Topic: No Longer Strangers But Fellow Citizens
Opening Prayer: May the meditation of my heart be acceptable unto you, O Lord as I read from your word.
Scripture: Ephesians 2:11 – 22
Question(s) for Reflection
• What does the passage teach about God the Father, God the Son or God the Holy Spirit?
• What is God revealing to me in this passage?
Outline: Faith in Christ and His finished work has brought certain privileges to the Christian. Note some of these from vs.13-19. Read vs.12, 13, 15 and 16 again and notice a present quite different from the past, established by the death of Christ on the cross. The cross then becomes the meeting-point and reconciliation between God and man and between man and his fellow man (Jews and Gentiles).
It becomes the starting point or new beginning of a new creation order with Jesus as the middleman. In Jesus, it is now possible not only for sinful man to have peace with the Holy God, but man to be reconciled to man. The new creation order built on love, peace and unity emphasizes a vertical relationship with God and horizontal with others. Practical Christianity therefore is not the mastery of precepts or godly principles, but a healthy living relationship with God and man.
Practice/Word Application
• And so: Faith in Christ should inspire us to flow out to energize the weary, befriend the lonely and comfort the hurting around us irrespective of tribal/ ethnic divide and denominational affiliation.
• Any new insight or reinforcement of what you already know?
Closing Prayer
• O Lord, fill me with deep love for those in need around me without regard to their tribal or ethnic differences.
• Ask God to help you know His will, walk in it and be an example to believers and unbelievers
Offer a prayer of faith in line with John 1:5; Esther 3-5; Luke 12:32-59
