Look Up!

"That he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly placed, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:20-23

I had trouble trimming these verses down to just a bit, so I went with all of this! :)

When I read Ephesians 1 the other day the end of the chapter caught my attention. I reread and reread it. Above, under, and over stuck out to me. One powerful thought came with these words: Look Up!

Starting with over, Christ is put as the head over all things to the church. God placed Him there. Too often we try to move Him. We don't like what He says, so we paraphrase it to the point of contradicting it. Some people argue things like, "Christ didn't say..." but He is the Word, so yes He say it. We try to put our own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs over what the church says and does, but we need to put yourselves in the right spot, under His authority. If it doesn't fall under His authority than we need to reconsider if it should be part of us, the church.

Moving on to under. All things are put under His feet. What sort of things are under His feet? Well, number one: satan! He tries to acts as if he has free reign, and sometimes it seems like he does, but in reality he doesn't. Imagine placing your foot on someone's stomach or back. What is he able to do? He can probably wiggle some and can move his arms and legs, but he isn't able to move much. What can he touch? He can only touch what is immediately around him. Now imagine satan under Christ feet. I'm sure he squirms a lot, reaches out at whoever is nearby. I guess that means we should just stay away from him.

Finally, Christ is not just above all rule, authority, power, and dominion, but He is far above. None of those things are even close to Him. They have to look way up to see Him. We need to take ours eyes off of the rules, authorities, powers, and dominions in this world and in the spiritual realm and put them on Him.

When we look up we take our eyes off our own selfishness, opinions, and issues; off of satan; and rulers, authorities, powers, and dominions. We can't see them anymore; all we can see is Him. So look up!

Darkness Over the Earth

It has been over a year since I have written one of these. I have missed it, yet haven't really felt like I had anything to offer. Recently I asked God what to read in the Bible, and He simply stated to start at the beginning. I think that's where I should start here as well. No, I will not be writing about each verse from the beginning, but will focus on ones that God wants me to.

"The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God wash hovering over the face of the waters."
Genesis 1:2

How many times have I read this verse? I have never before even thought about it much. This time when I read it the word "darkness" jumped right out at me. I realized that the darkness was already here. God didn't create darkness. Since I believe that God created everything that blew my mind a little. But then I thought about the fact that God didn't create evil. He didn't create sin. He didn't create mosquitoes and wasps. Okay, so He did create them, but I wonder why!

With this realization I needed to study the words of the verse to hopefully understand it better. The earth means the earth, but it wasn't formed yet. Like it says "without form and void" That means it was empty, wasteland. I do wonder what that must have looked like.

Darkness is interesting. It was covering the the surface of the deep. As far as I can tell from Strong's is that the deep is water. Which makes sense since in verse 6 He separates the water from the water. So this darkness is covering the a watery, empty earth.

God hovers over it. Here I thought it meant He was just over it. No, it means that He was cherishing it. The Lord was looking at this vastly earth and He was loving it. It makes me think of another time when He loved the world. "For God sol loved the world that He gave His only Son,that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John :16.

That's the end of this little verse, but, at least for me, one that is full of so much. I'm sure there is so much more it as well.