Come to the Banquet Table of Blessings

"Several years ago I heard a story about a Scotsman who was coming to America. He had purchsed passage on one of the great ocean liners. He did not have much money, so he decided to save on food by stocking up on crackers, cheese, and fruit before his departure. The ship sailed, and he began to eat his Spartan meals. This went fairly well for the first four or five days. But as the ship drew closer to New York the crackers became increasingly stale, the cheese became moldy, and the fruit spoiled. Finally there was nothing left that was fit to eat. The Scotsman decided that he would go to the dining room and have one last , good meal before the liner docked in Manhattan and he went ashore. Imagine his surprise to discover that nothing in the dining room cost anything and that all that he could ever have eaten had already been included in the price of his ticket before he left the British Isles!" (excerpt from The Gospel of John by James M. Boice) Isn't this often true of the poverty of life in which we live by not realizing that Jesus has already paid with His life for blessings to us beyond our ability to count? "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him." I pray that we will all join each other today and this week at the banquet table of blessings He has prepared for us...