The Exaltation of Christ
"That He might have the first place in all things." Colossians 1:18 (J.N.D.)
Of the vast universe of bless, The centre Thou, and Sun;
The eternal them of praise is this, To heaven's beloved One;
Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou,
That every knee to Thee should bow !
E. Conder
(pp. 81-84, Footprints for Pilgrims)
Christ is everything. He is everything to the heart of God, and He desires to be everything to the hearts of His people. That it may be so with you is the highest blessedness I can desire for you.
There is never any difficulty about guidance when the eye is on Christ, but if other considerations come in then you miss His leadings.
"According to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body." Is it our desire to be able to adopt Paul's language ? Do we hold our bodies as vessels for the display of Christ ? As we rise in the morning do we look upon the coming day as another opportunity of making Christ great ?
We can present Christ to the hearts of men in our lives as well as by our words. We may not be able to explain a single passage of scripture, but we can live Christ. You may teach a Sunday school, or visit among the poor, and that is all right and good, but there is something far better -- live Christ, present Christ.
May the Lord teach us this lesson -- that He is the only thing that is indispensable to us.
There is always a response to the ministry of Christ.
Christ in some aspect is suited to the need of every soul.
The only object of the preacher is to exalt and make much of Christ. The Spirit's testimony is Christ, and His work is to glorify Christ, and I desire to be in the line of the Spirit, otherwise one could not count upon being used in blessing.
Half the preaching in the world today might be done away with to advantage. Nothing can meet the need of the people but Christ. There is nothing worth ministering but Christ.
The truth is not Christ, but Christ is the truth. You can have the truth without having Christ, but if you have Christ you must have the truth -- all the influences that flow from the truth -- because He is THE TRUTH.
The larger our thoughts of Christ the larger our communion with the heart of God ... The glory of Christ is the one subject that fills the heart of God, and filling His heart it should also fill ours.
A real revival in our hearts is always the revival of the place of Christ in our hearts.
The least bit of allowed self obscures the presentation of Christ.
It always appeals to me that the last sight the disciples had of our blessed Lord was His passing into heaven with His outstretched arms of blessing. That indeed is His perpetual attitude towards us. No less striking is their response to what they had seen. It was, in one word, perpetual worship. Ah, if we did but worship more we should have far higher conceptions of who He is, and what He had done for us.
--- E.D.
