In yesterday's reading, the sun pierced the dark clouds with this glorious section:
The faithful love of the LORD never ends!
His mercies never cease.
23 Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance;
therefore, I will [still] hope in him!”
I have only quoted the most famous part. There are many other precious verses there.
https://www.bible.com/bible/116/lam.4.nlt
Here is a favorite proverb from today’s reading:
Some who are poor pretend to be rich;
others who are rich pretend to be poor.
https://www.bible.com/bible/116/pro.13
We have an important spiritual reality expressed in verse 6: Because we are joined as one with Christ, we are already seated with Him, reigning together with Him, in heaven. We don't wait to die to find out if we will get into heaven! And in my speaking about this in Indonesia I often say, “Those chairs in heaven are not plastic folding chairs.” I also encourage us to bring our requests to God with this in mind— that we are seated in one of the little thrones surrounding His throne.
Translation notes:
6For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are [joined as one/united] with Christ Jesus.
7So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are [joined/united] with Christ Jesus.
8God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for [that/this]; it is a gift from God. 9Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
10For we are God’s masterpiece. [We who are joined with Christ Jesus have been like recreated,//He has created us anew in Christ Jesus,] so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
11Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who [are so/were] proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts.
13But now you have been [jointed/united] with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.
15He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. [PET: That means that everyone, from every people group— each of them being [joined/one] with Christ, are as if created to become a new people group, and a peaceful nation.//He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups.]
21[PET: When each of us becomes [joined as] one with Christ, the whole building is growing larger until it becomes a holy Temple for God.//We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.]
https://www.bible.com/bible/116/eph.2
No comments:
Post a Comment