knowledge of love and love beyond knowledge

Good morning sisters and brothers,
Tonight at 7 at Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church we will have an opportunity to worship with our neighboring churches for Thanksgiving. It should be a fun worship service and a great opportunity to get to know our neighbors. I hope to see you there.

Our reading today is Paul's prayer that the Christians in Ephesus would come to understand God's amazing love in Christ. He also prays that they would come to know that love even beyond the power of knowledge. Knowledge is important, but the most important thing we can know is that God loves us. The more we know that, the more we can trust God and the less fear can touch us.

God bless,
Sam

Ephesians 3:14-21

¹⁴For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. ¹⁶I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, ¹⁷and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.

¹⁸I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. ²⁰Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

moving forward

Good morning sisters and brothers,
Paul talked about the reasons he could have confidence in the flesh and the law, but said that all that doesn't matter any more to him. Now he says his past doesn't matter, only knowing Christ. Next to Christ everything else in Paul's life is second. He also looks forward to the new life he will share with Jesus on the other side of death. All these hopes keep Paul going when threats and hardship surrounds him.

We all need hope to keep us going in hard times and to put minor annoyances in perspective. For many, hope in God's love gives us strength to keep going. For others trusting in the love of family and friends is our source of strength. All love comes from God, and love's power can free us from the grip of jealousy and fear.

God bless,
Sam

Philippians 3:8-14

More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.



10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

retelling his conversion

Good morning friends,
As Paul continues his defense to the Jewish people who had tried to beat him to death, he tells the story of his conversion, since it is the basis for his ministry after that. Even hearing this story for the third time like we are it is still amazing. God chose a man who was rabidly persecuting the church to be the greatest evangelist, and an evangelist to the gentiles at that. God directed each part of the story as Paul saw the light, was led into Damascus, instructed and baptized by Ananias and began his ministry. God used Paul's gifts in a new way: he used his extensive knowledge of scripture and tradition to be convincing in the synagogues and to those who didn't know anything about God, and he used his knowledge of Greek language and culture to spread the message further than it had gone before.

It's worth noting that Paul, like the other apostles, has this direct experience of the risen Christ. Paul never knew Jesus before his death and he didn't see him before his ascension like the others had. But Paul heard Jesus on the road to Damascus, in prayer later in Jerusalem and throughout his ministry. As Ananias says, Paul was chosen to see the Righteous One and hear his voice. Our experiences with Christ now can be as real as Paul's even though we were not there to see him walking on the earth. We see Christ in prayer and in our ministry to others. That experience of knowing Christ forms the basis for our own witness in the world.

May God use your gifts in an exciting way today,
Sam


Acts 22:6-21
6“While I was on my way and approaching Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone about me. 7I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 8I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Then he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting.’ 9Now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me. 10I asked, ‘What am I to do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go to Damascus; there you will be told everything that has been assigned to you to do.’ 11Since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, those who were with me took my hand and led me to Damascus.

12“A certain Ananias, who was a devout man according to the law and well spoken of by all the Jews living there, 13came to me; and standing beside me, he said, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight!’ In that very hour I regained my sight and saw him. 14Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear his own voice; 15for you will be his witness to all the world of what you have seen and heard. 16And now why do you delay? Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on his name.’

17“After I had returned to Jerusalem and while I was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance 18and saw Jesus saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ 19And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. 20And while the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, I myself was standing by, approving and keeping the coats of those who killed him.’ 21Then he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”