Beloved Disciple

We love him, because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19.
John is distinguished above the other apostles as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 21:20)….
He received many tokens of the Saviour’s confidence and love. He was one of the three permitted to witness Christ’s glory upon the mount of transfiguration and His agony in Gethsemane, and it was to his care that our Lord confided His mother in those last hours of anguish upon the cross.
John’s was a nature that longed for love, for sympathy and companionship. He pressed close to Jesus, sat by His side, leaned upon His breast. As a flower the sun and dew, so did he drink in the divine light and life.
The depth and fervor of John’s affection for his Master was not the cause of Christ’s love for him, but the effect of that love. John desired to become like Jesus, and under the transforming influence of the love of Christ he did become meek and lowly. Self was hid in Jesus. Above all his companions, John yielded himself to the power of that wondrous life…. John knew the Saviour by an experimental knowledge. His Master’s lessons were graven on his soul. When he testified of the Saviour’s grace, his simple language was eloquent with the love that pervaded his whole being.
It was John’s deep love for Christ which led him always to desire to be close by His side. The Saviour loved all the Twelve, but John’s was the most receptive spirit. He was younger than the others, and with more of the child’s confiding trust he opened his heart to Jesus. Thus he came more into sympathy with Christ, and through him the Saviour’s deepest spiritual teaching was communicated to the people….
John could talk of the Father’s love as no other of the disciples could. He revealed to his fellow men that which he felt in his own soul, representing in his character the attributes of God…. The beauty of holiness which had transformed him shone with a Christlike radiance from his countenance. In adoration and love he beheld the Saviour until likeness to Christ and fellowship with Him became his one desire, and in his character was reflected the character of his Master.
Conflict and Courage p. 315
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Prayer Requests
—–please pray for Ronnie. He’s recovering from kidney transplant. In much pain woke every hour. Relieve the pain protect from being unnecessarily woken up so he will heal. Lorrie
—–Please continue to pray for Uncle Art. Mike
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Dear Friends,
When I was a about five, I was so lonely because I was the only child in the neighborhood at that time. One day someone gave me a beagle puppy. I was delighted! How I loved and cuddled that little dog. He took away the loneliness that I felt.
One spring day, not long after getting him, I was pretending he was my little baby and decided to give him a bath. So I gave him a bath—right in the icy water that was coming out of the drainpipe from the snow that was melting from off the roof. The air felt warm after the cold Michigan winter, but it was not warm. After the bath, I continued playing with my puppy which caused it to become thoroughly chilled. Within a day or two, my little puppy got distemper and died. They told me it was because of the bath I had given him. How terrible I felt! I cried and cried, but all the tears in the world could not bring my puppy back. I had not realized that my actions would result in such loss.
Just as I did not realize that by giving my puppy a cold bath there would be grave consequences, so in our dealings with others, we do not realize what the consequences will be. How careful we must be that we do not turn someone down the wrong path. By our words, by our actions, by our attitudes we can cause spiritual death for someone dear to us. Through a critical attitude, through evil surmising, we can kill them just as thoroughly as I caused the death of my puppy. Paul warns, “if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.” Gal 5:15
Our Dear Saviour commands, “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” Matt 7:1-5 This does not mean that we should never try to help our brother to have a closer walk with the Lord, but how much grace from Above we need to point them in the right direction. Again He says, “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” Luke 6:37,38
Paul says to us as he said to the believers in Philippi, “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. . . . Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life.” Phil 2:1-16