Daily Devotional

March 10, 2017

Follow Christ and Defeat the Enemy

For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world. 1 John 2:16, NKJV.

Many of the people of God are stupefied by the spirit of the world, and are denying their faith by their works. They cultivate a love for money, for houses and lands, until it absorbs the powers of mind and being, and shuts out love for the Creator and for souls for whom Christ died. The God of this world has blinded their eyes; their eternal interests are made secondary; and brain, bone, and muscle are taxed to the utmost to increase their worldly possessions. And all this accumulation of cares and burdens is borne in direct violation of the injunction of Christ, who said, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.”

They forget that He said also, “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven”; that in so doing they are working for their own interest. The treasure laid up in heaven is safe; no thief can approach nor moth corrupt it. But their treasure is upon the earth, and their affections are upon their treasure.

In the wilderness, Christ met the great leading temptations that would assail humanity. There, singlehanded, He encountered the wily, subtle foe, and overcame him. The first great temptation was upon appetite; the second, presumption; the third, love of the world. The thrones and kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, were offered to Christ. Satan came with worldly honor, wealth, and the pleasures of life, and presented them in the most attractive light to allure and deceive. “All these things,” said he to Christ, “will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Yet Christ repelled the wily foe, and came off victor….

The example of Christ is before us. He overcame Satan, showing us how we also may overcome. Christ resisted Satan with Scripture. He might have had recourse to His own divine power, and used His own words; but He said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” If the Sacred Scriptures were studied and followed, the Christian would be fortified to meet the wily foe; but the Word of God is neglected, and disaster and defeat follow. – Counsels on Stewardship, 209, 210.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 200.

Daily Devotional

March 9, 2017

God Not Pleased With Tasteless Disorder

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes.” … And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God. Exodus 19:10-17, NKJV.

Some receive the idea that in order to carry out that separation from the world which the Word of God requires, they must be neglectful of their apparel. There is a class of sisters who think that they are carrying out the principle of nonconformity to the world by wearing … the same dress worn by them through the week, upon the Sabbath, to appear in the assembly of the saints to engage in the worship of God.

And some men who profess to be Christians view the matter of dress in the same light. They assemble with God’s people upon the Sabbath, with their clothing dusty, and soiled, and even with gaping rents in them, and placed upon their persons in a slovenly manner.

This class, if they had an engagement to meet a friend honored by the world, and they wished to be especially favored by him or her, would exert themselves to appear … with the best apparel that could be obtained; for this friend would feel insulted were they to come … with hair uncombed, and garments uncleanly, and in disorder.

Yet these persons think that it is no matter in what dress they appear, or what is the condition of their persons, when they meet upon the Sabbath to worship the great God. They assemble in His house, which is as the audience chamber of the Most High, where heavenly angels are in attendance, with but little respect, or reverence, as their persons and clothing indicate. Their whole appearance typifies the character of such men and women.

The favorite theme of this class is pride of dress. Decency, taste, and order, they regard as pride. And according to the dress of these mistaken souls will be their conversation, their acts, and their deal. They are careless, and often low in their conversation at their homes, among their brethren and sisters, and before the world. The dress, and its arrangement upon the person, is generally found to be the index of the man or the woman. Those who are careless and untidy in dress are seldom elevated in their conversation, and possess but little refinement of feelings. They sometimes consider oddity and coarseness, humility….

Our God is a God of order, and He is not in any degree pleased with distraction, with filthiness, or with sin. – Selected Messages 2:475, 476.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 199.

Daily Devotional

March 8, 2017

Fanaticism and Noise No Evidence of Faith

Thanks be to God, I speak in tongues more than all of you; but in the congregation I would rather speak five words intelligibly to instruct others than a myriad of words in a tongue. 1 Corinthians 14:18, 19, MLB.

Error must first be rooted up, then the soil is prepared for the good seed to spring up and bear fruit to the glory of God.

The only remedy … is thorough discipline and organization. A spirit of fanaticism has ruled a certain class of Sabbathkeepers …; they have sipped but lightly at the fountain of truth and are unacquainted with the spirit of the message of the third angel. Nothing can be done for this class until their fanatical views are corrected. Some who were in the 1854 movement have brought along with them erroneous views, such as the non-resurrection of the wicked, and the future age, and they are seeking to unite these views and their past experience with the message of the third angel. They cannot do this; there is no concord between Christ and Belial.

The non-resurrection of the wicked and their peculiar views of the age to come are gross errors which Satan has worked in among the last-day heresies to serve his own purpose to ruin souls. These errors can have no harmony with the message of heavenly origin.

Some of these persons have exercises which they call gifts and say that the Lord has placed them in the church. They have an unmeaning gibberish which they call the unknown tongue, which is unknown not only by human beings but by the Lord and all heaven. Such gifts are manufactured by men and women, aided by the great deceiver. Fanaticism, false excitement, false talking in tongues, and noisy exercises have been considered gifts which God has placed in the church. Some have been deceived here. The fruits of all this have not been good. “Ye shall know them by their fruits.”

Fanaticism and noise have been considered special evidences of faith. Some are not satisfied with a meeting unless they have a powerful and happy time. They work for this and get up an excitement of feeling. But the influence of such meetings is not beneficial. When the happy flight of feeling is gone, they sink lower than before the meeting because their happiness did not come from the right source. The most profitable meetings for spiritual advancement are those which are characterized with solemnity and deep searching of heart; each seeking to know themselves, and earnestly, and in deep humility, seeking to learn of Christ. – Testimonies for the Church 1:411, 412.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 198.