Walk in Love! Ephesians 5

Good morning everyone,
Ephesians 5 starts out by telling us to be imitators of God, as beloved children.  When you watch a parent or someone you respect, you have a tendency to want to be like them.  Your Father is the One that you should strive to be exactly like!  To imitate someone is to try and duplicate what they do.  So many folks today are messed up because they choose sports figures or Hollywood stars to be their role models.  People who are in the lime light who don't imitate Christ by the way they act are going to fall hard at some point.  It is just a matter of time.  I can give you example after example of good people gone bad because their foundation is not on the Rock!  Verse 2 tells us to walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.  The bar has been set brothers and sisters.  You don't need to go looking elsewhere for an example because Christ is the example!  When I have an impure or immoral thought, I need to check to make sure that I'm giving God enough face time!  Am I letting others influence me in a way that is unpleasing to Him.  If so, I need to reread these verses.  'Nip it in the bud' is an old phrase that Barney Fife would say on the Andy Griffith show and I like it because when I find myself totally a mess, I find that I've taken my eyes off the One who is the example!  I need to stop and tell myself to 'nip it' right now.  Not after I see how far I can go down the wrong path but now as opposed to later.  People are going to try and deceive you with clever words and deceptive ways because the Scripture warns us of that.  So don't partner up with folks like that or you too will have a mess to clean up.  When someone tells you something and the Holy Spirit warns you, go the other way.  Take what folks say and check it against the Scripture.  We are to Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true).  Don't take my word but take His Words to guide and direct you!
Your brother in Christ,
p