Ephesians 3:16-21 Nasb
16 that He would grant you,
according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His
Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through
faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to
comprehend with all the [m]saints what is the breadth and length and height and
depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you
may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able
to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the
power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in
Christ Jesus to all generations [n]forever and ever. Amen.
I spend my younger days in the South
Wales Valleys I grew up in a terraced house that like many dotted the sides of
valleys there are many rows out of terraced houses that I’ve seen to South Wales those terraced houses are built alongside the sides of both hills and mountains, I grew up in the
villages of Clyne, Melin Court and
Resolven.
Melin Court (Cwrt) Waterfall.
When I was growing up in the
South Wales Valleys, my only knowledge of Liverpool would be from TV programmes
such as The Liverbirds, Bread, Watching and Brookside, and watching the news
about the latest antics of Militant Tendency led by Derek Hatton when he
attempted to turn Liverpool into the People’s Democratic Republic of Liverpool
in the early 1980’s.
I first visited Liverpool some
12 or so years ago when I was travelling to Llandudno from Bradford by coach to
see my Grandad who was taken ill with a stroke and the coach had stopped in
Liverpool, I remember looking at St George’s Hall and The Walker Art Gallery as
I passed by on the Coach heading for The Mersey Tunnel and thinking wow what
fantastic buildings.
Until almost 4 years aho when
the Lord moved me from Neath to Southport, Liverpool would have been somewhere
I would have visited for the day when staying on holiday or visiting Southport, it would have be
somewhere I would go to go shopping, visiting Museums etc. or attending
Interviews, my perceptions, knowledge and understanding of Liverpool
would have been restricted to these trips but since moving to Merseyside, my perceptions, knowledge and understanding of Liverpool has increased and
developed.
Liverpool Town Hall.
I think Liverpool is a great
place, and although I enjoy visiting there, it is not somewhere I would choose to
live because of the simple fact God has called me to Southport.
For many us, our understanding
of Spiritual Truths is based on the understanding of others, either because of
the revelation and knowledge that has been revealed to them.
When I was a lad of 15 – 16
years old and living in Melin Court, my understanding of Liverpool was based on
what I had seen on TV, this was not a true picture or understanding of
Liverpool, and again I had been only walking on the Lord on my Christian Life’s
journey for a few years and my understanding and revelation of the Lord, His
Word, His Church and His Kingdom was limited, since then this has increased as
I have walked in faith with Our Saviour and alongside other believers.
If I had wanted to travel
to the village of Abergawed on the opposite side of the valley, I had two ways
of getting there, the long way and the short way, the long way meant
travelling up the valley some two miles to the village of Resolven and then
down to the village of Abergawed or the most direct route across the railway
line then across the river Neath and then across some fields, the long way was
generally a safer route.
When the Lord speaks to us,
and reveals an aspect of His truth and revelation to us we see more often or
not he leads us not in the shortest route or indeed the most direct route but
the long way around because we need to learn some things and adapt, change,
grow up before we see the fullfilment of that revelation.
For many of us how
understanding and revelation of God’s Word comes from reading Christian books I
love reading especially My Bible and Christian books but for many of us
including myself we need to put into practice and implement what we have
learned and learned again and take action and see that revelation we have
received from the Lord into a fuller and broader understanding.
Ephesians 3:20 - 21 Nasb
20 Now to Him who is able to
do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power
that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
to all generations [n]forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 4:11 – 16 Nasb
11 And He gave some as
apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors
and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the [d]saints for the work of service, to
the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of
the faith, and of the [e]knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the
measure of the stature [f]which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14 [g]As a
result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and
carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness
[h]in deceitful scheming; 15 but [I]speaking the truth in love, [j]we are to grow
up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole
body, being fitted and held together [k]by what every joint supplies, according
to the [l]proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body
for the building up of itself in love.
Every Blessing in Christ Jesus
Blair Humphreys
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