Saturday, July 7, 2012

Barrier Gone, Praise God! Ephesians 1-3

May the mumbling commence!

Remove the barriers!  Those barriers not created by God are illusionary.  While the barriers that humanity have created may seem insurmountable, do not underestimate the power of the living God.  Read a couple of passages from Ephesians:

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two into one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.  His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, this making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.  He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.  For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.  In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.  And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (2:14-22)

Our God is not a God of division.  Our God is a God of multiplication.  Even those who seem irrevocably foreign – those “illegal” aliens or those absurdly rich or those on welfare or those gay or those lesbian – have been preached peace to through Christ Jesus. 

And that peace has also been preached to us who consider ourselves near to God.  Have we listened?  Have we listened to God and accepted the peace offered to us and to all who surround us – no matter how foreign some of these other people may seem to us? 

Surely God will not do this to us!  Read of God’s power from Ephesians:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep in the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power at work within us, to him be glory in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever!  Amen.  (3:14-21)

May we be rooted and established in love so that we can welcome the power of our living Lord, who acts.  Our living Lord acts beyond our knowledge.  God consistently acts beyond what we might ask or imagine.  Do NOT try to limit a limitless God.

Give God the permission to act in such a way in our lives.  With or without our permission, God will act for the good of all humanity.  Why fight God’s wisdom?  God sees far beyond what a myopic vision could ever see.  I am confident that God will lead us forward to eternal blessings that began many years before I was born and will continue forever.

We could not possibly be in better hands!

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

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