Contemplation of Jesus

[jiggyfly]

Contemplation of Jesus
By Alan Redpath


I saw in Him the glory of a life lived in total abandonment to the sovereign will of His Father in heaven. I saw a life lived in utter poverty yet in absolute contentment. I saw a life triumph over every point where I have failed. I have seen Him come so near the poor, to those who are sick, and to those who are in need. I have seen Him holy, separate, harmless, and undefiled; so close to the sinner yet never contaminated. Ah, but most of all I have seen His tears, I have heard His crying, and I have listened to the cry which said, "Oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matt.a 26:39). I have seen the nail prints, the marks in His hands and His side; I have heard the cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46). I have seen Him made sin on my behalf, God in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. I have seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and, bless His holy name, I have seen an empty tomb, an ascended Savior.

I have had a clear view of Jesus. I have seen Him, felt Him, and I have known Him in a far deeper way than simply by the outward physical appearance; I have felt the reality of His life begin to burn in my heart. I have seen in Christ the glory of a life that is totally submitted to the sovereignty of God. That glory has begun to take hold of me, and I have begun to see that this is the one life that God expects of any man He made in His own image. I have seen the marks of the cross upon Him, and by His grace the marks of the cross have been put upon me and I am no longer my own; I am bought with a price, redeemed by His precious blood. Yes, I have seen Him--not in the outward physical sense only, but in the inward sense of a deep spiritual reality. I have had a clear view of Jesus and my life will never be the same again. . . .

The man who gazes upon and contemplates day by day the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, and who has caught the glow of the reality that the Lord is not a theory but an indwelling power and force in his life, is as a mirror reflecting the glory of the Lord.

Give up the struggle and the fight; relax in the omnipotence of the Lord Jesus; look up into His lovely face and as you behold Him, He will transform you into His likeness. You do the beholding--He does the transforming. There is no short-cut to holiness.

" . . . Changed into the same image from glory to glory . . . " -- this is a lifelong, glorious experience, and it will be perfected one day in heaven. Paul tells us (Phil. 3:21) that He "shall change our vile body [this body of sin in which dwells no good thing], that it maybe fashioned like unto His glorious body . . . " Yes, He will do that! (Blessings Out of Buffetings, Studies in 2 Corinthians, pp. 44-48).

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place (2 Corinthians 2:14).

 

[sunshine307]

The man who gazes upon and contemplates day by day the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, and who has caught the glow of the reality that the Lord is not a theory but an indwelling power and force in his life, is as a mirror reflecting the glory of the Lord.
Give up the struggle and the fight; relax in the omnipotence of the Lord Jesus; look up into His lovely face and as you behold Him, He will transform you into His likeness. You do the beholding--He does the transforming. There is no short-cut to holiness.

To be like Jesus, to be like Jesus,
All I ask is to be like Thee.
All through life's journey, from earth to glory,
All I ask is to be like Thee.

 

[Coconut]

"I have had a clear view of Jesus and my life will never be the same again. . . ." Praise God!


Rom 5:2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

 

[Coconut]

Jesus is Lord - Excerpts from "One Solitary Life" (author unknown)

Jesus is Lord, yet He declares His Lordship through the power of humility and grace…

"Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty and then for three years was an itinerant preacher. He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled more than two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of those things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself….

"While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed on a cross between two thieves. While he was dying his executors gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth - His coat. When he was dead, He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

"Nineteen long centuries have come and gone and today He is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever were built, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life."

 

[Coconut]

Jesus is Lord - Quotes from Joseph Parker (1830-1902)

Jesus is Lord, yet He allows men to crucify Him…

"There are other men who do not come to worship Christ; who simply come to speculate upon him… The patronage they offer the Son of God! It makes me sad to hear how they **** Him with faint praise. What I dread among you is not that you will destroy Christ, but that you will patronize Him. Jesus Christ is nothing to me if He is not the Savior of the world… You will know what Jesus Christ is most and best when you are in greatest need of such service as He can render.

No man can entertain an opinion of indifference regarding Jesus. If he has considered the subject at all, he must worship Christ or crucify Him. Where there is earnestness in the inquiry or the criticism, that earnestness ends in homage or in crucifixion."

 

[Coconut]

Jesus is Lord - Excerpt from "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)

Jesus is Lord, yet mankind insists on calling Him everything else…

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

 

[jiggyfly]

Amen Coconut, Jesus is Lord and no one can escape this reality.