Spiritual Prescription LOOKING TO JESUS
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. Isa. 45:22.
In all our devotional experience, the need is to study for the purpose of communication or fellowship with Jesus. Time alone at the beginning of every day to seek Jesus is the goal.
If I am seeking fellowship with Jesus, am I going to spend more time studying the four Gospels or some point of history or prophecy? If I'm seeking fellowship with Jesus, would I choose a volume of rebuke and reproof or The Desire of Ages? Let's make a distinction here. There are many people who have turned away from Ellen G. White and her writings because someone has majored in what we might call the instructional writings. There are entire books that are primarily for the purpose of instruction, counsel, reproof.
There are other books that we might call inspirational writings. This doesn't mean that you can't find some instruction in the inspirational, and some inspiration in the instructional. But there are these two general types of writings.
A person who studies only in the instructional often becomes the type of person who goes around with a special testimony for his neighbor across the aisle. He has a reproof and rebuke for every occasion. Please don't misunderstand when we say that Testimonies to the Church can be a dangerous weapon in the hands of someone who does not know how to read The Desire of Ages and Steps to Christ. If a person doesn't know how to sit with Mary at the feet of Jesus, and know personally His love and kindness, he can use the Ten Commandments as a lethal weapon. The law and the gospel must go together.
The study of the instructional writings has its place. But for the time of relationship with Jesus day by day, in order to become close friends with Him, we must study His life. "It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with His spirit."--The Desire of Ages, p. 83. It is by looking to Jesus, uplifting Jesus, that we are changed into His image.
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. Isa. 45:22.
In all our devotional experience, the need is to study for the purpose of communication or fellowship with Jesus. Time alone at the beginning of every day to seek Jesus is the goal.
If I am seeking fellowship with Jesus, am I going to spend more time studying the four Gospels or some point of history or prophecy? If I'm seeking fellowship with Jesus, would I choose a volume of rebuke and reproof or The Desire of Ages? Let's make a distinction here. There are many people who have turned away from Ellen G. White and her writings because someone has majored in what we might call the instructional writings. There are entire books that are primarily for the purpose of instruction, counsel, reproof.
There are other books that we might call inspirational writings. This doesn't mean that you can't find some instruction in the inspirational, and some inspiration in the instructional. But there are these two general types of writings.
A person who studies only in the instructional often becomes the type of person who goes around with a special testimony for his neighbor across the aisle. He has a reproof and rebuke for every occasion. Please don't misunderstand when we say that Testimonies to the Church can be a dangerous weapon in the hands of someone who does not know how to read The Desire of Ages and Steps to Christ. If a person doesn't know how to sit with Mary at the feet of Jesus, and know personally His love and kindness, he can use the Ten Commandments as a lethal weapon. The law and the gospel must go together.
The study of the instructional writings has its place. But for the time of relationship with Jesus day by day, in order to become close friends with Him, we must study His life. "It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with His spirit."--The Desire of Ages, p. 83. It is by looking to Jesus, uplifting Jesus, that we are changed into His image.
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