ALL THINGS ARE FOR OUR SAKES…
There are so many good things in the Bible… it goes on forever.
Some people think the Bible is “old hat” as a preacher on FB recently told me, (when I asked why he was using “the Message” as a Bible version (I’ve known him for some years through business). The Mess-Age uses much new age and occultic terms, and some of it’s ‘translation’ leads people away from Christ and into pantheism. It is a New-Age Mess.
I hope to do an article on “the Message” one day (Which says on its cover, “The Bible in Contemporary language“) — to which I answer, “I’m not sure who they speak with, but it’s the most evil sounding ‘contemporary language’ I’ve ever heard.” Who is the god of green hope anyways? (Rom 15:12 in the MESS-age) – look up the Emerald tablet and Hermes.
If you feel the same as this pastor did about the Bible being ‘old hat’, this is my fervent and passionate advice to you. PLEASE pray for the Lord to humble you and to make you hungry for His Word to us. Thirsty, so you realize how much you need His living Word, and how necessary it is for us to live (Job 23:12).
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- So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD. Deut 8:3
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- Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. I John 5:14-15
How do we know His will? By studying His Word and praying for wisdom (James 1:5) we can begin to better discern His will. Get fellowship with other sound believers and ask them to pray for you. Remember how important it is to be thankful and most especially for so great a salvation we have been freely given.
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- For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Col 1:9-12
2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, (THANK YOU LORD!) to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. (Where is your heart? Is He your treasure?)
8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
11 For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
And by now if you read through, the word is REDOUND. (When I first saw it, I 
thought my eyes were dyslexic and I was reading rebound. I’ve had to look up many words in the KJV, because I want to understand what He is trying to say. I looked up the root word etymology, since I had never ‘seen’ this word before, even having read it many times in KJV. Nothing wrong with doing this (looking up in lexicons etc), do not let someone mock you for checking out the Greek (or Hebrew). This has been my experience for so long. Also, in the reverse, do not do the same for those who prefer the KJV translation.
This is such a beautiful passage contained in the most powerful living book ever written, and His Word will always be the most powerful words ever spoken forever.
Here are my thoughts regarding things I have gone through and will see in my lifetime. I want to reflect on it: (the caps, italics, bolds, of course, all mine)
For ALL things
Are for your sakes,
That the abundant grace
might through the thanksgiving of many
redound
To the GLORY of God.
HOW WILL GOD’S GLORY REDOUND THROUGH OUR THANKSGIVING?
–verb (used without object)
2. to result or accrue, as to a person.
3. to come back or reflect upon a person as to honor or disgrace (usually followed by on or upon).
UNDULATE
1. to move with a sinuous or wavelike motion; display a smooth rising-and-falling or side-to-side alternation of movement: The flag undulates in the breeze.
2.to have a wavy form or surface; bend with successive curves in alternate directions.
3.(of a sound) to rise and fall in pitch: the wail of a siren undulating in the distance.
–verb (used with object)
4.to cause to move in waves.
5.to give a wavy form to.
Really think on the things we go through, and giving thanksgiving which surges, rippling outward to others, undulating like ripples in a pond, however, growing outward in intensity towards what?
His Glory.
That His abundant grace through the thanksgiving of many….wait a minute…THANKSGIVING OF MANY? Because of the things that are for our sakes?
All the things we have gone through?
The bad things?
The storms?
The illnesses?
The loss of jobs?
The death of our loved ones?
WHY DID HE DO THAT? (6b)to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
WHO IS THE POWER OF?(7) But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the POWER may be of God, and not of us.
cast down, but not destroyed;
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