Ephesians 3 – More abundantly

John Newton wrote in one of his hymns Thou art coming to a King, Large petitions with thee bring; For His grace and power are such, None can ever ask too much. In other words our God is able to answer all our prayers. There is nothing we can ask of God that He cannot [...]

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Ephesians 2 – Small word, big meaning!!

Sometimes in reading the Bible you can be struck by a chapter, a character, a verse or simply one word. Here in our reading today I was struck by the word ‘but’. Twice Paul is writing about something and then says ‘but’ and brings out some wonderful statement. In verses 1-3 Paul is making clear [...]

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Ephesians 1 – Blessing

Paul begins his letter to the believers in Ephesus with his usual greeting – ‘Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ’ [v2]. What better things can you wish for someone else than that they may know God’s grace, unmerited favour and peace? Then Paul lists some of the [...]

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Galatians 6 – Be on alert

As he brings his letter to a close he warns his readers about how to deal with a Christian who has sinned. Perhaps he is thinking of those in the churches he is writing to who haven’t fallen into the error of saying one has to be circumcised in order to be saved. How must [...]

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Galatians 5 – Freedom

Finally, Paul tells us what the specific problem is amongst the churches in Galatia. They think they needed to be circumcised in order to be right with God. It seems they think to be saved you needed to have faith in Jesus but also to be circumcised. So it was faith in Christ plus circumcision [...]

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Galatians 4 – The sinlessness of Christ

Paul has been puzzled and concerned why the believers in Galatia want to embrace a teaching that turns them away from trusting Jesus. They want to go back to keeping the law as a means of salvation and Paul has gone to some length to explain that the law cannot save. Here in the passage [...]

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Galatians 3 – Redeemed from the curse of the law

Paul continues to show the believers in Galatia the error of their ways. He wants them to realise that what has happened to them is because of their faith in Christ and not through their own efforts in keeping the law. He asks them how did they receive the Spirit? Was He given to them [...]

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Galatians 2 – Justification by faith alone

Paul continues on with explaining how he heard the gospel and what he did after his conversion. Then from v15 onwards he begins to deal with the issue at hand. The churches in Galatia are accepting a false gospel. They were being taught that it was necessary for a believer to keep the law in [...]

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Galatians 1 – Chosen by God

Congratulations!! If you have been using this reading scheme you have just completed another book. Now we move on to a new book written by Paul to various churches in Galatia. Note he says to the ‘churches of Galatia’ and not ‘church of Galatia’. The idea of a State church didn’t exist then and in [...]

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2 Corinthians 13 – Rejoice!!

As he brings his letter to a close Paul commands the believers to rejoice and to rejoice now. What a lovely way of ending his letter. We all want to be happy in life, don’t we? Well the believer is one who can always be happy in life because we have so much to rejoice [...]

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