Consider Jesus.

 Consider…  If you are asked to consider something what are you being asked to do? To consider something is to think over what you are being asked to consider. If I ask someone to consider using a red paint and not a yellow for a project they are doing, I'm asking that person to contemplate doing something different. The person could outright say they have no need to consider it because their mind is set on the yellow, or they could say they'll give it some thought and then take the time to actually do so.  People are asked to consider all sorts of things. Some of the things we are asked to consider only need a few moments of consideration, other things might need a lot longer period of consideration. 

We are told to consider Jesus….

Heb 2:17  Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. 

Heb 2:18  For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. 

Heb 3:1  Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; 

Heb 3:2  Who was faithful to him that appointed him,  as also Moses was faithful in all his house. 

Heb 3:3  For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. 

Heb 3:4  For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. 

Heb 3:5  And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; 

Heb 3:6  But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. 

Consider…Christ Jesus. 

Consider everything about Him.

Consider that HE IS FAITHFUL.

We must HOLD FAST the confidence.

We must HOLD FAST the rejoicing of hope.

We have to CONSIDER our Savior and you know what? It has to be a DAILY consideration. A DAILY comprehension as we consider Jesus- that HE IS ABLE TO SAVE US!  He is NOT making it possible for us to save ourselves! He's not giving us the tools to save ourselves! He wants us to COME TO HIM, so HE CAN SAVE US.  We are to consider HIM constantly and all that means.

There is a verse -

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 

We work out our own salvation by.. Considering JESUS and ALL He has told us, all He says to us in His word, all He exhorts us to do, to say, to be. We have to live as HE wants us to live. When we fall short, and we do, we have to consider that our Savior will forgive us, and help us in all ways towards our salvation. We can't allow the consideration of our Savior to ever cease. 

Satan would have us rip our eyes off Christ and put them onto ourselves. Satan wants us to look at our failings and despair that we will ever be what we know Christ wants us to be. Christ wants us to look at Christ, not ourselves. Christ wants us to find HOPE in Him and we can only do that when we look to Him and consider Him. We are wretched, miserable creatures on our own, Christ is our only hope.  

Christ will give us all we need- and we must go to Him for our needs and recognize when He supplies them, and thank Him, never allowing ourselves to believe we are able to save ourselves without Him. 

All by His mercy, His grace, His righteousness, His love, His forgiveness! All through HIM! May we consider Him, please Lord, may we consider You always! Amen!!!!!!!

(Excerpt)

Christ and the Pharisees -OR Christ's Faithfulness in Sabbath-Keeping.

BY A. T. JONES.

[Religious Liberty Library, No. 18]

The one thing for us all to do all the time is to consider Christ Jesus.

In him all perfections meet; in him we find faithfulness on every point; and if you want to be faithful, and want to "hold out faithful," just consider Christ Jesus who was faithful, and draw from him faithfulness. 

We are to draw from him faithfulness, as we are to draw righteousness and every other virtue. He is to be unto us faithfulness, just as he is to be unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

"Wherefore . . . consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him." Heb. 3:1

This verse begins with a "wherefore;" that is, for this reason; and the reason is expressed in a previous verse. "Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a [original illegible] and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted." "Wherefore," that is, for this reason, "consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; who was faithful." Heb. 2:17,18

That is true in everything, and to us, especially now, is it emphatically true; and we are to consider his faithfulness in connection with the Sabbath of the Lord, and its keeping, if we would be faithful in the keeping of it. The Sabbath

means Christ, and Christ means the Sabbath. 

The Sabbath is the Lord's own sign of what Jesus Christ is to men; and we are to consider him in respect to it, and his faithfulness in keeping it.

And along with that we are to consider his faithfulness in keeping the Sabbath under persecution and at the risk of his life, and in giving up his life even, rather than to give up the Sabbath of the Lord. Because it was for not keeping the Sabbath to suit the Pharisees and the scribes and the doctors of the law, that he was persecuted first; and when he persisted in his way of keeping the

Sabbath, that is, the Lord's way, in spite of their persecution, then they went about to kill him. And when he would not give it up, then they did kill him. But God raised him from the dead, and took him to 'a world where he can keep the Sabbath without being annoyed, and without "disturbing" anybody. 

When Jesus came, he did not come in exactly the way that suited the Pharisees and the scribes and the doctors of the law; nevertheless they were not certain but that he might develop into that after a while. Consequently they studied his course for a considerable time, without making any positive opposition against him publicly. In fact, for about eighteen months of his public ministry, this people were studying him, and looking to see what would develop. Of course as he did not come according to their ideas, they would have nothing to do with him if he did not develop into what would conform to their ideas. And they watched him to see how the matter would come out. But he made no great demonstration of putting himself forward or calling attention to himself; he simply went on quietly teaching and healing the people, doing good everywhere that he went. They could not very well find fault with that, and it would be all right if in the end he should develop into what they expected.

But when a year and a half had gone by, his fame had spread through the land, and had attracted the attention of the Pharisees, the scribes, and the doctors of the law, as well as the common people. By this time he had attracted their active attention, their interested attention, and their selfish attention, too; because as they watched him in his course, they saw not only that he did not

develop into what they expected, but, on the contrary, they saw that he was gaining an influence with the people in a way that was not playing into their hands; and that as he went on longer, the people were drawn more to him. They hoped that if he did not develop into what they wanted,-in fact, they thought, they really supposed, that if he did not develop into what they  expected,-then, of course this would be evidence in itself that he could not possibly be the Messiah, and therefore his work would come to nothing.

But there appeared in his words a something that held the attention of the people-the common people. And they were glad to hear him again when they had heard him once; for his words were mildly spoken, and with a simplicity that everybody could understand. He did not speak in the learned, highflown utterances of the doctors of the law and the scribes, but always used language

that the people could understand. They did not have to use a dictionary to find out the meaning of the words that he used. His word was in simplicity and with power, and it clung to the people and remained with them, and had a tendency always to draw them more and more to him. 

The Pharisees and scribes seeing this, began to see that they would have to do something if they were to save their own credit with the people. So at the end of the first year and a half, near his second passover, that event occurred which is recorded in the fifth chapter of Luke; it is also recorded in the second chapter of Mark; but Luke's record has a point or two in it that Mark's has not.

It was the time when he was in the house teaching. A great multitude had gathered about the house, and some men came bearing a man sick of the palsy. They could not get through the door for the press of the people, so they went up on the housetop, and took up the tiling and let the man down at Jesus' feet, and Jesus said, "Thy sins be forgiven thee." Now the record is this:-"And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them." Luke 5:17. 

As Jesus said to the man sick of the palsy, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," these Pharisees and doctors of the law began to reason and murmur in their hearts, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" And instead of following the logic of their own proposition,-that nobody could forgive sins but God alone, and here was one who was forgiving sins, and therefore he was God with them,-they took the other course, and said, "This man is forgiving sins, and therefore he is a blasphemer." 

But we read:- "That ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth

to forgive tins (he said unto the sick of the palsy). I say unto thee, Arise, and lake up thy couch, and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God." Verses 24, 25.  (End Excerpt)