Isaiah 43:14-45:10, Ephesians 3:1-21, Psalms 68:1-18, Proverbs 24:1-2
Today is the 24th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is a joy to be here with you today to take the next step as we move deeper into this week and as we approach the end of this month and continue to take steps forward each day through the Scriptures. So, we’re continuing our journey through the book of Isaiah and we are continuing our adventure through the letter to the Ephesians as well as Psalms and Proverbs of course. And we’re reading from the Voice Translation this week. Today, Isaiah chapter 43 verse 14 through 45 verse 10.
Commentary:
Alright. Since we started this letter to the Ephesians we’ve been talking about, you know, wide open vistas, we talked about that a lot yesterday, these beautiful places in the world here you can encounter beauty so pure, so pristine, so vast that it’s almost like you’re not looking at something real. It’s like it’s too good to be true and like at least for me that’s just like how the book of Ephesians reads. We just keep going up and up and we come to these vistas and it’s like we can drive right by the vista or we can park and go like, “this is gonna take a long while for me to sit here and soak in the implications of what’s being said.” So, in the letter today, Paul says, “specifically, the mystery is this: by trusting in the good news the Gentile outsiders are becoming fully enfranchised members of the same body, heirs alongside Israel and beneficiaries of the promise that has been fulfilled through Jesus the anointed.” Alright. So, that’s a verse in the Bible but it was a sentence in a letter and that sentence applies to every believer in the world Jew and Gentile alike. And the promise that’s given here is the riches of God’s blessings. So, we can sit here at this vista and go, “that is a beautiful thing and I need to think about that” but why would Go…I mean like…seriously…like I know myself and hardly ever can figure out why God would be so gracious to me, right? I mean, don’t feel that way? Like, why would He? I don’t deserve that. I’m thankful. I’m grateful. I receive it as a gift…I’m humbled by it. I don’t deserve it but according to the letter to the Ephesians there’s a reason and you better buckle up. Here’s what Paul says, “here’s His objective”, meaning God’s, “here’s God’s objective. Through the church, He intends now to make known His infinite and boundless wisdom to all rulers and authorities in heavenly realms. This has been his plan from the beginning, one that He has now accomplished through the Anointed one, Jesus our Lord.” So, have you ever thought about God’s goodness and His offering this goodness, an eternal life to you, in part because it makes His wisdom known and displays its unseen realms.? Okay, you see, we are at a big picture vista of our faith that is vastly beyond us. And because of His goodness, according to Paul, “Jesus faithfulness to God has made it possible for us to have the courage we need and the ability to approach the Father confidently.” Like, I know that we read scriptures like that and hear that kinda stuff to the point that it does not impact us anymore. But since we’re going through and pulling off at all these beautiful vistas, we should understand we are talking about the only, the one true, the Almighty Creator, God of all things, everything that we think we know and everything that we for sure don’t know, the God of all things. What Paul’s saying is, God has a master plan that is far bigger than we even are aware of, but He has come for us and freely welcomed us because we took Him at His word, we believed, we be put our faith in Him. He has brought us into His family, and we can approach Him confidently. Again, we’re talking about God, the God, I am that I am God. Think about the implications of knowing and being able to approach God, the only God, the Creator God. Like we can enter the presence of the Almighty God boldly and confidently as a son, as a daughter would with any loving parent. I…I don’t…I mean…what is better than that. Even Paul seems to not…like…he's…like…where do you go from there? And, so, Paul prays a prayer today just embracing all of that. And let’s go back over…let’s go back…let’s pray. Let’s pray the prayer of Paul today and allow that to begin to shape what our day looks like.
Prayer:
Father, out of Your honorable and glorious riches, strengthen we Your people. Fill our souls with the power of Your spirit so that through faith Jesus the Anointed One will reside in our hearts. And may love be the rich soil where our lives take root. May be the bedrock where our lives are founded so that together with all of Your people, we have the power to understand that the love of Jesus the Anointed One is infinitely long and wide and high and deep, surpassing everything anyone previously experienced. God may Your fullness flood through our entire beings. And we pray this from the Scriptures in the name of Jesus, the Anointed One. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.