Epesians 3:14-21
, we just finished a retreat with 500 youth and adults in Alto Frio Texas. The retreat was wonderful. I saw many, many, lives of students permanently altered from what they heard and experienced. God taught me something this weekend as well. On the last night the speaker urged the kids to not make the goal of their Christian walk to be living moral lives. This startled many of the adults, but his point was this. Our life's mission should be to dive into and experience fully the richness and joy that comes from knowing God. If that is your focus then, morality<he said> will take care of itself.
This scripture in Ephesians speaks a similar message. In verse 20 Paul speaks of a power that is at work within us. This power allows us to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine. That type of phrase can make a youth minister excited. There are so many kids that are hurting, kids that are terribly lost, and students that are suffering terribly from broken and completely dysfunctional families. I want that immeasurable power to help impact and heal the lives of these kids. However, the immeasurable power that we can receive from God to do amazing things seems to be a footnote to the main idea that Paul is trying to express. We should pour ourselves into the quest to know "how wide, how long, how deep is the love of Christ." My passion must be to first seek to know God and know Him more deeply and richly than ever before. Then as a result of that pursuit, God will do things through me that I can not even imagine.
7:56:04 AM 
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