Tag: God

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
October 25, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 41

SATAN’S AGENCIES CARRY FORWARD HIS ENMITY AGAINST CHRIST TOWARDS HIS FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS

  “REMEMBER the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also. . . . he that hateth Me [and His faithful agencies, followers] hateth the FATHER also.” John 15: 20, 23, KJV (emphasis provided). 

In these most solemn, closing hours of earth’s probation, I thank and praise God for mercifully and wisely giving us the final “Testimony of Jesus which is the Spirit of Prophecy” (Rev. 12; 17; 19: 10). Through the inspired pen we obtain advancing spiritual enlightenment regarding what the great controversy and the plan of redemption of the gospel, including specifics on what “putting on the whole armor of God” in order “to fight the good fight of faith” and “overcome even as He overcame” (as produced by the enmity God Creator first put between Satan and man in the garden of Eden)—comprehends, not merely doctrinally and intellectually, but in practical, real-life spiritual application:

 “Satan’s agents are CONSTANTLY WORKING under his direction” —- [while the ‘ten virgins professing to be waiting for the Bridegroom’s grand appearing have fallen asleep in the midnight of the prophetic-parable of Matt. 25]—“to establish his authority and build up his kingdom IN OPPOSITION for the government of God. 

“To this end they [Satan’s agents] seek to DECEIVE Christ’s followers, and ALLURE them from their allegiance [to God and His law]. Like their leader they MiSCONSTRUE and PERVERT the Scriptures to accomplish their object. As Satan endeavored to cast REPROACH upon God, so do his agents seek to MALIGN  God’s people. 

“The SPIRIT [attitude, motive, character] which put Christ to death moves the wicked to DESTROY His followers. All this is FORESHADOWED in that FIRST PROPHECY, ‘I will put enmity between thee [the serpent, Satan in his first disguise, medium] and the woman, and between thy seed  and her seed.’ [Gen. 3:15]. 

Such is the WORK that will be carried out in the great controversy between Christ and Satan [and their respective ‘seed’ agencies and followers] to the CLOSE OF TIME.” – E. G. White, Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, Great Controversy, 1884 original edition, Pacific Press, Facsimile Reproduction

To be continued next week, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
October 18, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 40

SATAN’S ENMITY WITH CHRIST, THE ANOINTED ONE

“He is despised and rejected of MEN; a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and WE hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and WE esteemed Him not.” Isa. 53: 3, KJV (see vs 1-9; cf. Acts 8: 31-40). 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made [created] by Him [the Word]; and without Him was not anything made that was made. . . . He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the WORLD KNEW HIM NOT. He came to His own [the Jews and the Jewish nation], and His own RECEIVED HIM NOT.” John 1: 1-3, 10, 11, KJV. 

“The ANTAGONISM [enmity, hatred, rejection] that exists between the spirit [character] of Christ and the spirit [character] of Satan was most strikingly displayed in the WORLD’S RECEPTION of Jesus. [Satan claims fallen earth and sinful mankind his own kingdom. He offered it to Christ in the wilderness of temptation, Matt. 4:1-11.

“It was not so much because He appeared without worldly wealth, pomp, or grandeur [see Isa. 53], that the JEWS were led to reject Him. They saw that He possessed power which would MORE THAN COMPENSATE for the lack of these outward advantages [of wealth, pomp, grandeur]. But to the [sinless / PURITY AND HOLINESS of Christ called forth against Him the HATRED [enmity] of the ungodly.

His LIFE [not merely words and professions] of SELF-DENIAL and SINLESS DEVOTION was a perpetual reproof to a PROUD, SENSUAL PEOPLE. It was this the evoked ENMITY against the Son of God [the very promised Seed of the woman, the Messiah, the Lamb of God, Immanuel, God in the flesh].

SATAN and EVIL ANGELS joined with EVIL MEN [the deadly desperate confederacy of evil against truth and righteousness and defined by God’s law]. All the energies of APOSTASY conspired against the Champion [Author and Source] of truth.” -E. G. White, Spirit of Prophecy, Vol. 4, Great Controversy, original 1884 ed., pp. 325-6.

On whose side are you? Against whom and what are you directing and waging your enmity (hatred, animosity, war) against? “By their fruits ye shall know them.” The evidence is stark: either the “fruits of the Spirit” or the “works of the flesh.” (Gal. 5: 15-26).

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
October 11, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 39

GOD’S SAVING GRACE IMPARTS ENMITY, NOT LOVE TOWARDS SATAN AND SIN

“Ye adulterers adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is ENMITY with God? Whosoever will be a friend of the world is the ENEMY of God. . . . But He giveth MORE GRACE. Wherefore He saith, God RESISTS the proud, but gives GRACE to the humble. SUBMIT yourselves therefore to God. RESIST the devil, and he will FLEE from you. Draw nigh [near] to God, and He will draw night to you. CLEANSE your hands, ye sinners; and PURIFY your hearts, ye DOUBLE-MINDED. Be afflicted and mourn, and weep [not celebrate!]: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. HUMBLE YOURSELVES in the sight of God [not men!], and He shall lift you up [exalt before men and angels].” James 4: 4, 6-10, KJV. 

The first souls who needed to be saved were the first couple, the father of mankind. It is by God’s enabling, empowering, amazing grace that all sinners—beginning with Adam and Eve to the last rational persons alive before mankind’s second and last probation closes—have and will be saved.

Saved from what? From being deceived, yielding to, and being ensnared by Satan’s consummate craftiness in any of his unnumbered schemes, fierce temptations targeting man’s sinful propensities, inordinate desires, love of self, weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the carnal mind and nature. Hence, God’s messenger emphasizes this fundamental saving truths (all emphases mine and words in brackets mine]:

The grace that Christ implants [through the Holy Spirit] in the soul [of the humble and penitent sinner who ‘hungers and thirsts for Christ’s perfect righteousness] CREATES the enmity against Satan. Without this CONVERTING GRACE AND RENEWING POWER, man would continue the CAPTIVE of Satan, a SERVANT ever ready to his bidding. But the NEW PRINCIPLE [of enmity] in the soul creates CONFLICT [as part of the great controversy of the cosmic drama of the ages] where hitherto had been PEACE.

The power which Christ imparts enables [fallen, sinful, helpless] man to RESIST the tyrant and usurper [Satan working through his evil spirits and human agencies, individuals and institutions].

Whoever is seen to ABHOR SIN [the transgression of God’s law], whoever resists and CONQUERS those passions that have held sway WITHIN [the person’s mind and heart], displays an operation of a PRINCIPLE wholly from above.” E. G. White, Great Controversy, original 1884 ed., p. 325.

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
September 20, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 36

GRACE IMPARTS ENMITY AGAINST SATAN AND SIN

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not ye yourselves; if [grace] is the gift of God [even as eternal life is, Rom. 6:23]: not of works, lest any man should boast. For WE are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus UNTO GOOD WORKS, which God had before ORDAINED that we should WALK IN THEM [the good works ordained in us, His workmanship].” Eph. 2: 8, 9, KJV [all emphasis and words in brackets mine]. 

Adam and Eve, mankind’s parents, were alone “created in the image and likeness of God” as the crowning act of His “workmanship” in His 6-day work of creation. Both were certainly “created in Christ Jesus,” the Creator, that is, in His image and likeness. But in the fall of man in Eden by transgression of God’s command in yielding to the temptation of Satan disguised as the serpent, man instantly lost his original immaculate character-image of innocent purity that was manifested as a soft white light covering their bodies. This garment of light instantly disappeared when they sinned, exposing themselves as naked, a symbol of guilt.

In God’s omnipotence, omniscience, “mercy that endureth forever,” and mysterious “love that conquers all,” His plan of redemption, “prepared before the foundations of earth were laid,” immediately kicked in. “The moment there was a sinner, there was a Savior!” God’s kingdom of grace instantly begun, inaugurated in Eden by the first lamb offered, typifying and certifying in its substitutionary death and spilled atoning blood that “the “wages of sin which is death.”

Four thousand years later, “the only begotten Son of God” and the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world,” as the promised “Seed of the woman” who the serpent would “bruise His heel,” died on the cross of Calvary, the antitypical altar of sacrifice. His death and the blood of God shed for the remission of sins—-which was first inaugurated in Eden as the KINGDOM OF GRACE [that saved Adam and Eve from instant death] was now RATIFIED—no longer with the typical blood of sacrificial animals, but with the antitypical, all-atoning blood of God in Christ Himself in the New Covenant!

Thus the Mosaic, Levitical, Ceremonial law with its system of sacrifices and earthly priesthood under the Old Covenant of the Old Testament dispensation was “nailed to the cross.” The death of Christ, “the Lamb of God” at Calvary was the transition point from the Mosaic-Jewish dispensation to the the New Covenant in the New Testament Christian dispensation. The former presented and preserved the gospel in symbols, as with the muted light of the moon at night; the latter, the gospel in substance, as in the glorious light of day!

We who are still alive today are living at the very closing hours of the New Testament, Christian dispensation. The ENMITY or the “great controversy between Christ and Satan” and their respective “seeds “ or followers is soon to reach its prophesied stupendous climax in “the time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time” (Dan. 12:1; cf. Rev. 7: 1, 2, 13: 1-18; chs. 15, 16).

Have you diligently appropriated the divine principle of enmity imparted by the Holy Spirit that alone enables us to “put on the whole armor of God,” “fight the good fight of faith” “fight the battles of the Lord where champions are few,” daily “overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil” “by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony”?

This is major aspect of preparing to receive the seal of God in our foreheads—verily our “passports” giving us “the right to enter in through the gates into the city and eternal access to the the tree of life! Indeed, “saved by grace.”

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 35

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
September 13, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 35

COUNT THE COST OF THE ENMITY AND DISCIPLESHIP

Luke 14:25-33:
“And there went a great multitude with Him [Jesus]: and He turned, and said unto them, ‘If any man come to Me, and HATE NOT his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and HIS OWN LIFE also, he CANNOT BE My disciple. And whosoever does not BEAR HIS CROSS, and come after Me, CANNOT be My disciple. And which of you intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and COUNTETH THE COST, whether he hath sufficient to finish it? . . . . So likewise, whosoever be of you that FORSAKETH NOT all that he hath, he CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE.” KJV. (cf. Luke 9:23-26).

“The Lord does not deceive His soldiers. He opens before them the CONFLICT, presents the BATTLE PLAN, points out the HAZARDOUS UNDERTAKING, and exhorts everyone to COUNT THE COST. He does not leave them in ignorance. He tells everyone BEFORE ENLISTMENT, to count the cost before they enlist as soldiers in His army, for the soldier’s life is a LIFE OF DUTY [not ease and pleasure].” -E. G. White, MS 98, Aug. 4, 1900.

The Cost of Being a Wholehearted Follower of Christ:
“The word of God is plain, but often there is an ERROR in applying it to oneself. There is a liability to SELF-DECEPTION and to think that its warnings and reproofs DO NOT MEAN ME. ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?’ [Jer. -17:9, 10]. SELF-FLATTERY may be construed into Christian emotion and zeal. SELF-LOVE AND CONFIDENCE may give us assurance that we are right when we are FAR from meeting the requirements of God’s Word.

“The Bible is full, clear and explicit; the CHARACTER of the true disciple of Christ is marked out with exactness. We must search the Scriptures, with humble hearts, trembling at the Word of God, IF WE WOULD NOT BE IN ANY WAY DECEIVED IN REGARD TO OUR TRUE CHARACTERS.

“There must be persevering effort to overcome SELFISHNESS and SELF-CONFIDENCE. Self-examination [introspection] must be thorough, that there be no danger of SELF-DECEPTION. A little catechizing of self on special occasions [such as altar calls in church, etc.] is NOT sufficient. DAILY examine the foundation of your hope, and see whether you are indeed in the LOVE OF CHRIST[not self].

Deal truly with your own hearts, for you cannot afford to run ANY RISK here. COUNT THE COST of being wholehearted Christian, and then gird on the armor [of Christ’s righteousness].” -Ibid, Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 322.

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
September 6, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 34

THE AFFLICTIONS OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE TRUE GOSPEL

“The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. . . Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.”

Ps. 34: 15, 19 (1-21).

“Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.” 2 Tim. 1: 8, KJV. 

 “In every age God’s chosen MESSENGERS have been reviled and persecuted; yet through their affliction the knowledge of God has been spread abroad. . . .

“How often this result has been seen in the HISTORY of God’s messengers? When the noble and eloquent Stephen was stoned to death at the instigation of the Sanhedrin council, there was NO LOSS to the cause of the gospel. The light of heaven that glorified his face, the divine compassion breathed in his dying prayer, were as a SHARP ARROW OF CONVICTION to the bigoted Sanhedrist who stood by, and SAUL, the persecuting Pharisee, became a chosen vessel, to bear the name of Christ before Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel [the Jewish nation in Christ’s time and their national religion]. 

“And long afterward Paul the aged wrote from his PRISON HOUSE AT ROME: ‘Some indeed preach Christ even of ENVY AND STRIFE.....not sincerely, supposing to ADD AFFLICTION to my bonds.....Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ [and His true gospel] is preached.’ (Phil. 1: 15, 16, 18). 

“Through Paul’s IMPRISONMENT the gospel was spread abroad, and souls were won for Christ in the very palace of the Caesars [the cruel and depraved emperors of pagan Rome who worshipped the sun]. By the efforts of Satan to DESTROY IT, ‘the incorruptible seed’ of the Word of God, ‘which liveth and abideth forever’ (1 Pet. 1:23), is sown in the hearts of men; THROUGH THE REPROACH AND PERSECUTION of His children, the name of Christ is MAGNIFIED, and souls are saved.” (All emphasis and bracketed words supplied)-E.G. White, Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, pp. 54-7. 

Who or what was the Sanhedrim, AKA Sanhedrin?
“An assembly convened for consultation, deliberation, advice, consideration, or agreement upon concerted action; in some cases, a permanent advisory, legislative, or administrative body. Various kinds of councils are referred to under different terms in the Bible, but nearly all the New Testament examples refer to a specific body, to which this discussion will be confined: the GREAT SANHEDRIN OF JERUSALEM, THE CHIEF JUDICIAL BODY OF THE JEWS for the Hellenistic period to A.D. 66…..

 “Authority. It was the highest judicial body in the country and had power over LIFE AND DEATH (Josephus’ Ant. xiv. 9, 3, 4; Matt. 26: 3, 4, 59, 66). However, during the administration of the Roman procurators, its death sentences had to be confirmed by the governor (John 18: 31), although this seems to have occasionally been circumvented (Acts 7: 58). The norm of its action was THE LAW OF MOSES AND THE  ORAL TRADITIONS that were pronouncements of leading Jewish scholars. It is generally agreed that the Roman administration also put in its hands the responsibility of collecting the taxes. The obligation was discharged by SELLING IT to tax purchasers or speculators, known as PUBLICANS in the NT.” SDA Bible Dictionary, Commentary Reference Series, Vol. 8, Review & Herald Pub. Asso., 1960, art. “Council.”

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
August 30, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 33

THE EXCEEDINGLY SINFUL AND EXTREMELY CORROSIVE NATURE OF THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY REVEALED IN ITS TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES

The story and history of the fall in Eden recorded in Genesis reveals this truth, among many others: all it took was just one seemingly “little sin,” each by Eve first, then Adam, to bring down the successive train of curses, woes, decay, and death (as it’s “wages”) upon mankind and whole earth itself.

As Paul wrote: “Wherefore, as by one man [Adam], SIN ENTERED into the WORLD and death by sin; and so DEATH PASSED UNTO ALL MEN, for that all have sinned.” (See Rom. 5: 12-19, KJV).

As a result since then, he wrote:
“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in PAIN together UNTIL NOW. And not only they, but OURSELVES ALSO, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, EVEN WE OURSELVES GROAN WITHIN OURSELVES, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 7:22,23).

Iniquity or sin, is “the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). Its first manifestation on earth was in the first disastrous experiment with disobedience of the creature towards his Creator’s command, even while in their yet original sinless, uncorrupted, innocent purity, “living, moving, and having their being” within the safe confines of their Eden home on fair earth.

Adam and Eve failed mankind’s first test of probation whereby the freedom of choice — based on their yet-untested power of the will, which is the governing power in the nature of man, having been created as a free moral agents to worship his Creator only according to the dictates of conscience. The plan of redemption “which was prepared before the foundations of the earth were laid,” instantly kicked in when man sinned and fell. So that “the moment there was a sinner there was a Savior.” This mercifully granted undeserving mankind the second and last probationary time, which will soon end as the signs of the times clearly warn all who will take heed!

God Creator’s very first recorded words immediately after the fall of Adam in Eden was not an inquiry seeking any knowledge, understanding, or explanations for the Omniscient “Word, who in the beginning was with God, and was God who made all things and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1: 1-3) infinitely knows and sees the end from the beginning, such that “His word is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there ANY CREATURE that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are NAKED and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Heb. 4: 12, 13).

God’s first inquiry to fallen man, immediately revealing His divine love and mercy, was unrewarded. Notice: “And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” Gen. 3: 9, KJV. But instead of humbly and quickly emerging from hiding in vain behind the trees of Eden because of their physical nakedness caused by their spiritual guilt and shame, repenting and confessing their sin and pleading forgiveness, which would have been instantly granted by the loving Creator, they quickly launched into self-justifying, blame-shifting, accusing others for their sins, in effect, blaming and accusing God Himself, “adding sin to sin, transgression to transgression.” Prayerfully and thoroughly study Gen. 3: 1-24 again.

Had not God immediately “put enmity between the serpent (Satan) and the woman (Eve) and her Seed who would “bruise the head of serpent,” and carry on this enmity, hatred, great controversy, and war between the respective “seeds” of Satan and the faithful followers of Christ down through the long centuries to this our day and time, culminating very soon in its prophesied stupendous climax—all mankind from the first Adam was hopelessly doomed to eternal damnation and death!

But “thank be to God for the victory in Christ Jesus,” the “second Adam” to whom all who have been genuinely and thoroughly re-born again by the twin baptisms of the water baptism of repentance, followed by the daily, fiery, purifying baptism of the Holy, can now retrace their spiritual genealogy, not to the first fallen man Adam, but to the sinlessly victorious “second Adam,” God incarnate in human flesh and blood in ultimate and infinite condescension, who was “tempted in all points as we are tempted yet without sin.”

He loves righteousness in perfection and hates sin with perfect hatred! See Heb. 1: 9. This is the only way we can “overcome even as He overcame” and “please Him” as the simple life testimony of Enoch’s 300 year walk with God resulted in His translation!

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

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.