Is There a Better Way Than This?
There are many who try to correct the life of others by attacking what they consider are wrong habits. They go to those whom they think are in error, and point out their defects. They say, “You don’t dress as you should.” They try to pick off the ornaments, or whatever seems offensive, but they do not seek to fasten the mind to the truth. Those who seek to correct others should present the attractions of Jesus. They should talk of His love and compassion, present His example and sacrifice, reveal His Spirit, and they need not touch the subject of dress at all. There is no need to make the dress question the main point of your religion. There is something richer to speak of. Talk of Christ, and when the heart is converted, everything that is out of harmony with the Word of God will drop off. It is only labor in vain to pick leaves off a living tree. The leaves will reappear. The ax must be laid at the root of the tree, and then the leaves will fall off, never to return. {Ev 272.1}
Cleanse the fountain, and the streams will be pure. If the heart is right, your words, your dress, your acts, will all be right.—Testimonies For The Church 1:158 (1857). {Ev 272.3}
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Permalink Reply by teresa on -
Christ gave Himself to a shameful, agonizing death, showing His great travail of soul to save the perishing. Oh, Christ is able, Christ is willing, Christ is longing, to save all who will come unto Him! Talk to souls in peril and get them to behold Jesus upon the cross, dying to make it possible for Him to pardon. Talk to the sinner with your own heart overflowing with the tender, pitying love of Christ. Let there be deep earnestness; but not a harsh, loud note should be heard from the one who is trying to win the soul to look and live. First have your own soul consecrated to God. As you look upon our Intercessor in heaven, let your heart be broken. Then, softened and subdued, you can address repenting sinners as one who realizes the power of redeeming love. {Hvn 11.1}
Pray with these souls, by faith bringing them to the foot of the cross; carry their minds up with your mind, and fix the eye of faith where you look, upon Jesus the Sin Bearer. Get them to look away from their poor, sinful selves to the Saviour, and the victory is won. They behold for themselves the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. They see the Way, the Truth, the Life. The Sun of Righteousness sheds its bright beams into the heart. The strong tide of redeeming love pours into the parched and thirsty soul, and the sinner is saved to Jesus Christ. {Hvn 11.2}Christ crucified—talk it, pray it, sing it, and it will break and win hearts. This is the power and wisdom of God to gather souls for Christ. Formal, set phrases, the presentation of merely argumentative subjects, is productive of little good. The melting love of God in the hearts of the workers will be recognized by those for whom they labor. Souls are thirsting for the waters of life. Do not be empty cisterns. If you reveal the love of Christ to them, you may lead the hungering, thirsting ones to Jesus, and He will give them the bread of life and the water of salvation.—Testimonies for the Church 6:66, 67. {Hvn 12.1}
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Permalink Reply by Naja on
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I agree!
I was once told a story of a little boy about 7 years old. He had made a necklace in school and gave it to his grandmother, so proudly, to wear to church. A lady came up to the grandmother, yanked the necklace off of her, yelling, "Why are you waring that satan chain?!" The little boy never went to church with his grandmother again, nor to any other church in his lifetime.
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Permalink Reply by Man Flower Glow on -
praise GOD
i have that quote in my bible
the church i grew up in needed to be constantly reminded :)
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Permalink Reply by Dan on -
I used to fall sick quite often as a teenager. Almost invariably, on subsequent visits to the doctor he would ask me, how are you feeling today? Imagine how he would feel if I told him, Oh. It gets better, my headache is more painful, my fever is hotter, my head swirls round and round and I lost my appetite! It does not get better when sin is accepted as convenient. You have heard God's clear word on homosexuality. Depart from it while you can and do not encourage others to be entrapped therein.
Ps 95
7For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
8Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
Heb 3:
12Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
15While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
18And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
19So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
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Permalink Reply by teresa on
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So you think your way is better than what the Lord told Ellen White?
It sounds like that is what you are saying....
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Permalink Reply by Man Flower Glow on
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Permalink Reply by teresa on
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The reason why there are so many hardhearted men and women in the world is that true affection has been regarded as weakness, and has been discouraged and repressed.
The better nature of these persons was stifled in childhood; and unless the light of divine love shall melt away their cold selfishness, their happiness will be forever ruined.
If we wish our children to possess the tender spirit of Jesus, and the sympathy that angels manifest for us, we must encourage the generous, loving impulses of childhood. {DA 516.2}
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Permalink Reply by Man Flower Glow on
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amen
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