Difference between revisions of "Walking with Jesus! Part 9"
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Latest revision as of 17:27, 15 January 2019
Walking with Jesus! Part 9
Oh to be more like Christ! This should be our whole aim; to be conformed to His image, and so show forth His praise. How few bearing the name of Jesus know what it is to deny themselves for His sake; and are conformed to His likeness. Let us aim to be here as Christ was, and to be satisfied with the way He deals with us in all things.
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My joy is always more or less mixed with tears; joy and sorrow. It is a pure mixture, and God would have it so. Joy in the Holy Spirit, and sorrow for sin.
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Oh what a God He is to all who know and trust Him! How safely may we, at all times, confide our all in His blessed hands. Who is like our God? What heart so full of love as His?
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The prospect of soon being with Jesus is to me a most delightful thought.
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Only think for one moment how inexpressibly dear you must be to the heart of God!
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In every position in which God may place His children, He designs some good towards them; and it ought to be our prayer, honest and fervent, that He would, by His Spirit, show us why He deals with us, and the profit He would graciously have us reap. God acts intelligently, wisely, and righteously in all His dealings with His saints. Nothing is done without forethought and plan. Nothing is done without an object and a design. There is NO CHANCE with Him. All, all is part and parcel of a preconceived, arranged, and defined scheme. Let us, then, quietly repose in Him; and seek first His glory in all things, leaving Him to care for, and dispose of, all secondary considerations.
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It is good to have our thoughts continually heavenward; to be looking to the things that are not seen, and are eternal. This will help us to sit loose to the things which are seen and temporal. A few years, short and fleeting, and we pass away from hence. Then, of what little importance is everything here which is not closely connected with our present advancement in the divine life. We are only pilgrims, seeking a city that is to come. We shall soon be admitted into the glorious presence of Jesus Christ! Let this blessed prospect nerve us to do and to endure the will of the Lord in all things; and to see that we grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus, that our wandering, deceitful hearts might be kept in close converse with Him in all that we have to do.
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I long, ardently long, to depart and be with Him; to see Jesus; to enjoy Him with fulness of joy; to be like Him, perfected in holiness.
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A Father's ear and a Father's heart are both open to our faintest breathings. Only go as a little child with all your requests, and He will answer. Oh, what a Lord we have to do with- mercy, mercy, unbounded mercy!
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Oh that the Lord would but open the eyes of poor lost sinners, and show them the inefficiency of everything else but the knowledge of Christ Jesus to make them happy here and hereafter!
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Oh, how awful to go blindfolded into that lake that burns with fire and brimstone!
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Nothing but the constraining love of Christ will fully constrain us to holiness.
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It is a pleasant thing to me, sometimes, to anticipate the eternal rest that awaits me, my happy home, the home provided, and the welcome from so many that will greet my arrival within its gate of pearl. But first of all, and best of all, to see Jesus, my dearest, my only Friend, whom I love, and desire to love, above all earthly beings. Oh to behold Him! to know Him! to recognize that benevolent and transcendent countenance that so often beamed upon me, unworthy as I was, in the weary days of my pilgrimage!
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When we can bring all our poor concerns, little and great, and our poor hearts, too, to Him, and lay them all before Him, I am persuaded we need fear nothing, for God will order all things for us, will bless us, make His love known to us more and more. And we shall see His dear hand held out to help and guide us through this wilderness safely and honorably, to that happy home His love has prepared for us above. Oh to love Jesus, and to know that He loves us! To aim, although we constantly come short, to glorify Him in all we do and say, and to let that be our highest aim.
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Let us aim to live more above the world, and look alone to the Bible as our divine directory in all things, and alone to our God for His approbation. Let us be ashamed of nothing but sinning against Him, and grieving His Holy Spirit. Oh, if we did but this at all times, how much more would we adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things, and how much easier would we pass through a world lying in wickedness!
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What poor creatures we are when old age, with its thousand infirmities, comes upon us, reminding us that this is not our rest, and that we must be preparing for the rest above. Happy day, happy hour, when that takes place!
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What subdues, what breaks the heart like communion with the Holy Lord God, unfolding and revealing Himself in Jesus?
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May you be helped to live decidedly for eternity, with your eye upon that glorious crown which Christ has promised to those who overcome! But a short time you have to glorify Him; aim to do it in all things and at all times. Live to God, live for God, and God will take care that you have all you need while you live. He will give you grace and glory, and no good thing will He withhold if you walk uprightly.
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Deem no sin a trifle. Beware of the first enticement to sin! You will have need of much prayer night and day, that God may guide and uphold you, preserving you from every snare that the wicked one might throw in your way; and that, sensible of your weakness, you might rely more upon His almighty strength to carry you safely through all the temptations that lie in your path. The devil will tempt; the world will tempt; your own carnal nature will tempt. And all your own strength of resistance is perfect weakness. How can you stand against this threefold troop, but as your Savior puts strength in you? Seek this in earnest prayer, and, with Christ strengthening you, you can do all things.
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I sometimes think it is a greater trial to be rich than to be poor. Of this I am quite sure, that riches to the Christian are a great snare, as well as a great trouble, and entails more anxiety and sorrow than real pleasure and enjoyment.
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I feel a blessed nearness to heaven, to Jesus. My soul holds converse with Him. Sweet it is to lie as a helpless babe at His feet; passive in His hands, knowing and desiring and doing no will but His. What a mercy to have one loving bosom to flee to! One truly loving heart to confide in, open to the faintest breathings of the troubled soul, the fullest utterances of the sorrowing heart! "Precious Jesus! How blessedly dear and near to me are You at this moment! Keep sensibly close to me. Lift up upon me the light of Your heavenly countenance, for it is better and sweeter to me than life."
What a mercy to have such a One to lean upon, who can and does enter into all our little needs and cares! By this constant living upon and traveling to Jesus we become more conformed to His lovely likeness. I would encourage all I love in the Lord, to keep up this holy fellowship and intercommunion with their dearest and best Friend. Let Jesus be all and in all to us. Let us feel that we cannot live without Him.
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My afflicted friend, nothing is too hard for God to do; nothing impossible for Him in whose arm we trust. He hears your every sigh, and His tenderest sympathies are towards you. Rest in His unchanging love, and be assured His unslumbering eye is ever over you for good. Confide in Him at all times, under the darkest clouds. This is the time to exercise faith in the living, loving God. All our trials are tokens of a Father's love, and sent as trials of His faithfulness, and as increasing our knowledge of, and acquaintance with, Himself. As a loving father pities his children, so He pities us.
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We all have a talent committed to our trust; let us be prayerful to know what it is, and diligent to lay it out for God.
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Religious formalism is one of the most extensive and fatal snares of souls. There is in most a constant 'saying of prayers', without praying; a perpetual repetition, without feeling. The heart untouched, unmoved, unbroken. How few who profess to be converted understand anything of the new birth! They have heard of Christ, but do not experimentally and personally know Him. They have never repaired to Him with a broken and a contrite heart. But to be brought as a poor sinner to His feet, there to lie until He speaks pardon and peace to the weary, heavy laden soul, is quite another thing.
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Marvellous are the dealings of God with us! Let us trust and praise Him here, and hereafter we shall fully know why we were put in the furnace, and confess that love kindled, and love watched, and love brought us through it.
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Dear friend, before long we shall lay aside this frail and suffering flesh, and wing our way upwards to join the heavenly company and be with Christ. We shall see Him face to face who loved us, and who with love drew us to Himself. What shall we, what can we, render to Him for all His great, distinguishing goodness to us?
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It is no small matter to be a consistent Christian.
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I am more and more convinced that it is neither riches nor honor nor power that can make a man happy either in this world or in that which is to come. Nothing on earth or in heaven can do this but a knowledge of JESUS. How vain are all things beneath the sun!
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Oh, who would not live and strive for heaven! Perfect holiness! perfect happiness! No sin, nor sorrow, nor cruel death, can ever enter there!
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I find it sweet to retire and be alone with my best Friend. What a privilege to open our whole heart, and lean, like John, upon the Savior's tender, sympathizing bosom! What on earth is like this? A broken heart, a helpless and powerless soul resting upon the arm and the heart of Infinite and Eternal love!
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All His dispensations, however trying, are in love to our souls. He wishes us to cling closer to Himself, and would remove everything that comes between Him and His child. He desires, too, that we shall bear more of His own image, and be more weaned from a passing world and dying creatures.
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The promise, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble," has been to me more than untold gold! I never knew Him to fail. If He did not remove the trouble in my way, He did it in a far better way. Recollect that His ear is open to our cry, and He loves to hear our pleadings.
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The sweetest and safest life is to lean upon Him as a little helpless child, even as a child weaned of its mother, quiet, submissive, clinging.
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If you feel your love to Him chilled, go and tell Him, and He will warm it with His own precious and unchanged love. Go just as you are; let your state of mind and body be what it may, you will always find a welcome from Jesus.
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Let us try to live more decidedly for eternity, lessening our hold of the trifles of this poor world, and anticipating the kingdom, the crown, the glory, the welcome that awaits us.
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The wicked are only the Lord's rod to drive us nearer to Himself, that we might know more of His pity, power, and love.
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There is no chance with God. Every circumstance connected with you was ordered before your had existence. Each event, small and great, each step you take, was predetermined and provided for. God knows all, and does all, and will do all things for you. I would have you rest on this truth, that in the everlasting covenant of grace, all our history was shaped and anticipated; so that in the full belief of this truth, the mind, under all present dark and inexplicable circumstances and events, is at once at ease. Oh, could we but look into God's heart, His dear, loving heart, and see how precious we are to Him, how truly He is watching over us, wisely directing all the incidents and circumstances of our history for our good and His own glory, how soon would all our present grievances vanish, and we sit as little, weaned children at the feet of Jesus!
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Oh, when we think how short time is, how uncertain is life, and that a vast eternity awaits us; how unwise we are to allow ourselves to be entangled with earth and earthly things!