For the past several years, I have been posting on this site each week with thoughts intended for men. My purpose has been to encourage the men of Murray Missionary Church and others from outside our Body, to take the role of spiritual leaders God has designed for us. In doing this, we have focused on ways to step up our game and become consistent men of God. With this purpose in mind, many of the posts have focused on truth designed to align our thoughts and behavior with the Word of God. This has meant that most of the time, these have given us truth to act on or words of conviction to cause us to seek a change. Some of these have been purposely strong because God takes Christian manhood very seriously. The last few weeks have been especially hard as we have sought to bring repentance and restoration to lives that have fallen victim to the snares of Satan.
Because of this, God has been very clear that it is time to step back from the directive and move to a time of refreshing and encouragement. For the next several weeks, we are not going to look at what we need to become to be godly men, but we will consider what God has already done for us. I pray this series will be an encouragement and source of joy and hope as we look at who God has made us to be and what he has added to our lives since we have become followers of Jesus.
I am going to do this through an in-depth study of the first two chapters of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Many of you have heard me refer to the importance of these two chapters in a variety of contexts. I would ask that you take the time in this next week to read these two chapters with a pencil and paper available. Look for all the things God has made you to be, simply through an act of faith and confession in his Son, Jesus. Write down your list so it is available for reference. Keep it handy as you read the Man to Man so you can fill in any that I may mention that your might have missed. Also, please share with me things you have seen in your own reading that has not yet jumped out at me. In this, we can sharpen one another.
As an example of what you are considering, look at Ephesians 1:1-2, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. From this first verse, we learn that when we are redeemed by the blood of Jesus through our repentance and faith, we are made to be saints. We are also made to be faithful. In the second verse, the Holy Spirit reveals that we have God’s grace and his peace. We also learn that we now have God as our Father.
These two chapters show us the amazing depth of God’s gift to us in Jesus. We are going to break out many of these characteristics and discover how they can be a source of encouragement and strength as we strive to be men who are passionate disciples of Christ.