Life’s Initiation 1 John 1:1-4

There is only one individual, who is perfect in life.  His existence is flawless and impeccable.  He is a man who is always others directed, and never self-seeking.  Jesus is truly amazing, and His life astonishes, exhibiting attractiveness and a curious appeal.

We study His submission and faithfulness to duty, His purity and transparency, His grace and elegance, His tenderness and sympathetic gentleness, His patience and forbearance, His dedication and persevering commitment, His holiness and solitary pledge, His love and affectionate compassion, His freedom from all selfish pursuit.  Jesus Christ is fascinating and desirable.

His peerless incomparable life is one thing but that He has placed us first and made us the delight of His soul is an inconceivable privilege of His grace.  His life is our life for He has given His life for us.

This is endless and immense grace.  We can’t measure His kindness to us.  We may bury it and confuse its quality and expression by our self-life but that doesn’t remove its truth.  His life is still our life to be studied, received and dwelt on in deep meditation.

Jesus is our joy, He is our strength and He is our all.  All our affection and love should be focused on Him. All of our life is to be realized and drawn from Him.  He expects us to come to Him for everything and He has promised us that He is our entirety, our wholeness and that we are complete through Him.  The opposite is true also that without Christ as our life we are empty and fragmented.

The Commencement Of A Close Connection 

It’s exciting to commence something new.  But most things we hope will bring various expectations and fulfill our dreams and hopes are a big disappointment.  This is where we have to come back to our beginning and renew a close connection to our Lord.

Our Encounter v.1           That which was from the beginning 

There are many beginnings in life but only one beginning that means everything to life where Jesus becomes our life.

J.N. Darby writes: The Person of our Lord is the true display of the divine life itself.

Any other claims to life are a pretension.  Human ingenuity adulates and exalts a variety of objects and personalities as appropriate influences of life and joy, but in the full analysis they obscure the truth of Christ, in some way, or to some degree these impostor avenues create darkness and a murky excuse for reality.

It’s important to be able to see where there has been a beginning of spiritual life in us?  Have we met Jesus, received Him as our own and are we allowing Him to be Lord of our life?  This is our real beginning, having an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Initiated By The Ear       which we have heard,

In Heb.12:25 we read: see that you refuse not Him that speaks.  In Hebrews 1 we read that in these last days God Has spoken to us in His Son.  Are we hearing Him are we receiving all that He has to say to us?

Rom.10:17 tells us that

faith comes by hearing and it’s the hearing of the Word of God. 

We develop faith by allowing God’s voice to reach into our heart.  A relationship into the life of Christ is initiated by listening to the Spirit of God.

Seven times in Revelation 2 and 3 the phrase is repeated:

He that has an ear let Him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches, 

or to all those who claim to have received Jesus.

The call is to the individual, He that has an ear.  Jesus call, is a personal call, and a relationship with Him is a personal intimate relationship.

Love is delicate, personal and an individual experience. We experience faith in Jesus in a distinct, intimate response to His voice and the prompting of His Word.

These seven calls in Revelation are calls back to be restored by Christ’s Spirit to Jesus our source of life. It’s a tragic development to have a saved soul and a lost life.  If we have began with Christ we need to go on with Him and not lose the true meaning of life experienced in a daily walk with Him.

Informed By The Eye 

Intellectual Perception     which we have seen with our eyes

Spiritual Penetration         which we have looked upon,

Experiential Performance  and our hands have handled,  

Inspired By His Logos        of the Word

Instilled by his life               of life;