Word Servant

I am deviating from the usual Word Servant posts to share an experience. This past week, I had four wisdom teeth removed. The medications made life bearable as the pain intensified but it got bad quick. I have experienced hurts throughout my life, but this was on a level all to itself. Finally, after a close friend and my patient wife encouraged me to go get it checked out, I went to the ER.
     Now, the first thing that I realize looking back is that while in this place of constant intense pain, everything annoyed me, and I turned into a real jerk. The dog got on my nerves with the licking and what I call air tasting, which is licking the air for no real reason with that tongue-smacking noise; my son was driving me crazy with the non-stop need to talk about any and everything; and my wife, we could not get on the same page for anything. In all of that, though, I realized that they weren’t doing anything unusual, it really boiled down to my being in so much pain. It changed th…

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:4-6 NASB
     If ever there was a question as to whether there was more than one body, Spirit, or Father God—these verses make it clear that there is but ONE. Paul drove the point home, didn’t he? Sometimes we get caught up in the theology and the dogma of denominations and lose sight that we are all ONE body—the Body of Christ. Yet, here, in the Scripture, God uses Paul’s words to the Ephesians to not only remind us that we are one Body of Believers but that we are also called in one hope of our calling.
     When I read that we are called, I’ve often wondered what that even means. We read of being called in the Bible. We hear pastors and missionaries use the word called when talking about what God has placed on their hearts to do. We even hear fellow Christians talk about ca…

WORD SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

“Being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:3 NASB
     There’s a simple take-away from this passage all by itself: be hard-working toward protecting the unity that the Holy Spirit has brought us into with one another. Pretty simple. Seems so straightforward to me right now. However, early in my walk I did not even know this verse existed. Later, when I allowed myself to drift, I was not concerned about unity. Preservation? I protected my own interests and selfishness. To have understood this Scripture back then! Urgh.
     Up to this point in Ephesians chapter four, Paul has been saying that the believers—them then, us now—must walk the walk and not just play saintly dress up. Kind of goes back to those white-washed sepulchers Jesus spoke about.
     Let me put it like this, this weekend I got schooled on the touch-up and photo-editing trends of social media. If you edit your photos, I’m not judging you. If I knew how to whiten my teeth in …

WORD SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

“With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love…” Ephesians 4:2 NASB
     Humility may seem everywhere nowadays with self-deprecating humor and the self-rejection we’ve adopted in pursuit of validating others, but true humility, actual modesty usually feels absent in today’s culture. Why is that? Part of it may have to do with the growing trend over the years toward false humility. We are told we are to be humble, yet at the same time we’re told to be confident and self-assured. Some of us try to be humble like it’s stiff business attire we must put on and then chaff within while around the alpha males and alpha females who by nature laugh at humility with their exalted demeanor. Yet, for most of us, I think that it is a lot more like trying to find the balance between humility and confidence the same way Goldilocks was trying to find that just-right porridge. But, what is humility anyway?
     The Bible’s definition in Ephesians 4:2 litera…

“Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.” Ephesians 4:1 NASB
     Having personally been incarcerated, when I read the word prisoner, it reminds me of the total submission one must make toward those who hold the keys to all the locks. Everything is on the officer’s time and say. When we ate, what we ate, when we slept, when we got up, what we wore, and even where we could walk was up to the authority of those who watched over us. If a Corrections Officer said, “Young Man, tuck that shirt in and shut your mouth…” you tucked your shirt in and shut your mouth. If a corrections officer told you to strip naked, squat and cough after they allowed you to see your family in a visitation room, well, you did so and were grateful you got to see your family.
     In Ephesians 4:1, Paul is calling himself a prisoner, a captive, someone that is bound in Christ. However, this is not by force or a bad decision but…

Usually there is a Scripture. Today I am going to swerve from that and rest a finger on Ephesians chapter 4. You know, just holding my place for a moment!
     This past year has been a spur year for me! God has done quite a bit in my life and He keeps on doing and encouraging regardless of the limitations we try to put on Him. This past year has been a real brain-stretch for me, too. When the events of life around me convicted me to hit my knees and pray and then go back to college for a degree in Christian Studies, I admit my foundation was nowhere near what it is today.
     In fact, while in Hermeneutics and a Romans Precepts class, I became absolutely convinced that the Bible is the word for word, God-breathed, Holy Scriptures. Now, I believed that before. A lot of us probably believe that the Bible is the Word of God. However, as the overlapping points of those two unconnected classes kept hitting home, I became utterly convinced that it was a fact. The Bible is the Livin…