Monday, November 19, 2012

                                 Who Do We Reflect?  Part I

Water has a special ability to reflect its surroundings. I don't scientifically know why it does it (God made it that way).
  We can learn several spiritual lessons from this. In the Christian life, the water represents us, and the trees or other objects represent God or Satan. As human beings, each and everyone of us is going to imitate or reflect one side or the other: God or Satan. There is no neutral ground! Who do we reflect? Romans 6:16 says,"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness?"
   A second lesson we can learn, is that whatever we are surrounded with, we will tend to reflect it, or imitate it. So we really need to be careful with what and who we associate with!  If we spend time reading God's Word and in prayer and beholding the character of Christ, we will continue to become more and more like Him. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says,"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
  On the other hand, if we don't spend time with the Lord, and don't associate with Godly people, we will not reflect God anymore but Satan's way. Proverbs 13:20 says, "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed."  
   May we always reflect Jesus in all that we say and do!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

I just want to share a very thought-provoking and solemn quote from the Spirit of Prophecy that a read a couple of mornings ago.
  "I have seen an angel standing with scales in his hands weighing the thoughts and interest of the people of God, especially the young.  In one scale were the thoughts and interest tending heavenward; in the other were the thoughts and interest tending to earth. And in this scale were thrown all  the reading of storybooks, thoughts of dress and show, vanity, pride,etc.  Oh, what a solemn moment! The angels of God standing with scales, weighing  the thoughts of His professed children_ those who claim to be dead to the world and alive to God. The scale filled with thoughts of earth, vanity, and pride quickly went down, notwithstanding weight after weight rolled from the scale. The one the thoughts and interest tending to heaven went quickly up as the other went down, and oh, how light it was! I can relate this as I saw it; but never can I give the solemn and vivid impression stamped upon my mind, as I saw the angel with the scales weighing the thoughts and interest of the people of God. Said the angel:"Can such enter heaven? No,no,never. Tell them the hope that they now possess is vain, and unless they speedily repent, and obtain salvation, they must perish."
  This is something to think about! I know that I need to spend more time with my Savior.  May we never let the love of this cheap, and sinful world steal our hearts!

Friday, November 2, 2012

                           Lessons From the Life of Moses Part 2

At the end of the forty years that Moses spent in the wilderness of Midian, herding sheep, he saw a bush that was on fire that wasn't being burnt up.  So he decided to check it out.  But suddenly, he heard the voice of God out of the bush, saying to him, 'Take off your shoes. For this is holy ground.' Then God told Moses, that  He wanted him to go to the land of Egypt, and deliver the children of Israel, as the Lord led him.  But Moses told God that he felt inadequate. But God told him that 'I AM hath me unto you.' 
   We can see that Moses' pride and self-sufficiency that he had had forty years before, was vanished. Now, he had gone to the opposite extreme. Now he thought that there was no way that he could do anything to save Israel from bondage.   If we don't have faith that God can work in our lives, it is impossible for God to work with us. Hebrews 11:6 says,"But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."  On the other hand, if we think that we have everything under control in our lives, and never feel a need for God; God can't work in our lives, either. In Christ Object Lessons p.154 says, "There is nothing so offensive to God or so dangerous to the human soul as pride and self-sufficiency. Of all sins it is the most hopeless, the most incurable." What an astonishing statement! We must not fall into either category!
   This one of the excuses Moses made, even after God gave him three signs to give to the Pharaoh, in Exodus 4:10-12,"And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord?  Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say." So if we think that the Lord can't work through us, we are underestimating, and denying our Maker! Isaiah 51:12-13a, says, "I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thous shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son for man which shall be made as grass; And forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth;" So if we are afraid of speaking for God, or doing anything that the Lord calls us to do, we are forgetting our beloved Savior! May always trust in our Maker, and never limit God!  And if we let Him help us, He will put the words in our mouth, right when we need them!