And go … unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus saith the Lord God; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear. Ezekiel 3:11.
I am again and again reminded that I am not to try to clear away the confusion and contradiction of faith and feeling and unbelief that is expressed. I am not to be depressed, but am to speak the words of the Lord with authority, and then leave with Him all the consequences. I am instructed by the Great Physician to speak the word that the Lord gives me, whether men will hear or whether they will forbear. I am told that I have nothing to do with the consequences, that God, even the Lord Jehovah, will keep me in perfect peace if I will rest in His love and do the work He has given me….
The Lord desires us to put our trust in Him. I am keeping on the watch, not knowing how soon I may be called on to lay off my armor. I want my every word and impulse and action to be such that in the judgment I shall not be ashamed of them. I realize something of the time in which we are living. Our time of discipline on this earth, yours and mine, is very limited….
I never realized more decidedly than at the present time the help of the Lord in my speaking and writing. I shall stand on the field of battle until the Lord releases me. I am afraid for our people—afraid that the love of the world is robbing them of godliness and piety. I am trying to arouse them to see the danger of being decoyed by the enemy onto enchanted ground. I am trying to show them the need of cultivating faith and love at all times and under all circumstances.
It is only by strong faith that a strong love for the Saviour can be kept alive in the heart. Our faith in Christ must be a pure, strong, genuine faith. There is a spurious faith, which leads only to confidence in self and to criticism of others. Such faith quenches every spark of Christlike love in the soul.
God calls upon His people to be united. But our union can be genuine only as we move upward to the cross of Calvary, every day crucifying self. All efforts at union that are not founded on the softening, subduing love of Christ in the heart will most assuredly fail….
There is power in genuine religion. Through faith, through conformity to the will of God, we shall become so Christlike that men will see that we are partakers of the divine nature, and that we are making constant advancement in the knowledge of Christ.—Letter 146, September 22, 1902, to Brother and Sister S. T. Belden, her brother-in-law in self-supporting service.
The Upward Look p. 279
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for Jackie who is in the final stages of kidney failure. Stella
—-Please pray for my niece Candace who is in ICU with pneumonia and and really struggling now. Cathey
—-Please pray for my friend Denee, she is in the hospital very sick and unresponsive. They aren’t sure what’s wrong with her yet.. Debra
—-Please continue to pray for David. Buck
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Dear Friends,
Until I was five, my aunt Joyce still lived with my grandparents. Since they had adopted me when I was a baby, I lived there too. My aunt loved all children, but I was especially dear to her. So, for those first five years, she showered me with expensive gifts. To her disappointment, I often played with the box instead of the toy when she first gave them to me. Later I played with the gifts but it was not the same.
As I got older, her gifts were enjoyed, but I did not appreciate the hours of work that she put in at the factory in order to buy these expensive gifts for me. Gilmore’s Department Store was the fanciest and most expensive store in Kalamazoo; and because Auntie Joyce loved me, she bought my presents there. One time when I was very little, she saw a portable dollhouse with very expensive and realistic miniature furnishings. Instantly, she knew that this would make me happy. Each week she would buy a piece of furniture, so that by the time I was old enough to enjoy playing with it, I had the complete set. How I loved that dollhouse! It was one of the few things that I really enjoyed playing with and I kept it until I was in my late teens. Then I gave it (along with my other toys and my bicycle) to a neighbor girl who didn’t have many toys. She was so happy to receive such a wonderful dollhouse.
Looking back to my early childhood, I can never remember really thanking Auntie Joyce for all the lovely things she bought me. Of course, I said “thank you,” because I had been taught to be polite; but the heartfelt thanks was not there. I took her gifts for granted as though they were something I deserved.
How often do we do the same with our Heavenly Father’s gifts. How often we enjoy His wonderful blessings with scarcely a thought of the Giver. We might even thank Him politely for something special, but our heart is not filled with the gratefulness we should feel. How often we forget that, “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17 With tears in His Voice He laments, “this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me.” Isa 29:13
How little we appreciate God’s Greatest Gift, the Gift of His Dear Son. “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom 5:8 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” John 3:16, 17 How often we take His Great Sacrifice for granted and live our life as though we think it is something due us!
Do we daily thank Him for the great sacrifice that He made for us? Do we have gratefulness and love for His goodness continually welling up within our hearts? Do we respond to His Great Love by lovingly obeying His precepts? Can others see His character shining through us or do they see little difference between us and someone who makes no profession? Are God’s praises continually on our lips? Paul advises, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” 1 Thes 5:18
May God open our eyes to His blessings each day. May we thank our Dear Saviour for leaving the glories of Heaven where He was worshiped and adored by the myriads of the heavenly host and came to this dark and rebellious planet to suffer all the abuse the evil one could heap upon Him at the hands of wicked men and die the cruelest of deaths that we might be saved. As my favorite author wrote in Testimonies vol. 8, p. 208 “Christ gave Himself, an atoning sacrifice, for the saving of a lost world. He was treated as we deserve, in order that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His. “With His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5. May we praise Him from a heart filled with love and gratitude for His marvelous love and grace is my prayer.
Rose

For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. 1 Corinthians 1:17.
Those who read and listen to the sophistries that prevail in this age do not know God as He is. They contradict the Word of God, and extol and worship nature in the place of the Creator. While we may discern the workings of God in the things He has created, these things are not God…. The physical creation testifies of God and Jesus Christ as the great Creator of all things. “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:3, 4). The psalmist bears witness, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard” (Psalm 19:1-3)….
The uneducated heathen learns his lessons through nature and through his own necessities, and, dissatisfied with darkness, he is reaching out for light, searching for God in the First Great Cause. There is recorded in Genesis various ways in which God speaks to the heathen. But the contrast between the revelation of God in Genesis and the ideas of the heathen is striking. Many of the pagan philosophers had a knowledge of God that was pure; but degeneracy, the worship of created things, began to obscure this knowledge. The handiwork of God in the natural world—the sun, the moon, the stars—were worshiped.
Men today declare that Christ’s teachings concerning God cannot be substantiated by the things of the natural
world, that nature is not in harmony with the Old and New Testament Scriptures. This supposed lack of harmony between nature and science does not exist. The Word of the God of heaven is not in harmony with human science, but it is in perfect accord with His own created science.
This living God is worthy of our thought, our praise, our adoration, as the Creator of the world, as the Creator of man. We are to praise God, for we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Our substance was not hid from Him when we were made in secret. His eyes saw our substance, yet being imperfect, and in His book all our members were written when as yet there was none of them. He breathed into our nostrils the breath of life. The inspiration of God has given us understanding.—Manuscript 117, September 21, 1898, “A Personal God.”
The Upward Look p. 278
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Prayer Requests
—-I need some prays I have been brought to my knees and feel like I barely can breathe. My grandpa passes away then few weeks later my dog then a week later my Mom. Beverly
—-Requesting earnest prayer for a missionary and his family whose life may be in acute danger today. Pat
—-Please pray for my son Don who’s in the ER that he makes the right decision they want to transfer him. Sharon
—-Please pray for my friend, Doris. She is in the hospital with a infection in her toe. She is a diabetic. Jean
—-Update on Ava from her mom this morning at 7:30 Ava is doing good in the PICU. They plan to get up to walk this morning & start trying to eat. She will mostly likely go to a floor room later today if she continues to do well. Michelle
—-I need prayer. I have bad nerve damage and all the way down my legs it’s so bad I cannot walk I have to sit down please keep me in prayer I just turned 53 today. Micki
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Dear Friends,
About twenty years ago, when her friends, Sam and Rebecca, got married, Esther was invited to sing for the wedding. They were getting married in Washington state, nearly 2000 miles away, so we debated as to the best way to get her out there. Finally, we decided that she and Eileen would drive in our van.
The two girls had a wonderful time, not only with Sam and Rebecca’s wedding, but also visiting with old friends which they had had to leave a few years before when we moved. There was an added bonus of a special program for Esther’s former Pathfinder leaders at the church that we had attended and she was happy to be asked to sing for the service. All too soon it was time to head the 2000 miles back home. Thankfully, the van had no problems throughout the whole trip other than a lack of power when going over the mountains. Eileen said it was really embarrassing to have trucks passing them as they were going through the passes. God is so good!
A day or two later, when Eileen was going to pick me up from work, she noticed a rumbling noise when she stopped before pulling out of the driveway. She continued to drive the nine miles to my work. On the way home the noise grew progressively worse until by the time we arrived home, the front wheel on the driver’s side was grating loudly. Eileen and Ronnie Jay took the wheel off and checked the brakes. There was no brake pad left at all!
God’s goodness to us is beyond measure! He had watched over my girls on their long trip and kept the van working with no hint of a problem until they had arrived home safely! And He even provided a friend to help us get the worn out brakes off! They were “frozen” in place and Ron couldn’t remove them. “Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” Ps 107:8
Such times of God’s special watchcare are good to remember when our world seems turned upside down. During those times when faith seems to waver and waves of despair wash over us, we can gain strength and comfort by remembering the goodness of the One Who gave His only Begotten Son for us. “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.” Psa 103:1-6
Our Loving Father gives us only what is best for us. He assures us, “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Jer 29:11 “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour.” Isa 43:1-3
May we completely trust our Heavenly Father no matter what trials we may be going through, no matter how unfairly we are treated, no matter what may be happening around us. May we take note of the blessings, both large and small, that we receive from His Loving Hand each day. May we continually serve Him from a heart filled with gratitude for His tender love and watchcare is my prayer
Rose.