Ephesians 1 - Make it Personal

2 - Grace and Peace to you!

A greeting. Do I wish grace and peace upon the soul and day of every other person I encounter?

Confess - more than likely, I do not aknowledge people. I am indifferent to the quality of the day they are having, or I'm so focused on my own agenda or objective that I fail to see them at all. Indifference to others is wrapped in self, not wrapped in Christ.
     Jesus, while on earth, was limited. He had a human attention span, linear time, the ability to only be in one place at one time. He was limited by his need for sleep, eating, drinking and other physiological factors. He had human emotions, and the humanity of becoming overwhelmed by the pain of others - when he wept about the death of Lazarus. YET - He stopped. He saw. He listened. He noticed others' lives and pain. He took the time to eat with them, talk with them, listen to them. He took the time to let children crawl into his lap and just be held. And now - the ressurrected Christ is no longer limited by humanity. He is not limited by human attention. He is not working in only one place or time. He is eternal, He is omnipresent, He is ever listening, knowing and loving His children. He is omni-available. He is ready and equipped to handle any person's pain and ugliness, no matter how ugly, no matter how painful. Hallelujah!

3-Praise to God the Father! You have blessed me in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

God this is so much bigger than me, than my twenty-seven years, than my lifespan on the earth as a human being. You have blessed me with Spiritual, rather than carnal, blessings while YOU ARE in Heaven - so much higher are your thoughts and your ways. I certainly do not recognize, call on, or utilize my spiritual blessings in the fullness that you intend. I do not open the gifts you lay at my feet, or inject into my life because my big fat SELF is getting in the way. I do not even understand what you mean by EVERY spiritual blessing in Christ. Open my eyes, and teach me your decrees.

4 - You chose me, in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in your sight.

Predestination is a deal breaker for so many people who hear the gospel. Mentally, it often is for me too. Satan & his team whisper to me - you're unworthy. Why would the God of the Universe ever choose you to be part of his plan? why would he choose you, and not everyone? what is special about you? do you think you're better than others? that's offensive and ugly. Satan even uses phrases tossed on me my whole life to echo and confuse me on this point. Stuck up snob (this is the G rated version). Holier than thou. Fed with a silver spoon, etc.

Our culture, while striving incessantly for earthly riches, priviliges and power, simultaneously denounces and demoralizes the same things.

But I fix my eyes on Jesus. In Ephesians 1:4 - I fix my eyes on 2 words: IN HIM. I -whether rich or poor, powerful or weak, in charge, or an underling, a priviliged princess or starving street urchin - could never ever stand holy or blameless in front of God, unless I was completely wrapped up, covered over, and transformed from the inside out with Jesus Christ. Only the Holy, Ressurrected Son of God who paid for all the things I've done wrong and claims me as His own could present me to God the Father as holy and blameless. That's the only status, privilige, wealth & power that will ever, ever matter. And Thank God, it has nothing to do with any decision, excepting one, that I will ever make. And that decision is simply believing that Jesus is who He claims to be.

I FINALLY have a college degree. I spent seven years in three colleges. Post-secondary education is called a blessing! a springboard! a necessity to survival in a global economy. However, the foundation upon which the vast majority of the post secondary education community stands is SINKING SAND. In some upper level high school and college classes (often labeled "the humanities"), I have been taught that I am a Christian because of the behavior I have learned from my parents, which they learned from theirs and so forth. I learn that my choices and behavior are all a result of my culture -which is made up of many earthly components, none which include a Living, Active, Sovereign, Personal, Transforming Creator.

But You say:

I chose you before the earth ever existed.

I had you in mind long before your college professors' professors' professors had learned their ABC's.

STOP conforming to the thinking of the world, and be transformed by the renewing of your mind. [which only comes by and through ME]

Stop worrying about fitting in and sounding smart and sounding educated with common thinking.

STAND FIRM.

Your heart is mine. It is unique, it is strong enough to be changed by me, and it is needed for the purposes of my Kingdom.

And Jesus, that's enough for me. You are enough for me.

vs. 5 - He predestined us to be adopted as his sons [and daughters] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.

You are not an impersonal God making business decisions in a holy corporation. You want to be my father, because it gives you pleasure. It makes you smile. You are big enough to know tiny me, and delight in the fact that I am your child. Thank you God.