Blog 1: Become Who You Are

So here I am... or at least some of my thoughts are.

I have to admit that I am not a "blogger". Nor did I ever imagine that I would be. And perhaps I won't. But I've at least started a blog for the purposes of outreach (rather than a public splurging of my lifes details - who'd be interested in that anyway!!?). Returning to the outreach; I recently joined the pastoral team at Grace Church of Glendora and I've been charged with the task of leading the Young Adult Community. To that end I was encouraged to begin a blog. And so it starts...

For those interested in learning who they really are, I would encourage a study of the book of Ephesians. This book is divided neatly into two parts. The first part describes what God has done for us through Jesus Christ – a total act of grace and unmerited gift. In the first three chapters Paul describes a complete change of identity in Christians. He doesn’t tell the church in Ephesus to do anything. He simply tells them what God has done and who they are as a consequence. Then in chapter four he totally shifts gears and says THEREFORE! Live up to the calling you have received. Live in light of who you are. And he uses the metaphor of light to describe them as children of God. Therefore, as children of God in the twenty first century, we are light. Called to live as children of light, and to become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

So the question in company122 is this: Are we, in each area of our lives, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ each day? If not, then we are failing to become what I believe we already are.

Furthermore, this call lies at the heart of what we are discovering together as we study through the series on Doors. It also relates back to the beginning of this article and my struggle to behave like an evangelist. Once I understand that I am a child of God, I must then understand how to fully actualize that status. I believe that one of the keys to achieving this is to be secure in the knowledge of who I am and to do God’s will. Ephesians 5 teaches me that I am a child of light called to bear the fruit of light and have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness. In fact, I am called to expose those fruitless deeds and shine like a spec of light in the darkness. And if that isn’t evangelism then I’m a Frenchman and I hate to drink tea. Unfortunately, I’m very much an Englishman who loves his tea and ought to grasp his calling. Scripture presents two calls in Matthew 28: Come and See; Now Go and Tell. And I need to consider this go and tell aspect. Because there is this idea that I am called to live like the tomb is empty. That somehow, the fact that Jesus has risen should make this incredible difference in the way that I actually live.

I shared that revelation with company122 during our study of Doors and I’d like to share that call to evangelism with you now. Because the truth is we see the door and we know the path. So we have a choice: We can take burning souls by the hand and lead them down that path. We can live in light of the empty tomb and share the hope that we have found with people who have no clue. Or we can watch them roll around on the ground trying to put out their own flames in complete hopelessness.

Are you secure in the knowledge of who you are? And do you live in light of that fact?