I know an overthinker when I read one, because that is my own tendency. Do you know the joke that, being a pastor, why use a word when ten will do? There is an uncomfortable amount of truth that underlies the humor. In our passage, Paul could be accused of doing exactly that.
Heard of a "to do" list? How about the "Done for us" list":
· Blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing…
· Chose us in Christ before the foundation of the
world…
· Destined us for adoption as his children through
Jesus Christ…
· Freely bestowed (his glorious grace) on us in the
Beloved…
· We have redemption through his blood…
o
Forgiveness of our trespasses…
· This according to the riches of his grace lavished
upon us…
· Made known to us the mystery of his will,
o
According to his good pleasure set forth in
Christ…
§
To gather all things in him for the fullness of
time, in heaven and on earth…
· Obtained an inheritance (in Christ)…
· Destined according to the purpose of him who
accomplishes all…
· So we might live for the praise of his glory,
the first to set our hope on Christ…
· In him, when you heard the word of truth,..
o
The gospel of your salvation…
§
And believed in him, were marked by the seal of
the Promised Holy Spirit.
·
This is the pledge of our inheritance toward
redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.
We have our Story (Capital
S). I have a literary theory that poetry
results when all the excess words are removed.
So, a poem…(maybe?)
Jesus was born unto us,
Jesus lived with us,
Jesus
died for us,
Jesus
rose for us,
Jesus
reigns over us,
Jesus
prayers for us.
That’s
our story and I am sticking with it. Dig
into Paul and be amazed at what God has accomplished in this story.
Peace,
Pastor Peter
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