Apr 1, 2010
singer : dulimah
song : denny chiu
music : denny chiu
less of me and more of you
lord everyday
i just want to live for you
to carry your compassion
less of me and more of you
lord every breath
i just want to bless your name
forever and ever
holy spirit fall on me
take my heart and change me
cause i am yours lord
holy spirit move in me
take my will and transform it
cause i am yours lord
Jesus i am yours
alone
Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing —James 1:4
Many of us appear to be all right in general, but there are still some areas in which we are careless and lazy; it is not a matter of sin, but the remnants of our carnal life that tend to make us careless. Carelessness is an insult to the Holy Spirit. We should have no carelessness about us either in the way we worship God, or even in the way we eat and drink.
Not only must our relationship to God be right, but the outward expression of that relationship must also be right. Ultimately, God will allow nothing to escape; every detail of our lives is under His scrutiny. God will bring us back in countless ways to the same point over and over again. And He never tires of bringing us back to that one point until we learn the lesson, because His purpose is to produce the finished product. It may be a problem arising from our impulsive nature, but again and again, with the most persistent patience, God has brought us back to that one particular point. Or the problem may be our idle and wandering thinking, or our independent nature and self-interest. Through this process, God is trying to impress upon us the one thing that is not entirely right in our lives.
We have been having a wonderful time in our studies over the revealed truth of God’s redemption, and our hearts are perfect toward Him. And His wonderful work in us makes us know that overall we are right with Him. “Let patience have its perfect work . . . .” The Holy Spirit speaking through James said, “Now let your patience become a finished product.” Beware of becoming careless over the small details of life and saying, “Oh, that will have to do for now.” Whatever it may be, God will point it out with persistence until we become entirely His.
1 Peter 1:13-2:3
Believers are called to be sanctified people who live holy lives. Holiness means being set apart by God for His purposes. This process of sanctification begins when we receive Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, and it continues for the rest of our lives.
The Holy Spirit draws our will and longings to align with His. As we submit to Him, we will begin to desire what He desires. With His leading, we will choose to consecrate our conduct, our conversation, and ultimately our character to God alone. He teaches us how to make holiness a way of life rather than see it as some lofty place of enlightenment we can never reach. God has placed us where we live and work, not to be “pious” or to isolate ourselves as if in incubators, but to reflect who Christ is as we walk among other people. If we are in the process of being conformed to Jesus’ likeness, then the longer we live and mature spiritually, the more others should be able to recognize the Savior in us. Our hearts should grow softer, and our willingness to love and serve should increase.
If we are Christ’s ambassadors, then our lives must be holy; otherwise, we are misrepresenting Him. If we are the body of Christ, then our hands are His hands, our eyes are His eyes, and our feet are His feet. When we allow Jesus to speak, love, and serve through us, others will be compelled to ask why we live such vibrant lives. All followers of Christ are called to be holy. To answer this call daily is to embrace the Great Commission.
“And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.” (Exodus 19:17)
This is the first of more than 30 references to events that took place outside the camp of the Israelites in the wilderness under Moses. In this first mention, it was “without the camp” that God first met with His people and gave them the Ten Commandments. The first temporary tabernacle was also “pitched . . . without the camp” (Exodus 33:7).
However, when the regular tabernacle was established, it was placed in the midst of the camp, and the camp was considered holy before the Lord. “For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp . . . therefore shall thy camp be holy” (Deuteronomy 23:14).
Accordingly, anything unclean was commanded to be banned from the camp (vv. 10-13), including even “the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp” (Hebrews 13:11).
Sad to say, however, the camp and the sanctuary did not remain holy, and God, in judgment, finally had to remove it from its place. Before its final removal, however, He whose blood had been foreshadowed by all the sacrifices did come personally to His people “to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9:26). This sacrifice, however, could no longer be offered in the defiled sanctuary. “Wherefore Jesus also . . . suffered without the gate” (Hebrews 13:12).
Now again, as in the beginning, God must meet with His loved ones personally, outside the camp. The organized “camps” of religion generally treat His disciples as misfits, and so, like outcasts, they must seek Him outside the camp. “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (v. 13). HMM
He that doeth the will of God abideth forever.—1 John 2:17.
I am Thine, save me.—Psalm 119:94.
TAKE, O Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my will, all that I have and possess. Thou hast given it to me; to Thee, O Lord, I restore it; all is Thine, dispose of it according to Thy will. Give me Thy love and Thy grace, for this is enough for me. ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA.
Are we willing to give ourselves entirely to God; to let Him do with us whatever He pleases; to follow anywhere at His bidding; to renounce anything at His call; asking only, in return, that He will give us Himself, with all His infinite love, to be ours from this time forever? If we are thus willing, let us kneel down this moment and tell Him so. Alone with God, let us give Him ourselves, all we have and are and shall be, to be unreservedly His. WILLIAM R. HUNTINGTON.
There is no stay so strong as an unreserved abandonment of self into God’s hand. H. L. SIDNEY LEAR.
The unity of the Spirit. Ephesians 4:3
There is one body, and one Spirit. — Through him we both have access by one
Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard; that went down to the skirts of his garments.
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.
Ephesians 4:4. Ephesians 2:18-22. Psalm 133:1,2. 1 Peter 1:22.
Endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 2 Timothy 2:3
I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and a commander to the people. — It became him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. — We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God. — We do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.)
The God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
Isaiah 55:4. Hebrews 2:10. Acts 14:22. Ephesians 6:12,13. 2 Corinthians 10:3,4. 1 Peter 5:10.
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