Ephesians
These lessons were begun after the completion of the lessons on 1 John. At the time our church had a set of Sunday classes going over this book and I believe a ladies Bible study, too, was on this path. The path I will take will go far more weeks than these other groups, but it is good to start at a similar point.
I have personally studied these verses many times, but have not taught through them recently. As such they are foundational in my own understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ and are applied in many areas. As a teenager, I think I memorized the first 2 to 3 chapters. I always memorized back then in the 1984 version of the NIV Bible. It has been tough to watch that version shift over the years altering the memorized paths I worked so diligently on to get the words right here and there. The message is the same and its formative impact on me is the important feature.
New to this page compared with my other pages is that I will be filling out a “People, places, events” section as I go. This will include links from the things I am engaged with that I use in my lessons. After completing the 1 John series I revisited each of the 25 lessons and compiled a list of links. Doing it on the fly, though, will be better. Those are at the bottom of this page.
Goto: People, Books, Places, and more
Goto: Phrases that stuck with me
Introduction
Beginning »» Ephesians, papaceae. An acronym from a prickly poppy1
Chapter 1
Verses 1-2 »» Young, Faithful and Christain: Paul’s aim2
Verse 3 »» Ahh…Those are spiritual blessings.3
Verse 3 »» The Heavenly Realm: Relevant for Christians.4
Verses 4-6 »» Chosen: It can seem like winning a sweepstake.5
Verse 7a »» Redemption: God offered the listing price.6
Verses 7-8b »» Forgiveness: That flows in the family.7
Verses 8-10 »» Why all this grace?8
Verses 11-12 »» An allotment in God’s kingdom.9
Verses 13-14 »» Personal Pentecost and the heavenly allotment.10
Verses 15-16 »» Remembering with prayer and thanksgiving.11
Verse 17 »» Stoking the flames of Christian understanding.12
Verses 18-19a »» Building blocks: Hope, Riches, Power13
Verses 19b-21 »» That Immeasurable Power14
Verses 19 »» That Immeasurable Power–Take 215
Verses 22-23 »» The hidden dominion of God16
Chapter 2
Verses 1-3 »» Tempering exuberance with a glance at our past17
Verses 4-10 »» Grace: It’s why we aren’t dead18
Verses 11-13 »» Different than you used to be19
Verses 13-18 »» Real barriers need a real peacemaker20
Verses 19-22 »»People: God’s building blocks21
Chapter 3
Verses 1-3, 13 »» The Spiritual Alchemy of Suffering22
Verses 4-12 »» You’re claiming what?23
Verses 14-17 »» The bigness of God.24
Verses 16-21 »» Rooted and grounded.25
Chapter 4
Verses 1-2 »» Loyalties placed and misplaced26
Verses 3-12 »» Unity & Peace: Motivation for worthy walking27
Verses 11-13 »» Equipping28
Verses 14-16 »» Steady navigation is not for children.29
Verses 17-19 »» God’s traffic signals aren’t futile.30
Verses 20-28 »» Get back on track.31
Verses 29-30 »» What’s in your smokestack.32
People, books, places, and games in this series
- Walter Cronkite – In the introduction to verse 3.
- Dani Pettrey – The Alaskan Courage – Characters talking about Jackie Gleason.
- Dani Pettrey – The Alaskan Courage: Silenced – Relationships.
- A Beautiful Mind – Learn how to speak to the unrealities in your life.
- All She Ever Wanted – Book by Lynn Austin.
- Les Misérables – Grace forced a choice.
- Samaritan’s Purse – Tie-ins to our Thanksgiving trip 2018
- J.R.R. and Christopher Tolkien – The Fall of Gondolin
- 1984 – George Orwell – The Party changes the past, but not God
- Jesus Freak / What if I Stumble? Brennan Manning – Live godly.
- The Comedians – (pg 3) – Jones felt no embarrassment after caught trying to bribe the steward to switch his cabin for Brown.
- What about Bob? – We all have to die!
- Mary Poppins (2018) – No maybe on the lost things.
- Ephesians 4: Loyalties placed and misplacedJussie Smollet – Nigerian brothers not loyal all the way to jail.
- Donald Trump, Gates, Flynn, Cohen, Papadopoulus, Mandella, Martin Luther King, Jr., Solzhenitsyn, Bonhoeffer, Russell Crowe – Good loyalties and bad.
- David Webber’s Oath of Swords.
- Dolly Parton, Whitney Houston, I will always love you.
Phrases that stuck out to me
- Spiritual blessings are like your pancreas (that is, they may be silent, but ready, active, and very valuable). Life without consideration of the future runs downhill.
- Doing what feels good is a great way to find yourself in the midst of regret.
- The excitement the world offers is paper thin; the other side of the shimmer doesn’t.
- Christians exist in the widest of dimensions
- Blessings are more than refrigerator magnets
- Are you willing to live a troubled life?
- Kayden sees loss and holds people at a distance. God foresaw loss and still made relationships.
- The pollen spread of God’s grace garnered only the occasional interest.
- We may have to run like the spider, but we can have faith like Jesus.
- Ephesians 2:4-10
- God is rich in relenting (pg 2)
- Mercy is God’s character, so is love: the result is grace (pg 2)
- God does not pay us back for our sins; neither can we pay him back for his…grace (pg 3)
- small acts of faith make great reactions in the heavenly realms. (pg 4)
- If the economy of heaven rested on the back of good deeds the grime of earth would soil heaven’s streets. There are no street cleaners in heaven. (pg 5)
- We don’t get to boast about finding the sidewalk to heaven (pg 5)
- Remember the past to brighten/inform the present
- Quiet lips are better than loud ones, but they are no guarantee of purity
- We all fall short of our own glory. Also here.
- The richness of God’s character strengthens yours. (see “Bigness for the inside” on page 5)
- Maturity is like epoxy or roofing caulk.
- The limelight unraveled to slimelight
- “Wrong is wrong. Right is right. Wrong is never right“