The Hope Of Eternal Life Will Drive Those With Integrity To Behave With Humility, Honesty And Compassion The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them. (Prov. 11:3) Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah - https://youtube/watch?v=wT4n1hGjDDg The main reason why there is so much wickedness on the earth is because men and women have allowed themselves to focus on self. Have you ever notice how much we want others to speak well of us? Although we receive our salary at the end of the month, we still want our employers to give us other incentives to work. And when these incentives are not good enough we become disengaged. Can you believe that? Did our contract include the provision of incentives to make us work? Didn’t we agree to one incentive; salary? I am not sure if we realize that the same attitudes of the world are now present in the church. We no longer do God’s work because we love him. Instead we need to be given incentives before we can do the work of the Lord. Somehow we have allowed the strategies of our employers to drive how we are motivated to carry out the gospel commission. We set targets for harvesting ingathering. We set targets for soul winning. We give gift to the persons who take the most visitors to the nightly crusade… and the list goes on and on. Stop for a moment and reflect on the lesson for today. The writer reminds us the righteous live in the hope of the future. They live in the hope of eternal life. As a result the righteous is guided by integrity and what Jesus promised in John 14:1-3. Do we really understand what Jesus did for us on the cross of Calvary? Do we really understand what it means to become immortal? Do we understand what it is feels like to never have the desire to sin again? My friend; we don’t need to be driven by the gimmicks devise by men to participate in the great gospel commission. Just spend some time with Jesus in quiet meditation so that He can reveal to you the awesome sacrifice He made to save you. It is this knowledge and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit which will drive us to starve our carnal nature of the food that will cause us to transgression against God’s law. The righteousness that God want to impute and impart to us will cause of to serve Him because we love Him. It will cause us to seek His guidance at every single stage in our lives so that we will be directed by integrity and not my perverseness. God has His faithful witnesses, through whom He has given testimony to revive, to restore, to build up His people in the most holy faith. He has faithful sentinels who will warn the church against false theories and doctrines which would corrupt their faith, and would bring into the church distraction, discord, and strife. In every age the Lord has raised up watchmen to bear a faithful testimony to the generation in which they live. These faithful sentinels carried forward the work, and impressed upon others the necessity of consecrating all to God, and when they were called upon to lay off their armor and leave the work, there were other hands to carry it forward. Faithful souls have constituted the church of God on earth, and He has taken them into covenant relation with Himself, uniting His church on earth with His church in heaven. He has sent forth heavenly angels to minister to His church, and the gates of hell have not been able to prevail against His people. (Manuscript Releases, pg. 266 – Ellen G. White) But did Paul devote his precious time to the relation of his grievous abuses? No, he called the attention from himself to Jesus. He did not live for his own happiness, yet he was happy. . . . I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation. 2 Corinthians 7:4. And in the last days of his life, with a martyrs death in full view, he exclaims with satisfaction, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. 2 Timothy 4:7. And fixing his eye upon the immortal future, which had been the grand, inspiring motive of his whole career, he adds, in full assurance of faith, Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day--and then this man who had lived for others forgets himself--and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. Oh, noble man of faith! Paul was a living example of what every true Christian should be. He lived for Gods glory. . . . For me to live is Christ. Philippians 1:21. (Our High Calling, pg. 363 – Ellen G. White) Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7:13, 14. These roads are distinct, separate, extending in opposite directions. One leads to eternal death, the other to eternal life. One is broad and smooth, the other narrow and rugged. So the parties that travel them are opposite in character, in life, in dress, and in conversation. Those who travel in the narrow way are talking of the happiness they will have at the end of the journey. . . . They do not dress like the company in the broad road, nor talk like them, nor act like them. A pattern has been given them. A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief opened that road for them and traveled it Himself. His followers see His footprints and are comforted and cheered. He went through safely; so can they, if they follow in His steps. In the broad road all are occupied with their persons, their dress, and the pleasures in the way. They indulge freely in mirth and revelry, and think not of their journeys end, of the certain ruin at the termination of the path. Every day they approach nearer their destruction, yet they madly rush on faster and faster. . . . When it is too late they see that they have gained nothing substantial. They have grasped at shadows and lost eternal life. . . . (That I May Know Him, pg. 303 – Ellen G. White)
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 10:41:13 +0000
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