The gospel is for everyone

Photo from The Gospel for Believers

What strikes me today as I read Ephesians 3:1-13 is that the gospel is for everybody.  In this passage Paul spends a lot of time alluding to the fact that God created the Jewish nation to be His people, but Jesus came to save everybody.  Those who are the knowledgeable, "churched", people and those who aren't.

This has become real for me in a new way since I started volunteering with Prison Fellowship Ministry (PFM).  In one sense, prisoners are bad people.  They are people who have done bad things, they have victimized other people.  It is much easier on one level to be sympathetic toward the victims than the victimizer.  I've long said that I'd rather be a prosecuting attorney than a defense attorney because the district attorney's office stands up for the people, the victims of crime.

Along with 2 other ladies I currently teach a class on job seeking and keeping as part of PFM's academy. We teach in a medium level prison called CRC.  Our class is comprised of young men who are part of CRC's youth offender program.  CRC has pulled inmates ages 18-25 away from the rest of the population for part of their prison time.  They are housed together and have optional classes together.  Just a couple of weeks ago during class we were discussing that the largest percentage of jobs are obtained through knowing someone.  One of the young men in the class related a story about how he was once working a temp job with 2 others.  He said that he outworked the 2 others by far, but that the 2 other people ended up being offered permanent work for that company while his job ended.  He explained that the other 2 had family members or friends who worked there.  He said that he got really angry about it and thought to himself that he should go rob all of those people.  I remember being shocked when he said that.  I thought to myself - who thinks something like that when they're upset?

Yet, somehow, when I'm there with those young men, I am filled with a sense of how precious they are.  I think it's the Holy Spirit within me; because these young men are precious to God.  The gospel truly is for everyone because God loves everyone.  He doesn't look at people the way that we do.

During these weeks that we've had class together I've come to know some of the young men and their stories.  My heart breaks as they casually mention things about their childhoods that were terrible. Moms who were drug addicts, chaotic households, dads in and out of prison, generations of gang affiliation...these are standard fare among the incarcerated.  God sees their pain and wants something better for these young men; my prayer is that I am a part of bringing that about.

I want to get in line with God's ways of looking at and loving people.  So what does that mean for me in my everyday life?  Are there people with whom I come in contact that I've written off?  Who I find offensive and/or annoying?  The gospel is for them too!  How can really believing this change the way I interact with and talk about these people?

Oh Father, thank You for Your love.  Thank You for extending your salvation to me and everyone else.  Show me ways each day to love the people around me.  Please help me be open to hearing Your voice when I'm around people who I don't like and who annoy me.  Empower me to change my attitude.  May I love people like You do.

What kind of God is this?

Photo from Christian Poetry

As I'm reading through Ephesians 2:1-10 my spirit zeros in on this theme of God wanting to do us so much good. In verses 7-8 I'm blown away by this theme (I'm especially partial to the way Peterson paraphrases these verses in the Message):

Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. 

Then again down in the 10th verse I read:

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (NIV)

Albert Barnes wrote about these verses and I appreciate the ways he says it:

"Such was his love toward those who were lost, that it would be an everlasting monument of his mercy, a perpetual and unchanging proof that he was good"

As I read these verses I'm hit with this this idea that there is God.  The God, the one who is the almighty, all knowing, creator of the universe, ruler of all. This same God is here planning and desiring to do so much good to all mankind. So much good to me.  I ask myself - What kind of God is this? That He would want all the time in this world and the one to come to shower grace and kindness on me. That He would prepare good works for me to be about in my life. That He would bother to have a plan for someone like me. What does it say about Him? What does this mean to me?

I want to look at each of these questions burning in my heart.  

What do these verses say about God?  As I think and pray about that, this is what comes to my mind:

• God thinks about humanity, He makes plans for us
• God wants to shower humanity with kindness and grace
• God will do what He wants for humanity through Jesus
• He wants to save us from the natural destruction that living according to our flesh will result in 
• God wants to give us salvation, He doesn't want to make us work for it
• He has a purpose for humanity
• He has good works that he planned for us to do

What does this mean to me? As I think about pray about it, this is what comes to mind:

• I'm loved
• I've got lots of both kindness and grace in my life 
• I'm created to be an example of how good, kind, and full of grace God is
• I'm supposed to give what I've received - I need to every day look for ways to extend God's kindness and grace to other people.  As I think on this I'm hit right now by the need to be praying throughout the day as I work or live with people - OK Lord, how exactly do You want me to extend Your grace and kindness to this person right now?
• My life is not some thing of chance.  God's got a plan for me.  He's prepared good stuff for me to be doing.  I have purpose.

Oh Father, may Your Word work in me.  May I know and experience in my deepest part, Your mercy and kindness.  May the joy of these gifts permeate my life.  Holy Spirit, please remind and prompt me throughout my days to let You show me how to extend mercy and kindness to the people I encounter.