8th October, 2011

BRUCE C. WEARNE

Read I John 2: 29-3: 3

John looks to the future. After all, what has been established for us points us to the path of service laid out for us in the days ahead, the days allotted to us in this life. To have grasped that Jesus Christ is the long-promised "Anointed of the Lord" is to believe that our Father in Heaven has truly grasped us, has truly enfolded us in His Fatherly embrace as members of His family, as children of God alongside His Son by whom he has made Himself known when Jesus Christ put in His appearance for us.

PICTURE: Robert Aichinger (www.sxc.hu) "We are called by Him to be His children. We are to get used to that privilege by 'abiding' in the Son and living in Him, by walking as He walked. And so, the full flowering of our maturity is in His Father's hands. He knows what He wants of us."

So that means that we live in the sure knowledge that He has set us apart for Himself - to be like Him because He was made to be like us, yet without sin! In Christ Jesus the very image of God has been decisively and irrevocably restored so that we can now bring the familial love we share as members of God's family (AGAPE) into its right focus. That is, after all, what we are. That is how we are now to live in God's family.

What we will become when we reach mature family members under the guidance of the great Shepherd of the Sheep is not for us to know at this point in time. What we do know is that our identity is safeguarded by the One in whom the love the Father has been showered upon us. Our task here and now is to image the Holy One, to extend God's mercy in all of our dealings to all with whom we come into contact. All.

We are called by Him to be His children. We are to get used to that privilege by "abiding" in the Son and living in Him, by walking as He walked. And so, the full flowering of our maturity is in His Father's hands. He knows what He wants of us.

In the meantime, we find that it is by our priestly hope that we find ourselves purified as we walk in the ways of righteousness in the service of the Lord. We live in expectation of eventually seeing Him in all His majesty and glory. We are so glad to have heard His call "Follow me!" to live the privilege of imaging His High Priestly holiness.

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