I don’t know about you, but I am very glad that Father saw to it that each of us individually has gifts that fit us. The body, we are told, has many parts and every part has its function and is valuable and useful.

I’m not an evangelist. I’m awkward at it and it simply doesn’t fit me. I’ve met people who are evangelists, and they seem to be at ease in that role. For sure, they are gifts from God Nevertheless, I too am a gift from God—as are you.

This text seems to be derived from Psalm 68:18. That verse says in part, “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men.” You may notice that Paul does not quote this verbatim. Rather than indicating that the One who ascended received gifts for men, Paul says He gave gifts to men.

The grace of God appeared to everyone, and He brought salvation with Him. The Lord Jesus is the gift of God revealing God and teaching us how knowing Him should, and will, be reflected in our manner of living in this life.

Gentle restoration is Father’s way.

The questions Jesus asked helped Peter see his weakness.

After Peter’s failure, Jesus was crucified. After the resurrection, Jesus had another interaction with Peter.

We must remember that The Revelation is a book of signs and symbols. If we let go of that and begin to press everything we read into physical items and situations we will find confusion and fear. Only when we see these visions and John’s relation of them for what they are, a symbolic revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ and the new creation He has inaugurated and continues to consummate in history will we find comfort and encouragement.

The issue is at least partially how one chooses to define sin. In various places we are told that sin is the transgression of the law, that whatever is not of faith is sin, and so on. The Greek word for sin is (hamartia). At its most basic, this word means to miss the mark.

Is the Bible inspired? What is plenary inspiration? What is verbal inspiration? Is it important?

Suicide is very difficult to understand. People have a very difficult time reconciling it with their theology. This is especially true when a believer has made this heartbreaking choice. Poor teaching complicates this for many. Passages in 1 Corinthians and 1 John are often presented as evidence that suicide is unforgivable, raising questions about eternal life. Let’s take a closer look at this.

Having been sent by God to speak to Pharaoh, Moses was frustrated. He said, “Lord, why have You brought harm to this people? Why did You ever send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done harm to this people…” (Exodus 5:22b-23a, NASB 2020).

Then, and I just love this, he said…

I’ve learned that resting in the finished work of Christ is not so much doing nothing as it is simply living my everyday living with my wife, driving around, eating, shopping life and simply not wasting time wondering if I’m doing what God wants me to do.

What we are discovering here is that Love is the sinew, or the fastener, or the uniting bond that ties all these godly virtues together and this results in unity of the Spirit, or as Paul will frame it in Ephesians 4:13 “the unity of the faith.”

This situation has tested the limits of my long-suffering and forbearance. In the process it brings to light the abundance of these virtues found in our heavenly Father and expressed through the Lord Jesus.

From time to time, I like to repeat a statement that I once read or heard— “I don’t know how to act my age. I’ve never been this age before.” It’s humorous because while it is silly, it is also true. It can be easy for us to feel the same way about thinking, talking, and acting like saints. We don’t know how.

Father works to make our desires consistent with His own. He does not do this through coercion or manipulation, but rather by compassionately guiding us and demonstrating for us His gentle Love and genuine care. In this way, we become fascinated by the Lord Jesus, bound to Him and captivated by Him. It is from this wonderful place that we should consider the guidance that follows.

Don’t project your New Covenant self onto what the Bible reports about the way God dealt with people under the Old Covenant. The way He interacted with them is not the way He interacts with you.

The word behind “sanctify” (hagiazo) in verse 23 uses a rare form called the optative mood. Out of 28,121 verbs in the New Testament, this form occurs only about 68 times. It is the form used in Romans 6:15 when Paul asks whether we should just keep on sinning since we are not under Law, but under grace. His response is an emphatic “Far from it!” or “God forbid!” This verb form indicates the word is to be applied in the strongest terms. That’s why the translators render it “sanctify you completely.”

To have greater faith, or grow in faith, means coming to believe with greater certainty, and that, to me, is trust. That's why I say “trust gives legs to faith.” It is by growing in our knowledge of Him, His vastness, His character, that our temporal lives are transformed without striving in the flesh.

This is his prayer for the saints of Ephesus, and it is one on which we can pattern prayers of our own. First, we might be reminded that Christ does indeed dwell in our hearts. We don’t see Him there nor physically feel Him, yet by faith we are assured that He is there.