The Secret Pearl
Look upon us with Thy favor, O Lord, while we behold "The land that is very far off" and yet so near to the seeing eye and the listening ear.
Wait. Wonders are unfolding. Tremble with awe. No man can stand upon the threshold of Eternity unshaken. I give unto you Eternal Life. A free gift, a wonderful gift - the Life of the Ages.
Silently comes the Kingdom. No man can judge when it enters the heart of man, only in results. Listen quietly. Sometimes you may get no message. Meet thus all the same. You will absorb an atmosphere.
Cultivate silence. "God speaks in silences." A silence, a soft wind. Each can be a message to convey My meaning to the heart, though by no voice, or even word.
Each word or thought of yours can be like a pearl that you drop into the secret place of another heart, and in some hour of need, lo! the recipient finds the treasure and realizes for the first time its value.
Do not be too ready to do, just be. I said, "Be ye therefore perfect" not "do" perfect things. Try and grasp this. Individual efforts avail nothing. It is only the work of the Universal Spirit - My Spirit - that counts.
Dwell in thought on this, more and more, saints have taken a lifetime to grasp it.
Be still, and know that I am God.  Psalm 56:10

A Sunrise Gift
To those whose lives have been full of struggle and care, who have felt as you both have, the tragedy of living, the pity of an agonized heart for My poor world -- to those of My followers I give that Peace and Joy that brings to age its second Spring, the youth they sacrificed for Me, and for My world. . . .
Take each day now as a joyous sunrise gift from Me. Your simple daily tasks done in My strength and Love will bring the consciousness of all your highest hopes. Expect great things. Expect great things.
"This is the day which the Lord hath made; and we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

The Quiet Time There may be many times when I reveal nothing, command nothing, give no guidance. But your path is clear, and your task, to grow daily more and more into the knowledge of Me. That this quiet time with Me will enable you to do.
I may ask you to sit silent before Me, and I may speak no word that you could write. All the same that waiting with Me will bring comfort and Peace. Only friends who understand and love each other can wait silent in each other's presence.
And it may be that I shall prove our friendship by asking you to wait in silence while I rest with you, assured of your Love and understanding. So wait, so love, so joy.
"My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." Song of Solomon 2:10

Your Search Rewarded
Lord, all men seek for the Thee.
All men seek for Me, but all men do not know what they want. They are seeking because they are dissatisfied without realizing that I am the object of their quest.
Count it your greatest joy to be the means, by your lives, sufferings, words, and love, to prove to the questing ones you know that their search would end when they saw Me.
Profit by My Example. I left My work -- seemingly the greatest work -- that of saving souls, to seek communion with My Father. Did I know perhaps that with many it was idle curiosity? Did I know that there must be no rush into the Kingdom, that the still small voice, not the shoutings of a mob, would alone persuade men I was the Son of God?
Why be surrounded by multitudes if the multitudes were not really desiring to learn from, and to follow, Me? Follow the Christ into the quiet places of prayer.
"Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he." John 18:7, 8

My Kingdom
And greater works than these shall ye do, because I go unto My Father.
While I was on earth, to the great number of those with whom I came in contact, Mine was a lost cause. Even My disciples only believed, half-doubting, half-wondering. When they all forsook Me and fled it was not so much fear of My enemies as the certainty that My Mission, however beautiful they thought it, had failed.
In spite of all I had taught them, in spite of the revelation of the Last Supper, they had secretly felt sure that when the final moment came, and the hatred of the Pharisees was declared against Me I should sound some call to action, and that I should lead My many followers, and found My earthly kingdom. Even the disciples who had eyes to see My Spiritual Kingdom had thought material forces had proved too strong for Me.
But with My Resurrection came hope. Faith revived. They would remind each other of all I had said. They would have the assurance of My Divinity, Messiahship, the lack of which had hindered My work on earth, and they would have all My Power in the unseen - the Holy Spirit - to help them.
Remember, I came to found a Kingdom - the Kingdom.  Those who lived in the Kingdom were to do the work -- greater works than I was able to do. Not a greater Power shown, not a greater Life lived, but, as men recognized My Godhead, opportunities for works in My Name would increase. My work on earth was to gather around Me the nucleus of My Kingdom, and to teach the Truths of My Kingdom to them.  In those Truths they were to live and work.
"But now it is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the Resurrection of the dead." 1 Corinthians 15:20-21

Expect Temptation
Lord, give us Power to conquer temptation as Thou didst in the wilderness.
The very first step towards conquering temptation is to see it as temptation. To dissociate yourself from it.
Not to think of it as something resulting from your tiredness, or illness, or poverty, or nerve-strain, when you feel you might well excuse yourself for yielding, but first to realize very fully that when you have heard My voice ("the Heavens opened," as it were) and are going to fulfill your mission to work for me and to draw souls to me, you must expect a mighty onslaught from the evil one, who will endeavor with all his might to frustrate you, and to prevent your good work. Expect that
Then when these little temptations, or big ones come, you will recognize them as planned by evil to thwart Me. Then for very love of Me you will conquer.
"And lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever." Matthew 6:13

Man of Sorrows He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isaiah 53:3
That these words strike a note of Beauty in the hearts of those attuned to hear the Beautiful, shows truly that the heart recognizes the need for the Man of Sorrows. That it sees nothing contemptible in One despised by the world. That it recognizes the vast difference between the values of Heaven, and those of the world. Fame and acclamations are accorded to earth's great, contempt and rejection to the Son of God.
One of the things My disciples must ever seek to do is to set aside the valuation of the world, and judge only according to the values of Heaven. These are not for you. Do not seek the praise and the notice of men. You follow a despised Christ. See the mob is hooting, throwing stones, jeering, and yet in that quiet little throng there is a happiness and Joy the reviling crowds could never know.
Follow that little throng with stones and gibes, and it appears to be of men, mean, ludicrous, contemptible. Be one of the throng, and you feel the Majesty of God in the presence of Him, Who was despised and rejected of men. Wreaths around His Brow, and shouts of applause, would belittle that Majesty.
In your dark hours, when human help fails, keep very close to the Man of Sorrows. Feel My Hand of Love press yours in silent but complete understanding. I, too, was acquainted with grief. No heart can ache without My heart aching too. "He was despised, and we esteemed Him not."
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world .... For all that is in the world, ... is not of the Father, but is of the world." 1 John 2:15-16

The Heavenly Beggar Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Revelation 3:20
Oh, ponder again these words and learn from them My great humility.
There is that gracious invitation, too, for those who yearn to realize a happiness, a rest, a satisfaction they have never found in the world and its pursuits. To them, the pleading answer to their quest is "Come to Me and I will give you rest."
But to those who do not feel their need of Me, who obstinately reject Me, who shut the doors of their hearts so that I may not enter, to these I go, in tender, humble longing. Even when I find all closed, all barred, I stand a Beggar, knocking, knocking. The Heavenly Beggar in His Great Humility.
Never think of those who have shut you out, or forgotten you, that now they must wait, you have no need of them. No! remember that, the Heavenly Beggar, and learn of Me, humility.
Learn too the value of each man's happiness, and peace and rest, to Me, his God; and learn, and learning, pray to copy the Divine Unrest until a soul finds rest and peace in Me.
I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. John 10:9

Suffer To Save Take each day's happenings as work you can do for Me. In that Spirit a blessing will attend all you do. Offering your day's service, thus to Me, you are sharing in My Life-work, and therefore helping Me to save My world.
You may not see it, but the power of vicarious sacrifice is redemptive beyond man's power of understanding here on earth.
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23-24

Earth's Furies
In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.  John 16:33
Then you may ask why have you, My children, to have tribulation if I have overcome the world.
My overcoming was never, you know, for Myself, but for you, for My children. Each temptation, each difficulty, I overcame as it presented itself.
The powers of evil were strained to their utmost to devise means to break Me.  They failed, but how they failed was known only to Me, and to My Father, who could read My undaunted spirit.  The world, even My own followers, would see a Lost Cause. Reviled, spat upon, scourged, they would deem Me conquered.  How could they know My Spirit was free, unbroken, unharmed?
And so, as I had come to show man God, I must show him God unconquered, unharmed, untouched by evil and its power. Man could not see My Spirit untouched, risen above these earth furies and hates, into the Secret Place of the Father. But man could see My Risen Body and learn by that, that even the last attempt of man had been powerless to touch Me.
Take heart from that, for you must share My tribulations. If evil is to leave you unchallenged you must be evil.  If evil challenges you, if trials press sore,  it because you are on My side, and, as My friends, exposed to the hate of evil.
But be of good cheer.  You walk with Me.  I conquered evil at every point, though man could only see it proved beyond all doubt when I rose from the dead. And in My conquering Power you walk unharmed today.
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8