We went on vacation last summer to Pawley's Island on the coast of South Carolina where my family has been going since long before I was born. We pursued the most important things you do at the beach — boiled shrimp and drawn butter, fried flounder, fried oysters, and all the accompaniments. On of the restaurants where we ate had a number of models of ships displayed around the dining room. They were not the plastic models from a hobby store, but big wooden models of different kinds of ships. On the salad bar stood a great big wooden ship in a glass case, and while gazing at it as I put lettuce on my plate, I said "Hmm. I could do that."

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Now it is always a dangerous thing when a man says "Hmm. I can do that." If any witnesses hear him, then he has got to do it. It becomes a matter of false pride and vainglory. When I returned home from my vacation I decided to make a model of the Titanic. How hard could that be? I did not plan to make a little model — but a four-foot long model of the Titanic, and of course made out of wood. I did not need directions, because I am a man. I just went to the store and bought some wood and started making a model of the Titanic. I thought it would not take long, maybe a week. It only took the Lord a week to make the universe; I could surely make a model of the Titanic in a week. It took six months.

I had in my mind a picture of what I wanted it to look like when I was finished, and that is all I had. I discovered something about wood. I discovered that the animists who believe that every inanimate object has a spirit in it may be right. Some pieces of wood refused to be a part of the Titanic. They just made up their mind that they would not conform and they did not, no matter how much I whittled on them. I also discovered the same thing about Elmer's glue; it has a mind of its own. But every piece of wood that would cooperate was destined to be a part of the Titanic. Every piece of wood that was not interested in cooperating lies in a shoebox in different states of mangledness.

Which brings us to this text. In the first chapter of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul is speaking to people who come out of an animistic background; that is, they believed there were spirits under every bush, every rock, every stream, every tree. He writes to them about the Creator of the universe and the purpose of God in creation. This text focuses on the purpose of God. In the passage we find the word, or a form of the word, "predestination." Now the word "predestination" is very confusing to the modern mind. As we read the word "predestination," we often think the word "predetermination," but they are different ideas. Destination or destiny refers to the end point; determinism deals with every point between now and the end point.

This text also contains an extremely important qualification about the end point, and Paul makes the point over and over and over again. The destination or destiny all depends upon being "in Christ." Paul speaks of salvation with this qualification as he uses such similar phrases as "in him," "through Jesus Christ," and "in the One he loves," to express this idea (vv. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9).