The fall semester is well underway, and I don’t know about you, but my family is busy running back and forth from practices, work, back to school nights, youth group, all kinds of stuff. And last weekend was a great kickoff at church with new Sunday School classes, the new sermon series, and the church picnic. It’s an exciting time, and also a great time to be reminded of why we should be doing the things we do and how our faith informs the way we live and act. This week I had coffee with a local pastor who is memorizing the book of Ephesians because he is so convinced that he needs to be able to pull up parts of it when he’s talking to people or when he’s in the middle of making decisions or just living his life. And it’s true – there is so much packed in those 6 chapters, practical and doctrinal, that we should be meditating on and relying on to guide our lives.

There was an older praise song that we sang for many years (and will bring back this Sunday) called “Open The Eyes Of My Heart.” I never knew whether to open my eyes or close them when we sang that song. I would think, “Well, we are singing to the Lord, so maybe I should close my eyes. But we’re asking Him to open our eyes, so maybe I should open them. But they’re just the eyes of my heart not my actual eyes.” So I just ended up looking up at the ceiling. But that phrase is from our sermon Scripture this coming Sunday (Eph. 1:15-23), where Paul prays, “that God… may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.” And then Paul lists all the things that we should understand better when God opens our eyes and we have newer knowledge of Him. I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure my “spiritual eyes” are always open to the things God wants me to see. Let’s read through and figure out how to apply this passage together. See you Sunday! -Dave