From: Francis Harper
wbfrmsup@iowatelecom.net
Francis Harper Message for 8/24/2018
Dear Ones,
The secret of becoming like Jesus; becoming one with him, is living in his sacred nearness. “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8). How do we draw nigh to God? Surely it is by being faithful in reserving time each day for prayer and for feasting upon his teachings which have been preserved for us in the Scriptures.
“When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds on our way! While we do his good will, He abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey” (Hymns of the Restoration # 371).
Are we God’s men and women in our home and neighborhood? Corrie ten Boom, the Dutch lady, made famous by her book and movie, The Hiding Place, called her father, Casper ten Boom, “God’s man.” She wrote: “The cornerstone of his character was his steady and consistent walk with the Lord, his knowledge of, and trust in, the Bible. He believed the Bible was relevant for every part of his daily life. He started each day in the workshop (he was a watchmaker) with a word of prayer and a scripture reading with all his family and workers. Sitting behind his workbench in the shop, father was an ambassador for Christ, a representative of heaven.
“He was always ready to listen. He was always concerned for people. Father was always interested in the people who came to us, and in his prayers he laid before his heavenly Father, all the problems which were in the lives and hearts of our guests.
“Many people sought advice from Casper ten Boom. The stability of his faith and his good common sense made him an excellent counselor. His judgment was never hasty. He took time to pray about the matter and think things over. Those who received help remembered his rare ability to encourage and stimulate the good in others.
“Father always used the Bible when he counseled. He knew that the needs of people are not sufficiently met by human philosophies. He always knew a Bible verse that precisely answered the need of those who came to him. I asked him once, ‘Papa, do you learn by heart every text that you think will be useful for counseling people?’ ‘No’ he answered, it is the Lord who gives me the words I need! He mentioned Isaiah 50:4:’The Lord God hath given me the tongue of learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary . . .”
We are called to be like Jesus: “For God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).
“Have ye received his image in your countenances?” (Alma 3:28).
“And I, God, said unto mine Only Begotten, which was with me from the beginning, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and it was so” (Genesis 2:27 IV; 2:26 KJV). Surely God was speaking of more than a physical likeness when he said, let us make man in our image and likeness.
Love to All
Francis Harper
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We Shall Be Like Him
“. . . we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him . . .” (1 John 3:2). Is there a greater challenge? If we want to live in his kingdom we must be like him. We are commanded to be perfect. “Ye are therefore commanded to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:50 IV; 5:48 KJV). “. . . I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect (3 Nephi 5:92).
Many will say, “Becoming like Jesus is impossible for me!” The word impossible should be removed from our vocabulary. The angel Gabriel told Mary: “. . . nothing can be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). Nephi asserted: “I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he should prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them” (1 Nephi 1:65).
How then shall we become perfect? How shall we become like him? Moroni answers these questions. “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in no wise deny the power of God.
“And again, if ye, by the grace of God, are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father, unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy without spot” (Moroni 10:29-30).
So we can say, only by the grace of God will we be made perfect. Paul speaking of Christ as the head of the church, who “gave himself for it; that he might sanctify it and cleanse it . . . that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25-27).
But according to Moroni we must deny ourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all our mind, might and strength. God will never interfere with our freedom to choose to become like Jesus, or remain as “a natural man; carnal, sensual and devilish” (Genesis 4:13 IV). “For we know it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do” (21 Nephi 11:44).
We need to be like Jesus in every thought, word and deed. We need to partake of his divine nature, even as we partake of the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper; emblems of his flesh and blood. Unless we do this we are “dead in our trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Peter reminds us of the great and precious promises whereby we might be partakers of the divine nature, and escape the corruption that is in the world” (2 Peter 1:4).
We can become like Jesus by “yielding to the enticings of the Holy Spirit” and become “as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love . . .” (Mosiah 1:120). “. . . for of such is the kingdom of heaven “(Matthew 19:14).
The Lord Jesus prayed, “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, . . . that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:21, 26).
Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father.” Jesus said, “. . . he that hath seen me hath seen the Father (John 14: 8-9). If someone asked, “Show us Jesus, could we truthfully say, he that hath seen me, hath seen Jesus?!
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