My prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. I can't quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you! I keep seeing and hearing about your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians and even to those who don’t yet know God. The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, and kept taut by hope.
Jesus’ Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. It doesn't diminish or weaken over time. It's the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as it has in you. From the very first day you heard and recognized the truth of what God is doing, you've been hungry for more. It's as vigorous in you now as when you learned it.
Be assured that I pray for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits in tune to His will, so you will acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. I pray that you'll live well for the Master, making Him proud of you as you work hard in His world. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. I pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that He has for us.
God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He's set us up in the kingdom of the Son He loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.
We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, He organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—He is supreme in the end. From beginning to end He's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is He, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in Him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of His death, His blood that poured down from the cross.
We are a case study of what He does. At one time we all had our backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of Him, giving Him trouble every chance we got. But now, by giving Himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for us, Christ brought us over to God's side and put our lives together, whole and holy in His presence. You don't walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message—just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message.
I’m so blessed to live here, in this time, in this place with you all. I love you. Together let’s purpose to be His Light in this dark world.
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