The Dwelling Richly Podcast

Ephesians Lesson 3/Day 5

The church gets to make known the “manifold wisdom of God.” This is what, as Peter said, “angels longed to see.” This is a BIG DEAL! This is a truth that should not only remind us of the true purpose of our redemption but of our mission in life. Being saved by His grace is awesome, but ultimately it is only the waiting place until our final destination is secure. Until then, what is our purpose?...making the glory of the Lord known to His creation! But wait, that’s not all! While we – as the church – are doing this, we have a heavenly audience. Not only do the angels rejoice when a sinner repents, but after that they are watching! Christians are making known the manifold wisdom of God to rulers and authorities in heavenly places! Wow! The next time you share the gospel, look up. You are testifying to “rulers and authorities in the heavenly places!” Can I get a witness?? Woot! Score that for God’s glory and manifold wisdom! Are you grasping the power of conviction Paul is expressing here? He is a man on a mission to serve the mission of Christ! Are you? Why not pray right now for more boldness and passion and wisdom and words! But if you’re not, why? Ask God to strengthen your faith, give you wisdom, boldness, passion, words, and opportunity.

Ephesians Lesson 3/Days 6-7

In youth group we used to sing this fast and fun song, “I want more of Jesus, more and more and more...” I think Paul was praying the same for us! There’s no way to measure it, but he still wants us to have the strength to somehow if it’s even possible to comprehend how wide, deep, long, and high the love of God is. The greatness of this love is so overwhelming to him that falls under its weight and prays with power and emotion. Frederick Lehman wrote the following chorus which beautifully expresses this truth
of the unsearchable riches of Christ:
“Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above, Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.”
If anyone knew the overwhelming love of God up close and personally, it may well have been Paul. I pray today that we would all not just know the love of God, but we would feel it and have the strength to continue to comprehend it too.

Ephesians Lesson 3/Day 4

I suppose it’s possible, sadly, that the power and impact of this mystery feels diluted for us reading it today. I’ve had a relationship with Jesus for over 40 years. I don’t want to read this passage like an old news article. I want for myself, and I pray for you reading this as well, that we would embrace this exciting revelation as if we were reading it with fresh eyes. Paul’s prayer was that we would know “the hope...the riches...the power toward us who believe.” That’s what I want to know today. And all that is missed if I don’t see the fabulous news – that I am a fellow heir – along with Abraham! – in the promise of Christ. Abraham’s inheritance is mine. It’s sealed and guaranteed in the Holy Spirit. The promise to Israel is a promise to me as well. I want to be in a constant state of awe and for what has been done for me through Christ Jesus, and I want to live this day walking not as I could still be – “following the course of this world” – but as I now am: “blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”

Ephesians Lesson 3/Day 3

Years ago, I packed up my car and my then 10-year-old son Jonathan, and we headed up to Central California to visit my mom and step-dad. What originally was a straight shot up the 99 freeway and west into the Sierra Nevada foothills to her small mountain community became a memorable “over the river and through the woods” experience. For reasons I still could not tell you, Google maps directed us the backway to her new home. I hadn’t been there yet, so I had just plugged in her address and planned to follow the Google Lady’s voice. What I thought was going to be a long (6 hours) but fairly basic drive became a bit of an adventure. We meandered up the highway and I realized we were not on that simple route but a Google-generated detour. It seemed at first like a tedious, and even scary drive, but it actually turned out to be a breathtaking scenic trip - the roads wrapped around tight mountain bends with plunging valleys off to our right and the towering Sierra’s to our left. At one point in the drive it got so dark and abandoned looking that my son, trying to be brave, asked quietly from the backseat, “Are we lost?” I assured him we weren’t and that we’d see lights of homes soon...and thank God we did! Paul has taken us on a bit of a detour on his way from “for this reason” to “I ask you not to lose heart” in the opening of this chapter. We’ll dig in to the significance of that detour in tomorrow’s lesson, but today, let’s pause and thank God for the details we get when we take the time to read and appreciate God’s heart toward us in His Word.

Ephesians Lesson 3/Day 1 (Active Reading)

Welcome to Lesson Three of our study in Ephesians! Join me in a fun and engaging read-through of Ephesians 3:1-4:16. Today's session is dedicated to Eugene Peterson who wrote "The Message" a paraphrase of the Bible and late yesterday, October 22, 2018, went Home to be with our Father. We'll do our reading from The Message in today's session.
 
Please notice that this lesson covers all of chapter three and about half of chapter four. Don’t forget...you can join the weekday study with Jennifer. (See pg 2)
 
When Ephesians was written it was a letter distributed to the churches in and around Ephesus. Just like a letter you’d write today, there were no chapter and verses written into it. I’ve taken the content of the chapters and grouped it to fit well in the format of our ten-day study. Here’s the plan for Day One of Lesson Three:
 
1) Read Ephesians 3:1-4:16 – pray for wisdom and understanding before you read.
2) Take "Active Reading" notes as you read noting repeated phrases, themes, and words and making connections back to the previous chapters.
3) Write Ephesians 3:10 and memorize. This is our group memory verse, and I’ve provided space at the opening of each lesson to write that lesson’s verse.
 
This study is available to download for free at
www.LaMiradaChurch.com
Watch each daily lesson and join the Dwelling Richly community:
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www.YouTube.com/c/JenniferRichmond
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Ephesians Lesson 2/Day 9

Solomon wisely observed, “There is nothing new under the sun.” And although he wasn’t referring to lack of unity in the culture around him, he could have been. Disunity is as old as Eden. There always has and always will be the battle between the “Us’s” and the “Them’s.” But God brings all things and all people together in Christ. Far off...Christ brings near. Separated? Christ unites. At war? Christ is the peace. Aliens? Citizens of a true Kingdom because of Christ. Where should all this be found? The Church as a whole and us as individual believers. We are the “dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” When you feel anything but peace and unity – go back to God. Circle back to the truth that he created us to do “good works” that were created before the foundation of the world. Those good works can only happen when we are united, and not in some hippie-dippie Kum-by-Yah campfire nonsense, but in the resurrection power of Jesus who conquered death and gave us all the hope of the power of true unity.
This study is available to download for free at
www.LaMiradaChurch.com
Watch each daily lesson and join the Dwelling Richly community:
www.Facebook.com/LMCCWomen
www.YouTube.com/c/JenniferRichmond
www.DwellingRichly.Podbean.com
on iTunes podcast at “Dwelling Richly”

Ephesians Lesson 2/Day 8

A man let a newlywed couple stay in his mountain cabin for their honeymoon. It was a crisp winter evening and the couple fresh from their wedding were excited to snuggle into the warm, cozy cabin and begin their new life together. They arrived after a long day and a longer drive and went straight to the bedroom, but the cabin was so cold that they spent their evening together huddled and shivering in thick flannel pajamas, under heavy wool blankets, too tired and too freezing cold to do anything else, and no amount of shivering or blankets could warm them enough. The next morning the host came by to bring them a bottle of champagne and a delicious breakfast and was shocked to find the still shivering couple wrapped in layers of blankets. In the dark they had missed that the cabin windows were open and the heater was not on. Instead of enjoying the blessings of a cozy warm cabin they had spent the night unnecessarily cold and uncomfortable. Like this couple who missed out on the blessing of what would have been warm and wonderful evening, those who reject Christ and rely on their own efforts will never find satisfaction – worse, they will remain children of wrath. When Paul wrote this letter, his prayer was that we would know “the hope, riches, and power” of our life in Christ. As he wrote in Romans, he was devastated at the thought that his fellow Jews were not coming to Christ. They had the “covenants of promise” but they would not receive the blessing of it because they rejected the one who could save them – Jesus. Today, we could be in the same jeopardy. So confident in our own good works, so satisfied in our own efforts, that we do not accept the gift of God. Instead, I pray that you have accepted the gift of salvation and are happily experiencing the joy of life in Christ.
This study is available to download for free at
www.LaMiradaChurch.com
Watch each daily lesson and join the Dwelling Richly community:
www.Facebook.com/LMCCWomen
www.YouTube.com/c/JenniferRichmond
www.DwellingRichly.Podbean.com
on iTunes podcast at “Dwelling Richly”

Ephesians Lesson 2/Day 7

My dad used to say that Christians had two bellybuttons. As a child, I’d lift my shirt and check for mine, and he’d laugh and explain again. When the Pharisee Nicodemus snuck away at night to see Jesus, Jesus told him that “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” This is where my dad got the “two bellybuttons” idea. “You get your first bellybutton when you’re born from your mommy,” he’d remind me, “The second one is invisible, and you got that when you were born again in to Jesus’ family.” Before we were saved we were “children of wrath.” Now, we are “made alive in Christ” so we can walk “in a manner worthy of the Lord.” Our salvation is not the result of any of our efforts or acts of service we do. It’s true and important to remember that, as believers, we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works”—to help and serve others. So, while there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation, God’s will is that our salvation will result in being like Him – masterpiece makers. We are saved not merely for our own benefit but to serve Christ and build up the church (Ephesians 4:12). In this way we are most like Christ. Our righteous acts do not produce salvation...not at all! Our good works are the evidence of our salvation (James 1:22; 2:14–26).
In the end, we must recognize that even our righteous acts come as a result of God within us, not of ourselves. On our own, our “righteousness” is simply self-righteousness, and vain, hypocritical religion produces nothing more than “filthy rags.” Instead of counting our good deeds as if we were placing chips on a scale to outweigh our bad, we should toss out the scale, thank God there is no scale, and that Jesus fulfilled all the requirements to be part of God’s family. It’s now up to us to accept that free gift of grace by placing our faith in Jesus Christ.
This study is available to download for free at
www.LaMiradaChurch.com
Watch each daily lesson and join the Dwelling Richly community:
www.Facebook.com/LMCCWomen
www.YouTube.com/c/JenniferRichmond
www.DwellingRichly.Podbean.com
on iTunes podcast at “Dwelling Richly”

Ephesians Lesson 2/Day 6

Today's is short lesson that really focuses and refocuses on one key point: It didn't have to be this way.
It didn’t have to be this way. God could have wound up the “clock” of human experience and existence in a sense, stood back, and let it go. But he stepped in. Why? Why does God come into our lives? Why does he change the essentials of our experience? Why did He make it possible that we could be “raised us up with Christ and made us sit together with him in heavenly places”? Well, He tells us! His answer is that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. In other words, God's purpose in doing all this is that he might have his own grace -- the glory of his character – made known for all to see. That through us who love Him would be a beautiful demonstration of the grace and the perfection of God's character. His glory will be seen in us -- especially as it is on display, says Paul, by his kindness toward us. This is what will make it stand out and be so meaningful to other people -- the evidence of the kindness of God toward us. The Enemy is literally Hell-bent on distorting that display. You can feel it because you constantly wrestle in your own head with thoughts of inadequacy, pride, anger, and more. But Christ came and demonstrated God’s love in action towards us, “in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” That is amazing grace. That is the free gift. That is the way it is – not a standoffish God watching as humanity winds down and out...an active, loving God who stepped in and gave us the gift of faith to receive His grace and to live victoriously in His love.
 
This study is available to download for free at
www.LaMiradaChurch.com
Watch each daily lesson and join the Dwelling Richly community:
www.Facebook.com/LMCCWomen
www.YouTube.com/c/JenniferRichmond
www.DwellingRichly.Podbean.com
on iTunes podcast at “Dwelling Richly”

Ephesians Lesson 2/Day 5

I don’t’ think it’s possible to exaggerate how amazing it is that we were made alive in Christ. Any effort to try to be "religious" or "Christian" which isn’t rooted in understanding this truth is a counterfeit Christian life. It is "godliness" without God, "Christianity" without Christ, "spirituality" without the Spirit. And it can never accomplish anything except to turn people away. What Paul has outlined for us here, and this alone, is true Christianity. Anything else is wrong.  I know it doesn’t always feel very alive. But your feelings aren’t the reality. The power of God in us is like a farmer going out to sow his seed. The farmer scatters his seed, and then what? Jesus says he goes home and goes to bed -- rests just relaxes and lets the seed grow because that is the nature of seed. The farmer knows that if he sows the seed and lets it rest -- it must go through a certain process that takes time; no seed simply falls to the ground and springs up suddenly – voila! Life!. No, you must allow it to decay, to fall apart, and then out of that comes a new life – it grows slowly and steadily until finally the whole plant is grown. This is how God works in us and he wants us to understand that the result is certain and that we can rest patiently, knowing that he is working out his purposes. We have been made alive in Christ! Trust the process! Trust God through it all.