01.18.06 thequest email UPdate

thequest family,



Have you ever read a novel that you just couldn't put down? The story line just draws you in and is so compelling...you are hooked. You are thinking about it even when you aren't reading it. On every page, the story is unfolding and the background items are becoming more and more clear.


What if the story was about your family history? Your entire concentration would be focused on sorting out the details and piecing things together. You would experience those "ah-ha" moments where the puzzle parts pop into place. Things click in your mind and the secrets of the past are made clear.

I was reading in Ephesians where Paul talks about his privilege in sharing that kind of a story. He tells us that he was given the access to a secret from God. He was given a family secret. He says it like this:


I was chosen to explain to everyone this plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning. And this is the secret plan: The Gentiles have an equal share with the Jews in all the riches inherited by God's children. Both groups have believed the Good News, and both are part of the same body and enjoy together the promise of blessings through Christ Jesus. This was his plan from all eternity, and it has now been carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.*


Can you imagine the intensity with which those early non-Jews read the letters and listened to Paul about this secret? It would be just like when you are hooked by an compelling novel. They would piece the puzzle together in their mind. Their hearts would be racing. They would be thinking about it all the time. The joy of the truth would be overwhelming.

Sometimes familiarity tones down our excitement. Those first readers and listeners to the secret plan of God being laid out before them would have said, "This is GREAT News."

Finding out a secret is always enticing. Unpack it again. Re-live it.

Psst...I've got a secret from God...and You've got it too...it's All About Jesus!

Press on,

Mike



*Ephesians 3:9, 6, 11 NLT strung together in that order

check out this email online