Day 57 - Chapter 6

Ephesians 6:12

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 

Verse 10 was first introduced to me at a vacation bible school - Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, I committed this verse to memory and it moulded me as a child until I completely understood and accepted Jesus as my Redeemer. Upon reading on the following verses, I realised how vital it is to remain strong in Him. There is a spiritual battle within us that can not be won easily if we do not have God in our lives. There are different kinds of evil that we combat with hand-in-hand, they exercise temptations that are difficult to resist that only our faith in the Son can help us win them.

That is why we need to take up the whole armour of God (verses 13-17):-

• belt of truth 
• breastplate of righteousness
• feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace
• shield of faith
• helmet of salvation (Jesus Christ)
• sword of the Spirit (the bible)   

* and prayer

Putting these on every day helps us overcome the power of the evil one. We can therefore be declared winners of this spiritual warfare all the days of our lives!

*taken from my Facebook notes

Day 56 - Chapter 5

Ephesians 5:33

Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

The couples at my local church here in London have learned so much about this "love and respect" principle in the bible. I can not say much about this as I am not a married woman as of yet :p 

But we all know very well that women in general are soft, affectionate and emotional and we know that men represent authority, strength and willpower. These two characters are somewhat opposites and have the propensity to clash. This is why verse 33 was written. Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit conveyed on what a man and woman should work on to be able to live in harmony as man and wife. 

A husband and wife relationship was used as a comparison to the relationship between Christ and the church. Just as a woman must submit to her husband and so the church must submit to Christ and a husband must love his wife just as Christ has loved the church by giving His own life for her. What a great analogy this is!

To all Christian couples out there:-

*Love for the woman 

*Respect for the man

*taken from my Facebook notes

Day 55 - Chapter 4

Ephesians 4:29

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

People who do not have the Spirit think that it's okay or even cool to say the "f" word because if they are able to do so, they think that they belong to the "it" crowd. This is not true for us Christians. We must hate speaking words that can destroy and hurt our fellow men and we must only utter edification to build-up each and one's character and to further encourage and increase faith. 

Apostle Paul continues to remind the Ephesians how to live forgiven lives. As verses 22-24 say, put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Aren't these words enough reminder for us already? Over and over again we are given the instructions on how to be holy and yet we still fall short. If we are really eager to obey the will of the Father we will strive hard to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). 

Avoiding to speak foul words is a demonstration of self-control which is a fruit of the Spirit. Remember, words of destruction and words of edification can not both come from a Christian's mouth. You have the liberty to choose, either you choose to be of God or not. As Christians, we only have one choice and that is to speak Christ! 

*taken from my Facebook notes

Day 53 & 54 - Chapter 2 & 3

I have been struggling to write the last two days but just so you know, I never stopped reading. The enemy is strong. Even in sly things like this, I believe that he finds ways so we can lose our focus, timing and commitment to read the bible and meditate. Then again, he is but a dust compared to our God, the prince of the power of the air can never win over a Christian who has surrendered his life and allowed the Lord to be in complete control. :)  

Chapter 2 and half of chapter 3 center on the life of a Christian and the unity of believers in Christ and the second half of chapter 3 conceptualizes the fullness of God's church. 

Reading Ephesians 3:17-19 makes me wonder how vast God's love is. I tried so many times to describe His love in one adjective but no matter what I do, a single word can never be sufficient. God's love remains immeasurable.

...And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

See how apostle Paul actually put it? "His love surpasses knowledge" but as people called by God to spread His love to those who have not discovered it yet, we are given the "power to grasp" it.  Don't you think this is such a great provilege for us - again? First, He called us His sons and heirs and now we are able to discern how much the Father and the Son actually love us! This is the "measure of the fullness of the church". 

*taken from my Facebook notes

Day 52 - Chapter 1

Ephesians 1:13-14

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

The Holy Spirit was described as a seal, a deposit and a guarantee. I like that word "seal"; it is synonymous to affirmation or authentication or assurance, the Lord has given us the Spirit -the seal- when we discovered our faith in Jesus Christ. And then "deposit", the easiest way to define this is by using the term "down payment" like when we buy pricey things like a house or a piece of land, we make a down payment. So deposit is something that you have that you give away to obtain something in the end. "Guarantee" is what you get when you make a deposit, the certainty that you will have what you hoped for when you make a down payment.

To sum up, the Holy Spirit was given to us and now in us as an assurance that we will inherit what God has promised, the revelation of His glory - Jesus' second coming. 

What great comfort! Have you spotted that word "inheritance"? I am pretty sure we only encounter this word when we know that some one is considered an heir to a very significant possession. Can you see where this is leading us? We are made heirs of the Kingdom of God and with that comes eternal life! 

*taken from my Facebook notes