Welcome to another edition of Thursday Encouragement. If you
aren't familiar with our blogger group, a few of us bloggers got together and
created this Thursday blog post to bring you some encouragement before we head
into the weekend.
I'm going to be using my pastor's sermon from Sunday as a springboard for my post. We've been in study of Ephesians and on Sunday the scripture was Ephesians 2:8-18.
Ephesians 2:8 - 18
God saved: you
by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a
gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have
done, so none of us can boast about it. 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.
Don’t
forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised
heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it
affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In
those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from
citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant
promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without
hope. But now you have been united with Christ
Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to
him through the blood of Christ.
For
Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one
people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility
that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its
commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by
creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one
body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross,
and our hostility toward each other was put to death.
He
brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and
peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of us can come to the Father
through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.
The interesting thing about these eleven verses is that
they are about racism.
Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus about the
Jews who have converted to Christianity were treating the converted Gentiles
and Pagans as less than because
they were circumcised and the others
weren't, something they were
very proud of, a little weird to me to be proud of
that. Which is why Paul is
addressing it in this letter. God makes it very
clear in this
section of scripture that no one is better than anyone else.
"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."
God calls us His masterpiece so, if we're all a
masterpiece created by
God's own hands how can we treat anyone else less than
the masterpiece God
created them to be just because we're different.
Now, it's your turn . . . what have you been reading in
the Bible lately that has encouraged you? And what do you think? Let me know in the
comments.
Then visit my friends and read their encouraging
posts.
Nicole @ Christian Fiction Girl
Jacquelyn @ Heavenly Home
Jessica @ A Baker's Perspective
Gina @ Stories by Gina
Rebecca @ Rev. Rebecca Writes
1 comment:
Amen! Good thoughts today.
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