Submission, admission, commission.... coalition? .. Your mission?

Glad to see everyone this morning.. If you weren't in the room, you were missed. I am really enjoying teaching and learning with you all. Thanks.
Whew.. today was pretty serious, heavy hitting stuff, but it is important. This kind of lesson should inspire you, at least I hope it does.... If you have any question, thought or straight up complaint, please feel free to reach out to me personally at home.. 804 794 1586. I am here for each of you, and I hope each of you is there for one another.

Remember, that growing isn't easy... Church isn't about being easy.. it is about growing in love, closer to one another and to God. We have a Mission...and we are all in it together. For my part, I think we have quite a ways to go. -

--Jeff

If someone is missing from this, please pass it along. Distribution is at the very bottom...

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"God fully expects the church of Jesus Christ to prove itself a miraculous group in the very midst of a hostile world. Christians, of necessity, must be in contact with the world but in being and spirit ought to be separated from the world. --- and as such we should be the most amazing people in the world." Tozer 1897-1963

TODAYS MISSION: MAKE GOD HAPPEN!!!
LIVE IN LOVE THROUGH RELATIONSHIPS,
Ephesians 5:21 is the source of the lesson today..

Paul wrote about a lot more than good theology. He Wanted to SHAPE BEHAVIOR!

Submission to is NOT Suppression.

We are ALL created in God's image.. as a creator, as a ruler, with great capacity for love…
We want to succeed… but Succeed in what? at what cost? ( family...job...church)

"Competition versus Collaboration"
" So we learn that the key to success is cooperation. We have to cooperate to win anything from ball games to wars. We have to cooperate to keep the peace. We have to cooperate to elect public officials that we hope will be honest. We have to cooperate to operate a business . . . To move a church forward . . . To keep a home together . . . To build great institutions." Rev. Charles Hulin III

We need rules, guideline, and a framework.to succeed.
Rules mean what? They come from where?
Laws/Rules define the boundaries, and can be used to include or exclude.. Which approach do you embrace.
The Household codes must be reviewed and studied in a theological context right alongside a Cultural context. ALWAYS..

REMEMBER that you don't have to earn God's love, we already have it.. unconditionally...

My assignments to you for the week: READ the book of Ephesians(attached), YES the ENTIRE BOOK, and just make a couple of notes on things that jump out at you. Don't be afraid to question.. We will work through answers together. Some in class, some out... We are here to support and edify one another.
Think of ways to embrace who you are in how you Live through Love. I really loved Forrest's example for being created in God's Image.. We have God within us.. imagine what we can do if we embrace the spirit....

NEXT WEEK:
HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD!!! DESPITE ADVERSITY.... Ephesians 6:10-20


Scripture References I used to prepare for today and those that I read and used in class......

Genesis: 1:26-28
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [b] and over all the creatures that move along the ground." 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

Hebrews 5:11-6:3 (The Message) 11 -14 I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you've picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby's milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God's ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.
1 -3So come on, let's leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on "salvation by self-help" and turning in trust toward God; baptismal instructions; laying on of hands; resurrection of the dead; eternal judgment. God helping us, we'll stay true to all that. But there's so much more. Let's get on with it!

Ephesians 5:21-6:9
Relationships
21Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another.
22 -24Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands.
25 -28Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ's love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They're really doing themselves a favor—since they're already "one" in marriage.
29 -33No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That's how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become "one flesh." This is a huge mystery, and I don't pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.
1 -3 Children, do what your parents tell you. This is only right. "Honor your father and mother" is the first commandment that has a promise attached to it, namely, "so you will live well and have a long life." 4Fathers, don't exasperate your children by coming down hard on them. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master.
5 -8Servants, respectfully obey your earthly masters but always with an eye to obeying the real master, Christ. Don't just do what you have to do to get by, but work heartily, as Christ's servants doing what God wants you to do. And work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you're really serving God. Good work will get you good pay from the Master, regardless of whether you are slave or free.
9Masters, it's the same with you. No abuse, please, and no threats. You and your servants are both under the same Master in heaven. He makes no distinction between you and them.

1 Corinthians 13: 12-13
12We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

Galations 3:26-28
26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29

Romans 4:13-15
That famous promise God gave Abraham—that he and his children would possess the earth—was not given because of something Abraham did or would do. It was based on God's decision to put everything together for him, which Abraham then entered when he believed. If those who get what God gives them only get it by doing everything they are told to do and filling out all the right forms properly signed, that eliminates personal trust completely and turns the promise into an ironclad contract! That's not a holy promise; that's a business deal. A contract drawn up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine print only makes sure that you will never be able to collect. But if there is no contract in the first place, simply a promise—and God's promise at that—you can't break it.