Daily Inspirations

  Good morning. OK so we are His workmanship, and we were created for good works and should walk in them. Therefore remember (sometimes we do forget the following, and sometimes we can’t get it out of our heads - thinking how bad we used to be) that formerly you (the Gentiles) were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. That is a pretty sad state to be in; but is the state in which most in this country are. A lot of people around the world go on to various websites to find out about their ancestry. Their ancestry is pretty bad before God. We were separated from Christ, and had no covenants of promise between God and our ancestors – we had no hope. But even those who are Jewish and have the covenants of promise, in actuality have nothing without Christ. Father thank You that even though You had no obligation to save us, You did!

  Good morning.  Continuing where we left off last time. Now the phrase “have been saved“ is in the perfect tense in Greek. That means an action that has been completed in the past (I.e. the saving is not still going on), and has an effect on the present (our saving affects who we are and what we do). The aorist tense just simply means that an action happened without commenting on its effect. The author, Paul in this case, chooses which tense to use to convey his/her meaning. Paul seldom uses the perfect tense, while John uses it profusely. Therefore, to Paul it was important to convey the meaning with the perfect tense. So why did God do all of this for us? For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. The word translated “workmanship“ comes from a Greek word from which we get the English word poem. We are God’s poem, just like the creation is, as noted in Romans chapter 1. While we did not do ...

  Good morning. You may have thought that yesterday’s quoting of the verse that said “by grace you have been saved” was the one we all think about, but it wasn’t. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as the result of works so that no one may boast. First let’s look at the fact that it took grace for our salvation. God chose to save us; there was nothing that we did to earn it. That is emphasized by the phrase “not as a result of works“. But it wasn’t just God’s grace without anything on our part. Otherwise God could just point His finger at anyone and say “saved, saved, saved”. It was through faith on our part. Back before there were hard drives in computers, the computer had just enough of a program, called a bootstrap program, to look to the floppy disk for the operating system, which was on the disk. That’s kind of like we are before we come to God. We have just enough faith to connect with the Word of God to beli...

  Good morning. Last time we left off with us formerly living in the lust of our flesh. Then two of the most powerful words in the Bible – but God: being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions (He didn’t wait for us to get cleaned up first), made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him (we are no longer dead) and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We should see ourselves that way, not as poor, struggling, miserable nobodies. Since we are seated with Him in heavenly places, that is where our thoughts should be, not on the things happening on earth. Why did He do this – so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Father thank You that we are seated in Christ in the heavenly places. Help us to keep that as our attitude.

  Good morning. So we were doing OK in our lives before Jesus came, right? And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. Whoa! We weren’t just having a bad hair day, we were stone cold dead. We couldn’t hear from God – and we didn’t want to. Our sins, in which we formally walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. We weren’t just minding our own business – we were doing the desires of the devil. Sadly, it is still at work today in the people of the world that do not know Jesus. Among them we too all formally lived in the lust (remember that can mean strong desire for anything, not just sexual desire) of the flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. This is a vivid description of the people of the world today. They don’t care about right or wrong; they just care about satisfying some desire of the...

 Good morning. He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. The putting of all things under His feet reminds us of Psalm 110, to which the Gospels refer several times: “The Lord says to my Lord: sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet”. He was also given as head over all things to the church. In other words He is in charge. If we think of it like our own body, our head directs every movement of the rest of the body. The rest of our body “normally” does not argue with what we direct it to do. However, as you know, there are times when it doesn’t act like it. Since the church is His body, it should not be arguing with and disobeying Him. We, the church, are the fullness of Him. When the world sees us, the church, they should be seeing Him. All of those things we’ve talked about for the past few days are in chapter 1 of Ephesians. I told ...

 Good morning. What about this great power towards us: in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. That took a lot of power! And to think that that power is toward us. More about the heavenly places: far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. There is nothing that Christ is not above. There is no name greater than His. We will see later in Philippians that that name is above every name, and that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Father thank You that all that power is at work in us and for us.

 Good morning. What else did Paul pray for them? That the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. Wow, that is a lot! Sadly a lot of Christians do not know all of this. They feel/act like they are helpless and hopeless. It’s like being the heir of a fortune, but not knowing about it. His calling does have a hope for us. It is not just for the here and now but for all eternity. Notice that the riches of the glory are in us, His inheritance. Think you are weak and helpless? That surpassing greatness of His power is towards us! He did not give all of this to us for no good reason. We are to use it in our every day lives to bring about the kingdom of God. Father thank You that all of this is ours! Help us to act like it every day.

  Good morning. In Him (again, everything is in Him), you also, after listening to the message of truth (too many people listen to a lie), the gospel (it IS good news) of your salvation – having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God‘s own possession, to the praise of His glory. We have talked before about God putting His seal on us, declaring that we are His possession. The Holy Spirit inside of us was one of those mysteries we were talking about. And yet Jesus had told the disciples that “He is with you and will be in you.“ As we said before, the word translated “pledge” in Greek today means engagement ring (talk about apropos). Because He did give us the Holy Spirit, we can be confident that He will redeem us at the proper time. Father thank You for the engagement ring of the Holy Spirit. We eagerly anticipate the coming of the wedding feast!

  Good morning. For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you (how would you like that to be said of you - that your faith had been heard of by someone like Paul?) and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers. Sometimes when we see/hear of someone doing great in the Lord, we don’t even pray for them. We think they’ve got it all together and don’t need our prayers. It could be that they need it more than anyone - that there may be some great challenge to their faith that that they are going through or is about to come upon them. And what did Paul pray for them - that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Everyone needs that. Next time we will see what else Paul prayed for them. Father help us to live our lives in faith to the point where other people here of it.

  Good morning. What else do we have in Christ? In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined (there it is again) according to His purpose who works all things after the council of His will (desire). It would be more than enough to get our sins paid for and just slip in the back door of heaven - we also have an inheritance. Notice that it says that we have obtained, not that we will obtain. This, like everything else, is in Christ. God has a desire for something to happen, and He does it! And why all of this? To the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. Remember that we are to be holy and blameless before Him. As an interesting side-note, my interlinear New Testament translates, “we have obtained an inheritance“ as “we were chosen as His inheritance”. Father thank You that we have/are (actually both are true) an inheritance. Use us to bring others to that same realization

  Good morning. He made known to us the mystery of His will. It was a mystery, even though they had the completed Old Testament for hundreds of years. It was there all along, but scholars couldn’t see it; or if they did, they rejected it as being impossible. He did it – according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times (there is that idea again of everything happening at just the right time after everything is in place), that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. My Bible says that that last phrase not only has the idea of leadership but also was often used of adding up a column of figures; in other words, when things don’t seem to add up, they do in Christ. One thing we need to remember – if God’s mystery of salvation was in the Old Testament, then His mystery of what is to happen now and in the future is in the New Testament. Father thank You that at ...

  Good morning. He predestined us to adopt as sons – to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. It is His grace, not our works, that brings about our adoption as sons. In Him (everything is in Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. Slaves were freed by the payment of a ransom. We were in bondage to sin, and needed someone to pay a ransom for us. The ransom needed for us was unthinkable – the blood of God‘s only Son, Jesus Christ. It didn’t take just a dab of grace – he had to lavish it upon us (it took the whole jar). It reminds us of the song – “I owed a debt I could not pay. He paid a debt He did not owe.“ Father thank You that You redeemed us through the blood of Your Son. Help us to leave our old life behind and to walk in the newness of Your Spirit.

  Good morning. OK so we are to be holy and blameless before Him – in love (which is how) He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself. As you are probably aware, there is a debate about free will versus predestination. Some believe that we have no choice in the matter – we are pre-destined to become Christians or to go to the bad place. That completely contradicts the idea of free will. However you can’t dismiss predestination or ignore it; it is in the Bible. This is what someone has called the “tension“ of the Word. It “seems like“ that there are two contradictory concepts. For example “once saved always saved“ versus you can lose your salvation. It seems like they are both in the Bible. So you have to try and explain it away. Those that believe in free will say that God knew that you were going to choose Him, and thus He made sure that you would accept Him. How did He predestine us? It was according to the kind intention of His will (desire is implied i...

  Good morning. He blessed us in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. He not only blessed us in Christ, He also chose us in Him. Isn’t that awesome? God chose us! And it wasn’t because we did something special that He chose us, because He did it even before the foundation of the world. Now He did not choose us so that we could do just any old thing that we wanted. He chose us that we would be holy and blameless before Him. It’s much easier to be “holy and blameless” before men; it is quite a lot more to be holy and blameless before God. Note that it is a “being“, and not a “doing“ that makes us holy and blameless before God. Father thank You that You chose us - not because we did anything to warrant it, but because You loved us.

  Good morning. Today we begin the book of Ephesians. It seems like every part of a sentence has some doctrinal nuance in it. As usual, Paul starts out by proclaiming that he is an apostle of Christ Jesus, and that it is by the will of God. He is writing to the saints at Ephesus who are faithful (not those who are just trying to sneak in the back door of heaven) in Christ Jesus. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. We can’t even imagine us blessing God. My Bible says that the Jewish people used the word “blessed“ to express both God‘s kindness to us and our thanks or praise to Him. Notice that God blessed us with every spiritual blessing -  there aren’t any that He did not bless us with. Now it does say spiritual blessing; it does not say every physical blessing. Our blessing is in the heavenly places in Christ – but we are in Christ, even while we are here on earth. Father th...

 Good morning. Yesterday we talked about these people getting others to become circumcised that they may boast.  May it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Here Paul is boasting about what Jesus did, not what he did. For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Following or not following the law will get you nowhere; only being completely changed within and without will. And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. The Greek word translated “and” can sometimes be translated as “even” or “namely”. The word “and“ means the joining of two different things. The words “even“ and “namely“ mean something more explicit about the same thing. So Paul is probably not talking about two different things, Christians and Jews, but rather calling Christians the Israel of God. From now on let no one caus...

 Good morning. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. So it’s not just to Christians that we are to do good, but to everyone. Referring back to where we were previously: those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. It was bad enough to preach Christ, the Messiah, crucified on the cross; it was even worse to not circumcise the new believers. But those who are  circumcised do not even keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. Even today, people who do wrong things like to get other people to do the same wrong things. They then go around bragging that they were able to get them to do it. Father help us to not yield to pressure from others to do things that we know are not right.

  Good morning. The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. Of course evangelists use this passage to say, “if you send me money, God will send you more money“. But he’s talking about much more than money. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. If you do things to please your flesh, it will “spoil“. But if you do things for the kingdom of God, you will reap eternal rewards. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. Too many times we are way too quick to give up. We give and give and give (and not just money), and it seems like we never see any results coming back to us. And so we become disheartened and quit giving. It seems like it takes forever to start receiving results from our giving (and ...

 Good morning. If we are exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit, then we should: Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. When people are fulfilling some set of rules and regulations, they tend to think that they are better than everyone else. The only ones that they are fooling are themselves. Everyone else can see through them. Each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. It’s kind of like bettering your own record in some type of exercise. You can boast (to yourself) that you did better than your previous record; you shouldn’t boast that you did better than someone else. For each one will bear his own load (it is a different word than “burdens” used earlier). Christianity is a DIY (with the help of the Holy Spirit) experience. Father help us to continuously do better each day than we did the day...

  Good morning. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. It sure doesn’t act like it’s crucified (seems like we are back to Romans seven again). If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk (different word from yesterday - it means to walk in line with) by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. People who are legalistic tend to look down on those that are not as legalistic as they are. And if someone seems to be more legalistic than they are, they tend to be envious of those people. Even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. If someone who is legalistic sees another person doing something that they believe is wrong, instead of helping that person to do the right thing, they condemn them, usually publicly. The word translated restore is also used to mea...

  Good morning. If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The Spirit won’t lead us to do anything that we should not, but will lead us to do the things that we should - we don’t need the Law to guide us. Now the deeds (plural) of the flesh are evident, which are… and things like these. Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. People that do the things that he listed generally really don’t care about inheriting the kingdom of God – they only care about pleasing their flesh. But the fruit (singular) of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law (if you are operating in the fruit of the Spirit, you won’t be breaking the Law). Those people who do the deeds of the flesh might only do one or two but not all of them. Those who exhibit the fruit of the Spirit will exhibit all that Paul listed, not just one or two. If you feel like one of those listed in t...

 Good morning. And now a verse that we all need to follow diligently: walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. The ones who wanted them to follow the law had all of these rules and regulations that people were to follow in order to live “righteously“ before God. By contrast God has only one - walk by the Spirit. If you do that, you don’t have to worry about “Have I followed every commandment and regulation?“. Simply listen to the directions of the Holy Spirit. He will keep you from doing the wrong things and will help you to do the right ones. The word “walk“ is in the present tense, which in Greek means to do it continuously not just one time. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you (your flesh) wish. This reminds us of the internal conflict of Romans chapter 7 where Paul said, “I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin“. F...

 Good morning. Apparently some people thought, and may even have been saying that, Paul was preaching that converts should be circumcised. If I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross (how could the Messiah be crucified? He was supposed to be the king of kings.) has been abolished (from the same word as severed, which we saw yesterday). I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves (cut themselves off). For you were called to freedom, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. We are free in regards to the law, but that does not mean that we can do just any old thing that we want. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word “you shall love your neighbor as yourself“. Then you will not have to do every little nitpicky thing in the law, if you simply do what is best for your neighbor. Father help us to use our freedom for Your glory.

  Good morning. In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love (remember first Corinthians chapter 13). You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? Too many times Christians start out well, but then get sidetracked on some issue. This persuasion (to be perfected by the law) did not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. You cannot mix a little “untruth“ with truth. It will eventually pervade your whole belief system. This reminds us of the Jews removing all leaven from their house before Passover. I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you (trying to get them to follow the law) will bear his judgment, whoever he is. Father help the reader and his/her family to get their needs met. Bring healing and deliverance to them all.

  Good morning. It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery (under the law). I say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. Circumcision of course would be the greatest commitment to the law. Every man who receives circumcision is under obligation to keep the whole law. They could not pick and choose which parts of the law they wanted to obey. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace (which is the way we are justified as Christians) . Some use this to say that a Christian can lose his or her salvation. To me it means that grace is a much higher level than operating under the law; and they have fallen to a much lower standard of living. For we through the Spirit, by faith (not works of the Law), are waiting for the hope of righteousness. Father thank You that we live the Christian life by grace through fai...

  Good morning. Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law? He is referring back to them observing days and months and seasons and years. It is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bond woman and one by the free woman. The son by the bond woman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise. This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai (where the law was given) bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise (that God made to Abraham). He goes on to comment that Scripture says that the son of the bondwoman (born under the law) shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman (born under the promise). Since we were born under the promise, we should not act like someone who was born under the law (while Christians may not act like they are under the law of Moses, they do sometimes act like they are un...

Good morning. So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? That sometimes does happen. We don’t like it when someone tells us that we have been doing something wrong. Referring back to those that wanted the Galatians to go back under bondage to the law: they eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out (which Paul never did to the Galatians) so that you will seek them. Sometimes the best way to get someone to want to do some thing is to tell them they can’t have it. They seem to want it even more. But it is good always to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner, and not only when I am present with you. My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you. (John, in his letters, would commonly called the people to whom he was writing, my little children.) I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. Paul was not just concerned about getting people saved and putting another notch on his gun...

 Good morning. Paul then says, you observe days and months and seasons and years. That means they were turning to all of the Jewish beliefs under the law. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain. You know that it was because of a bodily illness (the word does not just mean sickness; it can also mean infirmity, frailty, or suffering) that I preached the gospel to you the first time; and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself. I bear you witness that if possible, you have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. There are a lot of people who believe that this was Paul’s “thorn in the flesh“, and that it was an eye disease that was his problem. I do not agree with them. Remember that Paul at one time had been stoned and left for dead. He rose up, and the next day he went to Derbe, which is in the Galatian region. It was a miracle enough that he was raised fr...

 Good morning. What is the result of us being adopted as sons? Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!“ Those were the same words that Jesus used in the garden. The same Spirit that created the universe is residing in our hearts! Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. But before this - when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. This probably refers to the fact that many Galatians worshiped idols and other gods. Then they were converted to Christianity. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things (there is that word elemental again), to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? This is why we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Even though physically we are removed from the situations to which we were enslaved ...

  Good morning. But when the fullness of the time came - God always has a time for everything, even though we think things should happen right now. A lot of things had to happen and be in place for Jesus to come. God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. It says that Jesus was born of a woman. There are false beliefs that say that Jesus was strictly God and not man. It also says that he was born under the law. Jesus said He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Both of these were necessary for Him to redeem us and that we might receive the adoption as sons. In the Roman world, adopting someone was a very big deal. They would even adopt adults, not just children. The adopted child would become heir just like natural born children. Next time we will see what the result was when God did this. Father thank You for choosing us to become Your children. Help us...