“I have called you friends” (John 15:15).
“You are My friends, if you do whatsoever I command you” (John 15:14). If you meditate upon these words, you will never reach their profound depths, nor shall we even in eternity. For who shall tell what friendship with Christ involves? No one can or ever will gauge the possible intimacy which it holds out to us.
We should diligently cultivate the enjoyment of the love of Christ that we may become molded by it, so as to express it more in our very demeanor and be surrounded by the holy atmosphere which it creates.
Whatever makes Christ more precious to us is of God. Whatever comes between us and Christ is of the devil.
“It is I, be not afraid” (Matt. 14:26). The realization of Christ’s presence is the antidote to every possible fear, and the way to comfort people is the ministry of Christ in the power of the Spirit — to so present Him that they shall apprehend His presence.
The nearer we are to God, the more we lose sight of ourselves and the better we are able to apprehend and to communicate His mind.
I do not know a happier employment than to sit down quietly before the Lord and let Him make impressions on your heart — to let Him impress you with His own presence and to produce whatever influences He will upon you.
By sitting at the feet of Jesus, we shall both delight His heart and find ourselves in the place of untold and unfathomed blessing.
Many people think communion is having happy feelings. It is being in the mind of God. Communion is doing the right thing at the right moment in the right way. Once get out of communion and you cannot do anything rightly.
Are we satisfied with light [revelation] instead of cultivating love for Christ? The more light the better, if affection goes with it, but if light be held without the heart, it will not benefit us. John chapter 20 illustrates this. John had more light about the resurrection than Mary, yet when he came to the sepulchre and found it empty, he went home. [1] Mary had no light about the resurrection, yet as she waited there, weeping, Jesus revealed Himself to her. [2] It is to the heart and not to the head that Christ reveals Himself, so the more heart you have, the more you will get manifestations of Him.
[The Lord Jesus declared, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” John 14:21]
To be near Christ is the great enjoyment of the spiritual life…Have you come into contact with Him today?
O Lord, You see, You know,
That to none my heart can tell
The joy and the love and the sorrow,
The tale that my heart knows well.
But to You, O my God, I can tell it —
To You, and to You Lord, alone,
For Your heart my heart has a language,
For other hearts it has none.
In the wide world speechless and lonely,
For me is no heart but Yours;
Lord, since I must love You only,
Oh, reveal Your heart to mine.
-H. Suso
[1] Mark 8:31;9:9,31; John 20:8-10
[2] John 20:11-18
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EDWARD DENNETT (1831-1914) served minister of a Baptist Chapel in Greenwich. His sphere of labor was England, Ireland, and Scotland, and he paid visits to Norway, Sweden, and America. He had pastoral and teaching gifts of a high order.