Ephesians and the Power of God's word

  Ephesians 2:12 "Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household."

There is No truth like the truth of God's Word. There is also no power like the power of the Holy Spirit. United with nearly 45,000 others this week I had an incredible opportunity to spend time in the presence of the Holy spirit. I have always known that God's Word stands on its own. It doesn't necessarily need interpretation. It speaks to the believer and alters the heart with every truth spoken. 

I listened to five incredible individuals and leaders of the church read through the book of Ephesians. I am so thankful for their boldness and faithfulness. God showed up through the reading of His Word. Such a simple act that we often take for granted. In truth, God uses His Word to speak to each of us. That is the way we learn His heart and His will. Although He may not choose to reveal His will for our whole lives, His Spirit will show us His will for today, for right now. No matter what you do, do it in His name and do it to glorify Him.

One of the challenges that we were presented with this week was to give to the cause of modern day slavery. There are approximately 27,000,000 slaves in the world today. That number is higher than at any other given point in history. I am appalled at all of the products that are manufactured by people trapped in slavery, and by the fact that human sex trafficking takes place less than two hours from my home, potentially closer. These are people that have been manipulated, tricked, and forced into service. I think of all the adorable stuffed animals that I have bought for my sweet nephew, of the beautiful ornaments on my Christmas tree, of the shirt on my back. All of these things are produced by mothers, daughters, brothers, and fathers that are part of forced labor companies. "Right now there are little six year old girls who are being raped." -Francis Chan. The knowledge of this is overwhelming. Indifference is not an option.

When I arrived at Passion, I assumed I would be surrounded by people that I have very little to nothing in common with. I am married, I own a house, I am online in school so I don't live in a dorm. There is an endless list of things that I feel make me different from people from my age group. The thing that I didn't necessarily think of is what we do have in common. That is Jesus. We are all followers and lovers of Jesus Christ. As the scripture from Ephesians says, through the Holy Spirit we are no longer aliens when we are in the company of fellow Christians. We are one body, United to end human trafficking, learning to be the church. The last night that we were there we lit candles and had a time of prayer for those individuals that are involved. Throughout the crowd that covered the international plaza you could hear voices lifting up the name of Jesus through prayer, and song. As people were beginning to clear out we came across a group of people that were huddled up singing praises to His name. Our group grew and grew, soon people were reading scripture, confessing, and praying over one another. Here we were worshiping Jesus in the middle of the street in downtown Atlanta at almost two in the morning. Before you knew it, someone was taking up money to get a homeless lady that we had seen in the plaza a place to stay for the night. I had never seen such an overwhelming outpouring of love. God is so, so good.

I cannot describe how this time has shown me the power of the gospel. By the time we left, employees of the stands, CNN center, and security guards were asking about what was going on, why we were so joyful, some were getting saved! Even when we left we drove 40 minutes away and stopped at Olive Garden we found more Passion attendees in the same restaurant, we shared a little bit of what God was doing while we were at Passion with the manager, and got the opportunity to pray with our waiter. Today I was able to share Christ's love with the lady in WalMart who cut my hair. God continually puts people in our paths so that we can simply let them know how much He loves them. I am so grateful for everything that took place in my life this week.

                                                              To God be the Glory.