Scripture Reading:

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Eph 5:1-2

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.  And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen. Eph 3:14-19

Reflections:

Yesterday’s message (delivered by my ATS friend George Johnson) was brimming to the rim! And powerful! Of course, any time you preach about the love of God it’s kind of hard not to be. And there is so much “good stuff” in this passage. So let me hit just a few of the highlights for me:

• The same power that resurrected Christ from the dead, is the same power that gives us strength. We have that same power within us.
• God has “way more” for us than we could ever imagine, but we rarely tap into that.
• In order to tap into the power of God we need to be rooted and established in the love of Jesus.
• We take but one sip from an ocean of his unfathomable love for us.
• God love is wide, long, deep and high and he wants us to grasp and know this love for ourselves.
• You can’t love others without being rooted in the love of Jesus.
• God’s love is perfected; ours is not.
• We often try to hide the “messy” places in our lives from Jesus, but he has a way of breaking into those places to free us from the curse of sin over our lives.
• Lenten idea: What if we “fasted” from loving others out of our own strength and instead let his love flow out of our rootedness in Him?
• Lenten idea: Pray for a new understanding of his love.

Folks, a bullet point list doesn’t even begin to cover all we dug into in this passage. It really was one of those things you just had to be there to understand. (If you live around here, feel free to join us at 5 Stones. We meet at 10:30am at the Ashland University Chapel on the corner of College and King in Ashland, Ohio. We are a small group of folks who are diligently seeking: 1) the Lord as we worship together and 2) what the Lord has for us as a church and as individuals, as we live out his love through our personal missions and callings.)

So instead of me talking about the love of God, I’ll leave you with this soaking word from Graham Cooke. I pray as you listen you encounter the love of God in such a way that you experience, grasp and know his love in new and powerful depths, heights, widths and breadths.

You are BELOVED!! So be loved and be his love in this world!!

Creative blessings, Jody

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(c) 2018 Jody Thomae

Jody Thomae is the author of God’s Creative Gift—Unleashing the Artist in You, a devotional book with Bible studies to nurture the creative spirit within and to serve as a resource for creative Christians, artists, musicians and worshippers. She has been involved in worship arts ministry since 1997, coordinating artistic involvement in church services and regional worship events through dance, drama, poetry and fine arts. She performs, teaches, choreographs, preaches, coordinates and leads workshops in the area of creativity, spirituality and embodied prayer. She has also recently released a devotional CD, Song of the Beloved. Her passion is for the revelation of God to be made more real through the prophetic use of the arts in church and formational ministry. It is her desire to portray the message of Christ’s desperate and unfailing love for His people to help sustain the hearts of the broken and weary. Life scriptures include Psalm 27; Isaiah 50:4-7; and Zephaniah 3:14-17.