"Adopted to be Holy and Blameless"

          Mark 6:14–29 ²²For when Herodias’s daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.” ²³And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.” ²⁴And she went out and said to her mother, “For what should I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.” ²⁵And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” ²⁶And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her.

          What we do for those who we can see with our own eyes, and who also can see us with theirs.  It is like the man who borrowed money from a lone shark who was known for his dreadful means of collecting his debts.  Should you default on the loan he will not only repossess your home but maybe even your life.  We can see the loan shark and his name is worldly. 

It is also like your spoiled child who you promised something to and is relentless in reminding you of your promise.  We don't want to upset those we can see and especially those who we see who can see us too.

It is too easy to fall into the trap set by our conscience which says we should please those around us at all cost.  It is also very hard to do what is right and follow God because we don't feel Him staring at us.  We seem to forget God is all knowing and all seeing.  Yep, you guessed it we all live in glass houses when it comes to God.  Adam and Eve couldn't hide from God, nor could Sodom and Gomorrah. Adam and Eve were reprimanded for their sin, and Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.

Maybe it would be so much easier if we could feel the gaze of our Lord looking at us, and every time we turned around there God is glaring at our very decisions.  How different do you think your life would be if God was right behind you micro managing your life and every move?  Thank God for Jesus Christ, and that we have a God who is looking for those who will love him for the reason of Christ.

Ephesians 1:3–14 ³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

          It is a single predestination that our God meant all along to adopt us back into His family.  You see we all have left the family of God through our sin.  But God knew this before He had created the earth and Adam and Eve.  God knew He had to have a plan to bring us all back into the family, and that plan is Jesus Christ.

          We should be holy and blameless but how would that happen if we all have an active sinful nature?  Certainly we cannot get rid of our sinful nature.  Our sinful nature cannot be solved by man’s philosophy, if it could it would already be gone.  Our sinful nature cannot be surgically removed otherwise we would all have a scar from our peccadilloectomy.

Peccadillo is another word for sin, I think I will start saying we have a peccadillo nature, maybe not, it sounds too cool and then everyone will want to have it.  Wait a second, I think we all at times do want to have a sinful nature whether we admit to it or not.

Our Beloved Jesus Christ assured our adoption through His Blood, Sweat, and Tears as He asked His Father and our Father to forgive us for we know not what we do.  Though we try to be ignorant in our time to what sin is, God knew before hand that He would sacrifice His only begotten Son so that He could have many sons and daughters through adoption. 

We are through our adoption to our Father in heaven made Holy and Blameless through the body and blood of our Lord Jesus.  We are also made Holy and Blameless through the baptism that was given in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  How awesome is that?  Our Father in heaven through His Son our Lord and Savior, through the works of the Holy Spirit, and through their love worked it out to predestine us to be with them in heaven for an eternity.  Amen to that dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

"God's Grace, is Enough"

2 Corinthians 12:7–10 ⁷So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated.

         

God has a way of humbling us, and being humbled is not always so comfortable to go through.  Though God tells us that we should be humble sometimes that is hard to do.  Paul says he was given a thorn in the flesh.  We all have this thorn in the flesh, which is a metaphor that translates to desires that comes from our sinful nature.

          A messenger of Satan can come to us in many ways, however Satan does not have to work hard these days.  The world and our own sinful desires do all the work for Satan.  The world says it is all ok, and our own desires use the world for an excuse to fall to all that feels good.

          What becomes humbling is those who see their reflection through God's law.  We might boast in our accomplishments forgetting God gave us the gift to do all that we do that is good, but then there is the side of us that does not do good.  We have a thorn to let us know we are in need of God's mercy and grace.

2 Corinthians 12:1–10 ⁸Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. ⁹But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

         

It is not that we should boast about our sins, but rather boast in God who because of our sins gives us grace.  If God gives us nothing more than His grace we have much to boast in our God about.  However our God does much more for us as He has gifted us with those effects we need to not only survive but also survive in a world who wants us to sin so they can feel good about themselves.

          I can thank God for my knowledge I need for my previous vocation, and surely I can thank God for my present vocation, and I do thank Him.  We certainly can now thank God that because of our weaknesses His power is made perfect as it shows us His grace is His perfect love for us.

          God's perfect love is that even though we fall prey to our flesh of thorns He still loves us greatly.  And, loving us greatly than greatly we should praise and thank Him, boasting that we have such a perfect God.

2 Corinthians 12:1–10 ¹⁰For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

         

So we can all now be content with our lives.  No matter what we suffer through our lives in this world, we know are not of this world, but we are of God and His love.  His love was made perfect through Christ who died and took the punishment for our sin so we did not have to. 

          Through God's loving mercy we are stayed from what we deserve.  Through God's grace we receive God's great and awesome love He has for us.  This grace we do not deserve by our works but through God's love we receive through the works of Christ.

          Stop to think of your life without hope, and think of Christ who gave us that hope as He suffered and died on the cross.  This is God's grace in action as it is poured out through the blood of our savior Jesus Christ. God's grace became even greater as Christ rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.  God's grace even became greater as He gave us the Holy Spirit to help us through this life along with the His word.  And are you ready for this?  God's grace becomes even greater when we not only realize that we are forgiven but also given an everlasting relationship with Christ that translates to an eternal life of joy.  Wow! When you look at it this way God’s grace is enough, and I can't wait to receive it in full.  Amen.