Perhaps you have a birthday tradition at your home. Ours is Swedish pancakes for breakfast! My wonderful wife gets up before everyone else, and as she pours the batter into the griddle, the sweet aroma fills the house in a way that draws us like zombies to the breakfast table. We fill them with fruit, or sprinkle them with powdered sugar, or just smother them in some silky syrup. As I write this today, I’m wiping the syrup from my mouth because it is my birthday and I just finished off six of them. Let’s just say that at my age, I’ve eaten a lot of Swedish pancakes! Another part of our birthday tradition is that the meal is followed with some gifts which, when I was younger was the highlight, but as the years have rolled by have become a less significant part of the morning – I mean, how many shades of dark socks can you cram into one drawer, anyway?! But today I was blessed with gifts that I felt compelled to share with you. These gifts came in the form of my reading in the first chapter of Ephesians where Paul reminded me of the gifts that God has lavished on me. And he has given them to me not just today on my birthday, but each moment of every day as a demonstration of his love and grace and mercy toward me. I don’t know how many times I’ve read this chapter, but today these gifts just overwhelmed me. Let me remind you of them, because if you are in Christ, they are yours today, as well: He has blessed me in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (v 3) He chose me from before the foundation of the world (v 4) He purposed that I would be holy and blameless before him (v 4) He predestined me, through Christ, by His will in love for adoption as a son to the praise of His glorious grace (v 5, 6) He provided me with redemption through Christ’s blood, and my sins are forgiven (v 7) He has lavished the riches of his grace on me (v 8 ) He made known to me the truth of the gospel fulfilled in Christ Jesus at just the right time in just the right way (v 9) He provided me with an imperishable inheritance (v 11) He predestined me to salvation according to his perfect will for the praise of His glory (v 11) He sealed me, and guaranteed my inheritance, by the Holy Spirit (v 13) What an awesome birthday! Thanks for sharing it with me. My birthday wish is that you would grab hold of these gifts for yourself today. – Rich Rasmussen
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