Ephesians 2:11-22; Paul follows up his powerful teaching on the nature of God’s gifts of grace and faith through salvation in Christ from Ephesians 2:1-10, with another profound contrast. Gentile believers were once “far away” from the Lord because they were not His chosen people. Israel was the means by which the nations should have […]
Ephesians 2:1-10; After laying the groundwork of God’s Sovereignty in choosing believers as adopted sons and daughters with amazing spiritual blessings, Paul prayed for the church to have illumined hearts to know Him better. Again utilizing extended Greek sentence structure, Paul then explains the magnitude of God’s grace and mercy in bringing depraved sinners deserving […]
Ephesians 1:15-23; Paul concludes his benediction-greeting with a reoort of his active prayer support for the Ephesian church. The favorable report he received about them included love for God and fellow saints in Christ. He then reveals his desire for them to know more of God through the working of the Holy Spirit and headship […]
Ephesians 1:11-14; Continuing with the foundational theme of God’s Sovereignty, Paul denotes two distinct groups of believers. “We” are Jewish believers, “the first to put our hope in Christ” and “you”, Gentile believers who trusted in the gospel shared by faithful witnesses. Both are united by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit that was […]
Ephesians 1:1-10; My previous message from II Corinthians 4 focused on the suffering of the Apostle Paul for preaching the gospel and standing firm in his faith. Our present world is foundationally negative towards the Christian faith because the message of sinners needing forgivenss and spiritual renewal is far less appealing than Humanism. The only […]
II Corinthians 4:7-18; With the arrival of covid and the ripple effect that transpired, life has been anything but normal the past two years. However we are not the only generation to face physical, emotional and spiritual difficulties. The Apostle Paul regularly faced rejection and threats against his life as he shared the gospel of […]
Luke 2:21-35;Advent 2021 concludes in the NT with Joseph and Mary having the Christ-child circumcised on the 8th day in Bethlehem. Then they traveled to Jerusalem to consecrate Him to the Lord at the temple, according to the Law of Moses. The Holy Spirit promted an older man named Simeon to pray over and bless […]
Psalm 89:19-21; Our Advent focus remained in the book of Psalms for the annual Christmas message. Ethan the Ezrahite, the writer of Psalm 89, was calling out to Yahweh-God to remember His covenant promises to David for a warrior king to deliver Israel from peril. There are messianic overtones throughout this special passage that point […]
Psalm 67:1-7; Continuing the exploration of Advent through inspired ancient foreteilling in the book of Psalms. Although Psalm 67 is not typically considered a messianic psalm, the theme of salvation through Yahweh-God and encouragement to share knowledge of the Lord with the “nations” has a clear NT application to the mission of Jesus Christ.
Psalm 2:1-12; Peace is the theme of the 2nd week of Advent. In keeping with our focus on messianic prophesies in the Book of Psalms, we unpacked David’s inspired insights on the “two paths”. The way of rebellion, autonomy and war results from the unrepentant heart of sinful earthly leaders. The Way of God is […]