Wordfilled Wednesday

One of the things I love most about the Bible is how alive it is!  I can read a verse any number of times and it sort of just goes in one ear and out the other... and then, suddenly, I read it again a new day, and it is as if it is a brand new verse.  This happened to me yesterday, as I was reading in Ephesians.  I was in Chapter 2, which starts out with some very sad and humbling proclamations:

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.  Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." (Ephesians 2:1-3)

I stopped and gave a lot of thought to this, how my life used to be, how I used to think and act and believe... and I couldn't deny the truth in these verses!  It was very sobering to sit and ponder over.  But then!  The book isn't over yet...!

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together in Christ (!!!) (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:4-7, exclamation points mine!)

To me, these verses are a crescendo of excitement!  The suspense begins with the "But God..." and the anticipation builds, culminating in amazement, awe, humility and thankfulness as His mercies and grace are revealed!  What a glorious, wonderful God He is, what a gift He has given us through His son Jesus! 

To be dead - dead! Lost in sin, sons of wrath!  And for God to love us... even when we were dead!!!, to bring us to life again, through the very death and resurrection of His own son!  It is nothing but amazing.  Nothing but worship-inspiring.  Nothing but everything that is ever important to all of existence.