It’s pretty unreal how you can read a Bible verse over and over again, and then one day it just clicks. The light bulb illuminates, and all of a sudden it’s as if you see that verse in an entirely new light. What once seemed like mere words on a page, suddenly seems perfectly applicable and appropriate for whatever situation you find yourself in at that very moment. This happened to me the other night, so I have to share it with you. I had just Skyped my parents, and I was in a great mood. (The homesickness has been at a minimum, so that’s something to smile about for sure!) So after I got off Skype, I decided to spend some time with God and read some random Bible verses and listen to worship music. Now, I’ve always been a pretty big stickler for word-by-word translations (NASB), or at least phrase-by-phrase (NIV), but I’ve gotten into the habit of going to biblegateway.com and reading The Message version of Scripture (paraphrased) because it says basically the same thing, only in a way that speaks to me differently I guess. It’s hard to explain. Ok anyway, so I don’t know how or why I ended up at this passage of Scripture, but I started reading Ephesians 3 in the NIV. It seemed pretty cool and I enjoyed it alright, but I switched to The Message version and it simply blew me away. It was as if the Lord was speaking directly to me through Paul, and I was seriously overwhelmed and overcome by what God was just speaking to my heart. Like, we’re talkin’ mouth hanging open in awe and tears streaming down my face in some kinda “whoa” moment. You see, I’ve really been struggling with what my purpose is here in Thailand. I feel so ill-equipped and under-qualified, and I honestly have no idea how God wants me to do his work here. I’m always afraid of saying or doing the wrong things and turning people away from Christ. With most people here, I feel like I’m having to back-peddle and undo pre-conceived notions of “Christians” anyway because people have such a bad taste in their mouths from the Church. Essentially, I know God will use me in whatever way He wants to as long as I’m willing to let Him. I guess that’s where faith comes in…believing that God’s going to use me in spite of me. So here’s what I read in Ephesians 3. It’s pretty amazing how it brings together every single emotion that I’ve been feeling and things that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately…inadequacy, love, loneliness, living in the moment, etc.

^1-3This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you’re familiar with the part I was given in God’s plan for including everybody. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.^4-6As you read over what I have written to you, you’ll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God’s Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I’ve been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.

^7-8This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God’s way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.

^8-10And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!

^11-13All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we’re free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don’t let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!

^14-19My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

^20-21God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us

So how amazing is that?! By the time I was finished reading that passage, all my mascara was running down my face and neck and I was just sitting there at my kitchen table with my mouth hanging open. Pretty awesome stuff right there. So in the middle of this Jesus tear-fest I’m having, I decided to play a song that I heard the other day. It’s called “Close Your Eyes” by Dave Barnes, and this song is powerful. The first time I heard it, I thought it was a cute love song…until I really listened to the lyrics and discovered that not only is it a love song, but it’s Jesus singing to me. Check it out.

So yeah, I hope you are blessed by that like I was. I feel like God literally hugged me through both that Scripture and song.

I’m out. //Cwalk.