Author: Megan Langan

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 6:10-17 (day four)

When we read verse 12, it’s easy to imagine the “authorities of the unseen world” and “evil spirits in heavenly places” like something out of a paranormal horror movie. To be sure, there are horribly dark and evil things that occur in this world. However, I think a lot of the spiritual warfare we experience is more subtle, and more insidious than that.

When we believe lies that parade around as truth, when we allow apathy to creep in, when we are blinded by pride, when we allow a sinful habit to take hold – these are also the realities of spiritual warfare. But before we are overcome by fear at how present these things seem, Paul reminds us – we’ve been given everything we need for life and godliness, we’ve been given the armor of God.

It is a powerful thing to pray the armor of God over yourself, your spouse, your friends, and your children. It is impenetrable, fashioned by the God of the universe, and stronger than anything we may face.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 5:15-21 (day four)

One of my favorite professors in seminary taught a class on worship. He shared a thought in that class that has stuck with me ever since: in the gathered worship service, for some that are present, it took all they had just to get through the door. Life’s hardships have become too much to raise their voice, but they sought the presence of Jesus and got through the door. For the rest of us, whether we know their hardships or not, we sing on their behalf. Our song of praise lifts them up and wraps them in love as they seek the Spirit’s presence.

There will also be days where the roles are reversed. Where we give our last bit of strength to simply get through the door on a Sunday morning. But the song of those around us ministers to us and lifts us up. They sing on our behalf. I know I have had days like this, and the sound of the congregation’s singing carried me into the presence of God.

Paul isn’t being cute here when he tells us to sing. He knows that this is one of the ways the body of Christ can minister to one another. Our song to the Lord is also a ministry to our neighbor.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 5:8-14 (day four)

In The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis beautifully depicts God’s light. When the narrator steps into the heavenly realm and into the light, he experiences it’s warmth and freedom, but it also makes him feel exposed. This tension of freedom and exposure runs throughout the book, and it is exactly the tension that many of us feel as we wrestle with sin.

When we get things out in the light, confessing and repenting of our sin before God and others, the truth is that we are exposed. We are vulnerable and we feel the tension of taking what was once hidden and putting it in the light. But the good news is that our vulnerability is met with the kindness of Jesus. He meets us where we are, removes our sin and shame, and replaces it with freedom.

Exposing our sin to the light is uncomfortable, the light might hurt our eyes at first. But it is the only path to freedom.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 4:17-24 (day four)

The phrase “ignorance is bliss” hadn’t been coined yet, but Paul is already proving how untrue it is. The Gentiles were living in ignorance, hardening their hearts towards God and searching for satisfaction through lusts of the flesh. Their lives were anything but blissful. Anyone who has ventured down that spiral of sin would say they felt shameful, not satisfied.

Paul is telling us, ignorance isn’t bliss, it’s death. But we, the redeemed of the Lord, aren’t living in ignorance – we have seen Christ and we have heard his teaching. God’s plans for heaven and earth have been revealed to us and we’ve been given all truth through Christ. Therefore, we can no longer claim ignorance. We have seen the light and we can’t unsee it. We have seen the better way.

When our flesh inevitably tries to lure us back into that spiral of sin, when we’re tempted to put the old self back on, we must stand firm knowing that we have seen the fullness of light and witnessed the fullness of love.  After seeing the truth revealed in Jesus, we can’t go back to how we used to be, no matter how hard gravity pulls in that direction. We are accountable to what we know, so stand firm in the new self – it is through life in the Spirit that we find bliss.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 4:11-16 (day four)

“…to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” v 13

We are meant to become like Christ. That isn’t just an inspirational saying, it’s our calling. Paul means this so much he says it again in verse 15, “we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ..” Regardless of your vocational calling, our highest calling in life is to be transformed more and more into Christ’s likeness.

As soon as I’m reminded of this calling, I think about my shortcomings, limits, and sins. I still struggle with things that seem like they should have been conquered long ago. This transformation into Christ’s likeness can feel like it’s two steps forward, one step back. When I attempt to gain spiritual growth on my own, I end up just walking in circles.

But the Apostle Peter tells us that we have been given everything we need for life and godliness. What have we been given? The very Spirit of God. We can’t attain Christ’s likeness on our own, but the Spirit will always move us towards Christ. What are you struggling with? With whom in your life do you struggle to represent Christ? Bringing that to the Lord in prayer is the first step in becoming more like Christ.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 4:1-6 (day four)

Paul asks us to be diligent in preserving unity in the church. Other translations say “…make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit.” Unity isn’t just something we hope for or proclaim as a value. Paul says that unity is something we work for, not halfheartedly, but making every effort to keep the church unified in one Spirit, one hope, one Lord.

To be honest, I don’t know that I have made every effort to live in the unity of the Spirit with others. Not genuine unity, at least. Genuine unity doesn’t sweep tough conversations under the rug or ignore each other’s differences.  Genuine unity doesn’t settle for surface-level relationships in order to avoid disagreements. Genuine unity recognizes that while there are many things that contribute to our identity, one stands above them all – our relationship with Christ.

Your relationship with Christ is the most important thing about you. If you and another believer vote differently, live differently, speak differently and look differently, but you both proclaim Jesus as your savior, then you have the most important thing in common. While the differences between us may be significant and need to be addressed, Jesus is the firm foundation on which a unified church can be built.

As we head into an election season, and continue to live in a changing and challenging world, this Scripture must be the banner that we raise. We must make every effort to live in genuine unity in the Spirit.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 3:14-21 (day four)

Think back for a moment. What are the times in your life when you have gained a new comprehension of the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ’s love?

I recently had an experience where I found myself with a new understanding of the cross and the magnitude of God’s love. But this experience didn’t come like an epiphany out of nowhere. It came because I had experienced a deep hurt, and I took it to the Lord. In a vulnerable, painful place, the Lord showed me a new depth of love that I wouldn’t have otherwise seen. I think many of the times we understand God’s love in a new way are like that – we’re in a vulnerable place, and God meets us there.

I think it’s interesting here that Paul prays for his listeners to have power. Specifically, he prays that they would have “power through his Spirit,” so that Christ would dwell in them and they would know the breadth, length, height, and depth of God’s love. I didn’t feel “powerful” in the earthly sense when I saw a new depth of God’s love – but the Spirit’s power is different. The Spirit’s power is strong in our weakness and vulnerability, and allows us to see new dimensions of God’s love, so that Christ would dwell in our hearts more and more.

The Spirit’s power shows us the love that surpasses all knowledge, so that we may be “filled up to all the fullness of God.”

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 3:1-13 (day four)

“…so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.”

The church is essential. I realize I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but the church is absolutely essential in the work of God. It is essential because God decided it was so. From the very beginning, the church was part of God’s plan. The church is the way in which followers of Jesus gather for worship and fellowship, it is the way in which believers serve the needs of their community, and it is the way by which the city comes to know Jesus.

But Paul tells us here that the church isn’t only part of God’s plan for the visible world. The church’s testimony reaches into the cosmos. When the church carries out its mission, it reverberates from the neighborhood all the way into the heavenly places.

The church certainly has its quirks. She has no shortage of bumps and bruises, and has hurt some with scrapes and serious wounds. Imperfect though she is, the church is still God’s plan for all creatures in heaven and on earth to know that Jesus is Lord. In Christ, what would otherwise be a rag-tag group of misfits becomes the unified reflection of God’s mercy and love. Will you stick with God’s church, and shout her testimony into highest heaven?

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 2:19-22 (day four)

I was recently back on Baylor’s campus and walked past one of the new buildings that had popped up since my last visit. In the bricks on the facade of the building, there were peoples names on them, the names of folks who had donated in order for that new space to be built.

When Paul says that we are now part of the household of God, he means that not only our names but our entire lives serve as bricks in the temple, built for the glory and worship of God. But we don’t get a brick in this building by donating or earning it, we’re part of this building because of what Jesus did on the cross.

The work of the cross is a work of scandalous unity, grafting all the people of the world into the family of God. We as Gentiles aren’t included in this building as an annex or a mother-in-law suite, an after thought or an add-on. We’re included in the very body of Christ, the ever-growing temple of worship to the God of all the earth. Praise God, the opportunity to be apart of this work is open to everyone, and the temple is still being built.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 2:8-10 (day four)

Many of us would say that when we think back to our moment of salvation, that initial surrender to the Lord, we knew that it was purely a gift of God’s grace and not something we could have achieved on our own. We might have even gotten to that moment of surrender because we had tried to find salvation through our own efforts, and kept coming up empty. We couldn’t have somehow earned or climbed the ladder to salvation, rather it was by God’s grace through our faith in Christ.

But as we continue in our journey of faith, we can so easily forget this. I knew at the moment of my salvation that I was receiving an unearned gift of God’s grace, but as I continue on this journey of working out my salvation, I so easily fall into the trap of thinking that I can somehow climb the ladder of sanctification on my own, or that if I just work hard enough I can look more like Jesus. It’s tempting to tell God, “Thanks, I’ll take it from here.”

While Paul makes it clear that we are meant to respond to God’s grace with good works, Scripture lovingly repeats that is only through God’s grace that we have been saved, and only through God’s grace that we continue to grow closer to him. Continually accept God’s free gift of grace, friends. It is sure and steadfast.