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He Gave His Only Son

"Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

John 21:29

• There should be less talk. A preaching point is not a meeting point.


• The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved-- they are Jesus in disguise.


• In the West there is loneliness, which I call the leprosy of the West. In many ways it is worse than our poor in Calcutta. (Commonweal, Dec 19, 1997)


• It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.


• The poor give us much more than we give them. They're such strong people, living day to day with no food. and they never curse, never complain. We don't have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them.


• I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?


• I do not pray for success. I ask for faithfulness.


• Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.


• If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

~Mother Teresa~

The highest proof of true friendship and one great source of it's blessedness, is the intimacy which withholds nothing, and allows the friend to share in our innermost secrets. It's a blessed thing to be Christ's servant. His redeemed ones delight to call themselves as His servants. In His great love, our Lord now says "Henceforth I call you not servants." With the coming of the Holy Spirit, a new era was to be inaugurated. "The servant knows not what his Lord does. But, I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." (John 15:15)

Christ's friends share with Him in all the secrets the Father has entrusted to Jesus.

Let us think what this means. When Jesus spoke of keeping His Father's commandments, He did not mean merely what was written in Holy Scripture. He was also referring to those special commandments which were communicated to Him day by day and from hour to hour. It was of these He said "The Father loves the Son, and shows Him greater works." (John 5:20) All that Jesus did was God's work. God showed it to Him, so that He could carry out the Fathers will and purpose. He did so not blindly and unintelligently, as man often does, but with full understanding and approval. As one who stood in God's counsel, He knew God's plan.

And this now is the blessedness of being Christ's friends. We do not, as servants, do His will without much spiritual insight into it's meaning and aim. But, we are admitted as an inner circle into some knowledge of God's more secret thoughts. From the day of Pentecost on, by the Holy Spirit, Christ was to lead His disciples into a spiritual comprehension of the mysteries of the Kingdom. Before this He had only spoken about them in parables.

Friendship delights in fellowship. Friends hold council. Friends trust each other with things that they would not, for anything want others to know. What is it that gives a Christian access to this holy intimacy with Jesus? What gives him the spiritual capacity for receiving the communications Christ has to make of what the Father has shown Him? "You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you."

It is loving obedience which purifies the soul. That refers not only to the commandments of the Word, but to that blessed application of the Word to our daily life. No one but our Lord Himself can give that. But as these are waited for in dependence and humility, and faithfully obeyed, the soul becomes fitted forever closer in closer fellowship. And daily friendship may become a continual experience. "I have called you friends...for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you."

I have called you friends. What an unspeakable honor! What a heavenly privilege! O Savior, speak the word with power into my soul. "I have called you my friend, whom I love, whom I trust, to whom I make known all that passes between my Fahter and me."

Thank you Lord Jesus, I will forever be your friend!

URLVD

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