Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.—Psalm 119:105

Christ is the center of all true doctrine. All true religion is found in His word and in nature. He is the One in whom our hopes of eternal life are centered; and the teacher who learns from Him finds a safe anchorage.

All that the mind can grasp is opened before us in the Bible. This is our spiritual food. We are to contemplate the wonderful works of God and repeat to our children the lessons learned, that we may lead them to see His skill, His power, and His grandeur in His created works.

What a God is our God! He rules over His kingdom with diligence and care, and He has built a hedge—the Ten Commandments—about His subjects to preserve them from the results of transgression. In requiring obedience to the laws of His kingdom, God gives His people health and happiness, peace and joy. He teaches them that the perfection of character He requires can be attained only by becoming familiar with His word.

It is written in the prophets: “O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee” (Isaiah 54:11-14).

“This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:33, 34).—Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 453, 454.

Further Reflection: If it is not possible to experience perfection of character without spending time in God’s Word, how can I change my schedule to spend more time in biblical study?

From Jesus, Name Above All Names

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.—Psalm 103:8

God has done His part of the work for the salvation of men and women, and now He calls for the co-operation of the church. There is the blood of Christ, the Word of truth, the Holy Spirit, and there are the perishing souls. Every follower of Christ has a part to act to bring men and women to accept the blessings Heaven has provided. Let us closely examine ourselves, and see if we have done this work. Let us question the motives, the actions of the life. Are there not many unpleasant pictures hanging in memory’s halls? …

Have not Christ and His love been shut out from your life, until a mechanical form has taken the place of heart service? Where is the kindling of soul you once felt at the mention of the name of Jesus? In the freshness of your early dedication, how fervent was your love for souls. How earnestly you sought to represent to them the Saviour’s love. The absence of that love has made you cold, critical, exacting. Seek to win it back, and then labor to bring souls to Christ. If you refuse to do this, others who have had less light and experience, and fewer opportunities, will come up and take your place, and do that which you have neglected; for the work must be done to save the tempted, the tried, the perishing. Christ offers the service to His church; who will accept it?

God has not been unmindful of the good deeds, the self-denying acts, of the church in the past. All are registered on high. But these are not enough. These will not save the church when she ceases to fulfill her mission. Unless the cruel neglect and indifference manifested in the past shall cease, the church, instead of going from strength to strength, will continue to degenerate into weakness and formality….

Brethren, your own lamps will surely flicker and become dim, until they go out in darkness, unless you shall make decided efforts to reform. “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do thy first works.” The opportunity now presented may be short. If this season of grace and repentance passes unimproved, the warning is given, “I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place.” These words are uttered by the long-suffering, Forbearing One.—The Review and Herald, November 30, 1886.

Further Reflection: Do I still get excited about my Savior, and seeing the lost saved?

From Jesus, Name Above All Names

“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”—John 6:38

Can we not reason from cause to effect? Can we not see that because of our slothfulness in trading on the Lord’s goods, because of our selfishness in refusing to return to Him His own portion, His work is retarded?

When Christ made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the applause of the multitude was at its height. Hosannas were on the lips of the people; but the Saviour felt no joy. He beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, “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.” He saw the thousands and thousands soon to be involved in the terrible destruction of the doomed city. How deep must His emotion have been as He thought of the nation that had forged its own fetters, sealed its own doom, gathered about it the cloud of Jehovah’s wrath. “You have defiantly resisted all My pleadings,” He said. “Again and again I have averted the bolts of justice. In love I have waited for your penitence and repentance. I have borne with you as a man beareth with his own son that serveth him. But ye would not come unto Me that ye might have life.”

But Christ’s agonizing tears were not shed only for Jerusalem. He wept as He thought of the terrible retribution to fall upon an unrepentant world. He is still working in patience and love for the salvation of sinners. Is not the divine Messenger knocking at the door of the heart for entrance? Is not the Spirit striving with sinners? Has not Christ invited sin-sick souls to sit at His feet and learn of Him, to wear His yoke of submission and obedience? Has He not traversed the length and breadth of the land, scattering blessings in His path? There is no wearying of His patience, no repressing of His love. Hear His voice speaking to the weak, the weary, the helpless. “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Will you not let grace soften the heart of stone?—The Review and Herald, December 3, 1901.

Further Reflection: How tender is the heart of Jesus? Can I hear Him as He knocks at the door of my heart?

From Jesus, Name Above All Names

“Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.”—Jeremiah 32:17

Health is a blessing of which few appreciate the value; yet upon it the efficiency of our mental and physical powers largely depends. Our impulses and passions have their seat in the body, and it must be kept in the best condition physically and under the most spiritual influences in order that our talents may be put to the highest use.

Anything that lessens physical strength enfeebles the mind and makes it less capable of discriminating between right and wrong. We become less capable of choosing the good and have less strength of will to do that which we know to be right.

The misuse of our physical powers shortens the period of time in which our lives can be used for the glory of God. And it unfits us to accomplish the work God has given us to do. By allowing ourselves to form wrong habits, by keeping late hours, by gratifying appetite at the expense of health, we lay the foundation for feebleness. By neglecting physical exercise, by overworking mind or body, we unbalance the nervous system. Those who thus shorten their lives and unfit themselves for service by disregarding nature’s laws, are guilty of robbery toward God. And they are robbing their fellow human beings also. The opportunity of blessing others, the very work for which God sent them into the world, has by their own course of action been cut short. And they have unfitted themselves to do even that which in a briefer period of time they might have accomplished. The Lord holds us guilty when by our injurious habits we thus deprive the world of good.

Transgression of physical law is transgression of the moral law; for God is as truly the Author of physical laws as He is the Author of the moral law. His law is written with His own finger upon every nerve, every muscle, every faculty, which has been entrusted to human beings. And every misuse of any part of our organism is a violation of that law.

All should have an intelligent knowledge of the human frame that they may keep their bodies in the condition necessary to do the work of the Lord.—Christ’s Object Lessons, 346-348.

Further Reflection: Have I robbed God of usefulness by failing to care for my body temple? What health habit do I need to begin today?

From Jesus, Name Above All Names

If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.—1 John 1:6

Had silver and gold been sufficient to purchase the salvation of men, how easily might it have been accomplished by Him who says, “The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine” (Haggai 2:8). But only by the precious blood of the Son of God could the transgressor be redeemed. The plan of salvation was laid in sacrifice. The apostle Paul wrote, “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Christ gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity. And as the crowning blessing of salvation, “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren,” Peter continued, “see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.” The word of God—the truth—is the channel through which the Lord manifests His Spirit and power. Obedience to the word produces fruit of the required quality—“unfeigned love of the brethren.” This love is heaven-born and leads to high motives and unselfish actions.

When truth becomes an abiding principle in the life, the soul is “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” This new birth is the result of receiving Christ as the Word of God. When by the Holy Spirit divine truths are impressed upon the heart, new conceptions are awakened, and the energies hitherto dormant are aroused to co-operate with God.

Thus it had been with Peter and his fellow disciples. Christ was the revealer of truth to the world. By Him the incorruptible seed—the word of God—was sown in the hearts of men and women. But many of the most precious lessons of the Great Teacher were spoken to those who did not then understand them. When, after His ascension, the Holy Spirit brought His teachings to the remembrance of the disciples, their slumbering senses awoke.—The Acts of the Apostles, 519, 520.

Further Reflection: What is my newest change in attitude or behavior that came as a result of truth revealed by the Holy Spirit?

From Jesus, Name Above All Names