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The 2020 Revival and Reformation daily devotional messages are from the book The Faith I Live By by Ellen. G. White.
Talents for All
Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. 1 Corinthians 15:34.
A decided advancement in spirituality, piety, charity, and activity, has been made ... in the ----- church. Discourses were preached on the sin of robbing God in tithes and offerings....
Many confessed that they had not paid tithes for years; and we know that God cannot bless those who are robbing Him, and that the church must suffer in consequence of the sin of its individual members....
One brother said that for two years he had not paid his tithes, and he was in despair; but as he confessed his sin, he began to gather hope. “What shall I do?” he asked.
I said, “Give your note to the treasurer of the church; that will be businesslike.”
He thought that was a rather strange request; but he sat down, and began to write, “For value received, I promise to pay—” He looked up, as if to say, Is that the proper form in which to write out a note to the Lord?
“Yes,” he continued, “for value received. Have I not been receiving the blessings of God day after day? Have not the angels guarded me? Has not the Lord blessed me with all spiritual and temporal blessings? For value received, I promise to pay the sum of $571.50 to the church treasurer.” After doing all he could do on his part, he was a happy man. In a few days he took up his note, and paid his tithe into the treasury. He had also made a Christmas donation of $125.
Another brother gave a note for $1,000, expecting to meet it in a few weeks; and another gave a note for $300....
If you have robbed the Lord, make restitution. As far as possible, make the past right, and then ask the Saviour to pardon you. Will you not return to the Lord His own, before this year, with its burden of record, has passed into eternity?
Talents for All
Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Proverbs 3:9, 10.
This scripture teaches that God, as the giver of all our benefits, has a claim upon them all; that His claim should be our first consideration; and that a special blessing will attend all who honor this claim.
Herein is set forth a principle that is seen…
Talents for All
Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord. Romans 12:11.
The life of Christ from His earliest years was a life of earnest activity. He lived not to please Himself. He was the Son of the infinite God, yet He worked at the carpenter’s trade with His father Joseph. His trade was significant. He had come into the world as the character builder, and as such all His work was perfect. Into all His secular labor He brought the same perfection…
Talents for All
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Psalm 90:12.
Our time belongs to God. Every moment is His, and we are under the most solemn obligation to improve it to His glory. Of no talent He has given will He require a more strict account than of our time.
The value of time is beyond computation. Christ regarded every moment as precious, and it is thus that we should regard it. Life is too short to be trifled…
The Goal to Be Reached
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. 2 Peter 1:10.
In the council of heaven, provision was made that men, though transgressors, should not perish in their disobedience, but, through faith in Christ as their substitute and surety, might become the elect of God, predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to…
Consecration and Christian Experience
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. Joshua 1:9.
After the passing of the time in 1844, a number of brethren and sisters were assembled in a meeting. All were very sad, for the disappointment had been sore. Presently a man came in, crying, “Courage in the Lord, brethren; courage in the Lord!” This he repeated…
Consecration and Christian Experience
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Galatians 6:7.
In the laws of God in nature, effect follows cause with unerring certainty. The reaping will testify as to what the sowing has been....
Every seed sown produces a harvest of its kind. So it is in human life. We all need to sow the seeds of compassion, sympathy, and love; for we shall reap what we sow. Every characteristic…
Consecration and Christian Experience
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:13.
God’s promise is, “Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13.
The whole heart must be yielded to God, or the change can never be wrought in us by which we are to be restored to His likeness.
Pure religion has to do with the will. The will is the governing power in…
Consecration and Christian Experience
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16.
Many of the young have not the spirit of Jesus. The love of God is not in their hearts, therefore all the natural besetments hold the victory instead of the Spirit of God and salvation.
Those who really possess the religion of Jesus will not be ashamed…
Consecration and Christian Experience
I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. Psalm 119:101.
We are nearing the end of time, and we want now, not to meet the world’s tastes and practices, but to meet the mind of God; to see what saith the Scriptures, and then to walk according to the light which God has given us.
The youth are forming habits which will, in nine cases out of ten, decide their future. The influence of the company…
Consecration and Christian Experience
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9:23.
The foundation of the plan of salvation was laid in sacrifice. Jesus left the royal courts and became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. All who share this salvation, purchased for them at such an infinite sacrifice by the Son of God, will follow the example of the true Pattern.…
Consecration and Christian Experience
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. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
As the mind dwells upon Christ, the character is molded after the divine similitude. The thoughts are pervaded with a sense of His goodness, His love. We contemplate His character, and thus He is in all our thoughts. His love encloses us. If we gaze…
Buried With Him in Baptism
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Matthew 28:19.
Thus Christ gave His disciples their commission. He made full provision for the prosecution of the work, and took upon Himself the responsibility for its success. So long as they obeyed His word, and worked in connection with Him, they could not fail. Go to all nations, He bade them. Go to the farthest…
Buried With Him in Baptism
And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Acts 22:16.
There are many at the present day who have unwittingly violated one of the precepts of God’s law. When the understanding is enlightened, and the claims of the fourth commandment are urged upon the conscience, they see themselves sinners in the sight of God. “Sin is the transgression of the law” and he that shall “offend…
Buried With Him in Baptism
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Colossians 3:1.
All who enter upon the new life should understand, prior to their baptism, that the Lord requires the undivided affections.... The practicing of the truth is essential. The bearing of fruit testifies to the character of the tree There is need of a thorough conversion to the truth.
There are children…
Buried With Him in Baptism
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Romans 6:3.
Those who have taken part in the solemn rite of baptism have pledged themselves to seek for those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God; pledged themselves to labor earnestly for the salvation of sinners. God asks those who take His name, How are you using the powers that have been redeemed by the…
Buried With Him in Baptism
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3:5.
Christ here referred to water baptism and the renewing of the heart by the Spirit of God.60
Repentance, faith, and baptism are the requisite steps in conversion.... As Christians submit to the solemn rite of baptism, He registers the vow that they make to be true to Him. This vow is…
Buried With Him in Baptism
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Matthew 3:16, 17.
As Jesus asked for baptism, John drew back, exclaiming, “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” With firm yet gentle authority,…
Buried With Him in Baptism
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4.
Jesus did not receive baptism as a confession of guilt on His own account. He identified Himself with sinners, taking the steps that we are to take, and doing the work that we must do. His life of suffering and patient endurance after His baptism…
Born From Above
As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. Psalm 17:15.
Jesus came to restore in man the image of his Maker. None but Christ can fashion anew the character that has been ruined by sin. He came to expel the demons that had controlled the will.
The Lord Jesus is making experiments on human hearts through the exhibition of His mercy and abundant grace. He is effecting transformations…
Born From Above
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. Ephesians 3:16.
Jesus says, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” Mark 11:24. There is a condition to this promise—that we pray according to the will of God. But it is the will of God to cleanse us from sin, to make us His children, and to enable us to live a holy…
Born From Above
Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14.
No one who claims holiness is really holy. Those who are registered as holy in the books of heaven are not aware of the fact, and are the last ones to boast of their own goodness.
It is not a conclusive evidence that a man is a Christian because he manifests spiritual ecstasy under extraordinary circumstances. Holiness is not rapture: it is an…
Born From Above
That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24.
Conversion is a work that most do not appreciate. It is not a small matter to transform an earthly, sin-loving mind and bring it to understand the unspeakable love of Christ, the…
Born From Above
And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:2, 3.
The helpless sinner must cling to Christ as his only hope. If he lets go his hold for a moment, he imperils his own soul and the souls of others. Only in the exercise of living faith are we safe. But the commission of any…
Born From Above
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3.
Nicodemus held a high position of trust in the Jewish nation.... With others, he had been stirred by the teaching of Jesus.... The lessons that had fallen from the Saviour’s lips had greatly impressed him, and he desired to learn more of these wonderful truths....
Nicodemus had come to the Lord thinking…