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¹ Howdy, Boys! It's me, Paul. I was handpicked by God himself to be a cowboy for Jesus Christ. I'm writing to all the other cowboys and cowgirls in Ephesus who ride for the brand and follow Christ. ² Here's hoping that God doles out a mess of grace and peace on all of ya through Jesus.

Blessings of the Spiritual Kind

³ Let's all take our hats off in thanks to everything God has given us through his son, Jesus. By riding with him, we have already received every spiritual blessing in heaven. ⁴ Even before God built the place we call home, he had chosen us to ride for his brand. By doing so, we became holy and in us he finds no fault. Not because we are perfect, but because he loves us. ⁵ He knew from the beginning he would bring us into his outfit through his son. We don't just work for God, we are now his kids because of what Jesus did. He did all this on purpose because it pleased him to do so. ⁶ Now, we give him praise for what he did in giving us his son. Shoot, he gave us the blessing his son deserved. ⁷ But this blessing came at a terrible price! We got this blessing through Jesus's blood. He shed his blood so we wouldn't have to. Now our sins are forgiven, having been paid in full by Christ. We got a blessing we didn't deserve. That is the grace of God. ⁸ And you know what? He don't ever hold grace over our heads. He gives it to us without measure.

With wisdom we can neither know nor understand, ⁹ God did something we never saw coming. He'd planned it from the very beginning. It all hinged on the life, death, and resurrection of his only boy. ¹⁰ But that plan ain't done yet! When the right time comes, everything will be brought together under the brand of Jesus. Everything in heaven and everything on earth will wear Christ's brand.

¹¹ Because we ride for this brand already, we've received an inheritance from God. He chose us before we were born and everything works according to his plan.

¹² Some of us Jews were the first to ride for the brand and bring glory and honor to God. ¹³ Now, even outsiders are allowed into God's crew. This doesn't happen because they are top hands, it's because they believed the good news. And when you believe the good news, the Holy Ghost comes in and rides with you. This was a promise God made to us long ago. ¹⁴ The Holy Ghost is God's guarantee he will keep his promise and we will inherit everything he said we would. He paid a terrible price to give us such a wonderful gift. The least we can do is praise and honor him.

Paul's Prayer

¹⁵ Ever since I heard y'all had saddled up to ride for the brand, ¹⁶ I have been thanking God for bringing you in. I'm always praying for y'all. ¹⁷ I ride right up to the big boss, Jesus's daddy, and ask him to give y'all the Holy Ghost. When the Spirit rides with you, you'll get wisdom and knowledge that can't be found anywhere else. And we use this to grow closer to God. Nothing trumps the need to know him better. ¹⁸ My prayer is that God will light a fire in your hearts so you can understand just how much he loves you. When you can tie onto this, your hope will outweigh everything else. He's called y'all to be his cowboys, and a great inheritance waits for each of us who ride for the brand.

¹⁹ But it's not just a future inheritance we can hope for. He's also given us great power. The same power ²⁰ that brought Jesus back from the coffin is the one that's camped inside us right now. It's the same power that made a place for him at the right hand of God. ²¹ We follow a man who God gave all authority in heaven and earth to. ²² There's no stick, rock, or cowboy who don't fall under the authority of Jesus. God made Jesus the ramrod of his outfit. Or, in other words, Jesus is the head of the church. ²³ And the cowboys who ride for the brand serve as Jesus's body on earth, doing great things in great ways just as if Jesus were doing them himself.