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God is not Nature, but Nature’s God, November 29
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou
hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Revelation 4:11
.
The heart is the place for the truth to begin its work. Truth is to be a power in
the life and character. If received and cherished in the heart, it will work as the
leaven of a life-giving principle, changing the whole being.
Truth has power to make the sayings of Christ spirit and life. If cherished and
respected, it will cause the man to turn from his evil ways. Truth and error cannot
abide in the same heart. “He that is not with me is against me,” Christ declares,
“and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad” (
Matthew 12:30
).
Wisdom, intellect, power—these are not God. But God is the Author of all
wisdom, all grace, all power. God gave Lucifer his power and wisdom, yet this
intelligence was not God Himself. We are to know God as He is revealed in His
marvelous works. Who by searching can find out God? This is not part of our
work.... God’s character is expressed in the Ten Commandments. To know God as
He is—this is the science of all goodness and truth and righteousness. We must
obey every expression of His character as revealed in His law.
God requires obedience, not for the purpose of showing His authority, but that
we may become one with Him in character. We will find in God the attributes of
character needed to form characters after His likeness. We are to form characters
that are in harmony with the Deity. Thus our natures become spiritualized in every
faculty.
We cannot present any correct representation in words of God’s glory and
majesty. It is beyond expression. But we can enjoy the contemplation of God, and
the sense of His presence. We can know of Him all that human beings can bear.
We can talk with Him in prayer.
At times, when our faith goes out to Him completely, we converse with
Him, and by faith endure the seeing of the Invisible. Faith revealed Him and we
contemplate all that we can endure. When in times of trouble and perplexity we
trust Him fully, we have a living sense of His cheering, all-pervading presence
and power. We realize that the Lord is indeed our strength and our portion forever.
We can be one with Christ in God. But let us never undertake to define God as an
essence. Never, never venture one step into the way of putting God in the place of
the things of His creation.—
Manuscript 126, November 29, 1905
, “A Warning
Against Present Dangers.”
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