Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Daily Devotionals - Our High Calling
Daily Devotionals - Our High Calling
Ellen G. White
1961
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ii
Foreword
When Ellen G. White laid aside her pen after seventy busy years of ministry, she left to us a rich legacy of ever timely instructions, inspired counsels, and earnest admonitions touching almost every phase of practical Christian experience. Our High Calling is made up of choice selections from this vast treasury as found in Ellen G. White articles that appeared week by week in the journals of the church, her public discourses, her manuscripts, and letters of counsel to individuals, many of them Seventh-day Adventist youth. It is clear that Mrs. White contemplated the use of these messages in the production of books, for she indicated in a statement written in 1905 that I am endeavoring by the help of God to write letters that will be a help, not merely to those to whom they are addressed, but to many others who need them. Although written many years ago, these counsels speak to our hearts today, to encourage, instruct, and inspire us in victorious practical everyday Christian living and witnessing, particularly in view of the imminence of our Lords return. To make the reading for each day complete within the limits of a single page, it has been necessary at times to make deletions in order to bring the reading to the right length. All deletions are indicated in the usual manner. Likewise, in many instances material on a page has been drawn from more than one source. Great care has been exercised to avoid any distortion of meaning, and that which appears clearly presents the intent of the author. Proper source references for each quotation are given, whether article, pamphlet, manuscript, or book. Our High Calling, presenting a devotional reading for each day introduced by an appropriate Bible text, has been prepared as an enrichment of the Morning Watch devotional plan and appears simultaneously in several languages. That this volume, comprised of messages inspired by the Spirit of God, will be treasured as other like volumes have been in the past, and will be the means of encouraging all who read to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus is our sincere wish. The Trustees of the Ellen G. White Estate Washington, D.C. iii [7]
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It is Written, July 20
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is protable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Timothy 3:16, 17. Let the seeker for truth who accepts the Bible as the inspired Word of God, lay aside every previous idea, and take that Word in its simplicity. He should renounce every sinful practice, and enter the Holy of Holies with heart softened and subdued, ready to listen to what God says. Do not carry your creed to the Bible, and read the Scriptures in the light of that creed. If you nd that your opinions are opposed to a plain Thus saith the Lord, or to any command or prohibition He has given, give heed to the Word of God rather than to the sayings of men. Let every controversy or dispute be settled by It is written.... Let the heart be softened and subdued by the spirit of prayer before the Bible is read. Truth will triumph when the Spirit of truth cooperates with the humble Bible student. How precious the thought that the Author of truth still lives and reigns. Ask Him to impress your minds with the truth. Your searching of the Scriptures will then be protable. Christ is the Great Teacher of His followers, and He will not leave you to walk in darkness. The Bible is its own interpreter. With beautiful simplicity one portion connects itself with the truth of another portion, until the whole Bible is blended in one harmonious whole. Light ashes forth from one text to illuminate some portion of the Word that has seemed more obscure. Christs lessons will bear close study. One truth comprehended in its simplicity will prove a key to a whole treasure house of truth. Christ is the great mystery of godliness. He is as the Master scattering the golden grains of truth, which require tact, skill, and deep, laborious search to pick up and link together in the chain of truth. The Word is the treasure house of truth. It puts in our possession all things essential for our preparation for entrance into the city of God.
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September
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Be Selective!, September 7
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Ephesians 5:11. The Christian should withdraw himself from the company of those who are as a snare to his soul. When you come in contact with those whom you cannot lift into a pure and holy atmosphere, because their moral tastes are wholly perverted, you must shun their society. Persons of this class have generally a strong will and positive temperament, and when wrought upon by the enemy of God, they become efcient agents in leading souls from the path of righteousness to paths that are false and dangerous. The moral atmosphere surrounding these souls is tainted with evil, and exerts only a deling inuence. Your associates may not be expected to be free from imperfections or sin. But in choosing your friends, you should place your standard as high as possible. The tone of your morals is estimated by the associates you choose. You should avoid contracting an intimate friendship with those whose example you would not choose to imitate.... Choose for your associates those who hold religion and its practical inuences in high respect. Keep the future life constantly in view. Let not your associations put these thoughts out of your mind. Nothing will so effectually banish serious impressions as intercourse with the vain, careless, and irreligious. Whatever intellectual greatness such persons may attain, if they treat religion with levity or even with indifference, they should not be your chosen friends. The more engaging their manners in other respects, the more should you dread their inuence as companions, because they would throw around you an irreligious, godless, irreverent inuence and yet combine it with so many attractions that it is positively dangerous to morals. Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to stand alone.... A cowardly and silent reserve before evil associates, while you listen to their devices, makes you one with them.... Have courage to do right.
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Rejoice!, November 16
Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.... Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:4-6. It may seem difcult to rejoice in the Lord when in trouble, but we lose a great deal by giving way to a spirit of complaint. It is our privilege to have in our hearts, at all times, the peace of Christ. We should not allow ourselves to be easily disturbed. It is to test us that God brings us through trials and difculties, and if we are patient and trustful under His proving, He will purify us from all dross, and at last bring us forth with triumph and rejoicing. Great blessings are reserved for those who uncomplainingly submit to the yoke that God wishes them to bear.... Let the light of truth shine forth in your life. Do you say, How shall I let it shine? If before you accepted the truth, you were impatient and fretful, let your life now show to those around you that the truth has had a sanctifying inuence upon your heart and character, that instead of being fretful and impatient, you are now cheerful and uncomplaining. Thus you reveal Christ to the world.... In every thing give thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:18) for the keeping power of God through Jesus Christ.... At the moment when you are offering your prayer for help you may not feel all the joy and blessing that you would like to feel, but if you believe that Christ will hear and answer your petition, the peace of Christ will come.... If you take hold of the strength of the mighty Helper, and not reason with your adversary and never complain of God, His promises will be veried. The experience that you gain today in trusting Him will help you in meeting the difculties of tomorrow. Each day you are to come, trusting as a little child drawing nearer to Jesus and heaven. In meeting with unwavering trust in God the daily trials and difculties, you will again and again test the promises of Heaven, and each time you will learn a lesson of faith. Thus you will gain strength to resist temptation, and when the harder trials come, you will be able to endure.
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No Taproot?, November 22
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:58. In order to be rmly anchored, there must be something rm to hold us; and nothing will avail until Christ takes possession of the soul.... Many who now appear strong, and talk in vindication of the truth, are not rooted and grounded. They have no tap-root; and when the storms of opposition and persecution come, they are like a tree uprooted by the blast. We shall be attacked on every point; we shall be tried to the utmost. We do not want to hold our faith simply because it was handed down to us by our fathers, Such a faith will not stand the terrible test that is before us. We want to know why we are Seventh-day Adventistswhat real reason we have for coming out from the world as a separate and distinct people.... When men are willing to become intelligent in regard to the cause of God because they have invested faith and means in it, God will help them to understand, and they will be steadfast in the faith; but when they have merely a theory, a shallow faith they cannot explain, a sudden temptation will cause them to drift away with the current bearing toward the world.... Our minds must be prepared to stand every test, and to resist every temptation, whether from without or from within. We must know why we believe as we do, why we are on the Lords side. The truth must keep watch in our hearts, ready to sound an alarm, and summon us to action against every foe. The powers of darkness will open their batteries upon us; and all who are indifferent and careless, who have set their affections on their earthly treasure, and who have not cared to understand Gods dealings with His people, will be ready victims. No power but a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, will ever make us steadfast; but with this, one may chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to ight.
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December
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Am I a Laodicean?, December 8
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Revelation 3:15, 16. The condition of many of those who claim to be the children of God is exactly represented by the message to the Laodicean church. There is opened before those who serve God, truths of inestimable value, which, brought into the practical life, show the difference between those who serve God and those who serve Him not.... The Bible is the storehouse of the unsearchable riches of God. But those who have a knowledge of the truth do not understand it as fully as they might. They do not bring the love of Christ into the heart and life. The student of the Word nds himself bending over a fountain of living water. The church needs to drink deeply of the spirituality of the Word. Their service to God needs to be very different from the tame, lifeless, emotionless religious experience that makes many believers but little different from those who believe not. Halfhearted Christians are worse than indels; for their deceptive words and noncommittal position lead many astray. The indel shows his colors. The lukewarm Christian deceives both parties. He is neither a good worldling nor a good Christian. Satan uses him to do a work that no one else can do. Love of self excludes the love of Christ. Those who live for self are ranged under the head of the Laodicean church who are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot. The ardor of the rst love has lapsed into a selsh egotism. The love of Christ in the heart is expressed in the actions. If love for Christ is dull, the love for those for whom Christ has died will degenerate. There may be a wonderful appearance for zeal and ceremonies, but this is the substance of their self-inated religion. Christ represents them as nauseating to His taste. Let us thank the Lord that while this class is so numerous, there is still time for repentance.
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