Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come. Isaiah 21:11 (last part), 12.
An understanding of the hope of Christ’s second coming is the key that unlocks all the history that follows, and explains all the future lessons.
The voice of the true watchman needs now to be heard all along the line, “The morning cometh, and also the night.” The trumpet must give a certain sound, for we are in the great day of the Lord’s preparation.
The truths of prophecy are bound up together, and as we study them, they form a beautiful cluster of practical Christian truth. All the discourses that we give are plainly to reveal that we are waiting, working, and praying for the coming of the Son of God. His coming is our hope. This hope is to be bound up with all our words and works, with all our associations and relationships. . . .
The second coming of the Son of man is to be the wonderful theme kept before the people. Here is a subject that should not be left out of our discourses. Eternal realities must be kept before the mind’s eye, and the attractions of the world will appear as they are, altogether profitless as vanity. What are we to do with the world’s vanities, its praises, its riches, its honors, or its enjoyments?
We are pilgrims and strangers who are waiting, hoping, and praying for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. If we believe this and bring it into our practical life, what vigorous action would this faith and hope inspire; what fervent love one for another; what careful holy living for the glory of God; and in our respect for the recompense of the reward, what distinct lines of demarcation would be evidenced between us and the world. . . .
The truth that Christ is coming should be kept before every mind.
Maranatha p. 15
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Prayer Requests
—–Please pray for us as we develop children’s Sabbath school curriculum for use here in ____. Eden B
—–Please pray for me that God will help me to know what to do about several situations. Ruby
—–Please pray that Craig and Joann can find someone to drive them to his medical appointment for a new pacemaker battery. Joann can’t do it because of her MS. I cannot do it as Tom is not well enough to travel since his stroke. Mary.
—–update—Yesterday afternoon, the nine-month battle with a brain tumor came to an end for my loving wife Jan. She was surrounded by her family, and opened her eyes for the first time in many days when she heard the voice of her father. Though he couldn’t see well enough to notice, after he told her that it was alright to let go, that she was ready, she quietly and peacefully stopped breathing and her eyes slowly closed. She knew and trusted the voice of her father and that of her Heavenly Father. We have the opportunity to learn to know the voice of our Father, so when He speaks, we will know it is His voice calling. Michael [Please keep the whole family in your prayers during this time of loss.]
—–Please pray for the Tucker family in the loss of his mother. Rose
—–Please pray for the following meetings: Oakhurst, CA (Apr 25 – May 17) Daniel Morea Creston (Apr 25 – May 24) Revelation of Hope with Justis St. Hilaire Campbell, CA (Apr 25 – May 25) Thom Garner San Francisco, CA (May 1 – 5) Messiah Mansion Hiawassee, GA (May 1) National Day of Prayer/Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast Ruthie is hosting an inter-denominational Prayer Breakfast for civic leaders in her county. The event is the 2014 Mayors’ Prayer Breakfast and the public is invited. Among the guests of honor are mayors, county commissioner, first responders, key educators, law enforcement folks, and others to whom we are indebted and on whom we want to ask God’s blessing. Diane
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Dear Friends,
When I was seven, my mother found a huge, green worm crawling on a plant in the garden. She brought it inside and showed me. She told me to let it crawl on my hands while she got a glass jar, poked holes in the top, and put a few leaves inside. She chose leaves from the planton which it had been crawling, so it would have the right food to eat. Then we placed the caterpillar inside the jar.
We gave it fresh leaves every day and within a week or two, that big, green creature had made a cocoon. Every day I would watch to see if it was coming out of its self-made prison. One day, just as I was coming home from school, that cocoon began to move. By the time I had gotten home, it was beginning to split. I was so excited!
For the next hour or so, I watched the wonderful event that was taking place. No longer was the creature before me a huge green worm. When it first wriggled out of its cramped quarters, its wings were crinkled up and useless, but as it stood there, a change began to take place. It moved its wings back and forth pumping fluid into them. Before long, those crinkled up wings were about 5 inches across, fuzzy brown, and had beautiful big blue eye spots. My mother, who had collected butterflies and moths for a science project in school explained that it was a polyphemus moth. She did not add it to her collection but let it go for my sake.
Just as the fat, green worm was changed into a beautiful moth, so can we. If we allow Him to, the Holy Spirit changes us from an ugly “worm” to a beautiful new creature. The Apostle Paul was a good example of how we can be changed. Paul was very zealous in his relentless persecution of Christ’s followers. He was filled with a great hatred for those who worshipped Jesus. He was sincere in his hatred thinking to do God honor, but he was sincerely wrong.
Still, our Loving Saviour did not give up on Paul. He used the memory of Stephen’s sermon and death (Acts 6:8-8:4) to reach this man who working so hard to destroy Christians. He was fighting against that memory by being even more vigilant in his seeking out those whose beliefs differed from his. But in His mercy, our Great Redeemer stepped in to put a stop to it. On the Damascus road, our Dear Saviour met that persecutor face to face. He said to this shocked and dazed man, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.” 9:4,5
How surprised Paul was to see the Living Christ! As he listened to Jesus give him his commission, he must have thought of all of the needless deaths he had caused. Then the vision ended and Paul found that he was without sight. He must have wondered how he could ever proclaim the Good News while unable to see. For three days, Paul fasted and prayed. He went over and over in his mind the Scriptures relating to the Messiah. The Holy Spirit brought to his mind the passages that were needed and enlightened his understanding.
Then, he was ready to receive his sight again. God did this in a special way to get him in contact with fellow believers. “And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” vs 10-16
So it was. Paul spent the rest of his life proclaiming the very message that he had tried to silence. Paul had become a changed man. He tells us, “this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Phil 3:13,14
May we also put our former life behind us and follow Him with our whole heart. May we receive the new heart that our Great Creator promises us. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” Eze 36:26 May we allow the Holy Spirit to change us into a new creature as “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Cor 3:18; 5:17
Rose