The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Isaiah 24:5.
The people of the United States have been a favored people; but when they restrict religious liberty, surrender Protestantism, and give countenance to popery, the measure of their guilt will be full, and “national apostasy” will be registered in the books of heaven. The result of this apostasy will be national ruin.
By the decree enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.
Through spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the race, healing the diseases of the people, and professing to present a new and more exalted system of religious faith; but at the same time he works as a destroyer. . . .
While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. . . .
And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils. {Mar 216.6}
As men depart further and further from God, Satan is permitted to have power over the children of disobedience. He hurls destruction among men. There is calamity by land and sea. Property and life are destroyed by fire and flood. Satan resolves to charge this upon those who refuse to bow to the idol which he has set up. His agents point to Seventh-day Adventists as the cause of the trouble. “These people stand out in defiance of law,” they say. “They desecrate Sunday. Were they compelled to obey the law for Sunday observance, there would be a cessation of these terrible judgments.”
Maranatha p. 216
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Prayer Requests
—–update—Heather’s follow up CT on Monday showed improvement. . . Her therapy sessions this week included some hopeful progress and signs of moving towards Rancho Levels III and IV. Heather had an X-ray, of her hip today, to determine if a condition known as Heteroptic Ossification is occurring. The X-ray looked good today, however, they will continue to monitor her hip and retest if necessary. Please pray specifically that this condition does not occur anywhere in her body. It is a common occurrence in TBI’s (traumatic brain injuries). Today we specifically ask that you continue to pray for Heather’s complete recovery and that Heterotopic Ossification does not occur. Pray also for her team, that God will protect them from injury Cheryl
—–My 17 year old great-nephew spilled a pot of boiling water on himself last night. He was airlifted to the burn center in Atlanta, Georgia with third-degree burns in his groin area. Please keep him in your prayers! ~ Martha
—–Please pray for the thousands of lives that are being touched in the Alamodome during “Your Best Pathway to Health” in San Antonio, TX Miracles are being seen every day!
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Dear Friends,
In 1895, when my grandmother, Ida, was a four year old, she lived with her mother, two sisters, and a brother in a little upstairs apartment at the back of the hotel where their mother worked. Her father had deserted the family and her mother had to work long and hard as a baker for the hotel in order to have food and clothing for the children. The hotel owner was kind to them, but he had a few rules that they could not disobey if they wanted to stay. The must stay out of sight of the guests by keeping inside that cramped apartment while their mother was working.
One day, Ida tired of being cooped up in their dingy apartment. While the others were not looking, she slipped out of the door and tip-toed quietly down the wooden stairway. Looking this way that that to make sure she was not seen, she dashed across the backyard and into the small woods behind the hotel.
What a feeling of freedom! Soon she saw a black and white kitty a few yards before her. Carefully she approached the kitty and soon stood beside it. She was too young to understand why the animal was acting strangely, so she reached out and petted it. Suddenly she was enveloped in a cloud of smelly vapor. She coughed, she sneezed, she tried to run away from that offending odor; but it stayed with her. No matter where she went, she still smelled like a skunk! She ran home crying but got no sympathy. The hotel owner threatened to throw them out if anything like that happened again. Her poor mother cleaned Ida as best as she could and had to bury her clothes. This caused more hardship on the family. Ida learned her lesson that day. Never again did she try to escape.
How often we are like Ida. We feel trapped and cramped and long for a freedom that we think those who make no profession of faith are experiencing little realizing that it will only cause us grief in the end. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Prov 16:25 Sin appears so attractive. It seems desirable but in the end, it stings and burns and makes us miserable. David speaks of those who seek not God, “I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.” Ps 73:3-19
Although they appear to be having fun, in reality they are as polluted with sin as my grandmother was polluted with skunk odor. They are miserable inside and cannot get away from the sins that bind them any more than Ida could get away from the skunk smell. Others are affected by it and in the end, turn away in disgust. Although they appear to be in control, they are helpless. Our Dear Saviour tells us, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.” John 8:34,35 “The wages of sin is death” Rom 6:23
Praise God! We have a way of escape from the pollution of sin! Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life!” John 14:6 ” For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” John 3:16-21 He bids us, “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isa 1:16-18 John assures us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. . . .My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:” 1 John 1:9; 2:1
May we daily accept that Free Gift. May we come to the Living Fountain and wash and be clean from the skunk-smell of sin. May we look away from the things of this world and look forward to the glorious future our Loving Redeemer has for us is my prayer.
Rose