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The Life of Our Savior / Re: The Glory of God

« Last post by Sean James on November 23, 2023, 06:46:00 AM »

Happy Thanksgiving! Grateful hearts are indeed fitting in light of Christ's resurrection!

Oh that the bowed head might be lifted, that the eyes might be opened to behold Him, that the ears might listen to His voice! “Go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen.” Bid them look not to Joseph's new tomb, that was closed with a great stone, and sealed with the Roman seal. Christ is not there. Look not to the empty sepulcher. Mourn not as those who are hopeless and helpless. Jesus lives, and because He lives, we shall live also. From grateful hearts, from lips touched with holy fire, let the glad song ring out, Christ is risen! He lives to make intercession for us. Grasp this hope, and it will hold the soul like a sure, tried anchor. Believe, and thou shalt see the glory of God.

Let us surrender the whole heart to Christ, experiencing all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing, and living in true obedience to all of God's commandments! We have so much to thank God for, knowing that His love is infinite and Jesus is now preparing a place for us in heaven!

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The Life of Our Savior / Re: The Glory of God

« Last post by Sean James on November 22, 2023, 06:32:10 AM »

Christ did not stop being divine when He died on the cross. His humanity died, but divinity did not. Like a tree that goes dormant in winter, it is still alive. Jesus, still alive in His divinity, went to sleep in the grave, as He experienced the death of His human nature. By doing so, He defeated Satan, and in coming forth from the tomb by the divine original, unborrowed, underived life in Himself came forth in triumph. What Jesus did for us is exceedingly deep and precious. No one but Jesus could have accomplished such salvation for us. As fully God and fully man, Jesus has bridged the gap that sin has made and offers us His life and life more abundantly!

Seeing Jesus' infinite loveliness, our hearts are drawn to Him in true repentance to turn from the sins that have hurt God's heart; confessing and forsaking them in sincere prayer, we are cleansed from all unrighteousness. When the WHOLE HEART is yielded to Christ, supernaturally, our fallen nature can be crucified with Him and the divine nature accessible to us by God's promises will produce all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing in a life of true obedience to God's commandments! Praise God that this is all because of Jesus!!

When the voice of the mighty angel was heard at Christ's tomb, saying, Thy Father calls Thee, the Saviour came forth from the grave by the life that was in Himself. Now was proved the truth of His words, “I lay down My life, that I might take it again.... I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” Now was fulfilled the prophecy He had spoken to the priests and rulers, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John 10:17, 18; 2:19.

Soon Jesus is coming in the clouds of heaven to take His children home. Those who have trusted in Him as the resurrection and life are assured of an eternity with Him. Let the joy and singing begin!!

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The Life of Our Savior / Re: The Glory of God

« Last post by Sean James on November 21, 2023, 06:40:51 AM »

The cross did it. Both Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were so moved by what Christ experienced on the cross that they were "all in" for Jesus. They chose that FULL SURRENDER! Are you "all in" for Jesus by afresh looking in faith to His crucifixion? Knowing that the One who died for us is also risen and soon to return to take His children home to heaven, let us be deeply be in earnest to share the everlasting gospel so many more can experience the transformation of character that can only come when the truth sets us free and we have Christ abiding in us, the hope of glory! Without one missing, all of the fruits of the Spirit will be revealed in the life of one who lives by faith on the Son of God in affectionate obedience to all of His commandments up to the light God has revealed!

Nicodemus, when he saw Jesus lifted up on the cross, remembered His words spoken by night in the Mount of Olives: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:14, 15. On that Sabbath, when Christ lay in the grave, Nicodemus had opportunity for reflection. A clearer light now illuminated his mind, and the words which Jesus had spoken to him were no longer mysterious. He felt that he had lost much by not connecting himself with the Saviour during His life. Now he recalled the events of Calvary. The prayer of Christ for His murderers and His answer to the petition of the dying thief spoke to the heart of the learned councilor. Again he looked upon the Saviour in His agony; again he heard that last cry, “It is finished,” spoken like the words of a conqueror. Again he beheld the reeling earth, the darkened heavens, the rent veil, the shivered rocks, and his faith was forever established. The very event that destroyed the hopes of the disciples convinced Joseph and Nicodemus of the divinity of Jesus. Their fears were overcome by the courage of a firm and unwavering faith.

Don't be afraid of the future. Remember all that God has said and taught you from the word of God. Trust Him completely in full surrender continually. He will constrain you to the kind of service that is moved by love because He left heaven to take away your sin and give you a new life with Him that will span eternity. Praise God!!

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The Life of Our Savior / Re: The Glory of God

« Last post by Sean James on November 20, 2023, 04:57:28 AM »

It will all come out clearly in the end!

God could have destroyed Satan and his sympathizers as easily as one can cast a pebble to the earth; but He did not do this. Rebellion was not to be overcome by force. Compelling power is found only under Satan's government. The Lord's principles are not of this order. His authority rests upon goodness, mercy, and love; and the presentation of these principles is the means to be used. God's government is moral, and truth and love are to be the prevailing power.

As God wins hearts by His love and truth, the lies that Satan pawns off are seen to be such. As we come to know and experience Christ as the way, the truth and the life in complete surrender to Him, all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing flow forth from a life that abides and obeys God up to the light of His law revealed and understood. God is gracious to finish the great controversy in such a way that it wil never happen again. "What do ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time" (Nahum 1:9).

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The Life of Our Savior / Re: The Glory of God

« Last post by Sean James on November 19, 2023, 02:25:26 AM »

Jesus suffered selflessly, as One who was innocent. Even in His agony upon the cross, He was thinking of others. He yearned for all to come unto Him in complete surrender so that His sacrifice for sin would be received as the effectual cure for the sinning soul to be brought to repentance, faith, and true conversion. He knew that if sinners did not repent, agony and death would await them with no hope of life, though not one need perish! "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

From the fall of Jerusalem the thoughts of Jesus passed to a wider judgment. In the destruction of the impenitent city He saw a symbol of the final destruction to come upon the world. He said, “Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” By the green tree, Jesus represented Himself, the innocent Redeemer. God suffered His wrath against transgression to fall on His beloved Son. Jesus was to be crucified for the sins of men. What suffering, then, would the sinner bear who continued in sin? All the impenitent and unbelieving would know a sorrow and misery that language would fail to express.

While the sinful and impenitent will ultimately perish, they do it at the cost of having rejected the salvation Christ so freely offered to all. As we contemplate the infinite love of God for us in Christ, we are motivated to become transformed in character. Yielding the whole heart to Jesus, His grace is sufficient to cleanse us from sin, empower us to overcome, and be kept from sinning. All of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing in the life that is fully surrendered to God in true obedience prepares the true disciple to be an active, earnest missionary to seek and save souls! May we fully realize how much Jesus suffered for us and understand that we are in debt to those who do not know the good news that they can be FULLY PARDONED and SET FREE from the slavery of sin! "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise" (Romans 1:14). Let us do all we can to spread the "everlasting gospel" (Revelation 14:6) as the only hope to a dying world that needs Jesus and the present truth of the Three Angel's messages that help people understand God's love, God's call, and God's warning so they can be ready to meet Jesus on the glorious day! We will either meet Him in peace or in terror. The choice is ours.

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The Life of Our Savior / Re: The Glory of God

« Last post by Sean James on November 18, 2023, 03:36:46 AM »

Happy Sabbath! It is so simple, yet so deep. It is infinite. It is the word of God. When Christ was facing the farce of a trial before Pilate, Christ yearned for Pilate and all who heard Him to receive the word of God, for only by receiving the word of God into the soul could Pilate or anyone be set free from the tyrannical insanity, ruin and degradation to character caused by sin.

Christ affirmed that His word was in itself a key which would unlock the mystery to those who were prepared to receive it. It had a self-commending power, and this was the secret of the spread of His kingdom of truth. He desired Pilate to understand that only by receiving and appropriating truth could his ruined nature be reconstructed.

Our natures, like Pilate's, are fallen. We need reconstruction, or, in other words, "revival and reformation." But how can we have this? We need to come daily in surrender to Jesus and let His word enter into our hearts to change the current of our thoughts, feelings, motives and purposes. By the word of God we partake of the divine nature, and by the word are produced in the life all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing as long as there is a continual surrender to Christ in faith, renouncing all known sin and living up to the light of truth God has revealed. We need a daily experience of beholding Christ, for by beholding we become changed. Instead of letting the mind be filled with the suggestions and deceptions of the world, the flesh and the devil, let us all be so filled with the word of God that it not only revives and reforms us into the image of Christ, but empowers us to be missionaries like Christ. Even in the most trying experiences, we can still be patient, calm and self-possessed, ever seeking to implant truth in the hearts and minds of those around us.

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The Life of Our Savior / Re: The Glory of God

« Last post by Sean James on November 17, 2023, 06:22:32 AM »

What are you looking for in life? The worldly goods around us are passing away, while the things of the spiritual kingdom will endure forever. As we look carefully at the life history of Judas, we see that his desires were not in harmony with what Christ was offering those who follow Him.

Christ's discourse in the synagogue concerning the bread of life was the turning point in the history of Judas. He heard the words, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.” John 6:53. He saw that Christ was offering spiritual rather than worldly good. He regarded himself as farsighted, and thought he could see that Jesus would have no honor, and that He could bestow no high position upon His followers. He determined not to unite himself so closely to Christ but that he could draw away. He would watch. And he did watch.

Sadly, Judas walked in Satan's deceptions rather than the truth Jesus plainly spoke with love. Christ offers us spiritual good because that is what our character need to be prepared to dwell in His presence in heaven itself with all the holy angels, the redeemed, and all holy created beings in the universe. While it is true that in heaven God's people will be blessed with heavenly mansions, a home in the new earth, and the eternal riches of the universe, that experience will come at a point when all who are there most highly value God Himself, His word and His character over all the other blessings. Satan has sought to lead the universe to want the position, power and blessings of God without His character. And that inevitably leads to death. So let us take warning from Judas' experience and choose to most highly value the spiritual rather than the temporal things, recognizing that God does provide for our needs, but that we are not to make worldly good a higher priority than the spiritual kingdom that endures forever.

All of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will be revealed in the lives of those who are fully converted in complete surrender to Jesus, empowered by Him to walk in affectionate obedience to all of God's commandments. That experience is one in which spiritual good is paramount, and the worldly goods we have around us for a season are properly managed with an eye single to the glory of God and the furthering of His mission.

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The Life of Our Savior / Re: The Glory of God

« Last post by Sean James on November 16, 2023, 06:12:05 AM »

In the final crisis over the Sabbath versus the mark of the beast--the global enforcement of Sunday (see Revelation 13 and 14)--our experience may be like that of Christ in His trial that led up to His crucifixion. Christ will have a true remnant of followers in the last days who experience genuine conversion manifest in all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing in true obedience to God's commandments. Such living witnesses who have spoken and taught the truth about the character and law of God, who have uplifted "the everlasting gospel" (Revelation 14:6), will be falsely condemned as was Christ. Holding fast to the plain teachings of Scripture by having a living experience of "the faith of Jesus" (Revelation 14:12) that works by love and leads to affectionate obedience to all of God's commandments, including the fourth commandments to hallow the seventh day Sabbath. God will have a people who, purified from sin by Christ's efficacy, can answer all their persecutors with calmness and moral fidelity to principle, for Christ abides in them, "the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

Christ calmly replied, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou Me?” He spoke no burning words of retaliation. His calm answer came from a heart sinless, patient, and gentle, that would not be provoked.

Those who ever keep fresh in memory before them the scenes of Jesus' life and ministry, especially the closing ones, are not only strengthened with greater confidence in God for the day at hand by a deeper experience in the Holy Spirit with quickened love, but are being systematically prepared to face the great test that is soon to break upon the world when the United States repudiates the principles of its Constitution. When the United States goes so far as violating the principle that "congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," by acceding to the demands for a law enforcing Sunday, literally fulfilling this prophecy: "And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." (Revelation 13:15-17). That image will be the union of church and state, similar to what happened in the Dark Ages under the Papal power, in connection with the enforcement of Sunday laws. May we do all we can by the missionary efforts intended to enlighten minds to the necessity of true repentance towards God in the experience of salvation in connection with helping souls to become enlightened on the principles of religious liberty that are foundational to the teachings of Scripture. We can praise God that religious liberty at this moment still exists in America, and that there remains a separation of church and state, but with so many confusing influences in the world that are antithetical to the gospel and to such religious liberty, well would it be to do all we possibly can to spread the Three Angels' Messages while freedom readily allows its global spread. A great book to distribute to do that very thing is The Great Controversy! (You can listen here to it for free: https://whiteestate.org/audio/132/the-great-controversy/) We can help hasten Christ's return by cooperating with Him in the spread of the gospel!

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The Life of Our Savior / Re: The Glory of God

« Last post by Sean James on November 15, 2023, 04:18:25 AM »

In contemplating what Jesus endured in Gethsemane, seeing His incredible agony and struggle in the decision He did make to bear all our sin, we can better understand the depth of God's love for us and how horrible sin is. The heart that beholds Jesus afresh can be motivated to do God's will and resist sin.

Again the Son of God was seized with superhuman agony, and fainting and exhausted, He staggered back to the place of His former struggle. His suffering was even greater than before. As the agony of soul came upon Him, “His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” The cypress and palm trees were the silent witnesses of His anguish. From their leafy branches dropped heavy dew upon His stricken form, as if nature wept over its Author wrestling alone with the powers of darkness.

Jesus loves us so much that He would go through all this. May we cheerfully endure whatever trials we face with a deep realization of the love of God for us in Christ, turning from sin, and allowing the Holy Spirit to abide in us as He manifests all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing through our lives that are fully and continually surrendered to Him in true obedience to God's commandments. Sin becomes hateful to us as we experience communion with God and appreciate the character of Christ.

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The Life of Our Savior / Re: The Glory of God

« Last post by Sean James on November 14, 2023, 06:51:56 AM »

Praise the Lord that we can be fruitful in Christ! Living by faith means a life of abundant fruitfulness in having Christ's character revealed in and through us! We need not fear the future as we trust in Him completely and rely on His word, learning of Christ day by day!

The life of the vine will be manifest in fragrant fruit on the branches. “He that abideth in Me,” said Jesus, “and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.” When we live by faith on the Son of God, the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives; not one will be missing.