NECESSARY REFLECTIONS. 052

So today's post is a little longer than usual, but is especially necessary. The quotes that are highlighted are from a devotional book that I am reading. I genuinely connected with the passages from that book that I will share and comment on here. Please as you read, comment down below on this post how these quotes and today's post made you feel. If you can take 5 minutes out of your day, I would appreciate your thoughts and feelings in the comments. I believe this post warrants the discussion and will aid us in propelling us to action. God bless you as you read.

There is a terrible amount of guilt for which the church is responsible. Why are not those who have the light putting forth earnest efforts to give that light to others? They see that the end is near. They see multitudes daily transgressing God’s law; and they know that these souls cannot be saved in transgression. Yet they have more interest in their trades, their farms, their houses, their merchandise, their dress, their tables, than in the souls of men and women whom they must meet face to face in the judgment. The people who claim to obey the truth are asleep. At the very time when they should be strong in God, having a daily, living experience, they are feeble, hesitating, relying upon the preachers for support, when they should be ministering to others with mind and soul and voice and pen and time and money. {5T 457.1}

Reflection question: Are you one of the “they”? Am I one? What will we do about it, we need to plan and act on it, not merely theorize and hypothesize about doing something, not merely desiring to do something, but planning it and doing it.

Brethren and sisters, many of you excuse yourselves from labor on the plea of inability to work for others. But did God make you so incapable? Was not this inability produced by your own inactivity and perpetuated by your own deliberate choice? Did not God give you at least one talent to improve, not for your own convenience and gratification, but for Him? Have you realized your obligation, as His hired servant, to bring a revenue to Him by the wise and skillful use of this entrusted capital? Have you not neglected opportunities to improve your powers to this end? It is too true that few have felt any real sense of their responsibility to God. Love, judgment, memory, foresight, tact, energy, and every other faculty have been devoted to self. You have displayed greater wisdom in the service of evil than in the cause of God. You have perverted, disabled, nay, even besotted your powers, by your intense activity in worldly pursuits to the neglect of God’s work. {5T 457.2}

Reflection point: Reflect on where the majority of your energy, time and care goes, is it for what you deem as a spiritual pursuit or is it secular? Secular pursuits aren’t wrong, just meditate on where a majority of –you—goes. How do you feel about it?

Still you soothe your conscience by saying that you cannot undo the past, and gain the vigor, the strength, and the skill which you might have had if you had employed your powers as God required. But remember that He holds you responsible for the work negligently done or left undone through your unfaithfulness. The more you exercise your powers for the Master, the more apt and skillful you will become. The more closely you connect yourself with the Source of light and power, the greater light will be shed upon you, and the greater power will be yours to use for God. And for all that you might have had, but failed to obtain through your devotion to the world, you are responsible. When you became a follower of Christ you pledged yourself to serve Him and Him alone, and He promised to be with you and bless you, to refresh you with His light, to grant you His peace, and to make you joyful in His work. Have you failed to experience these blessings? be sure it is the result of your own course. {5T 458.1}

This post is not intended to be harsh, but when I read it was/is a real eye opener and wake up call. It’s one of the reasons I started this blog and the bible study and praise meetings I do with friends twice a week. (let me know if you want details) I still feel like I need to be more diligent in my efforts for God though. Essentially what I am saying is that sometimes we need to be held accountable and checked into reality, hopefully these words strengthen you.

In order to escape the draft during the war, there were men who induced disease, others maimed themselves that they might be rendered unfit for service. Here is an illustration of the course which many have been pursuing in relation to the cause of God. They have crippled their powers, both physical and mental, so that they are unable to do the work which is so greatly needed. {5T 458.2} Suppose that a sum of money were placed in your hands to invest for a certain purpose; would you throw it away and declare that you were not now responsible for its use? would you feel that you had saved yourself a great care? Yet this is what you have been doing with the gifts of God. To excuse yourself from working for others on the plea of inability, while you are all absorbed in worldly pursuits, is mockery of God. Multitudes are going down to ruin; the people who have received light and truth are but as a handful to withstand all the host of evil; and yet this little company are devoting their energies to anything and everything but to learning how they may rescue souls from death. Is it any marvel that the church is weak and inefficient, that God can do but little for His professed people? They place themselves where it is impossible for Him to work with them and for them. Dare you continue thus to disregard His claims? Will you still trifle with heaven’s most sacred trusts? Will you say with Cain: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” {5T 458.3}

We were born into a war, one between good and evil, Christ and satan. We all were given resources to use to fight for our side, may God help us.

Remember that your responsibility is measured, not by your present resources and capacities, but by the powers originally bestowed and the possibilities for improvement. The question which each one should ask himself is not whether he is now inexperienced and unfit to labor in God’s cause, but how and why he is in this condition, and how it can be remedied. God will not supernaturally endow us with the qualifications which we lack; but while we exert the ability we have, He will work with us to increase and strengthen every faculty; our dormant energies will be aroused, and powers which have long been palsied will receive new life. {5T 459.1}

That last sentence is worthy of a re-read.

So long as we are in the world, we must have to do with the things of the world. There will ever be a necessity for the transaction of temporal, secular business; but this should never become all-absorbing. The apostle Paul has given a safe rule: “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.” The humble, common duties of life are all to be performed with fidelity; “heartily,” says the apostle, “as to the Lord.” Whatever our department of labor, be it housework or field work or intellectual pursuits, we may perform it to the glory of God so long as we make Christ first and last and best in everything. But aside from these worldly employments there is given to every follower of Christ a special work for the upbuilding of His kingdom—a work which requires personal effort for the salvation of men. It is not a work to be performed once a week merely, at the place of worship, but at all times and all places. {5T 459.2}

If you have made it this far, God bless you, may you please comment your thoughts and feelings regarding the quotes? Please?

Thank you, if you can't I understand.

Said Jesus: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” It would be better for a worldling never to have seen a professor of religion than to come under the influence of one who is ignorant of the power of godliness. If Christ were our pattern, His life our rule, what zeal would be manifested, what efforts put forth, what liberality exercised, what self-denial practiced! How untiringly should we labor, what fervent petitions for power and wisdom would ascend to God! If all the professed children of God would feel that it is the chief business of life to do the work which He has bidden them to do, if they would labor unselfishly in His cause, what a change would be seen in hearts and homes, in churches, yea, in the world itself! {5T 460.2}

Let us work as Christ work,

Let us live as Christ lived,

Let us love as Christ loved,

Let us show an accurate picture of Christ to combat the lying representations given in the past.

Let us,

IJN,

amen

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