MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
August 23, 2023
God’s Saving Enmity
Part 32
LIKE CHRIST’S PEACE, REPROACH IS A PART OF THE TRUE DISCIPLE’S LEGACY
“Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven [not on earth].” Matt. 5:11-12, KJV. The last-day messenger bearing the “the Spirit of prophecy, which is the testimony of Jesus” in the remnant church (Rev. 12:17; 19:10) wrote and we quote:
“Ever since his fall, Satan has worked by means of DECEPTION. As he has misrepresented God, so, THROUGH HIS AGENTS, he misrepresents the children of God [the ‘commandment-keeping saint’ in contrast to the ‘children of disobedience’].
"The Savior says, ‘The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon Me.’ (Ps. 69:9). In like manner they fall upon His disciples. There was never one who walked among men more cruelly SLANDERED than the Son of man. He was derided and mocked because of His UNSWERVING OBEDIENCE to the principles of God’s holy law [cf. John 15:10]. 'They hated Him without a cause.’ [John 15:25].Yet He stood calmly before His enemies, declaring that reproach is a part of the [true, not apostate] Christian’s legacy, counseling His followers HOW TO MEET the arrows of malice, bidding them NOT TO FAINT UNDER PERSECUTION.
“While slander may blacken REPUTATION, it cannot stain the CHARACTER. That is in God’s keeping[!]. So long as we DO NOT CONSENT to sin, there is no power, whether human or satanic, that can bring a STAIN upon the soul [the whole living person].
The man whose HEART is stayed upon God is just the SAME in the hour of his MOST afflicting trials and most discouraging surroundings as when he was in PROSPERITY, when the light of and favor of God SEEMED to be upon him. [see Job’s experience].
“His words, his motives, his actions, may be misrepresented and falsified, but he does not mind it, because he has GREATER INTERESTS at stake. [what a powerful reminder for all faithful co-laborers with Christ!]. Like Moses, he endured as ‘SEEING Him who is INVISIBLE,’ [Heb. 11:27]; looking ‘not at things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen.’ [2 Cor. 4:18].
“‘When men shall revile you and persecute you,’ said Jesus, ‘rejoice and be EXCEEDING GLAD.’ [How and why?] “He pointed His hearers to the PROPHETS who had spoken IN THE NAME OF THE LORD as an ‘example of suffering affliction, and of patience’ [James 5:10]. Abel, the very first Christian of Adam’s children, died a martyr. Enoch [the seventh righteous patriarch from Adam] walked with God, and ‘the world knew him not.’ Noah was mocked as a fanatic and alarmist. ‘Others had trial of cruel mocking and scourging, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonments.’ ‘Others were tortured, NOT ACCEPTING DELIVERANCE; that they might obtain a BETTER RESURRECTION.’ [Heb. 11: 36, 35].
“In every age God’s CHOSEN MESSENGERS have been reviled and persecuted; yet THROUGH THEIR AFFLICTIONS, the knowledge of God has been spread abroad. EVERY DISCIPLE of Christ is to step into the ranks, and CARRY FORWARD the same work, knowing that it’s FOES [enemies, and all at enmity against God’s law] ‘can do nothing against the truth, but FOR the truth.’ [2 Cor.13:8].
“God means that truth [especially the present, testing truths for these last days] shall be brought to the FRONT, and become the SUBJECT OF EXAMINATION AND DISCUSSION—even through the CONTEMPT placed upon it. The minds of the people must be AGITATED; every controversy, every reproach, every efforts to restrict liberty of conscience, is GOD’S MEANS of awakening minds that otherwise might slumber.” E. G. White, Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, pp. 53-5. In the parable of Matt. 25: 1-12, the ten virgins represent all the churches in the midnight of earth’s history—the solemn pre-advent, investigative judgment hour preceding Christ’s second advent. If they are spiritually asleep, they cannot be the ones to wake themselves up with the midnight cry, ‘Behold! the Bridegroom [Christ] cometh; go ye out to meet Him!’ Someone, or some people wide awake as “faithful watchmen of the night’ have to do it.
Do you know who they are? And what specific messages they are proclaiming in trumpet tones for these last days? Are you one of them? If not, “examine yourselves, prove yourselves whether ye are in the faith” and “make your calling and election sure!”
To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.