Bible Verses for contemplation and Prayer
Ephesians 1: 3 and 4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”
Truly it is a wonder the God, the Father and His Son, our precious Savour Jesus Christ, made provision to save all transgressors upon earth, who accepted their offer of salvation. Amazing as it seems, that makes us chosen by God ‘to be holy and without blame’, before we choose to be His, because of divine love. When we make this decision and carry it through, it automatically, verses 5 and 6 “having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”
The love of God the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ was so amazing and so divine, that before the earth was given foundation, they made the firm covenant to save any sinner (if sin came upon the earth), when they were obedient to God and by His abundant grace, became holy and blameless in character. This promise of salvation was transmitted to Adam and Eve straight after they had become sinners in the Garden of Eden. The promise of the eternal covenant was given to Abraham, nineteen hundred years before, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, actually came to earth.
We could write on this theme in the most learned way for all of a long earthly life, and never really touch the depths of what God the Father and His Son have done, or what fully makes up their characters. It will take more than the millennium to acquaint mankind with a little of their exalted characters; taking in the mystery of redemption, and ever afterwards, the divine-human character of Christ and the mystery of the incarnation of Christ.
Whilst Jesus was on earth He made known in His intimate way of love, what it means to be His friend; and who really chooses who. John 15: 14 – 17 “You are my friends if you do whatever I command you, no longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.
It is said in scripture ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’ and for all who know and serve Him, they cannot keep from attesting about His love and goodness, and I want to do the same today; for that has how I have found My Father God, and our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, His Son. This certainly was the experience of Paul, the intrepid apostle for the early Christian fellowship. Romans 1: 5 – 7 “Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for the obedience to the faith among all nations in His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints; grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
I am thankful with Paul, for having been chosen by God, and being ‘the called of Jesus Christ……. As well as being ‘called to be saints’; and to be the recipient of the grace and peace of heaven.