“Seeing the Unseen Christ” (Week 11)

by Eric Rajaniemi

Today we consider Romans 12:3-8 as we begin to look at practicing the presence of Christ. This practice involves serving Him with gratitude and eagerness!

In today’s world busyness is the characteristic of American culture. Most of us are extremely protective of our time. This protectiveness even extends into the church, it is not as easy to get volunteers for various ministries as it once was.

But what if Jesus Himself were to come and make an appeal for greater involvement in church ministries? Do you think that people would respond in greater numbers? What if He lifted His hands and people could see the scars where the nails had been driven through them?

I would hope that their overwhelming response would be, “How can we say no to You? It’s a privilege to serve You. We will make adjustments in our schedules to do what You have asked of us.”

1. What are some strengths or skills that God has given  to you?
2. How might you use them to serve Christ in your home, your community, your workplace, and your church?
3. Do you think highly of yourself or do you place equal value on what others do? Do you feel that what you do for Christ isn’t as valuable as what others do?

According to the apostle Paul, the church is composed of a body of believers in Jesus Christ. Just as our bodies are composed of many parts that all work together and must work together for our survival, so too, the church is composed of many parts/members which must work together. Everyone can’t be the head, or the eyes, or the mouth. Some must be the hands or the feet. The same principle applies to the gifts that God has graced all believers with. Not all can be pastors or teachers; not all can be servers; not all can be exhorters; not all can be leaders or church-planters.

Christ is the Head of the church, it is He who directs its members through His Holy Spirit. He has no favorites, He treats everyone the same. That is how He expects us to treat each other. The usher is just as valuable as the pastor. The parking lot worker is just as valuable as the Youth pastor. The welcomers are just as valuable as the Praise Team that sings during worship service. All are serving God out of love for Him.

I would ask if there are any examples of gifts in today’s passage that you most identify with? This may provide you with additional prayers, asking God to increase your giftedness.

Eric

“Seeing the Unseen Christ” (Week 10)

by Eric Rajaniemi

Welcome back!  This week we will finish studying how to embrace righteousness and also turn away from wickedness/sin.

Our text for today is James 4:1-12. James asks us a very pertinent question, one that remains as true today as it was back in his time. What causes arguments and fighting among us? We all struggle with this problem, we all see it playing out in the daily news headlines whether it is on television, internet, magazine, or newspaper. James then tells us what causes all of this to happen: our desires that constantly battle inside of us. We want something but we do not get it. We covet what our neighbor/s have but can’t have what we covet. The frequent solution? We steal, we argue, we fight, we commit violence against one another over what we want. This plays out between individuals, families, communities, and even nations. One nation wants what another nation has, so war is declared, fighting ensues, and we witness death and destruction. Currently we get to watch Russia covet Ukraine, construct a false reason to invade, and then engage in killing and destruction. All because their leader considers Kyiv to have always been a part of Russia and must now become again a part of mother Russia. Covetousness.

James also points out that because we do not ask we therefore do not receive. Or, we do not ask with the right motivation and therefore we still do not receive. If we stop and consider our own congregations, are there any self-destructive patterns that should be acknowledged and then corrected? See, if we do not expose these behaviors they will repeatedly harm many people unnecessarily. As believers in Christ we should not act in such a fashion.

We are tempted each day and we must therefore be prepared ahead of time so that we can resist the temptation. In verse seven James points out what we are to do when confronted with temptation. He says to submit ourselves to God. We Americans have a tough time actually doing this. We are fiercely independent and do not like anyone trespassing on our liberty/freedom. But we must surrender ourselves to God and His authority in our lives if we wish to remain free from sin. James also tells us to resist Satan, do not surrender to him ever. We are to wash our hands of sinful acts, purify our hearts if we discover that we are trying to live for God and for the world. Finally, James says we must humble ourselves before God; renounce excessive pride and Christ will lift us up.

Proverbs teaches that pride goes before a fall. Pride tends to blind us to any negative consequences of our actions. We end up stumbling and falling into disgrace, usually unexpectedly. Our self-sufficiency can also lead us into temptation as well as elevating our sense of pride in our abilities. Pride can lead us into conflict with other people. They become offended by our superior attitude and decide to become confrontational. Arguments and even fighting result.

We can conclude from this passage that we must always be checking ourselves to see if our actions/words are going to either lead us to be tempted to sin, or, lead someone else to sin in response to what we have said or done. Jesus has told us to avoid any appearance of wickedness in our lives. It is a hard thing to do under our own power, thus why He sends His Holy Spirit to live within His believers.

That is all for this week. Please consider memorizing James 4:7-8 and use it to assist you in avoiding temptation and committing sin in your daily lives.

Eric

“Seeing the Unseen Christ” (Week 9)

by Eric Rajaniemi

Last week the challenging question might have been
number three or number four. The third question forces
each of us to stop and seriously consider who causes all of
the wickedness and evil that we see all across our world.
Is it just people who are bad? If we are really honest, we
must admit that it seems that something else is also
involved in peoples’ behavior. That something is Satan.
People make bad choices, Satan influences them to make
those bad choices even worse. Sinfulness also comes into
play since that is a part of every human alive. We might
intend to solve a problem correctly in the beginning but
somewhere along the way we make a wrong turn and it
ends very badly.

If we are to use the “sword of the Lord,” we must learn
how God wants us to use it. It is not meant to
intentionally inflict pain or suffering on another person. It
can be used to defend oneself against being verbally
attacked. In fact, this is the only piece of God’s armor that
can be used to attack Satan. All others are for defending
oneself against his attacks.

This week’s scripture is I Peter 5:7-11. Satan is
depicted graphically as a male lion. He is always on the
move, seeking whom he may devour/consume/
destroy/swallow up. Why do you think God chose this
image to depict Satan’s presence in our world?

Even though Satan wants to destroy us, according to
this text we have an opportunity to resist him and stand
firm when faced with temptation. How would you respond
to the claim that temptation is always bad?

What can you find in verses 9-11 that gives you the
courage to renounce Satan and all that he represents?

Verse eight commands us to be self-controlled and
alert. If you have been working at correcting a self-
destructive pattern, are you becoming more adept at
recognizing Satan’s attempts to trip you up? Are you
becoming more able to resist these attempts?

Please spend a few quiet moments in the arms of a
loving God who desires to make you strong, firm, and
steadfast as you live out your faith in Christ Jesus.

Continue praying daily for neighbors, friends, family
members, and coworkers by name. Remember to be
specific in what you pray!

May you have a blessed week!

Eric

“Seeing the Unseen Christ” (Week 8)

by Eric Rajaniemi

How did you do with last week’s questions? Normally we
think of suffering as being the very last thing we want to
experience. We would avoid it if we could. But suffering
does serve a very necessary purpose in our lives. If there
was no suffering we would never know when we had cut
ourselves severely. We would not know that we were
feverish. We would not ever know when we were hurt.
Suffering alerts us to the fact that there is something
wrong with a part of us, that we must attend to it and
correct it.

Jesus took suffering to another level. He used His
suffering upon the Cross to create a way for each of us to
become redeemed of our sins. His godly suffering
becomes a model for us today. My suffering due to sin in
my life alerts me to there being something spiritually
wrong in my life. Therefore I must work at fixing that
situation in order to become more holy. I need to ask
Jesus to nail that sin to His Cross for me, to remove it
from my life. This is where prayer comes into play and is
very important. If I do not ask God to help me remove
this sin I will not receive God’s help to remove it.

Because Jesus suffered upon the Cross He now
understands how we feel when we are suffering. This
enables Him to extend mercy to us while we are going
through suffering. His faithfulness is demonstrated by Him
remaining with us, helping to guide us through the
suffering in order to endure it and come out of it more
holy than we were before. Suffering creates character in
each of us. Suffering provides us with opportunities to
make positive choices or negative choices. God desires us
to always make positive choices for Him.

This week’s scripture is Ephesians 6:10-18. We begin to
look at embracing righteousness and renouncing evil this
week. We are sent out into this world by Jesus to continue
sharing His Gospel message of salvation through Him.
But in doing this we will find ourselves in the company of
people who probably will make us uncomfortable, maybe
even fearful.

Jesus was correctly accused by the religious leaders of
His day of being a friend of sinners. This, however, did not
mean that Jesus was tolerant of sin. If we do not follow
the example of Jesus and befriend sinners, many people
are not ever going to learn about God’s love. However, in
the process, we need to be careful to renounce Satan and
all that he stands for and embrace righteousness.

This passage in Ephesians informs us that our struggle
in life is not with flesh and blood people but with spiritual
wickedness, with Satan. In order to defend ourselves
against him this passage reveals that we must clothe
ourselves in God’s armor. We are told what each piece of
armor represents. Why is this so important? When we go
out and start talking to people about Jesus Satan is going
to be there trying to prevent them from listening to us.
We do not become angry when people begin to cuss us
out or threaten to become physical. We disengage and go
elsewhere. It is necessary to engage in prayer to ensure
that we have invited Christ to be involved in what we are
doing.

(1) What types of protection does God provide for us as
we embrace righteousness and renounce evil?

(2) Which of these protections do you tend to not use
for yourself? What are the results?

(3) Christians often do not want to be known as soldiers
or warriors, or openly admit that they are involved in
spiritual warfare. How would you deal with verse 17?

(4) When faced with problem people in your life, do you
tend to focus exclusively on flesh and blood? How
might spiritual forces be involved and what could
they be trying to force you to do?

(5) Verse 12 tells us that we wrestle with wickedness and
not with people. How do our senses mislead us into believing
that people are our problem? How much are each of us slaves
to our physical senses?

Perhaps by the end of this week you will sense that there
are other areas of your life in which you are vulnerable to
being attacked by Satan. Pray to God, ask Him to help
you figure out why this is so. Ask Him to help you use the
armor of God in better ways.

You can leave comments at the end of each of these blog
messages. I will attempt to reply in a timely manner to
each one.

Have a blessed day, mercy and grace be yours!

Eric

“Seeing the Unseen Christ” (Week 6)

by Eric Rajaniemi

Welcome back!

This week we will be considering Matthew 5:43 – 6:4.
This passage is all about when we practice the presence of
Christ, we lavish His love on others.

Now this idea can appear rather foolish when first read
about. But Jesus reminds all of us how gracious God is to
all people. He is not like Santa Claus who only gives gifts
to those who have been nice. Even the naughty ones
benefit in countless ways from God’s goodness. Christ
says if we are His true sons and daughters, we also should
love our enemies, even praying for those who persecute
us. This is the first hard saying in the passage.

The second hard saying by Christ motivates us to do our
deeds of Christian love so that they are seen by God but
not necessarily by other people. The object of doing secret
acts of Christian love is to have other people say thank
you to God rather than to us. If there is to be a personal
reward, God in heaven must be the one responsible for
bringing it.

#1 What are some negative consequences of being
publicly praised for doing good deeds?

#2 What are some advantages of doing acts of Christlike
love without anyone knowing?

#3 Try to open yourself up to the Holy Spirit’s leading,
who are “enemies’ to whom the unseen Christ might
lead you to offer unseen love? Who might He lead
you to pray silently for while you are out in public?

Eric

“Seeing the Unseen Christ” (Week 7)

by Eric Rajaniemi

Let’s review the first two questions from last time.
Possible negative consequences to being publicly praised
for doing good deeds are to become proud, even overly
proud, of what you have done. You could also accept the
accolades rather than giving glory to God for what He
achieved through you. Too much pride causes us to lose
sight of the fact that Jesus is the One working in us, not
us doing these acts all on our own efforts. Advantages to
doing Christlike acts of love anonymously are that no one
knows that we did them. There is no need to feel self-
conscious while doing them nor afterwards when praise is
heaped upon us for doing them. In a very real sense, we
are given freedom to do them frequently. Also, when we
do them privately we will end up doing them for the right
reasons: to help other people.

This week I want us to consider Hebrews 2:10 – 3:1.
Upon reading this passage it becomes obvious that Jesus
is the “He” since that is pointed out in verse nine. He is
the Creator of everything. He is the captain of salvation.
Both Christ who sanctifies, and those whom He sanctifies,
are brothers in His eyes. We are those children whom the
Father has given Christ the Son, and are of flesh and
blood. So Jesus also took on flesh and blood so that
through sufferings and death He might destroy Satan who
had the power of death over us. That fear of our own
death put us in bondage to Satan. Christ chose to take
upon Himself the image of man rather than that of
angels.This was necessary that He might be a merciful
and faithful High Priest, able to make reconciliation for the
sins of the people. Since Jesus suffered being tempted
now He is able to give help to those that are tempted.

1) Do you ordinarily think of suffering as a part of
becoming godly? What do you normally associate
suffering to be a part of?

2) Since God the Father made the author of our
salvation (Jesus) perfect through suffering, how
realistic is it to expect holiness in the area of
your life which you struggle with without “being
made perfect through suffering”?

3) How does Jesus’ experience with suffering qualify
Him to be called both merciful and faithful? (verse
17)

Take some time each day this week to pray. Ask God to
forgive your failures, thank Him for your successes. Ask
Him to increase your faith in Him. Seek to discover how
you may be a stumbling-block to those around you. Ask
God to help you learn from your mistakes so that you
won’t keep repeating them in the future.
God bless you, grace and peace be yours!

Eric

“Seeing the Unseen Christ” (Week 5)

by Eric Rajaniemi

Welcome back!

Our scripture text this week is in Hebrews 4:12-16. So
open up your bible and let’s read what is found there.
You find the image of a two-edged sword that is quick
and powerful. It pierces a person deeply, dividing the soul
and the spirit, the joints and the the bone, it is able to
know a person’s thoughts and intentions. That is how the
Word of God is described here.

There are no living things that are not visible to His
sight. God sees all, sees everywhere, there is nowhere to
hide from Him.

But we are told that we have a high priest that has gone
into heaven, Jesus, who has felt our infirmities and our
temptations. Jesus knows how we feel in our daily lives.
He has already experienced these things.

Because of all of these things, we are told to come
boldly to God’s throne of grace, that we may get mercy
and find grace to help us in times of need.

I do not know about you, but I sure do need to be able
to go before God’s throne frequently to seek mercy and
grace.

So time for some more questions that will challenge you!

#1 The fact that God sees everything, how does that
make you feel? Uncomfortable? Comfortable?
Why?

#2 Remembering that self-destructive pattern in your
life that you have chosen to overcome, how does
verse 13 relate to that? Is there another verse in
this passage that you feel speaks to this pattern?

#3 Looking at verse 12, what part does Scripture(word
of God) play in opening up our lives before God?

#4 This journey is about seeing the unseen Christ. In
verses 15-16 the author speaks about Christ as our
great high priest. How do these two verses say
Christ’s presence helps us in our time/s of need?

#5 Looking at the key words found in verse 16, which of
them are you most drawn to, and why is that?

Perhaps you should pray this prayer:
“Gracious Father, You’ve been so good to me. Today I am
especially aware of ___________________. I remind
myself that whatever my circumstances, when I practice
Your presence I celebrate Your gift of life at its best. I
pray for my neighbors and friends who don’t yet know this
secret. Help me care for them as You have cared for me.
Amen”

Use actual names of people, be specific. That blank space
can be filled with either a personal temptation that you
struggle with or perhaps naming God’s love or compassion
for you. Pray alone or pray with someone else. Pray a
blessing for each person that you name. It could be for
bodily health, work security, joy, peace, hope, love,
marriage, salvation, faith, and grace.

Eric