EGW Notes - Lesson 5- Excuses to Avoid Mission

 Sabbath Afternoon, October 28
Nineveh, wicked though it had become, was not wholly
given over to evil. He who “beholdeth all the sons of
men” (Psalm 33:13) and “seeth every precious thing”
(Job 28:10) perceived in that city many who were
reaching out after something better and higher, and
who, if granted opportunity to learn of the living God,
would put away their evil deeds and worship Him. And
so in His wisdom God revealed Himself to them in an
unmistakable manner, to lead them, if possible, to
repentance.
The instrument chosen for this work was the prophet
Jonah, the son of Amittai. To him came the word of the
Lord, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry
against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me.”
Jonah 1:1, 2.
As the prophet thought of the difficulties and seeming
impossibilities of this commission, he was tempted to
question the wisdom of the call. From a human
viewpoint it seemed as if nothing could be gained by
proclaiming such a message in that proud city. He forgot
for the moment that the God whom he served was allwise and all-powerful. While he hesitated, still doubting,
Satan overwhelmed him with discouragement. The
prophet was seized with a great dread, and he “rose up
to flee unto Tarshish.” Going to Joppa, and finding there
a ship ready to sail, “he paid the fare thereof and went
down into it, to go with them.” Verse 3.—Prophets and
Kings, pp. 265, 266.
In giving light to His people anciently, God did not
work exclusively through any one class. Daniel was a
prince of Judah. Isaiah also was of the royal line. David
was a shepherd boy, Amos a herdsman, Zechariah a
captive from Babylon, Elisha a tiller of the soil. The Lord
raised up as His representatives prophets and princes,
the noble and the lowly, and taught them the truths to be
given to the world.
To everyone who becomes a partaker of His grace the
Lord appoints a work for others. Individually we are to
stand in our lot and place, saying, “Here am I; send me.”
Isaiah 6:8. Upon the minister of the word, the missionary
nurse, the Christian physician, the individual Christian,
whether he be merchant or farmer, professional man or
mechanic—the responsibility rests upon all. It is our
work to reveal to men the gospel of their salvation.
Every enterprise in which we engage should be a means
to this end.
Those who take up their appointed work will not only
be a blessing to others, but they will themselves be
blessed. The consciousness of duty well done will have a
reflex influence upon their own souls. The despondent
will forget their despondency, the weak will become
strong, the ignorant intelligent, and all will find an
unfailing helper in Him who has called them.—The
Ministry of Healing, p. 148.
Sunday, October 29
Our Excuses: Fear
More people than we think are longing to find the way
to Christ. Those who preach the last message of mercy
should bear in mind that Christ is to be exalted as the
sinner’s refuge. Some ministers think that it is not
necessary to preach repentance and faith; they take it
for granted that their hearers are acquainted with the
gospel, and that matters of a different nature must be
presented in order to hold their attention. But many
people are sadly ignorant in regard to the plan of
salvation; they need more instruction upon this allimportant subject than upon any other.
Theoretical discourses are essential, that people may
see the chain of truth, link after link, uniting in a perfect
whole; but no discourse should ever be preached
without presenting Christ and Him crucified as the
foundation of the gospel.—Evangelism, pp. 185, 186.
In the darkest hours, under circumstances the most
forbidding, the Christian believer may keep his soul
stayed upon the source of all light and power. Day by
day, through faith in God, his hope and courage may be
renewed. “The just shall live by his faith.” In the service
of God there need be no despondency, no wavering, no
fear. The Lord will more than fulfill the highest
expectations of those who put their trust in Him. He will
give them the wisdom their varied necessities
demand.—Prophets and Kings, p. 386.
Much depends on the unceasing activity of those who
are true and loyal, and for this reason Satan puts forth
every possible effort to thwart the divine purpose to be
wrought out through the obedient. He causes some to
lose sight of their high and holy mission, and to become
satisfied with the pleasures of this life. He leads them to
settle down at ease, or, for the sake of greater worldly
advantages, to remove from places where they might be
a power for good. Others he causes to flee in
discouragement from duty, because of opposition or
persecution. But all such are regarded by Heaven with
tenderest pity. To every child of God whose voice the
enemy of souls had succeeded in silencing, the question
is addressed, “What doest thou here?” I commissioned
you to go into all the world and preach the gospel, to
prepare a people for the day of God. Why are you here?
Who sent you? . . .
Those who realize, even in a limited degree, what
redemption means to them and to their fellow men, will
comprehend in some measure the vast needs of
humanity. Their hearts will be moved to compassion as
they see the moral and spiritual destitution of thousands
who are under the shadow of a terrible doom, in
comparison with which physical suffering fades into
nothingness.—Prophets and Kings, pp. 171, 172.
Monday, October 30
Our Excuses: False Views
If, when the call first came to him, Jonah had stopped
to consider calmly, he might have known how foolish
would be any effort on his part to escape the
responsibility placed upon him. But not for long was he
permitted to go on undisturbed in his mad flight. “The
Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a
mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be
broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every
man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in
the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was
gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was
fast asleep.” Verses 4, 5.—Prophets and Kings, p. 267.
Stablish your hearts in the belief that God knows of all
the trials and difficulties you will encounter in the
warfare against evil; for God is dishonored when any
soul belittles His power by talking unbelief.
This world is God’s great field of labor; He has
purchased those that dwell on it with the blood of His
only-begotten Son, and He means that His message of
mercy shall go to everyone. Those who are
commissioned to do this work will be tested and tried,
but they are always to remember that God is near to
strengthen and uphold them. He does not ask us to
depend upon any broken reed. We are not to look for
human aid. God forbid that we should place man where
God should be. The Lord Jehovah is “everlasting
strength.”—Reflecting Christ, p. 352.
When God opens the way for the accomplishment of a
certain work and gives assurance of success, the chosen
instrumentality must do all in his power to bring about
the promised result. In proportion to the enthusiasm
and perseverance with which the work is carried
forward will be the success given. God can work
miracles for His people only as they act their part with
untiring energy. He calls for men of devotion to His
work, men of moral courage, with ardent love for souls,
and with a zeal that never flags. Such workers will find
no task too arduous, no prospect too hopeless; they will
labor on, undaunted, until apparent defeat is turned into
glorious victory. Not even prison walls nor the martyr’s
stake beyond, will cause them to swerve from their
purpose of laboring together with God for the
upbuilding of His kingdom.—Prophets and Kings, p. 263.
Those who have been most successful in soul-winning
were men and women who did not pride themselves on
their ability, but who in humility and faith sought to help
those about them. Jesus did this very work. He came
close to those whom He desired to reach. How often,
with a few gathered about Him, He gave His lessons, and
one by one the passers-by paused to listen, until a great
multitude heard with wonder and awe the words of the
heaven-sent Teacher.—Gospel Workers, p. 194.
Tuesday, October 31
Our Excuses: Inconvenience
Every soul who is saved must surrender his own plans,
and follow where Christ leads the way. The
understanding must be yielded up to Christ for Him to
cleanse and refine and purify. This will always be done
when we receive aright the teachings of Christ. O, how
much we need a more intimate acquaintance with Him!
We need to enter into His purpose, and to carry out His
will, saying with the whole heart, “Lord, what wilt thou
have me to do?” . . .
We should keep ever before us the fact that time is
short. Iniquity is increasing on every hand. The
righteous are set as lights in the world. Through them
the glory of God is to be revealed to the world.—This Day
With God, p. 322.
If you are in communion with Christ, you will place His
estimate upon every human being. You will feel for
others the same deep love that Christ has felt for you.
Then you will be able to win, not drive, to attract, not
repulse, those for whom He died. None would ever have
been brought back to God if Christ had not made a
personal effort for them; and it is by this personal work
that we can rescue souls. When you see those who are
going down to death, you will not rest in quiet
indifference and ease. . . . Your heart will go out in
sympathy for them, and you will reach out to them a
helping hand. In the arms of your faith and love you will
bring them to Christ. You will watch over and encourage
them, and your sympathy and confidence will make it
hard for them to fall from their steadfastness.
In this work all the angels of heaven are ready to cooperate. All the resources of heaven are at the command
of those who are seeking to save the lost. Angels will
help you to reach the most careless and the most
hardened. And when one is brought back to God, all
heaven is made glad; seraphs and cherubs touch their
golden harps, and sing praises to God and the Lamb for
their mercy and loving-kindness to the children of
men.—Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 197.
Christ came to the earth to suffer and die, that, through
the exercise of faith in Him and the appropriation of His
merits, we might become laborers together with God. It
was the Saviour’s purpose that after He ascended to
heaven to become man’s intercessor, His followers
should carry on the work that He had begun. Shall the
human agent show no special interest in giving the light
of the gospel message to those who sit in darkness?
There are some who are willing to go to the ends of the
earth in order to carry the light of truth to men, but God
demands that every soul who knows the truth shall seek
to win others to the love of the truth. If we are not
willing to make special sacrifices in order to save souls
that are ready to perish, how can we be counted worthy
to enter into the city of God?—Testimonies for the
Church, vol. 9, p. 103.
Wednesday, November 1
Our Excuses: Uncomfortable
Confrontations
When Jonah learned of God’s purpose to spare the city
that, notwithstanding its wickedness, had been led to
repent in sackcloth and ashes, he should have been the
first to rejoice because of God’s amazing grace; but
instead he allowed his mind to dwell upon the
possibility of his being regarded as a false prophet.
Jealous of his reputation, he lost sight of the infinitely
greater value of the souls in that wretched city. The
compassion shown by God toward the repentant
Ninevites “displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was
very angry.” “Was not this my saying,” he inquired of the
Lord, “when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled
before unto Tarshish: for I knew that Thou art a gracious
God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness,
and repentest Thee of the evil.” Jonah 4:1, 2.
Once more he yielded to his inclination to question
and doubt, and once more he was overwhelmed with
discouragement. Losing sight of the interests of others,
and feeling as if he would rather die than live to see the
city spared, in his dissatisfaction he exclaimed, “Now, O
Lord, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is
better for me to die than to live.”—Prophets and Kings, p.
271.
The lesson is for God’s messengers today, when the
cities of the nations are as verily in need of a knowledge
of the attributes and purposes of the true God as were
the Ninevites of old. Christ’s ambassadors are to point
men to the nobler world, which has largely been lost
sight of. According to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures,
the only city that will endure is the city whose builder
and maker is God. With the eye of faith man may behold
the threshold of heaven, flushed with God’s living glory.
Through His ministering servants the Lord Jesus is
calling upon men to strive with sanctified ambition to
secure the immortal inheritance. He urges them to lay
up treasure beside the throne of God.—Prophets and
Kings, p. 274.
In the gift of His Son for our redemption, God has
shown how high a value He places upon every human
soul, and He gives to no man liberty to speak
contemptuously of another. We shall see faults and
weaknesses in those about us, but God claims every soul
as His property—His by creation, and doubly His as
purchased by the precious blood of Christ. All were
created in His image, and even the most degraded are to
be treated with respect and tenderness. God will hold us
accountable for even a word spoken in contempt of one
soul for whom Christ laid down His life. . . .
He who stands as a mouthpiece for God should not
utter words which even the Majesty of heaven would not
use when contending with Satan. We are to leave with
God the work of judging and condemning.—Thoughts
From the Mount of Blessing, pp. 56, 57.
Thursday, November 2
Here Am I, Send Me
Confused, humiliated, and unable to understand God’s
purpose in sparing Nineveh, Jonah nevertheless had
fulfilled the commission given him to warn that great
city; and though the event predicted did not come to
pass, yet the message of warning was nonetheless from
God. And it accomplished the purpose God designed it
should. The glory of His grace was revealed among the
heathen. Those who had long been sitting “in darkness
and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and
iron,” “cried unto the Lord in their trouble,” and “He
saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out
of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their
bands in sunder.” “He sent His word, and healed them,
and delivered them from their destructions.” Psalm
107:10, 13, 14, 20.—Prophets and Kings, p. 272.
Let us remember that while the work we have to do
may not be our choice, it is to be accepted as God’s
choice for us. Whether pleasing or unpleasing, we are to
do the duty that lies nearest. “Whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do, do it with thy might.” Ecclesiastes 9:10.
If the Lord desires us to bear a message to Nineveh, it
will not be as pleasing to Him for us to go to Joppa or to
Capernaum. He has reasons for sending us to the place
toward which our feet have been directed. At that very
place there may be someone in need of the help we can
give. He who sent Philip to the Ethiopian councilor, Peter
to the Roman centurion, and the little Israelitish maiden
to the help of Naaman, the Syrian captain, sends men
and women and youth today as His representatives to
those in need of divine help and guidance.—The Ministry
of Healing, p. 472, 473.
Our plans are not always God’s plans. He may see that
it is best for us and for His cause to refuse our very best
intentions, as He did in the case of David. But of one
thing we may be assured, He will bless and use in the
advancement of His cause those who sincerely devote
themselves and all they have to His glory. If He sees it
best not to grant their desires He will counterbalance
the refusal by giving them tokens of His love and
entrusting to them another service.
In His loving care and interest for us, often He who
understands us better than we understand ourselves
refuses to permit us selfishly to seek the gratification of
our own ambition. He does not permit us to pass by the
homely but sacred duties that lie next us. Often these
duties afford the very training essential to prepare us for
a higher work. Often our plans fail that God’s plans for us
may succeed.
We are never called upon to make a real sacrifice for
God. Many things He asks us to yield to Him, but in doing
this we are but giving up that which hinders us in the
heavenward way. Even when called upon to surrender
those things which in themselves are good, we may be
sure that God is thus working out for us some higher
good.—The Ministry of Healing, p. 473.
Friday, November 3
For Further Reading
Messages to Young People, “Work in Faith,” pp. 197,
198;
The Upward Look, “Now Is the Time: Arise and Shine,”
p. 171.