To Know God
 
        And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.  John 17:3
 
    In His prayer to the Father, Christ gave to the world a lesson which should be graven on mind and soul.  "This is life eternal," He said, "that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." (John 17:3).  This is true education.  It imparts power.  The experimental knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent, transforms man into the image of God.  It gives to man the mastery of himself, bringing every impulse and passion of the lower nature under the control of the higher powers of the mind.  It makes its possessor a son of God and an heir of heaven  It brings him into communion with the mind of the Infinite, and opens to him the rich treasures of the universe.
 
    This is the knowledge which is obtained by searching the word of God.  And this treasure may be found by every soul who will give all to obtain it.
 
    "If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God" (Proverbs 2:3-5). (Christ's Object Lessons, 114)
 
Reflection:  To know God is not merely to have a knowledge of Him, but to have received His forgiveness and righteousness.

Bearing Fruit
 
        Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.  John 15:8
 
    When we live by faith on the Son of God, the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives; not one will be missing.
 
    A profession of religion places men in the church, but the character and conduct show whether they are in connection with Christ.  If they bear no fruit, they are false branches.  Their separation from Christ involves a ruin as complete as that represented by the dead branch.  "If a man abide not in Me," said Christ, "he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."
 
    "Herein is My Father glorified," said Jesus, "that ye bear much fruit."  God desires to manifest through you the holiness, the benevolence, the compassion, of His own character.  Yet the Saviour does not bid the disciples labor to bear fruit.  He tells them to abide in Him.  "If ye abide in Me," He says, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."  It is through the word that Christ abides in His followers.  This is the same vital union that is represented by eating His flesh and drinking His blood.  The words of Christ are spirit and life.  Receiving them, you receive the life of the Vine. (The Desire of Ages, 676, 677)
 
Reflection:  Only by this connection to Christ are we able to keep His command to love one another as He loves us.  Can people see that we have a real connection with Christ?  Do we produce fruit?  Are we doing something that will lead others to Christ?  Today would be a good day to be determined to be a fruit brearer.

Connected to Christ
 
        I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.  John 15:5
 
    Though He was about to be removed from them, their spiritual union with Him was to be unchanged.  The connection of the branch with the vine, He said, represents the relation you are to sustain to Me.  The scion is engrafted into the living vine, and fiber by fiber, vein by vein, it grows into the vine stock.  The life of the vine becomes the life of the branch.  So the soul dead in trespasses and sins receives life through connection with Christ.  By faith in Him as a personal Saviour the union is formed.  The sinner unites his weakness to Christ's strength, his emptiness to Christ's fullness, his frailty to Christ's enduring might.  Then he has the mind of Christ.  The humanity of Christ has touched our humanity, and our humanity has touched divinity.  Thus through the agency of the Holy Spirit man becomes a partaker of the divine nature.  He is accepted in the Beloved....
 
    This is no casual touch, no off-and-on connection.  The branch becomes a part of the living vine.  The communication of life, strength, and fruitfulness from the root to the branches is unobstructed and constant.  Separated from the vine, the branch cannot live.  No more, said Jesus, can you live apart from Me.  The life you have received from Me can be preserved only by continual communion.  Without Me you cannot overcome one sin, or resist one temptation.
 
    Abiding in Christ means a constant receiving of His Spirit, a life of unreserved surrender to His service. (The Desire of Ages, 675, 676)
 
Reflection:  Have you chosen to bide in Christ, and to maintain that abiding relationship?

The Comforter
 
        And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.  John 14:16
 
    Of the Spirit Jesus said, "He shall glorify Me."  The Saviour came to glorify the Father by the demonstration of His love, so the Spirit was to glorify Christ be revealing His grace to the world.  The very image of God is to be reproduced in humanity.  The honor of God, the honor of Christ, is involved in the perfection of the character of His people.
 
    "When He [the Spirit of truth] is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment."  The preaching of the word will be of no avail without the continual presence and aid of the Holy Spirit.  This is the only effectual teacher of divine truth.  Only when the truth is accompanied to the heart by the Spirit will it quicken the conscience or transform the life.  One might be able to present the letter of the word of God, he might be familiar with all its commands and promises; but unless the Holy Spirit sets home the truths, no soul will fall on the Rock and be broken.  No amount of education, no advantages, however great, can make one a channel of light without the co-operation of the Spirit of god. (The Desire of Ages, 671)
 
Reflection:  The words of a song come to mind when I read the passage above.  "Come Holy Spirit I need you: Come sweet spirit I pray: Come in your own strength and your power: Come in your own special way."  I believe that we should pray for the Holy Spirit to guide us every morning before we start the day.

Thieves of Hope
 
        All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.  John 10:8
 
    Jesus told them plainly, "I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.  The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
 
    Christ is the door to the fold of God.  Through this door all His children, from the earliest times, have found entrance.  In Jesus, as shown in types, as shadowed in symbols, as manifested in the revelation of the prophets, as unveiled in the lessons given to His disciples, and in the miracles wrought for the sons of men, they have beheld "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), and through Him they are brought within the fold of His grace.  Many have come presenting other objects for the faith of he world; ceremonies and systems have been devised by which men hope to receive justification and peace with God, and thus find entrance to His fold.  But the only door is Christ, and all who have interposed something to take the place of Christ, all who have tried to enter the fold in some other way, are thieves and robbers. (The Desire of Ages, 477)
 
Reflection:  There is only one way to salvation, and that is Jesus.  Choose Him today!

Search the Scriptures
 
        Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me.  John 5:39
 
    In every age there is a new development of truth, a message of God to the people of that generation.  The old truths are all essential; new truth is not independent of the old, but an unfolding of it.  It is only as the old truths are understood that we can comprehend the new.  When Christ desired to open to His disciples the truth of His resurrection, He began "at Moses and all the prophets" and "expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself" (Luke 24:27).  But it is the light which shines in the fresh unfolding of truth that glorifies the old.  He who rejects or neglects the new does not really possess the old.  For him it loses its vital power and becomes but a lifeless form....
 
    Many who claim to believe and to teach the gospel are in a similar error.  They set aside the Old Testament Scriptures, of which Christ declares, "They are they which testify of Me" (John 5:39).  In rejecting the Old, they virtually reject the New; for both are parts of an inseparable whole.  No man can rightly present the law of God without the gospel, or the gospel without the law.  The law is the gospel embodied, and the gospel is the law unfolded.  The law is the root, the gospel is the fragrant blossom and fruit which it bears. (Christ's Object Lessons, 127, 128)
 
Reflection:  John 5:39 tells us to "Search the scriptures." 2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God."  Jesus said that He did not come to change the law, but to fulfill it.  These New Testament texts come from the Old Testament.  The Old Testament is as important to our salvation today as it was when it was written.  Old and New should be searched and studied together. 

Born Again
 
        Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.  John 3:3
 
    No human invention can find a remedy for the sinning soul.  "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7).  "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies" (Matthew 15:19).  The fountain of the heart must be purified before the streams can become pure.  He who is trying to reach heaven by his own works in keeping the law is attempting an impossibility....This change can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit....
 
    A person may not be able to tell the exact time or place, or to trace all the circumstances in the process of conversion; but this does not prove him to be unconverted.  By an agency as unseen as the wind, Christ is constantly working upon the heart.  Little by little, perhaps unconsciously to the receiver, impressions are made that tend to draw the soul to Christ.  These may be received through meditating upon Him, through reading the Scriptures, or through hearing the word from the living preacher.  Suddenly, as the Spirit comes with more direct appeal, the soul gladly surrenders itself of Jesus.  By many this is called sudden conversion; but it is the result of long wooing by the Spirit of God,--a patient, protracted process." (The Desire of Ages, 172, 173)
 
Reflection:  When we allow the Holy Spirit into our heart, there is a change in us.  Are you allowing Him to change you today?

Lord of the Sabbath
 
        And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.  Luke 6:5
 
    These words are full of instruction and comfort.  Because the Sabbath was made for man, it is the Lord's day.  It belongs to Christ.  For "all things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:3).  Since He made all things, He made the Sabbath.  By Him it was set apart as a memorial of the work of creation.  It points to Him as both the Creator and the Sanctifier.  It declares that He who created all things in heaven and in earth, and by whom all things hold together, is the head of the church, and that by His power we are reconciled to God.  For, speaking of Israel, He said, "I gave then My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them" make them holy (Ezekiel 20:12).  Then the Sabbath is a sign of Christ's power to make us holy.  And it is given to all whom Christ makes holy.  As a sign of His sanctifying power, the Sabbath is given to all who through Christ becomes a part of the Israel of God. (The Desire of Ages, 288)
 
Reflection:  The Sabbath shows us God's power in creation and redemption.  What a beautiful gift He gave us in giving us the Sabbath.

 Supernatural Suffering
 
        And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.  Mark 14:33, 34
 
    Behold Him contemplating the price to be paid for the human soul.  In His agony He clings to the cold ground, as if to prevent Himself from being drawn farther from God.  The chilling dew of night falls upon His prostrate form, but He heeds it not.  From His pale lips comes the bitter cry, "O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me."  Yet even now He adds, "Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt."
 
    The human heart longs for sympathy in suffering.  This longing Christ felt to the very depths of His being.  In the supreme agony of His soul He came to His disciples with a yearning desire to hear some words of comfort from those whom He had so often blessed and comforted, and shielded in sorrow and distress.  The One who had always had words of sympathy for them was now suffering superhuman agony, and He longed to know that they were praying for Him and for themselves.  How dark seemed the malignity of sin!  Terrible was the temptation to let the human race bear the consequences of its own guilt, while He stood innocent before God.  If He could only know that His disciples understood and appreciated this, He would be strengthened. (The Desire of Ages, 687)
 
Reflection:  A few words of encouragement might be just what is needed to make an eternal difference for someone today.

 Prayer and Faith
 
        Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.  Mark 11:24
 
    Prayer and faith are closely allied, and they need to be studied together.  In the prayer of faith there is a divine science; it is a science that everyone who would make his lifework a success must understand.  Christ says, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24).  He makes it plain that our asking must be according to God's will; we must ask for things that He has promised, and whatever we receive must be used in doing His will.  The conditions met, the promise is unequivocal.
 
    For the pardon of sin, for the Holy Spirit, for a Christlike temper, for wisdom and strength to do His work, for any gift He has promised, we may ask; then we are to believe that we receive, and return thanks to God that we have received.
 
    We need look for no outward evidence of the blessing.  The gift is in the promise, and we may go about our work assured that what God has promised He is able to perform when we need it most. (Education, 257, 258)
 
Reflection:  Prayer must become more than a form or ceremony. It must be like the air we breathe.  When this takes place, then faith in the One who will save to the uttermost will not be just a saying.  Mountains of difficulties will disappear.  God is in the business of miracles.