Lift Your Eyes Forget The Channel

“A Muslim, a Jew and an Anglican Minister walk into a classroom”. This was the advertising blurb for a local Community College seminar I participated in a few years ago. I joined a Muslim educator and a Jewish academic (who is also a friend of mine) to give a series of presentations on different aspects of our three religions to interested people from the community. When we came to the topic of ‘prayer’, I was fascinated to hear what my co-presenters had to say. Even though we were all using the same word, ‘prayer’, the word meant very different things in the different religions. As a believer in Jesus Christ, what did I have to say about what prayer is? What would you have said? Christians, too, can often be a bit confused or unclear about what prayer actually is. That’s where the Apostle Paul really helps us. In these verses in Ephesians, Paul starts telling his readers about his own prayers for them. Read the full post: Prayer: What are we actually doing? (Ephesians 1:15–16) From Forget the Channel by Lion

The Stanford Marshmallow Experiments are a favourite illustration of motivational speakers. The lesson is this: If you can learn how to delay gratification early in life, you’ll do better in later life. Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? But unfortunately, like many popular conclusions drawn from famous psychological experiments, it doesn’t stand up to closer scrutiny. The more up-to-date study demonstrates something far more mundane: if you grow up in a secure home where you know there will always be food on the table, you’re more likely to be able to put off eating a marshmallow. This isn’t a particularly useful lesson for motivational speakers. But it’s a great illustration of what it means to be a child of God. Read the full post: The Holy Spirit: Our security (Ephesians 1:14) From Forget the Channel by Lionel Windsor

What is God’s mission? What means is God using to bring about his purposes in Christ? What does that mean for our own mission as Christians and churches? Read the full post: The message is the mission (Ephesians 1:13) From Forget the Channel by Lionel Windsor

Although the Bible is always relevant to us, not every sentence is directly about us. When we realise this, we can rejoice in God’s blessings even more. Read the full post: Rejoicing in the blessing of others (Ephesians 1:11–12) From Forget the Channel by Lionel Windsor

The God of the universe has a plan to sum up all things in Christ. He’s revealed that plan to us, and is putting it into effect through the gospel. Read the full post: So here’s the plan (Ephesians 1:8–10) From Forget the Channel by Lionel Windsor

When it comes to God, we can’t redeem ourselves. Redemption is something that God has to do—and has done—for us. This is why it’s such a wonderful thing. Read the full post: Are you trying to redeem yourself? (Ephesians 1:6b–7) From Forget the Channel by Lionel Windsor

The Bible gives us a vision for living life that’s the exact opposite of the narcissistic attitude. This is highly confronting, and profoundly comforting. Read the full post: What if it’s not about me? (Ephesians 1:4–6a) From Forget the Channel by Lionel Windsor

Ephesians starts with an explosion of praise for the ‘blessings’ God has given to us. But they’re different from the kind of blessings we often talk about. Read the full post: #inChrist (Ephesians 1:3) From Forget the Channel by Lionel Windsor

Many people believe in ‘God’. But the word ‘God’ means different things to different people. What does the Bible say about God: who he is and what he’s like? Read the full post: This God (Ephesians 1:2) From Forget the Channel by Lionel Windsor

God sees believers in Jesus as holy. This fact is amazing, especially when you grasp the history of the gospel going out from Israel to the nations. Read the full post: Amazing holiness (Ephesians 1:1b) From Forget the Channel by Lionel Windsor