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Consecrated Workers Could Do Great Work in Short Time,
September 26
Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and one soul,
and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything
they owned was held in common.
Acts 4:32
, NRSV.
The world needs missionaries, consecrated home missionaries, and no one will
be registered in the books of heaven as a Christian who has not a missionary spirit.
But we can do nothing without sanctified energy. Just as soon as the missionary
spirit is lost from the heart, and zeal for the cause of God begins to wane, the
burden of our testimonies and plans is a cry for prudence and economy, and real
backsliding begins in the missionary work.
Instead of diminishing the work, let all the councils be conducted in such a
manner that increased purpose may be manifested to carry forward the great work
of warning the world, though it may cost self-denial and sacrifice. If every member
of the church was constantly impressed with the thought, I am not my own, but
have been bought with a price, all would feel that they are under the most sacred
obligation to improve every ability given of God, to double their usefulness year by
year, and have no excuse for spiritual negligence. Then there would be no lack of
sympathy with the Master in the great work of saving souls.
Who are there among us that with spiritual perception can discern the stirring
conflict that is going on in the world between the forces of good and evil? Do you
understand the nature of the great controversy between Christ, the Prince of life,
and Satan, the prince of darkness? Does the conflict appear the same to you as it
appears to the heavenly intelligences?
Oh, if all who professed to be followers of Christ were indeed living channels of
light to the world, imbued by the Spirit of God, with hearts full to overflowing with
the gospel message, with the very countenance beaming with devotion to God and
love to others, what a work might be accomplished in a short time! The messengers
of the truth would not speak with hesitation, with uncertainty, but with fearlessness
and confidence. Their words and the very tones of the voice would strike conviction
to the hearts of the hearers.—
The Review and Herald, August 23, 1892
.
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