Skip to main content

What I Learned on Sunday, 1st Edition

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 1:1, 2 ESV)
Every Sunday morning I try and pick one valuable truth from the sermon I have heard to hold my fort during the week. I was challenged by today's sermon which came from the verse above.
The preacher explained that all who are true followers of Jesus are "saints". He also also said the term means "God's holy people". Most importantly we are God's holy people TODAY, not when we are declared by someone as a "saint".

I was struck by this thought. Apostle Paul was writing to a rugged crew of believers with all their imperfections. And the thing he wants to highlight upfront is that they are God's holy people today.

I was challenged by this because when I think of the local gathering of believers the phrase "God's holy people" is not what immediately comes to mind. But Paul flips the switch. He says that Christian who annoys you a lot, if that person has come to Jesus, he is God's holy person!

That struggling person who never makes the prayer meeting and whose faith you doubt actually is God's holy person. She may not tick all your boxes, but the blood of Christ has already ticked the most important box for her!

This truth is a game changer! If we saw other believers in our own lives [at home, church, work] as God's holy people, it would bring tremendous humility and unity in our relationships. We would move from a posture of condemning to encouraging. We would actually start seeing people grow to be who they are in Jesus!

By the way, the other phrase Paul uses is "faithful". I think he means they ARE faithful in Jesus Christ because Jesus is faithful on their behalf. So there is no immediate aspiration here. If you know Jesus you are already HOLY and FAITHFUL because Jesus is HOLY and FAITHFUL. Another earth shaking truth!

The aspiration of course comes in the blessing / prayer at the end: "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ". To live out who we are as HOLY and FAITHFUL we need the grace from God and the peace from God. But again those things comes from our identity as God's children and the Lordship of Jesus in our lives.

My prayer this week is that I may see other believers as God sees them!

Until next Sunday's sermon....

Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2014
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I am what I am by Gloria Gaynor

Beverly Knight closed the opening ceremony of the Paralympics with what has been dubbed the signature tune of the Paralympics. I had no idea Ms Knight is still in the singing business. And clearly going by the raving reviews she will continue to be around. One media source says her performance was so electric that "there wasn’t a dry eye to be seen as she sang the lyrics to the song and people even watching at home felt the passion in her words" . The song was Gloria Gaynor's I am what I am . Clearly not written by Gloria Gaynor but certainly musically owned and popularized by her. It opens triumphantly: I am what I am / I am my own special creation / So come take a look / Give me the hook or the ovation / It's my world that I want to have a little pride in / My world and it's not a place I have to hide in / Life's not worth a damn till you can say I am what I am The words “I am what I am” echo over ten times in the song. A bold declaration that she ...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

Trusting God, By Jerry Bridges (A Review)

Trust is the bedrock of human relations. It is a necessity in a world of finite creatures. We do not know everything and we are powerless over many of the events that occur in our lives. We depend on others to make life work. We cannot afford not to trust. Trust deepens us as individuals by bringing us into mutually satisfying relationships. It enables us to know, love and learn from each other. The tragedy of life is that the one person who we can truly depend on and deserves all our trust, is also the person we struggle to put our trust in. When it comes to trusting God, we are all bankrupt. This poverty is most acute when we go through pain and adversity. Jerry Bridges’ Trusting God aims to help us take a fresh look at God. To help restore our confidence in the goodness and sovereignty of God. This issue is important because though many of us claim to trust God, our thoughts and actions speak otherwise. In our private moments we often ask: how can we trust a God who is supposedly ...
KEEP READING →

Living in contradiction

As I was growing up in India, I read a story about a man who had two idols in his home. One was large and rather fierce looking. The other was small, with a cheery face. Every day, morning and night, the man would carry out his worship rituals — placing fruit offerings before the idols and chanting hymns, while his son watched with great curiosity. Finally his son said, “Why are you talking to stones? These are lifeless things. They can’t speak or move or do anything, yet you spend all this time every day doing what you do.” The father grew very angry and reprimanded his son. “Don’t you dare speak that way! These are not just stones! These are our gods! We worship them, and they protect us.” The son realized he had touched a raw nerve and wisely decided to push the issue no further. But one day, in the father’s absence, the son took a big stick and smashed the little idol to pieces. Then he took the stick and placed it in the hands of the big idol. When evening came, his father walke...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →