November 23:  Glad Tidings.

Joyful Worship in the House of the Lord.
I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go into the house of the Lord."--Psalm 122:1, NKJV

OUR GOD IS A TENDER, merciful Father.  His service should not be looked upon as a heart-saddening, distressing exercise.  It should be a pleasure to worship the Lord and to take part in His work.  God would not have His children, for whom so great salvation has been provided, act as if He were a hard, exacting taskmaster.  He is their best friend; and when they worship Him, He expects to be with them, to bless and comfort them, filling their hearts with joy and love.  The Lord desires His children to take comfort in His service and to find more pleasure than hardship in His work.  He desires that those who come to worship Him shall carry away with them precious thoughts of His care and love, that they may be cheered in all the employments of daily life, that they may have grace to deal honestly and faithfully in all things.--Steps to Christ, 103.

                                     It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
                               And to song praises to Your name, O Most High;
                                 To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning,
                                           And Your faithfulness every night,
                                           On an instrument of ten strings,
                                                            On the lute,
                                                         And on the harp,
                                                      With harmonious sound.
                            For You, Lord, have made me glad through Your work;
                                       I will triumph in the works of Your hands.
                                            O Lord, how great are Your works!
                                                 Your thoughts are very deep.
                                             A senseless man does not know,
                                             Nor does a fool understand this.
                              
                                                          --Psalm 92:1-6, NKJV

November 22:  Glad Tidings.

Obedience Is a Test of Loyalty to God.
"If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them."--John 13:17, NKJV

THERE ARE ONLY TWO CLASSES in the world today, and only two classes will be recognized in the judgment--those who violate God's law and those who obey it.  Christ gives the test by which to prove our loyalty or disloyalty.  "If ye love Me," He says, "keep MY commandments....He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me.  And he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him....He that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings; and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me."  "If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love."  John 14:15-24; 15:10.--Christ's Object Lessons, 283.

The condition of eternal life is now just what it always has been,--just what it was in Paradise before the fall of our first parents,--perfect obedience to the law of God, perfect righteousness.  If eternal life were granted on any condition short of this, then the happiness of the whole universe would be imperiled.  The way would be open for sin, with all its train of woe and misery, to be immortalized.--Steps to Christ, 632.

                 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

                              
                                                                     --James 1:22, NKJV

November 21:  Glad Tidings.

The Law Leads to Happiness.
Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.--Psalm 119:24, NKJV

THE LAW OF LOVE being the foundation of the government of God, the happiness of all intelligent beings depends upon their perfect accord with its great principles of righteousness.  God desires from all His creatures the service of love--service that springs from an appreciation of His character.  He takes no pleasure in a forced obedience; and to all He grants freedom of will, that they may render Him voluntary service.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 34.

God's great object in the working out of His providences is to try men, to give them opportunity to develop character.  Thus He proves whether they are obedient or disobedient to His commands.  Good works do not purchase the love of God, but they reveal that we possess that love.  If we surrender the will to God, we shall not work in order to earn God's love.  His love as a free gift will be received into the soul, and from love to Him we shall delight to obey His commandments.--Christ's Object Lessons, 283.

                                              Oh, how I love Your law!
                                           It is my meditation all the day.
                You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies;
                                                For they are ever with me.
                                                                              --Psalm 119:97. 98, NKJV

November 20:  Glad Tidings.

The Law Is a Guarantee of Eternal Life.
Your testimonies I have taken as an heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart.--Psalm 119:111, NKJV

HE CAME TO MANIFEST the nature of His law, to reveal in His own character the beauty of holiness.

Christ came to the world with the accumulated love of eternity.  Sweeping away the exactions which had encumbered the law of God, He showed that the law is a law of love, an expression of the Divine Goodness.  He showed that in obedience to its principles is involved the happiness of mankind, and with it the stability, the very foundation and framework, of human society.

So far from making arbitrary requirements, God's law is given to men as a hedge, a shield.  Whoever accepts its principles is preserved from evil.  Fidelity to God involves fidelity to man.  Thus the law guards the rights, the individuality, of every human being.  It restrains the superior from oppression, and the subordinate from disobedience.  It ensures man's well-being for this world and the world to come.  To the obedient it is the pledge of eternal life, for it expresses the principles that endure forever.--Education, 76.

                                       "The grass withers, the flower fades,
                                    Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
                                             Surely the people are grass.
                                        The grass withers, the flower fades,
                                     But the word of our God stands forever."
                              
                                                          --Isaiah 40:7, 8, NKJV

November 19:  Glad Tidings.

The Character of God.
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statues of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.--Psalm 19:7, 8, NKJV

BECAUSE THE LAW OF THE LORD is perfect, and therefore changless, it is impossible for sinful men, in themselves, to meet the standard of its requirement.  This was why Jesus came as our Redeemer.  It was His mission, by making men partakers of the divine nature, to bring them into harmony with the principles of the law of heaven.  When we forsake our sins and receive Christ as our Saviour, the law is exalted.  The apostle Paul asks, "Do we then make void the law through faith?  God forbid: yes, we establish the law."  Romans3:31.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 50.

God demands nothing less of every one of His followers than that they reveal Christ's character to the world in their individual life, and that they bear testimony by precept and example that it is not in vain that Christ has suffered and died, that the image of God might be restored in them through His redeeming grace.--Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 438.

God calls upon those who claim to be delegated to bear the truth to the world, to show in all places, both high and low, in public life and in the bypaths of private life, that they are in connection with God, that Christianity has done a noble work for them, that they are holier, happier than those who do not acknowledge their allegiance to God's commandments.--Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 438.

                                    The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
                                The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
                              
                                                                          --Psalm 19:9, NKJV

November 18:  Glad Tidings.

The Joy of Doing What Is Right.
Where there is no relation, the people cast off restraint; but happy is he who keeps the law.--Proverbs 29:18, NKJV

OBEDIENCE TO GOD is the first duty of the Christian.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 610

The man who attempts to keep the commandments of God from a sense of obligation merely--because he is required to do so--will never enter into the joy of obedience.  He does not obey.  When the requirements of God are accounted a burden because they cut across human inclination, we may know that the life is not a Christian life.  True obedience is the outworking of a principle within.  It springs from the love of righteousness, the love of the law of God.  The essence of all righteousness is loyalty to the Redeemer.  This will lead us to do right because it is right--because right doing is pleasing to God.--Christ's Object Lessons, 97.

Christ lays loving claims on all for whom He has given His life; they are to obey His will if they would share the joys that He has prepared for all who reflect His character here.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 284.

Of Christ it is written: "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men."  John 1:4.  He is the Fountain of life.  Obedience to Him is the life-giving power that gladdens the soul.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 288.

                                                    All the nations you made
                                               will come and bow before you, Lord;
                                                   they will praise your holy name.
                                         For you are great and perform wonderful deeds.
                                                             You alone are God.
                                                      Teach me your ways, O Lord,
                                                  that I may live according to your truth!
                                                           Grant me purity of heart,
                                                           so that I may honor you.
                                                                                         --Psalm 86:9-11, NLT

November 17:  Glad Tidings.

The Expression of the Principle of Love.
And I will delight myself in Your commandments, which I love.--Psalm 119:47, NKJV

THERE IS NOT A COMMANDMENT of the law that is not for the good and happiness of man, both in this life and in the life to come.  In obedience to God's law, man is surrounded as with a hedge and kept from the evil.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 52.

The law given upon Sinai was the enunciation of the principle of love, a revelation to earth of the law of heaven.  It was ordained in the hand of a Mediator--spoken by Him through whose power the hearts of men could be brought into harmony with its principles.  God had revealed the purpose of the law when He declared to Israel, "Ye shall be holy men unto Me."  Exodus 22:31,.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 46.

The new-covenant promise is, "I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them."  Hebrews 10:16.  While the system of types which pointed to Christ as the Lamb of God that should take away the sin of the world was to pass away at His death, the principles of righteousness embodied in the Decalogue are as immutable as the eternal throne.  Not one command has been annulled, not a jot or tittle has been changed.  Those principles that were made known to man in Paradise as the great law of life will exist unchanged in Paradise restored.  When Eden shall bloom on earth again, God's law will be obeyed by all beneath the sun.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 50.

             This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord:
                                            I will put My laws into their hearts,
                                            and in their minds I will write them.
                                                                                            --Hebrews 10:16, NKJV

November 16:  Glad Tidings.

Delighting in the Law.
I long for Your salvation, O Lord, and Your law in my delight.--Psalm 119:174, NKJV

WHAT A GOD IS OUR GOD!  He rules over His kingdom with diligence and care, and He has built a hedge--the Ten Commandments--about His subjects to preserve them from the results of transgression.  In requiring obedience to the laws of His kingdom, God gives His people health and happiness, peace and joy.  He teaches them that the perfection of character He requires can be attained only by becoming familiar with His word.--Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 454.

Where there is not only belief in God's word, but a submission of the will to Him; where the heart is yielded to Him, the affections fixed upon Him, there is faith--faith that works by love and purifies the soul.  Through this faith the heart is renewed in the image of God.  And the heart that in its unrenewed state is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, now delights in its holy precepts, exclaiming with the psalmist, "O how love I Thy law!  Thy law! It is my meditation all the day."  Psalm 119:97, Steps to Christ, 63.

                         "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you,
                   but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him,
                      to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
                             and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statues
                                 which I commanded you today for your good?  Indeed heaven
                                  and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God,
                                                also the earth with all that is in it.
                                   The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them;
                                         and He chose their descendants after them,
                                             you above all peoples, as it is this day."
                                                                                         --Deuteronomy 10:12-15, NKJV

November 15:  Glad Tidings.

The Word Is the Light Sought by Many.
So it was, when Jesus returned, that the multitude welcomed Him, for they were all waiting for Him.--Luke 8:40, NKJV

THE TRUTH THAT WE HEAR will save us only as we gladly accept it, showing in our lives the result of its working, growing in grace and in a knowledge of God.--Notebook Leaflets From the Elmshaven Library, vol. 1, 13.

Christ "came unto His own, and His own received Him not."  John 1:11.  The light of God shone into the darkness of the world, and "the darkness comprehended it not."  John 1:5.  But not all were found indifferent to the gift of heaven....In different nations there were earnest and thoughtful men who had sought in literature and science and the religions of the heathen world for that which they could receive as the soul's treasure.  Among the Jews there were those who were seeking for that which they had not.  Dissatisfied with a formal religion, they longed for that which was spiritual and uplifting.  Christ's chosen disciples belonged to the latter class, Cornelius and the Ethiopian eunuch to the former.  They had been longing and praying for light from heaven; and when Christ was revealed to them, they received Him with gladness.--Christ's Object Lessons, 116.

                           There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius,
                              a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment,
                         a devout man and one who feared God with all his household,
                     who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always....
                         ...And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished,
                         as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit
                                           had been poured out on the Gentiles also.
                              
                                                              --Luke 10:1, 2, 45, NKJV

November 14:  Glad Tidings.

God's Word for All.
"Since David himself called the Messiah 'my Lord,' how can the Messiah be his son?"  The large crowd listened to him with delight.--Mark 12:37, NLT

CHRIST'S MANNER of teaching was beautiful and attractive, and it was ever characterized by simplicity.  He unfolded the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven through the use of figures and symbols with which His hearers were familiar; and the common people heard Him gladly, for they could comprehend His words.  There were no high-sounding words used, to understand which it was necessary to consult a dictionary.

Jesus illustrated the glories of the kingdom of God by the use of experiences and occurrences of earth.  In compassionate love and tenderness He cheered and comforted and instructed all who heard Him; for grace was poured upon His lips that He might convey to men in the most attractive way the treasures of truth.

The Saviour's voice was as music to the ears of those who had been accustomed to the monotonous, spiritless preaching of the scribes and Pharisees.  He spoke slowly and impressively, emphasizing those words to which He wished His hearers to give special heed.  Old and young, ignorant and learned, could catch the full meaning of His words....The people were very attentive to Him, and it was said of Him that He spoke not as the scribes and Pharisees, for His word was as of one who had authority.--Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 240.

          He entered the synagogue and taught.  And they were astonished at His teaching.
                     for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
                              
                                                                        --Mark 1:21, 22, NKJV