A Glance at Our Study of Ephesians

Done

2006-05-08T07:13:00.000-07:00

Alright, I think this went well. From now on check out http://thoughtsonphilippians.blogspot.com, and keep an eye on the next book we are studying.

Done?

2006-05-05T07:32:00.000-07:00

So there we have it, we 'finished' up Ephesians. Let me say first off, that the past week or two has been really nice with everyone posting, I pray that we can carry this into the summer. It was really nice to hear what all of you were learning. I hope you all enjoyed this, and that you will continue with Philippians.

Next, I thought it would be good for everyone to give a little summary of their past 5 months with Ephesians. So take a little time and just let us all know what the book of Ephesians and God has taught you, opened your eyes too, or anything worth noting over the past semester.

Have at it.

Ephesians 6:22-24

2006-05-05T07:15:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 6:22-24. "I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts. Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible."

So here we are at the end of the letter, and Paul is telling the Ephesians why he is sending this letter to them, that they may know how he is, and that they would be encouraged. From this it is clear that the Ephesians are close to Paul, I would have to conclude that Paul is writing to a specific group of people, since he is sending Tychicus to this place. Just look at this passage, and it radiates how much Paul cares for the Ephesians, the words encourage, peace, love, grace are all directed to them.

So that stuff is pretty clear, but to dig in a little more, I will take the last sentence. What does incorruptible mean, the KJV uses the word sincerity, or purity. So do we love our Lord (keyword) Jesus Christ with pure and sincere love. I feel that I can never love Jesus as I would like, it is never as pure or sincere as He deserves and that I desire. Plus it says grace be with those who do. So we get something/everything by loving God. Also isn't this the true mark of a Christian, sure we will be known by our fruits, but that flows from our love, the two greatest commandments are to love God and man, and we are to treasure Christ above all, like the parable when the man sells all he has to get the treasure. We should love God so much we are willing to give up everything. And do you think the guy who sells all he has to get the treasure is not happy afterward, do you think he is walking around bummed out that he sold all he had? No, he is exceedingly joyful that he has gotten this treasure. So we are to love God above absolutely everything, and when we receive God we get the greatest gift, joy in Him. Plus it is foolish to desire anything other than God, there is nothing else that will satisfy us like He does, we would be playing in a sandbox, when we have an ocean and beach right behind us, we are just too easily satisfied to turn around and find true greatness and happiness.

How can we love God more? I think it is essential to spend time with God to love Him more, spend time reading about Jesus, talking (praying) to Jesus, we are to pray constantly. We wouldn't expect to fall in love with a girl if we never spent time around her, right? So we find stuff out about the person, how do we do that with God, we read His Word, the gospels are a biography of Jesus' life, and the word in general is literally His Word to us. Those are just two things that I came up with quickly. Now it's your turn.

What are some practical things we can do to deepen our love for Jesus Christ?

Ephesians 6:19-21

2006-05-05T00:22:00.000-07:00

The text says,

and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to
proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that
I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. So that you also may know how I am
and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the
Lord will tell you everything. (Ephesians 6:19-21)

The first thing one should note here is that the Apostle does not ask for prayers for his safety, or for God to save his life from the Romans. Instead, he asks his spiritual children to pray that he would boldly preach the Gospel. I think there are two lessons we can learn here. First, we like the Ephesians should pray that our spiritual leaders would serve to advance the Gospel of Christ. It is very easy for us to fall into the trap of assuming that our pastors' seminary degrees give them an uncanny ability to preach the Gospel. But eloquent speech does not convince a person to come to Christ. Our words are not useful unless the Spirit is at work. Even Moses, who was Israel's greatest prophet, acknowledged his inability to preach the Gospel apart from God:

But Moses said to the LORD, "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past
or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of
tongue." Then the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and
I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak." (Exodus 4:10-12)

But we should remember that God promises to give us words to preach. Therefore, it is very important that we pray for our leaders, so that God would work in their ministry.

Secondly, we should desire to spread the Gospel even at the cost of our personal convenience. Missionaries, for example, endure quite a bit of inconvenience, by uprooting themselves from their home communities and living radically different lifestyles. Yet they do so for the sake of the Gospel. Now, we are not all called to be missionaries. However, I think we are all called to live radically for the spread of the Gospel.

Let's also note that Paul saw an importance in informing the churches about his conditon, so much so that he sent Tychicus to personally deliver the epistle. His purpose is mentioned in the next verse:

I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are,
and that he may encourage your hearts. (Ephesians 6:22)

Personally, I often have the tendancy to not pay attention when people in the church report on God's work in Bethlehem's missions. But on the contrary, God's work through missionaries ought to encourage us. Therefore, let us also pray that God would give us a heart for missions, even to those of us who aren't specifically called to be missionaries.

Ephes. 6:10-12

2006-05-03T21:27:00.000-07:00

Ephes. 6:10-12 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. [11] Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. [12] For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

v.10 - be strong IN THE LORD. This is the command if we are to be strong at all - it should be i the Lord. This leads us to the next verse...

v.11 - put on the whole armour OF GOD. We are commanded what to do. And this verse tell us HOW to do it. The armour that is of God is able to properly protect us. However, there is a condition: put on the WHOLE armour. We are later given a list, albeit, not totally literal, yet descriptive. If we run out to battle with only salvation (helmet), yet don't have any breastplate (righteousness), or shoes/sandles (gospel), or even a weapon/sword (the word), then how do we expect to STAND/SURVIVE/WIN/ADVANCE?? Paul is emphasizing that we seek God's work in EVERY area of life. We are not only supposed to have saving faith. We are not only supposed to keep God in one corner of the week or one corner of our lives or heart. He is supposed to permeate our whole lives. And if He doesn't... we won't be able to stand.

It really makes us think. Truth is a piece of armour. We should be seeking truth. We should be researching, praying, seeking truth, and not just be satisfied with what we currently know. Sandles of the gospel are our armour. We should be spreading the gospel. We should be seeking the salvation of our friends, neighbors, family, poor, etc. If we don't, we are actually missing a piece of armour, and Satan can attack us somehow from that point of access.

v.12 - we shouldn't be fighting with our bodies, with force, as some other religious fanatics may try. It is worthless. We are only making headway when the battle on the spiritual battlefront is being engaged. As an example, we should share the gospel with someone's ears. But on another level, we should also be confronting that person's spirit by praying for him in our quiet time. Using only physical means will never get the job done. If we have no Spirit (holy) in us, our words are powerless - they have no real weight. If our lives are caught up only in daily routines, or just going to church, or even just reading the Bible, yet we don't have a relationship or a prayerlife, then we don't have real life or real power.

Ephesians 6:16-18

2006-05-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,

Shield - I believe the that the "flaming darts of the evil one" is synonymous with the lies that the devil continually tells us. All day long I hear the lies of Satan both in my head and from other people casting doubt on God. Faith is trusting in the promises that God has made to us. Therefore, taking up this "shield" of faith is sufficient for debunking all of Satan's lies. But you can't just have a shield, you have to take it up! One can hold the Bible in his hand with all of God's promises in it, but it does very little good until he "takes it up" and memorizes and surrounds himself with the promises. Then when a "flaming dart" or lie comes from the devil, the promises of God are all that he needs to deflect it.
Helmet - One isn't much good in battle without a helmet, because it only takes one shot or one good blow to the head to kill a person. Your head is very vulnerable without a helmet, and all the body armor in the world won't save you without a helmet. So it is with salvation. Without it, nothing else really matters.
Sword - The word of God, scripture, is the only thing we've got as a weapon in this fight. A sword is both an offensive and defensive weapon. One can use it to both protect himself, much like a shield, and to strike down an opponent. The word of God can be used likewise. One can use it to deflect lies, and one can use it to attack the enemy; and it will always win. The important thing to remember about the sword and the shield is that they really aren't any use if one merely has them. You need to put them to use. You need to "take them up." You need to wield them. Therefore faith in the word of God is very active. Memory, immersion, and practice are very important aspects.

Ephesians 6:13-15

2006-05-03T04:56:00.000-07:00

"Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace."

Taking a step back, I first see that verses 10-13 talk about the battle in general and what type of war we are dealing with. The war is with:
1. Schemes of the devil
2. Rulers over present darkness
3. Authorities over present darkness
4. Cosmic powers over present darkness
5. Spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places

Now can't you see how Star Wars points to this battle. It is a foreshadow.

Verse 13 kind of transitions us from the battle to what we have to do. It summarizes the fact that we are to look to God as our protection and only by Him can we withstand against evil. The converse of this is that without God (by not believeing and treasuring Him above all things) we will fall to Satan and his deceptions and schemes. Ultimately if we do not turn to Christ we will not prevail and fall and die and we will not have life, but satan will lead us to death.

"Therefore" is a linking word that takes us from the battle described in the previosu verse (outlined above) to the fact that we are to take up God. So, I take this to mean, that due to the fact that this battle exists, we must take up the whole armor of God otherwise we will fail.

Point #1 - We must believe in GOD! He is thee only way.

"Evil day" - I was confused on this for a while - Does Paul mean some future time when Christ returns? Is Paul talking about the Armageddon? Or is Paul talking about every day life? Well, for me, I started reading the paragraph over again to see if there were any clues and the clue I found was this: In verse 11 it says "That you may be able to against the schemes of the devil" and in this verse it says "That you may be able to withstand in the evil day." So, I would link "evil day" to the present battle; therefore,

Point #2 - The evil day are future events, "in the evil day", but they are in the near future. It is like being in a war and you knwo that you have a battle coming up in a few ours, or in two days. Likewise, we must prepare for the evil day because we know it is coming. It most likely will occur sometime TODAY!

If point #2 is accurate (and it feels so in my heart) then that would mean that there are points in the day or week where there is no battle. Why does God do this? I think by looking at these verse we get a little bit moreinsight at our sanctification process. God is in control of Satan and I think God allows Satan to tempt us/battle us for a couple of reasons:

1. To grow us - It is likelifting weights - it strengthens us - he more we battle, the more we grow.
2. Everytime God does put us in a battle and we prevail BY TRUTSING HIM, He is glorified.

But when we lack faith and turn away from Him and lose, we are disgracing our leader and showing to the world that He is not worth trusting/following. THEREFORE, let us look the more closely at verses 15-18 to find out how we can fight these battles and glorify Jesus and find great JOY.

Point #3 - These battles are for God and for us; they are for our good.

So, how do we fight the battles so that we are victorious?

1. verse 14 - TRUTH - the first step is to staurate yourself in the Word of God. This makes sense beacsue the theme of verse 10-15 was take up the whole of armor of God to fight in this spritual warfare. Likewise, we are to read God's Word. It is like startegizing before a battle. You are the soldier and you walk in to the commander's tent to get the orders and to LEARN about the enemy and find out what he is up to and also learn about what the commander's startegy is. Likewise, we must read God's Word to find out who the neemy is and what "we" are going to do about it. I say "we" because we have learned earlier that we are "adopted sons"!!!
2. verse 14 - RIGHTEOUSNESS - Heb 12:1 - Let us lay aside every weight and sin so that we may have endurance to run the race. Sin and weight (burdens) slow us down. We must repent (true repentance means a change of heart and change of actions) of our sins and also lay our burdens on Christ (Spiritual Sabbath - Take rest in Christ) and in this manner we can have endurance for this battle.
3. verse 15 PEACE - With Jesus Christ we can have peace in our soul by way of the Gospel. The Gospel is how we fight this battle. The Gospel is our key. And the Gospel gives us PEACE in themidst of teh battle. No man in any war had great peace when the bullets were flying. But Jesus gave us peace on the cross.

Point #4 - Read God's Word to find out how we are to fight this battle.

Ephesians 6: 8-9

2006-05-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

"knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him."

The first thing that I noticed when reading this verse is that we should all live honoring God no matter who we are (slave or free). More importantly, by doing so, we will "receive back from the Lord". This can come in many forms. Obviously in the form of eternal life but in other forms as well. For example, the true joy we receive through our relationship with Christ is so much greater than the joy we can receive from any earthly thing. I think this just further points out how we are not to serve/honor the Lord out of works, but out of a true desire for a relationship with him from whom all true blessings will flow! I think it's just amazing to think about how much we receive back compared to how much we give sometimes.

Continuing on with verse 9 I think it really points out how we are to interact with others, especially those who we have a large influence on / control over. I think about how gentle and kind Christ is with us. To try and "stop your threatening" reminds me of just truly caring for people and it's so hard to do this sometimes, especially with those who can disagree with us in various ways.

The more I think about it the more it impacts me. What power do I have to be mistreating others when God has power over all as he is everyone's master. Thinking about this just further iterates how much Christ gives to us and how much I wish I could give to others.

Ephesians 6:5-6

2006-05-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 6:5-6 "5Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, "

I thought about these verses over the weekend and realized how hard it is to actually do what they say. It sounds nice, but when you think about actually following through, it is difficult. I know for myself, i find it very difficult to submit to authority, especially when i think that they arent doing that good of a job. Why should I submit to someone who doesnt even know what they are talking about. Whether it be teachers, or bosses, or the law, i much prefer to do things my way.

After some reflection, i thought, what a great example of a christian. Someone who can not only submit to authority, (despite it being unfair, or whatever else), but do it willingly, respectfully. Not being slanderous behind their bosses back, but obeying the authority as they would christ.

Gods will is for us to obey authority on this earth and he wants us to do it for him as his servants. We need to submit to the authority figure (whatever it may be) AS god. Not for whatever rewards, or other earthly things we may recieve in return, but instead, because god told us to. And it will go well with us if we obey.

Ephesians 6:1-3

2006-04-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” "

When I've read this in the past I've always taken the commandment to children in verse one to apply to adults and their parents. After looking at it a little more closely I see it differently. I think an important thing that Paul wants to emphasize are the words "in the Lord". We're born into the world without a knowledge of God's commandments and lacking a relationship with Him through Christ. When we are born-again we are in the Lord; God's Spirit is within us. We definitely still need wisdom (and should receive and ask for this in a way that honors our parents) but we should not necessarily obey what they say.

I think one of the coolest things about decision making is that there are a lot of gray areas where we don't find clear answers in scripture. This should make us so much more dependent on God. We are neither to whimsically accept other peoples advice or avoid making hard decisions. We need to learn how to not lean on our own understanding but that of our heavenly Father.

As I look forward to potentially being a father myself it's scary, yet I am encouraged by the fact that God has given us the perfect model in first His relationship with Christ, and secondly our relationship with Him. May God humble us to obey Himself and honor our parents as we should.

eph. 5:26-27

2006-04-26T22:28:00.000-07:00

Ephes. 5:26-27 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, [27] That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Verse 27 is a good reminder. Even today at COW Ken talked about how people are so quick to say that they themselves are good people and how it is generally okay to just assume we are all not perfect, so it's not a big problem when we obviously do bad things here and there. But Jesus still says, "be ye holy as I am holy", and elswhere we are commanded, "be perfect" (gen. 17:1; deut 18:13; matt. 5:48 to name a few). Verse 27 is saying we should be perfect before His returning, or at least walking in that direction.

Verse 26, interestingly comes BEFORE this "should" statement, giving us the "how to" before the "what to". It says sancifying comes by the "washing of the water by the word". What does that mean? At first estimate one (or at least me) would think He's talking about His word, the Bible. I believe that that is the correct way to take it. By constantly and consistently keeping God's word before us, we are helped all the more. ( for example: Proverbs 3:3 "Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:" and Proverbs 6:21 "Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.") These verses show that keeping God's word on our mind [or around our neck :) ] will help keep us from sin (or from the context from the verse above, from the evil woman with the flattery of her tongue).

Let us continually not only give ourselves a good body washing in the shower each morning, but also give our minds and spirits a good upload and santifying washing each day.

Eph. 5:33

2006-04-23T22:49:00.000-07:00

Ephes. 5:33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

I wrote yet another blog that slipper through my fingers as it erased itself before finishing its loading. Basically it was on how I was talking to my father, and how he was telling me about how men and women are different. Primarily how:

Men - seek affirmation from repect.
Women - seek if from being loved.

Yet how each of these two things are interchangeable currency in the state of the heart.

Eph. 5:33

2006-04-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

Ephes. 5:33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

Me and my dad we talking a few days back, and he was telling me about this verse. One thing that he said he had learned through many years is that men and women seem to want different things, more than others, compared to each other.

Men - more than else, desire most to have the affirmation that they are respected.
Women - more than else, desire most to have the affirmation that they are loved.

Of course men want love and women want respect as well, he said. But in the man's mind, respect IS love, meaning that he wont feel loved when there is an absence of respect. And in the woman's mind she feels respected and honored and satisfied when her husband loves her outwardly as he is supposed to.

In response, I said to my dad, "hmm." (he sometimes likes to talk on and on, and change subjects by himself, and so forth, while the other person is listening. I've learnt just to keep quiet and let him talk, cause I'm sure there are some very good nuggest of wisdom to aquire) I thought that that was an interesting exposition and application of that verse, though the method is very inferential. In any case, I know that God, from other passages, has made man and woman complementary to each other with different roles, and therefore differnt desires and needs.

Ephesians 5:26-27

2006-04-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

I've been reading our verses for today, and I've got some thoughts on them.

At first glance, Ephesians 5:26-27 seems like a deviation from the subject of Christian marriage. But we soon see the reason. It says, "This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church." (Ephesians 5:32). Marriage isn't simply an isolated event which pertains to one man and one woman. Rather, it is a portrayal of Christ and his church, and was ordained since the beginning.

I think that Paul's description of Christ and the church is an allusion to this passage from the Old Testament:

I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall
and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had
grown; yet you were naked and bare. "When I passed by you again and saw you,
behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over
you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant
with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine. Then I bathed you with
water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I clothed
you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in
fine linen and covered you with silk. And I adorned you with ornaments and put
bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. And I put a ring on your nose
and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were
adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and
embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly
beautiful and advanced to royalty. And your renown went forth among the nations
because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had
bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD. (Ezekiel 16:7-14)

If we were to leave the passage here, we would think that the wife was a faithful bride. But God goes on to describe this bride's adulteries, and God's subsequent judgment and curses on her. In fact God says:

Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the LORD: Thus says the Lord GOD,
Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings
with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood
of your children that you gave to them, therefore, behold, I will gather all
your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you
hated. I will gather them against you from every side and will uncover your
nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. And I will judge you as
women who commit adultery and shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the
blood of wrath and jealousy.(Ezekiel 16:35-38)

So it appears as if the adulterous bride is to be condemned for her sin. Yet the judgment ends like this:

I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD,
that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because
of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done,
declares the Lord GOD." (Ezekiel 16:62-63)

The statement of God's atonement for Israel's sins is identical to the New Covenant. If we take this allegorically, Israel is the church, and God's atonement is the blood of Jesus Christ which forgives sin. Indeed, Matthew Henry's commentary on this passage says, "Nor will God ever leave the sinner to perish, who is humbled for his sins, and comes to trust in His mercy and grace through Jesus Christ; but will keep him by his power, through faith unto salvation."
Therefore when the Apostle Paul draws the parallel between marriage and the New Covenant, this is no light analogy. In marriage we can see that God's justice, man's depravity, and God's faithfulness in Jesus Christ are all portrayed.

Wartime Lifestyle

2006-04-22T15:24:00.000-07:00

What do you guys think about living a "Wartime Lifestyle" as a means of "walking as children of the Light"? You can read Ralph Winter's article at http://www.missionfrontiers.org/1994/0910/so948.htm

I believe that living a simple and sacrificial life is one of the greatest ways we can grow. "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil". How tempting it is to believe the lie that we live in a time of peace!

By God's grace I believe we can live radically different lives. The question is do we really want to? Do we talk about it, let alone challenge one another to live wartime lifestyles?

Eph. 5:8

2006-04-20T06:04:00.000-07:00

Ephes. 5:8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

This passage brings to mind something my grandfather used to say, something to the effect: "You're not monkeys, so why do you act like it?" Or something like what my mother still sometimes says to us children, "We know you're smart enought" or "We know you can do it... so act like it." And Paul is saying just same thing, that we are children of the Lord who are now walking in the light and truth, so we should so walk - acting out what we already know is right from wrong.

It is a sad thing when after the Isrealites had seen the mighty power of God in Egypt and then even walked through the see held apart by His personal hand, that they still chose sin and ultimately to die in the wilderness. How much more for us, who have experienced God's amazing forgiveness, and know the true revelation of Christ's identity and love and witness in the Spirit, that we still desire sin. Let's act like out who we are - children of light.

Ephesians 5:4

2006-04-17T07:12:00.000-07:00

Well this is tough, after spending time reading this passage (5:1-21), someone could write for days about this stuff, and even more so, I have found how the whole passage works together to be very insightful and impressive, but with the theme of taking one verse I chose this one.

Ephesians 5:4 "Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving."

Right away I am going to include Ephesians 4:29 "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."

When I read 5:4 I immediately thought of 4:29, and it really just pointed out how important what we say is. I think of the times I am just hanging out with my roommates, and I think do I talk about foolish things, or make some crude jokes, things that are out of place or not fitting of the occasion. And I realize that my time is riddled with corrupting talk. If my words are not glorifying God then I am not portraying Him as supreme to unbelievers. How powerful of a evangelistic tool is that, every word out of your mouth glorifies God. That would be amazing.

I am reading "The Pursuit of Holiness" by Jerry Bridges, it is an amazing book so far, very easy read, quick, and very solid. Read it. But like the name suggests, we need to focus on being holy, because He is holy we are to be holy, God will accept no less. It is an active pursuit on our part, we need to work, but it is by the work of Christ that we are enabled to work. Before we were just slaves to sin, we had no opportunity to do otherwise, we had to sin. But now that we believe we are able to fight sin. So one huge thing in my life lately, my one 'goal' I guess, is to be holy, and not just a list of do's and don'ts but a mindset, and a satisfaction with God, which actually is a command, we are to be joyful, it is commanded of us just like not murdering someone. So that is a prayer request I guess. I am very thankful that the Spirit has opened my eyes to this, and has in numerous ways, it is essential to our walk. Just think, does the perfectly holy God want to spend time with unholiness and sin?

So regarding this verse, I want my words to be 'holy' a fragrant offering to God, that my words would please Him. Even the little things like a crude joke matter to God, all of our life should be holy, and I pray that in our lifelong pursuit of this God would be powerful in our lives.

Eph. 5:5,18

2006-04-16T22:49:00.000-07:00

1. Ephes. 5:5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

2. Ephes. 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

The first verse above is a serious wake-up call. I think that the verse is as plain as it can get. I NEED TO CHANGE. And I need the power of God to change me. I need prayer.

I response to Mike's question on the blog before, I believe that this serves as a warning to those who are not living the life that Christ died for them to live: non-believer and supposed believer alike.

The second verse is equally clear. We should nto be living our lives being drunk on wine or drunk on our own priorities, apsirations, or pride. Simply, we need to be filled with God's Spirit. This is the only way to live. Constantly and continuously we should be seeking God's will in this vapour of a life. I picture a nascar or formula one race going on. Not one second is going through the racer's mind where he is not thinking of the race, of the best tactical manouver or of the next near and further outcome of any such decision. Our lives are shorter, in a sense, than one of these races. How much more should we redeem every moment in seeking how to live a life surrendered to the will of Him that can bring about the best end. God, help me to keep YOU on my mind throughout the day, and keep first things first. Fill me with your Spirit, with your passion and power. Amen

Ephesians 5:3

2006-04-16T20:10:00.000-07:00

I dug in on all 3 of these but the only thing I will share is this:

How serious is it to not live this way? Well, by living this way, it points to the fact that we are not children of God and therefore the wrath of God awaits them.

Revelation 21:27 "But nothing [impure] will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life."

These statutes that Paul lays out are VERY serious. How do we know that we are in the Lamb's Book of Life? We do not do these things that Paul lays out for us.

Ephesians 5:2

2006-04-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

The believer participating work after "Be imitators of God" is "Walk in Love." This seems to follow the theme that whenever Paul adds a believer engaged work, it is associated with love. I think this points to the fact that love is the most important work a believer has. Ephesians 1:15 - "heard of your faith.... and the love toward all the saints" - love is the only work taht Paul lists (follows the theme). Ephesians 3:14-19 is Paul's prayer taht builds verse by verse and climaxes to the focal point - (v.18-19) - "May God give us strength to comprehend....Christ's love for us." Paul prays for the Ephesians that they would understand Christ's love for them and here we see the command to walk in love as Christ loved us. Paul prays for it and then commands it. Our prayer is "God, help us see Christ's love for us, so that we may walk in love in a way that honors You."

I also think that in the back of Paul's mind (and should be our thought process as well) he constantly thinks about how God first loved us and how He blessed us first. "Walk in love, JUST AS Christ loved us." It is all about God's grace and love and mercy and not aboutour works. We work in the freedom that Christ gave us. It is all because of Him. Love because He loved us.

Ephesians 5:1

2006-04-16T10:19:00.000-07:00

I was hit by this verse as I meditated on the idea that children mimic their parents, and namely sons mimic or imitate their fathers. I was amazed as I thought back to my childhood, I saw my childhood model this verse. I mean, we were an unbelieving family and I was an unbeliever and yet my life was shadow of this verse. I encourage you to think about your natural tendencies to follow your father.

Here is how I imitated my father:

1. I took whatever he said and never questioned them but rather let them be "law" and my mind and thoughts and ideas and actions would directly resemble him. I would disagree with any of my friends who said anything that my dad wouldn't agree with. I know this probably was not hard and fast and I knwo I didn't do this all the time, but teh majority of the time, this is how I acted. I would not question him but I looked up to him and I thought he was the smartest man ever and Iformed my opinion based on whatever he said.

2. I thought that whatever he did was perfect and did not point out flaws (at first... but as time wore on and as I grew up I started pointing out every flaw I saw in him - I have repented about that)

I also see this in my nephew. My sister tells me that Jonah imitates his Uncle Michael all the time. He puts on Uncle Michael's shoes to go to church and he "emails" me and he has to do things like Uncle Michael. I am sure he does this 10 times more with his own dad but it hit home as I thought about him imitating me. Jonah at this point only knows one thing, and that is he wants to desperately do whatever his dad, or Uncle Michael do. He doesn't question it, but has childlike humility. He doesn't realize that it is "pitiful" to WORLDLY standards to completely look away from oneself and imitate someone else. In the world, we are led to believe that we should stand up fro what we believe and do what "we" feel is best and to "form our own opinions." But I think Ephesians 5:1 points us to be more like Jonah and more like our childhood days where we had childlike dependence on our fathers. Where we did not question anything they did but rather took it to HEART... we loved following our fathers and we loved watching them because they were so perfect. BUt as we got older, what happened? We got rebellious (though we did have this rebellion our whole life). But this rebellion was different in the fact that we did not think our fathers were god anymore. We did not think our fathers were perfect. We did everything we could to be different than our fathers. And, now, as christians, we are called to have our heart be like that of a child's and have those humble emotions of a child as we look to our Heavenly Father.

We as a new self are to:

1. Act like God. Model our life after Him. Be like Him and imitate Him, not because of some reward or some prize or some honro form this world, but because we love Him so much and we are infatuated with Him.
2. View everything He says as being perfect and not questioning it (though it is good to not ignore our sinfulness and to dig deep to find out why we don't act this way - meaning, if we do question Him we must dig deep to find out why - find out where the lack of faith or knowledge lies)
3. Honor Him by treasuring Him above all things.
4. Depend on Him in a childlike way... do not have ANY reservations and do not rely on our efforts EVER, but trust in Him and depend on His future grace.

Be beloved children children of God!

Ephesians 4:31

2006-04-13T20:25:00.000-07:00

It seems that this verse is straight forward so I will only share some highlights from my QT. It is simple, yet we have complex emotions along these lines in our life.

Bitterness: Exhibiting intense anger. This is used to describe our sinful nature. We all know Romans 3:10 that says, "none is righteouss, no not one." well, a few verses later it says, "their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." In our sinful nature we are bitter people who have intense anger at times. Now as a new creation, we must do away with this and control it by the power of the Holy Spirit, and yet be humbled by the fact, that by our nature, have bitterness in us.... be humbled by that. Hebrews 12:15 unlocked a bit more pertaining to bitterness - the writer admonishes us to seek God's grace SO THAT we may cut the root of bitterness. So we must internally, by the power of the Holy Spirit, address deep bitterness. We must lay down our pride at the cross and look into our soul and search for our bitterness and anger. It is helpful to probe into our soul whenever we see an external fit of anger. Anyways, when we dig deep to seek out the source of anger, this verse says that we should turn away from ourselves and look to God... and God's grace which flows from the cross. So, looking to God away form our deep bitterness we find healing.

Clamor: Noisy shouting - this was interesting for me to read. Noisy shouting. I think this happens when anger exists (which is taken form the context). We get so worked up that the result is loud shouting. We see this in our society. As Christians, this must never be named among us. We must be calm and peaceful. This is also important in marriage. Though it may rarely happen in solid, Christian marriages, it is to be guarded against. We must follow the Scripture and never have loud shouting that is produced from anger. I am thinking ahead to children and I think that at times I will raise my voice to command obedience or display authority, etc. I think this is a good thing when applied correctly; however, raising your voice out of anger MUST never happen. I forsee that being an issue with me and I pray for this in advance.

Ephes. 4:30

2006-04-13T00:31:00.000-07:00

Ephes. 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Sorry guys. I just spent the last half hour writing a pretty long post, and then it all got erased. I don't have time to write it again, so I'll just provide verses to compare.

Basically I was asking the question how the first part of the verse (a.) above can be logically reconciled to the second half (b.). (b.) gives a promise that calvinists cling on to, that we are eternally sealed. Yet then how can the warning in part (a.) have any power, which gives the possibility that we area able to fall away by grieving the Holy Spirit. My post was about reconciling these two seemingly contradictory lines of the verse, using corinthians below as help:

1 Cor. 15:2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

Observation number 2 was about how God has feelings and cares for us. He can be grieved.

Eph 4:28

2006-04-12T20:37:00.000-07:00

I thought about this verse a little differently.

First I notice an issue with trust. In order for a thief to stop stealing, he must stop putting his trust in himself and put his trust in god. They need to trust that god will provide them with the work they need so that they can survive. This didn't seem like a lot, but then I thought, what about people who steal for a living? It is an extreme example of putting your trust in god to provide for your needs.

Secondly, I chuckled every time I read "so that he may have something to share with anyone in need." There is a clause on the end. We read the first half of the verse and thing, Oh of course. That is the right thing to do. We will be better off if we work for a living. However looking on we see, that Paul tells us to stop stealing not for ourselves, but for others. Not because it would be better for us, but so that in the event that god places an opportunity for you to help someone else, you can!

I think it is a great verse to show how, what we have is not ours. We should be working not to help ourselves, but to further the kingdom of god. I think to 1 Cor 10:31 "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." That includes working for a living.

Those are my thoughts. Sorry to overlap mike.

Ephesians 4:30

2006-04-10T19:27:00.000-07:00

"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."

and Ephesians 1:13 "In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit".

Praise the Lord! I don't know about you guys, but one of the most encouraging things I've seen this semester is ever-increasing manifestations of God at work in all of you. It's amazing that although we grieve God every time we sin he does not take away His Spirit from us. Instead he is faithful despite our faithlessness.

May the Lord grant us all more faith to trust his loving kindness as we wait for the day of our redemption.

Ephesians 4:29

2006-04-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 4:29 "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."

Paul just got done writing about how important the body is, how it builds itself up when it works properly. Which is interesting in itself, he says that when you are doing well in your faith, it helps me, when I am running strong to the finish line, it will help you with your walk with the Lord, when we all work well imagine the strength we have. Also he gives a list of all kinds of things the body includes, Apostles, teachers ... I would guess that none of us are called to be Apostles, but we are all called to run hard after the goal, and we can all do this, which will in turn build the body up in love.

So on to this verse. He really emphasizes what comes out of our mouth. This is also seen in James, where he talks about how the mouth can destroy, and that we praise God with our words and also tear things down with it, we can only serve one master, which one does our mouth serve? This also makes me think of what we say when we are not around someone, I feel I focus on the bad too much, does that help build the body, is that loving, no. I need to talk in a manner that will only build up, never tear down, I should never say something to a friend that will encourage bad behavior, I should also be a light to the world with my words, should I talk about someone behind their back or make snide remarks, by no means, I should do the opposite, when someone is gossiping I should build that person up.

We should also say only that which fits the occasion. There is a time and a place for what we say, we have to think about what we say, you know, think before you speak. Because words can have a huge impact, good or bad.

By the grace of God I pray that He would give me strength to do these things. To build up the body and to encourage others.

Eph. 4:32

2006-04-09T23:26:00.000-07:00

Ephes. 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

We have absolutely no excuse not to give grace to those who do us wrong in daily life. Not only is a gentle admonition given here in Paul's writing, but it is emphatically warned by Jesus that those who don't forgive others will not be forgiven by God.

We see in 1 John 4 that because God first loved us, we are able to love. And not only has He given us this ability, he serves the command. When I think about this topic, I realize that there is not much more that touches me more that this. Christ brought a revolutionary idea: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you." (Matt. 5:45, i think). Our God is like no other God. This is what sets Jesus apart from Muhammad. While some of Jesus' last words were, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do," Muhammad's last were, "May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of the prophets." (Sahih Bukhari, Vol. 1, #427). [Other differences are contrasted here: <http://www.angelfire.com/realm2/truth/What_LOVE.htm>].

This is powerful. And this is amazing. And this powerful and amazing God has sent his Spirit to live inside the believers to empower them to do "likewise". I sometimes get carried away in my own pride and expect others to "respect me", or when I am offended expect them to "make due". I have no right in this. I gave them away when I swore allegiance to the One who also gave his rights away. Even though I can theologically affirm the above, I have severe trouble in living it. Please pray that God's shows my how to be humble. Pray that I can see God for who He really is in His splendor, for when that happens, I will surely see how small I really am, and how meaningless my life really is on my own. I need it daily on my mind, that I am dead, and my life is no longer mine, but the life that I now live, I live it in Christ (Gal. 2:20).

Ephesians 4:28

2006-04-09T20:55:00.000-07:00

This verse hit me in two ways.

First part - Paul is talking about how we act as the new self starting with how we used to be. Here is saying that we are to no longer be a thief. I think about being a thief. Was I ever a thief, literally? Yeah, I stole things. What was my mindset like? I was greedy, covetousness, and deceitful. In the midst of stealing something it was me against the world and in my heart I was so concerned about myself and making sure I would get something for free. Do we have these tendencies in our heart today as a new believer? I hope we literally don't steal anymore, but I am thinking about how are we in regards to "wanting" something for free? Anything for free! Well, I would say that I fail at this. I live on a tight budget because I live a sacrificial life... praise God, right? Well, when I come across something for free my heart leaps for joy. Let's say someone said, "you see those 100 books sitting there? They are free for the taking. Seriously, free, we dont want them." I would jump for joy, literally coming off the ground as I would stand up so quickly. This is sin. I am convicted that we should not desire things for free; however, if we are given something for free from someone as a gift we shoudl receive it with a glad heart and not perform the debtor's ethic. If someone offers something for free cause they don't want it anymore I think we should have a certain thought process. This includes us FIRST thinking of others and thinking naturally (this is impossible with out a changed heart) as to how I could help others by these free books. I should think, well could my wife benefit from these. lastly, towars the end, we FIRST at this point think of us personally using this free book. I am convicted of this. I seek out free things stronger than a search dog sniffing out drugs. That is sin. Though I don't steal, I think it is a heart issue more than a mere outward action.

Second part - God wants us to work for money SO THAT we can share with those in need. What does the laborer have that the thief does not have? To me they both have money. Practically, I think the idea is this - the thief has ups and downs and lives day to day stealing things. Whereas, the laborer has consistancy. Why is this important? i think it is crucial to work a steady job so that you have a steady budget and can save regularly every month. Why is that important? The thief does not live this way so he can't guarantee any money at any particular moment; whereas the laborere has been wise and saved each month so that when someone is in need he can give from his savings.

Ephesians 4:27

2006-04-08T22:40:00.000-07:00

I love this verse because it allows us to unpack verse 26 even more because verse 27 starts with "and" so verse 27 is in addition to verse 26. More specifically I would say that the devil has an opportunity to work whenever we keep anger over night and into the next day rather than work through it. The devil has the opportunity to work when this occurs. The devil likes it when we don't resolve our anger (and remember that we are talking about 'good' anger - 'bad' anger is sin and needs to be dealt with directly, like stop getting frustrated for bad reasons). The devil doesn't like it when we resolve 'good' anger because the devil doesn't like it when we trust God. When we have 'good' anger and then recognize it and then go be alone and pray to God and trust God and talk to Him about it and when we remind ourselves of who God is and then we are filled with joy and peace - yeah, the devil hates that. The devil can't work when this is going on. It is just too pure and holy. Now, the devils does like it when we keep anger inside us because the devil can use that for His plans. Whenever we don't obey God, the devil has a foothold; he has an opportunity to work. James 1:14 - our sinful flesh wants to obey Satan and our flesh wants to keep anger inside of us and we want to work out our sin on our will and we want deal with it and have revenge and use against other people - basically, we want to do things with anger that will produce sin and our flesh wants that - we are tempted to do that. We must go to God with our anger immediately.

How does Satan use our prolonged anger as an opportunity?
1. Division in the church
2. Harm brethren relationships
3. Bitterness towards others (selfish motives and desires)
4. Lack of joy and closeness to God

How does God work when we follow His Word pertaining to anger?
1. He gets glory
2. We get joy and peace and closeness to God
3. 2 Cor 2:10-11 - As we work through our sin and as with get to the end of our prayers during our alone time we should have a peaceful and joyful heart and we should also have a forgiving heart. Why? Because Christ forgave us and His forgiveness was infinite because our sin against an infinitely righteous God gave us infinite damnation - based on Christ's forgiveness we also should forgive. Moreover, we should forgive in our 'good angry' state because any sin that has been done that resulted in our angry and frustrated state now belongs to God. He will take care of it. This is part of trusting God. He will take care of it. Romans 12:19 - "Vengeance is mine, I will repay says the Lord." God repays the sin of the unbeliever in Hell and God has already poured out His wrath on Jesus for the vengeance of the believer's sin. It all belongs to God. That is how we trust Him in our angry state and we are to have a forgiving heart after we pour it all it in prayer. It is in this way that the devil does not have an opportunity to work.

Palm Sunday

2006-04-08T21:44:00.000-07:00

This blog flows from the devotional that a few of us had this morning on John 12:12-19.

These verses are about the Triumphal Entry that Jesus had into Jerusalem which we know as Palm Sunday. First, what was Jesus up to prior to making his big entry? A key point to start at is John 11 where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. This event triggered a few things. It sent many people away believing and absolutely blown away by what they saw Jesus did. It also sent others straight to the authorities and as a result, the Pharisees are seeking to kill Jesus. At this point Jesus goes into hiding because they want to kill him. He hides in Ephraim which is roughly 15 miles from Jerusalem. So the people are quite emotional. They see this guy who everyone is calling the Messiah or a prophet raise a man who was dead for several days to life and then he disappears. Jesus is creating a climatic situation. The Pharisees want to kill him but are willing to wait until after Passover so not as to create an uprising from the people who are going nuts for this guy. I gather form this that the situation is crazy. As Ricky put it, the sceen is like a stadium full of fans ready to see the start lineup come running out. It is like waiting for Favre to run out onto Lambeau Field. So, Jesus is in Ephraim. The day before Palm Sunday He goes to Bethany which is a few miles away from Jerusalem and He stays with Lazarus and Martha and Mary. I view this and picture this is in my mind as the "night before a big game." Jesus is getting ready.

So why is this such a big deal?

This is a huge deal because Jesus on Palm Sunday presents Himself officially as the Messiah and to greet Him are crazy fans. I view the scene and cannot help but think of Jesus being ushered in at the end of the age and having all of the believers welcome Him and praise Him. Oh what a day that will be! Ok, so in what ways does Jesus present Himself as the Messiah? I just walked through the verses:

1. The people wave palm branches - This tradition was started in the prior years as a way of displaying fervant hope for the coming Messiah and now they are waving the branches as Jesus, the Messiah enters.
2. People cried "Hosanna" which means "give salvation now."
3. Fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 that Jesus came in riding a donkey. It is interesting that even his disciples did not get the significance of this. This leads me to believe that many of the people did not fully grasp what was happening and how huge this event was.
4. This point is simply an observation - I think it is interesting that John says that the people welcoming Him were those who saw Him raise Lazarus from the dead. I think that it is significant that the people saw Him raise Lazarus from the dead that in one way pointed to future resurrection where, as the Messiah, He would ascend to the right hand of the Father.

Lastly, I want to talk about the Passover. The Pharisees did not want to deal with Jesus until after the Passover and I think at first glance we could say that it is "neat" that God worked it so that Jesus would come into town and the events would work out "nicely" that Jesus would be crucified and die on Passover. But the Passover that the Jews were celebrating was not about the OT in and of itself. The Passover they were celebrating was JESUS! So it is absolutely fitting that Jesus would show up during Passover season to be sentenced to die on the day of Passover since that event pointed directly to Jesus. We should marvel at God as He prepared all the events of the OT including the Passover to point us to Christ and then we should marvel at Jesus who came and showed us by His words and actions what the OT Scripture meant.

Ephesians 4:26

2006-04-08T21:05:00.000-07:00

I would like to dwell a bit more on "Be angry and do not sin." I asked several questions to myself including "how the heck is that possible?"

First, I looked at Psalm 4:4 where it was quoted from and I read the whole chapter to see it's context. To start with, what is David's (the psalmist) anger? It seems that he is upset that men are not listening to him but are rather seeking worldly people and worldly things. So we could say David's anger is against people's sins. In Ps 4:4 I am not sure exactly who he is talking to, but I take it to be that he is preaching to himself as he prays to God. And what does he pray? He prays, "Be angry and do not sin; ponder in your hearts on your beds and be silent. Offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord." This gives me more details as to a real life glimpse into a man who is flat out angry. And I believe that this angry used here is like being frustrated or agitated. I know how David feels. And David says that we are to get alone and be silent. This is how we do not sin. But it does not stop at merely us "working" our anger out of us. It is not merely sitting on our bed and "buying some time." David says that we are to make right sacrifices and trust in the Lord. Now we see some humbling action. We are to pray to God and trust in HIm. We are to start releasing our anger by seeking Him. What else does David say? In verse 6 he says that men seek [God] for personal gain; worldly gain. And David comes back in verse 7 and is preaching to himself/praying to God and says "You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound." Ok, now we see a big time release of energy. David has now through prayer and trusting received great joy in his heart by reminding himself and preaching to himself/praying to God that we have great joy by following Him! THEN, in verse 8 it gets even better. He preaches/prays "In peace I will lie down and sleep; for you alne, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." This brings us BACK to PAUL who says, don't let the sun go down on your anger. Paul lays out the boundaries and David shows us what that really looks like. What is it like to go through anger. How do we deal with anger? David shows us in Psalm 4 and Paul piggy backs off the Old Testament and reminds us of it to tell us what a "new self" looks like.

So, from this, I take this "Be angry and do not sin" to mean that when we get angry (use Jesus' example of what are good things to be angry at) and to sum up 'good' anger I would say it is anger against sin; when we get angry, we should go be alone for a while NOT to "blow off steam" but rather to seek God. And we are to pour out our hearts to God and tell him and then we are to remind ourselves of who God is and His promises and remind ourselves who we are and we should be feeling joy at this point. Then we are to experience peace. IF we do not have peace and joy in the matter and are still bitter then we need to linger in prayer longer.... as long as necessary so that the sun does not go down on our anger. Praise God for His son Jesus who made it possibel for us to experience this! How amazing it is for us to have deep peace in our souls because of what Jesus did on the cross, even when we have 'good' anger.

Insight into Ephesians 4:25

2006-04-07T04:06:00.000-07:00

This morning I was reading what Wuest had to say in his greek word studies about this verse. He comes to paraphrase the first part of the verse "Be constantly angry with a righteouss indignation". So what I think the mind Paul wants us to have is one of hating pride (and sin in general). Get this mindset by the Grace of God and we will not sin.

Fighting the good fight with ya'll,

peter

Hmmm..

2006-04-06T15:19:00.000-07:00

What do you guys think about the verses below from 1 Corinthians. Those who have put on the new self can still be of the flesh? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

1 Corinthians 3:1-4
3:1 But I, brothers, [1] could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

Ephes. 4:26-27

2006-04-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

Ephes. 4:26-27 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: [27] Neither give place to the devil.

I believe that it is natural and not wrong that we get angry at times. What this verse is commanding though, is that by the time the day ends, we should come back to our senses. Hatred, anger, unforgiveness is an open invitation for Satan to start working in us.

This verse for me hits a nerve. When somebody does me wrong, or does something unjust, I have a problem. I usually don't grudge, and I don't react back. I don't stop doing things for that person or not forgive them. What I do do is NOT PURSUE THEM IN LOVE AND RECONCILIATION. This can be a very, very dangerous thing. I almost always wait for their heart to break and then come to me and repent and ask for forigiveness. Only then, do we seem to have a normal relation again. Pray that I can change in this area. That I can have compassion and be a protagonist for LOVE and for CHRIST.

Ephesians 4:24

2006-04-05T19:39:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 4:24 "and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

What I want to say about this verse is simply something that I never noticed about it before. At the very end of this section/paragraph, he throws in there sort of a reason why we should do these things and put off our old self, because we were created in the image of God. We were made to be like God. That was what God had in his mind when he created Adam, someone to emulate and show the Glory of God. But we fell, we are on the road to getting back to this likeness, and it is interestingly only through Jesus, the physical representative of God. We were made to be like Jesus, we have two legs like Him, we have a head, eyes, we can smell all because He can. Jesus wasn't made as a response to the Father creating man, He created us, He was there and formed Adam. So we are 'expected' to live holy lives because that is why we were made, not because God simply wants us to, but it is our PURPOSE, we exist to radiate God's Glory. That also means that we get to enjoy God forever as well, He is not some far off blob or strange being that we will never comprehend (we will never completely understand the character of God, but we can relate to Him), He came to earth as a man.

Also he says "true righteousness" that must mean there is a false one, right? When I read that I think of all the 'religions' people make, there are so many people who say that whatever they believe is good enough, that if everyone thinks they can get to heaven they can. Well that is not the Heaven I want to go to. God is our standard, there is one truth, everything else is a fake, there cannot be more than one truth, they would have to be the same thing. Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me." No one comes to the Father but through Jesus, there is one way.

So how does these things change your outlook on life, where do we go from here?

Newness in Christ

2006-04-04T09:37:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 4:20-25
20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, [3] which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore, having put away falsehood...

I was wondering what you guys thought about the new and old selves Paul is talking about. Do you think this is a one time transformation, or are we continually "putting on and putting off"? In verse 25 Paul seems to be inferring that the follower of Christ has put off the old self and must now walk accordingly.

Ephesians 4:17-19

2006-04-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

I'll also chime in on these verses...

The thing that struck me about the way Paul talks here is how he contstantly points to the depravity of man. He starts out with the assumption that the gentiles (now saints in the Lord) were once hostile to God and ignorant of him. Paul then tells us that the reason that non-believers do not believe is because they cannot clearly understand God's revelation.

He says that their unbelief is a result of their very being. Hardness of heart causes ignorance, not vice versa. If anything I would have expected him to say just the opposite.

How true it is that all of us were once enemies of God and children of evil. We had hearts of stone that could only be changed by God pouring light into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. We are now alive in Christ!

May the God who saves sanctify us in the truth of His holy and awesome Word

Ephesians 4:18-19

2006-04-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

I unfortunately must also write on this passage (sorry brian)

Ephesians 4:18-19 "18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity."

I believe that out of the verses I went through in the past few days, these had the most impact on me. I feel that I can relate most to these verses.

This is a statement about non-Christians, and how they are behaving and living, and goes along with a warning to the saints in Ephesus. The problem is, that many Christians are experiencing the same things. We become greedy, focusing only on ourselves and fulfilling our pleasures and wants. We lose sight of the real importance of life and what our main focus should be. In doing so, our hearts do become calloused and hard. Sin no longer phases us and we begin to feel distant from god. Just as is says in 18, our minds are darkened and we are alienated from god. I passed over this rather quickly when I read it, but then went back and re read it several times; Alienated from god. This is not a good thing. Set apart from the one who keeps everything together. If we do not keep our guard up all the time, it is so easy for us to lose sight of god, and eventually not want to run to him. We can become so engrossed in sin that we don't WANT to run to god. I believe that this is what Paul is warning the Ephesians about. How easy it is to become so callosed to sin that we should be avoiding.

I find it very easy for myself to lose sight of god and turn rather to the pleasures of this life. I need to look back to these verses for their practical warnings.

Ephesians 4:18-19

2006-04-02T23:42:00.000-07:00

Ephes. 4:18-19 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: [19] Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

At first glance, this is not what I would call a "pleasant" verse: you know, one of those that gets you fired up for the day, or one of those that peacefully imparts the joy of the Lord after a hard week of trials, or one of the those powerful verse that makes your bones shutter in awe or one that is powerfully preached at an evangelistic outreach.

But today, as I started to gloss over it, like those unpleasant verses, swiftly, I was compelled to meditate on it a while longer. It does have some significance in my life. Even though I don't like to admit it, or don't like to confont it. It reminds me that as a born againn believer, my heart has been renewed. Before I was a believer I had a common-grace-affected, common-good-conscience, that was imparted to everyone in the earth, so that all may know generally what is right and wrong. But as a believer, I have even a greater responsibility to discern the right and wrong, and the will of the Lord. As I sin, knowingly, I not only start to grieve the Holy Spirit, but I let sin start to eat away at my heart - that heart that knows right from wrong. As the sin is not dealt with, it is like a cold that when has had time to numb, it sucks out the feeling as well.

And I've notice this in many parts of my life and in many different circumstances. If I don't deal with my sin in certain areas of my life, I start to see apathy and a numbing of my heart. I don't feel like it's so bad anymore. The greatness of offence does not seem as great anymore, and I start to become desensitized to it. And that is a slippery slope. When that happens, backsliding is not far. So I pray that God would give me grace, even in my sin. Not only to detect it and resist it, but to KEEP ON ABHORING IT. I pray God, that you give me the desire to love you so, that my hate for sin remains strong. I don't want my heart to fall numb, to slip past feeling.

Ephesians 4:17

2006-04-02T21:36:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 4:17 "Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds."

First we must remember Paul is writing to a group of Gentiles, so in essence he is saying "remember what you used to do, and don't do those things." He is saying that as Christians they must set themselves apart from their old lifestyle. That reminds me of what we are called when we first believe in the Gospel, we are a "new creation" we must put away the things of the flesh and put on the things of the Spirit. I think this is first and foremost to give glory to God through our works and to sanctify us, and secondly I think this is a great evangelistic tool. When people see the Power of God working in our lives, to physically change the way we live, it is a testament to how real the Truth of the Gospel is. So how do I set myself apart from the rest of the world? I think that is something we should all think about? If someone I have never met, sees me with my roommates, will I be set apart, will that person say, "he lives for God" or "he truly loves God" I would say that I do not set myself apart from the flesh very much at all. So that is just on the outside, what about the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus is teaching that the thing that really matters is the heart, so even though on the outside I don't set myself apart very much, what people cannot see is not very different either. I am sinful to the core. But once again we are "new creations" we have been given a "new heart" not one made of stone. So God is working in us, we must be patient, so that our trials and tribulations will be "complete, lacking in nothing." I need to be much more diligent in prayer, for it is God's work within me, and not me who is working, so I need to petition to Him to change my desires. And always remember that "He who started a good work within you, will bring it to completion on the day of our Lord Christ Jesus," the work will get done, and it will be done by God, I am glad I do not have to rely on myself to do it, because I would fail miserably. I do. So I guess, we need to submit to Him, we need to "lay our burdens on Him" for "His yoke is light" trust in Him for the work to be done, enjoy God and a free life in Him and from Him, and let Him take care of the work within us, don't worry about yourself and where I am in my faith, just focus on Christ, enjoy Him and His gifts, praise Him for Himself and His gifts, and the rest will "fall into place".

I want to love Jesus so much, I want to enjoy Him so much, I want my worship to burn so brightly, that the world sees how special He is, not just to me but to everyone, and I want that to set me apart.

Ephesians 4:13

2006-03-30T10:51:00.000-08:00

Ephesians 4:13 "until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,"

Ok so what is he talking about, if you look back in verse 12, he is talking about "building up the body of Christ,". So this building up of the body is from what it sounds like will get us to the point of Heaven, it is what gets us to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that reminds me of Philippians 1:6 when Paul says about Jesus "he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." So that is when we die, and are going to Heaven we have been made perfect at that point. So Ephesians points out just how important the body is to all believers, it is essential to a Christian life. We as humans and especially as Christians are not made to be secluded, we are to be brought up by other believers, taught, loved, and guided. When I read this it just makes me want to be so much more involved with other believers, I want to meet new people, I want to be involved. It is also encouraging to see that God loves us so much to provide a way for us to be brought up, to be taught by other sinners, but yet this amazing power and truth that Jesus has given us overcomes our sin (in a way). He uses us broken cisterns for His great work, what an honor, just think you are essential to other believers faith.

Ephesians 4:1

2006-03-30T10:49:00.000-08:00

Ephesians 4:1 "I therefore a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,"

First off it seems weird that basically he says, since I am a prisoner I suggest you do things that I have done, assuming Paul walked in a manner worthy of His calling. I think this is a fair assumption. Wouldn't it be natural to avoid being a prisoner? But Paul thinks it is great, once again he doesn't say he is a prisoner of Rome, but for the Lord, there is a high calling to be a prisoner for the Lord and even if we aren't in a jail cell we can be a prisoner for the Lord, and we should, we should be completely taken in with Jesus. We should subject our every thought and action to Him. And this is a good thing, he is urging us to do this, Romans 8:28 "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good", it seems contradictory but being a prisoner for the Lord is good for us. Plus it gives glory to God which is never bad. Second when he says "walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called" it makes me wonder what is this manner. Colossians 1:10 "walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God" So from that I would take that to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord we should bear fruit in all that we do, and I think ultimately the only way we can do that is if our heart is in the right spot, we need to be humble (which coincidently is in Ephesians 4:2) and do all things to the glory of God and in a sense of praise and worship. Phil 1:27 "Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ", so our lives must be worthy of the gospel, once again we do not deserve the gospel by any means of ourselves, we need to rest on Jesus' grace, but once we are under His protection and we wear the Robe of His salvation, we cannot defile the Robe by doing evil things, we have to walk in a manner worthy of wearing His Salvation. Also once we have received salvation, we are worthy to bear the gospel, and we are held 'responsible' to bring his gospel to all nations Matt 24:28-30.

Ephesians 4:15

2006-03-30T08:04:00.000-08:00

Ephes. 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

My next verse for this week was one that caught my eye this morning. The small phrase that is underlined, "speaking the truth in love", hit me hard. It is something that I really need to work on. Thress things it commands:

1. It commands us to SPEAK THE TRUTH. This is something that alone is hard at many moments in our lives. Sometimes I'm afraid to spread the gospel and tell people the truth, for fear of strange looks, or fear of saying something stupid, or other. But one thing this verse says: we NEED to speak the truth. I need to speak the truth.

2. It commands us TO LOVE. If it is not explecit in this verse alone, it at least reminds us of other places in the Bible that do directly command us to love. Love your neighbors, love your wives, love your enemies, love... . I often walk through my day not thinking about anything else, just my school work, or my plans for tonight, or whatever. If I loved people as the Bible commands, I would stop to think sometimes about how I'm affecting them in action or word. I would care for them more, think about them more, and how I can seek to show the love of Christ to them. Please pray for me. I'm lacking much at this. And I'm sure if we look at our Good Shephard, that is one thing that was always on His mind.

3. The last thing it commands is for us to LOVE but doing it in TRUTH, and to tell the TRUTH but all the while in LOVE. I once heard someone say, "Truth without love is too hard, and love without truth is too soft." But we know that Jesus Christ used just the right ingredients. Sometimes it is almost impossible for me to do both. I either consciously try to make myself hard and emotionless so that I am able to build up enough courage to say the truth without anyone caring. Or I try to suppress the truth and say only nice things so as to not offend anyone, so fulfilling my commission to love. It's a lot easier to do one or the other. But putting them together, I've not learnt how yet. Pray that Christ would give me the courage without sacrificing love, and the care without foregoing the truth.

Brian

Ephesians 4:7-16

2006-03-30T07:58:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

The verses that I would ike to highlight are vv. 7 and 16, which are in enboldened below.

Verse seven talks about each of us being given grace according the measure which Christ gives us. It seems to imply that all of us are built differently, wtih different graces, different gifts, and different strengths. It makes sense that this interpretation is accurate as one moves through the whole passage. For then Paul goes on to say that God created different offices and positions in the church which have different responsibilities and gifts (apostls, prophets, etc.). And because we are created with different strenghts and gifts, the passage concludes aliking us to a body with different body parts, yet working together.

In this light, I feel comfort. A sort of sovereign comfort that comes from only knowing that God knows exactly what He is doing in each of us. I feel comfort in knowing that even though I (or anyone else) is different, we are designed especially for a certain purpose. So we are not different like odd defects in a controlled assembly line, but we are different like expensive specialty parts that are best at what we do for our specific and respective purposes.

V. 16 compels us to see ourselves in a true light - that even though we are very expensive and very well designed, we are nothing if we hort our gifts for only ourselves. We are made to edify and build up the body, to use our gifts to help the other parts of the body who don't have our specific strengths. A car part that is expensive is useless if it is not in unity and FIT TOGETHER neatly in the car. A piston cannot win a race on it's own. And me and you cannot finish this race on our own. We need others' strengths and gifts.

Brian

Ephes. 4:1-16 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, [2] With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; [3] Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. [4] There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; [5] One Lord, one faith, one baptism, [6] One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

[7] But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. [8] Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. [9] (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? [10] He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) [11] And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; [12] For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: [13] Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: [14] That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; [15] But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: [16] From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

What is this place?

2006-03-30T06:37:00.000-08:00

This is a place where we can look at what we have each individually learned over the last half of Ephesians. By the very nature of the site anyone and everyone can turn up to see what we have to say. I would pray that people do run across this and get to hear the truth proclaimed, and that it would change their lives for their good and for the Glory of God Almighty.

Sunday nights and Wednesday nights should be the days that we all post something new.