The central fact in every true Christian life, is a personal friendship with Jesus. Men were called to follow Him, to leave all and cleave to Him, to believe on Him, to trust Him,
to love Him, to obey Him; and the result was the transformation of their lives into His own beauty! That which alone makes one a Christian, is being a friend of Jesus.
Friendship transforms, we become like those with whom we live in close, intimate relations. Life flows into life, heart and heart are knit together, spirits blend, and
the two friends become one.
We have but little to give to Christ; yet it is a comfort to know that our friendship really is precious to Him, and gives Him joy, poor and meager though its best may be. But He has infinite blessings to give to us. The friendship of Jesus includes all other blessings for time and for eternity!
If Christ is our friend, all of life is made rich and beautiful to us.
"I have called you friends." No other gift He gives to us can equal in value, the love and friendship of His heart.
When King Cyrus gave Artabazus, one of his courtiers, a 'gold cup'; he gave Chrysanthus, his favorite, only a kiss. And Artabazus said to Cyrus, "The gold cup you gave me, was not so precious as the kiss you gave Chrysanthus."
No good man's money is ever worth as much as his love. Certainly the greatest honor of this earth, greater than rank or station or wealth is the friendship of Jesus Christ.
The stories of the friendships of Jesus when He was on the earth, need cause no one to sigh, "I wish that I had lived in those days, when Jesus lived among men that I might have been His friend too feeling the warmth of His love, my life enriched by contact with His, and my spirit quickened by His love and grace."
The friendships of Jesus, whose stories we read in the New Testament, are only patterns of friendships into which we may now enter if we are ready to consecrate our life to Him in faithfulness and love.
[J.R. Miller]
John 15:13-15 ... Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
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