Weekly Memory Verse:
This is real love -- not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
1 John 4:10 (NLT)
Meditation Thought:
My friendship with God is so important to Him that He worked out all the details long before He even made me. Is it that important to me?
Today's Reading - Ephesians 1:3-14 (NLT) Choose another translation
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his own good pleasure. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ-- everything in heaven and on earth.
Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan. God's purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.
(Today's reading came from the New Living Translation)
3 comments:
Honestly, I don't know if man can attain that intensity in love/friendship. Jesus Christ showed us this in the way he treated his disciples and the rest of the world. The forethought and planning is immense. If I can stay in my father's will I will be able to show a little of him through me.
The first line of today's reading is awesome. OUR FATHER GAVE US EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING because WE ARE UNITED WITH CHRIST. Not just somebody but OUR Father gave his very best to give to us because he loves us. He loves us enough to consider us as equivalent heirs with his son Jesus Christ!
Am I so shallow? Why am I still looking for this inheritence?
He has already given it to me.
I like the KJ version which says that when we believe in Jesus Christ, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit, giving me the idea that He will not let me go and it would take some doing to be unsealed. Plus, the Holy Spirit is my down payment for the promise to come. Rob is right, we already have it! If this isn't important to me, I need to be slapped!!
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