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15 Minutes Even with common sense, one can be compelled by the Holy Spirit to heed the counsel of those who speak the truth for God. And anyone who teaches God’s Word is held to a higher standard. Scripture must be handled correctly. We should never make the mistake of dependence on a teacher as our sole means of knowledge about God. God’s Word is the only perfect source of godly things. Any who claim to teach the word of God must sit under the authority of scripture. God gifts people to teach, to clarify the meaning and application of His Word, however, none can take the place of scripture. We appreciate joy. We’re thankful for times of laughter. But if we’re studying the bible for truth, discernment teaches us that the time demands that we be more reverent, more solemn, and more serious in our experience. We might ought to stop acting, jesting of things we know are not comical, agreeing to things we don’t want to, saying things we regret and don’t even mean, just to be. We must be sure of who we really are to stop shifting ourselves. What if our thoughts were mindful of Christ not only in our individual time but also when we are with others. What if we did not make asumptions about the people we are with. Are we gaining Christ. What if we loved one another to be truthful. Think about the drain on our minds, body, and soul in pretending. If we are to teach the word of God, if we are to have the mind of Christ, then should not our life be lived with the purpose approved by God. Understanding truths is only the first step and that we need to apply the principles of truths to our lives and act on the basis of that understanding. It is clear that God’s ultimate plan is that in the time of the end, when a knowledge of His word shall increase, such knowledge shall draw, impress, convict, cleanse, and purify human hearts from sin, selfishness, and falsehood. Multitudes today are missing life’s true purpose, blessings, and opportunities. But let’s open the eyes of our heart. The evidence is overwhelming that silently, stealthily, and mostly unnoticed, the return of Jesus is getting closer. We are in the season of wonderful expectations. We are in the hour in history where chaotic events are unfolding and when God is revealing what is to come. Everything written in the bible impacts God’s last day people not just in future tense, but right now in the present. The bible indicts those who are evil and willingly ignorant, choosing to avoid becoming informed about something, so as to avoid having to make decisions that might prompt their giving up pride to see God’s truth. This willful ignorance is a deception that they impose upon themselves, but it is not an isolated lie they consciously tell themselves, it’s a belief they know not how to defend but insist on its validity. This willful ignorance is a systematic process of self- deception, a willful embrace of ignorance that infects those who are stupid enough to relinguish the privilege of learning, it’s an active ignoring of the oppression of others and their role in manipulating relations. There is generally found the reason behind any biblical disagreement to be of willful ignorance, especially where there is a social influence. God’s people must so completely know truth as to not lack spiritual stamina to resist any attempt to introduce discursive strategies that seek to prevent authentic engagement with epistemic truth. There is a deliberate effort among those who will not engage reasoning with the word of God to sway the ability of some having a critical consciousness, wokeness, with regard to the “realities” of God’s revelations. This effort is to mislead people to conclude that the components of truth are finite. And it is this limitation put upon the eternalness of the word of God that condones religious complicity. This is characterized as a way of knowing with the explicit purpose of not knowing, or, rather, knowing other false things that stand in place of learning or otherwise prevent learning what reasoning can teach. It is therefore considered a way of marginalizing knowledge. Allow me to assay the nature of this oppression as it burdens the movement of God’s truth in the last days. It is an offense of which I accuse any brother or sister, for which neither I nor time nor history will ever forgive them, that they have destroyed and are destroying lives and do not know it and do not want to know it by refusing to come to God to reason. God has a grievance in regard to our ignoring the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Hosea 4:1 And herein does the word of God speak oh so plainly... Daniel 12:10 There appear only two portrayals of consideration in the last day. And we must count upon no other than that. There will be this mixture of good and bad. This truth closes out that mixture as does this truth. Revelation 22:11 There is no remedy but that the evil and the stupid will be the wicked people that will do wickedly; and such people there are and will be in the world. Wicked practices are the natural products of evil principles and temperaments. They will not understand; they shut their eyes against the light. Therefore, they are wicked because they will not understand. If they did but rightly know the truths of God, they would readily obey the word of God. It is the effect of wilful ignorance. And wilful ignorance is decisioning in bad faith to avoid becoming informed about something so as to avoid having to make undesirable decisions that such information might prompt. This refusal, to reasonably acknowledge every word of God is a matter of choice. And refusal to attend to provided knowledge from God is to exit from His will. This intentional ignorance is blatant, having disregard for what is revealed. This must be called for what it is...it is stupidity that one imposes upon him or herself. Ignoring the revelation of God disestablishes the relation with God. You become deprived of His presence. The hard truth is that stupidity is a moral fault, not an intellectual deficiency; it is the result of a willful ignorance and cynical idleness. Please do not first attribute to malice what is perfectly explained by stupidity. Evil is more than just incomplete knowledge. Evil is a position that one takes onward from stupidity and becomes entrenched in it. It is following a narrow, mentally toxic path of self-deception and self- reinforcement that leads to being wicked. I challenge us to map out what happened in heaven, what happened in the Garden, and what is happening in the last days. Our findings will conclude with the truths in Daniel and the Revelation. God will secure to Himself a remnant of wise people to whom the principles, the providences, and the ordinances of God shall be a savour of life unto life. They will be tried by the same troubles that stir up the corruptions of the wicked. These are trials designed so that grace might be made brighter in this ensemble of stars. The wise will sanctify every event for judgment and for eternity under the instruction of the Holy Spirit. The terrains of truth and revelation must be constantly and vigilantly guarded and defended by the followers of Christ who are settled in his word. There will be some among us who put up barriers made of opinions and prejudices, which are fortified by anger, shame, guilt, indifference, arrogance, jealousy, pride, and sometimes silence. Truth declares the essence of humanity is our individuality. Because of this, we each have unique viewpoints. Often, we have emotions attached to them. Emotions overwhelm conversation, and often overpowers understanding. Perception is challenged and the willingness to reason is suppressed. Many fear what they don’t know. These are not to leave our hearts, our minds. We are to desire that they rest in our love and that we all move forward. We are to offer good prayers in asking and recommending to God, to confer upon them personal and anecdotal evidence of His sharing His experience of truth that results in a deliberate and conscious decision, to well-reason conclusively the powerful tide of truth, whereby they embrace this commitment...“God said it, I believe it, that settles it.

22 Minutes When we know something or someone is evil, we can take steps to fight it. With stupidity, it is much more difficult. Now please let me pause early on so that none who read this become judgmental of my use of the word stupid. Many hold this word to be offensive and brutal, thinking it means to lack ordinary capacity of mind as an insult. Reason and wisdom dictate that consideration must be contextual. And if we believe there is no contradiction in the bible, then we can wisely understand the contextual application of the word stupid. Was Jesus offensive in using the term “fool”? Are the other passages contradictory of what Jesus spoke? Using the words “stupid” or “fool” insultingly with a heart full of anger toward someone is tantamount to tongue murder. Jesus says we are to call no one raca, “worthless”. There is a difference in being worthless and being stupid. All have value to God, else the price that Jesus paid would be diminished. Fool is one, who in arrogance, rejects truth and in lacking faith says there is no God. This borders on wickedness. Psalms 53:1; 92:6 But in studying the bible each biblical example where God calls someone a fool, you will find a righteous reason behind it. When Jesus called the Pharisees and scribes fools, he explained that they were satisfying themselves instead of giving glory to God. They glorified the gold in the temple rather than the temple of God that housed the gold, which is foolish. I know, I know, now you’re going to say “that Jesus is the judge and the lawgiver with perfect knowledge, so he is able to do what humanity cannot do”. So, if ever we use the word, it is to be based upon the principle of scripture, touching the fruit of the spiritual condition, not touching as of the mind of man, but as of the love of God, thereby judging righteously the words of the person and not the person, having no impulse toward anger. The word used in principle is not to raise passions or discouragement. It is to give prudence to the understanding. Ephesians 4:31 Colossians 3:21 Ephesians 1:1-9 When this is done with mildness of mind and for a good end, to convince others of their vanity and folly, it is not sinful. The depth of sin in our final days requires hard, intense, compelling, and desperate language to arouse the slumbering and to awake the sleeping. Isn’t it a wonder how the bible is filled with hard sayings, truths that we find difficult to embrace. And we who are expressed believers hold this exclusivity of usage to the bible alone. Thinking that our hard words can actually be barriers to faith or justifications for unbelief. So we grumble, we stumble, we quarrel over words. I choose to look higher. I choose to see the truth of the words as an invitation to embrace Jesus despite the hard sayings. Thank God we are not of the mind of those whom Jesus counseled to drink of his blood. John 6: 53-70 There is the time now that God’s people must learn to look beyond the hardness of the word and recognize the deeper sense and intent to warn. Taking the kingdom by violence is both deed and word. Our faith is going to be filled with hard words and even harder actions in the last days. That is why we come to Jesus uniquely and let nothing deter us. He is the word that satisfies my soul. Embracing Jesus despite the hard sayings, the hard words spoken is the mark of those who are truly seeking Jesus for Jesus. So, if the use of the word “stupid” offends you, stop reading now and do what you will with this paper. Let the dead bury the dead. Stupidity is worse than evil because stupidity can be manipulated and used by evil. Stupidity tends to go hand-in-hand with thinking we acquire power, that is, this power means we surrender our individual critical faculties. Stupidity has its dark side. Evil is a subversive thing, but stupidity is a different problem altogether. We cannot so easily fight stupidity for two reasons. First, we are collectively much more tolerant of it. Unlike evil, stupidity is not a vice most of us take seriously. We do not deride others for ignorance. We do not scream down people for not knowing things. Second, the stupid person is a slippery opponent. They will not be convinced by debate or open to reason. What’s more, when the stupid person has their back against the wall — when they’re confronted with facts that cannot be refuted or truth they’ve never heard — they snap and lash out. Reasoning falls on deaf ears; facts that contradict their prejudgment simply need not be believed. In such moments the stupid person even becomes critical and when truth is irrefutable, it is just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the maliciously evil one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. That’s the stupid person...and when that is combined with evil!!! Evil gives stupidity great power. Notice how stupidity and evil gives an upsurge to infect large parts of humankind. Being stupid does not disbar a person from having influence or sometimes authority. The evil person exerts the nature of power requiring people to surrender certain faculties necessary for intelligent thought, faculties like independence, critical thinking, and reflection. The more someone becomes aligned in this environment, the less of an individual they become. A charismatic, outgoing person, bursting with intelligence and sensible reasoning ability, becomes imbecilic the moment they decide not to think independently. It’s as if they are blinded. They engage their smiles rather than their brains. These are the evil, who are deceivers in our day. It's like when people join a political party, it seems like most choose to follow suit rather than think things through. Now consider when the faith of one is influenced by comradery rather than truth. Power drains the intelligence from a person, leaving them akin to an animated mannequin. And the influence of the evil person somehow stupifies the minds of those who listen without discernment. Stupidity has the potential to greatly damage the life. Evil is oppressive, but stupidity is much harder to weed out. That’s why it’s a dangerous weapon. Evil people have to deceive to be influential, they need stupid people to respond to them. Like sheep in a field, a stupid person can be guided, steered, and manipulated to do things they would under right consideration avoid. Evil is a puppet master, and it loves nothing so much as the mindless puppets who enable it. When stupidity takes reign, be aware. When evil is displayed, resist. That we be not evil, not ignorant, not stupid, let us submit our acquiring to God. How do we know when our learning is of God? We must be able to discern God's voice over the noise of the world. We must be able to know when the Holy Spirit begins speaking to us, when we hear God through those around us, and when circumstances and even our conscience is being approached by God. The wise will perceive God’s approaching in the pathways, events, forward dreams, feelings, inspirations, music, nature, symbols, tender mercies, thoughts and visions. He will communicate through the community of believers, prayer, scriptures, sermons, wise counsel and His very creation. And especially through the inner knowledge of one's own mind. This hearing will be determined by what faith you have. This is a truth that might give us concern. It is difficult to determine the faith of another until you hear the words they speak. The goodness of God will give you answer. If what you hear mirrors the very truth of God, you know by what measure a person’s faith is. If what you hear strengthens your faith... John 16:13 It’s not that God is speaking to us in sound, it is that God makes His presence audible through spiritual impression. God is in the process of conforming our minds to think His thoughts. We should test every message, no matter the source. God is not intimidated by our questions. To sincerely ask for confirmation that something is of God is wisdom, not lack of faith. Trying each message is how we grow in discernment. That is why we do not frequently hear the voice of God because He is kind and it is for our best interest, it is for our growth in faith. Consider the disciples response at the Transfiguration. Jesus took Peter, James, and John to the mount to be alone and pray. The face of Jesus shone like the sun, and Moses and Elijah appeared. After Peter sees them, he focuses on building shelters for them to stay in. Peter misses the revelation of the divinity of Christ before him. He focuses on earthly considerations - building shelters. A few verses later, God had to speak to them to tell them what the purpose of the vision was. The disciples were terrified and fell face down on the ground. This was awe inducing, terrifying, and difficult for them to process. They failed to discern the message. God so wants to grow us in our discernment that our intimacy with Him is by faith, not sight. This is God’s continual speaking to us. We are the ones who hear not, who are deaf spiritually. Now imagine when you harden your heart... Job 33:14

22 Minutes Let this mind be in you is a mind that is not just limited to your experiences. It moves into an awareness that recognizes and understands how a transcendent mind consciously makes choices, decisions, judgments and the like, that determine what experiences are for your good. This mind, like the mind of Christ, no longer will localize our awareness in the form of a human being and perceive our mind to be only what we have experienced as that human being. This mind will shift the focus of our attention and awareness where we can move our understanding to point to God’s purposes in the vastness of creation. Even our past will be considered different because we will reason why God brought us through such trials and times. There may be times when we will repeat experiences that brought glory to God. Our minds will accommodate a creative living process where sometimes overwhelming experiences will be bestowed upon us by God for witnessing. We will share these experiences in a most powerful and authentic way. We will have a healthier relationship with the Holy Spirit. Thoughts and ideas that are not of godly origin, but from a source somewhere in our lives will be brought into captivity. It is with the mind of Christ that we learn wisdom from God by way of the Holy Spirit. It is because when we ask, we ask by faith. I pray that we understand what is entailed and why it is so very important that we do this word – let this mind be in you. Our thoughts must be different than the thoughts of man. For if we don’t complete this journey successfully, oureternity is not in heaven but never being with God. Swinging back and forth between godly teachings of the bible and worldly temptations, renders us unstable beings. Which way will we go? How can God depend on people like this to preach, to teach His truth? God’s people are not confused in their thoughts. We are not in conflict with the word of God, nor are we in conflict with ourselves. We are sure of what we hope for, and we are certain of that which we do not yet see. Having the mind of Christ means that we share the creator God’s plan, the purpose and the perspective of Christ, and as believers, our role is to possess this wisdom. Having the mind of Christ means that we agree with God. With the mind of Christ, we stand strong for the Lord against external conflicts. And we know how to act against internal conflicts. Brothers and sisters, it is all too easy for us to read the words “let this mind be in you” and admire the sound. God wants us to be awed by it. Not just by the word, but also to see it as something that we must enter into and imitate. Let this mind means that it is something that we have choice about. Remember also that this mind is something granted to us by God. If Jesus is our Lord, consider the great significance of this word. Especially as we are situated in this last generation. Do we realize where God places us in the line of those who were gifted access to heavenly wisdom? Philippians 2:12, 13 Work out your own salvation...and this done in cooperation with God. Do we not see the cross where One who is God died for our salvation doing that which was the will of God the Father? This is not to work our salvation in the sense of accomplishing it, but to work out our salvation is to see it evident in every area of our lives, it is to activate this salvation God freely gives us. These words, as they stand in the bible, contain no exhortation to all men, but are directed to us, the people of God. They are not intended as an exhortation to the unconverted; they are, as we find them in the epistle, beyond all question addressed to us, who are already saved through a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the wisdom of the word of God in our minds being carried to conclusion, to its fullest consequence that is already given by God in principle. With the mind of Christ, we must work out what God in His grace has worked in. With the mind of Christ, we will have no fear of failing in this encounter. Because we have the mind of Jesus, God’s works in us extends to the transformation of our will, as well as changing our actions to do. This is not a passive transaction. And with the mind of Christ we will not only be content with our own relationship with God, but will also long to see others walking with the Lord. This is our illustration of humility. It is our showing that Jesus is God. The whole world is yet to recover from the impact of the life of Jesus on this earth. With Christ’s mind in us, the work that we are to do for God will be greater. John 14:12 Our works of love and our message of life in union with Christ, will point people to the glory of the risen Son of God, and we will be the instrument of their forgiveness on the basis of the finished work of Christ. This will be new. This will be greater than Jesus’s earthly miracles because this is what he came to accomplish. But here is the greater matter; we will have an absolute faith that is demonstrably the ultimate expression of God’s trust. John 14:13, 14 Did we “hear” this truth spoken by he who is the truth...there is one condition...in my name! Read John 15:7 and I John 5:14, 15 and Mark 11:24. Does Jesus mean we can ignore all those other conditions: abide in him, ask according to his will, believe his word having confidence, when we pray? Or are all these included in the meaning ‘ask in my name’? For what we are to do in these last days for the glory of his Father...we ask. Here is the thinking of the mind of Christ and this thinking must be ours. “In my name!” That is, for his recognition and not ours. Because of his divine worth and his infinite payment on the cross. And according to his sovereign wisdom. Put every request through that filter; his recognition, his worth, his purchase, his wisdom. And every prayer request and content will be answered. We will have everything we need to do the works that he would do, and even the greater works. We cannot afford to work with any other mind! We must do everything to carry that mind that was in Christ Jesus. It is greater than prophetic accuracy. Can we see the mind of Christ? He emptied himself of being God to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. But he never ceased to be God. He did nothing to diminish his deity. It is his condescension to be made like us that he may be our Savior. He set aside the independent use of his attributes, of his power, so that he could identify with us. He voluntarily submitted himself to the will of the Father, so that he never did anything on this earth that was not first of all laid before the Father in heaven. Jesus relinquished his place. Jesus refused his prerogative. Jesus renounced his privileges. And notice also, Jesus restricted his presence. Think on this...the creator of the universe being thirsty and asking for water. Why? Because he emptied himself. I wonder if there is a way that we might live our life that the purpose of God can be fulfilled. If we have not come to the place where “we die daily” then this mind that was in Christ is not yet in us. This mind must be our person. Who we are for Christ must be manifested in the mind. Jesus Christ is the perfect expression of how to fulfill our spiritual purpose in the course of this human experience. I Corinthians 2:16 The humanity of Christ is one of the greatest testimonies of his love for us. The God who is the creator of all things possible, and all things impossible, and all things impossibly possible, and all things possibly impossible, humbled himself by lying in the virgin's womb and by hanging on the cross. This is the wonder of the mind of God...this is the mind of Christ. This was in God's mind before the world began. Proverbs 15:33 Isn’t it so like the mind of God to allow us to study the word, to discover that the mind of Christ will always produce unity among God's people. This is why we must have discernment in spiritual matters. Philippians 2:1, 2 Christ is God who not only was a human body but one who also had a real human mind. Jesus grew not only in physical stature but in wisdom. God doesn’t grow in wisdom. He is eternally all-knowing, but the child Jesus was not. But by choice, that he might know us...his physical development was accompanied by a normal human intellectual development. He learned from the scriptures, as he was taught to read for himself and which he cherished as a font of wisdom all his life. He learned by attending the synagogue, and by asking questions at the temple. He learned from his father, Joseph, to whom he was apprenticed. And he learned by observing the world around him and the ways of his own people. Yet this human mind, acute and probing as it was, was also aware that it didn’t know everything, and couldn’t answer every question that might be put to him - the day and hour of the end. But Jesus knew all that he ought to have known. We might ought ask of the profound regards of the mind of Christ. He was a deeply affectionate human being. Above all, of course, this affection is directed toward his heavenly Father, whom he loves according to his two natures, human and divine. But alongside this affection, the scripture highlights Jesus’s love for his fellow beings. Jesus readily accepted invitations to enjoy the hospitality of others. But he also had his own circle of intimate friends – his disciples. And within this band there was another even more intimate circle – Peter, James, and John. And even within the inner three there was one who was special - John, “the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved”. John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20-24 This bears the mark of humanity. Some were close to him, others were even closer, and one was closest of all. But they were all his friends. He loved them as the Father loved him, and his love for them was to be the paradigm for the way they were to love one another. There was another group, too, to which Jesus was especially close. John 15:14, 8, 9; 13:14, 34; 11:1-5 Let this mind be in us!

14 Minutes Think of the mind that was in Adam. The way God thinks was breathed into Adam. The serpent had to corrupt Eve’s mind to get to Adam. This defaced the image of God in Adam. II Corinthians 11:3 To have the mind of Christ restores that untainted image. Hebrews 8:10 God puts into the born-again person’s spirit His laws, His way of thinking. In other words, God puts into us His frame of mind or His way of reasoning to conclusion. This is why we think differently and do not fit into this world’s way of thinking if we have been born again and are converted. If God says, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee”, then our frame of mind should know this. If God says, “He shall supply all our need”, then our frame of mind should know this same thing. And reasoning with this truth, we conclude that this promise contains the sum and substance of all the promises. Nothing of the world is to enter into our conversation and discover itself active. We must bring our minds to our present condition, and this is the sure way to contentment; and those who cannot do it would not be contented though God should raise their condition to their minds, for the mind would rise with the condition. The angels in heaven were not content. Adam in the Garden was not content. What comes out of our mouths must express God’s way of thinking. We must seek after the image of God who made us. We must think God’s thoughts and speak God’s thoughts. Think of the mind that was in Noah. Can you imagine being the only person who believed something that God said? Literally the only person? And imagine holding fast to your faith when absolutely everyone else is doing the opposite. Noah was the first remnant God saved. Noah had a mind of faith. Genesis 6:9; 7:1 Think of the mind that was in Abraham. Try to understand the mindset of the people whom God used to pen the bible. We're going to have to understand Abraham. Because the bible says Abraham is the father of their faith. Romans 4:11,12,16 James 2:23 Think of the mind that was in Moses. Moses was the leader uniquely groomed to lead the people of God out of captivity. The Israelites slaving away in Egypt were Black Hebrew; though separated by limited practices, the Hebrew living in Egypt for four hundred plus years were acclimated to the comfort and difficulties in Egyptian society. Moses was Hebrew; however, Moses was reared in Egyptian freedom. Greater than political freedom, Moses was reared in educational freedom. Moses was reared in freedom of thought. Moses was reared with a free will. As an Egyptian prince, he was learned in administration, trade, religion, architecture, music, art and literature. Discard from your mind the vision of a man on the back side of the desert wandering among sheep. That portrayal was preparatory to God’s cause. Moses contained “might of mind.” Moses was free to muse. Moses was so steeped in education and understanding, that ideas of truth dawned in his mind, and he led others into his created thought process. Moses was possibly the most advanced student the world has ever recognized. Moses was perfect to deliver and lead the Hebrew out of Egypt. Moses was foreign enough to lead with thoughts abolishing slavery and familiar enough to offer the people the mind of trust and safety. The Divine Mind propels and orchestrates history. To move forward, the mind and the body have to be free of the past. Moses left Egypt. We must leave the world. To move forward, the mind and body must be free of expectations of the future discovered in the wilderness. Our expectations must be discovered in our faith as we move forward in God’s determined purposes. Reality is never what you think through speculation. Reality is truth that is proven. Hebrews 11:23-29 Think of the mind that was in John. John had a powerful encounter with the Alpha and Omega. To take in the things which must shortly come to pass, to behold the deity of Christ, to be given dramatization of the performances of God, the mind of John must stand in sharp contrast to the wisdom of man. It is not stated that John was translated like Enoch, or taken by whirlwind as was Elijah, but it is known that God made heaven accessible to John. We may see that John was transported in the Spirit as was God’s messenger, Ellen White, taken in vision and Paul being caught up not knowing whether he was in the body or out of the body. Revelation 1:10, 11; 4:1 John was in the Spirit. Not accompanied by an angel. Just him and the Lord. To us, this would be the ultimate experience, and yet John was invited to "come up hither." This was a higher spiritual realm, a higher experience in the Lord. He was taken to the throne of God. Here he saw the Godhead embodied in the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw myriads of redeemed people of every kindred, tongue, nation and people, praising the Lamb, who had redeemed them by His blood, to be kings and priests unto God. Somewhere in the vast views of heaven, John saw you and me. Of what mind does God exhort us to attain. The mind of courage and resolution conformed to the revealed will of the holy God. In this mind we cease from sin. God has wonderful things prepared to tell and give to us when we truly come to know Him. Things which human understanding alone will never see, can never understand. These things are only understood through spiritual illumination. The one who knows a man best is God. In the same way, the one who knows God best is the Holy Spirit. He knows everything in the mind of God. We have been given the Holy Spirit to teach us if we are true followers of Christ. And when the Spirit dwells within us we have the mind of Christ in us and the capacity to know everything we need to know from God. I John 2:20 John 14:17 Things we could not have understood before we received the Spirit, we can now understand through the Spirit’s help. These things are freely given to us by God. He is not trying to withhold them from us. If we listen and hear Him, He will make things known by His Spirit and His Word. Once we learn these things from God’s Spirit and His Word, we can share them with others through the power of spiritual words. What an incredible truth. We can know the mind of God because He now trust us with His spirit of truth. And we can speak the truths of God to others because He can speak through us. This is being “conformed to the image of His Son,” and it is the greatest joy of a life being made perfect. This is our faith in the word of God, and it is by this measured faith that our being made perfect is made reality...made truth. This is the mind of Christ whereby we save ourselves from ourself. I Timothy 4:16

We are to understand God’s plan for His people in the world to bring glory to Himself, to restore in the heart, in the mind, the cause for creation to its intended splendor, and provide salvation for all. It would be all to God’s glory if we could do this, as though sin was never a thought. But knowing the reality of truth, sin is real. And so, we do this by regaining the possession of harmony by atoning for our faults through the life of Jesus. It means we identify with Christ’s purpose “to seek and to save what was lost.” It means we share Jesus’ perspective of humility and obedience, compassion, and prayerful dependence on God. We must have a maturity to love unitedly in spirit, being humble in our thinking to express that love. God knows His people who are moving forward in, and of the faith of Jesus. These do not squander the power of the Spirit by looking back at past relationships, memories, failures, temptations, or anything that might distract them from their mindful focus on being the called, the chosen of God. They instead consider these experiences as nurturing ground that enriches their learning. Our conforming to Jesus is to be sought in every experience. With uncompromising determination our desire is to gain Christ. There is this phenomenon, that where your eyes are focused is where you tend to go. Our citizenship is in heaven and we look forward to going home and seeing our Father face-to-face. There is a strong, valued commitment to truth that reveals who we are and what we believe. It is with this mind, that reasoning with God gives us a truth to base certain decisions on in advance, irrespective of the circumstances, trusting the consequences to God. Jesus determined ahead of time to submit his will to his Father, trusting God to embrace his faith. Consider the marvel of how our lowliness of mind can remove selfish ambitions and empty pride, bringing in a deeper sense of humility, empowering us to make an honest evaluation of our great need for forgiveness. And with forgiveness comes the responsible use of the freedom granted. And with this freedom comes the presence of the Holy Spirit, and our capitulation and surrendering to God come as the result of the Holy Spirit working in our life. This is God underscoring our faith. We have His favor and salvation. He longs to use us to restore others. We are His hands; we are His feet. We are the mareh and we must show up for God. We speak His words and lives are changed. Let us prayerfully study the word of God to create a deep desire to be a transformed people, and fulfill the task God has given us by ministering and serving others with joy, and living to the glory of God. Let us humbly ask for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we can be transformed to God’s image, reflect His character, and be empowered by the Lord’s Spirit to fulfill God’s vision and task He is giving us. Let’s pray for the daily baptism of the Holy Spirit that He can do His work for us, in us, around us and through us. And it is with this mind that we realize our greatest need is Jesus Christ. The uniqueness of the mind of Christ is that he is one equal with God, being in the form of God. We must understand the context of “let this mind be in you”. Jesus was willing to give up something as well as be obedient and submissive to His Father. He gave up the full glory of God to become a human. He willingly committed to being the sacrifice for all human sin. Jesus knew what the plan was. He had confidence in the plan, and he agreed with it. Jesus knew the mind of His Father, and the Father knew his! The bible speaks to the relationship with Jesus and His Father. There is consolation in Christ. II Corinthians 1:3 God, who has known suffering from the inside, in Jesus, and who thus provides comfort for all who are afflicted and empowers us to console others. Attributes of this relationship are: comfort of love, fellowship of the Spirit, affection and mercy, the fulfillment of joy, being of one accord, of one mind. The same conditions are needed for us to make a good relationship with the Father, with Jesus. Jesus chose to give up the very height of all power to suffer, to sacrifice, to show obedience. Not obedience as God, but obedience as man. We too must be willing to give up our greatest power...the power of choice. We must give up our worldly ways of life and the attitudes that we’ve developed from living in our society. It means behaving according to God’s expressed will. I choose to offer my life to God as a blank sheet of paper with my name signed at the bottom of this blank piece of paper, and let God fill it in as He will. I choose to point people to God. This is our like-mindedness with Christ. Jesus says to the Holy Spirit, “seal me 144000 who hate nothing but sin and love God with all their hearts and I will perfect me a people who will give account for all the faithful and shake the whole world with my truth”. Let us ask God to let this same attitude and purpose and humble mind be in us. Let us have within ourselves the same disposition of mind as was in Christ Jesus. Let us be always thinking of Your way as did Jesus. Let us enforce the earnest exhortations and unselfish consideration of the things of others. Let our attitude toward one another be governed by Your being in union with us. Philippians 2:4 Christ is the supreme example. And the deep things of Christ showing his voluntary self-abasement is our connection of having regard to the condition and needs of others. We are the “others” whose “needs” are the great object of his actings of grace. And it is his mind, as so expressed, that is to be our mind. Let us be characterized with a selfless mind, a sacrificial mind, a serving mind. Let us know that this mind is granted to us by You. The word does not give us all that is in the mind of Christ. But we have the revealed expression of truth through reasoning with scripture. The word seems always to keep in view the direction which thought of a spiritually practical kind takes. The expression could be translated in a number of ways, each of which while holding to the main idea, yet brings out a slightly different shade of meaning. To have understanding, to be wise, to direct one’s mind to a thing, to seek or strive for, to be constantly thinking this in yourselves, to reflect in your own minds, the mind of Christ Jesus, let the same purpose inspire you as was in Christ Jesus. The sum total of the thought is the exhortation to urge us to emulate in our lives the distinctive virtues of the Lord Jesus. The idea is not to give just a casual thought to something but a thinking, a reasoning that involves the affections and the will. The Jesus that is the Son of God is truth, and in his mind is all truth. He proposes to share this truth with us that we may, in the same mind share his truth with others. So, it is vital to remember that Christ has not left us alone to try to carry this out by ourselves. He has given each and every believer a wonderful Helper, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. And so, we must continually remember that the Spirit of Jesus Christ is in us, continually working, continually giving us the desire and the power to carry out all of God's commands. As Christ followers, we are 100% responsible to "have this attitude". The test of the submissive mind is not just how much we are willing to take in terms of suffering, or how completely obedient we are, but how much we are willing to give in terms of sacrifice...but when love is the motive... The final generation believers hold that God's people must cease from committing sinful acts before the "close of probation," and before the "time of trouble". Our minds are not patterned like any other generation. There is a spiritual richness that we are to have that patterns the mind of Christ. God’s last day faithful ones will have powerful minds. On the spiritual path, one cannot improve the self or serve others without a firm resolve that translates into good judgment, compassion, courage in standing up for beliefs, inspiration to help others. There’s a reason why God chose such people. They do not have selfish expectations of people, they are not upset by the defects in others. These, having perfect peace, keep their minds stayed on Jesus. No distraction, no oppression will cause us to move from Christ. Jesus knew the truth of things and spoke the truth, that we might approach the last days with understanding. Our natural minds are so dull that we tell ourselves that things aren’t as bad as they really are and go on daily seeking comfort. We see what we want to see. Thus, we are told to have the mind of Christ. And we can only have the mind of Christ if we have the faith of Jesus Christ. The mind of Christ is able to discern spiritual things. There must be a transforming by the renewal of our mind that we might know the will of God. Having the mind of Christ rewrites our hard drives so that we are capable of understanding, of interfacing with God Himself. We can see clearly the reality before us that this world is temporal and flawed, and that we are meant for an eternal world. There is a hostile and intense battle raging for the mind of every man. We are being pursued by an unrelenting, wrathful, and deadly adversary. His single and solitary goal is the demise and destruction of everything and everyone that God loves. There is a great controversy that must be settled in the mind of all intelligent beings in the universe. But God has a peculiar people born during this age in which earth history closes, that have come into existence for such a time as this. Satan has concocted an effective and dastardly formula to hijack the minds of humanity. It is a formula that works every time against those who are not cognizant of his plans and methods. Scripture alerts those who study to be not ignorant of his devices. The book uncovers this enemy’s strategy. It gives us all the ability to not only resist, but with the mind of Christ, belonging to the election of grace, to overcome. Romans 16:19, 20 If you do nothing about Satan’s efforts, you will be lost. The stream of sin flows so swiftly, that to do nothing means being carried downstream to eternal destruction. We must open the eyes, the ears and the minds of people right now! They must come to the truth right now.

21 Minutes We must be always rehearsing the truths of God. Distance will not separate us, darkness cannot separate us. The dark time of trouble is more significant perhaps than we realize. It is truth in all its reality and yet it is also a kind of symbolic thing. As we study the bible, we reason with God to learn by revelation that often the things that happen in nature are reflected in the spiritual significance of the events. Example: when Jesus died on the cross, there was an earthquake that shook the land. The quake was symbolic of judgment. This was a shaking... SOP - I saw some, with strong faith and agonizing cries, pleading with God. Their countenances were pale and marked with deep anxiety, expressive of their internal struggle. Firmness and great earnestness was expressed in their countenances; large drops of perspiration fell from their foreheads. Now and then their faces would light up with the marks of God's approbation, and again the same solemn, earnest, anxious look would settle upon them. {EW 269.1} Evil angels crowded around, pressing darkness upon them to shut out Jesus from their view, that their eyes might be drawn to the darkness that surrounded them, and thus they be led to distrust God and murmur against Him. Their only safety was in keeping their eyes directed upward. Angels of God had charge over His people, and as the poisonous atmosphere of evil angels was pressed around these anxious ones, the heavenly angels were continually wafting their wings over them to scatter the thick darkness. {EW 269.2} As the praying ones continued their earnest cries, at times a ray of light from Jesus came to them, to encourage their hearts and light up their countenances. Some, I saw, did not participate in this work of agonizing and pleading. They seemed indifferent and careless. They were not resisting the darkness around them, and it shut them in like a thick cloud. The angels of God left these and went to the aid of the earnest, praying ones. I saw angels of God hasten to the assistance of all who were struggling with all their power to resist the evil angels and trying to help themselves by calling upon God with perseverance. But His angels left those who made no effort to help themselves, and I lost sight of them. {EW 270.1} I asked the meaning of the shaking I had seen and was shown that it would be caused by the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans. This will have its effect upon the heart of the receiver, and will lead him to exalt the standard and pour forth the straight truth. Some will not bear this straight testimony. They will rise up against it, and this is what will cause a shaking among God's people. {EW 270.2} Though the wicked are under the judgment of God, there will be some who have thought to be saved yet accepted not the truth revealed and therefore face a time of ruin and mourning, so that the only thing left for an unrepentant person is to mourn the destruction of their life! Woe! Indeed, this dark distressful day will bring about a day against Israel far worse than even the destruction of Jerusalem! Not all will be saved. And so again nature concurs with revelation. The reason for the darkness in the time of trouble is because God wants to convey to us symbolically the fact that this time is directly connected with the fulness of the sin of the whole world. The time of trouble is as our cross. It is the greatest symbol of God’s love. And it is in this time of trouble that God will dramatically demonstrate the depth and intensity of His love and His desire to keep faith with His children. Darkness opposes reflected light and honor, and so forebodes the contempt and scorn to which the hostility toward the people of God should be exposed. Darkness is opposed to wisdom and penetration and foreshadows the confusion and folly which the fanatics should discover at that time. It is opposed to pleasure and joy, and so signifies their anguish and vexation of spirit, when their calamities thus come upon them. This darkened time of woe will be threatening to all, but ruining to all the implacable enemies of God's kingdom among men. There is this very something different about this final, tempestuous time of events. While earth's history has certainly been punctuated with episodes of horror and terror, God has patiently blunted the full impact of sin's destructive power. But here, finally at the coming near the end of the age, God will lift the restraint and expose the true reality that is the dark underside of the insurrectionary rebellion. While this lifting of restraint is an act of divine judgment and revelation, like all manifestations of "the wrath of God," there is a component of "letting alone" so that the true principles of God's enemy and the natural outworking of the sin principle are revealed. Romans 1:18 SOP - A storm is arising that will wrench and test the spiritual foundation of every one to the utmost. Therefore avoid the sand bed; hunt for the rock. Dig deep; lay your foundation sure. Build, oh, build for eternity! Build with tears, with heartfelt prayers. Let every one of you from henceforth make your life beautiful by good works. Calebs are the men most needed in these last days. That which will make our churches vigorous and successful in their efforts is not bustle, but quiet, humble work; not parade and bombast, but patient, prayerful, persevering effort. {5T 129.2} SOP - All the members of the church, if they are sons and daughters of God, will have to undergo a process of discipline before they can be lights in the world. God will not make men and women channels of light while they are in darkness and are content to remain so, making no special efforts to connect with the Source of light. Those who feel their own need, and arouse themselves to the deepest thought and the most earnest, persevering prayer and action, will receive divine aid. There is much for each to unlearn with respect to himself, as well as much to learn. Old habits and customs must be shaken off, and it is only by earnest struggles to correct these errors, and a full reception of the truth in carrying out its principles, by the grace of God, that the victory can be gained. {4T 485.3} As believers, we are called to live in anticipation of what the truth in the bible says. We must begin to think differently than we did before knowing the last day revealed truths that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to teach us. The world we live in is filled with the distractions of the enemy. Regardless, our purpose is to keep our minds focused on the truth of God. Equally important is our obligation to share this truth. It is far too important to keep to ourselves. Following Jesus is not a part-time endeavor; Jesus is life. Everything we do should be pointed in one direction. Our preparation for the return of Jesus centers on our love for God and our desire to share that love with those around us. When our minds are fully absorbed by our spiritual calling, our being chosen, we are ready for perfecting in Jesus. The dark time of trouble will phase into the final plagues after probation closes. Many will be shouldered off the fence, while multitudes offer allegiance to the beast creature. Everybody alive will have made a decision about whom they will worship. It is the preaching of the gospel to the whole world that ushers in the most significant sign of the soon coming of Jesus; the darkest time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time. The Sunday law and the leaving the cities are constructed in the time of trouble. It is in this time of the heaviest blackness of darkness, in our exhaustion, that we will feel the touch signaling that we have power with God. It is the time of affirming our trust in God. The prologue has fitted us to endure unto the end the final last plagues. The preceding time of trouble necessitates that we think and act both collectively and individually about our faith and duty. There is a great need for God’s people to be reminded anew of the basis for the creation and preservation of the “people of God” and of the responsibilities which accompany this great privilege. Those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ, are the “people of God.” Whosoever will, can become a part of this people by faith in Christ. But understand this clearly: those who reject any part of any truth of Christ are not, and cannot be a part of the privileged “people of God.” Many may profess or appear to be a part of the “people of God,” but there are far fewer than it may seem. These are self-deceived. Those of us who have become the “people of God,” by faith, should be humbled by the knowledge of our own sinfulness and of God’s infinite grace. We are in no way better than others for having been chosen as God’s people. Our being chosen is only on the basis of the provision of God in Jesus Christ. Our privilege is not something that we own. It is a stewardship for serving, based upon our response to God’s standards of holiness as revealed in the Word. We are God’s possession. A people who trust in God and obey His commandments knowing that God is always faithful to His covenant with men. I Corinthians 1:24-31

11 Minutes Today, we are at the beginning of what will quickly become the complete downfall of humanity. There are still those who will cease to reject, to rebel against God. Matthew 24:6-12 We see the truth, or rather the misunderstanding of truth, turn unity into separation. No one ever made a belief true by believing it. Belief does not make something true. You believe your perfectly new car has fuel in it. You get others to believe it too. You try to start your car. It grinds but no turnover. Your belief was not true. You substitute belief for truth. Believing won’t even put fuel in your car. That’s why saying “what is truth to me”, is so destructive. Truth is so important that we must not fail to understand that it is unyielding in the face of beliefs. Truth is what God has put in creation to help us understand reality. If our beliefs are true, we are enabled to deal with reality effectively. Truth must always match up to reality. Most people do not know how to work with truth. The broom is in the closet. We know how to find out whether or not that statement is true. We go look at the broom in the closet. Reality. All truth is not that direct. That’s why reasoning with revealed verifiable statements will lead to truth in reality. Jesus spoke the warnings of truth for the last days. Our response is to see the reality of his words. The time of trouble is just as the bible says it will be. And if we want to be responsible to the truth and for the truth, to lead others in that path, to be prepared for the time of trouble, that can be only effectively done by being steadfast followers of Jesus Christ in our whole life. We must have truth beyond opinion, the truth about truth. It can’t be done any other way. Let us not be casual in our approach to this “timed” event. People unblinkingly focus on their pleasure. Giving no thought to God, they are casually uninterested in the moral welfare of our children, our friends, our families, that are collapsing into utter depravity. Shame for sin has disappeared. The nations are falling. Society shows significant breakdowns in three vital areas: in political and business leadership, in family life, and inability to tap into the spiritual resource of God. Specific blame is shaping up to be placed on a specific people. Rebellion, obstinacy, betrayal, distrust, shamelessness, and greed, comprise an audacious self-centeredness against God and fellow man. These are the characteristics of a nation that will completely abandon all things godly. Sin has gradually carried less of a stigma in the world. The sense of shame has been slowly replaced by a growing boldness of an attitude of acceptance, a flaunting of sin. Much of that sense of shame has disappeared from the American psyche altogether. Bold immorality has become the way of life so that sin is now blatantly committed. Civility is becoming a thing of the past. Rudeness and open, brazen misconduct is becoming the normal way of doing things. This nation has formed herself into that cruel beast of prophecy. This is the kind of conduct the "whore's forehead" pictures. It represents the blatant, audacious sin of the people, openly displaying what they are, promoting themselves, and tempting others to engage in sin with her. The whore's forehead represents obdurate practice of sin done overtly with no attempt to camouflage. This attitude is reminiscent of the story of righteous Lot dealing with the homosexuals in Sodom just before God dropped the fire and brimstone on the people of that vile city. This relaxed and careless acceptability of sin did not happen overnight. It has gradually become tolerated over decades. Its growth is significantly aided by a so-called christian church that abandoned its responsibility to God. We must be very careful to guard ourselves from succumbing to the temptation of being drawn into the same casual approach. It is our responsibility to overcome sin. God is using these final days leading to the time of trouble to accomplish His will and refine His people. We are approaching a season of severe testing that will make Job’s testing seem as a sunny day in the park. We need a closer relationship with God to deepening our faith in and reliance on Him. We will be in the time of stygian gloom so deficient of light that all human interaction will be toxic. It will be as a black abyss. But no matter how dark the situation will be, believers can rest in the promise that God “will not leave you nor forsake you”. And it is for this cause that regardless of our troubles or difficult circumstances, we will make an impact by sharing the truth of the word of God, our Creator and our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that God has decided to make this terrible time short. We are in a season of acceleration towards both the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the greatest hour of temptation in world history. The bible makes it clear that both darkness and the glory of God will increase to unprecedented levels together in the generation that Jesus returns to. No other generation has had to navigate these two extremes. This will create a situation in which many will be afraid and confused, searching for answers. That is one reason why the Lord put more information in the bible about that one generation - us. We must have God’s perspective on saving souls. We must understand the biblical narrative related to the coming difficulties. It is now in this day that God’s people are to have a burden in a way that will help them and others to grow in deeper love and peace with a steadfast faith in Jesus’ excellent leadership. Isaiah 60:2 The greatest harvest of souls is coming in context to the end-time trouble of the nations. This time of trouble will be like a “perfect storm,” affecting many areas of life; financial, political, societal, spiritual, military, and more. It is in this context that God’s glory will be seen and magnified in the world. I do not ask anyone to accept my understanding of what the scripture shows me on the end times unless you can clearly see them with your own eyes in your own bible. In other words, trust the truth of reality. We are learning these truths together. We cannot afford to make a mistake that will leave multitudes of God’s people spiritually unprepared when dark events escalate more in the end times. We can only have a mature understanding as we honor, relate to, and learn from one another across the different streams in the body of Christ. No one group of people will have it all. But together, the unity can gain a mature understanding of the end time of trouble. We need each other to grow in this understanding. We must study the books of Daniel and The Revelation. The time of trouble my friends will intensify our suffering. This darkness leads to the manifestation of God’s hatred for sin...the beginning of His wrath. Darkness is a visible sign of God’s judgment and displeasure. There will be unexplained moments of desolation and thoughts of abandonment. But we will be conscious of our Father’s presence because every truth, every word of God will sustain us and we hear “lo, I am with you alway, even unto theend of the world”. No truth will be distant from us. We will know our experience is in accord with God’s declared word. God’s Word is true and His Word was here long before we became the spectacle of display that would be exposed to great hardships for the glory of God. However, God certainly does not need our experiences to validate the truth of what He says, but we need God’s Word to validate our experience. The world will witness our persecutions, sufferings, patience, and magnanimity. They will see that we suffer willingly for our fidelity to Christ, and how we suffer; how great and imminent are our dangers, and how determinedly we encounter them; how sharp our sufferings, and how patiently we endure them, by the power of divine grace and our faith in truth principles. In our coming to this time, we must be more than faithful messengers...we must be the perfection of true biblical servitude and spirituality.

15 Minutes Prophecy is not so difficult that we can’t understand it, or else God would not have put it into scripture. Prophetic passages confidently reveal something about the role of America in the end times. After all, God, who exists in all times, who sees the end of history from the beginning, who indeed sovereignly governs every moment of history - God, who reveals key end- time events in the prophecies of scripture, can’t possibly have omitted from His opus the most powerful, most influential, and by many counts most God- blessed of all nations that have ever risen. There has never been a more urgent time when God’s people have need to know of the last days. The best of our knowledge cannot fathom what the great time of trouble will be like even as we head into the little time of trouble. The most vivid presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal. There is no degree of insightfulness that we can stretch our mind to manufacture the atrocities to be put upon God’s people. These words have no intent to frighten you. The intent is to accelerate the understanding of the necessity to take a full account of how God sees you. Please do not think to believe that God sees you as you see yourself. God sees us through the blood of Jesus. We will either have a right standing in His sight owing our life to Jesus or we will be condemned by the blood of Jesus. We need to have a greater want of that wisdom and love which would prevent all discord, and keep God’s people in unity in Christ with themselves. Please understand that we will need an experience which we do not now possess. We will need the enabling power of atonement. Though defeated and cast down at the cross, this once before covering cherub is a fierce foe. Please keep in mind the purposes God has for this period of time. Examine yourself. Enduring times of trouble is an opportunity to demonstrate the level of faith and strength God gives us; God’s glory revealed in us. We will not be brought from the time oftrouble...we will be brought through the time of trouble. We have patience and faith to the uttermost. Time must be cut short else none would survive. Every opportunity to become well instructed in every word of God is to be seized upon with no disputation. Romans 14:1 There is a time of trouble that is soon to break upon this world, and the main force of it will be directed at God's true commandment keeping people. And we’re not talking about the effects of the plagues on mankind, we are talking about the end time demonic activities that will see all but 144000 of God’s last day people choose to die rather than renounce their belief. The power of a single angel destroyed seventy thousand men. What might be the results when Satan and his millions of powerful angels have full control of the earth? And the second phase of his war is poised to resume against God’s elected multitude and very elected remnant people. The time of trouble will inscribe the wickedness of the world to such an extent that God’s patience cut short will usher in the weightiness of the plagues. His patience is immeasurable and matchless, but not endless. Demonic assaults will overcome untold numbers of the wicked and all the world will be hardened in their sin. The people of God will be sustained and shielded by the sovereign grace of God from granting the wicked the satisfaction of enjoying the afflictions placed upon them preparatory for their sacrificial offering. Here is the entering in of the vindication of God’s holiness. We must begin to understand why this time of trouble is going to be so much worse than anything this world has seen as it develops into the great time of trouble. If our experience is not now daily with Christ, then when the time of trouble hits and we find ourselves under great persecution, we will find it difficult to stay true to our faith. Please have this understanding...as faithful believers there is a difference in our position and in our condition. Sin will affect the condition. Faith can make certain the position. Please know that righteousness is a positional performance. The time of trouble coming upon the world will be but a moment, but the intensification will wrap a lifetime in a meditative experience. Life will be lived one moment at a time. As a day is as a thousand years to God so will every moment of trouble be to God’s people. Morbid and surreal thoughts will attempt to detach our minds from transcendent love that immerses our faith even deeper beyond our circumstances, our abilities and weaknesses, tragedies, regrets, guilt, shame from our past and our fears about tomorrow. We will know that God is greater than anything we are facing and anything we will ever encounter. Sorrow will fill our hearts. There will be so many enemies to come against us. We will guide them forward and repay them with comforting words. Our righteousness will not be sealed up. We will not be shy to talk about our love for Christ. Our faith and compassion will be bold even in the face of their growing hate. Pause and reflect on this...find yourself the kind of friend who builds your faith in God...find this friend now! It will prepare you to cling to Jesus when the time comes. Compel yourself to practice the word of God. We are going to be hurt in the process of loving others, but that is what it costs to serve God. The time of darkness will not define the people of God. And those who refused acceptance of the truths of God, and those who so pretentiously veiled themselves in righteousness will have not even a wisp of hope. The time will be the darkest period of the world’s history, in comparison with which the cruelties of the Assyrians, the fearful sieges of Rome upon Jerusalem, the Siege of Masada, the tortures of the Inquisition, the campaigns of Napoleon, the transatlantic slave trade, the Trail of Tears, the conflicts of the Haitian Revolution, the bloodshed of two World Wars, the Asian american experience, the terroristic devastation of the Tulsa, the Colfax Louisiana, the Wilmington, the Atlanta, the Elaine Arkansas, the Rosewood massacres, and the atrocities perpetrated under the Nazi regime will fade into insignificance. The ending of the little time of trouble, at the beginning of the plagues, will see God’s last day remnant immersed into the terrible time of godliness, that great time of trouble that will culminate in the fearful battle of Armageddon. I Thessalonians 5:1-11 SOP - The events connected with the close of probation and the work of preparation for the time of trouble, are clearly presented. But multitudes have no more understanding of these important truths than if they had never been revealed. Satan watches to catch away every impression that would make them wise unto salvation, and the time of trouble will find them unready. {Great Controversy, page 594.1} Spiritual darkness results in spiritual death which is distinct from physical death and the second death. This is the degree of sinfulness willfully desired by the wicked. Before the plagues there is this great purge that brings many out of Babylon. The final crisis will be initiated by the urging and enforcing of the mark of the beast. A strong source of motivation for many to repent and turn to faith in Christ is what they observe the people of God willingly enduring for the sake of Christ. They remember the messages heard upholding the law of God. They saw faith lived by defeating death. SOP – (excerpt) The commencement of that time of trouble, here mentioned does not refer to the time when the plagues shall begin to be poured out, but to a short period just before they are poured out, while Christ is in the sanctuary. {EW 86}

15 Minutes The sabbath is our greatest temple. No Rome, no America can burn it. Apostasy cannot change it. The main theme of our faith lies in the realm of time...prophecies and events. What was the first thing sanctified, made holy in the history of the world...the Sabbath. There is no reference in the record of creation to any object in space that would be endowed with the quality of holiness. God did not establish a holy mountain, He did not build a sanctuary, God sanctified the seventh day sabbath. Holiness in time, the Sabbath comes first. When history began, there was only one holiness in the world, holiness in time. When at Sinai the word of God was about to be voiced, a call for holiness in man was proclaimed: “Ye shall be unto Me a holy nation." It was only after the people had succumbed to the temptation of worshipping a thing, a golden calf, that the erection of a Tabernacle, of holiness in space, was commanded. The sanctity of time came first, the sanctity of man came second, and the sanctity of space last. Time was hallowed by God; space, the Tabernacle, was consecrated by Moses. Are we beginning to understand “from one new moon to another”, and “from one sabbath to another”? Undeterminable space is called infinity...undeterminable time is called eternity. The Sabbath is entirely independent of the month and unrelated to the moon. Its date is not determined by any event in nature, such as the new moon, but by the act of creation. Thus, the essence of the Sabbath is completely detached from the world of space. On the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in measure, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world. The Sabbath is a day for the sake of life. The Sabbath is last in creation, first in intention. It is "the end of the creation of heaven and earth." It is not the interlude, it is the climax of living. The seventh day, in its atmosphere, is a reminder of adjacency to eternity. The Sabbath is an expression of glory in the presence of eternity. We speak a word for an emotion almost too deep to be expressed: the love of the Sabbath. This conception of love of the Sabbath, the love of a day, of spirit in the form of time. What is so luminous about this day? What is so precious to captivate the hearts? It is because the seventh day is a mine where spirit's precious metal can be found with which to construct the stronghold in time, a dimension in which the human is at home with the divine; a dimension in which man aspires to approach the likeness of the divine. For where shall the likeness of God be found? There is no quality that space has in common with the essence of God. There is not enough freedom on the top of the mountain; there is not enough glory in the silence of the sea. Yet the likeness of God can be found in time, which is eternity in disguise. God is the time of rest of the Sabbath. What a mysterious grandeur of the climax of creation. As God sanctified the seventh day, so shall we. The love of the Sabbath is the love of man for what he and God have in common. Our keeping the Sabbath day is a paraphrase of His sanctification of the seventh day. What would be a world without Sabbath? It would be a world that knew only itself; a world without the vision of a window in time that opens into eternity. Law and love, discipline and delight are fused together in the Sabbath. Its observance is the reach of the exalted soul beyond the grasp of ordinary man. On the Sabbath we accept all excellence from the Spirit of God. The Sabbath is a reminder of the two worlds; this world and the world to come. For the Sabbath is joy, holiness, and rest; joy is part of this world; holiness and rest are something of the world to come. So, how may it be that we come to worship before God at what seemingly are timed intervals? Divine temporality, a prioritization of tasks. Since eternity is the chronological passage of time, in relation to the past, the present and the future, God can provisionally cause its use to be concurrent, occurring simultaneously, or sequential, not happening at the same occasion. This can also be viewed as the maturing of eternity. In eternity there may be an other to “passage time”...”lived time”. Divine temporality is derived from a higher non-temporal state of eternity, which is co-extensive with the infinite and eternal now of God. The greatest phenomenon of time is the future. It is not yet revealed. However, God’s presence is always the “now”. So, it is as though with God the future comes toward Him and is always the “now”. So, with our being in God’s presence in heaven, in eternity, we are in His “now”. No time is taken, no space used. God is greater than eternity, so everything in eternity if God’s "having-been-ness". God can seize the past, the present, the future and hold on resolutely to make His “now”. Since God is outside of time altogether, time is inside God. The Sabbaths, the months are in God. And we can have a moon without night because the light reflected will be the Son of God. Allow us to reason with the account of how God relates to events, things, people, and the universe and of how God is related to what we could call the structure of the universe. That is, how God is related to space and to time. God never began to exist, and God can never go out of existence. And God experiences all events yet knowing of their succession. And this reasons that God is “omnitemporal.” Whereas we possess one moment of life at a time, God possesses all life at once. That implies duration. An eternal being must have life and this life is without duration. How such a God is related to temporal events is the wonder of omniscience. God has an eternal-temporal- simultaneity reference. The thoughts in God’s mind can be individuated by their respective lengths of duration or at least by their locations within the duration. So, there can be a sabbath, there can be a month, individuated temporally throughout eternity having no connecting interaction. God is the essence of existence for even existence is in Him. God’s life is the event whereby all things are captured. In Him is timeless duration. He is always a “present” God, a “now” God. God can be present, though not temporally present to the world. He can have a life which is an event having duration, though not temporal duration. With God not all whens are times. However, eternity, in the sense of being a timeless space, can also be a when to God. “At eternity” is the answer to the question, “when does God act?” He is timelessly and independently 'prior' to creation of anything. God has within Himself and He knows the whole of everything that was, is, and can ever be. God lacks nothing. He does not have to believe, He knows. His foreknowledge of all things is what determined all things. God’s life is so eternally stretched out that the entirety of time is one indivisible present while each point can be made a temporal reality of an event...even an event occupying space. In the fullness of His Being, God will position the Sabbath in eternity to situate as a present event. He can do anything that it is possible to do. He is maximally merciful. In heaven we will not long for the past nor will we long for the future. For in God we will have the attribute of experience that captures simultaneous and perfect possession of boundless life. We will lose nothing in the passage of eternity. We will have the “property of rest” in God always. At creation of the heavens and earth, which He willed from eternity to appear temporally, time began, and God subjected Himself to time by being related to changing things. God causes eternity to pause...a pregnant pause if you will in that our God is determinative. He will cause “time” and “events” to have “space”.

15 Minutes We will be ever finding different ways of describing the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ in that he gives the rest that both Moses and Joshua sought for the people of God. Joshua 22:4 I Kings 8:56 But there is a sabbath rest that remains for the people of God. Hebrews 4:9 And this rest remaining is a rest of grace, and comfort, and holiness. A rest in glory, the everlasting sabbatism of heaven, which is the repose and perfection of nature and grace too, where the people of God shall enjoy the end of their faith and the object of all their desires. There are two who have actually taken possession of this rest: God and Christ. It is certain that God, after the creating of the world in six days, entered into His rest; and it is certain that Christ, when he had finished the work of our redemption, entered into his rest; and these were not only examples, but earnests, that believers shall enter into their rest. Please see that the “all things new” mean we cease from works of righteousness, and from the works of the law, as God and Christ have ceased from their works of creation and redemption. There is no works in the new creation. As we are still, silent, present, and allow God to work in us on earth, we rest in every spiritual provision, we rest in the increase of our being with God, we rest in the deepening of our relationship with every being in creation, we rest in the love, the hand and the heart and the mind of God. In the new earth the sabbath is more than the day. It is Jesus. In him is the promised rest in eternity. Remember, the “rest” was in the sabbath, before the sabbath was in the law. Jesus is Lord of the rest. He is God in creation. It is our rest in Christ that frees us from the works of the law, allowing us to rest in the finished work of Christ to forgive sin. When the heavens and the earth were finished, God did not start His work again on the eighth day...He was finished. Our entering into the sabbath in all its truth means we no longer “work”. We “rest” in all that Christ does. The rest found in Christ is much better than the one day of rest found in the cycle of seven days. It is Jesus Christ that makes us right with God. It is here that our worship will be as it ought to be. God is a Spirit. Jesus is the truth. We will be the answered prayer...God in him and he in us...that’s worshipping in spirit and in truth, attributing worth, reverent honor, and homage to God the Father and God the Son. Heaven will be where God is...on the new earth. The shrouding of our new clothes will not be material...but a fabric of light. They won’t be cotton, but compassion. Not linen, but love. No silks, but service. We will adorn spiritual garments of holiness, of anointing, of grace, of gloriousness. But we are fitted for our finest covering while here on earth... Romans 13:14 The seventh day sabbath on earth was given to teach us how to spiritually use our two primary sources of experience to discern God’s will; choice and time. The choice to be obedient and the time designated by God to set apart for remembering the sabbath day. Neither of these sources will be required in the “all things new” realm. In this life we sacrifice time to gain space. But man’s ignorance, thinking to have more, means to be more, terminates at the borderline of time...life will end! God has given the time of sabbath where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. There is happiness in the love of labor, there is misery in the love of gain. Man attempts to make God a god. He has much enthusiasm for the idea that God is present in the universe, but that idea is taken to mean God’s presence in space rather than in time, in nature rather than in history; as if God were a thing, not a Spirit. When we fail to reason every revealed attribute of God, saying what God cannot do, we are literally fashioning God...might as well use wood or stone and determine God to be but a shadow of man. Most people resist the sabbath principle because they have a deeply rooted dread of time. They see it like a furnace incinerating every moment of their lives. The higher goal of spiritual living is not to build up a wealth of information or materialism, but to look toward sacred moments. These experienced moments are not a thing that imposes themselves on man but are a spiritual presence to reason with God to come to truth. What is retained in the soul is the moment of insight when the time opportunity to just reason was abandoned rather than the space where the act came to pass. A moment of insight is a fortune, transporting us beyond the confines of measured time and space. Spiritual life begins to decay when we fail to sense the grandeur of what is eternal. And what is eternal is truth. Time and space are interrelated. They are components of creation. Remember, God spoke to us in moments of time showing the things that occupy space. We must not forget that it is not a thing that lends significance to a moment; it is the moment that lends significance to things. The time that Light was brought forth outweighs the sun’s coming on day four. The timing was God’s order, the thing was spaced in its time. The sabbath on earth is a special time. God set the world in a dimension of time to complete His plan. Events over countries, history over geography.

10 Minutes This new earth and new heavens will engage the very manifestation of God Himself. Every idea, thought, feeling, and belief will become a reality. For everagelessness the awareness that every 'I', is also part of a 'we' and that there can be no harness to the power of love or the power of the mind. The unfallen worlds having never “known” sin will be newly situated in a dimension of the pure presence of God. That will be their portion. And there is nothing more powerful, more efficacious, or more impenetrable, than the presence of God. And as in us, the Spirit in them will be greater than anything in the creation. Because our God makes all things new, our minds will know that we all are greater than any appearance around us - not due to our physical form or mental personality or spiritual bearing, but the pure presence of God radiating in, as and through us. We will all live and move and have our being in Spirit. Oh, how the pure presence of Jesus will be heaven’s beauty. The “all things new” will be “all in Christ”. He is the greatest godly gift in the heavenly realms. He is that spiritual blessing that influences our every cause. All of our sufficiencies proceed from him. He is ever accessible to us who are ever mindful of our availability to him. Discovery and declaration of the abundance of the wealth of our inheritance will be measured in the receiving and enjoying the unlimited riches of God’s grace and blessings. We will ever be that “these are they” of God. We will ever be His remnant. SOP - "These are they which follow the Lamb withersoever He goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb." Revelation 14:4. The vision of the prophet pictures them as standing on Mount Zion, girt for holy service, clothed in white linen, which is the righteousness of the saints. But all who follow the Lamb in heaven must first have followed Him on earth, not fretfully or capriciously, but in trustful, loving, willing obedience, as the flock follows the shepherd. {AA 591.1} SOP - Mount Zion was just before us, and on the mount was a glorious temple, and about it were seven other mountains, on which grew roses and lilies. And I saw the little ones climb, or, if they chose, use their little wings and fly to the top of the mountains, and pluck the never-fading flowers. There were all kinds of trees around the temple to beautify the place; the box, the pine, the fir, the oil, the myrtle, the pomegranate, and the fig-tree bowed down with the weight of its timely figs,--these made the place all over glorious. And as we were about to enter the holy temple, Jesus raised His lovely voice and said, "Only the 144,000 enter this place," and we shouted, "Alleluia." {CET 63.2} This temple was supported by seven pillars, all of transparent gold, set with pearls most glorious. The wonderful things I there saw, I cannot describe. Oh, that I could talk in the language of Canaan, then could I tell a little of the glory of the better world. I saw there tables of stone in which the names of the 144,000 were engraved in letters of gold. {CET 63.3} Proverbs 9:1 Heaven is the house which wisdom has built. On earth, we are wisdom’s house, supported by the power and promise of God, as by seven pillars.

21 Minutes God, who is the perfect Master will have a perfect servant. We have seen a perfect servant...once. We should get instruction from him. Being made perfect may be being made to burn in fire, or hung up to the stars, or buried in the earth, or dragged through the sea. Or it may be showing faith enough to stand on truth for the elemental reason that truth is the truth and that's just the truth. We should rejoice in any price we might have to pay for perfection. Perfection must be an absolute certainty for Christ to speak it. Why would we put off being like Christ when God the Father Himself tells us to be holy? I Peter 1:15, 16 Leviticus 20:7 Why we should be perfect...is the faith God gives us perfect...is the love God shares perfect...is our hope perfect...are God’s purposes perfect...His promises...does God possess all possible perfections...can perfect come of suffering. Hebrews 2:10 Our being made perfect is the counteracting of divine power through the Holy Spirit. It counteracts the tendencies of our sinful nature. Moment by moment trusting in Christ renders our bias to sin weaker and weaker. We will never claim sinless perfection. We are all painfully aware of our lives. In Christ we are brought into a right position to overcome. And we are for never, by even a thought, to come to believe that perfection leads to the conclusion that both Christ and the Holy Spirit are unnecessary even once this state of eradication of the sinful nature is reached. Christ is the life eternal. Being made perfect is an increase in dependence, an increase of repentance, and constant prayer for forgiveness. Christ is our sole perfection, our sole righteousness. In this life we are capable of not sinning, capable of being good, capable of righteousness, but it is as we are all Christ’s. God cannot act wrongly. And Jesus recommends us to God. And here is the wonder in that; is it not a strange thing that the advanced believer, as we are made to reach to the very height of reverent reasoning, having fidelity to the very root of truth, just comes to the spot where Jesus commenced our eternal being? Do we not begin at the cross, and when we have climbed over so high in our learning of the spiritual ascriptions of God, that the clarity or intelligibility of perfection and righteousness, is it not at the cross that we come again and again for there is where is shown divine perfection? Here is where we resolve all tension. We stop trying to solve the mystery of how God makes us perfect, we begin to experience it. It was not the crown of thorns that showed him king...it was the crown of blood about his head. It was not the rusted spikes entering his body that held him to the cross, it was the unleashed light of life from the wounds that caused him to stay that we may have life. It was not the flow of the blood and the water from his side that proved his death, it was the flow of the many bodies of the saints which slept that appeared to many and the flow of the word of truth from the centurion; “truly this was the Son of God”. This is the ground for our confidence in being made perfect. None can be made fit for this purpose except Christ be in them. Have you ever learned that elephants “sound” the ground they walk on? It is for their safety, it is for their direction, it is a way of listening with their feet. As we walk for God, we must sound the ground. It is not good enough just for us to see others take a path that ensures that path is the right way. We know that God’s word is sound footing. His covenant is the strenght of His promises. Psalms 119:133 II Samuel 22:33, 34 We are in the court of divine inspection in order that it may there be proved that we may be made perfect. It is here that we bring our faith to God’s tribunal. And the terrors of God’s law are not loose. No transgression is hidden from view. We must stand silent in the perfectness of Jesus Christ as his blood speaks for us. Be not presumptuous in your faith. Thinking you are chosen when you have no evidence of it. Let not confidence lead to idleness, but to thoroughness in service to God. We must begin to have higher thought, elevated thinking, that we may realize our higher self and the revelation of Christ inside. Our right judgment and our spiritual wisdom must go beyond the perception, the knowledge of pretension. We are called to a more complete reliance on God and a more diligent level of study. We have a conscious acquaintance with the Source and a desire to express the wisdom of Spirit. The word, the truth, the promise of God says He will not forsake us in temptation; do we not know that with just as much presence He should be with us in communion with Christ and with others? It is our faith in the word that grants us access to God on the footing of perfection. Hebrews 10:14 We are perfected through the blood of Jesus Christ as were the vessels sprinkled for service in the sanctuary. God can accept our worship. And now, whatever God uses us for, He uses us as a perfect instrument, regarding us as being perfect in Christ Jesus. Faith before perfection is a submitted humility. Faith embraces God’s sovereignty and all that is Christ...his suffering, his obedience, his love, his voluntary sacrifice, his heart and his mind, his offer of salvation and eternal life. The bible gives a specific reason for the ability to come to an understanding of biblical truth. The reason, that the bible gives, is that God’s Spirit leads one to the understanding of these truths. We must be the ground of truth. The term “ground of truth” conveys an essence of completeness. There is going to be a people of God who will be standing on the ground of truth. When we look at the “commandment keeping” people of God today, we see a disarray, a true disorder of beliefs. It is clear that the people do not represent a body that has received the promise of truth that we have just read, or the perfection that we have been looking into. So, what has happened? There are some in the body who receive what they ask for. Their pursuits have been to a large degree skewed in nature. These are interested in a more sensitive relationship with one another. Then there are those who have desired to have a greater “joy in the Lord”. These ask for what is in God’s will...the perfecting of His people. These have the desire to grow in truth. We declare our memento of duty. Let no events of the day override our duty of the day. John 14:13-17 The text just read is a plain, dynamic, and wonderful promise for those who have a need to live for truth. By our conscientious care we perform our trust, in universal obedience to his commands; this is better than sacrifice, better than tears. With this relationship between our asking, the keeping of the commandments, and the indwelling of the spirit of truth, we are brought to the perfecting of truth. Why is this needed? As of now, the truth of a matter is not sufficient enough to motivate us in all that we do. We push truth aside for relations that border idolatry. Siding with another for the sake of need. Forced to feel a certain way or do certain things opposing truth when in a relationship. Friends of convenience, rather than a friend of truth, being in the same friend group. This is lacking the love of the truth. Are you in spiritual relationships that promote questioning, decision making and a definite commitment to things proven true in all areas? Let’s stop for a moment, and consider our normal attitude in regards to valuing truth. We all know that the truth of a matter is not sufficient enough to motivate us in all that we do. This is borne out, as a regular occurrence, for all of us to one degree or another. Our popular health message is a prime example of our tendency to push truth aside. In this case, for convenience and taste. Worldly variations, as opposed to milestone viewing of important and significant events in the development or history of discovery and life’s progress in television viewing would also be an area of concern. As we look at our daily routine, we can easily see the concessions that are made to something other than a way that would reflect the true instructions of the Word of God. Perfecting is doing everything possible to fulfill that command in the spirit of truth. The instruction is perfectly complete...be ye therefore perfect. How then are we able to grow into the stature of the person this is speaking about? We have to ask for it in faith, with a devout heartfelt desire - a desire that God knows is the truth. What should we be asking for? That every question that we could possibly have, be resolved with a perfect answer from God. We are not yet the bride of Christ. We must lay a true foundation. When God’s word gives evidence that we can use to make a decision, we have a responsibility to effectively use that evidence. By His spirit, we can reach for the calling and the perfection that is being offered to us. Without that reaching, and asking, we won’t come close. It is becoming clearer and clearer who we really are. Being made perfect is a considerable subject in itself. Truth, plain and simply makes a point. The first fruit is only a total of 144,000 people, our calling is commanding, and beyond our present ability to really understand its greatness. This thing is clear. Because the number is that few, the perfection that God speaks of is well called for. To help qualify the possibility of that number we should notice that the “great multitude which no man could number”, has repented and been cleansed by the blood of Christ but have yet to receive “life as perfected” as we have. Hebrews 11:39, 40 We are the callen chosen of unprecedented value. This may bring a new appreciation of the work being done in us, an understanding of the degree of righteousness that our Father is guiding us into. We will stand on the ground of truth. We will be made complete. When that will be, is the question that we are learning to resolve. Being made perfect is a higher calling than being made very good. The “very good” was designed to achieve God’s intended eternal purposes – to perfect us that we might be worthy. Being made perfect is the redemptive purpose to restore His intent, it is not a plan “B”. This path inoculates the faithful and true believers against defection from the faith. You cannot contend that it is impossible for a child of God to come to perfection in Christ. This mystery carries with it overtones of true conversion. With this faith comes rank, favor, and priviledge. God’s perfected are viewed in a separate class as spirits of just men made perfect. The “perfectedness” is not the result of human merit; the glory is to God yet certainly does not exclude our obedience to the Lord’s requirements. We are being brought to completion of the promised victory and there to abide in. Our trust is grounded in Jesus. Being made perfect requires a faith greater than any fear. The fear of God is the only acceptable fear. This fear comes with wisdom, understanding. Enormously difficult, hurtful, harmful, high risk times will be the norm in the last of the last days. Very serious decisions will need to be made. We must be determined to live by faith, rather than in fear. Faith is grounded in truth; fear is grounded in misrepresentations. Fear is not wanting to hear every word of God. To have faith in God means to trust in His integrity. What kind of fear causes one to resist searching the word of God for truth? Unless we seek to serve God with our undivided affections, we will fail to perfect holiness in His fear. SOP - The Lord has pledged His glorious perfection that those who seek Him with humility of heart, confessing their sins, will find Him precious to their souls. But those who refuse to obey, for fear of displeasing earthly friends, cannot be friends of God. {TDG 153.5} What kind of perfection are we talking about in reference to God? Being made perfect has to do with knowing God and His ways spiritually. To do this means that we need to refuse to accept ungodlike thoughts and strive to express genuine, God-given qualities, such as love, forgiveness, and wisdom. As God’s goodness is reflected in our lives, it brings restoration to a likeness with God’s created intent. Our thoughts begin to with divine perfection. Through our prayer and study, we see more of spiritual reality and divine harmony. Matter loses its importance as we see its unreality and begin to understand the purpose of God with spiritual consciousness. We become aware of our spiritual identity. Being made perfect is not something that sounds good in theory. Perfection is obtainable because God has made divine provision for each of us to become perfect. It is the highest aim of what God, in His great power, can do for us. There are no degrees to perfection. It is not based on any type of measurement, but upon expressed, visible character virtues. And as far as being made perfect...you either are, or you’re not. We realize how far from the perfection of Christ we really are. And we know that no amount of human effort can make us perfect as Christ is perfect. Our dilemma - we are commanded to strive for perfection while inhabiting a body incapable of achieving this perfection. We embrace this command just as we embrace the command to keep holy the Sabbath day because we are called to it by Christ. Perfection is the standard by which we examine our lives despite the knowledge that we are not yet complete. We strive for this perfection because in doing so we demonstrate our sincere faith in Jesus, godly perfection in human form. Because of this faith, therefore, God considers us perfect in His eyes now, while we await our transformation.