Thinky things

A good friend sent me the email below and I wanted to post it because I think it holds a lot of value and has some great points...its short and to the point...for a change ;)

Ephesians 1

CHOSEN TO BE HOLY AND BLAMELESS

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight." (Ephesians 1 v 3 - 4)

How often do we think about the fact that we personally were chosen, long before we were even born, to be holy and blameless in the sight of God? If you are anything like me, this thought does not pop into my mind very often at all. Yet I am sure that if it became part of our conscious thinking, realising that we have been chosen to be holy and blameless in the sight of God, then we would make so much more effort ourselves to live up to that expectation.

It is true that even with all the hard work and trying that we can muster, we may improve somewhat, but we will never become perfect. That is why Paul continues, saying, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding." (v 7 - 8) We have been chosen to be holy and blameless in God's sight, and he has provided the grace of forgiveness to cover our shortcomings when we fail.

What an awesome calling we have and what amazing grace we have been given to help us move toward that calling.

Let us remember our calling, do our best to live up to it, and rely on God's grace for the rest.



1 Corinthians 8

RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD AND JESUS

As Christians it should be our greatest aim to build up our relationship with God and Jesus. There are two ways we can do this.

The first is by learning all about them through reading and study and talking about them with other people. By doing this we are going to build up a very detailed picture of their characters, nature, plans and other details of what they are like and what they do.

The other way is to love them, talk to them and show them our love in the things that we do for them.

Imagine finding the person you think would make the perfect partner for life. You have fallen in love! What are you going to do about it? Are you going to study them from afar, find out all their intimate details - date of birth, favorite colour, their full name and address, the schools they went to and so on, until you can relate their history better than they can? Or will you talk to them, do things for them, allow them to get to know you, and spend time with them? Obviously spending time with them and showing love to them is going to build the relationship much better than just knowing all about them.

The same goes for our relationship with God and Jesus. Pauls words were these: "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." (1 Corinthians 8 v 1)

Let's be those who put our knowledge into action and build our relationship in practical, everyday love.

May our thanksgiving and love for the grace of God grow more and more each day.