A friend, this week, shared a great summary to the verse Colossians 4.12. She said, 'that verse has messed me up.' With the joy of a 'mess us up' verse, we have discovered a solid plural name for Epaphras. Ready?!?! Here you go.... Epaphrites. Yep, doesn't really ring my joy bell either, but what an incredible thing to aspire toward.

Can you imagine a whole slew of people who wrestled with God on behalf of each other? I mean, it would be spiritually remarkable for a church... a movement of people who are giving great chase to God, to pray and to wrestle and to ask God to grow us into maturity and that we would be fully assured and that we will stand firm in and for the glory of God. Epaphras wrestled with God for his friends at the Church at Colosse.

Honestly, my imagination runs wild as I think about the people in that church. They kept having amazing things happen among them... you know, people being rescued into the story of God; families putting the pieces back together; people selling their stuff so that other people could have stuff; parents committing to train their kids in what it might look like to follow Christ. Things like that and so much more was happening and the people of the church were just in awe of God. They had to be asking, 'how does this stuff keep happening? How does all of this God-stuff keep springing up around us???' Yeah, Epaphras wrestled with God on behalf of the church, that they would be mature and assured and that they would stand firm in the Lord.

So, I'm hoping that our church might just be made up of a bunch of Epaphrites. That could be wildly fun..... God-sized... people in Crestview might just look at us and like what they see. So, who are you praying for? Who is praying for you? When is the last time that you wrestled with God in behalf of another? Let's go for it!

By Grace... For Glory,
Mark