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The Astounding Gospel to the Gentiles

I think we’ve short-changed the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel is not merely mankind’s ticket out of hell, it is the great plan..the great purpose of God which motivated him to create and which he began before he ever said ‘let there be light’. God is not trying to bribe humanity to get saved, the gospel is an offer of peace with God and an offer of reconnection to the purpose God has had all along.

The gospel does include the plan of salvation as found in Romans but it is much bigger and I think more fascinating and compelling than many realize. When we believe in Jesus Christ and accept God’s plan, his mercy and grace are immediately put on display as several things suddenly become true for us.  Most importantly the gospel is not all about us, instead the gospel is all about what God has done, is doing and will do through Jesus Christ. If we all rejected him, he could raise up a people from the stones.

I believe if more non-Christians, and many people who have been raised in church and have learned to tune out all spiritual talk were to hear the rest of the story told in a way that opens their understanding, they would more readily believe in and find a new love and fascination for Jesus Christ.  There would be many more disciples of this amazing, matchless creator and lover of mankind, Jesus Christ.

The book of Ephesians is unique to the Pauline letters in that it was written to a general audience and not to a specific church to solve a specific problem.  As a result of this most scholars believe that it contains a more general overview of Paul’s gospel to the gentiles.  Ephesians was still written to Christians however the basic principles found in Paul’s message revealing Jesus Christ to a general gentile audience can be seen in Ephesians 1-3 (1) Francis FoulkesIMG_0308[1]

So here it is, I will attempt to write the great gospel of God according to Ephesians 1-3 (and a little from Colossians 1)… my paraphrase and rephrasing to be shared with non-believers. Feel free to share this post or just what is written below.

There is something of great importance that I must share about why we exist, about the very meaning of life on earth. I feel compelled to reveal this to all willing to listen.

Human beings…you and I, are God’s chief creation, his chief work of art. God made us in his own image in order to expand the mutual love and fellowship that the father, the son and the spirit had together before creation.  He wanted to expand this love into a created universe, it pleased God to create a family to dwell with and within on a created earth.

It was we who quickly turned our back on him, the entire human race, we chose sin and in doing so we chose death, humans chose hostility and war and rebellion.   

Amazingly God decided to make peace available freely through Jesus Christ.  He did this for several reasons:

In order to create a redeemed people who would be a display of God’s mercy to rest of mankind, believers in Jesus Christ become a display of Gods grace and mercy to the rest of mankind.

He also did this to create a people to display his wisdom to all the authorities, men and spirits, good and evil, in unseen realms.

He also did this to make himself a dwelling place on earth within the people who would believe on Jesus Christ. A people to dwell within who have specific things and tasks he prepared in advance for them to accomplish.

When we believe in Jesus Christ we become the dwelling place of God on earth, all over the earth, displaying him, it is now him living all over the earth through us just as he planned.

When we believe in Jesus Christ and gather together in his name we become set apart to God, we literally become God’s dwelling place, his new growing temple, his new home and his growing family on earth.

When we believe in Jesus Christ we find new peace with God where there was hostility and death, we are made members of God’s family, and we can become near to God because of Jesus’ blood.

Now we even can fully know God and his thoughts and live by his divine life, not only our own life. We can approach him directly without a go-between, and we can know his great love, and be filled with the fullness of God; his great power is on display in us, the same power of God that was on display when Jesus Christ was resurrected from death.

When we believe in Jesus Christ we become a new kind of human being, not a Jew, not a gentile but a new race, a human with God inside and united to the rest of Christ’s body.

When we believe in Jesus Christ our inheritance becomes great, beyond what we can imagine, and we are literally become seated with Jesus Christ in heaven.

Jesus Christ is much bigger, much more involved with and is the culmination of everything in heaven and earth,  all of history, all of war time and peace time, all love, all politics, all wisdom, all knowledge, all science, all ideas and inventions, all the cosmos, time itself, everything was made for Jesus Christ, exists within Jesus Christ, and is heading to Jesus Christ.  He is the all-consuming creator and holder of the universe.

Romans Road to salvation…is what most consider to be the gospel, it is powerful and true but is actually the end of the gospel story, and is the part where mankind is ready to reunite with God, all of the following are scriptures found in the book of Romans and flow together.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, the wages of sin is death, but God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.” For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God…

Love him or leave him, you decide, but I can not get enough of him.

Please contact me if you’d like to talk about this at collierak@me.com

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Christian Fruit …on Demand

The science of fruit trees (pomology) is fascinating to me.  I have apple trees and enjoy studying and managing them for fruit production.  This involves late winter pruning, ground nutrition, sun exposure, blossom protection from frost, maximum pollination, fruit thinning, pest control, and deer/ rabbit protection.

knowledge2

Bottom line, with a little knowledge we can cause and expect a tree to produce fruit.

The same is true of scientists.  I have been working in R&D for a corporation for the past ~19 years.  This year alone I expect to file as many as 10 patents for my company. I am in the middle of a “fruit” explosion so to speak in my vocation and it is a wonderful feeling, regardless of whether or not I am given credit or promoted for it, I know that I am producing fruit in abundance for my company now and that alone is very satisfying.

Freedom to explore, collaboration with others and access to funds are the cultural and practical environment which made this fruit explosion possible.  Similarly I’ve noticed that the top producing scientists in my company are great at these three things.  They take and are given freedom to work on anything, they voraciously collaborate and build a strong internal network and they have access to funds… almost as much as they want.

Similar to the apple tree and the scientist is the Christian producing fruit.

Christian fruit can take many forms and include all the fruits of our spiritual gifts, which can be manifested in many forms including: letters, evangelistic messages in written and spoken form, instructional and inspirational books, blog posts, helps, financial gifts to the poor, podcast episodes, new spiritual songs, poems, special insights into lives of unbelievers. Fictional stories, parables, metaphors, scientific discoveries, witty ideas, inventions of things and processes, blessings to friends (which can take many forms). miraculous signs, miraculous healings, and countless other forms of ‘fruit’ the world has yet to see.

All things were created by and for Jesus Christ (Col 1:16b) and I believe that he expects his body to produce ‘fruit’ in the earth.  But we must prepare ourselves to produce fruit, conditions for fruit production can be optimized. We can manage our spiritual lives like we manage a fruit tree. Every believer can make four preparations to maximize his/ her our own fruit production for Jesus Christ.

  1. Complete engagement in producing the type fruit that God expects from us. We need to focus on the idea of producing fruit, this can not be a casual want or a side-project that we get to on Sunday’s if we have enough time, it is one of the very purposes of human life and our fruit is our specific and chief calling.
  2. Know what type of fruit is expected from us, God has gifted us all differently, he exposes us to different seasons of life at different times. To know what fruit God expects of us is half the battle, much time in prayer and fruit experimentation is the place to start.
  3. Fit into the body of Christ, we are members of Christ’s body, not independent creators, we produce best when interacting, when fellow-shipping,when sharing our lives with other Christians, when mixing and developing ideas, exploring and encouraging others.
  4. Divert resources to producing fruit, an apple tree diverts water and considerable energy producing apples each year. Successful tech companies divert considerable capital and cash and skilled scientists and engineers to R&D. Similarly a member of the body of Christ committed to producing fruit for Jesus Christ should intentionally divert his/ her time and finances to producing fruit for others.

What fruit are you producing and what fruit are you producing for Jesus Christ?

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When we really understand Jesus Christ

 

We may never full understand Jesus Christ but I think there is GREAT room for improvement in this area (myself included).  When we understand Jesus Christ we realize that nothing happens by accident. If we don’t understand him we won’t believe in who he really is. When we don’t understand and know him well, this life and this world entirely makes no sense. He lives outside time and outside this universe, He not only “has got the world in his hands” but he holds every atom together in this universe (read Col 1). He is that unknown “God particle” that some scientists are searching for.

He is the one who decided to create us in his image for specific reasons. He is the one who decided to come down and bail us out before he ever even created us.  He first created the laws of physics of the universe then he used them to create this planet and this universe (read proverbs 8).

He is the one suffering on this earth, he is the one getting ripped to pieces in the wombs and decapitated on the beaches of Libya. He is the one being enslaved and oppressed at the hands of women hating tyrants. We (suffering mankind) participate in his suffering, technically… spiritually it is not even our own suffering when we’re persecuted it is his suffering.  (read Acts 9 and Philippians 3)

He holds the title-deed to earth and to human life.

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