Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? Isaiah 58:6, 7.
We are living in the last days of this earth’s history, and it is time we understood what we must do to be saved. The Lord will work intelligently for all who will work intelligently for Him. My brethren and sisters, there is something more for you to do than to sit in your churches Sabbath after Sabbath and to listen to the preaching of the Word. You have a work to do for [your] friends and neighbors. God requires … that you visit these families and seek to create an interest in the truth for this time. You are not laboring together with God if you neglect the work of helping others to take hold upon eternal realities. Our ministers are not to be encouraged to hover about the churches to repeat to the believers week after week the same truths. We have a truth that is saving and precious. The Word of God must be planted in many hearts; the bread of life must be dealt out to many hungering souls…. It is a blessed work to lift up Christ before the world. When the work of the judgment is finished and decisions have been made for eternity, it will be seen that it is those who have given themselves wholeheartedly to the service of God who will stand right with heaven. Some of these may not have been able to leave their families to go to some mission field, but they have been missionaries in their own neighborhood. Their hearts have been so filled with the love of God that their great anxiety has been to win souls for Him. This has been more to them than silver and gold and the precious things of this world. And as they have labored in simplicity to minister the Word of truth, the Spirit of God has sent home the Word to the hearts of the people. My brethren and sisters, let us study the simplicity there is in the Word of God. Let us see what we can do to advance the cause of Christ in the earth. Christ was in this world as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. There were many who set themselves against His work. There will be those who will oppose you. But your work is to preach Christ and Him crucified; and when you do this, the salvation of God will be revealed in the conversion of souls…. Let the light shine where you are. Lay hold of the power that there is in Christ, and learn to overcome through the merits of His blood and the word of your testimony.—Manuscript 93, September 7, 1909, “Address to the Church at Salt Lake City.”
The Upward Look p. 264
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for my neighbor and children as her husband will not allow them to go to church or have family worship. Jose
—-Latest Update on my Dad Bill, He has stage 4 cancer and it has Metastasized into his bones and throughout his blood. The doctors will start him on some sort of pill today to lengthen his life. It’s not over until MY GOD says so! Connie
—-Just received a devastating news about my friend’s daughter Sandra is in coma right now. She was hit by a car while driving a few days back. Please keep her in your prayers. Samantha
—-Please pray for my cousin Rose, she is on the ventilator with covid19. She is a fighter and her husband died this morning from covid. She has no idea. Mary
—-Praise God my hand is much better. Rose
—-Please pray for Joel, he had a heart attack today and is in a coma. Sim
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Dear Friends,
It is hard to believe that it has been nineteen years since 9/11. A whole generation has grown up with little idea of what a change it wrought in the lives of Americans. I had barely begun my workday when Ron called and told me to turn on the radio. He explained the reason. Shock and unbelief surged through me. Before I could even get my radio turned on, Ronnie Jay called with more details. I told Bev. Since our office was in the basement at the time, we took turns going upstairs to the jury room to see the devastation on TV. The rest of the day, my radio was on.
As the reporters recounted the events that brought to rubble the World Trade Center and surrounding buildings and part of the Pentagon, I thought of the many thousands of people who had gone to work that morning or were on those hijacked planes going wherever they needed to go. Only moments before, their day was routine. Only moments before, their lives were filled with plans for the future, thoughts of the mundane, anticipation of an evening with family and friends.
In a moment all had changed. Many were engulfed in flames, some jumped to their death, most rushed down the stairs trying to escape. Even in this tragedy, God was working to protect and guide. Most made it to safety, although many did not. As I listened to the reports both at the time and then in the weeks afterwards, I couldn’t help thinking how quickly our life can change. I couldn’t help wondering how many of those people were ready to die.
How easy it is to get caught up in our own future plans without a thought heavenward. James speaks of this: “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” James 4:13-15 Peter agrees, “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever.” 1 Peter 1:24,25
How urgent it is that we have God’s Word hidden in our heart. (Ps 119:11) How vital it is to have that close connection with our Dear Saviour so needful for our present and future happiness. How important it is to so live that if some tragedy befalls us and we lose our life, we will be ready for the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just as the happenings of 9-11 were life changing, even so will that greatest of events be. Jesus warns us, “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” Luke 21:26-30 (See also: Luke 12: 35-46)
May we “take heed lest at any time [our] hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon [us] unawares.” Luke 21:34 May we “watch…and pray always, that [we] may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” vs. 36 May we soon be filled with joy as we look up “and see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven” to take us to those Heavenly mansions He is preparing for us. (Mark 24:62; John 14:1-3)
Rose