We turn onto the lane that looks like home, only to find barriers on both sides and nowhere left to go. Foot still on the accelerator, locked on the road to death, the only hope we have is mercy—and Ephesians 1:7 speaks right into that place: in him we have redemption through his blood.
We try to draw out what reverence and recognition of God looks like, but our drawings end up a mess unless we let God guide us.
We live in a world of constant flux, where nothing is truly stable and even the things that feel permanent haven’t been around that long. Yet Ephesians 1 takes us further back than any of it: God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Greg helps us to think about what Jesus does for us through His death and Resurrection.
As we return to Proverbs this summer, we look to Proverbs 2. The challenge in seeking wisdom is that the results often take time — are they worth the wait?
We’ve all felt the crash that follows a sugar high—the emotional win, the reassuring word, the earthly success that lifts us for a moment before the bottom drops out again. Paul knew that feeling too, which is why he doesn’t merely greet the Ephesians with good wishes but with something that doesn’t fade: “grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The truth of Pentecost is that we live between the Ascension and Jesus’s return, but we do not live between God’s love.
We all know what it’s like to chase after things that look like they’ll satisfy—achievements, credentials, the sense that we’ve finally earned our place. Ephesians 1:1 stops that chase cold, pressing the question of where our calling and our life as God’s people actually come from.
The early church needed preparation before their mission. What did they do to prepare to share the Gospel with the world?