Do you have days when the only positive feedback you get is the bright APPROVED display on the check-out card machine? I always wait for that message to light up and I let out a little yip of joy that I was tested and approved! (One of the many reasons I am famous at the grocery store.)
I also marvel at the mail I get. Somehow the mailers have found me at my parent's home. I get official looking letters saying I'm not only approved, but I'm pre-approved! Imagine that. Could there be anything better than pre-approved! (Okay, maybe “check enclosed”)
Pre-approved means you are already in! You don't have to worry about qualifications, tests, references, co-signers–you're finished with all that before you start! You're good enough! Glorious!
Presbyterians like the idea of being pre-approved. Here is a Bible verse, pre-approved of course, about pre-approval by God:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ-even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.- Ephesians 1:3-4
God chose us before the foundation of the world! Now that's PRE-approval of the best kind! Even on those bad days, I remember the pre-approval celebrated at my baptism as a baby, that before I loved God, God loved me.
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