Bring God’s Word Unto the Very Life

The Lord Jesus is your Redeemer. Will you not appreciate the great sacrifice He has made for you? No one has any justification for departing from Bible principles….

He who is sensitive to the admonitions of the Lord will work out his own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who is working in him, to will and to do of His good pleasure. The truth of God, abiding in the heart, brings the principles of the law of God into daily practice.

The man who consents to be deceived is the man in whose heart the truth is not abiding. To be occasionally a Christian, to be occasionally devout, is a great deception. It is living a lie. An occasional glance at the Word of God is not enough. An occasional petition to the throne of grace, a form of words, does not bring a supply of grace for the soul’s need. In order for the truth of God to regulate the life, it must be implanted in the heart. It must be brought into the inmost life.

The day will come when you will see that it does not pay to trifle with the interests of your soul, allowing it to become diseased, so inefficient that Christ declares, “Thou art neither cold nor hot…. So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:15, 16). What does this mean? That He will no longer present the name of such a one to His Father.

Christ clothed His divinity with humanity, and came to this world to live a life free from spot or stain of sin, that human beings, by laying hold of divinity, might become partakers of the divine nature, thus escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust. To those who receive Christ as a personal Saviour, the veil that conceals the glory of God from human discernment is drawn aside. With the eye of faith they behold eternal realities.

The Word of God is to be brought into the very life. “I am that bread of life,” Christ declares. “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:48, 53, 54, 63). Study the whole of the sixth chapter of John. Strive for your soul’s sake to understand it.—Letter 253, July 18, 1904, to a longtime Adventist in business in Battle Creek, Michigan.
The Upward Look p. 213
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prayer Requests
—-Please continue to pray for Ronnie Jay and Wanangwa as they are travelling back home. Rose
—-Requesting prayer for dear Sister Gertrude. She is in the hospital now with severe elevated blood pressure and pulse of 122! Please please pray for this prayer warrior of 92 years! S
—-Please pray for Jacob who was in a bad accident. Shannon
—-Please add my sister-in-law Angela to your prayer list. She has COVID-19 and is in the ICU fighting for her life. She is 8 months pregnant. Connie
—-Please continue to pray for Larry that the doctor will not discharge him before he is well enough to travel back to Michigan. Rose
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Friends,
When my children were little, they had a memory verse that they were to learn each week and then all were repeated up in front of the adults on 13th Sabbath. Most of them were quite easy to learn but Isaiah 6:8 seemed impossible for my children to remember. So, remembering that the children of Israel were bidden to set the words of the law to music in order to remember it, I made up a little tune that fit the verse. Within minutes they remembered it and for quite awhile afterward enjoyed singing that little song. In fact, they learned it so well that whenever that verse so well, that even now whenever that verse is mentioned, that little tune comes to mind.
I hadn’t known much about the setting for that little verse, but I decided to find out more. Isaiah was distressed about how his people had fallen away from the true worship of the True God. Yet, as he compared himself with others around him, he felt like all was right in his walk with the Lord. He tells us about a life-changing experience that showed him his true condition, “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” Isa 6:1-8
Only as Isaiah saw he true condition, could he be used to bring the True Light to those of his nation who had left God’s Word to explore the things this world has to offer. As they did this, the Source of all Light, got farther and father away and the less could see until God said of them, “this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.” Isa 29:13
Sometimes we, like those in Isaiah’s time, try to be like those around us. Sometimes we follow someone who says they have a new way to spread the gospel or to increase the size of the church, but it is a plan of their own making and will come to nothing just as so many manmade plans have in the past. Only as we receive the cleansing from sin and pride as Isaiah did can we really accept the call of the Lord. Only as we set aside our ways and obey God’s ways can we be effective workers for Him.
May we behold the Great King of the Universe through a study of His Word. May we obey Him from a heart of love for His great love for us. May we ask for the cleansing that our Dear Saviour offers us claiming the promise, “if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
Rose