The Glory of God

[Sean James]

Why should we be afraid about the future? God knows it and it is always safe to trust an unknown future to a known God! The key is completely surrendering the whole heart to Him moment-by-moment!

The disciples no longer had any distrust of the future. They knew that Jesus was in heaven, and that His sympathies were with them still. They knew that they had a friend at the throne of God, and they were eager to present their requests to the Father in the name of Jesus. In solemn awe they bowed in prayer, repeating the assurance, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." John 16:23, 24. They extended the hand of faith higher and higher, with the mighty argument, "It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." Romans 8:34. And Pentecost brought them fullness of joy in the presence of the Comforter, even as Christ had promised.

When we look away from the weakness of self and abide in the loveliness of Jesus, we can thrive in all situations because we have His Spirit abiding in our hearts, with all of the fruits of His character manifest without one missing!

[Sean James]

May God bless you in beholding the loveliness of Jesus! As we surrender the whole heart to Him, He manifests through us all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing as we are converted instruments of His grace!

The earth was dark through misapprehension of God. That the gloomy shadows might be lightened, that the world might be brought back to God, Satan's deceptive power was to be broken. This could not be done by force. The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God's government; He desires only the service of love; and love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority. Only by love is love awakened. To know God is to love Him; His character must be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan. This work only one Being in all the universe could do. Only He who knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it known. Upon the world's dark night the Sun of Righteousness must rise, "with healing in His wings." Malachi 4:2.

There is such a miracle that takes place when we are loved by God and really BELIEVE and RECEIVE it in its completeness! We become like the One we behold and adore! Healing love is amazing, because it expands our capacity for knowing and loving God and for being a blessing to others!

[Sean]

Praise the Lord for God's grace and His promise to send Jesus the second time! We can learn some major parallels in prophetic application by studying the experience of God's people at the time of Christ's first coming and comparing it to God's people today. May we seek redemption from sin so we can be ready to meet Jesus when He returns in power and great glory, rather than merely desiring to be free from the trials and troubles of the world in which we live. As we realize the true import and meaning of the Scriptures, we can surrender the whole heart to Jesus so He can manifest through us all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing as we gladly obey all the light of His revealed truth given to us!

While the Jews desired the advent of the Messiah, they had no true conception of His mission. They did not seek redemption from sin, but deliverance from the Romans. They looked for the Messiah to come as a conqueror, to break the oppressor's power, and exalt Israel to universal dominion. Thus the way was prepared for them to reject the Saviour.   

May we not be tricked into preparing for the wrong Messiah by having our hopes set in the wrong direction. Before Christ's actual coming in power and glory with all of His holy angels, the devil will counterfeit Christ's coming on the earth (but he will not be able to counterfeit its manner, for the devil will not be found coming from heaven with all the angels). The devil, appearing like Christ on the earth in harmony with the world's powers that enforced the mark of the beast will be seeking to unite the world in acceptance of the false Sabbath, Sunday, in opposition to the plain teaching of Scripture that the seventh day of the week, from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, is the true Sabbath that has never been changed and is still God's sign of rest and worship in Christ. Only a living faith surrender in Christ is enough to prepare us for what is coming on this earth before Jesus returns the second time!! 

[Sean]

Happy Sabbath! Jesus is coming again! Praise the Lord that God can set our will free to love and serve Him wholeheartedly! Let us look to Jesus continually with the eye of faith so we may be strengthened to reflect all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing as we affectionately obey God from the new heart He gives us in true conversion!

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.

God will lead us in the path that is best for His glory to be seen in and through our lives! What a joy it is to walk by grace through faith in Jesus and point others to Him as a perfect Savior from all sin!

[Sean]

Let us never grow weary of repeating the precious present truth of Jesus! As we look upon Christ in His loveliness of character, we are transformed from glory to glory to become like Him in mind and character with all of the fruits of the Spirit in our lives without one missing as we are empowered to affectionately obey God from the new heart He gives us in true conversion! Such an experience will only deepen our walk with God throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity!

The story of Bethlehem is an exhaustless theme. In it is hidden "the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God." Romans 11:33. We marvel at the Saviour's sacrifice in exchanging the throne of heaven for the manger, and the companionship of adoring angels for the beasts of the stall. Human pride and self-sufficiency stand rebuked in His presence. Yet this was but the beginning of His wonderful condescension. It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man's nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless life.

We are so blessed to be able to realize what Christ has done for us! We can more fully realize the value of His sacrifice and appreciate His loveliness of character the more we commune with Him! Oh, what a friend we have in Jesus who can help us through every time of trial and temptation, and who has a thousand ways to provide for us of which we know nothing! Let us ever keep the service and honor of God supreme so He can make perplexities vanish in showing us a plain path for our feet!

[Sean]

We find in Christ the only One who can truly discover to us our deepest thoughts and motives, and when we see how sinful we are, we are given the glorious promise of forgiveness and character restoration to His image as we yield the whole heart to Christ to cleanse and purify. When Christ comes into our hearts, all of the fruits of the Spirit will be seen without one missing, and we are empowered to obey God's law of love up to all the light He has revealed as we affectionately do so because He first loved us!

"That the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." In the light of the Saviour's life, the hearts of all, even from the Creator to the prince of darkness, are revealed. Satan has represented God as selfish and oppressive, as claiming all, and giving nothing, as requiring the service of His creatures for His own glory, and making no sacrifice for their good. But the gift of Christ reveals the Father's heart. It testifies that the thoughts of God toward us are "thoughts of peace, and not of evil." Jeremiah 29:11. It declares that while God's hatred of sin is as strong as death, His love for the sinner is stronger than death. Having undertaken our redemption, He will spare nothing, however dear, which is necessary to the completion of His work. No truth essential to our salvation is withheld, no miracle of mercy is neglected, no divine agency is left unemployed. Favor is heaped upon favor, gift upon gift. The whole treasury of heaven is open to those He seeks to save. Having collected the riches of the universe, and laid open the resources of infinite power, He gives them all into the hands of Christ, and says, All these are for man. Use these gifts to convince him that there is no love greater than Mine in earth or heaven. His greatest happiness will be found in loving Me.

Since true happiness is the result of holiness, it also follows that God is ever seeking to increase our happiness as we grow in God's grace and love and overcome through His power!

Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God's ideal for His children. Godliness--godlikeness--is the goal to be reached. Before the student there is opened a path of continual progress. He has an object to achieve, a standard to attain, that includes everything good, and pure, and noble. He will advance as fast and as far as possible in every branch of true knowledge. But his efforts will be directed to objects as much higher than mere selfish and temporal interests as the heavens are higher than the earth.

May you ever keep the heavenly realities before you, that Christ the hope of glory may live out His life through you in ways that exceed your highest expectations!

[Sean James]

When we realize that Jesus' birth is also a promise of what we may receive by faith, the story of His incarnation takes on a whole new meaning! When we are truly converted, "born of water and of the Spirit" (John 3:3), all of the fruits of the Spirit will be manifest without one missing (Galatians 5:22-23) as we affectionately obey God's law of love (John 14:15, Exodus 20:1-17) from a heart made pure and holy (Ezekiel 36:26) by the atoning blood of Christ (Hebrews 9:22)! The key to victory is abiding (John 15:1-5) in our new identity in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) as "kings and priests" (Revelation 1:6) who get to serve the Lord throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity!

"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the East, and are come to worship Him." 
     The wise men from the East were philosophers. They belonged to a large and influential class that included men of noble birth, and comprised much of the wealth and learning of their nation. Among these were many who imposed on the credulity of the people. Others were upright men who studied the indications of Providence in nature, and who were honored for their integrity and wisdom. Of this character were the wise men who came to Jesus. 

May we walk in the same wisdom to find Jesus today in every experience of life where we gladly go forth to bless others and share the glad tidings of the everlasting gospel call in the context of the Three Angels' Messages of Revelation 14 as Jesus is coming again!!

[Sean James]

It is not your circumstances, but rather your character, that really makes the difference in life!

     Christ was the only sinless one who ever dwelt on earth; yet for nearly thirty years He lived among the wicked inhabitants of Nazareth. This fact is a rebuke to those who think themselves dependent upon place, fortune, or prosperity, in order to live a blameless life. Temptation, poverty, adversity, is the very discipline needed to develop purity and firmness. 

When God allows us to go through trial and tribulation, let us praise Him who so loves us in allowing us to grow in character by having habitual thoughts and feelings upon God in love and affection who so loved us as to come to this earth to live, suffer and die to redeem us and rise from the dead so we also may have victory and eternal life in Him, too! At true conversion, all of the fruits of the Spirit come into the character without one missing, and will keep growing as we walk with Jesus in complete surrender of all we have and are, gladly obeying His law from a new heart!

[Sean James]

Many attend religious services, and are refreshed and comforted by the word of God; but through neglect of meditation, watchfulness, and prayer, they lose the blessing, and find themselves more destitute than before they received it. Often they feel that God has dealt hardly with them. They do not see that the fault is their own. By separating themselves from Jesus, they have shut away the light of His presence. 
     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.

[Sean]

Are we intensely in earnest for the salvation of those around us? If we are imbued with the Holy Spirit, the same godly character we see in Christ will be our character through constant union and communion with Him! All of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will be manifest in our lives without one missing as long as we are united to Christ by living faith surrender of all we have and are! Then we can gladly obey God from the new heart He gives us and keeps pure by His presence!

Yet through childhood, youth, and manhood, Jesus walked alone. In His purity and His faithfulness, He trod the wine press alone, and of the people there was none with Him. He carried the awful weight of responsibility for the salvation of men. He knew that unless there was a decided change in the principles and purposes of the human race, all would be lost. This was the burden of His soul, and none could appreciate the weight that rested upon Him. Filled with intense purpose, He carried out the design of His life that He Himself should be the light of men. 

Jesus calls us to be the light of the world by having His light of selfless love shine through us! "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 5:14-16).

[Sean James]

What an amazing promise!!

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.

I choose to trust Jesus today--faith over feeling--and rely implicitly upon the strength and grace Jesus gives me as I receive a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit! That is the only way to have all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing as I abide in Jesus! May this be your experience, too! Praise the Lord!

[Sean James]

May we all learn the important lesson of implicit trust in the word of God, even as Jesus showed us is possible amid His great temptations in the wilderness after His baptism! His victory by the word is freely offered to us!

"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." Often the follower of Christ is brought where he cannot serve God and carry forward his worldly enterprises. Perhaps it appears that obedience to some plain requirement of God will cut off his means of support. Satan would make him believe that he must sacrifice his conscientious convictions. But the only thing in our world upon which we can rely is the word of God. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matthew 6:33. Even in this life it is not for our good to depart from the will of our Father in heaven. When we learn the power of His word, we shall not follow the suggestions of Satan in order to obtain food or to save our lives. Our only questions will be, What is God's command? and what His promise? Knowing these, we shall obey the one, and trust the other.

Let us obey and trust God affectionately, willingly, and in true conversion whereby all of the fruits of the Spirit are seen in our lives without one missing as we go forth on God's missions for us!

[Sean]

It's just too expensive and valuable to understand. If someone said that they were giving you a planet worth $500 Trillion, would you grasp what that meant? Likely not. Well, what if you were actually being given the entire universe for eternity to enjoy? How can you put that into a financial value? And then to make it better, what if you knew you got to enjoy all that you were being given with heavenly beings and redeemed humanity in perfect fellowship with your Creator forever? So, it is hard for us to grasp what God is giving us, and it is even harder for us to realize what Jesus gave up in coming to this earth, but let us praise Him now and forever!!

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.   

Not only has Jesus given us eternity and Himself to enjoy, but He endured a death-on-account-of-sin experience at Calvary that is incomprehensibly horrific because the Godhead had never been separated before Their experience at the Jesus' death. When the Son of God, divinity did not die, but in becoming sin for us, He felt and experienced a separation that is beyond our power to fully grasp, for every time we have sinned or fallen short of God's glory, up to this point, God has tempered that experienced with mercy. When Jesus died, He felt the full wrath of God against transgression, as will those who are finally lost and consumed in the lake of fire and turn to ashes (Malachi 4) will experience! Oh, let us be INTENSELY in EARNEST to save souls from the death that Christ already endured for us, and day by day overcome sin, the world and the devil by continually surrendering our WHOLE HEART to Jesus so all of the fruits of the Spirit may be in our lives without one missing as we affectionately obey God!!

[Sean]

What a blessing to choose to follow Christ's method and walk in His will! When we yield all of the heart to Him, all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will be manifest in our lives as we grow in affectionately obeying God and blessing others!

It was by personal contact and association that Jesus trained His disciples. Sometimes He taught them, sitting among them on the mountainside; sometimes beside the sea, or walking with them by the way, He revealed the mysteries of the kingdom of God. He did not sermonize as men do today. Wherever hearts were open to receive the divine message, He unfolded the truths of the way of salvation. He did not command His disciples to do this or that, but said, "Follow Me." On His journeys through country and cities He took them with Him, that they might see how He taught the people. He linked their interest with His, and they united with Him in the work.

As we are linked up with Christ, He empowers us to do new things for His kingdom!

[Sean]

Happy Sabbath!!

Jesus is alive and well able to save us from sin!!

In the cleansing of the temple, Jesus was announcing His mission as the Messiah, and entering upon His work. That temple, erected for the abode of the divine Presence, was designed to be an object lesson for Israel and for the world. From eternal ages it was God's purpose that every created being, from the bright and holy seraph to man, should be a temple for the indwelling of the Creator. Because of sin, humanity ceased to be a temple for God. Darkened and defiled by evil, the heart of man no longer revealed the glory of the Divine One. But by the incarnation of the Son of God, the purpose of Heaven is fulfilled. God dwells in humanity, and through saving grace the heart of man becomes again His temple. God designed that the temple at Jerusalem should be a continual witness to the high destiny open to every soul. But the Jews had not understood the significance of the building they regarded with so much pride. They did not yield themselves as holy temples for the Divine Spirit. The courts of the temple at Jerusalem, filled with the tumult of unholy traffic, represented all too truly the temple of the heart, defiled by the presence of sensual passion and unholy thoughts. In cleansing the temple from the world's buyers and sellers, Jesus announced His mission to cleanse the heart from the defilement of sin,--from the earthly desires, the selfish lusts, the evil habits, that corrupt the soul. "The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver." Mal. 3:1-3.

May we fully yield the whole heart to Jesus so He can manifest through us all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing as we grow in His grace!