Our Response to God's Love

(Today is the first day of the 18 part devotional on Ephesians.  I will be updating this blog every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Email me if you want this email sent to your email address.  joshua.wheeler03@gmail.com)


When I was 18 years old, I decided to quit waking up for church. I wasn't mad at God, nor was I hurt by the church; I just thought church was irrelevant. I was in college at the time, and learning so much from my
professors and friends that I thought Sunday morning lectures could wait until I was older. This is fairly common for people my age, in fact, a recent study by the Barna Group revealed that 60% of young people chose to leave the Church during college. I admit that I learned a lot from those years, but many lessons were painful and unexpected.  I now bear spiritual scars which remind me that some decisions can cause deep wounds.  At first I didn't understand why I made so many mistakes, especially considering my background. I grew up with parents who brought me to church every Sunday morning and dropped me off at youth group every Wednesday night. The problem wasn't my church attendance, it was my motivation. I only went to church because my parents. They wanted me to go, and I never took responsibility for developing my relationship with God.  My weak faith made it easy to forgot God once I got to college, but the experience also taught me a very important life lesson: I need to focus on my relationship to God.  As I look back, I am able to see that I could have avoided so many hurtful decisions if I only would have made God a priority. This is because many of my mistakes stemmed from insecurity and a desire to be loved and
accepted. I now understand that God has always loved and accepted me, but I couldn't see it until I started focusing on Him.

I have learned that humans can only focus on one thing at a time, so I try to focus on God as frequently as I
can. I do this by reading the bible in the morning, asking God to remind me about Him throughout the day, and going to church on Sunday. In essence, I am making a choice to prioritize God above anything else, and then asking Him to help me honor that choice.  As we spend this week reading through the first chapter of Ephesians, let's take notice that Paul spends a whole chapter focusing on God before focusing on us. It
seems as though Paul is demonstrating that God was the top priority in his life, his family and friends were second and ministry work was third.

Read Paul's introduction in Ephesians 1:1-8 (NLT):

This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.

I am writing to God’s holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious

grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

Answer the following questions:

1. What does this passage reveal about God's love for us?

2. What do we learn about our freedom?

3. What aspect of God's love is hardest for you to understand or appreciate?

Fellow Travelers...

I have often struggled to understand how the bible relates to my life, and I know I'm not the only one. I hear many people complain that the bible is irrelevant for the 21st century, but I read the bible assuming that God is going to use the words on the page in order to communicate with me. I believe that God wants to talk to us, but do we know how to listen?

During the past two months I wrote a bible devotional hoping that it would help my family and friends learn how to listen to God and grow in their understanding of Him.  I wanted to use my past experiences as an example of how I have learned to listen to God in the past.  I'm not perfect, and I believe that God communicates differently to each of His children, so I suggested that they use the devotional as a workbook instead of a textbook. But why am I telling you this inside of this blog post?

Well, during the next 6 week I would like to share my devotional study with you online.  I want to use this blog as a way for us to read through the book of Ephesians together and grow in our understanding of God.  I will format the blog differently than a normal blog post, and I will be making blog posts 3 times a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  

Each "blogvotion" will begin with a brief insight that God has shared with me, followed by a short section of Ephesians, and conclude with a few questions about what you read.  Because this is online, you can use the comment's section in order to add your own questions, answer some of mine questions, or share an insight of how the section applies to your life.  I would love for us to challenge and encourage one another to see the Bible as a source of living communication between God and His children.

Finally, I want to provide two quick notes in conclusion: 

First of all, the questions are the most important part of the study because they are designed to help you focus on God and communicate with Him. Therefore, slowly read and answer the questions as thoroughly as possible, writing your responses in a separate notebook if needed.

Secondly, send me an email if you want this blog to come directly to your email inbox.  Joshua.Wheeler03@gmail.com

I pray that we all grow a lot closer to God in this time.

A Grateful Evangelist

Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

The church I attend made us take a test to determine what our natural talents are, because they believe that Christians should use their natural talents to serve each other.  My test results showed that I am an "evangelistic person" who wants to tell people that God loves them and wants to be with them.  As I thought about my talent, I started to wonder what an evangelist looks like.  How do evangelists preach; how do they pray; how do they feel.  Are they angry people who want to rebuke others?  Are they friendly folks who love to be around others?  Are they aggressively trying to make as many coverts as possible?  Are they constantly praying that God would give them powerful words?

These is an important question for me, because my best friends, and some of my closest family members are non-Christians.  I pray for them when I can, but I've been praying for years and haven't seen a lot of changes in their lives.  I began to wonder if I'm not praying effectively for them, so I decided to ask God "how to pray" for my non-believing loved ones.  The response I received was very remarkable.

As I was asking God how to pray, I felt prompted to think about God's desire for people.  I realized that God desires everyone to know Him and come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), but I also realized that God wants us to give thanks for every circumstance.  That's a biblical command, and the will of God for every person.  God wants grateful children.  It's no different than any other parent or person for that matter.  Does anyone want to be around someone who is always complaining about how bad their life is?  Does any parent want to hear their kids constantly asking for stuff?  I don't think so.  I think parents ultimately want to hear, "Thanks dad, I really appreciate you," or "I love you mom, because I know you do the best you can to take care of me."  That's what every parents longs to hear, and God is no different.

So I began to ask the Lord, "How can I be grateful when praying for people who don't love the Lord?"  And that's when I realized that I can be grateful for two things:

1. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to pray and witness to them.  

God has placed people in my life so we can grow closer to God.  God wants everyone to acknowledge Him as their God and savior, and I get the chance to encourage others in that process.  It is a privilege for me to pray for the people that I love.   I want them to know God, because I couldn't imagine eternity without Him.
  

2. I am grateful that God is so patient and compassionate to all of us.

My friends and my family deserve nothing from God, but don't misunderstand me, I don't deserve anything from God either.  We have all chosen to reject God at times even though He is gracious and loving to each of us.  He has been gracious to me even though I have mocked Him, thrown insults on other Christians, and acted in ways that goes against His truth.  Picture yourself in God's position: what would you do with someone like me who has insulted you and hurt your children?  Would you be willing to show love and compassion?  I wouldn't.

I have the tendency of rejecting people who reject me, but luckily God is greater than me in love and compassion.  God has been patient with me even though I've hurt Him.  He has been patient with my friends and family even though they hurt Him.  I am so grateful that God is patient with each and every one of us.  I'm also grateful that God has given each and everyone of us the opportunity to help our friends and family grow closer to Him.

So I encourage you to spend time thanking God for His love.  Everything you have is a gift from His hand.  God is good.