◄ ►

Passion For Christ

Christ is all and in all.Colossians 3:11)

I wonder, dear friends, what you covet and pray for more than anything else. For my own part, my coveting, my praying is more than for anything else, a fresh and mighty captivation of the Lord Jesus, a captivation of Christ. Oh, it is quite true, and we know it, that He is our Life, He is our Savior, He is so much to us and we are right when we say that we could not live without Him. And yet, is there not some margin between that and what I am calling an absolute captivation with Christ? That He is a passion in our lives, that He is a dominating power in our lives. Language fails... that He has just so captured us, so utterly captured us, that not only is He our Life in the sense that we couldn't get on without Him, but that He is a passion for living. This man who wrote these words, just look at him in this way: somehow he had seen Christ at the beginning and through his long years he had seen more and more of Christ, until in prison with all those terrible sufferings and afflictions and adversities and sorrows and disappointments that had come upon him through those years, his catalog of adversities right at the end; Christ is more than everything. Christ is in the ascendant, it is hrist will be All, and in all.Now I say, language fails, I cannot put into words what I mean, but oh, for the positiveness of this passion of Christ....

Such a seeing, a grasping, an apprehending and being mastered by the Greatness of the One to Whom, by the grace of God, we have been united, called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ. May it be more than a mental grasping of Christ; that we know He is Great, we believe He is great, we have experienced something of His Greatness. May our hearts, more than even our minds, be mastered by this Man Jesus Christ and we be His abject slaves in worship and adoration. He is so great!

Understand what the will of the Lord is.

This is the will of God, your sanctification. § Now acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you. § This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. § We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

We … do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. § The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, … give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.

Eph. 5:17;  1 Thess. 4:3; Job 22:21;  John 17:3;  1 John 5:20;  Col. 1:9;  Eph. 1:17:  Eph. 1:18: Eph. 1:19

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Enoch walked with God. § Can two walk together, unless they are agreed? § It is good for me to draw near to God.

The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you … When in their trouble [Israel] turned to the Lord God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way … and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.

James 4:8;  Gen. 5:24;  Amos 3:3;  Ps. 73:28;  2 Chron. 15:2,4;  Jer. 29:11;  Jer. 29:12  Jer. 29:13;  Heb. 10:19,20;  Heb. 10:21,22

Blessed Lameness

My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in (your) weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9).

Our greatest liability: self-confidence. Our greatest asset: Christ-confidence. It usually takes years to discover one's misplaced confidence. The flesh will fail us every time, and under all conditions. The Lord Jesus never fails us under any conditions.

"When the Lord Jesus was on the Cross there were no mighty deeds to be seen, yet Calvary did more for the world than all the great deeds in Galilee. We think too much of the greatness, and too little of the death-fellowship with our Lord. The mighty deeds' may mean the greater works,' but death-fellowship means much fruit.' You might toil all your life, and only do so much, even with the wonderful deeds; but if you are willing to die with Him there will be effortless multiplication. There is no limit to the fruit that comes out of death."

"An increasing number of the Lord's people are seeking to enjoy the power of the Lord Jesus' life by accepting the fact of their union in His death as expressed by Paul, That I may know Him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death' (Phil. 3:10). We died with Him, but most of us are not being conformed to His death and hence are not like Him in life." -L.L.L.

"There is no escape from the Cross, if believers would know the power of His resurrection.' This crafty, defiant, defensive 'I' must be held in the place of death by the Spirit if there is to be true fruitfulness. In the measure that one dies to the old, in the same measure does one experience life in the New."

"Then shall the lame man leap as an hart. . . for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert" (Isa 35:6).

Godly Child-Training

The Much-More Grace of God