Photo credit: Unsplash Ephesians 5:25-27 (NIV) CONTEXT: Today's passage comes in the midst of some instructions   Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26  to make Canons of Dordt Point 1 - God's Unconditional Election Point 2 - Limited Atonement Articles 1- 8 Article throughout the Bible, the Church (God's people) is analogically referred to as a bride, a Paul does here in Ephesians Today: Ephesians 5

Ephesians 5:21-27 (NIV) 21  Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22  Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24  Now as the church submits to Christ , so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25  Husbands, love your wives, just as with water through the word, 27  and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or

Biblia.com Ephesians 1:3-6 (NIV) 3  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who Canons of Dordt Point 1 - God's Unconditional Election 1 - God's right to condemn all people 2 - God

Ephesians 6:1-3 (NIV) Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2  “Honor your father Listen to passage & devotional: Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 25: The Fulfillment of the Law We The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. the world, and all who live in it" (Psalm 24:1).

Ephesians 1:3-6 (NIV) 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us Rather, this is the first thing Paul writes to the Ephesians; not as a matter of profound mystery, but it form the basis for our doxology, as Paul presents it here at the beginning of his letter to the Ephesians As we've read in Romans 8:28, "In all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been

Ephesians 4:11-16 (NIV) 11  So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors Listen to passage & devotional: Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 28: The Obligations of Church Members But here in Ephesians, we read of a gift that most of us likely would forget to include if asked. Today: 2 Corinthians 13

This is the entire premise of this chapter in Ephesians: your old sinful self must be removed so you sin in your own life; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 2

Summary The first three chapters of Paul's letter to the Ephesians is one of the greatest summaries of Christ's power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9), because a weak person realizes how much they

The question and answer about true faith (Q&A 21) prompted the series of questions and answers about Paul provides his own response and summary of God’s work of redemption in Ephesians 1:3–14. Ephesians is no different; he uses a variation of it almost forty times! promised salvation; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will respond to the gospel like Paul in Ephesians

Don't get so consumed in your daily battles that you forget your primary orders. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 116 Q. Why do Christians need to pray? A. Because prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us. And also because God gives his grace and Holy Spirit only to those who pray continually and groan inwardly, asking God for these gifts and thanking him for them. Summary This passage, often entitled The Armor of God, is familiar to most of us. I was a bit surprised to notice that we'd not yet covered this passage in our readings this year, but it makes sense we come to it now, as we've been focused lately on living out the salvation that's been won for us. Today we're not going to focus as much on the particular pieces of armor we must put on, but rather on the specific orders we've been given to fulfill as soldiers of the Lord. To understand your mission, you must first identify the enemy that you'll be struggling against (literally: wrestling with). It might be surprising to be reminded that the daily problems you wrestle with - which certainly are real and may be very painful - are not the enemy that you've been called to struggle against. The real enemy - who very well may be the source of your daily problems - are the "rulers, authorities, and power of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (!!)" who are shooting "flaming arrows" at you. Your orders are as follows: to put on / take up your armor, to stand your ground, and to extinguish the flaming arrows. But your primary tactic is quite surprising: it's not to engage in hand to hand combat, but to be praying in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests... for all of the Lord's saints (v18). Dig Deeper We're beginning the final section of our catechism today, which is focused on prayer. We'll be going through the Lord's prayer over these next couple of months, but before we can do that we have to stop and ask a question that we don't stop to ask enough in life: Why? Why must we pray? You're likely inundated with things that need to be done, both good things that will bring God honor and glory, and things that need to be taken care of to keep your world from collapsing in upon itself. Maybe you've got a couple of these pieces of spiritual armor on but feel ready to go nonetheless, or maybe you're fully suited up and ready for battle. Why waste time praying? Two reasons. First, and foremost, because your King has ordered you to do so. This ought to be reason enough. "Prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us." But there's more! "God gives His grace and Holy Spirit only to those who pray continually and groan inwardly." In other words, no matter how awesome your armor is (and it is!), it won't do you one bit of good unless you use it on your knees. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who rules all things through our Savior, the King of kings and Lord of lords and calls us to battle; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Ask God to keep you from being distracted by the fog of daily battle so that you fulfill your orders to pray continually; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - John 16