STEPS TO CHRIST IN ACTION: PART 1 “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation” 2 Peter 3:15 In this reading you will read the letter of a person in South Africa who bought and read the most inspiring little book, Steps to Christ. It brought healing to her soul. She writes: “I have just finished reading a chapter entitled ‘What to Do With Doubt’ in the Steps to Christ booklet, by Ellen G. White. I am now left with the last chapter, ‘Rejoicing in the Lord,’ but I feel I have to say something to you. “A big thank you for the work you are doing! There may be times you are not certain about the value and the wisdom of your mission and wonder if it is actually fulfilling its purpose, if it is worth doing at all. I want to assure you it is absolutely necessary. I know God blesses you everyday. “I have just turned 33, a black woman with a university degree, married with three children, and a well-paying job. I have grown up resisting and denouncing everything and anything to do with God, the Scriptures, praying, and worship. I came up with various political, academic, and intellectual reasons to denounce all that was linked to God. “At some stage in my teens, I came across the word atheist and embraced it with all my heart. I declared myself an “atheist.” Luckily for me, the advent of Satanism and devil worship had not hit the township where I grew up, because I suspect I would have been easily enticed into such practices… just to deny the existence of God and to be different to what everyone else was. “Even at the university, I sneered and looked down upon any suggestion of the mysteries of God and the Holy Spirit. I looked upon those poor, stupid people who believed in all those stories that were concocted by some old white men a long time ago to support the validity of the ‘opium of the masses’ (that is how I described religion then). How on earth could anyone just accept something just because someone said it was so… without any scientific proof? I pitied them so much with my rather large dose of intellectual superiority. “When I was at boarding school, I went to church regularly, enjoying the services sometimes but steadfastly refusing to believe there is a God. I took Communion and felt close to God, but still my mind refused to acknowledge Him, His strength, love, and all the other qualities only He possesses in abundance. “At the university I was not forced to go to church, but there were times I would attend services with friends. But still my mind was turned away from God, and I steadfastly refused to acknowledge Him. Why? Because with all my rhetoric, I was never fully convinced about my denials – there were always doubts in my mind: ‘Could I be wrong? Could I be annoying God with what I was saying? Was I sinning against God?” “Salvation is like sunshine. It belongs to the whole world” (Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 307). Miracles of Grace
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 03:25:14 +0000
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