Morning coffee / A gift in the mail / What's eating my bean plants? 😉

Ephesians 1: 1-3 (NKJV)

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Redemption in Christ 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Notice, in verse 1, how these Christians are described: "saints... the faithful in Christ Jesus." Saint is a word that can make us feel a little uncomfortable.

We often think of a “saint” as being one that is holy and lives a near perfect life, unlike ordinary people.

But “saints” in the New Testament are people like us, people who deal with struggles and difficulties, who have problems at home and setbacks at work. But what makes them remarkable is that they are different. That’s really the basic meaning of this word saint. In the Greek it is derived from the word for holy. And holy means - distinct, different, whole, belonging to God and, as a result, they live differently.

Holiness is the mark of saints. It isn't that a saint won’t have problems… but that a saint will handle them in a different way. Because they have a different lifestyle.

Next, in verse 2, notice that Paul greets these saints with his typical greeting. "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

These are the two characteristics, grace and peace, ought to be the mark in a Christians life every day. Because we can grace and peace no matter what our circumstances are. Grace and peace are never determined by outward circumstances; but by our inner man… the heart.

Now in verse 3, I want you to realize that all these blessings are available to us now.

The realm that Paul is calling “the heavenlies”, is not referring to heaven; "in the heavenly realms" or “the heavenly places” (as some translations read) is a reference to the invisible realities of our life now.

These realities certainly reach on into eternity. But they are something to be experienced now in our inner life—our thought life, where we feel conflict and pressure, struggle and disaster—that is part of the heavenlies.

It is where we are exposed to the attack of the principalities and powers that are mentioned later on in chapter 6, … those dark spirits in high places who get to us and depress us and frighten us and make us anxious or hostile.

Yet the heavenlies is not only the realm of conflict, but it is also where God can release us and deliver us. It’s where the Spirit of God reaches us - at the seat of our intellect, our emotions, and our will.

So, don't read this as though it were something out in space somewhere. These blessings are ours in our inner experience now, if we are in Jesus Christ.

There is so much going on in our country now… things that can easily upset us and cause us to get angry or be sad and even frightened.

But the Lord desires for His people to stay steady and experience His grace and peace regardless of the calamity going on around us.

Now this doesn’t mean we should ignore the problems or that we can’t speak out for truth… You see, there is a great, life-changing heritage available to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And our lives must be characterized by God's gifts of grace and peace.

I pray that God will bring us understanding and that our eyes will be opened to see all of God’s goodness in our lives regardless of what may be happening in our circumstances and that our words… our conduct and our attitudes will always be characterized with grace and peace.