Saturday, April 4, 2015

Farewell Blogger Friends!

It's time for me to say 'goodbye' to my many blogger friends.  My health is failing little by little and because I have osteoporosis Ive broken a vertebrae and a rib in the last two weeks and it is almost impossible for me to type to keep up with the blog.  I would like to encourage you to get a copy of The Desire of Ages by clicking on the Amazing Facts icon and reading the whole book.  I have given you a taste of the contents which I think is the best book on the life of Christ.  I hope my blogs have been a big help to someone over the past year plus.  May God bless each of my readers and I pray that you will continue to walk the Christian pathway and someday meet together in heaven.  God Bless You.  Grandma Joan

Friday, April 3, 2015

Our High Calling

All who are consecrated to God will be channels of light.  God makes them His agents to communicate to others the riches of His grace.  His promise is, "I will make them and the places round about My hill  a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing."  Ezekiel 34:26.

Philip said to Nathanael, "Come and see"  He did not ask him to accept another's testimony, but to behold Christ for himself. Now that Jesus has ascended to heaven, His disciples are His representatives among men, and one of the most effective ways of winning souls to Him is in exemplifying His character in our daily life.  Our influence upon others depends not so much upon what we say, as upon what we are.  Men may combat and defy our logic, they may resist our appeals; but a life of disinterested love is an argument they cannot gainsay.  A consistent life, characterized by the meekness of Christ, is a power in the world.

The teaching of Christ was the expression of an inwrought conviction and experience, and those who learn of Him become teachers after the divine order.  The word of God, spoken by one who is himself sanctified through it , has a life-giving power that makes it attractive to the hearers, and convicts them that it is a living reality.  When one has received the truth in the love of it, he will make this manifest in the persuasion of his manner and the tones of his voice.  He makes known that which he himself has heard, seen, and handled of the word of life,  that others may have fellowship with him through the knowledge of Christ.  His testimony, from lips touched with a live coal from off the altar, is truth to the receptive heart, and works sanctification upon the character.

The angels of God are ever passing from earth to heaven, and from heaven to earth.  The miracles of Christ for the afflicted and suffering were wrought by the power of God through the ministration of the angels.  And it is through Christ, by the ministration of his heavenly messengers, that every blessing comes from God to us.  In taking up fallen sons and daughters of Adam, while through His divinity He grasps the throne of God.  And thus Christ is the medium of communication of men with God, and of God with men.

(It is a wonderful thing that we have a mediator between us and God the Father.  He is our lawyer, so to speak who stands in our place before the Father to intercede in our behalf.  We always have this very important intercession going on in our behalf.  We must commit our lives over to Christ and He will take care of us as long as we stay connected.  If we become disconnected He will do everything in His power to bring us back into connection again.  Let's stay connected, what do you say?  Grandma Joan.)
These thoughts were taken from the book the Desire of Ages chapter 14.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Come And See

(We read yesterday that Andrew and John were Jesus first disciples so today we are going to find out who else Jesus called.)

Andrew sought to impart the joy that filled his heart. Going in search of his brother Simon, he cried, "we have found the Messias."  Simon waited for no second bidding. He also had heard the preaching of John the Baptist, and he hastened to the Savior.  The eye of Christ rest upon him, reading his character and his life history.  His impulsive nature, his loving, sympathetic heart, his ambition and self-confidence, the history of his fall, his repentance, his labors,and his martyr death,--the Savior read it all, and He said, "Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone."

The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip and saith unto him, Follow Me."  Philip obeyed the command, and straightway he also became a worker for Christ.  Philip called Nathanael.  The latter had been among the throng when the Baptist pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God. As Nathanael looked upon Jesus, he was disappointed.  Could this man, who bore the marks of toil and poverty, be the Messiah?  Yet Nathanael could not decide to reject Jesus, for the message of John had brought conviction to his heart.

At the time when Philip called him, Nathanael had withdrawn to a quiet grove to meditate upon the announcement of John and the prophecies concerning the Messiah.  He prayed that if the one announced by John we the delivered, it might be made known to him, and the Holy Spirit rested upon him with assurance that God had visited His people and raised up a horn of salvation for them.  Philip knew that his friend was searching the prophecies, and while Nathanael was praying under a fig tree, Philip discovered his retreat.  They had often prayed together in this secluded spot hidden by the foliage.

The message, "We have found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write," seemed to Nathanael a direct answer to his prayer.  But Philip had yet a trembling faith.  He added doubtfully,"Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."  Again prejudice arose in Nathanael's heart.  He exclaimed, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?"

Philip entered into no controversy.  He said, "Come and see.  Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!"  In surprise Nathanael exclaimed, 'Whence knowest Thou me?"  Jesus answered and said unto him, Before Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee."

It was enough.  The divine Spirit that had borne witness to Nathanael in his solitary prayer under the fig tree now spoke to him in the words of Jesus.  Though in doubt, and yielding somewhat to prejudice, Nathanael had come to Christ with an honest desire for truth, and his desire was met.  His faith went beyond that of the one who brought him to Jesus.  He answered and said, "Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King o Israel."

If Nathanael had trusted to the rabbis for guidance, he would never have found Jesus.  It was by seeing and judging for himself that he became a disciple  So in the case of many today whom prejudice withholds from good.  How different would be the result if they would "come and see"!

(Let's put away our prejudice and "come and see" for ourselves.  When someone offers us 'truth' from the Scriptures let's accept it and rejoice that someone brought it to our view, we will never be the same again.  Grandma Joan)  These thoughts taken from Chapter 14 in the Desire of Ages.