Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. Isaiah 40:26.
Pantheistic ideas regarding God in nature are framed by Lucifer, the fallen angel. The strange part of the matter is that these ideas have been accepted by so many as beautiful truth. But that which they think is light will lead them into dense darkness. It is a distinguishing feature of the experience of Seventh-day Adventists to give glory to God. When we give glory to human agencies, when we have unlimited confidence in man, speaking of the excellence that we suppose him to possess, we worship we know not what. Let God be exalted. Let frail, erring human beings humble themselves before Him….
I have had much to say of the glory of God as seen in His created works, but never have I left the impression that our God Omnipotent, who ruleth in the heavens and fills all the heavens, is to be found in flower and leaf and tree. What I have said of God’s works in nature was meant to lead the mind from nature to nature’s God, to show that all the glory should be given to Him who ruleth in the heavens….
Men are to discharge their duty to God. They are to have reverence for and a knowledge of a personal God. They are to praise and glorify His name as the One who has placed many beautiful things in this sin-corrupted earth, that from the child to the man and woman of mature years, all may see that God loves His family here below. He so loves us that He gave us a tangible proof of His love by sending His only begotten Son to bear the sin of the world, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
God desires us to think of the height and depth and breadth of His measureless love, which is without a parallel, and to remember that we are His purchased possession. “Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (see 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). We are to act as in the sight of the heavenly universe, conscientiously discharging our obligations to our Creator.
The world is to be taken captive by Satan’s deceiving representations. Where then is our security? How shall we guard against Satan’s bewitching artifices? By reading the Word of God with an intensity of desire to know Him in the light of revelation which He has left on record of Himself.—Letter 253a, November 18, 1903, to Dr. J. H. Kellogg, who was entertaining pantheistic concepts.
The Upward Look p. 336
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for Joyce who is having back surgery today. Rose
—-Please pray for my husband who is undergoing cancer treatment using the Car-T therapy. And that God will help him not to suffer too much with the side effects. Need prayers for full recovery. Helen
—-David need lots of prayer. So does his family. Buck
—-Please pray for baby Chris who has cancer. Samantha
—-Please pray for Sue’s daughter who is in the mission field. She fell and bumped her head and is not doing well. Eileen
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Dear Friends,
One day, when my mother was a teenager, my grandmother sent her to the mailbox to mail a letter. The mailbox was three blocks away. Van Avery’s drug store was on that corner and my mother decided to take her change purse and buy some little treat as a reward for going. As she walked along, she began to daydream. Before long she had arrived at her destination and absentmindedly mailed the letter.
Just as she closed the mail chute, she realized that she had also mailed her purse. She went inside the drugstore and asked Mrs. Van Avery what she should do. My mother was very distraught, and the storekeeper tried to comfort her but had no suggestions. Finally, my mother went home.
When she told her mother what she had done, my grandmother was not pleased but had an idea. “Geneva,” she said, “You are just going to have to go back to the mailbox and wait for the mailman.”
When it was near the pickup time, my mother trudged back to the mailbox and stood beside it. She got very tired of standing there waiting. As she waited, she was tempted to go into the store and look around, but she knew that she might miss the mailman. Then she would never get her purse.
After what seemed like an eternity, the mailman arrived! Blushing with humiliation, my mother asked him to find her change purse amidst all the letters. He couldn’t help smiling at this teenage girl standing before him. He told her not to be embarrassed, because he often had to retrieve things a lot stranger than a change purse out of mailboxes.
We also are waiting for Someone to come. This Someone is far more important than that mailman of so long ago. Our waiting will bring a far greater reward. Just as she resisted the temptation to go into the store and look at all the pretty figurines that Mrs. Van Avery had, or go to the soda fountain and talk to the neighbor boy who worked there; so we should never allow the things of this world to get our mind off our ultimate goal.
Jesus is coming soon! He has promised, “Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:1-3 John proclaimed, “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.” Rev 1:7 Paul adds, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thess 4:16,17 “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be….And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors….Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.” Matt 24:27,31-33,44-47
Our soon-coming King made a statement that causes us to think, “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8 Let us determine that He will find us faithful, for He promises, “be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” Rev 2:10 Let us endure unto the end for He has said, “he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” Matt 10:22 “Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” Mark 13:35-37
Rose

Nature Reveals God