STAND AND WALK

When our granddaughter, Faith, was three, Carol and I watched the Disney classic movie “Bambi” with her. It was a fun experience for G-pop to watch his little granddaughter enjoy (and for a few minutes be scared by) scenes in this classic film. Thumper was amused, too, as Bambi tried to stand on shaky, spindly legs.

In most of creation, all two- and four-legged creatures have to learn to stand before they can walk. And then they must learn to walk before they can run, jump, play and generally live life as they were destined to do. Think of it as going through stages.

The nature of the creation is to allow time for the young to mature to the point that they are ready to be on their own. I used to watch the ducks in the lake beside our house in Plano, Texas; it was fascinating to watch them grow from little fuzz balls about the size of my fist to nearly the size of their parents. All during this growing process, mom and dad duck maintained a vigilant watch over their little ones. As the children became more mature and were getting ready to go out on their own, their mom and dad seemed to be less visible—still around, but not nearly as close as before.

Babies crawl before they walk. One day they suddenly pull themselves up on a chair or a sofa or a coffee table and start standing for the first time. No steps yet but they are beginning the process and this is a milestone moment. Stage one is about to morph into stage two.

The great world we live in is God’s creation. God created everything in nature and the processes that guide it. There are many parallels between the way things are done in the natural world and the way things are done in the spiritual world. It is true in the spiritual that before you can walk as a believer you need to learn to stand as a believer. Once we have learned to stand, to find out who we are in Christ, we can really learn then to grow and mature. And once we begin to walk in Christ, we can do service for Him and perform exploits on His behalf. It is imperative that before we move from stage one to stage two, we have had the time and the desire to explore stage one; otherwise, Thumper is going to laugh at us as we try to walk on shaky, spindly, underdeveloped legs.

To stand means to know who I am in Christ. It means that not only do I know who I am, but I begin to understand all that is available to me as a believer, as a follower of the Christ. In many ways it is a lifelong pursuit to explore stage one.

To walk means to begin to live out this life; we begin to find our destiny, our calling, what our life’s work will be and how all this flows together. Again, in some ways we never get fully past stage two.

I have been reading a lot recently in Ephesians. I find Ephesians to be both very comfortable and extremely profound. It is one of those books that welcomes you to read it but is somewhat mystifying in its meaning (but maybe that’s just me).

I divide the book of Ephesians into two sections. Chapters one through three are about the believer and his/her position in Christ; chapters four through six are about the believer beginning to walk in his/her life’s calling.

Stage One Living!

Ephesians 1:3 (Amplified Bible)

"May blessing (praise, laudation, and eulogy) be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual (given by the Holy Spirit) blessing in the heavenly realm!"

The spiritual blessings of being in Christ are many but they include being chosen, adopted into God’s family, made joint heirs with Jesus, forgiven, and the wonderful list goes on and on.

Stage Two Living!

Ephesians 4:1 (New International Version)

"I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,"

Worthy means that we acknowledge the awesome work that Christ has done on our behalf. We value this great work and live our lives in such a way as to show that we give open acknowledgement to Christ’s work in us.

Stage Three Living!

This is being written by our lives right now! If we have learned how to stand and how to walk, then we can learn how to live our lives to the fullest for Christ. Paul finishes Ephesians with the statement in 6:20: “I am an ambassador in chains.” Paul was in prison as he wrote this book. An ambassador was a representative of the ruling authority and would have been chosen from the ranks of mature, experienced men or women. To be an ambassador for Christ means that we have learned to stand and to walk . . . and then we are ready to represent Him.