The Glory of God

[Sean James]

Do you wonder if what God has given you is enough? He can multiply all that we put into His hands as He has all the resources of heaven at His command! Our great need is to be looking continually to Jesus, to yield the whole heart to Him moment-by-moment, that our hearts may be renewed by divine grace and filled with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing! Then we can gladly obey the law of God as He providentially leads us into the very place to serve Him and in the way that He has planned for us!

 The means in our possession may not seem to be sufficient for the work; but if we will move forward in faith, believing in the all-sufficient power of God, abundant resources will open before us. If the work be of God, He Himself will provide the means for its accomplishment. He will reward honest, simple reliance upon Him. The little that is wisely and economically used in the service of the Lord of heaven will increase in the very act of imparting. In the hand of Christ the small supply of food remained undiminished until the famished multitude were satisfied. If we go to the Source of all strength, with our hands of faith outstretched to receive, we shall be sustained in our work, even under the most forbidding circumstances, and shall be enabled to give to others the bread of life.   

Jesus is "the bread of life" (John 6:48), and as we uplift Him who died for us on Calvary, others also will be uplifted to know that there is a God in heaven who has the power to convert sinners into saints, has a love for us that is infinite, and will never fail the weakest of His children who trusts Him implicitly! Let us allow God to bring about His will for us today!

[Sean James]

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ sustain us so that we let Him keep us from falling into sin as we fix our eyes upon His loveliness! Well would it be to spend a thoughtful hour each day contemplating the life of Christ, point by point, especially the closing scenes relating to Gethsemane and Calvary! What love God has lavished upon our poor, frail human race in sending Jesus! Then, when we face trouble in our lives, the Holy Spirit can help us remember how great a struggle Jesus passed through, and He can keep our souls abiding in His perfect peace accompanied by all of the other fruits of the Spirit without one missing!

When trouble comes upon us, how often we are like Peter! We look upon the waves, instead of keeping our eyes fixed upon the Saviour. Our footsteps slide, and the proud waters go over our souls. Jesus did not bid Peter come to Him that he should perish; He does not call us to follow Him, and then forsake us. "Fear not," He says; "for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour." Isaiah 43:1-3.   

We have the privilege of serving a God who knows the future. There is nothing hidden from Him. Whatever trials He allows today, let us accept them graciously and learn more deeply of our continual need of Jesus. Our Savior Himself suffered and learned obedience, preparing Him for the greater trials that befell Him in Gethsemane and at Calvary. Because He never separated from His Father, when the sin of the whole world was crushing out His life and bringing Him through extreme mental agony, He still by faith trusted the Father and in submission to His will gained the victory, exclaiming by faith (not feeling), "It is finished" (John 19:30). May we learn to depend upon God's word and not on our feelings so that when the time of trouble comes just before Jesus returns in power and great glory, our lives will be found abiding in Jesus even though our mental anguish may be immense. May you choose to abide in Christ today, for He can prepare us for what is coming!

[Sean James]

Where are you looking? Are you looking down at your difficulties, or at yourself and your own finite weakness, helplessness and sinfulness? Are you distracted by the pleasures of the world and its perplexities and sorrows? Maybe the temptation is to look at others' mistakes and failings--but praise God, we can choose to look at the ONLY ONE who can safely help us--Jesus Christ!! By grace through faith, Jesus makes it possible for us to live this one day in constant union and communion with Him in true conversion (total surrender of the whole heart to Christ so all of the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives without one missing as we gladly obey His law of love). Let us look up to Jesus who is even now ministering for us in the most holy place of the sanctuary in heaven, preparing a place for us to dwell forever and simultaneously preparing us for being with Him as we look to Him in true faith!

By looking constantly to Jesus with the eye of faith, we shall be strengthened. God will make the most precious revelations to His hungering, thirsting people. They will find that Christ is a personal Saviour. As they feed upon His word, they find that it is spirit and life. The word destroys the natural, earthly nature, and imparts a new life in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes to the soul as a Comforter. By the transforming agency of His grace, the image of God is reproduced in the disciple; he becomes a new creature. Love takes the place of hatred, and the heart receives the divine similitude. This is what it means to live "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." This is eating the Bread that comes down from heaven.

We may be more like Jesus as we each day choose to look and live. Jesus saves us from looking at the things that will only destroy our souls, helping us to keep our continual focus on Him and so He can use us to reach others for Him!

[Sean James]

May we realize the love Jesus has for us, and then be willing to follow His will in everything! Do you really desire to serve God? Jesus wants to set you free from being burdened with man-made traditions, and set you free to have a heart renewed by the Holy Spirit because you have fixed your eyes upon His loveliness of character and are continually yielding the whole heart to Christ so He can fill you with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing! Then by His grace you also will be happy to return tithes and offerings because this is how God chooses to spread the gospel to the world through His church! "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." (Malachi 3:10).

Never, by word or deed, did Jesus lessen man's obligation to present gifts and offerings to God. It was Christ who gave all the directions of the law in regard to tithes and offerings. When on earth He commended the poor woman who gave her all to the temple treasury. But the apparent zeal for God on the part of the priests and rabbis was a pretense to cover their desire for self-aggrandizement. The people were deceived by them. They were bearing heavy burdens which God had not imposed. Even the disciples of Christ were not wholly free from the yoke that had been bound upon them by inherited prejudice and rabbinical authority. Now, by revealing the true spirit of the rabbis, Jesus sought to free from the bondage of tradition all who were really desirous of serving God. 

To serve God means to serve Him wholeheartedly in everything He reveals! Jesus sets us free to be happy, peaceful and obedient Christians whose lives bear witness of His true character of love!

[Sean James]

What is your choice? A pure, biblical faith is what leads to uplifting Jesus, believing in His power through His atoning blood to save completely from sin, and offers the renewing of the heart and mind by the Holy Spirit so that all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing are seen in the life! Then affectionate obedience to the law of God is the true result of constant union and communion with Christ! No matter what your background or past, God has a plan to save you! Will you choose His will?

 In faith the woman of Phoenicia flung herself against the barriers that had been piled up between Jew and Gentile. Against discouragement, regardless of appearances that might have led her to doubt, she trusted the Saviour's love. It is thus that Christ desires us to trust in Him. The blessings of salvation are for every soul. Nothing but his own choice can prevent any man from becoming a partaker of the promise in Christ by the gospel.

Since God lets us choose, it is something akin to insanity to choose the way of death and destruction, as the pleasures of sin such a course offers us are for only a short season. May we ever realize our continual need of Jesus and choose to look to Him no matter what our circumstances, feelings, or trials. Christ came through this world victorious so that we, abiding in Him, may also have complete victory! "These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).

[Sean James]

What is sincerity? The religion of Christ is a revelation of true sincerity in action. He knew His Father's will, He loved fallen humanity, and He did exactly what the word of God said He would do. Jesus was in earnest and He is willing to live out that very same sincere faith in us so that as we look to Him in His loveliness, yield the whole heart to Him, and let Him cleanse us from our sins by His atoning blood, we may become partakers of the divine nature and live victorious lives in Christ manifesting all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing! Then obedience to God is our joy because Christ is working in and through us to fulfill His divine mission to reveal His character to this world and to the onlooking universe!

The religion of Christ is sincerity itself. Zeal for God's glory is the motive implanted by the Holy Spirit; and only the effectual working of the Spirit can implant this motive. Only the power of God can banish self-seeking and hypocrisy. This change is the sign of His working. When the faith we accept destroys selfishness and pretense, when it leads us to seek God's glory and not our own, we may know that it is of the right order. "Father, glorify Thy name" (John 12:28), was the keynote of Christ's life, and if we follow Him, this will be the keynote of our life. He commands us to "walk, even as He walked;" and "hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments." 1 John 2:6, 3. 

May the very experience of Jesus in each of our unique contexts be manifest today as we look above our difficulties and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus whose love never fails!

[Sean James]

While every failure on the part of God's children is due to a lack of faith, when we live by faith on the Son of God, the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives without one missing, and Christ will live out His life in us, giving us a new heart and mind to reflect His true character of love! Love is selflessness, and God created us to live in selfless union and communion with Him and others!

"Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it." Selfishness is death. No organ of the body could live should it confine its service to itself. The heart, failing to send its lifeblood to the hand and the head, would quickly lose its power. As our lifeblood, so is the love of Christ diffused through every part of His mystical body. We are members one of another, and the soul that refuses to impart will perish. And "what is a man profited," said Jesus, "if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"   

The price paid for our soul is the death of Christ, His perfect life, and His intercession for us in the heavenly sanctuary even now. The Father gave His Son for us, and the Holy Spirit is even now working to draw all to come to Christ who will come. Let us value what heaven values--moral worth, love and purity, and the redeeming of souls from this planet to repopulate heaven!

[Sean James]

Jesus wants to bless each of us with a deeper knowledge of His character, so that we may be prepared to enter into fellowship with Him in His sufferings and manifest all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing as we affectionately obey His law of love because we have chosen to yield the WHOLE HEART to Him so He can make it white as snow! May we be wide awake to do His will because Jesus is reigning on the throne of our hearts!

Through being overcome with sleep, the disciples heard little of what passed between Christ and the heavenly messengers. Failing to watch and pray, they had not received that which God desired to give them,--a knowledge of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. They lost the blessing that might have been theirs through sharing His self-sacrifice. Slow of heart to believe were these disciples, little appreciative of the treasure with which Heaven sought to enrich them.

God wants to bless us with a deeper experience in the path of humble self-sacrifice in which we are willing to be anything or nothing as His providence shall direct. Christ was transfigured before His disciples, but they could have been so much more aware of the depths of His love had they been awake for the entire experience. So it is with us. It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour upon the life of Christ each day, letting the imagination grasp and appreciate each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus meditate upon His great sacrifice for us, we shall receive the remedies to the Laodicean condition and be filled with a true faith working by love (gold tried in the fire), be clothed with His righteousness (white raiment), and be given true spiritual discernment (eye salve) to discern our continual need of Jesus to do any good thing! May we never lose sight of Jesus in the trials of this life, and be looking upon His loveliness so He may reproduce His character in us!

[Sean James]

Promises are really awesome! Especially promises that help you know where you can ALWAYS go in ANY need. It is when we have sinned and feel that we cannot pray that it is time to pray. It is when we feel weak and without strong faith that we can most meaningfully rely upon "the faith of Jesus" (Revelation 14:12), which, yielded to by His grace, will spontaneously produce all of the fruits of the Spirit in the life and bring the character into harmony with God's Ten Commandments. So when you feel you lack faith and your spiritual life may seem to be withering, what is God's promise to us? What can we learn from the earnest entreaty of the father whose son was demon-possessed? We catch his struggle in these words and learn that this is also how we can come to God and NEVER perish when we truly pray that we do believe, but need God to help our unbelief. God loves it when we come to Him because we are so needy!

  "If Thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us." How many a sin-burdened soul has echoed that prayer. And to all, the pitying Saviour's answer is, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." It is faith that connects us with heaven, and brings us strength for coping with the powers of darkness. In Christ, God has provided means for subduing every sinful trait, and resisting every temptation, however strong. But many feel that they lack faith, and therefore they remain away from Christ. Let these souls, in their helpless unworthiness, cast themselves upon the mercy of their compassionate Saviour. Look not to self, but to Christ. He who healed the sick and cast out demons when He walked among men is the same mighty Redeemer today. Faith comes by the word of God. Then grasp His promise, "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out." John 6:37. Cast yourself at His feet with the cry, "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief." You can never perish while you do this--never. 

Praise the Lord for such needed encouragement as we come ever nearer to the second coming of Christ and need Jesus continually to do any good thing!

[Sean James]

Where can we safely look continually?

Let the repenting sinner fix his eyes upon “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29); and by beholding, he becomes changed. His fear is turned to joy, his doubts to hope. Gratitude springs up. The stony heart is broken. A tide of love sweeps into the soul. Christ is in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. When we see Jesus, a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, working to save the lost, slighted, scorned, derided, driven from city to city till His mission was accomplished; when we behold Him in Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood, and on the cross dying in agony,—when we see this, self will no longer clamor to be recognized. Looking unto Jesus, we shall be ashamed of our coldness, our lethargy, our self-seeking. We shall be willing to be anything or nothing, so that we may do heart service for the Master. We shall rejoice to bear the cross after Jesus, to endure trial, shame, or persecution for His dear sake.

When we behold Jesus' loveliness, yield the whole heart to Him to purify and cleanse, and then have the Holy Spirit abiding in us, love, joy and peace along with all of the fruits of the Spirit will be manifest in our lives because we have experienced the converting power of God leading us to gladly obey His Ten Commandments!

[Sean James]

He gets you. Completely. After all--He made you!

Jesus knew the wants of the soul. Pomp, riches, and honor cannot satisfy the heart. "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me." The rich, the poor, the high, the low, are alike welcome. He promises to relieve the burdened mind, to comfort the sorrowing, and to give hope to the despondent. Many of those who heard Jesus were mourners over disappointed hopes, many were nourishing a secret grief, many were seeking to satisfy their restless longing with the things of the world and the praise of men; but when all was gained, they found that they had toiled only to reach a broken cistern, from which they could not quench their thirst. Amid the glitter of the joyous scene they stood, dissatisfied and sad. That sudden cry, "If any man thirst," startled them from their sorrowful meditation, and as they listened to the words that followed, their minds kindled with a new hope. The Holy Spirit presented the symbol before them until they saw in it the offer of the priceless gift of salvation.

May we all yield to this invitation and let Christ work in and through us so all of the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives without one missing! Then we can have our true soul desire satisfied by Jesus!

[Sean James]

Let us choose to yield the whole heart to Christ. It is not merely the facts we need, it is to have our hearts and minds so filled with the experiential reality of knowing Jesus in whom is eternal life that our will is swallowed up in His will, and He can give us a new heart and a new mind that is filled with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing! Then we may affectionately obey Him in whom our hope of eternal life is centered! What joy we may have as we choose the pure teaching of Christ!

 "My teaching is not Mine," said Jesus, "but His that sent Me. If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God, or whether I speak from Myself." John 7:16, 17, R. V. The question of these cavilers Jesus met, not by answering the cavil, but by opening up truth vital to the salvation of the soul. The perception and appreciation of truth, He said, depends less upon the mind than upon the heart. Truth must be received into the soul; it claims the homage of the will. If truth could be submitted to the reason alone, pride would be no hindrance in the way of its reception. But it is to be received through the work of grace in the heart; and its reception depends upon the renunciation of every sin that the Spirit of God reveals. Man's advantages for obtaining a knowledge of the truth, however great these may be, will prove of no benefit to him unless the heart is open to receive the truth, and there is a conscientious surrender of every habit and practice that is opposed to its principles. To those who thus yield themselves to God, having an honest desire to know and to do His will, the truth is revealed as the power of God for their salvation. These will be able to distinguish between him who speaks for God, and him who speaks merely from himself. The Pharisees had not put their will on the side of God's will. They were not seeking to know the truth, but to find some excuse for evading it; Christ showed that this was why they did not understand His teaching.   

We may understand the teaching of Christ as we surrender all to Him and follow where He leads us!

[Sean James]

In simplicity, let us trust unreservedly to God!

To all who realized their need, Christ came with infinite help.

We need Jesus continually!

[Sean James]

God is so good to us! Love awakens in the hearts of those who behold the loveliness of Jesus!

It is not the fear of punishment, or the hope of everlasting reward, that leads the disciples of Christ to follow Him. They behold the Saviour's matchless love, revealed throughout His pilgrimage on earth, from the manger of Bethlehem to Calvary's cross, and the sight of Him attracts, it softens and subdues the soul. Love awakens in the heart of the beholders. They hear His voice, and they follow Him.

Let the love of Christ constrain you and allow the fruits of the Spirit, not one missing, to be in your life by having Christ in you in the hope of glory!

[Sean James]

May we choose to put our will on the side of Christ in complete surrender, letting the glorious experience of salvation by God's amazing grace transform our characters so that all of the fruits of the Spirit will be manifest in our lives without one missing! Then we may obey the Ten Commandments from a heart renewed in the image of His purity and holiness!

The only way in which we can gain a more perfect apprehension of truth is by keeping the heart tender and subdued by the Spirit of Christ. The soul must be cleansed from vanity and pride, and vacated of all that has held it in possession, and Christ must be enthroned within. Human science is too limited to comprehend the atonement. The plan of redemption is so far-reaching that philosophy cannot explain it. It will ever remain a mystery that the most profound reasoning cannot fathom. The science of salvation cannot be explained; but it can be known by experience. Only he who sees his own sinfulness can discern the preciousness of the Saviour.   

The loveliness of Jesus is to be our focus as we keep trusting Him to unfold more and more of His glory to us both here and in the great hereafter!