Many years ago, I wrote something like this for a young lady who suffered from low self confidence and emotional abuse. I lost the copy I made for myself over the years so this is a new letter, a new direction but I hope that it will bless many.

(Scripture is from the New Living Translation – Ephesians 1:3-14, 3:14-19)

The Promise: Ephesians 1:3-14

“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.” Dear ones, I have blessed each of you with gifts far greater than man can imagine. For my gifts are heavenly, not of worldly things that decay and rust. Do you fear these gifts? Do you doubt them? Do not, for my Love is far greater than any love the world can offer. And by these gifts, we are united, we are joined together in a desire of Love, pure love, unconditional love that the world can not separate or destroy.

“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.” I know you are not perfect, I know that you are subject to many snares of the world, but from the first light of Creation, I have loved you. In my eyes you are made holy, in my spirit you are blameless and pure, because of his Love. Do not fear my wrath, dear one, for it is with Love I discipline you, not anger. It is with Love I hold you close and dry your tears when things go badly for you. And when you are alone and afraid, I am close. I am closer than you can imagine, I am within your very trouble.

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This was what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” I made you mine, I decided at the very beginning that we are to be together. We are family and family never forsakes each other. With great joy, I adopted you as mine. With a pleasure that can not be measured, I desired you. This was what I wanted to do, from the very beginning of time itself! We are together, we are one! I am the one who created the world, do you think I would let anything I created separate us? Have no fear of that! What I joined together can not be pulled apart. That is the power of my joy that we are family, you and I, we are one!

“So we praise God for the glorious Grace he has poured out on us who belong to his Son.” Yes it is grace, glorious grace, that I have given. I have poured out like sweet wine, filling your marriage cup, I have poured blessings like holy oil anointing you as a blessing, making you sacred to me. I have poured out my Spirit that you might be full of peace and promise. I have poured out living water, that you might be made clean as new fallen snow. I have poured out the Communion Cup that Forgiveness and Mercy are forever, only Love can live within where I have poured out blessings.

He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. You were once slaves to your emotions, doubts and fear. You were once in bondage to the desires of sin. But I have set you free! I have given you new life! I, and only I, have paid the price, I am the one who gives you new hope, and new life! Come to me, welcome me into your heart, dear one. See what my love can do for you. No price was to great for me to purchase your freedom from sin, fear and doubt. Come accept my blessings, my Love. For my kindness is ever-enduring, everlasting, without end!

“He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.” Like a gentle rain, I have showered kindness upon you, so that you, like the lilies of the field, may blossom in majesty. But I also showered you with a new Wisdom, My wisdom, such as I showered Solomon. I gave you understanding that even the prophets of old did not have. You only have to accept it, receive it in the fullness I intend for you. That you place in your heart the purity of Love I offer, the grace in abundance that only my love is capable of offering. As a rainbow bends invisible light into many colors, my love shows the splendor of wisdom and understanding that was invisible to the seers of old. You, my child, can grasp what was inconceivable to the wisest of them. This is my gift to you.

God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his own good pleasure.” Through Jesus I revealed my goal, the desire to find your heart, your desire, and make it mine. And I did it because I find great joy in having your love, as much as I love you. Do not be in despair, I have not forsaken you, or ever forgotten you. It was always my plan to include you, to accept you and to love you. Through Jesus I have proven my love for you, my great pleasure in your life, a life that we shall enjoy together.

“And this was the plan; At the right time he would bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth.” Yes! It is the right time! Everything is set in motion. All my desires are fulfilled through the Love I gave under my Son Jesus. Under him, I gave all authority of Heaven and of earth. No longer are the ways of the world to direct your life, but the ways of Heaven shall guide you. That is the plan! You, I, Jesus. Heaven and earth as one Kingdom, one another as lovers, you and I.

Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.” Yes! It is still the plan, that everything is according to my will, that we are united, that you have an inheritance that was not yours before. It was and always will be the plan. You, dear one, have the honor of being an heir of Salvation. You are no longer left alone, outside, rejected. You were never rejected but it was at the right time, this time that you are to be included in the inheritance, so that you may be made glad, made whole, made perfected in grace. I chose you, I wanted you to be included and set apart to show the wondrous love I have for you. No longer on the outside looking in, but in the company of angels, co-heirs with Jesus, adopted by grace.

“God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you.” Once the Jews were my only people, excluding all others because they were blind to truth. But, dear one, that is no longer the case. You have heard the Good News, the News of Salvation, the inclusion made possible by the Cross of Jesus, and no longer are you excluded, you are included, and set high by the Good News. My love was so that you would be able to accept me, to know the Truth of Grace, and be welcomed as equals in Christ Jesus. Do not think you are set apart from others any more for you are included in Grace and trust in the Living Christ. You are set apart only to bring others to Me, just as Peter and Paul and the others of my chosen were set apart to bring you to the knowledge of my Salvation. So great is my love that I sent others to seek you out, to bring you to me so that you may be included with them as mine.

“AND WHEN YOU BELIEVED IN CHRIST, HE IDENTIFIED YOU AS HIS OWN by giving you the HOLY SPIRIT, whom he promised long ago.” Dear one, you are mine, you are chosen to be blessed and I have given you the Holy Spirit, my Spirit. I breathed new life into your soul, eternal life. Just as I breathed life into the form of man at the time of creation, I create in you new life, eternal life by the breath of the Holy Spirit. I have called you and identified you as my Child, my beloved child. As I promised the prophets and the Jews, you are made mine. It has been fulfilled what was told of old. And by my Holy Spirit, it is made true and forever. I have put my mark, the mark of the Cross upon you soul. This mark can not be removed by anyone, for it is the Mark of Your Salvation, you inclusion into the Family of God.

The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.” The Holy Spirit is my guarantee that it is made so. My word fulfilled, my Son as the purchase price, the Spirit as the witness that it has been done. I kept my word, my promise to you, that the day has come that you are no longer slaves to the world but free to be my love. So, dear one, praise me, offer me glory in thanksgiving. But more importantly, love me! Love me as I love you, with your whole heart, your complete mind and in all of your spirit. But never forget that I love you, I have always loved you and now that you believe, return love for love. It has been made true, it has been fulfilled, it has been guaranteed and it has been sealed for all eternity. We are one! You are loved, you have been restored as was my plan from before time itself.

The Response of the Disciple; Eph. 3:14-19

“When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.”

This is the call of Paul not only to the Gentile Christians of Ephesus, but to all Christians today. And in like manner, I get on my knees and pray for you that you might have strength, encouragement and grace beyond your understanding. I pray that God give you his unlimited resources, his empowerment to do mighty works in his name. There is no limit to his Grace, no restrictions to his gifts. Be bold to use them, to glorify God, to edify his mercy.

Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.”

This is the desire of my soul, that you take root in God’s love, his perfect love. And that you place complete trust, faith and Hope in Christ Jesus. You have been given the promise, it was sealed by the Holy Spirit, so take control of fear, doubt and misgivings and rely solely on God. Let Christ Jesus make his home in your heart, casting out all others.

“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.”

It seems to be an impossible task to grasp the might of God’s Love, But even with our limitations, we can see beyond the ways and limitations of the world and see wonders beyond our dreams. We can see miracles, we can see healing, restoration, reconciliations, grace abundantly. There is no limit to God, we can know that even if we can not fully understand it. And lastly,

“May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

Yes a fullness that only comes from God. Impossible to know God’s grace in its completeness, yet even as we grow in Christ, we see more and more. We never stop growing in Love, Mercy, Compassion, healing of our own spirits as we pray for others. May we all be made complete, may we always grow in grace. May you, dear ones, see exactly how important you are to God. And may we all go to our knees in thanksgiving and Praise to God for what he has done, to include us, as unworthy as we are, and to lift us up as his own children, sealed, marked and guaranteed his wondrous Grace and Salvation.

In the Name of the Most High God, Blessing to you who read this.

“…As he is the Beginning,
he was first to be born from the dead,
so that he should be first in every way;
because God wanted all perfection
to be found in him
and all things to be reconciled through him and for him,
everything in heaven and everything on earth,
when he made peace
by his death on the cross.”
Colossians 1:18-20 (Jerusalem Bible

For so many years we have been taught the dead and suffering of Christ as a bitter and hard sacrifice for our sins. But I have come to a new understanding, that it was not the suffering that we should be lamenting but the Joy of the Atonement. Christ came for one purpose, to be a joyful offering to The Father for our reconciliation. Every thing about his life reflects that he joyfully, willingly and deliberately went to the cross for this singular purpose; that we be reconciled and be made one with God.

From the words of the angel Gabriel to Mary, “Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favor. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son…. He will be great and will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:31-32) to every action of Christ, every miracle he preformed. All that Jesus did was to share the Joy of God for the people. And we know that it was God’s plan from the beginning of time that man be reconciled with Him. Jesus came for that one purpose. Ephesians 1:3-14 clearly states the divine purpose. And in verse 4 is revealed,”Before the world was made, He chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in HIS PURPOSE,” (Jerusalem Bible). Verse 5 says it “Was for his kind purpose TO MAKE US US PRAISE THE GLORY OF HIS GRACE.” Verse 9, “God has now revealed to us His mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill His own great pleasure.”

Why would God cause Jesus to suffer? Because to Jesus as God it was not suffering but JOY. As a mother suffers bringing a life into the world, Jesus, suffered bringing us into eternal life. As a mother is joyful in this suffering because she understands that the suffering is in bringing life, so did Christ willingly and joyfully go to the Cross. This is how we should see the crucifixion, as a mother giving birth. Not as death, but birth pains. We speak of being born again, but without the pain of the Cross where is the New Birth? Jesus said at the Last Supper, “This cup is the new covenant between God and His People – an agreement confirmed with MY BLOOD, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.” (Luke 22:20 NLT.) Remember this is why Christ came to us, to pure out his life that we may have eternal life. Look also on the cross as opening of a door shut before under the Old Covenant. Look how the Jews offered Atonement Offering without receiving Grace. See how they carried the guilt and shame with their constant sacrifices and still the Atonement was temporal. While the Sacrifice of Jesus is eternal. The moment he said, “It is finished”, the New Covenant was completed, and the New Birth was started for man.

As this New Covenant is eternal, the reconciliation is everlasting and complete, Jesus willingly went to the Cross, He joyfully went. This is why God,the Son of God was born. He told Judas, “Do what you MUST do.” He did not say, do what you want to do, but what must be done. He said, “The son of man must die, and in three days rise again.” Christ is God, He did not have to do anything, He did not have to suffer. So why did He? It was for His great pleasure, His Joy that He should die in the form of Man that we might be born again into eternal life. The JOY of the LORD, was not that Jesus was born, but that by His Sacrifice, we are born again.

And this brings me to the Eucharist, the Great Thanksgiving, offered up for the Atonement, not to offer up a new sacrifice but to rejoice in the one of the Cross of Jesus. So that when we partake of the Elements of Communion, we take part in the Same Sacrifice of Jesus, becoming as He desired in the Garden One with Him as He is One in God the Father. That in partaking of the Eucharist, we are made whole with the New Covenant, the same covenant of the Cross. The Joy of the Cross is that we are reborn in Christ, united by the Holy Spirit, one with God. There is no sorrow, their is only Joy in the rebirth.

John 6:43-51 (NLT) tells us why this must be. “Stop complaining about what I said. For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and in the last day,I will raise them up. It is written in the Scriptures, ‘They will be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to me. (Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only I, who was sent from God,have seen Him.)
I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. Yes, I am the Bread of Life! Your ancestors eat manna in the Wilderness, but they died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread, which came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever, and this bread, which I offer so the world may live, is my flesh.”

Where then is the sorrow? Here is the Joy, that by the New Covenant, given in the Sacrifice of the Cross, is the New Life. And by the Eucharist, we share in the New Covenant that is permanent and everlasting. It is not a new sacrifice, it is the same sacrifice,the continuing offering of the Cross, the Joy of our Salvation. The reason Jesus came from the Father, not as a sorrowful suffering, but the pain of New Birth for us, that we may never suffer the Loss of Heaven! Do not linger at the Cross, the Crucifix as a symbol of pain and death, but as the Sign of our Rebirth in Christ, to be one with the Father. Take Communion, not as a simple memorial of death, but as the continuing Covenant of Peace and Grace as New Creations in Christ. There is not longer death, because we are now reborn into Eternal Life for this was God’s Great Pleasure, that we be one with Him.

There is no sorrow in the offering, it was an offering to bring Eternal and Perfect Joy. Weep no more, there are no tears, no more spiritual sorrows,no more guilt, only Joy, for Christ Joyfully died that we might have New Life in Him. Look upon the Crucifix with thanksgiving and great joy, by it we are born into Salvation and Grace. Without it there would still be shame, guilt and no true repentance and still death without grace. By the Cross, Jesus grants us God’s Great Pleasure, and we are a New People, New Life and New Hope.

Be with Eternal Joy with the Cross of Salvation, the offering of God for perfect Atonement. Christ willingly and joyfully offered Himself for our Rebirth in the Eternal life. Live in His Perfect Peace.

But if a upright man renounces his integrity,commits sin, copies the wicked man and practices every kind of filth,is he to live? All the integrity he has practices shall be forgotten from then on; but this is because he himself has broken faith and committed sin, and for this he shall die. But you object, “What the Lord does is unjust”. Listen, you House of Israel: is what I do unjust? Is it not what you do that is unjust? When the upright man renounces his integrity to commit sin and dies because of it, he dies because of the evil that he himself has committed. When the sinner renounces sin and becomes law-abiding and honest, he deserves to live. He has chosen to renounce all his previous sins; he shall certainly live; he shall not die. Ezekiel 18:24-28 Jerusalem Bible

‘But what do you think about this? A man with two sons told the older boy, “son out and work in the vineyard today.” The son answered, “No,I won’t go,” but later he changed his mind and went anyway. The the father told the other son,”You go,”and he said,”Yes, sir, I will.” But he didn’t go.
Which of the two sons obeyed his father?’
They replied, ‘The first.’
Then Jesus explained his meaning: ‘I tell you the truth, tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the Kingdom of God before you do. For John the Baptist came and showed you the right way to live, but you did not believe him while tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even when you saw this happening, you refused to believe him and repent of your sins.’ Matthew 21:28-32 New Living Translation

With the example of the two sons, Jesus explains Ezekiel in a way that we should grasp clearly, If we turn from sin, and repent, not to return to sin then we are saved, we are to see the Kingdom of God. But if we say,”Yes Lord,” but do not repent but continue to sin, we will not see the Kingdom of God but will indeed die in our sins. Do not cry that the Lord is unjust, for he is true Justice, merciful as He is, His justice is Divine. Refusing to believe and repent, to renounce our sins and to live upright, (holy) lives is to not work the vineyards. For how can we work the vineyards of Faithfulness if we reject His Word by continuing to live with sin as our companion. Why mock those who continually repent of sins and say, “We are saved, we do not need to repent.” when you have not repented at all and continue to sin? It is better to confess,repent and seek reconciliation daily than to mock the Lord with you continued sin. For surely you shall die with your sins binding you. John the Baptist had one message; “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Yet the priest and leaders of the “church’did not repent,only the tax collectors (such as Matthew) and the Prostitutes ( as with Mary Magdalene) became the beloved of God and followers of upright living.

Who then shall be saved? the repentant,those who after having said no to the Lord, return to the vineyard and work,having repented. For the vineyard is ripe and ready but the workers are few, many have said yes to the Lord but do not work. Which son are you? In your heart, do you trully repent and go into the vineyard? Or you the proud son who says yes an does noting? Are you the one who cries,”Unfair!” or are you the one who cries, “Have mercy on me.” Do you eat of the fruit of the Spirit or do you stand by and starve from the Grace of the Holy Spirit? Salvation come to those who serve the Lord and obey His every commandment. But to say, “I do not need to obey, for the Lord is merciful and forgives me even as I sin,” makes mockery of His Love. Is your life one of repentance? Or is it one of pride and vanity? Are you a reconciled tax collector or a unrepentant “priest” who thinks himself holier than thou? Do you see the glory of God in those who have repented or are you blind to your own self righteousness? Examine yourselves carefully,and seek after God, Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, He is here among us.