|
| |
the_word_of_god
|
|
|
missionary
|
May grace,
God's unmerited favor,
and spiritual peace,
which means peace with God
and harmony, unity, and undisturbedness,
be yours from God our Father
and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
May blessing, praise,
laudation, and eulogy
be to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Messiah
Who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual
- given by the Holy Spirit -
blessing in the heavenly realm!
Even as, in His love, He chose us,
actually picked us out for Himself as His own,
in Christ before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy,
consecrated
and set apart for Him,
and blameless in His sight,
even above reproach,
before Him
in love.
For He foreordained us,
destined us,
planned in love for us,
to be adopted,
revealed,
as His own children
through Jesus Christ, in accordance
with the purpose of His will
because it pleased Him
and was His kind intent.
So that we might be,
to the praise
and the commendation
of His glorious grace,
favor and mercy,
which He so freely bestowed on us
in the Beloved.
In Him
we have redemption,
deliverance and salvation,
through His blood,
the remission, the forgiveness
of our offenses,
of our shortcomings and trespasses,
in accordance with the riches
and the generosity
of His gracious favor,
Which He lavished upon us
in every kind of wisdom and understanding,
practical insight and prudence,
Making known to us the mystery
secret of His will
of His plan, of His purpose.
And it is this:
In accordance with His good pleasure
His merciful intention
which He had previously purposed
and set forth in Him,
He planned
for the maturity of the times
and the climax of the ages
to unify all things
and head them up
and consummate them
in Christ,
Both things in heaven
and things on the earth.
In Him we also were made
God's heritage,
Portion,
and we obtained an inheritance;
for we had been foreordained,
chosen and appointed beforehand,
in accordance with His purpose
Who works out everything
in agreement with the counsel
and design of His own will,
So that we
who first hoped in Christ
who first put our confidence in Him
have been destined and appointed
to live for the praise of His glory!
In Him you also
who have heard the Word of Truth,
the glad tidings,
The Gospel of your salvation,
and have believed in
and adhered to
and relied on Him,
were stamped with the seal
of the long-promised Holy Spirit.
That Spirit
is the guarantee of our inheritance,
the firstfruits,
the pledge and foretaste,
the down payment
on our heritage,
in anticipation
of its full redemption
and our acquiring
complete possession of it--
to the praise of His glory.
|
041218
|
| |
... |
|
|
missionary
|
For this reason,
because I have heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus
and your love toward all the saints,
the people of God,
I do not cease to give thanks for you,
making mention of you in my prayers.
For I always pray
to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory,
that He may grant you
a spirit of wisdom and revelation
of insight into mysteries and secrets
in the deep and intimate knowledge of Him,
By having the eyes of your heart
flooded with light,
so that you can know
and understand the hope
to which He has called you,
and how rich is His glorious inheritance
in the saints, His set-apart ones,
And so that you can know and understand
what is the immeasurable and unlimited
and surpassing greatness of His power
in and for us who believe,
as demonstrated in the working
of His mighty strength,
Which He exerted in Christ
when He raised Him from the dead
and seated Him at His own right hand
in the heavenly places,
Far above all rule and authority
and power and dominion
and every name that is named
above every title that can be conferred,
not only in this age
and in this world,
but also in the age and the world
which are to come.
And He has put all things
under His feet
and has appointed Him
the universal and supreme Head of the church
a headship exercised throughout the church
Which is His body,
the fullness of Him Who fills all in all
for in that body lives the full measure of Him
Who makes everything complete,
and Who fills everything
everywhere
with Himself.
|
041218
|
| |
... |
|
|
missionary
|
AND YOU
He made alive,
when you were dead,
slain by your trespasses and sins
In which at one time
you walked habitually.
You were following the course
and fashion of this world,
You were under the sway
of the tendency of this present age,
following the prince of
the power of the air.
You were obedient to
and under the control of
the demon spirit
that still constantly works
in the sons of disobedience,
the careless,
the rebellious,
and the unbelieving,
who go against the purposes of God.
Among these
we as well as you
once lived
and conducted ourselves
in the passions of our flesh
our behavior governed
by our corrupt and sensual nature,
obeying the impulses of the flesh
and the thoughts of the mind
our cravings dictated by our senses
and our dark imaginings.
We were then by nature
children of God's wrath
and heirs of His indignation,
like the rest of mankind.
But God--so rich is He in His mercy!
Because of and in order to satisfy
the great and wonderful and intense love
with which He loved us,
Even when we were dead
Slain by our own shortcomings
and trespasses,
He made us alive
together in fellowship
and in union
with Christ;
He gave us the very life
of Christ Himself,
the same new life with which He quickened Him,
for it is by grace,
His favor and mercy
which you did not deserve,
that you are saved,
delivered from judgment,
and made partakers
of Christ's salvation.
And He raised us up together with Him
and made us sit down together
giving us joint seating with Him
in the heavenly sphere,
by virtue of our being,
in Christ Jesus,
the Messiah, the Anointed One.
He did this
that He might clearly demonstrate
through the ages to come
the immeasurable
limitless, surpassing
riches of His free grace
His unmerited favor
in His kindness and goodness of heart
toward us in Christ Jesus.
For it is by free grace
God's unmerited favor
that you are saved,
delivered from judgment
and made partakers of Christ's salvation
through your faith. And this salvation
is not of yourselves
of your own doing,
it came not through your own striving,
but it is the gift of God;
Not because of works
not the fulfillment
of the Law's demands,
lest any man should boast.
It is not the result of
what anyone can possibly do,
so no one can pride himself in it or take glory to himself.
For we are God's own handiwork
His workmanship,
recreated in Christ Jesus,
born anew
that we may do those good works
which God predestined
planned beforehand for us
taking paths
which He prepared ahead of time,
that we should walk in them
living the good life
which He prearranged
and made ready for us to live.
|
041218
|
| |
... |
|
|
missionary
|
Therefore, remember that
at one time
you were Gentiles,
Heathens,
in the flesh,
called "Uncircumcision" by those
who called themselves "Circumcision",
itself a mere mark in the flesh
made by human hands.
Remember that you were
at that time
Separated
living apart
from Christ
excluded from all part in Him,
utterly estranged and outlawed
from the rights of Israel as a nation,
and strangers with no share
in the sacred compacts of the
Messianic promise,
with no knowledge of
or right in
God's agreements,
His covenants.
And you had no hope
no promise;
you were in the world
without God.
But now in Christ Jesus,
you who once were
So far away,
Through,
by,
in
the blood of Christ
have been brought near.
For He is
Himself our peace
our bond of unity and harmony.
He has made us both
Jew and Gentile
one body,
and has broken down
destroyed,
abolished
the hostile dividing wall
between us,
By abolishing in His
own crucified flesh
the enmity
caused by the Law
with its decrees and ordinances,
which He annulled;
that He
from the two
might create in Himself
one new man
one new quality of humanity
out of the two,
so making peace.
|
041218
|
| |
... |
|
|
missionary
|
And He designed
to reconcile to God
both Jew and Gentile,
united in a single body
by means of His cross,
thereby killing the mutual enmity
and bringing the feud to an end.
And He came and preached
the glad tidings of peace
to you who were afar off
and Peace to those who were near.
For it is through Him that we both
whether far off or near
now have an introduction
Access
by one Holy Spirit to the Father
so that we are able to approach Him.
Therefore you are no longer outsiders
exiles, migrants, and aliens,
excluded from the rights of citizens,
but you now share citizenship
with the saints, God's own people,
consecrated and set apart for Himself;
and you belong to God's own household.
You are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets
with Christ Jesus Himself
the chief Cornerstone.
In Him the whole structure is joined
bound,
welded together harmoniously,
and it continues to rise
grow,
increase into a holy temple
in the Lord
a sanctuary dedicated,
consecrated,
and sacred
to the presence of the Lord.
In Him
and in fellowship with one another
you yourselves also
are being built up
into this structure
with the rest,
to form a fixed abode
dwelling place of God
In,
By,
Through the Spirit.
(These beautiful, poetic, powerful words of peace and hope were written by Paul of Tarsus, Inspired by the Holy Spirit, in a letter written twenty centuries ago, known commonly today as the first two chapters of the Book_of_Ephesians)
|
041218
|
| |
... |
|
|
phil
|
-4=4
1=3
0=2
3=1
|
041218
|
| |
... |
|
|
arwyn
|
Whose God?
Who's God?
|
190330
|
| |
... |
|
|
dafremen
|
Woe! What_the_hands_of_man_hath_wrought.
|
190331
|
