The Story of Ephesians

On September 19 I am going to introduce our fall study in the book of Ephesians.  I am already yawning just thinking about it!  Did I say that?  Not meaning to offend you, let me explain…

As a young person, I sat under a lot of what was termed “expository preaching”.  Let me be honest, if it were not for my natural inquisitiveness and desire to listen because I felt God calling me to ministry, I would have completely checked out right after the offering.  It was flat out boring!  It was not only the delivery, though that was sometimes lacking, but it was the construction of the message and the presentation of propositional truth that bored one to tears.

It was as though we were hearing a lecture on how to design the motor components to increase the suction on a vacuum cleaner, or the differentiation between 20 lb. and 24 lb. paper stock.  Sometimes it was interesting, but it was so removed from my day to day existence, and being so heavenly minded, was actually no earthly good to me.  This type of “expository preaching” was more like information transmission than life transformation!  If I want information, I can find it on the Internet, right click, and choose “save target as…”

I really believe that it was a travesty, what happened in those churches I attended, and so many others.  The life-giving, Christ-filled living Word of God was relegated to the status of the directions printed on the inside of a McDonald’s Happy Meal toy package, or the red print on the slip of paper in a fortune cookie, although sometimes the fortune was a bit more personal!  Do I use hyperbole?  Well, yes, but just a little!  It was ultimately frustrating to see person after person view the Bible as a rulebook to live by and to judge others by.  One after another, families would become jaded, believing that what was told them about the Bible didn’t really ring true.  It was finally boring and irrelevant, and really did not intersect with their lives to any acceptable degree.

As we approach the book of Ephesians I want you to ask one question:  What’s the story?  You might ask:  What’s the story behind the story?  Either question is fine.  But let’s ask them!  Why in the world should any of us be excited about the pending study in Ephesians?!

Now, I know that I am walking on the edge with some of you here at Dover.  For you, the fact that Ephesians is a book of the Bible is good enough.  OK, point well taken, good enough.  But now, let’s not be so spiritual, and let’s be real.  Honestly, many of you also realize that while that may be good enough, you sure wish that you could relate to Ephesians (and the rest of the Bible) a little more like you relate to your spouse, or your favorite dish at your favorite restaurant, or the biggest game day in your favorite sport – with enthusiasm and excitement and expectation!

Back to the question, “what’s the story?”  What if the answer to that question is that the story is not about you, or me?!  What if the story is first about someone else?  What if “what does this text say to me?” is the wrong question to ask in discerning what the story is behind Ephesians?  What if narcissism is the wrong approach to take when reading the Bible?  Maybe it doesn’t have to be about us, but about someone else?

Here is my challenge to you.  You have three weeks to read Ephesians over and over again, in multiple translations.  You know, if you read the whole book out loud, all of six chapters, it will take you seventeen minutes!  How many times could you scrape together seventeen minutes in the next three weeks to read Ephesians out loud to yourself?

As you read, seek the answer to this question:  What’s the story?  Let’s learn Ephesians like we’ve never learned before!  Let’s let it TRANSFORM us.  C’mon, work with me… let’s really try!  I will.  Will you?

On Thursday, August 26, I finished all of the course work for my first quarter at Bethel Seminary.  It met and exceeded my expectations.

Here’s where my expectations were met:

1. I learned things in the courses that I would never learn on my own.  This mostly came from the professors, but also the reading.  You read differently when you are going to be tested, or when you are expected to truly understand the arguments of the author.
2. It was challenging and took me to a higher place intellectually and academically.
3. I met new people who influenced me in wonderful ways.
4. I enjoyed every minute of learning.

Here’s where my expectations were exceeded:

1. One of the profs was of a higher quality than I have ever had the pleasure of learning from.  He has an intellect that is off the charts, yet was sincerely interested in each of us as people, spending every lunch hour sitting with us and discussing life and learning.
2. The reading was fantastic.  The texts chosen by the profs for the class curriculum really stretched me and broadened my thinking.
3. The people in my cohort were of the highest caliber.  They are fun, exciting, intelligent, spiritual, hungry to learn, humble, and engaging – other than that, they’re just normal folk!  We bonded as a cohort more effectively than I had anticipated.

Here’s what surprised me:

1. Of the 14 men and… woman, in my cohort, I am the old guy!  Just a few years ago I was the dangerous, and immature 40 year old pastor following the retiring wise man, and now I am the 47 year old “old guy” in my cohort which ranges, without me, from 23-41.
2. The accommodations at the college were top notch during the Intensives.
3. I really enjoy the online and distance nature of the learning.  It allows for me to learn on my own, to learn from others’ input in the forums, to learn from the texts, and to learn on campus.  What is great is that it only takes me to campus for 4 weeks/year.
4. The online program we use to do all of our online work is called “Moodle”!

I told my wife, one quarter down, only nineteen to go!  Let’s go!

Tomorrow I finish my first two week Intensives!  This has been a great time of thinking and processing that has caused me to think… for a change!  I have not been thinking windy thoughts that will just blow in one ear and out the other.  I have been voraciously combing through the information and ideas presented to judge what is worth keeping and what is better left to blow in the wind.  There have been a lot of great thoughts worth keeping, and great opportunities for me to incorporate change into my ministry life.

I am so grateful for a wife who is willing to let me go for two weeks.  There is a cost to growth, and the cost for me is two weeks without her and my boys.  I fully expect the cost to be worth the outcome!  I want to be a better person, disciple, husband, father, and pastor.  I am very thankful for a church that values growth, and for their encouragement to me to continue on the growth track!

Now, back to Orange City!

RecentlyI had Windows 7 installed on my laptop.  In a short time, a new operating system was installed and is directing all of the files, folders, and programs on my computer.  What a relief!  The dreaded and despised Vista is now history, a short-lived relationship with an operating system that debuted past its time.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could just revamp our lives so easily?  There are bugs and quirks in our personalities, characters, and behaviors.  How cool it would be to just download and install a new, fresh way of thinking, responding to others, and living our lives!  But it ain’t so Opie, it just ain’t so.

God does give us a process, however, to change our operating system.  It’s called sanctification through the work of the Word and the Spirit.  The Spirit He puts within us, so we have Him, always.  The Word He has graciously provided to us in this era of time in ample ways and versions. 

 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. (2Thes. 2:13 NIV)

As we spend time taking in His Word, filling our minds with Scripture, and communing with the PERSON of the Holy Spirit of God, He changes our hearts, and we begin to reconstruct our insides, our processes and thinking, so that we begin to see changes, deletions of the bugs and quirks, and additions of new, Spirit filled ways of thinking, reacting, and living.

How about it?  When are you going to upload some worship, thoughts, affection, and words of praise and supplication to God today?  When are you going to download into your mind and heart the splendid truths of Scripture, which is at work in you who believe?  Or maybe you have better things to do today?

ENJOY HIM.  HE ALREADY ENJOYS YOU!