At each moment, we are fighting an internal battle, one that can either bring us one step closer to Christ or pull us farther from Him. In other words, we have the power to choose which thoughts we will entertain and which ones we will discard.
God invites us to focus on truth. According to Dr. Speaking of the devil, known in Scripture as the deceiver, he says, "Unfortunately, too many fall prey to the roaring lion who seeks to destroy.
The only way to have victory over the ploys of the deceiver is to [control every thought] in order to obey Christ. If we fail [to do this], the thinking and philosophies of this world will take us captive. One of the best ways we do this is through prayer , asking God to remove all false thinking and replace it with His truth.
Out of all the spiritual weapons mentioned in Ephesians chapter six, the sword of truth, which is the word of God, is our only offensive weapon.
Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. We must still make sense of the incarnation within these boundaries. And one could argue that the Bible supports this claim. At the same time, as a full human being, Jesus often indicates that his knowledge was limited. This view is not without its problems.
To be honest, I have always had trouble rendering this view coherent. It requires us to imagine that Jesus was aware of what was happening with every molecule on every planet in the universe even while he was a zygote in the womb of Mary. And it requires that we imagine this while also affirming that, as a fully human zygote, Jesus was completely devoid of any awareness.
Is this a legitimate paradox or an unacceptable contradiction? One could easily argue the latter. If being God means that one is omniscient and that being human means that one is not omniscient, then it seems we are asserting A and not A in claiming Jesus was both. Mind of Christ — How do I develop it? The mind of Christ is given to believers through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This comes with saving faith in Christ.
And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. Yes, I want to follow Jesus. I am a follower of Jesus. Never ruffled and fretted by real or imaginary injuries, he puts the best construction on motives and actions, and by a gentle answer to unmerited reproach — often disarms man's anger.
A thankful spirit pervaded the entire life of Jesus, and surrounded with a heavenly halo His otherwise darkened path. In moments we least expect to find it, this beauteous ray breaks through the gloom. In instituting the memorial of His death, He "gave thanks!
We know in seasons of deep sorrow and trial, that everything wears a gloomy aspect. Speechless nature herself to the burdened spirit, seems as if she partook in the hues of sadness. The life of Jesus was one continuous experience of privation and woe — a "Valley of Baca," from first to last; yet, amid accents of plaintive sorrow, there are ever heard subdued undertones of thankfulness and joy!
Ah, if He, the suffering "Man of Sorrows," could, during a life of unparalleled woe , lift up His heart in grateful acknowledgment to His Father in heaven, how ought the lives of those to be one perpetual "hymn of thankfulness," who are from day to day and hour to hour for all they have, both temporally and spiritually pensioners on God's bounty and love!
There is, or ought to be, with us no such thing as small mercies; all are great, because the least are undeserved. Indeed, a really thankful heart will extract motive for gratitude from everything, making the most even of scanty blessings.
Paul, when in his dungeon at Rome, a prisoner in chains is heard to say, "I have all and abound! Guard, on the other hand, against that spirit of continual fretting and moping over imagined ills; that temptation to exaggerate the real or supposed disadvantages of our condition, magnifying the trifling inconveniences of every-day life into enormous evils.
Think rather how much we have to be thankful for. The world in which we live, in spite of all the scars of sin and suffering upon it — is a pleasant world. It is not, as many would morbidly paint it, flooded with tears and strewn with wrecks, plaintive with a perpetual dirge of sorrow. True, the "Everlasting Hills" are in glory — but there are numberless eminences of grace, and love, and mercy below; many green spots in the lower valley — many more than we deserve!
God will reward a thankful spirit. Just as on earth, when a man receives with gratitude what is given we are more disposed to give again, so also, "the Lord loves" a cheerful "receiver," as well as a cheerful "giver. Let ours, moreover, be a Gospel thankfulness. Let the incense of a grateful spirit rise not only to the Great Giver of all good — but to our Covenant God in Christ. Let it be the spirit of the child exulting in the bounty and beneficence of his Father's house and home!
While the sweet melody of gratitude vibrates through every successive moment of our daily being — let love to our adorable Redeemer show for whom and for what it is, that we reserve our notes of loftiest and most fervent praise. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift!
Too legibly are the characters written on the fallen heart and a fallen world — "All seek their own! When the love of God was dethroned from the soul, SELF vaulted into the vacant seat, and there, in some one of its ever-changing shapes, continues to reign. Jesus stands out for our imitation, as a grand solitary exception in the midst of a world of selfishness.
His entire life was one abnegation of self; a beautiful living embodiment of that love which "seeks not her own. During His forty days' temptation, no table did He spread for Himself, no booth did He rear for His unpillowed bead. Twice do we read of Him shedding tears — on neither occasion were they for Himself.
The approach of His cross and passion, instead of absorbing Him in His own approaching sufferings, seemed only to elicit new and more gracious promises to His people. When His enemies came to apprehend Him, His only stipulation was for His disciples' release — "Let these go their way.
Ah, how different is the spirit of the world! With how many is day after day only a new oblation to that idol SELF — pampering their own wishes; envying and grieving at the good of a neighbor; unable to brook the praise of a rival; establishing their own reputation on the ruins of another; thus engendering jealousy, discontent, peevishness, and every kindred unholy passion. Are you animated with this as the high end and aim of existence — to lay out your time, and talents, and opportunities — for God's glory and the good of your fellow-men; not seeking your own interests — but rather relinquishing these, if, by doing so, another will be made holier, and your Savior honored?
You may not have it in your power to manifest this "mind of Jesus" on a great scale, by enduring great sacrifices; nor is this required. His denial of self had about it no repulsive austerity; but you can evince its holy influence and sway, by innumerable little offices of kindness and goodwill; taking a generous interest in the welfare of others, or engaging in schemes for the mitigation of human misery. Avoid ostentation — which is only another repulsive form of self.
Be eager to be in the shadows; sound no trumpet before you. The evangelist Matthew held a great banquet for Jesus at his house; but in his Gospel, he says not one word about it! Seek to live more constantly and habitually under the constraining influence of the love of Jesus. Selfishness withers and dies beneath Calvary! Ah, believer! We cannot fail to be struck, in the course of the Savior's public teaching, with His constant appeal to the word of God. While, at times, He utters, in His own name, the authoritative behest, "Truly, truly, I say unto you," He often thus introduces some mighty work, or gives intimation of some impending event in His own momentous life, "These things must come to pass, that the Scriptures be fulfilled, which says.
Whether He drives the money-changers from their sacrilegious traffic in the temple, or foils his great adversary on the mount of temptation — he does so with the same weapon, "It is written! The disciples on the road to Emmaus listen to nothing but a Bible lesson.
How momentous the instruction herein conveyed! The necessity of the absolute subjection of the mind to God's written Word — making churches, creeds, ministers, books, religious opinions — all subordinate and subservient to Scripture; rebuking the philosophy, falsely so called, that would distort the plain statements of Revelation, and lay their proud Reason in the dust.
If an infallible Redeemer, "a law to Himself," was submissive in all respects to the "written law," — shall fallible man refuse to sit with the teachableness of a little child, and listen to the Divine message? There may be, there is, in the Bible, what Reason staggers at: "we have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.
Faith does not first ask what the bread is made of — but eats it. It does not analyze the components of the living stream — but with joy draws the water from "the wells of salvation. Make the Bible the arbiter in all difficulties — the ultimate court of appeal. Like Mary, "sit at the feet of Jesus," willing only to learn of Him. How many perplexities it would save you!
In every dubious question, when the foot is trembling on debatable ground, knowing not whether to advance or recede, make this the final criterion, "What says the Scripture? We speak of this Christian and that Christian as "a man of prayer," Jesus was emphatically so. The Spirit was "poured upon Him without measure" — yet He prayed! He was incarnate wisdom, "needing not that any should teach Him" — yet He prayed!
He was infinite in His power, and boundless in His resources — yet He prayed! How deeply sacred the prayerful memories that hover around the solitudes of Olivet and the shores of Tiberias! He seemed often to turn night into day to redeem moments for prayer, rather than lose the blessed privilege. We are rarely, indeed, admitted into the solemnities of His inner life. The veil of night is generally between us and the Great High Priest, when He entered "the holiest of all;" but we have enough to reveal the depth of fervor, the tenderness and confidingness of this blissful intercommunion with His heavenly Father.
No morning dawns without His fetching fresh manna from the mercy-seat. Beautiful description! All His public acts were consecrated by prayer — His baptism, His transfiguration, His miracles, His agony, His death. He breathed away His spirit in prayer. How sweet to think, in holding communion with God — that Jesus drank of this very brook! He consecrated the bended knee and the silent chamber.
He refreshed His fainting spirit at the same great Fountain-head from which it is life for us to draw, and death to forsake. May you not trace much of what you deplore — to an unfrequented prayer chamber?
The treasures are locked up from you — because you have allowed the key to rust! Your hands hang down — because they have ceased to be uplifted in prayer. Without prayer! Beware of encouraging what indisposes to prayer — going to the audience-chamber of God with soiled garments, the din of the world following you, its distracting thoughts hovering unforbidden over your spirit.
Can you wonder that the living water refuses to flow through obstructed channels, or the heavenly light to pierce murky vapors? Among men, fellowship with lofty minds — imparts a certain nobility to the character. Just so, in a far higher sense, by communion with God you will be transformed into His image, and get assimilated to His likeness.
Make every event in life — a reason for fresh going to Him. If difficulties in duty, bring them to the test of prayer. If bowed down with anticipated trial, "fearing to enter the cloud," — remember Christ's preparation, "Sit here while I go and pray yonder. Let prayer consecrate everything — your time, your talents, your pursuits, your engagements, your joys, your sorrows, your crosses, your losses.
By prayer, rough paths will be made smooth, trials are disarmed of their bitterness, enjoyments are hallowed and refined, the bread of the world turned into angels' food. He sought to baptize the world afresh with it.
When we find Him teaching us by love to vanquish an enemy, we need not wonder at the tenderness of His appeals to the brethren to "love one another. If selfishness had guided His actions, we might have expected Him to demand all His people's love for Himself. But He claims no such monopoly. He not only encourages mutual affection — but He makes it the badge of discipleship! He gave them at once its measure and motive. How humbling that there should be so much that is sadly and strangely unlike the spirit which our blessed Master sought to inculcate alike by precept and example!
Christians, why these bitter estrangements, these censorious words, these harsh judgments, this lack of kind consideration of the feelings and failings of those who may differ from you? Why are your friendships so often like the summer brook, soon dried? You hope, before long, to meet in glory.
Doubtless, when you enter on that "sabbath of love," many a greeting will be this, "Alas! Do you see the image of God in a professing believer? It is your duty to love him for the sake of that image. No church, no outward attire, no denominational creed — should prevent your owning and claiming him as a fellow-pilgrim and fellow-heir. It has been said of a portrait, however poor the painting, however unfinished the style, however faulty the touches, however coarse and unseemly the frame — yet if the likeness is faithful, we overlook many subordinate defects.
So it is with the Christian: however plain the exterior, however rough the setting, or even manifold the blemishes still found cleaving to a partially sanctified nature — yet if the Redeemer's likeness is feebly and faintly traced there, we should love the blemished copy for the sake of the Divine Original. There may be other bonds of association and communion linking spirit with spirit — family ties, mental congenialities, intellectual tastes, philanthropic pursuits; but that which ought to take the precedence of all, is the love of God's image in the brethren.
What will heaven be, but this love perfected — loving Christ, and beloved by those who love Him? John had more love than the other disciples. He drank deepest of the love within that Bosom on which he delighted to lean, every beat of which was love. Soon shall we come to look within the portal. Then shall every jarring and dissonant note be merged into the sublime harmonies of "the new heavens and the new earth," and we shall all "see eye to eye!
It is an affecting thing to see a great man in tears! That scene, that word, is a condensed volume of consolation for yearning and desolate hearts.
What a majesty was in those tears! He had just before been discoursing on Himself as the Resurrection and the Life — the next moment He is a Weeping Man by a human grave, melted in anguished sorrow at a bereaved one's side!
Think of the funeral at the gate of Nain, reading its lesson to dejected myriads — "Let your widows trust in me! Think of the affecting pause in that silent procession to Calvary, when He turns around and stills the sobs of those who are tracking His steps with their weeping! Think of that wondrous epitome of human tenderness, just before His eyes closed in their sleep of agony — in the mightiest crisis of all time — when filial love looked down on an anguished mother, and provided her a son and a home!
Ah, was there ever sympathy like this! The majesty of Godhead almost lost in the tenderness of the Friend. But so it was — and so it now is!
The heart of the now enthroned King beats responsive to the humblest of His sorrow-stricken people. Let us "go and do likewise. Its recompense and return are great, in the priceless consolation it imparts.
Few there are, who undervalue it. Look at Paul — the weary, jaded prisoner — chained to a soldier — recently ship-wrecked, about to stand before Caesar. He reaches Forum dejected and depressed. Brethren come from Rome, a distance of sixty miles, to offer their sympathy. The aged man is cheered! His spirit, like Jacob's, "revived! Delight, when opportunity occurs — to frequent the house of mourning — to bind up the widow's heart, and to dry the orphan's tears.
If you can do nothing else, you can whisper into the ear of disconsolate sorrow, those majestic solaces, which, rising first in the graveyard of Bethany, have sent their undying echoes through the world, and stirred the depths of ten thousand hearts — "Your brother will rise again!
Soothe it, minister to it, support it, revere it. It is the relic of Christ in the world, an image of the Great Sufferer, a shadow of the cross. It is a holy and venerable thing. Jesus Himself "looked for some to take pity — but there was none; and for comforters — but He found none!
Jesus never spoke one unnecessarily harsh or severe word. He had a divine sympathy for the frailties and infirmities of the tried, the suffering, the tempted. He was forbearing to the ignorant, encouraging to the weak, tender to the penitent, loving to all. Yet how faithful was He as "the Reprover of sin! When His Father's name and temple were profaned — how did He sweep, with an avenging hand, the mammon-crowd away, replacing the superscription, "Holiness to the Lord," over the defiled altars!
Nor was it different with His own disciples. With what fidelity, when rebuke was needed, did He administer it: the withering reprimand conveyed, sometimes by an impressive word Matthew ; sometimes by a silent look Luke The giving of a wise reproof requires much Christian prudence and delicate discretion. It is not by a rash and inconsiderate exposure of failings, that we must attempt to reclaim an erring brother. But neither, for the sake of a false peace, must we compromise fidelity; for even friendship is too dearly purchased — by winking at sin.
Perhaps, when Peter was led to call the Apostle who honestly reproved him, "Our beloved brother Paul," in nothing did he love his rebuker more, than for the honest boldness of his Christian reproof. If Paul had, in that crisis of the Church, with a timidity unworthy of him, evaded the difficult task, what, humanly speaking, might have been the result? How often does a seasonable reprimand, a faithful caution — save from a lifetime of sin and sorrow!
How many a deathbed has made the disclosure, "That kind warning of my friend put an arrest on my career of sin; it altered my whole being; it brought me to the cross; touched my heart, and, by God's grace, saved my soul!
When tempted to sit silent when the name of God is slighted or dishonored, think — would Jesus have done so? Would He have allowed the blasphemy to go unrebuked — or the lie to be uttered unchallenged? Where there is a natural shyness which makes you shrink from a more bold and open reproof, remember much may be done to discountenance sin, by the silent holiness of demeanor, which refuses to smile at the unholy allusion or ribald jest.
No word here of the erring disciple's past faithlessness — his guilty cowardice , his base denial, his oaths and curses, and treacherous desertion — all are unmentioned! The memory of a threefold denial is suggested, and no more, by the threefold question of unutterable tenderness, "Simon son of John — do you truly love me?
When Jesus found His disciples sleeping at the gate of Gethsemane, He rebukes them; but how is the rebuke disarmed of its poignancy by the merciful apology which is added — "The spirit indeed is willing — but the flesh is weak!
The woman of Samaria is full of worldliness, carnality, sectarianism, sin — yet how gently the Savior speaks to her! How forbearingly — yet faithfully, He directs the arrow of conviction to that seared and hardened conscience, until He lays it bleeding at His feet!
Truly, "He will not break the bruised reed — He will not quench the smoking flax. When others are speaking of merciless violence, He can dismiss the most guilty of profligates with the words "Neither do I condemn you — go, and sin no more.
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