![]() I have learned a lot more than I really can say I know. Though many of us have been faithful Christians for many years, we feel as though we are beginning to be grasped by that which we have for so long reached toward. ![]() Though the Daily Text is just scratching the surface of it, I think this is what draws you here. It requires much richer and more multi-dimensional approaches to the Word & Spirit to the Church & Kingdom, than we have fathomed before. Second half of the gospel discipleship is New Creation transformation. This is the stuff eyes cannot see and ears cannot hear. It makes me think of our text from 1 Corinthians 2:9-10. It means to reveal great and unsearchable things which you did not know. The word there, ep-ee-fow-o (phonetically pronounced), is connected to the word epiphany. Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, the ascended Lord of Heaven and Earth at the right hand of the Father, is shining. How much more do we need this wake up call-every single day-even multiple times a day. It is no wonder they were prone to drift back into sleep, to become stuck again in the gravity of darkness and death that had held them so tightly. And these believers had come out of that culture of darkness. In numbers, they were maybe a hundred in the midst of tens of thousands. The prevailing culture around these early churches was overwhelming. We are learning now to behold and become. We have simply not been “taught in him” with respect to our “former way of life” or our “old self” or our “new self” or what it means “to be made new in the attitude of your minds.” We have been taught to believe and behave. They were jumping straight away into the second half of the Gospel. They weren’t passing out tickets to heaven when you die in those days. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. In the prior chapter Paul put it this way: We have noted in this series several clues as to what discipleship was like in the early days. No, this is a calling to the Church (i.e. This is not an invitation to the unbelieving world to become a believer. My favorite part of v.14 is this bit: That is why it is said. Every Zoom call, every meeting of our Board of Directors, every weekly prayer meeting, every New Room Conference or gathering of any sort-always begins with Ephesians 5:14: We begin every band meeting we have with these words. We open every meeting we have with this text. If you have been around Seedbed for any length of time you have heard this exchange. 14 This is why it is said:Īnd Christ will shine on you.” CONSIDER THIS 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible-and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
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