even before He made the world,
God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy
and without fault in His eyes.
His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.
And this gave him great pleasure.
So we praise God for the wonderful kindness He has poured out on us because we belong to His dearly loved Son.
He is so rich in kindness that He purchased our freedom
through the blood of His Son,
and our sins are forgiven....
God's secret plan has now benn revealed to us;
it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to His good pleasure.
And this is His plan:
At the right time He will bring everything together
under the authority of Christ - everything in heaven and on earth.
Furthermore, because of Christ,
we have received an inheritance from God,
for He chose us from the beginning,
and all things happen just as He decided long ago.
EPHESIANS 1:4-7, 9-11 NLT
-max lucado's He chose the nails-