"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places in Christ," Eph 1:3
How wondrous it is when we are able to set aside the demands, pursuits and responsibilities of the day and really meditate on God. To be sure, everyone has their own way of visualizing God but how do we conceptualize Him? How do we contemplate His existence before everything? How do we imagine creation was realized and completed? What comes to mind when we picture heaven? How can we order in our minds the forming of man out of the dust of the ground and the blowing of the very breath of God into it that we became living souls? And how can understand at all that He knew us before we ever were?
The mind spins with these thoughts, but eventually settles down to the thought, "blessed be the Lord." And what does "blessed" mean in this context? It comes from a Greek word from which we get the English, "eulogy." It is to use fine speaking and elegance of language to lavish praise and adoration on someone. Oh I bless the Lord for all He is, all He does, all He gives, all He knows, all He provides and for His unsurpassed love, compassion, grace, mercy and long suffering toward me. I bless Him for saving me while I was yet in my sins (in which I still struggle). And I thank Him for the wonderfully amazing gift of His only begotten son, a sacrifice for me.
Beloved, we must never neglect to take time to be with God and to consider the mighty works of His hand in our lives and in everything around us. Our goal is to meet Him face to face, but we can know, love and serve Him right now. Scripture confirms that we are blessed by Him and in this case, it means that we are made to prosper, to be happy and to be favored. Most particularly, it is the "spiritual blessings in the heavenly places" that are his guarantee that the faithful will meet Him face to face and that what will occur then will be unimaginably greater than all we can imagine.
Is not God awesome? Let us meditate on these things.
Committed,
Lee
Showing posts with label Eph 1:3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eph 1:3. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
What Luck?-9/28/2011
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:" Eph 1:3
Have you ever uttered the words, "Good Luck?" Of course you have. We all have. We tend to think of luck as some sort of positive happenstance that will bring fortune our way. We've written books about it, written songs about it, made movies about it and developed all sort of symbols of it. One of example of a good luck symbol is the rabbit's foot; apparently not too lucky for the rabbit.
I submit to you that for the Christian, there is no such thing as luck. In fact, luck is a pagan and idolatrous concept. The Roman goddess Fortuna, also known as Tyche to the Greeks, was the personification of luck in the religion of Rome. It was said that she could bring fortune or misfortune; good luck or bad luck. In fact, she was at times depicted blindfolded much as our image of Justice is represented in drawings and statues. She came to represent the variability of life, chance and fate.
Beloved we do not serve a God who is in any way capricious in nature. He is a God of certainty and one whose are eyes are never shut. Our great blessing is to be able to go to Him in the name of Jesus and ask for that which we desire. Whether the answer be yes, no or not yet, there is no luck, chance or fate involved. There is the very certain and deliberate nature of the Father's actions as it relates to how He interacts with us.
There is no such thing as luck. There is, however, one God and Father who is above all, through all and in all. So the next time you consider wishing someone the best of luck, pray that it will be in God's will to grant them specific blessings.
Loving Like Jesus,
Lee
Have you ever uttered the words, "Good Luck?" Of course you have. We all have. We tend to think of luck as some sort of positive happenstance that will bring fortune our way. We've written books about it, written songs about it, made movies about it and developed all sort of symbols of it. One of example of a good luck symbol is the rabbit's foot; apparently not too lucky for the rabbit.
I submit to you that for the Christian, there is no such thing as luck. In fact, luck is a pagan and idolatrous concept. The Roman goddess Fortuna, also known as Tyche to the Greeks, was the personification of luck in the religion of Rome. It was said that she could bring fortune or misfortune; good luck or bad luck. In fact, she was at times depicted blindfolded much as our image of Justice is represented in drawings and statues. She came to represent the variability of life, chance and fate.
Beloved we do not serve a God who is in any way capricious in nature. He is a God of certainty and one whose are eyes are never shut. Our great blessing is to be able to go to Him in the name of Jesus and ask for that which we desire. Whether the answer be yes, no or not yet, there is no luck, chance or fate involved. There is the very certain and deliberate nature of the Father's actions as it relates to how He interacts with us.
There is no such thing as luck. There is, however, one God and Father who is above all, through all and in all. So the next time you consider wishing someone the best of luck, pray that it will be in God's will to grant them specific blessings.
Loving Like Jesus,
Lee
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