WEST SIDE 

BRETHREN IN CHRIST CHURCH

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Ephesians 1:3.  November brings fall weather as well as thoughts of Thanksgiving. We realize that all our blessings come from God and appropriately give Him thanks. When asked what we are most thankful for, most recite our material blessing including home, a good job, good health, a good church family, good parents, a good spouse and a comfortable life style. We hear people thank God for Jesus, for salvation and for the hope of eternal life.  Seldom do we hear praise for other spiritual blessings. The Apostle Paul was well aware of these spiritual blessings as he enumerated them in the first chapter of Ephesians. He reminds us that God chose us before the foundation of the world. He could have created us as He created the plants, animals, sun, moon and stars then decided to ignore us. Instead He chose us to have an intimate relationship with us.  He also adopted us as His sons through Jesus Christ. That means we have the privilege of being part of God’s family now and will receive our inheritance (a home in heaven) at the end of life.  If being chosen by Him and being adopted by Him isn’t enough, Paul reminds us that we have redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of sins. Because we are sinful, our relationship with God has been damaged but He has paid the penalty for our misdeeds and has restored us to His favor. And the exciting news and blessing is that we have to pay nothing as He took care of our sin debt Himself.  Paul states that God has lavished (piled up or heaped on) wisdom and understanding. All of man’s knowledge of the universe is predicated on the fact that God has revealed many of the secrets of creation to man through scientific discovery. God has also revealed to us the mystery of His love through Jesus Christ and even though we don’t understand why He loves us, He assures us that He does.  This Thanksgiving, take time to read Ephesians 1 and reflect on the other spiritual blessings catalogued there in addition to the ones listed above. And remember to give thanks for them as well.  Dave Kent, Interim Pastor West Side