Bible Search

2:3

@@@^“When we eat Christ’s flesh and drink His blood, the element of eternal life will be found in the ministry. There will not be a fund of stale, oft-repeated ideas. The tame, dull sermonizing will cease. The old truths will be presented, but they will be seen in a new light. There will be a new perception of truth, a clearness and a power that all will discern. Those who have the privilege of sitting under such a ministry will, if susceptible to the Holy Spirit’s influence, feel the energizing power of a new life. The fire of God’s love will be kindled within them. Their perceptive faculties will be quickened to discern the beauty and majesty of truth.”

7:1

@@@^Were the founders of the church directed into Truth by the counsel of the priests and rabbis, or by the Spirit of God in their hearts? Are we not individually told: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.” 1 John 4:1, 2.” Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” 1 Thess. 5:19-21.

9:1

@@@^“But the churches generally did not accept the warning. Their ministers, who as ‘watchmen unto the house of Israel,’ should have been the first to discern the tokens of Jesus’ coming, had failed to learn the truth, either from the testimony of the prophets or from the signs of the times. As worldly hopes and ambitions filled the heart, love for God and faith in His word had grown cold; and when the advent doctrine was presented, it only aroused their prejudice and unbelief. The fact that the message was, to a great extent, preached by laymen, was urged as an argument against it. As of old, the plain testimony of God’s word was met with the inquiry, ‘Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed?’ And finding how difficult a task it was to refute the arguments drawn from the prophetic periods, many discouraged the study of the prophecies, teaching that the prophetic books were sealed, and were not to be understood. Multitudes, trusting implicitly to their pastors refused to listen to the warning; an others, though convinced of the truth, dared not confess it, lest they should be ‘put out of the synagogue.’ The message which God had sent for the testing and purification of the church, revealed all too surely how great was the number who had set their affections on this world rather than upon Christ. The ties which bound them to earth were stronger than the attractions heavenward. They chose to listen to the voice of worldly wisdom, and turned away from the heart-searching message of truth.” — @9The Great Controversy@7, pg. 380.

9:1

@@@^Likewise, irrespective of considerations of personnel faults, frailties, and failings, Elijah’s message and movement will be the only God-sent ones, the only ones to fear, to love, to stand by, to live or to die for. No, there will be no other shield when heaven opens and the storm breaks in all its dread fury upon the world, to unavoidably pour down its lethal lightning from the skies.

18:1

@@@^@0@9Hos. 2:1-5 — “Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not My wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms. For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.”@7@^Obvious it is that God is commanding Jezreel, the first-born of the three children, to speak to his brother Ammi and to his sister Ruhamah, who in the allegory are symbolical of the laity, both male and female. The mother whom they are commanded to reform is, of course, symbolical of the ministry, of those who bring forth converts into the church family. The one to whom God speaks (Jezreel), therefore, is symbolical of a prophet. Here you plainly see that the “revival and reformation” does not come through the ministry (the mother) but through the laity, the children, and that the ministry (the mother) is in even greater need of reformation than the laity, for the mother is being accused of disloyalty and is by the children advised to reform. This is indeed a laity-movement directed by the Spirit of Prophecy, by Jezreel’s heaven-inspired effort and message.

22:3

@@@^“With what unwearied love did Christ minister to Israel during the period of added probation.... So His care and labor for you are not lessened, but increased. Still He says, ‘I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.’

24:2

@@@^“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.” Acts 2:1-11.

59:4

@@@^“...our own course of continual backsliding has separated us from God. Pride, covetousness, and love of the world have lived in the heart without fear of banishment or condemnation. Grievous and presumptuous sins have dwelt among us. And yet the general opinion is that the church is flourishing, and that peace and spiritual prosperity are in all her borders.

68:2

@@@^“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint shine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” Rev. 3:17-20.

11:1

@@@^Moreover, when the children of Israel went into the land of Egypt, they made a fine living in Goshen. They lived like kings. Yes, they had even much better living than the best of the Egyptians. God knew, though, that if when the time neared for their deliverance they continued to live like kings, if everything continued to be as easy for them as it had been while Joseph was living, they never, never would make up their minds to go back to the promised land. So it was that Providential trying circumstances were brought to cause them to cry day and night for deliverance. Then they were ready to go. To make sure, though, that they all would leave Egypt, the Lord permitted the Egyptian taskmasters to lash their backs and to make their labor extra hard while Moses was in the land. Likewise must the love of the world be beaten out of us, too, if we are ever to start out for our Eden home.

2:2

@@@^M.B., pp. 149, 150 — “If you have given yourself to God, to do His work, you have no need to be anxious for tomorrow.... When we take into our hands the management of things with which we have to do, and depend upon our own wisdom for success, we are taking a burden which God has not given us.... We may well have anxiety, and anticipate danger and loss; for it is certain to befall us. But when we really believe that God loves us, and means to do us good, we shall cease to worry about the future. We shall trust God as a child trusts a loving parent. Then our troubles and torments will disappear; for our will is swallowed up in the will of God.

35:2

@@@^@1“You give too much to the poor,” said the World.@2 “Far more than you ought to do;@1If they are in need of shelter and food,@2Why need it trouble you?@1Go, take your money and buy rich robes,@2Buy horses and carriages fine;@1Buy pearls and jewels and dainty food,@2Buy the rarest and costliest wine;@1My children, they dote on all these things,@2And if you their love would win@1You must do as they do, and walk in the ways@2That they are walking in.”@1So the poor were turned from her door in scorn,@2And she heard not the orphan’s cry,@1But she drew her beautiful robes aside,@2As the widows went weeping by.@8

39:3

@@@^“And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves. For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them. For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in Truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.

2:3

@@@^“The perception of God’s love works the renunciation of selfishness. In calling God our Father, we recognize all His children as our brethren. We are all a part of the great web of humanity, all members of one family. In our petitions we are to include our neighbors as well as ourselves. No one prays aright who seeks a blessing for himself alone.

2:5

@@@^What does the reading instruct us to pray for? — For an appreciation of God’s love and for better understanding of Him; for the right understanding of what it means to pray the Lord’s prayer; for wisdom to know why we address God as our Father, why we are members of one family, brethren of one household; for grace to remember to pray not for ourselves only but for our neighbors, and even for our enemies.

2:2

@@@^M.B., p. 161 — “The will of God is expressed in the precepts of His holy law, and the principles of this law are the principles of heaven.... But in heaven, service is not rendered in the spirit of legality. When Satan rebelled against the law of Jehovah, the thought that there was a law came to the angels almost as an awakening to something unthought of. In their ministry the angels are not as servants, but as sons. There is perfect unity between them and their Creator. Obedience is to them no drudgery. Love for God makes their service a joy. So in every soul wherein Christ, the hope of glory, dwells, His words are reechoed, ‘I delight to do Thy will, O my God; yea, Thy law is within my heart.’

22:1

@@@^“I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire [inspired Truth], that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve [such as this], that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” Rev. 3:18, 19.

4:1

@@@^@0@9Verses 4, 5 — “Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts: according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.”@7@^The Lord assured His people that the love which He has had for them has not diminished, and that His power to deliver and to help was still the same as when He brought their forefathers out of Egypt; as He had not failed His people in those times then He was not to fail them either, and that His spirit was still to be with them.

27:3

@@@^@0@9Zech. 8:17 — “And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the Lord.”@7@^Of all the things Christians need to learn, this one thing is most urgent: That they be honest with themselves and with others, that they always speak the truth, that they cease imagining evil against one another. Remember, when you repeat hear-say you most likely are speaking falsehood, either wholly or in part. This you cannot afford to do, for “there shall in no wise enter [the city] anything that...@9maketh a lie@7” Rev. 21:27. Evil speaking and evil surmising are things which the Lord hates.

28:1

@@@^@0@9Zech. 8:18, 19 — “And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the Truth and peace.”@7@^These ancient and typical fasts shall turn to be antitypical feasts of joy and gladness.