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Not To Condemn But To Save, June 2
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the
world through him might be saved.
John 3:17
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There are souls who are trembling in unbelief. They ask, “How can I know
that God is reconciled to me? How can I be assured that He loves and pardons
me?” It is not for you, dear youth, to make yourselves just with God. Jesus invites
you to come to Him with all your burdens and perplexities.... Accept the promise
and the provision that God has made.... Look away from self to Jesus; for in Christ
the character of the Father is revealed.
The blood of Christ in ever-abiding efficacy is our only hope, for through His
merits alone we have pardon and peace.
The character of God as revealed by Christ invites our faith and love, for we
have a Father whose mercy and compassion fail not. At every step of our journey
heavenward He will be with us to guide in every perplexity, to give us help in
every temptation.
Your reason and imagination should be touched with the life-giving power of
Christ, that forms of beauty and truth may be impressed thereon. There are great
and precious truths that demand your contemplation, in order that you may have a
sound foundation for your faith by having a correct knowledge of God. O that the
superficial, vain seeker for truth would learn that the world by wisdom, however
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much acquired, knew not God.
It is proper to seek to learn all that is possible from nature, but do not fail to
look from nature to Christ for the complete representation of the character of the
living God. By contemplation of Christ, by conformity to the divine likeness, your
conceptions of the divine character will expand, and your mind and heart will be
elevated, refined, and ennobled. Let the youth aim high, not relying upon human
wisdom, but living day by day as seeing Him who is invisible, doing their work as
in the sight of the intelligences of heaven....
He who constantly depends upon God through simple trust and prayerful
confidence, will be surrounded by the angels of heaven. He who lives by faith in
Christ, will be strengthened and upheld, able to fight the good fight of faith, and
lay hold upon eternal life.
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