It must be stated that the description of a saint, (that is, one who is sanctified, set apart for God and from the world in this context) is an ideal that we are all growing in and should desire.
We are all at different stages of spiritual development: some are babes in Christ, others are young in the faith, there are those somewhat older and wiser; then there are those elders who have walked with the LORD for many years and bear an even greater resemblance to Him.
None of us are perfect however, and none of us have attained the level of maturity whereby we can claim all of the attributes listed below, consistently, all of the time. Yet this description of a saint is by the grace of God, something that we may, over the course of our lives, acquire in increasing measure to become more like our LORD. May this encourage the saints to truly seek God and His empowering Spirit of grace to become more like JESUS, day by day!
Show me a walking miracle (EZEK 36:26; JOHN 1:12), and I’ll show you a saint of God (1 COR 1:2)!
One who was once proud in their sin (PROV 21:4, 24); but repentant now (MATT 9:13) and mourns (MATT 5:4).
One who once boasted of transgression (PSALM 10:3) but now humbly confesses such (PSALM 32:5; 1 JOHN 1:9).
A saint is one that is a temple on two legs (1 COR 6:19); legitimately and permanently sealed of the Spirit (2 COR 1:22; 5:5) –
Such legitimacy is borrowed, not inherent in the saint, but rather transferred to their account (ROM 4:11,22-24).
Afforded by the riches of Christ (EPH 2:7; 3:8; HEB 11:26) before Whom the saint is contrite, broken (PSALM 51:17), repentant (ROM 2:4), humble (2 CHRON 34:27), and worshipful (PSALM 29:2) and reverentially yielded (ROM 6:13,19) and surrendered of body, mind and spirit (ROM 12:1).
Show me a saint, and I’ll show you one wholly unsatisfied and disinterested in the lures, enticements and treasures that this world offers (GAL 6:14). One who is satisfied from the world (JAMES 1:27; 1 COR 6:11), and oneself as well (PROV 14:14) and entirely satisfied in Christ Jesus, the Well Spring of Eternal Life (JOHN 4:14).
One who no longer hungers, thirsts, nor seeks but is filled, sated and seeks only His LORD’s will (JOHN 4:34).
For all things are in Christ through which the saint knows sublime peace (JOHN 14:27) and rest (MATT 11:29). Yet ever he thirsts and hungers and seeks for more of the LORD Jesus Christ (PSALM 22:26; 143:6; AMOS 5:4; PHIL 3:10).
Show me a saint and I will show you one for whom the Scriptures open up and reveal such profound secrets and sacred truths of the Word (1 COR 2:9-11, 13; ROM 16:25-26; COL 2:3) as the world could never ferret out from its pages, no matter how long a list of university and seminary credentials they possess (1 COR 2:14).
Show me a saint, and I will show you a prophet of God that does not foretell so much as forth tells of the truth of the Word (1 COR 14:1; 2 TIM 4:2) and can rightly stand in the stead of Christ as His ambassador, authorized to speak on the King’s behalf (2 COR 5:20; JOHN 13:20).
Show me a saint, and I will show you a priest – one who ascends to heights beyond the narrow confines of the loftiest dimensions of the universe; attained from the humble, lowly bended knee (PSALM 10:17; 1 PET 2:9).
One who will hungrily pray and search for the will of God (JER 29:13; PSALM 105:3-4) and the needed answers from the Divine Throne of Grace (HEB 4:16) for his needy brother and for the wayward sinner lost in his corrupt ways (1 TIM 2:1; EPH 6:18; DAN 9:20). His soul aches for the lost whose blindness and incurably diseased heart (JER 17:9) may resort to the only Great Physician (MATT 9:12-13), whom the saint longs to draw him to (2 TIM 2:25-26).
Show me a saint, and I will show you someone who faithfully and resolutely stands fast beside his failing brother (JOHN 13:34-35; GAL 6:2) and lend such spiritual aid, spending freely of himself (1 COR 8:4; 9:1-2) until his fellow is once again strengthened and standing strong (1 THESS 5:14).
Show me a saint and I will show you one who laughs at both the temptations (GAL 5:16; 6:14; ROM 8:4; 2 PET 3:17) and personal peril (ACTS 21:13) from the great enemy of the church (LUKE 10:18) – one who sneers at the power and the terror of the kingdom of Darkness (ROM 16:20) and the formidable forces that would overwhelm him (1 JOHN 4:4; ISAIAH 59:19).
One who might observe hopeless odds set against himself and yet persists with indomitable hope in the Almighty (HEB 12:2; PSALM 42:5) that he rightly calls Abba (ROM 8:15; GAL 4:6).
Show me a saint and I will show you a warrior (EPH 6:10-18; PSALM 18:34) whose valiance (PSALM 60:12; HEB 11:32-34) is so fierce and white hot (NUM 25:11-13; ROM 8:37-39) and untiring that all other soldiers of the worldly sort pale in comparison (1 TIM 1:18; 2 TIM 2:3-5).
His weapons have never known a forge or smith, but fashioned by the breath of the Spirit of God (2 COR 10:3-5; EPH 1:3) with the eternal scent of heaven upon them and ready for use in confident warfare (2 COR 2:14), so the saint conducts himself in the campaign of a foreordained victory (JOSH 6:2; 1 COR 15:57) and wages a war both holy and terrible in the eyes of his unearthly foes (NUM 31:6; PSALM 98:1).
Show me a saint and I will show you one whose heart is a mirror, reflecting the righteousness of the Righteous One (ROM 3:22; PHIL 1:11; 1 JOHN 2:6) – whose spirit is jeweled with the beauties of grace and peace (ROM 1:7); love and joy (JOHN 15:10; 16:22; ROM 15:13); patience (JAMES 1:2-8) and temperance (2 PET 1:6); and wisdom and knowledge (PROV 2:6; COL 2:3).
Show me a saint and I’ll show you one who will cheerfully and freely lose his life (MATT 10:39; JOHN 12:25) in this world at the hands of hateful persecutors (MATT 5:10) who only serve as the saint’s transport to heaven’s portals (PHIL 1:21).
Show me one who for all of his goodness of character (PROV 22:1), soundness of mind (2 TIM 1:7), purity of heart (MATT 5:8; 1 PET 1:22), faithfulness in his righteous walk (3 JOHN 1:5; ISAIAH 33:14-16; HEB 10:23), and I’ll show you a saint who is not yet complete in the work which God intends for him (EPH 2:10) – yet one who exults in the truth that His LORD has promised to complete that good work which He has begun, which is in the saint himself (PHIL 1:6).
Show me a saint and I will show you one who even at death’s darkened door, rests in joyous security that has been won for him by the Resurrected LORD of Glory (1 PET 1:3; 2 TIM 4:6-8; PHIL 1:6); who will find a sleep of body in the calm confidence that the same will one day be awakened and suited in glorious fashion, agreeable to the domain of God’s eternal Kingdom (1 COR 15:50-58).
Show me the sounding of that glorious trump (1 COR 15:52) and let me hear the shout of God (1 THESS 4:16-18) and I’ll show you a saint – – that has left this world for the better shores of that celestial kingdom above (PHIL 3:20-21; COL 3:1-3)!
So show me the saint – that you are in Christ Jesus and let us glorify the LORD of Glory with the very Life that He has granted by grace to us, once sinners – now citizens of the Kingdom of God as His dear children!
4 comments:
Jesus assures us: “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life." (John 5:24) And for the many who are having their hearts prepared for His message; "Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live." (John 5:25) Every Born Again Christian is a living miracle - a sign of Jonah. A dead man made alive by the Word - as sure as day follows night!
http://walkingwithtony.blogspot.ca/2013/04/the-sign-of-jonah.html
Show me a Saint, and I'll show you a miracle, that only God could perform, and not we ourselves; When he quickened (made alive) those who were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1-5). Having a righteousness that is entirely and completely from him; That we could never obtain or keep in and of ourselves.
Show me a Saint, and I'll show you a miracle, that only God could perform, and not we ourselves; When he quickened (made alive) those who were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1-5). Having a righteousness that is entirely and completely from him; That we could never obtain or keep in and of ourselves.
As the Glorious fragrance of rain pelting the patch ground of ones life.We see the cracked ground blossoming with the GLORY of GOD'S handiwork to bless us in the time of refreshing from the WORD of GOD.THROUGH HIS SON JESUS CHRIST to give us a hope and a calling to serve Him.Shalom
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