Verse of the day — 2 Timothy 2:24
The Lord's slave must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient,
2 Timothy 2:24(HCSB)
Open Windows by T. Austin-Sparks
Spiritual Enlargement
They were longing for a better country a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. (Hebrews 11:16 NIV)
The implications of any movement of God are not always recognized at the beginning, but if we go on with Him we shall find that much that is done here and is of time is and has to be left behind. The spiritual and the heavenly is pressing for a larger place and becoming absolutely imperative to the very life of the instrumentality and those concerned. It is spontaneous, and just happens. We wake up to realize that we have moved into a new realm or position, and no amount of additional earthly resource can meet the need. It is not only something more that is demanded, but something different. This is a crisis, and it will only be safely passed if there is vision of God's ultimate object. This demands spiritual mindedness, capacity for grasping heavenlythings. One world may be tumbling to pieces, but the full and final is the explanation.
The great pity is that so many just will cling to the old framework or partial vision. God presents His heavenly pattern in greater fullness and demands adjustment. He does it with foreknowledge, knowing of a day which is imminent when this vision alone will save. But, because it is "revolutionary" or not "what has been in the blessing of God" etc., etc., it is rejected and put aside. Then the foreseen day comes and all sorts of expedients have to be resorted to, to save the ship.... God is never on the line of reduction, or limitation. It may look like that, but it is not so. If we really had His vision, that which looks like trimming and reduction is His way of enlargement, but spiritual and heavenly enlargement.... God in sovereignty will run the risk of shattering, or allow the shattering, of so much that He has used of scaffolding or framework in order to realize the fuller purpose. It is not that it was wrong, but now He wants something more. We thank God forever that He took Paul away from his traveling ministry and let him be shut up in prison. It was then that the full, glorious vision and revelation of the "heavenlies" and the "eternal" was given to eclipse all the earthly and temporal. It was worth it, and was no tragedy! The Holy Spirit is the custodian of the full purpose of God, and under His government the Church and the individual believer will move ever on and up.
Morning Daily Light by Samuel Bagster
Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me.
I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil. § “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”
In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace.
It pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself … having made peace through the blood of His cross. § Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness … over the sins that were previously committed … that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. § If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Trust in the Lord forever, for in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.
Isa. 27:5; Jer. 29:11; Isa. 48:22; Eph. 2:13,14 ;Col. 1:19,20; Rom. 3:24,25; Rom. 3:26; 1 John 1:9; Isa. 26:4
Evening Daily Light by Samuel Bagster
God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
As the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself … As the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.
I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. § I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep … I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father. § No one comes to the Father except through Me. § He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. § For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
1 John 5:11; John 5:26,21; John 11:25,26; John 10:11; John 10:17,18; John 14:6; 1 John 5:12; Col. 3:3,4
None but the Hungry Heart by Miles Stanford
Personal Privilege
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 17:5).
All the Father accomplished on our behalf is that we might have all He has in His beloved Son. "For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9).
"Of all the marvels of the Father's grace, none is more marvelous than the fact of His bringing men into fellowship with Himself. That He should interest Himself in the concerns of our daily lives, is wonderful indeed; that He should give us glory in heaven above the angels is a wonder deeper still; but that He should call us to like thoughts, feelings, and to common objects with Himself is beyond conception." -H.F.W.
"It is by occupation with, and contemplating the Lord Jesus Christ, that we are brought, by the enablement of the Holy Spirit, into fellowship with our Father; enabled to enter into His own thoughts concerning, and even to share His own affections for that blessed One who now is seated at His own right hand." -E.D.
"There is a marked distinction between the Father's actings in old times and since the day of Pentecost. He had revealed Himself to man in man's circumstances till that day; since then He has been requiring man to come into His circumstances. The whole testimony of the Father now is to what the Lord Jesus is in heaven." -G.V.W.
"We only touch the positive blessings of Christianity as we reach the Lord Jesus Christ in glory. One may have a measure of relief and the assurance of eternal security because we trust the shed Blood and His finished work on the Cross, but when we come to divine favor and the reality of the Christian life, that is all connected with a Person, and inseparable from that Person." -C.A.C.
"When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, except Jesus only" (Matt. 17:8).
Devotional Studies by Elizabeth Haworth
His LIFE in US
I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me.
John 5:30
Will of God
Throughout His life, Jesus has one purpose for living – to do the will of the Father. A fleeting glance at the 12-year-old Christ showed, "I am about My Father’ business". We have brief glimpses to show that Jesus came into the world to do God’s will. Luke writes to tell us that the young Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. Luke 2:52 Christ never deviated from His sole life’s mission – to carry out His Father’s will.
Lived as Man
Christ readily laid aside His glory so that He could identify with the children of men. He willingly disrobed Himself of His attributes of Godhead to live as a man. He came from above not to do His own will but the will of the Father Who sent Him. His joy in carrying out His Father’s will became His nourishment and great delight.
Humility of Christ
John lets us know Christ’s inner yearnings at the well in Samaria. "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work". John 4:34 While Paul attempts to describe the humility of our great God and Saviour, "Who being found in human form, humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross". Philippians 2:7
God-Man
Christ never wavered throughout His life from the purpose for which He came. We read in the book of Hebrews, "Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of Me in the scroll of the book" – Hebrews 10:7 Oh yes, from Genesis to Revelation we discover that it all points to Christ Jesus – the God-man Who emptied Himself to become like one of us - to show us how to live.
The Father
The life of Christ was not to be an expression of His own character and personality. His whole being was to demonstrate the attributes
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Knowing Jesus Devotional by Elizabeth Haworth
The Fullness of Christ
God has put everything under Christ’s feet and has made Him the head of everything for the good of the church, which is His body, the fullness of the One who fills everything in every way.
Ephesians 1:22-23
Commander in Chief
Christ Jesus is Commander-in-chief of both the visible and invisible universe. Christ has been awarded authority over all heavenly and earthly power and rule. All things have been placed under His feet and He has been anointed as Head.
A Man in Heaven
There is a man in heaven that is seated on the throne of God – the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a man of flesh and bone in the celestial sphere – Christ Jesus our Lord, and He is the Head of His Body, which is the Church – and we are His Body.
Earthly Representatives
Christ is the invisible head of the Church – Who is seated in heavenly places, and the Church is the visible body of Christ – who are His representatives on earth – for we are one with Him and He is one with us. We are in Christ and He is in us. Christ is the source and sufficiency.. the strength and stay of all that are in-Christ. Without Him, we can do nothing, but in His strength, we are equipped to do all things.
Visible Body
The Church, which is His visible Body on earth, is filled unto the fullness of Christ, and in Him, we are filled unto the fullness of the thrice-blessed triune God. We are filled with the fullness of God the Father; we are filled with the fullness of God the Holy Spirit; we are filled with the fullness of God the Son, our Saviour-King.
Divine Purpose
The heavenly nature and eternal perspective of the Church is central to life in Christ. The divine purpose and fullness of Christ is the birthright of members of His Body. When our outlook is heavenly, our mindset keeps Christ as the central focus of our heart. When our perspective is Christo-centric, other relationships become rightly balanced -
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