Story of Ephesians

Once we were...	We heard the Word of Truth	We should now then live...
dead in sin followed the ways of the world followed the ruler of the air gratified sinful desires followed sinful desires and thoughts objects of wrath uncircumcised Gentiles separate from Christ excluded from citizenship foreigners to the covenant without hope without God had futile thinking darkened in understanding separated from the life of God hardened in our hearts lost sensitivity given to sensuality indulging in impurity full of greed in the dark disobedient doing things that are shameful to mention	Blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ chosen adopted redeemed forgiven lavished with grace made for the praise of Jesus’ glory included in Christ Marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit made alive in Christ saved by grace raised with Christ seated with Him God’s workmanship created to do good brought near given access to the Father declared fellow citizens declared members of God’s household built up brought together made heirs able to approach God with freedom and confidence given grace as Christ apportioned it equipped for works of service taught to put off the old self made new created to be like God in righteousness and holiness sealed for the day of redemption made the light in the world	giving thanks remembering prayer knowing him better not being discouraged being strengthened with power allowing Christ to dwell in us grasping God’s grace being filled to the measure of his fullness living worthy being humble and gentle being patient bearing with one another keeping unity building up the body becoming mature speaking truth in love growing into the head, Christ putting off falsehood speaking truthfully not sinning in anger not giving the devil a foothold not stealing working sharing with the needy not speaking with unwholesome talk building others up not grieving the Spirit not having bitterness, rage, brawling, slander, or malice being kind and compassionate forgiving walking in love not walking in sexual immorality not being impure, greedy, obscene, foolish not joking coarsely being full of thanksgiving living as a child of the light having goodness, righteousness and truth finding out what pleases God being wise not getting drunk being filled with the Spirit speaking with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs singing and giving thanks submitting to one another wives submitting to husbands husbands loving wives children obeying parents fathers training and instructing their children in the Lord slaves obeying masters serving wholeheartedly being strong in the Lord putting on the full armor of God standing firm praying in the Spirit with all kinds of prayers being alert These are summarized by: Know/ Believe: Jesus, his hope, his power, his encouragement, his indwelling, his love, that he is the head, what pleases God. Living worthy: being humble, gentle, mature, thankful, full of light, good, righteous, truthful, wise, filled with the Spirit, strong, firm, alert, and bold, working and giving thanks and praying. Taking off: falsehood, sin, stealling, unwholesome talk, bitterness, rage, brawling, slander, malice, sexual impurity, greed, obscenity and foolish talk, drunkenness. And doing for others: being patient, bearing, unified, truthful, speaking in psalms and spiritual songs, sharing with the needy, kind, compassionate, loving and submitting.

Conviction in Bible Class

Recently, in my 9th grade Bible class, I was explaining the ten commandments. I love what a great teacher God is. There are actually 613 commandments, but they are summarized in the original ten. We are not to murder, then the rest of the law delineates the difference between murder and man slaughter. It explains how retribution and restitution are to be made. He says not to commit adultery in the ten, then in the rest he outlines all kinds of sexual sins that are forbidden.

I explained to the class what each commandment meant, and also how Jesus expounds on the commandments drawing out that the sin of the heart is equal to sin of action. 

I got to the last of the ten commandments, and I was struck with unplanned, instant and intense conviction. The last of the ten is, "Do not covet." This one sin stands as the bedrock of all the other sins. When we covet what we don't have, we will commit all the previous nine. To fully understand this, we must understand what coveting is. It is not just wanting something. It is not just desire. Coveting is longing for something. It is obsessing about that object, obsessing about the desire for it. It is plotting and planning how to do get it. It is getting it at all costs. I found myself giving a personal example of coveting and thus conviction pierced my heart. 

The thing I usually covet is sweets. So take a brownie for example. I will get it into my head that I want a brownie. So then I start thinking about it. I keep thinking about it. I think of where I could get one. I hear a voice in my heart telling me it is not a good idea. I ignore the voice. I make up all these reasons why it is good for me to have it: "I've been good this week." "I'll just work out longer later." "I've had a hard day." "I deserve it." "God wants me to have good things, and a brownie is good." "No one will know that I had a brownie." "Screw it, I want the brownie, I am going to have the brownie." 

This obsession then turns into how can I get it. I make a plan and I eat it, ignoring the strong warning in my spirit. Before I even finish the first bite, I am thinking about the second brownie I am going to eat and how I want another one. Then, the problems gear into full force. I am hypoglycemic, so one or two brownies have the potential of causing really bad physical problems. The high blood sugar makes me feel jittery and hyper. Then I crash. I start to shake, get highly irritable, lose concentration, get exorbitantly tired. 

That means that because of the choice to eat those brownies I so coveted, I sacrifice my relationship with my students as I can't teach well with no concentration. I sacrifice my relationship with my husband as he is the first I will snap at and be ugly to. I sacrifice any relationship outside of that because I can't be around people when I am tired, irritable, and blurred speech. I also have sacrificed my relationship with God, as I have ignored the warnings from His Spirit. I also am filled with shame and guilt, that cause separation and insecurities. 

I put a brownie over God, over my husband, over my ministry to my students, over friendships. I put a brownie over God. My heart hurts at the admission. I want to cry as I stand before my students vulnerable. When I first mentioned coveting brownies, there were chuckles in the room, as they thought it a silly thing to covet. As I finished you could pin drop in the room, as they all realized the gravity of what coveting, especially coveting silly things, can damage. Even as I write these words my heart hurts. The graven image I have made and bowed down to is not made of wood, gold, or stone. Instead it is made of sugar and flour and in a minute is consumed. 

Oh what a wretched sinner I am, who will save me from this body of death?  

Spiritual Lessons from Zumba

I have started a journey (once again) toward eating healthy and exercising regularly. I find that the only exercise I don't have to psych myself out for is Zumba. Now, let me clarify, I am not in any way a dancer. I do however try really hard and have a great time laughing at my blundering attempts to stay on beat, go in the right direction, and get my hips to move. To be honest, I look like a fool, but I love it.

Since I am not a dancer and rhythm does not come easily to me I find my eyes glued to the back of the instructor. Occasionally, I feel a level of comfort enough to look up and really get into it, but there is always the fall back of the teacher with her huge smile and her gyrating hips that I can look to. Many times I stand there staring thinking "How can she get her body to do that?"

Yesterday, as I was "dancing" I started thinking about spiritual things. See Paul repeatedly told the believers he wrote to to follow him. He admonished them to live the kind of life they had witnessed he lived. He told them to emulate him. Last night in Zumba I saw this command differently.

There are some people whom God has gifted to easily listen to music, find the rhythm, and move with beauty and grace. There are others like myself who can try all they want to, but will probably always be a step behind with awkward movement. It is the same spiritually. Some people easily understand and communicate spiritual things. They can commune with God with ease. They see life through the lens of how God is moving. Other people struggle to see the spiritual. They have a desire to commune with God, but often find they don't know how. They feel like spiritual matters are nothing but awkward blundering.

So comes Paul's directive: Follow me.

My Zumba instructor last night got us dancing by smiling, encouraging us, giving instruction like: "Pick up your feet," "Breathe," "Really get into it." She mastered the zone of proximal development by starting off easy. Then she would add in a few more moves of the arms or slightly faster feet. Then she would pull out something way beyond our skill level. She didn't stay there long, but just gave us a hint of where we could be after working at this for a while. Mostly, though, she taught us, by dancing in front of us. As she danced, I could watch what she did, and imitate it. I didn't imitate it well, but it was indeed a semblance of what she was doing.

So spiritual leaders do the same with those who spirituality does not come easily. They encourage with words. They instruct. They correct. But mostly they teach by living out their spirituality in front of others so that they can be emulated.