Preserved Blameless

1 THESSALONIANS 5:23-24

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.

Let us be clear… we do not start out blameless, and along the way we each make plenty of mistakes, but the Apostle Paul prays ‘may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ’. In these few words there is an immensity of meaning and understanding to be assessed and appreciated. So let us consider it, albeit briefly.

What is Paul saying?
He starts by praying that each of us be sanctified completely by the God of Peace. Therefore we need to know that sanctified means ‘to be set apart, consecrated, as holy’. The setting apart is not and cannot be of our own making, it is the sovereign response of Our Lord to our giving of ourselves to Him — a commitment born in us by The Holy Spirit, when our hearts respond to His calling.

…at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
This is an area which is open to much divergence of interpretation. Some attest to this speaking of the time when Jesus Christ will reappear in the flesh to redeem mankind at some point in the future. My own belief is that our Lord is very much of the present, of ‘now’! Thus, His touch to ‘preserve blameless’ is immediate and at once. All we need do is enter into that deep relationship with Him to activate His resurrection life in us, so to speak.

…your whole spirit, soul and body
The work is a complete one, touching every fibre of our being. That completeness is God-given, and is a drawing into holiness, for only in that blessed state can we be blameless. Paul says this in 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13…
And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.

MEDITATE ON THESE THINGS…

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Do all things without complaining and disputing,
that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or laboured in vain.
PHILIPPIANS 2:12-16

NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS — Buddy Greene (Gaither Gathering)

PRAYER REQUIRES … SIMPLICITY

THE TENDENCY IN prayer to leave ourselves all abroad to the influence of a meeting or of a special season is not scriptural. Prayer is an effort of will, and Jesus Christ instructs us by using the word "ask."
"Everyone who asks receives." These words are an amazing revelation of the simplicity with which God would have us pray. The other domains of prayer, the intercession of the Holy Spirit and the intercession of Christ, are nothing to do with us; the effort of our will is to do with us.
[from ‘The Moral Foundations Of Life’ by Oswald Chambers]

LISTEN TO THIS MEDITATION HERE…

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COMING NEXT… #522 PRODUCING PATIENCE