Thursday, March 11, 2010

God had settled on you, as the focus of His love

I was reading The Message Bible this morning and was overwhelmed by a very timely reminder God had waiting for me in Ephesians 1. This one phrase communicated God's pure love and devotion for me in such a real way. "Long before God laid down the earth's foundations, He had you in mind - had settled on you as the focus of his love…to be made whole and holy by His love.”

Do you ever just need a reminder of God's unconditional, unfailing love? I found myself in that place this morning and the Lord was right there, just waiting to speak to me... to remind me of His perfect faithfulness that goes far past my understanding.

He truly is so good.


(Here's the passage I was reading in Ephesians, for some context.)
Ephesians 1:3-14

How 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. Long 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. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

Because 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! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

It'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, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

It'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. This 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.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Cruisin

So John and I took our first vacation (just the 2 of us) since our honeymoon. I’ve always wanted to go on a cruise and John told me several months ago that he wanted to take me for my 30th birthday (which isn’t until June – I’m still 29 for several more months!!!). We picked a Royal Caribbean cruise to Cozumel, Mexico and it was SOOO wonderful. We relaxed a lot, but also just had a blast together. It was real blessing.


Click below if you wanna see some of our pics!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jshaida/CozumelCruise#