Verse of the Day 9/29

Through the Bible - Isaiah 18-20, Ephesians 4

 

Good morning,

For today's verse we'll go to Ephesians 2 to some of the great verses in scripture that tell us where our faith comes from and why it is that we have it.

 

I've been reading Thielickes observations and teaching on the Lord's prayer, which starts out with "our Father".  He states that "the Father must always come before the things, but once this is understood, then bring Him whatever there is to bring.  Because He has given you the greatest thing, you can come with the smallest thing."

 

Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.   NKJV

or from the NLT

Eph 2:8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

As we consider these verses in Ephesians we should realize that God has given us a great gift in salvation and it is one that should be shared.  One of the ways that we can "walk in good works" is to take our marching orders from His Word, it should be the daily bread that sustains us, guides us, and leads us.

 

Regarding the Lord's prayer and in particular "give us this day our daily bread" Thielicke writes, "And He regards our spiritual bread in exactly the same way that He does our physical bread; His Word, which in parabolical language is called spiritual food, is not something that gives us complete directions for the rest of our life and a blanket consolation for every possible difficulty that may occur.  No, we need His Word every day.  His word is "a lamp to our feet and a light to our path: Ps. 119:105.  You see what is meant; it lights each individual step, each step we take now.  Only the next few yards are lighted by this lamp- no more than this, no less either.  This Word is not a search light that will bathe in light the coming months or years or even the course of this war and the years of peace to follow, so that we may see a straight road ahead of us.  No, it is only a lamp to our feet and we walk like children in the dark because we hold fast to His hand.  So in the spiritual sense too, we receive only our daily bread."

 

As we do this, as we live by faith with His Word as the light for our path,  we will learn to depend more and more upon His Word.

 

How important is God's Word in your life, in guiding you to "do the good works, which God has prepared beforehand" for us to do?

 

Read the passage below.  Instead of following the "course of the world" , follow the course of the Word.  After all, we have been "made alive" (v.1), if we are in Him we are born again.

 

In Christ,
Mike
mikevw@bellsouth.net
 http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com
Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace  NIV

Eph 2:1-11

 

By Grace Through Faith

 

2 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

 

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

 

NKJV