Category Archives: 2008
- The first heavenly blessing is that of being chosen. When did that happen? It happened many long years ago. It happened before the creation of the world. This blessing is not only the first, it is the greatest. What can be compared with the fact that we’re chosen. We did not choose Him, but He chose us. We do not have anything in us that’s worthy of His choosing, but yet He chose us.
- He did not just choose us, then leave us alone. He chose us and then He laid out a plan for our life. This is the meaning of predestination: He predetermined our destiny. This predestination speaks of meaning for everything that happens to us. Why does something happen to us? It is because we have enrolled in God’s School of Sonship, and each and everything that happens to us is a part of this great curriculum. They are there to shape us, to form us, to instill into us the very character and ability deserving of a Son of God.
- Thirdly, we’re loved. He loves and accepts us unconditionally. “Accepted in the One He loved” (KJV). Our God chose us, predestined us to be His Sons, and accepted and loved us just as we are.
- “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known” (Eph 3:10). Here Paul is stating clearly the reason for the existence of the church. If we say that we need to congregate, we need to come together as a church; then one of the key questions we need to ask is why? We know that a parliament exists to govern the country, a company exists to provide some services, a charitable organization exists to meet some needs.
- Why must there be the church? What goal or purpose that the church fulfills that is not met by a government or a club or just any charitable organization? What is the reason for the church’s existence? Why the church?
- Ephesians 3 lists the following reasons for the church’s existence:
- The church is where we can all approach God with freedom and confidence. We all are heirs together, members together, sharers together of His presence and His blessings in the church.
- The church is a showcase of God’s wisdom. It is through the church that the manifold wisdom of God is made known.
- The church is where we can experience and comprehend the love of Christ together. The manifold wisdom of God is for all to marvel, the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ is for His people to experience. “We each comprehend a little, together we fathom the unfathomable.”
- The church is where there is an outburst of praise and worship to God — may He be glory in the church for ever and ever!
