S1P4 – Christ, the conduit of grace AND righteousness

Eph. 1: 6 [So that we might be] to the praise and the commendation of His glorious grace (favor and mercy), which He so freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.   Through Christ, we gain access to God’s free grace.  If you have been a bible-believing church-going Christian for any length of time, no…

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S1P3 – Our salvation is God’s pleasure

Eph. 1: 5 For He foreordained us (destined us, planned in love for us) to be adopted (revealed) as His own children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the purpose of His will [because it pleased Him and was His kind intent]–   I expect that we each have a picture of God that pops…

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S1P2 – Before we chose, we were chosen

Eph. 1: 4 Even as [in His love] He chose us [actually picked us out for Himself as His own] in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy (consecrated and set apart for Him) and blameless in His sight, even above reproach, before Him in love.   I believe that…

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S1P1 – The identity of being blessed

Our maiden devotional series examines the apostle Paul’s first letter to the church at Ephesus, which begins by defining our identity in Jesus Christ by what we gain or become as a result of salvation. Specifically, we will look at Ephesians 1: 1-14. The first two verses give us the context of this message in…

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The need for transparent humanity in discipleship

What I have always found most compelling about Jesus Christ is that the Creator came to earth in the form of His own creation to experience our physical reality.  We do not serve a God to whom our earthly trials are foreign.  We serve a God who knows hunger, pain, cold, betrayal, distress, weakness and…

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