May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

Eph. 1:3    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.  4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.  5 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.  6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.  7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.  8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

We have concluded our months-long walk through the Book of Hebrews. Let's now turn to Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. This rich little New Testament book is just crammed full of inspiring guides for the 21st century Christ-follower. It echos many of the teachings that we have already discussed in the previous two months but from yet a different perspective. Right off the bat, Paul lays out richness. God grants us peace (vs 2). He enriched us with 'every spiritual blessing. . . ' (v 3).  He CHOSE you and me-- prior to the creation of the World. This reveals the detail to which God foreknew us and the depth of His love that he created us anyway (vs 4-5).

Paul makes it clear that there has been an outpouring of God's 'glorious grace' upon us. He also makes it clear that this outpouring came only to those who 'belong to his dear Son.' Paul used the metaphor of a shower-- remember your morning shower. Hot water sprayed down upon your body bringing it alive and responsive, and driving away uncleanliness. God's shower has drenched us in His love, in His grace, in His forgiveness, in His nature itself! Get ready to be blessed repeatedly across the coming weeks as we crawl through this wonderful book of inspiration. But for today, remember that through Christ God has given YOU peace. You can feel at peace today because of all that we have pointed out above. Are you willing?

Your servant in Christ's Love

Dan

drdanelliott@gmail.com