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Appeals for Truth and Loyalty
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importance; but will be weighted with the spirit of wisdom from
God.
The Sacred and the Strange Fire
He will represent the sacredness of the work, he will magnify the
truth, and will ever present before men and angels the holy perfume
of the character of Christ. This is the sacred fire of God’s own
kindling. Anything aside from this is strange fire, abhorrent to God,
and the more offensive as one’s position in the work involves larger
responsibilities.
I have a message from God to the sinners in Zion, the ones
whom Christ addressed: “Be watchful, and strengthen the things
which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works
perfect before God.” You need to offer always the sacred fire; for
then Christ’s works, His love, His mercy, His righteousness, will
ascend before God, as a cloud of holy, fragrant incense, wholly
acceptable.
But strange fire has been offered in the use of harsh words, in
self-importance, in self-exaltation, in self-righteousness, in arbitrary
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authority, in domineering, in oppression, in restricting the liberty of
God’s people, binding them about by your plans and rules, which
God has not framed, neither have they come into His mind. All these
things are strange fire, unacknowledged by God, and are a continual
misrepresentation of His character.
I have a message for you: “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. For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways,
and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down,
and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth
the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed
to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall My word be that goeth
forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall