We can do what??

I LOVE it when I am blown away - I mean I love it when I see God's plan come together. Right now, I am so digging my study on Ephesians. I mean, it's deep, it's challenging and sometimes I just don't get it real easy. But it's meat - no more milk for me - it's time again for me to be in the good stuff chewing away. This is what I love about The Word. I read stuff and I'm like "what in the world does that mean?" but if I wait on Him, He is always faithful to reveal to me exactly what He means.

And a lot of times, I don't even know I'm waiting. He is, like a parent on Christmas morning, He is just waiting for me to go "OH! I GET IT!" and I know The Lord, my Father, is dancing around with joy that I'm getting something. :)

So, I'm on week 6 - wow this has flown by! Day 2 is about Ephesians 3:10-13. What some good stuff. Verse 10 kind of stuck me. What the heck does "manifold wisdom of God" mean and just who are we, as a reconciled and redeemed Church showing it to? I think I get it, I mean all those angels and demons out there slugging it out for their respective sides. No one, not even The Devil, knew of God's plan and how He did it through Christ (as much as he would like us to think - he DOESN'T know what's going to happen). And neither did the angels closet to Him. We are living the adventure tale right in front of their eyes - all in suspense - as The Church reflects back His Wisdom when we worship, love, cherish, serve and pray to Him and for each other (and the rest of the world).

Now, in verse 12, it starts getting REALLY good. "In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence." That means, we can boldly go where no human could go before. Not the prophets, not Moses, not even Elijah. Because of what Christ did on our behalf and because of our faith in Him - we can literally go to "The Holy of Holies", the very presence of God. If that doesn't blow you away, just wait.

If you read Isaiah 6:1-4, you will see the picture he paints of the seraphs around God's throne. They spend all their time shaking the foundations of heaven with their song of how Holy God is. If that isn't a great and very esteemed position, I don't know what is. However, these angels have 6 wings, all to cover themselves from God's glory or they will be destroyed.

Before Christ, if we were to even get close to God, like Moses when Christ (pre-incarnate, or a theophany) passed through rock, we would die. Moses saw Him from the back because He said no man could see His face and live, He even kept His Hand over Moses while He passed by - I'm guessing because Moses might have just exploded otherwise. (We frail human creatures).

But get this - NOW - while we are IN CHRIST - we are transported to the very throne room of God. I realize this is not bodily transportation, otherwise we might exploded too, but if you think about, even spiritually, we are there, with God. In His VERY presence. Angels can't be without because cover up but we can be through our relationship with Christ. Our very souls are transported to His right hand. Pretty cool eh?

Now for the cherry on top. Ever wonder how we got here? Thanks go again to The Lord, through His servant Paul. In verse 13, Paul says his sufferings are for the glory of The Gentiles. When I first read this, I thought, why would be get the glory? Then I realized, no no, it's not credit for us. It's access to the glory through Paul's work in revealing God's mysteries to us, specifically. And as my study points out, it came at a very high cost to Paul - he ultimately gave his head for it and lived with "the thorn" for a long, long time, just to bring it to us. He suffered greatly. We are worth, us Gentiles, so much to God, that He sent this man, His Apostle to The Gentiles, to our ancestors, so that we could share in His family and His blessings.

Not only did Jesus come for us, He sent someone very special just to us - just so we could be called His child. And because of that, we can walk right into the room and talk to God, just like my girls do to me while I'm on the computer.

That's awesome - all praise be to your Name, The Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ and may we live lives pleasing and worthy of you. In Jesus' Name - Amen.