Church WithOut Walls International-Europe
  • Home
    • Privacy Verklaring
  • DE
    • Weekly Thoughts (D) Wöchentliche Gedanken >
      • Weekly Thoughts (D) Wöchentliche Gedanken - PDF
  • EN
    • Weekly Thoughts >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS >
        • John's Monthly Newsletter
      • Weekly Thoughts serie in PDF format
    • About John Fenn
    • About Wil & Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Books written by Ank Kleinmeulman >
      • About Ank - author
  • ES
    • PENSAMIENTOS SEMANALES (Weekly Thoughts) John Fenn >
      • PENSAMIENTOS SEMANALES (PDF)
  • FR
    • Pensées Hebdomadaires
    • PDF à lire et/ou imprimer
    • A propos de John Fenn
    • A propos de Wil & Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Vidéo en anglais
    • Nous contacter
  • FI
    • Viikottaisia ajatuksia >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS / Viikottaisia ajatuksia
      • Weekly Thoughts / Viikottaisia ajatuksia - PDF
    • John Fennistä
    • TV7
  • L
    • LV
    • LT >
      • Weekly Thoughts (LT) Savaitės Mintys >
        • E-Book
      • Straipsniai >
        • Kaip mes suprantame, koks turi būti surinkimas
        • Krikštai
        • Kaip veikia 5 tarnavimo dovanos namų surinkimuose?
        • Grįžimas prie paprasto tikėjimo
        • Garbinimas
        • Namų surinkimai Naujajame Testamente
        • Išgelbėjimas
        • Tikėjimo išpažinimas
        • Kaip prasidėjo CWOWI?
        • Dažnai pasitaikantys klausimai
      • Video LT
  • NL
    • Weekly Thoughts - nederlands >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS (NL) Wekelijkse Gedachten >
        • Weekly Thoughts NL pdf
    • Over / bio van John Fenn
    • Over / bio Wil & Ank
    • Wat wij geloven
    • Onderwijs - MP3
    • Boeken van Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Doneren / gift overmaken?
    • Conferentie >
      • Conferentie LT - 2025
    • Artikelen >
      • Hoe “Church Without Walls International” is ontstaan
      • Hoe een samenkomst van een CWOW huisgemeente eruit ziet
      • Waarom samenkomen in een huis?
      • Wat is een huiskerk en een huiskerk netwerk?
      • HuisKerken: Waarom – Wat – en Hoe?
      • Ank deelt over Wat & Hoe van Huiskerken (VIDEO'S)
  • PL
  • PT
    • "O pensamento da semana em Português"
    • PT-pdf
  • RO
    • Gânduri săptămânale >
      • Gânduri săptămânale - PDF
  • RU
    • Джон Фенн
    • Сид Рот «Это сверхъестественно»
  • Donate
  • Events
    • Lithuania - 2025
  • TV
  • Contact
  • New Page

Big Picture #1

5/25/2013

0 Comments

 
Hi all,
A man arrived at his girl friend's apartment but she wasn't ready, so he made himself useful by putting away the clean dishes from the dishwasher. No asking, prodding, or hinting by her - he just thought he would help out. She was impressed! This guy is marriage material!

As he was unloading it she went to the cupboard for something and found he had stacked the measuring cups in the wrong order - instead of nesting them as they were designed, he had stacked one on the other in the order he got them out of the dishwasher.

She opened her mouth to say, 'That's not the way these should be stacked, next time...' when something stopped her. She thought, 'Is this really important?'

Trivial, or deal breaker?
She remembered her friends complaining about things their husbands did NOT do - laundry, dishes, cleaning the house, helping with the kids - And she thought, "Am I going to correct him over measuring cups not stacked correctly when he took it upon himself to empty the dishwasher? We may be together the rest of our lives. Is this really important?"

In a flash of time she saw years into their future - years of her correcting little things he did wrong. She suddenly realized she had assumed her way was the only way and she thought it her job to train him - nested measuring cups here, properly folded towels there, dishwasher loaded the 'right' way...

In a revelation of role reversing clarity she imagined herself going to the grocery store, and him saying to her as she left: "Do you have the list? Make sure you use the coupons! Remember I like the whole milk not the fat-free stuff. And get the right washing detergent this time! Ours is the bright orange one. Be sure to get our favorite ice cream. And remember you have to pick up the dry cleaning too!"

The risk
She realized by keeping quiet she was risking laundry disasters, clothes left another day at the cleaners, wrong items bought at the store, food in the 'wrong place' in the refrigerator, and wallets and keys on the table that is supposed to be spotlessly clean. But she realized it was worth the risk keeping quiet.

And in that moment of clarity instead of correcting him, she closed her mouth and gave him a big kiss: "Thank you for unloading the dishwasher honey!"

They've now been married nearly 20 years, and he still does things 'the wrong way', but it all works out because they each look at the big picture instead of pointing out each other's mistakes.

What if...
Let's play what if. What if she had opened her mouth to correct him with the measuring cups? Then she would have moved effortlessly to how he did the laundry, how he cleaned the house, how he folded the clothes, how he kept the car - nothing would be off limits to her corrections!

And he would have felt trapped with no where to turn, for anything he did would be wrong. Perhaps he would eventually shut her out so that anything she said was answered in automatic mode; 'Yes dear' while never actually listening to what she was saying.

Or maybe resentment would build up in him to the point he kept a low anger simmering, feeling she never saw the good he did - how hard he worked, that he took it upon himself to unload the dishwasher, go to the store, clean the floor, empty the trash - all he got was correction on how he did all those things not quite right and nothing was ever good enough for her. But she would never understand, after all, she was just trying to help.

Not the correct perspective
Some Christians are what her boyfriend could have become in my 'what if' scenario because they think God is constantly looking over their shoulder trying to tell them how they could do things better. Or they feel trapped, that He is always ready to correct even their best efforts. Some are angry at Him as if He is just trying to help, they feel they can't do anything right.

Big picture...Ephesians 2:6-7
But what if God is more like the way this woman reacted? What if He chooses to overlook the incorrectly stacked measuring cups of our spiritual life in favor of the big picture, and just give us a big spiritual kiss (blessing)?

What if He chooses for the sake of the long-term relationship, to remain quiet, even silently cleansing us of sins we did but weren't aware of, all because of His great love and the fact we will be together for eternity.

Ephesians 2:6 says "...And God (the Father) did raise us up together and did seat us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus..." This verse is about our salvation, our instant access to the Father, our adoption to the Father through Christ.

But verse 7 tell us WHY He saved us: "...that He might show in the ages that are coming the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus."

The Father saved us so that in the AGES to come He can continue to show us how much He loves us!

His purpose for the cross wasn't just about this life, it was about the ages to come - eternity with us. He is looking at the big picture.

Verses 6 & 7 together: "God the Father, did raise us up together, and did seat us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that He might show in the ages that are coming the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus."

The Father is not an over-bearing or maybe even abusive Father continually pointing out each 'measuring cup we don't stack properly' in our lives. The Bible says He is actually already thinking about how He can show His exceeding grace and kindness towards us in the ages to come. Wow!

Some thoughts
If you have 100 years of born-again life on earth how does that compare to 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 infinity zeros following, in a glorified, sinless body in heaven through the ages to come? That 100 years is tiny in comparison. So should we be focused on the trials of the here and now, or look towards that 10 to the infinity power years ahead?

Now if you are God and you invested the life of your only Son to die for all mankind, the greatest of all prices paid, and you know that investment has yielded these spiritual children who will forever and ever be with you, wouldn't you look at life in this body as temporary?

So this series is about how the Father and Lord Jesus are looking at the big picture of us spending eternity with them, and how we need to change our thinking to their thinking. This is about 'big picture' thinking presented in scripture and evidenced by small 'winks' God gives us through our day that tell us to look higher, deeper, and further into the ages to come.

"Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day...so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen, because that which is seen is temporary, and that which is unseen is eternal." (II Corinthians 4: 16,18)

More about the big picture next week...until then, blessings,
John

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

      John Fenn

      If you want to subscribe

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    RSS Feed

Church WithOut Walls International.eu (C) 2025
to donate
Photo from widakso