| Recipe | |
| Creamy Baby Red Potato and Kale Soup | |
| 3 cups water | 1 cup onions, chopped |
| 4 cups baby red potatoes, cubed | 2 Tbsp. olive oil |
| 4 cups kale, julienne sliced or chopped | 1 garlic clove, crushed |
| 3 cups almond milk | salt, to taste |
| Bring 3 cups water to a boil. Add in the potatoes and boil for 10 minutes. Bring the temperature down a bit and add in the kale, onions, garlic. Cook for another 15 to 20 minutes. Last, add in the olive oil, almond milk, and salt. |
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Food – The Potato
There are many varieties of potatoes. Each of these varieties fits into one of seven potato type categories: russet, red, white, yellow, blue/purple, fingerling and petite. Let’s look at a few:
Russet Potatoes: dry, light and fluffy; hearty skin that is chewy when cooked and are preferred for baking, frying, mashing, roasting. Russets are ideal for light and fluffy mashed potatoes. They also fry up crisp and golden brown, and they are the potato of choice for baking.
Red Potatoes: smooth with thin red skin and white flesh. These are preferred for roasting, mashing, salads, soups/stews. The flesh of red potatoes stays firm throughout the cooking process, whether they are being roasted or cooked in a stew. Reds are frequently used to make tender yet firm potato salad or add pizazz to soups and stews, as well as being served baked or mashed.
White Potatoes: white or tan skin with white flesh and are preferred for mashing, salads, steaming/boiling, frying. They hold their shape well after cooking. Their thin skins add just the right amount of texture to a velvety mashed potato dish without the need for peeling.
Yellow Potatoes: light tan to golden skin and are preferred for grilling, roasting, mashing, and salads. The creamy texture and golden color of yellow potatoes mean you can use less or no butter/oil for lighter, healthier dishes.
Purple/Blue Potatoes: deep purple, blue or slightly red skin; blue, purple lavender, pink or white flesh and are used for roasting, grilling, salads, baking. Because of their mild yet distinctly nutty flavor, blue/purple potatoes naturally complement green salad flavors. Red, White and Blues—Combine blue potatoes with whites and reds in salads or roasted medleys to make all three colors.
Fingerling Potatoes: red, orange, purple or white skin; red orange, purple, yellow or white flesh–sometimes streaked with veins of color and are used for pan-frying, roasting, salads. Split fingerlings lengthwise and oven-roast to serve as a small-plate or side-dish alternative to fries, with a flavor dipping sauce.
Petite Potatoes: small, bite-sized potatoes and are often referred to as pearls and are great for salads, roasting, frying. Roast a combination of colors for an eye-catching side dish. Their concentrated flavors and quicker cooking time makes petites a good choice for potato salads. Simply toss petites in olive oil, rosemary and salt to make colorful, delicious and fun roasted potatoes. They save you prep time, because they can be prepared and served whole, without slicing or chopping.
For more detail see: www.potatogoodness.com/all-about-potatoes/potato-types/
| Recipe | |
| Creamy Baby Red Potato and Kale Soup | |
| 3 cups water | 1 cup onions, chopped |
| 4 cups baby red potatoes, cubed | 2 Tbsp. olive oil |
| 4 cups kale, julienne sliced or chopped | 1 garlic clove, crushed |
| 3 cups almond milk | salt, to taste |
| Bring 3 cups water to a boil. Add in the potatoes and boil for 10 minutes. Bring the temperature down a bit and add in the kale, onions, garlic. Cook for another 15 to 20 minutes. Last, add in the olive oil, almond milk, and salt. |
Sermon on the Mount Series – To Satisfy the Hungry
It is a wonderful feeling to be satisfied. Unfortunately, in this world, this is not the experience of many people. Many having obtained riches have confessed that they are not satisfied and still others who have obtained fame or pleasure are still dissatisfied. Thus one wonders what is it that can produce perfect and lasting mental and spiritual satisfaction.
In His Sermon on the Mount Jesus pronounced a blessing on those who were hungry. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). The hunger and thirst after righteousness is the result of the spiritual experience of the three things Jesus had before mentioned. First there must be a recognition of spiritual poverty. He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (verse 3). That leads to heart sorrow because of the sins that have been committed, which in turn leads to an experience of meekness or humbleness. The leanness and nakedness of soul causes a crying out after God and His righteousness. This soul hunger, Jesus said, is going to be satisfied. A good appetite is a sign of life and health. It is a very common experience for a person who is dying to lose his/her appetite and have no desire for food during the last few days of his/her life.
Only people who are alive hunger and thirst, while lack of appetite is generally a sign of failing health. Hunger and thirst lessen as life is diminished, but increase as life increases.
When a person dies, his or her emotions and passion for hunger and thirst cease altogether, while a healthy baby will have an appetite that seems never to fail. In fact, it often seems to be insatiable. This is not a bad thing; a good appetite is a great blessing, giving evidence of a normal, healthy body. Those who enjoy their meals have a much more satisfying life than those who eat only because they have to. A healthy baby is continually hungry and thirsty because it is growing.
Hunger and thirst are evidence of growth and development. No person can grow and increase in stature without food and water. Now this is true not only in the physical realm, but also in the intellectual realm. It is only those who hunger and thirst for knowledge who continue to grow in wisdom and develop in intellectual power. We owe a great deal in our world today to those people who have had an insatiable appetite for wisdom and knowledge. They have sought knowledge and invented and discovered things that have changed our world. But many people, if not most, lose their mental appetite early in life and then for the rest of their lives coast on what they have learned in their younger years, ceasing to seek to increase their knowledge.
Unfortunately, this is even true of many professional people—ministers, lawyers, teachers, physicians—people who you would expect above all others to be growing intellectually as long as life would last. But many die mentally long before they die physically. This is a great tragedy, but we live in a tragic world. Matthew 5:6 has a special reference to a person’s spiritual life and appetite but the same principles that exist in the physical also apply to the intellect. Hunger and thirst are absolutely essential to spiritual life and growth. The person who has no appetite for spiritual things is spiritually dead. The person with a poor spiritual appetite is spiritually sick. It is only the person who has a ravenous appetite for the bread of life and the waters of salvation and who greatly enjoys his spiritual food and drink who is a normal, healthy Christian.
Unfortunately, most professed Christians today are subnormal; suffering from spiritual malnutrition, they are spiritually weak and anemic. It takes but little spiritual food to satisfy them. They are particular and very picky about what they eat, when they eat, and who feeds them. Many are kept alive only because they are being spoon-fed, for they do not have appetite and energy enough to feed themselves. This is a pathetic situation, especially when there is a great spiritual banquet spread for all. This is not a problem only occurring in our time. The apostle Paul addressed this same situation to the Jews. He said, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” Hebrews 5:12–14.
Those who are spiritually proud do not hunger and thirst for spiritual food, for they are already perfectly satisfied. They feel full and therefore have no appetite for more. This was true concerning the Pharisees in the time of Christ. They felt no need and did not receive any benefit from the bread and water of life that Jesus freely offered to anyone who hungered and thirsted for it. Before Jesus was born, the virgin Mary spoke about this very thing. She said, “He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty” (Luke 1:53).
When Jesus referred to Himself as the bread of life and that only those who would eat His flesh and drink His blood would have eternal life, many were offended. It says in John 6:66 KJV that “they walked no more with Him.” It is for this reason that the first blessing pronounced in Jesus’ sermon is upon those who are poor in spirit, the ones who feel their need. They mourn over their spiritual condition. They are meek, hungering and thirsting for something they don’t have. Jesus said that their need will be fulfilled.
The condition of the Christian church today was predicted almost 2,000 years ago. The angel said, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:15, 16). The church does not recognize its spiritual poverty; it does not mourn over its sins. It is not meek or humble, but proud and boasts of its spiritual wealth, even claiming to be rich and increased in goods and having need of nothing (verse 17). It is in a similar spiritual condition to the Pharisees in Jesus’ time.
Jesus Christ, the dispenser of the bread of life, is unable to feed the modern church because she has no appetite. Though she does not realize her condition, she is spiritually sick. Her condition is similar to that of the Jews in the days of Christ. He came to give them spiritual food and drink but found only a few who were hungry and thirsty. The spirit of the Laodicean church, Revelation 3:14–22, is the same spirit as that of Phariseeism. There is an abundance of food, but the church feels well-filled and already satisfied. So Christ knocks at the door of this church-temple in vain. He is not in the church; He is standing on the outside trying to get in. Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”
Can you hear the Lord’s knocking at the door of your heart? He describes His people in the last days as being naked, yet at the same time going about as if on a dress parade. How can that be? The church has no divine covering for her sins, but she has provided for herself a garment made up of religious rituals. The Lord calls these garments “filthy rags.” Isaiah 64:6, 7 says, “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You.”
It could only be a person who is mentally unbalanced or who is drunk that could ever go about naked and not know it. But the Laodicean church thinks it is clothed. However, the filthy garments are unacceptable. Jesus says, “Come and buy from Me, white raiment that you may be truly clothed” (see Revelation 3:18). If they could only be awakened and be clothed with the garments of Christ’s righteousness, the wedding garment that prepares them to go to heaven, then they would be in a different condition. In the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned, the guilty pair were ashamed of their nakedness because their garment of light had left them. Because they did not want to appear in front of the Lord naked, they sewed garments of fig leaves to clothe themselves, but the Lord did not accept those garments. Though Adam was wearing his fig leaf garment, he told the Lord that he was naked. The Lord then provided them with garments only made possible by the death of a symbolic lamb.
The Lord wants to do the same for the modern church as He did for our first parents. He wants us to realize our spiritual nakedness and then He wants to provide us with the righteousness of Christ that will cover us so that the shame of our nakedness does not appear (see Revelation 16:15).
Of all human cravings, there are none that are more powerful than hunger and thirst. Any person or animal who is hungry or thirsty will make every effort to obtain food and drink. Sometimes when people are thirsty and are lost in the desert they see what they think is water only to find it is just a mirage. But the water of life that Jesus offers is not a mirage. It is a well of living water as Jesus described in John 4:14. This is our great need in this modern generation—the water of life. We need a soul-hunger for the bread of life and thirst for the water of life, which is Christ and His righteousness because it is only the hungry and the thirsty that are promised to be satisfied.
If the modern church could be given a good spiritual appetite, she would not long remain in her present condition. The promise of Jesus is that if you are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, you will be filled and completely satisfied. The Bible records the story of Jesus Who spoke to a woman at a well in Sychar. He said, “If you knew the gift of God, and Who it is Who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water. The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.’ … Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water [this physical water] will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life’ ” (John 4:10, 11, 13, 14).
“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst’ ” (John 6:35). But after He said this to them, He spoke the following mournful words, “But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe” (verse 36). How is it with you? Do you want something you don’t have or are you like the spiritually proud people of all ages, perfectly satisfied just the way you are? There are millions of people that will never have eternal life because they’re satisfied just the way they are. Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37).
Complete satisfaction is promised only to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. The Lord makes the following invitation: “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live” (Isaiah 55:1–3).
Complete satisfaction is still available; it is still waiting in our modern, wretched, poverty-stricken, naked church as soon as we awaken and develop an appetite to be revived and as soon as we want something better than what we have. Remember, the blessing is pronounced on the hungry: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). They will be completely satisfied. If you feel perfectly satisfied right now, it is time for you to pray and ask the Lord for a hunger and thirst like never before for something that you don’t have, something that will bring perfect and lasting satisfaction, spiritually, intellectually, and that will eventually result in eternal life. Jesus is standing at the door of the heart. He is knocking at the door of the modern church. He calls to the lukewarm, self-satisfied church, Come and get something from Me.
Revelation 3:18 says, “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.” How is it with your life? Are you a Laodicean Christian and just lukewarm? Are you satisfied with your condition like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day? They refused His teachings; they refused His salvation, being satisfied with their own perverted religious system.
Jesus said, Obtain gold from Me. He’s talking, of course, about spiritual gold, not literal gold. With gold being so valuable, having it enables you to get anything you need in this world. Spiritual gold represents faith. Jesus said that if you have faith and believe in Him and trust in Him, everything is possible (Matthew 17:20). Also, if you have gold, you already have wealth. Gold equals wealth. Spiritual gold is spiritual wealth – the bond of perfection which the apostle Paul said is charity or love (Colossians 3:14). So spiritual gold is faith and love. Jesus says that is what is needed so you will not be so poor. The white raiment, which is the righteousness of Christ, is righteousness that no human being can generate. However, it is the righteousness required for entry into the kingdom of heaven, and, it is a free gift.
The eye salve is the spiritual anointing, the discernment that enables a person to see the wiles and deceptions of Satan and the ability to shun them, to detect sin and to abhor it, to see the truth and obey it. Do you have the eye salve? Can you actually see what’s happening in the spiritual world today? This is the great need of present-day Christianity. Jesus said, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled.” Christ is our righteousness. He says, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink” (John 7:37 KJV).
There is no other source of supply, friend. Jesus is the bread and the water of life. He is the only One Who can satisfy the deepest spiritual need of your soul, and He will, if you’ll open the door and let Him in.
(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)
Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church of Free Seventh-day Adventists in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.
Health – Conquering Stress
Riots and trouble, depression and guilt, hatred and violence, anxiety and anger. We live in a world turbulent with stress. How significant is this to our health, happiness, and success? It is a recognized cause of high blood pressure and of dysfunction in the immune system. Difficulties in any part of the body can be caused or aggravated by stress.
What is Stress?
Stress in the sum total of pressure converging on a person.
How Does Stress Work?
Stress works through the nervous system. There is an intricate electrical and chemical network providing communication within the different parts of the brain, between the brain and the rest of the nervous system, and between these and all parts of the body. For this reason, a great deal of good or harm can be produced by stress signals going around and around in circuits inside of the brain, the capital of the body. Because nerves go to each of the organs and all major blood vessels, stress can derange the circulation of any part of the body, producing a spectrum of problems from headaches to spasms.
As nerves communicate with the tiny endocrine glands, they can increase or decrease the production of hormones that circulate in the blood to reach and affect specific targets or all parts of the body. This “mass communication system” can affect all tissues of the body, with their 120 trillion cells!
Control Systems
There are three major ways to control stress. One of the finest ways of controlling stress is to reduce the input of stressful stimuli, pressures, and forces impinging on you. Many people could markedly reduce the effects of internal violence in the nervous system by not seeing, hearing, feeling, or vicariously experiencing the violence via the mass media, particularly by television, DVDs, movies, radio, magazines, and stress-producing books.
Another way to reduce stress is to focus the imagination and mind on today’s opportunities and duties, instead of worrying about tomorrow’s synthetic potential problems. Stress input can be markedly reduced by solving the problems of the past. From people we have injured we can seek forgiveness for violating principles of human behavior. After we have asked forgiveness we can go to our Heavenly Father and ask Him to forgive us. When this is done, the stress of the past can be buried in the deepest ocean of history. This will make it very much easier for us to have poise and concentration on the day-to-day living, for the Great Physician has counselled us, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:34).
Another way to reduce stressful input is by developing sensible mental and emotional hygiene. Instead of dwelling on the negatives of life and experience in our families, in our communities, or in our world, thinking and focusing on the positive developments in our lives will greatly reduce our internal stress.
A very potent method for stress control is to increase the coping power that we have available. This can be done in many ways. The finest, most economical, most available, and most powerful way to increase coping power is complete cooperation with Divine Power. United States president George Washington, president Abraham Lincoln, and many other great people of history have found prayer to be indispensable in increasing their power to cope with the pressures, problems, burdens, worries, and anxieties of life.
Reading biographies of great people who have dealt with similar problems and succeeded in life in spite of them is very helpful. Some of the finest of these practical experiences and case records of successful stress control are found in the Bible itself. There are such famous cases as Daniel, surrounded in a foreign culture in Babylon, David, chased from one cave to another by an insane king, and Paul, in and out of prisons for sharing the truth with a secular society. Mention could be made of many others. As we identify our situations with those of other people, and as we see how they made it in spite of everything, this will give us more faith, more courage, more toughness of spirit and mind, more resiliency of soul to stand up and go forward in spite of appearances. We too can learn to live by faith instead of by sight.
Many stress control methods that have some utility neglect the highest region of the brain, namely, the frontal lobe. The major portion of the brain, this is where such great forces as faith, hope, and love are centered. By building up this highest region of the brain, we become men and women of grit, gumption, and tenacity. These approaches transcend shallow quick fixes, and tend to produce more character than depression.
Support Groups
Support groups are very useful and valuable in coping with stress, particularly if the support group socially reinforces the truth. Placebos or shallow pseudo-solutions that do not deal with the root causes of our problems will fail in the end.
Often neglected in stress control is another major portion of the brain, the regions on the right side, dealing with the big picture, with music, and with art. Although singing does not seem to be very potent, in reality it is. When Martin Luther sang with lusty courage, “A mighty fortress is our God” (Martin Luther, 1529), he marched—with his whole brain engaged—with the Leader of the universe and the needs of humanity. Every step he took toward Worms echoed for centuries thereafter. This is stress control at its finest.
One time there was a dear friend of the Great Physician named Martha. She came under considerable stress because of her natural tendency to collect and try to assume more and more duties. A noble person of considerable talent, she neglected the finer dimensions of life and found herself in intolerable stress. Her sister Mary chose rather to spend more time listening to Jesus. This better way relieved her of unnecessary stress and sweetened her life with heavenly music—it will for you too.
Delegation of responsibility, appropriate time management, and other divide-and-conquer methods have their place in stress control.
From one point of view, the main difference between carbon—black, dingy, dirty carbon—and the pristine elegance of a diamond, is stress. The convergence of heat and pressure on carbon can produce the glories of diamonds. This is the finest outcome of stress. When we understand and grasp that the crucible of stress can produce the very finest of personality and character development, instead of fighting the process, we will cooperate with the great Designer, relax in trustful submission, and go forward in spite of feelings.
In this way, common people of common talents can become excellent masters of stress control. To participate in this process will require some real study, faith, and maturity. If we feel like orphans, slaves, or ciphers in the universe, the circumstances of life may appear unfair, unjust, and fatalistic, whereas if we discover by careful study of the Bible that we are sons and daughters of the King of the universe and that He loves us steadily, tenderly, eternally, then our outlook on the universe and on the world—on all of life—will be entirely transformed. The spiritual dimension of stress control is indeed ultimate.
In this, the age of computers, we know that the excellence of modern software is essential for the efficiency of good computer operation. The human brain is the greatest computer in the world, and its excellence, too, depends on its software. The software in our living computers will be the best if, in our life experience and in our study of the Bible, when we come across a promise that rings a golden bell in our lives, we will write it down, keep it, and refresh it in our minds and experience. We can become stronger, more flexible, more resilient, tougher if you please, to the buffeting stresses of life’s turbulence. For instance, the Great Physician promised, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). A very good, and useful promise.
And again, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace” (John 16:33). These great promises are great pillars of stress control, and when we take hold of them, and understand them, believe them, and trust the Author of all good, beauty, and strength, our lives can reflect more and more that quality and serenity of peace that passeth all understanding (Philippians 4:7).
“Peace I leave with you.”
Bernell E. Baldwin, The Journal of Health and Healing, vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 4, 5.
Question & Answer – Explain “first love” and “first works” in Revelation 2:4, 5.
“Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works …” (Revelation 2:4, 5). [Emphasis added.]
“Thine is a decay, a declension in holy zeal—not forsaken is the object of it, but lost is the fervor. The first affection of the convert to Christ is deep, full, and ardent. It is not necessary that this love should become less as knowledge increases, as the more and increased light shines upon him. That love should become more fervent as he becomes better acquainted with his Lord.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 956.
“The first experience of the Ephesus church led to good works. God took delight in the fact that His church reflected the light of heaven by revealing the spirit of Christ in tenderness and compassion. The love that dwelt in the heart of Christ; the love that caused Him to give Himself a sacrifice for humanity, and to suffer with forbearance the reproach of men, even to the extent of being called a devil; the love that prompted Him to perform mighty works of healing during His ministry—this was the love that was to be revealed in the lives of His disciples.
“But they neglected to cherish Christ’s compassion and tenderness. Self, as manifested in hereditary traits of character, spoiled the principles of the grand, good works that identified the members of the Ephesus church as Christians. … The love that constrained the Saviour to die for us, was not revealed in its fullness in their lives; and hence they were unable to bring honor to the name of the Redeemer. …” Ibid., 956.
“The losing of the first love is specified as a moral fall. The loss of this love is represented as something that will affect the entire religious life. Of those who have lost this love, God says that unless they repent, He will come to them, and remove their candlestick out of its place.” Ibid., 957.
“It is our work to know our special failings and sins, which cause darkness and spiritual feebleness, and quenched our first love.” Ibid., 957.
“The loss of the first love has opened the door to a great amount of selfishness, evil surmising, evil speaking, envy, jealousy, hard-heartedness. This is the fruit borne when the fervor of the first love has grown cold. There has been but little restraint upon the tongue, for prayer has been neglected. A Pharisaical righteousness has been cherished; there is deadness of spirituality, and a lack of spiritual eye-sight is the result.” Special Testimony to our Ministers, 2a, 27.
“With the loss of love for God there has come the loss of love for the brethren. The church may meet all the description that is given of the Ephesian church, and yet fail in vital godliness.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 387.
Children’s Story – The Little Girl and the Prisoner
A gentleman and his five-year-old daughter were walking hand in hand up and down the room at a railway station in England while waiting for a train. As they were waiting, two policemen came in, bringing with them a prisoner in chains. He was a very wicked man. He had just been sentenced to prison for twenty years. The policemen were taking him to the prison. They gave him a seat in a corner of the room. He was a mean-looking man, and everyone stayed away from him.
As the gentleman and his little girl walked up and down the room, the little girl could not keep her eyes off the prisoner. At first she was afraid of him, but when they reached the part of the room where he sat, she let go of her father’s hand and went to the prisoner. In a gentle voice, and with her eyes full of tears, she said to him, “I feel sorry for you.”
The prisoner frowned at her fiercely, and she ran back to her father’s side. They continued their walk, and when they came near him again, she let go of her father’s hand again, and spoke to the prisoner in the same tender tones, “The Lord Jesus is sorry for you, too.”
Then the train came, and the girl and her father climbed aboard. The policemen and the prisoner boarded a different car, and the little girl never saw the prisoner again.
When the policemen reached the end of their journey, they delivered the prisoner to the keeper of the prison. “We are sorry to have to tell you this,” said one of the policemen, “but this prisoner is ill-tempered and disobedient. He is very hard to manage and we are afraid he will give you great trouble.”
The keeper of the prison was worried. He had so many troublesome cases already, and he did not like having another one. He took extra precautions, making sure the prisoner could not escape and that he was never with any other prisoners.
But to the keeper’s surprise, he had no trouble with this man. The prisoner did whatever he was told to do, and was always respectful and pleasant in his manner. The keeper did not know what to make of it. So, after a while he spoke to the prisoner and asked him how it was that he was so different from what he had been reported to be.
“Sir,” answered the prisoner, “the report was true. I used to be as bad as possible but now I am a changed man.”
He went on to tell about what that dear child had said to him while waiting in the railway station. “Her sweet words melted my hard heart,” he said. “They reminded me of my godly mother … Her words led me to see what a sinner I was, and I turned in repentance to God. He heard my prayers. He gave me His pardon and peace in Christ. Now I am a new man and serve Jesus Christ.”
The keeper was amazed. After some months, when he was convinced the prisoner had told him the truth, he allowed him to speak to the other prisoners. He proved to be a great blessing in that prison. The prisoner never forgot the little girl whose words were used to prick his conscience and bring him to Jesus.
How God sent a Dog to Save a Family and Other Devotional Stories, by Joel Beeke and Diana Kleyn, published by Reformation Heritage Books, Grand Rapid, MI, 95–97.
Inspiration – Power in the Promises
“That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through
faith and patience inherit the promises.”
Hebrews 6:12
We must keep close to the word of God. We need its warnings and encouragement, its threatenings and promises.
The Scriptures are to be received as God’s word to us, not written merely, but spoken. When the afflicted ones came to Christ, He beheld not only those who asked for help, but all who throughout the ages should come to Him in like need and with like faith. When He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee” (Matthew 9:2, last part) … , He spoke to other afflicted, sin-burdened ones who should seek His help. So with all the promises of God’s word. In them He is speaking to us individually, speaking as directly as if we could listen to His voice. It is in these promises that Christ communicates to us His grace and power. They are leaves from that tree which is “for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2). Received, assimilated, they are to be the strength of the character, the inspiration and sustenance of the life. Nothing else can have such healing power.
God loves His creatures with a love that is both tender and strong. He has established the laws of nature, but His laws are not arbitrary exactions. Every “thou shalt not,” whether in physical or moral law, contains or implies a promise. If it is obeyed, blessings will attend our steps; if it is disobeyed, the result is danger and unhappiness. The laws of God are designed to bring His people closer to Himself. He will save them from the evil and lead them to the good if they will be led, but force them He never will.
We are too faithless. Oh, how I wish that I could lead our people to have faith in God! They need not feel that in order to exercise faith they must be wrought up into a high state of excitement. All they have to do is to believe God’s word, just as they believe one another’s word. He hath said it, and He will perform His word. Calmly rely on His promise, because He means all that He says. Say, He has spoken to me in His word, and He will fulfill every promise that He has made. Do not become restless. Be trustful. God’s word is true. Act as if your heavenly Father could be trusted.
God’s Amazing Grace, 266.
Keys to the Storehouse – Provoked to Destruction
Through the action of the masses, Satan attempted to provoke Jesus, through the mob, to lose the image of God. He continues using the same methods today hoping to destroy the image of God in Christ’s followers, thus causing them to be lost as he is.
“Satan instigated [provoked] the cruel abuse of the debased mob led on by the priests and rulers,
- to provoke, if possible, retaliation from the world’s Redeemer, or
- to drive Him to deliver Himself by a miracle from the hands of His persecutors, and
- thus break up the plan of salvation.
- one stain upon His human life,
- one failure of His humanity to bear the terrible test imposed upon it,
- would make the Lamb of God an imperfect offering, and the redemption of man would be a failure.” The Present Truth, January 7, 1886.
Is Satan provoking you? Be strong dear Christian! Do not join under the black banner! “I saw Satan planting his banner in the households of those who profess to be God’s chosen ones, but those who are walking in the light should be able to discern the difference between the black banner of the adversary and the bloodstained standard of Christ.” Testimonies, vol. 4, 200.
Are your eyes open to any provocations of Satan? Ask for spiritual discernment! Look or lose!
“Each son and daughter of Adam chooses either Christ or Barabbas as his general. And all who place themselves on the side of the disloyal are standing under Satan’s black banner, and are charged with rejecting and despitefully using Christ. They are charged with deliberately crucifying the Lord of life and glory.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 5, 1107.
“The Holy Spirit is an effective helper in restoring the image of God in the human soul.” The Faith I Live By, 52.
On the other hand, Satan’s spirit is a destructive force and will do anything to place us under his black banner. “Satan had declared to his synagogue that not a single human soul would maintain his loyalty to God’s commandments. One soul saved would prove this statement to be false. One soul saved would demonstrate the righteousness of God’s government. Created in the image of God, man must not be left for Satan to rule and ruin.” The Upward Look, 223.
Here are just a few of Satan’s tricks of provocation. He provokes jealousy, opposition, a hasty reply, anger, children and adults to wrath, tempers, opposition, the divine displeasure, controversies, debate, the wrath of God, and much more. Is there anything in your character that responds to Satan’s provocation causing you to reflect his character and to enlist you under his banner?
Watch and pray! Learn to identify which spirit is working with you and around you by watching carefully. Learn to identify and distinguish the fruits of the Holy Spirit in your life from the fruits of Satan.
Father: Thank you for sending Thine only begotten Son to fight the battle with Satan. Thank you Jesus for remaining faithful through all of the provocations and attacks of Satan. Give me peace of mind and heart that I may remain focused on heavenly things and not be drawn away from Your presence by any attempt by Satan to enlist me under his black banner. Amen!
Current Events – The Elevated Character of Women
The influence of the female character is now felt and acknowledged in all the relations of life. I speak not now of those distinguished women, who instruct their age through the public press. Nor of those devout strains we take upon our lips when we worship. But of a much larger class—of those whose influence is felt in the relations of neighbor, friend, daughter, wife, mother.
Who waits at the couch of the sick to administer tender charities while life lingers or to perform the last acts of kindness when death comes? Where shall we look for those examples of friendship that most adorn our nature, those abiding friendships, which trust even when betrayed, and survive all changes of fortune?
Where shall we find the brightest illustrations of filial piety? Have you even seen a daughter watching the decline of an aged parent and holding out with heroic fortitude to anticipate his wishes, to administer to his wants, and to sustain his tottering steps to the very borders of the grave?
But in no relation does woman exercise so deep an influence, both immediately and prospectively, as in that of mother. To her is committed the immortal treasure of the infant mind. Upon her devolves the care of the first stages of that course of discipline which is to form of a being, perhaps the most frail and helpless in the world, the fearless ruler of animated creation, and the devout adorer of its great Creator.
Her smiles call into exercise the first affections that spring up in our hearts. She cherishes and expands the earliest germs of our intellects. She breathes over us her deepest devotions. She lifts our little hands and teaches our little tongues to lisp in prayer.
She watches over us like a guardian angel and protects us through all our helpless years, when we know not of her cares and her anxieties on our account. She follows us into the world of men, and lives in us, and blesses us, when she lives not otherwise upon the earth.
What constitutes the center of every home? Whither do our thoughts turn, when our feet are weary with wandering and our hearts sick with disappointments? Where shall the truant and forgetful husband go for sympathy unalloyed and without design, but to the bosom of her who is ever ready and waiting to share in his adversity or his prosperity? And if there be a tribunal where the sins and the follies of a forward child may hope for pardon and forgiveness this side of heaven, that tribunal is the heart of a fond and devoted mother.
Finally, her influence is felt deeply in religion. If Christianity should be compelled to flee from the mansions of the great, the academies of philosophers, the halls of legislators, or the throng of busy men, we should find her last and purest retreat with woman at the fireside; her last altar would be the female heart; her last audience would be the children gathered round the knees of the mother; her last sacrifice, the secret prayer escaping in silence from her lips, and heard, perhaps, only at the throne of God.
The Moore McGuffey Readers, Carter, 64–66.
The Iron Wolf
I conducted the services two months ago,” said a clergyman, “at the funeral of one of my parishioners. He had been a farmer. Forty years ago, as a young man, he commenced work for himself and his young wife with one hundred acres of land, and he ended with one hundred. He was a skilled, industrious workingman, but he laid by no money in the bank. I understood the reason, as I listened to the comments of his neighbors and friends.
“ ‘It was always a warm, hospitable house,’ said one.
“ ‘The poor man was never turned away from that door.’
“ ‘His sons and daughters all received the best education which his means could command. One is a clergyman, one a civil engineer, two are teachers; all lead useful, happy, and full lives.’ ”
“Said another neighbor, ‘Those children sitting there and weeping are the orphans of a friend. He gave them a home. That crippled girl is his wife’s niece. She lived with them for years. That young fellow who is also weeping so bitterly was a waif that he rescued from the slums of the city.’ ”
“And so the story went on, not of a miser who had heaped dollar on dollar, but of a servant of God, who had helped many lives, and had lifted many of them out of misery and ignorance into life and joy.
“On my way home from the funeral, I stopped at the farm of another parishioner, who said to me, in a shrill, rasping tone—
“ ‘So poor Gould is dead? He left a poor account. Not a penny more than he got from his father. Now I started with nothing, and look there pointing to his broad fields. I own down to the creek! D’ye know why? When I started to keep house, I brought this into it the first thing,’ taking an iron savings-bank in the shape of a wolf out of the closet. ‘Every penny I could save went into its jaws.’ ”
“ ‘It’s surprising how many pennies you can save when you’ve a purpose. My purpose was to die worth a hundred thousand dollars. Other folks ate meat; we ate molasses. Other men dressed their wives in merinoes; mine wore calico. Other men wasted money on schooling; my boys and girls learned to work early and keep it up late. I wasted no money on churches, or sick people, or paupers, or books, and’—he concluded, triumphantly—‘now I own to the creek, and that land with the fields yonder and the stock in my barns are worth one hundred thousand dollars. Do you see?’ and on the thin, hard lips was a wretched attempt to laugh.
“The house was bare and comfortless; his wife, worn out by work, had long ago crept into her grave; of his children, taught only to make money a god, one daughter, starved in body and mind, was still drudging in his kitchen; one son had taken to drink, having no other resource, and died in prison; the other, a harder miser than his father, remained at home to fight with him over every penny wrung out of their fertile fields.
“Yesterday I buried this man,” continued the clergyman. “Neither neighbor nor friend, son nor daughter, shed a tear over him. His children were eager to begin the quarrel for the ground he had sacrificed his life to earn. Of it all, he had now only earth enough to cover his decaying body.
“Economy for a noble purpose,” added the good old clergyman, “is a virtue; but in the houses of some of our farmers it is avarice, and like a wolf, devours intelligence, religion, hope, and life itself.” Selected.
The Youth Instructor, April 14, 1886.