Christlike Attributes Part 4

In James 3:17-18 we will find characteristics of Godly Wisdom

• Wisdom is pure
• Wisdom is peaceable
• Wisdom is gentle
• Wisdom is easy to be entreated
• Wisdom is full of mercy
• Wisdom is good fruit
• Wisdom is without particality
• Wisdom is without hypocrisy
• Wisdom is fruit of righteousness
• Wisdom is sown with peace

II Peter 1:3-11 Are Great Virtues given in all things peraining unto life and godliness. Great Virtues that are partakers of the divine nature.....

• Faith
• Virtue
• Knowledge
• Temperance
• Patience
• Godliness
• Brotherly kindness
• Charity

Looking at all the Christlike attributes did you notice the different scripture passages and how some attributes are repeated. I've heard it told, if it's in the Scriptures more than once, we should take extra heed to them. God knows we don't always listen the first time we are told. It seems to be our human nature. How often do we hear things with our ears but not the Holy Spirit when He speaks to our heart?

Christlike Attributes Part 3

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Shows us Christlike attributes through the quality of love.

• Charity suffereth long
• Charity is kind
• Charity does not envy
• Charity is not proud
• Charity does not behave improper
• Charity does not look for personal gain
• Charity is not easily provoked
• Charity does not think evil
• Charity does not rejoice in sin
• Charity rejoices in the truth
• Charity bears all things
• Charity believes all things
• Charity hopes all things
• Charity endures all things
• Charity never fails

[It is mind boggling to ponder on the Love of God and the example of Christ's life while he was upon the earth--that God would give His ONLY Son and Christ would willingly lay down His life as the atoning sacrifice for sin. All because of the love they have for me & you.]

What Manner of Love

1John 3:1 "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us....."

What manner of love asks the question in “what kind of love?” and in “what degree of love?”

• The kind of love we receive from our Heavenly Father is the most tender and the most ennobling, in adopting us into His family, and in permitting us to address Him as our Father.

• The degree of His love is the most exalted, since there is no higher love that can be shown than in adopting a poor and friendless orphan, and giving him a parent and a home. Even God could bestow upon us no more valuable token of affection than that we should be adopted into His family, and permitted to regard Him as our Father.
  

When I think how insignificant we are as creatures, and how ungrateful, rebellious, and vile we have been as sinners, it amazes me at this love God shows toward us. This love which is ready to adopt us into the holy family of God. So that we may be regarded and treated as the children of the Most High.

A royal prince could not manifest any higher love for a wandering, ragged, orphan, found in the streets, than by adopting him into his own family, and giving him to the same privileges and honors as his own sons........Yet this is a trifle comparison to the honor which God has bestowed on us.........

The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,and reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,and pardoned from his sin.

When hoary time shall pass away,and earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men who here refuse to pray,on rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,all measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—the saints’ and angels’ song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,and were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,and every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,though stretched from sky to sky.

Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—The saints’ and angels’ song.

Christlike Attributes Part 2

These attributes are found in Matthew 5:1-11 and they are known as the Beattitudes.

• The poor in spirit -- a humble opinion of self
• The that mourn -- those grieved by sin
• The meek -- those not easily provoked
• They who hunger & thirst after righteousness -- an intense desire of godliness
• The merciful -- one showing mercy to others
• The pure in heart -- those whose mind, motives and principles are pure
• The peacemaker -- one who strives for peace
• Those persecuted for righteousness sake -- godly living brings persecution
• Those falsely accused for Christ's sake -- believers ridiculed; charged heavily with lies

Our very nature is bent toward sin. We gain attributes like these only from Christ working these things through us.

Christlike Attributes Part 1

God possesses these qualities and any believer can "get" them as he is controlled by the Holy Spirit. When a believer manifests these characteristics on a consistent basis; even under pressure, we say he has Christian (Christlike) character.

The attributes I'm sharing today are found in Galatians 5:22-23 and they are commonly known as the fruit of the Spirit.

• Love -- genuine self-sacrifice for the good of others
• Joy -- a feeling of great pleasure and delight in who God is and in what He has provided
• Peace -- a sense of well-being; rest; tranquility; contentment
• Longsuffering -- stability under pressure; self-control under provocation from people
• Gentleness -- kindness toward others; reasonableness; flexibility
• Faith -- faithfulness; reliability
• Meekness -- willingness to be governed; submissive attitude toward authority and circumstances
• Temperance -- self-control, especially of one's passions

Exposure to God brings about profound change in a believer -- the kind of change to Christlikeness we need.

God's Attributes

These attributes of God are attributes of Him only no created being can ever possess them.

• Omnipotence -- God is all powerful.
  
  
• Omniscience -- God innately knows everything.
  
  
• Omnipresence -- God is everywhere at all times.
  
  
• Immutability -- God's nature will never change.
  
  
• Transcendence -- God is distinctly different from His creation.
  
  
• Eternality -- God has no beginning or end.

Just knowing these things about our Heavenly Father gives me great peace and assurance.

A Letter To John

I want to share with you an actual letter from a mother to her son. She knew he would never read it; he had died in an accident on a farm three years before she wrote the letter. She wrote it as a testimony of how she had come to really know God since her son's death.

Dear John,

It's been three years since that night when God called you to Heaven. We have missed you so much, and I'm sure we will until we are together again.

At the time of your death, there was such a searching going on in your heart. I remember our long discussions and your attempts to make us understand what you were looking for. You were searching for a depth that was missing in your life. You had wisdom and insight in your youth. Some of the things you talked about, things that we didn't understand, have become clearer to us. You remarked about the students at college who were so busy serving the Lord yet lacked a personal relationship with Him. In fact, some of them with whom you talked couldn't say for sure they were saved. At the time your daddy and I talked with you I don't think we even understood, but I remember your saying that you wanted something "earth shaking" to show us. Well, when you died it was earth shaking. It tore our very foundations away. I feel that I, especially, took up your searching. I believe the Lord answered your prayer. I don't know why it had to be through your death. I'll never understand that, but through it I have discovered that my foundation was built on a creed more than on a Person. I had accepted the Lord as my Savior, but I was living my life by self-effort. When you died, everything I believed fell apart. I didn't turn from God, but I started questioning what I believed because your eternity rested on what we had taught you to believe. Was it right? Is there a God? Do I believe the Bible? Does God love me, really love me? Is there a Heaven? Are you there with God? What is it like where you are? What are you doing now? Will I really see you and know you in Heaven?

I can't say I've gotten all the answers to all my questions, but let me tell you some of the things that have happened. In my searching I have come across some of the things you were struggling with. The Bible is more that just a Book of rules. It presents a God Who wants to have fellowship with us. We do have a personal relationship with the God of the Bible. As you said, we do need to see our sins as God sees them. When we see God for Who He is, then we can see our sins as He sees them. Then we can realize the full impact of what it meant to have those sins for given through the Cross. Also our emotions do have a part in our Christian life. The Bible says that we worship the Lord "in spirit and in truth." If we don't let our total being become involved in worshiping the Lord, we hinder the Holy Spirit, and we cannot truly worship God. We are to love God with our whole being--body, soul and spirit. We can know His Spirit's presence. God can be alive to us. We can know His presence in our daily lives. We can have this while we are still here on earth. We can come before His throne and worship Him and in a real sense, be in His presence. I feel that is what you are doing now. Maybe that's why I have a yearning to do the same thing even while I'm still on earth........

Since your death, things have become very simple in my life, and I believe in your daddy's life too. The things we thought were so necessary are unimportant. To get to the basics of Who God is and my relationship with His is most important. After all, I really want to know the Person Who is now taking care of my son. How well I live by the rules we as Christians have laid down is not so important now. There was a lot of self-effort in my Christian life. God didn't save me by faith and then expect me to live the Christian life by self-effort. I think you were struggling to establish a relationship with God. You had accepted Christ as your Savior and always lived above reproach as a Christian, but you were wanting a real, personal relationship with God. In Heaven you have that relationship now, but I'm still here on earth struggling. I always tried to live right, but it was very "legalistic." I'm afraid that is how we taught you and your sister to live. We taught you how to accept Christ as Savior apart from works but the led you to believe that the Christian life was lived by self-effort, doing everything right. I believe that the element of love was left out of our teaching--accepting God's unchanging love and loving Him with your total being. This should come before works and lead to good works which are done out of a heart full of love for Him.

I'm writing this "open letter" to you as a testimony of an answer to your prayer, even after your death. If there is anything I have learned, it's that no matter how straight the live we walk in our Christian life is, it is empty self-effort without an attitude of worship and without allowing the Spirit of God to involve our total being in a loving relationship with Him. Out of that love will flow good works, a desire to fellowship with Him, a desire to please Him and serve Him. His love will compel us to be witnesses of His love to others. As the saying goes, I think I've had "the cart before the horse" by trying through self-effort to please the Lord and serve Him without letting His love fill my being in a very real, everyday sense. This realization is just beginning. Now I have to let it become an experience in my life. My prayer is that now I will live what I have learned.

Remember when I used to take you by the shoulder, tell you to look at me, and then say, "I love you, John"? I remember the sheepish look you would give me when I said that. Well, John, I still love you very much.

Your Mother

This mother, Mrs. Carol L. Wilkinson, picked up her son's search for a relationship with his Creator. She sought her God and was not disappointed. May it be true for all of us.