10. GOING HOME

10. GOING HOME

Ephesians 2:8-10

“Workmanship” in the original Greek is “poiema.”

“Poiema (workmanship)” means "poem (or masterpiece)."

God is the poet and you are His poem. In your life He is creating a masterpiece with His pen. He is writing a story with your life and mine.

1. The poet writes from strong emotion (Ephesians 3:17b-19).

“And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen” (John 21:25). In Hebrew it would mean “If all the oceans were ink, and all the forests pens, still I could never write all He said and did.”

Ephesians 3:17b – 19 – We have a surpassing God, with surpassing power, surpassing comfort, surpassing glory, and surpassing knowledge. You will know and begin to experience the fullness of God when you begin to know and understand, how wide, long, high, and deep is the love of God. When God has stretched you to the limit, you will find out some of the width of God’s awesome love. Until you have tried His patience, you will never experience how long is His stubborn love. Until you have been to the heights; to the mounts of transfiguration, and see Him in His glory; then you will see how high the love of God is. We will never know how deep the love of God will go to scoop us up, if we have never been to the depth of the pit. Complete, surrounding, absorbing love. The lines of your life were written in God’s love.

2. The poet pens some of the most beautiful lines from thorns (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

God uses the thorn to dip in the ink and write some of the most beautiful lines that He is writing in your life. Paul proves to us that we have Biblical permission to come before the Father when we have a thorn in the flesh, and ask Him to remove it. God also reserves the right at times not to remove it. He responds in different ways to thorns in the flesh. It all depends on the point. What is it that God is trying to teach with that thorn? It is the point. Often, we may plead and ask, but the thorn is left in the flesh. If the most important thing God has to teach right then is sufficiency, He is going to leave the thorn right in there. If God wants us to rely on Him, in the day-by-day, often, he will leave the thorn in. It is so we can say “Lord, you are my complete sufficiency; my life is wrapped in you; and I will make it based on you. His grace is ever-present.

3. Faith lives between the lines (2 Corinthians 5:7; Titus 1:2).

2 Corinthians 5:7 – It is a very simple concept, but not simple to live. In between the lines is where we walk by faith.

Titus 1:2 – At the time we are going through situations and circumstances, we cannot understand what God is writing, but sometimes, maybe 6 months, 1 year, or 5 years later, we can look back, we can make some sort of statement  what He was writing at that time, as we look back in retrospect. Faith lives between the lines (Hebrews 11:6). God wants us to learn to walk toward Him, not away from Him. Sometimes we have the knowledge to look back and see those are the lines, and then the faith comes between the lines.

4. Our poems are not complete (Philippians 1:6; I Corinthians 13:12).

Philippians 1:6 – Your poem is not written until the Day of Christ Jesus. It is not completed until then. God still has lots of work to do in that poem. There are many more lines to come in that process.

1 Corinthians 13:12 - “Epignosis: fully known” means "clear and exact knowledge."

One of these days we will see our poem in the completed form, because we will see Him. God knows where this poem is going. He knows every line before we get there. We will understand fully as we have been fully understood. Understanding does not mean that He simply leaves us where we are. He understands so well that He refuses to leave in that place.

5. One day all the lines will rhyme (Romans 8:28).

God is not obligated to show everything for good, for those who shrug their shoulders, receive their salvation, and go off their own way. He can if He wants to, but He is not obligated. When someone enters into a love relationship with Him, and really gives Him their heart, He is obligated by virtue of His own wonderful name. We are all “the apple of His eye” but He can respond to us in different ways, by virtue of our heart for Him.

If you have committed your life for God’s purpose to you, He is obligated to you to make everything in your life; to make that poem rhyme, and some way, somehow, when it’s written, it is going to make sense.

1 Corinthians 2:9

God is the poet and you are the poem, bringing those lines to a place where they will rhyme. You are His workmanship created for His good pleasure. There is a glory going on here. Sometimes glory hurts, but it lasts forever. There is a masterpiece going on here. Let Him write….