July 16, 2018 Monday

“3 ¶  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4  just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5  having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6  to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. 7  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8  which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9  having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10  that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth — in Him. 11  In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12  that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. 13  In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14  who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:3-14 NKJV)

            One of the most amazing hymns is “Victory in Jesus”.  The phrase “He sought me and bought me” is so much a part of this passage and of the Gospel.  But even beyond that we are told long before we were even born God had sought us and bought us!

            We lose so much if we merely argue whether predestination is about God deciding beforehand or God knowing beforehand. This argument masks the truth of this passage which is God’s will and enduring love for us and the sacrifice of Jesus to regain for us by adoption what we had lost through the fall!

            The truth of this passage expounds on the simple yet alarmingly amazing message of John 3:16 that Jesus loves us. A wide plethora of words are used to describe the depths of God’s love like riches, inheritance, blessing, abundance among so many others.

            While the world berates us and says we are without worth God not only is willing to give the life of Jesus for us but we also are given a share of the inheritance! God places an incredible value on each human life that ever has lived, is now on this earth or who will in the future.

            One of the most amazing things we inherited through Jesus is the ability to see the world through God’s eyes rather than our own. Our own eyes are centered on our self and we are blinded to the reality around us but through God’s eyes we are able to see the fullness of God’s work as we perceive what God has done, is doing and will be doing in the future.

            God does something for us beyond incredible. Before becoming a Christian we could not see or understand what God was doing around us but through Jesus we not only see what God is doing we also become a part of it!

            Can you accept such a love from God? Do you place such a high value on others as well as yourself? How do you respond to such a love?

Today was a really terrible day. Mondays are always bad after going to worship on Sunday but this Monday was much worse. It seemed as though I hurt everywhere and that makes me very tired.