Daily Devotional

September 10, 2017

Repentance Essential During Day of Atonement

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.” Revelation 12:10, NKJV.

God is leading His people out from the abominations of the world, that they may keep His law; and because of this, the rage of “the accuser of our brethren” knows no bounds. “The devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”

The antitypical land of promise is just before us, and Satan is determined to destroy the people of God, and cut them off from their inheritance. The admonition “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation” was never more needed than now. We are now living in the great day of atonement. In the typical service, while the high priest was making the atonement for Israel, all were required to afflict their souls by repentance of sin and humiliation before the Lord, lest they be cut off from among the people.

In like manner, all who would have their names retained in the book of life should now, in the few remaining days of their probation, afflict their souls before God by sorrow for sin, and true repentance. There must be deep, faithful searching of heart. The light, frivolous spirit indulged by so many of professed Christians must be put away. There is earnest warfare before all who would subdue the evil tendencies that strive for the mastery.

The work of preparation is an individual work. We are not saved in groups. The purity and devotion of one will not offset the want of these qualities in another. Though all nations are to pass in judgment before God, yet He will examine the case of each individual with as close and searching scrutiny as if there were not another being upon the earth. Everyone must be tested, and found without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

Solemn are the scenes connected with the closing work of the atonement. Momentous are the interests involved therein. The judgment is now passing in the sanctuary above…. Soon – none know how soon – it will pass to the cases of the living….When the work of the investigative judgment closes, the destiny of all will have been decided for life or death. Probation is ended a short time before the appearing of the Lord in the clouds of heaven. Christ in the Revelation, looking forward to that time, declares: … “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” – The Gospel Herald, August 1910.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 380.

Daily Devotional

September 9, 2017

Everyone to Work for the Lost

And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16, NKJV.

“If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us”; and that love cannot be restrained…. Only by becoming partakers of the divine nature can the law of God be fulfilled by men and women. Only those who love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their neighbor as themselves, can give glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, good will to men. This was the work of Christ; and when His work is appreciated and represented by His followers, the great result will be achieved in the “joy that was set before him” in the saving of the souls for whom He gave His life.

The Lord has been laboring constantly from age to age to awaken in the souls of human beings a sense of their divine kinship, and thus to establish an order and divine harmony proportionate to the great and eternal deliverance He has wrought out for everyone who will receive Him. The Lord calls upon all who profess to believe in Him to be coworkers with Him, to use every God-given ability, opportunity, and privilege to lead perishing souls within the sphere of their influence to Jesus Christ.

Here is the only hope for transformation of character; this will give peace and joy in believing, and fit them for the society of the heavenly angels in the kingdom of God. Oh, how earnest, persevering, and untiring should be the efforts of every sin-pardoned soul to seek to bring other souls to Jesus Christ, that their neighbors shall become joint-heirs with Jesus!

Whoever is your neighbor is to be sought for, labored for. Are they ignorant? Let your communication, your association, make them more intelligent. The outcast, the youth, full of defects in character, are the very ones God enjoins upon us to help. “I came not to call the righteous,” said Christ, “but sinners to repentance.” …

Those who will be humble enough to learn, the very nobility of the world will consider it an honor to go to heaven in their company, and angels of God will cooperate with such as are workers together with God. We need to hunger and thirst after righteousness, that we may have Christ in us as a well of water, springing up into everlasting life. – Special Instruction Relating to the Review and Herald Office and the Work in Battle Creek, 4-6.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 379.

Daily Devotional

September 8, 2017

God’s People to Reflect His Glory

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. Isaiah 61:1, NKJV.

The Lord is not pleased to have His people a band of mourners. He wants them to repent of their sins, that they may enjoy the liberty of the children of God. Then they will be filled with the praises of God, and will be a blessing to others. The Lord Jesus was anointed also “to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.” …

Oh, that this might be the purpose of our lives! Then we should have regard even to the expression of our countenance, to our words, and even to the tone of our voice when we speak. All our business transactions would be wrought in faith and integrity. Then would the world be convinced that there is a people that are loyal to the God of heaven….

God calls for all to come into harmony with Himself. He will receive them if they will put away their evil actions. By a union with the divine nature of Christ, they may escape the corrupting influences of this world. It is time for every one of us to decide whose side we are on. The agencies of Satan will work with every mind that will allow itself to be worked by him. But there are also heavenly agencies waiting to communicate the bright rays of the glory of God to all that are willing to receive Him. It is truth that we want, precious truth in all its loveliness. Truth will bring liberty and gladness. – The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 4, 1153, 1154.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 378.

Daily Devotional

September 7, 2017

Jesus Pays the Debt of Repentant Sinners

Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Romans 2:4, NKJV.

Among the disciples who ministered to Paul at Rome was Onesimus, a fugitive slave from the city of Colosse. He belonged to a Christian named Philemon, a member of the Colossian church. But he had robbed his master and fled to Rome…. In the kindness of his heart, the apostle sought to relieve the poverty and distress of the wretched fugitive, and then endeavored to shed the light of truth into his darkened mind. Onesimus listened attentively to the words of life which he had once despised, and was converted to the faith of Christ. He now confessed his sin against his master, and gratefully accepted the counsel of the apostle.

He had endeared himself to Paul by his piety, meekness, and sincerity, no less than by his tender care for the apostle’s comfort and his zeal to promote the work of the gospel. Paul saw in him traits of character that would render him a useful helper in missionary labor, and he would gladly have kept him at Rome. But he would not do this without the full consent of Philemon.

He therefore decided that Onesimus should at once return to his master…. It was a severe test for this servant to thus deliver himself up to the master he had wronged; but he had been truly converted, and, painful as it was, he did not shrink from this duty. Paul made Onesimus the bearer of a letter to Philemon, in which he with great delicacy and kindness pleaded the cause of the repentant slave, and intimated his own wishes concerning him….

He requests Philemon to receive him as his own child. He says that it was his desire to retain Onesimus, that he might act the same part in ministering to him in his bonds as Philemon would have done. But he did not desire his services unless Philemon should voluntarily set him free; for it might be in the providence of God that Onesimus had left his master for a season in so improper a manner, that, being converted, he might on his return be forgiven and received with such affection that he would choose to dwell with him ever after, “not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved.” …

How fitting an illustration of the love of Christ toward repenting sinners! As the servant who had defrauded his master had nothing with which to make restitution, so sinners who have robbed God of years of service have no means of canceling their debt; Jesus interposes between them and the just wrath of God, and says, I will pay the debt. Let them be spared the punishment of their guilt. I will suffer in their stead. – Sketches from the Life of Paul, 284-287.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 377.

Daily Devotional

September 5, 2017

Jesus’ Love Draws Sinners to Repentance

Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself. John 12:31, 32, NKJV.

Christ came to manifest the love of God to the world to draw the hearts of all to Himself…. The first step toward salvation is to respond to the drawing of the love of Christ. God sends message after message to people, entreating them to repentance, that He may forgive, and write pardon against their names. Shall there be no repentance? Shall His appeals be unheeded? Shall His overtures of mercy be ignored, and His love utterly rejected?

Oh, then sinners will cut themselves off from the medium through which they may gain life eternal; for God only pardons the penitent. By the manifestation of His love, by the entreating of His Spirit, He woos them to repentance; for repentance is the gift of God, and whom He pardons He first makes penitent. The sweetest joy comes through sincere repentance toward God for the transgression of His law, and through faith in Christ as the sinner’s Redeemer and Advocate.

It is that all may understand the joy of forgiveness, the peace of God, that Christ draws them through the manifestation of His love. If they respond to His drawing, yielding their hearts to His grace, He will lead them on step by step, to a full knowledge of Himself; and this is life eternal.

Christ came to reveal to the sinner the justice and love of God, that He might give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins. When sinners behold Jesus lifted up upon the cross, suffering the guilt of the transgressor, bearing the penalty of sin; when they behold God’s abhorrence of evil in the fearful manifestation of the death of the cross, and His love for fallen humanity, they are led to repentance toward God because of their transgression of the law which is holy, and just, and good. They exercise faith in Christ, because the divine Savior has become their Substitute, Surety, and Advocate, the one in whom their very life is centered. To repenting sinners God can show His mercy and truth, and bestow upon them His forgiveness and love….

By the suffering and death of Christ is proved His boundless love to human beings. He is willing and able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him. – The Signs of the Times, September 12, 1911.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 375.