Ephesians 6

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Devotional

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”

– Ephesians 6:1-3

There’s hardly anything good that is connected with names like Dachau, Treblinka and Auschwitz. But rising from the ash of the holocaust are a few precious gems to be treasured. One such jewel is a book written by a camp survivor named Viktor Frankl. At the end of the preface to the book Frankl writes the following (It’s one of my favorite parts of the book).

The reader may ask me why I did not try to escape what was in store for me after Hitler had occupied Austria. Let me answer by recalling the following story. Shortly before the United States entered World War II, I received an invitation to come to the American Consulate in Vienna to pick up my immigration visa. My old parents were overjoyed because they expected that I would soon be allowed to leave Austria. I suddenly hesitated, however. The question beset me: could I really afford to leave my parents alone to face their fate, to be sent, sooner or later, to a concentration camp, or even to a so-called extermination camp? Where did my responsibility lie? Should I foster my brain child, logotherapy, by emigrating to fertile soil where I could write my books? Or should I concentrate on my duties as a real child, the child of my parents who had to do whatever he could to protect them? I pondered the problem this way and that but could not arrive at a solution; this was the type of dilemma that made one wish for “a hint from Heaven,” as the phrase goes.

It was then that I noticed a piece of marble lying on a table at home. When I asked my father about it, he explained that he had found it on the site where the National Socialists had burned down the largest Viennese synagogue. He had taken the piece home because it was a part of the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. One gilded Hebrew letter was engraved on the piece; my father explained that this letter stood for one of the Commandments. Eagerly I asked, “Which one is it?” He answered, “Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land.” At that moment I decided to stay with my father and my mother upon the land, and to let the American visa lapse.

Viktor E. Frankl
Man’s Search for Meaning

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Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik

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Additional Daily Devotionals

My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers

Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon

 

Ephesians 5

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Devotional

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light

– Ephesians 5:8

It’s important to remember that every Christian is an old and new man at all times. We once were darkness, but now are light in the Lord. In Christ we are a new creation, the old has passed away, and all things have become new. But we must choose to walk as children of light. We must decide to die daily and put on the new man. God, in Christ, will enable and empower us, by His Spirit to do so, but we must make the move in faith to do so.

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Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik

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Additional Daily Devotionals

My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers

Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon

 

Ephesians 4

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Devotional

and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,

– Ephesians 4:23

I need this. I need this perpetually. The longer I follow Jesus, the more I realize just how much I need to be renewed in the spirit of my mind. But how does this renewal take place? I think the answer is found in Romans.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

– Romans 12:1-2

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Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik

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Additional Daily Devotionals

My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers

Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon

 

Ephesians 3

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Devotional

to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places,

– Ephesians 3:10

This is magnificent! God desires to reveal the greatness of His wisdom, to all principalities and powers in heavenly places (i.e. angels and demons) in, through and by His church. That’s us! God makes known how splendid His wisdom is by putting it on display through us.

Helpful Resources

Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik

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Additional Daily Devotionals

My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers

Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon

 

Ephesians 2

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Devotional

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

– Ephesians 2:10

God created and redeemed you in Christ for an eternal purpose. He is at work in you causing you to desire and do these things that are ultimately pleasing and glorifying to Him and gloriously satisfying for you.

Helpful Resources

Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik

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Additional Daily Devotionals

My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers

Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon

 

Ephesians 1

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Devotional

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

– Ephesians 1:7

The identity and destiny of the Christian is completely found “In Him.” In Christ we are chosen, redeemed, adopted and predestined unto an eternal inheritance. From this position we find our meaning, value and purpose, too.

Helpful Resources

Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik

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Additional Daily Devotionals

My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers

Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon

 

Galatians 6

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Devotional

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

– Galatians 6:7

I was speaking one day with an acquaintance who didn’t attend church and was quite a bit more interested in a Eastern influenced, new-age spirituality. She shared with me her basic philosophy and her view of karma. I told her, “You know, the Bible presents a similar concept. Not one that has anything to do with reincarnation, but certainly one that has consequence in this life and that which is to come.”

“Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.” (New Living Translation)

Helpful Resources

Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik

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Additional Daily Devotionals

My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers

Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon

 

Galatians 5

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Devotional

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

– Galatians 5:19-23

What characterizes your life? The life of the flesh, or the life of the Spirit? Because of God’s grace and forgiveness, the works of the flesh are no doubt evident in your past (i.e. your life before Christ). But the future should be the fruit of the Spirit.

Helpful Resources

Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik

Read the Scriptures at Bible.com

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Additional Daily Devotionals

My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers

Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon

 

Galatians 4

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Devotional

I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.

– Galatians 4:11

How would one know if they’d labored in vain? If the outcome you’d planned for was not the outcome you’d achieved, then the labor expended might have been in vain.

Paul had labored to preach the simple Gospel of salvation by grace through faith. But some in the church at Galatia had strayed from the simplicity of the Gospel and were seeking to be righteous before God by their keeping of the Old Testament Law. That’s why his heavy words at the beginning of Chapter 3…

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

– Galatians 3:1-3

 

Helpful Resources

Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik

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Additional Daily Devotionals

My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers

Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon

 

Galatians 3

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Devotional

Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

– Galatians 3:3

“Paul. You chutzpa is showing again.”

Helpful Resources

Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik

Read the Scriptures at Bible.com

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Additional Daily Devotionals

My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers

Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon