Take Christ at His Word

All that Jesus asks of you is to accept the truth of the gospel just as it reads. Its requirements are plain and right to the point. All God requires of you is to believe His Word, to accept a “Thus saith the Lord.” God’s requirements are His communications to His human family. He speaks to them as intelligent, reasoning agencies, who are responsible to render to Him the fruit of righteousness….

Will you take the Word of God just as it reads? Will you as a responsible agent seek to realize your accountability to God? God is the sovereign of the world. He has entrusted human beings with sacred gifts and endowed them with precious faculties. They are responsible to Him for the right use of these endowments….

We have only to come, complying with the invitation, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (John 7:37). “Him that cometh to me I will no wise cast out” (chap. 6:37). Every human being, as he reads these words, should feel that he is on holy ground. Remember that the life of the only begotten Son of God was offered up for you. As the Holy Spirit impresses Christ’s words on the heart and mind, man must feel that he is in the presence of superior goodness, superseding immeasurably anything that earth can afford. He must feel that he is occupying holy ground, for he is close to the living fountain of mercy and love.

To Moses, Jehovah declared, “I am that I am” (Exodus 3:14). Christ declared, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). By this declaration He laid open the resources of His infinite nature, imparting in His words assurance of pardon for the guilty race. He is the Word, conscious of power that He can take up and lay down His life as He chooses [in order] to secure the salvation of those who have fallen under Satan’s falsehoods and intrigues….

Having brought into the world the great treasures of heaven, owned and created by the eternal God, Christ can give to all eternal life. To all who believe on Him as their personal Saviour, He will give an eternal weight of glory.

To us the invitation is given, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, … and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:17, 18). Thus God has declared His covenant of obedience.—Letter 79, May 10, 1900, to a gracious businessman and his Adventist wife
The Upward Look p. 144
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Prayer Requests
—-My 43 year old son is very depressed and has lost the will to live. Please pray he will seek the Lord and find hope. Ana
—-Update again on my brother. He came through surgery ok but then was having some issues so they are keeping him overnight. Please continue to pray for his recovery. Donell
—-Pain with hiatal hernia – may have to go to the ER… please pray. Helen
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Dear Friends,

When my mother was little, she and her sister, like most siblings, were always in competition. One day the two girls were watching their mother cut a slice of cake and put it on a plate. Seeing the size of the piece she was sure was for her sister, my mother exclaimed, “All that for her?” Her mother said, “No, dear, this is for you.” At that, my mother complained, “Oh what a little bit!” My grandmother thought that was so funny that she laughed about it for years. Because she heard her mother laugh about it and tell everyone about how “cute” it was, my mother thought she had done something good. Selfishness became a large part of her character and caused her to become alienated from her best friend many years later.

How easy it is to get all wrapped up in ourselves and put our needs, our desires, our pleasure before anyone or anything. We do not want the best for those around us and care not for their needs. How unlike the King of the Universe those feelings are! He, Who created all things and upholds all things by the word of His power, He, whom all the beings in all the Universe worship and adore, did not put His needs, desires, or pleasures first. No, no! His Great Heart of Love yearned to restore us to Himself. Heaven holds no joy when even one of His children is not with Him. He could not sit by and let us come under the control of the evil one but “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.” John 3:16, 17 Think of it! Jesus willingly “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Phil 2:7, 8 For thirty-three years, Jesus came down to this dark, sinful planet and patiently suffered all of the hatred, all of the indignation, all of the contempt that the devil through wicked men could help upon Him. Moreover, He did not stop there, He brought both spiritual and physical healing to all who would come to Him. Wonderful Love! It is beyond comprehension!

Indeed, even the last night before His arrest and crucifixion, our Loving Redeemer’s thoughts were not upon Himself but upon those He loved. “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: . . . I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do….I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. . . . For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. . . . And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee; . . . I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; . . . that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world John 17:1-24

See the Dear Lamb of God being nailed to the cruel cross. Behold the Creator of the Universe, He Whom all Heaven adores giving His life that we might live. With every hammer blow, He prayed, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34 “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isa 53:4-6 His pain was beyond our comprehension, yet not even one thought of anger or retaliation was in His mind. His only thoughts were for the very ones who were driving the spikes into those strong and loving hands, those very hands that had formed the worlds, that had brought health and healing to so many as He walked among the multitudes, indeed, that continues to lift us up before His Father’s throne. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” 1 John 3:1

As our Redeemer hung in agony upon the cruel cross, every breath being taken with great difficulty, His gaze rested upon His mother bowed down with sorrow at seeing her dying Son. How His Great Heart of Love yearned to comfort her. Beside her stood John, the disciple who had allowed the Holy Spirit to change him from a “son of thunder” into the most loving of His followers. Our Dear Saviour spoke but few words, but they were words full of meaning. Looking upon Mary and then upon John, He said, “Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.” John 19:26,27 Loving Saviour! Oh, what love! What wondrous love! Always thinking of others even in His hour of agony. How good and kind He is!

May our focus ever be upon Him, Who gave His life than we might live. May we give Him our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. May we, because of our love for Him, do always those things that please Him is my prayer.

Rose