以弗所書 1:11-13 Cunpts

For Reading and Meditation:     Ephesians 1:1-14

What is it in the heart of most men and women that rejects the idea of God's free and generous offer of salvation? It is pride, the deadliest of all the deadly sins. Bernard Shaw, an example of a modern-day thinker, said: "Forgiveness is a beggar's refuge. We must pay our debts." But we cannot pay our debts. As our...

For Reading and Meditation:     2 Timothy 1:1-18

Several of the world's religions, when faced with the perplexing issue of Christ's return from the dead, explain it in terms of reincarnation. A proponent of one of the Eastern religions says: "Christ's resurrection was really a reincarnation - another soul in another body." I once heard a Christian minister declare...

For Reading and Meditation:     Colossians 1:1-20

Does salvation come up from mankind through striving, helped by the Divine, or does it come down to us from above, through the act of God and our receptivity of that act? Is it an attainment or an obtainment? The answers separate Christianity from all other religions. Non-Christian religions teach that salvation is...

OUR salvation is our deliverance from sin, the curse, and the wrath of God; this was impossible to man, but God sent His own Son in our nature, to save us freely, fully and eternally. The gospel is the "good news of our salvation." It is sent to inform us that God is love; that grace reigns; that heaven is opened; that provision is made for our guilt, weakness, and fears; that God waits to receive us, bless us, and glorify us with Himself for ever. It sets before us all Christ has done, all...

Our belief in God's wisdom supposes and necessitates that he has a settled purpose and plan in the work of salvation. What would creation have been without his design? Is there a fish in the sea, or a fowl in the air, which was left to chance for its formation? Nay, in every bone, joint, and muscle, sinew, gland, and blood-vessel, you mark the presence of a God working everything according to the design of infinite wisdom. And shall God be present in creation, ruling over all, and not in...

When Jesus gave himself for us, he gave us all the rights and privileges which went with himself; so that now, although as eternal God, he has essential rights to which no creature may venture to pretend, yet as Jesus, the Mediator, the federal head of the covenant of grace, he has no heritage apart from us. All the glorious consequences of his obedience unto death are the joint riches of all who are in him, and on whose behalf he accomplished the divine will. See, he enters into glory, but...

God is sovereign. That means that He is the supreme Ruler of the universe, and that He can do as He pleases. But having said that, we must quickly add that what God pleases is always right. His way is perfect.

Isaiah quotes the Lord as saying, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my Pleasure" (Isaiah 46:10). When Nebuchadnezzar was restored to his right mind, he said, "He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among...

We walk by faith, not by sight. § We love Him because He first loved us. § And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. § In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. § To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is...

Jesus … said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. § He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.This people I have formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise. § To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers it the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. § That in the ages...