December 31, 2023 -- Ephesians 2:10 -- Wishing you God's blessing for 2024

People loved by the Father, in the Spirit's power: Sh'ma ~ hear and obey Jesus!

For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10 ESV

This is a radical expression in our culture today. We are not our own. We belong to God because He crafted us. Psalm 139 says that He knit us together in our mother’s womb (Ps. 139:12-13). He gave us the correct gender. He knows the purposes for which He made us.

Funny thing, when you walk into some antique shops there are fine porcelain containers, unfamiliar to many generations of people. These containers are slop buckets. Yep. When there was no indoor plumbing, these fancy containers, served as in bedroom night-time toilets. Why mention this? Well rich people could have fancy slop buckets, made from fine porcelain manufacturers like Doulton. And at their gorgeously laid out breakfast table there might be Doulton plates with cups and fancy saucers. Same maker, very different purposes for the porcelain.

All people on earth have the finest origins. We bear the Maker’s mark. We are far better than the best porcelain earthbound-artists can fashion. We are made by our Father in heaven. We are exquisite workmanship. Our sins lead us to be containers for night slops. We are wicked and sinful—beautiful as we are, we are basically just sloppy.

What is the remedy? It is to know the work of Jesus. In Him we were chosen in love from before time began. In Christ the hatefulness and ugliness of sin is exposed. In Christ’s work at the cross, the stranglehold of original sin and our on-going sin was addressed. Jesus and His righteousness is credited to us. In Him the Father has restored us for clean and perfect purposes. We are called to walk in these clean and perfect purposes.

Will we mess up? Yes. That is why believers gather each Sunday. It is not a gathering of the perfect, it is a haven for those who need Jesus’ on-going healing. I clearly remember when in the early 2000’s a good friend of mine, a police officer, joined me at a worship service. It was, ahem, rare for him to attend. He is muscular, tattooed, and wondered if he was out of place. Certainly some of his cheeky friends, also officers, thought he was. They radioed him and joked they were avoiding the area, afraid of potential lightning strikes on the building when he entered. They missed the point.

Church buildings, like hospitals, are for those who know they need help. A cancer patient doesn’t wait to get better, somehow curing himself, before going to a hospital so that the hospital won’t get dirty trying to heal him. So too a man doesn’t keep himself from a place of worship until he has cleaned himself up. When a cancer patient knows it is serious, he goes to the hospital and follows the doctor’s orders. When one knows the extent of the sins that cling to him, he rushes to the church for cleansing and then to worship Him Who purifies us. We are called to be purified in Christ so that the Father’s good plans and purposes for us will be exactly what we walk in by the power of the Holy Spirit.

May the LORD our God, Who has made You clean by the sacrifice of Christ, by the power of His Spirit, help you to walk in the strength of Jesus all through 2024. There is good which God is calling you to accomplish. Walk it out. If you do not already to do, in 2024 start to attend a church that preaches Jesus Christ and His great healing. Amen.

https://youtu.be/UB8rKNrlpDQ?si=gz5WXBpa9VGtI1Ey As With Gladness Men of Old

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