Important
Instruction for the Bride of Christ
----- Original Message -----
From: Lynn
MacDonald
To: AdventistHotIssues@yahoogroups.com
Sent:
Wednesday, May 09, 2012 9:09 AM
Subject:
[AdventistHotIssues] to bear fruits of the Holy
Spirit........
Dear Forum-- While striving to be the Bride of
Christ, we will find great inspiration and encouragement from these fantastic
words from 5 T pages 46-48.~~ Blessings, Lynn
Every individual, by his own act, either
puts Christ from him by refusing to cherish His spirit and follow His example, or he enters
into a personal union with Christ by self-renunciation, faith, and obedience. We must,
each for himself, choose Christ, because He has first chosen us. This union
with Christ is to be formed by those who are naturally at enmity with Him.
It is a relation of utter dependence, to be entered into by a proud heart. This is close work, and many
who profess to be followers of Christ know nothing of it. They nominally accept
the Saviour, but not as the sole ruler of their hearts.
Some feel their need of the atonement, and
with the recognition of this need, and the desire for a change of heart, a
struggle begins. To renounce their own will, perhaps their chosen objects of
affection or pursuit, requires an effort, at which many hesitate and falter and
turn back. Yet this battle must be fought by every heart that is truly
converted. We must war against temptations without and within. We must
gain the victory over self, crucify the affections and lusts; and then begins
the union of the soul with Christ. As the dry and apparently lifeless branch is
grafted into the living tree, so may we become living branches of the True Vine. And the
fruit which was borne by Christ will be borne by all His followers. After
this union is formed, it can be preserved only by continual, earnest,
painstaking effort. Christ exercises His power to preserve and guard this sacred
tie, and the dependent, helpless sinner must act his part with
untiring energy, or Satan by his cruel, cunning power will separate him from Christ.
Every Christian must stand on guard
continually, watching every avenue of the soul where Satan might find access. He must pray for
divine help and at the same time resolutely resist every inclination to sin. By
courage, by faith, by persevering toil, he can conquer. But let him remember
that to gain the victory Christ must abide in him and he
in Christ.
A union of believers with Christ will as a
natural result lead to a union with one another, which bond of union is
the most enduring upon earth. We are one in Christ, as Christ is one
with the Father. Christians are branches, and only branches, in the living
Vine. One branch is not to borrow its sustenance from another. Our life must
come from the parent vine. It is only by personal union with Christ, by
communion with Him daily, hourly, that we can bear the fruits of the Holy
Spirit.