{"id":308,"date":"2014-09-18T19:04:23","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T23:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=308"},"modified":"2015-05-06T16:40:02","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T21:40:02","slug":"praise-be-to-god-a-call-to-live-a-god-glorifying-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=308","title":{"rendered":"Praise be to God: A Call to Live a God-Glorifying Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/PraiseBeToGod.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-253\" src=\"http:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/PraiseBeToGod.png\" alt=\"PraiseBeToGod\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/PraiseBeToGod.png 200w, https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/PraiseBeToGod-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>Scripture: Ephesians 1:3-14 (text at bottom of post)<\/p>\n<p>We have mentioned early on that Ephesians 1:3-14 is one single sentence. It is a praise to God and at the same time an invitation to praise God. Regconizing it as one sentence and praise will remind us to respond with praise. Hopefully it will also prevent us from entering into endless debates on issues such as election and predestination, which are still being\u00a0debated after over 2000 years.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Studying those topics is still important and beneficial to us, for sure, but we should humble ourselves and remember that the purpose of Paul&#8217;s\u00a0long sentence here is not to provoke arguments but to incite praise. All descriptions of blessing should ultimately end with praise of the glory of God!<\/p>\n<h3>Blessing to Us<\/h3>\n<p>Space and time does not permit us to go into details, so I\u00a0will simply list the benefits we have received from the blessing, for our own study, meditation, and thanksgiving:<sup class='footnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=308#fn-308-1' id='fnref-308-1' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(308)'>1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">being holy and blameless in his sight (v. 4)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">adoption to sonship (v. 5)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">redemption through his blood (v. 7)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">forgiveness of sins (v. 7)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">knowing the mystery of his will (v. 9)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">guarantee of our inheritance (v. 14)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Glory to God<\/h3>\n<p>Furthermore, anyone who studied this passage would notice a <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">threefold mention of God&#8217;s glory. Each of them follows the work of each person of the Trinity<\/span> (vv. 6, 12, 14).<sup class='footnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=308#fn-308-2' id='fnref-308-2' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(308)'>2<\/a><\/sup> To make this clear and easy to remember, we add this threefold mention of God&#8217;s glory into our structual view of the passage:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Praise be to God who blesses us with every spiritual blessing, namely<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">the Father chose us before the creation of the world&#8230;<\/span>\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">to the praise of his glorious grace!<span style=\"color: #333333;\"><sup class='footnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=308#fn-308-3' id='fnref-308-3' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(308)'>3<\/a><\/sup><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">the Son redeemed us through His blood&#8230;<\/span>\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">that we might be for the praise of his glory!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">the Spirit marked us to guarantee our inheritance&#8230;<\/span>\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">to the praise of his glory!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It is clear that although Paul described our benefits from\u00a0God&#8217;s redemption so that we would respond with praise, we were not the center of attention. God is. We can almost hear Paul proclaiming &#8220;glory to God, for he has chosen us! Glory to God, for Christ has redeemed us! Glory to God, for the Holy Spirit has marked and sealed us!&#8221; Again, this passage of praise reminds us that the ultimate the goal\/result of redemption should be the praise of God&#8217;s glory.<\/p>\n<p>That is why I view this passage as a call to live our redeemed lives glorifying God. Although this is easy to agree logically\/intellectually, to truly live it out requires a real change of\u00a0heart, world view, behavior, and daily living. It is easy to say praises with our mouth (and doing so\u00a0is good and taught in the Bible as well), but to truly\u00a0live our life such that every part of it is for the glory of God requires a lot of real changes, both in heart and in action.<\/p>\n<p>May our Lord continue to help each one of us in our pursuit to live a life glorifying him!<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #003300;\">&#8220;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. \u00a0For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love \u00a0he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will&#8211; \u00a0to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. \u00a0In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God&#8217;s grace \u00a0that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, \u00a0he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, \u00a0to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment&#8211;to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. \u00a0In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, \u00a0in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. \u00a0And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, \u00a0who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God&#8217;s possession&#8211;to the praise of his glory.&#8221; (Ephesians 1:3-14 TNIV)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scripture: Ephesians 1:3-14 (text at bottom of post) We have mentioned early on that Ephesians 1:3-14 is one single sentence. It is a praise to God and at the same time an invitation to praise God. Regconizing it as one sentence and praise will remind us to respond with praise. Hopefully it will also prevent us from entering into endless <span class=\"excerpt-dots\">&hellip;<\/span> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=308\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8,4,5,7,9],"class_list":["post-308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ephesians","tag-blessed","tag-ephesians-2","tag-epistle","tag-praise","tag-thanksgiving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1202,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions\/1202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}