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Good morning my friends,
I’m actually writing this edition of WWJ in a dear friends’ home, in a place very special to Dawn and me, Walworth County, Wisconsin. I was born in Elkhorn, then taken to Haiti by my missionary parents, when a very little boy, in the early 1950’s. Calvary Community Church sent my family, and 30 years later, in the mid 1980’s that same church sent Dawn and me to Haiti, as second generation missionaries, and we took our young daughter April, as my parents had taken me. Then again, about 30 years later, that same church sent April and her husband David and their four young girls to Africa as third generation Anderson missionaries! I was Sr Pastor of that dear church at that time, 2014.
I drove by that church this afternoon, as I was returning from a men’s conference, where I had the privilege of opening my heart and God’s Word to a large group of men, who had gathered at a wonderful place called Silver Birch Ranch, to spend a weekend with God!! This “Ranch” is way up north (nearly 5 hours drive north of here), deep in the woods…and God met with us in wonderful, life changing ways!
Now this evening I’ve had the joy of seeing dear friends from our “Calvary Church days” and tomorrow I fly back to Florida where my wife Dawn and I live, as we seek to spiritually serve missionaries all over the world.
This morning friends, you and I are in one of the most powerful chapters in the Bible. . .Ephesians 1. I realize I started this chapter on Monday, and here we are Wednesday, and I’ve only made it through 8 verses with you! If it’s ok with you, we’re going to walk, not run, through Paul’s letter to the Christians in Ephesus. We’re going to stop often to think, ponder, and ask God to speak to us…2000 years after God first spoke these words into Paul’s heart. This letter has changed lives on every continent and almost every nation over the centuries, so I hope you and I will experience some powerful things together…with the Holy Spirit of God penetrating our hearts.
You’ll notice Paul uses one of his favorite words “mystery” in verse 9. Listen: “And He (God the Father), made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Jesus Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.” Wow! That’s a mouthful, would you agree?
Do you see God smiling in this verse? “according to His good pleasure“, tells me God not only has purposes He is working to accomplish on this earth, but His purposes, when accomplished, bring Him great joy, good pleasure, delight! I love imagining God smiling, when He looks at us, His people, how about you?
My friends, you and I bring a smile to God’s face, He maybe even claps His hands in delight, when we are actively involved in cooperating with Almighty God, as He accomplishes His purposes on planet earth! Now think about that friends. And consider this: God doesn’t need your help or mine to get anything done! If He can create the entire universe by Himself, in six days, then He sure doesn’t need our help, to accomplish His purposes, does He? Yet, God DELIGHTS in involving us, as He accomplishes His purposes on earth, through His people. . .and that, my friends, is the greatest privilege any human being can have…partnering with God! So…I wonder what has God done in the last 7 days, involving you, in your part of the world, as He accomplished His purposes, which then brought Him great pleasure?
Do you also see how intentional and strategic God is, in what Paul wrote? “He purposed…put into effect when times will reach their fulfillment…under one head…”. Those are intentional, purposeful, strategic words of action. The Almighty, Holy God does all that He does on purpose, with order and with an objective in His mind! The words “accident” or “mistake” or “ooops” are not in God’s vocabulary! Do you agree?
Do you see that interesting phrase ‘when the times will have reached their fulfillment…”? God is very conscious of TIME! I’m fascinated by the fact that scientists have studied sunrises and sunsets enough, that they can predict to the second, exactly when the sun will cross the horizon tomorrow morning, and 100 years from now on any given day! That’s because God is exact. The natural laws He has set in motion function according to His exact design, TIME is important to God. He has set in motion the rotation of the planets, to accomplish seasons, days, months, years etc., according to His design.
And as God integrates the unfolding of human history into His overall purposes! Galatians 4:4 says “When the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law…” God knew exactly when the time would be right for Jesus to come to earth and become our Savior! That’s part of the “mystery of His will” that Paul speaks of. Another part of the “mystery” is of course that God would send Jesus, the Son of God to pay the death price for our sin, so God could forgive our sin and adopt us as His people!
And another part of the mystery is Paul’s phrase “to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.”? As Jesus rose from the dead and ascended back to heaven, He assumed His place of Sovereign Supremacy over all things (Hebrews 1:3). . .all things created in the universe, including heaven, and all people of all time. Nothing is outside the Sovereign authority of Jesus! You’ll see Paul says it again in vs. 22 “And God placed all things under His (Jesus Christ) feet and appointed Him to be head over everything…”.
You’ve heard of double barreled shot-guns, right my friends? Well, Ephesians 1:11,12 is the second barrel! We’ve just spent five minutes digging into vs. 9&10, now let’s add 11&12 to complete this powerful statement of God’s truth: “in Him (Jesus) we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him (God the Father) who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might BE for the praise of His glory.” These two verse came alive to me in great power when I was diagnosed 4 years ago with ‘highly aggressive prostate cancer’, and I had not felt sick at all. I had no idea! Suddenly Dawn and I were faced with some important decisions. The MD’s told us we needed to act very quickly.
We saw in Ephesians 1:4 that God “chose us in Him before the creation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight”. Here in vs. 11 & 12 Paul uses the same idea of God’s foreknowledge and calls us to consider that EVERYTHING that happens in our lives will be “worked by God into conformity with the Purpose of His Will”! In my case, that means God has and will, somehow, work my cancer into conformity with the purpose of His will at work in my life. Can you embrace that my friends?
That’s heavy but it means God’s doesn’t waste anything that touches your life or mine. Everything…every wonderful experience, every pain, every disappointment, everything in our lives, God will weave together like a tapestry, into conformity with the purposes of His Sovereign will. That gives me great hope and faith when the storms of life rage around me! Of course it calls us to answer the questions: “do we trust God? Do we trust Him to be faithful & true to His holy character, His Word, His promises?”
One last thing in these verses. Paul wanted his dear Christians friends to celebrate, even though they faced great persecution…for two reasons: First, God was weaving all their pain into conformity with the purpose of His will and second: they were the first to hope in Christ, and God’s great ultimate objective for each of them was that they would “Be for the praise of His glory.”
It means their lives…every aspect of their lives…could bring great praise & glory to Almighty God…even the painful things in their lives! And my friends, I invite all of us to embrace this for us, today, where-ever you are! Our greatest privilege, when we awaken each morning, is that every moment we live, every day, God’s purpose is that we will BE for the praise of God’s glory! Every word, every attitude, every choice, every decision, every action, EVERYTHING…Be for the praise of His glory!
Now that my friends gives you and me PURPOSE for LIVING today! The French phrase is “Raison d’etre”…reason to BE! Your reason for existing today…is to BE for the Praise of God’s Glory! Oh my, if we were all together someplace right now, I’d invite my dear worship leader friend “Loon” to lead us in something like “Jesus we crown You with Praise”! But since we’re not all together…why don’t you just starting singing, right where you are, maybe the Doxology…”Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below, Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts, Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost…Amen”!!
What if the rest of our lives. . .each of us. . .lived each day, each hour, to “BE FOR THE PRAISE OF HIS GLORY“…with ‘all you got and all you is’, as some of my friends might say!!
Oh Lord Jesus we do praise You today! Almighty heavenly Father, we desperately want every aspect of our lives today to BRING you great glory! Thank you for giving us life today, so we can ‘be for the praise of Your glory’!
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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