Ephesians 4:1-6
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Questions:
- What in this text strikes you as remarkable?
- Who is Paul speaking to? [This is crucial for our understanding.]
- What is his main point?
- What do you think it means to "live a life worthy of the calling"?
- How we develop and maintain humility?
- What does it mean to "bear with one another in love"?
- What effort can you make to "keep the unity of the Spirit"?
- Think about each of the 7 "ones," why are these 7 so important?
- How do these 7 "ones" impact unity?
- How can we use this passage to create greater unity among the generations?
- How does passage fit with this statement? We are baptized believers participating in the life of God for the sake of others.
What else is on your mind this week?
35 comments:
Twelve weeks from today I begin my sabbatical. It will be from December 16 until March 16. There are still a lot of things to do to get ready for it. It’s ironic: I am having to be careful not to get stressed by the things that need to be done...
I will have a lot more to say about it all soon. We are in the process of finalizing the preaching schedule during my absence.
It’s October! This is my favorite month of the year.
I guess today is the Big Day for a lot of guys: opening day of deer season for bow hunters. I hear there will be a lot of absenteeism today. I know I am not going to run in my usual spot this morning: trails in the Hoosier National Forest. I am afraid that I might be mistaken for a deer as I run. It would be an easy, natural mistake since I run so gracefully and fast.
Thinking ahead...
This week we finish the brief “Generation to Generation” series. I don’t know if this has been effective or not. I hope so. I have received very little feedback, so I am not sure. My main goal is for us all to have respect for all generations based on Spiritual Formation that comes from Scripture. It seems to me it has to start from my personal integrity that comes from God.
Where next? I plan to do a series of lessons based on the word “Worthy.” Interesting word. Used in several different ways in the Bible. I have several texts selected and am now working on the order in which to present them. I am thinking of starting with the “Prodigal Son” who knows he is unworthy, like we all are. Then move to the fact the “Lamb” is worthy of worship because of his redemptive work (Rev. 5). Then move to the response on our part. Jesus and Paul both speak of living lives that are “worthy.”
After this Worthy series I hope to move into a brief series about Sabbath, beginning in Genesis 2. This will lead me right into my sabbatical.
What do you think we need? Trying to figure that piece out is one of the hardest things I do.
And there’s more about the leg in the smoker! Check it out HERE. This is too good. The legless man’s last name is Wood, and his mom’s name is Peg (see last week).
Speaking of smokers, I smoked some baby backs and accidently smoked a pork loin. I got it out of the freezer and mistook it for a Boston butt. I am still a novice, you know. Oh well, it tasted good. The ribs were quite tasty also. I am addicted to smoking.
OK, I am flying solo again??
Nope, it just seems that way!
Annette
That's good to know!
Well, I was thinking of getting a navel ring. I thought it would look really cool when I run. You know, when my shirt might bounce up a little, exposing my midriff. I was thinking of something pretty big and flashy, but then I Read This:
A student has given warning of the potential dangers of body piercings, after she was almost killed when her belly-button stud tore through her stomach “like a bullet” during a car accident.
Jessica Collins, 19, from Radyr, Cardiff, is recovering from surgery at a hospital in Munich, where the crash happened. The seatbelt she was wearing forced the metal stud through her body almost to her spine, causing serious internal injuries.
Here are the 10 Commandments:
"And God spoke all these words, saying: 'I am the LORD your God…
ONE: 'You shall have no other gods before Me.'
TWO: 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.'
THREE: 'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.'
FOUR: 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.'
FIVE: 'Honor your father and your mother.'
SIX: 'You shall not murder.'
SEVEN: 'You shall not commit adultery.'
EIGHT: 'You shall not steal.'
NINE: 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.'
TEN: 'You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.'
I think I do pretty well with the 10 Commandments. OK, I do have a little problem with Sabbath keeping (resting), but other than that I don’t do too badly, UNTIL I get to #10. Don’t have any problem with my neighbor’s house; no interest in his wife; not interested in male servants or female servants. Ox and donkey - no problem. It’s that last phrase that gets me. I do have a coveting problem with THIS, his Kubota BX 24. It presently sits in my garage, and it looks really good there. My neighbor, Sam, has been kind enough to encourage me to borrow this sweet machine, and I took him up on it this last weekend. Wow!
Rebecca could tell that I really like this machine, but she still asked (playfully), “Do you like that cute little tractor?” I told her that I liked it enough that I was thinking of trading her off to get one. And she knows how much I love her...
allen
i love it when you blog solo.
it amazes me the number of topics you can cover by yourself and how your mind bounces around.
good work keep it up because you are entertaining me.
RR
Why, thank you!
ZOOM, ZOOM, ZOOM...
Did you see that barrel roll?
Our text this week contains one of the famous “one another” comments. Here’s a good quote about this:
This word occurs forty times in Paul’s letters. Christians are part of each other and are to receive one another, think about one another, serve one another, love one another, build up one another, bear each other’s burdens, submit to each other, and encourage each other. Christianity is a God-directed, Christ-defined, other-oriented religion. Only with such direction away from self do we find ourselves.
Question: how can we do this if we are not together?
Why be together?
One thing I see is this: people tend to surround themselves with people like them and people who like them. Do you think this leads to an “inbredness” of thought?
God is “forcing” Jews and Gentiles to be in One Body, the church, and telling them to be united. That’s pretty amazing, if you understand how diverse they were. When and where are we forced to deal with such diversity?
The thing that the Jewish Christians and the Gentiles now had in common was Christ. It must have been so difficult with their upbringing each in their own way to be able to jell as a group. Maybe the adversity they experienced brought them closer. Trials do make us stronger if we let them. Our upgringing has alot to do with who we become and to break away from that requires alot of discipline and practice and prayer. If you were one of the fortunate ones who had Christian parents who guided you,conversion was natural in your formation of faith. However, our faith must become our own over time if we are to become what God wants us to be. It is easier to lean back and be comfortable in our cozy environment where everyone has known us from childhood, in many cases, than to really broaden our perimeters and get into another person's life who has lived totally different from us and has come from a totally different upbringing. Maybe it would be helpful if all of us would concentrate on what we have in common instead of what divides us. We all as humans have the same basic needs, spiritually, physically and emotionally. Even though some people are hard to get to know and remain very private about their lives we have to respect that and stay within the perimeters in which they allow us to come in. Others are very open and share themselves and their lives without walls. Walls are built one brick at a time and one experience at a time for us. God broke down the walls that divide by sending Jesus Who unifies. Early in my faith, I stayed away from everything and everyone connected with what I knew was wrong and that was probably a good thing to do. But as I grew I realized those souls need Christ and who is going to tell them about him without a conveyer of the message of His forgivness and peace. We each have special people in our lives that we have a solid connection with and I see nothing wrong with that but to exclude and ignore those not like us is wrong and selfish and I struggle with this as most everyone else does. As we look around at our diverse group and we unite in song and prayer and the partaking of the Lord's Supper, the unity of those acts of worship draw us closer to our great Uniter. Sherron
Allen, since very few are listening anyway. I had a neat experience last week. Awaiting results from Jason's tests has made me want to be busy so on Thursday last week I left home early to pick up my cousin, Gayle and her brother John in Plainfield to spend the day at our house. She is in her third year of chemotherapy and can not drive at this time. Between treatments was this window of opportunity to get her away from home for a while. We had the most wonderful day together. She is ten years older than me and she lived in two of the same houses I grew up in as a child. She has so many memories of our grandparents that she has relayed to me and I have carefully written down. Also memories about our neighbors back then. She told of helping our grandpa hand pick corn and after they had a wagon load (he farmed with a team of horses) they and the horses pulled the wagon to the corn crib at the top of the hill near the barn and he said, 'here Gayle, you start unloading the wagon into the corn crib and I will go to the house to see if supper is ready. He was gone and gone and gone and she finally had the whole wagon unloaded and went to the house and found him finishing supper. She was so mad at him but when she complained to Grandma, she said, 'you should have known better.' Grandpa was a prankster and had a dry sense of humor. He was teasing grandma as she skimmed cream off the milk with her large skimmer, which was a spoon with large holes in it. She finally had enough and reached over and whopped him on the mouth with the spoon. He took off his hat, scratched his head and said, 'I belive I'll go to the barn now' and just sauntered off. We spent the whole day talking. By getting out of myself and my worry and concern for our son, God allowed me to brighten the day for someone else who needed it. God gave us a beautiful day. Sherron
Good posts, Sherron! I enjoyed both of them in different ways. You brought back some memories for me with your last one. I remember as a small boy that my sisters, mother, and me would all go to the corn field at times to pick corn. Dad would use on 2 row corn picker, mounted on an old John Deere narrow front tractor, that would throw ears of corn onto a flat bed wagon, which would then have to be unloaded with a scoop shovel into a corn crib (sounds MTVish, “crib” but I digress). We would play in the back of the wagon as we made our way through the fields. It was a far cry from modern harvesting.
I was out running this morning; it’s always a good time to think, etc. I was thinking about the 10 Commandments. If I could learn to rest more and better, then I think I could check those things off and say that I am keeping them. I haven’t committed adultery, haven’t murdered, don’t really covet anything, don’t have any idols, don’t use the Lord’s name in vain (won’t even say Gosh), etc, etc... Wow! I am keeping the 10 Commandments! Look at me!
But’s here the problem: even though I have not committed adultery, I have lusted, and though I have not committed murder, I sure have been angry enough to do so and still battle anger over past issues. You see where I am going. Now, isn’t it interesting to think about this in light of the six “antitheses” found in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:21-48? “You have heard it said, but I say unto you...” It is no longer about the 10 Commandments written in dead, lifeless stone, it is about a living, active relationship with the Word who became flesh, who fulfilled those 10 Commandments. It’s about loving my neighbor as myself, which seems really relevant to our discussion this week.
Green Acres is the place to be. Farm livin' is the life for me. Doo Dah, Doo Dah. One reason I love fall is remembering the harvest and the look and feel of fall. It is just so short lived but so beautiful for that short time. It seems that everything is giving it's best right now from the flowers to the trees to the busy hungry finches who are changing colors to their winter coat. And I am so glad we are under the new law and not the old. The old law left out the heart and what it harbors which is the place where disobedience and obedience begins. Jesus shows us a new and better way for sure. As you age your weaknesses change. I just think about the next flower I want now. What a relief because alot of the time if I share what I have, the flower I want is given to me. OK, I'll shut up. I have work to do. Sherron
The older generations have many great stories to tell. It is a shame that the younger generation does not have the patience to sit down and listen. I wish I had written down many of the stories that my grandparents told. Much of our history will be lost as fewer and fewer stories are retold.
Ralph
what is ralph doing posting on here! shouldnt he be getting ready for his test? love you ralph, will keep you in our prayers today.
it is interesting the comment he makes. why is/are the younger generations seen as not having the patience to sit down and listen?
that again i think is part of the diversity we have brought up here. diversity is really a very broad topic and touches so many aspects of our life. in this case i dont know that it is so much that the younger groups dont have the patience, they just recieve information in different formats that the older groups do.
an example is cell phones. first thought is that it is a phone and that means talking. not really. the older groups do use it for talking but the younger groups use it for texting. they have drilled down the language to the bare minimum too and communicate well. until i really studied my daughter's use of this, i had no idea how much they really talk. a neat example is that on christmas morning, i heard her phone go off and she immediately looked at it and then texted back. it was gary sending out a greeting to the teen group on christmas morning. she thought that was so neat and i actually thought it was too. how many of you called every member in your sunday school class before 8 a.m. on christmas? hmmm probably no one. so in reality the group that we see as being not so as we probably would like may have more people skills than we give them credit.
actually not sure what this really has to do with all of this but just some rambling thoughts i had.
RR
LOVE THE PICTURE!!! There are three very lovely ladies sitting there. Three ladies I look up to and love to sit and listen to. Although you have to keep a close eye on them sometimes...you never know what trouble they might cause. HA! HA!
Ryan, I had never thought of the texting thing that way. I've always just seen the teens always walking around typing on their phones and thought...can't they put their phones away for one minute. I guess that really gives me something to think about and look at in a more positive way. Interesting thoughts.
Hope you all have a good day!!!
Mel
Oh, I forgot. Did everyone know this is Pastor Appreciation Month. I'm suprised Allen didn't tell everyone already. HA! HA!
Now, note that Mel is of “the younger generation.” ha ha ha
I think I would lovingly disagree with Ralph. I think younger folks love hearing older folks tell stories. I wonder how we could better facilitate a time/place for that to happen??
My perception is that younger folks communicate much better and more often than “older” folks. I think that is really neat. I am fascinated by the way they communicate in My Space, Face Book and with texting. I do find texting to be a little off-putting at times. I think the etiquette needed has not yet formed. Some don’t seem to know when to put it down or turn it off when involved in face to face conversations with others.
Sent by a compassionate friend.
Daily Thought:
SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKYS. NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING BUT THEY BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN PUSHED DOWN THE STAIRS
For an article about Face Book, click HERE. It’s really about how older folks are using it to check up on their kids, and how the kids really don’t appreciate it. I guess it would be like kids joining in at the shuffle board matches?? Ha ha
Hey, if the preaching thing doesn’t work out, the Holy Smoker might persuade Bigg Daddy to team up and take smokin’ on the road. Thanks to Becky and John I now have some traveling options; check it out! Wow! Now, if I could only come up with 30-40K. Do you snore, Bigg Daddy? The cabin quarters look a little tight.
Why do I find THIS disturbing? [If you don’t have time to click, it is an article about Leave It To Beaver celebrating its 50 year anniversary. It has a picture of Wally and “The Beave.”]
Oh, did someone mention that it is Clergy Appreciation Month? I was thinking of establishing a fund to which anyone could contribute: Get Allen a Kubota Fund (GAAKF), and now I am thinking I need one of them there smokin’ cabins, so really you have a couple of good options to express appreciation.
Holy Smoker! Actually sometime I roar in my sleep, I wake up to ask Lil Moma, "did you hear that?" She's lying there wide awake going "yeah, it's you, it's 2:45 in tha AM, I'm move'n to tha couch." The neat part is I don't remember any of this. I hear about it the next day from the family, usually after a wonderful nights sleep. I wonder sometimes why my family is so grumpy in tha mornings, an I'm all bouncy and ready to get with it. Doc. I already have a smoker like some in the photos... it's called a house. They can come to me. Remember, if the people smell the smoke, they'll come. BIGG DADDY
Whoa, had a panic attack for a second. I thought Allen wanted to have a Karaoke fund.
On a more positive note did you know today is Reconciliation Day in Indiana.
Allen, what disturbs you about the article on "Leave it to Beaver"? Personally, that show disturbs me! Ughh!
Big Daddy; Nice storey and too funny! Got all those drivers trained yet? Ha ha :)
Allen go for the screened porch if you get one. Remember it only costs 50% more to go first class.
Again another interesting blog week which with out purpose or intent really covered some diversity. We talked deer season, texting, face page, Leave it to Beaver, and smokers. Wow. that is diversity. all of that in 30 posts!
RR
this is off the subject a bit but it really got me thinking.
dont know if you are times-mail readers and dont know if anyone reading this blog knows this guy or not.
in today's paper there is an article about "chopper" who passed away earlier this week. the article details the sense of community that chopper had and his attitude toward others and acts he did. one line that really struck a chord with me was that it didnt matter, rich, poor, young, old, all that matter to him was that you were "people". i am not going to be judgemental of him at all.
my point to this is, what a great eulogy! wow! isnt that to a degree what we are after. when you die wouldnt you love for people to say; "to (insert your name here) it didnt matter if you were young, old, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, male, female, white, black, green, baptist, catholic, hindu, etc., all that matter was that you were people."
we get so wrapped up in our own lives and in technical aspects of being christians we forget that a warm smile or handshake to the person you pass in wal-mart, or to the little kid on the sidewalk is important. our problems out weigh those of others.
sorry just some ramblings on my part.
RR
RR I saw that about Chopper. yes it would be nice to be known that way. I did know him distantly and the most interesting thing to me is most people would have judged him from his exterior looks and gruff voice not to be kind or friendly at all. which is very very sad to me. he was a true good fella.
Jon Goller
Indiana Farmer Offers Kill-It-Yourself Meat Certainly got my attention. Clever old man, it seems.
Well, I am going to try take the entire day “off” today. Gonna leave the cell phone off and not check email. A day of sabbath. Also a day of mourning; I am taking the Kubota back this evening, after carefully washing it of course.
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