Ephesians...
As I finished W.P. Campbell's book, "Turning Controversy Into Church Ministry," it has made me want to re-examine Ephesians. Partly because it is the framework upon which he builds the entire book (which is VERY, VERY, VERY good and comes highly recommended for everyone in ministry or who is dealing with issues related to homosexuality, in fact I'm going to recommend [and possibly push "gently"] it become required reading material for our church and Presbytery officers/staff) but mainly because he brought a lot of great thoughts into my head. But, I'll start my thoughts around this particular quote and passage from Ephesians 3 tonight:
"The love of God is wide enough to reach all kinds of people, long enough to keep your church on track through time, high enough to change any life, and deep enough to heal every wounded heart."
Followed by Ephesians 3.14-19: When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
As I pondered that, it seems quite an apt thought to impart to anyone venturing to move on into new ministry opportunities! God, being the source of strength and the reason we embark on ministry, is the one to ask to lead any endeavor. But, the key here comes in the latter half of the verses: "May you experience the love of Christ." As I have told students time and again (and our Sunday DEEPER run through Exodus touched on Moses' "reaction" to encountering God and the love of Christ), we cannot experience/meet God and remain the same. The wish here is for the people Paul is talking to to actually experience the love of Christ, not just hear about it! that is a pretty radical thought: how often do we expect people to experience God's love through words, not what we do?
The reality is, we are the love of Christ people need to experience and we fail miserably. However, there is hope. Instead of being discouragement, pain, and condemnation we (the Church) can be a source hope, healing, and love to the hurting. The question is where we lie: does Christ dwell in us and are we rooted with God's love? If we can answer yes, then we need to be a bridge between the hurting and the Healer. When you see someone hurting and in desperate need of a Savior, our first reaction shouldn't be condemnation and the thought, "Gee, I'm glad they don't come to our church!" Instead, our thought should be that we need to get them to our church. Is your church a place of healing or is it something else? If the answer is something else, I'd start taking a deep look inside, because something is desperately wrong...
"The love of God is wide enough to reach all kinds of people, long enough to keep your church on track through time, high enough to change any life, and deep enough to heal every wounded heart."
Followed by Ephesians 3.14-19: When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
As I pondered that, it seems quite an apt thought to impart to anyone venturing to move on into new ministry opportunities! God, being the source of strength and the reason we embark on ministry, is the one to ask to lead any endeavor. But, the key here comes in the latter half of the verses: "May you experience the love of Christ." As I have told students time and again (and our Sunday DEEPER run through Exodus touched on Moses' "reaction" to encountering God and the love of Christ), we cannot experience/meet God and remain the same. The wish here is for the people Paul is talking to to actually experience the love of Christ, not just hear about it! that is a pretty radical thought: how often do we expect people to experience God's love through words, not what we do?
The reality is, we are the love of Christ people need to experience and we fail miserably. However, there is hope. Instead of being discouragement, pain, and condemnation we (the Church) can be a source hope, healing, and love to the hurting. The question is where we lie: does Christ dwell in us and are we rooted with God's love? If we can answer yes, then we need to be a bridge between the hurting and the Healer. When you see someone hurting and in desperate need of a Savior, our first reaction shouldn't be condemnation and the thought, "Gee, I'm glad they don't come to our church!" Instead, our thought should be that we need to get them to our church. Is your church a place of healing or is it something else? If the answer is something else, I'd start taking a deep look inside, because something is desperately wrong...
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