This Is Everything

It doesn't get much better than this:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. (Ephesians 1:2-10)

Together In Torture

(I wrote and sent this over the weekend to a friend of mine. I take the liberty of including it here because I think it relevant to virtually every Christian older than, oh, say, ten years. We are no longer of nor from this world, having been made alien to it through the new birth in Christ. We are now spirit-born sons and daughters of God, belonging to and seated in the heavens in Christ Jesus. That means our interaction with God is now most normal to us. However, that also means our interaction with this world is, at best, terribly difficult. The odds are good that you know all about this. But maybe you forget that your struggles and failures and longings are not simply bad things, but great evidence of your new birth and one-day home-going, there to fit in where you belong. I hope you benefit from my note to a friend.)


Thinking about you this morning.

I imagine that you’ve had a week or so of total immersion in the things and systems and doings of this world. There is absolutely no way that wouldn’t wear you out. I know that when I am in a “total immersion” time, nothing particularly pleases me, nothing gives me much hope, and nothing really encourages me deep down. It’s like I’m attached to what’s mistreating me. Now, that’s fun.

So, I wanted to remind you that the One who loves you perfectly and without finding fault knows exactly what you’re going through, and has endless compassion for you. He knows that this world can never come close to accurately reflecting or honoring who you are, and that it is nothing less than a torture chamber for you and all His sons.

I think that while He grieves with you over the torture and endless needling and lying about who you are, still He is delighted with you, even thrilled with how you valiantly press on. He knows that you endure seemingly endless battles between the flesh and Spirit, and that you grieve in failure, longing for endless Spirit-filled life.

And that’s His promise—one day what you so deeply want will be yours. While you have a deposit today, in that day you will have Him to the full.

Until then, I’ll be your friend in the torture chamber—I will endure with you. And I’ll work to remember who you are and why the struggles you have are in keeping with a far greater glory, the glory of God in and through us.

You are His idea—and He’s happy about it.

Your friend,

Ralph

“…we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Cor 4:14-17)

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

A Pause...

I will be out of town for a few of days, but will post back over the weekend or on Monday.

Until then, remember God's stunning grace to you!

--Ralph

Double until then--enjoy the short video below. There's so much one can do with that global necessity, the outhouse.

Doh!

File this under, “Things I forget about God.”

“…to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” (Ephesians 1:6)

Too often I find myself fighting with myself—I should be less engrossed in the things of this world, more involved with my girls, pray more with my wife, be nicer, more loving, less critical, and so on. Do you have one of those lists too? I went to bed with mine last night.

Early this morning I heard the Spirit say, “Stop wrestling with yourself, and live by faith.”

Doh!

God is not focused on how I’m struggling with the me that needs to be struggled with—He’s looking at the me that lives by faith in Him. He knows that’s how I live, and live best. Does that make sense? I don't think I'm saying it very well. I love knowing God in me—what a laugh! What a place to build a house, God! And I love knowing that He has given me perfect righteousness and holiness, and made me blameless with Him, having seated me in heavenly places already. Me! God’s mobile home in Colorado.

Whenever the majesty of those truths is impressing me, He drives out the Ralph who needs a good wrestling by bringing forth the Ralph for whom wrestling is at an end. Peace, joy and rest are then obvious in me, and all I want to do is praise God…and run through the day enjoying Him in front of others. Whatever comes of that run through the day, is how the day goes. I am so pleased with God that what usually comes from me is a delight to Him.

And that’s how it goes. God has vested His own renown, what people think of Him, by giving us everything with Him. When we find our delight in Him, in how crazy-good He is, we confirm His magnificence, we prove His grace to us is as good as He says it is.

He is amazing! I delight in discovering how amazing He is with me and with you, and that always works out in me praising “…his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One He loves.”

Love At The Start

“…In love (5) He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—” (Ephesians 1:5)

Knowing what you must about the shortness of this life and the length of the one to come, which would you prefer:

• you live a life worthy enough to get there;

• God lives a life worthy enough to get you there.

It amazes me and stretches my mind that God destined me to live under the terms of the second covenant and not the first. He could have purposed and planted me in Jeremiah’s day, when most of God’s people only flirted with Him…and discovered too late the results of their pretended relationship. Or, he could have brought me onto the stage during the happy days of the Judges, when the disobedient Israelites went in and out of captivity at the hands of filthy pagans nine times.

Hmm. It’s been several months now since we’ve been conquered and made prisoners for pagans. Any enemy nearby who might be sizing us up? Might as well get ready to be over-run…

Or, God could have ushered me forth not just in the days of Jonah, but as Jonah. “Honey? Are you home? Jonah, did you forget to take out the trash? What’s that fishy smell—it’s overpowering!”

But, no. Before making the planet God had already dreamed me up, chosen me and determined I would be His. And not just His as in belonging to Him, but His as in the sense of a much-loved son, with everything in keeping with the royalty of my Father. He wiped out my natural birth—made it as having never even happened—gave me a second birth, and thinks of me and treats me as if I was always one of His. In a sense, I always was.

And He liked dreaming and choosing and determining me! It gave Him pleasure. It wasn’t just God’s will, as in moving the pieces of a puzzle toward a satisfying fit, it pleased Him to do it. Isn’t it great to think that you give Him pleasure? I can see a smile on His face as, on the day of my new birth, He says, “Ralph, you’ve always been mine, and now you’ll know. This is so fun!”

That’s the glory of the New Covenant. He didn’t make the binding agreement with me, determining our fellowship or relationship on the basis of my performance. He made it with Jesus, and gave me all of the benefits due Him. Now that’s a benefits package.

Next time you wonder if God loves you, or if His love ever wavers with you, remember how determined He was at the first.

Eeny-Meeny-Miney-Mow

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” (Ephesians 1:4)

What a planner God is.

While it boggles my mind that God planned everything before there was anything, that He wrote the entire play before the orchestra sounded a single note, and that He is, day after day, bringing onto the earthly stage all the events for which He planned and purposed, God is not the least bit boggled. He is pleased because He planned it and sees it all.

And He didn’t just plan for me—He planned me. Brown hair, blue eyes, fair complexion, born to John and MaryJane in Southern California in 1956, an identical twin brother right alongside.

And, as far as I’m concerned, what was the crowning moment during that planning stage of eternity? God chose me. Just as He chose Abraham and Moses, Noah and David, Rahab and Ruth, Isaiah and Jeremiah, Daniel and Hosea, Matthew and Mark, God chose me. He chose me to one day believe the incredible gospel of His grace to me through Christ Jesus. And when I did, I received Jesus, the mystery hidden through the ages, but now revealed—Christ in me, the hope of glory. As God designed it and right on time, I was brought into Him and I have now received the glory of that perfect design: His righteousness, His holiness, and God Himself, the assurance of His redemption. (1 Cor 1:30) God planned to share His glory with me.

Sitting on a couch in Culver City, California, on an early April evening in 1980, God’s plan moved a little bit more down the road of eternity. God had chosen me, so the moment’s-before-pagan Ralph became holy and blameless, son of God, Ralph.

Much better, thank you very much. Right?

In our day it’s amazing what has happened to that little word—choice. We give each other full rights to make our own choices, yet give God no such grace. While we educate and fairly harangue ourselves about good choices we must make with our free will, we believe that God’s will is subject to our will. Imagine it. If we fail to make right choices, God can do nothing about it. In the end, that must mean that God fails—but that’s not possible.

There are many smart and loving people who believe that we can somehow become vacant temples of God, losing our salvation. Though we were co-crucified with Jesus, co-raised with Him, co-seated with Him in the heavens, and have become co-laborers with Him, we can somehow undo all those “co” things, even though we didn’t do anything to make them happen in the first place. Our nasty free will, insistent on a prodigal path, can reverse and make null the whole thing done for us by God before the creation of the world. Wow. Retroactive.

That makes God’s choice for us something akin to a nursery rhyme. “And God said, ‘Eeny, meeny, miney, mow, catch a human by the toe. If he hollers, let him go. Eeny, meeny, miney, mow.’ Yeah, that’s my plan, that’s my will.”

C’mon.

I don’t mean to make anybody mad—that’s not my purpose at all. I do hope to make you think about it—God’s choice of you—all the way through. Your security does not rest with you and the whimsy of your supposedly fickle will. Your security lies with Him because He chose you long ago. That frees you unto the best thing in life—not a life only of making good choices, but a real life of knowing God, who is really remarkably good at making choices for you.

Fortunately for you and me, He makes the choice; most of them long ago. He saw every turn of the planet before even one revolution, and chose. Why did He choose us? I don’t know. But you don’t have to merit His choice nor secure it nor maintain it. He chose. And that never ends, never goes south. God’s love for me, God’s love for you is not ever fickle; it never changes.

God's "Want To"

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ."
(Ephesians 1:3)

Think what that must have meant to Paul, let alone to you and me. Everything he had long been working and sweating and fretting about concerning his life with God, Paul had been given! Everything! All of it! Not a moment of work left, not a second of fear over whether or not God was pleased with him enough--God's blessing had been dumped on Paul for an entirely unrelated reason.

God wanted to. So He did.

The love of God compelled God, and it still does. I'm so glad! Oh, I've heard the love of God described as a love that decides for the benefit of another, and I know we're all supposed to love like that. I wonder how many times I have heard someone say, "Love is a decision!" And the implication is always, "So get busy making decisions!" The goal seems to be about improving our relationships, and that's not something we should downplay. After all, it's just logical. . .and calculated.

But is that really what motivated God? Is that why God ". . .blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ"? I know that somewhere "way back when," He decided to send Jesus to the cross and to raise Him again, bringing us with Him. But was it calculated only?

No way! That's not the love I know from God. He wants to! And it's the want that motivates the decision. His love is ever flowing to me, ever convincing me, ever rescuing me from doubt and fear and covetousness and lust and unbelief. . .and convincing me that He is as good as He says He is.

I'll tell you, that's one of the highest goals of my faith--to believe God about Himself. To live believing that God is who He says He is, that He does what He says He does out of love, and that He did what He says He did--blessed ME in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

That's tremendous.

Really, Father? You really did? You're not kidding? I don't have to earn anything anymore--I have it already in Christ?

"Yes. It's true, son."

And so, amen. Or, as my dad might say, "Yee-gads!"

"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. And so through him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God." (2 Cor 1:20)

Before You Go Anywhere

(Today begins with Paul's letter to the Christians at Ephesus—Ephesians 1.)


Before we go any further, before we get into anything else, you’ve got to know this – “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Thank God. That’s indispensable for my day, the one just before me, the race I’m about to run. It is for you, too.

Every letter to the church that the Spirit inspired Paul to write essentially begins with this same sentence. To all those at Rome and Corinth, Galatia and Ephesus, to the Philippians, Colossians and Thessalonicans, and to his dear sons in Christ, Timothy, Titus and Philemon, Paul offers the same truth—you’ve got everything! No more worries with God.

I have a lot to do today. I’ve got to promote and market my book; sign, package and mail those just ordered; write a blog and send an articulate email to hundreds; make calls on a cell phone that doesn’t work very well (“What, Ralph? I can’t understand you—you’re breaking up…”), replace a light fixture, walk the dog, tend the tomatoes, reorganize my office, work out, and be good to my visiting mother-in-law.

Sheesh! It’s all about me. Better get going.

Wait a minute. What would God say to me, first thing? “Grace and peace to you, Ralph, from God your Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

You really think so, God? Because of Jesus, I’ve got everything with you for nothing? Righteousness? Holiness? Love? Hope? Future? And you live in me? All of that? “Yes.” And because Jesus took upon Himself all of my sins, as though He committed them, I have not a worry with you? “Yes.”

Wow. Hooray.

“Ready now, Ralph?” Yes, Father.

"Go."

Ephesus (now Turkey) was one of the most important cities of its day. It was like New York or Hong Kong…maybe on steroids. Everybody was busy, everybody was working at a frenetic pace because, well, you just had to. If you didn’t work hard and fast, somebody else would get the deal, close the sale, move the merchandise.

Paul founded the church at Ephesus and spent some three years there, so he knew what the city was like…and he loved those people. But Paul, father figure that he was, doesn’t first tell them how to live. He tells them how well off they are with God. Why? Paul knew that a revived heart and an energized spirit comes from the truth and is by faith. So, instead of giving them a motivational speech—“Get going for the glory of God!”—he gave them revival by telling them of the glory of God in them.

“Head’s up, Ephesians! In case you’ve forgotten, you’re really well off with God!”

Can you imagine what that might have meant to the Ephesians? In all their work, in all their trials, through their failures, weaknesses and frustrations, comes God’s word to them: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

I so often need to hear that! You too?

You and I were made to have that as our starting point.

Ready now?

Go.

Where Have You Been?

“It’s well past time! Where have you been?!”

It’s the first Monday of August and I’m finally back at my desk.

In addition to I’m-back-in-the-saddle-again regular posts to this forum, I am today announcing two new features:

• A once-a-week, book giveaway. Whoever asks the most interesting question or makes the most thought provoking comment wins an autographed copy of my book, Better Off Than You Think (God’s Astounding Opinion Of You). I will post the winning question/comment to this blog each week, and respond to it as well. (Your comments to this blog are, of course, welcome.) What is the winning criteria? That I like it best! Yes, it’s completely subjective, but, come on—it’s a $20 value. And if you already have my book, give it away to someone you know will love it. They’ll think you’re wonderful. (You may email me at the address to the right; make sure I can contact you!)

• I am beginning a sort of casual, dear-diary, book study. In other words, after reading a certain biblical passage I will reflect upon it. I won’t be picking up my Greek helps, no commentaries or exhaustive digging—just here’s-what-I-think reflections. I will begin tomorrow with Ephesians, and I welcome your comments.

Well, I've pretty much taken a month off from blogging and writing in general. I'll be back at it in a day or two.

Until then, here's a funny video. I think you'll enjoy it.

Compassion In Disappointment

(I find this to be timely and hope you enjoy it. Written in August of ’04.)

We’ve just returned from a brief weekend camping trip, which proved to be a lesson in at least two things:

1) Don’t go camping on the weekend. Insensitive dolts were playing rock ‘n roll and whooping it up at 3:00 a.m., just like they did when I was growing up and camping in Southern California. When I approached to ask them to knock it all off, they seem startled that I was bothered. I felt old.

2) God is more compassionate than I thought.

Surprise.

Fishing in a nearby stream and fully enjoying myself, I heard a different sort of question from the Spirit, one I’d never heard before: “Son, if in the next moment you were to join me in heaven, what would you expect?”

Because I didn’t want to be interrupted during such an intense and focus-demanding time—fly fishing—I quickly shuffled the thought to a far off place, and got back to the more important business of fooling trout. However, the same thought returned two more times to my inner monitor before I finally dignified it.

Thinking about what I would truly expect upon my arrival in heaven, a curious realization crept across my mind. On the faces of those gathered in welcome, I would expect to see a hint of disappointment.

Yes, I know about the rich welcome awaiting the faithful upon arrival home—“Well done, thou good and faithful servant! Come and share your master’s happiness.” But I was startled to realize that I didn’t think I’d be getting that rousing reception. Or, at least, not that rousing.

I don’t always do so well in this life. I regularly get stuff wrong, needlessly offend people, or fail to be the man I am in Christ. Whether I know it immediately or find out about it later, failure weighs me down. You, too? And then I begin thinking about all the work I have to do to make things better, make me better. I’ve proven, however, that I’m not very good at saving myself.

Anyway, in my mind I heard something like this, “I know how difficult it is in the world, I know how very awful it can be. Do you think I have no compassion for you, my righteous son? Do you think I don’t know of your anguish and valiant struggle between flesh and spirit? I am so pleased in your triumphs and rejoice in your success! I love how you are and how you do. Fear not your homecoming—it will be triumphant.”

There on the stream I choked up and laughed a laugh of relief and renewed hope. “He’s really compassionate!” I thought, “He really understands and delights in the smallest success, valuing it far more than the ugliest defeat, wiped clean as He looks upon me with joy and delight. He really loves me in the mess…”

I had a great afternoon. Throughout it I was overwhelmed by the compassion He has for me (and for you) right now in this life, in every trial, in every struggle.

And, yes, I caught a bunch of trout. You can ask my wife and girls if you don’t believe me. Really.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,…” (2 Cor 1:3 NIV)

I Need Mr. Smiley

Stopped at an intersection recently, I glanced at a bumper on the left and there it was—Mr. Smiley Face. I can’t begin to estimate how many times I have seen that yellow button: on a bumper, on a shirt, on a wall, on a sign, and now it accompanies emails as an animated “emoticon.”

Smiley is everywhere.

This Smiley was accompanied by that common phrase, “Smile, God loves you!” And I thought, “How cute, how corny.” But in the next moment it occurred to me that I should think about it.

God loves me. God loves me. God loves me. And in a moment I was completely and wonderfully overwhelmed. For the next few minutes I had revival in my car. I hadn’t been aware that I needed it, but God sure was.

I fancy myself to be one of the gurus on God’s love, a major player in telling the church and the world how well off we are because God loves. And I had somehow forgotten that God loves me. He doesn’t put up with me, He doesn’t consider me a bother, He’s not disturbed when I barge into His throne room—He loves me.

God loves me.

That’s the biggest influence of my life, and it would only make sense that that knowledge is one of the primary targets of the devil. Think what comes from knowing God’s love—obedience, love for others, a variety of godly works, a true perspective of the world and its inhabitants, and hope—authentic hope.

As far as I’m concerned, I live from the knowledge of God’s love for me. You too?

Smile, God loves you!

God's Special Pack of Dogs?

Some people think of themselves as though they were a stubborn and resistant piece of cement and that God could hardly wait to break them. “Jesus! Do whatever it takes to break Ralph Harris; he’s just so hard hearted. I can’t use Him until he’s broken!”

“Yes, Father, I see what you mean. I’ll work up a plan and get the angels on it right away. He’s a tough one, but we’ll get it done.”

Those who think this way often explain the circumstances of their days along these lines, as though the One who had rescued them was now the One resisting them. Rubbish. Everyone born again by the Spirit has been born of a new nature, and has everything in keeping with the terrific new creation they have become. At the core of their being they will never again be unyielding pavement, nor will they have a rebellious spirit, nor will they need to be broken. If believers believe that they have a rock for a heart, then they will interpret most every hardship or difficulty in their day as God working to bust them a good one, getting their attention and securing their allegiance. “Knock that off, son! Or I’ll really give it to you next time!”

Sometimes I give my dog a boot to her backside, sending her a message, but she’s a dog and we do not speak the same language, nor do we have the same nature, nor do I live in her! I may get the behavior I want (and the lowered head and tail between the legs, as well), but so what? Do I get any glory for what I’ve done? Any worship or praise? Is she glad and thankful for the boot? No! She just wants to do whatever it takes to avoid it in the future. Is that how God treats us – like His special pack of dogs?

That’s a dog’s life, but it’s not mine and it’s not yours!

(Excerpted from my book, “Better Off Than You Think,” this comes from chapter 13—The End of Pretending. The point of the chapter is that frustration, suffering and hardship happen to us not because God is displeased or because the Devil has broken through to harass us, but so God Himself may be found in us and do something through us. Frustration, suffering and hardship keep us from pretending we can do anything apart from God, and keep us to knowing Him and finding Him within us…and that’s life.)

The Harley Davidson Way of Life

I think I’m like a Harley Davidson. Every time I hear one go past (I don’t have to actually see it to know it’s near) I wonder how it makes any progress sounding the way it does. And sometimes I wonder the same thing about me.

When I was a boy of about thirteen, I was happily riding in our family car piloted by my mother when I heard an awfully loud sputtering and popping come alongside—it was awful. I slowly glanced in the direction of the cacophony and saw what I assumed was a man atop the strangest looking motorcycle I had ever seen. Although he was right next to our car (I could barely make out his eyes and nose peering out from a sea of hair), the front tire on his bike was, I promise, forty-three feet away. It might have been less, but thinking back, it might have been more…I don’t know.

Anyway, it seemed he was having trouble keeping the engine going because he kept revving it up, only to have it almost die. Roooooooom, rooooooom—sputter, cough, gag—rooooooom, rooooooom—sputter, cough, gag. And I thought, “He’s going to go somewhere on that awful thing? No way.”

Then the signal light turned green.

After a final sputter, cough and gag, that slovenly beast propelled the leather clad fur ball like a missile down the road and out of sight. Stunned, I asked my mother, “What was that?” “I don’t know,” she replied, “but I sure don’t like it.”

I had been introduced to Harley Davidson, and to this day I don’t know how those things get anywhere. I have always believed that a smoothly running engine is the one you want—you can rely on it to get you where you want to go. If the engine is sputtering, there is something wrong and it’s time to worry. Who doesn’t know that? You had better get it to the mechanic or call that friend who likes poking around in engines because until you get it working smoothly, you’re in trouble. Isn’t life like that, too?

Not really.

From that first encounter with a Harley to the one I heard rumbling and stumbling past yesterday, Harley Davidson has taught me a lot about living. In between the zooms there’s a whole lot of sputtering—and that’s normal.

There is so much in the New Testament about growing up in what Jesus has made of us—sons of God, foreigners in this world, ambassadors of Christ—that growing pains must be a part. Who actually believes immediately after receiving Christ that we have become as foreign to this world as Jesus? That the change made to us through faith has made us genuine new creations? That we cannot ever again live the way we once did, but can and must now live by the Spirit? The challenge isn’t first to live and behave better, the challenge is to believe better. It’s normal that we sputter and cough to believe such incredible facts!

We all see and experience so much that tells us we’re not what God says we are. We fail to pray (cough), we fail to tell someone the gospel (gag), a hoped-for job advancement fails to come about (sputter), and we feel like we’re about to stall. While that kind of stuff might change our minds about ourselves, it doesn’t influence God, who knows what He has made of us and carries on accordingly. When I get stuck thinking I’m just a no good sputterer, the Holy Spirit works to rev me up because there’s some place to go. Miraculously, I’m going to get there. As a friend recently said, living is “steady growth by jerks.”

Until that day when we fully believe what God believes about us and about the way forward, it’s the Harley way for us—sputter, cough and gag—rooooom, rooooom. And that’s okay.

Sometimes we get to zoom.

A Heavenly Creature

Many of us have heard or read the apostle Paul’s directive, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2)

Have you ever thought that Paul meant we’re just supposed to read our Bibles? Read ‘em more, read ‘em better, because then we’ll know what to do? We make a costly mistake if we believe and approach this transforming act as one that will result primarily in a smart mind, a head crammed full of wisdom and what to do.

In his outstanding book, “Birthright,” David Needham writes, “…the renewal of our minds is far more than simply exercising brain power. A crucial ‘how’ of holiness is inseparable from knowing the truth of God’s Word, but it must be more than simply quantitative information. It must involve a participant, relational type of knowledge, which in the Bible is inseparable from the power of its Author. Instead of simply telling us to ‘memorize the Bible,’ Paul prayed,

‘I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe…’” (Eph 1:17-19 NIV, italics mine.)

What do I do? Well, no longer do I make it my point to commit scripture to memory in order than I might not offend God, in order that I might not make Him mad or disappointed in me because of my actions. Sometimes I do memorize a verse or two, but I don’t read the Bible so I can be a “good Christian,” with ample spiritual brownie points growing in my heavenly file. I memorize and think about certain passages and verses so that in my day, whether beginning, middle or end, I’m thinking about Him. Reflecting upon what He has done for me and what He has made of me, does something miraculous—the real me, the newly created son of God me stands up and is noticeable. I can tell.

In short, I’m transformed, and I know it. The lie of my earthly citizenship and belonging is removed, and there I am, a heavenly creature. The decoy attractions of this world appear as the ludicrous seductions they are, and true delight and freedom invigorate me.

And things are as they should be.

Needham writes, “Remember, God did not save us simply to use us. He did not save us to get such and such quantity of holiness produced. He saved us for love…”

He loves you wildly…and that’s transforming.