Joshua Ofosu Anim

It is hard for us to understand GRACE because we just cannot accept that God saved us out of favor and that we did nothing to earn salvation. Afterall, our culture teaches us that there is nothing free. Again there are some who teach that if your good deeds outweigh your bad then you will make it to the Kingdom of God (A BIG LIE). I believe Grace demolishes the principle of Santa Clause - Be good, get a reward (gift); Be bad, get nothing. This means you must earn what you want get in life. Grace can be translated as "gift". Children understand gift as something they did not work for; something given out of LOVE.

Our unbelieving friends, neighbours and relatives are SPIRITUALLY DEAD. To be spiritually dead means to be separated from God. When God created man he put a part of himself (HIS BREATH) into man thereby establishing a special relationship with man. This is part of God in man is that which makes man long for his maker. It connects him (man) to God. When man disobeyed and sinned against God, that desire and longing for his maker was broken. The reason why man hid himself when God came into the garden in the cool of day. MAN'S DESIRE FOR GOD WAS DEAD. Remember God had told them that the very day they will eat of the fruit they will surely die. God was not talking about physical death here because Adam and Eve did not die physically after eating the fruit. It was after God pronounced judgement that man started dying physically. Rather God was talking about spiritual death - SEPARATION THANK GOD THAT THROUGH JESUS CHRIST WE HAVE BEEN RECONCILED UNTO GOD. That is the difference between us and them. We have been delivered from the wrath of God but they are not. We have hope but they do not. We must pray for them that they will the light of salvation to escape the impending wrath of God. WE MUST PREACH THE GOSPEL OF SALVATION TO THEM (Romans 10:13-14)

Q4. (Ephesians 1:20-22) Why do we so often take a "pass" when it comes to spiritual warfare? Why is Christ's exaltation, demonstration of complete victory, and superior rank over all spiritual powers important enough for Paul to mention it to his readers? Why do we tend to feel powerless in the face of spiritual enemies? What was Paul assuring the Ephesians of? What does this encourage us to do? We simply lack faith and do not know the power that we have as children of. Again it might be probably because we have not put on the FULL ARMOR OF GOD (Eph. 6:10-18) Christ's exaltation and victory is for us. He won back our RIGHT which we lost in the Garden of Eden. As indicated above, we lack faith and our stand in the Lord might be shaky Paul was assuring us of the limitless power available to us in Christ Jesus and desires the saints will walk as such. We should not be afraid of the devil or his demons for Christ made a public spectacle of them when he died and rose triumphantly again. Paul said in Romans that the same power which raise Christ from the dead is working in us. Are you a believer? WALK IN THE POWER OF THE LORD AND KNOW THAT YOU ARE MORE THAN A CONQUEROR.

Q3. (Ephesians 1:18d) Why are we powerless sometimes? Is it an inadequacy with the source or with our faith? Why do some congregations and movements produce disciples with miracle-believing faith and others produce disciples with wimpy faith? How can this be changed? We are powerless sometimes due to the fact that we sometimes disconnect ourselves from our power source-God almighty through lack of faith. Just imagine this scenario: When you connect an iron to a socket current or power flows into the iron making it hot and untouchable. When you touch a hot iron, either you get burned or you a get a shock which can be very disastrous. On the other hand when an iron is disconnected from its power source (socket), it becomes very cold. A cold iron is powerless and harmless. In the same way when we, christians, are connected to God- our power source- we become hot, powerful, and untouchable (the devil and his demons cannot touch as they will burnt by the power of God) but if we disconnect ourselves from God (our source/socket) we become powerless and cold (the devil will not be affraid to touch us). ALL CHRISTIANS MUST STAY CONNECTED TO GOD TO REMAIN POWERFUL BECAUSE GOD NEVER RUNS OUT OF POWER. Churches that produce disciples with wimpy faith must go back to searching the scriptures and they will dicover the exceeding great power available to us in God (Ephesians 1:18, Romans 1:16, etc)

Q2. (Ephesians 1:18c) If you knew that in a few years you would inherit $10 million, would it affect your life now? How should our expectation of an inheritance in God's presence temper our present-day concerns? Since this inheritance will be shared with "the saints" -- our Christian family -- how should that affect our fellowship with them Knowing that I am going to receive such an amount in a few years time will surely affect my life now. I will make plans on how that money will be used. Perhaps some investment plans, donations, and supporting God's work on earth. I will surely live in anticipation of the inheritance and how my life will change when I have it In the same way an inheritance in the presence of God calls for planning my life based on that hope so that I don't miss it. My choices, decisions, behaviour and attitude will be woven around this expectation. Since I will be sharing this inheritance with other saints I think I will want to be at peace with them, show them the love of God and encourage them to work towards attaining the promised inheritance so they don't miss it. Amen

Q1. (Ephesians 1:18b) What do we Christians have to look forward to? How should this hope be a major motivation in our present-day lives? How should this hope affect our decisions and our lifestyle? How does our great hope differ from the hope of the average non-believer? We christians look forward to the coming Kingdom of Christ or the second coming of Christ. Our hope is that our Lord and saviour will come in his glory with his holy angels to take those of us who remain in him to be with him forever (John 14:1-3).This hope should strengthen our faith in God. This hope should tell us that our present day life of pain, misery, hardships, disappointments, wars, conflicts, etc will SURELY COME TO AN END oneday when Christ appears to establish his everlasting Kingdon. As a result we should not be discouraged but persevere in our christianity and look forward to a glorious future in the Kingdom of God. If we have this hope in Christ Jesus the the choices we make and the kind if life we live should be tailored in anticipation of this hope. We should not live and behave like people without hope so that we easily yield and surrender to situations and circumstances that mitigates against us. We must therefore make decisions based on this hope and live as such. Most unbelievers do not believe in life after death. Consequently they live as if when they die that is the end; they don't have any hope, they do not expect a glorious Kingdom. However, our great hope tells us that our risen Lord and Saviour is coming soon to establish a Kingdom of NO misery, pain, suffering, racism, wars, hullicanes, DEATH etc. For ALL THESE WILL BE DESTROYED BY CHRIST'S APPEARANCE. AMEN.

Q3. (Ephesians 1:4) What does it mean to be "holy"? In what sense can you stand "blameless" before God? To be holy, to me, means to be set apart or consecrated for God's use. The Bible says in 2 Timpthy 2:21 that if a man purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, santified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. Actually every human being who is a descendant of Adam cannot stand before God blameless. This is because we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). WE CAN ONLY STAND BEFORE GOD BLAMELESS WHEN WE ACCEPT THE CLEANSING POWER OF THE BLOOD OF JESUS (ref. Eph. 1:7). Again the Bible says in Romans 8:1 that " There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus". When we are cleansed by the Blood of Jesus, we are not condemned rather we can stand before God Blameless because he, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins. Amen