Jesus in your heart

Ephesians 3:16-19

Paul prays "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” The word dwell means to move in and settle down. This much more than a visit and certainly more than a mailing address. This is a permanent change of address.

In the beginning, God dwelt with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They sinned and God could no longer dwell in their presence. Once the nation of Israel was formed, God dwelt with his people. First, in the tabernacle and then in the temple. But they continued to sin, and God’s presence left the temple.

However, through the prophets, God promised a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34). He would put his Spirit inside his people (Ezek. 36:27). To fulfill that promise, Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory (John 1:14). If you are a follower of Christ, your body is a temple.

He dwells in your heart. This is beyond your blood pumping organ; and more than the place where you keep your feelings. It is the very center of your personality. Your mind. Your will. Your soul.

Jesus paid it all and He wants your all. He wants to be the very center of your universe.

As a follower of Christ, you live by faith. The works you do for Christ are according to faith, or they have no eternal value. Furthermore, faith is itself the gift God.

Faith is the conviction that it is no longer you who live, but Christ lives in you. And the life that you now live in the flesh, you live by faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave Himself for you. (Gal. 2:20)

I am the vine; you are the branches.
If you remain in me and I in you,
you will bear much fruit;
apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:4-5

Look Alive!

Ephesians 2:1-10

Most of us want to fondly remember the past. After all, they were the good old days! Nostalgia, however, can cloud our memory and we forget the painful parts. And, so, the greatness of the past continues to grow in our memory.

But Paul remembers it differently. “You were dead in your transgressions and sins,” he wrote. The good old days were not good because we were disobedient. Instead of a Christian walk, we walked in the ways of the world. It was a death march. We were the walking dead. Rather than being children of God, we were children of wrath on the road to judgment. (Eph 2:2-3)

That’s all in the past. Paul says that God made us alive in Christ. All because of God’s mercy and his great, unmerited love for us. We have done nothing to earn our salvation. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Eph 2:8-9)

Paul tells us that we are saved for a purpose. “We are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,” he writes. (Eph 2:10)

The prophet Isaiah tells us about good works. “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” (Is 1:17)

The prophet Micah also provides us with some insight. “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Mic 6:8)

In the past, we walked in sin; today we walk in the light. In the past we were dead in sin, today we are alive in Christ. By God’s grace, today we are ready to do the good works God prepared in advance for us.