Five Minute Friday: Experience

Today I am participating in Five Minute Friday, where a group of writers get together and free write about a one word prompt for 5 minutes. Today's word is "experience."

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

                                           -Ephesians 3:19 (NLT)

The word experience in the above verse is usually translated as “know” in most Bible translations. It is the Greek word “ginosko” and has different meanings.

One of the meanings is “to know, especially through personal experience” according to Helps Word Studies.

Another place this word is found is in Luke 1:34 when Mary says to the angel, 

 'How will this be since I do not know a man?”

So, this knowing, this experience is not just a head knowledge thing. It is a tangible experience. You can feel it.

The scripture above is part of prayer that Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus. It is my prayer for myself and for all The Church today.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Rooted in the Rock

Therefore , from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh.  Even though we have known Christ according the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.-2 Corinthians 5:15-16 (NKJV)

One of the very best things you can do for yourself is to get yourself rooted in who you are in Christ and the love of God for you.

Why?

Well, one reason is the flesh-your own and others.

You are going to look at your own flesh and sometimes question.  And other people people are going to look at your flesh too.

There will be days where you look at your actions and think, “I might as well give up.I can’t do this.”  Jesus knew that and that is why He suffered in your place.  That’s why He did what He did.

But trust me. It will get better.  The more you grown in your understanding of Jesus, His love for you, and the grace of God that comes through Him, the more the outside will match the inside.

But it is not by anything you do to make yourself that way, but by hearing who you are in Him.

Other people will also try to remind you of your flesh.  Some people, okay a lot of people, only have knowledge of who you used to be, before Jesus.  And they will either remind you, or treat you as such.  And if you give your attention to that, it can lead you off and onto a path God never meant for you to be on.

Other Believers might also look at your flaws and forget to see Jesus and let that influence their judgments and how they react or respond to you.

There is a minister I have listened to for a very long time, and he once said, “Get yourself so rooted in the love of God that it doesn’t matter what the devil smacks you with, He can’t budge you.”

In Ephesians, Paul prayed that the church at Ephesus and all the family of Believers would be “rooted and ground in love.”  He also prayed that we would “be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”-Ephesians3:17-19 (NKJV)

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells a story of two foundations, on one rock, and one on sand. (See Matthew 7)

When the storm came, the man who built his house on sand collapsed.  The man who built on the rock stayed strong and did not collapse.  It withstood the winds and waves.  As a saint or a Believer, you have been planted in that rock.

So, find out who you are in Him.  Make sure you know who you are, and what He said, so when the winds, waves, and storms from life and people come your way, you know you will not crumble.

God bless you as you continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of Him.

Much love to you today,
Beth

Five Minute Friday: Deep

Today I am participating in Five Minute Friday, where a group of writers get together and write about a one word prompt for 5 minutes.  Today's word is Deep.

Begin 5 minutes.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.-Ephesians 3:14-19 (NIV)

Paul prayed this prayer over the church at Ephesus.  I had this prayer on my wall for a really long time.  It probably needs to go back up!

In the prayer, he prays that they, they church at Ephesus, along with all the Lord's holy people, that is you and I, if you are a Believer, would grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Jesus.  This is an awesome prayer.  

Deep.  That word means not shallow.  If we look it up in the Greek, I am sure we will get a greater understanding and meaning of what Deep really means.

When I picture Deep, I picture myself in water over my head, where my feet cannot touch the bottom.  I am floating, surrounded by the water.  

Paul prayed that we would know how Deep is the love of Christ.  We are floating in it.  It surrounds us on ever side.  It is over our heads.  Our feet cannot touch the bottom.  We are completely covered in His love with no way of escaping.

In another passage of scripture Paul says nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ.  If you have the same image of being in deep, deep water that is surrounding you, you can see why Paul would say that.

My prayer today is just like Paul's, that we would be able to grasp how deep the love of Jesus is, and just to let ourselves drown in that love.  That love doesn't remove our oxygen, but gives us life, just like a baby floating in the amniotic fluid in the mom's womb.  

Deep.

End 5 minutes.

A Foundation of Grace: (Past Tense) Forgiven

Lots of times we are praying, asking God for things, when He has already given them.  Just like the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears.


Then one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to eat with him, and He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When a sinful woman from that town learned that Jesus was dining there, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. Then she kissed His feet and anointed them with the perfume.

When the Pharisee who had invited Jesus saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, He would know who this is and what kind of woman is touching Him—for she is a sinner!”

But Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me, Teacher,” he said.

“Two men were  to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they were unable to repay him, he forgave both of them. Which one, then, will love him more?”

“I suppose the one who was forgiven more,” Simon replied.

“You have judged correctly.” Jesus said.

And turning to the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give Me water for My feet, but she wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not greet Me with a kiss, but she has not stopped kissing My feet since I arrived. You did not anoint My head with oil, but she has anointed My feet with perfume. Therefore I tell you, because her many sins have been forgiven, she has loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”

Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

But those at the table began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

And Jesus told the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

-Luke 7:36-50 (Berean Study Bible)

Faith is believing in the goodness, mercy and love of God. Faith is believing He loves you ridiculously and has all these good things for you.

The woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears was not sad. She was happy. Those were tears of joy! She believed Jesus was who He said he was. She believed he loved her. She believed she was already (past tense) forgiven. The tears and the oil were an offering out of a heart of love.

The Pharisee couldn't see the goodness of God and who was standing right in front of him. But the woman could. She could see him.

And I believe that is what God wants, more than we even want it.  He wants us to see and know the love God has for us.  Paul prayed in Ephesians that we would know how "wide and high and long and deep is the love of Christ."(Ephesians 3:18)

The same mercy, grace and love present then is present now.  I pray the same prayer as Paul for all of us that we would know that love, and as that knowledge of his love for us fills our hearts, we would have a massive overflow of love for him.

To read more in the series, please join me here, at A Foundation of Grace.