Have you ever read a passage of scripture where a few verses seem out of place, to take a strange turn, and it leaves you wondering: 'why in the world did Jesus, Paul, or another author say that'? Our verse by verse journey through Paul's Letter to the Ephesians finds us in chapter 4 this week as we read Ephesians 4:7-13. If you read that passage, you could easily go from verse 7 to verse 11 without a hitch. Leaving out verses 8-10 would at first glance, be a wise editorial decision. Verses 8-10 seem to take a strange turn. While my first impulse is to read around these out of place verses, I have discovered that they are there for a reason and that to gain a full understanding of a passage entails embracing rather than rejecting them. This is the case this morning as Paul describes the gifts that are given to the Jesus community. To understand the authentic power of these gifts and what they can do in our church and world means that we understand the authenticity and power of the gift giver, Jesus. The following questions may be helpful in your spiritual journaling, your spiritual conversations with others, and for your own reflection this week:

1. What is your initial tendency when you come to a 'hard' or seemingly 'out of place' verse(s) of scripture? How can you embrace and focus on these verses as Pastor Rob encourages us to?

2. How does the authenticity and power of a gift given to you relate to the authenticity and power of the gift giver?

3. What spiritual gifts have you been given? How might your weaknesses, struggles, and life failures become your gift to serve Jesus with?

4. Why do you think I Peter and the ancient creed of the church say that "Jesus descended into hell..."?

Pastor Rob

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