Why should God be loved and praised

Summary of Ephesians:
Chapter 1: Relating to the true Christian God (Who is in three divine persons).
Chapter 2: Relating to God’s grace and deliverance from sin and religion.
[This should be true Christian daily sanctification, not just at the time of initial conversion.]
Chapter 3: Relating to the dispensation of grace, God’s promises, and the love of Jesus Christ.
Chapter 4: Relating to true Christian unity, the Church, and righteous living.
Chapter 5: Relating to true Christian living and submission.
Chapter 6: Relating to family members, employment, and spiritual warfare.

Note: Scripture is from the Lockman Foundation’s NASB logically formatted with Holy Spirit help.

Chapter 1
1 Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
to the saints who are at Ephesus and {who are} faithful in Christ Jesus:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and The Lord Jesus Christ.
3 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,
4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love.
5 He predestined us to adoption as sons (and daughters).
through Jesus Christ to Himself,
according to the kind intention of His will,
6 to the praise of the glory of His grace,
which He freely bestowed on us in The Beloved.
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of our trespasses,
according to the riches of His grace
8 which He lavished on us.
9 He made known to us the mystery of His will,
according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him
10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times,
{that is,} the summing up of all things in Christ,
things in the heavens and things on the Earth,
even in Him.
11 also we have obtained an inheritance,
having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things
after the counsel of His will,
12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ
would be to the praise of His glory.
13 In Him, you also,
after listening to the message of truth, the Gospel of your Salvation--
having also believed,
you were sealed in Him with The Holy Spirit of promise,
14 Who is given as a pledge of our inheritance,
with a view to the redemption of {God's own} possession,
to the praise of His glory.
1.) Why should God be praised?
2.) What spiritual accomplishments of His should we be thankful for?
3.) What else should we be thankful for?
4.) How many and what past tense verbs and verb phrases are there in this passage?
5.) How many pronouns (words that represent nouns) are there?
6.) How many times is the word “all” used and what does each usage mean?
7.) What is the major promise or guarantee for true Christians?
8.) What are God's purposes in being involved with humanity now?
9.) What excites you most about God's relationship to you?
10.) How do you know if you are “chosen”?
11.) When you are able to praise God freely, what are the reasons?
12.) How can you feel like praising Him much more often?

Southernscotty said:

1 JOHN 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.
Out of that awesome grace filled Love, Our repentant hearts praises the Saviour who gives us unmerited life.

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Pastor Andy in Sayre, Oklahoma, has been emphasizing Grace and Responsibility. I am currently creating a Christian acronym for that last word which means Sanctification.

I posted this earlier in another discussion:
***The Greeks did not have a word for “repent” or “repentance”.

So they did not understand the Apostle Paul’s emphasis.

The Greeks were humanists,

and many modern day humanists don’t have “repent” or “repentance” in their vocabulary

even though they may be Christian church attendees.

And the most anti-Christ and anti-Christians in the Universities and Colleges

are the professors of Sociology, Psychology, and Philosophy.

Many scientists, doctors, and nurses have become Christians

because they have seen miracles happen.

***Repentance is a major theme of the Bible.

There are many exhortations and commandments for true Christian believers to do

because they love Abba Father and Jesus Christ more and more.

The Holy Spirit will do the guiding for anyone who lives Proverbs 3:5-6.

Sanctification is not automatic.

If it was, why would there be the commandments and exhortations in the New Testament

written for Christianity believers?

The Apostle Paul wrote a lot of “put offs” and “put ons”

and Jesus Christ said that if we love Him, we will obey His commandments and teachings.

Romans 8 and John 14-16 does not say that The Holy Spirit does the sanctification.

Neither does God force us to change.

When we make the changes, we get divine peace and joy

which are parts of the Kingdom of God (Romans 14:17).

I hate the legalism going in almost all of the Christian churches,

but I love living Proverbs 3:5-6 and doing whatever The Holy Spirit and Scripture urges.

The latter is never a struggle.

Remember what Jesus Christ promised about His yoke and His burden for His disciples?

True Christians will want to become more like Jesus Christ every day,

instead of not living just to be busy in a humanistic survival mode.

***”Do our best and God will do the rest” is not a proper way to think and live

because it indicates humanism in the first part

and not living according to Holy Spirit urges when living Proverbs 3:5-6.

***We can say and do perfectly right if we do what The Holy Spirit urges (even via Bible reading)

because He is perfect and “saying” what He hears from Jesus Christ (John 16:13).

That is why I try to live Proverbs 3:5-6 frequently so that I will be sensitive to The Holy Spirit.

Christian sanctification is not automatically done like many USA preachers wrongly teach.


***True Christian Salvation is Justification because of God's Grace,

but true adopted children of God will want to make daily Holy Spirit and Bible urged changes to be more Christ-like.

Such is done because of the increasing love for God the Father, Jesus Christ, and The Holy Spirit.

The Worldly people and carnal Christians need to see better examples of true Christian behavior.

What are there 1,050 commandments in the New Testament for?

But only The Holy Spirit knows all of them,

so one should be frequently loving God and living Proverbs 3:5-6 in order to be sensitive to Him.

***Very Important Teachings in John 13-17-- ETRS (7 pgs.)--
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1-- Kingdom Living PowerPoint Presentation--
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