pancakes and power

Good afternoon friends,

First, a reminder that tonight from 6-7:30 Laurelton is going to get ready for Lent with a Fat Tuesday Pancake supper. We'll serve pancakes, sausage, decaf coffee and juice, so bring your appetite and enjoy a chance to visit with neighbors. The event is free, but you're certainly welcome to make a free will offering.

Our reading for today continues the letter to the church at Ephesus. The passage reminds us that God put all God's power to work in Christ. That sounds basic on the surface, but it's pretty amazing when we remember that Christ died for us. That's a reminder that God thinks about power differently than we do. Now the power of Christ is working through the church, through each of us. So how can we follow our calling and live for God's glory today?

God bless,
Sam

Ephesians 1:11-23

¹¹In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, ¹²so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. ¹³In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; ¹⁴this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

¹⁵I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason ¹⁶I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. ¹⁷I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, ¹⁸so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints,¹⁹and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. 

²⁰God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. ²²And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, ²³which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.