In my life, God has been very close to me. This ministry was set up by God to teach people how to draw closer to Jesus. It is easy to feel like a failure. However, today (08-22), Joe, my contractor, came to begin the work of putting in a new bank of solar panels. Joe is the person I can call on, and count on, to do the work for the ministry. He became a Christian after a few years of wild living and now owns his own contracting business.
Today he called me over and shared with me that since working for the ministry he has become very interested in the Sabbath. God is working on his heart. He then told me that he wanted to get baptized. God has a great work for Joe. It was amazing how the Lord led him to the ministry to be our contractor. There is still work that needs to be done here, but we need to pay off the debt for this building project before moving forward with the next.
I want to thank all of you for your faithfulness in supporting this little ministry. Your faithfulness is being “heard” all around the world.
Ephesians 1:15 to Ephesians 2:22
For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, . . .
In a nutshell, that is Christianity: “Love toward all the saints.” So many claim to be Christians but withhold their love because a person may not be from the same church or culture or belief or in prison. Jesus loves everyone. He died for everyone. His love and death won’t save one person, but it did open the door for anyone who is willing to walk through that door for salvation. We choose our eternal destiny.
I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, . . .
I understand that. I give thanks five or six times a day for each of you, remembering you in my prayers. I lift each of you up to God. It is the longing of my heart that we shall meet one day in Heaven.
. . . that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, . . .
That knowledge isn’t a set of beliefs or doctrines. That revelation and knowledge is infinite. However, if you will continue every day, many times a day, reading your Bible and/or the Spirit of Prophecy books, you will find yourself growing in “the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him”. What knowledge? A personal knowledge.
having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, . . .
That concept isn’t just for the future life; it is also pertaining to our present life. God wants you to live so close to Him that your eyes and hearts will be enlightened to what He wants you to do moment by moment. He has a work for you to do. Let Him guide you.
. . . and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, . . .
In the Bible there are “trigger” words. Words which much of Christianity do not understand. For example, the word “gay” up until about the 1960’s meant, “‘joyful’, ‘carefree’, ‘bright and showy’, and the word was very commonly used with this meaning in speech and literature. . . . It was apparently not until the 20th century that the word began to be used to mean specifically ‘homosexual’, although it had earlier acquired sexual connotations.” (Wikipedia).
There is a “Woke” movement dedicated to destroying history and all biblical morality. They want to distort the meaning of words in order to confuse people. They want destroy the fabric of society in order to destroy the work of God.
The same distortion has happened with certain words in the Bible, such as, “believe”, “grace”, “faith” and “law”. Today, the original concepts for those words have been misapplied. They have all be perverted by the churches, universities, theological schools, pastors and denominations.
Let’s start with “believe”. In Paul’s day to believe in a philosophy, person or institution was to live in obedience to that philosophy, person or institution. As Paul said, “Through whom we received grace and apostleship, unto obedience of faith among all the nations, for His name’s sake.” Romans 1:5.
. . . according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
To be blunt, Paul is saying that God is giving us the power to live His perfect, sinless and Ten Commandment keeping life. The power that raised Him from the dead is the same power that can keep us in His glorious inheritance: perfection of character.
And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Precisely! He is to fill all of us. We are His body. Not a denomination. Not a church. We, individually, those who live in obedience to Jesus are to be filled with Jesus, not the world. Unfortunately, too many who call themselves Christian are filled up with the world. Christ has no place in their lives. “Christian” is only a word and a church, not a life.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— . . .
Who are those who are dead in trespasses and sins? Those who live in disobedience to the teachings of Jesus to be perfect, stop sinning and to keep the Ten Commandments for their eternal life. If you are not living the life of Jesus, you are following the prince of the power of the air. It doesn’t matter what church or denomination you belong to or what pastor you follow or what day you go to church on; you do not belong to Jesus if you are not living as He commands.
. . . among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
-
- Living in the passions of our flesh.
- Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.
- Children of wrath.
Selfishness! That is what creates so many problems in our lives. Coveting! Letting your passions and desires control you. We deserve nothing but death. God cannot let one person into Heaven who lives by his/her passions and desires of the body and the mind. Therefore, we must change if we wish to live in Heaven.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— . . .
Here is where churches wander from the Way. They think “by grace you have been saved” means they can go on sinning and still get to Heaven. Not so! God kicked Lucifer out of Heaven because of his sin and He won’t let any sinners back into Heaven. Grace does not save us eternally! It saves us from immediate death. The wages of sin is death. We are to die the moment we sin. Why are you still alive? Because of God’s grace. He keeps us alive so we can learn how to change our lives from sinners of death to saints of eternal lie.
. . . and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, . . .
Yes He did, but not now. We are raised up with Him in a new spirit, a new mind, new passions, new feelings and new desires. As Jesus was seated with His Father while walking on Earth, so we may also be seated with Him in Heavenly places through the new character Jesus wants to give us.
. . . so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
The riches of His grace keep us alive so we can learn of His “kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” and change our lives from death to life. Throughout eternity, the “coming ages” the “immeasurable riches of His Grace” will be our song.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, . . .
Let us put the comma where it belongs in that sentence to make sense. As the churches teach this verse it makes a lie out of the rest of the Bible, Jesus and Paul. Now read it again. “For by grace, – you have been saved through faith.” Grace saves us from immediate death, our wages for sinning, in order for us to be saved through our faith in Jesus which produces obedience to the teachings of Jesus.
. . . not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Alright, stay with me, Paul knew the truth, he wasn’t brainwashed. Most who are Christians today have been brainwashed and it is hard for them to wrap their minds around the truth as the whole Bible teaches it. Works! There are two kinds of works:
-
- Man-made works such as church. (Ego and Pride Producing)
- God’s works of keeping the Ten Commandments. (Character Producing)
Man-made works produce pride, boasting and ego within us. You don’t go to church because you are humble. You go to show off your new this or that. To gossip about this or that. To hear the pastor tell you how good you are for coming to church. But to go to learn how to stop sinning, be perfect and to keep the Ten Commandments for your eternal life, I don’t think so. Therefore, we should read the text as Paul intended it: “not a result of your works, so that no one may boast.” Your man-made works for eternal life will never get you eternal life. Jesus is the only Way to the only Truth to the one and only eternal life. Paul now clarifies what he meant from what we have just learned.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
The first was “a result of (your) works.” The opening of salvation is not a result of “our” works. The offer of salvation has been offered free of charge. We could never work off our past sins: justification. We could never open the door for salvation. Only Jesus could do that. But now that it is open we have a “work” to do: sanctification. Not to open the door, but to walk through that door. That is why Paul says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” We were created in Christ Jesus, in the image of God, to live the perfect, sinless and Ten Commandment life. The Ten Commandments are the works which “God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” That “beforehand” was at the creation of the world. Now it all makes sense. So simple!
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— . . .
Stay with me, Paul now is enumerating on the works that won’t get you into heaven or open the door for salvation. Circumcision! The church taught that circumcision saved you. No different than today when the churches run around claiming you have to be baptized for salvation. NO! Keep in mind, “circumcision” was another “code word” for everything that related to church activities. If you were circumcised, then you had to keep the holy days, feasts days, rites and rituals and services of the church. Now you were justified and “saved”! Not so! By doing those you were making them more important than keeping the Ten Commandments. Remember what Jesus said to the Jews? “Why do you also disregard the commandment of God because of your tradition?” Matthew 15:3.
. . . remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
The church was so involved in its rituals, services, traditions and rites that it felt superior to the “Gentiles” and refused to take the message of salvation by obedience to the Gentiles. Therefore, the Gentiles were shut out of God’s free salvation. The church required the Gentiles to become members of their church before sharing the Ten Commandments with them. They had built up a wall of partition between the two.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Keep in mind, this wasn’t a new thing. They were able to be brought near to Jesus by His blood in the Old Testament. The sacrificial lamb represented the blood of Jesus. Any Old Testament Gentile who accepted the blood of Jesus as the future Messiah was “brought near” to God. The Israelites, by the time of their Babylonian captivity had forgotten that. By the time of Jesus, it was simply abhorrent to think that Gentiles could be loved and accepted by God.
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, . . .
The key words are “hostility” and “ordinances”. The Israelites became hostile with pride, ego and arrogance towards anyone who wasn’t a Jew and obeying the ordinances. Abraham wasn’t “hostile” towards his neighbors. He even made alliances with them and taught them about the true God and how to serve and worship Him. They didn’t have to be circumcised or adhere to any traditions, rites or rituals. All they had to do was live in obedience to the Ten Commandments as Abraham did. “Because that Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” Genesis 26:5. The whole purpose of the Old Testament was to show us how to turn people from sin. “True teachings were in his (Levi) mouth, and falsehood was not found on his lips. He walked with me peacefully and righteously, and he turned many from sin.” Malachi 2:6.
. . . that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
Finally! Paul and many of the Jewish converts got it! They realized that God was the God of all the world and not just the Jews. Every human being on the face of the earth belonged to God. He loved all. But His love could not save a Gentile any more than it could save a Jew. All were to live in obedience to the Ten Commandments as Jesus did, even if it led to a “cross”.
And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
In the Old Testament the Gentiles who were far off were invited to serve and worship God by keeping the Ten Commandments. They were taught to let go of their idols and false gods that did nothing for them. Therefore, you have the stories of Ruth and Rahab who gave up their gods for the God of Israel.
For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
They understood that both had access to the Father by simply living in obedience to the Ten Commandments.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, . . .
Before there was an Israelite or Jew, from Adam to Noah, all who accepted the life of the Ten Commandments were “members of the household of God”. But the world wandered far from God and His Ten Commandments and God destroyed the world by flood. God then called Abraham and his decedents to keep alive the Ten Commandments on the face of the earth. But eventually the descendants became like the world while professing obedience to the Ten Commandments. It became a show, but the heart was not in it. Traditions, rituals, rites and services became all important.
. . . built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
Correct. The apostles and prophets are a part of our foundation. Not just the apostles of the New Testament. Not just the prophets of the Old Testament. Since Jesus Christ is the God of both the Old and New Testaments, therefore, it is all one structure and always has been. It was man that tore them apart.
In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Yes you are, if you are building on the Ten Commandments as Jesus did. Get out of your church and denomination. Stop listening to those who claim you can’t keep the Ten Commandments and are saved by grace. Go to Jesus, the Corner Stone, and build on Him by reading the Bible and listening to Jesus through His Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles. That is all you need.