Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - WordAction - The Foundry Publishing House of Kansas City, Missouri, United States - The Global Church of the Nazarene for Saturday, 23 September 2017 "The Spirit, Our Gurarantee" by Robert W. Smith - Ephesians 1:1-11

Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - WordAction - The Foundry Publishing House of Kansas City, Missouri, United States - The Global Church of the Nazarene for Saturday, 23 September 2017 "The Spirit, Our Gurarantee" by Robert W. Smith - Ephesians 1:1-11
Ephesians 1:1 From: Sha’ul, by God’s will an emissary of the Messiah Yeshua
To: God’s people living in Ephesus, that is, those who are trusting in the Messiah Yeshua:
2 Grace to you and shalom from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
3 Praised be Adonai, Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who in the Messiah has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heaven. 4 In the Messiah he chose us in love before the creation of the universe to be holy and without defect in his presence. 5 He determined in advance that through Yeshua the Messiah we would be his sons — in keeping with his pleasure and purpose — 6 so that we would bring him praise commensurate with the glory of the grace he gave us through the Beloved One.
7 In union with him, through the shedding of his blood, we are set free — our sins are forgiven; this accords with the wealth of the grace 8 he has lavished on us. In all his wisdom and insight 9 he has made known to us his secret plan, which by his own will he designed beforehand in connection with the Messiah 10 and will put into effect when the time is ripe — his plan to place everything in heaven and on earth under the Messiah’s headship.
11 Also in union with him we were given an inheritance, we who were picked in advance according to the purpose of the One who effects everything in keeping with the decision of his will,
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Ephesians 1 declares that God decided before creation that humanity would be "predestined . . . for adoption to sonship through Jesus the Christ" (verse 5). By God's gift of grace (verse 7), these adopted children have received redemption through the death of Jesus the Christ. Further, they have been "marked in him with a seal," the presence of the "promised" Holy Spirit (verse 13), who is our guarantee of the inheritance God has promised to them (verse 14).
Adoption plays a major a role in my family. My father was adopted as an infant, and I have two adopted grandchildren. Recently, my (adopted) granddaughter summed up her experience by saying that adoption has taught her real love.
While parental adoption gives a child a name and a future, God's adoption gives us the presence of the Holy Spirit, who is with us until the day of redemption (verse 14). There is security in God's divine plan , a security found in the work of Jesus the Christ. This passage teaches that adoption is not an iron-clad guarantee of salvation, but that the work that began in Christ before creation will be completed in the day of redemption (see 1 Corinthians 15:20-28). Thanks be to God!

Hymn for Today:
"The Comforter Has Come" by Frank Bottome
1. O spread the tidings ’round, wherever man is found,
Wherever human hearts and human woes abound.
Let every Christian tongue proclaim the joyful sound:
The Comforter has come!
Refrain: The Comforter has come! The Comforter has come!
The Holy Ghost from heav’n, the Father’s promise giv’n,
O spread the tidings ’round, wherever man is found:
The Comforter has come!
2. The long, long night is past; the morning breaks at last;
And hushed the dreadful wail and fury of the blast,
As o’er the golden hills the day advances fast!
The Comforter has come!
Refrain: The Comforter has come! The Comforter has come!
The Holy Ghost from heav’n, the Father’s promise giv’n,
O spread the tidings ’round, wherever man is found:
The Comforter has come!
3. Lo, the great King of kings, with healing in His wings,
To every captive soul a full deliv'rance brings;
And thro' the vacant cells the song of triumph rings;
The Comforter has come!
Refrain: The Comforter has come! The Comforter has come!
The Holy Ghost from heav’n, the Father’s promise giv’n,
O spread the tidings ’round, wherever man is found:
The Comforter has come!
4. O boundless love divine! How shall this tongue of mine
To wond’ring mortals tell the matchless grace divine -
That I, a child of hell, should in His image shine?

The Comforter has come!
Refrain: The Comforter has come! The Comforter has come!
The Holy Ghost from heav’n, the Father’s promise giv’n,
O spread the tidings ’round, wherever man is found:
The Comforter has come!
Thought for Today:
“When the Counselor comes, whom I will send you from the Father — the Spirit of Truth, who keeps going out from the Father — he will testify on my behalf.(John 15:26}
Please pray:
For the development of Christian leaders in Guadeloupe.
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