II Corinthians 4:5-7
"For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."
August 6th
"He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth." Isaiah 53:7
There the disciples, whom the Father had given Him, stood transfixed – as it were – beholding their friend and teacher, their Lord and God, enduring the cruelest torture ever invented by human devils, without as much as one word of complaint!!
THERE – a badly beaten, blood spattered, disheveled human being, tortured into agony beyond human endurance, bleeding towards death, suffered the "torments of the damned" (as we used to say so long ago) without a whimper. WHEREIN or what was the "glory" they might behold?!?
"...and I am glorified in them!" John 17:10
In joy and gratefulness He spoke those words. They had beheld His POWER years previously and they believed! They left home to follow Him: to HEAR, to SEE and marvel, all of which had translated into that impact which had CHANGED THEIR LIFE AND THINKING! HE had discerned within them the fruit of His labors. NOW they were committed unto Him, even to live and die for Him!! TRUTH received and lived, engenders a burgeoning "glory" within....
Hence the supreme question: "Has Christ Jesus – the Lord – BECOME GLORIFIED IN YOU?"
Are we not all "growing children"? You may be 30, 50, 75, or 90 – you are still a growing child of your Heavenly Spirit Father, UNLESS you have sold out to the devil!
Treasures (continued tomorrow...)