LOVE

I had a lot of hatred in my life. It wasn't something outwardly manifested, but there was a kind of inward grinding. I was disgusted with people, with things, with issues. Like so many other people, I was insecure. Every time I met someone different from me, he became a threat to me.

But I hated one man more than anyone else in the world. My father. I hated his guts. To me he was the town alcoholic. If you're from a small town and one of your parents is an alcoholic, you know what I'm talking about. Everybody knows. My friends would come to high school and make jokes about my father being downtown. They didn't think it bothered me. I was like other people, laughing on the outside, but let me tell you, I was crying on the inside. I'd go out in the barn and see mother beaten so badly she couldn't get up, lying in the manure behind the cows.

When we had friends over, I would take my father out, tie him up in the barn, and park the car up around the silo. We would tell our friends he'd had to go somewhere. I don't think anyone could have hated anyone more than I hated my father.

After I made my decision for Christ -- maybe five months later -- a love from God through Jesus Christ entered my life and was so strong it took that hatred and turned it upside down. I was able to look my father squarely in the eyes and say, "Dad, I love you." And I really meant it. After some of the things I'd done, that shook him up.

When I transferred to a private university I was in a serious car accident. My neck in traction, I was taken home. I'll never forget my father coming into my room. He asked me, "Son, how can you love a father like me?" I said, "Dad, six months ago I despised you." Then I shared with him my conclusion about Jesus Christ: "Dad, I let Christ come into my life. I can't explain it completely but as a result of that relationship I've found the capacity to love and accept not only you, but other people just the way they are."

Forty-five minutes later, one of the greatest thrills of my life occurred. Somebody in my own family, someone who knew me so well I couldn't pull the wool over his eyes, said to me, "Son, if God can do in my life what I've seen Him do in yours, then I want to give Him the opportunity." Right there my father prayed with me and trusted Christ.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

NEW

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. Ezekiel 36:26, 27.

The heart of man may be the abode of the Holy Spirit. The peace of Christ that passeth understanding may rest in your soul, and the transforming power of His grace may work in your life, and fit you for the courts of glory. But if brain and nerve and muscle are all employed in the service of self, you are not making God and heaven the first consideration of your life. It is impossible to be weaving the graces of Christ into your character while you are putting all your energies on the side of the world.

You may be successful in heaping up treasure on the earth, for the glory of self; but “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21). Eternal considerations will be made of secondary importance. You may take part in the outward forms of worship; but your service will be an abomination to the God of heaven. You cannot serve God and mammon. You will either yield your heart and put your will on the side of God, or you will give your energies to the service of the world. God will accept no half-hearted service.

“The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light” (Luke 11:34). If the eye is single, if it is directed heavenward, the light of heaven will fill the soul, and earthly things will appear insignificant and uninviting. The purpose of the heart will be changed, and the admonition of Jesus will be heeded. You will lay up your treasure in heaven. Your thoughts will be fixed upon the great rewards of eternity. All your plans will be made in reference to the future, immortal life. You will be drawn toward your treasure. You will not study your worldly interest; but in all your pursuits the silent inquiry will be “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6).—The Review and Herald, January 24, 1888.

This devotional is taken from Ye Shall Receive Power by Ellen G. White.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PRAY FOR

Dear Friend,

"And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years" Acts 13:21

One of my friends said it yesterday. I had heard it before. I have said it before. "You had better be careful what you ask for (in prayer), you might get it."

Indeed, that is exactly what happened to Israel. All the other nations had kings. Israel had an old prophet. All the other countries had national leaders. Israel had a high priest. Israel asked the aging prophet for a king. They wanted to be like other nations. They wanted a figure they could look to for protection. They wanted a king. (If you remember, Moses said this time would come. He prophesied that they would want a king. He also said that king would lead them in wrong paths.)

So God gave them a king. Saul. He reigned for forty years. He was an imposing figure, head and shoulders taller than his countrymen. He was strong.  He was promoted to king of all Israel -- and he was a failure.

As time passed, Israel began to see that their king was just a man with all of man's weaknesses. He may have been strong as an ox, but he was as weak as a hollow tree in spirit. He lacked the mental strength to be a powerful leader. He became overwhelmed with his own authority -- his own ambition. And he fell. And he almost took Israel with him.

We have all been in Israel's position. We want what we want and we want it now! Not only do we want it, but we demand that God provide it. We don't want to wait for it. We don't want to pay the price for it. We don't want to save for it. We want it -- NOW! And God had better come through because if He doesn't we will do it ourselves.

And we pay the price. And that price is much higher than the cost of the thing we want. It is a spiritual price that goes far beyond a few dollars. It saps the soul of strength. It drains the spirit of energy. It taps the resources we have reserved for God's mission, and we suffer for it. We are in pain. We are weakened. Because of our weakness, others begin to suffer with us. We no longer have the spiritual fortitude to help our brother or our sister. Instead we are pulling from them the strength they need for their own battles.

A downward spiral has begun. The trail of smoke can be seen for miles around. Doom and defeat seem eminent. But wait. Inside that hulk of a dying body is a pilot -- no, The Pilot. He has not bailed out yet. He has not given up the ship. He is pulling. He is fighting the battle for us. And He has the strength to pull us out of that fatal nosedive we have forced upon ourselves. At the last moment, the flaming hulk of our life is saved and set on a path to recovery. Not because of our strength, but because of the authority of the One who knows how to save the dying.

Israel had his David. We have our Jesus. Both are redeemers. David saved a dying nation. Jesus saves a dying World. Behold, your redemption draws near. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.