What's with the name?

2:19 So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, 2:20 because you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 2:21 In him the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 2:22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

i was thinking...

i remember a time when i listened to a lot of Petra, and a song that really stuck in my head was that song, Not of this World.  

The line that sticks out is this: "We are strangers, we are aliens. We are not of this world..."

 

Which is, of course, true in one sense.  As believers in Christ, as created beings designed to glorify an omnipotent Father through the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we should be completely out of place in this temporal life. 

However, because of God's divine design, through Christ's perfect work, and by the Spirit's motivation, we have a new home- a home in which we are no longer foreigners or aliens.  In Christ, we are exactly where we are supposed to be.  In Christ, we are able to relate to the Father, as He intended from the beginning.  

In Christ, 

I am… a saint, a recipient of God’s grace and peace (1:1-2)

I am… blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ (1:3)

I am… chosen in Christ before the creation of the world (1:4a)

I am… holy and blameless in God’s sight (1:4b)

I am… predestined through God’s love (1:4b-5a)

I am… adopted as God’s child in accordance with His pleasure and will (1:5)

I am… a recipient of God’s glorious grace that is freely given to me in Christ (1:6)

I am… redeemed and forgiven through Christ’s blood (1:7)

I am… lavished with the riches of God’s grace, wisdom, and understanding (1:8)

I am… entrusted with the mystery of God’s will (1:9-10)

I am… chosen in Christ by God’s plan, purpose, and will (1:11)

I am… predestined to bring praise to Christ’s glory (1:12)

I am… included in Christ through believing the gospel of salvation (1:13a)

I am… sealed by the Holy Spirit who guarantees my inheritance until my final redemption (1:13-14)

I am… called to know the riches of God’s glorious inheritance (1:18-19)

I am… called to know the incomparable great power of the resurrection and exaltation of

Christ (1:19-20)

I am… part of Christ’s spiritual body (1:22-23)

I am… made alive in Christ by grace (2:5)

I am… seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (2:6)

I am… a showcase of the incomparable riches of God’s grace and kindness in Christ (2:7)

I am… saved by the gift of God’s grace (2:8)

I am… God’s workmanship, created in Christ to do good works that God prepared for me (2:10)

I am… brought near to God through the blood of Christ (2:13)

I am… reconciled with all races through the cross of Christ (2:14-18)

I am… a fellow citizen with God’s people and a member of God’s household (2:19-20)

I am… a holy temple, a dwelling place in which God lives by His Spirit (2:21-22)

I am… an heir of God’s promises in Christ Jesus (3:6)

I am… a recipient of the unsearchable riches of Christ (3:8)

I am… able to approach God with freedom and confidence (3:12)

I am… able to be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit in my inner being

(3:16)

I am… a person where Christ dwells in my heart through faith (3:17)

I am… rooted and established in love (3:18)

I am… empowered to grasp the magnitude of Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge (3:19a)

I am… able to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (3:19b)

I am… empowered inwardly by One who can do immeasurably more than I could ever

ask or imagine (3:20)

In Christ, we are no longer foreigners, we are supremely blessed children of God!

Here We Are

I am thinking that this could be a really cool thing...

We'd love for this forum to be a place where we can connect, when we can't connect.  We are not 100% sure on what this is going to look like, but we really would like it if everybody weighed in on what they'd like to see.  

I'm thinking that we'll try and post some sort of intelligent discussion here about pastor's sermons, Sunday school thoughts and whatever else we've been reading and studying.