Ephesians 3:14-21 as a Spiritual Exercise - Some Responses

Lake Erie shoreline - Monroe

I've invited people to join me this week in meditating on and studying Ephesians 3:14-21. I'm preaching out of this passage this coming Sunday (3/10/13) at Redeemer.

If you're doing this and you want to share what God is saying to you please e-mail me - I may post it.

Here are two responses that have come in.




From Donna Filter

Pastor John:

In meditating on this scripture, read it over a few times, I wrote it a couple of times (last night).  This morning, I read it a few times, I also read it in 3 different versions...I really liked it in the message version:

"My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!"

Then after pondering more, this is what I received:

How deep, how wide, how tall, how infinite is (My love) the love of God.  It is at your disposal.  It is within your grasp (reach). (Then I heard this song by Tim McGraw in my head) "How bad do you want it? How bad do you need it? Are you eating, sleeping, dreaming with that one thin on your mind? ...Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Is it a fire that burns you up inside? ...How bad do you want it? How bad do you need it?  Cause if you want it all you've got to lay it all out on the line."

Would you give it ALL, everything...up for Me? For ALL I have for you?

How hungry are you? How thirsty? How committed? How a c c e p t i n g and r e c e i v i n g of His unconditional, or unrequited (not reciprocated or returned in kind -Miriam Webster definition) love?

Give yourself permission to receive, believe and accept His love with no questions asked and no fear in return. (fear of rejection?)

*RECEIVE

*BELIEVE

*ACCEPT

With an open heart (I see a picture of a person holding their chest wide open - hands on each side holding the chest cavity open as wide as they can with a bright yellow light streaming....in or out of it)no strings attached, but with full disclosed warranty and guarantee that you will be loved BEYOND

From Tim Curry

Hey Pastor John,

Some brief notes on the passage that I took earlier:

Wow.

When it comes to God's work in us, superlatives are limited.  

The glorious excesses of God are unleashed "according to the power that works in us." Gasp...what does "according to" mean?

This passage is so PACKED.  My prayer for us is that we can grasp firmly that which cannot be touched--that this abstract revelation becomes the tangible definition of our community.