Looking Unto Jesus in 2010...

From Look Unto Me:

December 30

The end of a matter is better than its beginning. (Ecclesiastes 7:8)

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Look at our Lord and Master's beginning, for "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering" (Isa. 53:3). Then look at "the end of the matter," "where Christ is seated at the right hand of God" (Col. 3:1) and "waits for his enemies to be made his footstool" (Heb. 10:13). "In this world we are like him" (1 John 4:17). We must bear a cross or we will never wear a crown; we must wade through mire or we will never walk streets of gold.

Thus, cheer up, sad Christian! "The end of a matter is better than its beginning." Consider the lowly worm and its contemptible appearance, for it is only the beginning of the matter. Then notice the butterfly with its gorgeous wings, playing in the sunbeams and sipping nectar from the blossoms. It is full of happiness and life but that is "the end of [the] matter." That caterpillar is you until the time you are wrapped in the chrysalis of death. "But...when he appears, [you] shall be like him, for [you] shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2).

Thus, be content to "be like him" here on earth--a worm, a no one--that like Him you may be fully satisfied when you wake up in His likeness in glory. Think of that rough-looking diamond placed on the stonecutter's wheel. He cuts it on every side, removing much that the diamond thought was so important for itself. But when the king is crowned, and the crown is placed upon the monarch's head with the joyful fanfare of trumpets, a glittering flash of light beams from that very diamond that not long ago had been so troubled at the hands of the stonecutter.

Go ahead--dare to compare yourself to that diamond, for you are one of God's people and this is the time of the cutting process. Let faith and "perseverance...finish its work" (James 1:4), for on the day when the crown will be set upon the head of "the King eternal, immortal, invisible" (1 Tim. 1:17); one ray of glory will shine from you. "They shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels" (Mal. 3:17 KJV).

Truly--"The end of a matter is better than its beginning."

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Perseverance and endurance are continual themes in God's Word. Life was never meant to be easy, but instead was meant to conform us to "the likeness of [God's] Son" (Rom. 8:29). Today Spurgeon briefly quotes from James, but here is the verse in its context: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything" (James 1:2-4).

Paul stressed endurance as well by writing this to the Thessalonians: "We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.... You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers..." (1 Thess. 1:3, 6-7).

Father, may we glimpse "the end of the matter," but even now be "the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved" (2 Cor. 2:15).

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