Ephesians 2:
1 It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin.
2 You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience.
3 We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us.
4 Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love,
5 he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us!
6 Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
7 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus.
(from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)
The hymn-writer expressed the awesomeness of God's grace this way:
Prayer:
My God, how wonderful You are,
Your majesty, how bright;
How beautiful You mercy seat
In depths of burning light!
How awesome, Your eternal years,
O everlasting Lord,
By prostrate spirits day and night
Incessantly adored!
How wonderful, how beautiful,
The sight of You must be;
Your endless wisdom, boundless power,
And glorious purity!
O how I fear You, living God,
With deep and tender fear;
And worship You with trembling hope,
And penitential tears!
Yet, I may love You, too, O Lord,
Almighty as You are;
For You have stooped to ask of me
The love of my poor heart!
No earthly father loves like You,
No mother, ever so mild,
Bears and forbears as You have done
With me, Your sinful child.
Only to sit and think of God,
Oh, what a joy it is!
To think the thought, to breathe the Name,
Earth has no higher bliss.
Father of Jesus, love's Reward!
What glory it will be
Prostrate before Your throne to lie,
And gaze, and gaze on Thee!
Amen.
(adapted from hymn by Frederick W. Faber, 1814-1863)
See you tomorrow, God willing,
when you'll find a new thought here to challenge you!
Meanwhile, have a great day walking with the Lord!
