Royal Blood

Did you know you have royal blood in you?  You weren’t born with it, but you were reborn with it. God chose you before the beginning of time to be His people, but He only wanted people who wanted to be with Him. He chose the human race to be His children, but many in the human race rejected His choosing.  We are told in Scripture: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you. Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that in a case where they speak against you as those who do what is evil, they will, by observing your good works, glorify God on the day of visitation.” 1 Peter 2:9-12   Paul would tell the church at Ephesus: “For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight.  In love He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will,”  Ephesians 1:4-5   His choosing of us doesn’t mean that we don’t have a free will to reject that choosing. For those however, who accepted the grace He poured out, became His children, adopted through Christ our Lord.  Even though the world might not think of you as a royal priesthood, you are what God has enabled you to be, a holy people. This also does not mean that we don’t struggle with sin, but even though we will struggle with sin as long as we live in this flesh, we still belong to God, adopted out of a world of chaos, and given the ability to live differently from the world, even while being in the world. But we are strangers here, temporary citizens, and our true home is with Him in eternity. Let’s not let the unknown of eternity sway us from our confidence that we are destined for a place far above what we live in at this time. Even though we might love where we are, you can only imagine what heaven is like when it is so much more glorious than here. So let’s not lose heart; let’s keep our heads up and our eyes focused on Christ. He will return to get us or we will leave this flesh at some point and meet Him. Either way, we will be with the Lord, all because we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession. We have obtained the mercy that we didn’t once know, but now know. So let’s proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who made it all possible. Enjoy your day, because you are loved, and you are called. Pastor Andy

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