Chosen by God – (Week of Jan. 4, 2009)

LOOK –  A family had several adopted children and one birth child.  The parents always worked hard to make the adopted children feel special, assuring them that they had been chosen specially to be part of the family.  One day one of the adopted children worried about Sam, the birth child.  “Dad,” he said, “Can’t we adopt Sam too?”  The father asked why they needed to adopt Sam.  His concerned brother said, “I just want to make sure Sam knows that he is special too.”

0. Tell about a time when you were chosen specially for something.  How did it make you feel?
0. Can you remember any times when you were NOT chosen for something?  How did that make you feel?

BOOK – Ephes. 1:3-6, 15-19a                                                                                                         

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. ⁵He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

¹⁵I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason ¹⁶I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. ¹⁷I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, ¹⁸so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, ¹⁹and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.

1)      How do you feel about having chosen you to be holy and blameless before God?  How is this possible?

2)      What would it mean to have the “eyes of your heart enlightened”? 

3)      What things block you from having the eyes of your heart enlightened?

4)      What things help enlighten the eyes of your heart?

TOOK - In the Christmas season, we think a lot about the birth of Christ, God’s only begotten Son, but in this passage we are reminded that all of us are adopted as God’s children. This passage is about blessedness.  We never have to feel unworthy because, by virtue of our baptism, each of us has been chosen by God. But this blessedness carries with it responsibility.

1)      What is the hope to which God has called you?

2)      How do you now and how else would you like to share this hope with others?