For the past four days, I attended a church conference, studying the book of Ephesians (in the Bible) with fellow brothers and sisters from around the country (and Canada). This conference time happens twice a year and never fails to bring me closer to God. As a little back-story, my first semester of college brought me so much closer to Christ already but I wanted more. I prayed and had faith that God would soften and work in my heart, as well as others', and He sure did. All (or most) of us definitely experienced the "Spirit of wisdom and revelation" this week through small groups, messages, worship time, and conversations. I will do the best I can to gather all of my thoughts together, so everything makes sense, and will try not to leave everything out. Here are my notes:
Ephesians 1: Verse 3 talks about spiritual blessings. the root of all our problems comes from our spiritual life. But God gave us every spiritual blessing there is! ..hard to believe right? So therefore, we must be right with God, turn to our Spirit, and our "problems" will be "fixed".
Verse 4 says "He chose us in Him before the creation of the world"...meaning, before He even made heaven and earth, He chose us to be holy and blameless in His sight. You think you have "blemishes"? Well God doesnt. He sees us as someone better than we think we are.
Verses 5 and 6 proclaim that He has a purpose for us. He already knows what the outcome of our decisions are and will be. He has a purpose for me, hallelujah! He is capable of reaching out an changing our hearts. Gods grace is glorious. He can take someone completely against Him and change their heart..thats glory to Him..and grace. He knows who we are, what our problems and short comings were before they ever happened, even before we were born. He has chosen for you, what your life is about. Where do we fit in life? We know why some things happen but are confused as to why other things happen. God knows, so we dont have to worry! Amen.
Ephesians 2: Verses 1-10 are about satisfying the desires of the flesh. Before, we lived in our sin. We were trapped in it..the desires of our flesh and of our mind. God chose us, him, her..why? We dont understand because we arent God. He wants us and wants to create a masterpiece. There is no limit to His mercy and grace. His love is so great, so limitless yet we tend to put God in a box and think He is capable of only so much. Not true. He isnt limited by time or space. His riches are immeasurable..wow.
God raised us up and seated us with Him. We arent the same and shouldnt live the same way we used to. Our "old man" was destroyed and now we have become a "new man". Therefore, walk in the Light as children of God! However, our "old man" can and still gets corrupted...sadly, we still sometimes give into the desires of the flesh. Everything we do can either be according to our "old man" or according to Christ. Which will you choose?
The end of chapter 2 talks about how the hostility from the Jews and Gentiles isnt necessarily between them, but rather with God. Both people were not at peace with God so they had to reconcile with Him <---this goes back to how we have problems with things because we arent right with God.
Ephesians 3: God takes the people from there lowest of low and seats them with Him for His glory. That shows His power, mercy, and glory. Praise be to Him! God can work through anything and with everything.
Ephesians 4: Christ has given us girts to use and to serve the church in a meaningful way. What is my gift? What is your gift? God does not give meaningless gifts or talents, no matter how small they may seem to be. Whether big or small, these gifts are from Christ and He gave them to you to use. So use them! (Little bit of self-help advice) if you dont know what your gift/gifts are, talk to an older saint or friend to help you see what other people see as your gift.
What are you in relation to what you read in the bible or hear? God wants to put "flesh and bones" on it..meaning, He didnt intend for you to just read the bible and have no reaction or action from it. Live it out!
Dont be callous, hard-hearted, past having feelings, or trying to find satisfaction in impurity and sin.
You get to know somones person by spending time with them. You dont just want to be able to list the facts about someone..same way with Christ. Sure, knowing facts is ok, but you want to get to know His person..who Christ is. Our "Spirit of the mind" needs to be renewed and we need to put on the "new man"!
Ephesians 5: "Be imitators of God"-verse 1. Verses 5-8 talks about impure things. Dont partake of these things! Dont even talk about them; If we are imitators of Christ and people hear us talking about such things or even see us doing them, what image of Christ do they have then? It gives Believers a bad reputation.
Because we are "children of the light", we should expose these impure things. Just walk by the light. So for example, if you walk by the light, dont partake of these things, and dont talk about them, people will notice that. "When anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible"-verse 13.
**How can you "walk in love" if your a greedy person? Stop thinking about yourself, concerned with matters pertaining to you, and just love other people!** (this was a side note to myself).
Ephesians also talks about marriage, husbands, and wives. In our small group we didnt even go over the verses, one sister just shared her story and wisdom with us. Heres what she said:
On the matter of submission, it says "wives submit to your husbands, just as husbands should submit to Christ". Now a lot of women think that submission is a bad thing and this age doesnt do a great job of showing what Christ wants either. Women now a days think that we are equal to men or sometimes more powerful than them. No woman likes to think she is weaker than a man. But thats a fact..we are "weaker". God created man and put him head over all things (Genisis). So when Eve was tempted by Satan to eat thr fruit God told them not to eat, she felt special. Finally someone came to her first before they went to Adam. She was the one to make the decision. Women have the power of persuasion. Satan knew that by going to Eve, Eve could persuade Adam to eat the fruit too. If satan went to Adam, he would have shut Satan down in a second. Now, persuasion can be both good and bad...its a powerful thing that we were given. The way in which women are supposed to persuade their husbands is with Christ. By submitting to her husband (not necessarily being a "slave" to him, rather obeying and trusting that his decisions come from God), she should be an example to him in how he should submit to Christ. Women have the power of persuasion to help their husband continue loving the Lord <---this is a very good thing. *Now I know that by me encouraging brothers (guy friends) to continue loving the Lord, this is what I was "made" to do.*
The last thing I really enjoyed about this week was being with all the saints. We are the body of Christ and the fullness of Him. This explains why I am always so happy to be with everyone and fellowship. I cant even say how much I appreciate and love all the saints. These people are not just my friends, they are my family..my brothers and sisters in Christ. I love and prefer spending time with only them. Even the brothers and sisters I dont know that well, I love them because Christ loves me and He put me with people that He also loves and together we make up the body of Christ.
