ful third chapter. He closes the chapter in which he speaks of us as living epistles with these words:
may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” What is it that’s going to make the world believe in Jesus Christ? It is when Christians become one with the Father and with the Son. When we abandon our lives to Him so that every area of it is brought under His direction and His control, then, He says, the world shall believe "that thou [the Father] hast sent me.”
"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.’’
What’s he saying? He says there’s a place where we behold the glory of the Lord. It is like a mirror. Where is it? It’s in the Word of God. You cannot be changed into the image o f Christ apart from reading and understanding the Word of God and adjusting your life to it. But as you take the Bible and read it consistently day after day, and not only read it but begin to let it speak to your own life about these various areas and you adjust your life to its control, the apostle says, we all, with open face, beholding in this mirror the glory o f the Lord, quite unconsciously and without even being aware o f what is happening, are changed into the same image, from glory unto glory, even as by the operation o f the Spirit o f God in our lives. Now I ask you today: What kind of a Christ are you presenting to the world? Is He a deformed Christ — revolt ing — driving people from the Christian faith? Or is there showing through, beginning to at least, the wonderful personality, the attractiveness of Jesus Christ? Prayer Our Holy Father, we pray now that we may indeed begin to reflect something o f the glories and the beauties and the excellencies o f Him who has called us out o f darkness into His marvelous light. Lord, we covet this great privilege o f being images of Christ to this world today, and we’re sorry, Lord, for the terrible, hideous way we’ve done it in the past. W e know we’ ve presented in many ways a deformed Christ to the world. Forgive us, our Father, and help that picture to be cleared up as we take every area o f our life and begin to submit it to your control. Cause us to bring that stubborn will unto you. Control our wild imaginations, the thoughts o f our hearts. Begin to deal in earnestness with some o f these habits o f our lives. This quick temper, the flash o f anger and the sharp and caustic word, the miserable disposition that we display before we have our coffee in the morning, and some of these evil things that lie in our heart and make us present distorted pictures of the Lord fesus unto the world around us. W e ask, Lord, that you’ll judge them in the light of your Word and correct them by the power of the Spirit, for we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. END.
How to H andle M oods
I here are certain things we must not pray about— moods, for instance. Moods never go by praying, moods go by kicking. A mood nearly always has its seat in the physical condition, not in the moral. It is a continual effort not to listen to the moods which arise from a physical condition, to never submit to them for a second. W e have to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and shake ourselves, and then we will find that we can do what we said we could not. The curse with most of us is that we won't. — Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest
We want to convince men and women today o f this, don’t we? We’re anxious about our neighbors and our friends. How can we convince them of the deity o f Christ? Arguments won’t do it. They re helpful, they have their place. But they won’t do it. The thing that will convince men and women beyond a shadow o f a doubt that Christ has come from the Father into this world is when they see Him written in large letters in your life and mine, and when every area of our life is in His control. How it is done Well now, you say, be practical about it. How does it happen? I want this but how does it happen? Let me give you what I think is the most practical verse in the Bible along this line; its very simplicity has been a snare to us. We haven’t followed it because it’s so simple. But this is what the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians, in that wonder
17
The King's Business/July 1957
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker