July- September
Think of the estimate God has placed on us! When we were ready to perish, He sent His Son to die for us, that we might have an opportunity to regain what has been lost by sin. ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life’ (John 3:16). This infinite sacrifice connects us with God. Satan cannot hold us if we will accept Christ as our hope, our life, our personal Saviour. The spotless, sinless Son of God has borne our sins in His own body on the cross, that we might live unto God. When we truly receive Christ, we live His life, not our own. Our highest aim is to do His will, and represent His character.
Christ bore our sins that we might live unto righteousness. We were as sheep going astray, but He came from the heavenly courts to bring us back to the fold.
He died to make it possible for us to keep the law. But all are left to make their choice for themselves. God forces no one to accept the advantages secured for Him at an infinite cost.
A large number of God’s subjects have taken their position under the banner of rebellion, but God has not treated them as they deserve. They have declared of Christ, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us;’ but the Lord’s hand of love is stretched out still. Men have become bondmen of Satan, but the Lord is entreating them to enlist in His army.
Christ lived on this earth the life He desires His disciples to live—a life of unselfish service. Let His children remember that He has a work for each one of them to do. He has given them talents, which they are to hold and use for Him. But do we appreciate the privilege thus placed within our reach for blessing those around us? Do we use our talents to the best advantage? Are not many of us asleep, doing nothing to save our fellowmen? Is not the Bible, God’s great textbook of education, superficially read, and therefore superficially understood and superficially practiced?
Time is fast passing. Let us remember that while life is ours, we are under the solemn responsibility of working for God. Let us throw aside our narrow, selfish plans, and do our very best to accomplish the work God desires to have accomplished. Let us give the invitation, ‘Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price’ (Isaiah 55:1). Let us think of the sacrifice Jesus made to obtain our redemption. Let us study how we can most intelligently work for Him. We have been bought with a price; therefore let us do all in our power to glorify Him who has purchased us. God calls upon us to go to those in error, and point them to the right way. It is not only the ordained ministers who are to do this work. Ministering angels will cooperate with all who will labor unselfishly for the Master.1
“He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:39).
Understand the Gift of God, and ask of Him living water, that He may be in you a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. Then you will refresh others; then you will not be anxious to have the highest place. You will not have a carnal ambition to crowd and elbow your way into notice, and to be ambitious for the highest position; but you will realize that your highest place is at the feet of the great Teacher, to learn of Him who is meek and lowly in heart. You will realize that your part is to behold Jesus, to contemplate His perfections, to talk of Him, and to have your hearts all aglow with the love of God. Then you will possess Christ’s meekness and lowliness of heart. Then you will be in a condition to listen to words of truth, and to be benefited by them; for you will then practice the truth, and teach others also the truth as it is in Jesus.
You should seek God with all your heart for yourselves, that the faith which you possess may be a working faith‑‑a faith that is genuine‑‑a faith that works by love, and purifies the soul. Through the grace of Christ you will make decided endeavors to overcome all cold, rough, harsh, uncourteous ways and manners. These unchristlike attributes will be clearly seen as they are, as you behold the Pattern; for it is by beholding Jesus, by talking of Jesus, by contemplating Jesus, that you will see the offensive character of sin, of selfishness, or hardness of heart, and you will do the very thing that God requires you to do, and that you have not yet done. You will put away all self‑‑self‑importance, self‑love, self‑esteem, envy, evil‑surmising, and jealousy, and plead for the Holy Spirit to come into your hearts and abide with you. As you taste and see that the Lord is good, you will hunger and thirst after more of the Holy Spirit, and will make an entire surrender of your will and your way, your plans and ideas, to God, and will keep the way of the Lord. Your words and deportment must be guarded.
The mighty cleaver of truth has taken you out of the quarry of the world. You were rough stones with jagged edges, bruising and marring whoever you came in contact with; there is a work to be done to smooth off the rough edges. If you appreciated the value of the work that is to be done in the workshop of God, you would welcome the blows of the ax and the hammer. Your self‑esteem will be hurt, your high opinion of yourself will be cut away by the ax and the hammer, and the roughness of your character will be smoothed off; and when self and carnal propensities are worked away, then the stone will assume proper proportions for the heavenly building, and then the polishing, refining, subduing, burnishing processes will begin, and you will be molded after the model of Christ’s character. . . .
“Jesus lived not to please Himself. He gave Himself as a living, consuming sacrifice for the good of others. He came to elevate, to ennoble, to make happy all with whom He came in contact. Those who receive Christ will put away all that is uncourteous, harsh, and rough, and will reveal the pleasantness, the kindness that dwelt in Jesus, because Christ abides in the heart by faith. Christ was the light that shineth in darkness, and His followers are also to be the light of the world. They are to kindle their tapers at the divine altar. The character that is sanctified through the truth adds the perfect polish.
Christ is our model; but unless we behold Him, unless we contemplate His character, we shall not reflect His character in our practical life. He was meek and lowly in heart. He never did a rude action, never spoke a discourteous word. The Lord is not pleased with our blunt, hard, unsympathetic ways toward others. All this selfishness must be purged away from our characters, and we must wear the yoke of Christ. Then we shall become laborers together with God, and shall be fitting up for the society of heavenly angels. We are to be in the world, but not of the world. We are to be representatives of Jesus Christ. As the Lord of life and glory came to our world to represent the Father, so we are to go to the world to represent Jesus. He says, ‘I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. . . . Thy word is truth’ (John 17:19, 17). We need, then, to become familiar with the Word of God; to study and to practice it in life. Then will the word become to us personally the power of God unto salvation.2