Hebrews 3:14:
We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
Hebrews 4:14-16
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
2 Peter 1:4
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.4 Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
1 John 4:16
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
Revelation 3:20
I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
Revelation 21:3,4
I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
· When He strengthens them, it is not by taking away the sense of feebleness and giving in its place the feeling of strength by no means. But in a very wonderful way leaving and even increasing the sense of utter impotence, He gives them along with it the consciousness of strength in Him.
· The feebleness and the strength are side by side; as the one grows, the other too, until they understand the saying, “When I am weak, then am I strong; I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest on me.”
· This power flows into us as we abide in close union with Him. When the union is feeble, little valued or cultivated, the inflow of strength will be feeble. When the union with Christ is rejoiced in as our highest good and everything sacrificed for the sake of maintaining it, the power will work: “His strength will be made perfect in our weakness.” Our one care must therefore be to abide in Christ as our strength.
· Nothing but death, the absolute surrender to death of all that is of nature, will suffice if the life of God is to be manifested in them with power.
· The only way they can be sanctified is that they be taken from under the power of self, and brought under the power of the life of Christ.
· If you are willing, come entirely away out of self and to allow Jesus Christ to become your life within you, inspiring all your thinking, feeling, acting, in things temporal and spiritual, He is ready to undertake the charge. In the fullest and widest sense the word life ever can have, He will be your life, extending His interest and influence to each one, even the minutest, of the thousand things that make up your daily life.
· Though self is not dead, you are indeed dead to self. Self is still strong and living, but it has no power over you.
· Self seeking to serve God is more dangerous than self refusing obedience.
· There are two natures in the believer, and so two ways of seeking holiness, according as we allow the principles of the one or other nature to guide us. The one is the carnal way, in which we put forth our utmost efforts and resolutions, trusting Christ to help us in doing so. The other, the spiritual way, in which, as those who have died, and can do nothing, our one care is to receive Christ day by day, and at every step to let Him live and work in us.
· He cannot afford to leave you one single moment to yourself. He dare not do so, or He fails of His undertaking.
· He who abides in Christ the Crucified One, learns to know what it is to be crucified with Him, and in Him to be indeed dead unto sin. He who abides in Christ the Risen and Glorified One becomes in the same way partaker of His resurrection life and of the glory with which He has now been crowned in heaven.
· As the believer, abiding in Christ the Glorified One, seeks to realize and experience what His union with Jesus on the throne implies, he apprehends how the unclouded light of the Father’s presence is His highest glory and blessedness, and in Him the believer’s portion is too. He learns the sacred art of always, in fellowship with His exalted Head, dwelling in the secret of the Father’s presence.
· The believer cannot abide in Jesus the Glorified One without feeling himself stirred and strengthened to work the Spirit and the love of Jesus breathe the will and the power to be a blessing to others.
· The hope of Christ is the hope of His redeemed: “I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am there ye may be also.” This promise is as precious to Christ as it ever can be to us. The joy of meeting is surely no less for the coming bridegroom than for the waiting bride. The life of Christ in glory is one of longing expectation; the full glory only comes when His beloved are with Him.