Daily Devotional

August 6, 2019

All Have a Duty to Witness

You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Acts 1:8, NKJV.

My heart was rejoiced to see among the converts so many young men and women, with hearts softened and subdued by the love of Jesus, acknowledging the good work wrought by God for their souls. It was indeed a precious season. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” God forbid that these souls should ever lose the ardor of their first love, that a strange coldness, through pride and love of the world, should take possession of their minds and hearts.

It is essential that these who have newly come to the faith should have a sense of their obligation to God, who has called them to a knowledge of the truth, and filled their hearts with His sacred peace, that they may exert a sanctifying influence over all with whom they associate. “Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord.”

To every one God has committed a work, to make known His salvation to the world. In true religion there is nothing selfish or exclusive. The gospel of Christ is diffusive and aggressive. It is described as the salt of the earth, the transforming leaven, the light which shineth in darkness. It is impossible for one to retain the favor and love of God, and enjoy communion with Him, and still feel no responsibility for the souls for whom Christ died, who are in error and darkness, perishing in their sins.

If those who profess to be followers of Christ neglect to shine as lights in the world, the vital power will leave them, and they will become cold and Christless. The spell of indifference will be upon them, a deathlike sluggishness of soul, which will make them bodies of death instead of living representatives of Jesus. All must lift the cross and in modesty, meekness, and lowliness of mind take up their God-given duties, engaging in personal effort for those around them who need help and light.

All who accept these duties will have a rich and varied experience, their own hearts will glow with fervor, and they will be strengthened and stimulated to renewed, persevering efforts to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, because it is God that worketh in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure. – The Review and Herald, July 21, 1891

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 260.

Daily Devotional

August 5, 2019

Tell Others to Love and Obey Christ

“You are My witnesses,” says the Lord, “and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me.” Isaiah 43:10, NKJV.

Satan is constantly alluring away from faithfulness and thoroughness in the essential works of preparedness for the great event that will try every person’s soul. The work in the heavenly sanctuary is going forward. Jesus is cleansing the sanctuary. The work on earth corresponds with the work in heaven. The heavenly angels are at work constantly to draw human beings, the living agents, to look to Jesus, to contemplate and meditate upon Jesus, that they may, in viewing the perfection of Christ, be impressed with the imperfections of their own characters. The promised Comforter, Christ … declared, “shall testify of me.” This is the burden of the message for this time….

Talk as Christ talked. Work as Christ worked. We must look to Christ and live. Catching sight of His loveliness, we long to practice the virtues and righteousness of Christ. It is by beholding Christ that we become changed into His image, and by renouncing self, giving our hearts up wholly to Jesus for His Spirit to refine, ennoble, and elevate, we will be in close connection with the future world, bathed in the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. We rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Then we are commanded to go into other cities and towns and tell them the good news with hearts all aglow with divine love, even to them that are afar off, even as many as the Lord your God shall call.

Tell to others the blessed truths of His Word, and in obeying the words of Christ, continue in His love. [Tell them] how He urges us by the love we bear to Him to keep His commandments. He does this, not to urge us to do impossible things, but because He knows what it means to keep His Father’s commandments. He wants every soul that heareth His invitation to say the same to others, and to receive His richest gifts, for He knows that in keeping the commandments of God, we are not brought into servile bondage, but are made free through the blood of Jesus Christ. “And in keeping of them [His commandments] there is great reward” (Psalm 19:11).

Tell it to others with pen and voice, with piety, with humility, with love, representing the character of Christ. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17). – The Upward Look, 344.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 259.

Daily Devotional

August 4, 2019

Keep Streams of Beneficence in Constant Circulation

Do you not say, “There are still four months and then comes the harvest”? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! John 4:35, NKJV.

Human power did not establish the work of God, neither can human power destroy it. To those who carry forward His work in face of difficulty and opposition, God will give the constant guidance and guardianship of His holy angels. His work on earth will never cease. The building of His spiritual temple will be carried forward until it shall stand complete, and the headstone shall be brought forth with shoutings: “Grace, grace unto it.”

Christians are to be a benefit to others. Thus they themselves are benefited. “He that watereth shall be watered also himself” (Proverbs 11:25). This is a law of the divine administration, a law by which God designs that the streams of beneficence shall be kept, like the waters of the great deep, in constant circulation, perpetually returning to their source. In the fulfilling of this law is the power of Christian missions.

I have been instructed that wherever by self-sacrifice and urgent efforts facilities for the establishment and advancement of the cause have been provided, and the Lord has prospered the work, those in that place should give of their means to help His servants who have been sent to new fields. Wherever the work has been established on a good foundation, the believers should feel themselves under obligation to help those in need by transferring, even at great sacrifice, a portion or all of the means which in former years was invested in behalf of the work in their locality. Thus the Lord designs that His work shall increase. This is the law of restitution in right lines. – Testimonies for the Church 7:170.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 257.

Daily Devotional

August 3, 2019

Greater Efficiency and Deeper Consecration Needed

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. John 16:13, NKJV.

Every day that passes brings us nearer the end. Does it bring us also near to God? Are we watching unto prayer? Those with whom we associate day by day need our help, our guidance. They may be in such a condition of mind that a word in season will be sent home by the Holy Spirit as a nail in a sure place. Tomorrow some of these souls may be where we can never reach them again. What is our influence over these fellow travelers? What effort do we make to win them to Christ?

Time is short, and our forces must be organized to do a larger work. Laborers are needed who comprehend the greatness of the work and who will engage in it, not for the wages they receive, but from a realization of the nearness of the end. The time demands greater efficiency and deeper consecration. Oh, I am so full of this subject that I cry to God: “Raise up and send forth messengers filled with a sense of their responsibility, messengers in whose hearts self-idolatry, which lies at the foundation of all sin, has been crucified.” …

Putting our trust in God, we are to move steadily forward, doing His work with unselfishness, in humble dependence upon Him, committing ourselves and our present and future to His wise providence, holding the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end, remembering that it is not because of our worthiness that we receive the blessings of heaven, but because of the worthiness of Christ, and our acceptance, through faith in Him, of God’s abounding grace. – Testimonies for the Church 9:27-29.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 256.

Daily Devotional

August 2, 2019

Fallow Ground of the Human Heart Should Be Worked

Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you. Hosea 10:12, NKJV.

I want to exhort those who are in positions of responsibility to waken to their duty, and not imperil the cause of present truth by engaging inefficient men and women to do the work of God. We want those who are willing to go into new fields, and to do hard service for the Lord.

I remember visiting in Iowa when the country was new, and I saw the farmers breaking the new ground. I noticed that they had heavy teams, and made tremendous efforts to make deep furrows, but the laborers gained strength and muscle by the exercise of their physical powers. It will make our young workers strong to go into new fields, and break up the fallow ground of human hearts. This work will drive them nearer to God. It will help them to see that they are altogether inefficient in themselves.

They must be wholly the Lord’s. They must put away their self-esteem and self-importance, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ. When they do this, they will be willing to go without the camp, and bear the burden as good soldiers of the cross. They will gain efficiency and ability by mastering difficulties and overcoming obstacles. Workers are wanted for responsible positions, but they must be those who have given full proof of their ministry in willingness to wear the yoke of Christ. Heaven regards this class with approval.

I exhort you to have the eyesalve, that you may discern what God would have you do. There are too many Christless sermons preached. An array of powerless words only confirms the people in their backslidings. May God help us that His Spirit may be made manifest among us. We should not wait until we go home to obtain the blessing of Heaven. The ministers should begin right here with the people to seek God, and to work from the right standpoint. Those who have been long in the work have been far too content to wait for the showers of the latter rain to revive them.

We are the people who, like John, are to prepare the way of the Lord; and if we are prepared for the second coming of Christ, we must work with all diligence to prepare others for Christ’s second advent, as did the forerunner of Christ for His first advent, calling men and women to repentance…. May God help us to search the Scriptures for ourselves, and when we are all filled with the truth of God, it will flow out as water from a living spring. – The Review and Herald, October 8, 1889.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 255.