Kingdom Ready Blog

Ephesians 1: 1-14 (Moffatt Translation)
Paul, by the will of God an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the saints who are faithful in Jesus Christ: grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who in Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing within the heavenly sphere! He chose us in him ere the world was founded, to be consecrated and unblemished in his sight, destining us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ. Such was the purpose of his will, redounding to the praise of his glorious grace bestowed on us in the Beloved, in whom we enjoy our redemption, the forgiveness of our trespasses, by the blood he shed. So richly has God lavished upon us his grace, granting us complete insight and understanding of the open secret of his will, showing us how it was the purpose of his design so to order it in the fullness of the ages that all things in heaven and earth alike should be gathered up in Christ- in the Christ in whom we have had our heritage allotted to us (as was decreed in the design of him who carries out everything according to the counsel of his will), to make us redound to the praise of his glory by being the first to put our hope in Christ. You have also heard in him the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, and in him you also by your faith have been stamped with the seal of the long-promised holy Spirit, which is the pledge and instalment of our common heritage, that we may obtain our divine possession and so redound to the praise of his glory.

In light of all that God eternally purposed and then wrought in Christ, we who believe are welcomed into His family in which we can praise Him for His glorious loving-kindness given to us by grace, not by our having deserved any sort of favor at all. We should always keep this in mind. The basis of our faith is rooted in His will and His ability to bring it to pass according to His plan. He revealed the secret hidden since He created all things; He opened this knowledge when He wanted to make it known. Due to His multifarious wisdom, we can have wonderful insight and understanding about our purpose as bound up in His perfect, overall purpose which is centered in Christ. Our future hope in Christ is the hope He has explained, the glorious hope that He will bring to pass.

We should be to the praise of His honor, as He deserves to be honored, for He has always been infinitely gracious to us.

Praising God should never be degraded to a mere, occasional “activity”, an intellectual exercise, a religious tradition, or a splashy show to impress people. May we be what He made us to be in Christ, according to His depth of wise planning before the world began. May the God of glory be humbly revered for His goodness which is overwhelmingly gracious beyond our capacity to perceive it. May we be to the praise of the glory of His grace with every breath we take, with every thought we think, with every emotion we feel, with every word we speak, with every action we take, with every attitude we embrace, and with every challenge regarding each pitfall we painstakingly avoid. May honoring Him be this real to us throughout every fiber of our being. He more than deserves that our every effort be all in all: heart, soul, mind, and strength.
( Communion in Corinth studies should resume shortly.)