I Am That I Am

It is not possible to honor Jesus adequately as we would a famous patriot by building a statue of Him. We do that for national leaders after they die to keep their memory alive. They are mortal, so we memorialize them in stone. But Jesus is different. He needs no stone memorial. He is still alive. He is seated today in person, at the right hand of God. And through the indwelling Spirit, He lives in every Christian.

Famous people live and die, some immortalized in stone, Jesus Christ transcends them all. As the ever-living One. Man’s fame is fleeting; Christ’s fame is forever (Anonymous).

THE ARREST AND PROSECUTION OF JESUS CHRIST

Was Christ on trial? So it would seem at first glance, but in a larger sense, the world was on trial. Jesus brought light, and people preferred darkness; Jesus brought truth, and the world opted for falsehood. In the judgment, all would be required to give account for what they have received. The greater the gift, the greater the accountability (Morris A. Inch, The Saga of the Spirit).

ADVERSITY BUILDS CHARACTER AND CHRIST-LIKENESS

Sometimes God sends His love letters in black-edged envelopes. He allows us to taste the bitterness of want and desolation of bereavement. If you have lived for many years, you have passed through the narrows. We have all been there. It looks as if things have got out of hand, and somehow or other, we have been forgotten. When there is no one at hand to say it to you, say it to yourself, “God is faithful, Who will not suffer the pain to exceed the measurement of my endurance” (Charles Haddon Spurgeon).

THE LORD CAN CHANGE THE HYPOCRITE

Remember Max Beerbohm’s Happy Hypocrite, the wicked man who wore the mask of a saint to woo and win the saintly girl he loved. Years later when a castoff girl-friend discovered the ruse, she challenged him to take off the mask in front of his beloved and show his face for the sorry thing it was. He did what he was told to only to discover that underneath the saint’s mask, his face had become the face of a saint (Morris J. Niedenthal, Preaching the Story).

CONSECRATED LIFE

Christ calls us from feasting to fasting, from the Supper room to the Upper Room, from selfishness to sanctification (Henry Gariepy, Portraits of Perseverance).

“If you have no joy in your religion, there is a leak in your Christianity somewhere” (Billy Sunday).

I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day (Abraham Lincoln).

“He who affirms that Christianity makes a person miserable is himself an utter stranger to it.”

There was a time when the criminals were put in jails and innocent people walk the streets, but today the innocent have become prisoners in their own homes while the criminals walk with outstretched chests on our streets. What has happened to our world (Author Unknown).

As the world gets smaller, our problems grow larger. Our freedom disappears and our danger increases. Trouble and danger lie ahead (“World Aflame”).