Musings and Contemplations

Revelation 21:3 ESV
Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

Ephesians 1:3-14 NRSV
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

Matthew Henry
Spiritual blessings are the best blessings with which God blesses us, and for which we are to bless him. He blesses us by bestowing such things upon us as make us really blessed. We cannot thus bless God again; but must do it by praising, and magnifying, and speaking well of him on that account. Those whom God blesses with some he blesses with all spiritual blessings; to whom he gives Christ, he freely gives all these things. It is not so with temporal blessings; some are favored with health, and not with riches; some with riches, and not with health. But, where God blesses with spiritual blessings, he blesses with all. They are spiritual blessings in heavenly places; that is, say some, in the church, distinguished from the world, and called out of it. Or it may be read, in heavenly things, such as come from heaven, and are designed to prepare men for it, and to secure their reception into it. We should hence learn to mind spiritual and heavenly things as the principal things, spiritual and heavenly blessings as the best blessings, with which we cannot be miserable and without which we cannot but be so^[1]

THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me ten lords a-leaping.

The Tenth Day of Christmas:
Ten Lords A-Leaping
The ten lords a-leaping signifies the Ten Commandments:[2]

1. I am the Lord your God: You shall not have strange gods before me.
2. You shall not take the name of the Lord God in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the Lord’s day.
4. Honor your father and your mother.
5. You shall not kill.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.[3]

HEIDELBERG CATECHISM Question #39
What is the duty which God requireth of man?
The duty which God requireth of man is obedience to his revealed will.

HEIDELBERG CATECHISM Question #40
What did God at first reveal to man for the rule of his obedience?
The rule which God at first revealed to man for his obedience was the moral law.

HEIDELBERG CATECHISM Question #41
Where is the moral law summarily comprehended?
The moral law is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments.

HEIDELBERG CATECHISM Question #42
What is the sum of the ten commandments?
The sum of the ten commandments is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind, and our neighbor as ourselves.

Grant, O Lord,that from this hour I may know only that which is worthy to be known; that I may love only that which is truly lovely; that I may praise only that which chiefly pleases you; and that I may esteem what you esteem, and despise that which is contemptible in your sight! Suffer me no longer to judge by the imperfect perception of my own senses, or of the senses of men ignorant like myself, but enable me to judge both of visible and invisible things, by the Spirit of truth; and, above all, to know and to obey your will. Amen.[4]

This Is the Truth Sent from Above
(A Christmas Gospel)

^[1] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 2307.
[2] https://www.dynamiccatholic.com/advent/twelve-days-of-christmas.html
[3] Exodus 20
[4] A prayer of Thomas ‘a Kempis, found in O Come, O Come Emmanuel by Jonathan Gibson, p. 361.