The Glory of God

[Sean James]

Let us look to Jesus and be truly converted, as this miracle God offers to all who come in willing surrender of the whole heart to Him! Just like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, the death of Christ clinches our hope and reveals the love of God that has power to win hearts to Him!

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.

Beholding Christ we will be changed, and perfect love casts out fear, even filling the soul with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing as we affectionately obey the law of God from a converted heart! May this be your experience today in Christ!

[Sean James]

Jesus is coming soon, and whether we are alive for the event as those who will be translated or we are raised from the grave by the power of Jesus' life, we need not fear death if we have Jesus in our hearts! That is what the gospel delivers us from--the fear of death that Satan has brought to our world. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:14-15). We can rejoice over the power of the grave because we have chosen to look to Jesus, yield our will to Him, and let Him give us a new heart and a new mind imbued with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing! Then our characters can bear witness to the glory of God in that we are enabled by His grace to gladly obey God's law up to every known statute that He has revealed because we know it is best and trust Him to lead our lives!

 To the believer, death is but a small matter. Christ speaks of it as if it were of little moment. "If a man keep My saying, he shall never see death," "he shall never taste of death." To the Christian, death is but a sleep, a moment of silence and darkness. The life is hid with Christ in God, and "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." John 8:51, 52; Colossians 3:4.

We need to let the world know that the things of earth are passing away (maybe that is becoming more obvious to many in these perilous times). We are called to point souls to the only anchor that will hold us, and that is Jesus, the Word. "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Matthew 24:35). He has a present truth message for us to live and share (Revelation 14:1-12) and He yearns over every soul in this poor, dark speck of a world that all would come to repentance and know the truth that sets the soul free from sin, fear, shame and guilt to live a life that is more abundant than we can ask or think!

[Sean James]

Beautiful is the thought that Jesus meets us where we are, and seeks to win our hearts above the emotional and mental fog we might be facing through disappointment. When the disciples walked along the road to Emmaus, they initially start out very discouraged.

Late in the afternoon of the day of the resurrection, two of the disciples were on their way to Emmaus, a little town eight miles from Jerusalem. These disciples had had no prominent place in Christ's work, but they were earnest believers in Him. They had come to the city to keep the Passover, and were greatly perplexed by the events that had recently taken place. They had heard the news of the morning in regard to the removal of Christ's body from the tomb, and also the report of the women who had seen the angels and had met Jesus. They were now returning to their homes to meditate and pray. Sadly they pursued their evening walk, talking over the scenes of the trial and the crucifixion. Never before had they been so utterly disheartened. Hopeless and faithless, they were walking in the shadow of the cross. 

But the One who died on the cross and rose from the grave did not leave the disciples in the condition He found them. So today, Christ is willing to win our hearts to the healing reality of His word and help us to overcome the sin that so easily besets us, so we can be victorious witnesses for Him! After having their faith anchored in Christ, we see the change of experience that comes from understanding the prophecies as they are found in Christ:

The night is dark, but the Sun of Righteousness is shining upon them. Their hearts leap for joy. They seem to be in a new world. Christ is a living Saviour. They no longer mourn over Him as dead. Christ is risen--over and over again they repeat it. This is the message they are carrying to the sorrowing ones. They must tell them the wonderful story of the walk to Emmaus. They must tell who joined them by the way. They carry the greatest message ever given to the world, a message of glad tidings upon which the hopes of the human family for time and for eternity depend.   

When we have Christ abiding in us and intelligently grasp His promises by which we become partakers of the divine nature, we can rejoice to overcome by His divine grace and have Him renewing our hearts and minds! All of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will be seen in our lives as we grow more like Jesus in affectionate obedience to His law of love! May we never lose sight of Jesus in all the trials we face in life!

[Sean James]

If we treat people the way Jesus treats us, we can expect that the Lord can work in the hearts of precious souls the most effectively by the Holy Spirit. What a blessing to see how Jesus met Thomas and how the disciple's experience was turned from unbelief to faith that works by love!

In His treatment of Thomas, Jesus gave a lesson for His followers. His example shows how we should treat those whose faith is weak, and who make their doubts prominent. Jesus did not overwhelm Thomas with reproach, nor did He enter into controversy with him. He revealed Himself to the doubting one. Thomas had been most unreasonable in dictating the conditions of his faith, but Jesus, by His generous love and consideration, broke down all the barriers. Unbelief is seldom overcome by controversy. It is rather put upon self-defense, and finds new support and excuse. But let Jesus, in His love and mercy, be revealed as the crucified Saviour, and from many once unwilling lips will be heard the acknowledgment of Thomas, "My Lord and my God." 

As we tenderly and graciously work with souls in the way of Christ's method, we can pray for each one to come to that true-hearted acknowledgment of Christ as Lord and Savior, a willing embrace of all the light shining upon the life path, and a complete heart surrender so all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will be in the life. May we be missionaries to reflect the loveliness of Jesus to others today!

[Sean James]

What a lesson to learn!

To Peter the words "Follow Me" were full of instruction. Not only for his death, but for every step of his life, was the lesson given. Hitherto Peter had been inclined to act independently. He had tried to plan for the work of God, instead of waiting to follow out God's plan. But he could gain nothing by rushing on before the Lord. Jesus bids him, "Follow Me." Do not run ahead of Me. Then you will not have the hosts of Satan to meet alone. Let Me go before you, and you will not be overcome by the enemy.

If we would wait upon the Lord to guide us rather than rush on in our own way, we would be protected and guided to walk in the path He has planned. Often our plans fail that God's plans for us may succeed. Let us look to Jesus in full surrender of our heart and mind, unite our weakness to His strength so His grace may convert us thoroughly, and then let Jesus live out in us all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing as we affectionately obey His law of love! He has the best plan for us--and faith working by love will accept His plans so we become one with Him in the joy of unselfish service!

[Sean James]

Let us trust God to guide us by the Holy Spirit! There is no limit to the usefulness of our lives when we surrender COMPLETELY to Jesus! Then, when the whole heart is yielded to Christ, all of the fruits of the Spirit will be in our lives without one missing! Then we can obey Jesus up to all the light He has shown us because He is inviting us to an experience higher and better than we can ask or think!

All who consecrate soul, body, and spirit to God will be constantly receiving a new endowment of physical and mental power. The inexhaustible supplies of heaven are at their command. Christ gives them the breath of His own spirit, the life of His own life. The Holy Spirit puts forth its highest energies to work in heart and mind. The grace of God enlarges and multiplies their faculties, and every perfection of the divine nature comes to their assistance in the work of saving souls. Through co-operation with Christ they are complete in Him, and in their human weakness they are enabled to do the deeds of Omnipotence. 

Trust God in the trying seasons and speak faith and hope. Encourage others even when facing deep trial. Rejoice evermore and pray without ceasing! There are great triumphs to be gained for the cross as we GO FORWARD in His will!

[Sean James]

What a joy it is to be accepted in the Beloved! Christ gives us graciously His acceptance on account of His sacrifice as we yield the whole heart to Him, confess and forsake our sins, and abide in His victory! No fear in love becomes our abiding experience as we rest in the reality of His word! Constant union and communion with Christ is such a blessing, accompanied by all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing as we affectionately obey the law of God!

 The voice of God is heard proclaiming that justice is satisfied. Satan is vanquished. Christ's toiling, struggling ones on earth are "accepted in the Beloved." Ephesians 1:6. Before the heavenly angels and the representatives of unfallen worlds, they are declared justified. Where He is, there His church shall be. "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Psalm 85:10. The Father's arms encircle His Son, and the word is given, "Let all the angels of God worship Him." Hebrews 1:6. 

Let us fix our eyes upon Jesus no matter what may come in our earthly pilgrimage! Jesus has the power and the grace to guide us in His healing path to heaven, encouraging us to invite others to the heavenly home, too! Let us do all we can to present the attractive loveliness of Jesus to the whole world for His promises are sure and cannot fail the weakest soul who trusts unreservedly in Him and follows where His Spirit leads!

[Sean James]

God is a planner, and He intends to save everyone! All who come to Him He freely receives, revealing His grace that has the power to transform a sinner into a saint and keep such a one from falling! All of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will be manifest in the life of the truly converted soul who abides in Christ, thus leading to affectionately obeying all the truth of God's law that is revealed! What a joy to go where God sends and to do His holy will!

The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. It was a revelation of "the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal." Romans 16:25, R. V. It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God's throne. From the beginning, God and Christ knew of the apostasy of Satan, and of the fall of man through the deceptive power of the apostate. God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence, and made provision to meet the terrible emergency. So great was His love for the world, that He covenanted to give His only-begotten Son, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. 

Would you like to abide in Jesus? Behold the Lamb of God and overcome!

[Sean James]

There are so many parallels to the spiritual condition of the world on the verge of the first coming of Jesus and the second coming of Jesus. What is hopeful is that the same power of the gospel is still accessible to us to find victory to overcome sin and experience a complete renewal of the heart and mind fully to surrendered to Christ Jesus so He can manifest through us all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing!

Satan was exulting that he had succeeded in debasing the image of God in humanity. Then Jesus came to restore in man the image of his Maker. None but Christ can fashion anew the character that has been ruined by sin. He came to expel the demons that had controlled the will. He came to lift us up from the dust, to reshape the marred character after the pattern of His divine character, and to make it beautiful with His own glory.

May we never grow discouraged as we reflect upon the power of God's grace to restore the character into the image of Christ's loveliness. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. The key is being in continual union and communion with Christ so His will is revealed in our lives by the Holy Spirit as we affectionately obey God from a new heart and mind!

[Sean James]

When we contemplate the unfathomable, unchangeable love of God and realize what the Father risked in sending His Son to our world as a helpless babe, we can truly trust Him to guide and bless us in the way that He knows is best! Let us surrender our whole heart unreservedly to God so He can impute and impart to us His righteousness manifest in all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing in humble, affectionate obedience to God's law of love!

Satan in heaven had hated Christ for His position in the courts of God. He hated Him the more when he himself was dethroned. He hated Him who pledged Himself to redeem a race of sinners. Yet into the world where Satan claimed dominion God permitted His Son to come, a helpless babe, subject to the weakness of humanity. He permitted Him to meet life's peril in common with every human soul, to fight the battle as every child of humanity must fight it, at the risk of failure and eternal loss.
     The heart of the human father yearns over his son. He looks into the face of his little child, and trembles at the thought of life's peril. He longs to shield his dear one from Satan's power, to hold him back from temptation and conflict. To meet a bitterer conflict and a more fearful risk, God gave His only-begotten Son, that the path of life might be made sure for our little ones. "Herein is love." Wonder, O heavens! and be astonished, O earth! 

The plan of salvation is an infinite theme! The more we contemplate God's love and let it change our characters, the more we will appreciate what He has given us in His Son! What a thought--we are loved by the God who made all things and yet became one of us to redeem us from sin! Hallelujah!

[Sean James]

Do you want to be happy? Love Jesus!! How? By beholding Jesus and trusting Him!

Remember that for all of us, happiness is the result of holiness and conforming our will to God's will!

It is like Jesus is saying right to our human family: His greatest happiness will be found in loving Me.

We can love Jesus with the whole heart as we yield the whole heart to Him! Then He fills us with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing as we go where He leads us to go in the path of life!

[Sean James]

When the magi came to worship Jesus, they gave Him their best! May we give Jesus our best--but how? First, we must look to His loveliness and let His divine character attract us to Him, surrender the whole heart to Him, and then we become partakers of the divine nature so we can have Him living in us and working through us His good works in tandem with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing! What joy comes to us when we let God move us by the Holy Spirit!

The offering from the heart that loves, God delights to honor, giving it highest efficiency in service for Him. If we have given our hearts to Jesus, we also shall bring our gifts to Him. Our gold and silver, our most precious earthly possessions, our highest mental and spiritual endowments, will be freely devoted to Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us.

The inevitable outflow of a truly converted heart is a desire to do our best for Jesus who gave ALL for us and left heaven to become helpless baby dependent upon peasant parents! What an incredible exchange! As we contemplate the infinite riches of God's grace, we come into possession of them as we abide in Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Today we can let the Lord guide us in His perfect plan for our lives!

[Sean James]

We need Jesus continually. Something supernatural takes place when we behold Jesus and fully surrender the heart to Him! He has the power to transform our hearts, giving us zeal and earnestness with the sweet love of Jesus in our hearts by the power of the Holy so we can do God's will in true conversion thus manifest with all of the fruits of the Spirit in the life without one missing as we obey God from a new heart and mind!

It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with His spirit. If we would be saved at last, we must learn the lesson of penitence and humiliation at the foot of the cross. 
     As we associate together, we may be a blessing to one another. If we are Christ's, our sweetest thoughts will be of Him. We shall love to talk of Him; and as we speak to one another of His love, our hearts will be softened by divine influences. Beholding the beauty of His character, we shall be "changed into the same image from glory to glory." 2 Corinthians 3:18.

By beholding we become changed, and that is why we need to keep our eyes continually upon Jesus and live by grace through faith as His witnesses! We are to share a living witness of Christ living in us to a world soon to perish but still given mercy to come to repentance in beholding the true character of God!

[Sean James]

What a joy to trust in Jesus, and take Him at His word! He desires us to be in an intelligent appreciation of what it means to be "accepted in the Beloved" as we yield our will to Christ and go where He leads us to follow Him!

And the word that was spoken to Jesus at the Jordan, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," embraces humanity. God spoke to Jesus as our representative. With all our sins and weaknesses, we are not cast aside as worthless. "He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." Ephesians 1:6. The glory that rested upon Christ is a pledge of the love of God for us. It tells us of the power of prayer,--how the human voice may reach the ear of God, and our petitions find acceptance in the courts of heaven. By sin, earth was cut off from heaven, and alienated from its communion; but Jesus has connected it again with the sphere of glory. His love has encircled man, and reached the highest heaven. The light which fell from the open portals upon the head of our Saviour will fall upon us as we pray for help to resist temptation. The voice which spoke to Jesus says to every believing soul, This is My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.

The joy of salvation comes to us as we trust in His divine grace, walk in His will and way, and learn of Him in a moment-by-moment union and communion of our souls with Christ by grace through faith! All of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will come to the life as we let Christ live in us, the hope of glory! Faith and feeling are as distinct as the east is from the west, so it is important to trust Christ even when we may not feel like we are accepted, as long as we continue to surrender fully to Him and let Him lead us in His plan!

[Sean James]

We are called to walk in Jesus' victory over temptation! He has conquered Satan and offers us His word in every moment so we can be vitally united to Him by a living faith surrender (true conversion) manifest in all of the fruits of the Spirit with affectionate obedience to His promises! Let us walk it out today by grace through faith!

And how this is accomplished, Christ has shown us. By what means did He overcome in the conflict with Satan? By the word of God. Only by the word could He resist temptation. "It is written," He said. And unto us are given "exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." 2 Peter 1:4. Every promise in God's word is ours. "By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" are we to live. When assailed by temptation, look not to circumstances or to the weakness of self, but to the power of the word. All its strength is yours. "Thy word," says the psalmist, "have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee." "By the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer." Psalm 119:11; 17:4. 

When you feel most disconnected, when circumstances assail you and you see your weakness, look away from self to Jesus! Talk and think of Jesus and grow more like Him today, for by beholding we become changed!