The document summarizes key passages from Ephesians chapter 1. It discusses how God chose believers in Christ before creation to be holy and blameless. God predestined believers to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to his good pleasure and grace. The spiritual blessings believers receive from God in Christ include redemption, forgiveness, insight, and being sealed with the Holy Spirit as a pledge until God's full redemption.

2. Holiday Market
Friday, November 8th – Saturday, November 9th
Baking – Sue Button
Donations – Rachel Tooks and Sandy Rickon
Volunteers – Pam Gohlke and Lois Andrews
Prayer – Everyone
Postcards - Everyone

3. Oct 15th Break
(for Pastor’s conference)
October 22nd – Lesson 2

5. Blessed is the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed
us with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly
realms in Christ.
Ephesian 1:3

10. “Faithful followers of Christ Jesus”—what
an excellent reputation! Such a label
would be an honor for any believer. What
would it take for others to characterize
you as a faithful follower of Christ Jesus?
Hold fast to your faith, one day at a time;
faithfully obey God, even in the details of
life. Then, like the Ephesians, you will be
known as a person who is faithful to the
Lord.

12. “Because the Holy Spirit formed it to be
a colony of heaven in the country of
death…church is the core element in
the strategy of the Holy Spirit for
providing human witness and physical
presence to the Jesus-inaugurated
kingdom of this world. It is not that
kingdom complete, but it is a witness to
that kingdom”.
Practice Resurrection,
Eugene Peterson

13. The practice of resurrection is not an
attack on the world of death; it is a
nonviolent embrace of life in the
country of death. It is an open
invitation to live eternity in time.
Practice Resurrection,
Eugene Peterson

18. Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ. For he chose
us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and
unblemished in his sight in love. He did this by predestining us to adoption
as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will– to
the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his
dearly loved Son. In him we have redemption through his blood, the
forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he
lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. He did this when he revealed to us
the secret of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in
Christ, toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up all
things in Christ—the things in heaven and the things on earth. In Christ we
too have been claimed as God’s own possession, since we were predestined
according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according
to the counsel of his will so that we, who were the first to set our hope on
Christ, would be to the praise of his glory. And when you heard the word of
truth (the gospel of your salvation)–when you believed in Christ–you were
marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, who is the down
payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession,
to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:3-14

20. Notice:
“the exact parallel between the Holy Spirit’s
conception of Jesus and the conception of the
church. Luke 1-2 and Acts 1-2 are parallel
stories, the birth of our Savior Jesus and the
birth of our salvation community, the church.”
Practice Resurrection
Eugene Peterson

22. “Who has blessed us with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly realms” means that in
Christ we have all the benefits of knowing
God—being chosen for salvation, being adopted
as his children, forgiveness, insight, the gifts of
the Spirit, power to do God’s will, the hope of
living forever with Christ.”
Life Application Bible Commentary

23. “Because we have an intimate relationship
with Christ, we can enjoy these blessings now.
The “heavenly realms” means that these
blessings are eternal, not temporal. The
blessings come from Christ’s spiritual realm,
not the earthly realm of the goddess Artemis.”
Life Application Bible Commentary

25. John Calvin quote:
“For if we are chosen in Christ, it is outside
ourselves. In is not from the sight of our
deserving, but because our heavenly Father
has engrafted us, through the blessing of
adoption, into the Body of Christ. In short, the
name of Christ excludes all merit, and
everything which men have of themselves; for
when he says that we are chosen in Christ, it
follows that in ourselves we are unworthy.

30. For he chose us in Christ before the
foundation of the world that we may be
holy and unblemished in his sight in love.
He did this by predestining us to
adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ,
according to the pleasure of his will– to
the praise of the glory of his grace that he
has freely bestowed on us in his dearly
loved Son.
Ephesians 1: 4-6