In this text we read how Christ was transfigured from an earthly man to a spiritual man, with face as the sun and raiment, white as light, the three chosen Apostles that accompanied Him, had gone with Him to pray. And this event happened as they were all praying. It is recorded in other parts of the Bible, how they were afraid, and how much more, when Moses and Elias also appeared, talking to Christ. The Apostles had never known them, and yet they knew who they were. Peter, in his fear, suggested to Christ, that if he approved it, they should build three tabernacles, one to Christ, one to Moses, and one to Elias, but before any answer was given. God overshadowed them in a cloud, and declared those wonderful words, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him.”

God was confirm­ing Christ’s teaching in Luke 16:16. “The Law and the Prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.” Moses’ presence represented the Law, Elias represented the prophets, and when Peter wanted to equalize them. God made it very clear that a new way was to begin, and that the preaching era, which Christ introduced as the first to preach the Kingdom, and this was to continue, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, preaching Christ, His ways, His examples, and His words, as the Kingdom of God. “Hear ye him,” proclaimed God’s voice, and that is still our commandment to-day.

Do we press into this word? We do so when we believe and go out and do the word in our life. We then become as sons and daughters also of God and can take heart in God’s words, “I am well pleased.” In this reconciliation with God, we can find an inner peace that also transforms us from earthly beings, to a likeness of the transfigured Christ. Faces that shine as the Sun, eyes that light up and see only good in each other, that see through the darkness of this world, a raiment that is washed white by the blood of the Lamb, and that makes us feel clean and free. Free from insecurity and fear, free to know who we really are, and that life has a purpose, free from the bondage of Sin and Satan, free to enjoy truth and life to its fullest extent.

John 8:31-32. “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” As with this first recorded transfiguration, we must also, always remain in prayer, if we are to also experience this in our own lives, and we are also given the hope and promise, that this will also happen as we pass from earthly beings unto eternal life.

These words of the Lord through Samuel the prophet to King Saul, the first chosen King of Israel, were in response to events that shows us one of the greatest warnings in our lives today. The King had wished to go to battle against Amalek and had enquired of the Lord through the prophet. The Lord gave the commandment that the King should go against them but had to destroy everything that they had, even all that nation, including all the animals. We can read how the King and his army were disobedient to the Lord’s command, which in itself was bad enough. We know he could have confessed his wrong-doing and called on the Love and Mercy of God for forgiveness, but he did not and in fact, took the next step, the step that lost him his kingdom. He tried to Justify what he had done, by trying to make it appear good, and declared to Samuel, that the animals had only been kept so that a sacrifice could be made to God. This prompted the reply in our text, which shows clearly that God is more pleased with obedience to His word, than a sacrifice to Him.

The next words of Samuel to the King are some of the strongest and most powerful warnings in the Bible. “For Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and Stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being King.” Saul lost that natural kingdom on that day, by trying to Justify himself and his actions. We too, have been promised a kingdom, and this also is at risk if we too, make that same mistake as King Saul.

This is shown clearly in the Book of Revelation chapter 21:8, that there is no place in the New Jerusalem for sorcerers and idolaters. Sorcery is witchcraft and according to God, in His sight rebellion against His word is as witchcraft, stubbornness against His word is as idolatry. We have already seen these come about when we try to justify the things we do which are against God’s word.

With such a grave warning, we should turn over the coin and see the correct way, which is given to us by Christ Himself when He promised “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” Justification, Rebellion, and Stubbornness are foreign to becoming poor in spirit, the two can never mix.

Although this message was for the house of Israel at that time, it still has the same meaning for us
all as we are all in the Lord’s hand. There was recently a display at the art center featuring a new
form of valuable art works called “Sea Glass” or “Beach Glass”. It is made up of varied bits of
coloured glass and pieces of pottery that have been shattered after being discarded and regarded as
having no use anymore. Their broken pieces end up in the ocean and begin a new journey. As it is
relentlessly tossed about by the currents and tides, its jagged edge are ground down by the sand and
waves and eventually are smoothed away and rounded off. The result is something beautiful. The
jewel like “Sea Glass” has found new life and is treasured by collectors and artists.
In a similar way a broken life can be renewed by the love and grace of the Lord. Our text tells us
that the prophet Jeremiah watched the potter at work. He noticed that if an object was not what was
required he simply reshaped it. God explained that in His hands we are like clay and He has the
power to shape us as He sees best.
We must remember and in faith and belief we are never too badly broken for God to reshape. He
loves all, in spite of our past mistakes and is in a position to make all pleasant in His sight if we
turn to the grace of Christ.
No doubt this text inspired the hymn sung by many in the world.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay;
Mould me and make me after Thy will
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

If one person says to another: “You are my life”, he expresses herewith: “You are the most precious person that  exists for me, you are more important than my life. All my love belongs to you.”
The life of Paul, the Apostle, verifies, that he stood in exactly the same love-affair towards Christ. He was so overcome by the love of the Lord, that he could do nothing else than surrender fully to it. That is why he describes himself often as the “prisoner” of Jesus. Let us not remain by this observation alone but, according to the title above, ask ourselves how does our attitude stand towards Christ. Quickly it is made clear by a love ­affair, that meeting and experience are presupposed. I think that we all have meetings with our Lord and in many ways do experience Him in our daily lives. Notwithstanding it happens quite often, that He meets us but we don’t recognize Him. It is characteristic, when we tell about our God-experience, that we mostly describe such events in which we were protected from great dangers, delivered from misery, from sickness released.
Undoubtedly these are extraordinary experiences. But how sad it would be, if we should overlook the countless daily proofs of His kindness and closeness to us. What mercy it is, that we are allowed to have a roof over our heads, clothes to wear and food to eat. How richly has the Lord endowed us with those who love us and we are allowed to love them. What a treasure is the community in which we have found a spiritual home and brothers and sisters, who fold their hands for us.  How glad may we be, that God gives gifts to the community whereby He reveals Himself and gives gifts from His hand, which we are allowed to live, full of opportunities and chances, to meet Him and experience Him for ourselves. How wonderful are His promises, which give us the foundation under our feet, energy to live, hope to hold on and makes us joyful contemporaries. Should we count everything what God’s love presents us with, we would come to no end. How great is the Almighty’s goodness! Is there a man who is not moved by it? So it says in the hymn, To be moved by Christ’s love, leads to love Him in return.
The Apostle Paul’s confession: “Christ is my life” reaches yet far beyond a “declaration of love”. It is the expression of acknowledgement, without Christ is to be dead. This is intended also for us to acknowledge! Surely, we are familiar with the truth of the gospel, of our only possible deliverance through Christ’s grace, so many times have we absorbed it with the “mother’s milk” (the sincere milk of the word). But hand laid on the heart: Do we really and truly and transiently know and realize our lost condition, without Him? ” … what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mat 16:26), Jesus asked His disciples. The answer is clear. Firstly, the recognition of the need of being saved clears the way to truly strive for God’s mercy, a way which leads to true joy, joy in the Lord. “The grasping of Christ’s healing deed in faith, makes this solemn word “grace transform heaven into a smile.” “Christ is my life”, a statement which becomes every one of us, because it describes exactly our life’s situation. But also a statement which is the result of growth.
Let us turn to the second part of our word: To die is my gain.  Exactly this is the point. Shall the newness of water and spirit born again man be “grown up”, this can only come about when the old “Adam” dies. A truly lengthy and sometimes real painful but un-renouncing process. How much of our selfish, godless nature has to die! But how good it is that we don’t have to accomplish this in our own strength. We would undoubtedly be sentenced to complete failure, “Without me ye can do nothing “, Jesus tells us bluntly. But what a consolation to know; Without Him, we don’t have to do anything! He is in command, His strength wants to have the mastery over us weak ones.
Always there, where the force of the Holy Spirit “prospers”, peace multiplies and reconciliation with God, new life begins. This is the dying that results in a priceless gain. Little by little our, oft-times shortened and clouded, sight becomes clear. We learn to discern between importance and unimportance. We recognize the limitations of our earthly efforts, but with the growing nearness to our Lord also grows the longing for complete union with Him. It becomes more distinct: That, what we enjoy in this earthly life, as wonderful as it may be because of God’s goodness, is only a reflection of what He holds in store for those who love Him. This glad awaiting of Christ’s return and the resurrection to eternal life in all closeness to God, takes the fear away from the natural and much more from the spiritual death, because Christ is our life and dying is our gain.

Our obligation is not only to be thankful for this wonderful gift that has been given unto us on the day of
Pentecost, but that we also then fulfil our obligation in showing it unto others every day of our life.  It can be done in so many simple ways, by deeds and actions, by simple words, when we witness wonderful rain as blessings of God from heaven. There is no doubt as many travel throughout their work and through the towns people will say – How much rain did you get? Wasn’t it wonderful!  The door is open. This door that Christ said, ‘I am the door.’ The door is open to say the simple words. “Isn’t God wonderful! He has given this wonderful blessing along with so many others”. People will not be offended.  People will see a pure heart speaking and will make them consider that they too should offer thanksgiving unto the Almighty God.
As we traverse through life we have the great witness within our lives that the Holy Spirit has once again be poured out on all flesh. All flesh! We can see this because we know the Spirit of God is wisdom.  We know that His Spirit is so far advanced of that of mankind that what we think is wonderful, to Him it is a flick of the fingers. If we look into the world, the events that have been happening in the last couple of hundred of years, when we believe that the Holy Spirit was once again poured out with the restoration of the Apostle Ministry and the guidance sought of the Holy Spirit, we can see a great change has come into the world.  We can see if we look into the sciences how they have advanced. The mind of man and the brain of man today is no bigger than it was 200 years ago, 1000 years ago or 2000 years ago. It is still the same. What is advancing the mind of man so rapidly is the Spirit of God that has been poured out on all flesh. What is new today is old tomorrow. Medical science is advancing at such a rapid rate as with the other sciences of the world. It has nothing to do with man’s wisdom. Many claim that wisdom, the same as they did before the days of the great flood, great works and greatness was done, but those who are sincere recognise there is a guidance of a higher power. We see that guidance every day of our life and it should strengthen our faith to know that the Holy Spirit is here with us, and we should open and prepare our hearts so that it can dwell and continue to do its work within the world, so that the day when our Lord is to return can be fulfilled.
Remember the greatest act of that Holy Spirit is yet to be witnessed by us. It was the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost that brought Christ out of the grave.  The Apostle Paul, said that this same spirit that brought Christ out of the grave is the same Spirit that will bring us out of the grave. Romans 1:4 “And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead,” and in 2 Corinthians 4:14 “Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.”  Our mind cannot comprehend the workings of such a spirit. Around the world when our Lord returns, graves will be opening everywhere, bodies coming out and being restored to the fullness of what God created.  Man will never develop such a power.  It is vested only in the Holy Spirit. That is one of the main reasons we must have the Spirit within our hearts at all times, for none of us know where we will be tomorrow, but that Holy Spirit will never leave us, and will fulfil that great labour of restoring us again for the Kingdom of God and then eternal life. Let us value it. Let us pray that it goes unto others. Let us pray that we can use that Spirit.  Let us play our part at keeping this Spirit active within the church, for a church without the Holy Ghost active will soon die.

To fulfil the law of Christ we must know what that law is. Our Lord told us in simple terms that we can all understand (Matthew 22: 37-40) “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love, thy neighbour as thy self. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” These words are easy for us to speak but not always as easy to fulfil, both in our spiritual and our natural lives.

In the spiritual sense we bear a burden when we are not at peace one with another, and because of that, not with God. Often someone holds something against us and considers we have harmed them in some way by something done, or not done, said, or not said, and we are often not aware, except we see, and notice an uneasiness in our relationship. This is then a burden and according to our text we then must bear this one of another. The reverse could be we have done something against our neighbour without realising it.

Our Lord told the people while He walked on this earth, that what you loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven. We see from this, that we have that power to ask Christ to loose others from something that they may be doing against us, which is building up a burden on their soul in the sight of God and He will loose that from them and hold it no more against them. They may never know until judgment day, but at that time, then to know all have been relieved from these burdens and that does not count against them, will certainly bring to light what Christ meant by the word love. A great example of this power is recorded in Acts 7:60 by Stephen when he was being stoned to death. “And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” All those burdens were born by Stephen and no doubt taken away from those stoning. It is a wonderful gift given us that we should all be cultivating. To bear one another’s burdens in the natural life is so much easier for us to relate to.

A news item of an event at the Seattle Special Olympics caught the attention of the whole world at that time and really highlights our text. There were nine contestants, all physically or mentally disabled, lined up at the starting line for the 100-metre race. At the sound of the starter’s gun, they all started, not exactly a dash, but with the excitement to run the race to the finish and win. All, that is, except one boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a couple of times, and began to cry. The other eight heard the boy cry. They slowed down and paused, then they all turned around and went back, every one of them. One girl with Down’s Syndrome, bent down and kissed him saying “This will make you better!” Then all nine linked arms and walked together to the finish line. Everyone in the stadium stood and clapped and cheered for fifteen minutes. This is a graphic example on how we can bear one another’s burdens as we run the race of life. If we can follow this example, we can only imagine the joy of all God’s children linking arms and crossing the finish line, with no one left behind and the even greater cheer that will go up by the heavenly hosts and that cheer will not be for fifteen minutes, but for eternity.

“But without thy mind would I do nothing; that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly.”

The verse above comes from a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to his fellow worker, Philemon. It is included with the other letters to the Bishops of the early church and written in a personal style. It has been included by the Holy Spirit in His work of gathering the New Testament and, therefore, is of value to us. In it we can see that, although the Apostle had all authority to make decisions and direct the work of the ministry, he understood the power of choosing to work for the Lord.

The value of freewill choosing was so high in God’s sight that it became the defining, God-like trait that separated mankind from all other parts of the creation. Unfortunately, it is also the aspect of our being that can separate us from God.

No situation we confront can cause a separation from God. Romans 8:35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”

No external force can separate us from the love of God. Romans 8:39, “Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

It is only our prideful, human nature that can cause us to think we know better than the Chief Shepherd and His true helpers who are placed in position to feed, shelter and protect us.

Those who choose wisely and humble themselves to look for God’s will for their life’s path can ever be assured that they are in safe hands. John 10:29-30, “My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.”

Just as the trinity God IS ONE (1 John 5:7) so the church is called to willingly work together in unity, not for our own gain but for the welfare of the collective body. This also includes the Ministry as per this letter to Philemon demonstrating that the use of authority should not be required as all should desire to help spontaneously, wherever possible. Philemon 1:16, “Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord?”

From the beginning we see that God’s plan was at all times to flow His blessings upon man and woman.  For if we consider the creation, we realize that man and woman were chosen to bear His image. This image is the three in one God. When we first look at a person, we only see one standing before us, but God sees three. A body, a soul and spirit. That was the fulfillment of His words “Let us make man in our image”. What a blessing!

In the light of this, we then look for God’s image in our fellow man. When we begin to take notice, we find that every person we look at is different. No two people look the same, and because of this we recognize each other. Yet, according to God’s own word, we are all made in His image – further, the Psalmist declares in Psalm 135 that God’s chosen are to Him, His treasure. Now we know that a treasure is something of value. A stamp collector collects stamps, but the one that he prizes most, is the one that is rare and different from the rest; and a coin collector does the same; a collector of paintings, etc.

From this we begin to see why God has made us in His image and yet we do not look alike – each of us is rare, and because of this, God looks upon us as a treasure of great value. That is why, when we are in despair, we can call upon our maker through His Son, in spirit, and acknowledge that although we may have separated ourselves from Him, by reconciling ourselves back to Him, He will once again take care of us as His valuable treasure. We should therefore, at all times in our life be content with our lot. Jesus declared this in Matthew 6:27 when He said, “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature.”

As we go through life, let us always treat our fellow man or woman also as a treasure of God, helping to care for God’s treasures – polish them, respect them, clothe them, love them, feed them, help them – and then we will more fully understand Christ’s words in Matthew 25:40 “Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”