Sunday, April 2, 2017

Daily readings for 2017-04-03: To Be Like Jesus

Hi Raul Diaz,

To Be Like Jesus — Day 62 of 335

The Spirit Must Illuminate the Word, April 3

We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 1 Corinthians 2:12, NKJV.

God intends that, even in this life, truth shall be ever unfolding to His people. There is only one way in which this knowledge can be obtained. We can attain to an understanding of God's Word only through the illumination of that Spirit by which the Word was given. “The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God”; “for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” And the Savior's promise to His followers was: “When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.... For he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.”

God desires human beings to exercise their reasoning powers; and the study of the Bible will strengthen and elevate the mind as no other study can do. It is the best mental as well as spiritual exercise for the mind. Yet we are to beware of deifying reason, which is subject to the weakness and infirmity of humanity. If we would not have the Scriptures clouded to our understanding, so that the plainest truths shall not be comprehended, we must have the simplicity and faith of a little child, ready to learn, and beseeching the aid of the Holy Spirit. A sense of the power and wisdom of God, and of our inability to comprehend His greatness, should inspire us with humility, and we should open His Word, as we would enter His presence, with holy awe. When we come to the Bible, reason must acknowledge an authority superior to itself, and heart and intellect must bow to the great I AM.

We shall advance in true spiritual knowledge only as we realize our own littleness and our entire dependence upon God; but all who come to the Bible with a teachable and prayerful spirit, to study its utterances as the Word of God, will receive divine enlightenment. There are many things apparently difficult or obscure which God will make plain and simple to those who thus seek an understanding of them....

There are mines of truth yet to be discovered by the earnest seeker. Christ represented the truth as treasure hid in a field. It does not lie right upon the surface; we must dig for it. But our success in finding it does not depend so much on our intellectual ability as on our humility of heart and the faith which will lay hold upon divine aid.—Testimonies for the Church 5:703, 704.


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Devoción Matutina en español

April 2, 2017

Gozo en servir

El que quiera hacerse grande entre vosotros será vuestro servidor, y el que de vosotros quiera ser el primero, será siervo de todos. Marcos 10:43, 44.

La verdadera dicha sólo se encuentra en una vida de servicio. El que vive una vida inútil y egoísta es miserable. Está descontento consigo mismo y con los demás. El Señor enseña a sus obreros que deben estar preparados para ocupar los lugares que les han sido asignados. De esa manera desea que se apresten a realizar un servicio más aceptable.

Hay muchos que no están satisfechos de servir a Dios alegremente en el lugar que les ha señalado, de realizar sin quejarse la obra que ha colocado en sus manos. Es correcto que estemos descontentos de la forma en la que realizamos [nuestro] deber, pero no debemos estar descontentos con el deber mismo porque desearíamos realizar alguna otra cosa. En su providencia, Dios coloca delante de los seres humanos un servicio que será como una medicina para sus mentes enfermas. De esa manera [Dios] trata de guiarlos para poner a un lado la preferencia egoísta, la que, si se fomenta, podría descalificarlos para el trabajo que tiene para ellos.— The Review and Herald, 2 de mayo de 1907.

Hay quienes desean tener un poder soberano, y que necesitan la santificación de la obediencia. Dios provoca un cambio en sus vidas. Tal vez coloca delante de ellos deberes que no habrían escogido. Si están dispuestos a ser guiados por él, les dará gracia y fortaleza para realizar esos deberes con espíritu de sometimiento y utilidad. De esa manera están siendo capacitados para ocupar lugares donde sus disciplinados talentos realicen un gran servicio.

A veces Dios los prepara dándoles decepciones y aparente fracaso. Tiene el propósito de que aprendan a dominar la dificultad. Los inspira con una determinación de hacer que cada aparente fracaso resulte un éxito.— Ibid.

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Daily Devotional

April 2, 2017

Use Even One Talent Wisely

"I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours." But his Lord answered and said to him, "You wicked and lazy servant.... You ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest." Matthew 25:25-27, NKJV.

None should mourn that they have not larger talents. When they use to the glory of God the talents He has given them, they will improve. It is no time now to bemoan our position in life, and excuse our neglect to improve our abilities because we have not another's ability and position, saying, Oh, if I had his or her gift and ability, I might invest a large capital for my Master. If such persons use their one talent wisely and well, that is all the Master requires of them.

Look into our churches. There are only a few real workers in them. The majority are irresponsible men and women. They feel no burden for souls. They manifest no hungering and thirsting for righteousness. They never lift when the work goes hard. These are the ones who have but one talent, and hide that one in a napkin, and bury it in the world; that is, they use all the influence they have in their temporal matters. In seeking the things of this life, they lose the future, eternal life, the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. What can be said and done to arouse this class of church members to feel their accountability to God? Must the mass of professed Christian commandment keepers hear the fearful words "Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth"?

Every man and woman and child should be a worker for God. Where there is now one who feels the burden of souls there should be one hundred. What can we do to arouse the people to improve what influence and means they already have to the glory of the Master? Let those who have one talent use that well, and in so doing they will find it doubled. God will accept "according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." - The Review and Herald, March 14, 1878.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 79.

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Thought of the Day

April 2, 2017

Firm integrity shines forth as gold amid the dross and rubbish of the world. - ChL 17

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Daily Devotional

April 2, 2017

The Poor Have Rights in God's World

The earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. Psalm 24:1, NKJV.

"On the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement," the trumpet of the jubilee was sounded. Throughout the land, wherever the Jewish people dwelt, the sound was heard, calling upon all the children of Jacob to welcome the year of release. On the great Day of Atonement satisfaction was made for the sins of Israel, and with gladness of heart the people would welcome the jubilee.

As in the sabbatical year, the land was not to be sown or reaped, and all that it produced was to be regarded as the rightful property of the poor. Certain classes of Hebrew slaves - all who did not receive their liberty in the sabbatical year - were now set free.

But that which especially distinguished the year of jubilee was the reversion of all landed property to the family of the original possessor. By the special direction of God the land had been divided by lot. After the division was made no one was at liberty to trade his estate. Neither was he to sell his land unless poverty compelled him to do so, and then, whenever he or any of his kindred might desire to redeem it, the purchaser must not refuse to sell it; and if unredeemed, it would revert to its first possessor or his heirs in the year of jubilee....

The people were to be impressed with the fact that it was God's land which they were permitted to possess for a time; that He was the rightful owner, the original proprietor, and that He would have special consideration made for the poor and unfortunate. It was to be impressed upon the minds of all that the poor have as much right to a place in God's world as have the more wealthy.

Such were the provisions made by our merciful Creator, to lessen suffering, to bring some ray of hope, to flash some gleam of sunshine, into the life of the destitute and distressed. - Patriarchs and Prophets, 533, 534.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 251.

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Thought of the Day

April 2, 2017

The gospel is to be presented, not as a lifeless theory, but as a living force to change the life. - Ev 16

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Daily readings for 2017-04-02: To Be Like Jesus

Hi Raul,

To Be Like Jesus — Day 61 of 335

The Rewards of Bible Study, April 2

If, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 2 Peter 2:20, NKJV.

Great light was given to the Reformers, but many of them received the sophistry of error through misinterpretation of the Scriptures. These errors have come down through the centuries, but although they be hoary with age, yet they have not behind them a “Thus saith the Lord.” For the Lord has said, I will not “alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” In His great mercy the Lord has permitted still greater light to shine in these last days. To us He has sent His message, revealing His law and showing us what is truth.

In Christ is the fountain of all knowledge. In Him our hopes of eternal life are centered. He is the greatest teacher the world has ever known, and if we desire to enlarge the minds of the children and youth, and win them, if possible, to a love of the Bible, we should fasten their minds upon the plain and simple truth, digging out that which has been buried beneath the rubbish of tradition, and letting the jewels shine forth. Encourage them to search into these subjects, and the effort put forth will be an invaluable discipline.

The unfolding of God, as represented in Jesus Christ, furnishes a theme that is grand to contemplate, and that will, if studied, sharpen the mind, and elevate and ennoble the faculties. As the human agents learn these lessons in the school of Christ, trying to become as Christ was, meek and lowly of heart, they will learn the most useful of all lessons—that intellect is supreme only as it is sanctified by a living connection with God....

The greatest wisdom, and most essential, is the knowledge of God. Self sinks into insignificance as it contemplates God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. The Bible must be made the foundation for all study. Individually we must learn from this lesson book, which God has given us, the condition of the salvation of our souls; for it is the only book that tells us what we must do in order to be saved. Not only this, but from it strength may be received for the intellect.—Fundamentals of Christian Education, 450, 451.


		The Ellen G. White Estate 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904, USA Phone: +1 301 680 6540 Help: subscribe@ellenwhite.org

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