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Bondman · 04-18-2008, 05:12 AM

Message #49

THE 1ST BONDMAN PARAPHRASE

For a long time I've just adored what Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus. With so many passages I love it's hard to choose which to do, but this one is VERY, VERY POWERFUL:

Ephesians Ch 2, Verses 4 to 10

But that God of ours!! What can we say! He is so ABOUNDING in his mercy towards us! Like, because of His incredible and, well, magnificent LOVE for us, basically He just couldn't help Himself! - and simply had to satisfy His love for us in this way:

While we were still separated from Him and quite Spiritually DEAD in all our sins and wrongs and failings - what did He do? Well, He changed us from 'dead' and brought us to LIFE. How? By a rather clever means, i.e., by actually JOINING us to Christ - Who had been dead Himself of course - but God RAISED HIM UP OUT OF DEATH, RAISING US UP WITH HIM at the same time! How about that!!

But going further, let's make absolutely no mistake about this crucial truth: we are saved in Jesus, purely and solely by God's utterly undeserved love and favour, i.e., by His GRACE towards us! But there's more - and this is almost unbelievable - we know He raised us up with Christ, but not satisfied with just that, He then took each one of us and sat us down WITH CHRIST in the heavens, effectively giving us JOINT SEATING right there WITH THE LORD JESUS HIMSELF!!

His reason for doing this? - so that He could demonstrate and show with absolute clarity right through all the periods of time and ages to come, that the richness and fullness of His grace is limitless and quite unmeasurable - showing us the beautiful goodness and kindness of His lovely heart towards us by and in the Lord Jesus Christ.

This must be REPEATED because it's so important: it is by God's grace alone (His undeserved love and favour towards us) that we are saved from the consequences of our sin! Pure and simple, this is His free GRACE to us - which we then just simply ACCEPT BY FAITH!! How amazing!

But here's something that needs to be asked. Does any of this come though US, or by what WE can do? NO WAY!! Please get this: NO WORKS BY US, or trying to keep laws and things like that, are anywhere remotely near good enough to get us saved!! Rather it's all SOLELY an astonishing GIFT from God to us!! - and as a result not a single one of us can ever stand up and feel proud because WE did it!

Now to finish, here's another almost unbelievable thought which leads on from this: WE ARE GOD'S OWN HANDIWORK. WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIP - isn't that mind-blowing! So what is it that He's doing in us? Well, nothing less than RECREATING US and REMAKING us to be more and more new - in and through and by Christ! And right here and now can be revealed His ultimate and crucial purpose in doing this...

It's so that we undeserving people who are now saints of God can start doing really, really, really GOOD works and DEEDS, living lives of GOODNESS and HOLINESS!! PLUS - as if that's not enough already - here's the clincher: these good things that we now do, God already set them down for us way, way beforehand, i.e., PREPARED FOR US TO DO THEM!! Maybe you thought YOU just did this great thing? - BUT GOD HAD ALREADY PLANNED THIS OUT FOR YOU TO DO!!! Can you handle that?!!

With much love,

- BM, with his Lady

Click the graphic below to check out previous Messages

04-18-2008, 05:12 AM	#558 (permalink)
Bondman Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Posts: 578 Blog Entries: 1 Rep Power: 1	Message #49 THE 1ST BONDMAN PARAPHRASE For a long time I've just adored what Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus. With so many passages I love it's hard to choose which to do, but this one is VERY, VERY POWERFUL: Ephesians Ch 2, Verses 4 to 10 But that God of ours!! What can we say! He is so ABOUNDING in his mercy towards us! Like, because of His incredible and, well, magnificent LOVE for us, basically He just couldn't help Himself! - and simply had to satisfy His love for us in this way: While we were still separated from Him and quite Spiritually DEAD in all our sins and wrongs and failings - what did He do? Well, He changed us from 'dead' and brought us to LIFE. How? By a rather clever means, i.e., by actually JOINING us to Christ - Who had been dead Himself of course - but God RAISED HIM UP OUT OF DEATH, RAISING US UP WITH HIM at the same time! How about that!! But going further, let's make absolutely no mistake about this crucial truth: we are saved in Jesus, purely and solely by God's utterly undeserved love and favour, i.e., by His GRACE towards us! But there's more - and this is almost unbelievable - we know He raised us up with Christ, but not satisfied with just that, He then took each one of us and sat us down WITH CHRIST in the heavens, effectively giving us JOINT SEATING right there WITH THE LORD JESUS HIMSELF!! His reason for doing this? - so that He could demonstrate and show with absolute clarity right through all the periods of time and ages to come, that the richness and fullness of His grace is limitless and quite unmeasurable - showing us the beautiful goodness and kindness of His lovely heart towards us by and in the Lord Jesus Christ. This must be REPEATED because it's so important: it is by God's grace alone (His undeserved love and favour towards us) that we are saved from the consequences of our sin! Pure and simple, this is His free GRACE to us - which we then just simply ACCEPT BY FAITH!! How amazing! But here's something that needs to be asked. Does any of this come though US, or by what WE can do? NO WAY!! Please get this: NO WORKS BY US, or trying to keep laws and things like that, are anywhere remotely near good enough to get us saved!! Rather it's all SOLELY an astonishing GIFT from God to us!! - and as a result not a single one of us can ever stand up and feel proud because WE did it! Now to finish, here's another almost unbelievable thought which leads on from this: WE ARE GOD'S OWN HANDIWORK. WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIP - isn't that mind-blowing! So what is it that He's doing in us? Well, nothing less than RECREATING US and REMAKING us to be more and more new - in and through and by Christ! And right here and now can be revealed His ultimate and crucial purpose in doing this... It's so that we undeserving people who are now saints of God can start doing really, really, really GOOD works and DEEDS, living lives of GOODNESS and HOLINESS!! PLUS - as if that's not enough already - here's the clincher: these good things that we now do, God already set them down for us way, way beforehand, i.e., PREPARED FOR US TO DO THEM!! Maybe you thought YOU just did this great thing? - BUT GOD HAD ALREADY PLANNED THIS OUT FOR YOU TO DO!!! Can you handle that?!! With much love, - BM, with his Lady Click the graphic below to check out previous Messages __________________ –––––––––––––– *» By His grace alone, Jesus is my all in all! «* • Destination: HEAVEN! Last edited by Bondman; 04-20-2008 at 07:11 AM.