{"id":1844,"date":"2022-08-01T09:55:57","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T13:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1844"},"modified":"2022-08-01T09:56:39","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T13:56:39","slug":"a-journey-through-ephesians-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/01\/a-journey-through-ephesians-one\/","title":{"rendered":"A Journey Through Ephesians One"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Throughout the month of August, we\u2019re taking a close look at 23 verses of the New Testament.  They comprise Ephesians chapter one, which paints one of the Bible\u2019s most comprehensive pictures of what it means for ordinary people to be \u201cin Christ.\u201d  <\/em>
 
 
\u201cPound for pound,\u201d the New Testament book of Ephesians is quite possibly the most influential document in human history.
 
It\u2019s true that Genesis, the Gospel of John, the Psalms, Isaiah, and Paul\u2019s letter to the Romans are the big fish in the biblical pond.  But the book of Ephesians, in just 155 verses, packs a theological wallop like no other.
 
In just a half dozen short chapters, Ephesians provides the home address for the Bible\u2019s most important verses about salvation by grace (chapter 2); the most extraordinary prayer concerning God\u2019s love and power (chapter 3); the most sharply focused statement on the ministry of lay people (chapter 4); the most significant word concerning the filling of the Holy Spirit (chapter 5); the most celebrated statements concerning marriage and parenting (chapter 5); and the Bible\u2019s most vivid and memorable description of spiritual warfare (chapter 6).  Throughout the book, the apostle Paul makes his most heartfelt case for unity – how knowing Jesus should break down the walls between different ethnicities and backgrounds.
 
Ephesians chapter one, however, stands above them all. 
 
In a single, amazing run-on sentence (verses 3 through 14) Paul addresses the questions that still haunt every thoughtful human being:  Who exactly am I?  Am I a somebody<\/em> or just another nobody<\/em>?  What do I have to do or who do I have to be in order to go to sleep at night knowing that my life genuinely matters? 
 
Our study will include two special emphases.
 
First, we\u2019re going to go slowly.  We\u2019ll stop to look carefully at words and phrases.  Bible study is not a race.  While there is obvious value in reading all of Scripture each year \u2013 something which many Christians endeavor to do every 12 months \u2013 philosopher and author Dallas Willard reminds us that it\u2019s actually more transforming to master<\/em> just 10 verses each year and to incorporate them into our lives.
 
The record for going at a slow pace through the book of Ephesians is probably held by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, one of Britain\u2019s renowned preachers of the last century.  Lloyd-Jones took six years to preach through the book of Ephesians.  When he got to chapter six, verse 10, which reads, \u201cFinally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power,\u201d he presented six consecutive sermons just on the word \u201cfinally.\u201d  
 
I promise that we\u2019ll go a bit more quickly than that. 
 
The second emphasis is more counter cultural.  I\u2019d like to encourage you this month to memorize<\/em> Ephesians chapter one.
 
There\u2019s an idea going around that memorization is for the birds.  That\u2019s why we have Bible app\u2019s, right?  Since most of us essentially carry portable computers in our pockets, we have all 31,102 verses at our fingertips.  That\u2019s a good thing.  Praise God for technology.  But having access<\/em> to God\u2019s Word is not the same thing as having God\u2019s Word living within us<\/em>. 
 
As one observer put it, referring to his smart phone, \u201cI can hold in the palm of my hand all the knowledge humanity has ever obtained.  But mostly what I use this for is to look at videos of kittens and to argue with people I\u2019ve never met.\u201d  In a recent survey, half of a large group of students interviewed in England \u2013 all of whom owned mobile devices \u2013 could not recall their own phone numbers.  That\u2019s because they didn\u2019t need <\/em>to know their own phone numbers. 
 
But if you\u2019re a follower of Jesus, you genuinely do need to know what Jesus says and how he conducted his life.  It\u2019s not enough to say, \u201cWell, that information is available online should the need ever arise.\u201d
 
Memorization helps us turn the Bible from just another resource \u201cout there\u201d to a deep well of wisdom \u201cin here.\u201d  Scripture\u2019s content slowly works its way into our thoughts, our conversations, our hopes, and our imaginations.  We can be doing anything \u2013 folding laundry, frying bacon, standing in line at the bank \u2013 and the Holy Spirit will suddenly bring to mind something we have committed to memory. 

But even if you choose not to do any memorizing this month, just pondering the words of the first chapter of Ephesians – savoring them, taking them to heart – can accomplish amazing things.
 
\u201cI will set the Lord always before me,\u201d says Psalm 16:8. 
 
There are few better strategies for keeping God always in sight than by mastering a significant patch of Scripture.
 
And this chapter is a significant patch of Scripture.  It helps us remember who we are and what on earth we are here for. 
 
I look forward to accompanying you on this month-long journey!

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Throughout the month of August, we\u2019re taking a close look at 23 verses of the New Testament.  They comprise Ephesians chapter one, which paints one of the Bible\u2019s most comprehensive pictures of what it means for ordinary people to be \u201cin Christ.\u201d    \u201cPound for pound,\u201d the New Testament book of Ephesians is quite possibly the most influential document in human history. It\u2019s… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1845,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[480,481],"class_list":["post-1844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ephesians","tag-scripture-memory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1844"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1847,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844\/revisions\/1847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}