Jesus Only

[Kaella]

Now we know that we are the children of God.
It follows then, that we are responsible to Him,
to emulate Him, follow Him,
to soar within His orbit in our lives.
While we participate in what He has done for us,
it's expected that we imitate Him as well.
As God, through Christ, demonstrated His Love for us,
so our lives, controlled by His Love,
are to demonstrate His Love to people about us.

It's this that ought to determine our daily conduct.
The way we act or speak, the company we keep,
whatever we do-whether working or playing,
resting or recreating, eating or sleeping-
needs to be measured,
not by what pleases us,
but in terms of what is pleasing to God
and what is most benificial to our fellow persons.

The fact is, we are under new management, new orders,
Our primary task is now,
to reflect, communicate, administer,
God's infinite Love
to a distorted and disjointed world.

While self-surrender underlines our relationship to God,
self-disclosure should characterize our relationships
toward our fellow persons.
While we are responsible to God alone,
and are not to be enslaved
by the demands of mankind or state,
we are, by divine commission,
enjoined to live honestly, openly, and lovingly
within our human family.

As the servants of God,
we need not and must not dedicate ourselves
to self-gratification.
The Spirit of God indwells our hearts.
With God's infilling and indwelling there is joy
beyond anything and everything this world can offer.
We are to claim that joy-and live within it-
giving thanks to God for anything
that may come our way,
knowing that all things,
even the painful and tragic things happening in our lives,
will ultimately carry out God's purposes
in and through us.

With God's help, and because He of His great love for us,
let us learn how to invest in one another-
to lovingly and sacrificially give of ourselves
to each other.
This is the key to everlasting joy
whatever the circumstances that crowd upon us.

 

[Kaella]

It's not surprising in the darkness of this world's
chaotic struggles, that we hope intensely for the
very special intervention of God through the promised
return of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
We feel at times so unnerved, frightened, bowled over
with frustration and despair that we look desperately
for some sign in the sky, some miricle out of heaven,
and even wish for the final day of this dispensation,
the culmination of God's purpose on this world
that will put an end to the misery around us.

Not surprisingly that many of us will grab at any
straw in the wind, latch on to any strange happening,
that may suggest the possibility of this
taking place in our lifetime.
Christians have been doing this for centuries,
and yet time marches on- and with it the sorrows
and joys of this world's inhabitants.

Maybe God is telling us to mind our own business-
to tend to those matters that He would have us to
be concerned about, to leave this cosmic still
unknown and unrevealed in His hands and,
while we accept His promises concerning the great
day of our total union with Him,
to occupy ourselves with the task at hand-
that of labouring in our suffering world to reveal
and communicate His Love to all His human creatures.

We ought to be thankful that He saved, appointed and
commisioned us for such a time as this.
The world as it is at this moment is exactly where He
wants us to be.
He has entrusted us with the commission to represent
Him and reveal Him to this kind of world.
He is the only hope for mankind,
and we are the harbingers of that hope,

He is, and this is beyond our comprehension,
dependant upon His redeemed children to prepare
this world for the day of His appearing.
We obviously still have not completed that
important assignment.
Let us be about it-and leave those things that
need not be our ultimate concern up to Him.

The conditions of our world, the apostacy,
the corruption, the utter disregard for God
and His will, the atrocities and tragedies,
and our failures in attempting to change the
course of this world's rush to self-destruction
drive us back to our God to be renewed and recharged,
to be reassured and encouraged,

So be it, but God forbid that we end up thumb-twiddling
on some high and holy hill to wait for His appearing.
If we do, we may be caught short;
for he would thrust us out-again and again-
into the temptest of our dark world to bring His
Light and Love and Salvation to the impoverished
souls of fearstricken men and women.

 

[Laloni]

That very deeply touched my heart and Godbreathed for this time. God bless your day and I pray that it is AWESOME!

 

[JPPT1974]

[BIBLE]Matthew 6:33-34[/BIBLE]

 

[Kaella]

Faith is in itself a gift of God.
It's not something that we can manufacture.
And yet, one of our most powerful incentives,
and a means by which God grants to us the need and
the motivation to have faith and trust,
to believe in His gracious promises,
is the faith of those who have gone before us.

It ought to be enough to enable us to cut lose from
our inordinate attachment to earthbound securities,
to cast off our foolish doubts, and to let go,
let God, and let the chips fall where they may.

While our Lord is no longer visibly present,
we have His Word and His example to imitate
and to mature our faith.
There is, of course, an element of risk, a measure of
pain involved in our walk of faith.
If we expect only sweetness and light,
thrills and ecstacies as a consequence of our
involvement with God and his purpose,
we eitherhave no faith whatsoever or have only a ephemeral
relationship that may be erradicated by the
traumatic events of the world.

Faith doesn't shield us fro the episodes that wound
us, or the failures that flatten us in dispair.
But faith is capable of embracing suffering and despair
and molding and manuevering them into instruments that
mature us, and make us more sensitive to the hurts of
others even as we learn how to more graciously
accept the difficulties and hardships of this life.

Rather than folding and floundering in the midst of
every turbulence that engulfs us,
we learn how to stand against the storm and walk
steadily amongst the vicissitudes of daily living.

God is not some distant and indulging Being;
He is with us and within us, seeking to work out
His purposes through us.
Nor is He some fantasy that we can put handles on and
manipulate in the direction of our wants and needs.
He is God- not One Whom we can touch-
but One in Whom we can trust and are enabled to obey.
That is the God that we celebrate.
One Who stands over and above the frailities
and atrocities that plague us.
This is the God that we worship while being forever
amazed and gratified that our worship
is acceptable to Him.

 

[Laloni]

 

[jsimms615]

Matt 17:4 And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Lord, it is
good for us to be here; if You are willing, I will make three
tents here, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah.
(8) And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one except
Jesus Himself alone.

In Matthew 17:1-8 we have a clear revelation of the fact that
with the coming of Jesus both Moses and Elijah were over.
Moses and Elijah represent the entire Old Testament, with
Moses representing the law and Elijah representing the
prophets. Therefore, the fact that Moses and Elijah were over
indicates that the entire Old Testament, consisting of the Law
and the Prophets, was over.


Peter took the lead to propose to the Lord that he build three
tabernacles, one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for the
Lord Jesus (v. 4). "While he was still speaking, behold, a
bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the
cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I delight; hear
Him!" (v. 5). When the disciples heard this, they fell on
their face. When they lifted up their eyes, "they saw no one
except Jesus Himself alone" (v. 8).
Moses and Elijah had
disappeared, and only Jesus remained. Peter had proposed to
keep Moses and Elijah, that is, the law and the prophets, with
Christ, but God took Moses and Elijah away, leaving "no one
except Jesus Himself alone."

No one except Jesus Himself alone
should remain in the New Testament. He is today's Moses,
imparting the law of life into His believers, and also today's
Elijah, speaking for God and speaking forth God within His
believers.

Keeping things in perspective. What does Jesus say?

I think God the Father calls us to do the same as He did, which is to delight in Jesus. Most people seem to see him as more of a tolerated guest in order to get into heaven than a delight.

 

[Laloni]

 

[Kaella]

I suppose that all of us tend to tuck God into the little
boxes of our own personal experiences and notions.
Then when someone claims to find God outside of
our castle in the sand.
it frightens us and tends to undermine our faith.
We sometimes react to this by hoisting our flags and
shouting our slogans, hoping that we can drown
out our advesary if we can't convert
them to our way of thinking.

Sometimes I like to play the part of the adversary
or the devil's advocate just to break the boxes,
My purpose, or so I tell myself,
is to set people free from half-truths and compel
them to risk seeking the truth.
The consequences, unfortunately, may be that some of
my weaker sisters and brothers, novices of the faith,
may be sorely hurt and my relationship to them
severly impaired.
On the other hand, it's my responsibility and joy
to proclaim that glorious freedom that's an integral
part of the Christian life.

We are free, to marry or not to marry,
to eat and drink, laugh and cry, work and play;
we are free from the do's and don'ts that become
the religion of so many people.
We are no longer irrevocably bound to the law.
Our salvation is a gift of God's grace and is not
dependant on the conformaty to the traditions of the
past or the rules and restrictions set up by mankind,
whatever may be their claim to divine insight.

There is notheless, a limit to our freedom.
It's revealed in that old absolute or principal
spelled out in by our God in the command to love Him
with our whole beings and fellow persons
as ourselves.
This single limit to our freedom is imposed by our
Lord's injunction to love one another.
It means that, insofar as much as possible,
I must be all things to all mankind,
that I become a servant of sorts to my neighbour.
Thus freedom becomes for me,
the enslavement of love to God and mankind,
to preach the gospel of God's saving love and
to demonstrate it in my interpersonal relationships.

So it is that in our love for our fellow persons
we are free and yet bound to tolerate their insights
or lack of insight, their heartfelt convictions-
even tho they appear naive to us-
without becoming bound by such insights and
convictions; and together we seek to mature our faith
and realize the freedom that is ours in Christ.

It is this, along with our own ever-present,
self-centered desires, that put struggle and
conflict into the Christian life.
But it's all worthwhile;
It's not some sentimental harp-playing,
cloud-hopping nonsence.
It's eternal reality, the answer to our deepest needs
and longings, and guaranteed results of faithful
struggle in the Christian conflict.

 

[Laloni]

Good morning everyone

 

[Kaella]

Our first and formost loyalty must be to God
and His purposes.
His purposes do include subordination to and respect
for those who are over and above us,
children to parents, students to teachers,
employers to employees.
It is, however, within God's purpose that those who
hold such superior positions do so by God's direction,
and they are responsible for wise and loving
leadership.
Nevertheless, in our allegiance to God we are to
courageously resist anyone, whether it be an individual
or government who tries to play god over our lives
and who attempts to coerse us into actions
that opposed to God's will and plan for us.

The Christian walk is never easy.
There are enemies to contend with,
obstacles to confront, and they must be opposed
and overcome in the power and Spirit of God.
Whether these enemies,
these spiritual forces of darkness,
work through the power structures over us or the
numerous loopholes that plague our everyday lives,
we must learn how to recognise who or what
they are and resist them whenever they appear.

If we are to be strong and courageous in the face
of enemy forces far stronger than we are,
we must lean on that power that is made available
to us through Jesus Christ.
For one thing,
we must be intence in our search for truth,
Christ has revealed to us all that we need to know
in order to experience God's saving Love.

Yet we must always be open to ever deeper revealations
and experiences of divine Love while being very wary
of anyone who adds to or detracts from that which
has been revealed through Christ.
And then we must beware of those who subtley or
erroniously attempt to pull us back into bondage
of salvation-by-works and thus enslave us in some
man-made system of morality that portends to please
God.

We are clothed in God's righteousness,
gifted with his salvation.
Nothing can change that-save our neglect
to act upon it.
we must walk in God's paths for our lives,
the path of loving service to our fellow persons
for His sake.

When we fill our minds and commit our lives
to His Word and His will for us,
our bodies will respond accordingly.
We must continually shun the tentacles of the law
that seek to draw us back into it's stifling embrace
and walk and run, work and serve with our faith
centered on that One who made us His own through
Jesus Christ.
We must keep awake and be aware-
and joyously and freely abandon ourselves
to loving God and allowing Him to communicate His Love
through our love of our fellow persons.

 

[NoN]

I suppose that all of us tend to tuck God into the little
boxes of our own personal experiences and notions.
Then when someone claims to find God outside of
our castle in the sand.
it frightens us and tends to undermine our faith.
We sometimes react to this by hoisting our flags and
shouting our slogans, hoping that we can drown
out our advesary if we can't convert
them to our way of thinking.

Sometimes I like to play the part of the adversary
or the devil's advocate just to break the boxes,
My purpose, or so I tell myself,
is to set people free from half-truths and compel
them to risk seeking the truth.
The consequences, unfortunately, may be that some of
my weaker sisters and brothers, novices of the faith,
may be sorely hurt and my relationship to them
severly impaired.
On the other hand, it's my responsibility and joy
to proclaim that glorious freedom that's an integral
part of the Christian life.

We are free, to marry or not to marry,
to eat and drink, laugh and cry, work and play;
we are free from the do's and don'ts that become
the religion of so many people.
We are no longer irrevocably bound to the law.
Our salvation is a gift of God's grace and is not
dependant on the conformaty to the traditions of the
past or the rules and restrictions set up by mankind,
whatever may be their claim to divine insight.

There is notheless, a limit to our freedom.
It's revealed in that old absolute or principal
spelled out in by our God in the command to love Him
with our whole beings and fellow persons
as ourselves.
This single limit to our freedom is imposed by our
Lord's injunction to love one another.
It means that, insofar as much as possible,
I must be all things to all mankind,
that I become a servant of sorts to my neighbour.
Thus freedom becomes for me,
the enslavement of love to God and mankind,
to preach the gospel of God's saving love and
to demonstrate it in my interpersonal relationships.

So it is that in our love for our fellow persons
we are free and yet bound to tolerate their insights
or lack of insight, their heartfelt convictions-
even tho they appear naive to us-
without becoming bound by such insights and
convictions; and together we seek to mature our faith
and realize the freedom that is ours in Christ.

It is this, along with our own ever-present,
self-centered desires, that put struggle and
conflict into the Christian life.
But it's all worthwhile;
It's not some sentimental harp-playing,
cloud-hopping nonsence.
It's eternal reality, the answer to our deepest needs
and longings, and guaranteed results of faithful
struggle in the Christian conflict.

 

[Laloni]

Good morning. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!

 

[JPPT1974]

May Jesus bless you all
As He does either in good or
Bad days as He is there right
By your side!

 

[mushowani]

thank you

 

[Laloni]

Have a wonderful day!