Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
2 Timothy 4:2
2 Timothy 4:2
DA 172
“ He who is trying to reach heaven by his own works in keeping the law is attempting an impossibility. There is no safety for one who has merely a legal religion, a form of godliness. The Christian’s life is not a modification or improvement of the old, but a transformation of nature. There is a death to self and sin, and a new life altogether. This change can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit. ”
DA 172
“ Our condemnation in the judgment will not result from the fact that we have been in error, but from the fact that we have neglected heaven-sent opportunities for learning what is truth. ”
DA 490
“ Unless ministers are daily converted, they can never reveal the truth as it is in Jesus—I am unable to describe to you the impression made upon my mind when I realize that many, even among our brethren who are teachers of the Word, are not daily converted.Christ stands ready to impart wisdom and grace; but those in important positions of responsibility can not guide others in the right paths unless they are converted daily.If they rely upon their own supposed wisdom, they will mislead others who look to them believing that these ministers understand the sacred work entrusted to them.Those who accept responsible charges need to be on their guard, and by humble prayer to be sanctified, refined, and purified.Unless they sense their true condition, and unless they become Christlike, they can never reveal the truth as it is in Jesus. ”
Pastoral Ministry, 19.
“ God has not given His ministers the work of
setting the churches right. No sooner is this work
done, apparently, than it has to be done over again.
Church members that are thus looked after and labored
for become religious weaklings. If nine tenths of the
effort that has been put forth for those who know the
truth had been put forth for those who have never
heard the truth, how much greater would have been the
advancement made! God has withheld His blessings
because His people have not worked in harmony with His
directions. It weakens those who know the truth for our
ministers to expend on them the time and talent that
should be given to the unconverted. In many of our
churches in the cities the minister preaches Sabbath
after Sabbath, and Sabbath after Sabbath the church
members come to the house of God with no words to tell
of blessings received because of blessings imparted.
They have not worked during the week to carry out the
instruction given them on the Sabbath. So long as
church members make no effort to give to others the help given them, great spiritual feebleness must result. The greatest help that can be given our people is to teach them to work for God, and to depend on Him, not on the ministers. Let them learn to work as Christ worked. Let them join His army of workers and do
faithful service for Him. ”
7T 18-19
I realized that in my devotional readings I’ve been seeking something that makes me feel good. It’s been happening for so long that I don’t even remember when I began to do that. And when I read something that’s boring or I don’t feel like I’m reading something powerful, I feel unsatisfied. But that’s not what I should be seeking at all. Whatever I am reading, regardless of if it makes me feel good or not, I must consider that there is a lesson that God wants me to learn in the passage. I fear that I have passed by many lessons God would have taught me if only I had focused and remained on the passage - biblical or extrabiblical - regardless of how boring it was.
May I put self aside and seek only that which God would teach me.
“ Whenever the message of truth comes home to souls with special power, Satan stirs up his agents to start a dispute over some minor question. Thus he seeks to attract attention from the real issue. Whenever a good work is begun, there are cavilers ready to enter into dispute over forms or technicalities, to draw minds away from the living realities. When it appears that God is about to work in a special manner for His people, let them not be enticed into a controversy that will work only ruin of souls. The questions that most concern us are, Do I believe with saving faith on the Son of God? Is my life in harmony with the divine law? “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life.” “And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” John 3:36; 1 John 2:3. ”
DA 396.
And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.
1 Thessalonians 3:12, 13.
EGW tells us that “we are enjoined to strive for perfection of character,” quoting Jesus in Matthew 5:48, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” She again says, “Would Christ tantalize us by requiring of us an impossibility? Never, never!” That I May Know Him, p 131. The Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 3:13 that God intends to establish our hearts blameless in holiness. How are we sinful humans to become blameless in holiness? By God making us increase and abound in love to one another and to all. The love of Jesus in our hearts for each other and for all mankind will lead us to blamelessness in holiness. Read the verse.
But it is not enough that we merely pray for this love. We will inherit this love in our hearts as we spend time with Him whose love we desire as our own, in spending time in His word, beholding the character of God. And by beholding, we will become changed.
God loves us just as we are, although we are sinners. Romans 5:8 tells us that “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” But Jesus also told the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more.” John 8:11. A good God would not want us to remain this way. A good God would want to beautify us and establish His perfect character in us. Let us embrace the wishes of our good God.
“ Constantly He beheld the character of God; constantly He revealed this character to the world. Christ desires His followers to reveal in their lives this same character. ”
That I May Know Him, p 131.
“ Caste is hateful to God. He ignores everything of this character. In His sight the souls of all men are of equal value. ”
DA 403
“ Gospel religion is Christ in the life—a living, active principle. It is the grace of Christ revealed in character and wrought out in good works. The principles of the gospel cannot be disconnected from any department of practical life. Every line of Christian experience and labor is to be a representation of the life of Christ. ”
COL 384.
