I feel a little behind with this post, but I’m thankful I have the chance to do it.

I came across this Heart of the Word Scripture Study though Rachel of Rachel Rewritten and was just drawn to it.  I have read Ephesians before, but you can never read the Bible too many times! (though there are still some books I need to read once).

Anyway, it’s been a long time since I’ve been a part of any type of Bible study and to find one through my fellow bloggers was inspiring.  In fact, I’ve come across a lot more bloggers who love God than I thought I would; it’s been amazing and refreshing!  From what I gather, this Bible study is reading through Ephesians at about 2 chapters a week, and there’s no real study aspect to it; it’s more of a ‘read and meditate on the words that God is speaking to you’ study.

Week 1: Ephesians 1-2:13

Throughout reading the first chapter and a half there were two sets of verses that really stuck out at me.  First in chapter 1, verses 4-6 hit me pretty good:

“⁴For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love ⁵he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – ⁶to the praise of this glorious grace, which he has feely given us in the One he loves.”

Knowing the fact that we’re sinners yet God still chose us and that He knew before He even created man that He would be sending Jesus to die for us… I don’t know about the rest of you, but that just blows my mind!  We were predestined to be saved through Jesus and be claimed as God’s children.  That just amazes me how much God loves us that still keeps us as His children.

And chapter 2 was where I hit another good nugget of scripture; one that I hear about very often, but still just really hit me when I read it again this week:

“⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, though faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast.”

So many people think that because they do good things, they’ll get to Heaven.  The thing is, if you don’t have the faith (believing that Jesus came to die for our sins and accepting Him as our Lord and Savior), then your works aren’t going to do you well.  Yeah, you’re doing the right thing by doing good works rather than bad ones, but those alone will not save anyone.  I like verse 9, where it says, “so that no one can boast,” because if we could be saved by our works, then that would be telling everyone that we don’t need God to save us.  So, by God giving us the gift of salvation, we’re saved by his grace and as long as we have genuine faith in this, we will be saved.

Well, I hope that if you read this it inspired you a little and maybe you’ll check out the lovely mastermind behind this scripture study – Bailey of Brave Blog – and join all the ladies participating!  And I just want to say thanks to the ladies running this study, it’s great to be part of something so wonderful!