Daily Inspirations

  Good morning. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is - that you not say and do those evil things. And (The word translated “and“ can sometimes also be translated as “even“ or “namely, which would mean that the following is the will of the Lord) do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. My Bible says that the Greek present tense is used to indicate that the filling of the Spirit is not a once for all experience. This is not the same thing as being baptized in the Holy Spirit, though it is included when you are the baptized in the Holy Spirit. Remember that I have said before that whenever you see someone being filled with the Holy Spirit, they generally say something immediately afterwards. What follows is a list of things which involve vocal expressions. When people are drunk, they commonly say and do things that they would not normally do when they are not drunk. They may be comical, or they may be downrig...

  Good morning. Paul reiterates: do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. And then a warning to those who think they can do things in the dark and get away with it. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. You may get away with it for a while, but in the end it will be revealed. And since it will be revealed: therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. Most Christians act like they have all the time in the world to make changes to their lives. You’ve heard the saying, “practice makes perfect“; but in reality, practice does not make perfect – it makes permanent. Remember that when you do something X number of times (my mathematical background is showing), it becomes a habit. The same thing happens with you’re...

  Good morning. But you did not learn Christ in this way (giving yourself over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness), if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him (I thought these were Christians and certainly would have heard Him and been taught in Him), just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit. That is step number one, and is probably the hardest thing to do. You have been doing and thinking the same way all of your life. It is like driving to some place that you frequent. You don’t even have to think about which way to turn – it is automatic. That is the way it was before Christ. We didn’t have to think about what to say or do – it was automatic. It takes time to not automatically respond the way we have all of our lives before Christ. We will see next time what the next steps are. Father help us to lay as...

  Good morning. So what is the result of us being all together as one? That you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart. Today “elevation in thought“ is of prime importance in the world. They believe that they can come up with some logical explanation that will refute Christianity. The greater the contradiction to true Christianity that they can come up with, that will receive the greater acclaim from all of their peers. And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. How do you get a callous? By something constantly rubbing a particular spot on your body over and over again until it becomes hardened to protect itself from whatever is rubbing against it. That is what has happened to the people of the world. The t...

  Good morning. So, we are to not be carried about by every wind of doctrine, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ. Some people speak truth, but not in love. Their goal is not to help the person they’re speaking to, but to verbally destroy them. We are speaking the truth to help others to grow up into Christ. From whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. The phrase “being fitted and held together“ to me brings up the image of a dovetail joint. Everything is fitted together perfectly for strength and endurance. It says that the proper working of each individual part is what causes the growth of the body – that it builds up itself in love. Of course without God none of this would happen. Father thank You that we are working together to build up Your body ...

  Good morning. Surely the time has passed for all of these ministry gifts, such as apostles and prophets, right? No, it was until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Absolutely not! A few verses before, we were to preserve the unity of the Spirit; now it is attaining to the unity of the faith. Without the unity of the Spirit, there would be no unity of the faith. As a result we are no longer to be children (we no longer partake only of the milk of the Word as mentioned in Hebrews), tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming. The word translated “trickery“ actually means cube, as in dice, alluding to cheating at the game. Father help us to attain to that unity of the faith and of the knowledge of Your Son; to become mature to...

  Good morning. He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things. Now here comes what are known as the ministry gifts – and the gifts are people. He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ. When we looked at this in First Corinthians, Paul stated it as: God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, etc. Because each of these offices in Ephesians has the word “some” in front of it except for the word teachers, some people believe that the office of pastor and teacher are one and the same, not two separate offices. What are they for, the glory of the persons holding the offices? No, they for the equipping of all of the believers, so that they can do the work of the service, and to build up the body of Christ. We will continue this next ti...

  Good morning. From yesterday we saw that there was one of everything. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Paul will explain more about that in a few verses, but first he digresses. Therefore it says (from Psalm 68), when He ascended on high He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men. We will see in a little while that the gifts He gave were actually men themselves. Now this expression, He ascended, what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? Some say that this meant He descended into hell; but that is not necessarily so. Remember the rich man and the beggar Lazarus. Perhaps He went to Abraham’s bosom to speak the gospel to those righteous people who had died previously. In Luke 23:43, Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “truly I say to you, this day you shall be with Me in Paradise“. He would have then led captive a host of captives. But all of this is speculation. We will f...

   Good morning. In Paul’s day, he had to contend with some groups saying “there is a church of Jews that have been converted and still obey Jewish laws, and there’s another church of Gentiles (and by the way, they should also observe Jewish laws). Today we have groups of many different denominations, and some that are not a part of any denomination. But Paul says: there is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling. Christ’s body has not been divided, and God’s Spirit has not been divided either. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. There is only One, and only one way to Him. Man, not God, has divided Christianity into many different groups. There is more than one way of expressing our Christianity. In the beginning, it was the gospel, along with Jewish laws. If the church had remained rigid, it would be the same way today. When there is one way of thinking/doing things, ...

  Good morning. Yes we are to be self-confident, but… with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Too many times when people have something greater than other people that they had nothing to do with obtaining, like inherited money, looks, etc., they look down on others, even though they were born that way and did not do anything to earn it. We did not do anything to “earn“ all of this greatness within us. Therefore we should not look down on others because they don’t have the greatness of God within them. We should be tolerant towards other believers and should be so with an attitude of love. That does not mean, however, that we put up with sinful actions by other believers. Notice it says to preserve the unity of the Spirit. It is not up to us to create the unity of the Spirit – that’s God‘s job – it is our job to make sure that as far as it has to do with us, i...

  Good morning. If you could have your druthers, ask anything you could dream of, what would you ask of God? Well, it pales in comparison with what He can do. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us. This power that He uses is the same power that works within us. To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Therefore (there’s that word again - because of what Paul just said about us) I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. We have all of this great stuff working inside of us. We should act like it. You’ve seen the way that people that are full of self-confidence walk – we should walk the same way. Just like self-confidence can turn into arrogance, so it can also be with those having self-confidence spiritually. We have to remember that our self-confidence is in Jesus, and not i...

Good morning. Why are we strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man – so that Christ may dwell (that has the idea of being at home, not just visiting) in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded (expresses the idea of being immovable) in love, may be able to comprehend (more than just knowing a bunch of facts; it has the idea of understanding them) with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. We are to not just know about the love of God, but also to experience it. We will see in Colossians that in Jesus all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form. We however, are not Deity. Father thank You that we can know the love of Christ, and be filled up with You through Him.

  Good morning. Remember that I said the other day that Paul was going to go on for a dozen or so verses before completing his thought - for this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles... therefore (I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “when you see the word therefore, find out what it is there for”) I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf (which he just talked about for a dozen verses), for they are your glory. Paul was saying that it was no sweat all the things he went through for their (the Gentiles’) sake. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man. The way that we derive true strength is through His Spirit; and this strength is not in our physical body, but in our spiritual one. Father thank You for strengthening us through the ...

  Good morning. Continuing with “bringing to light what is the administration of the mystery… “ So that the manifold (variegated or multifaceted like a diamond reflects and enhances its beauty) wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. There was no way that anyone looking through the old testament could have foreseen the church. There was only the temple and the laws of Moses to guide the people. There was no collective body throughout the world that would take forth the good news of salvation to the world. If the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places had foreseen the church, they would’ve done even more to prevent it’s coming into existence. They were concerned about Jesus, not the ragtag crew that followed Him. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confidence access through faith in Him. We don’t come groveling into...

  Good morning. Continuing with the mystery of Christ: to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. This is what Paul and Barnabas talked about when the two of them went up to Jerusalem and spoke to James, Peter, and all the other elders. Of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. Instead of going around bragging about all this Paul said, “to me, the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ”. Even if God uses us greatly, we need to keep the same attitude in ourselves. And to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things. It was there from the beginning, but it was hidden in plain sight. It was revealed, as always, at just the right time. Father tha...

  Good morning. We are growing into a holy temple of the Lord – in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. This idea of the church being a temple for God is also in the book of Revelation. Not only as individuals, but also as a collective body, we have God dwelling in us. For this reason (what he just mentioned in the previous verses) I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles - Paul then takes about a dozen verses to explain his personal situation before he completes his thought. First he talks about: the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. As I said before in Acts, second Corinthians, and Galatians, I believe he received this revelation after he was stoned and left for dead, when he went up to the third heaven. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in ...

  Good morning. What is the result of all of this? So then you are no longer strangers and aliens but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. As Gentiles, we were strangers to God and His promises; but as Christians, we are part of the family of God. Later when we see the list of God’s ministry gifts to men, apostles are listed first and prophets second. That is because they lay a foundation upon which all the other ministries build. Now in this building, Jesus is the “chief“ cornerstone. Isaiah says about this costly corner stone for the foundation, that the one who believes in it (Him) will not be disappointed. The building depends upon the foundation, as mentioned in Matthew, and the foundation depends on the corner stone. We, the building, are bein...

  Good morning. We were separate from Christ: but now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Some groups downplay the crucifixion as being too graphic. But it is only through the blood of Christ that we can come near to God. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups (Jews and Gentiles) into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the law of Commandments, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace… for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. Spiritually we were enemies. It took the cross of Christ to bring us together into one in God. Father thank You for the cross of Christ. Help us to realize that we are no longer separated from You because of it.

  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. 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. 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. 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 adoption 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.