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Beholding Christ, June 21
God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their
God, and they shall be my people.
2 Corinthians 6:16
.
As the mind dwells upon Christ, the character is molded after the divine simil-
itude. The thoughts are pervaded with a sense of His goodness, His love. We
contemplate His character, and thus He is in all our thoughts. His love encloses us.
If we gaze even a moment upon the sun in its meridian glory, when we turn
away our eyes, the image of the sun will appear in everything upon which we look.
Thus it is when we behold Jesus; everything we look upon reflects His image, the
Sun of righteousness. We cannot see anything else, or talk of anything else. His
image is imprinted upon the eye of the soul and affects every portion of our daily
life, softening and subduing our whole nature. By beholding, we are conformed to
the divine similitude, even the likeness of Christ. To all with whom we associate
we reflect the bright and cheerful beams of His righteousness. We have become
transformed in character; for heart, soul, mind, are irradiated by the reflection of
Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Here again there is the realization of a
personal, living influence dwelling in our hearts by faith.
When His words of instruction have been received, and have taken possession
of us, Jesus is to us an abiding presence, controlling our thoughts and ideas and
actions. We are imbued with the instruction of the greatest Teacher the world ever
knew. A sense of human accountability and of human influence gives character to
our views of life and of daily duties. Jesus Christ is everything to us—the first, the
last, the best in everything. Jesus Christ, His Spirit, His character, colors everything;
it is the warp and the woof, the very texture of our entire being. The words of Christ
are spirit and life. We cannot, then, center our thoughts upon self; it is no more we
that live, but Christ that liveth in us, and He is the hope of glory. Self is dead, but
Christ is a living Saviour.
Continuing to look unto Jesus, we reflect His image to all around us. We cannot
stop to consider our disappointments, or even to talk of them; for a more pleasant
picture attracts our sight—the precious love of Jesus. He dwells in us by the word
of truth (
Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 388-390
).
We have a high calling in Christ Jesus; we are carrying forward a vast and
holy work, and God calls upon each one to uplift His standard in the sight of this
world and of the universe of heaven, by the power of the Lord Jehovah, in whom is
“everlasting strength” (
Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 386
).
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