Ephesians 1
"...the earnest of our inheritance...." Ephesians 1:14.
This passage, like 2 Corinthians, tells us that the Holy Spirit is our earnest, our guarantee that this whole salvation through Christ thing is the real deal.
Ephesians 2
"For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8-9.
We as Christians can easily slip into thinking we're so great and forget that nothing we do or have is anything we can boast about. Rather, every bit of it comes from God as a gift to us. I adore Thomas Sowell's writing, I aspire to a fraction of his greatness and he has his head on straight when it comes to explaining the economy. Highly respect him. But I was really sad when I read that he denied that he has been given any sort of gift with his writing. He had the chance to give all the glory to his Creator, or even a little bit of glory to his Creator. Instead, he took the glory for himself and said there is no gift at all, and that he'd worked very hard to become a skillful writer. Sorry dude but if that were true, it would mean that the only reason the rest of us don't have syndicated newspaper columns is because we're just not working as hard as he is. We could all compete as Olympic runners if we'd only work hard enough, the erroneous thinking goes. Hard work is extremely necessary, because we are developing our God-given gifts. We gotta meet the Lord half way. But ultimately, no matter how hard I work, I'm not getting signed as a Rockette.
"For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." Ephesians 2:18.
I like that Paul puts it this way, that the Holy Spirit gives us access to God the Father. The Holy Spirit is our twitter account to God, it puts us on His facebook page, it gives us his cell phone number. If we ignore that, we're thtupid.
"In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." Ephesians 2:22
The Spirit dwells in us. It's kind of amazing to realize this about ourselves. And a relief, because we don't have to conjure up greatness in our own strength. We rely on the working of the Holy Spirit.
"For this cause I bow my knees..." Ephesians 3:14.
It makes me cry every single time I hear a good singer belt out the part that says "fall on your knees" in O Holy Night. It might make you cry to hear me sing it but for a different reason.
Ephesians 3
"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be the glory..." Ephesians 3:20. When we get discouraged, we can remember that God has not forgotten us believers; and He can do exceedingly abundantly more than we ever ask or think. Wow. This passage is the: Yo, anything beyond your wildest imagination passage, multiply that by about a billion, that's what God is able to do for us. Do we care, or do we watch reality TV. I dunno.
Ephesians 4
"I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love." Ephesians 4:1-2.
This whole talk of being a prisoner for Christ was not a literary allegory thing. Paul is actually in jail y'all. We love Paul, homey's in jail and he's writing letters to glorify God and encourage entire cities throughout the Roman Empire to love and regard His ways.
"Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Ephesians 4:31-32.
Now this is a very important scripture to commit to memory. We chicks can get our feathers ruffled can't we. It's so easy to get fired up in our relationships. It's like a sport. Can hardly wait to have something to be fired up about. We tend to be rather pugnacious. We have to guard against it by being forgiving in our relationships. Even if they didn't ask for us to forgive them. And they probably won't. But I am so over that because I dun forgave.
"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit...." Ephesians 4:18
Just sayin.
"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body." Ephesians 4:22-23.
Hoop, there it is.
Ephesians 5
"...the wife see that she reverence her husband." Ephesians 5:33
We can get a little comfortable and familiar with our hubbies and forget that God would have us reverence them.
Ephesians 6
"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." Ephesians 6:1
We love preaching this passage to our own children and we should. I want to point out here that for those of us who are officially big girls, it is important to note that we no longer obey our parents but must transfer that honor to our husbands instead. There's no divided loyalty there, because the time to obey our parents was before we were married, which is to say we are now "one flesh" with our man. We need to be respectful of our parents once we're married. But pretty much they don't get a say anymore. Y'all remind me I said that when I have four sons-in-law.
"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace: faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always..." Ephesians 6:10-18.
Do you want to know my main purpose in this Triumphant Chicks website? It's that passage right there in Ephesians 6. My purpose is spiritual warfare. Satan hates families, he hates marriage, he hates the truth, and if we chicks will all just keep being feisty, selfish, and oblivious to Biblical counsel, then Satan can kick back, curl up on a chaise lounge on the front porch and take a nap. Drink a smoothie. But I would add that I'm not actually about Satan because he's just a whatever. I'm ultimately about the things of the Lord. Spiritual warfare cup's half full. If you will. Oh and we will.