The Glory of God

[Sean James]

Happy Sabbath to you all! Let us rejoice in the Lord always as we grow in His grace and appreciate all He has done to save us from sin! From the manger to Calvary Jesus fought the battle and He WON!! We get to enjoy His victory by coming into harmony with Him by grace through faith! 

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.
     
Because Jesus fought the battle in humanity and won by relying always on the word of God, we, too, can experience His victory and be with Him forever! Satan is defeated and we need to depend on the Father's love in every moment to help us do the right thing from the new heart given us in conversion! All of the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives without one missing as long as we are abiding in Christ!!

[Sean James]

Let us remember how Jesus was received on earth and let it comfort us if we are not always received favorably when Christ lives in us. He was persecuted because His life revealed the love of God, and as the love of God flows from our hearts that are truly converted in Christ in complete surrender, all of the fruits of the Spirit will be manifest in our lives without one missing! God will empower us to obey God even if our life is threatened with death! Let us be faithful to the end by abiding in Jesus' love and keeping uppermost in our mind His grace and love to us!

Such was the Saviour's reception when He came to the earth. 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.

Jesus is coming soon and we can rejoice in His goodness to us to save us from sin and prepare a heavenly mansion for each of us! Even if this earth does not provide the kind of rest or safety we would desire, we have Jesus as an Example as one who passed through this life without sin because He kept trusting His Father at each step. Let our Heavenly Father lead each day and you will experience the victory of Jesus!!

[Sean James]

Praise the Lord for Jesus who is offering us His experience! We can rejoice in Him always and walk by grace through faith in His word! As we surrender the whole heart to Him, all of the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives without one missing as we are empowered to obey God from the new heart He gives us!

Jesus carried into His labor cheerfulness and tact. It requires much patience and spirituality to bring Bible religion into the home life and into the workshop, to bear the strain of worldly business, and yet keep the eye single to the glory of God. This is where Christ was a helper. He was never so full of worldly care as to have no time or thought for heavenly things. Often He expressed the gladness of His heart by singing psalms and heavenly songs. Often the dwellers in Nazareth heard His voice raised in praise and thanksgiving to God. He held communion with heaven in song; and as His companions complained of weariness from labor, they were cheered by the sweet melody from His lips. His praise seemed to banish the evil angels, and, like incense, fill the place with fragrance. The minds of His hearers were carried away from their earthly exile, to the heavenly home.   

We are traveling through this life on the way to heaven as we let Jesus lead us day by day! Choose to follow His pattern of life to be wrought into your character building experience, and trust Him to direct your steps in the way of blessedness! Jesus is coming again, and oh how He loves to see us forming characters by His grace that reflect His image, for by beholding we become changed!

[Sean James]

Are you hungry for the word of God, to see and love the Lamb of God? Jesus desired to understand the Scriptures that revealed His own mission, and in doing so, He was a loving witness sent from the Father to shed light upon other hearts and minds at the Passover visit He first took. Well would it be for us, also, to realize the importance of yielding to the Holy Spirit who gives us a hunger and thirst for truth so we can impart what God gives us to others!

Jesus presented Himself as one thirsting for a knowledge of God. His questions were suggestive of deep truths which had long been obscured, yet which were vital to the salvation of souls. While showing how narrow and superficial was the wisdom of the wise men, every question put before them a divine lesson, and placed truth in a new aspect. The rabbis spoke of the wonderful elevation which the Messiah's coming would bring to the Jewish nation; but Jesus presented the prophecy of Isaiah, and asked them the meaning of those scriptures that point to the suffering and death of the Lamb of God. 

Jesus loves us and has good plans for us. As our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary at this very time, He is interceding for us and soon He will finish His work there and return in the clouds of glory as our King! This is all because He first fulfilled His sacrificial role as the Lamb of God! Let us yield fully to Him so He can manifest through us all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing as we are gladly empowered to obey God from the new heart He gives us by His grace!

[Sean James]

Praise the Lord, Brother Beacon, Brother Richard, and God bless you all who read and are blessed here!! You matter to God! Jesus taught us to value eternal things over temporal things, and He spent His time in a way that revealed this value system. Rather than seeking happiness from sources that are transient, He sought it in communion with God in nature, a reminder that this is how God intends for us to find true happiness! God bless you in following Jesus all the way to heaven as we yield the whole heart to Him so all of the fruits of the Spirit will be manifest in the life as we overcome by His grace and are empowered to keep the commandments of God through the faith of Jesus!!

From the time when the parents of Jesus found Him in the temple, His course of action was a mystery to them. He would not enter into controversy, yet His example was a constant lesson. He seemed as one who was set apart. His hours of happiness were found when alone with nature and with God. Whenever it was His privilege, He turned aside from the scene of His labor, to go into the fields, to meditate in the green valleys, to hold communion with God on the mountainside or amid the trees of the forest. The early morning often found Him in some secluded place, meditating, searching the Scriptures, or in prayer. From these quiet hours He would return to His home to take up His duties again, and to give an example of patient toil.

The loveliness of Jesus is so powerful to encourage us to walk by grace through faith in His will! Walk with Him and enjoy constant union and communion with Christ!! 

[Sean James]

Let us allow Christ to take our whole heart which really belongs to Him, so He can do what He LONGS to do in recreating us into His image of unselfish love! Only by consent and cooperation with the Holy Spirit can we overcome through Christ! Christ lives out His life in those who look away from self and choose to walk in His righteousness, like what John the Baptist chose!

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. 

When we see how glorious Jesus truly is, self will no longer clamor to be recognized. We shall be happy to be anything or nothing as His providence shall indicate for the fulfilling of the everlasting gospel proclamation to the world! Jesus is coming soon!

[Sean James]

Happy Sabbath!!

When do we become children of God?

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." 1 John 3:2. Our Redeemer has opened the way so that the most sinful, the most needy, the most oppressed and despised, may find access to the Father. All may have a home in the mansions which Jesus has gone to prepare. "These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; . . . behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." Revelation 3:7, 8.

It is when the soul is converted that the adoption into the heavenly family takes place! Beholding the loveliness of Jesus, yielding all the heart to Him, He will cleanse and transform the life into His image by filling the soul with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing, empowering to affectionate obedience to all of God's commandments! True conversion will lead the soul to desire to follow Jesus' call and example to also be baptized, thus revealing in humble faith the death to sin and self and resurrection to a new life in Christ Jesus in true righteousness by faith!

[Sean James]

What a joy it is to allow Jesus to perfect our characters as we cooperate with Him by accepting the power of His word to work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure! When the whole heart is yielded to Christ, all of the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in the life without one missing as we are empowered to do His will obediently from a sincere appreciation of the loveliness of His character! Christ overcame by the word and He offers us His victory today!

 "The prince of this world cometh," said Jesus, "and hath nothing in Me." John 14:30. There was in Him nothing that responded to Satan's sophistry. He did not consent to sin. Not even by a thought did He yield to temptation. So it may be with us. Christ's humanity was united with divinity; He was fitted for the conflict by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And He came to make us partakers of the divine nature. So long as we are united to Him by faith, sin has no more dominion over us. God reaches for the hand of faith in us to direct it to lay fast hold upon the divinity of Christ, that we may attain to perfection of character. 

The perfection of character Christ offers us is one that grows and matures. As long as we are fully surrendered to Christ and walking in all the light He has revealed to us, we are perfect at that stage of development, growing more like Him day by day. If we see areas of our characters that God's word reveals need to be changed, we rejoice that Jesus has the power to save us "to the uttermost" (Hebrews 7:25), knowing that He will give us strength and grace to stand faithful to Him because we have learned to trust and obey Him. The experience of Enoch and Elijah who are already in heaven may be our experience by abiding in the word and letting its supernatural power work in us its reality!

[Sean James]

We can never truly say, "The devil made me do it." God gives us the freedom to choose Christ who has the power to save us from sin. When we yield fully to Christ, He lives in us and imbues us with the Holy Spirit so all of the traits of the divine nature are manifest in us so we can experience consistent victory in affectionate obedience to God's law of love! Ask God to remove any sinful desires that afflict you and let Christ empower you to overcome as He did--by the word of God, whereby we are made "partakers of the divine nature" as we trust in His promises!

 The tempter can never compel us to do evil. He cannot control minds unless they are yielded to his control. The will must consent, faith must let go its hold upon Christ, before Satan can exercise his power upon us. But every sinful desire we cherish affords him a foothold. Every point in which we fail of meeting the divine standard is an open door by which he can enter to tempt and destroy us. And every failure or defeat on our part gives occasion for him to reproach Christ.

When we do God's will it is a blessing, but to let go of Jesus for even a moment is a great loss. Let us acknowledge Him in all our ways, for He will direct our paths!

[Sean James]

What do the angels bring us in their ministry in connection with Christ by the Holy Spirit?

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John 1:51)

     Here Christ virtually says, On the bank of the Jordan the heavens were opened, and the Spirit descended like a dove upon Me. That scene was but a token that I am the Son of God. If you believe on Me as such, your faith shall be quickened. You shall see that the heavens are opened, and are never to be closed. I have opened them to you. The angels of God are ascending, bearing the prayers of the needy and distressed to the Father above, and descending, bringing blessing and hope, courage, help, and life, to the children of men. 

As the angels help us, let us cooperate with their ministry and surrender fully to Jesus so all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will be manifest in our lives as we are empowered to obey God from the new heart and live up to the light He has revealed to us! Jesus is coming again and He will come with all His holy angels!

[Sean James]

What a joy to experience the blessing of Christ living in us, and giving us great joy to bless others! When we yield fully to Christ, He fills us with His holy presence and produces in us the fruit of the Spirit as the expression of our union and communion with Him! May you find great peace in God working in and through you today to bless others!

Christ is pleased with His followers when they show that, though human, they are partakers of the divine nature. They are not statues, but living men and women. Their hearts, refreshed by the dews of divine grace, open and expand to the Sun of Righteousness. The light that shines upon them they reflect upon others in works that are luminous with the love of Christ.

As we grow in Christ, not only will be gladly obey the light of truth that He has revealed to us, but we will be empowered to be more and more like Christ who has no limit to what He can do in and thorough a life truly converted to Him! Praise the Lord!

[Sean James]

Why did Jesus speak these words?

"Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19).

It was for the sake of those who should believe on Him that these words of Christ were spoken. He knew that they would be repeated. Being spoken at the Passover, they would come to the ears of thousands, and be carried to all parts of the world. After He had risen from the dead, their meaning would be made plain. To many they would be conclusive evidence of His divinity.

When Jesus spoke these words they were not understood, but they WOULD be understood at a later time. We can trust that God's word is true, and let Jesus guide us in His perfect will. Surrender to Him fully and you will experience Him reshaping your character after His image so He can imbue you with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing as you are empowered to obey God's law from the heart renewed by divine grace! Praise the Lord!

[Sean James]

What is the evidence of true conversion?

The wind is heard among the branches of the trees, rustling the leaves and flowers; yet it is invisible, and no man knows whence it comes or whither it goes. So with the work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart. It can no more be explained than can the movements of the wind. A person may not be able to tell the exact time or place, or to trace all the circumstances in the process of conversion; but this does not prove him to be unconverted. By an agency as unseen as the wind, Christ is constantly working upon the heart. Little by little, perhaps unconsciously to the receiver, impressions are made that tend to draw the soul to Christ. These may be received through meditating upon Him, through reading the Scriptures, or through hearing the word from the living preacher. Suddenly, as the Spirit comes with more direct appeal, the soul gladly surrenders itself to Jesus. By many this is called sudden conversion; but it is the result of long wooing by the Spirit of God,—a patient, protracted process.

It is in GLADLY surrendering FULLY to Jesus that one is converted, and the effect in the life is that all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will supernaturally be revealed because Christ lives within the soul temple! The soul then yearns to obey God from the new heart and does so up to the light revealed and the strength and capacity that God imparts to the soul by His grace. In finite human weakness, God's abundant grace makes up for our deficiencies when the heart desires to obey God and does so willingly, for "if ye love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15) is a promise of what the soul WILL DO when true conversion has taken place. We will not seek the lowest standard, but desire to be perfectly conformed to the image of Him in whom our hope of eternal life is centered!

[Sean James]

Why does God not always use the same person to accomplish His work?

The work of God is not to bear the image and superscription of man. From time to time the Lord will bring in different agencies, through whom His purpose can best be accomplished. Happy are they who are willing for self to be humbled, saying with John the Baptist, "He must increase, but I must decrease."

As we realize that God has a thousand ways to provide for us and the furthering of His work of which we know nothing, we can be so grateful to let Jesus be magnified and self be crucified! In complete surrender to Christ we come into union and communion with Him, receiving all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing, so the focus will be on how to present His attractive loveliness before the world so others are drawn to Him and enabled to overcome even as He did in true obedience to God! By uniting with Christ by the creative word that produces that which it promises, we can be grateful that God will give us what is best in the furthering of His kingdom, whether that be our promotion to be used in a more prominent way or that we are in the background, either way serving to uplift Jesus and the present truth for this time, and not ourselves!

[Sean James]

What can we learn from the woman at the well in John 4?

This woman represents the working of a practical faith in Christ. Every true disciple is born into the kingdom of God as a missionary. He who drinks of the living water becomes a fountain of life. The receiver becomes a giver. The grace of Christ in the soul is like a spring in the desert, welling up to refresh all, and making those who are ready to perish eager to drink of the water of life. 

When we accept Christ as a personal Savior and let Him be Lord of our life, a full yielding of the heart to Him allows the Holy Spirit to change us and to empower us to live above the pull of sin from our past or present. We become true missionaries who love to bless others! When the whole heart is offered to Christ in happy worship, all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will be manifest in our lives and we will be enabled to obey God up to the glorious light He has shown us in His law of unselfish love!