Fear of Witnessing Gone

Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. Acts 5:28, 29.
I heard those clothed with the armor speak forth the truth in great power. It had effect. I saw those who had been bound; some wives had been bound by their husbands, and some children had been bound by their parents. The honest who had been held or prevented from hearing the truth now eagerly laid hold of the truth spoken. All fear of their relatives was gone. The truth alone was exalted to them. It was dearer and more precious than life. They had been hungering and thirsting for truth. I asked what had made this great change. An angel answered, “It is the latter rain. The refreshing from the presence of the Lord. The loud cry of the third angel.”
Great power was with these chosen ones. Said the angel, “Look ye!” My attention was turned to the wicked, or unbelievers. They were all astir. The zeal and power with the people of God had aroused and enraged them. Confusion, confusion was on every side. I saw measures taken against this company, who were having the power and light of God. Darkness thickened around them, yet there they stood, approved of God, and trusting in Him. I saw them perplexed.
Next I heard them crying unto God earnestly. Through the day and night their cry ceased not. I heard these words, “Thy will, O God, be done! If it can glorify Thy name, make a way of escape for Thy people! Deliver us from the heathen round about us! They have appointed us unto death; but Thine arm can bring salvation.” These are all the words I can bring to mind. They seemed to have a deep sense of their unworthiness, and manifested entire submission to the will of God. Yet everyone, without an exception, was earnestly pleading, and wrestling like Jacob for deliverance.—The Review and Herald, December 31, 1857.
Ye Shall Receive Power p. 339
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for travelling mercies for E and children as they go to visit her best friend. R
—-I start a new medicine tomorrow and I am concerned with side effects. Prayers I have wisdom as I am switching meds and that it will be a good change for me. Jennifer
—-I have the flu. My daughter took my grandson and me to the ER on Sunday, and they did the test. We are both miserable! Please pray for it to pass quickly and that my disabled daughter doesn’t get it! Mary
—-Please pray for a 2-year-old boy named Legend. They just found a tumor on his liver. AC
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Dear Friends,
Much is said these days about the homeless that we see upon our city streets. Every day on my way to work, I pass a long line of these men at a certain mission. They are awaiting breakfast. Some of them look totally unkempt, others amazingly well groomed. Yet, all are in need for various reasons.
When I was a little girl, there were many homeless men wandering around as well. It was not uncommon to see homeless men (They were called “hobos” or “bums” in those days.) leaning against one of the buildings, sitting on a bench, or panhandling door-to-door or in front of one of the stores downtown. My mother would try to ignore them, but not me. I always smiled and waved and sometimes even talked to these dirty, rough-looking men as they would eat a sandwich that my grandmother had given them in answer to their knock. They didn’t scare me, I remembered all of the stories my grandfather had told me of his growing-up years when he had been homeless and ridden the rails.
As I listened to the stories of my grandfather’s experience of being homeless, I often dreamed of being totally free to travel wherever I wished and explore whatever I saw. I decided that I would become a bum when I grew up and travel in boxcars just like my grandfather did and experience as many adventures as he had.
One day, as my mother and I were walking to town, my mother saw a lady that she knew. This lady was waiting for the train. She was a very fancy lady and my mother was trying to impress her. As they were talking, this lady noticed me. There I was, dressed in a frilly dress, having on hat and white gloves, standing quietly at my mother’s side, and looking up at her with wondering eyes. She was someone new, someone fancy, someone to ponder.
She bent down and shook my hand. She began talking to me. I answered her politely. She thought that I was quite the little lady for a four-year-old. Then she made the mistake of asking, “And what would you like to be when you grow up?” Expecting to hear the customary “nurse” or “teacher,” shock registered all over her face when, pointing to the bums who were lounging nearby, I looked up at her innocently and said, “A hobo.” That fancy lady was horrified! My poor mother was mortified! Their conversation came to an abrupt end, as my mother excused herself, grabbed my hand, and hurriedly headed toward town. She had many things to say to me as we walked the rest of the way.
How many times we set our sights too low just as I had done that far-off day. We get so focused on the mundane things of life that we forget what our Great Redeemer longs to give us. He says, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” Luke 11:9-13
Even though we have that wonderful promise, how often we wander through our Christian life as spiritual hobos. God’s great gift of salvation is ours for the asking yet how few claim it. How few put forth the effort to accept it. Fewer still embrace it wholeheartedly allowing the Holy Spirit to change them into the image of their Redeemer.
So why is it that we do not receive everything that we ask? Both John and James address this issue. “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” John 15:7, 8 “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” 1 John “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” James 4:3
May we set our sights on things above. May we ask for those things that are within our Heavenly Father’s will. May we “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” 12:1, 2
Rose