Sunday, March 22, 2009

No longer were they to live their own selfish life; Christ was to live in them and speak through them . . .

By His heavenly gifts the Lord has made ample provision for His people. An earthly parent cannot give his child a sanctified character. He cannot transfer his character to his child. God alone can transform us. Christ breathed on His disciples, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (John 20:22). This is the great gift of heaven. Christ imparted to them through the Spirit His own sanctification. He imbued them with His power, that they might win souls to the gospel. Henceforth Christ would live through their faculties, and speak through their words. They were privileged to know that hereafter He and they were to be one. They must cherish His principles and be controlled by His Spirit. They were no longer to follow their own way, to speak their own words. The words they spoke were to proceed from a sanctified heart, and fall from sanctified lips. No longer were they to live their own selfish life; Christ was to live in them and speak through them. He would give to them the glory that He had with the Father, that He and they might be one in God.

The Lord Jesus is our great high priest, our advocate in the courts of heaven. The solemn position in which we stand to Him as worshipers is not appreciated. For our present and eternal good we need to understand this relation. If we are His children we are bound together in the bonds of Christian brotherhood, loving one another as He has loved us, united in the sacred relation of those washed in the blood of the Lamb. Bound up with Christ in God, we are to love as brethren.

Thank God that we have a great High Priest, who has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Christ has not entered into the holy place made with hands, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. By virtue of His own blood He entered in once for all into the holy place above, having obtained eternal redemption for us.--General Conference Bulletin, fourth quarter 1899. YRP 49


Each morning consecrate yourselves and your children to God for that day. Make no calculation for months or years; they are not yours. One brief day is given you. 7T44



Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41:10 (King James Version)