EPHESIANS: 1: 4-7 & 10-11
4) "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:"
What an honour! Before the foundation of the world, Almighty God chose me that I should be seen as holy and without blame and be permitted to stand before Him as my God, in love.
5-7) "Having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherin he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace."
It was predestined by God that I would become born again through the grace of Jesus and through Jesus power of forgiveness and redemption become adopted as a child by Jesus holy grace an adopted member in God’s holy family.
10-11) "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:"
It is a priviledge and an honour to realize that because I freely chose, chose to accept Jesus Christ as Lord, chose to believe through my faith that through Jesus death and resurrection, that Jesus applied His Holy blood to me cleansing me of all of my sins, justifying me and sanctified me, Through the Grace of Jesus at the time of my death, I can and will stand before Almighty God and hear Him welcome me home as His missing prodigal son.
As most of my readers know, I am a choir singer and a music lover, and while writing this I was reminded of a song from a certain Broadway Musical "Mary Poppins" entitled, "A Spoonful Of Sugar " It refers to the fact that just a spoonful of sugar added to the bitterest of medicines, helps one to swallow the medicine and the medicine helps to make things better. The song got me thinking that just a droplet of Jesus blood applied Grace and forgiveness helps to take away the shame of my sinfulness and allows me to feel a huge sense of relief knowing that I can stand before Almighty God my Father and know that I am indeed sinfree and sanctified, and that God can again see me as His loving child.
A child who is adopted and knows that he/she has been adopted takes a certain pride in the fact that he/she was especially chosen by their parents to be loved and to be their child. So a child of God, should feel, knowing that because they through their faith believed in the redemptive powers and grace of Jesus Christ have become born again and proud in the fact that God now chooses them, accepting them into His Holy Family sharing his love with us as He shares His love for Jesus.