Basic HTML Version
Conversion Creates New Interests and New Loves, December 8
Put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its
lusts.
Ephesians 4:22
, NRSV.
God now calls upon you to repent, to be zealous in the work. Your eternal
happiness will be determined by the course you now pursue. Can you reject the
invitations of mercy now offered? Can you choose your own way? Will you cherish
pride and vanity, and lose your soul at last? The Word of God plainly tells us that
few will be saved, and that the greater number even of those who are called will
prove themselves unworthy of everlasting life. They will have no part in heaven,
but will have their portion with Satan, and experience the second death.
Men and women may escape this doom if they will. It is true that Satan is the
great originator of sin; yet this does not excuse anyone for sinning; for he cannot
force any to do evil. He tempts them to it, and makes sin look enticing and pleasant;
but he has to leave it to their own wills whether they will do it or not. He does not
force people to become intoxicated, neither does he force them to remain away
from religious meetings; but he presents temptations in a manner to allure to evil,
and human beings are free moral agents to accept or refuse.
Conversion is a work that most do not appreciate. It is not a small matter to
transform an earthly, sin-loving mind and bring it to understand the unspeakable
love of Christ, the charms of His grace, and the excellency of God, so that souls
shall be imbued with divine love and captivated with the heavenly mysteries. When
they understand these things, their former life appears disgusting and hateful. They
hate sin, and, breaking their heart before God, they embrace Christ as the life and
joy of the soul. They renounce their former pleasures. They have a new mind, new
affections, new interest, new will; their sorrows, and desires, and love are all new.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, which have heretofore
been preferred before Christ, are now turned from, and Christ is the charm of the
life, the crown of rejoicing.
Heaven, which once possessed no charms, is now viewed in its riches and glory;
and they contemplate it as their future home, where they shall see, love, and praise
the One who hath redeemed them by His precious blood.—
Testimonies for the
Church 2:293, 294
.
[361]
365