Wisdom Needed by Sabbathkeepers

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. Matthew 10:16.
When the practices of the people do not come in conflict with the law of God, you may conform to them. If the workers fail to do this, they will not only hinder their own work, but they will place stumbling blocks in the way of those for whom they labor, and hinder them from accepting the truth. On Sunday there is the very best opportunity for those who are missionaries to hold Sunday schools, and come to the people in the simplest manner possible, telling them of the love of Jesus for sinners, and educating them in the Scriptures. . . .
At present Sunday-keeping is not the test. The time will come when men will not only forbid Sunday work, but they will try to force men to labor on the Sabbath, and to subscribe to Sunday observance or forfeit their freedom and their lives. But the time for this has not yet come, for the truth must be presented more fully before the people as a witness….
The light that I have is that God’s servants should go quietly to work, preaching the grand, precious truths of the Bible– Christ and Him crucified. His love and infinite sacrifice–showing that the reason why Christ died is because the law of God is immutable, unchangeable, eternal. The Sabbath must be taught in a decided manner, but be cautious how you deal with the idol Sunday. A word to the wise is sufficient….
Refraining from work on Sunday is not receiving the mark of the beast; and where this will advance the interests of the work, it should be done. We should not go out of our way to work on Sunday. . . .
When those who hear and see the light on the Sabbath take their stand upon the truth to keep God’s holy day, difficulties will arise; for efforts will be brought to bear against them to compel men and women to transgress the law of God. Here they must stand firm, that they will not violate the law of God; and if the opposition and persecution are determinedly kept up, let them heed the words of Christ: “When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another.
Maranatha p. 177 [For more information on this issue, please visit www.Sabbathtruth.com]
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Prayer Requests
—–REQUESTING PRAYERS for our niece Cortney. She went to bed last night with a migraine headache. This morning she was unresponsive her husband couldn’t get her awake. She is now in ICU on a ventilator. She is only 36 years old. She has 3 children. Priscilla
—–Please put my wife, Gaylene, on your prayer list. She’s in the hospital with a bladder infection. Doug

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Dear Friends,
My mother had a brother, Uncle Ed, who lived in British Columbia. She only got to see him twice in her life. When I was about six, he came down to Kalamazoo, Michigan, to visit my grandfather. That was a very long trip. He was so nice that I instantly loved him. So did my mother, who had seen him one other time when she was a child. They talked and laughed and had a good time together, but Ed’s wife was not enjoying herself at all. She was not used to sharing her husband. Every chance she got, she got between them.
After Uncle Ed left, he and my mother wrote occasionally, but Aunt Mary was still jealous. Finally, she wrote to my mother and said some very unkind things and asked her not to write any more. My mother stopped writing. As the years passed she often thought about her brother and wondered if he was still alive. She never knew.
Aunt Mary’s jealousy was unreasonable and unfounded, but there is a type of jealousy that is justified. There is a type of jealousy that we should have. We should allow nothing to separate us from the One Who loves us so. We should carefully guard our relationship to Him being careful to keep in communion with Him throughout the day. How our Great Creator longs for us have that kind of jealousy. He greatly desires us to love him with our whole heart. Indeed, He has a righteous jealousy for us. He does not want anything to divide our affections.
Moses warned the Children of Israel, “Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee. For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.” Deut 4:23,24 Psalms 106:34-46 illustrates Israel’s failure to heed that warning. “They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them: But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inven! tions. Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand. Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity. Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry: And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies. He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives.”
So often we think that because we do not bow before an image and worship it as the second commandment forbids, we are safe from idolatry, but how easy it is for us to place our affections on someone or something, until our thoughts, our feelings, our conversation is focused there. How often we need to examine our heart and take heed that we do not allow the things of this world to have first place. Jesus speaks of this very thing, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Matt 6:24 We cannot hold on to our idols and truly be worshipping God at the same time. It is impossible.
Paul, speaking of his experience, says, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but 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 3:7-14
Peter adds, “Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.” 2 Peter 3:17,18
May we determine through God’s grace to serve our Dear Saviour with singleness of heart. May our whole focus be upon Him. May we lay self aside and love the Lord with all our heart, strength, and mind is my prayer.
Rose