I remember being told to look both ways before crossing the road and so far it's worked out for me. I remember being told to look before I leap, but truthfully by the time I understood the all the applications for that idiom, I had bumped and bruised myself plenty. All in all though, that one has been a success too. I remember a cowboy teaching me about horses telling me that before a horse does something, it gets ready to do it and if you can read the signals you've got time to change his mind. That bit of advice has been one of the treasures of my life because my old cowboy friend's real secret was that the same principle works for people.
Before is a beautiful thing to understand. Before you are in trouble you can't get out of, before you are hurt, before you are sorry.... there's something you can do before you mess up to keep from messing up. Before is the ounce of prevention that's worth a pound of cure.
Before you were formed in the womb.... before you were born... foreknown.... predestined... set apart.... but why? His purpose. His kind intentions. Redemption, forgiveness- all before. Before despair, before discouragement, before guilt and before shame. Before creation, before the fall.... Jesus, the one in whom our hope is found. The Alpha and Omega. Our future hope secured in eternity past. What security we have when we understand the grace and mercy that anchors us before....
Jeremiah 1:5
5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations."
Romans 8:29-31
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined {to become} conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;
30 and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God {is} for us, who {is} against us?
Ephesians 1:5-12
5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace,
8 which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight
9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him
10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, {that is} the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. In Him
11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,
12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
Hebrews 6:17-20
17 In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath,
18 in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us.
19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a {hope} both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil,
20 where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
(NAS)
Before is a beautiful thing to understand. Before you are in trouble you can't get out of, before you are hurt, before you are sorry.... there's something you can do before you mess up to keep from messing up. Before is the ounce of prevention that's worth a pound of cure.
Before you were formed in the womb.... before you were born... foreknown.... predestined... set apart.... but why? His purpose. His kind intentions. Redemption, forgiveness- all before. Before despair, before discouragement, before guilt and before shame. Before creation, before the fall.... Jesus, the one in whom our hope is found. The Alpha and Omega. Our future hope secured in eternity past. What security we have when we understand the grace and mercy that anchors us before....
Jeremiah 1:5
5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations."
Romans 8:29-31
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined {to become} conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;
30 and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God {is} for us, who {is} against us?
Ephesians 1:5-12
5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace,
8 which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight
9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him
10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, {that is} the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. In Him
11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,
12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
Hebrews 6:17-20
17 In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath,
18 in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us.
19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a {hope} both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil,
20 where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
(NAS)
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