Ephesians - Identify

 IDENTIFY
“It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for.”

(Ephesians 1:11)

Before You Begin

Take just a few moments to still your heart and mind. Remember, God desires to speak to you in these moments.

You got me when I was an unformed youth, God, and taught me everything I know.

Psalm 71:17

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Ephesians 1:11-19

It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free ? signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.

That’s why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn’t stop thanking God for you ? every time I prayed, I’d think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask ? ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory ? to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him ? endless energy, boundless strength!

THINK
“I took all this in and thought it through, inside and out.” (Ecclesiastes 9:1)

• “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for.” That sentence might be worth the price of this book. Do you believe it? Reflect on what informs your answer.

• Would you describe your life as “glorious living”? If so, give some details. If not, how would you describe it?
• Reread this passage and underline or highlight the ways Paul prays. Do you have anyone in your life who prays for you like that? Do you pray in that way for someone else?

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From Between the Dreaming and the Coming True by Robert Benson1 Four The great risk is not that we will fail to qualify to be reunited with God. The risk is that we will somehow fail to understand why we are here. That we will end up believing that we are being punished because Adam and Eve were barking up the wrong tree. That we will be so fearful of the stories about separating the sheep from the goats that we will end up believing that it is okay to try and have God all to ourselves and shut out those who do not look, act, sound, believe, or worship the way we do. That we will see those stories as the only authentic God stories and put little faith in the ones about hungry prodigals and redeemed tax collectors and Johnny-come-lately yard workers and the lucky sinners brought in to fill up the banquet halls.

We are not here to show something to God. We are here because God ? the One who wants to be completely known ? has something to show to us.

THINK
“I took all this in and thought it through, inside and out.” (Ecclesiastes 9:1)

• What’s your initial reaction to Benson’s words? Anything that speaks to you and makes you respond “Aha ? yes!” or “No way!”?

• Can you think of a time when you were among what Benson referred to as “hungry prodigals, redeemed tax collectors, Johnny-come-lately workers... lucky sinners”? What do you think God was showing you during that time?

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From Telling Secrets by Frederick Buechner3 The WhiteTowe rGenesis points to a mystery greater still. It says that we come from farther away than space and longer ago than time. It says that evolution and genetics and environment explain a lot about us but they don’t explain all about us or even the most important thing about us. It says that though we live in the world, we can never be entirely at home in the world. It says in short not only that we were created by God but also that we were created in God’s image and likeness. We have something of God within us the way we have something of the stars. . . .

This is the self we are born with, and then of course the  world does its work. Starting with the rather too pretty young woman, say, and the charming but rather unstable young man who together know no more about being parents than they do about the far side of the moon, the world sets in to making us

into what the world would like us to be, and because we have to survive after all, we try to make ourselves into something that we hope the world will like better than it apparently did the selves we originally were. That is the story of all our lives, needless to say, and in the process of living out that story, the original, shimmering self gets buried so deep that most of us end up hardly living out of it at all. Instead we live out all the other selves which we are constantly putting on and taking off like coats and hats against the world’s weather.