Ephesians 2:11-13 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands – 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
 
WE can think of many ways we can be near someone. We can text, call, email, go to, welcome in, sit down with, talk with, celebrate with, and even cry with. We have a basic need to discover what we have in common with new people we meet. Made in the image of a relational God, mankind has an innate need to be with one another in some common bond.
    One of the greatest bonds, as I understand it, can come with those who have been to war together. They are trained to protect each other. “Blood brothers” is a common term for men who have fought and strived together in war’s deadly onslaught.
    This “blood brothers” war image is one way we can describe what it is to be one in Jesus’ blood. Waging war against the Evil One, Jesus volunteered to go at the Father’s command to bleed out on the cross. This was the Father’s plan in our Lord’s final battle on earth against Satan and his evil soldiers. The Lord of Heaven’s armies stood firm as “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5) David prophesied Jesus’ bloodletting this way: Psalms 22:14 “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast.”
    These are grim reminders of the awful suffering Jesus endured for his own creation. But then we see the reason for his bleeding. See our resurrected Lord say this to Mary Magdalene in the garden of his resurrection: John 20:17 “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers.” 
    Do you hear? The Savior, the Lord of Hosts, the King of Kings, who was wounded and brutalized for your sins said, “my brothers” and “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” By Jesus’ blood, we are wondrously drawn into a deep, personal oneness with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the Father’s plan, in the Son’s sacrifice, in the Spirit’s power, we can call Jesus, “Brother.” We can be one with Jesus, near him for eternity as his “blood sister” and “blood brother” because he has fought and died for us.
    Now, a Jesus has died for you, will you draw near to him?
 
Prayer: Thank you, Jesus, that I can be one with you because your blood poured out for me on the cross. In your precious, saving blood I rejoice, amen.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
 
“WHAT do we do?” is often a difficult question to answer as it relates to following Jesus. We preachers often point to the church to say, “This is what you must do if you truly follow Jesus.” Yet, the doing, the “works” of our lives are not the reason for our salvation. As Paul so powerfully writes, our works do not save us. God’s grace gives us the gift of faith. It’s as if someone has put money into your bank account, credited your account, and now you get to work on spending it. God has deposited a living faith into your soul. You didn’t earn it, work for it. Instead, through God’s gift of faith to you is your salvation.
    In response to our Father’s extreme grace, we are called to “good works” of obeying Jesus’ commands, living out the gift of eternal life in all we are (Notice, I said, “all we are” not “all we do”). God’s faith gift has made us new creatures in Christ. We are to respond to God’s grace with loving devotion. Working in Jesus is a purposeful, loving way of life to move ever more intimately to be one with Jesus.  
      This is the great difference between Christianity and every other religion, every other cult in the world. Each religion outside of Christianity and far too many “denominations” who call themselves “Christian” also wonder, “Am I doing enough to gain eternal life? Am I being good enough?”  
    But our Lord through Paul’s words here and throughout the entire Bible emphatically wants us to know we are not good enough on our own. And we cannot work our way to Heaven. See how Peter answered the jailer who said in Acts 16:39 "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Peter’s response was Acts 16:31 “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
    Jesus, too, said this in John 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” Do you see? The “doing” begins with the faith. The faith begins with God’s gift to you. Your works, the actions of your life, then flow from your salvation.
    Your faith does not begin with what you do, but what you do begins with your faith. 
    Yes, what joy you should know as this truth sinks into your soul. You believe because God has gifted you to do so! He is the Workman, who has formed you to be his own. As he has given you physical life, he has given you spiritual life. You are not able to do this on your own any more than a wrench, a shovel, a knife, a spoon or any other hand tool can act on its own. Someone must make the tool. And someone must use it. You are God’s workmanship, formed by God to believe in God. You are gloriously formed by God to do his good work in the Kingdom of God.
    In God’s power and only in God’s power, you are one in good works with God because he has saved you. Rejoice in God’s workmanship in your life. Work with God. Work with his church. Respond with joy to your salvation, which God has freely formed in you.
 
Prayer: Father in Heaven, thank you for your great, eternal gift. May I work in your will to be your tool of salvation for many more you have chosen. In Jesus’ name, amen.  
   

Ephesians 2:6-7 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
 
YES, we know from the Four Gospels and Acts that Jesus was raised from the dead and then seated in the power of God: Acts 7:56 And Stephen (as he was dyeing) said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” Paul, then, applies the glory of Jesus’ resurrection and power to all who believe in Jesus. What a remarkable truth to know that by God’s grace we are one with Jesus, who has “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” When you sit down next to someone with whom you have a mutual love relationship, you feel as if you are one with them, don’t you? So it is with Jesus. Here are some ways we are one with Jesus as we are “seated with him in the heavenly places.”   

1. Colossians 3:1 “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Seated with Jesus, you look upon the same things he sees. You have an appetite to know your Father in Heaven. You live in the fruits of the Holy Spirit, beginning with Jesus’ love.
2. Seated with Jesus, be assured that what once happened to Jesus will one day happen to believers as well. In some way you will experience trials and persecution. You will have to take up your burdens for others. Persevere and be one with Jesus in the hard days. 2 Corinthians 4:16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 
3. Seated with Jesus, you will be resurrected to glory at Jesus’ return! Romans 8:11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
4. Seated with Jesus, you will have a new mind to think as Christ. Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
5. Seated with Jesus, you will have a new ability to live free from the control of Satan. Romans 8:1-4 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

    These are more realities of God’s great love to make you one with him. In his mercy, he graciously conforms you more and more into the likeness of Christ. Live in your wondrous gift from your most merciful God.
 
Prayer: Jesus, as I am seated with you, may I be joyful in all things. In your name, amen.  
 
Next Teaching, April 30 – traveling to Wisconsin this week to check on my mom and family.
 
Link to Ghana mission video: https://youtu.be/gRtOEGfkRpc
 
And correct link to Ghana mission report: http://www.onewithgod.website/ghana-ministry.html

Ephesians 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved.
 
THE One Problem of all mankind is that we are born dead to God. Then comes the “but”. This three-letter word is a simple conjunction in the English language, but it is a word that is a life-transforming transition in biblical language. Paul ends verse 3 describing how those saved into Jesus’ church were one with all mankind under sin’s wrath. Then he says, “But God.”
    You were failing the course, but then a great tutor saved you to pass and succeed in your goals. You were sick with failed kidneys, but then a transplant saved you. You were broke financially, but then a new job saved you. You were signing the divorce papers, but then God’s wisdom restored you. You were mourning your spouse’s death, but then gracious friends supported you.
    You were born dead to God, but God loves you too much to keep you there! His love lights up his mercy. His mercy ignites his grace. His grace says, “I will make a way for you to be one with God.”
    And so God acted. The Creator, who formed all life, has acted to re-form you from dead in sins, separated from God, to be alive in Jesus, one with God. “Therefore,” Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
    Yes, behold – or see – that you were born dead to God. Then behold how the one reason you are no longer dead to God. God’s astonishing grace has made you alive in Jesus. Rejoice and be glad for God’s eternal gift of salvation. Seek to be one with the One who saw that you were dead in sin. Then rejoice that he said, “But I will make you alive in Jesus.”
 
Prayer: From Psalms 8:1 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. I praise you for your love, mercy and grace to make me alive, one with you. In Jesus, my Savior, I thank you. Amen.

Ephesians 1:22-23 God placed all things under Christ’s rule. He appointed him to be ruler over everything for the church. 23 The church is Christ’s body. It is filled by Christ. He fills everything in every way. (New International Reader’s Version)
 
PAUL’S words point to and remind us of this remarkable understanding of God’s reason for filling the church with himself. The Father formed the church under Jesus’ headship to be the world’s view of the Son. When people are wondering, “Who is Jesus?” they should be able to go to his church and discover a true, full answer to that eternal question.
    But this can only happen as the church sees Jesus as the head of his body. Certainly we can understand this “head-body” illustration. Your head is the control center of all your body does. Through your eyes and your ears, you respond to your external stimuli with your voice and your actions. Your brain tells your feet and hands what to do. And even more, without a conscious thought, your brain stimulates all parts of your body to function.
    What happens then when connections between the brain and the body break down The body cannot fully function, can it? In a like manner the church as Jesus’ body, must strive to be fully connected to Jesus, the head. Christ’s fullness – all he is as Teacher, Healer, Savior and Lord – must be the source of the church’s actions. Established in a broken world, the church must truly and fully use its God-ordained power to respond to the world. When the church sees people in need, it is to respond in Jesus. When the church hears lies regarding Jesus, it must tell the truth in Jesus. When God’s enemies threaten to destroy or diminish the church, it must stand firm to protect Jesus, its Head. As Jesus “fills everything in every way”, his church must tell of mankind’s sin, Jesus’ sacrifice and Jesus’ salvation, so that more souls will be filled with Jesus’ eternal forgiveness.
     How’s your church doing? Are you connected to the Head? Do you seek the complete Christ to fully direct his body’s actions?
 
Prayer: Jesus, Head of your church, forgive us for the many times our sin-stained minds wanted to control your body. Teach us to be your faithful church, responding to your full authority. In Your name we pray, amen.

Ephesians 1:15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
 
WITH Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, I pray for you: “Heavenly Father, because I have heard of your people’s faith in the Lord Jesus, and because I know how much they love all those in your church, I continually give thanks for each person receiving these words. I pray I remember them in my prayers, so that you Father, the glorious God of our Lord Jesus Christ, may give to each one a spirit of wisdom to reveal Jesus more fully. Give each one eyes in their hearts to clearly see and know the hope to which you have called them. Awaken each person to know the rich and glorious inheritance of life eternal. Give them grace and power to experience the immeasurable greatness of your power you freely offer to them. Teach them to believe in your great power you worked in Christ when you raised him from the dead. Help them to understand and believe you seated Jesus at your right hand in the heavenly places. Yes, for them, you seated Jesus far above all to give him all rule and authority and power and dominion. In your power, Father, you have given Jesus the name that is above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. Thank you, that Jesus is Lord over all. I pray in his name he is Lord over each one receiving this. Amen.”
 
Thank you for praying for our family. I’ll continue with Ephesians on April 21.   

Ephesians 1:13-14 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, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.  
 
THIS is the 8th day on the first sentence of Ephesians! One aspect of Scripture is the power and economy of its language. So much is said in a few words. We cannot count the words and volumes written of the Bible. Our Lord certainly gave us much to learn. Our minds must always be eager to see what next truth God will offer to us.
    In these two verses Paul writes of how we learn God’s Word. This is a comforting and encouraging summary of our faith. Here we understand our knowledge is revealed to and sealed in us by the Holy Spirit.
     First, you know and believe the gospel because you have “heard the word of truth”. Sin entered the world when Satan caused Eve and Adam to doubt the truth. From that time on, mankind’s sin-filled souls have asked, “What is truth?” Everywhere we have sought the truth, even within our own minds, but we have refused too often to learn the true Word of God. Tragically, the world strives after vain and useless things because mankind is born to believe the Liar’s lies. Falsehoods flood the world. Confusion, mistrust and emptiness create restless and broken hearts.
    In contrast, we find great comfort and hope to know in our hearts that God has truly revealed the truth through his Spirit. As Jesus is recorded to have prayed in John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” he prayed we would be set apart from the world’s lies and be safe in God’s truth. Paul affirms this. God’s Word has, indeed, set us apart from the world as he tells the church that we “were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”
    Yes, as you confess Jesus to be your Lord, be assured the Spirit has awakened you, set you apart and sealed you in your faith. As God has predestined you to faith, he will keep you in your faith. The Spirit “guarantees our inheritance” sealing us in Jesus’ blood until we are fully with God in Heaven.
    Some will say you can “lose” your salvation. That is akin to saying, “You can lose the Spirit’s seal.” May it never be! Yes, we know people who confess Christ, then they live as if the world is their lord. We aren’t the judge of their salvation, but perhaps such people are not sealed. One evidence of the Sprit’s seal is his mark on the way we live. If one purposefully lives in disobedience to God with no desire to live into God’s truth, it is our work to offer him instruction, prayer and care. We must be ever faithful to love one another in the knowledge of God’s true word. Love people enough to tell them the truth.
    Indeed, none of us are free of sin. Yet, our Master has called us to “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) When we sin, we repent. When we need to know more of God, we go to the Bible. When we are asked of our faith, we eagerly respond. When we are commanded to respond to God’s call, we go. Sealed in the Spirit, you proclaim victory in Jesus as you know “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37)
    Rejoice and praise God as you are his own forever!
 
Prayer: I can scarcely thank you, Father, Son and Spirit for your great love to seal me in you forever. Amen.
 

Ephesians 1:9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
 
WE continue to move forward from Jesus’ resurrection. The past two days we have paused to consider God’s wondrous grace to save us. In his great love, he has graciously lavished his redemption into our souls. Why?
    Paul answers the “Why?” with God’s Purpose Statement: Jesus is the means to fulfil the Father’s “plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” Wow! God’s great will, his eternal purpose is to bring all things under creation into his perfect holiness. The Creator is moving his broken creation back to creation’s holy perfection.
    The beginning of this plan is expressed in God’s words to Satan at the Fall. Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” “He” is Jesus, our Savior, who will come to destroy the head – the authority – of Satan on earth. Although Satan will strike Jesus, the Savior, born of a woman (not a woman and man) will triumph.
    Then ultimately God will restore his creation in the fullness of time. Revelation 21:1-3 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” 
    Do you see God’s magnificent purpose? He states it first in Genesis, the book of beginnings. He forms the patriarchs and the prophets to proclaim the coming Messiah. Jesus comes to be the way to God’s holy perfection. Then he creates the church. Through the church, God sends apostles and teachers to prepare God’s elect for the New Heaven. One day this will be our home.
    As anyone might ask you, “What is God’s will?” you can reply, “He is working to unite all the world in the fullness, the completion of time, to be under his perfect loving care. He is moving the world to suffer no more. He is moving the world to rejoice and be glad in his glory forevermore. Would you like to be part of God’s purposeful will?”
 
Prayer: Holy Father, thank you for your remarkable purpose to save me, to restore the earth and heavens to creation’s perfection. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Ephesians 3:11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
 
PAUL explains God’s plan further. He teaches us that we have “obtained an inheritance” as God brings to salvation all he chooses to accept into his presence. Again, as stated previously, he chooses those who confess to the Father their sins and then confess Jesus Christ as Lord. (Romans 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” ­)
    Regarding “predestined” some believe that God has pre-chosen, elected, all who will be saved from eternity past. Others read “predestined” in the understanding that God has known from eternity past who will be saved. And he awaits their decision. I believe and teach the former. I understand the latter.
    The key for your salvation is that the Holy Spirit originates in you an understanding of your sin and how it separates you from God. Then he shows you the Savior as a solution for your sin. In that knowledge, you believe that Jesus has paid the deadly cost of your sin with his holy blood on the cross. God has acted to save you. As surely as you could not have been physically born without the Creator’s power, God must act to bring you out of sin’s death into the Savior’s life.
    Also, in the context of this passage, “predestined” could refer to God’s plan for the Jews. He formed his people with a plan in which he predestined them to be a nation who would be the first people group to believe in Jesus, the Messiah. From the Jews, God’s predestined plan of redemption would go forward into the Gentiles, to whom Paul is writing.            
    This Jew-to-the-world plan is what Paul means in his language of inheritance. Paul is assuring the Ephesian Gentiles that they, too, are saved in Jesus. Jesus’ act of salvation is for everyone who believes down through the ages.
    Paul and the Jews are the first fruits of the Spirit’s redeeming harvest. From the first fruits of a new crop comes the rest of the harvest. From the first fruits of the church, the harvest in the Kingdom of God has populated the world with those who call on the name of the Lord.
    We can see God’s plan of salvation as we remember that Pentecost, when the church began (Acts 2) was also called the Feast of First Fruits. It was given to the Jews to remember how God had formed them to be his people through the law. God then elected Pentecost to be the day he delivered the new harvest of the gospel of salvation through the Holy Spirit. That delivery is for all time, for all people who call on Jesus.
    This has been God’s plan from eternity past. He has said he would bring all nations under his care. And he has done so. You can believe in the God who keeps his promises.
 
Prayer: Father, your plans are so very remarkable. You established a salvation plan before time began. You are fulfilling that plan. I thank you that you have made me part of that plan. By your grace, I have been saved. In Jesus’ name I rejoice! Amen.