Last updated on 12/30/98

Viewpoints on Living for CHRIST.
		JESUS calls US to be members of His church
The Christian religion is the worship and service of Jesus Christ. It’s not Mary we worship, but her Son. We worship neither saints, angels, a law code, nor even God’s Spirit. It’s JESUS who is to be honored. The Bible is our guide.

   Christian baptism is the burial in water of a penitent believer in the risen Jesus Christ. The new BIRTH culminates in new LIFE -- a new way of living on this earth. It's based on love. And note below that the true culmination is reached in eternal glory! Note what Norman Bales has to say about love (in particular within the family) in Viewpoint Study #80.

      In Romans chapter 6, Paul makes clear his understanding that baptism is introductory to a new way of LIVING.

      Given O. Blakely speaks of that Way in Viewpoint Study #13, and in Study #22, and in Study #32. Each of these speaks of the new life in Christ to which we attain by believing in Jesus as the risen Lord and then submitting to His leadership in our lives.

     See also his Study #8 in which he speaks of the walk of FAITH, and Study #12 where the power of lack of faith is the subject. In Study #58 he addresses the problem of what we should think when BAD things happen to us even though we're in Christ.

     Kyle Gardner writes well. In Viewpoint Study #40 he writes about good things that accompany a walk with Jesus. Boyce Mouton in Study #50 suggests that if we walk closely with Jesus, we can KNOW what is good and right.

      But, regardless of what Boyce says in Study #50, we often wonder if we DO know exactly what God wants us to do, as is spoken of in Viewpoint Study #71. Sometimes very good things come to us, as is described in Viewpoint Study #62.Think about it.

     Cecil Hook feels that God loves us very much indeed and has called us to be co-workers with Him in His objectives for man on this earth. Read Study #70 for a view of what Christian living is all about. Then consider the thoughts of Doug Oakes about smoking Christians, in Study #5.

     Some propose that we are called to champion the "rights" of the oppressed and the poor in our communities and throughout the world. Viewpoint Study #79 shares a look at a "social gospel."

     Phil Ling suggests we need to do more than TALK about Christian Living. And Janet Allison, also in Study #81, provides an example of how Christians are to live. Jude urges Christians to build one another up in our "most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit." Do you pray in the Holy Spirit? What does Jude mean?

     We who have chosen to walk with Jesus will want to worship both the Lord Jesus and His Father, Jehovah God. Suggestions about Christian Worship are listed under both Worship and Eternal Security headings.

Everyone should be daily reading the e-mail devotionals of Given O. Blakely -- such as the one for 2/16/98 which follows:

The Hope Of Glory

"And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight; if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister
. . . To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27, KJV)

Devotion 4 of 6  --  JESUS HAS BEEN GLORIFIED (We who love Him also WILL be glorified!)  --   Our blessed Lord is glorified, a pledge of the coming glory of His brethren. Once, while here on earth, Jesus' inner glory emanated from his flesh. When He was "transfigured" as He prayed, the skin of His face shone. Even his clothes were "white and glistering." His inner being nearly swallowed the body which had been "prepared" for Him. But that was not the ultimate glory. It occurred because He was so close to God, and therefore so distant from the world order.

Jesus has now been glorified in the ultimate sense (See how He appeared to John in the revelation on Patmos). There is nothing about Him that is tainted with earth. He hungered when on earth: Now He does not. He was thirsty while He tabernacled among us: He is not now. While here, He even at times became weary: He required rest because of the prodigious ministry He maintained: He does not now. Nor will we.

God's unique Son has now been glorified. "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go" (Acts 3:13).

GOD HAS DETERMINED THAT
HIS PEOPLE WILL ALSO BE GLORIFIED

We are speaking of Divine objective here. This is not something that can be negated by Satan. God has spoken concerning those who are in Christ Jesus. "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified" (Romans 8:30).

This determination does not exclude human initiative and involvement. It is not justification for spiritual indolence, but something that occasions intense and joyful activity. We are taken behind the scenes here. God is showing us what He determined before the very foundation of the world. Everything was to be accomplished "in Christ." Individuals would not be required to lay the foundation, but to build upon it.

The Divine determination is that we will be like Christ -- "conformed to the image of His Son." Men are summoned by a "heavenly calling" (Heb. 3:1). The process is begun by justification, and concluded by glorification. THE CALL deals with our receptivity to the Gospel, our sensitivity to the very God Whose law we have broken. The call comes to us through the Gospel. "But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14).

JUSTIFICATION effectively eliminates our past, freeing us to come to God, and freeing God to receive us. This transaction is so effective that the challenge is hurled to every corner of God's creation, "Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us" (Romans 8:34). Now, in Christ, there is "no condemnation" -- none at all (Romans 8:1).

GLORIFICATION is the Divinely appointed reason for calling and justification. There is no reason for being saved if we do not end up like Christ -- in heaven! If we do not reign with Jesus in the world to come, there is no reason for being called or justified; inclined or forgiven; summoned or cleansed!

THE HOPE OF GLORY INCLUDES
THE INNER WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT

Hope is not primarily intellectual; it is spiritual! Testifying within us, and in strict accordance with the Scriptures, the Spirit confirms our coming glory. "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together" (Romans 8:17. NKJV). Our sonship here is a pledge of coming glory. We will be "glorified together" with Him if we endure the friction and hostility of the world here!

Those who are sensitive to the Spirit and do not "quench" or "grieve" Him will be richly rewarded! They will be able to think soundly here -- while yet in the body. Paul phrased it for us in these words: "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18). Where is the child of God who does not delight to think like this? And it is the right way to think; the sanctified way of reasoning.

The coming glory for which we hope is so grand, so large, so unquestionably extensive, that the straits through which faith compels us to journey are not even worthy of comparison. No person with a dominating hope complains about the temporal difficulties of this life. Complaints are produced by the obscurity of glory, and the magnification of this "present evil world."

PRAYER POINT: Father, I thank and praise you for the hope of glory -- the anticipation of being completely conformed to the image of Your beloved Son. Give me grace to prepare in this world for the glory to which I am appointed in Christ Jesus.

Our goal is to be made in all points LIKE Jesus!