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That Your Joy May Be Full, December 11
And the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the
Lord his God upon him.
Ezra 7:6
.
Christ would have everyone possess in abundance the grace of heaven. He
desires that His joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. Every soul
is to discipline himself in strict, faithful service, just as verily out of meeting
as in meeting. You are in full view of the heavenly angels, and every faithful
disciple may be, if he will, as was Ezra before the king. The hand of God
is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are
against those who forsake Him, and who trust in the help and friendship of
the world, going to the God of Ekron to inquire, and heeding not the counsel
of the living God.
The children of God will know who is their helper. They will know in
whom they can trust implicitly, and with Christ’s help, they may, without
presumption, have a holy confidence. Yes, His servants may safely trust in
Him alone, without fear, looking unto Jesus, pressing on in obedience to
His requirements, leaving everything that is joined to the world, whether the
world opposes or favors. Their success comes from God, and they will not
fail because they have not the wealth and influence of wicked men. If they
fail, it will be because they do not obey the Lord’s requirements, and the Holy
Spirit is not with them....
Our only safety is in being joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. We can afford
to lose the friendship of worldly men. Those who join themselves to worldly
men, that they may carry out their unsanctified purposes, make a fearful
mistake; for they forfeit the favor and blessing of God. I am to urge upon the
attention of our people that the Lord Himself has placed a wall of separation
between the world and that which He has established on the earth. God’s
people are to serve Him, for Christ has called them out of the world, and
sanctified and refined them, that they may do His service.... There is no such
thing as maintaining concord between the profane and the holy. There can
be no concord between Christ and Belial. But “the Lord hath set apart him
that is godly for himself” (
Psalm 4:3
). And this consecration to the Lord, this
separation from the world, is plainly declared and positively enjoined in both
the Old and the New Testaments.—
Letter 329, December 11, 1905
, to J. A.
Burden, manager of the Loma Linda Sanitarium.
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