GRINDIT podcast

What does it mean to “obey”? Paul uses a word in the Greek that implies a child hears instruction from their parents and they immediately do what they are instructed to do. If this isn’t the case, the child is sinning because they are not obeying...they are being disobedient; they are disrupting unity. Funny thing is, we generally think about our own children or grandchildren but we, ourselves, ar...

I have heard this passage in Ephesians 5 about husbands and wives, marriages, taught for over thirty years and not once, that I can remember, did anyone talk about the context. All I have heard I have heard is these verses used to tell wives on how to submit to her husband and how the husband is to treat his wife by loving her. I don’t believe that’s Paul’s intent in this section of scripture. It’...

Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus is a plea to do what pleases God. Why? Because of everything God has done for us in Christ Jesus! It’s a theme throughout the letter, “Throw off the old life!”...“Don’t give into the desires of the flesh!”...”Don’t give a foothold to the devil!” Paul is begging them, and us, to give up our own desires, passions, our will and live for Jesus, to allow the Holy...

You have been crucified with Christ so don’t let your old self come back to life! This is Paul’s message to the church at Ephesus and to us today! He knows the inner struggle of walking by the Spirit and walking according to the flesh. He knows we have been given a new life in Christ but he also knows there is an enemy trying to destroy us so he warns them, “Don’t live like the Gentiles. Live Diff...

We left Paul in chapter 4 listing a bunch of sins that need to stop happening in a believer’s life. He will continue this list in chapter 5 but sandwiched in between these lists is a command to “Imitate God.” In the Greek this means to mimic, to impersonate. How do we impersonate someone? We watch them, the mannerisms, how they talk and act, we study their lives and then we start to act like them....

You have been crucified with Christ so don’t let your old self come back to life! This is Paul’s message to the church at Ephesus and to us today! He knows the inner struggle of walking by the Spirit and walking according to the flesh. He knows we have been given a new life in Christ but he also knows there is an enemy trying to destroy us so he warns them, “Don’t live like the Gentiles. Live Diff...

Paul says in verse 17, “With the Lord’s authority I say this...” Does this mean everything he said previously is without the Lord’s authority? Of course not. He is making a transition here from telling the church at Ephesus to live a life worthy of their calling to how NOT to live. And to show how serious the matter is, Paul is saying, “The Lord has my back on what I am about to say,” and he goes...

False teachers were rampant in the early church. These deceivers would come in and pretend to be full of the spirit, and they would welcome themselves into the body of believers, making friends and gaining people’s trust. Then at the moment of opportunity, they would begin their deceitful teachings and cause chaos in the body. They would cause chaos and doubt which totally went against God’s plans...

When Jesus left this earth, ascending back to the Father and sitting at His right hand, he left gifts for the church. It may not be gifts like we think of as gifts, something to be unwrapped and get all excited about...But they were necessary gifts because the church, his body, at that time, was a new concept and would need structure. These gifts would provide this: apostles, prophets, evangelists...

Paul says we are to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. How do we do that? It seems that many do know, or understand, their calling. It’s not complicated to figure out but it can be challenging to do! Paul tells us how to live a called life and that life is to be like Jesus: be humble, be gentle or meek, be patient, and love, striving for unity with the Spirit. If we get any one of these out o...

Have you prayed and prayed and prayed only to get nothing but crickets from God? No matter how earnest you pray, all you seem to get from God is silence? A question people ask a lot is, “Why are my prayers not being answered?” It’s a great question because Jesus tells us to ask God for help and to bring our petitions before Him so He can answer them, but maybe you’re discouraged because you feel a...

Paul has taken the time to think about what God has done for him and anyone who obeys the gospel and it humbles him. He says he wants us all to experience the love the Father has for us and what he has done through His Son, Jesus. He wants us to know the power that is within us as believers, those who have put their faith in Jesus. The same power that was at work in the gospels, in the book of Act...

What put Paul down on his knees before God? No, not when he was thrown from his horse on the road to Damascus, but when he took the time to consider the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth chose him to carry the message of the gospel to the Jews and the Gentiles. He was humbled because he knew where he once was and the life he was living, going from house to house, persecuting those who w...

Paul says God revealed the mystery of his plan to him and that he did not get any of his information from man. He says he didn’t learn it either but that it was given to him by God Himself. When Paul was first converted to Jesus, he went away for three years. During those three years is when he would be taught by God this mysterious plan and now, he would reveal this plan to both Jews and Gentiles...

Paul is reflecting on how God had a plan in place where Jews and Gentiles would worship together in unity, in one body, the church. He says this plan was mysterious for a long time but it has now been revealed. There is no guessing as to what that plan is because Paul tells us exactly what the mysterious plan is, and it was purposed by God Himself from all eternity. That plan was for God Himself t...

God made a covenant with Abraham way back in Genesis 12 and he became the father of the Jews. A sign of that covenant was circumcision and God said if they chose not to be circumcised, then He wouldn’t have anything to do with them. Then there are the Gentiles who were completely outside of that covenant and were uncircumcised. Hostility would grow between these two groups of people and the roots...

When we were kids we played a game called “Follow the leader”. You wanted to be careful in who you chose to be the leader because the object of the game was to do everything the leader did so you can stay in the game. If you didn’t choose a close friend to be the leader, they may choose hard things to follow just to try and get you to booted out of the game. Paul says we have two leaders we can fo...

Do you know an artist? I like to draw and have painted a few things but I know people who can paint masterpieces that can make your jaw drop! They start with a blank canvas but before they make the very first stroke, they can see the painting already completed in their head! You and me, we are God's masterpiece! He takes a blank canvas and makes something beautiful for the whole world to marvel at...

Zombies do exist and I can prove it! Paul says they do in Ephesians chapter 2! He says people that do not walking with Jesus do not have life...they are literally dead people walking...or spiritual Zombies!!!! They have a heartbeat, they breath air, they go about their daily business, but they are dead on the inside...why? Because Jesus is LIFE (John 14:6). He said he came to give life and give it...

We have victory in Jesus so why do we walk in defeat? Paul says we are complete in Jesus Christ, that we have everything we need to walk in victory! So many Christians today live as though they lack something and when we take a look at the Greek word Paul uses for when he says we are “full” because of Jesus, he is saying we are so full of Jesus we are bursting at the seams! As Christ followers, we...

Remember that commercial where the people ate a meal and they screamed, “I am full!” They were saying, “I have eaten so much that I cannot eat another bite. My belly is so full it feels like it is about to explode!” This is the idea Paul has when he is talking about the church at the end of Ephesians 1 and the beginning of chapter 2. He says we, the church, the body of Christ is “full” because of...

God had a plan in place long before He created anything. That plan was to use His Son, Jesus, as a sacrifice to redeem fallen man—to reconcile us back to Him. He foreknew man would choose to sin and separate from Him, yet because of His great love for us, He took care of it by sending His Son to die on a cross, be buried for three days, and resurrected becoming victorious over death and the grave....

Paul has been going on and on about how God has done everything, from creation to salvation to blessing us with blessings in heavenly places, through His Son, Jesus. God has taken care of everything we need to have a relationship with Him as we live this life on earth and in the life to come in eternity. This is God’s plan and He already had this plan in place long before He spoke anything into ex...

Paul says in verse 3, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.” God has supplied everything we need to have a relationship with Him. We literally do not have any excuse except that we don’t want to have one! Every spiritual blessing, along with many other things including free...

In this episode we talk about Predestination and what that exactly means but what is more important than Predestination is what Paul said before he gives us the idea: All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. I don’t think we have a clue of what it means to be in Christ and what...