Status Updates From Ephesians - NIV

Phrases I've noticed repeated in chapt. 1 are "God's will"- (4 times), "grace" (3 times), "to the praise of his glory"- (2 times), and God's "good pleasure" (2 times). M.L.J. says that the word "grace" is used 12? times in Ephesians, and the word "mystery" 5 times (more than any other epistle), making "the mystery of his will" and "the riches of his grace" major themes.

I'm amazed how it says God promises "ALL spiritual blessings" to Christians, not just some. M.L.J. says the blessings are spiritual, so through and of the Spirit personally, not just "spiritual" in general, which I thought was interesting.

Verse 3: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with ALL spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." Martyn Lloyd-Jones says that most people rush to the blessings part to see what they can get, but that Paul starts with praise. "The way to be blessed is to forget yourself and look to God." "Everthing is in [Christ]-- there is nothing that comes from anywhere else."

I'm going to use Goodreads to discuss and keep up with my Bible reading, but I'm not going to count individual books of the Bible toward my year's end total, because that somehow seems like cheating, lol.

2/6 chapters completed