Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them. Matthew 28:19.

Our churches are often appealed to for gifts and offerings to aid missionary enterprises in the home field and to sustain the missionary work abroad…. From every church prayers should ascend to God for an increase of devotion and liberality. Those whose hearts are knit with the heart of Christ will be glad to do what they can to help the cause of God. They will rejoice in the continual expansion and advancement, which means larger and more frequently given offerings.

We may well feel that it is a privilege to be laborers together with God by giving of our means to set in operation that which will carry out His purposes in the world. All who possess that Spirit of Christ will have a tender, sympathetic heart and an open, generous hand. Nothing can be really selfish that has Christ for its absorbing object….

Consider the necessities of our mission fields throughout the world. Our missionaries labor hard and earnestly, but often they are greatly hindered in their work because the treasury is empty, and they cannot be given facilities necessary for the greatest success of their labor. May God help those who have been entrusted with this world’s goods to awaken to His design and to their individual responsibilities. God says to them, I have put you in possession of My goods that you may trade upon them to carry forward the Christian missions that are to be established far and near….

Not all can go as missionaries to foreign lands, but all can do the work waiting for them in their own neighborhood. All can give of their means for the carrying forward of foreign missionary work….

God will encourage His faithful stewards who are ready to put all their energies and God-given endowments to the very best use. As all learn the lesson of faithfully rendering to God what is His due, He through His providence will enable some to bring princely offerings. He will enable others to make smaller offerings; and the small and the large gifts are acceptable to Him if given with an eye single to His glory. “He that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness; being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.”—The Review and Herald, April 18, 1912.

From From the Heart

The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. Mark 10:45.

Christ was continually receiving from the Father, that He might communicate to us. “The word which ye hear,” He said, “is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.” … Not for Himself, but for others, He lived and thought and prayed. From hours spent with God He came forth morning by morning to bring the light of heaven to those who heard Him. Daily He received a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit. In the early hours of the new day the Lord awakened Him from His slumbers, and His soul and His lips were anointed with grace, that He might impart to others. His words were given Him fresh from the heavenly courts, words that He might speak in season to the weary and oppressed….

Christ’s disciples were much impressed by His prayers and by His habit of communion with God. One day after a short absence from their Lord, they found Him absorbed in supplication. Seemingly unconscious of their presence, He continued praying aloud. The hearts of the disciples were deeply moved. As He ceased praying, they exclaimed, “Lord, teach us to pray.” In answer Christ repeated the Lord’s Prayer, as He had given it in the Sermon on the Mount….

“Which of you,” He said, “shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?” …

Here Christ represents the petitioner as asking that he may give again…. In like manner the disciples were to seek blessings from God. In the feeding of the multitude and in the sermon on the bread from heaven, Christ had opened to them their work as His representatives. They were to give the bread of life to the people…. Souls that were hungering for the bread of life would come to them, and they would feel themselves to be destitute and helpless. They must receive spiritual food, or they would have nothing to impart. But they were not to turn one soul away unfed. Christ directs them to the source of supply…. And would not God, who had sent His servants to feed the hungry, supply their need for His own work?—The Review and Herald, August 11, 1910.

From From the Heart

He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad. Matthew 12:30.

Half-converted men and women make halfhearted Christians. They are fruitless trees. On them Christ looks in vain for fruit; He finds nothing but leaves….

If Christ and self could be served at the same time, a large number would join the ranks of those who are journeying heavenward. But it is not for such as these that Jesus calls. His cause does not need such adherents.

Christ’s true followers use their knowledge to make others the recipients of His grace. With their lamps filled with holy oil, they go forth to give light to those in darkness. Such workers see many souls turning to the Lord. New truths continually unfold to them, and as they receive, they impart.

Those for whom the fetters of sin have been broken, who have sought the Lord with brokenness of heart and have obtained answer to their yearning requests for righteousness, are never cold and spiritless. They realize that they have a part to act in the work of soul-saving. They watch and pray and work for the salvation of souls. Molded and fashioned by the Holy Spirit, they gain depth and breadth and stability of Christian character. They gain enduring spiritual happiness. Walking in Christ’s footsteps, they become identified with Him in His self-sacrificing plans. Such Christians are not cold and unimpressible. Their hearts are filled with unselfish love for sinners. They put away from them all worldly ambition, all self-seeking. Contact with the deep things of God makes them more and more like their Savior. They exult in His triumphs; they are filled with His joy. Day by day they are growing up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus….

By the way in which we do the work Christ has given us to do in His absence, we decide our future destiny…. Christ, the Master of the household, has gone to prepare for us mansions in the heavenly city. We are waiting for His return. Let us honor Him in His absence by doing with faithfulness the work He has placed in our hands. Waiting, watching, working, we are to prepare for His return.—Signs of the Times, July 9, 1902.

From From the Heart

You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain. John 15:16.

Christ ever rebuked the Pharisees for their self-righteousness…. They were exalted to heaven in point of opportunity, in having the Scriptures, in knowing the true God, but their hearts were not filled with thankfulness to God for His great goodness toward them. They came forth filled with spiritual pride, and their theme was self—“myself, my feelings, my knowledge, my ways.” Their own attainments became the standard by which they measured others….

Let every disciple of Christ inquire in all humility of mind, What must I do to be saved? If we sincerely desire to understand, we shall know. It is not because of our riches, our knowledge, our superiority of position, that Jesus loves us and blesses us, but because we believe in Him as our personal Savior. Jesus loved us while we were yet sinners, but having chosen us He says He has ordained us to go and bring forth fruit. Has each one something to do? Certainly, everyone that is yoked up with Christ must bear His burden, work in His lines…. The life of Christ’s pardoning love in the soul is as a well of water springing up unto eternal life. If the well of water is in the heart, then the entire life will reveal the fact, and the refreshing grace of God will be made manifest.

Religion is not simply to have joyous feelings, to be conscious of having privileges and light, to have rapturous emotions, while expending all the energies to keep a balance in the Christian life, while doing nothing for the salvation of souls. Religion is doing the words of Christ; it is standing as faithful sentinels, not doing to earn salvation, but doing because, all undeserving, you have received the heavenly gift. Religion is to work out God’s plans, to cooperate with the intelligences of heaven….

If we will follow on to know the Lord, our views will broaden. They will not be bound about by self. We should pray the Lord to enlarge our understanding, so that we may not only understand that Jesus Christ is our substitute and surety, but that we belong to Christ as His purchased possession. Paul says, “Ye are bought with a price,” and draws this conclusion, “Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”—Signs of the Times, December 17, 1894.

From From the Heart

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24.

Satan presents the same temptations today that he presented to Adam, and to Jesus, the second Adam, who overcame him and made it possible for us to overcome…. Our efforts and Christ’s power will bring us off conquerors….

All heaven is watching with interest to see what use we are making of God’s entrusted talents. If we lay up treasure in heaven, we shall use the Lord’s goods to advance His cause, to save souls, and to bless humanity, and all that is so used the Lord will place to our account in the bank that never fails. When the heart loves God supremely, property is no hindrance to advancement in the Christian warfare, because the consecrated followers of Jesus will discern the best investments to make, and will use their wealth to bless the children of God.

The constant employment of the capabilities to amass wealth on earth binds us to earth. We become slaves to mammon. When wealth increases, the idolatrous heart becomes forgetful of God, and grows self-secure and satisfied. Religious duties are neglected. There is an impatience manifested under restraint, and we become self-sufficient…. The world comes in between the soul and heaven. Our eyes are blinded by the “god of this world,” so that we cannot discern or appreciate the value of eternal things….

Motives stronger, and agencies more powerful, could never be brought into operation—the enjoyment of heaven, the exceeding rewards for right-doing, the society of angels, the communion and love of God and His Son, the elevation and extension of all our powers throughout eternal ages; and it hath not “entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Are these not mighty incentives and encouragements to urge us to give our heart’s loving service to our Creator and Redeemer? …

Shall we not regard the great mercy of God? Let us place ourselves in right relation to Him who has loved us with amazing love, and avail ourselves of the great privilege of becoming instruments in His hands, that we may cooperate with the ministering angels and be colaborers with God and Christ.—Bible Echo (Australia), Feb. 15, 1889.

From From the Heart