His Workmanship

God has been speaking to me the last several months about serving Him and helping others learn of His love and salvation. One of the verses used over the weekend at a seminar was Ephesians 2:10. This ties right into what God has been tellling me.  (This week I've been researching the verses used at a seminar I attended over last weekend, will blog about the seminar another time.)


Ephesians 2:10
NASB For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

The Message: No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making & the saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join Him in the work He does, the good work He has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

NKJ: For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

The King James version is identical except these words are used:
for: unto
prepared beforehand: hath before ordained

Complete Jewish Bible
For we are of God's making,created in union with the Messiah Yeshua for a life of good actions already prepared by God for us to do.

NIV
For we are god's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Definition of WORKMANSHIP
1: something effected, made, or produced


We all know that we were created by God and this Scripture goes on to remind us that contrary to popular belief, He created us to do His work. I really like the way The Message puts it '...to join Him in the work He does, the good work He has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.'


Interesting side note: yesterday, I made an appointment to talk with the volunteer director of our local Christian Cooperative Ministries organization. I'm hoping to volunteer in the soup kitchen or in some way with the homeless. Today's study just reaffirmed to me that this is what I am supposed to be doing!

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I receive several devotions daily in my email. Today, Girlfriends in God has me thinking about what holds me back from serving God.  Like Moses, my past is not all ice cream and cake. I've made my share of mistakes, I've turned my back on God countless times, preferring to do things 'my way'.  However, God was able to use Moses in spite of his past. Why do I think He couldn't use me? Exodus 4:11-12 "The Lord said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now then go, and I even I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say." (NASB)  This is after God had told Moses he was going to be his spokesman to the Pharoah and to the Israelites, Moses had countered with his excuse, I can't speak well, I've never been able to speak well. (I can almost hear the whine, can't you?) How often I have said nearly the same thing. 'I can't do that Lord, I don't have the ability, look at where I've been, what I've done.'   (hear the whine?)   God's answer is right there, in Exodus 4:11-12. I cannot even begin to count the number of times I've read that passage and never considered applying it to me.  What makes me even more sad is to think of the blessings I have missed because like I responded like Moses in Exodus 9: 13 'Please Lord, now send the message by whomever You will." I can almost hear Moses saying, 'I don't care who you send the message by as long as I don't have to do it.'  God was angry with Moses but still used him to free the Israelites and bring them out of Egypt. 

What an awesome God we serve! One who knows our every thought and has planned our lives according to His will, regardless of how we fight him. I am going to have to memorize Ex 4:11-12 and remember that it is God who enables me to do His work, not Sandy.  I'm still a work in progress but today, a more willing work in progress!                                                                 In His Service

Sandy