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Ephesians 2:6-10, And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Central to our belief as Christians is that Jesus was not only resurrected but also exalted to a high place.  In fact, he sits at the right hand of the Father.  The amazing thing is that we as believers receive new life in Christ AND we also are exalted with him in the heavenly realms.  Today's focus verses state that the purpose of this is that we can be shown the incomparable riches of his grace.  Think about that for a moment.  The Message translation says it a different way: Once God has us where he wants us, he will have all the time in the world to "shower grace and kindness upon us."  Both sound absolutely marvelous.  We get to know and experience Jesus' amazing love for us right now.  We are exalted with him and he continues to shower us with grace and love.  Wow.

But there is more.  Our salvation is totally and completely based on faith and nothing else.  We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus alone.  There is nothing else needed to be saved.  At the time Paul wrote this, there were plenty of people who said that circumcision and following the law were also necessary to be saved.  Paul has made it clear that NOTHING else is needed - we are saved by the amazing grace of Jesus and all we have to do is have faith.  God knows us well and he did this so that we couldn't brag about our salvation because it was totally his doing and not ours.  Again, wow.

Then, there is the final part of today's focus verses.  We are God's handiwork.  Other translations say "masterpiece." We are created by God to do good things that God designed us specifically to do.  If you needed a Scripture to illustrate the phrase "God don't make no junk," this could be it.  You are God's masterpiece.  He lovingly designed you.   You are not a random experiment.  He had YOU in mind when he made you.  Your gifts and talents were also not random but were given to you by God to do good things for his world.  You are a masterpiece and you have a purpose.  Let that sink in.

Let's pray...Almighty God, You are an amazing and kind God.  Thank you for creating us and thank you for choosing us.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  In Your Name, Amen.