Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You. – Psalm 89: 14
King of the Universe lead us to your foundation and the building blocks that are found there.
Foundational Issues
Happy New Year!
#HappyNewYear2021
“We live in deeds, not years;
In thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs.
He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.”
EGW, OHC pg. 7
As We Wait
Their duty in Galilee was to wait for the Saviour, not to return to the old life; but they went a-fishing in their own wisdom, and caught nothing. They went back from the exalted mission of being fishers of men to fishers of fish. They turned from the service of Christ to the service of self. And the service of self proved, as it always proves, fruitless. The great two-fold lesson of the narrative is that apart from Christ man can do nothing, and following Christ’s command always brings success. Fishing themselves for themselves, there was no success; fishing in the same sea, by the same boat, in the same place, at the command of Christ, there was success. Oh, that the servants of God would but heed the Master’s teaching, simple and unreasonable though it seems! – Milton C. Wilcox – Signs of the Times
Close Beside Us
Jesus said, “There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen and who lived each day in luxury. At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores. – Luke 16:19-20.
There are today close beside us many who are hungry, naked, and homeless. A neglect to impart of our means to these needy, suffering ones places upon us a burden of guilt which we shall one day fear to meet. All covetousness is condemned as idolatry. All selfish indulgence is an offense in God’s sight. – COL 261.3.
Have you used of your means to ease the burden of someone who is less fortunate than yourself? Have you extended the grace that has been extended to you? Open your heart and let the Holy Spirit lead you to someone who is “at your gate”, or “close beside you.”
Nature Speaks
Soft and low a voice is calling,
Bids me leave my toil and care,
On my ear the accents falling
Glad and free I hasten there.
—
‘Tis the voice of nature pleading
Sweet, like music in the air;
And ’tis God’s great hand that’s leading
Me to seek and find Him there.
—
Little birds to me are singing
Of a God who’s over all;
Merrily their flight are winging,
Knowing He’ll not let them fall.
—
Little flowers to me are speaking
Of a God who’s always true;
Nature, as a whole, is seeking
To impart me life anew.
—
Oh! that I might heed her teaching,
Be more trustful every day ;
List the sermons she is preaching
Pointing to the heavenward way.
—
Day by day from her I’m learning,
Walking paths that Jesus trod,
Till at last my heart is turning
Upward, to sweet nature’s God.
—Esther Fiedler.
New Worlds to Conquer in the New Year
“No more worlds to conquer”—and great Alexander wept.
How blind he had become because his moral senses slept!
His narrow world of selfishness is all that he had seen;
The vast world of the spirit was, to him,unknown, unseen.
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Those rich realms of the spirit hold new worlds to conquer still.
What exploits now await the men of vision and of will,
What great discoveries will be made, what victories will be gained,
What treasures of contentment and of peace will be attained!
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If we beat back the barriers of ignorance and doubt,
And triumph o’er the enemies of peace within, without;
If we push back the wilderness of want and human need,
Then we can take our places with the pioneers, indeed.
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Come, let’s fell the savage forest of fear and hate and strife,
And open up new highways to a better way of life.
Let’s level mountains of our pride that shut men from our view,
And bridge the yawning chasms of misunderstanding, too.
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There ARE new worlds to conquer—let us cross each new frontier.
May God help us accept the challenge of this great new year.
Poem by Adlai A. Esteb
Consider the words of this poem from the Australian Record and Advent World Survey – January 1, 1962
Questions for Consideration:
- In
323 BC, at age 32, Alexander the great conquered the then-know world, and yet,
by most accounts, drank himself to death.
- What areas of great victory can I celebrate from this past year?
- What new enemies – unknown, unseen – must I face in the new year?
- If we beat back the barriers of ignorance and doubt, And triumph o’er the
enemies of peace within, without;
- What is a new thing I can learn, a question that I choose to answer in 2019?
- Where in my life do the “enemies of peace” run rampant and will I confront them?
- Let’s level mountains of our pride that shut men from our view, And bridge the yawning chasms of
misunderstanding, too.
- Who have I shut out behind my “mountain of pride” or separated myself from across the “chasms of misunderstanding”, and how can I restore that relationship?
Scriptural Reflection:
My son told me a joke recently. He said, Daddy, what goes up and never comes down? I did not know the answer, so I asked him to tell me the answer to his riddle, and he shared simply our AGE. Paul encourages us that though we can’t get younger on the outside we can renew the inner man every single day. Don’t fall for the trap of outward transformation alone – what Jesus termed – white-washed tombs [ Matthew 23:27] but seek also to renew the inner man as well. After all “A character formed according to the divine likeness is the only treasure that we can take from this world to the next.” – Maranatha