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The Christ of Eternity

The fire will test what sort of work each one has done. (1 Corinthians 3:13 ESV)

There are many things to which the name of the Lord is being affixed which are being constructed, and which appear fine and great and like he Church,but the twofold reality is neither in the builders or the buildings. They are destined to collapse when God hurricane and fire test every man work. Good works: philanthropy, hospitality, reform, education, religion, relief, etc. may be the products, or by-products, of what is called hristian civilization,and things for which to be profoundly grateful, but let us not confuse these with new creation,regeneration, a being orn from above.The Church is nothing which man can build by any resource in himself personally or collectively.

The Church is an organism, not an organization. ehold, I show you a mystery, we are members of His flesh and of His bones.Build that, if you can! Launch that; organize that; unthat! It cannot be done. It is the spontaneous outworking of spiritual forces released, in the acceptance by faith of tremendous facts concerning Christ; which facts are proclaimed out of experience in the power of the Holy Ghost. Not the theological Christ; not the doctrinal Christ; not the Christ of the letter, much less the Jesus of history; but the Christ of eternity in all the meaning of His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension into the Throne of God revealed in the heart by the Holy Spirit. This alone is authority to preach, to serve, to occupy position, to uildin relation to the house of God. It is folly to spend time and strength otherwise. It is wisdom to labor on this foundation.

On the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it.

The Man Christ Jesus. § [Jesus came] in the likeness of men. [He was] found in appearance as a man. § Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death.

I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. § Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. § What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? § He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. § In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

Though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God.

For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God.

Ezek. 1:26;  1 Tim. 2:5;  Phil. 2:7,8;  Heb. 2:14;  Rev. 1:18;  Rom. 6:9,10;  John 6:62;  Eph. 1:20;  Col. 2:9;  2 Cor. 13:4

For Your word has given me life.

The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

The Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. § 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.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men … As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. § For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of the soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Ps. 119:50;  1 Cor. 15:45;  John 5:26;   John 11:25,26;   John 1:4;  John 1:12,13;  John 6:63;  Heb. 4:12

Convicted, Or Filled?

And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts" (Gal. 4:6).

When the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, it is to remove self from the throne of our hearts. When the Holy Spirit fills us, it is to place the Lord Jesus on the throne of our hearts. Ours is the choice - "not I, but Christ" (Gal. 2:20); His is the work, for He is "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:2).

"The great secret of the Christian life is found in ceasing from self, in which the power of the Cross manifests itself in us. We all know how our Lord Jesus, ere He could receive the new life from the Father in glory, and the gift of the Holy Spirit through whom He could impart His life to His people, had first to give up the life He lived upon earth. He had to take His place among the dead in utter weakness and helplessness before He could live again by the power of God. His death on the Cross was indispensable to the life of the Spirit.

"And as it was with Christ, so it must be with us. As we yield ourselves to be united with Him in the likeness of His death, we can share with Him in the glory and power of the life of the Spirit. To know what the Holy Spirit means, implies the knowing of what death means. The Cross and the Spirit are inseparable. The soul that understands that the death to self is in Christ the gate to true life, is in the right way to learn what and who the Holy Spirit is." -A.M.

"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25).

Fear Not Death (Thoughts on FEAR - 2)

Wisdom from Above