Friday: Further Thought ~ A Life of Praise
Further Thought:
Read Ellen G. White, “Jehoshaphat,” Pages 190-203, in Prophets and Kings; “The Fall of Jericho,” Pages 487-498, in Patriarchs and Prophets.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
“Then let us educate our hearts and lips to speak the praise of God for His matchless love. Let us educate our souls to be hopeful and to abide in the light shining from the cross of Calvary. Never should we forget that we are children of the heavenly King, sons and daughters of the Lord of hosts. It is our privilege to maintain a calm repose in God.” — Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, p. 253.
“And while I adore and magnify Him, I want you to magnify Him with me. Praise the Lord even when you fall into darkness. Praise Him even in temptation. ’Rejoice in the Lord alway,’ says the apostle; ’and again I say, Rejoice.’ Will that bring gloom and darkness into your families? No, indeed; it will bring a sunbeam. You will thus gather rays of eternal light from the throne of glory and scatter them around you. Let me exhort you to engage in this work, scatter this light and life around you, not only in your own path, but in the paths of those with whom you associate. Let it be your object to make those around you better, to elevate them, to point them to heaven and glory, and lead them to seek, above all earthly things, the eternal substance, the immortal inheritance, the riches which are imperishable.” — Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, Pages 593, 594.
Discussion Questions:
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My grandson, Mikey, and I have a maths tutorial most school afternoons. Earlier this week he was studying congruent triangles, so I went through the fundamental principles of congruency and we worked through the examples.
Grandad, "Do you understand that Mikey?"
Mikey, "Yep, no worries!"
Grandad, "OK, now go and do 20 examples, so that you are fast and accurate."
Mikey, "But I already know how to do it. Doing examples is boring! (He acutually said, "So uncool!")
Grandad, "Mikey, you need to practice. 20 examples tonight when you go home!"
A couple of days later.
Mikey, "I had the test today on congruency!"
Grandad, "How did you go?"
Mikey, "The questions in the test were very different!"
Grandad, "So how did you go, Mikey?"
Mikey, "I was above the class average!"
Grandad, "So how did you go, Mikey?"
Mikey - long pause - "twelve out of twenty!"
Grandad, "Show me the test paper please!"
Rustling the papers in his school bag, he gives them to me with a sheepish grin.
Grandad looks over the paper and says, "Mikey, these questions are the same as in the practice questions, The teacher just changed the labelling. How many questions did you do in practice?"
Mikey, "But I knew how to do them and it was so boring!"
Mikey has to learn that its not just knowledge that is important. You cannot skip the practice because that is where you become fast and accurate, and you can apply your knowledge in the test where the going gets tough.
Do I need to spell it out? If you want to be able to praise God when you are in the crucible, you need to practice praising during the good times. People lose their ability to do maths because they dismiss it as boring and then crack when the testing begins.
What a fantastic object lesson!
And I’m still chuckling
Amen, Maurice. My son learned the hard way that it easy to watch calculus videos on YouTube, and quite another reality to work the problems on a math test.
It is one thing to watch religious sermons and quite another to work out practical Christianity.
Ellen White: “It is our privilege to maintain a calm repose in God.” I very much appreciate that she used the word ‘privilege’ instead of ‘responsibility’.
“Praising Him even when we fall into darkness” , “.... praise will thus gather rays of eternal light from the throne of glory and scatter them around you.”
‘Let it be your commitment to point them to heaven and glory, and lead them with your example to seek, above all earthly things, the eternal substance, the immortal inheritance, the riches which are imperishable.’ (edited)
To be happy in Jesus Christ, Faith and Praise are essential; they are indispensable tools of Heaven to bring Heaven down to earth. I experience it and can testify to that this is true.