You Can Know You Have Eternal Life
#729
The In Him Blessings Revealed (1)
by Jim Mettenbrink
[review previous article]
[advance to next
article]
Last week we finished much about
the mystery which was hidden through the ages,
foretold in prophesy and revealed in the New Testament? To
say the least of it, we are most fortunate to have Gods
marvelous scheme of redemption revealed in its entirety in the
Bible? It is succinctly summed up in Pauls epistle
In
Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of His grace
(Ephesians 1:7)? What does it mean to be in Him? Is there more to this mystery
to be revealed?
Paul began the Ephesian letter
stating, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3)? Often
in worship, there is a brief thanksgiving for the many
blessings. Of course we must give thanks for
the convenient, yea even luxurious things which has made our
lives easy, by any comparison with other societies modern and
ancient? However, what folks usually mean by blessings are the house, job, food, clean
water, hot water to bathe in, health material prosperity
in general? We should even include a peaceable life
after all we have not suffered the ravages of war on our soil
since the civil war? But is that what is meant by the in Him blessings?
One only needs to see a few TV
programs touting Christianity as the good news of health
and wealth salvation (the Prosperity Gospel)?
That ruse, friends, is a damnable doctrine, a perversion
of the New Testament, designed to take your money to enrich the
TV evangelists? If Gods intention via Christianity
was to free you from earthly concerns via a carefree life, He
miserably failed the apostle Paul? What?
Paul sums up what happened to him
over a decade or so when he took the gospel of Jesus to the world
I
am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure,
in prisons more frequently, in deaths often? From the Jews
five times I received forty stripes minus one? Three times
I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was
shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys
often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of
my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the
city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils
among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness
often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness
besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my
deep concern for all the churches
(2 Corinthians 11:23-28)? So dismal! Are these
the blessings in
Him? There
must be more...Next!
[review previous article]
[advance to next
article] |