Ephesians



Ephesians 1:1-2
1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:
2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you have been tracking with this Blog for very long, you will know that we have only worked on books out of the Old Testament. I confess to being endlessly fascinated by the stories of God’s people throughout history and seeing Him move in the lives of these heroes never grows old for me. But, there is an equally interesting story found in the pages of the New Testament where we discover the fruition of all those Old Testament prophecies in the person of Jesus Christ. While all of the Old Testament point forward to His coming, the New points back at His work.

For the next few weeks, we will take up the book of Ephesians. This letter was written by the Apostle Paul while he was in prison in Rome. He had spent 3 years living in Ephesus and had established a thriving church there. This letter goes to them as an encouragement and as instruction. His words ring just as applicable for us today as they did almost 2,000 years ago to the brand new church there. The book is 6 chapters long and divides into two sections. Chapter 1-3 deal with the plan of salvation through Christ and chapter 4-6 deal with our response to the grace that God extends to us. The verses are rich and detailed, hopefully providing some interesting conversation. As a devotional practice, challenge yourself to read a chapter a day. But, don’t stop after 6 days. Go back and start the process again. Allow the words to sink into your bones and dwell on them. Repeated readings will assist you with this process and make Ephesians one of your favorite books!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

יהוה שָׁמַר--Yahweh Shamar (God Watches)

Image
Psalm 121 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. There are numerous passages I cling to when stress takes over my life. I would be hard pressed to declare a favorite, but this psalm would come close. So this morning I listened to Psalm 121 about 20 times as I meditated through the verses. First, I want to point out that the word or idea of shamar appears in every verse expect 6. The NIV uses the word "watch" while the ESV uses "keep". The...
Read more

Excusez-moi

Image
2 Kings 23:31-37 31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. 33 And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34 And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there. 35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco. 36 Jehoiakim was twenty-fiv...
Read more

Narrow Door

Image
Luke 13:22-30 22 He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them , 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ 28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. 29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at tabl...
Read more