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Christ Calls for Unity, May 7
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they
also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
John 17:21
.
We each need the help we can receive from other minds. God will work in
other minds than ours. The various gifts given to different ones are to blend for
the “perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the
body of Christ” (
Ephesians 4:12
)....
The Lord Jesus Christ will heal our infirmities and our weaknesses. He owns
us. We are His by creation and by redemption. We must all be united in Him.
He is the only source of healing. All restoring power comes from Him. He has
opened a fountain “to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.”
He gives each one an invitation to come and be healed, and to drink of the water
of life. Let us not trust in ourselves, but in Jesus.
There will always be obstacles before us, but we are to follow our Leader, and
meet our difficulties unitedly, hand in hand. There is only one way to heaven. We
must walk in the footsteps of Jesus, doing His works, even as He did the works
of His Father. We must study His ways, not man’s ways; we must obey His will,
not our own. Walk carefully. Do not go ahead of Christ. Make no move without
consulting your Leader. Ask in humble prayer, and “ye shall receive.” He is the
Way, the Truth, the Life.
Read and study carefully the prayer that Christ offered just before His trial,
recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John. Follow its teachings, and you will be
brought into unity. Our only hope of reaching heaven is to be one with Christ, and
then, in and through Christ, we shall be one with one another. No one is called to
walk alone. In Christ life and immortality are brought to light. He has opened the
way to the kingdom of heaven to those who believe in Him, but He assigns to no
one a path different to that which all must travel. He calls for unity, and unity we
must have. God asks us to sink self in Christ. For the natural man this is not easy.
But through the power of the incarnation of Christ, God manifest in the flesh, the
strength of God is revealed in gentleness and beauty. To “as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” By this power we may
overcome our evil tendencies and so modify our imperfect dispositions that the
will of God may be fulfilled in us.—
Letter 79, May 7, 1903
, to J.A. Burden and
wife. (Elder Burden was engaged in sanitarium work in Australia.)
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