0. INTRODUCTION to ONE IN CHRIST

ONE IN CHRIST - Bone Of His Bone

By Jeffrey L. Ostler & F.J. Huegal

Jesus/Yeshua asked his disciples/apostles this important question: (Matthew 16:13-17, Mark 8:27-28)

13. When Jesus came into the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? His disciples replied: Some say thou art Elijah or a great prophet

14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.

Then Jesus said :15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Then in John 17:3 we read one of the MOST IMPORTANT statements of all scripture – for it luminates the very source of Eternal Life for those of us who are “Eternal Life” seekers.

“This IS Eternal Life – to KNOW the ONLY TRUE GOD”.

And D&C 14:7 explains that: Eternal Life IS the greatest of ALL The Gifts of God.

IF we do not Know God intimately and personally, then we do NOT “Re-ceive” Eternal Life.

So the crux of our life-long search is found in KNOWING God, and the greatest obstacle to Eternal Life is NOT Knowing God. Our first question ought to be: WHO IS CHRIST, since almost one half of all scriptures point our focus to Christ. Is it possible that we have relegated Christ to some other man we believe is our brother who came down to take the punishment for our sins and die for us so we could have free resurrection?

If so, how blind we could be to reject Christ in attempting to do that for our self and become our own savior, all the time denying His Power to save and redeem us and grant that greatest Gift of ALL Gifts – Eternal Life?

One thing for the would-be bride of Christ is inevitable. If he/she is to go forward in the face of the seemingly unscalable obstacles which beset him/her, ushering in a new day for enslaved souls - if,

I repeat, IF he/she is to be reconciled (ONE again with Christ), to truly BE in personal relationship with Christ in At-ONE-ment, and “Abide IN Christ”, and to share that same relationship with all of God’s children, those IN whom He exists as The Light and Life of the Universe continuously entreats of him/her, then he/she must receive, in an ever-deeper and fuller way, the Fullness of the Spirit of Christ.

We must be bound to that unconquerable Christ, who all down through the centuries has through His bride accomplished the impossible. We must move beyond a mere intellectual knowledge of the historical Jesus (The Word, the One True God, come down in flesh, which so many think is just our brother – a man, a great teacher, a scapegoat), and so entwine the tendrils of our eternal Spirit in the Eternal Christ, so that we are consumed in the Divine Eternal Life and Light that IS Christ. We must come to the inescapable fact that we ARE “The Temple of God, the Spirit of Truth from the beginning with God; and that Christ, our Creator, has always been with us and “IN” us, and we IN HIM.

The task we are attempting to realize requires superhuman force. The merely human, however noble and strong and cultivated, proves as insufficient and as inadequate as a handful of glowing coals would be for the dissipation of an arctic blizzard. “Since man has fallen, he/she can merit NOTHING of him/her self” (Alma 22:14). We must begin anew to “Rely WHOLLY upon the merits of Christ ALONE (2 Nephi 31: 19)

We must transcend the purely natural, and immerse our self in the super-natural. We must experience the power of the indwelling Christ, and, dispossessed of our own life, and come into an ever-fuller measure possessed of a Divine life.

Only "rivers of living water” " flowing from his innermost being” (John 7:38) - the promise which the Savior has made to His own much beloved ones - can make possible the renewal of Life in those to whom he is sent.

It may be that, temperamentally, we are not predisposed to forge our way into these lonely uplands of faith and trust in Christ. We may even have a deep aversion to the Mystery of Christ (Colossians 1:25-27). The force of circumstances like a mighty tide must certainly sweep us from the moorings of a merely intellectual grasp of the gospel verities, out into the deeps of a vital personal intimate experience of redeeming Grace. For, unless Christ becomes more real to us than any other reality, even of the physical universe, and unless we learn to draw upon Christ and to sink our being into Him and thus emerge from the deep well of the self-created hell, charged with that Spirit power which had fallen upon the apostles, we are from the very nature of the circumstances in which we are involved, doomed to defeat. The destructive force of our natural man ego, which we would overcome, is as destructive of our purpose, and as disdainfully subversive of our message as some mighty Gibraltar, which stands out in invincible might, against the waves of the sea. You will ONLY ever “put off that Natural man, the Enemy of God, through At-One-Ment with Christ”, and submission entirely to Him, His Love, and Light (Mosiah 3:19). (Please study for yourself the teachings of John, Paul, Phillip, Lehi, Nephi, King Benjamin, Alma the younger, Ether, Mormon, Moroni for deeper understanding of WHO Christ Is.

“The things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Thy mind Oh man, if thou will lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss (much like Alma the younger), and the broad expanse of eternity – thou MUST commune (personally and intimately) with God. How much more dignified and noble are the thoughts of God, than the vain imaginations (and Selfish ambitions) of the human heart!!! None but fools will trifle with the souls of men” (Joseph Smith – TPJS Page 137)

The following chapters are simply an outline of the position to which I have come, as a witnessof Christ. I wish to share with all believers in Christ of all lands and all sects, those blessed experiences of the in-dwelling Christ, those immeasurable treasures, which, in the deeper participation in Christ, have become mine. I wish to make the common experience of the entire Body of Christ (church), those ineffable realizations, which are the fruit of a Oneness with Christ -- that without the witness of Christ, because of the peculiar predicament in which we find our self, realize that we can do nothing unless we re-Pent (Turn back to Christ), become One with Christ, and “Abide IN Christ”!

With the hope and prayer that seekers may be given grace to realize in their own experience this deeper At-One-ment (Re-Conciliation) with Christ, so that their joy may be that joy which is "unspeakable and full of glory," (1 Peter 1:8) and their peace, that "peace which passeth all understanding," (Philipians 4:7) and their life, that "abundant life" which is eternal and which flows from the throne of God, as the Greatest gift of God (D&C 14:7), I place these messages upon the altar of my Lord, that He might use them for the edification of "the saints" and for the glory of His NAME. If you will read with a humble heart and contrite spirit, and empty your “self” of all that you have been taught by the arm of flesh, and be willing to learn something new, without hardening your heart against what you may learn, then, and only then will the Spirit of Christ be able to teach you that which you need to know to Re-Ceive Eternal Life in His Presence, and Heaven, and Joy, and Peace, and Pure Love in this Telestial world. F.J. Huegel Mexico City, Mexico & Jeffrey L. Ostler, Layton Utah

INTRODUCTION

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