Traveling with Pastor Tom
Time 2021-10-28 11:04:26Web Name: Traveling with Pastor Tom
WebSite: http://travelingwithpastortom.blogspot.com
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keywords: description:Thoughts on Traveling as a follower of Jesus
"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Nowremain in my love.
If you obey my commands, you will remain in mylove,
just asI have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.
John15:9-10
Our blessed Lord not only said,Abide inme(John 15:4), but also,Abide in My love.To reveal thislife in His love to us in all its divine beauty and blessedness, Jesus tells usthat His love for us, in which we are to abide, is just the same as theFathers love for Him, the love in which He abides. Surely, if anything werenecessary to make the abiding in His love more wonderful and attractive, thisought to do so.As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you:continue ye in My love.
We are the beloved of Jesus. As the Fatherloved Him, He loves us. And what we need is to take time and to worship andwait until we see the infinite love of God in all its power and glory streamingforth on us through the heart of Jesus. It is seeking to make itself known,receiving complete possession of us, and offering itself as our home andresting place. Oh, if the Christian would only take the time to let thiswondrous thought fill him, I am the beloved of the Lord. Jesus loves me everymoment, just as the Father loved Him. Then how our faith would grow, and wewould believe that we are loved as Christ was.
Oh, this Christlike obedience, leading to aChristlike abiding in the divine love! To attain it, we must study Christ more.He emptied Himself, humbled Himself, and became obedient. (See Philippians2:8.)May He empty and humble us, too! We must yield ourselves to be taughtobedience by Him. We need to listen to what He has told us about how He didnothing of Himself, but only what He saw and heard from the Father. Entiredependence on the Father was the root of His obedience and the secret of Hisknowledge of the Fathers deeper secrets. (See John 5:1920.) Gods love andmans obedience are like the lock and key fitting into each other. It is Godsgrace that has fitted the key to the lock; it is man who uses the key to unlockthe treasures of love.
Thanks be to God who always leads
us in triumph in Christ 2 Corinthians2:14
The proper perspective of a servant of Godmust not simply be as near to the highest as he can get, but it must bethehighest.Be careful that you vigorously maintain Gods perspective, and remember that itmust be done every day, little by little. Dont think on a finite level. Nooutside power can touch the proper perspective.
The proper perspective to maintain is that weare here for only one purpose to be captives marching in the procession ofChrists triumphs. We are not on display in Gods showcase we are here toexhibit only one thing the captivity [of our lives] to the obedience ofChrist (2 Corinthians 10:5). How small all the other perspectives are! Forexample, the ones that say, I am standing all alone, battling for Jesus, or,I have to maintain the cause of Christ and hold down this fort for Him. ButPaul said, in essence, I am in the procession of a conqueror, and it doesntmatter what the difficulties are, for I am always led in triumph. Is this ideabeing worked out practically in us? Pauls secret joy was that God took him asa blatant rebel against Jesus Christ, and made him a captive and that becamehis purpose. It was Pauls joy to be a captive of the Lord, and he had no otherinterest in heaven or on earth. It is a shameful thing for a Christian to talkabout getting the victory. We should belong so completely to the Victor that itis always His victory, and we are more than conquerors through Him (Romans8:37).
We are to God the fragrance of Christ (2Corinthians 2:15). We are encompassed with the sweet aroma of Jesus, andwherever we go we are a wonderful refreshment to God.
Butwe all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, arechanged into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of theLord.
2 Corinthians 3:18
Moses spent forty days on Mount Sinai incommunion with God. When he came down, his face shown with divine glory. It wasso evidently Gods glory that Aaron and the people feared to approach him(Exodus 34:30). In this we have an image of what takes place in the NewTestament. When we behold the glory of God in Christ, in the mirror of the HolyScriptures, His glory shines on us and fills us until it shines out from usagain.
The heavenly Father shows us His divine gloryin the face of Jesus because He knows that, by gazing on it, we will beconformed to the same image. Continually look to the divine glory as seenin Christ. What is the special characteristic of that glory? The chief marks ofthe image of the divine glory in Christ are His humiliation and His love.
There is the glory of His humiliation. Whenyou see how the eternal Son emptied Himself and became man, and how as Man Hehumbled Himself as a servant and was obedient even unto the death of the cross(Philippians 2:78), you have seen the highest glory of God.
The glory of His love is inseparable fromthis. The humiliation leads you back to the love as its origin and power. It isfrom love that the humiliation gains its beauty. But this love was a hiddenmystery until it was manifest in Christ Jesus.
Do you want to be like Christ? Gaze on theglory of God, that is to say, do not look only to the words in which His gloryis seen, but look to Jesus Himself, the living Christ. Look into His very eyes,into His face, as a loving Friend, as the living God.
Beholding Jesus and His glory, you canconfidently expect to become like Him. Gaze on and adore the glory of God inChrist; you will be changed with divine power from glory to glory. In the powerof the Holy Spirit, the mighty transformation will be worked, your desires willbe fulfilled, and becoming like Christ will be the blessed, God-givenexperience of your life.
Allthings must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in theprophets, and in the psalms, concerning Me.
Luke 24:44
What the Lord Jesus accomplished here on earthHe owed greatly to His use of the Scriptures. In them, He found the way inwhich He had to walk, the food and the strength from which He could work, andthe weapon by which He could overcome every enemy.
In the temptation in the wilderness, it was byHisIt is written(Matthew 4:4) that He conquered Satan. In Hisconflicts with the Pharisees, He continually appealed to the Word,asking,Have ye not read?(See, for example, Matthew 12:3, 5; Mark12:10, 26; Luke 6:3.)Is it not written?(See Mark 11:17; John10:34.)In His fellowship with His disciples, it was always from the Scripturesthat He proved the necessity and certainty of His sufferings andresurrection:How then shall the scriptures be fulfilled?(Matthew26:54). And during His last sufferings, it is in Scripture that He pours outthe complaint of being forsaken, and then again commends His Spirit into theFathers hands.
Jesus was Himself the living Word. He had theSpirit without measure. If anyone could have done without the written Word, itwould have been Him. And yet, we see that it is everything to Him. More thananyone else, He thus shows us that the life of God in human flesh and the Wordof God in human speech are inseparably connected.
In Christs use of Scripture, the mostremarkable thing is this: He found Himself there. He saw His own image andlikeness, and He gave Himself to the fulfillment of what He found writtenthere. It is especially in His example that we must find our own image inthe Scriptures. To bechanged into the same image from glory to glory,even as by the Spirit of the Lord(2 Corinthians 3:18), we must gaze inthe Scripture on that image as our own. In order to accomplish His work in us,the Spirit teaches us to take Christ as our Example and to gaze on His everyfeature as the promise of what we can be.
Jeremiah31:25
For I will satisfy the weary soul,
andevery languishing soul I will replenish.
You have been on a long, uphill journey, andyour energy is almost spent. Though you have faltered at times, you have notlet go of My hand. I am pleased with your desire to stay close to Me. There isone thing, however, that displeases Me: your tendency to complain. You may talkto Me as much as you like about the difficulty of the path we are following. Iunderstand better than anyone else the stresses and strains that have afflictedyou. You can ventilate safely to Me, because talking with Me tempers yourthoughts and helps you see things from My perspective.
Complaining to others is another matteraltogether. It opens the door to deadly sins such as self-pity and rage.Whenever you are tempted to grumble, come to Me and talk it out. As you open upto Me, I will put My thoughts in your mind and My song in your heart.
Philippians2:14-15
Do all things without grumbling or disputing,
thatyou may be blameless and innocent,
childrenof God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, amongwhom you shine as lights in the world.
Truly,Truly, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself,
butwhat He sees the Father do:
forwhat things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Fatherloves the Son,
andshows Him all things that Himself does:
andHe will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
John 5:19-20
Our relationship to Jesus is the exactcounterpart of His to the Father. As the words of Jesus in John 5 describe thenatural relationship between every father and son they are applicable not onlyto the Only Begotten, but also to everyone who, in and like Jesus, is called ason of God.
There is no better way to think of the simpletruth of the illustration than by thinking of Jesus learning His trade from Hisearthly father in the carpenters shop. The first thing you notice is theentire dependence:The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seesthe Father do.Then you are struck by the implicit obedience that justseeks to imitate the father,for what things so ever[the Father]does,these also does the Son likewise.You then notice the loving intimacy towhich the Father admits Him, keeping back none of His secrets:For theFather loveth the Son, and shows Him all things that Himself doeth.And,step-by-step, the Son will be led to all that the Father Himself can do:Hewill show Him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
If we are to understand how Christ is truly tobe our Example, we must fully believe in what our blessed Lord here reveals tous of the secrets of His inner life. He counted it no humiliation to wait onHim for His commands; rather, He considered it His highest blessedness to letHimself be led and guided by the Father as a Child.
My brethren, if you have so far only known alittle about this life of conscious dependence and simple obedience, begintoday. Let your Savior be your Example in this. It is His blessed will to livein you, and in you to be again what He was here on earth. Offer yourself to theFather this day to do nothing of yourself but only what the Father shows you.Fix your gaze on Jesus as the Example and promise of what you will be.
Yes, and all who desire to live godly inChrist Jesus
will suffer persecution.2 Timothy 3:12
Living a godly lifewill not insulate you from hardship. Paul said that the more blameless yourlife, the more likely you will be persecuted. According to Paul, evil men andimpostors will grow worse and worse (2 Tim. 3:13). As the world increasinglyembraces sin, worldly people are becoming increasingly intolerant of godliness.Darkness cannot tolerate light; the more your life illuminates the presence ofChrist, the more you should expect opposition from the forces of darkness. YourChristlike nature will be offensive to those in rebellion against ChristsLordship.
You may have recentlyrepented of your sin and taken a new step of obedience to God. Perhaps youexpected to experience Gods blessing immediately as He demonstrated Hisapproval of your obedience. Instead, you were met with opposition. Thepersecution may have come even from other Christians who misunderstood yourmotives. Perhaps you obeyed God, and still your actions were met with criticisminstead of praise.
If you are sincerelyfollowing the Lords direction, dont be discouraged. Paul warned that thosewho seek to live godly lives will suffer persecution. Do not be surprised whenthis happens to you. If the world crucified the Son of God, surely the worldwill be hostile to anyone who lives by the power of the Holy Spirit.Persecution may be the best evidence that your life is like that of Christ.Jesus warned that the world hated Him, the Savior, and so it would certainlymisunderstand and mistreat His disciples (John 15:18).
Colossians 1:27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Being formed into is Image.
Galatians 4:19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,
Total PageviewsSearch This BlogTraveling with JesusThe Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. Revelation 22:17
To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5
About MeTraveling with Pastor TomUnited StatesPastor Tom and Robin are natives to Union. After graduating The Kings College with a B.A. in mathematics, Pastor Tom taught math at Union High School, Union, N.J. He then went on to earn a Master of Arts in Biblical Studies and Master of Divinity at The Biblical Theological Seminary located in Hatfield, PA. Pastor Tom married Robin Blackburn, who is an Occupational Therapist, in June of 1985. Pastor Tom has been the senior pastor of Crossroads since 1986. In 1997, Pastor Tom earned a Doctorate of Ministry in Biblical Counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, PA. Portions of Pastor Toms thesis was printed in The Journal of Biblical Counseling. Pastor Toms preaching is expository, and he is often teaching through a book of the Bible in Sunday AM services.View my complete profileBlog Archive 2021(122) October(10)Abiding in the Love of God: by Andrew MurrayThe Proper Perspective: by Oswald ChambersBEHOLDING JESUS: by Andrew MurrayJESUS (The Living Word) and The BIBLE (The Written...STAY CLOSE: Jesus Calling by Sarah YoungIn His Dependence on the Father: by Andrew MurrayGodliness and Persecution: by Henry BlackabyHow Will I Know? by Oswald ChambersHear Him: from Jesus Calling by Sarah YoungControlled by Christ: by TA Sparks September(14) August(12) July(13) June(13) May(13) April(12) March(11) February(12) January(12) 2020(134) December(11) November(9) October(11) September(11) August(13) July(11) June(15) May(15) April(12) March(11) February(7) January(8) 2019(95) December(10) November(9) October(6) September(6) August(8) July(9) June(8) May(10) April(8) March(8) February(4) January(9) 2018(87) December(8) November(7) October(8) September(7) August(6) July(8) June(8) May(8) April(6) March(7) February(6) January(8) 2017(75) December(8) November(7) October(6) September(6) August(7) July(8) June(5) May(5) April(5) March(6) February(5) January(7) 2016(75) December(8) November(6) October(6) September(7) August(3) July(9) June(4) May(5) April(6) March(8) February(5) January(8) 2015(89) December(8) November(7) October(6) September(5) August(5) July(6) June(8) May(9) April(8) March(9) February(8) January(10) 2014(104) December(12) November(8) October(7) September(5) August(8) July(6) June(9) May(8) April(11) March(10) February(9) January(11) 2013(53) December(8) November(8) October(6) September(5) August(4) July(5) June(5) May(2) April(3) March(3) February(2) January(2) 2012(77) December(3) November(3) October(4) September(3) August(5) July(6) June(9) May(9) April(10) March(9) February(7) January(9) 2011(34) December(11) November(9) October(9) September(5)Followers
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