Page 6 - What Shall I Do - eBook
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suffering or inconvenience such forbearance makes necessary.” 5T 169
“For the love of Christ controls us.” 2 Cor. 5:14
As I share these things, people often say, “But we are only human! How can
we have that kind of love?” If we are only human, we are not Christians.
Christians are partakers of the divine nature. They have Christ in them, the hope
of glory. They are connected to the Vine and are filled with the Holy Spirit,
therefore they are filled with God’s love, which is the first fruit of the Holy Spirit.
“God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has
been given us.” Rom. 5:5
“Many are deceiving themselves; for the principle of love does not dwell in
their hearts.” SD 49
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a
noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and
understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to
remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all that I
have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain
nothing.” 1 Cor. 13:1-3
I grew up in a supposedly Christian home. I was the second of eleven children.
My father was very firm in training his children to be obedient to parents and to
God. But he could not control himself. If anyone failed to cooperate he would
easily get impatient and often very angry. And then he had to find an excuse for
his failures and so he blamed his children or his wife or whoever had provoked
him. God’s love did not control him!
My father would have stood for the truths he believed in even to becoming a
martyr if necessary, but he would have gained nothing! And one may give ten
Bible studies a day and go home and fight with the family and still believe himself
to be a worker for God. How sad!
“We may be active, we may do much work; but without love, such love as
dwelt in the heart of Christ, we can never be numbered with the family of heaven.”
COL 158
I liked to obey and so managed to get along well with my parents as I was
growing up, truly thinking I was on the road to heaven. I gladly helped them with
all the children and the farm work. But after I was married and had my own
children I did not find it so easy. My husband and I did not always see things the
same way in training the children and often argued about it, insisting on our way.
I felt I knew more about training children since I had been the one who had
always looked after all my younger brothers and sisters. My husband had no
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