This weekend was our church's annual progressive dinner/ ornament exchange Christmas party. It was fantastic. It was loads of fun, more people show up every year, and every single person I talked to had a good time. It's a time for the people in the church to celebrate Jesus as a body and bring friends outside the church to show them this love and celebration. My husband and I went home in good moods and crashed in bed after a night of what we call "herding cats". I guess I shouldn't be surprised that after such a joy filled, spiritually packed night of celebrating Jesus' birth together that we suffered from terrible dreams and bad thoughts. Not because I'm a pessimist (because I'm not) but because when the evil one witnesses something like this, he seeks to destroy what was built. I awoke suddenly at 4 am with a constant stream of bad thoughts about the party. All of a sudden I was plagued with worries about what we should have done, how we could have dealt with things differently, what he should have changed, what she should have said, and I started getting angry at a lot of people. I knew right away that these thoughts were fear based and obviously not from God. I automatically started praying against it - telling the evil to leave my mind and asking Jesus to replace those thoughts with his truths. It wasn't working. Jarrod got up at this point, went to the restroom and came back as I was checking my phone to see what time it was and to see if I could distract my thoughts since I was wide awake anyway. He laid down beside me and said, "are you ok?" To which I hesitated - debating whether to burden him with this ridiculous struggle I was having - and replied, "no." He asked me what was going on and I told him I was hearing a constant string of bad thoughts about the party. He told me he had been awakened from a nightmare about the party and the people present. He asked if he could pray for me - or maybe I asked him...I can't remember - and he snuggled me, laid his hand on my head and prayed. After, I asked him if he wanted me to pray for him and of course he said yes, so I returned the favor and we fell quickly asleep for a restful 3 hours of rest until our alarm went off for Sunday morning.
Why am I telling you this story? Because I preach in almost every post the power of praying to get yourself, through the strength of Jesus, out of these dark places and I want to amend that by saying sometimes you can't do it alone. Sometimes the voices are too strong for you to fight off by yourself. The power of prayer can come from one or through the unity of God's people. The power of prayer can bring you out of dark times, thoughts or dreams and replace them with joy and confidence that everything will work out to God's planning.
Pastor Jim pointed out this Sunday that we live in a world that is concerning. News channels report constant religious violence, mass shootings, bullying, drugs, suicide, etc. There's more to the story than what's in the news. The news does a good job of pointing out the fight between good vs. evil or all the wrongs in the world but often times fails to mention that the core of the fight lies not between people who make bad choices, but between the unforeseen force of evil attempting to reign over God's Kingdom on Earth. Only God reigns and all other gods are demonic, deity impostors (Pastor Jim's words, not mine. ;) ). There is no fight between God and Satan, but there is a fight between Satan and God's image bearers (that's us). God sent his son to fight for us - to bring hope, to model for us what it looks like to be spiritually alive. Because of Christ, we are more than conquerors in the spiritual battle on Earth. There's more to life than this ongoing fight against evil - as believers, we have purpose and can live in hope for what God has done and will do for us.
Enter Ephesians...
There is one God and what defines him is glorious grace. His purpose for you is to live in his family with forgiveness, power, strength, blessing, dignity, and inheritance. Your part is to believe in him; believing doesn't from achieving, believing comes from receiving. If we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that we believe, then we are part of God's receiving family.
By being part of God's family, we are welcomed into a different reality than that of non-believers. It is a reality of truth, broken addictions, health, purpose, love and joy. It is a reality of greater understanding that God is the ruler and all will bow down to him. Revelation in this new reality from God unveils where your faith can explore by his authority. Part of thriving in this authority is entering the presence (Ephesians 1:15-23) and taking possession of your revelation. Paul (from Ephesians) wants all believers to experience knowing the Father in a dimension of the new reality that we can be awakened to not by way of reason or logic but by revelation from the Holy Spirit through prayer. With this revelation, you can know the hope of his calling, the richness of his inheritance, and the greatness of his power. The spirit can unveil all this and bring you to experience his reality. THIS is the reality we choose to live in and THIS is the reality we should bring into the darkness in our world. Our DNA as God's family is that of love, light, hope and joy.
What does the Father get in giving you his inheritance? His desire is simple. All he wants is YOU. He wants you in his family. Defeat and despair is NOT part of your inheritance. Victory is. So, go! Take your inheritance and spread light and love into this scary place we live.
Pastor Jim pointed out this Sunday that we live in a world that is concerning. News channels report constant religious violence, mass shootings, bullying, drugs, suicide, etc. There's more to the story than what's in the news. The news does a good job of pointing out the fight between good vs. evil or all the wrongs in the world but often times fails to mention that the core of the fight lies not between people who make bad choices, but between the unforeseen force of evil attempting to reign over God's Kingdom on Earth. Only God reigns and all other gods are demonic, deity impostors (Pastor Jim's words, not mine. ;) ). There is no fight between God and Satan, but there is a fight between Satan and God's image bearers (that's us). God sent his son to fight for us - to bring hope, to model for us what it looks like to be spiritually alive. Because of Christ, we are more than conquerors in the spiritual battle on Earth. There's more to life than this ongoing fight against evil - as believers, we have purpose and can live in hope for what God has done and will do for us.
Enter Ephesians...
There is one God and what defines him is glorious grace. His purpose for you is to live in his family with forgiveness, power, strength, blessing, dignity, and inheritance. Your part is to believe in him; believing doesn't from achieving, believing comes from receiving. If we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that we believe, then we are part of God's receiving family.
By being part of God's family, we are welcomed into a different reality than that of non-believers. It is a reality of truth, broken addictions, health, purpose, love and joy. It is a reality of greater understanding that God is the ruler and all will bow down to him. Revelation in this new reality from God unveils where your faith can explore by his authority. Part of thriving in this authority is entering the presence (Ephesians 1:15-23) and taking possession of your revelation. Paul (from Ephesians) wants all believers to experience knowing the Father in a dimension of the new reality that we can be awakened to not by way of reason or logic but by revelation from the Holy Spirit through prayer. With this revelation, you can know the hope of his calling, the richness of his inheritance, and the greatness of his power. The spirit can unveil all this and bring you to experience his reality. THIS is the reality we choose to live in and THIS is the reality we should bring into the darkness in our world. Our DNA as God's family is that of love, light, hope and joy.
What does the Father get in giving you his inheritance? His desire is simple. All he wants is YOU. He wants you in his family. Defeat and despair is NOT part of your inheritance. Victory is. So, go! Take your inheritance and spread light and love into this scary place we live.
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