July 23, 2023 | Ephesians 6:1-4 |
What is your parenting approach? Where did you learn how to be a mom or dad? Was it from your parents? From friends or a book? Or are you just winging it?
July 23, 2023 | Ephesians 6:1-4 |
What is your parenting approach? Where did you learn how to be a mom or dad? Was it from your parents? From friends or a book? Or are you just winging it?
February 26, 2023 | Ephesians 4:11-16 |
In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he gave them a vision for being a church that builds up believers in love, growing them to spiritual maturity in Christ Jesus. We can get a vision for being built up in love, growing up to spiritual maturity in Christ Jesus.
January 15, 2023 | Ephesians 4:17-24 |
What kind of ideas and images inhabit your mind, your thinking? Where did they come from? Do you have a mindset, a worldview, shaped by the Word of God as applied by the grace and Spirit of God? Or is your thinking shaped by the culture you’ve grown up in? The truth is, as believers, we all struggle with being “double-minded,” having competing ideas and images in our thinking. Some from God and some from the world.
God wants to renovate our thinking so that we have the mind of Christ. In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he taught believers to yield their minds, their thinking, to Christ for renewal, for transformation, for renovation. We can yield our minds, our thinking, to Christ for renovation.
August 14, 2022 | Ephesians 6:1-4 |
Parents today are worried. They’re worried about their child’s health: obesity, drug abuse, bullying, internet safety, teen pregnancy, gender dysphoria, depression, teen suicide… They’re worried about their education: public, private or home school? College? So, a lot of parenting today is worry-driven, or fear driven. Parents today feel overwhelmed and underprepared. Either because they came from a dysfunctional family themselves or because they have no foundational biblical understanding, they feel lost in their role. So, many are just winging it.
In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he told them how to parent their children in the Lord. We can follow God’s Word for parenting our children in the Lord.
August 7, 2022 | Ephesians 5:22-33 |
How is your marriage doing? Are there some areas that need a tune-up? Or maybe even a restart? The truth is we all need help with our marriage. And the best help is found in the Lord. For God has a design for marriage.
In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he gave instructions on how to follow God’s design for being the family of God. Among these, are his instructions on how to follow God’s design for marriage. We can follow God’s design for marriage.
July 24, 2022 | Ephesians 4:15-16 |
How are you and your family doing with communication? If you’re single, do you have good communication with your parents and siblings? What about with close friends? Do you ever feel lonely with no real family to talk to? If you are married, are you and your spouse experiencing the joyful oneness and intimacy that God designed for marriage? Is there unity in your family with mutual understanding?
How can we learn to communicate for mutual understanding in our families?In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he taught them to communicate for mutual understanding as the family of God. We can communicate for mutual understanding in our families.
July 17, 2022 | Ephesians 3:14-21 |
How has your family life marked you today? Some of you had a great family life growing up, but some of you are still trying to find healing from growing up in a dysfunctional family. And to be clear, no family is perfect. Every family has problems and challenges. Regardless of the kind of family you grew up in, there is hope and healing in Jesus!
In the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul prayed that believers would experience God’s blessing on the family. We can experience God’s blessing on our families.
May 2, 2022 | Ephesians 2:4-10 |
“Amazing Grace” was written by English poet and clergyman John Newton (1725–1807) and was published in 1779. It is one of the most recognizable songs in the English-speaking world. Newton wrote the words from personal experience. He grew up without any particular religious conviction but his life’s path was formed by a variety of twists and turns that were often caused by his own rebellious insubordination. He was pressed into the Royal Navy and became a sailor, eventually participating in the slave trade. Towards the end of his sailing career he was a slave ship captain. One night a terrible storm battered his vessel so severely that he became frightened enough to call out to God for mercy, a moment that marked the beginning of his spiritual conversion.
Do you know this amazing grace that Newton wrote about? In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he reminded them of God’s amazing grace. We can understand why God’s grace is so amazing.
September 12, 2021 | Ephesians 2:4-10 |
The gospel, which means “good news,” is news that can change our lives. Indeed, as Christians “living by God’s gospel of grace” is the most live- giving way to live! Some have called this “preaching the gospel to yourself everyday.” What do you preach to yourself everyday? In other words, what news or message are you constantly repeating to yourself? Some of us constantly remind ourselves of past failures or mistakes. As a result, some live in a constant state of guilt and shame. Some of us feel stuck and unable to make changes in our life that we want to make. We’ve tried self-improvement, but we keep seeing the same person looking back in the mirror.
But what if we could live by faith in God’s gospel of grace? Why would this be important and life giving? In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he taught them the importance of living by God’s gospel of grace. We can see the importance of living by God’s gospel of grace.
August 22, 2021 | Ephesians 4:25-32
How many of you have felt the pain of a troubled or broken relationship? If you’ve been breathing for even a couple of years, then you’ve felt the hurt that comes from conflict between you and your parents, your siblings, your friends, your neighbors, your spouse. How many have said, “I can never forgive him!” Or, “What she did was unforgivable!” Or, “This is the end of our friendship or marriage. There is no hope of reconciliation!” But it doesn’t have to be this way. We can learn how to reconcile and stay together!
In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he gave the church instructions on how to rightly treat one another and stay together as one body in Christ. We can stay together as one body in Christ.