Sunday, July 29, 2018

Chosen to be God’s Children


 3 Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For in our union with Christ he has blessed us by giving us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world. 4 Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him.

Because of his love 5 God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children—this was his pleasure and purpose. 6 Let us praise God for his glorious grace, for the free gift he gave us in his dear Son! 7 For by the blood of Christ we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven. How great is the grace of God, 8 which he gave to us in such large measure!

In all his wisdom and insight 9 God did what he had purposed, and made known to us the secret plan he had already decided to complete by means of Christ. 10 This plan, which God will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head.

11 All things are done according to God's plan and decision; and God chose us to be his own people in union with Christ because of his own purpose, based on what he had decided from the very beginning. 12 Let us, then, who were the first to hope in Christ, praise God's glory!

13 And you also became God's people when you heard the true message, the Good News that brought you salvation. You believed in Christ, and God put his stamp of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit he had promised. 14 The Spirit is the guarantee that we shall receive what God has promised his people, and this assures us that God will give complete freedom to those who are his. Let us praise his glory! (Ephesians 1:3-14 Good News Translation)

It seems like such a long time since we got home from this year’s Lifest. I’m looking at the calendar, going, “Really? It was only two weeks? Fourteen days? What in the world has been going on since then? I barely even remember being there.”

Well, there was that upper respiratory crud that I was fighting for the entire last two and a half weeks, along with five days camping since then. Boy, good thing I took notes.

The above Bible passage was from Pastor Joel Zeiner, the man who led devotions Friday morning. He is an associate pastor at Christ the Rock Community Church in Menasha, WI.

Even though I wrote down that he spoke on Ephesians 1, verses one through fourteen, I didn’t write down everything he said about it. The theme was about what a complete plan God has for us, with the emphasis being on how many times He mentions in these few verses how He chose us. That’s all the notes I wrote down. Reread the passage above, and I don’t think there is much more I can add to it.

Heavenly Father, thank You for calling each and every one of us by name, to be Your children. And thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus Christ, to set us free. Amen. 

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