Another reason we need the wilderness is because it is a place of repentance. Hosea gives us many reasons why we should repent, but at the heart of all of them is the loving God who awaits our return.

God himself is the original desert father. In the time of Israel's wilderness wandering he was at work. By learning what God does in the wilderness we can cultivate a desire to go into the wilderness ourselves knowing that God will be found there.

Paul's doxology here is central not just to Ephesians but to all of Christian life. For us to live the Christian life we must remember that it is a life of worship, dependence and relationship with Christ.

What is God doing in our lives and how does it work? We can reverse-engineer Paul's prayer and discover that we need God's help to understand God's love so that we can become more fully what we are; the temple of God.

The message of welcome is indeed surprising, but the surprise doesn’t stop it being admitted into the kingdom of God. It continues when God invites us to actually participate in a ministry welcome. He graciously give specific callings to be fulfilled through the church, by and for Christ.

The essence of the Christian message is an invitation. It is a free gift, a new identity, a twist in the plot, a windfall inheritance and a news-worthy happening. In short it is the gospel; the good news of our surprising welcome into relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Paul had been talking about what God has done; he brought us near and made us one. Now he turns to what God is doing, making a people into his temple built on the scriptures, focused on Jesus, preaching the gospel, empowered by the Spirit, to the glory of God.

The salvation brought to us in Jesus Christ is not just spiritual but social. In Jesus, true peace between divided and hostile communities is made because Jesus put the hostility to death. We are called in all our differences to be one new family in Christ.

Jesus was both the expected Messiah and the unexpected incarnation of God. At the moment of Jesus' birth, everything changed: God had become man and all would be well. Because Jesus came as God with us, we now can be with God forever.

Solomon, the son of David, ruled over a glorious kingdom. But it was temporary, and flawed. Like all the kingdoms of the earth is was a glorious contradiction. Jesus however was glorious in paradox, and is therefore worthy of being the King of Kings and Lord of Lords as the true son of David.