Dear Ones in Christ,

One has time to think when you are lying in a hospital bed with antibiotics flowing into your body through a mid-line.  Those few days in the hospital were to be the culmination of nearly four weeks of oral treatment of an infection in my body.  I had a nasty resistant bacteria which required a more powerful antibiotic to be given by IV, three in the hospital and four as a out-patient.  The tests show that the nasty bug is gone!! 

So, I have missed writing to you for a few weeks.  But, you have been in my thoughts and prayers just the same.  My thinking has been spurred by reading Ephesians again.  In the last half of the first chapter the Apostle Paul prays for the people at Ephesus. (Please read verses 15 to 23.)  But, in particular I found myself thinking about these words: "And God placed all things under His (Jesus') feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.(vs 22,23)"

Then, in chapter two Paul tells how we have been changed from our old way of life to the wonderful new life in Christ, and all of this not because of anything we have done but because of His grace.  Then in 2:10 Paul writes: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

I have some practical questions to ask about the implications of 1:22,23 and 2:10.

1.  If Christ is the head of the church and everything is placed under his feet how can we take the church lightly?  Does this not mean that everything we say, do, think, and are ought to be under the lordship of Jesus?

2.  If we are God's workmanship created in Christ to do good works, does this not mean that we need to be focused on Christ's mission in this world?  This would seem to mean that how we spend our time, how we spend money, where we choose to live, ought to be determined by His mission and how he wants to use us.

3.  If Jesus created the church and has been given full authority over the church, does it not seem logical that this is the instrument, the method, through which He chooses to reach the world?  This should mean then that everything we do "in church" ought to be focused on what Jesus has in mind.

4.  Should the Church of Jesus Christ get what is left over after we do everything else, or should He get first choice?  And, here I am not talking about going to church meetings.  I am talking about BEING the Church in this hurting world.

I mentioned this once before, but it is a good little illustration:  When I was a boy on the farm in West Virginia we had crops to cultivate.  I remember one day when it was hot and we had worked several hours weeding the corn I asked my Dad, "Can we take a picnic and go fishing?"  Dad smiled and said, "Tig (my nickname), when the work is done we will have a picnic."

Sometimes I get to thinking that it is easy to picnic when there is work to be done.  I'm not talking about working for our salvation.  I'm talking about doing the good works that we were created to do, in obedience to Jesus who is the head of the church.

Rejoice in being a part of His Church, His glorious body.

Love in Jesus Christ our magnificent Lord,

Pastor Clio