It Becomes Visible - Ephesians 5:13-14

Ephesians 5:13-14 ESV 

But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, 

“Awake, O sleeper,

and arise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

The light of Jesus will raise from the dead those who sleep in the darkness. Life and light are imply the nature of God. When Christ shines upon us we become visible as we move from the spiritual graveyard of the world into the house of the Father of lights. 

Christ calls into the darkness and shines the light of the way. Becoming visible means walking toward that light. 

In The Futility Of Their Minds - Ephesians 4:17-19

Ephesians 4:17-19 

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

Living in the mind is not the way to go if you want to get somewhere. 

Living in the Spirit will set you free to go where you want. 

Our Inheritance - Deuteronomy 10:9

Deuteronomy 10:9 ESV 

Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God said to him.)

Colossians 1:11-14

May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Ephesians 1:11

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

Ephesians 1:13-14

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

The Levi had no land inheritance as did the other tribes of Israel. The Lord was their portion, their inheritance. 

This foreshadowed the saints of the New Testament. Our inheritance will be in heaven and will be "to share in the inheritance of the saints in light." We have been sealed in that light by the Holy Spirit. 

The Lord is our portion and it will be a feast. 

Some Of You - John 6:64-65

John 6:64-65 ESV 

But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

There is one criteria required to come to Jesus. We must believe in Him. Then we are granted the grace of God's salvation. 

He knew who would not believe from the beginning. This does not in any way mean they didn't have a choice, they did. 

Is only means He knew beforehand who would and would not believe.

To Work The Ground - Genesis 2:5-8

Genesis 1:26-27

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

Man and woman were created in the likeness of God. They would have dominion over the earth. They did not receive the breath of God. From the dust of the earth God created the vessels from which He would build His dwelling place. Man was created; male and female. 

Genesis 2:5-8 

When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Adam was formed in the image of God. A different Hebrew word is used to describe this man. Adam was the only creature with His Spirit, with the breath of life of God. He was not created male and female. He was the first name given in Scripture. 

 The woman was created from His body. 

He placed this unique man in a unique place: the Garden. This man was created to work the earth, to work the plan of God. Until Adam appeared there was no rain had fallen to the earth. The Spirit of Life had not yet descended on man. 

In the genealogy of Christ, Adam is the only one labeled the son of God until Jesus came. He was the Son of God and the Son of Man. He is unique and is fulfilling the plan of God. There were men and women on earth when He was born, yet He is the first among many that would become the body of Christ. His name shall be above all others. This is the ground being worked and the Garden restored. 

He is the plan of God. All things are done by Him, through Him, and for Him. 

Bearing - Galatians 6:1-5

Galatians 6:1-5 ESV 

​Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.

At first glance this passage may be confusing. One the one hand we are bear one another's burdens and on the other hand we are told we each will have to bear our own load. Which is it? Answer - it's both. 

The Greek word for burden carries the meaning of heaviness or trouble. We are to help each other as we deal with life, lending our strength to another who is struggling, and receiving help when we need it. 

The Greek word for load has to do with the commandments of Christ, which is summed up in the phrase "faith expressing itself in love." His load,or expectation, is light because He bears us along the way. That is our own load. It is what we drag across the finish line, how we persevere to the end, how we live out our faith which will be rewarded by Christ. 

Not Carried Away - 2 Peter 3:17-18

2 Peter 3:17-18 ESV 

You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

We are stable in the truth of Christ when the seed of the word is able to take root in the soil of our earth. We are not washed away by the latest cloudburst of thinking or teaching , but hold on to our place as we stand our ground. We stand on ground made holy by the One Most Holy. 

As the roots deepen, we continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord, who is our foundation and rock, the bedrock of our belief. 

We shall not be moved.