A PERFECTED POSSESSION ... Advent Meditations 2015

Now the GOD of Peace  that brought again from the dead Our LORD JESUS, that Great SHEPHERD+ of the sheep, 
through the Blood of the Ever-lasting Covenant

make you perfect in every good work to do HIS Will, 
working in you that which is well-pleasing in His Sight, 
through JESUS CHRIST; 
to Whom+ be glory for ever and ever.
Hebrews 13:20-21
  +  +  +

Our LORD JESUS CHRIST came to prepare a People for Possession, a People HE+ could call His+ own, a People HE+ was not ashamed to call  "Brethren."

How does HE+ prepare such a people? 

HE+ does it this way: 

HE+ calls us to walk the same path HE+ walked.

Hebrews 2:9-11

But we see JESUS, WHO+ was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that HE+ by the grace of GOD should taste death for every man.

For it became HIM, for Whom are all things, and by Whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain+ of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

For both HE+ that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause HE+ is not ashamed to call them brethren

This peculiar people, this holy nation, becomes a perfected people worthy of being possesed by CHRIST when they go through suffering ... that suffering which is ordained by GOD... just as it was ordained for Our LORD'S perfection.

His+ body and His+ mind and His+ spirit endured a tremendous onslaught of temptation for 40 days in the wilderness, in direct combat with the satan and His+ own flesh.

HE+ became perfected every time HE+ chose His+ FATHER'S will over the lures of the satan. 

We do too.

Let us pray:

O Perfect, Tried, and Tested LORD JESUS CHRIST,

I thank THEE+, O CHRIST, for coming in the flesh, for coming a little lower than the angels, for coming to suffer death for me.

I thank THEE+ for enduring the painful path of perfection, when THOU+ was Incarnate. 

O, HOLY ONE+, I need to be perfected. Help me, in my weakness, to choose perfection.

How could it be that THOU+, O CHRIST, needed to be tested ... except that THOU+ had to taste all temptation for every man and beat the satan in it ?  

Help me to remember, O LORD, that THOU+  walked through the valley of temptation for every man with great Victory.

So now, by reason of Thy+ Victory, I renounce my own flesh and my pride and my family spirits that lead me astray and I do this in Thy+ Name, O LORD JESUS CHRIST.

I repent of even listening to the lies and lures of the satan, telling me to choose the way of my flesh, my pride, my family, and the ever-present world,  to make me happy.

Deliver my ears from this death trap, O LORD. Deliver my heart from wanting the easy way.

In my strength and in my weakness, I choose Thy+ Will, O CHRIST, which is the perfect Will of GOD our FATHER.  

Perfect me --- no matter what path that takes ---  that THOU+ will not be ashamed to call me Thy+ "brother" ...

Thy+ brother in suffering, Thy+ brother in perfection.

In Thy+ Blessed and Holy Name, CHRIST JESUS our LORD, receive the meditation of my heart, I pray.

Amen.