Are You In?

3 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
    

     17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[f]of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 

     So I ask you, are you included in the grace that the Lord Jesus has granted?  Paul, prayed that the grace he knew so powerfully and that he ministered in so graciously  be administered to the Ephesians.  This fledgling church was planted directly in area which in now Turkey on the Ionian Coast line.  It was a time when the Romans ruled and Gods were many.  The temple of Artemis was well known and frequented by the city peoples.  So Paul had quite a challenge, and so do we.  Lest we forget, faith comes by hearing and by hearing we are saved.  The message preached is not to be a lukewarm non-affecting word that only satisfies or occupies a temporary place on a given day, but rather an ever producing, inner working of our faith.  It is continually progressive and ongoing until our last days.  So the temptation to be complacent lies within all of us and must be fought against if we are to be effective for the Church of our Lord Jesus.  
     It is by deception and "covertness" the Devil wins his battles.  Paul said, "we fignt not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, powers, and principalities in heavenly realms.  In other words, those who still live in the world of the desires of carnality are able to be deceived and used by those powers and principalities unbeknownst to them.  And we are to be aware of that daily.  If we forget, we fall victim to them.  And the very tricky part is....we are to love them...even though we might be despitefully used.
    My last blog, "We are at War"  I mentioned that one of mine had been affected by such an attack, a covert and hidden one that I am now prayerful about and thank God  for that the issue had been brought into the light, where it can be seen and dealt with.  
     Likewise Paul's, preaching was to convert the thinking of the day in those who formerly lived according to their old beliefs.  So we too as we live and work in this current time, as Chritians, must be continually converted in heart so as not to reverse gears and slip into neutral.