₦airaland Forum

The Sowing and Reaping of Life

Flee also youthful lusts: but follow after righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. - 2 Timothy 2:22.

A little time spent in sowing your wild oats, dear young friends, will produce a crop that will embitter your whole life; an hour of thoughtlessness, once yielding to temptation, may turn the whole current of your life in the wrong direction. You can have but one youth; make that useful. When once you have passed over the ground you can never return to rectify your mistakes....

Satan ... transforms himself into an angel of light and comes to the youth with his specious temptations and succeeds in winning them, step by step, from the path of duty. He is described as an accuser, a deceiver, a liar, a tormentor, and a murderer.... It is Satan’s act to tempt you, but your own act to yield. It is not in the power of all the host of Satan to force the tempted to transgress. There is no excuse for sin.

Temptation is not sin. Jesus was holy and pure; yet He was tempted in all points as we are, but with a strength and power that man will never be called upon to endure. In His successful resistance He has left us a bright example, that we should follow in His steps. If we are self-confident or self-righteous we shall be left to fall under the power of temptation; but if we look to Jesus and trust in Him we call to our aid a power that has conquered the foe on the field of battle, and with every temptation He will make a way of escape. When Satan comes in like a flood, we must meet his temptations with the sword of the Spirit, and Jesus will be our helper and will lift up for us a standard against him.

One wrong trait of character, one sinful desire cherished, will eventually neutralize all the power of the gospel.... The pains of duty and the pleasures of sin are the cords with which Satan binds men in his snares. Those who would rather die than perform a wrong act are the only ones who will be found faithful.

The youth may have principles so firm that the most powerful temptations of Satan will not draw them away from their allegiance.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us to resist the devil and he will flee from us. May we never make mistakes that will derail us from serving You. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 82 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.556#556)

Physical Health and Noble Thinking

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. - 1 Peter 2:11.

Many regard this text as a warning against licentiousness only; but it has a broader meaning. It forbids every injurious gratification of appetite or passion. Every perverted appetite becomes a warring lust. Appetite was given us for a good purpose, not to become the minister of death by being perverted, and thus degenerating into “lusts, which war against the soul.” Peter’s admonition is a most direct and forcible warning against the use of all stimulants and narcotics. These indulgences may well be classed among the lusts that exert a pernicious influence upon moral character.

Let none who profess godliness regard with indifference the health of the body, and flatter themselves that intemperance is no sin and will not affect their spirituality. A close sympathy exists between the physical and the moral nature. The standard of virtue is elevated or degraded by the physical habits. Excessive eating of the best of food will produce a morbid condition of the moral feelings. And if the food is not the most healthful, the effects will be still more injurious. Any habit which does not promote healthful action in the human system degrades the higher and nobler faculties.... Indulgence of appetite strengthens the animal propensities, giving them the ascendancy over the mental and spiritual powers.

The strength of the temptation to indulge appetite can be measured only by the inexpressible anguish of our Redeemer in that long fast in the wilderness. He knew that the indulgence of perverted appetite would so deaden man’s perceptions that sacred things could not be discerned.... If the power of indulged appetite was so strong upon the race, that, in order to break its hold, the divine Son of God, in man’s behalf, had to endure a fast of nearly six weeks, what a work is before the Christian! Yet, however great the struggle, he may overcome. By the help of that divine power which withstood the fiercest temptations that Satan could invent, he, too, may be entirely successful in his warfare with evil, and at last may wear the victor’s crown in the kingdom of God.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord to take our health seriously and eat healthily so we may give You of our best. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 81 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.550#550)

Shaping Up in God’s Workshop

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20

We are not our own. We have been purchased with a dear price, even the sufferings and death of the Son of God. If we could understand this, and fully realize it, we would feel a great responsibility resting upon us to keep ourselves in the very best condition of health, that we might render to God perfect service....

We believe without a doubt that Christ is soon coming.... We have no doubt, neither have we had a doubt for years, that the doctrines we hold today are present truth, and that we are nearing the judgment. We are preparing to meet Him who, escorted by a retinue of holy angels, is to appear in the clouds of heaven to give the faithful and the just the finishing touch of immortality. When He comes He is not to cleanse us of our sins, to remove from us the defects in our characters, or to cure us of the infirmities of our tempers and dispositions. If wrought for us at all, this work will all be accomplished before that time.

When the Lord comes, those who are holy will be holy still. Those who have preserved their bodies and spirits in holiness, in sanctification and honor, will then receive the finishing touch of immortality. But those who are unjust, unsanctified, and filthy will remain so forever. No work will then be done for them to remove their defects and give them holy characters.... This is all to be done in these hours of probation. It is now that this work is to be accomplished for us....

We are now in God’s workshop. Many of us are rough stones from the quarry. But as we lay hold upon the truth of God, its influence affects us. It elevates us and removes from us every imperfection and sin, of whatever nature. Thus we are prepared to see the King in His beauty and finally to unite with the pure and heavenly angels in the kingdom of glory. It is here that this work is to be accomplished for us, here that our bodies and spirits are to be fitted for immortality.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. We surrender our lives to You Lord, we are rough stones in Your hands Lord, refine us until we become precious gems fit for Your service. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 80 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.543#543)

Joy in Obedience
I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord; and thy law is my delight. - Psalm 119:174.

The true Christian will never complain that the yoke of Christ is galling to the neck. He accounts the service of Jesus as the truest freedom. The law of God is his delight. Instead of seeking to bring down the divine commands, to accord with his deficiencies, he is constantly striving to rise to the level of their perfection.

Such an experience must be ours if we would be prepared to stand in the day of God. Now, while probation lingers, while mercy’s voice is still heard, is the time for us to put away our sins....

God has made ample provision that we may stand perfect in His grace, wanting in nothing, waiting for the appearing of our Lord. Are you ready? Have you the wedding garment on? That garment will never cover deceit, impurity, corruption, or hypocrisy. The eye of God is upon you.... We may conceal our sins from the eyes of men, but we can hide nothing from our Maker.

God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him to death for our offenses and raised Him again for our justification. Through Christ we may present our petitions at the throne of Grace. Through Him, unworthy as we are, we may obtain all spiritual blessings. Do we come to Him, that we may have life?

The will of God is expressed in the precepts of His holy law, and the principles of this law are the principles of heaven. The angels of heaven attain unto no higher knowledge than to know the will of God, and to do His will is the highest service that can engage their powers.

But in heaven, service is not rendered in the spirit of legality. When Satan rebelled against the law of Jehovah, the thought that there was a law came to the angels almost as an awakening to something unthought of. In their ministry the angels are not as servants, but as sons.... Obedience is to them no drudgery. Love for God makes their service a joy. So in every soul wherein Christ, the hope of glory, dwells, His words are re-echoed, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.”

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us, Lord, to delight to do Thy will. May we put away all deceit, impurity, corruption, and hypocrisy by Your miraculous power and grace. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 79 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.534#534)

White Raiment Required

When the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? - Matthew 22:11, 12.

By the wedding garment in the parable is represented the pure, spotless character which Christ’s true followers will possess. To the church it is given “that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white,” “not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.” Revelation 19:8; Ephesians 5:27. The fine linen, says the Scripture, “is the righteousness of saints.” Revelation 19:8. It is the righteousness of Christ, His own unblemished character, that through faith is imparted to all who receive Him as their personal Saviour.

The white robe of innocence was worn by our first parents when they were placed by God in holy Eden.... But when sin entered, they severed their connection with God, and the light that had encircled them departed.... Nothing can man devise to supply the place of his lost robe of innocence.... Only the covering which Christ Himself has provided can make us meet to appear in God’s presence. This covering, the robe of His own righteousness, Christ will put upon every repenting, believing soul.... This robe, woven in the loom of heaven, has in it not one thread of human devising. Christ in His humanity wrought out a perfect character, and this character He offers to impart to us. “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Isaiah 64:6. Everything that we of ourselves can do is defiled by sin. But the Son of God “was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.” 1 John 3:5....

By His perfect obedience He has made it possible for every human being to obey God’s commandments. When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in His will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness. Then as the Lord looks upon us He sees, not the fig-leaf garment, not the unclothedness and deformity of sin, but His own robe of righteousness, which is perfect obedience to the law of Jehovah.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Thank You for the provision made by the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ for we now have hope of being cloth in His robe of righteousness and more so, we can now obey perfectly by His Spirit working in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 78 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.528#528)

The Highest Kind of Meditation

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. - 1 John 3:1.

What love, what matchless love, that, sinners and aliens as we are, we may be brought back to God and adopted into His family! We may address Him by the endearing name, “Our Father.” ...

All the paternal love which has come down from generation to generation through the channel of human hearts, all the springs of tenderness which have opened in the souls of men, are but as a tiny rill to the boundless ocean when compared with the infinite, exhaustless love of God. Tongue cannot utter it; pen cannot portray it. You may meditate upon it every day of your life; you may search the Scriptures diligently in order to understand it; you may summon every power and capability that God has given you, in the endeavor to comprehend the love and compassion of the heavenly Father; and yet there is an infinity beyond. You may study that love for ages; yet you can never fully comprehend the length and the breadth, the depth and the height, of the love of God in giving His Son to die for the world. Eternity itself can never fully reveal it. Yet as we study the Bible and meditate upon the life of Christ and the plan of redemption, these great themes will open to our understanding more and more.

Christ came to reveal God to the world as a God of love, full of mercy, tenderness, and compassion.

It would be well to spend a thoughtful hour each day reviewing the life of Christ from the manger to Calvary. We should take it point by point and let the imagination vividly grasp each scene, especially the closing ones of His earthly life. By thus contemplating His teachings and sufferings, and the infinite sacrifice made by Him for the redemption of the race, we may strengthen our faith, quicken our love, and become more deeply imbued with the spirit which sustained our Saviour. If we would be saved at last we must all learn the lesson of penitence and faith at the foot of the cross.... Everything noble and generous in man will respond to the contemplation of Christ upon the cross.


Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord, to endeavor to spend a thoughtful hour each day reviewing the life of Christ from the manger to Calvary so to strengthen our faith, quicken our love for You. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 77 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.521#521)

A Fuller Knowledge of God

This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. - John 17:3.

Only by knowing God here can we prepare to meet Him at His coming.... But many of those who profess to believe in Christ do not know God. They have only a surface religion. They do not love God; they do not study His character; therefore they do not know how to trust, how to look and live. They do not know what restful love is, or what it means to walk by faith.... They fail of understanding that it is their duty to receive, in order that they may enrich others.

The world by wisdom knows not God. Many have talked eloquently about Him, but their reasoning brings men no nearer to Him, because they themselves are not in vital connection with Him. Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools. Their knowledge of God is imperfect.

We cannot by searching find out God, but He has revealed Himself in His Son, who is the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person. If we desire a knowledge of God we must be Christlike.... Living a pure life through faith in Christ as a personal Saviour will bring to the believer a clearer, higher conception of God.

Christ is a perfect revelation of God. “No man hath seen God at any time,” He says; “the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” Only by knowing Christ can we know God. And as we behold Him, we shall be changed into His image, prepared to meet Him at His coming....

Now is the time to prepare for the coming of our Lord. Readiness to meet Him cannot be attained in a moment’s time. Preparatory to that solemn scene there must be vigilant waiting and watching, combined with earnest work. So God’s children glorify Him. Amid the busy scenes of life their voices will be heard speaking words of encouragement, hope, and faith. All they have and are is consecrated to the Master’s service. Thus they prepare to meet their Lord; and when He comes, they will say, with joy, “This is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us.... We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord, after our labor here on earth, to say those glad words, “This is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us...". Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 76 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.513#513)

Citizens of Heaven

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. - Ephesians 2:19.

Jesus says: “Behold, I come quickly.” We should keep these words ever in mind, and act as though we do indeed believe that the coming of the Lord is nigh, and that we are pilgrims and strangers upon the earth.

Every means of grace should be diligently improved that the love of God may abound in the soul more and more, “that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness.” Your Christian life must take on vigorous and stalwart forms. You can attain to the high standard set before you in the Scriptures, and you must if you would be children of God. You cannot stand still; you must either advance or retrograde....

Will you have a stinted Christian growth, or will you make healthy progress in the divine life? Where there is spiritual health there is growth. The child of God grows up to the full stature of a man or woman in Christ. There is no limit to his improvement....

Some who ought to be strong and established in Christ are as babes in understanding and experimental knowledge of the workings of the Spirit of God. After years of experience they are able to comprehend only the first principles of that grand system of faith and doctrine that constitutes the Christian religion. They do not comprehend that perfection of character which will receive the commendation: “Well done.” ...

We have great victories to gain, and a heaven to lose if we do not gain them. The carnal heart must be crucified; for its tendency is to moral corruption, and the end thereof is death.... Pray that the mighty energies of the Holy Spirit ... may fall like an electric shock on the palsy-stricken soul, causing every nerve to thrill with new life, restoring the whole man from his dead, earthly, sensual state to spiritual soundness. You will thus become partakers of the divine nature, ... and in your souls will be reflected the image of Him by whose stripes you are healed.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord, to gain those victories that will prepare us to gain still more victories till we become partakers of the divine nature. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 75 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.505#505)

Taste for Yourself

O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. - Psalm 34:8.

How shall we know for ourselves God’s goodness and His love? The psalmist tells us—not, hear and know, read and know, or believe and know; but—“Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Instead of relying upon the word of another, taste for yourself.

Experience is knowledge derived from experiment. Experimental religion is what is needed now.... Some—yes, a large number—have a theoretical knowledge of religious truth, but have never felt the renewing power of divine grace upon their own hearts.... They believe in the wrath of God, but put forth no earnest efforts to escape it. They believe in heaven, but make no sacrifice to obtain it.... They know a remedy for sin, but do not use it. They know the right, but have no relish for it. All their knowledge will but increase their condemnation. They have never tasted and learned by experience that the Lord is good.

To become a disciple of Christ is to deny self and follow Jesus through evil as well as good report.... Every darling indulgence that hinders our religious life must be cut off.... Will we put forth efforts and make sacrifices proportionate to the worth of the object to be attained?

Every association we form, however limited, exerts some influence upon us. The extent to which we yield to that influence will be determined by the degree of intimacy, the constancy of the intercourse, and our love and veneration for the one with whom we associate. Thus by acquaintance and association with Christ we may become like Him, the one faultless Example.

Communion with Christ—how unspeakably precious! Such communion it is our privilege to enjoy if we will seek it, if we will make any sacrifice to secure it.

So everyone may be able, through his own experience, to “set his seal to this, that God is true.” John 3:33, A.R.V.... He can testify: “I needed help, and I found it in Jesus. Every want was supplied, the hunger of my soul was satisfied.... I believe in Jesus because He is to me a divine Saviour. I believe the Bible because I have found it to be the voice of God to my soul.”

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord, to know You, to make an effort, to sacrifice, to taste and see that You are good. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 74 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.496#503)

Christ the Only Saviour

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood. - Colossians 1:13, 14.

No matter who you are or what your life has been, you can be saved only in God’s appointed way. You must repent; you must fall helpless on the Rock, Christ Jesus. You must feel your need of a physician and of the only remedy for sin, the blood of Christ. This remedy can be secured only by repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.... The blood of Christ will avail for none but those who feel their need of its cleansing power.

What surpassing love and condescension, that when we had no claim upon divine mercy, Christ was willing to undertake our redemption! But our great Physician requires of every soul unquestioning submission. We are never to prescribe for our own case. Christ must have the entire management of will and action....

We may flatter ourselves ... that our moral character has been correct and we need not humble ourselves before God like the common sinner. But we must be content to enter into life in the very same way as the chief of sinners. We must renounce our own righteousness and plead for the righteousness of Christ to be imputed to us. We must depend wholly upon Christ for our strength. Self must die. We must acknowledge that all we have is from the exceeding riches of divine grace. Let this be the language of our hearts: “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.”

Genuine faith is followed by love, and love by obedience. All the powers and passions of the converted man are brought under the control of Christ. His Spirit is a renewing power, transforming to the divine image all who will receive it....

“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin.” He feels that he is the purchase of the blood of Christ and bound by the most solemn vows to glorify God in his body and in his spirit, which are God’s. The love of sin and the love of self are subdued in him. He daily asks: “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?” “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord, to see our need of You and never to prescribe for ourselves. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 73 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.488#488)

Heaven’s Flawless Pearl

The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. - Matthew 13:45, 46.

Christ Himself is the pearl of great price.... The righteousness of Christ, as a pure, white pearl, has no defect, no stain. No work of man can improve the great and precious gift of God. It is without a flaw. In Christ are “hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Colossians 2:3. He is “made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” 1 Corinthians 1:30. All that can satisfy the needs and longings of the human soul, for this world and for the world to come, is found in Christ. Our Redeemer is the pearl so precious that in comparison all things else may be accounted loss....

In the parable the pearl is not represented as a gift. The merchantman bought it at the price of all that he had. Many question the meaning of this, since Christ is represented in the Scriptures as a gift. He is a gift, but only to those who give themselves, soul, body, and spirit, to Him without reserve. We are to give ourselves to Christ, to live a life of willing obedience to all His requirements. All that we are, all the talents and capabilities we possess, are the Lord’s, to be consecrated to His service. When we thus give ourselves wholly to Him, Christ, with all the treasures of heaven, gives Himself to us. We obtain the pearl of great price....

In the market of which divine mercy has the management, the precious pearl is represented as being bought without money and without price. In this market all may obtain the goods of heaven. The treasury of the jewels of truth is open to all.... The Saviour’s voice earnestly and lovingly invites us: “I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.” ... The poorest are as well able as the richest to purchase salvation; for no amount of worldly wealth can secure it. It is obtained by willing obedience, by giving ourselves to Christ as His own purchased possession....

We cannot earn salvation, but we are to seek for it with as much interest and perseverance as though we would abandon everything in the world for it.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Lord, we surrender all to You this day hence, help us to surrender all to You that we may receive You and all of heaven's treasures. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 72 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.481#481)

Life’s Top Priority

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. - Matthew 6:33.

This is the first great object—the kingdom of heaven, the righteousness of Christ. Other objects to be attained should be secondary to these.

Satan will present the path of holiness as difficult while the paths of worldly pleasure are strewed with flowers. In false and flattering colors will the tempter array the world with its pleasures before you. Vanity is one of the strongest traits of our depraved natures, and he knows that he can appeal to it successfully. He will flatter you through his agents. You may receive praise which will gratify your vanity and foster in you pride and self-esteem, and you may think that with such advantages and attractions it really is a great pity for you to come out from the world and be separate, and become a Christian.... But consider that the pleasures of earth will have an end, and that which you sow you must also reap. Are personal attractions, ability, or talents too valuable to devote to God, the Author of your being, He who watches over you every moment? Are your qualifications too precious to devote to God?

The young urge that they need something to enliven and divert the mind. I saw that there is pleasure in industry, a satisfaction in pursuing a life of usefulness. Some still urge that they must have something ... to which the mind can turn for relief and refreshment amid cares and wearing labor. The Christian’s hope is just what is needed. Religion will prove to the believer a comforter, a sure guide to the Fountain of true happiness. The young should study the word of God and give themselves to meditation and prayer, and they will find that their spare moments cannot be better employed.

Young friends, you should take time to prove your own selves, whether you are in the love of God. Be diligent to make your calling and election sure.

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Make this first and last. Seek most earnestly to know Him whom to know aright is life eternal. Christ and His righteousness is the salvation of the soul


Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us, Lord, to seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness. May we ignore the attractions and distractions from the devil. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 71 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.473#473)

A New Life
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.... You must be born anew. - John 3:5-7, R.S.V.

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....

A person may not be able to tell the exact time or place, or to trace all the circumstances in the process of conversion; but this does not prove him to be unconverted. By an agency as unseen as the wind, Christ is constantly working upon the heart. Little by little, perhaps unconsciously to the receiver, impressions are made that tend to draw the soul to Christ.... Suddenly, as the Spirit comes with more direct appeal, the soul gladly surrenders itself to Jesus. By many this is called sudden conversion; but it is the result of long wooing by the Spirit of God,—a patient, protracted process.

While the wind is itself invisible, it produces effects that are seen and felt. So the work of the Spirit upon the soul will reveal itself in every act of him who has felt its saving power. When the Spirit of God takes possession of the heart, it transforms the life. Sinful thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced; love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness, and the countenance reflects the light of heaven. No one sees the hand that lifts the burden, or beholds the light descend from the courts above. The blessing comes when by faith the soul surrenders itself to God. Then that power which no human eye can see creates a new being in the image of God.

It is impossible for finite minds to comprehend the work of redemption. Its mystery exceeds human knowledge; yet he who passes from death to life realizes that it is a divine reality. The beginning of redemption we may know here through a personal experience. Its results reach through the eternal ages.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Thank You for persistently wooing us to You by the Holy Spirit. We renounce our sinful thoughts and evil deeds. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 70 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.466#466)

Healing for Sin-sick Souls

The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment - Isaiah 1:5, 6.

There is a remedy for the sin-sick soul. That remedy is in Jesus. Precious Saviour! His grace is sufficient for the weakest; and the strongest must also have His grace or perish.

I saw how this grace could be obtained. Go to your closet, and there alone plead with God: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Be in earnest, be sincere.... Jacoblike, wrestle in prayer. Agonize.... You must make an effort....

Seek the Lord with all your heart. Come with zeal, and when you sincerely feel that without the help of God you perish, when you pant after Him as the hart panteth after the water brooks, then will the Lord strengthen you speedily. Then will your peace pass all understanding. If you expect salvation, you must pray. Take time. Be not hurried and careless in your prayers. Beg of God to work in you a thorough reformation, that the fruits of His Spirit may dwell in you, and you shine as lights in the world. Be not a hindrance or curse to the cause of God; you can be a help, a blessing. Does Satan tell you that you cannot enjoy salvation full and free? Believe him not.

I saw that it is the privilege of every Christian to enjoy the deep movings of the Spirit of God. A sweet, heavenly peace will pervade the mind, and you will love to meditate upon God and heaven. You will feast upon the glorious promises of His word....

If professed Christians love Jesus better than the world, they will love to speak of Him, their best Friend, in whom their highest affections are centered. He came to their aid when they felt their lost and perishing condition. When weary and heavy-laden with sin, they turned unto Him. He removed their burden of guilt and sin, ... and turned the whole current of their affections. The things they once loved, they now hate; and the things they hated, they now love.

Has this great change taken place in you?

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord, to humble ourselves before You and agonize in prayer to You. May we, this day enjoy the deep movings of the Holy Spirit. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

_Culled from Maranatha pg. 69 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.457#464)_

A Crisis Ahead

Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. -Joel 1:15.

The prophecies which the great I AM has given in His word, uniting link after link in the chain of events, from eternity in the past to eternity in the future, tell us where we are today in the procession of the ages, and what may be expected in the time to come. All that prophecy has foretold as coming to pass, until the present time, has been traced on the pages of history, and we may be assured that all which is yet to come will be fulfilled in its order.

Today the signs of the times declare that we are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. Everything in our world is in agitation. Before our eyes is fulfilling the Saviour’s prophecy of the events to precede His coming: “Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars.... Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.”

The present is a time of overwhelming interest to all living. Rulers and statesmen, men who occupy positions of trust and authority, thinking men and women of all classes, have their attention fixed upon the events taking place about us. They are watching the relations that exist among the nations. They observe the intensity that is taking possession of every earthly element, and they recognize that something great and decisive is about to take place—that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis.

The Bible, and the Bible only, gives a correct view of these things. Here are revealed the great final scenes in the history of our world, ... the sound of their approach causing the earth to tremble and men’s hearts to fail them for fear.

Today men and nations are being tested by the plummet in the hand of Him who makes no mistake. All are by their own choice deciding their destiny, and God is overruling all for the accomplishment of His purposes.

Christians should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise, and this preparation they should make by diligently studying the word of God and striving to conform their lives to its precepts

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord, to study Your word and grant us understanding of prophecies in the Bible so we may know how to prepare for what is to come upon all the world as an overwhelming surprise . Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

_Culled from Maranatha pg. 68 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.2748#448)_

A Safe Refuge

Behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. - Isaiah 26:21.

There is coming rapidly and surely an almost universal guilt upon the inhabitants of the cities, because of the steady increase of determined wickedness. The corruption that prevails, is beyond the power of the human pen to describe. Every day brings fresh revelations of strife, bribery, and fraud; every day brings its heart-sickening record of violence and lawlessness, of indifference to human suffering, of brutal, fiendish destruction of human life....

Our God is a God of mercy. With long-sufferance and tender compassion He deals with the transgressors of His law.... The Lord bears long with men, and with cities, mercifully giving warnings to save them from divine wrath; but a time will come when pleadings for mercy will no longer be heard....

The conditions prevailing in society, and especially in the great cities of the nations, proclaim in thunder tones that the hour of God’s judgment is come and that the end of all things earthly is at hand. We are standing on the threshold of the crisis of the ages. In quick succession the judgments of God will follow one another—fire, and flood, and earthquake, with war and bloodshed....

The storm of God’s wrath is gathering; and those only will stand who respond to the invitations of mercy, ... and become sanctified through obedience to the laws of the divine Ruler. The righteous alone will be hid with Christ in God till the desolation be overpast. Let the language of the soul be:

“Other refuge have I none;
Hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, Oh leave me not alone!
Still support and comfort me.

“Hide me, O my Saviour, hide,
Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide;
Oh, receive my soul at last!”

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Dear Lord, hide us under the shadow of Thy almighty wings. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 67 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.439#439)

The Vision Is Sure

The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. - Habakkuk 2:3.

The faith that strengthened Habakkuk and all the holy and the just in those days of deep trial was the same faith that sustains God’s people today. In the darkest hours, under circumstances the most forbidding, the Christian believer may keep his soul stayed upon the source of all light and power. Day by day, through faith in God, his hope and courage may be renewed.... In the service of God there need be no despondency, no wavering, no fear. The Lord will more than fulfill the highest expectations of those who put their trust in Him. He will give them the wisdom their varied necessities demand.

Of the abundant provision made for every tempted soul, the apostle Paul bears eloquent testimony. To him was given the divine assurance, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” In gratitude and confidence the tried servant of God responded: “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9, 10.

We must cherish and cultivate the faith of which prophets and apostles have testified—the faith that lays hold on the promises of God and waits for deliverance in His appointed time and way. The sure word of prophecy will meet its final fulfillment in the glorious advent of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as King of kings and Lord of lords. The time of waiting may seem long, the soul may be oppressed by discouraging circumstances, many in whom confidence has been placed may fall by the way; but with the prophet who endeavored to encourage Judah in a time of unparalleled apostasy, let us confidently declare, “The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.”

Let us ever hold in remembrance the cheering message, “The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.... The just shall live by his faith.”

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us, Lord, to hold on to the our faith in You though the waiting time may seem long. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

_Culled from Maranatha pg. 66 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.432#432)_

Through Heaven’s Gates

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; ... for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. - Hebrews 11:5.

We are living in an evil age.... Because iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold. Enoch walked with God three hundred years. Now the shortness of time seems to be urged as a motive to seek righteousness. Should it be necessary that the terrors of the day of God be held before us in order to compel us to right action? Enoch’s case is before us. Hundreds of years he walked with God. He lived in a corrupt age, when moral pollution was teeming all around him; yet he trained his mind to devotion, to love purity. His conversation was upon heavenly things. He educated his mind to run in this channel, and he bore the impress of the divine....

Enoch had temptations as well as we. He was surrounded with society no more friendly to righteousness than is that which surrounds us. The atmosphere he breathed was tainted with sin and corruption, the same as ours; yet he lived a life of holiness. He was unsullied with the prevailing sins of the age in which he lived. So may we remain pure and uncorrupted. He was a representative of the saints who live amid the perils and corruptions of the last days. For his faithful obedience to God he was translated. So, also, the faithful, who are alive and remain, will be translated.

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” For three hundred years Enoch had been seeking purity of heart, that he might be in harmony with heaven. For three centuries he had walked with God. Day by day he had longed for a closer union; nearer and nearer had grown the communion, until God took him to Himself. He had stood at the threshold of the eternal world, only a step between him and the land of the blest; and now the portals opened, the walk with God, so long pursued on earth, continued, and he passed through the gates of the holy city, the first from among men to enter there....

To such communion God is calling us. As was Enoch’s must be their holiness of character who shall be redeemed from among men at the Lord’s second coming

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Oh Master, let us walk with You, help us to train our minds for righteousness. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

_Culled from Maranatha pg. 65 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.425#425)_

Satan’s Last Campaign

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. - 1 John 2:18.

The enemy is preparing for his last campaign against the church. He has so concealed himself from view that many can hardly believe that he exists, much less can they be convinced of his amazing activity and power....

Man is Satan’s captive and is naturally inclined to follow his suggestions and do his bidding. He has in himself no power to oppose effectual resistance to evil. It is only as Christ abides in him by living faith ... that man may venture to face so terrible a foe. Every other means of defense is utterly vain. It is only through Christ that Satan’s power is limited. This is a momentous truth that all should understand. Satan is busy every moment, going to and fro, walking up and down in the earth, seeking whom he may devour. But the earnest prayer of faith will baffle his strongest efforts....

Satan hopes to involve the remnant people of God in the general ruin that is coming upon the earth. As the coming of Christ draws nigh, he will be more determined and decisive in his efforts to overthrow them. Men and women will arise professing to have some new light or some new revelation whose tendency is to unsettle faith in the old landmarks. Their doctrines will not bear the test of God’s word, yet souls will be deceived. False reports will be circulated, and some will be taken in this snare.... We cannot be too watchful against every form of error, for Satan is constantly seeking to draw men from the truth....

Some men have no firmness of character. They are like a ball of putty and can be pressed into any conceivable shape.... This weakness, indecision, and inefficiency must be overcome. There is an indomitableness about true Christian character which cannot be molded or subdued by adverse circumstances. Men must have moral backbone, an integrity which cannot be flattered, bribed, or terrified....

God has set bounds that Satan cannot pass. Our most holy faith is this barrier; and if we build ourselves up in the faith, we shall be safe in the keeping of the Mighty One.


Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Increase our faith dear Lord that we may build up that barrier which satan cannot pass. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 64 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.417#417)

No Time to Do the Devil’s Work

Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God. - 2 Peter 3:11, 12.

It is essential that all shall know what atmosphere surrounds their own souls, whether they are in co-partnership with the enemy of righteousness, and unconsciously doing his work, or whether they are yoked up with Christ, doing His work....

Satan would be pleased to have anyone and everyone become his allies in the work of weakening the confidence of brother in brother, and sowing discord among those who profess to believe the truth. Satan can accomplish his purpose most successfully through professed friends of Christ who are not walking and working in Christ’s lines....

This is the day of the Lord’s preparation. We have no time now to talk unbelief or ... to do the devil’s work. Let everyone beware of unsettling the faith of others by sowing seeds of envy, jealousy, disunion; for God hears the words, and He judges, not by assertions which are yea and nay, but by the fruit of one’s course of action....

As yet the four winds are held until the servants of God shall be sealed in their foreheads. Then the powers of earth will marshal their forces for the last great battle. How carefully we should improve the little remaining period of our probation! How earnestly we should examine ourselves! ...

It is discipline of spirit, cleanness of heart and thought that is needed. This is of more value than brilliant talent, tact, or knowledge. An ordinary mind, trained to obey a “Thus saith the Lord,” is better qualified for God’s work than are those who have capabilities, but do not employ them rightly.... Men may take pride of their knowledge of worldly things; but if they have not a knowledge of the true God, of Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, they are deplorably ignorant, and their knowledge will perish with them. Secular knowledge is power; but the knowledge of the Word, which has a transforming influence upon the human mind, is imperishable.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord to discipline ourselves and cleanse our hearts and thoughts. May we make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 63 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.409#409)

The Great Controversy: Chapter 1—The Destruction of Jerusalem - Part 2 https://www.nairaland.com/8623967/great-controversy-chapter-1the-destruction

The Great Controversy: Chapter 1—The Destruction of Jerusalem - Part 2

Two days before the Passover, when Christ had for the last time departed from the temple, after denouncing the hypocrisy of the Jewish rulers, He again went out with His disciples to the Mount of Olives and seated Himself with them upon the grassy slope overlooking the city. Once more He gazed upon its walls, its towers, and its palaces. Once more He beheld the temple in its dazzling splendor, a diadem of beauty crowning the sacred mount.

A thousand years before, the psalmist had magnified God’s favor to Israel in making her holy house His dwelling place: “In Salem also is His tabernacle, and His dwelling place in Zion.” He “chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which He loved. And He built His sanctuary like high palaces.” Psalm 76:2; 78:68, 69. The first temple had been erected during the most prosperous period of Israel’s history. Vast stores of treasure for this purpose had been collected by King David, and the plans for its construction were made by divine inspiration. 1 Chronicles 28:12, 19. Solomon, the wisest of Israel’s monarchs, had completed the work. This temple was the most magnificent building which the world ever saw. Yet the Lord had declared by the prophet Haggai, concerning the second temple: “The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former.” “I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.” Haggai 2:9, 7.

After the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar it was rebuilt about five hundred years before the birth of Christ by a people who from a lifelong captivity had returned to a wasted and almost deserted country. There were then among them aged men who had seen the glory of Solomon’s temple, and who wept at the foundation of the new building, that it must be so inferior to the former. The feeling that prevailed is forcibly described by the prophet: “Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?” Haggai 2:3; Ezra 3:12. Then was given the promise that the glory of this latter house should be greater than that of the former.

But the second temple had not equaled the first in magnificence; nor was it hallowed by those visible tokens of the divine presence which pertained to the first temple. There was no manifestation of supernatural power to mark its dedication. No cloud of glory was seen to fill the newly erected sanctuary. No fire from heaven descended to consume the sacrifice upon its altar. The Shekinah no longer abode between the cherubim in the most holy place; the ark, the mercy seat, and the tables of the testimony were not to be found therein. No voice sounded from heaven to make known to the inquiring priest the will of Jehovah.

For centuries the Jews had vainly endeavored to show wherein the promise of God given by Haggai had been fulfilled; yet pride and unbelief blinded their minds to the true meaning of the prophet’s words. The second temple was not honored with the cloud of Jehovah’s glory, but with the living presence of One in whom dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily—who was God Himself manifest in the flesh. The “Desire of all nations” had indeed come to His temple when the Man of Nazareth taught and healed in the sacred courts. In the presence of Christ, and in this only, did the second temple exceed the first in glory. But Israel had put from her the proffered Gift of heaven. With the humble Teacher who had that day passed out from its golden gate, the glory had forever departed from the temple. Already were the Saviour’s words fulfilled: “Your house is left unto you desolate.” Matthew 23:38.

The disciples had been filled with awe and wonder at Christ’s prediction of the overthrow of the temple, and they desired to understand more fully the meaning of His words. Wealth, labor, and architectural skill had for more than forty years been freely expended to enhance its splendors. Herod the Great had lavished upon it both Roman wealth and Jewish treasure, and even the emperor of the world had enriched it with his gifts. Massive blocks of white marble, of almost fabulous size, forwarded from Rome for this purpose, formed a part of its structure; and to these the disciples had called the attention of their Master, saying: “See what manner of stones and what buildings are here!” Mark 13:1.

To these words, Jesus made the solemn and startling reply: “Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” Matthew 24:2.

With the overthrow of Jerusalem the disciples associated the events of Christ’s personal coming in temporal glory to take the throne of universal empire, to punish the impenitent Jews, and to break from off the nation the Roman yoke. The Lord had told them that He would come the second time. Hence at the mention of judgments upon Jerusalem, their minds reverted to that coming; and as they were gathered about the Saviour upon the Mount of Olives, they asked: “When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Verse 3.

The future was mercifully veiled from the disciples. Had they at that time fully comprehended the two awful facts—the Redeemer’s sufferings and death, and the destruction of their city and temple—they would have been overwhelmed with horror. Christ presented before them an outline of the prominent events to take place before the close of time. His words were not then fully understood; but their meaning was to be unfolded as His people should need the instruction therein given. The prophecy which He uttered was twofold in its meaning; while foreshadowing the destruction of Jerusalem, it prefigured also the terrors of the last great day.

Jesus declared to the listening disciples the judgments that were to fall upon apostate Israel, and especially the retributive vengeance that would come upon them for their rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah. Unmistakable signs would precede the awful climax. The dreaded hour would come suddenly and swiftly. And the Saviour warned His followers: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.” Matthew 24:15, 16; Luke 21:20, 21. When the idolatrous standards of the Romans should be set up in the holy ground, which extended some furlongs outside the city walls, then the followers of Christ were to find safety in flight. When the warning sign should be seen, those who would escape must make no delay. Throughout the land of Judea, as well as in Jerusalem itself, the signal for flight must be immediately obeyed. He who chanced to be upon the housetop must not go down into his house, even to save his most valued treasures. Those who were working in the fields or vineyards must not take time to return for the outer garment laid aside while they should be toiling in the heat of the day. They must not hesitate a moment, lest they be involved in the general destruction.

In the reign of Herod, Jerusalem had not only been greatly beautified, but by the erection of towers, walls, and fortresses, adding to the natural strength of its situation, it had been rendered apparently impregnable. He who would at this time have foretold publicly its destruction, would, like Noah in his day, have been called a crazed alarmist. But Christ had said: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” Matthew 24:35. Because of her sins, wrath had been denounced against Jerusalem, and her stubborn unbelief rendered her doom certain.

The Lord had declared by the prophet Micah: “Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us.” Micah 3:9-11.

These words faithfully described the corrupt and self-righteous inhabitants of Jerusalem. While claiming to observe rigidly the precepts of God’s law, they were transgressing all its principles. They hated Christ because His purity and holiness revealed their iniquity; and they accused Him of being the cause of all the troubles which had come upon them in consequence of their sins. Though they knew Him to be sinless, they had declared that His death was necessary to their safety as a nation. “If we let Him thus alone,” said the Jewish leaders, “all men will believe on Him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.” John 11:48. If Christ were sacrificed, they might once more become a strong, united people. Thus they reasoned, and they concurred in the decision of their high priest, that it would be better for one man to die than for the whole nation to perish.

... to be continued
Part 1 https://www.nairaland.com/8623944/great-controversy-chapter-1the-destruction
https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/132.69#69

The Great Controversy: Chapter 1—The Destruction of Jerusalem - Part 1

“If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” Luke 19:42-44.

From the crest of Olivet, Jesus looked upon Jerusalem. Fair and peaceful was the scene spread out before Him. It was the season of the Passover, and from all lands the children of Jacob had gathered there to celebrate the great national festival. In the midst of gardens and vineyards, and green slopes studded with pilgrims’ tents, rose the terraced hills, the stately palaces, and massive bulwarks of Israel’s capital. The daughter of Zion seemed in her pride to say, I sit a queen and shall see no sorrow; as lovely then, and deeming herself as secure in Heaven’s favor, as when, ages before, the royal minstrel sang: “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, ... the city of the great King.” Psalm 48:2. In full view were the magnificent buildings of the temple. The rays of the setting sun lighted up the snowy whiteness of its marble walls and gleamed from golden gate and tower and pinnacle. “The perfection of beauty” it stood, the pride of the Jewish nation. What child of Israel could gaze upon the scene without a thrill of joy and admiration! But far other thoughts occupied the mind of Jesus. “When He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it.” Luke 19:41. Amid the universal rejoicing of the triumphal entry, while palm branches waved, while glad hosannas awoke the echoes of the hills, and thousands of voices declared Him king, the world’s Redeemer was overwhelmed with a sudden and mysterious sorrow. He, the Son of God, the Promised One of Israel, whose power had conquered death and called its captives from the grave, was in tears, not of ordinary grief, but of intense, irrepressible agony.

His tears were not for Himself, though He well knew whither His feet were tending. Before Him lay Gethsemane, the scene of His approaching agony. The sheepgate also was in sight, through which for centuries the victims for sacrifice had been led, and which was to open for Him when He should be “brought as a lamb to the slaughter.” Isaiah 53:7. Not far distant was Calvary, the place of crucifixion. Upon the path which Christ was soon to tread must fall the horror of great darkness as He should make His soul an offering for sin. Yet it was not the contemplation of these scenes that cast the shadow upon Him in this hour of gladness. No foreboding of His own superhuman anguish clouded that unselfish spirit. He wept for the doomed thousands of Jerusalem—because of the blindness and impenitence of those whom He came to bless and to save.

The history of more than a thousand years of God’s special favor and guardian care, manifested to the chosen people, was open to the eye of Jesus. There was Mount Moriah, where the son of promise, an unresisting victim, had been bound to the altar—emblem of the offering of the Son of God. There the covenant of blessing, the glorious Messianic promise, had been confirmed to the father of the faithful. Genesis 22:9, 16-18. There the flames of the sacrifice ascending to heaven from the threshing floor of Ornan had turned aside the sword of the destroying angel (1 Chronicles 21)—fitting symbol of the Saviour’s sacrifice and mediation for guilty men. Jerusalem had been honored of God above all the earth. The Lord had “chosen Zion,” He had “desired it for His habitation.” Psalm 132:13. There, for ages, holy prophets had uttered their messages of warning. There priests had waved their censers, and the cloud of incense, with the prayers of the worshipers, had ascended before God. There daily the blood of slain lambs had been offered, pointing forward to the Lamb of God. There Jehovah had revealed His presence in the cloud of glory above the mercy seat. There rested the base of that mystic ladder connecting earth with heaven (Genesis 28:12; John 1:51)—that ladder upon which angels of God descended and ascended, and which opened to the world the way into the holiest of all. Had Israel as a nation preserved her allegiance to Heaven, Jerusalem would have stood forever, the elect of God. Jeremiah 17:21-25. But the history of that favored people was a record of backsliding and rebellion. They had resisted Heaven’s grace, abused their privileges, and slighted their opportunities.

Although Israel had “mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets” (2 Chronicles 36:16), He had still manifested Himself to them, as “the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6); notwithstanding repeated rejections, His mercy had continued its pleadings. With more than a father’s pitying love for the son of his care, God had “sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place.” 2 Chronicles 36:15. When remonstrance, entreaty, and rebuke had failed, He sent to them the best gift of heaven; nay, He poured out all heaven in that one Gift.

The Son of God Himself was sent to plead with the impenitent city. It was Christ that had brought Israel as a goodly vine out of Egypt. Psalm 80:8. His own hand had cast out the heathen before it. He had planted it “in a very fruitful hill.” His guardian care had hedged it about. His servants had been sent to nurture it. “What could have been done more to My vineyard,” He exclaims, “that I have not done in it?” Isaiah 5:1-4. Though when He looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes, yet with a still yearning hope of fruitfulness He came in person to His vineyard, if haply it might be saved from destruction. He digged about His vine; He pruned and cherished it. He was unwearied in His efforts to save this vine of His own planting.

For three years the Lord of light and glory had gone in and out among His people. He “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil,” binding up the brokenhearted, setting at liberty them that were bound, restoring sight to the blind, causing the lame to walk and the deaf to hear, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead, and preaching the gospel to the poor. Acts 10:38; Luke 4:18; Matthew 11:5. To all classes alike was addressed the gracious call: “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28.

Though rewarded with evil for good, and hatred for His love (Psalm 109:5), He had steadfastly pursued His mission of mercy. Never were those repelled that sought His grace. A homeless wanderer, reproach and penury His daily lot, He lived to minister to the needs and lighten the woes of men, to plead with them to accept the gift of life. The waves of mercy, beaten back by those stubborn hearts, returned in a stronger tide of pitying, inexpressible love. But Israel had turned from her best Friend and only Helper. The pleadings of His love had been despised, His counsels spurned, His warnings ridiculed.

The hour of hope and pardon was fast passing; the cup of God’s long-deferred wrath was almost full. The cloud that had been gathering through ages of apostasy and rebellion, now black with woe, was about to burst upon a guilty people; and He who alone could save them from their impending fate had been slighted, abused, rejected, and was soon to be crucified. When Christ should hang upon the cross of Calvary, Israel’s day as a nation favored and blessed of God would be ended. The loss of even one soul is a calamity infinitely outweighing the gains and treasures of a world; but as Christ looked upon Jerusalem, the doom of a whole city, a whole nation, was before Him—that city, that nation, which had once been the chosen of God, His peculiar treasure.

Prophets had wept over the apostasy of Israel and the terrible desolations by which their sins were visited. Jeremiah wished that his eyes were a fountain of tears, that he might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of his people, for the Lord’s flock that was carried away captive. Jeremiah 9:1; 13:17. What, then, was the grief of Him whose prophetic glance took in, not years, but ages! He beheld the destroying angel with sword uplifted against the city which had so long been Jehovah’s dwelling place. From the ridge of Olivet, the very spot afterward occupied by Titus and his army, He looked across the valley upon the sacred courts and porticoes, and with tear-dimmed eyes He saw, in awful perspective, the walls surrounded by alien hosts. He heard the tread of armies marshaling for war. He heard the voice of mothers and children crying for bread in the besieged city. He saw her holy and beautiful house, her palaces and towers, given to the flames, and where once they stood, only a heap of smoldering ruins.

Looking down the ages, He saw the covenant people scattered in every land, “like wrecks on a desert shore.” In the temporal retribution about to fall upon her children, He saw but the first draft from that cup of wrath which at the final judgment she must drain to its dregs. Divine pity, yearning love, found utterance in the mournful words: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” O that thou, a nation favored above every other, hadst known the time of thy visitation, and the things that belong unto thy peace! I have stayed the angel of justice, I have called thee to repentance, but in vain. It is not merely servants, delegates, and prophets, whom thou hast refused and rejected, but the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer. If thou art destroyed, thou alone art responsible. “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” Matthew 23:37; John 5:40.

Christ saw in Jerusalem a symbol of the world hardened in unbelief and rebellion, and hastening on to meet the retributive judgments of God. The woes of a fallen race, pressing upon His soul, forced from His lips that exceeding bitter cry. He saw the record of sin traced in human misery, tears, and blood; His heart was moved with infinite pity for the afflicted and suffering ones of earth; He yearned to relieve them all. But even His hand might not turn back the tide of human woe; few would seek their only Source of help. He was willing to pour out His soul unto death, to bring salvation within their reach; but few would come to Him that they might have life.

The Majesty of heaven in tears! the Son of the infinite God troubled in spirit, bowed down with anguish! The scene filled all heaven with wonder. That scene reveals to us the exceeding sinfulness of sin; it shows how hard a task it is, even for Infinite Power, to save the guilty from the consequences of transgressing the law of God. Jesus, looking down to the last generation, saw the world involved in a deception similar to that which caused the destruction of Jerusalem. The great sin of the Jews was their rejection of Christ; the great sin of the Christian world would be their rejection of the law of God, the foundation of His government in heaven and earth. The precepts of Jehovah would be despised and set at nought. Millions in bondage to sin, slaves of Satan, doomed to suffer the second death, would refuse to listen to the words of truth in their day of visitation. Terrible blindness! strange infatuation!

... to be continued
https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/132.69#69

Why Christ Delays His Coming

But this I do say, brothers. The appointed time has grown very short. - 1 Corinthians 7:29

The angels of God in their messages to men represent time as very short. Thus it has always been presented to me. It is true that time has continued longer than we expected in the early days of this message. Our Saviour did not appear as soon as we hoped. But has the word of the Lord failed? Never! It should be remembered that the promises and threatenings of God are alike conditional.

God had committed to His people a work to be accomplished on earth. The third angel’s message was to be given, the minds of believers were to be directed to the heavenly sanctuary, where Christ had entered to make atonement for His people. The Sabbath reform was to be carried forward. The breach in the law of God must be made up. The message must be proclaimed with a loud voice, that all the inhabitants of earth might receive the warning. The people of God must purify their souls through obedience to the truth, and be prepared to stand without fault before Him at His coming.

Had Adventists, after the great disappointment in 1844, held fast their faith, and followed on unitedly in the opening providence of God, receiving the message of the third angel and in the power of the Holy Spirit proclaiming it to the world, ... the Lord would have wrought mightily with their efforts, the work would have been completed, and Christ would have come ere this to receive His people to their reward.

But in the period of doubt and uncertainty that followed the disappointment, many of the advent believers yielded their faith.... Thus the work was hindered, and the world was left in darkness....

For forty years did unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion shut out ancient Israel from the land of Canaan. The same sins have delayed the entrance of modern Israel into the heavenly Canaan. In neither case were the promises of God at fault. It is the unbelief, the worldliness, unconsecration, and strife among the Lord’s professed people that have kept us in this world of sin and sorrow so many years.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Forgive Lord, our unbelief, the worldliness, unconsecration, and strife. Help us to repent and be zealous for You. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Maranatha pg. 61 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.393#394)

Temptations in Disguise

I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. - Acts 20:29, 30.

God has not passed His people by and chosen one solitary man here and another there as the only ones worthy to be entrusted with His truth. He does not give one man new light contrary to the established faith of the body. In every reform men have arisen making this claim....

One accepts some new and original idea which does not seem to conflict with the truth. He ... dwells upon it until it seems to him to be clothed with beauty and importance, for Satan has power to give this false appearance. At last it becomes the all-absorbing theme, the one great point around which everything centers; and the truth is uprooted from the heart....

I warn you to beware of these side issues, whose tendency is to divert the mind from the truth. Error is never harmless. It never sanctifies, but always brings confusion and dissension....

There are a thousand temptations in disguise prepared for those who have the light of truth; and the only safety for any of us is in receiving no new doctrine, no new interpretation of the Scriptures, without first submitting it to brethren of experience. Lay it before them in a humble, teachable spirit, with earnest prayer; and if they see no light in it, yield to their judgment....

Satan is constantly at work; but few have any idea of his activity and subtlety. The people of God must be prepared to withstand the wily foe. It is this resistance that Satan dreads. He knows better than we do the limit of his power and how easily he can be overcome if we resist and face him. Through divine strength the weakest saint is more than a match for him and all his angels, and if brought to the test he would be able to prove his superior power. Therefore Satan’s step is noiseless, his movements stealthy, and his batteries masked. He does not venture to show himself openly, lest he arouse the Christian’s dormant energies and send him to God in prayer.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us to realize the danger of accepting dogmas not supported by Scripture . Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Beware of Satan’s Agents

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. - 1 Timothy 4:1.

After the passing of the time in 1844, we had fanaticism of every kind to meet.... The experience of the past will be repeated. In the future Satan’s superstitions will assume new forms. Errors will be presented in a pleasing and flattering manner. False theories, clothed with garments of light, will be presented to God’s people. Thus Satan will try to deceive, if possible, the very elect. Most seducing influences will be exerted; minds will be hypnotized.

Corruptions of every type, similar to those existing among the antediluvians, will be brought in to take minds captive. The exaltation of nature as God, the unrestrained license of the human will, the counsel of the ungodly—these Satan uses as his agencies to bring about certain ends. He will employ the power of mind over mind to carry out his designs. The most sorrowful thought of all is that under his deceptive influence men will have a form of godliness, without having a real connection with God. Like Adam and Eve, who ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, many are even now feeding upon the deceptive morsels of error.

Satanic agencies are clothing false theories in an attractive garb, even as Satan in the Garden of Eden concealed his identity from our first parents by speaking through the serpent. These agencies are instilling into human minds that which in reality is deadly error. The hypnotic influence of Satan will rest upon those who turn from the plain word of God to pleasing fables.

It is those who have had the most light that Satan most assiduously seeks to ensnare. He knows that if he can deceive them, they will, under his control, clothe sin with garments of righteousness, and lead many astray.

I say to all: Be on your guard; for as an angel of light Satan is walking in every assembly of Christian workers, and in every church, trying to win the members to his side. I am bidden to give to the people of God the warning: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked.” Galatians 6:7.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord, not to be deceived by the alluring devices of satan. May we not be ignorant of them either. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

The Faith That Works

The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. - 1 Peter 4:7.

Do you believe that the end of all things is at hand, that the scenes of this earth’s history are fast closing? If so, show your faith by your works. A man will show all the faith he has. Some think they have a good degree of faith, when if they have any, it is dead, for it is not sustained by works. “Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” Few have that genuine faith which works by love and purifies the soul. But all who are accounted worthy of everlasting life must obtain a moral fitness for the same. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” This is the work before you....

You must experience a death to self, and must live unto God. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” Self is not to be consulted. Pride, self-love, selfishness, avarice, covetousness, love of the world, hatred, suspicion, jealousy, evil surmisings, must all be subdued and sacrificed forever. When Christ shall appear, it will not be to correct these evils and then give a moral fitness for His coming. This preparation must all be made before He comes. It should be a subject of thought, of study, and earnest inquiry, What shall we do to be saved? What shall be our conduct that we may show ourselves approved of God?

When tempted to murmur, censure, and indulge in fretfulness, wounding those around you, and in so doing wounding your own soul, oh! let the deep, earnest, anxious inquiry come from your soul, Shall I stand without fault before the throne of God? Only the faultless will be there. None will be translated to heaven while their hearts are filled with the rubbish of earth. Every defect in the moral character must first be remedied, every stain removed by the cleansing blood of Christ, and all the unlovely, unlovable traits of character overcome.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Oh Lord, help us to sacrifice forever, Pride, self-love, selfishness and all other sinful habits. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Only One Safe Course

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. - Matthew 26:41.

What shall I say to arouse the remnant people of God? ... I warn all who profess the name of Christ to closely examine themselves and make full and thorough confession of all their wrongs, that they may go beforehand to judgment, and that the recording angel may write pardon opposite their names. My brother, my sister, if these precious moments of mercy are not improved, you will be left without excuse. If you make no special effort to arouse, if you will not manifest zeal in repenting, these golden moments will soon pass, and you will be weighed in the balance and found wanting.

In the warning to “watch and pray,” Jesus has indicated the only safe course. There is need of watchfulness. Our own hearts are deceitful; we are compassed with the weaknesses and frailties of humanity, and Satan is intent to destroy. We may be off our guard, but our adversary is never idle. Knowing his tireless vigilance, let us not sleep, as do others, but “watch and be sober.” The spirit and influence of the world must be met, but they must not be allowed to take possession of the mind and heart.

Closely examine your own heart as in the light of eternity. Hide nothing from your examination. Search, oh! search, as for your life, and condemn yourself, pass judgment upon yourself, and then by faith claim the cleansing blood of Christ to remove the stains from your Christian character. Do not flatter or excuse yourself. Deal truly with your own soul. And then as you view yourself a sinner, fall, all broken, at the foot of the cross. Jesus will receive you, all polluted as you are, and will wash you in His blood, and cleanse you from all pollution, and make you fit for the society of heavenly angels, in a pure, harmonious heaven. There is no jar, no discord, there. All is health, happiness, and joy.

This world is a training school for the higher school, this life a preparation for the life to come. Here we are to be prepared for entrance into the heavenly courts. Here we are to receive and believe and practice the truth until we are made ready for a home with the saints in light.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us, Lord, to examine ourselves, sincerely, daily. May we be sober and vigilant at all times. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

The Last Watch

Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. - Mark 13:35, 36.

A company was presented before me.... Their eyes were directed heavenward, and the words of their Master were upon their lips: “What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” ... The Lord intimates a delay before the morning finally dawns. But He would not have them give way to weariness, nor relax their earnest watchfulness, because the morning does not open upon them as soon as they expected....

I saw that it was impossible to have the affections and interests engrossed in worldly cares, to be increasing earthly possessions, and yet be in a waiting, watching position, as our Saviour has commanded. Said the angel: “They can secure but one world. In order to acquire the heavenly treasure, they must sacrifice the earthly. They cannot have both worlds.” ...

I saw that watch after watch was in the past. Because of this, should there be a lack of vigilance? Oh, no! There is the greater necessity of unceasing watchfulness, for now the moments are fewer than before the passing of the first watch.... If we watched with unabated vigilance then, how much more need of double watchfulness in the second watch. The passing of the second watch has brought us to the third, and now it is inexcusable to abate our watchfulness. The third watch calls for threefold earnestness. To become impatient now would be to lose all our earnest, persevering watching heretofore. The long night of gloom is trying; but the morning is deferred in mercy, because if the Master should come, so many would be found unready. God’s unwillingness to have His people perish has been the reason for so long delay....

The difference between those who love the world and those who love Christ is so plain as to be unmistakable. While worldlings are all earnestness and ambition to secure earthly treasure, God’s people are not conformed to the world, but show by their earnest, watching, waiting position that they are transformed; that their home is not in this world, but that they are seeking a better country, even a heavenly.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us not to grow weary but may we keep watching and waiting for we are nearer home now than when we first believed. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Now—Always Now

Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. - Matthew 25:13.

The coming of Christ will be as it were at midnight, when all are sleeping. It will be well for every one to have his accounts all straightened up before sunset. All his works should be right, all his dealings just, between himself and his fellow-men. All dishonesty, all sinful practices should be put far away. The oil of grace should be in our vessels with our lamps.... Sad indeed will be the condition of the soul who has had a form of godliness but has denied the power thereof; who has called Christ, Lord, Lord, and yet who has not His image and superscription....

God graciously grants a day of probation, a time of test and trial. He gives the invitation: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” ...

Today the voice of mercy is calling, and Jesus is drawing men by the cords of His love; but the day will come when Jesus will put on the garments of vengeance.... The wickedness of the world is increasing every day, and when a certain line is reached, the register will be closed, and the account settled. There will be no more a sacrifice for sin. The Lord cometh. Long has mercy extended a hand of love, of patience and forbearance, toward a guilty world. The invitation has been given, “Let him take hold of my strength....” But men have presumed upon His mercy and refused His grace.

Why has the Lord so long delayed His coming? The whole host of heaven is waiting to fulfil the last work for this lost world, and yet the work waits. It is because the few who profess to have the oil of grace in their vessels with their lamps, have not become burning and shining lights in the world. It is because missionaries are few....

Every week counts one week less, every day one day nearer to the appointed time of the judgment. Alas that so many have only a spasmodic religion—a religion dependent upon feeling and governed by emotion. “He that endureth to the end shall be saved.” Then see that you have the oil of grace in your hearts. The possession of this will make every difference with you in the judgment.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord to take hold of Your strength that we may make peace with You. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Wise or Foolish?

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. - Matthew 25:1, 2.

We are not to rest in the idea that because we are church-members we are saved, while we give no evidence that we are conformed to the image of Christ, while we cling to our old habits, and weave our fabric with the threads of worldly ideas and customs....

The ten virgins are watching in the evening of this earth’s history. All claim to be Christians. All have a call, a name, a lamp, and all claim to be doing God’s service. All apparently watch for His appearing. But five are wanting. Five will be found surprised, dismayed, outside the banquet hall.

We are represented either by the wise or by the foolish virgins. There are many who will not remain at the feet of Jesus, and learn of Him. They have not a knowledge of His ways; they are not prepared for His coming. They have made a pretense of waiting for their Lord. They have not watched and prayed with that faith which works by love and purifies the soul. They have lived a life of carelessness. They have heard and assented to the truth, but they have never brought it into their practical life. The oil of grace is not feeding their lamps, and they are not prepared to enter into the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Be not like the foolish virgins, who take for granted that the promises of God are theirs, while they do not follow the injunctions of Christ. Christ teaches us that profession is nothing. “If any man will come after me,” He says, “let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” ...

When we stand the test of God in the refining, purifying process; when the furnace fire consumes the dross, and the true gold of a purified character appears, we may still say, with Paul, “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after.... 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.”

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. We ask Lord that You help us not to take for granted Your promises but may we obey You as we claim Your blessings. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Spiritual Giant or Dwarf?

Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. - 2 Corinthians 7:1.

The Lord reproves and corrects the people who profess to keep His law. He points out their sins and lays open their iniquity because He wishes to separate all sin and wickedness from them, that they may perfect holiness in His fear and be prepared to die in the Lord or to be translated to heaven....

God will accept nothing but purity and holiness; one spot, one wrinkle, one defect in the character, will forever debar them from heaven, with all its glories and treasures.

Most professed Christians have no sense of the spiritual strength they might obtain were they as ambitious, zealous, and persevering to gain a knowledge of divine things as they are to obtain the paltry, perishable things of this life. The masses professing to be Christians have been satisfied to be spiritual dwarfs. They have no disposition to make it their object to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; hence godliness is a hidden mystery to them, they cannot understand it. They know not Christ by experimental knowledge.

Ample provisions have been made for all who sincerely, earnestly, and thoughtfully set about the work of perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Strength, grace, and glory have been provided through Christ, to be brought by ministering angels to the heirs of salvation. None are so low, so corrupt and vile, that they cannot find in Jesus, who died for them, strength, purity, and righteousness, if they will put away their sins, cease their course of iniquity, and turn with full purpose of heart to the living God. He is waiting to strip them of their garments, stained and polluted by sin, and to put upon them the white, bright robes of righteousness; and He bids them live and not die. In Him they may flourish. Their branches will not wither nor be fruitless. If they abide in Him, they can draw sap and nourishment from Him, be imbued with His Spirit, walk even as He walked, overcome as He overcame, and be exalted to His own right hand.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. We ask Lord that You help us take hold of Your strength for with You we can do all things. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...