Rooted and Grounded in Love

Alright, so Ephesians 3:16-19 has really stuck out to me this past week. So, because it's awesome, why not share it? Duh!

So, background on Ephesians....(and a lot of this stuff is taken from the MacArthur Bible Commentary)

-written by Paul while he was in prison. The location of the prison is debated, but the cool thing is that he is urging these people to keep pursuing God because He's awesome-even though Paul is in chains for it. Whoa-I love it!

-this was written to...Ephesus! Ephesus was an important political, educational and commerical center

-the was written to remind believers of their immeasurable blessings in Jesus; and not only to be thankful for those blessings, but also to live in a manner worthy of them

--***because of this (the blessings received as a believer, Christians are sure to be tempted by Satan to self-satisfaction and complacency.

---Dude, been there done that. Personally testimony time. Camp was such a monument in my spiritual growth and walk with my Savior. Y'all, He wrecked shop on my life in big ways. I am very focused on grades at Baylor because I need the scholarships to go here. I am dedicated to my job (writing sports for the Baylor paper) because that's what I want to do with the rest of my life, and it can open some great doors down the road. And, I am involved in a sorority, which is a great way to make friends and truly get involved on campus. This last year, however, my priorities got super messed up. With God, school, job and sorority, guess which one got put on the back burner. God. I would get so involved with things that I would not spend time with Him daily, and I wouldn't go to church. However, because I am a minister's kid and claimed to be "on fire for Christ," I was prideful and felt like I had to appear that I had everything under control, but I didn't. So, I got to camp and was challenged hard core. God placed me in a group women in Sojo that would really push me and challenge me in my faith. Weeks 7-10, I hit this place in my walk where my relationship with God wasn't like it used to be. I experience God through emotion, passion and feeling. I understood that it's so much more than a feeling, but it was so weird that I wasn't feeling Him during that time. I knew that Scripture was the one thing that would help and fulfill me (as well as sooooo many oreos!) However, Scripture would leave me angry and hurting at the fact that it wasn't like it used to be. It was hard. So hard. However, at the end of it, God shook me and really got me attention. My pride got torn down. I cried in front of people. Bawled. I like to make it seem like I am perfectly fine and have everything together, so when I lost it emotionally, I knew God was wrecking shop on my life. Then, He challenged me. He asked me if my faith was really my own or if I was riding my parents' faith card. I would blindly believe things my dad would tell me about Christianity. Most importantly, He made clear the fact that I had placed Him on the back burner while I put so many other things in front of Him. He told me one of them must go. Awesome. I realized that He wanted me to prove I love and trust Him by getting out of my sorority. Wow. It was hard. I prayed that if He willed, that He could change my heart toward the situation, to remove any emotion towards my sorority. Praise the Lord He has changed my heart! Yes, it is hard sometimes seeing them on campus, but I know that right now, I am in the middle of His will and there's no other place I would rather be! Then, a blessing came from out of nowhere. I knew I needed community in Waco at my church. I met with the college minister on Monday and on Wednesday, I was asked to lead a small group of college students. Shut up! God is so awesome! If ever I begin to doubt my decision to leave my sorority, I remember the awesome opportunity God has given me to speak truth about Him! So, God has been so very good these last few weeks. Do I deserve these blessings? Not at all!!

And, as we did in Sojo all the time...I just went for a good five minutes on a tangent. Cool.

Anyways......now to Ephesians 3:16-19.

"That according to His riches and glory"

His riches are limitless to every believer but shouldn't be our focus. Our focus should be on whose we are, not what we get.

"He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being"

Strength-discipline to study the Word, understand and live by it. Although the outer, physical person becomes weaker with age, the inner, spiritual person should grow stronger through the Holy Spirit, who will energize, revitalize and empower the obedient, committed Christian.

"So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith"

Salvation.

"That you, being rooted and grounded in love"

Rooted. He planted me in His love. Before I was born. He picked me-and not like the last kid on the dodgeball team. I have roots in Him. No strong wind the world throws at me will ever take me from Him. How deep do you want these roots to grow? Roots like a flimsy daffodil or a giant oak?

"May have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth"

These aren't features, but an effort to suggest its vastness and completeness

"And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

To be so strong spiritually, so compelled by divine love, that one is totally dominated by the Lord with nothing left of self. Total devotion allows believers to truly experience the greatness of God.

What's up Jesus?! I love this! Y'all, keep pursuing Christ. He will reveal different things that you never knew!

Pursuit of the Gospel

Has marriage and dating been a desire of my heart? Yes. However, after this summer, I can say that I am totally, completely and overwhelmingly satisfied with my God and my Savior. Is marriage still a desire? Yes. But, only for the sole purpose to bring God glory. He fulfills my every need and provides me with so much. His grace is overwhelming, and He has clothed me in His righteousness. His love for me is overflowing, more than I will ever need. I know I can lean on Him in faith. I know the singleness I am in now is such a gift from Him to sink my roots deeper into who He is. Settling on a boy? Not an option. I'm going to wait for my pitch, whenever it comes. Am I crying right now? A little. Because I deserve none of this. I deserve to have been passed up by this awesome God, but He had other plans in mind. All throughout the Bible, you see glimpses of the gospel. At camp, we found the gospel in the genealogy of Genesis 5. Because I'm an idiot, I didn't write that one down. However, sometimes I feel like God is like Waldo, and I am searching for Him daily. Twenty minutes ago, I found Him. Y'all. Check out the story of finding Isaac a wife in Genesis 24. This is the longest chapter in the book, showing that marriage is important. However, check out verse 6. The servant shouldn't have to get the woman by showing her Isaac; she should come out of faith. My husband should be leaning so far on God that if God weren't real, he would fall on his face. I've got to wait on the Lord. If I trust Him with my eternity, I should trust Him with this. In the end, Rebekah goes back with the servant to marry Isaac. Check out the gospel in all this. The servant was a servant of the father. The father sent him on a mission to go off into a land to declare good news to a chosen bride and tell her the story of a father who had a son. And this father had all of his goods and had given them to his son. And this son had sent out a messenger to find her and preach the good news that you could come be a part of this family and a part of blessing this whole world, but you've got to walk by faith. You've got to go by faith. So there's this climatic moment when they leave it up to Rebekah as she stands in the middle of her family, and they all look at her and say, "Young woman, what are you going to do?" And she says the same thing Abraham did long ago. She says, "I'll go." And she walks by faith with a man of faith until he brings her to that chosen bridegroom who she gets to live with forever.

What's up GOSPEL?!

Y'all, God is so stinkin' good!

Truly Blessed

How many times a day do we use the word blessed? And how many times do we truly understand the meaning? Yes, it is a church word. Sure, it is somewhat synonymous to the word good. The legitimate dictionary definition of the word is this, "blissfully happy or contented." Growing up as a minister's kid, I have heard and used this word countless times, never fully understanding what it truly means.

Whoa.

Check out 1 Peter 1:1-2.

"To God's elect..." What does elect mean? "to pick out, choose"

"Who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father"

foreknowledge? "knowledge of something before it exists or happens"

Shut. Up.

Y'all. Who am I that God thought of me BEFORE I WAS EVER CREATED and chose me to be a part of His family?!

"For it is by grace you hae been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." Eph. 2:8-9.

Salvation is a gift. Do you choose a gift or receive a gift?

"Yet, befoe the twins were bon or had done anything good or bad - in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls - she was told, 'The older will serve the younger.'" Rom 9:11-12.

I could have just as easily not been chosen. Think about it. No matter how much I think life sucks or how much I feel persecuted as a Christian...suck it up! I could be headed to hell, but the great I Am CHOSE ME and gave me life, victory, hope, happiness, joy..............

So, the term Christian should be taken much more seriously. Now, we use it like we use the word human. Being a Christian, bearing that name, is such a big deal! It is the name of Christ on us. Because of the high honor that comes with bearing the name Christian, I should seriously strive to act like one. Who am I to receive this precious gift and not respect it? It would be like if my future husband, whoever it may be, were to propose to me, give me the ring, and I not take care of it. Obviously, a wedding ring is nowhere close to how important salvation is, but it was the best analogy I could come up with. As a Christian, I am called to take up my cross and follow Him (Mark 8). This doesn't mean to throw on my cross necklace before I peace out of my apartment. Y'all, the cross was a place of death and shame, not just difficulty and discomfort. By taking up your cross, you will lose things and people will make fun of you. Don't ask for lighter crosses; ask for stronger backs. We could not have been elected. Cross compared to hell doesn't seem so bad anymore. Any pride I had about the great life I have lived or how obedient and faithful I was during camp this summer...throw it out the window! There is nothing I did to deserve the wonderful, priceless, breathtaking gift of salvation. HE CHOSE ME BEFORE I WAS BORN!! What the junk?!

"However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name." 1 Peter 4:16