The Apostle Paul said in today’s Scripture passage, “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Ephesians 5:1-2). Paul is teaching us here that just as Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself for us, all our saints, ministers, and coworkers should also walk in God’s love. This is an extremely important lesson for us.

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We just read Ephesians 4:1-6 for today’s Scripture reading. The Apostle Paul said here in Ephesians 4:1, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.”
At the time the Apostle Paul wrote this, he was imprisoned for preaching the gospel, and so we can easily imagine just how grieved his heart must have been. When Paul was a free man, he was able to freely meet with the saints and share all the fellowship he wanted. But now that he was imprisoned, he could not do what he wanted to do, and his heart yearned even more to preach the gospel. We too should hold the gospel of the water and the Spirit dear to our hearts while we still can serve it. Yet I see that some of us don’t have such zeal, and this saddens me deeply. I am afraid that when the Great Tribulation comes, it will soon be impossible for us to serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit anymore. When this time comes, I know that we will regret over not serving the gospel now as diligently as we could have. Although our devotion and zeal for the gospel will be much greater than now, but when the time of the Great Tribulation comes it will be too late.

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Today’s Scripture reading shows that the Apostle Paul was ministering to the saints in the Church of Ephesus. He spoke to them about how they ought to abide by their knowledge of and faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, what they ought to be careful of, and for what and how they ought to live. To nurture the flock there, Paul said to the Ephesian saints, “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children” (Ephesians 5:1).
Ephesians 5:1 is a brief but crucial passage: “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.” That’s because this passage shows clearly how we ought to live. Since God has told us here to be His imitators, we need to examine here first who God really is and what His attributes are.

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Paul became an Apostle of God by the calling of Jesus Christ, and consequently, he preached only the will of God as His Apostle. As one of the overseers of God’s Church, Paul’s ministry was far reaching. Literature ministry was one of his mission activities as we see in all the Pauline Epistles.
Paul feared and revered Christ from the bottom of his heart. His faith in Jesus Christ was at the center of his ministry. He preached consistently that Jesus Christ had saved everyone from all the sins of the world and blessed everyone through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. As a faithful servant of Jesus Christ, Paul tirelessly preached the immeasurable height, depth, and width of Christ’s love until he went to see the Lord face to face.

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This year’s discipleship training camp ended just recently. On this coming Wednesday, we will be holding a special worship service to pray for our literature ministry. We will then make a financial pledge on this coming Sunday to support our literature ministry for the latter half of this year. As you may know well, this ministry costs a lot of money. However, I am sure that our God will take care of everything if we pray to Him sincerely enough. That’s why we are holding a special prayer session this Wednesday, to ask God for financial resources in particular to fund our literature ministry. Anyone can get self-complacent or become idle over God’s work after doing the same work for a long time. So, it is appropriate for us to set a new goal to get out of monotony and renew our focus. For this reason, we set new mission goals and make a financial pledge twice a year to avoid falling into self-complacency.

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The saints must be strong in their hearts. As we are living in these end times, we must live by our strong faith in the righteousness of the Lord. The problem, however, is that the saints and even the servants of God tend to be weak-hearted. Sometimes even the saints have to be cold-hearted for the gospel, for when they can’t bring themselves to be so, they can’t be used by God as His instruments for His righteous work. If you allow your heart to weaken like this, you cannot properly carry out the righteous work of God. If God’s servants and saints are weak-hearted, they cannot run towards God steadfastly and unwaveringly. It is therefore very important for the servants and the saints of God alike to strengthen their hearts with their faith in God. They also must have the fear of God in their hearts.

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