Month: November 2024

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Mid-week Manna

The Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 38 – LOVE: THE FIRST ‘FRUIT’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 11)

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:

November 27, 2024

The Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 38

LOVE: THE FIRST ‘FRUIT’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 11)

Jesus said to His true disciples then and through all time:

     “If you LOVE ME, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father that He shall give you ANOTHER COMFORTER, that He might abide with you forever. Even the SPIRIT OF TRUTH whom the WORLD cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him for He DWELLETH with you, and shall be IN you.” John 15: 14-17, KJV. 

     “He that hath MY COMMANDMENTS, and keepeth them, he it is that LOVETH ME: and he that loveth Me shall be LOVED OF MY FATHER, and I will LOVE HIM, and will MANIFEST Myself to him.” 

     “Judas (not Iscariot but Jude) said unto Him, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and NOT unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him (Jude), If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and WE (the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit) will come INTO him, and make OUR ABODE with him.” verses 21-23. 

    “Ye have heard how I said unto you, I GO AWAY, AND COME AGAIN TO YOU [through the Holy Spirit!]. If you loved Me, YE WOULD REJOICE, because I said, I go unto the Father: for My Father is greater than I.” verse 28. 

John 15: “Herein is My Father GLORIFIED, that ye bear MUCH FRUIT; so shall ye be My disciples. As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: CONTINUE YE IN MY LOVE. 

    “If ye keep My commandments, ye shall ABIDE

In My love: EVEN AS I have kept My Father’s commandments, and ABIDE in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that MY JOY MIGHT REMAIN IN YOU, and that YOUR JOY MAY BE FULL. This is My commandment, that ye LOVE ONE ANOTHER, AS I have loved you.” verses 8-12. 

It is only when the Holy Spirit abides in the heart and dwells in the body as His temple will the “fruits of Christ’s love”

be manifested in the true believer and disciple towards God first and then towards his “neighbor” or fellow finite mortals! 

It is this love that “greater than faith or hope” 1 Cor. 13: 13)! For it is that “love that works by love” (Gal. 5:6) and purifies the soul” through the “baptism with fire by the Holy Spirit!”

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

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Mid-week Manna

The Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 37 – LOVE: THE FIRST “FRUIT” OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 10)

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:

November 20, 2024

The Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 37

LOVE: THE FIRST “FRUIT” OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 10)

I am quoting hereunder excerpts from the inspired pen of God’s servant, bolding the word “love” where it appears, emphasizing what it does for those in whom the presence of Christ abides through the Holy Spirit! (all bracketed words mine): 

    “A life in Christ is a life of restfulness [not restlessness]. There may be no ecstasy of feeling [the stuff of carnal pleasures], but there should be an abiding, peaceful trust. Your hope is not in yourself; it is in Christ.

     “Your weakness is united to His strength, your ignorance to His wisdom, your frailty to His enduring might.

    “So you are not to look to yourself, not to let the mind dwell upon self [the idolatry of self-love], but to LOOK TO CHRIST. Let the mind dwell upon HIS LOVE, upon the BEAUTY OF HIS CHARACTER [and ‘the beauty of holiness’]. 

    “Christ in His SELF-DENIAL. Christ in His HUMILIATION [in the incarnation, ‘the great mystery of godliness’ that God Creator, ‘the Word from the beginning, was made and was manifest in the flesh and dwelt among us.” John 1:1-3, 14; 2 Tim. 3:16]. Christ in His purity and holiness. Christ IN HIS MATCHLESS LOVE—this is the subject for the soul’s contemplation.

     “It is by LOVING HIM, copying Him [as our human-divine Example and Pattern Man], depending wholly upon Him [the sum and substance of the whole gospel truth of the plan of salvation] that you [and I] are to be TRANSFORMED INTO HIS LIKENESS.” – E. G. White, Steps to Christ, pp. 70, 71. 

     “If we abide in Christ [by the indwelling and infilling of the Holy Spirit], if the LOVE OF GOD   dwells in us, our FEELINGS, our THOUGHTS, our ACTIONS will be IN HARMONY with the will of God.” -Ibid, p. 66. 

David, “the man after God’s own heart,” by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote of Christ’s  testimony and witness as the Example for all His true disciples through all time: 

     “O, how I LOVE THY LAW! It is my meditation all the day.” Ps. 119: 97. 

     “Great peace have they WHICH LOVE THY LAW: and nothing shall offend them!” Verse 165, KJV. 

     “And this is LOVE, that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, that, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.” 2 John 6. 

    Jesus, our living, loving Savior  declares: “If you LOVE ME, keep My commandments.” John 14:15. 

The highest and most sublime expression of love, adoration, and worship of the creature to the Creator, and the redeemed to the Redeemer is obedience “constrained by love” alone to His law of love, the transcript of His character! 

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

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WGM Admin

The Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 36:LOVE : THE FIRST ‘FRUIT’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 9)

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
November 13, 2024

The Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 36

LOVE : THE FIRST ‘FRUIT’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 9)

The gospel account of the youngest of the first Twelve who eternally bears the eternal distinction as “John the beloved” of Jesus, is unique among the four synoptic gospels in several aspects.

The outstanding ones are : 1) his is the most sublime presentation of the gospel, 2) dwells more fully on the LOVE of the invisible Father, as manifested “to the world, man, and angels,” in and through His “only-begotten,” both, as first, “Son of God” through whom He “created all things by Him and for Him,” and then, “Son of man,” verily God in the flesh, “the second Adam” in the “mystery of the incarnation,”
3) the coming of the Holy Spirit bearing the fulness of the Godhead” but “devoid of the personality of humanity and independent thereof,” as Christ’s only Successor and Vicegerent on earth after His ascension.

As John reveals that “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are One” (1 John.5:7), he then writes that “God is LOVE, light, and life.” This is the love that Holy Spirit “bears fruit” in the lives of all true believers in whom He is abiding and dwelling because their “mind is the mind of Christ” (Phil. 2:5; ) and care for their “bodies as the temple of God and the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 3: 16, 17; 6:19, 20; 9:27:

Thus the love of the Father is that of the Son and the Holy Spirit. One love divine and excelling, one light of truth, and one life everlasting. We will quote portions of the “little John” epistles, highlighting this “love” and what it does.

 “Beloved, let us LOVE one another: for LOVE IS OF GOD; and everyone that loveth is BORN of God, and KNOWETH God. He that loveth NOT knoweth not God: for GOD IS LOVE. In this was manifested the love of God TOWARDS US, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might LIVE through Him. Herein is LOVE, not that we loved God, but that He LOVED US, and sent His Son to be the propitiation (atonement) for our sins. BELOVED, IF GOD SO LOVED US, WE OUGHT TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. NO MAN HATH SEEN GOD AT ANY TIME [But] IF WE LOVE ONE ANOTHER, GOD DWELLETH IN US, and HIS LOVE IS PERFECTED IN US. Hereby we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of HIS Holy] SPIRIT.” 1 John 4: 7-13, KJV.

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

Categories
WGM Admin

The Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 36 – LOVE : THE FIRST ‘FRUIT’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 9)

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:

November 13, 2024

The Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 36

LOVE : THE FIRST ‘FRUIT’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 9)

The gospel account of the youngest of the first Twelve who eternally bears the eternal distinction as “John the beloved” of Jesus, is unique among the four synoptic gospels in several aspects. 

The outstanding ones are : 1) his is the most sublime presentation of the gospel, 2) dwells more fully on the LOVE of the invisible Father, as manifested “to the world, man, and angels,” in and through His “only-begotten,” both, as first, “Son of God” through whom He “created all things by Him and for Him,” and then, “Son of man,” verily God in the flesh, “the second Adam” in the “mystery of the incarnation,”

3) the coming of the Holy Spirit bearing the fulness of the Godhead” but “devoid of the personality of humanity and independent thereof,” as Christ’s only Successor and Vicegerent on earth after His ascension. 

As John reveals that “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are One” (1 John.5:7), he then writes that “God is LOVE, light, and life.” This is the love that Holy Spirit “bears fruit” in the lives of all true believers in whom He is abiding and dwelling because their “mind is the mind of Christ” (Phil. 2:5; ) and care for their “bodies as the temple of God and the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 3: 16, 17; 6:19, 20; 9:27: 

Thus the love of the Father is that of the Son and the Holy Spirit. One love divine and excelling, one light of truth, and one life everlasting. We will quote portions of the “little John” epistles, highlighting this “love” and what it does. 

     “Beloved, let us LOVE one another: for LOVE IS OF GOD; and everyone that loveth is BORN of God, and KNOWETH God. He that loveth NOT knoweth not God: for GOD IS LOVE. In this was manifested the love of God TOWARDS US, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might LIVE through Him. Herein is LOVE, not that we loved God, but that He LOVED US, and sent His Son to be the propitiation (atonement) for our sins. BELOVED, IF GOD SO LOVED US, WE OUGHT TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. NO MAN HATH SEEN GOD AT ANY TIME [But] IF WE LOVE ONE ANOTHER, GOD DWELLETH IN US, and HIS LOVE IS PERFECTED IN US. Hereby we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of HIS Holy] SPIRIT.” 1 John 4: 7-13, KJV.

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

Categories
Mid-week Manna

Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 35: LOVE: THE FIRST ‘FRUIT’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 8)

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:

November 6, 2024

Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 35

LOVE: THE FIRST ‘FRUIT’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 8)

     “But unto the Son He (the Father) saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom. Thou hast LOVED righteousness, and HATED iniquity (sin, transgression); therefore God, even Thy God (the Father) hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. And Thou, Lord (the Son), in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thy hands [as the Creator]: They shall perish but Thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but Thou art THE SAME and Thy years shall not fail.” Heb. 1: 8-12, KJV. 

 In no place in the Bible will we find such an astounding statement except in the Scripture cited above: that the Father addressing His only-begotten Son as God! And in reiterating His office and role as the Creator of the universe, the heaven and the earth, emphasis is made that righteousness is the scepter-authority of the eternal throne of Him “who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” As the existence of a throne implies a kingdom, His is a kingdom of righteousness even as it is a kingdom of grace, and glory.

Thus, the love ‘fruit’ of the divine Spirit, is one and the same as the love of the Father manifested in “giving His only begotten Son” to fallen humanity to become one with them in the mystery of the incarnation “for the suffering of death,” and the love of the Son for His fallen, undeserving creatures that He volunteered to offer His own sinless life and sin-cleansing blood as the penitent sinner’s only Substitute and Surety. 

This is the divine “selfless love” which proceeds only from and is imparted to fallen humanity by the Holy Spirit of Christ and the Father. It is divine love that loves the sinner unconditionally and hates sin unconditionally—in the same breath. One without the other is not the love of the Godhead but of finite, sinful mortals. 

It is only such love of, in, and from God the Father in Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit in the heart of the penitent sinner, that “constrains” (2 Cor. 5:14) him to obey God’s commandments lovingly, willingly, voluntarily, and by practice and repetition, spontaneously; it becomes habitual, then a part of the character. Nothing less will suffice or is acceptable in the judgment for indeed, “God is love.” Once more, this love hates sin unconditionally for “our sins and transgressions separate us from God.” 

The highest and most sublime  form of worship is the unquestioning, intellectually and spiritually-founded loving obedience to God’s law of love and righteousness. It is only this love that “conquers all” for together with divine grace, empowers the striving disciple to successfully “resist the devil” (James 4:7) and victoriously “overcome even as Christ overcame.” (Rev. 3:21).

This is the love that is “greater than faith or hope” (1 Cor. 13: 13, 1-12); love that absolutely “nothing can separate God from us”(Rom. 8:35-39). By this, you will know them by their fruits.” 

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all,  NMF.