July 26, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
OUR INDIVIDUAL STANDING BEFORE GOD
“And He said to them, you will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal Yourself!’ Whatever we have heard in Capernaum, do also here in Your country. Then He said, ‘Assuredly [verily, verily, KJV], I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his country.’”
Luke 4: 23,24, NKJV. (Read verses 16-30).
Then He added, “But of a truth I say unto you, There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there came a great famine over all the land; and to none of them was Elijah sent, but ONLY to Zarepath, in the land of Sidon, unto a WOMAN WHO WAS A WIDOW. And there were MANY LEPERS IN ISRAEL in the time of Elisha the prophet; and NONE of them was cleansed, BUT only Naaman, the Syrian.” Luke 4:23-27, R.V.”
“By this revelation of events in the lives of the PROPHETS, Jesus met the questionings of His hearers. The servants whom God had chosen for a special work were not allowed to labor for a HARDHEARTED and UNBELIEVING people.”
“But to those who had hearts to feel and faith to believe were ESPECIALLY favored with evidences of His power through the prophets.”
“In the days of Elijah, Israel had departed from God. They clung to their sins, and REJECTED the warnings of the Spirit through the Lord’s messengers. Thus they cut themselves off from the CHANNEL by which God’s BLESSING could come to them.”
“The Lord passes by the homes of Israel, and found a refuge for His servants in a heathen land, with a woman who did not belong to the chosen people BECAUSE she had followed the light she had received, and her heart was open to the GREATER light that God sent her through His prophets.”
“It was for the same reason that in Elisha’s time the lepers of Israel were passed by. But Naaman, a HEATHEN nobleman, had been faithful to his CONVICTIONS of right, and felt his great NEED for help. He was in a CONDITION to receive the gifts of God’s GRACE. He was not only cleansed from his leprosy, but blessed with a true knowledge of the true God.”
“Our standing before God depends, NOT upon the amount of light we have received, but upon the USE we make of what we have.”
“Thus even the heathen who CHOOSE the right AS FAR as they distinguish it are in a MORE favorable condition than those who have had great light, and profess to serve God but who DISREGARD the light, and by their daily life, contradict their profession [as followers of Christ, or ‘Christians’].” E. G. White, Desire of Ages,pp. 238,239.
Start this first working day of the week, in the midst of this crisis, with these searching thoughts. God bless all. NMF