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Shaping Up in God’s Workshop, March 13
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within
you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were
bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 6:19,
20
, R.S.V.
We are not our own. We have been purchased with a dear price, even
the sufferings and death of the Son of God. If we could understand this,
and fully realize it, we would feel a great responsibility resting upon us to
keep ourselves in the very best condition of health, that we might render to
God perfect service....
We believe without a doubt that Christ is soon coming.... We have no
doubt, neither have we had a doubt for years, that the doctrines we hold
today are present truth, and that we are nearing the judgment. We are
preparing to meet Him who, escorted by a retinue of holy angels, is to
appear in the clouds of heaven to give the faithful and the just the finishing
touch of immortality. When He comes He is not to cleanse us of our sins, to
remove from us the defects in our characters, or to cure us of the infirmities
of our tempers and dispositions. If wrought for us at all, this work will all
be accomplished before that time.
When the Lord comes, those who are holy will be holy still. Those who
have preserved their bodies and spirits in holiness, in sanctification and
honor, will then receive the finishing touch of immortality. But those who
are unjust, unsanctified, and filthy will remain so forever. No work will then
be done for them to remove their defects and give them holy characters....
This is all to be done in these hours of probation. It is
now
that this work is
to be accomplished for us....
We are now in God’s workshop. Many of us are rough stones from the
quarry. But as we lay hold upon the truth of God, its influence affects us. It
elevates us and removes from us every imperfection and sin, of whatever
nature. Thus we are prepared to see the King in His beauty and finally to
unite with the pure and heavenly angels in the kingdom of glory. It is here
that this work is to be accomplished for us, here that our bodies and spirits
are to be fitted for immortality.
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