"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.