Posted on 01/20/2016 1:53:12 PM PST by metmom
"You were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance" (Eph. 1:13-14).
The Holy Spirit is God's first installment on your eternal inheritance.
The Holy Spirit's ministry in your life is multifaceted and profound. Among other things He brings salvation, conviction, guidance, and strength. He indwells and equips you for spiritual service and gives assurance of your salvation. He is your Helper and Advocate. He is the Spirit of promise, who seals you until the day when your redemption is fully realized (Eph. 4:30).
Sealing speaks of security, authenticity, ownership, and authority. Ancient kings, princes, and nobles placed their official seal on documents or other items to guarantee their inviolability. To break the seal was to incur the wrath of the sovereign whom it represented (cf. Dan. 6:17; Matt. 27:62-66).
A seal on a letter authenticated it as from the hand of the one whose seal it bore. Legal documents such as property deeds and wills were often finalized with an official seal. Those who possessed the sealed decree of a king had the king's delegated authority to act on that decree.
Each of those aspects of sealing is a picture of the Spirit's ministry. He is God's guarantee that your salvation is inviolable and that you are an authentic member of His kingdom and family. You are His possession-having been purchased with His Son's precious blood (1 Cor. 6:20). You are His ambassador with delegated authority to proclaim His message to a lost world (2 Cor. 5:20).
The Spirit is the pledge of your eternal inheritance (Eph. 1:14). The Greek word translated "pledge" in that verse (arrabon) was used of down payment or earnest money given to secure a purchase. Rejoice in the assurance that God, who cannot lie (Titus 1:2), has given you His Spirit as a guarantee that He will keep His promises.
Suggestions for Prayer
Praise God for the security of your eternal inheritance. Praise the Spirit for His many ministries in your life. Be sensitive to His leading today so that your ministry to others will be powerful and consistent with His will.
For Further Study
Read Esther chapters 3, 8. What role did the king's signet ring play in the decree of Haman (chapter 3)? The decree of Ahasuerus and Mordecai (chapter 8)?
This stuff just writes itself!!!
Come on; terycarl. Tell us how stones can't cry, with the same enthusiasm you did explaining about the inaccuracies you found about the flood.
Cause?
Then the Lord shut him in.
9 This is the account of Noah and his family.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in Godâs sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, âI am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress[a] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.[b] 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit[c] high all around.[d] Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the arkâyou and your sons and your wife and your sonsâ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.â
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
7 The Lord then said to Noah, âGo into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.â
5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sonsâ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, 9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noahâs life, on the seventeenth day of the second monthâon that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. 14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. 15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.
17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. 18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. 20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits.[e][f] 21 Every living thing that moved on land perishedâbirds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.
24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.
8 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
13 By the first day of the first month of Noahâs six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.
15 Then God said to Noah, 16 âCome out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with youâthe birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the groundâso they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.â
18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sonsâ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birdsâeverything that moves on landâcame out of the ark, one kind after another.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: âNever again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though[g] every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22 âAs long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.â
9 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, âBe fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
4 âBut you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.
6 âWhoever sheds human blood,
by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made mankind.
7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.â
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 âI now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with youâthe birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with youâevery living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.â
12 And God said, âThis is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.â
17 So God said to Noah, âThis is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.â
terycarl: I don't believe this.
terycarl: I do believe this.
A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
James 1:8-10
Oh; he's posted more than THIS!!!
Millions of the Jaredites are slain in battleâShiz and Coriantumr assemble all the people to mortal combatâThe Spirit of the Lord ceases to strive with themâThe Jaredite nation is utterly destroyedâOnly Coriantumr remains.
1 And it came to pass when Coriantumr had recovered of his wounds, he began to remember the awords which Ether had spoken unto him.
2 He saw that there had been slain by the sword already nearly atwo millions of his people, and he began to sorrow in his heart; yea, there had been slain two millions of mighty men, and also their wives and their children.
3 He began to repent of the evil which he had done; he began to remember the words which had been spoken by the mouth of all the prophets, and he saw them that they were fulfilled thus far, every whit; and his soul amourned and refused to be bcomforted.
4 And it came to pass that he wrote an epistle unto Shiz, desiring him that he would spare the people, and he would give up the kingdom for the sake of the lives of the people.
5 And it came to pass that when Shiz had received his epistle he wrote an epistle unto Coriantumr, that if he would give himself up, that he might slay him with his own sword, that he would spare the lives of the people.
6 And it came to pass that the people repented not of their iniquity; and the people of Coriantumr were stirred up to anger against the people of Shiz; and the people of Shiz were stirred up to anger against the people of Coriantumr; wherefore, the people of Shiz did give battle unto the people of Coriantumr.
7 And when Coriantumr saw that he was about to fall he fled again before the people of Shiz.
8 And it came to pass that he came to the waters of Ripliancum, which, by interpretation, is large, or to exceed all; wherefore, when they came to these waters they pitched their tents; and Shiz also pitched his tents near unto them; and therefore on the morrow they did come to battle.
9 And it came to pass that they fought an exceedingly sore battle, in which Coriantumr was wounded again, and he fainted with the loss of blood.
10 And it came to pass that the armies of Coriantumr did press upon the armies of Shiz that they beat them, that they caused them to flee before them; and they did flee southward, and did pitch their tents in a place which was called Ogath.
11 And it came to pass that the army of Coriantumr did pitch their tents by the hill Ramah; and it was that same hill where my father Mormon did ahide up the records unto the Lord, which were sacred.
12 And it came to pass that they did gather together all the people upon all the face of the land, who had not been slain, save it was Ether.
13 And it came to pass that Ether did abehold all the doings of the people; and he beheld that the people who were for Coriantumr were gathered together to the army of Coriantumr; and the people who were for Shiz were gathered together to the army of Shiz.
14 Wherefore, they were for the space of four years gathering together the people, that they might get all who were upon the face of the land, and that they might receive all the strength which it was possible that they could receive.
15 And it came to pass that when they were all gathered together, every one to the army which he would, with their wives and their childrenâboth men, women and children being armed with aweapons of war, having shields, and bbreastplates, and head-plates, and being clothed after the manner of warâthey did march forth one against another to battle; and they fought all that day, and conquered not.
16 And it came to pass that when it was night they were weary, and retired to their camps; and after they had retired to their camps they took up a howling and a alamentation for the loss of the slain of their people; and so great were their cries, their howlings and lamentations, that they did rend the air exceedingly.
17 And it came to pass that on the morrow they did go again to battle, and great and terrible was that day; nevertheless, they conquered not, and when the night came again they did rend the air with their cries, and their howlings, and their mournings, for the loss of the slain of their people.
18 And it came to pass that Coriantumr wrote again an epistle unto Shiz, desiring that he would not come again to battle, but that he would take the kingdom, and spare the lives of the people.
19 But behold, the aSpirit of the Lord had ceased striving with them, and bSatan had full power over the chearts of the people; for they were given up unto the hardness of their hearts, and the blindness of their minds that they might be destroyed; wherefore they went again to battle.
20 And it came to pass that they fought all that day, and when the night came they slept upon their swords.
21 And on the morrow they fought even until the night came.
22 And when the night came they were adrunken with anger, even as a man who is drunken with wine; and they slept again upon their swords.
23 And on the morrow they fought again; and when the night came they had all fallen by the sword save it were fifty and two of the people of Coriantumr, and sixty and nine of the people of Shiz.
24 And it came to pass that they slept upon their swords that night, and on the morrow they fought again, and they contended in their might with their swords and with their shields, all that day.
25 And when the night came there were thirty and two of the people of Shiz, and twenty and seven of the people of Coriantumr.
26 And it came to pass that they ate and slept, and prepared for death on the morrow. And they were large and mighty men as to the strength of men.
27 And it came to pass that they fought for the space of three hours, and they fainted with the loss of blood.
28 And it came to pass that when the men of Coriantumr had received sufficient strength that they could walk, they were about to flee for their lives; but behold, Shiz arose, and also his men, and he swore in his wrath that he would slay Coriantumr or he would perish by the sword.
29 Wherefore, he did pursue them, and on the morrow he did overtake them; and they fought again with the sword. And it came to pass that when they had aall fallen by the sword, save it were Coriantumr and Shiz, behold Shiz had fainted with the loss of blood.
30 And it came to pass that when Coriantumr had leaned upon his sword, that he rested a little, he smote off the head of Shiz.
31 And it came to pass that after he had smitten off the head of Shiz, that Shiz raised up on his hands and afell; and after that he had struggled for breath, he died.
32 And it came to pass that aCoriantumr fell to the earth, and became as if he had no life.
33 And the Lord spake unto Ether, and said unto him: Go forth. And he went forth, and beheld that the words of the Lord had all been fulfilled; and he afinished his brecord; (and the chundredth part I have not written) and he hid them in a manner that the people of Limhi did find them.
34 Now the last words which are written by aEther are these: Whether the Lord will that I be translated, or that I suffer the will of the Lord in the flesh, it mattereth not, if it so be that I am bsaved in the kingdom of God. Amen.
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/ether/15
And yet the BOOK says...
Ether 14:22
And so swift and speedy was the war that there was none left to bury the dead, but they did march forth from the shedding of blood to the shedding of blood, leaving the bodies of both men, women, and children strewed upon the face of the land, to become a prey to the worms of the flesh.
The lizard kind or the Progressive kind???
Ooops!
I thought I read INSURANCE!
Carry on and stay calm.
Rats!
You may not get the commercials over there!
In the words of the excellent scholar Dr. Thomas M. Strouse, in his paper "Ye Are The Body Of Christ," Emmanuel Baptist Theological Journal, Vol. 1 No. 2. Fall 2005. p. 71-72:
"Although the Apostolic Fathers"--(Note: as defined today by the RCC)--"stood near the Apostles, this chronological proximity may have caused them to be unable to discern distinctive NT truth. . . . The Patristics, most of whom were unregenerate, considered the NT Scriptures to be the continuation of the OT with no distinctions concerning the people of God or His agency through which He ministers (i. e., the assembly of immersed believers; cf. Mt. 28:19-20; I Tim. 3:15). In failling to use the historical-grammatical (dispensational) hermeneutic to interpret Scripture, the Patristics superimposed the sacral society concept upon the NT. They looked tothe OT for the antiquuity of church leadership and for the meaning and mode of baptism. The sacral society concept is the state religion in a certain region, headed up by one leader, entered into by one means by all inhabitants, and defended by exterminating all dissidents. Constantine embraced the platonic catholicity of the Patristics to form the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), with its one head in the bishop of Rome, with its entrance by the baptism of infants, and with its persecution of all dissidents. This visible catholic ecclesiology, initiated by Ignatius and his ilk, propagated by Irenaeus and Cyprian, and popularized by Augustine, became the orthodox position for Christendom until the Reformation,"
(the bolded accentuations above are mine).
Bro MkXVII, There is only one valid stream of Christian doctrine, and that is the original one founded by Jesus of Nazareth, put in place in the local church at Jerusalem, and copied by other local churches throughout the Near East and Eastern Europe as the Apostles planted assemblies in their travels. And that is the doctrine of faith alone of Christ and faith of His true disciples in Him alone, transmitted by the infallible verbally inspired preserved Scripture alone, not of works or catholicuty, which is still alive today; and from which the insidious false stream of Romanism separated and propagated as shown above. It is a union of state and church, which is still the paradigm that the RCC would like to reunite and impose on the Americas today, but cannot yet due to our Constitutional constraints.
What you and others need to recognize is that Islam and its Hamas, al Qaeda, PLO, and ISIS flavors of the original religion reinvented by Mohammed are based on and only duplicate the very successful and murderous deadly strain of Platonized "Christianity" instituted by Constantine and Augustine, about 250 years before Mohammed's time. It is TC and others like him whose labors represent that stream of Hell-bent religion, that would, if possible, destroy the influence of true Evangelical Christianity wherever it crops up, including here on Free Republic.
Do you not think that the form of persecution of us--the Evangelical believers who do follow the practices of the first-century churches (which the Romanists do not)--would not turn deadly for us, except for the Declaration of Independence and Constitution that guarantees the separation of Church organizations from local, State, and Federal governments? that they would not be commingled?
To me, the historic "gospel" of the Romanist religion has not been shown to be one of peace, any more than that of Islam.
So beware, and take heed, lest those gospel-quenching efforts take root here. I do not believe that you and I will ever get those RCC perpetrators out of that religion and saved. Only God can do that. But let us resist it with full Scriptural backing, with accurate criticism and rejection, but seriously and without descending to the mocking and ad hominem argumentation which they always resort to when their other falsehoods peter out.
I suppose the mods are not going to like this, but it is so, Bro. So let us walk the line carefully, eh?
As in the old Evangelical Sunday School chorus:
"I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E!"
Ooops! pinging you LC!
Can't fault this!
Proverbs 1:22-26
"How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing And fools hate knowledge?
Proverbs 13:1
A wise son accepts his father's discipline, But a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.
Proverbs 19:25
Strike a scoffer and the naive may become shrewd, But reprove one who has understanding and he will gain knowledge.
Proverbs 15:12
A scoffer does not love one who reproves him, He will not go to the wise
I will leave it to others to get the mark of the beast :-)
Is the book of Ether from the book of Mormon?
We get different commercials, but on Fox News, we do not. We get Fox Extra thingies.
Carry on and stay calm.
Corrected
I'm licensed, I carry, and my insuramce is a M1911A1.
Love my 1911, but I carry the CZ82 and a couple of extra mags.
A small part of the water already existed in the clouds of heaven, and some remained there afterward. But the main part came from the pressurized fountains of the deep for forty days. That water overflowed the earth and is still with us as oceans, seas, glaciers, and water in transit in the known evaporation/precipitation cycle.
Despite the opinions of the global warmists, they forget that there is only so much water, and it can only decrease, not increase. There cannot be and will never be a flood like that in Noah's day. If the sea level increases a little bit for a while due to the melting of whatever ice we have, we humans will adjust to it, until the next ice age cycle comes.
Take a look at Genesis 7:11, 8:2; Proverbs 8:27-29; and Revelation 14:7 for confirmation ofd the thoughts here.
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