Daily Devotional

January 17, 2019

Commandment-keeping Families Glorify Christ

Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray. Proverbs 22:6, NRSV.

Children must be taught that they are a part of the home firm. They are fed, and clothed, and loved, and cared for; and they must respond to these many mercies by bringing all the happiness possible into the family of which they are members. Thus they become children of God, missionaries in the home circle.

If parents neglect the education of their children, they deprive them of that which is necessary for the development of a symmetrical, all-sided character, which will be of the greatest blessing to them all through their life. If children are allowed to have their own way, they receive the idea that they must be waited upon, cared for, indulged, and amused. They think that their wishes and their will must be gratified. Educated in this way, they carry through all their religious experience the deficiencies of their home training.

God would have our families symbols of the family in heaven. Let parents and children bear this in mind every day, relating themselves to one another as members of the family of God. Then their lives will be of such a character as to give to the world an object lesson of what families who love God and keep His commandments may be. Christ will be glorified; His peace and grace and love will pervade the family circle like a precious perfume. A beautiful offering, in the lives of children of Christian missionaries, will be made to God. This will make the heart of Jesus glad, and will be regarded by Him as the most precious offering He can receive.

May the Lord Jesus Christ be an object of worship in every family. If parents give their children the proper education, they themselves will be made happy by seeing the fruit of their careful training in the Christlike character of their children. They are doing God the highest service by presenting to the world well-ordered, well-disciplined families, who not only fear the Lord, but honor and glorify Him by their influence upon other families; and they will receive their reward. – The Review and Herald, November 17, 1896.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 52.

Daily Devotional

January 16, 2019

Obedience to Be Rewarded

Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Colossians 3:20, NKJV.

Children who dishonor and disobey their parents, and disregard their advice and instructions, can have no part in the earth made new. The purified new earth will be no place for the rebellious, the disobedient, the ungrateful, son or daughter. Unless such learn obedience and submission here, they will never learn it; the peace of the ransomed will not be marred by disobedient, unruly, unsubmissive children. No commandment breaker can inherit the kingdom of heaven….

The young are required in whatsoever they do, in word or deed, to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. I saw that but few of the youth understand what it is to be Christians, to be Christlike. They will have to learn the truths of God’s Word before they can conform their lives to the pattern. There is not one young person in twenty who has experienced in his or her life that separation from the world which the Lord requires of all who would become members of His family, children of the heavenly King. “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

What a promise is here made upon condition of obedience! Do you have to cut loose from friends and relatives in deciding to obey the elevated truths of God’s Word? Take courage, God has made provision for you, His arms are open to receive you. Come out from among them and be separate, and touch not the unclean, and He will receive you. He promises to be a Father unto you. Oh, what a relationship is this! higher and holier than any earthly tie. If you make the sacrifice, if you have to forsake father, mother, sisters, brothers, wife, and children for Christ’s sake, you will not be friendless. God adopts you into His family; you become members of the royal household, sons and daughters of the King who rules in the heaven of heavens. Can you desire a more exalted position than is here promised? Is not this enough? – Testimonies for the Church 1:497-510.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 51.

Daily Devotional

January 15, 2019

Happiness Guarded by God’s Law

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh. Romans 8:3, NKJV.

The happiness of human beings must always be guarded by the law of God. In obedience only can they find true happiness. The law is the hedge which God has placed about His vineyard. By it those who obey are protected from evil. In transgression Adam became a law to himself. By disobedience he was brought under bondage. Thus a discordant element, born of selfishness, entered human beings. Their will and God’s will no longer harmonized. Adam had united with the disloyal forces, and self-will took the field.

By Christ the true standard is presented. He made it possible for humankind to be once more united with God. He came to take the sentence of death for the transgressor. Not one precept of the law could be altered to meet men and women in their fallen condition; therefore Christ gave His life in their behalf, to suffer in their stead the penalty of disobedience. This was the only way in which humanity could be saved, the only way in which it could be demonstrated that it is possible for them to keep the law. Christ came to this earth and stood where Adam stood, overcoming where Adam failed to overcome. He is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption….

Before the foundation of the world, Christ pledged His word that He would give His life as a ransom if men and women turned from their allegiance to God. He revealed His love by humbling Himself, stooping from heaven to work among fallen, disorderly, lawless human beings. Of themselves they could not possibly cope with the enemy. Christ offers Himself and all He has, His glory, His character, to the service of those who return to their loyalty and keep the law of God. This is their only hope. Christ says definitely, I came not to destroy the law. It is a transcript of God’s character, and I came to carry out its every specification. I came to vindicate it by living it in human nature, giving an example of perfect obedience. – The Signs of the Times, June 13, 1900.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 50.

Daily Devotional

January 14, 2019

Christ, the Model of True Obedience

Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? Romans 6:16, NKJV.

Adam did not stop to calculate the result of his disobedience….With the aftersight we are privileged to have, we can see what it means to disobey God’s commandments. Adam yielded to temptation, and as we have the matter of sin and its consequences laid so distinctly before us, we can read from cause to effect and see the greatness of the act is not that which constitutes sin; but the disobedience of God’s expressed will, which is a virtual denial of God, refusing the laws of His government.

The happiness of men and women is in their obedience to the laws of God. In their obedience to God’s law they are surrounded as with a hedge and kept from the evil. They cannot be happy and depart from God’s specified requirements, and set up a standard of their own, which they decide they can safely follow. Then there would be a variety of standards to suit the different minds, and the government [would be] taken out of the Lord’s hands and human beings [would] grasp the reins of government. The law of self is erected, the will of humankind is made supreme, and when the high and holy will of God is presented to be obeyed, respected, and honored the human will wants its own way to do its own promptings, and there is a controversy between the human agent and the divine.

The fall of our first parents broke the golden chain of implicit obedience of the human will to the divine. Obedience has no longer been deemed an absolute necessity. The human agents follow their own imaginations, which the Lord said of the inhabitants of the old world were evil and that continually. The Lord Jesus declares, “I have kept my Father’s commandments.” How? As a man. Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. To the accusations of the Jews He stood forth in His pure, virtuous, holy character and challenged them, “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” …

The only-begotten Son of the infinite God has, by His words, His practical example, left us a plain pattern which we are to copy. By His words He has educated us to obey God, and by His own practice He has showed us how we can obey God. – Manuscript Releases 6:337-339.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 49.

Daily Devotional

January 13, 2019

Obedience Through Grace

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8, NKJV.

God desires us to reach the standard of perfection made possible for us by the gift of Christ. He calls upon us to make our choice on the right side, to connect with heavenly agencies, to adopt principles that will restore in us the divine image. In His written Word and in the great book of nature He has revealed the principles of life. It is our work to obtain a knowledge of these principles, and by obedience to cooperate with Him in restoring health to the body as well as to the soul.

Human beings need to learn that the blessings of obedience, in their fullness, can be theirs only as they receive the grace of Christ. It is His grace that gives men and women power to obey the laws of God. It is this that enables them to break the bondage of evil habit. This is the only power that can make them and keep them steadfast in the right path….

When the gospel is received in its purity and power, it is a cure for the maladies that originated in sin. The Sun of Righteousness arises, “with healing in his wings” (Malachi 4:2). Not all that this world bestows can heal a broken heart, or impart peace of mind, or remove care, or banish disease. Fame, genius, talent – all are powerless to gladden the sorrowful heart or to restore the wasted life. The life of God in the soul is humanity’s only hope.

The love which Christ diffuses through the whole being is a vitalizing power. Every vital part – the brain, the heart, the nerves – it touches with healing…. It implants in the soul joy that nothing earthly can destroy – joy in the Holy Spirit – health-giving, life-giving joy….

Although for ages sin has been strengthening its hold on the human race, although through falsehood and artifice Satan has cast the black shadow of his interpretation upon the Word of God, and has caused men and women to doubt His goodness; yet the Father’s mercy and love have not ceased to flow earthward in rich currents. If human beings would open the windows of the soul heavenward, in appreciation of the divine gifts, a flood of healing virtue would pour in. – The Ministry of Healing, 114-116.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 48.