Greetings MOL Family!

Jesus came to this earth to accomplish the greatest work ever accomplished among men. He came as God’s ambassador, to show us how to live so as to secure life’s best results. – Ministry of Healing, pg. 365

 

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Here’s A Secret

 

What are we studying for the next several weeks, in our new series? — How to live. Has someone come to show us? Who was it? Jesus. Then if we study how He lived, we’ll learn how to live. You notice that’s what He came for:

He came as God’s ambassador, to show us how to live… – Ibid

Let’s watch how He did it, and copying Him, we will have a similar experience.

Who is our example? What did He come for? — To show us how to live, so as to accomplish the most and the best.

The Saviour’s life on earth was a life of communion with nature and with God. In this communion He revealed for us the secret of a life of power. – Ibid., pg. 51

Now notice some key words on that last line “secret.” Does everybody know a secret? No. Do some people know a secret? Do you know the secret? Is this a secret that’s hidden? What does this sentence say? It’s what? — Revealed. Who revealed it? Jesus. If we’ll listen to Him and watch Him, then we’ll learn what? — The secret. The secret of life, how to live successfully, a life of what? — Power.

Do you want power? — Power to overcome sin; power to be successful; power to help others? The secret of a life of power, Jesus has revealed is in what? — Communion. Communion with whom? — With God; with nature and with God. Of course, communion with nature is communion with God, for God is revealed through the works of nature.

There was something else that Christ studied in the setting of nature beside the birds, and trees, and flowers. What was it? The word of God.

He studied the word of God, and His hours of greatest happiness were found when He could turn aside from the scene of His labors to go into the fields, to meditate in the quiet valleys, to hold communion with God on the mountainside, or amid the trees of the forest. – Ibid., page 52

 

The early morning often found Him in some secluded place, meditating, searching the Scriptures, or in prayer. – Ibid

There’s an interesting word in that sentence that indicates that it wasn’t routinely, every morning as regular as the sun was. What is the word that indicates that? — Often. Was He usually there? Yes, I wonder why? Did you ever allow your mind to run on why it says “often” instead of “every morning”? Well, maybe His mother was sick and He had to get breakfast that morning. Yes, maybe it was raining.

You know life is real, friends. And may I tell you something. The trouble with a lot of class work is that it deals with the impractical and the theoretical. Life is very real and practical. And Jesus came down to earth to deal with real things. He lived in a poor home. He didn’t have a private room. He didn’t have hot and cold running water. There were just a lot of things that we think are desirable and some people think are necessary to spiritual life that Jesus never knew anything about. He took our problems with more inconvenience than any of us probably have ever experienced; and He showed how to live. But whether He got fed every day at the same minute, physically or spiritually, He saw to it that He got His physical and spiritual nutrition. He filled His soul from the Word of God.

 

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What Is Communion?

 

I’d like to have you notice for a little bit what the purpose of this communion is that this is talking about. Communion, you know, is a two-way experience. In this early morning He was meditating, or searching the Scriptures, or in what? — Prayer. In prayer what was He doing? — Talking to God. When He studied the Scriptures who was talking to Him? — His Father.

That’s what He wants to happen to us. He wants us to talk to Him in prayer, and He wants to talk to us through His Word. Christ is the living Word. And when we receive this Word, we receive Him.

Page 122 of Ministry of Healing: I’m so anxious that every student learn the great power that there is in the simple experience that Jesus had when He was a youth in Nazareth, and that you can have:

The same power that Christ exercised when He walked visibly among men is [Where?] in His word. – Ibid

You mean the power that opened the blind eyes and raised the dead is in this Book? That’s right.

The Scriptures are to be received as God’s word to us, not written merely, but spoken. – Ibid

This isn’t just a letter from God to you. In these pages God is doing what? — Speaking to you. Did you ever hear Him speak to you through these pages? This you must seek with intensity of desire to know the voice of God speaking to you through these pages.

So with all the promises of God’s word. In them He is [Doing what?] speaking to us [What’s the next word?] individually… – Ibid

What does that mean? Does that mean that one brother will get something especially for him from this Book different from what I might get? Does this mean that Jesus will take this Book and give me something different from what He’ll give anybody else? That’s correct, friends, don’t miss that!

Now, don’t misunderstand me. That doesn’t mean that God will take this Book and tell somebody to keep the Sabbath and tell somebody else to break it. Or, He’ll not take this Book and tell you not to steal and tell someone else to steal. That isn’t the point at all. But there are thousands of individual experiences where the Word of God can mean to you something that nobody else ever got quite that thought and quite that application. And you need that.

Now, notice we’re hanging right here to this book Ministry of Healing [a part of our “How to Live” series], but this class of 12 lessons will be only an introduction in this study. I hope you will fall so in love with this book that it will become one of your main companions all the rest of your life.

Every individual has a life distinct from all others, and an experience differing essentially from theirs. – Ibid., pg. 100

You mean you have an experience different from anybody else in the world? And, it is to develop in you the personal experience, the character that God planned when He made you. This view of things simplifies so many matters. Never make any change in your life in diet, in dress, in music, in reading, in association, in recreation, and in the way you spend your time or your money; never make any change in your life without finding out personally what Jesus wants you to do about it.

Why, you say, “Well, other people don’t seem to agree with me.” Well, that isn’t what I’m talking about. I’m talking about you getting the message Jesus is telling you. Since all the people in the world do not agree about anything, no matter what conclusion you come to you’ll be out of step with somebody. Just settle that right now.

Did you ever hear this proverb? When in Rome do as the Romans do. Which book of the Bible is that in? It’s not in the epistles to the Romans. It’s not in any of the books in the Bible. That’s a saying from the great apostasy which developed into the Papacy. That’s where it came from. When in Roman do as Jesus would do. That’s the real one.

So with all the promises of God’s word. In them He is speaking to us individually, speaking as directly as if we could listen to His voice. – Ibid., pg. 122

Oh, friends, I have an assignment to give you; between now and our class next week. If you’ve never done this before, do it; and if you have you’ll be doing it anyway: Take your Bible and kneel down alone with God. Close your eyes and say in your own words, in your own way, “Dear Lord, speak to me through Thy word. I want not merely to read a letter. I want to hear You speaking to me through these pages.”

Ask Him to do it. Tell Him you believe He’ll keep His word; open your eyes and read His directions; listen for His voice; talk to Him about it — to listen while He speaks and then to talk while He listens – this is communion. And in this communion is the secret of a life of power. This is the key of how to live. I’ve given you the key, now, but you must open the door. A key jingling in your pocket will never open anything. It may make a sound, but the door is still locked.

Will you take the key? Will you take your Bible, and alone with God let Jesus speak to you through this Word, and then you speak to Him, back and forth, back and forth? Then you will know what no one else can teach you – personal communion with God. And remember, what He gives you is going to be something sweet and precious for you alone.

 

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Are you willing to enter into this close, intimate, and personal experience with Jesus – today, and every Tuesday in the coming weeks? Join us, as we continue on with our new “How to Live” series. Invite a friend, and we’ll see you then… 

–Continue on to the next study–

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At the beginning of a new school session, a good teacher presents the textbooks that will help each student gain the most from the lessons taught in their class. With your Bible and the following 2-book series, God promises to teach you “How to Live” >> Learn More

 

 

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* This study has been adapted from classes taken by Elder W.D. Frazee.