He answered and said, whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see (John 9:25)

What an undesirable condition, to be blind. We may attempt to minimize this condition by touting the by-product of heightened awareness in the other senses; however, there is no virtue to blindness, but only social dependence, constant darkness, and visual depravity. We have assumed that one cannot miss what he never had; however, even this born-blind man wanted to see.

Romans 3:25-26

God put [Christ] forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.

Introduction

One of the reasons it is hard to communicate biblical reality to modern, secular people is that the biblical mindset and the secular mindset move from radically different starting points.

What I mean by the secular mindset is not necessarily a mindset that rules God out or denies in principle that the Bible is true. It’s a mindset that begins with man as the basic given reality in the universe. All of its thinking starts with the assumption that man has basic rights and basic needs and basic expectations. Then the secular mind moves out from this center and interprets the world, with man and his rights and needs as the measure of all things.

Probably no text in the Bible reveals the passion of God for his own glory more clearly and bluntly as Isaiah 48:9-11 where God says,

For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.

I think I’ve learned a bit about Paul reflecting on the first chapter of Ephesians. For instance, from chapter 1 verse 3-14 I’ve developed an impression that Paul was excitable. (Read the passage here.)

He was obviously wound up because the whole section is one long sentence in the Greek. He is so enthusiastic about his theme he doesn’t draw breath.

For perspective, when he was writing the letter he was chained to a Roman soldier and under house arrest.

2 Corinthians 5:18-20

“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. NIV

Resolving conflict is not one of my favorite parts of ministry but is a necessary part if we want to keep order and peace among the brethren. If a person comes to me about another person the bible says that they are to go to that person one on one first. So I usually will send them back to the other person to talk to them in hope that they can work things out on their own. If that doesn’t happen and both parties are at odds with each other, then as a leader our responsibility is to step in as a mediator.

People say that listening is an art form, that not anyone can do it or that it takes a “special” person to be a good listener. Although I will say that some people are better at listening than others I disagree that it is a gift.

I believe everyone has the ability to listen if they wanted to; even Jesus speaks it many times to the churches that “All who have an ear let him hear what the spirit is saying.” Well, we all have ears and that was Jesus point. He gave us two ears and one mouth .and that alone should tell us something.

The enemy has already been defeated. Christ has thoroughly routed him by His sacrificial death, bodily resurrection, and ascension to power and glory. Satan’s condition, since the cross, is described as follows:

-He is ‘bound’: Mark 3:27; Luke 11:20; Revelation 20.
-His power is restricted and restrained: 2 Thessalonians 2:6.
-He has been rendered ‘powerless over believers’: Hebrews 2:14.

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