Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children.

Ephesians 5:1

Children love to imitate their parents. They will clomp around the house in their parents shoes. Little girls watch their mothers applying make up while little boys study their fathers shaving. Imitating our earthly parents comes naturally, but imitating our Heavenly Father can seem an order too tall to fill. How can we imitate a perfect, sinless God?

As a young adult I thought about this a lot and even justified my sins at times because I was, after all, only human. How could God understand how hard it was to live a Christian life when we are only limited humans?

I finally realized that if I truly believed that God the Father and Christ were One, then I couldn’t use this rationalization. When Christ walked the face of this earth He was tempted in every area of His life just as we are, yet He never sinned. He certainly did not live a protected, secluded life either. He was most often found in gatherings that included a multitude and variety of sinners. Ample opportunities abounded for Him to sin, yet He never did. He was 100 percent God so He was perfect and sinless BUT He was also 100 percent human, so could He have sinned? Definitely. Satan realized that or he wouldn’t have wasted his time in the desert trying to persuade Christ to fall.

So what kept Christ on the straight and narrow? I truly believe that love was the key to His sinless perfection. “And live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:2)

He knew that our forgiveness hinged on a sinless sacrifice being offered on our behalf. Christ loved us more than He loved Himself. And therein lies the key. Almost every sin we ever commit will be due to our loving our own flesh more than we love God at that moment. It is hard to admit, especially when we realize that makes it a form of idolatry.

In order to imitate God, we must imitate Christ. In order to imitate Christ, we must love Him and others more than we love ourselves. This love must be more than nice words and affection. It must be self-sacrificing service in order to be effective. This means daily dying to self.

The miracle in this is that only in dying daily can we ever truly live an abundant, fulfilled, and joyous life – the life God always intended for us.

Jesus knew that childlike faith is needed to accept Him and the Word of God. As adults, we tend to analyze everything to pieces. If we can’t make something make sense to us in our own world, then we tend to ignore or dismiss it totally.

Children, on the other hand, are born trusting. Children will believe in impossible, totally unrealistic things such as egg-toting rabbits and little flying people who collect teeth from under pillows, if their parents tell them it is so. Maturity dispels the myths but faith in someone they love and trust does not fade so rapidly. Disappointment in someone can dull our trust but faith in our real life heroes lives on.

My father was not perfect but he loved me, and because of his love, I always trusted him totally with my life. I remember zooming down a giant  slide into a lake only because I knew he was at the bottom of the slide waiting to catch me. I remember riding on his shoulders through deep ocean water to reach a sandbar, never once worrying about being swept away. I remember learning to ride a bicycle with him running beside me knowing full well he would never allow me to topple over. At 6 feet 3 inches tall and 240 pounds, I not only told my classmates on the playground that my daddy could beat up their daddy, I knew he could.

So when the Bible tells me that the world was created in 6 days, the Red Sea parted, and a donkey spoke, I believe my Abba (Daddy) Father. These are not foolish fairy tales, but true historical accounts found in the written word of God. Which by the way, has been attacked often but never proven wrong on any account. Childlike faith means I don’t have to understand the mysteries of the universe. It is enough to know that God loved me so much that He sent His Son to die for me in order to provide forgiveness for my sins. With that I trust Him completely. With my life, my death, my eternity.

The old pointed toward the new. The old system was a temporary fix. The new system is permanent. The old system used the blood of blemish-free animals and required many sacrifices. The new system required the blood of one perfect, sinless God in flesh-the man Jesus Christ. The old system allowed only the high priests the authority to approach God. The new system allows any believer, Hebrew or Gentile, to boldly come before the throne of God. Hebrews 4:16 puts it this way, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” What freedom! We can approach God for forgiveness of sins and ask for His power in our lives any time!

This brings us to Ephesians, Paul’s letter to the Gentiles in the church at Ephesus. Unlike many of Paul’s letters to various churches, this one was not written to confront problems in the church but rather to encourage believers and strengthen them. Early manuscripts of this letter do not include the words “in Ephesus” so this was probably a circular letter-first sent to Ephesus but then circulated to other local churches. This is a letter of unity, reminding early Christians that we are one in Christ with all other believers.

In chapter 3, Paul prays for the early believers. “I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner beings so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge….”

The Life Application Study Bible explains it this way. “God’s love is total. It reaches ever corner of our experience. It is wide-it covers the breadth of our experiences, and it reaches the whole world. God’s love is long-it continues the length of our lives. It is high-it reaches to the heights of our celebration and elation. His love is deep-it reaches to the depths of discouragement, despair, and even death.”

The love of God is a constant reminder of His presence in our hearts any time we feel shut out or isolated in this world. And if God is for us, even Satan can’t stand against us. What power! What love!

Rocks have always served as reminders or memorials. They span the ages of time. Ancient petroglyphs, cairns, Stonehenge and Mt. Rushmore all bore significance to their creators. Some meanings have been lost while others are still honored.

While in Savannah, Georgia I made it a point to visit one of the oldest cemeteries. It houses a very large number of Jewish graves. I am fascinated by the Jewish custom of leaving a small stone on the grave of a loved one. Jews do not typically place flowers at grave sites. Instead, they often place little stones on the grave or headstone. The origin of the custom is uncertain but is usually explained as a symbolic act that indicates someone has come to visit and the deceased has not been forgotten. I think it may have deeper roots however.

In ancient times a pile of stones was used as a marker. Two times in particular would be very familiar to Jewish people who know their own history.

In the book of Joshua we read about the Israelites preparation to cross the Jordan river into the Promised Land. Moses had died and Joshua was the new leader. God commanded them to march toward the Jordan River behind the priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant. As soon as the priests’ feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing and piled up in a heap a great distance away. The Jordan was at flood stage by the way which just adds all the more to the miracle. And one last thing, the riverbed was bone dry as they crossed, not even the least bit muddy. What a God!

God commanded Joshua to choose 12 men, one from each tribe, to take up 12 stones from the middle of the Jordan. They carried these stones to their camp and set them down. Joshua then set them up as a memorial and reminder of God’s miracle and faithfulness.

In the distant future, the children and the children’s children would pass this heap of stones and inquire about them. They would be told the story and learn of God’s faithfulness and provision for His people.

In the near future the Israelites would think about the power of this mighty God as they would face a multitude of enemies. The crossing of the Jordan on dry land was above all a sign that the living God was among them and would drive out all other nations from the land promised ages ago to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Many years later, when God rescued the Israelites from the Philistines, Samuel set a stone up as a memorial once again to God’s help and deliverance.

I’m thinking that this isn’t such a bad idea for us today. We can draw much strength for out present struggles if we take time to remember God’s presence and help during past crises. Why not take time to set up a memorial of some type that will serve as a reminder of past victories through Christ? This will in turn spur us on by giving us the confidence and strength to press on. Not to mention the stories you can pass down to your children when they ask the meaning behind this memorial.

Even in the stories of God’s miracles in the Old Testament He expected to see some action from the people He was acting on behalf. God spared Noah and his family but first they had to build the ark. God parted the Red Sea but the people had to cross on their own two feet. God provided manna from heaven but the Israelites had to go out every morning and gather it. The walls of Jericho tumbled down but only after the Israelites marched around them. Naaman was healed of leprosy but only after he agreed to wash in the muddy Jordan River. God spared the Jews from annihilation but Esther first had to risk her life going before the king.

Jesus, God in flesh, often performed miracles with only a touch or word, but would at other times require action. He turned water into wine only after the servants filled the jars with water. He healed the 10 lepers only after they obediently started their walk away from Jesus and toward the temple to show themselves to the priest. He fed the multitudes but first asked the disciples to bring the loaves and fishes they had found in the crowd. The paralytic was healed as he was commanded to stand up and carry his bed. Jesus produced money to pay the temple taxes but first Peter had to go catch a fish and pull the money from  its mouth. The exhausted disciples who had fished all night, but caught nothing, were blessed with a boatload of fish only after they cast their nets one last time on the side of the boat Jesus commanded.

The writer Philip Yancey put it this way. “Although we may ask God to intervene directly, it should not surprise us if He responds in a more hidden way in cooperation with our own choices. An alcoholic prays, “Lord, keep me from drink today”. The answer to that prayer will likely come from the inside-from a stiffening resolve or a cry for help to a loyal friend-rather than from some marvel like the magical disappearance of liquor bottles from a cabinet.

Whether God supernaturally intervenes or is giving us the power to obey Him, we trust His character. we see a true partnership, intimate and intertwined. “

So never cease  praying and seeking God’s will. At the same time, be ready to spring into action in the direction He leads. He is faithful who has promised us.

The Bible tells us that as Christ prayed his sweat became as great drops of blood falling to the ground. He pleaded time and again with his disciples to stay awake and pray. He said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” He pleaded with His Father. “If it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Later He prayed again. “If it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may Your will be done.”

The events of this night were no surprise to Christ. He had repeatedly told His disciples that He was sent into the world for this very purpose.

Just a few days earlier He had entered Jerusalem, the city where He was a wanted man by the religious leaders, to purposely begin the trip that would lead directly to the cross. On the Thursday night after entering Jerusalem on Sunday, Christ shared His last Passover meal with His disciples while here on earth. This meal would become the basis for our observance of the Lord’s Supper, or Communion.

It is no accident that Christ’s death would come during the Passover celebration. The first Passover observed by the Israelites the night they would flee from Egypt was explained to them by Moses who had heard directly from God. It involved the sacrifice of a pure lamb whose blood was sprinkled on the sides and tops of the door frames. It gives me chills every time I think of this blood staining the wood of the doorposts in the same locations that it would stain the wood of the cross centuries later. Just as the lamb had to be killed in order for the blood to be taken as protection from the death angel passing through the streets of Egypt, Christ would have to die for His blood to protect us from an eternity in hell.

Christ knew from the beginning of time that His life would someday be given as a ransom for ours.

So here Christ stands in the garden ready for the final agony that would bring us salvation.

We know from scripture that in the final hours of crucifixion God turned away from looking at His beloved Son who had taken on the sins of the entire world; past, present, and future. God is holy and perfect and will not stand before sin. But many scholars believe that as Christ prayed in the garden, God was already distancing Himself from His Son. Christ’s agony was not only from the dread of physical torment, but in the full knowledge that the sins of the world would soon separate Him from His Father. This would have been an unprecedented event. Yet Christ was willing to experience this agonizing separation so that we would not have to experience an eternal separation from God.

Never believe that Christ was a political victim or simply an innocent man framed by religious leaders. He completed what He originally set out to do as a baby in Bethlehem. He was born to die and given a million opportunities to back out, He wouldn’t.

Our human minds fail to understand a love that deep and total. How I look forward to the day I stand before Him face to face and finally fully comprehend a love so great!

The strongest power that has ever been experienced on earth is not through mankind’s doing however, but  through the resurrection of Christ. Unlike man’s power, Christ’s power does not result in destruction, but rather in victory over death and in eternal life. Far more powerful than a nuclear reaction, Christ had the power to raise His own bloody, unrecognizable, lifeless body from the grave in perfect form. Now that is power!

That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms.

Ephesians 1:19b-20

Because Jesus said “I and my Father are One” we can know that the God who raised Christ through the power of the Spirit are all the same person. That in itself staggers the mind, so brace yourself for this next part.

The same power that rose Christ from the dead is within us if we have accepted Him as our Savior!

There is no more beautiful example of this than the one we see exemplified through believer’s baptism. The plunge underneath the water represents our burial with Christ and death of our old life. The resurrection of Christ is represented as we emerge from the water to a new life of service for Him.

If we truly understood that the power that raised Christ from the dead is residing within us, there would be nothing we would ever need fear. This same power not only empowers us for daily living but will some day raise us from physical death into eternal life with Him. Grasping that, we can join Paul in saying,

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His suffering, becoming like Him in death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:10-11

1 Timothy 6:6-10 is a prime example. It is simple scripture to understand and easily applies to our lives in America. But since returning from a mission trip to Kenya, this scripture springs to life in a new way for me.

Verse 6 “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” I saw happiness and joy like I’ve never seen before while in Africa. The poorest of the poor bubbling over with happiness because it was based on Christ’s gifts and not on what money can buy.

Verse 7 “For we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it.” Many of the Kenyans have little more than the nothing with which they were born. There is no worrying about a 401K, retirement, or beneficiaries.

Verse 8 “But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” This could be their theme verse. Just enough clothing to suffice, and just enough food to survive, but all the contentment in the world.

Verse 9 “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.” The Kenyans are very familiar with this truth. They must only look at the corruption among their government leaders.

Verse 10 “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Why is it that the more we accumulate, the more we multiply our worries and burdens? We think that accumulating wealth is the answer, but instead it turns out to be the source of our problems. The more we have, the more we want, and the more we want, the greater our dissatisfaction with the things with which God has already blessed us. I strongly believe that to continually live in a state of dissatisfaction with our material wealth is in effect the same as telling God that His provision has not been good enough.

Oh, if we could only claim the words of Proverbs 30:8-9 as our desire.

“Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown You and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”

What true contentment would then be ours!

I spent the first 3 decades of my life worshipping God because I was taught to do so. Often it was more out of obligation and duty than true devotion. It was a dry run and often felt unproductive but that was never due to a shortcoming on God’s part. My heart was often too caught up in the here and now to focus on eternity. Eternity seemed too far way and the cares of this world weighed heavily. The distractions were often exciting and attractive.

In my forties I stopped caring so much about what others thought and focused more on what God thinks. I started taking inventory and realized that none of the things I had accumulated through education, my career, relationships, and material possessions really brought joy. Temporary happiness at times, but not joy in my inner being…in my soul.

I started to recognize that throughout my entire life there had been one constant. I had grown up, loved ones had died, times had changed, but God had always, always stayed the same. He had never forsaken me even when I had drifted from Him. He had always provided even when I was not faithful. He had always loved me even when I loved the pleasures of this world more than Him.

I cried as I wrote this and thoughts of my past came to mind. But as I lifted my shameful face to heaven and asked God to forgive me, He says, “For what, my child?”. He already has. He forgave me the first time I asked. And that immediately turns my tears into laughter. What a God!

I believe that if we remain faithful, our worship of Him becomes sweeter and sweeter as we grow nearer and nearer to Heaven. The Bible describes scenes in Heaven that we can’t understand. We are told that eyes have not seen and ears have not heard what is waiting for us on the other side. Sights so spectacular that the human body could not survive!

So we keep practicing here on earth through the wonderful praise and worship at church, our quiet times with God, and the loud times with God when I just have to run through the house having a hallelujah fit. Then there are times when I am so overwhelmed by God and His goodness that I have to fall face down before Him too awestruck to even move.

Earthly practice for an eternal finale that will last forever. We will join the angels who have already begun without us in saying:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD God Almighty who was, and is, and is to come.”

This the purpose for which we were created; to worship God and bring Him pleasure. In that, we find our greatest pleasure.

I don’t see any mention of rest on the Sabbath again until we catch up with the Israelites in the desert following their escape from slavery in Egypt. For 430 years the Hebrew children had lived in Egypt. For the next 40 years God would allow them to wander in the desert as he worked the stubbornness out of their hearts.

God alludes to the 4th commandment before He had even given the 10 commandments to Moses. The Israelites had been in the desert for about a month and a half when they began grumbling about the lack of food in the desert. Imagine if they had known they were 39 years 10 months and 15 days from the Promised Land?

God answered their grumbling much as He answers ours still today. He provided for them. He rained down manna from heaven for them to gather every morning. It would appear after the dew of morning and had the appearance of frost on the desert floor. When the sun grew hot after they had collected what they needed, it melted away. They were to gather just enough for that day and not to save it for tomorrow. Of course some of them were disobedient and the next morning it was full of maggots and had a horrible smell. They learned.

God commanded them to gather a double portion on the sixth day because He said, (Exodus 16:23) “Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD”. And you guessed it, the next day the manna they had gathered in double portion was perfectly edible with no smell or maggots.

Of course the hard heads went out on the Sabbath to gather manna but found none. God rebuked them harshly reminding them that the Sabbath was a day of rest. God did not want even the daily routine of preparing food to distract the people from taking one day from the week to rest and worship Him.

Less than a month later God would call Moses to meet Him on Mount Sinai and there He would make it official. In Exodus 20 it is recorded that God made references to the six days of creation and how He rested on the seventh. The Sabbath day had been blessed by Him and made holy. In Deuteronomy 5 it is recorded that God reminded them when giving this commandment that they were to remember how God delivered them from slavery in Egypt with His mighty hand and outstretched arm as they observed the Sabbath.

So fast forward to today. I fear our Sundays have become everything but a day of rest and worship. We often use it as a “catch up” day. We get so busy with our work, homes, family responsibilities, and even recreation that we forget to “be still and know that I am God”. (Psalm 46:10) Even our church responsibilities can exhaust us on that day.

I’m challenging you to make a change this year with your Sundays. Find some time on Sunday to pull away from all of life’s distractions for at least a little while. Reflect, as the Israelites did, on your deliverance: we have been delivered from the spiritual slavery of sin and death. We have been set free to serve God. Then take a nap. Put the whole house to bed, as my parents would do on Sunday afternoons. My Mondays start off a whole lot better when I’ve had my batteries charged on Sunday through worship and a nap.