Ephesians 2:11-22;

Paul says something here, that we need to hear:

Those people on the streets, those people on those shows, singing that music, in that bar, in that night club, that teenager with the child... You were there once. You have only one difference from them, you have Jesus. Why do I like this little bit? Because it is humbling, we realize, we are not above them. But, we have been brought near to Christ' blood.

Now, where Paul says that Christ is our peace, in this context he does not mean peace in troubled times (though Christ is our comfort and peace in those times).
At the fall, peace between God and man was destroyed, the Priest had to go to God for us. In fact, in the temple there was a physical barrier that separated where the Priest' could go and where "commoners" could not.
Christ restored this peace, broke that middle wall, and gave us direct relation to God. Christ is our peace, with Christ, we are "cool" with God.

 To God, we are no longer strangers and foreigners, we are citizens and Saints... in the house of God. And we, in our faith have been built by the Apostles, Prophets, with Christ as our cornerstone.

Christ is our cornerstone, we are built, like a house, in our faith, with the Gospel (the Apostles and Prophets)
 as the materials, so that we can be a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit.

Thanks for reading,

John Mark,

Ehpesians 2:1-10;

I love the beginning words, for every Christian these are like gold!

And He made you ALIVE.
You are alive, you are a living creature, you are not some machine having to be pushed to and fro, you have a choice. You are alive and kickin'! You may not be kicking very high, but at least you are kicking!

Then he goes on to say, exactly what God took you from, and what your former death really looked like. Remember just a bit ago, how I said that you were not a machine being pushed to and fro?? Well, that is what your former death was like. You had no choice, at first, Satan told you to do something, and you did it. Afterwards, it was natural, he barely had to nudge you. You saw sin, and you knew nothing but that sin, so to it you went. So he mentions all of these things that we as Christians were, and it looks pretty bad.

But, God jumps in. God, He who is rich in mercy because of His love. Not just any love. His GREAT Love. Now, where Paul says that He made us alive with Christ. I don't know if that is simbolisiom, or if he meant that when Christ rose from the dead that the Sacrifice had come to completion. So, we were made alive with Christ. I honestly don't have any other theories on that. Let me know what you think!

God raised us up, we are, in truth, vile disgusting people. But God raised us up, and made us righteous in His eyes. He did this, as we saw in the last chapter, because it brings Him pleasure. He wants to show us His grace, and how far it abounds. For we have been saved by Grace, and NOT by works. Because if we could have achieved Righteousness by works, then why in the world, would we even care about Jesus???

I love this next verse:

For we are, HIS WORKMANSHIP. We are His, He made us! We are His masterpeice, the pinnicale of creation. We are His image bearers. We were created for good works.

So, here is my challenge to you, and myself. Start living your life, striving for those good works. Not to earn your way to heaven, please no! But because it pleases God. We are His image, and if we let that image become more vivid, then more people might come to Him.

As David Platt said in His book Radical, bringing someone to Christ is "A cause worth living for, and a cause worth dying for."

Thanks for reading,

John Mark,

Ephesians 1:15-23

Now, before I begin again, you must know that I do not claim to be some great Bible Scholar, I am not super wise and what not. In all truth, what I write, is just what runs through my head as I read.

I love how Paul begins, and when he talks about the first time he heard of their faith; he doesn't just say: I did give thanks. He says; "I still do! I give thanks and always pray for you."
Then he gets more specific.

When he makes mention of them he asks God to give them wisdom, and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
The eyes of our understanding. When you look at the Scriptures, do you always understand everything?? I do not, I look at it sometimes and it blows me away. I just don't get it sometimes, that is what Paul was praying about. That the Christians in Ephesus would have more understanding, of God and His word.
The Hope of God's calling, the hope that not only is Christ coming back as King of ALL. But also, that He is going to bring us home. To Him in heaven, and not tossed aside, as trash. (If you want, I'll elaborate on this in a later post.)
Not only the hope of His calling, of our reward, but of His power! Exceeding power which He demonstrated, when He raised Christ from the dead. He raised Him from the dead. Jesus had been dead for 3 days, where was He while He was in the grave???? I have no idea. I have heard it said before that during those three days He was in hell, I will not say yes or no to that, for I do not know.

But He raised Him from the dead, and this, this next part is our hope! He placed Christ above all things! Above Satan, above the Demons, above the world, above all that beats us down! God is in control!

How do we know this? The scriptures, that is exactly what Paul prayed, that these people, would understand this, so that they may have hope. But how can they understand, if they don't read?

Here's my prayer, that each of us, would not only read, but that we would understand. And that through reading, and understanding, that we come closer to Christ, and we set our hearts to fulfill His mission!

Ezra 7:10;
"For the Lord had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel."

Pray to God to prepare your heart to seek His law. And when you seek it, do it. After you do it, teach it.

That verse is something I need to work at. Seeking after God. There are somethings I need to do differently, and that is my goal. To grow more in Christ this year than last year. And last year was Spiritually the best year of my life. God can outdo that, He is God.

Thanks for reading,

John Mark,

Ephesians 1:4--14;

This is pretty much what goes through my mind as I read these verses:

He chose us, He chose us before the foundation of the world. This passage is mostly on Predestination, for me it can be a very edgy subject. It says that He chose us.

Here is how Salvation works: We are all born in condemnation. We are headed to hell, yes for our sin, but more specifically, for our rejection of God. We all know God. A common question is; Will people who have never had the chance to hear the Gospel, will they go to hell? The answer, yes.

Harsh? No, they are receiving the same punishment, for the same thing that everyone that goes to hell is being punished for. Rejecting God. But how can they reject a God of whom they have not known of? Well, in Romans 1:19--20, Paul nails that. Of course they have heard, God reveals Himself in creation, these things he has made known to us that we may have no excuse. We have rejected God! We have no excuse, all who are created, have a knowledge of God, and have rejected God.

So that is the second step to Salvation, first we are born condemed but God reveals Himself to us.

The third step is our choice. You see, God, in all of His infinite wisdom and power, has predestined that He would show Himself to us, but in all of this predestination, He gives us the choice, to accept or reject. Accept God, through Christ, or Reject God and Christ.

In the debate of freewill versus complete predestination, I am in the middle. There are certainly several things predestined, but how God made love, love is a choice. And Jesus said that we must love Him with all our heart, love cannot be forced, but, it can be inspired.

So He chose us, He chose to save us.
He chose to save us because pleased Him, it brought Him pleasure. It glorifies Him, because of His grace, and it is because of His grace that we are redeemed. It's His blood that washes us, It doesn't paint over our sins in order to hide them, It washes us!
We have been predestined us, according to His purpose, so that we could live lives that bring praise to Him.

After we have heard, we accept, and we are sealed, and that glorifies God.

So, we are born sinners, God has revealed Himself to us, we hear, and we either accept or reject.

Romans 10:14--15;

Thanks for reading,

John Mark,