The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Like Him"
Part 3 - This Hope of Glory
When the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ walks in us and we walk through Him, God the Father experiences His Son in ways that did not exist before He created human beings. "I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16).
"Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world… I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:24; 26).
God made humanity to serve as the dwelling place of divinity, namely, "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6). Thereby, the love bestowed by the Father upon one Son becomes resident within many sons and daughters. The Lord Jesus shines forth from us unto the Father in an infinite variety of personality, disposition, character, experience, and expression. The same Christ lived in the Apostle Paul as in the Apostle John. The same Light shined within both beloved and devoted brothers. However, the glory glimmered in rays of illumination from one that did not manifest in the other, and vice versa. We read and find great blessing by both apostles through the marvelous gift the Holy Spirit gave through the words He inspired in their writings. Even more - far more - our Father was blessed by the varied expressions of Christ known as personally assimilated and displayed through sons united in the Son, but who shined forth to Him in such different wonders and workings. "It pleased God… to reveal His Son in me" declared Paul, an affirmation John could just as well as written (Galatians 1:15; 16).
And, just as we could write. "It became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory" (Hebrews 2:10). Unto what glory? "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). Yes, God made and redeemed us to serve as the living temples of His beloved Son, in whom He lives and through whom His glory shines forth to the creation, and even more, to the Father. When God sees the character and nature of the Lord Jesus revealed in the distinctly individual persons we are, He knows His Son in a particular and personal blessedness not possible if we did not exist. A hope of glory indeed, and a wonder of grace bestowed upon former rebels who now serve as revelations of a glorious Christ. "I am the light of the world… Ye shine as lights in the world" (John 8:12; Philippians 2:15).
No more overwhelming and invigorating reason for living this day and forevermore with joyous purpose can be known. The Father who has been pleased with His Son "from everlasting" will be pleased with Him "to everlasting." Now, however, the Lord Jesus pleases His Father through an infinite variety of personal ways and means as known through us. This day offers the opportunity, and may we devote ourselves to this "hope of glory" and this reason for being more glorious than even eternity will fully reveal….
"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word, 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. And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one."
(John 17:20-22)
Weekly Memory Verse
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is."
(I John 3:2)
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