Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
If you knew everything about God's children, they would be precious in your eyes.
If you could see the hearts of God's children, you would see them as wanting to do what is right, no matter what they may appear to be doing to the contrary. Someone whom God has washed in the blood of His Son is someone who has humbled themselves before Him and whose heart has been sanctified. That is who they really are, no matter what they are doing now. If you knew everything about God's children, you would see that they hunger and thirst for His righteousness and that they, at least once in their lives, have been filled. Someone who has received the Spirit of God is someone whose heart has been touched by God's holiness, and they are different from this world's sinners-even if they have wandered off the right road and act like the world.
If you knew everything about God's children, they would be precious in your eyes.
If you could see them as God sees them, a love like God's would possess your soul, and you would desire to bless them as He does. Ungodly people who are of the world and who love it would not appeal to your senses any longer, nor impress you as being noble or worthy of praise. All your affection would be toward the saints; you would want for them the holy, happy life that God wants for them, and you would be willing to suffer for them as Jesus and many others have willingly done.
If you knew everything about God people, they would be precious to your heart.
If you could see past the faults and mistakes, and even sometimes the sins, of God's children, you would grieve for their confusion and division, and you would labor to be able to help them. If you knew everything about them, you would hardly be able to bear it when you see one of them about to be joined in marriage to an unsanctified person. You would be furious with the minister who sanctions that marriage, but if he, too, belongs to Jesus, you could not hate him. To watch it happen would only break your heart, as it breaks God's heart. If you knew everything, your soul would feel torn inside you whenever you heard of another child of God joining a Christian church and becoming a part of that awful institution, a partaker now with the sins of others. It would grieve you beyond words to know that another heart, purified by the blood of Christ, is being deceived and polluted with the carnal ways of ignorant men. It would be difficult for your spirit to bear.
If you knew everything, then to bless and to feed and to protect God's children would become your joy and your passion. If you knew everything about them, God people would be precious to your heart.