The prophet’s duty was plain; he was to lift his voice in protest against the prevailing evils. But he dreaded to undertake the work without some assurance of hope. “Lord, how long?” (Isaiah 6:11) he inquired. Are none of Thy chosen people ever to understand, and repent, and be healed?

His burden of soul in behalf of erring Judah was not to be borne in vain. His mission was not to be wholly fruitless. Yet the evils that had been multiplying for many generations could not be removed in his day. Throughout his lifetime he must be a patient, courageous teacher—a prophet of hope as well as of doom. The divine purpose finally accomplished, the full fruitage of his efforts, and of the labors of all God’s faithful messengers, would appear. A remnant should be saved. That this might be brought about, the messages of warning and entreaty were to be delivered to the rebellious, the Lord declared, “until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land” (verses 11, 12).

The heavy judgments that were to befall the impenitent—war, exile, oppression, the loss of power and prestige among the nations—all these were to come in order that those who would recognize in them the hand of an offended God might be led to repent. The ten tribes of the northern kingdom were soon to be scattered among the nations, and their cities left desolate; the destroying armies of hostile nations were to sweep over their land again and again; even Jerusalem was finally to fall, and Judah was to be carried away captive; yet the Promised Land was not to remain wholly forsaken forever.—The Review and Herald, March 11, 1915.
Ye Shall Receive Power p. 266
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for my husband Richard who has just been diagnosed with Throat cancer. Pray that he will recover fully through medical treatment or by a miracle from God. Sarah Jane
—-Please pray for me as I have several job interviews over the next two weeks. One is with a company for which I have wanted to work for quite some time. Please pray that I will get the job that God wants me to have. RJ
—-Please pray for several situations affecting various family and friends. May God take complete control of each. Rose
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Dear Friends,

The other day I was talking with someone who was adopted and in the course of the conversation, I told the story of Mrs. Russell and a baby that was literally left in her lap by a young lady who had struck up a conversation with her while they were riding on a train. This took place in the 1800s, so she was able to take the baby home and raise him as her son. She named him James. She loved him as her own son. She made one big mistake, however. In all his childhood and all through his teen years, she never told him that she was not his birth mother.

When he was 21, Mrs. Russell told him the story about the young girl on the train and how she chose Mrs. Russell to raise him as her own. She explained that the note the young woman had pinned to her baby said that on his twenty-first birthday, he was to go to a certain bank and it would be told him who he was and be given a large sum of money to go to college or to start a business. Poor James was shocked and horrified. He was repulsed by the whole situation. All the security of home vanished. How could this woman who had raised him NOT be his mother! She had never even hinted that he was not her own son. He felt deceived and forsaken.

After thinking about it for a few days, he decided that he did not want to know who he was. He did not want his real mother’s money no matter how much or how willingly it was offered. Mrs. Russell had loved him, and he loved her. She had raised him as her son. She was his mother: not the one who gave him birth.

When my mother was a little girl, she lived next door to James. He was a bent-over, white-haired old man who walked on crutches because he had arthritis so badly. Because of his decision, he had lived his life as a common laborer, owned only a small house, when he could have had a good education and great riches.

When I was a little girl, I used to look at his picture. He and his wife (a squat little woman with her hair drawn up in a strange-looking knot on the very top of her head) were standing on the steps of their very tiny wooden house. I would think of the life he could have had. It was within his reach. All he had to do was ask for it. But he would not.

I often thought, too, of his birth mother. She must have been at the bank on James’ birthday. She must have been searching the face of every young man as he entered and wondering if this could be her son. Long years, she had waited for this moment. All her desires were to hold in her arms that baby she was forced to abandon. As the day came and went, her heart broke even more than it had that far-off day. Had her son died? Had she chosen the wrong woman and she had taken him to an orphanage? Had she failed to tell him of the good news, the new life that was waiting for him? That evening, when the bank closed, a tearful, heartbroken woman left the bank never to know the answers to her questions……..

Even so, our Heavenly Father has provided everlasting life for us, but we must claim it as ours. All that can be done for mankind’s salvation has been done, but if we do not reach out and take it, it does us no good. How our Dear Saviour longs for us to accept His great provision. How He desires us to put our hand in His and allow Him to lead in our life. How much desire He has to give us His great gifts of love. He will not force us, however. He does all He can to draw us to Himself. As He tells us through the prophet Jeremiah, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” Jer 31:3 He assures us, “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.” Isa 49:15,16 With longing desire in His voice, He pleads, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” Isa 45:22

How our Great Redeemer’s heart of love breaks when we do not accept His grace. He says to us as He said to Jerusalem of old, “how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” Matt 23:37 “As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?” Eze 33:11

May we never turn away from His great love. May we reach out and accept His Great Gift. May we love Him with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our strength is my prayer.

Rose

Source: https://rosesdevotional.org/isaiah.html

Who can measure the results of those years of toil and wandering among the lonely hills? The communion with nature and with God, the care of his flocks, the perils and deliverances, the griefs and joys, of his lowly lot, were not only to mold the character of David and to influence his future life, but through the psalms of Israel’s sweet singer they were in all coming ages to kindle love and faith in the hearts of God’s people, bringing them nearer to the ever-loving heart of Him in whom all His creatures live.

David, in the beauty and vigor of his young manhood, was preparing to take a high position with the noblest of the earth. His talents, as precious gifts from God, were employed to extol the glory of the divine Giver. His opportunities of contemplation and meditation served to enrich him with that wisdom and piety that made him beloved of God and angels. As he contemplated the perfections of his Creator, clearer conceptions of God opened before his soul. Obscure themes were illuminated, difficulties were made plain, perplexities were harmonized, and each ray of new light called forth fresh bursts of rapture, and sweeter anthems of devotion, to the glory of God and the Redeemer.

The love that moved him, the sorrows that beset him, the triumphs that attended him, were all themes for his active thought; and as he beheld the love of God in all the providences of his life, his heart throbbed with more fervent adoration and gratitude, his voice rang out in a richer melody, his harp was swept with more exultant joy; and the shepherd boy proceeded from strength to strength, from knowledge to knowledge; for the Spirit of the Lord was upon him.—Patriarchs and Prophets, 642.
Ye Shall Receive Power p. 262
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Prayer Requests
—-I have a job interview this Monday. Please pray that I will get the job according to God’s will. RJ
—-Please pray that God will lead, provide, and guide E and children and keep all evil influences away. R
—-Some friends of mine his mother had a heart attack and is in ICU with brain bleed and she doesn’t want surgery she just turned 79 in July. her name is Pat lovely lady always helping others. M
—-Please pray for Mike and Eileen as his father passed away last week. Also pray for Mary whose friend passed away. Also pray for my cousin’s family as he passed away last week. Also pray for Susan whose husband passed last week and the funeral is tomorrow. Rose
—-Please pray for my autistic son. He is very very sick. And he won’t go for help. He’s told me in the past that he doesn’t want to live anymore. And I can’t make him go for help he is an adult. Thank you so much for your prayers for him. Connie
—-My 2nd cousin (and her mother) need prayer.. they lost their pets due to extreme heat and the power going out when they weren’t home. She is devastated as these animals were like children to her. Johanna
—-Pray for my 91 year old Mother. She had fallen and fractured her hip, and did make a good recovery. However, the screws in her hip have shifted and the surgery must be redone.Aleta
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Source: https://rosesdevotional.org/david.html

For half a century I have been the Lord’s messenger, and as long as my life shall last I shall continue to bear the messages that God gives me for His people. I take no glory to myself; in my youth the Lord made me His messenger, to communicate to His people testimonies of encouragement, warning, and reproof. For sixty years I have been in communication with heavenly messengers, and I have been constantly learning in reference to divine things, and in reference to the way in which God is constantly working to bring souls from the error of their ways to the light in God’s light.

Many souls have been helped because they have believed that the messages given me were sent in mercy to the erring. When I have seen those who needed a different phase of Christian experience, I have told them so, for their present and eternal good. And so long as the Lord spares my life, I will do my work faithfully, whether or not men and women shall hear and receive and obey. My work is clearly given me to do, and I shall receive grace in being obedient.

I love God. I love Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and I feel an intense interest in every soul who claims to be a child of God. I am determined to be a faithful steward so long as the Lord shall spare my life. I will not fail nor be discouraged….

I love the Lord; I love my Saviour, and my life is wholly in the hands of God. As long as He sustains me, I shall bear a decided testimony.—Manuscript Releases 5:152, 153.
Ye Shall Receive Power p. 248
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for my coworker Rita’s son, Sheldon. He found out he has cancer. They think they’ve caught it early but obviously there’s a lot of tests and surgery ahead of him. Wanangwa
—-Please pray for my father-in-law, Larry, who is in ICU on a ventilator and very sick. Please pray that God will give the doctors wisdom to know what to do. Please pray for my husband and I as we are dealing with all of this. Eileen
—-Please continue to pray for baby Wyatt and his family. Mary
—- Please pray for my cousin Peter who has a brain tumor and is going into surgery and also for my Step Brothers wife who also has a brain tumor at the base of her brain that is inoperable who has been give 3 months to live with no treatment and 14 months with treatment. Her name is Lisa. Thanks so much. April
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Dear Friends,
Solomon said, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Prov 22:6 Over the years, millions of parents, who have carefully raised their children, have claimed this promise when those very children have strayed from the fold. Often times, after a period of rebellion their children have, indeed, returned to the Lord.
Yet, Solomon’s statement actually works both ways. Parents, who have by precept and example, been careless in the raising of their children, scarred them emotionally or physically, or who have neglected to bring them to a knowledge of the truth; have wounded their offspring to the point where it is very difficult for them to overcome their hereditary or cultivated tendencies.
Years ago, I was looking through one of our church’s magazines and happened to notice a book authored by a woman who had been a friend of ours when we still lived in Michigan, but after we had moved we eventually lost track of her and her husband. In fact, the friendship went back even farther than that. Ron had gone to school with this girl. We had many of the same interests and they would often come over just to study the Bible and talk of spiritual things. It was wonderful to have such friends for that type of friendship is rare.
One day, as they were visiting, this young woman began to talk about some of the difficulties she had because of the treatment she had received at her father’s hand. He never allowed his children to cry. Even if they cried when he spanked them, he would spank them even harder until they sunk into a type of unnatural silence. (This reminded me of the abuse my grandfather had endured at his father’s hand.) Because of the emotional scars from his abuse, she had a great difficulty showing any kind of emotion other than laughter.
That natural release of tears and emotions that our Great Creator built within us to keep the pressure from building her father had beaten out of her. No matter how sad or how hurt she was, she could not cry. Sometimes she felt like she was going to explode.
Many years have passed since we got to talk of old times when we went to Michigan campmeeting in 2004. We had a wonderful time catching up on all that had transpired in the years we were apart. We did not mention her father nor did she, but I couldn’t help wondering if she has problems with her blood pressure or other stress related health condition that stems from her father’s unreasonableness.
How careful we should be in our dealings with children. Our Dear Saviour warns, “whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matt 18:6 “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.” Luke 18:16 How easily that sweet, humble, trusting, loving nature of an unspoiled child can be wounded. How soon they take on the impress of that which they see and hear from those they love the most. Soon, even in their play, they are mimicking our tone of voice, our actions, and our attitudes. It can be a humbling experience to listen to your four-year-old child playing house.
How vital it is to “provoke not [our] children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Eph 6:4 Teasing and tormenting a child until he becomes embarrassed or anger wells up from within him, will bear unwanted fruit later on. That child will often exhibit the same behavior, teasing and tormenting playmates and even their pets. As that habit grows, they become rebellious and frustrated teens. When they become adults, they do the same to their children and the cycle lives on. Because of the treatment they have received, they have a difficult time accepting the love and forgiveness our Great Redeemer so freely offers.
Conversely, as we carefully raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, they respond with the loving trust and simplicity of an unspoiled child. Our little ones are able to love Jesus with all of their heart and soul for we have, through precept and example. exhibited the love and care that our Heavenly Father has for us. This does not mean that we fail to discipline them. No! Instead of striking in anger, we discipline them in love, praying with them, explaining why we must spank them and then taking our little one in our arms and assuring them of our continued love and care. How important it is to guard carefully what our little ones see and hear on television, in the books we read to them, in the other children with whom they play, in every aspect of their life. How seriously we should take Paul’s admonition, “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Phil 4:8
May we be faithful and wise stewards over the children our Great Creator has given us. May we receive from our Heavenly Father the wisdom to raise our children aright, claiming the promise, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” James 1:5 May we take hope and courage in God’s promise “I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.” Isa 49:25
Rose

Source: https://rosesdevotional.org/encouragement-for-the-erring.html