Today Our Daily Bread Eph 1

Eph 1:1-23
1I, Paul, am under God's plan as an apostle, a special agent of Christ Jesus, writing to you faithful Christians in Ephesus. 2I greet you with the grace and peace poured into our lives by God our Father and our Master, Jesus Christ.
The God of Glory
3How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. 4Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. 5Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) 6He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.
7Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people--free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! 8He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, 9letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, 10a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

11It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, 12part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
13It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free--signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. 14This signet from God is the first installment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.
15That's why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the Christians, 16I couldn't stop thanking God for you--every time I prayed, I'd think of you and give thanks. 17But I do more than thank. I ask--ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory--to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, 18your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for Christians, 19oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him--endless energy, boundless strength!
20All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, 21in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. 22He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. 23The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ's body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.
~ Lena’s Journalin~
How does it feel when you know you’ve blown it, made multiple mistakes and know you have to own up to them? Not the greatest feeling, huh? How about the feeling when you know you were due to have to take a beating or punishment, but did not at all have to pay any of its penalty? Whew! What a relief! What freedom! This is the type of freedom a person experiences whenever he realizes the magnitude of the debt owed him for sin and the severe penalty due each of us, but that through the willingly offered shed blood of Christ’s free will sacrifice and our acceptance of it and our participation in His life as we walk out the rest of our days on earth, we can be freed completely of this penalty. That person is truly thankful. It takes revelation to be this thankful! It also takes revelation to go beyond this feeling of thankfulness and hae greater than just an extreme desire to re-pay Christ or respond to Christ with actions of Love, but to go steps further and lie everyday for Christ’s will rather than whatever plans and dreams we thought we were here for. Gal 2:20 comes right to mind for me. I could lie my life and all of the rest of my days here for me and what I enjoy and desire etc, but what a loss I’d experience and what regret I’d have living for such mere purpose, when I could fulfill the purpose of God right here, right now. My heart is as Paul’s in some prospectus, I plead with you, not to waste another moment figuring out who you are and who you were meant to be here and what you are supposed to do etc. God is showing you, he’s setting you up, He’s placing you on the earth as game players set up chess pieces, really. He’s orchestrating your life around His will and plan and He does not want anymore time spend for any other kingdom except His. Can we lie as dual citizens in His kingdom?, NO, we cannot. We are in the world, but not at all of it. That is NOT dualistic citizenship. If we try to be a part of the world and a part of what God is doing we miss all of what God is doing! We cannot sere two masters, we cannot love God and money, we cannot. We are either for Him or against Him, He is asking us to make it very clear to Him, and to God’s enemies who’s "side" we are on. Ya, know we can play the game of religion, but the only one fooled is us and maybe a few other people. In the spirit world there is no fooling, all is open and exposed unto the light. Evil spirits know who’s we are and belong to and serve, and angels and God’s spirit knows who we belong to and whom we serve.