◄ ►

The Essential Nature of the Christian

...The Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. (Colossians 2:19)

What is the believer? In God's sight the believer is one in whom Christ is implanted, and God never looks at Christ in a limited way. He always looks at Him in an absolute way, and when Christ is implanted at the beginning of our life it is not as though God implanted Him in a fragmentary way. God's thought was that the end should be bound up with the beginning, and that Christ should be All and in all. That is why conversion is never an end in itself. It is only the first step toward the full end of God. It defines the nature of the believer in God's sight, that it is of Christ. You cannot make that. No decision cards can accomplish that. You can never make men and women Christians by inviting them to make certain decisions, to assent mentally to certain propositions of Christian doctrine, though perfectly true as to the Person and work of the Lord Jesus. There has to be something which constitutes in that individual, right at the very center of the being, a living union with Christ, and a deposit of Christ. Anything other than that is a false conversion. It is the depositing of Christ at the very center of the being, with a view to His spreading to the very circumference, that is the nature of a believer....

You see the pathetic hopelessness of trying to propagate anything by organized means and methods which really is all of God. It simply has to grow, it simply has to be. Ah, but when it is so it is mighty, it is indestructible, it is incorruptible. Nothing can stand in the way of Christ. It is that which rouses hell and the energies of the Devil. He does not mind all the other: doctrine, work,  profession. That may often serve his ends as a great deception and misrepresentation; but bring Christ in, bring Christ through, realize Christ, and then you meet every force in this universe which is antagonistic to Christ.

A bondservant of Jesus Christ.

You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. § If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. § Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. § Having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.

No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. § You are no longer a slave but a son.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. . . . For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh.

Rom. 1:1;  John 13:13;   John 12:26;  Matt. 11:29,30;  Phil. 3:7;  Rom. 6:22;  John 15:15;  Gal. 4:7;   Gal. 5:1, 13

I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel.

His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor. § Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom; I am understanding. § Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. § Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. § Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left. § Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established. §  He knows the way that I take. §  A man’s steps are of the Lord; how then can a man understand his own way?

You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. § This is God, our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.

Ps. 16:7;  Isa. 9:6;  Prov. 8:14;  Ps. 119:105;  Prov. 3:5,6;  Jer. 10:23;  Isa. 30:21;  Prov. 16:3;  Job 23:10;  Prov. 20:24;  Ps. 73:24;  Ps. 48:14

Selfless Service

“In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will!” (Eph. 1:11).

It is easy to just "let George do it," but it is so unrewarding. There is a Christ-honoring ministry of being and sharing awaiting each believer, and the secret is to let Christ do it!

"Our Father has a different line of things for everyone, and each of us has been sent into the world for some special mission. It is not a question whether it is great or small; it may be only a flower to shed fragrance, though this is really the greatest of all.

"There is no higher service than moral influence, thy whole body . . . full of light'; and this, of all the highest moral order, is within the compass of all. Christ shall be magnified in my body whether by life or by death' (Phil. 1:20)." -J.B.S.

"A mark of the true servant is that he is consciously nothing. John could speak of himself as only a voice,' and a greater than John was consciously less than the least of all saints.' The moment we think ourselves to be anything, we are out of the servant's true position and spirit. There is a beautiful contrast between John's account of himself, and the Lord's description of him (John 1:22;27; Luke 7:26;28). The more worthy we are of the Lord's commendation, the less do we think of ourselves." -C.A.C.

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph 2:10).

His Threefold Name - Man’s Nature and Destiny (8)

Clean Vessels