Ephesians - May 2025 Scripture Journaling Plan
- Susie Renzema
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Last week my husband and I spent three days in Indianapolis at The Gospel Coalition’s National Conference. This years theme was Alive Together, and over those three days some of the best and brightest minds in Christendom preached their way through the book of Ephesians. It will take me weeks to unpack everything I heard.
My first real encounter with the book of Ephesians happened about thirteen years ago, and wasn’t so much with the book as a whole but with Ephesians 2:10. It was a rather profound encounter and it has been my life verse ever since. It was during this time that God made clear to me that he not only saved me, both physically and spiritually, but that he did so because I had a purpose.
Some time after that I taught my first bible study quite by accident. Because of this verse coming to mean so much to me, I was really excited when I saw a new bible study on the book of Ephesians was launching, in conjunction with my being asked to head up women’s ministry at a new church plant we were part of. However, much to my horror, the book was written about as clear as mud! Nobody could make sense of what the author was trying to say, and the study and discussion questions seemed to have nothing to do with the reading. I was mortified because, one, I had chosen this book without reading it first, and two, so many of the women in this study were either new believers, or had never been in a bible study before. And, my church had purchased all of the books to be given free of charge to launch our women’s ministry. I had to figure out a way to salvage this, and not ruin a whole group of women for the delight that’s to be found in studying his word with other women.
Lucky for me I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan, home to some of the best Christian publishers and bookstores in the country. My personal favorite is Reformation Heritage Books, so I headed there to look for a commentary on Ephesians and I struck gold. I purchased Richard D. Phillips commentary, and started to cobble together one lesson a week that coincided with the scripture covered from each chapter of our book. I’ll be honest with you, I had no idea what I was doing, and I hope to heaven that I didn’t make any grave mistakes with such an important epistle as this one to the Ephesian christians. It was an invaluable experience for so many reasons. First, it taught to me to admit my mistakes, even when I’m the leader. It also taught me that commentaries are not just for pastors and seminarians, but for everyday people like me. It taught me to dig and to stay with a passage or a verse until I can make sense of it. It also taught me that I just can’t make sense out of everything in the Bible. It taught me to read in context, backing up as far as necessary to avoid cherry-picking verses, and using God’s word to prove my point. I learned the frustration of taking long and winding rabbit trails that lead nowhere, but I also learned that a God I am capable of figuring out isn’t a God I want to serve.
For some time I have toyed with the idea of journaling an entire book of the Bible, but I wasn’t sure how to go about it, or where to start. After the conference, however, it seemed clear that it would prove to be a valuable pursuit. My goal for this month is twofold; one, I want us to write out the entire book of Ephesians, because I believe there is a blessing to be gained in doing so. Second, I really want those of you who haven’t tried using commentaries to give it a try. You don’t even need to go buy one, although if you’d like to I will include recommendations at the end of this introduction.* There are also two wonderful and free online commentaries that I recommend and use often myself; they are blueletterbible.org and enduringword.com.
One word of advice- take it slow, even if you get behind. It’s better to go slow and mine for the gold, wherever you’re at, rather than skim across the surface and miss the blessings God has for you. And, one more thing, please, please feel free to let me know what you think or what you’re learning! Share the wealth, as they say, there’s plenty for everyone.
*One of my favorite commentaries is Warren Wiersbe’s Commentary on the complete New Testament. He truly writes for regular folks who want to dig deeper in their devotional reading of the Bible.
Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary by R.C. Sproul
The Message of Ephesians (The Bible Speaks Today Series) by John Stott
Ephesians (Reformed Expository Commentary) by Bryan Chapel
Unfortunately Richard D. Phillips commentary on Ephesians is no longer in print.
For printable plan:
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