August 16 Bible Reading

Psalms 119:27 Make me to understand the way of Your Commandments, and I will speak of Your wonderful works.
Bible Reading for August 16 (ONPP)
Ephesians 1 - 3, Psalms 45

Ephesians 1:2 – This is such a sweet and loving greeting.

Ephesians 1:5 – Redemption through Christ's suffering and death was in God's plan from the beginning.

Ephesians 1:11 – God guides the actions of people so that His will is performed. He used Shalmaneser and Nebuchadnezzar to punish Israel and Judah for their unfaithfulness. He used Elizabeth and Mary to bring into the world the one preparing the way and the One that walked the Way. God's deliberate actions through the use mankind are for the purpose of drawing people that have a heart for Him to Him in faith.

Ephesians 2:2 – The opening chapter that described God's wondrous grace and how Paul was elated about the victory of Christians in Ephesus over their previous failing. This verse reminds us of the others that still continue to turn away from God and to the corruption of Satan.

Ephesians 2:8–9 – Our salvation is not through church membership or giving or doing good works. Our salvation is through God's Grace in the faith of the sacrifice of His Son Jesus the Christ. That is, not of our own power but of the Mercy of God to us.

Ephesians 2:14 – Paul is using the middle wall of the temple that separated the court of the gentiles from the temple court as a metaphor for the new relationship between a gentile and God.

Ephesians 2:15 – The Law exposed sin that broke the relationship between God and men. God showed Israel that broken relationship, with the separation veil in the temple, where only once per year, could only one person go into with great preparation and sacrifice. Jesus paid the debt of Sin and made the relationship restorable, if we want to have it.