Essays in Ephesians #1
Introduction
MANY YEARS AGO, at my pastor’s request, I wrote a weekly essay on Ephesians. Ushers handed it out with the Sunday morning church bulletins. My husband said the pages were publishable. So our pastor (Tom Severson) and and I put out a fleece. if Murray Fisher, a publishing friend, said the manuscript was worth it, I’d publish; if not I’d forget it.
I was traveling over sixty-miles per hour on a Chicago area interstate when Murray called. This was back in the bag phone days—before we knew it was dangerous to answer exciting phone calls while speeding along with interstate traffic. Murray was filled with enthusiasm and encouragement. He said, “I’ve been reading it. It’s good. It’s better than many books on bookstore shelves today. You should publish.”
Then life slowed me down; stuff happened. Years passed, but I never forgot the essays. They’ve felt like unfinished business for almost a decade. I hope to revise and publish them all on Given Word Now.
Some essays are personal devotions, others are group prayers; some are exegetical, others tell stories. Most illustrations are true or partly true; a few are fictional. I’ve drawn from personal experience, from research, and from reading. They instruct, exhort, inform, stir self-examination and invite worship. The best are inspired by God and transcend time and place.
May these given words encourage you with God’s Word—to read, study, understand, memorize, meditate on, believe and live—one day at a time.
Ephesians 1:1-3
1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
1:2 Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: KJV
It was 62 A.D. and Paul was imprisoned in Rome when he wrote these words. Where did his inspiration come from? He attributed it to Jesus.
But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. — Galatians 1:11-12
Luke, who tradition says got his information from Peter and other eyewitnesses, quoted Jesus as saying,
The Kingdom of God is within you. — Luke 17:21
Paul knew well that Kingdom of God lives within us. His life’s mission was to share its message of love, to pass on to others its hope, mercy, grace and peace. God’s grace and peace truly was good news back then. Everywhere he went Paul invited men and women to love and serve the King, to bring Jesus’ Kingdom down to earth. Sending grace and peace to the Ephesians was not a literary form for Paul. He actually had grace and peace to send. (See my post on 1 Thessalonians 1:1)
As believers welcome the Holy Spirit and allow Him to move in and through us, the Kingdom of God breaks into earthly realms with the presence and power of God. Through the activity of the Holy Spirit alive within us, the attributes of His Kingdom, His grace and peace, can become ours. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we, like Paul, can access all the spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
Sometimes that’s hard to believe. Our inquiring natural minds can’t see or adjust to spiritual truths. We want proof. Evidence. And sometimes, when the evidence is in our face, when a miraculous healing occurs by the power of God or a divine intervention changes the course of events we, like the Pharisees, can stumble. That’s because carnal man, that is, the human mind and reasoning, does not understand or receive spiritual realities.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. — Romans 8:5-7 NKJV
God’s laws and truth are faith based. Christian faith is more than a one-time conversion experience; faith is a way of life. Believers grow in faith by choosing, by listening to the Holy Spirit, by following His lead, by believing in God’s Word, and by receiving His love. Faced with challenges and distractions, it takes moment by faith and surrender to God to access the Kingdom of God within. Believers can live and move and have our beings in God by faith. We can follow in Jesus’ footsteps and learn to do only what God is doing. Then, in moment by moment agreement with God, His Kingdom is released in our midst; we receive all the spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
In Christ Jesus! According to Clement of Alexandria, “We are born to have connection with God.” (Attributed, source unknown.) When that connection is secure, we are able to know the fullness of heaven on earth.
Can you take a moment or two, right now, to reflect on the blessings of God’s presence? Imagine Jesus walking into the room and recall what you know about Him. He was filled with love, joy, peace, wisdom, understanding, patience, insight, and forgiveness. He healed the hurting and helped their friends and families. He submitted to God in humble love, He faced His enemies in fearless courage and uncompromising strength. He loved them, in truth, even unto death.
More thoughts on “. . . all spiritual blessings”
God the Father of Jesus Christ has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; we receive them by faith.
Father, help us to believe and trust until we grow in faith to receive all you have for us. We need Your spiritual blessings in heavenly places down here on earth—here and now, today.
A living, loving God can and does make His presence felt, can and does speak to us in the silence of our hearts, can and does warm and caress us till we no longer doubt that He is near, that He is here.
Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel,
©1990 by Brennan Manning, Multnomah Books, Sisters, OR 97599
As Amy Carmichael wrote,
Have you ever watched with wonder a bird glide in the high air? ‘If the wings are held outstretched without motion there will be an uplift if the air is full of little motions, swirls and quiverings. ‘Let us practice using the ‘motions, swirls and quiverings’ of life as means to attain to quietness of spirit.
God, who has made sea-gulls so beautiful
Cleaving the sky,
So let my service be—fearless and poised and sure—
Teach me to fly.God who has taught sea-gulls to soar and rest
On empty space,
So let me rise to You, dwell in the heavenlies,
Proving Your grace.”
