Jesus Loves His People

John 15:9

As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you.

 

As the Father loves the Son, in the same manner Jesus loves His people. What is that divine method? He loved Him without beginning, and thus Jesus loves His members. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love." You can trace the beginning of human affection; you can easily find the beginning of your love to Christ, but His love to us is a stream whose source is hidden in eternity. God the Father loves Jesus without any change. Christian, take this for your comfort, that there is no change in Jesus Christ's love to those who rest in Him. Yesterday you were on Tabor's top, and you said, "He loves me:" to-day you are in the valley of humiliation, but He loves you still the same. On the hill Mizar, and among the Hermons, you heard His voice, which spake so sweetly with the turtle-notes of love; and now on the sea, or even in the sea, when all His waves and billows go over you, His heart is faithful to His ancient choice. The Father loves the Son without any end, and thus does the Son love His people. Saint, thou needest not fear the loosing of the silver cord, for His love for thee will never cease. Rest confident that even down to the grave Christ will go with you, and that up again from it He will be your guide to the celestial hills. Moreover, the Father loves the Son without any measure, and the same immeasurable love the Son bestows upon His chosen ones. The whole heart of Christ is dedicated to His people. He "loved us and gave Himself for us." His is a love which passeth knowledge. Ah! we have indeed an immutable Saviour, a precious Saviour, one who loves without measure, without change, without beginning, and without end, even as the Father loves Him! There is much food here for those who know how to digest it. May the Holy Ghost lead us into its marrow and fatness!

~Charles Spurgeon~

Men Whose Eyes Have Seen the King # 13

Four Major Elements

Do you notice how this Transfiguration was the confirmation and complement of all the teaching? Look again at the record of the Transfiguration in Matthew 17. What have we? We have the four major elements of the Christian faith and the Christian life:

1. The Person of the Lord Jesus

"When Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Who do men say that the Son of man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." He saith unto them, "But who say ye that I am?" And Simon Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." And Jesus answered and said unto him, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonas: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 16:13-17).

"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." I think that there it might have been said that Peter, once again, did not know what he was talking about! It was a tremendous utterance: "Thou art the Messiah! Thou art the Messiah!" Both "Christ" and "Messiah" mean "The Anointed One," and, as such, the Son of the Living God. Here is the basic fact of Christianity - the Person of the Lord Jesus. For a man like Peter, a Jew, versed and saturated in the Old Testament and Jewish history, to say that, meant far more than we realize. Think of the tremendous things that were bound up with that word "Messiah!"

There were three great conceptions of the Messiah in Israel. The first we find in the first part of the prophecies of Isaiah - the "Son of David"; the Seed and the Son of David. You remember Isaiah's prophecy about "the shoot of Jesse" (Isaiah 11:1): that was the first conception of the coming Messiah, the Anointed One, Who should take over the Throne of David, and all that that meant.

In the second part of Isaiah, the Messiah is the Suffering Servant of Jehovah; King-Redeemer, Redeemer-King; and Isaiah 53 stands right at the center of that conception of the Messiah. We see the Throne, and Redemption: how it is going to work out.

~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 14)

Surrender in Thanks

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

What do you do when nothing but uncertainty and insecurity fill your mind? How do you overcome the sensation that your entire body is burning as a result of fear and panic? Whether we admit it or not, all of us will have to deal at times with circumstances that overwhelm us. We all go through problems that take us by surprise, come out of nowhere and make us feel trapped that we have to surrender to its way. It has been in these times that I have cried out to God from the depths of my heart, “Why?” My thoughts range from “What have I done wrong to deserve this?” to “Where is God?” My mind sorts through the circumstance until I am exhausted, while my body burns like a fire that melts my insides. For some of us, we share the pain we are suffering because we are searching for answers and trying to sort through our thoughts and emotions. For others, we attempt to control and mask the thoughts and emotions so no one will suspect the struggles we face.

Regardless of how we look or feel in a time of crises, we need to learn how to get through those times with the Lord. The circumstances may seem to trap us, but getting and keeping control are not the answers. The only way to find freedom when life has pinned you down and chained you in is through surrender.

The word “surrender” has mixed connotations. It is an easier word to accept than “submit” but it really does have the same meaning. During those times that our mouth is praying out of panic, our inward soul needs to learn to surrender and submit to the sovereign, all powerful, ever present God. In other words, your heart needs to speak words of praise and thanksgiving even though your flesh (including your mind) is pleading for God to rescue you. It is in this place of praise that an overwhelming peace begins to cover your heart, mind, soul and quenches the fire within you. To give thanks in everything is a hard action to apply. The Christian who can truly apply this principle to his or her life demonstrates a real maturity in their walk. It is in this place that the chains of oppression will be broken, setting the captive free.

Pray about it: Oh Lord, teach me how to sincerely praise You in the good times so that a wellspring of thanks may truly overflow from my heart during those frightening, overwhelming trials. I want to walk in power and peace. I know that they stem from a heart of praise. Help me to have that heart of thanksgiving for everything You are doing in my life. In Jesus name, Amen.

~Daily Disciples Devotional~

Men Whose Eyes Have Seen the King # 12

Cohesive Power

Further, in this vision, there is the effect of cohesion. A vision is a very cohesive thing: that is, it has the power of drawing people together, holding them together, making them a "together", people - those who are going on together. They have one vision. The great illustration of this is Nehemiah and the people of his time with their one vision. Look at all the variety of people, and variety of gifts and qualifications - every kind of artisan and profession mentioned; every sphere of life; but they are one people, a solid whole, simply because they have got one vision. That wall and the rebuilding of the city dominated everyone's heart and everyone's mind, and brought them together in a wonderful unity. There is no other way of having unity but really to see the Lord Jesus, and have Him in view as on the throne, above all, over all. It will bring us together.

I have said that what we all need is the power to endure; and it is just there, as we have seen, that Peter introduces the Transfiguration. He speaks about "the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth ..." - the trial of your faith. "Manifold temptations" - he brings in the vision as the power for enduring and going through. We are told that Moses endured "as seeing Him Who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27). This is the power. Now, you can see this from the opposite and contrary standpoint. See the effects of loss of a vision! However many other visions the Lord's people may have, as soon as they lose the vision of the Lord Himself, as Lord over all, as on the Throne, what happens? They lose their sense of purpose; they lose their awareness of a true objective in their existence. They then have to have substitutes for that vision, to keep them going; but these things wear out and disappoint. The loss of vision always results in the loss of an incentive, real incentive for life.

In the same way, it is true of this matter of cohesion, coordination: lose vision, and the result is always disintegration, division, separation, confusion, and the loss of strength and stability. This is no matter of theory or technique - it is very true. Some of us know - and that is why we are speaking like this just now - w know that when a people have really been gripped by the vision of the Throne, the Majesty of the Lord Jesus, the Authority of Christ, a wonderful sense of purpose comes on that people, and a wonderful incentive, and a wonderful unity: they are a one people. It is the Throne that has done it, and their apprehension of that Throne. And when things take the place of the Lord - anything that you like to mention - then the falling apart begins. Sooner or later the disintegration sets in, the confusion, the loss of heart, incentive and purpose. A real inward seeing of the Lord Jesus, as in the place of Authority and Government and Majesty, is the answer to our every need, personally and collectively. It was so of old; it is so now.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 13 - "Four Major Elements")

The Gift of Salvation

 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,not of works, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

Why is a gift of salvation so hard to accept? Why do so many people look for their own way to heaven? Why do people try to make God fit into their own belief system? Regardless of the many who reject these two verses, they are truth. There is only one way to heaven and the only Way is by receiving the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. Despite the growing and ever present number of religious groups which believe otherwise, this truth will be the only one that matters when it is all said and done. Because in essence, we as mankind have a hard time accepting the “gift.” The old saying that there is no free lunch sets us up to trust only in those things we earn. Trust is the key word.  Where do we put our trust? We either trust in the Lord or we trust in ourselves.

Many today try to blend a combination of the two. They trust the Lord to give them the gift of salvation because they work so hard to please Him. And these works and efforts can really look good. They attend church regularly, serve when needed, give as required, and try to live overall lives that maintain Christian moral values. But they give themselves too much credit. God does not want anyone to do anything for Him because He has already done everything for us. So how do we accept His gift? We need to realize that the gift has been given by grace, and to receive the gift, all we need to do is believe. We just need to believe in our hearts that Jesus died on the cross for all of our sins and that without Him we are spiritually dead and destined to spend eternity separated from Him. Believe in Jesus, not in man’s good works.

Are you tired and weary of trying to please God? Even if you have professed faith and accepted Jesus as your Lord, you still might be trying so hard to please Him. Today, we need to accept His promise and rest in Him. Let’s live today to the fullest in God’s gift by trusting Him in all things and all areas of our lives. Start by talking to Him. Give your heart to Jesus, give Him your burdens today and He will show you mercy. Worship and praise Him and your heart will begin to sense His joy and peace. Why would any of us desire to follow any other way?

~Daily Disciples Devotional~

Men Whose Eyes Have Seen the King # 11

The Principle of Spiritual Vision

Now that brings us to the principle of all this, which opens up a very large field, in which we could move for a long time. The principle is the principle of true, spiritual, inward vision. Not "visionariness," but INWARD vision, which is specific, which is definite. Visionariness can be very abstract, but what we mean by "vision," spiritual vision, is very concrete; it is very specific. It is a Person Who is in view, and this mighty Person is no abstraction. There is nothing unreal or imaginary when we see the Lord Jesus.

Lt us weigh this whole matter. You and I and the Lord's people, as we said earlier, in our various places. various situations, various experiences, scattered and tried and pressed, need something very mighty to carry us through to the end. Things are becoming very grim, are they not? Most of us are aware that we are in a most terrific spiritual conflict, and the Christian life is not getting easier. It is becoming exceedingly difficult just to hold on, keep on, and especially to be triumphant. That is how it was when Peter wrote his letter.

Now, we need more than words, and more than visionariness, to get us through. Our Christian lives ought to be based upon something like this: "I have seen the Lord." We shall only go through if that is true. By the operation and activity of the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven we must have an inward vision of the Exalted Lord. For all endurance, and for all service, that is essential. Life that has to go on without that is just a drag; it is an existence. Work or service without that inward vision has nothing in it to lift us, to carry us on. For everything - life and work and endurance - it is indispensable that we have this inward vision of the Lord in majesty and glory, kept fresh, kept clear, constantly revived. With such a vision all the essentials of effectiveness are bound up.

A Sense of Purpose

First of all, what we all need, what the Church as a whole needs, and what every part of it needs, is a mighty governing sense of purpose: that there is something for which to live, and something for which to work, and something for which to endure and go on: a real master-purpose in our existence. If you look into this matter in the New Testament, you will find that these men and the Church were brought into this master-purpose. We are so familiar with the very word that it has lost its music in our ears - "the eternal purpose" - called according to His Purpose." They were governed by this objective, this goal, this something toward which they were being moved, drawn, constrained, urged and held; which, again and again, when they were cast down, and it seemed that everything was hopeless, revived in them, and revived them, and brought them up again. It was not a mentality, not a theory, not an idea, but what Paul calls "the power that worketh in us" - "according to the power that worketh in us." The word "worketh" there, as you know, is the one from which we get our word "energize" - "the power that energizes in us". What is it?

Look again, and you will see that it had to do with that great, great end which God had fixed concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus, in universal majesty and glory and fullness. They had seen something of that in Him. It had become the great purpose which bound their lives, and drew them out in a sense that life is not empty, meaningless; it has some great end. "We see what it is concerning the Lord Jesus." We, too, must have that sense of purpose, or we shall not get very far. Not only was it a Purpose, but this INWARD spiritual vision gave the incentive to life. Through days and years of wearing out and wearing down, weariness and disappointment, over many things, disillusionment and heartbreak, it is not difficult to lose incentive; to ask, Is it worth it? Is it all justified? Are we not just spending our strength for nought? We need incentive. It was this apprehension of Christ as having gone that way of weariness and devastation and triumph, and having been glorified, and now being there in the glory, which gave them the incentive. It imparted to life an incentive, a motive, a power.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 12 - "Cohesive Power")

Whose Voice Are You Hearing?

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. - Genesis 3:6

It does not always seem clear to us when God speaks. However, when we become living sacrifices who continually worship, pray and seek the Lord, we become more willing and able to hear His voice. As we draw near to the Lord, He draws nearer to us and is faithful to speak in a way that brings peace, confirmation and often, He brings changes to our surrounding circumstances.  We have to ask ourselves whom are we listening to? There are so many voices speaking and our minds seem to have a voice of their own. But which voice do you follow? Adam heard the voice of God when He gave the one rule of living in the Garden of Eden. He was told by God to not eat from one tree. But Adam listened to the wrong voice when faced with a choice of disobeying God's command. Eve bought the lie of the serpent's voice and mankind has suffered the consequences ever since.  

Many people in our lives give us many conflicting messages. We each have a responsibility to know what the Lord is telling us, to listen to Him and to act on those commands. We have to make the Lord's Word our guide and not deviate from His truths regardless of how appealing other additional information may sound.  If you have come to Christ, you have His Holy Spirit in you. He is there to lead you and guide you in the ways He has called you.

The Holy Spirit anoints you with His presence and with spiritual gifts which are supernatural. These gifts are not based on your skill or experience. So, you need to be dependent on the Lord to fulfill your calling. Your calling may be completely different than what your family thinks of you. Your calling may be completely different than what you thought it would be. Be sure to follow His voice. Be confident, knowing that He knows what is best. If you listen to other voices than God’s, you could suffer consequences that will have a negative effect on your life. Take your thoughts captive, stay in His Word and trust Him to lead you in the way you should go. 

~Daily Disciples Devotional~