This week, we conclude our discussion of prayer by considering the question "to whom should we pray?" We know we can address the Father in prayer, but is it OK to pray to Jesus or to the Holy Spirit.

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This week we consider the significant role that prayer plays both in our spiritual growth and also in our role in the Great War.

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This week we consider the last pieces of the Armor - the Helmet of salvation and the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. In a sideline discussion, we explore the reality of teachers who seek to steal the power of both the true Gospel of salvation by grace through faith and the Word of God - the Written Word and the Living Word Himself, our Lord Jesus.

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This week we consider the "feet prepared with Gospel of peace," and the "shield of faith." Remembering that a major thread in Paul's argument in Ephesians relates to the unity that should exist within the body of Christ (particularly between Jew and Gentile) we can place this passage on spiritual warfare in its proper context. The Enemy comes to distract and deceive and divide and in so doing destroy the unity and peace that the Spirit is seeking to cultivate. We also discuss the "root problem" in western Christianity - optional or unrealized discipleship.

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This week we get back into the flow of our discipleship study by discussing the first two elements in the Armor of God - the belt of the truth and the breastplate of righteousness. Knowing how to "put on" the armor practically that God has provided is critical to surviving the attacks of the Enemy, standing firm in the victory that Christ has already won for us.

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This week, since we have been off for several weeks, we review the larger picture and process of spiritual formation and discipleship.

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We have a restless, relentless and ruthless Adversary, the Devil. We must wake up to the reality that he is still doing his worst through his fallen apprentices on planet earth. Although he has been defeated and his doom is sure, he does not give up in trying to destroy the people of God. But greater is He that is in us than he that is in the World.

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This week we consider the reality of the spiritual war being fought in our world and in the heavenly realm. We have an Enemy - an Adversary, Satan, the Evil One, the Devil - whose main goal is to persuade people away from the truth. In this session we place the Spiritual War in its larger context in order to understand the role we play in this War.

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We finish our discussion of Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1 by considering the last two things he wants us to know: the riches of God's inheritance in us and the incomparable greatness of His power given to us. God not only loves us and considers us and appropriate and worthy eternal inheritance for His one unique Son Jesus, He has also granted us the power of Jesus' own resurrection to live an entirely new kind of life.

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This week, we get back into the swing of things by doing a little review and summary. In Ephesians 1, after Paul tells us all the ways that God our Father is blessed in His blessing us, he prays that we might know three things: 1) the hope of God's calling, 2) the wealth of His inheritance in the Saints, and 3) the incomparable greatness of His power toward us who believe. As we know these things fully, we become equipped and encouraged to be the people that God our Father desires for us to be.

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This week we take a break to consider the birth of our Savior by reflecting on the experience of Zechariah. Although Zechariah was a righteous man, he had lost perspective and also, it seems, hope. Zechariah regained his perspective on the reality of God's power to fulfill His promises as he reflected on the good news that had come to him. Hope is our confident expectation that God will be who He is and do what He has promised. Hope is the foundation of both our faith and our love.

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For a follower of Jesus, living a life of forgiveness is NOT optional. At the heart of our relationship with God and our relationship with others is the transforming truth of forgiveness. God has not counted our sins against us. He has released us from the debt, guilt and ultimate consequences of our sin. If we have received so much from our Heavenly Father, how can we not extend the same grace to others who offend us?

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One of the core benefits of God's work in Christ for us is that we have been redeemed. God has paid a great price in handing His One Unique Son over for all of us who were confirmed as His enemies. Yet Jesus has poured out His blood for us so that we could be set free from all keeps us from becoming complete in Him. As we think about His great sacrifice for us, we should be mindful that not only has Jesus provided this redemption freely by His grace, He also desires that we become people who express this redemption to others.

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Why did God save us? Why does God do what He does? Why would He send His one unique Son to be killed for us? In Ephesians Paul makes it clear that God has blessed us to the "glory of His grace." When God acts for the sake of His glory, it results in the greatest blessing for His people. God's grace toward us is almost incomprehensible. Nevertheless, as we think on all that He has done for us in Christ, we are moved to the only proper response - joy and gratitude.

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This week, we take some time to review where we have come from and where we are heading as we consider the major spiritual formation "mile markers" on our journey to our final destination. We consider the decisions and commitments we are called to make as we move along, seeking to make our journey worthy of our destination.

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This week we explore the three "tenses" of salvation. God has saved us, He is saving us, and one day (when we see Christ face to face) we will be fully and comletely saved. Even though this process is not yet experientially complete for us, we know with certainty that it will be because God our Holy Father has the responsibility of finishing what He has begun in us. For this reason, we can be eternaly secure in His care and have hope.

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Too often, the eternal aspects of God's choosing and predestination of those who will be saved is discussed apart from the reality of the Cross of Christ. Before we can fully grasp the implications of God's gracious work of choosing in salvation, we must first see ourselves from the perspective of being the very people who first despised, mocked, beat, spat upon and crucified Christ. God chooses to redeem His enemies; in this lies the scandal of His grace.

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This week, we take a sideline discussion to explore the meaning of God's "foreknowing" us in relation to His choosing us for salvation. We look at 1 Peter 1:1-2 and then trace the idea of "foreknowing" and "knowing" in both the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures.

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We continue our discussion of our new relationship with God by exploring "our part" in God's saving work in our lives. We do have certain responsibilities in the process of our salvation. Our primary responsibility is one of responding to God's gracious work in or by faith. God is transforming us in a way that only He can. As we develop a VISION for what He is doing in us, we turn in trust to Him, rejoicing in the "all things" that have freely been given to us in Christ.

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We continue our discussion of our new identity and position in Christ by considering this topic in the context of spiritual formation and discipleship. In discipleship, we are simply making a decision to submit to God the Father working in Christ through the Holy Spirit to form Christ in us. In this we make a decision to cooperate with God as He forms us spiritually.

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We continue our study on spiritual formation and discipleship by considering the new identity and position that we have "in Christ." It is important to understand who we are in Chirst so that we can have a vision of the type of person that God is shaping us into, conformed to the likeness of Christ. We do a "fly over" of Ephesians 1 looking that the big picture that we will "unpack" over the next several weeks.

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This week we continue our discussion of Philippians 3 by considering the the main goal of keeping our eyes focused on the main goal - Christ. In this passage Paul says, "One thing I do: Forgetting what lies behind and looking to what's ahead I press on..." Our past, whether good or bad, is behind us and in the present God wants us to keep looking toward our goal - being fully transformed and conformed to Christ's glorious image.

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We take a look at Philippians 3 and Paul's "one thing" that gives him vision and clarity as he follows Christ. Anything that we might consider personal "asset" becomes dung when we compare it to the exceedingly better "asset" of knowing Christ and discovering the righteousness come to us by means of faith. Whereas the false gospel of religion says, "I am accepted and loved by Christ for what I do," the true gospel of faith says, "I do what I do because I am loved and accepted in Christ."

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Romans 3:21-26 may be one of the most significant passages in the New Testament. In this passage the heart of Paul's Christ-centered theology is explained: God's righteousness is revealed in the faith (and faithfulness) of Christ for the faith (and faithfulness) of the believer. When we believe in the message that Christ has done all that is necessary to redeem us from our fallen way of life and reconcile us to God, we are declared righteous. This declaration is no "legal fiction" - stating something that is not really true. When God declares that we are righteous in Christ, this powerful and creative act changes our identity and our position before God. Our relationship with God has changed and this is the beginning of His work in us to transform us and conform us according to Christ's perfection.

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We continue our discussion of the faith of Christ as part of the revelation of God's righteousness. The Gospel reveals both that God is righteous in both being (His character) and doing (His actions). In the Gospel we see that God reveals a way to be right with Him that is not according to law - self-righteousness by good works - but by way of Christ's faith.

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This week, we begin a two part discussion on the faith and faithfulness of Christ. God saves us based on the faithfulness of Christ to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. In all that He has endured as a human, Jesus is qualified to be our faithful and merciful high priest who saves us by His grace. The Gospel therefore calls us to focus on Christ as our one and only savior.

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What does Jesus mean when He says, "Do not judge so that you will not be judged." This week, our exploration of the 12 Aspects of the Gospel leads to a lively class discussion about the nature of God condemning our sin in truth but also displaying His grace to us in and through Jesus Christ.

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