Parts of Speaking Publishing

 In this passage the word "together" is repeated twice. He made us alive together, raised us up together, and made us sit together. Christ's victories are ours because we give our faith allegiance to Him.  I wonder, though, if the together is not also a statement about the Church as a whole. We won't sit with Him individually. The whole Church will be given these places of authority, honor, and esteem with Him.  My Bible notes say "These positional privileges will in the future be experientially realized and enjoyed." That is a Baptist note! I don't think it is that simple. Does it have to be in the future only? 

[But God] . . .  even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),  6  and raised  us  up together, and made  us  sit together in the heavenly  places  in Christ Jesus,  7  that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in  His  kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  I am not feeling well this morning and focusing enough to write coherently is a struggle. I will offer a few disparate comments.  Note "grace" is bolded. Grace is the motivation of the giver and the gift; the cause and the result; the past, present, and future; the engine and the action. ". . . in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in HIs kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." As if grace weren't surprising and exceedingly rich now, more is to come.  Why do we struggle so much to accept grace and live as if this salvation is a t...

 After a brutal reminder of their pre-Christ lives, Paul uses two powerful words to get back on track: But God. Do a concordance search and find where those two words are used in other places. My favorite is Genesis 50:20: But as for you, you meant evil against me;  but   God  meant it for good, in order to bring it about as  it is  this day, to save many people alive. Or  Psalm 73:26  My flesh and my heart fail;  But   God   is  the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Acts 10:28 Then he said to them, “You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation.  But   God  has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Granted, in some cases God intervenes and turns the narrative in a way that ends in judgment, but usually "but God" introduces hope, grace, deliverance, and new understanding. As here: But God, who is rich in mercy,    because...

 I had never heard of Laetare Sunday, explained here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laetare_Sunday  and extolled below.  Rejoice in the middle of the repentance of Lent.  Our pastor this morning explained how the Christian has self-esteem because we are brutally honest about who we are--sinners but in Christ. A cause for rejoicing. Laetare! Jonathan Pennington Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad” (Matt. 5:11–12). “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2). “But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed” (1 Pet. 4:13). The command to practice joy in the midst of loss, grief, and hardship often feels impossible to do and heartless to hear. Yet it is found repeatedly throughout the Bible, including in these quotes from Jesus and two ...

 The first three verses of Ephesians 2 are familiar to many:    And  you  He made alive,   who were dead in trespasses and sins  2  in which you once walked according to the  [ a ] course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,  3  among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. The Ephesian believers had been dead in sin and trespasses, not just in a theological way because of a decision made by an ancestor millennia before. They actually did things that conformed the patterns of the cosmos and Satan and assertively conducted themselves in lust and wrath.  I don't think telling someone they are a sinner because of Adam and Eve is the whole message. We have to know sin and know our hearts to make...

 2:1 -    And  you  He made alive,   who were dead in trespasses and sins Since three key words are italicized in the first clause, I go to other versions and the Greek.  NIV:  As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, . . . The idea of being made alive reappears in verse 5.  The other major versions, NASB, ESV, and Holman, do not provide the italicized words because they aren't there in the Greek.  There's a rather cliched statement, "Jesus did not die to make bad people good but to make dead people alive." Well, He did both, but the New Testament idea of the unconverted being dead cannot be overlooked. How were we dead? In trespasses and sins, and the next verses show the extent of it. This is just one more way that the New Testament makes a clear distinction between believers and non-believers. God sees a clear difference even if it's not always visible to those around us. However, I imagine today the difference is mo...