Easy Street?

Established, Strengthened, and Settled

"You know what the three R's are," I recently asked a student.

"Sure," she replied, "Reading, Writing, and Rather not do it!"

Well, in true education, the Christian life, we have what I call the three S's.

"Stablish, Strengthen, Settle." 1 Peter 5:10

Established, Strengthened, and Settled. This three-word expression is used in Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, p. 546. The context has to do with our need to be thoroughly grounded in the truth. But these words also beautifully summarize the three phases of Christian experience. We are established in Christ at our conversion. Our walk with the Lord is to strengthen that experience. And the final phase, which I call crystallization, is when we have become so settled in Christ that we cannot be moved.

How to Know God

1. Fill your mind daily with God's word.
2. Totally give Him your heart.
3. Learn to pray as Jesus prayed.
4. Live to bring others to Him.

"It is in doing Christ's work that the church has the promise of His presence. Go teach all nations, He said; 'and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.' To take His yoke is one of the first conditions of receiving His power. The very life of the church depends upon her faithfulness in fulfilling the Lord's commission. To neglect this work is surely to invite spiritual feebleness and decay. Where there is no active labor for others, love wanes, and faith grows dim." DA 825

God's Word

Here's a poem I wrote on April 24, 1978. It's one of those papers I've been lugging around for over thirty years, thinking that someday I would do something with it. Well, I finally got around to it. I reworked it a bit today and believe it's ready to be published. It worked out so that each of the five verses has exactly sixteen syllables. See if you can figure out what I'm talking about in each verse. To how much of the Bible's story does the poem allude?

God's Word

God’s Word,

In the beginning,

Called forth light,

And life,

And existence.

God’s Word,

Fingered in stone,

Timeless code,

Spells out love,

And bares the soul.

God’s Word,

Becoming flesh,

Walking with men,

Living love,

Paid the price.

God’s Word,

Leather-bound,

Lamp and sword,

Nourishing the soul,

Arms the fight.

God’s Word,

In my heart,

Holy flame,

Kindles love,

And radiates life.

Impulses Changed

(The words in bold may be understood as synonymous.)

"Fear to speak at random, fear to follow your own impulses." OHC 91

"Those who profess to serve God and yet indulge their natural impulses will mislead other souls." YSRP 33

"In order to be overcomers, there must be in our lives no petting of fleshly inclinations." 6BC 1112

"Without the transforming process which can come alone through divine power, the original propensities to sin are left in the heart in all their strength, to forge new chains, to impose a slavery that can never be broken by human power." Ev 192

"While we yield ourselves as instruments for the Holy Spirit's working, the grace of God works in us to deny old inclinations, to overcome powerful propensities, and to form new habits." COL 354

"For we are to do service for God in ways that are not in harmony with inborn inclination." 8T 314

"As we partake of the divine nature, hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong are cut away from the character, and we are made a living power for good." Maranatha, p. 225

"When the Holy Spirit cooperates with the powers of the human mind, high, holy impulses are the sure result." 8T 65

"The leaven of truth works secretly, silently, steadily, to transform the soul. The natural inclinations are softened and subdued. New thoughts, new feelings, new motives, are implanted. A new standard of character is set up - the life of Christ. The mind is changed; the faculties are roused to action in new lines. Man is not endowed with new faculties, but the faculties he has are sanctified. The conscience is awakened. We are endowed with traits of character that enable us to do service for God." COL 98, 99

"We need not retain one sinful propensity." Maranatha, p. 225

"The completeness of Christian character is attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within." AA 551

"And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us." DA 668

"When we love the world as He has loved it, then for us His mission is accomplished. We are fitted for heaven; for we have heaven in our hearts." DA 641

"When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own." COL 69

Jesus Knows

"Jesus knows the circumstances of every soul. You may say, I am sinful, very sinful. You may be; but the worse you are, the more you need Jesus. He turns no weeping, contrite one away. He does not tell to any all that He might reveal, but He bids every trembling soul take courage. Freely will He pardon all who come to Him for forgiveness and restoration.

"Christ might commission the angels of heaven to pour out the vials of His wrath on our world, to destroy those who are filled with hatred of God. He might wipe this dark spot from His universe. But He does not do this. He is today standing at the altar of incense, presenting before God the prayers of those who desire His help."

–The Desire of Ages, p. 568

Why Jesus Came to Earth

"He shall save his people from their sins." Matthew 1:21

"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29

"He was manifested to take away our sins." 1 John 3:5

"Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Titus 2:14

"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." 1 Peter 2:24

"Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities." Acts 3:26

"He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again." 2 Corinthians 5:15

"For this is the will of God, even your sanctification." 1 Thessalonians 4:3

"That we might be partakers of his holiness." Hebrews 12:10

"The central theme of the Bible, the theme about which every other in the whole book clusters, is the redemption plan, the restoration in the human soul of the image of God." Ed 125

"The very essence of the gospel is restoration." GW 213

"Those who believe in Jesus Christ are changed from being rebels against the law of God into obedient servants and subjects of His kingdom." FE 332

"God has expended amazing sacrifices upon men, and mighty energies for the reclaiming of man from transgression and sin to loyalty and obedience." YSRP 168

"Christ came to mediate between God and man, to make man one with God by bringing him into allegiance to His law." 1SM 229

"Christ came in human form to show . . . that ample provision has been made to enable human beings to live in loyalty to their Creator." Signs of the Times, August 2, 1905

"God has made provision through the death of His beloved Son, that every soul may be thoroughly furnished unto every good work." YSRP 152

"God loved the world so dearly that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever would accept Him might have power to live His righteous life." 1SM 223

"Through the plan of salvation, Jesus is breaking Satan's hold upon the human family and rescuing souls from his power." PK 586

"The work of Christ was to take from the claims of Satan his control of man." MS 1, 1892

"Christ desires nothing so much as to redeem His heritage from the dominion of Satan." COL 174

"The Redeemer of the world came from heaven to help man in his weakness, that, in the power which Jesus came to bring him, he might become strong to overcome appetite and passion, and might be victor on every point." 3T 488

"Jesus came to bring moral power to combine with human effort." 1SM 262

"Jesus in the synagogue spoke of the kingdom He had come to establish, and of His mission to set free the captives of Satan." DA 255

"To restore in man the image of his Maker, to bring him back to the perfection in which he was created, to promote the development of body, mind, and soul, that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized - this was to be the work of redemption. This is the object of education, the great object of life." Ed 15, 16

"The burden of disease and wretchedness and sin He came to remove. It was His mission to bring to men complete restoration; He came to give them health and peace and perfection of character." MH 17

"'Be ye therefore perfect' (Matt. 5:48) is God's word to us. And in order that we might obey this word, He sent His only-begotten Son to this earth." IHP 166

"Christ came to make us 'partakers of the divine nature,' and His life declares that humanity, combined with divinity, does not commit sin." MH 180

"Jesus came to our world to bring divine power to man, that through His grace we might be transformed into His likeness." TMK 229

"Christ gave His own life that men and women might be lifted above the cheap, common, perishable things of this world, to the life which measures with the life of God." RH 11-6-1900

"He came to our world to give us an example of how we should work, and what spirit we should bring into our labor." COL 331

"It was in our behalf that Christ came to this world to make known the will of His Father, and to show human beings what they must become before they can stand before God in the heavenly courts." UL 341

Diagrams of Salvation

How To Be Saved

Jesus Christ

Matthew 1:21
"And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins."

1 Corinthians 15:3
"Christ died for our sins."

1 Peter 2:24
"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed."

Sin

1 John 3:4
"Sin is the transgression of the law."

John 8:34
"Whosever committeth sin is the servant of sin."

Matthew 6:24
"No man can serve two masters."

Romans 6:16
"His servants ye are to whom ye obey."

The ACT of Conversion

Jeremiah 3:13
"Acknowledge thine iniquity."

Joshua 24:15
"Choose you this day whom ye will serve."

Isaiah 56:4
"Take hold of my covenant"

A Personal Covenant with God

Exodus 32:29
"Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord."

James 1:21
"And receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls."

How to Receive the Engrafted Word

Ask for it in prayer (Matthew 7:7, 8)
Acquire it through the Scriptures (Mark 4:20; 1 Peter 1:23)
Accept it by faith in Jesus (1 John 5:11-15)
Assimilate it into your life (Colossians 3:16, 17)

What God Promises You

• Renewal    2 Corinthians 5:17
• Rest    Matthew 11:28-30
• Acceptance    Romans 8:1
• Peace of mind    Isaiah 26:3; Psalm 119:165
• Peace with God    Romans 5:1
• Companionship    Matthew 28:20
• Comfort    Psalm 23:4; 2 Corinthians 1:4
• Protection    Psalm 121:7, 8
• Guidance    Psalm 34:8
• Insight    Psalm 119:99
• A reason to live    2 Corinthians 5:15
• Personal value    Isaiah 13:12
• Confidence for the future    Philippians 1:6
• Forgiveness and cleansing    Isaiah 1:18
• Assurance of eternal life    1 John 5:11-13
• Supportive help    Isaiah 41:10; 2 Peter 1:4
• Deliverance from your sins    Matthew 1:21
• Ability to keep you from falling    Jude 24
• Strength for every trial    1 Corinthians 10:13
• Fulness of joy and pleasures    Psalm 16:11
• Everything you need    Philippians 4:19
• Beyond your highest dreams    Ephesians 3:20

"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13

"Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." Isaiah 55:6, 7