Life Ministries

First the scripture Eph. 1:3-14; 

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”

    Paul begins by giving praise to God the Father who “has blessed us”,,, Now, we tend to think of this in the past tense, and that is true, but we need to jump ahead a bit to the words “in Christ”, In other words, these things are spiritual blessings – “in the heavenly realms” – that are given to all who come to know Christ and have been born again, and are now “in Christ”. It says we have been given “every” or “all” spiritual blessings in Christ. We were blessed with everything we need to be content, to be successful, to be obedient, to be useful in the Kingdom, and to be happy in Jesus! Regardless of our circumstances.

    However, this is possible because these blessings are spiritual in nature, and they are continuous in nature; therefore, I have been blessed in Christ Jesus; I am blessed in Christ Jesus; I will continue to be blessed and will always be blessed in Christ Jesus; because these cannot be lost like physical or material blessings that fade and rot, and can be here today and gone tomorrow.

    With all this in mind, it will help us to learn what these spiritual blessings are.

First, let’s look at the foreknowledge of God. “He chose us in Him before the creation of the world.”… He “predestined us for adoption”… When it says “us” He is talking about all mankind; every nation and tongue; every color; every man woman and child! I can only imagine God at creation…

Day 1 – “Let there be light!” Oh, that was good! Let’s see, I’ll call the light “day” and the darkness “night”. I just can’t wait until day 6!”

Day 2 – “I must separate the waters, the top will be “sky” and the bottom “sea.”         

Day 3 – “Now I’ll separate the sea with dry land so man will have a place to live. This is so exciting!” “Wait till he sees the mountains and the valleys and the beauty of the continents!”  “Plants, trees, watermelon, figs, oh my!”

Day 4 – “Stars! Sun! Moon! Planets! The universe! It takes my breath away!”

Day 5 – “Let’s see, aha…creatures of the sea: Whales, Dolphin, Sea Urchin – (ouch!) Puffer fish…Ha, Ha, this is fun! Birds of the air…so many kinds and colors, I love it, and so will he!”

Day 6 – “Today’s the day! I can hardly control myself! I had better warm up a little… Lions, tigers and bears, oh my! Cattle, sheep, and goats…um

Pigmy goats! The kids will love em! How about a camel? One hump or two? How about both! This is all wonderful!”

    Then God said, “Now, the time has come, let’s make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over all that has been created! So God created them male and female – “God BLESSED them and said ‘be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and rule over it.” “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day.”

    Before the creation of the world, God was thinking about mankind, and we were chosen…all of us…He chose us to be His, to be holy and blameless in His sight…He chose you!... Have you chosen Him?