Expository Thoughts: Ephesian 1 – Every Spiritual Blessing
The Christian life is not about gaining more blessing, but entering more deeply into the reality of the blessing we already have, and living in the light of it. Paul’s response is thanksgiving and prayer. Thanksgiving for what God has done for us and prayer that we may have every greater knowledge of God.
This morning I was reading Ephesians 1 in my personal devotions. This is one of the most glorious passages in the Bible and my personal favourite. It is what I come back to time and again when I want assurance and encouragement.
It reminds us of the objective fact that we are blessed in Christ. Not just slightly blessed but fully blessed. We may not feel this, but the reason is because we tend to focus on present material comfort, or tangible ministry successes, as the sign of God’s blessing, whereas Ephesians reminds us our blessings are spiritual and heavenly. They are present but look ahead to our eschatological future.
Broadly there are 4 key blessings – each with an outcome.
We have been chosen from eternity. This results in our adoption as God’s sons. A secure status in him.
We have been redeemed. This results in being set free from sin – both forgiveness and release from its power.
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A Call Out to Physicians
Written by Blaise Edwards, M.D. |
Thursday, December 16, 2021
Those physicians who are authoritatively forcing the shot on all patients have blood on their hands. They should know better, especially regarding pregnant women and children. Never in my lifetime have we abdicated testing, crossed our fingers, and said, “Well, so far, so good. Let’s give it a shot on pregnant women.” There was always a significantly higher burden of safety here.When I was in medical school, I had the privilege of working in a large inner-city hospital, located right between two rival gangs. There were no emergency room residents, so trauma was handled by the general surgery residents. As such, I had firsthand views of some significant trauma. Each “emergency room” was basically curtains separating a large open space into cubicles. One day, a report came over the radio, we would receive a wounded officer and a wounded gang member. The officer was unfortunately shot in the back and paralyzed, the gang member shot in the knee, but otherwise fine. They were placed side by side, but with the curtain open, giving more room for triage. I’ll never forget that the officer, with a neck brace on, couldn’t move, but his eyes were constantly looming rightward, toward the gang member. The gang member could turn his head, and he was giving the officer his best death stare, no remorse.
Someone whispered what I was thinking, basically the desire to withhold treatment and kick the gang member out of the hospital, or actually harm him. But what we did, and what the trauma team did, was to treat him like every other patient. In essence, we did our jobs.
So now, in current times, we have doctors refusing to see “unvaccinated” people. Really? That is the hill these physicians want to die on? We have an experimental gene therapy that did not go through full proper testing, underwent data manipulation so they could get their precious EUA, and doesn’t do anything it is supposed to. On top of that, it is seemingly harming, both directly through injury and indirectly through immune weakness, lots of innocent people. And these supposedly “trained” doctors, because they are too scared to stand up to the administration and their peers, are not only allowing this disaster to be carried out but actually arguing with patients about the purported benefit of the therapy.
It doesn’t take long to find out that safety has been shelved and replaced by profit motives. Why is there no data safety review board? Why are the drug companies and the government (in other words, the industry) the ones reviewing their own investigations? The safety review board should be independent and beyond reproach. This is not happening.
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The Object of God’s Delight
The Apostle John says everything in this world was created through Christ (John 1). With that understanding, picture Him in His “workshop” creating the world. See Him “rejoicing always” before the Father and “rejoicing in the world, His earth.” Then, see Christ creating man, the apex of His creation, in the image of God. You will see Him “having (His) delight in the sons of men.”
I am a pastor, but I am also a shade-tree carpenter, like my grandad and dad before me. I don’t spend much time in my shop now, but when I do, I love to create. The things that I make, as crude as they are compared to real carpenters, are delightful to me.
God’s Joy
Did you know that God delights in what He creates? That it brings Him joy? And that includes you?In Proverbs, Chapter 8, wisdom is personified. But there can be little question that this is the wisdom coming from God and, many believe, a reference to Christ Himself. Notice His joy and delight…
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Satan’s Attack, Turned Back
Written by Reuben M. Bredenhof |
Saturday, April 23, 2022
The devil is hard at work, trying to ruin your faith with his lies. With all the mess of this world, he is trying to break your focus, wanting you to react with anger, fear, or despair. The short-term forecast seems bleak for Christians. But God takes the long view. He sees every outcome—even Christ’s final triumph. The devil has inspired many hostile movements and godless trends, but all will crumble even as the foundations of God’s kingdom remain firm.A few people stand out during the last few days of Jesus’s life.
There is Peter, the brash disciple who denied his Lord three times. We remember Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, the hand-washer and crowd-pleaser.
And what would Jesus’s last days be without Judas Iscariot? This disciple is infamous for his greed and disloyalty. For the price of a common slave, Judas volunteered to hand over the Lord whom he had followed for three years. And this traitor met a fitting end. After Jesus was arrested and condemned, Judas was stricken with guilt, and he went and hanged himself.
It’s hard to forget Judas. He was a faithless traitor who, in the end, got what he deserved. But is it so simple? Was the Iscariot just a wicked unbeliever who at first followed Christ, but whose heart turned against his master?
When we study Scripture, we shouldn’t just look at the persons on its pages, seeing only their individual characters and stories. But we remember the cosmic conflict always playing out, the battle between God and Satan. This deadly conflict is seen in the lives of ordinary people—people like Judas, and Peter, and you and me.
The satanic dynamic of Judas’s activity is seen in John 13:26-27, “Having dipped the bread, Jesus gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him.”
The Gospels tell often about the poor souls possessed by demons. Servants of Satan would enter and torment a person and cause grievous harm. But here the prince of demons himself gets to work, and even enters one of the followers of Christ!
This means the betrayal of Jesus isn’t just a sad story about broken friendship or the dangers of greed. Those things are part of it, but it’s vital to see that Judas doesn’t act alone. He has help from below. He has been supernaturally empowered so that he can carry out a vile work.
Satan enters him when the moment is right. For after a third year of ministry, one marked by growing opposition, Jesus has finally come to Jerusalem. The hatred of the leaders is reaching the boiling point. By now they’ll do anything to get rid of Jesus.
So Satan recruits someone to make possible his arrest. Judas was useful, because he’d be able to keep an eye on Jesus’s whereabouts during the Passover feast when there were big crowds in Jerusalem. Then at the end, Judas could point out the desired prey to the hunters.
And as planned, Judas reports to the leaders that Jesus will be in the garden at night. Then in the darkness and confusion of Gethsemane, Christ is betrayed.
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