We Do the Work of Satan Sowing Seeds of Doubt and Unbelief

Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him. John 6:70, 71.
Judas was one who exerted a large influence over the disciples. He was of commanding appearance and had excellent qualifications. But these endowments had not been sanctified to God. Judas had opened the chambers of his mind, the door of his heart, to the temptations of Satan. His energies were devoted to self-serving, self-exaltation, and the love of money….
That poor, independent soul, separate from the spirit and life of Christ, had a hard time. He was ever under condemnation, because the lessons of Christ were always cutting him. Yet he did not become transformed and converted into a living branch through connection with the True Vine. Oh, if Judas had only humbled his heart before God under this divine instruction that pointed so plainly to himself in the principles set forth. Then he would no longer have remained a tempter to his brother disciples, sowing the seed of unbelief in their hearts.
Satan sowed in the heart and mind of Judas the seed that he communicated to his brethren. The questioning doubts that were passed from the devil into the mind of Judas, he passed on to the minds of his brethren. He presented so much accusation of his brethren that he was counterworking the lessons of Christ. This is why Jesus called Judas a devil….
There is no such thing as occupying a neutral position. Each will have given to Him his or her work according to his or her ability. And all will, through faith in Christ, have a sense of their privilege in being connected with Him…. The disciple whose religion is a profession only is distinguished from the true….
The hearing of the Word of God is not enough. Unless taught of God, the truth will not be accepted to the saving of the soul. It must be brought into the life practice. The human agent will reveal whether he or she is taught of God. And if not, it is not because God is not willing to teach, but because the person is not willing to receive His teaching and eat of the Bread of Life.
“Every one that doeth evil hateth the light [that God sends], neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” He or she hates reproof…. The self-righteous will not search for light. They love darkness rather than light, because they do not want to see themselves as God sees them. “But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”—Manuscript 67, 1897 (see also The Review and Herald, November 2, 1897).
Christ Triumphant p. 265
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for Mike as the doctor saw something on a chest x-ray which led to a CT scan and this morning, I got a call that they are setting up an MRI which will take place early Monday morning. They said that it was going to be a long, long appointment. Eileen
—-Please pray for Rosalie who turns 81 in a couple of weeks. When she fell, she broke her nose and loosened her teeth. She is bruised and very lame. Her husband died a few years ago, so she is all alone. Rose
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Dear Friends,
While walking the two and a half blocks to my car one evening after work, I noticed a workman across the street. There was nothing special about the man, but his ladder was rather unusual. At the top, he had put two brightly colored rubber gloves so the ladder’s rails would not scratch the face of the building. It looked so funny!
As I kept walking, I began thinking about the extra effort to which the workman had gone to keep from marring the building’s surface. Oh, that we would take precautions in our dealing with others! Sadly, how seldom we choose our words or actions in such a way that we will not “scratch” the tender heart within them. Instead, we often do that which the Apostle Paul warns against. “Ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” “If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.” 1 Cor 3:3; Gal 5:15
James speaks of our “scratching and marring” of one another and it’s inevitable results. “If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” James 3:14-4:3 Think of it! Before we speak, it would be well for us to remember the words of Jesus, “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Matt 12:37 Before we judge, may we remember that “with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Matt 7:2 Before we try to change what someone else that we think is wrong, we must make sure we are not doing the same things. “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” Matt 7:3-5
May we fulfill the desire of our Dear Saviour, Who bids us, “Love one another, as I have loved you.” John 15:12
Rose