Ephesians 1:3-5

 Jan 21, 2025 - This morning I was re-reading the 1st chapter of Ephesions before going to a Tuesday morning guys Bible Study. I was reading the New Living Translation. Ephesians 1:3 (NLT) How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ. [4] Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. [5] His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure. Paul was excited about his relationship with God, as I should be. I remember when I was young and the feeling I got when I was an early pick to be on someone's team. How excited would I be if Patrick Mahones called me today and asked me to show up in Kansas City to be involved with the Chiefs preparation for next weeks game? Being “picked” to live eternally in the presence of God and His saints should certainly get me more excited than some minor role with a football team, yet it usually doesn’t. When God, or the Holy Spirit, “picks” me, offers me a chance to be part of His plan by working on some project, I should be excited. Instead I tend to be fearful/frustrated because I don’t see His entire plan laid out step by step. At the Cowboy Church praises and prayer requests are written on a tablet by the door. During the service they are read so that the praises can be a blessing to all and the prayer requests can be added to individuals prayer lists. A couple of weeks ago one of the prayer requests was for resources to purchase materials to do some much needed work on a person’s home. While in the crowd leaving after the service I handed some cash to one of the Elders and asked him to give it to the person who made the request. Apparently the lady who made the request was close to him because before we were halfway  to our car she ran up to us and thanked us for the money. She explained that many, many years ago their home used to be an Army barracks. They need to do a lot of work on it. She was very thankful for the assistance. Since then I have a “feeling” that I am supposed to try and get some other Winter Texans together to help lend her and her husband a hand doing some of the work. I’m wrestling with: first, is it just me thinking this or is it a leading from the Holy Spirit; 2nd, if it is a leading from the Spirit, what is the best way to proceed? 


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