As I am sitting here writing this, the snow is howling about outside. It is a hard-weather day, but it is God's provision for us, as the white snow will very soon become the green grass of Spring. And it is a day off school for the kids.
Right before Easter, we finished our series on Ephesians. It was a very profitable study for me, and I hope, for you as well. I wanted to take a few minutes to review this book and to remind you why it is so important for this church to remember what it has to say to us:
- God has done more for you than you can imagine. Before God even created the world, His thoughts were on you. He knew that each of us would sin and decided that he wanted to do whatever was necessary to provide an opportunity to escape the clutches of that sin and develop a real relationship with him. Think of this: the God of the universe was so interested in communing with us that he was willing to create a world for us, to bring us to life, and when we rebelled against Him, to pursue us. God chose a people to learn who He was and repeatedly redeemed them, when they decided to follow other gods. Eventually, he sent his own Son to come to earth, to suffer and die, so that our sins could be forgiven. If His love for us motivated Him to do all of this just so that we could be saved, imagine how much He will do for us to remove any additional obstacles that might prevent us from having a vibrant relationship with Him.
- God requires more from you than you can imagine. "To whom much is given, much is expected." God's primary motivation for saving us was not because He loves us, but because He desires to demonstrate His nature to the universe. I know that this may be hard to accept, because we want to believe that it is all about us, but it is true. As a result, we have a responsibility to reflect His nature to those around us here on earth as well as to the "rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms" that Paul describes in Chapter 3 of Ephesians. This is hard work. If we are going to be successful, it will have to be our number-one priority. It is more important than being a good spouse or parent or a success in any other job we will be given. (Of course, as is the way with God, when we decide to serve God first, we will find ourselves being a better spouse, parent, and employee that we thought possible.) This is difficult for us, because we want to receive gifts without any strings attached. Sorry, but that is just impossible here.
- God has given you the tools to do more than you can imagine. The armor of God is not given enough emphasis in the Christian life, largely because we do not really believe that we battle against "The rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Eph. 6:12). We cannot defeat these forces with physical weapons; our only hope is to learn how to use the tools that God has given us. The important phrase here is to "learn to use", for all of these pieces of armor can be abused and misused, if we are not careful. If we hope to be successful over the long haul, we need to become students of the word, of faith, of the gospel of peace, etc.
