Picking up where I left off from the last post, concerning professional ministry:
I tend to agree with Peterson. Of all the mistakes that pastors make, I doubt many of them are due to a lack in the professional areas – not praying in public well enough – inarticulate sermons – being poor bookkeepers – these kinds of things can be overlooked quite easy. They are not the central foundations of ministry. They are not the central foundations of the Christian faith. They are at best, peripheral requirements. The central – most important aspect of our faith, of the call to ministry is outlined in the second sentence of Paul’s prayer to the church in Ephesus - . I pray that you may have power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
For a moment, I just want you to breathe that in… the breadth…length…height… the depth… of Christ’s love. The love of the God who was not willing to be God without us – who left heaven, set aside the glorious riches of his throne, to come to us – willing to experience separation from the Father – from his very self – in order that we could be reconciled to God. That’s the love that Paul implores the church in Ephesus to know. The kind of love that surpasses knowledge! The kind of love that we have never seen before. The kind of love, that were we to plumb its depths from dawn until dusk, from birth unto death, we could not reach the bottom. The kind of love that were every ocean made of ink and every tree a quill - the whole sky of parchment made, everyone on earth a scribe by trade – we still could never write the end of God’s love. Paul says it himself, doesn’t he? He wants the church in Ephesus to know the love of Christ, that surpasses knowledge...
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