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            (I’m so sorry for the delay, I was out of state the last two weeks. I’m just now realizing that I never sent the email with the Bible studies while I was out of town. We will do Ephesians Chapter 5 now and on Sunday, the 18th we will continue on Ephesians chapter 6. So sorry for the delay and confusion.)

            This chapter begins by Paul telling us that we need to be imitators of God. To be a christian means to be like Christ. Therefore, we need to always be mindful of what does God want us to do, and is everything that we are saying and doing bringing Him glory? All that we do should be something He would be proud of, we shouldn’t waste our moments on things that wouldn’t make God proud of us. If God wouldn’t do or say something, we shouldn’t either.

            How does one achieve this? By seeking God out, that simple. The more we seek Him and get to know Him the more He will transform us to who He created us to be and the more our actions will reflect Him and His goodness. To stay spiritually sharp and close to Him we need to stay in His word.

            We shouldn’t be involved with sexual immorality or any type of obscene and vulgar joking. If you can’t imagine God telling a certain joke, then you shouldn’t be saying it either. We should ask God to give us His sense of humor and personality, we should reject that of the worlds. What we do in private reflects who we are in public, we need an internal change to have our external change reflect our hearts. This can only be done in surrendering to God.

            We shouldn’t be greedy or immoral, we shouldn’t put anything before God. If we are wanting something more than we are wanting to commune with God, we are dancing with greed and need to put ourselves in check spiritually. He should be all that we want and seek and everything else needs to be an afterthought to Him and what He wants for us.

            Paul tells us not to let anyone deceive us by conniving us that any sin, but especially these sins, are ok. We need to know better and staying in His word keeps us prepared and aware of His truth verses a lie. The more we seek God the more we will learn what is pleasing to Him and the more we will grow into the person He created us to be.

            We should live reflecting honor, purpose and courage to others. We shouldn’t represent the world, tangled in fear and hopelessness. People should look to you and see Christ within you; they should see boldness, grace, faith and fearlessness. What do you reflect to others? Do you like more like Christ or more like the world?

            Verse 18 tells us not to get drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit and constantly be guided by Him. This tells us that when one is drunk they are currently not being guided by the Holy Spirit and are spiritually operating under evilness. This alone should be encouragement not to get drunk, we should never want something to get in the way of us and the Holy Spirit.

            We need to speak to one another in psalms and hams and praise God singing with all our hearts. We need to be worshiping God, when we worship Him our soul communes with Him and we grow closer in Him. We need to worship Him and the more we do the more His presence will consume us.

            Wives need to subject themselves to their husbands, they need to be accepting of their husbands and abide in him for when you get married you two become one and as one you both need to be bound and abiding in Christ. Always stay in submission to him and God, never fall astray or fall into ones own ways. Wives need to stay in Christ, honor Him and their husbands, delight in them, love them, treasure them. Wives need to be encouraging and motivating to their husbands, they need to show love and admiration for them.

            Husbands need to love their wives like Jesus loves the church, He gave His life for her. Husbands need to love their wives like their own bodies, for man left his parents to become one with his wife and for that reason are now one. When man makes this covenant before God; the husband and wife are now forming a covenant with God and they are now one in Christ. The husband needs to love his wife, care and provide for her; the wife needs to subject herself and abide in him through Christ. Marriage is a serious thing and the covenants formed are not something to take lightly, because its a covenant being made with God. However, when a married couple chooses to make this covenant in Christ they now have God as the foundation of their marriage

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            Paul begins by telling us that we no longer have to live as gentiles, rather we can now be made new in Christ. People who don’t know God have a darkened understanding and reasoning. Those in Christ are called to be the light in Him and should no longer be that way. They are self-banished from the life of Christ; self-banished because God doesn’t reject them. Due to their hardened hearts they have rejected God and therefor have self-banished themselves. They have made themselves prey to sensuality, greed and an eagerness to indulge in every form of impureness. Notice they have made themselves pray, not God. God is good, He doesn’t tempt anyone but He especially doesn’t make anyone prey to these things either.

            We are to strip ourselves of our former nature and put off our old ways; we then put on the new and be renewed in the Spirit of our minds. We need to allow God, and work with God to renew our minds. We have to make the choice to let Him renew us and remove things that need to be removed. We have to surrender to Him to allow Him to prune us so that way He can restore us to our original creation in Christ. We have to make the choice to reject things that we know wouldn’t honor God or make Him Happy. We need to ask Him to convict us when needed so we can be aware of our traits that need to be removed; so we can repent and ask God to renew us and remove that from us. We need to make sure we surrender it all to Him so we leave no room for a foothold.

            We are to represent God in all and honor Him in all. We shouldn’t cuss, say bad or vulgar things or have bad attitudes. These acts and acts similar don’t bring God glory and it gives others a false idea of who God is. We need to bring glory to Him even in our actions. We aren’t to drive the Holy Spirit of God, we shouldn’t offend or sadden Him. By Him we are sealed and marked as His own. For this we should praise God and all that we do should show praise to Him.

            Let all bitterness and anger be banished from us. We are to be peacekeepers, not the ones starting or entertaining strife. The day we surrendered to Jesus we gave away the option to be offended. If we are truly surrender, we won’t be offended and that takes away the foothold to bitterness and quarrels. If you ever find yourself offended, ask yourself if you are truly surrendered in that are to Jesus.

            We need to be useful and helpful to one another. We should be showing love and compassion towards everyone. Forgiveness is a must and helping others to forgive their trespassers is important too. The love of God is powerful and we need to ask God to help us be the love to others as well. A powerful testimony I want to end this chapter with is based on Gods love and how powerful it is. A prophet had an encounter with God and He told her that He wanted to fathom what His love felt like. It was so strong and amazing that she couldn’t even stand, she fell to her legs then laid flat on the ground fully covered in His love. He told her that His love heals people and she was going to go out and spread His love to others and they would be healed by it. A few days later she saw a lady who was so saddened by her pain that she couldn’t help but feel compassion for her, the moment she embraced her and hugged her, Gods love took over and encountered them both and through that single hug and act of love God healed the woman. God is love, He is powerful and when we receive His love and choose to show love to others He can work through that love and signs and wonders happen

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            The chapter begins with Paul asking us to walk worthy of the calling with which we were called. We have the privilege, blessing and honor to know God and be called His. For this reason, we should honor Him in all that we do, but especially in what we are called to do. God isn’t in a box, He has so many creative and unique ways for His children to serve Him; we just need to make sure that we not only talk the talk but we walk the walk that He is wanting us to walk. One of the worsts things that can deter people from church are those who talk the talk but don’t walk to the walk. We don’t ever want to be a hypocrite or come off that way, but even more so we should want to thrive in whatever it is that God has called us to do. We should want to walk a walk that is worthy of the calling that He has called us for. We need to be humble, gentle, patient and bearing one another with love to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The more we get to know God and allow Him to renew our minds through the discipline of repentance, the more we will receive these traits.

            Paul says there is one body and one Spirit just as we were called in one hope for our calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all; who is above all, through all and in us all. We can choose to receive the Holy Spirit, His spirit, God. We are called in hope for whatever it is that He has called us for specifically. There is one Lord who is a triunity; He is God the Father, the Holy Spirit and Jesus.

            There is one faith and one baptism. This verse can be confusing because we can receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and we can also do a water baptism yet Paul says one baptism; this confusion has caused debates. In verse four Paul states that there is one body and one Spirit, because Paul already addressed the fact that there is one Spirit here I believe the one baptism He is referring to is in regards to the water baptism. We have a Spirit man and when we choose to receive the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 6:17 says that we become one Spirit which is what Paul says (one Spirit). Our spirit mingles with the Holy Spirit and becomes one. A visual aid of this is if you make a cup of hot tea; you take hot water and add a tea bag to it. It is now a cup of hot tea yet there is still water in the cup and yet it is now fully one drink as tea. The water and the tea have joined together and are now one. Since Paul discussed the one Spirit in verse four and continues after that about one calling, one Lord, one faith and one baptism; for this reason many believe that the one baptism Paul is talking about here is the water baptism. Because there is one Spirit, once we choose to receive the Holy Spirit, through that God the Father is now in us all.

            Paul continues to say that to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Whatever He has called us to do, He will provide the amount of grace we need to accomplish our calling. Take note, He gives the grace according to the measure of Christs gift, we need to know what our calling is and make sure we follow His path and not try to make our own. We need to know that we are asking for grace in the areas that He has called us to, we don’t want to work against His gifts unintentionally. We need to seek God and focus on Him and when we are ready He will reveal to us our calling.

            Christ ascended on high and He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Paul states this then says that in order to ascend one had to have first descending thus stating His position. He Himself gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry. One who is born again can evangelize, preach the word of God, teach the word of God, and receive words of knowledge. However we will have a specific calling where we will go even further in a certain part. For example God can call someone to preach/teach and God can still prophecy through them and have them evangelize but their main focus might be on the preaching and teaching aspect. We are all to be disciples; disciples share the word of God thus can preach and teach at times, God can give them a word of knowledge to share with someone in a moment, God can have them evangelize and maybe even be an apostle. If we are called to really flourish in one gift, it doesn’t negate the others. If someone is called to be a prophet, that is where God has Him spend most of his time, yet He can still operate in the other areas, why? Because it’s not us operating in the other areas it’s God in us doing it. The area God really wants to use you in though, He will provide the grace needed to perform that gift in a way that is worthy.

            The church has a responsibility, to make disciples in every nation. We do this by knowing God and being obedient to what He has called us to do yet be humbled to know its not us doing anything, its Him working through us. The more we know God the more we know Him and His truth and the less we will be tempted to be tossed to and fro by false doctrines. We need to speak the truth in love and grow up in all things into Him who is the head from whom the whole body joined together. The church needs unity, and as long as we focus on minute details that keeps us apart, the distance will grow. We need to be mindful and loving with those who might believe some things a little different than we do. As long as they know and believe in Jesus, give them the grace to realize that maybe they believe something different than you because in that moment they simply haven’t had a revelation to know different, or vice versa. There is so much to learn of God and His word, we will be blessed in learning something knew about Him every day. Rather than focus on what divides us we need to see others with love and grace and unite in the fact that we both believe and follow Jesus.