OCC Bible Study Class

Ephesians, Chosen, Loved, and Equipped for Living. Paul wrote Ephesians to a church that was sometimes unsure of who they were in God and what they had been given. In many ways, we face the same questions. After a lifetime of faith, after all the years of church attendance and Christian living, we may wonder, Does God still see me? Does he still have a purpose for me? Can I trust that his grace is enough, especially when I look back at my mistakes? The book of Ephesians answers these questions with clarity and power. SESSION 1, CHOSEN BEFORE TIME BEGAN. Good morning, members of The Bible Study Class. Today we're exploring one of the most foundational truths in all of Scripture—that God has chosen you. Not because of something you've done or will do, but because of who God is and his nature of love. Open your Bible to the first chapter of Ephesians, verses 3 through 5. Paul writes, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us i...

Introduction Most of us have been in church a long time. We've heard the big stories—Moses parting the sea, Jesus feeding the five thousand, Paul's dramatic conversion on the Damascus road. These are wonderful accounts of God's power and purpose. But I wonder if we've sometimes missed something equally important: God's presence in the ordinary moments of our everyday lives. Brother Lawrence understood this. He was a monk in a French monastery in the 1600s who spent much of his time washing dishes in the kitchen. But instead of seeing that work as separate from his faith, he discovered that washing a plate with awareness of God's presence was just as holy as kneeling in prayer. He called it "practicing the presence of God." Over the next twelve weeks, we're going to explore what that means for us. Not through complicated theology or detailed Bible analysis, but by looking at what Scripture actually says about God being close—right here, right now...