The Glory of God

[Sean James]

It is a choice. God chose to send His Son because He loves us, and we can choose to look to His greatest manifestation of the gift of Himself at the cross, and by beholding His love, we can be fully transformed in character! Look and live! All of the fruits of the Spirit will be manifest in our lives without one missing as long as we are fully surrendered to Christ and living up to all the light He has shown us!

   At the cross of Calvary, love and selfishness stood face to face. Here was their crowning manifestation. Christ had lived only to comfort and bless, and in putting Him to death, Satan manifested the malignity of his hatred against God. He made it evident that the real purpose of his rebellion was to dethrone God, and to destroy Him through whom the love of God was shown.   

Let us appreciate the great love manifested in Christ toward us and go forth to bless others as He has first blessed us! "We love Him, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Would you be willing to let God use you to proclaim the gospel of His grace in the context of the Three Angels' Messages of Revelation 14 because of what Christ has done for you?

[Sean]

Happy Sabbath!!!

Where is the only safe place?

There seemed to be no place of rest or safety for the infant Redeemer. God could not trust His beloved Son with men, even while carrying forward His work for their salvation. He commissioned angels to attend Jesus and protect Him till He should accomplish His mission on earth, and die by the hands of those whom He came to save.

Our safest place now and ever is to be in the center of God’s will, truly converted, and letting God lead us. We can trust His word fully! He will lead us as we let Him! All of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will be manifest in the life fully surrendered to God in mind and heart, empowering us to affectionate obey God up to all the light of truth He has revealed to us!

[Sean James]

How you relate to God will affect how you relate to others. If you behold the loveliness of Jesus and surrender fully to Him, all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will be seen in your life, you will gladly obey His law from the heart He renews, and you will be empowered to do His will no matter how trying the circumstances you face! Let us look to Christ in true faith surrender and in turn go forth to bless others!

   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.

The joy of becoming like Christ is so sweet and deep that it leads us to hunger and thirst to know Him more. Since Christ is the infinite Son of God, it is such a blessing to be given an infinite amount of time (eternity) to enjoy and know Him more and more! "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3). Let us come in true surrender to Christ to experience this gift of eternal life and by grace through faith be empowered to live this experience of character while sharing the everlasting gospel of His grace in the context of the three angels' messages of Revelation 14! Jesus is coming soon, and He is preparing us for His return! Let us encourage others to be ready, too!

[Sean James]

John the Baptist is a good example of how to become selfless in character. By beholding Christ He forgot about self and went forward to point others to Jesus! As we look upon the sinless perfection of Christ, we also can be changed and transformed into His image with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing! Then we can gladly obey God from a heart renewed by the Holy Spirit, following all the light of truth that is revealed upon our pathway!

     He looked upon the King in His beauty, and self was forgotten. He beheld the majesty of holiness, and felt himself to be inefficient and unworthy. He was ready to go forth as Heaven's messenger, unawed by the human, because he had looked upon the Divine. He could stand erect and fearless in the presence of earthly monarchs, because he had bowed low before the King of kings.

We need not fear what man will say or do, but we are called to fear God and give glory to Him. As we do this, we become like our Savior and experience victory over sin through abiding union and communion with Christ! Let us praise God that we can have boldness in the day of judgment because we allow Christ to transform our characters!

[Sean James]

What a gift we have in Jesus!! Jesus' incarnation and baptism reveal deep spiritual truths to us--and invite us to have saving faith in Him!! The faith of Jesus brings with it all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing as we affectionately obey God from the new heart He gives us in Christ!! What a miracle!!!!!

     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.

God loves to bring us into harmony with Himself! What a joy that there is no limit to the usefulness of the soul surrendered to Him! We can have continual victory because of Jesus at work in us and because of what He has done for us! Hallelujah!!!!

[Sean James]

Praise the Lord for the victory we have in Jesus!! Only by surrendering fully to Him and abiding in Him can we truly overcome! It was on the point of appetite that Adam and Eve fell, and on this point Christ was victorious so we can resist the pull of our fallen nature and choose to do the right thing for God's glory!

Let him who is struggling against the power of appetite look to the Saviour in the wilderness of temptation. See Him in His agony upon the cross, as He exclaimed, "I thirst." He has endured all that it is possible for us to bear. His victory is ours.

As we learn our continual need of Jesus, His victory through our lives is assured! Such a victory means all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will be seen in our lives as we are empowered to gladly obey God from the new heart!

[Sean]

Praise the Lord for Jesus’ victory for us—at a cost we can never fully comprehend until we are in heaven by His grace!!

Never can the cost of our redemption be realized until the redeemed shall stand with the Redeemer before the throne of God. Then as the glories of the eternal home burst upon our enraptured senses we shall remember that Jesus left all this for us, that He not only became an exile from the heavenly courts, but for us took the risk of failure and eternal loss. Then we shall cast our crowns at His feet, and raise the song, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.” Revelation 5:12.

As he humble faith whole-heart surrrbder we let Jesus live His life through us, all of the fruits of the Spirit will be manifest through our lives without one missing as we affectionately obey God from the heart He renews by His grace!

[Sean James]

By beholding the loveliness of Jesus and becoming like Him, for by beholding we become changed, our lives will have an influence on others as we point them to the One who gave all for us. As our characters reflect all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing as we choose to be vitally connected to Christ in true conversion, we are empowered through Christ to obey the law of God from the new heart He gives us!

The teaching of Christ was the expression of an inwrought conviction and experience, and those who learn of Him become teachers after the divine order. The word of God, spoken by one who is himself sanctified through it, has a life-giving power that makes it attractive to the hearers, and convicts them that it is a living reality. When one has received the truth in the love of it, he will make this manifest in the persuasion of his manner and the tones of his voice. He makes known that which he himself has heard, seen, and handled of the word of life, that others may have fellowship with him through the knowledge of Christ. His testimony, from lips touched with a live coal from off the altar, is truth to the receptive heart, and works sanctification upon the character. 

So it may be with us. What a blessing to go forth as witnesses like Christ! He is able to do more than we ask or think by the power of the Holy Spirit!

[Sean James]

Only Christ can fully supply what we need. We need His grace and His forgiveness; we need His healing and provision. Christ offers us much more than we can ask or think. He gives us overcoming power so we can have all of the fruits of the Spirit in our lives without one missing as we surrender all to Christ and let Him lead us in the path of true, affectionate obedience.

 The word of Christ supplied ample provision for the feast. So abundant is the provision of His grace to blot out the iniquities of men, and to renew and sustain the soul.

Christ not only renews us, but keep us by His grace! Let us look away from self to Jesus!!

[Sean James]

What a blessing that Jesus can totally transform the heart that is yielded to Him! There is nothing too hard for the Lord! By looking to the uplifted, crucified and risen Savior, surrendering the entire heart to Him to cleanse and purify, and walking in the way that He chooses for us, we can have rest and joy in the soul as the Holy Spirit will manifest through us all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing! Thankfully, we can see how Jesus addressed Nicodemus in the interview Christ had with him at the beginning of His ministry, which John the evangelist would record for the blessing of millions!

Jesus continued: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” By nature the heart is evil, and “who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.” Job 14:4. No human invention can find a remedy for the sinning soul. “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” Romans 8:7; Matthew 15:19. The fountain of the heart must be purified before the streams can become pure. He who is trying to reach heaven by his own works in keeping the law is attempting an impossibility. There is no safety for one who has merely a legal religion, a form of godliness. The Christian’s life is not a modification or improvement of the old, but a transformation of nature. There is a death to self and sin, and a new life altogether. This change can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit.

When we have Christ working in us, it means continual victory in true conversion! May you walk in the light of the loveliness of Jesus because of what He has done for you!! We love Him because He first loved us!

[Sean James]

There are so many paradoxes in the gospel experience. In order to be full, you must be empty, and in order to be great, you must realize your own nothingness. The fullness of Christ can only indwell a converted soul who is fully emptied of self by having the power of the Holy Spirit bring forth all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing in doing God's holy will as revealed in His word! True greatness is the effect of true humility in knowing that in and of ourselves we are nothing, but united to Christ, there is no limit to what He can do with and through us! It all is about our continual need for union and communion with Christ moment-by-moment!

 So with the followers of Christ. We can receive of heaven's light only as we are willing to be emptied of self. We cannot discern the character of God, or accept Christ by faith, unless we consent to the bringing into captivity of every thought to the obedience of Christ. To all who do this the Holy Spirit is given without measure. In Christ "dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and in Him ye are made full." Colossians 2:9, 10, R. V.   

When Christ has the whole heart, He empowers us to see more beautiful glimpses of His character so others can be blessed by our choice to be continually uplifting Jesus!

[Sean James]

What happens when you surrender fully to Jesus Christ because you behold His loveliness and are motived to do so by His word?

The dominion of evil is broken, and through faith the soul is kept from sin. He who opens his heart to the Spirit of Christ becomes a partaker of that mighty power which shall bring forth his body from the grave.

As partakers of the divine nature, the Holy Spirit manifests through us all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing! Then we are empowered to affectionately obey God's law of love from the heart He has renewed by His divine grace! What a miracle!!

[Sean James]

Do you like surprises? Well, thankfully, God is NOT TRYING TO SURPRISE us when it comes to KEY DEVELOPMENTS of prophetic import! He tells us what He is going to do, so we can know that when it happens, it is He who did it! He sees everything spread out before Him and knows what is going to happen today, tomorrow, and for all of eternity! Let us study the Bible prayerfully so we can know and do God's will with a true conversion experience in which all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will be manifest in our lives!

“The Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants and prophets.” While “the secret things belong unto the Lord our God,” “those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever.” Amos 3:7; Deuteronomy 29:29. God has given these things to us, and His blessing will attend the reverent, prayerful study of the prophetic scriptures.

God is so good to us! He tells us the truth so we can know and live the truth! Especially let us study Daniel and Revelation and look upon the uplifted Savior who is revealed in all of Scripture, teaching us the way we are to live in preparation for Jesus' soon return!!

[Sean James]

May we not only use the light God sends us, but diffuse it upon the pathway of others! May our hearts and minds be so knit with His that His life flows through us with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing!

 Our standing before God depends, not upon the amount of light we have received, but upon the use we make of what we have. Thus even the heathen who choose the right as far as they can distinguish it are in a more favorable condition than are those who have had great light, and profess to serve God, but who disregard the light, and by their daily life contradict their profession. 

Only as we experience constant union and communion with Christ rooted in the ever-present power of His living word are we enabled to practice the truth as we yield our will to Christ in complete surrender. By beholding Christ who lived a perfect life we are drawn to Him in true repentance who has power to cleanse us from every stain of sin and make us new creatures as partakers of His divine nature.

[Sean James]

Don’t look at yourself and give up! Look at your Savior, and look up! He sees infinite potential with your life! As you trust Him, surrender the whole heart to Hin, and live by grace through faith upon Him as an all-powerful Savior, He can transform you into His image and equip you for eternal service! The result of such a miraculous transformation of character is that all of the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in your life, and not one will be missing!

God takes men as they are, and educates them for His service, if they will yield themselves to Him. The Spirit of God, received into the soul, will quicken all its faculties. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the mind that is devoted unreservedly to God develops harmoniously, and is strengthened to comprehend and fulfill the requirements of God. The weak, vacillating character becomes changed to one of strength and steadfastness. Continual devotion establishes so close a relation between Jesus and His disciple that the Christian becomes like Him in mind and character. Through a connection with Christ he will have clearer and broader views. His discernment will be more penetrative, his judgment better balanced. He who longs to be of service to Christ is so quickened by the life-giving power of the Sun of Righteousness that he is enabled to bear much fruit to the glory of God.

Bearing much fruit to the glory of God—winning many souls to Jesus—there is no greater joy this side of heaven! May you today go forth by the power of the great commission, in consecrated service to Jesus! As our heavenly high priest, He is about to return as our victorious King! 😊🙏