Angels Are Amazed
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the indifference of men to whom these truths mean so much. How
little is evidenced that the church feels the force of the wonderful plan
of redemption. How few make this truth, that only through faith in
the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ there is forgiveness of the sins that
cling to human beings like the foul leprosy, a living reality.
What depths of thought should this awaken in every mind! He
needed no suffering to atone for Himself. His was a depth of suffering
proportionate to the dignity of His person and His sinless, exalted
character.—
Letter 43, 1892
.
Spasmodic Repentance
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice,
and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and
he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my
throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in
his throne” (
Revelation 3:20, 21
).
Some may say, Why is this message sounded so constantly in our
ears? It is because you do not thoroughly repent. You do not live in
Christ and have Christ abiding in you. When one idol is expelled from
the soul, Satan has another prepared to supply its place. Unless you
make an entire consecration to Christ and live in communion with
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Him, unless you make Him your Counselor, you will find that your
heart, open to evil thoughts, is easily diverted from the service of God
to the service of self.
At times you may have a desire to repent. But unless you decidedly
reform and put into practice the truths you have learned, unless you
have an active, working faith, a faith that is constantly increasing
in strength, your repentance is as the morning dew. It will give no
permanent relief to the soul. A repentance caused by a spasmodic
exercise of the feelings is a repentance that needs to be repented of;
for it is delusive. A violent exercise of the feelings, which does not
produce in you the peaceable fruits of righteousness, leaves you in a
worse state than you were in before.
Every day the tempter will be on your track with some delusive,
plausible excuse for your self-serving, your self-pleasing, and you will
fall back into your old practices, neglecting the work of serving God,
by which you would gain hope and comfort and assurance.