,
   Who come into the presence of the God of Jacob." 
     We are ALL a child of God.  All the living earth belongs to God.  This is our inheritance through Christ.  But there is more - more beyond our wildest vivid imaginations can conceive.  We can only dream and guess about the reality that awaits us as we cross over to live in the actual presence of God.
     But we can grasp a piece, experience some of it now by coming to God in all honesty and purity, through our service and attention to others.  Those opportunities can help us experience our inheritance now, here on this earth.  But God's grace is a gift - an inheritance waiting for ALL.  May we live into that grace.


PAUSE!  (d365.org)                          
Deborah Hurd
"As the old song says, we have a great friend in Jesus.  Following in his way, we know deep joy, new challenges and intimate companionship.  And there is more.  In quiet contemplation, may we open our hearts and our imagination to all we receive as God's beloved children."