I have an announcement to make today, about a party that’s happening! You won’t want to miss it! The invitations have been well thought through, prepared, and sent. The guest list is quite large so be sure to RSVP quickly. The perfect venue has been found and the food will be out of this world!
The entertainment, MC, helpers, and caterers have all been taken care of. Oh, and did I mention…YOU ARE THE GUEST OF HONOR!!
Our hosts, God, and His son Jesus Christ, invite you to take your honored place by sitting down right there with them (at the head table😊) and accept it all, as a gift. THERE IS NO CHARGE!! It’s completely FREE!! Your admission has already been paid.
What do you think? Sound like you might want to attend?
Ephesians 2:4-6
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
And it’s not a $50000 donation to get in the door!!
“We have been chosen, called, and invited. We can rightfully take our place. But like most things we have to choose. There are other choices for us that we can make or have made. I can live as one trying to earn a seat at whatever table happens to mean the most to me in any given season of life. Here are some tables, which appear (or have appeared) in various forms. Do we share the same struggles? What are your tables? (These were suggested from a woman author, but you will see the point.)
- The smart person’s table (I will earn the PhD, publish prolifically, and earn a seat with the prestigious professors).
- The thin and beautiful table (I will work out harder, diet more, buy new clothes, and consider new beauty treatments).
- The good wife and mother table (I will keep a clean home, prepare delicious meals, plan creative and intellectually enriching activities, and then blog every day to show how great we’re doing).
- The published authors’ table (I will write book after book and one day be honored).
- The fruitful Christian missionary table (I will serve till exhaustion and lead others to faith so I can be somebody to my church).
- The wealthy family table (I will just earn more money).
- The famous table (I will be known for something, anything).
Ephesians 2:6 dispelled the darkness inside of me. Jesus says I’m seated with Him. I have a place at the table. I can stop fighting to prove my worth. Because I’m seated at the table, I’m invited to gaze at the Head, Jesus Christ, and allow Him to set me free from both self-exalting and self-condemning behaviors. I’m seated in a place that invites God’s provision. I’m seated in a place that allows me to bear fruit for God’s kingdom. I’m seated at a place where I belong—with Jesus and with other believers—and I won’t ever have to battle loneliness, exclusion, or comparison again.” https://bibletolife.com/resources/articles/we-are-seated-with-christ/ Heather Holleman
Ephesians 1:17-21
17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
*Most Christians make the mistake of trying to walk in order to be able to sit, but that is a reversal of the true order. Our natural reason says, “If we do not walk, how can we ever reach the goal?” “What can we attain without effort?” “How can we ever get anywhere if we do not move?”
If at the outset we try to do anything, we get nothing; if we seek to attain something, we miss everything. For Christianity begins not with a big do, but with a big done. Thus, Ephesians opens with the statement that God has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (1:3), and we are invited at the very outset to sit down and enjoy what God has done for us—not to set out to try and attain it for ourselves.
The Christian life from start to finish is based upon this principle of utter dependence upon the Lord. There is no limit to the grace God is willing to bestow upon us. He will give us everything, but we can receive none of it except as we rest in Him. “Sitting” is an attitude of rest. Something has been finished, work stops, and we sit. It is paradoxical, but true, that we only advance in the Christian life as we learn first of all, to sit down.
What does it really mean to sit down? When we walk or stand, we bear on our legs all the weight of our own body; but when we sit down, our entire weight rests upon the chair or couch on which we sit. We grow weary when we walk or stand, but we feel rested when we have sat down for a while. In walking or standing we expend a great deal of energy, but when we are seated, we relax at once, because the strain no longer falls upon our muscles and nerves, but upon something outside of ourselves. So also in the spiritual realm, to sit down is simply to rest our whole weight—our load, ourselves, our future, everything—upon the Lord. We let Him bear the responsibility and cease to carry it ourselves.
What is the secret strength of the Christian life? From where does it derive its power? Let me give you the answer in a sentence: The Christian’s secret is his rest in Christ. His power derives from his God-given position. All who sit can walk, for in the thought of God, the one follows the other spontaneously. We sit forever with Christ that we may walk continuously before men. Forsake for a moment our place of rest in Him, and immediately we are tripped, and our testimony in the world is marred. But abide in Christ, and our position there ensures the power to walk worthy of Him here.”
*Nee, Watchman. Sit, Walk, Stand: The Process of Christian Maturity. CLC Publications. Kindle Edition.
Chosen Gems 