Coffee With The Lord

I CAN ONLY IMAGINE!!! … Imagine Apostle Paul praying the great “Apostolic Prayer” for the Christians in ancient Ephesus from prison in Rome!

Can you imagine it? The tone of his voice (its urgency and inflections), his facial expressions, his pacing back and forth (if he was able to), his hand gestures… and his amanuensis (secretary) scrambling feverishly to keep up…

Now I’ve heard some godly people pour their hearts to God in prayer… I remember my godly father praying for “PJ,” my son, as he was preparing to enter the Marine Corp… In fact, “PJ” remarked on how you could sense God’s presence and his grandpa’s passion in that prayer!

But imagine hearing Apostle Paul praying Ephesians 3:14-19!

Wow!!! (I’d loved to have had a video recording of it!) It’s a prayer he prayed for the Christians in Ephesus… But it’s also an “apostolic prayer” for every Christian down through the ages! … For you and me!!! Here it is… (now imagine him praying it…)!

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named…

“That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being

…So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith

…That you, being rooted and grounded in love,

…May have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

…And know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,

…That you may be filled with all the fullness of God!” (Ephesians 3:14-19 ESV)

I claim it! Oh, Lord fulfill every aspect of it in my life!!!

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING in the heavenly places! (Ephesians 1:3 … And what follows in Ephesians 1 is a wonderful listing of several of these blessings (vss. 4-14) – not an exhaustive list, but a representative list of all that God has provided for us “in Christ Jesus” – everything needed for victoriously living the Christian life here and now! Oh, praise the Lord!!!

A “Coffee With the Lord” repost today of my Bible reading from the “Necessary Food” Bible reading plan I developed a number of years ago…

My Bible reading this morning included Psalm 104, which I’d title, “An Ode to Creator God”

“What’s an ‘ode” anyway,” You ask? Well according to Webster it is “a poem in which a person expresses a strong feeling of love or respect for someone or something.”

What a marvelous tribute Psalm 104 is to the God who miraculously created and powerfully sustains everything… from the smallest sub-atomic particle to the seemingly infinite expanse of the galaxies and universe – from the smallest micro-organism to the largest living thing!!

“Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent… O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures! … May the glory of the Lord endure forever! May the Lord rejoice in His works! … I will sing to the Lord as long as I live! I will sing praise to my God while I have being. May my meditation be pleasing to Him, for I rejoice in the Lord… Bless the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord!” (Selections from Psalm 104 – you really ought to read the whole thing!)

So, it seems to me you’ve got a choice when it comes to how things came to be: Either adopting a limited finite human explanation of all that exists or the explanation in the Bible: A supernatural, infinite, divine explanation of how things came to be (and how they continue to be). For me… I embrace the later view…

Here is how the Bible puts it…

Colossians 1:16-17 – “By Him all things were created – in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

Hebrews 11:3 – “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”