Ephesians #2 "Is Your Heart Open?"
September 17, 2023Pastor Patrick presented this morning's message. It was the second message in a series studying the book of Ephesians. A video of the message is here. Our Conversation Starter for this week is here.
A number of phrases seemed to point in the same direction. "You, the community/body of Christ, are God's mission." "Stop this, start that, make the most of your renewed life." "A hope with confidence." "We are what God gained through His sacrifice." "Immeasurable power, the same power that raised Jesus, can work in and through us." "Respond to the Holy Spirit."
To me, these all point to a final question of sorts, "what does God want me to do with all this?"
As it turned out, Dennis Prager's column this week was titled "What Does God Most Care About?". Read the article here.
There you go: do good and fight evil. If you have any questions about how to do that, it's all well presented in the Torah and elaborated on through the remainder of the Bible.
As it says in Psalm 97:10a, "Let those who love the LORD hate evil."
Bonus
Favorite Benediction
To this day, I can hear my Dad giving this benediction at the end of a service, an event, a whatever. I had it memorized fairly early in life.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shine upon you,
And be gracious unto you.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you,
And grant you peace. Amen.
Familiar?
The surprise to me recently was that it's from the Torah, Numbers 6:24-26 to be exact.
In the previous two verses, it is clear that God is telling Moses (and Aaron) how to bless the Israelites. God literally says, "say to them..." the above blessing. Jack Milgram also notes that all the uses of "you" are in the singular, not plural. While each of us are part of a group, we have a personal relationship with God. The blessing noted (keep you, shine on you, grace, and peace) are only available from God. If you want inner peace, get to know God.