Piggy Bank

But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;  Romans 2:5 Storing Up – God is an accountant.  Did you forget that?  Did you think that because Jesus died on the cross, God threw away the…

Jesus Unplugged

in these last days has spoken to us in His Son  Hebrews 1:2 In – Don’t you think that this statement is a little odd?  We wouldn’t say that God spoke to us in someone.  We would say that God spoke to us through someone.  Why?  Because for us, the emphasis is on the message,…

Saving Time

You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away   James 4:14 For A Little While – Have you noticed how consumed we are with the inflexibility of time?  We hear the advertisers shouting, “Another way to save time,” but, of course, it is mythology.  You can’t save time.  It…

Honor Bound

For whosoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory  Luke 9:26 Ashamed – We read these words and immediately exclaim, “I would never be ashamed of Jesus.”  We think that what Jesus has in mind are acts that humiliate, like…

What God Chooses

to the praise of the glory of His grace   Ephesians 1:6 Praise – God chooses me.  His choice exalts His Son.  It reflects His character.  It demonstrates His power.  But it also has an eschatological purpose – a purpose that goes beyond the edge of this world.  God chooses in order that He might be…

Why God Chooses

predestinating us to adoption through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will   Ephesians 1:5 Good Pleasure – Why would God choose me?  If you have never asked this question, you have never understood the true depravity of your soul.  It is a travesty of modern Christianity that we almost see…

Who God Chooses

for us to be holy and without blemish before Him in love  Ephesians 1:4 Before – Verbal imagery from the ancient world is often lost in contemporary language.  Here we have a seemingly common preposition, but if we only could see the Greek, we would recognize something quite significant.  The word is not the common…

When God Chooses

according as He chose us in Him before the foundations of the world  Ephesians 1:4 Chose – There are only a few verses that cause more argument than this one.  Once we decide that our theology needs to close all the gaps, we are bound to confront that age-old question of predestination.  But perhaps we…

Blessings of Another Kind

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies   Ephesians 1:3 Blessed – There are two words for “blessed” in the New Testament.  One is common to the Greek pattern of wise sayings that begin with makarios.  You will find this in the…

Hope Fully

remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.   Ephesians 2:12 Hope – Human beings were made to hope.  Hope sets us apart from the rest of animated creation.  Hope determines our…