Two months ago I went to the Urbana missions conference, and there I really learned how to study the Bible for the first time. At Urbana we went through the book of Ephesians – in “small group” Bible studies (me and 900 other people) and through exposition in large group plenary sessions (me and 22,000 other people). I learned how to study with observation, interpretation, and application (through some pretty cool videos – if you were there, you know what I’m talking about…if you weren’t, I don’t know what to tell you unless you want to buy them from Intervarsity, but they were pretty sweet). God used the book of Ephesians (and many other experiences throughout the conference) to speak some of His simple, yet amazing truths to me, and I wanted to share them with you here. (Note: these are pretty raw, unpolished thoughts…I haven’t been able to process them too much or go through them yet, but I had the urge to share them here.)
“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to
live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:1-3)
This was the main theme of this Urbana conference. So naturally, the first speaker talked about what calling means: (1) belonging to Christ in time and eternity, (2) belonging to each other [love one another in the community of Christ], and (3) serving, witnessing, and suffering in the world. What I got out of this is that
God’s calling is bigger than anything I can ever imagine [and since I have a pretty wild imagination, this seems completely crazy to me!]
“With all wisdom and understanding, He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment – to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” (1:8b-10)
There is completion (fulfillment) – God has a plan to unify everything and He
will bring that plan to completion (see also Philippians 1:6).
God hasn’t given up on this world, so we have no reason to give up on it!
“Make every effort to keep the
unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is
one body and
one Spirit, just as you were called to
one hope when you were called;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (4:3-6)
This was the theme of one of the exposition sessions. The speaker said that a worthy Christian strives for unity, and that
there is no legitimate reason for disunity because God made us ONE. We can look at what we have in common – it gives us the courage to unite us; we are all going in the same direction, working for the same boss (God); we are united in our faith; God is everything, Jesus is our passion – we work toward being committed to each other.
