The Glory of God

[Sean James]

Praise God for the risen Christ who can save us from sin! His resurrection, His life and teachings, are all about helping us to experience His death to sin and His perfect life of holiness! With Jesus, the Savior Shepherd, we can overcome! Of ourselves, we are incapable of doing any good thing, but when we open our hearts to the miracle of His divine grace, Jesus makes us new and heals the disorders of our sin-sick souls so He can work in and through us His work of righteousness, which will bring true peace. He gladly fills us with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing and empowers us to affectionately obey God because we love Him who first loved us! Let's allow Him to send us forth to be a blessing to others each day as we receive the salvation so dearly purchased with His blood shed for us at Calvary! With His stripes we are healed, by beholding we become changed, and His intercessory ministry in heaven right now is for the purpose of preparing us to dwell in the society of holy angels! Jesus is coming again!!

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” Psalm 51:17. Man must be emptied of self before he can be, in the fullest sense, a believer in Jesus. When self is renounced, then the Lord can make man a new creature. New bottles can contain the new wine. The love of Christ will animate the believer with new life. In him who looks unto the Author and Finisher of our faith the character of Christ will be manifest.

[Sean James]

Need some rest? Thankfully, God has provided the rest our souls all need--first in true conversion to Christ as we surrender fully to Him, setting us free from the unrest of sin, and then included in this experiential gift of salvation is His loving command to us to keep the seventh day Sabbath, a special temple in time to build our relationship with God in holiness and joy!

And the Lord says, “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; ... then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.” Isaiah 58:13, 14. To all who receive the Sabbath as a sign of Christ's creative and redeeming power, it will be a delight. Seeing Christ in it, they delight themselves in Him. The Sabbath points them to the works of creation as an evidence of His mighty power in redemption. While it calls to mind the lost peace of Eden, it tells of peace restored through the Saviour. And every object in nature repeats His invitation, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28.

When we truly rest in saving faith upon Christ, all of the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives without one missing; we will be empowered to obey God's law up to the degree we understand it, and as we enter into rest here by faith, we get a foretaste of the rest God has prepared for us in heaven and the new earth! Thankfully, even in eternity we will get to enjoy the Sabbath each seventh day! "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 66:22-23). Let's allow Jesus to lead us in His will each day in preparation for eternity! Praise the Lord!!

[Sean James]

What is so special about John, "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (John 21:20)? Why was He so close to Jesus? To better understand John's intimate relationship with Jesus, we need to reflect on how Jesus worked with His disciples and what He was offering them. He was offering them His very life of unselfishness; He yearned for them to become like Him in mind and character through their unique personalities. He loved all of them, but He let them choose how close they desired to be to Him. He invites us, too, to be as close to Him as possible!

These disciples had been for some time associated with Jesus in active labor. John and James, Andrew and Peter, with Philip, Nathanael, and Matthew, had been more closely connected with Him than the others, and had witnessed more of His miracles. Peter, James, and John stood in still nearer relationship to Him. They were almost constantly with Him, witnessing His miracles, and hearing His words. John pressed into still closer intimacy with Jesus, so that he is distinguished as the one whom Jesus loved. The Saviour loved them all, but John's was the most receptive spirit. He was younger than the others, and with more of the child's confiding trust he opened his heart to Jesus. Thus he came more into sympathy with Christ, and through him the Saviour's deepest spiritual teaching was communicated to His people.

Did you catch that? John was younger than the others, and because he was more receptive, Christ could teach John His deepest spiritual teaching! The amazing thing is that Jesus is looking for "modern day Johns" who will be childlike in confiding trust, receptive to His Spirit, and willing to be shaped by His deep spiritual teaching. If you are willing, why not pray that God will lead you even now to go deeper with Jesus by His word and then share with others of the overflow of what you know of Him! A GREAT book in which to discover Jesus' loveliness is The Desire of Ages, and prayerfully reading its pages is such a wonderful way to draw nearer to Jesus!! By beholding Christ, we become changed!! We can rejoice that it is as we by faith surrender fully to Christ that we become partakers of the divine nature, keeping the corruption of our fallen nature crucified! Christ abiding in us will thus give the Holy Spirit power to manifest all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing in and through us as we are empowered to gladly obey God up to the light of His holy law of (the Ten Commandments) that we understand. Praise God for the privilege of being a true disciple of Jesus! Let's go with Him as deep as possible!! "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded" (James 4:. When we are drawing near to God, He is drawing near to us! After all, the desire to come to God first comes from Him!!

[Sean James]

While we cannot earn it, in humility we are to receive it. Salvation is a gift from God and yet it is a gift that will completely transform the life as in complete surrender the righteousness of Christ is received into the life.

The proud heart strives to earn salvation; but both our title to heaven and our fitness for it are found in the righteousness of Christ. The Lord can do nothing toward the recovery of man until, convinced of his own weakness, and stripped of all self-sufficiency, he yields himself to the control of God. Then he can receive the gift that God is waiting to bestow. From the soul that feels his need, nothing is withheld. He has unrestricted access to Him in whom all fullness dwells. “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” Isaiah 57:15.

When we acknowledge our deep need of Jesus' guidance and grace and in sincerity surrender fully to Him, He supplies all our need. Christ will come to abide in the soul fully yielded to Him, imbuing the character with the supernatural attributes of His divine nature--all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing--empowering the soul to walk in true obedience to all of God's commandments! May you gladly walk in harmony with God today as a true missionary to be a blessing to others!

[Sean James]

We can learn a lot from the faith of Jesus as is manifested in the experience of the centurion. He trusted that Jesus' word would do exactly what Jesus said. Jesus, the Son of God, depended completely on the Father's word to Him at each step in His life, and this "faith of Jesus"--depending completely and solely on the word of God to do what it says, is accessible to us even now! By yielding the WHOLE heart to Christ, He can then work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure, filling us with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing, and empowering us to obey His holy law up to the degree we understand it because we love Him who first loved us!

Jesus immediately set out for the officer's home; but, pressed by the multitude, He advanced slowly. The news of His coming preceded Him, and the centurion, in his self-distrust, sent Him the message, “Lord, trouble not Thyself: for I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof.” But the Saviour kept on His way, and the centurion, venturing at last to approach Him, completed the message, saying, “Neither thought I myself worthy to come unto Thee;” “but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.” As I represent the power of Rome, and my soldiers recognize my authority as supreme, so dost Thou represent the power of the Infinite God, and all created things obey Thy word. Thou canst command the disease to depart, and it shall obey Thee. Thou canst summon Thy heavenly messengers, and they shall impart healing virtue. Speak but the word, and my servant shall be healed.

While we do not deserve to be saved, we can see CLEARLY from the word of God that He desires to save us, and that His grace is sufficient for us as we abide in Him who loved us and gave His only begotten Son to redeem us from all sin! Jesus is preparing us for heaven as we walk by faith, depending on his word to do just what it says! He will come again very soon for those who, like the centurion, trust His word fully and entirely!!

[Sean James]

We are so loved and valuable to Jesus--as He came to this earth and became our Brother, died to redeem us, and is inviting us to follow His steps of love all the way to heaven!

Christ loves the heavenly beings that surround His throne; but what shall account for the great love wherewith He has loved us? We cannot understand it, but we can know it true in our own experience. And if we do hold the relation of kinship to Him, with what tenderness should we regard those who are brethren and sisters of our Lord! Should we not be quick to recognize the claims of our divine relationship? Adopted into the family of God, should we not honor our Father and our kindred?

The closeness which we may have with God and others all depends upon our complete surrender to Christ--to have ongoing union and communion with Christ. All of the fruits of the Spirit will be manifest in our lives as we are abiding in Him and cheerfully, promptly obedient to the light of truth He has revealed to us! Let's abide in the family of God and let His love flow in and through us! May you have a very happy Sabbath as it comes at sunset this Friday!

[Sean James]

Happy Sabbath!!

May you truly rest in perfect surrender to Jesus so He can teach you His lessons of love and calm trust in His will and way. By yielding the whole heart to Him, He makes it His abiding place and fills the life with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing! His Spirit makes it possible to truly obey up to the light He has revealed because Christ lives out His life in and through us!

“Learn of Me,” says Jesus; “for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest.” We are to enter the school of Christ, to learn from Him meekness and lowliness. Redemption is that process by which the soul is trained for heaven. This training means a knowledge of Christ. It means emancipation from ideas, habits, and practices that have been gained in the school of the prince of darkness. The soul must be delivered from all that is opposed to loyalty to God.

It was disloyalty to God's law of love that led to the rebellion in heaven when Lucifer wanted to do things "his way" apart from God's love and wisdom. Oh, let us allow Jesus to fully emancipate us so we can have the rest of soul that only comes in His presence and His will being done in and through us!

[Sean James]

Find another way! After Jesus healed the demoniacs and the swine were destroyed, even though the people did not desire Jesus' presence, He found another way to reach them--by sending them the healed men as testimonies of His love and grace. Let us pray that God will give us wisdom to "find another way" to reach someone when one avenue seems closed at a certain time.

Though the people of Gergesa had not received Jesus, He did not leave them to the darkness they had chosen. When they bade Him depart from them, they had not heard His words. They were ignorant of that which they were rejecting. Therefore He again sent the light to them, and by those to whom they would not refuse to listen.

God is gracious and sees the end from the beginning. We need to have a vital connection with God in true conversion so all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will be manifest in our lives. As we gladly obey the light of truth as He reveals it, we can courageously walk in the doors His providence opens for us. The healed men would be the most effective testimony to reach the surrounding region, and so we can let Jesus heal our lives to be living testimonies of His character, too!

[Sean James]

God is so faithful! And He desires to reveal that testimony of His faithfulness through you!

Our confession of His faithfulness is Heaven's chosen agency for revealing Christ to the world. We are to acknowledge His grace as made known through the holy men of old; but that which will be most effectual is the testimony of our own experience. We are witnesses for God as we reveal in ourselves the working of a power that is divine. Every individual has a life distinct from all others, and an experience differing essentially from theirs. God desires that our praise shall ascend to Him, marked by our own individuality. These precious acknowledgments to the praise of the glory of His grace, when supported by a Christ-like life, have an irresistible power that works for the salvation of souls.

As we let the Holy Spirit into our hearts, all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will flow like a living stream of His grace to refresh us and bless others! What joy it is to truly obey God up to the light that He has shown us in His law of love! The more we know of God, the more intense will be our happiness! God IS faithful!! Let's live in fully faith of that truth!!

[Sean James]

What does "family" mean to you? Well, if you look at Jesus' life and ministry, it was His loving plan to include the apostles in His family. You are invited into Jesus' family, too! By surrendering your whole heart to Jesus, He will come abide in you and fill you with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing, empowering you to obey God's law of love up to the light He has revealed and you understand.

The apostles were members of the family of Jesus, and they had accompanied Him as He traveled on foot through Galilee. They had shared with Him the toils and hardships that overtook them. They had listened to His discourses, they had walked and talked with the Son of God, and from His daily instruction they had learned how to work for the elevation of humanity. As Jesus ministered to the vast multitudes that gathered about Him, His disciples were in attendance, eager to do His bidding and to lighten His labor. They assisted in arranging the people, bringing the afflicted ones to the Saviour, and promoting the comfort of all. They watched for interested hearers, explained the Scriptures to them, and in various ways worked for their spiritual benefit. They taught what they had learned of Jesus, and were every day obtaining a rich experience. But they needed also an experience in laboring alone. They were still in need of much instruction, great patience and tenderness. Now, while He was personally with them, to point out their errors, and counsel and correct them, the Saviour sent them forth as His representatives.

Jesus is able to guide us continually in the joy of selfless service and partaking of His character to reflect Him to the world! He empowers us to give the Three Angels' Messages to the world in our time, now! Jesus is coming again to take us to our eternal family--all the redeemed and the angels together forever!!

[Sean James]

Jesus' invitation is open to you today! He knows that we often get so busy that it seems challenging to have meaningful time to be with Him, so He graciously calls us to come and commune with Him to be strengthened to do His will through His abiding presence!

“Come ye yourselves apart,” He bids us. If we would give heed to His word, we should be stronger and more useful. The disciples sought Jesus, and told Him all things; and He encouraged and instructed them. If today we would take time to go to Jesus and tell Him our needs, we should not be disappointed; He would be at our right hand to help us. We need more simplicity, more trust and confidence in our Saviour. He whose name is called “The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace;” He of whom it is written, “The government shall be upon His shoulder,” is the Wonderful Counselor. We are invited to ask wisdom of Him. He “giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not.” Isaiah 9:6; James 1:5.

As we come to Christ just as we are, opening our whole heart to His life and character, it is in total surrender to Him that we experience all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing, for the abiding Savior also empowers us to obey Him from the heart up to the light He has revealed! Praise God for the time we can take with Jesus to grow more like Him! His desire is to make us truly happy in His will and way!

[Sean James]

God's eternal kingdom will triumph over the temporary kingdom Satan has sought to establish based on sin. We need to be encouraged in the Lord by spending time with Him to know that He will provide for all our needs in Christ Jesus, especially our greatest need to be truly converted and have all of the fruits of the Spirit in our lives without one missing as we choose to abide in Him and obey Him up to the light of His truth that He has shown us! We can be thankful that God is in charge, and He will provide at each step in the way to heaven, even like He did when Jesus was surrounded by hungry crowds and all that seemed to be available was five loaves and two small fishes. But with God's blessing upon it, the miracle of all being fed with even twelve baskets left over proves that God is able to do more than we can ask or think! Let's trust God each moment with all we have and are for His service to always be first!!

The work of building up the kingdom of Christ will go forward, though to all appearance it moves slowly and impossibilities seem to testify against advance. The work is of God, and He will furnish means, and will send helpers, true, earnest disciples, whose hands also will be filled with food for the starving multitude. God is not unmindful of those who labor in love to give the word of life to perishing souls, who in their turn reach forth their hands for food for other hungry souls.

As the loaves and fishes multiplied, so can God multiply the needed workers to carry forward His kingdom in harmony with His eternal principles of righteousness!

[Sean James]

Because God loves us, He allows trials in our lives that prepare us for greater trials, as His great desire is to see His character reflected in us so we are ready to be with Him in heaven where all is happiness, peace and glory! Peter was graciously given an opportunity to see his own weakness so he need not have denied Jesus before Christ's crucifixion. Let's learn from today's trials to prepare us for the ones yet to come leading up to the second coming of Christ!

Jesus read the character of His disciples. He knew how sorely their faith was to be tried. In this incident on the sea He desired to reveal to Peter his own weakness,—to show that his safety was in constant dependence upon divine power. Amid the storms of temptation he could walk safely only as in utter self-distrust he should rely upon the Saviour. It was on the point where he thought himself strong that Peter was weak; and not until he discerned his weakness could he realize his need of dependence upon Christ. Had he learned the lesson that Jesus sought to teach him in that experience on the sea, he would not have failed when the great test came upon him.

Without one missing, all of the fruits of the Spirit will abide in our hearts to be reflected in the life if we are fully surrendered to Christ and walking in harmony with His will in true obedience! Let's learn of Christ today in humility and go forth to be a blessing by having profited from God's daily instruction!!

[Sean James]

Happy Sabbath!!

Let us open our hearts to Jesus, the Bread of Life, and assimilate His character as our own experience in preparation for heaven!!

To eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ is to receive Him as a personal Saviour, believing that He forgives our sins, and that we are complete in Him. It is by beholding His love, by dwelling upon it, by drinking it in, that we are to become partakers of His nature. What food is to the body, Christ must be to the soul. Food cannot benefit us unless we eat it, unless it becomes a part of our being. So Christ is of no value to us if we do not know Him as a personal Saviour. A theoretical knowledge will do us no good. We must feed upon Him, receive Him into the heart, so that His life becomes our life. His love, His grace, must be assimilated.

What a miracle that we can be new in Christ! His Spirit, received into the soul, connects us with the divine nature with all of His heavenly attributes without one missing! Christ abiding in us will actuate our conduct and empower us to obey Him up to the light He has graciously revealed to us! Let's go forward in faith to share the grace of God that has first touched and converted our souls as we surrender and continually surrender all to Jesus!!

[Sean James]

What are you planting? Not just in a literal sense, but by your words and example. We can learn from the experience Jesus had with the religious leaders in regard to tradition that any tradition which is planted, taught and cherished as supplanting or superseding the word of God will ultimately be uprooted. Let us look to Jesus, His word and His perfect example to find what it would be well for us to plant in our character building so we can be ready for heaven, where only what God has planted will endure! Every tradition contradicting God's word is like a weed in the way of the precious plant of heavenly love and truth!

But “every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” In place of the authority of the so-called fathers of the church, God bids us accept the word of the eternal Father, the Lord of heaven and earth. Here alone is truth unmixed with error. David said, “I have more understanding than all my teachers: for Thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Thy precepts.” Psalm 119:99, 100. Let all who accept human authority, the customs of the church, or the traditions of the fathers, take heed to the warning conveyed in the words of Christ, “In vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

As we surrender fully to Jesus, all of the fruits of the Spirit will be manifest in our lives as we apply His word to our characters and live in harmony with His law of love up to the light He has shown us! Let us keep looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith and let the traditions of this world pass away from our experience because we have found a better "seed packet" to draw from--the Bible!! With 31,102 verses, there are plenty of promises and precepts to fill the garden of our hearts with what is true and good!