Gods Sabbath

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E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

The only safe way to evaluate developments is to ask how they came about. If they result from human planning, then no matter how desirable and wonderful they may appear, the plan making and its outcome are wrong. On the other hand, if the problem solving was left entirely to God, and His perfect direct ives followed implicitly, then everything has gone right, even if it does not appear to be so. It is difficult for God’s professed peo ple to accept this, for within us is a natural disposition to be the deciding force in both our own and God’s affairs. Furthermore, when we do achieve a result which, in our own estimation, is advantageous to the cause, we are encouraged to repeat the mistake. Unfortunately, when this is done, we never know what would have happened if God had been accorded His rightful place as the Plan Maker. When we turn to our own problem solving, we deprive ourselves of God’s workings. Our self-satisfaction over the fine work we think we have done for God, would change to dismay and remorse if we could only see what we have really done in frustrating and delaying God’s work. Satan is delighted when we determine what course will be pursued and then, to all appearances, obtain what we think is an excellent result. He is even more pleased when we point to these achievements as justification for the course we have adopted. He observes with satisfaction the tendency of the hu man mind to evaluate an event without due reference to the con text in which it has happened. Viewed in isolation, the proposed deliverance of Lazarus from his sick bed would be an apparent ly good thing, but in the context of God’s purpose, it would have been positively evil.

Are we Walking in the Light?

There is a specific formula for success and another for failure. A formula can be defined as a procedure according to law. The two formulae for success and failure were clearly spelled out by Christ during His earthly sojourn. Never was there a more ap propriate time for Him to convey these truths to His disciples than after their sad failure in the Lazarus affair.