I normally don't go into small group feeling unprepared. Today I did. Not because I didn't pray about our meeting or because I didn't study the material. I felt unprepared because I knew there were questions that would be left unanswered, and that the study would be more mind boggling than a sigh of relief.

Ephesians 1:3-15 is a difficult scripture for me personally, and I knew that it would be a difficult scripture to discuss. Why? Because it says sooo much in so few lines, and leaves many things up to interpretation. Studying it does not satisfy questions with answers as much as it generates fifty more questions.

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
 11In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.13And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.
After reading six commentaries and praying through how to approach this, I identified several themes. 1) God's plan A has always been the Church.  2)This aspect of God's will baffles me because the Church and the world are extremely flawed. 3) This scripture says we have every spiritual blessing, all wisdom, all understanding, and all authority as sons/heirs to partner with God in His plan. I struggle to believe this truth because I don't see it manifested in daily life. 4) This scripture frustrates me because don't understand it as well as I would like, but then I realize that I don't understand because God is in control and I am not God. 5) The notion of God's sovereignty has made this passage controversial for years. The theologians that argue over the meaning of predestination have yet to come to satisfactory conclusion, and I am in no position to claim that I have.  I am both challenged and relieved by this fact. 6) The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are intricately working together to bring God's redemption plan into action. The Father designed the plan, the Son showed us how it should work and made it possible for us to take our intended roles, and the Spirit seals us as disciples who becoming more like Christ and participating in God's plan. 7) In the complexity of this passage,  I find freedom and encouragement because I remember who I am and who God is. 

As small group began, my predictions were accurate. The questions were abundant. What does everything mean? What does blessing mean? What does that include? How do we have every blessing and all wisdom? Does that mean individually or for the Church or both? What is God's will in this? What exactly does predetermined mean? Why do the Bible translators take the freedom to insert their opinions into the interpretation of this passage?  What does it mean that the Holy Spirit is our seal? And so on and so forth.

This past Saturday, I lead a workshop on evangelism (expect a blog about that soon), and one of my tips from experience was "accept the freedom of "I don't know"". My point was speak to what you can, and don't be afraid to admit that you don't have all the answers. Last night, I found myself taking my own advice: offering the information that I could and leaving other information up to interpretation.   In my next blog post, I'll share what I have taken away from these fourteen verses, and highlight my thoughts on the segments emboldened above. 

This post, however, is dedicated to the relearning of the humble lesson: "I don't know everything.... God is God, and I am not... all I know is that He has a plan, He loves me enough to allow me to partake in His plan, that plan is greater than I can even imagine, and I want to be a part of it so I need the Holy Spirit to be actively working in my life- empowering me with blessing, reminding me of truth, convicting me to actively participating in the redemption of the world, and bringing glory to God's name. 

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