So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. 1 Corinthians 14:9-11.
Ministers who labor in word and doctrine should be thorough workmen, and should present the truth in its purity, yet with simplicity. They should feed the flock with clean provender, thoroughly winnowed. There are wandering stars professing to be ministers sent of God who are preaching the Sabbath from place to place, but who have truth mixed up with error and are throwing out their mass of discordant views to the people. Satan has pushed them in to disgust intelligent and sensible unbelievers.
Some of these have much to say upon the gifts and are often especially exercised. They give themselves up to wild, excitable feelings and make unintelligible sounds which they call the gift of tongues, and a certain class seem to be charmed with these strange manifestations. A strange spirit rules with this class, which would bear down and run over anyone who would reprove them. God’s Spirit is not in the work and does not attend such workmen. They have another spirit. Still, such preachers have success among a certain class. But this will greatly increase the labor of those servants whom God shall send, who are qualified to present before the people the Sabbath and the gifts in their proper light, and whose influence and example are worthy of imitation.
The truth should be presented in a manner which will make it attractive to the intelligent mind. We are not understood as a people, but are looked upon as poor, weak-minded, low, and degraded. Then how important for all who teach, and all who believe the truth, to be so affected by its sanctifying influence that their consistent, elevated lives shall show unbelievers that they have been deceived in this people. How important that the cause of truth be stripped of everything like a false and fanatical excitement, that the truth may stand upon its own merits, revealing its native purity and exalted character.—Testimonies for the Church 1:414, 415.
Ye Shall Receive Power p. 205
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Prayer Requests
—-My good neighbor Ethel had a stroke in her sleep. She is in a coma in the hospital. Please pray for her and her salvation. Ann
—-I ask for prayer for my dear friend Cindy. Her father appears to be nearing the end of his life. She is caring for him as well as having her husband in the Cardiac ICU. I ask you to lift her in prayer, that she will feel Jesus giving her the strength she needs as she travels this difficult road! Mary
—-Please pray for my daughter, 27 years old. She has pulmonary hypertension. They put a picc line and a port in. She started today IV meds. Please pray for Gods healing Becky
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Dear Friends,
One day while I was still working, as I was making some deliveries to one of the offices in the courthouse where I worked, the receptionist and I began to talk about our children. Like mine, her children were grown. She was sharing her heartache because her sons never call her or come to see her. It is as if she doesn’t exist. When I asked why she didn’t call them, she replied with much sadness, “I have tried to call, but they always act as if I were disturbing them.”
As I left to go back to the department where I work, I thought about my children. We kept in contact daily. Even when they are busy and can’t talk right when I called, they would call back when they can.
How often our Heavenly Father waits for us to think of Him, but how often we go through our daily routine with scarcely a thought heavenward. We treat our Great Creator and Re-Creator just like that receptionist’s sons treated her. How it must break His Great Heart of love for just as parents look forward to hearing from their children, so our Great Creator looks forward to hearing from us. He longs to have us talk to Him, to bring Him all our perplexities, to share with Him our joys, to ask His advice, to listen as He speaks to us through His Word and through that “still small voice.” David said, “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.” Ps 55:17 Paul advises, “Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thes 5:17
As we go through the day, our Dear Saviour desires for us to be conscious of His presence. He yearns to be part of all we do, all we say, all we think. As we pray, He instructs us. As we meditate on His Word, He enlightens us. “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes. With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.” Ps 119:11-16
May we continually draw near to our Loving Heavenly Father with thankfulness and joy is my prayer.
Rose