<html><head></head><body><div><div><div><div><br></div>Philippians 3;12-17<div><br></div><div><b>12. &nbsp;Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div>This single verse encapsulates a right understanding of the disposition, attitude, and heart of &nbsp;repentant Believers.</div><div><br></div><div>We have been made God’s own dear, living,&nbsp;children of Light, when we were once prisoners of the darkness of sin, spiritually dead, and spiritually enslaved orphans, under the dominion of sin, death, and the devil.</div><div><br></div><div>Spiritually mature Believers, by the indwelling presence of Christ (by the gift of the Holy Spirit and knowledge of the Word of God), now seek with the very Mind of Christ, to do the Father’s will in everything. &nbsp;This is what Paul means when he says, <i>“I press on to make it my own.” &nbsp;</i>He is not saying that he is not God’s child. &nbsp;What he is saying is that as God’s own child he seeks, desires, and&nbsp;yearns, to&nbsp;be conformed completely and perfectly&nbsp;to Christ’s image, and he knows there remains&nbsp;yet more changing to do. &nbsp;(This is why Martin Luther in the&nbsp;first of his 95 Thesis says, <i>“When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ H</i><i>e willed that the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” &nbsp;</i><span>(In Greek, the word ‘repent’ means ‘change’).</span></div><div><br></div><div><i>“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren.” &nbsp;</i>(Romans 8;29)</div><div><br></div><div>Prayer: &nbsp;Deliver us dear Father from temptations to licentiousness. &nbsp;Bless us with all humility to never cease to struggle against the flesh. &nbsp;In Jesus we pray, Amen.</div><div><br></div><div>Love,</div><div>Dad/Baba/Eric</div><div>Grandpa Pickle Pastor.</div><div>“A chapter a day, every day, progressively, be transformed, ‘soak’ in the living Word. &nbsp;God’s Word is our habitation, and we are His.”<br><br><br><div><a href="https://mail.onelink.me/107872968?pid=nativeplacement&amp;c=Global_Acquisition_YMktg_315_Internal_EmailSignature&amp;af_sub1=Acquisition&amp;af_sub2=Global_YMktg&amp;af_sub3=&amp;af_sub4=100000604&amp;af_sub5=EmailSignature__Static_" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a><br></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>


Philippians 3;12-17
12.  Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
This single verse encapsulates a right understanding of the disposition, attitude, and heart of  repentant Believers.
We have been made God’s own dear, living, children of Light, when we were once prisoners of the darkness of sin, spiritually dead, and spiritually enslaved orphans, under the dominion of sin, death, and the devil.
Spiritually mature Believers, by the indwelling presence of Christ (by the gift of the Holy Spirit and knowledge of the Word of God), now seek with the very Mind of Christ, to do the Father’s will in everything.  This is what Paul means when he says, “I press on to make it my own.”  He is not saying that he is not God’s child.  What he is saying is that as God’s own child he seeks, desires, and yearns, to be conformed completely and perfectly to Christ’s image, and he knows there remains yet more changing to do.  (This is why Martin Luther in the first of his 95 Thesis says, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ He willed that the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”  (In Greek, the word ‘repent’ means ‘change’).
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren.”  (Romans 8;29)
Prayer:  Deliver us dear Father from temptations to licentiousness.  Bless us with all humility to never cease to struggle against the flesh.  In Jesus we pray, Amen.
Love,Dad/Baba/EricGrandpa Pickle Pastor.“A chapter a day, every day, progressively, be transformed, ‘soak’ in the living Word.  God’s Word is our habitation, and we are His.”


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