Sunday, February 8, 2009

Let’s Praise the Lord!

I chose this scripture because Shane preached his sermon from this passage this morning. Way to go, Shane!

Before I could get it pasted to publish, Jim started to talk about this scripture and Shane's message of love. I hope this simple blog will give you strength, hope, and peace today.

14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
This is the scripture from which Shane gave his message in church this morning. Way to go, Shane. This scripture is full of hope, strength, blessings, and direction in the absolute best direction towards worshipping God.

We bow humbly simply because God deserves our adoration.
He loves us so much that we are named after Him. In love my husband gave me his name, and thus I am Mrs. James Leasure.
Paul prays that the Ephesians are strengthened in the best way (through the Holy Spirit) and in the most important place (inside to out).
Christ comes to live with us through our faith in His redemptive power.
Rooted and grounded are solid, stable words, which our inner beings crave.
And we crave love, both to love and to be loved.
Love surpasses knowledge.
And He does do more than we can imagine.
Thus we praise Him and bow before Him.

I have this marked in my oldest and favorite Bible as a message given by an elderly, extremely wise man of God. I also remember the summer that I read Ephesians over and over and over.

6 comments:

Gigi said...

Sounds like you had a beautiful service today, Vicki! We did too...I love when I leave with the message just resonating through me! Yes, He is so worthy of our praise and adoration!

Vicki said...

Blessings Gigi.
I hope you are well, able to function through your loss. I know that you are a blessing to those around you.

jeleasure said...

Hi Hun,
The message Shane gave was a good one.
I don't know that I can site any scripture that will support what my feeling is. However, I do feel, as a bird desires to flock with its kind, that we, having been created in the image of God, naturally have an undercurrent of kinship with The Lord.
I think we may actually desire to seek him.
To support this, just from off of the top of my head; I recall a sermon Hershman gave that discussed a tribal man in South America. The man met a missionary who worked with the tribe. After beginning to understand the language, the native told the missionary a story. He said, the night before the missionary came to their village, the native looked up at the stars, and was amazed. He said to himself, I would like to meet the God who made those stars.

What the native was saying, is that God heard his request and sent the missionary to them. Eventually, the missionary was able to communicate effectively and did introduce the living God to the native.

So, I believe we can seek God because it is within us to desire him.

Paul's prayer was that Christ dwell in our hearts. He prayed that we would one day grasp how deep, wide, long and how high is the love of Christ.

My thougts are that God set a need within us to seek the above stated attributes of God and to come to know Him. I know the scripture says, there is noone who seeks Him. However, I don't think I know exactly what that means. Because, as the native did, he sought to know the creator of the Heavens.
Love, your husband.

Dr. Russell Norman Murray said...

Hi Vicki,

I have photocopied about 1000 pages for my PhD revisions the last few days, but I stop by and say hello.:)

It is good to see you dealing with Ephesians 3 and God and Christ need to be the constant source of strength as God guides his followers in what is an often rocky road of life.

Russ:)

Jody said...

Last fall I did a precept study in Ephesians, O the deep, deep love of God. A great reminder.

Tamela's Place said...

That is one of my favorite passages in scripture. Oh to be filled with the fullness of God and to know the height depth length and width of His unmeasureable love toward us. Oh how GREAT is His LOVE!

Great Grandfather Humes

Great Grandfather Humes
Great Grandfather, Charles Humes, started the family interest in trucks. He is in the center of the picture and Great Grandmother, Eva Humes, is to the left of him.