In Him!

I believe in the Earth being about 6000 or so years old.  I don’t think our mighty God needed millions of years to develop mankind, the landscape and all the animals.  Yet, I know that there are those who do believe that we had all those exciting eras of development over millions of years, but the length of time that the Earth existed is not what is really important.  What is really important is what we learn in Ephesians 6: 3- 6.

³ Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. ⁴ For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love ⁵ He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, ⁶ to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved.

We learn in verse 4 that we were chosen in Him (Jesus Christ) before the foundation of the world.  What a wonderful thing to know.  God knew about us before we were ever born.  How awesome is that!  He knew us so well that He knew which ones of us would follow Him.  Even more than knowing us, is the fact that He knew we were destined to be holy and blameless in His sight.  That can be a difficult concept to grasp.  I know all my imperfections, failures and sins.  It is really difficult sometimes to think of myself as holy.  Yet, I know multiple times in scripture God re-iterates this fact to us.  In Him we have been made holy and blameless.  We could have never achieved it on our own.  There is an instruction that we can take away from this verse.  We can learn that we are no longer to keep focusing on the fact that we were sinners before Christ.  We are to learn that we are now holy.  We need to start living like that.  Peter reminds us of the instruction to be holy in I Peter 1:15.

¹⁵ But as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; ¹⁶ for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.

So, as we begin this new year, let’s take these instructions seriously.  Let us focus on being holy as God has made us to be and expects us to be.  We need to stop saying we are sinners, so please excuse us for being imperfect.  After all in verse 3 of this passage it is made quite clear that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing that we could need.  Therefore, we have all that we need to be that holy person God has said we are in Him!

To Him!

We usually begin the New Year with a toast to someone we love or a group of friends that we are with.  A toast is a way of honoring someone with a verbal expression.  For example, if it is at midnight on New Year’s Eve, we toast to our loved ones wishing them a prosperous year ahead or we express our undying love to them or praise them for the traits that we admire.  As we begin this new year, it is appropriate we toast our Lord for what He has done for us.  Ephesians 1: 3 -6 makes a perfect toast or praise of honor to our Lord:

³ Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. ⁴ For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love ⁵ He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, ⁶ to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved.

It is wisdom to know that all glory and honor belong to Him.  It is only fitting and wise that we take time on a regular basis to praise Him.  After all He has blessed us “with every spiritual blessing”.  We only have to look to Him for those blessings.  They all come from Christ.  Too often I think we just trudge through this life of ours on Earth looking down at the ground and we do not look up to Heaven to Christ who is seated at the right hand of God from where all our spiritual blessings come.  It is wisdom to look up to Him for those spiritual blessings to help us glorify Him on this Earth and then to praise Him for those blessings.  So remember this year to look up to Him!

In Him!

I believe in the Earth being about 6000 or so years old.  I don’t think our mighty God needed millions of years to develop mankind, the landscape and all the animals.  Yet, I know that there are those who do believe that we had all those exciting eras of development over millions of years, but the length of time that the Earth existed is not what is really important.  What is really important is what we learn in Ephesians 6: 3- 6.

³ Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. ⁴ For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love ⁵ He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, ⁶ to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved.

We learn in verse 4 that we were chosen in Him (Jesus Christ) before the foundation of the world.  What a wonderful thing to know.  God knew about us before we were ever born.  How awesome is that!  He knew us so well that He knew which ones of us would follow Him.  Even more than knowing us, is the fact that He knew we were destined to be holy and blameless in His sight.  That can be a difficult concept to grasp.  I know all my imperfections, failures and sins.  It is really difficult sometimes to think of myself as holy.  Yet, I know multiple times in scripture God re-iterates this fact to us.  In Him we have been made holy and blameless.  We could have never achieved it on our own.  There is an instruction that we can take away from this verse.  We can learn that we are no longer to keep focusing on the fact that we were sinners before Christ.  We are to learn that we are now holy.  We need to start living like that.  Peter reminds us of the instruction to be holy in I Peter 1:15.

¹⁵ But as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; ¹⁶ for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.

So, as we begin this new year, let’s take these instructions seriously.  Let us focus on being holy as God has made us to be and expects us to be.  We need to stop saying we are sinners, so please excuse us for being imperfect.  After all in verse 3 of this passage it is made quite clear that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing that we could need.  Therefore, we have all that we need to be that holy person God has said we are in Him!

To Him!

We usually begin the New Year with a toast to someone we love or a group of friends that we are with.  A toast is a way of honoring someone with a verbal expression.  For example, if it is at midnight on New Year’s Eve, we toast to our loved ones wishing them a prosperous year ahead or we express our undying love to them or praise them for the traits that we admire.  As we begin this new year, it is appropriate we toast our Lord for what He has done for us.  Ephesians 1: 3 -6 makes a perfect toast or praise of honor to our Lord:

³ Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. ⁴ For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love ⁵ He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, ⁶ to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved.

It is wisdom to know that all glory and honor belong to Him.  It is only fitting and wise that we take time on a regular basis to praise Him.  After all He has blessed us “with every spiritual blessing”.  We only have to look to Him for those blessings.  They all come from Christ.  Too often I think we just trudge through this life of ours on Earth looking down at the ground and we do not look up to Heaven to Christ who is seated at the right hand of God from where all our spiritual blessings come.  It is wisdom to look up to Him for those spiritual blessings to help us glorify Him on this Earth and then to praise Him for those blessings.  So remember this year to look up to Him!