Mended Institute

Morning Bliss: The Way Of Life_ Focal Scripture :  Eph. 4:17; 📚This I say, therefore, and solemnly declare in the Lord: henceforth you must not live as other Gentiles live,✭ with their futile thinking.✭                                       Read:  Eph. 4:17- 32 Followers of Jesus were not always called Christians. The term Christian first appeared in Antioch (Acts 11:26). It is a Latinized form of the word Christ that indicates allegiance and suggests that it arose among the Gentiles. It may originally have been an insult (1 Peter 4:16). Before Jesus’ followers were called Christians, they were called “the Way” (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 24:22). Why were followers of Christ called “the Way”? In Ephesians 4:20 , Paul explains that Christianity is more than a set of doctrines. It is also a “way of life” that we must learn. Following Jesus begins with a change of th...

Morning Bliss: A Worthy Life_ Focal Scripture :  Eph. 4:1; 📚✭ I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, appeal to you to walk worthy of✭ the calling which you received,                                       Read:  Eph. 4:1- 16 In his beloved hymn, “Amazing Grace,” John Newton celebrates how God “saved a wretch like me.” The apostle Paul would have agreed. He said of himself, “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (1 Cor. 15:9). Yet in the very next verse, Paul asserts, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect” ( 15:10 ). When Paul urged the Ephesians in verse 1 to live a life “worthy” of their calling, he was not contradicting himself. The worthiness he speaks of is not based on what we deserve but on what God has promised to do...

Morning Bliss: A Servant Of The Gospel_ Focal Scripture :  Eph. 3:7; 📚✭of which I became a servant, according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effectual working of his power.✭                                       Read:  Eph. 3:1- 13 I was filled with thoughts of the possible feedback when I first told my my Parents that, I wanted to become a pastor. My family aren't priesthood oriented, you see military, police, public offices and Business icons are my family definition. But instead of being disappointed by the news, my Dad and Mom was thrilled. “Oh, My Son, Nna!” (As they fondly calls me), my Mom beamed. “You would make a darling minister.” Darling is not the word Paul uses in Ephesians 3. In verse 7 he refers to himself as a “servant.” Although the Greek term Paul uses is one that is sometimes translated as “minister,” Paul seems to be u...

Morning Bliss: Breaking Down The Wall_ Focal Scripture :  Eph. 2:14;  📚For he is our peace,✭ who has made the two one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us,                                       Read:  Eph. 2:14-22 In Paul’s day, non-Jews who visited the Temple of Jerusalem were confined to the outermost section known as the Court of the Gentiles. A fence separated the Court of the Gentiles from the inner courts. A warning on it read: “No man of another race is to enter within the fence and enclosure around the Temple. Whoever is caught will have only himself to thank for the death which follows.” Paul seems to be alluding to this boundary in verse 14 when he says that Jesus “has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.” It was not only ethnic prejudice that kept Gentiles from entering but also the barrier of God’s law. ...

Morning Bliss: Before and After_ Focal Scripture :  Eph. 2:1;  1 📚✭And you he has made alive, you who were dead✭ in trespasses and sins,                                       Read:  Eph. 2:1- 13 Ads and commercials for diet supplements and exercise equipment sometimes include “before” and “after” pictures of those who use the product. A famous ad from the 1920s for the training regimen developed by bodybuilder Charles Atlas boasted that it had enabled him to go from being a 97-pound weakling to “the world’s most perfectly developed person.” Paul paints an even more striking before-and-after picture of his readers in Ephesians 2:1–13. The “before” describes sinners as spiritually dead, but that does not mean they aren’t active. They follow “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (v. 2) . This is Satan, who led humanity into sin. Satan is not a metaphor bu...

Morning Bliss: A Prayer From prison _ Focal Scripture :  Eph. 1:18-19;  the eyes✭ of your understanding being enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope✭ of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance✭ in the saints, 19 📚and what is the exceeding greatness of his power✭ toward us who believe, in accordance with the working of his mighty power                                       Read:  Eph. 1:15-23 When I was a boy, I occasionally wrote letters to my friends who lived in another side of the town. They were handwritten, brief, and usually began the same way: “How are you? I am fine.” Letter writing in Paul’s day also had an opening formula that generally included a greeting to identify the letter’s recipient and a blessing. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, this blessing takes the form of a prayer for spiritual enlightenment ...

Morning Bliss: Reality Check_ Focal Scripture :  Eph. 1:7;  " In him we have redemption✭ through his blood, the forgiveness✭ of sins, according to the riches of his grace                                       Read:  Eph . 1:1- 14 People sometimes use the phrase “reality check” to mean recognizing the circumstances that hinder us from achieving an ambition or reaching a goal. But the reality check Paul describes in his letter to the Ephesians is different. The apostle writes about the true position of those who have trusted in Christ. Their reality is security and hope. If you consider the situation Paul was in, the apostle’s confident tone is especially striking. Although a prisoner, Paul’s did not describe his situation as the four walls holding him captive but as someone who had been blessed “in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (v...

Morning Bliss: Letters From  A Roman Prison_ Focal Scripture :  2Corith. 11:32-33;  " 2Corinth. 11:32-33  In Damascus the governor under King Aretas kept the city of the Damascenes under a military guard, wanting to capture me. 33 📚But I was lowered in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands. ”.                                       Read:  2Corith. 11:16- 33 **Happy New Month Blessed Family ** May the Lord release His blessings for the Month on You this morning in Jesus Name Amen... I woke Up with a lot of Ease, feeling far strong than ever,  and fresh, it is a sign of God stepping In to give me Rest in all Sides, hence I prophecy to you and your family, you shall have rest from God in all ramifications this new Month in Jesus Name, Amen! Commentary: When Martin Luther King Jr. penned his Letter From a Birmi...