Showing posts with label Earnest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Earnest. Show all posts

2/26/2016

EARNEST of Our Inheritance ... Passover Meditations ... Ephesians 1:14

Meditations  for Pascha
(The Passover Season, 2016)
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Meditations for the Monastic-At-Heart

Now is My+ soul troubled;
and what shall I+ say ...
FATHER,
save ME+
from this hour ?
but for this cause
came I+ unto this hour.

FATHER,
Glorify Thy Name.

Then came there a Voice from Heaven, saying,

I have both glorified IT,
and will glorify IT again.

John12:27-28

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Meditation Verse 
Ephesians 1: 14

WHO is the earnest
of our inheritance
until the redemption
of the purchased possession,
unto the praise of HIS glory.

Note: WHO is referring to the HOLY SPIRIT , keeping in context with the previous verse. REDEMPTION is "loosening away" in the literal Greek.  Followers of JESUS are the "purchased possession."  HIS may be understood to be the GODHEAD.
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Meditation

This special earnest, the deposit, the down-payment ( as it were ) has been given to us, to secure or hold our promised inheritance in the Kingdom of GOD.  This DIVINE DEPOSIT or Pledge to us  is the HOLY SPIRIT Who indwells within us at our conversion to CHRIST.

Then Peter said unto them,
Repent, and be baptized
every one of you
in the name of JESUS CHRIST
for the remission of sins,
and ye shall receive
the Gift of the HOLY SPIRIT.
Acts 2:38

This Divine Guarantee-or has marked us as legal RECEPTORS for an inheritance in the Heavenlies with our name on it. No-one can steal that inheritance from us. No-one can cheat us out of our inheritance, nor do we have to share our portion with another.

However, there is a Divine characteristic of this DIVINE Earnest or down-payment which makes it different than the usual legal transaction of goods or money given for a down payment:  This Divine Earnest  happens to be LIVING!

HE is ALIVE !

  But when the COMFORTER is come, WHOM I+ will send unto you

from The FATHER,
even the SPIRIT of Truth,
WHO proceedeth from The FATHER,

HE shall testify of ME+:
John 15:26

Now, this Living "Breath" from GOD has another Divine characteristic: HE does not speak of Himself, but of JESUS CHRIST

Howbeit when HE,
the SPIRIT of Truth, is come,
HE will guide you
into all Truth:

for HE shall not speak of Himself;
but whatsoever HE shall hear,
that shall HE speak:
and HE will shew you things to come.
John 16:13

Now, it is true that no-one can steal our inheritance from us because of this Divine Deposit of The HOLY SPIRIT living within us.

However... we can lose it.

What?
Know ye not
that your body
is the Temple of the HOLY SPIRIT

WHO is in you,
WHOM ye have of GOD,
and ye are not your own?

For ye are bought with a price:

therefore glorify GOD
in your body,
and in your spirit,
which ARE GOD'S.
I Corinthians 6:19-20

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Let us pray:

O LORD, we have been so foolish. We have played the harlot with the world.

We have desired things  ... and persons... who have drawn us away from THEE+.

We are finely tuned to our distractions but barely able to discern Thy+ Voice when we need it. 

We are led about by our bodies, our flesh, our earth-centered minds instead of by our Divine Earnest WHO is to lead us into ALL Truth.

We have NOT given to THEE+ Thine own: our body and our spirit. Rather, we have squandered THY goods. We have not been good stewards of what is rightly Thine.

Standing in sore need of cleansing, we ask that THOU wouldst be pleased to restore us unto THEE and take not Thy+ blessed HOLY SPIRIT from us.

We commit anew our bodies and our spirits unto THEE+ , to be filled with Thy+ SPIRIT and used for Thy+ purposes. 

We accept the call to Quietness and Separation from this world and its values and its ways and its activities... distractions, all.

Grant us this cleansing, this renewal, that we may bring praise to Thy+ Glorious Name... and not lose our inheritance.

These things we ask of THEE+, in Thy+ HOLY Name, O CHRIST. Amen.

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Worthy is the LAMB+.

Worthy is The LAMB+
that was slain.

Worthy is the LAMB+,
slain
from the foundation
of the earth.
Revelation 13:8


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PRAISE and THANKSGIVING
be to The FATHER,
and to HIS Beloved SON+
JESUS CHRIST,
and to
the Blessed HOLY SPIRIT.

ONE GOD:
FATHER,
SON+,
and HOLY SPIRIT,
both now and forever,
world without end.
Amen.