True Missionary Work

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God has a special work for His servants to do in the preparation of a people to stand in the great day of the Lord. This work is to commence in our own hearts. We need the faith that works by love and purifies the soul.

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«I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.»

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We are to ask ourselves the question, «How is it with my soul?» A healthy soul in a healthy body makes a man or woman more precious than gold or silver, even as the Lord said, «I will make a man more precious than fine gold, even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.»

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Grand and ennobling truths have been given us. By the precious economy of grace, the exhibition of divine love, God strives to produce love in human beings. As we look unto Jesus, beholding the glorious spectacle of the love and tenderness of God, there springs up in our hearts a desire to engage in active service for the Master. The riches of the grace of Christ are without limit. They are sufficient to fill every heart with wisdom and sanctified judgment, creating an atmosphere of grace, real and enjoyable.

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Christ’s work is to take the things of God and show them to men. Heaven is brought into the home by our eating the bread of life, receiving and practising Christ’s words. Thus we are to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God. «The flesh profiteth nothing,» He said, «the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.» The Word of God is life, eternal life, to the receiver. As the human elements in the soul are softened and subdued by the lessons of Christ, the great love wherewith He hath loved us fills the mind with gratitude, which finds expression in thanksgiving and praise. His Word is to be an active element in the family circle. When its influence is diffused through the household, it not only reveals Christ in the home, but its bright rays extend to the neighborhood. When the heart is imbued with the Holy Spirit, the gratitude which springs up must find expression. Loving sympathy is manifested in word and action.

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One who believes in Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour is to be a co-worker with Him, bound up with His heart of infinite love, cooperating with Him in works of self-denial and benevolence. Christ has withdrawn Himself from the earth, but His followers are still left in the world. And they are to give in word and action, and in their unselfish benevolence, a representation of Christ’s love. They are to be the means, by practising self-denial and bearing the cross, of implanting the principles of love in the hearts of those who are unacquainted with the Saviour by experimental knowledge.

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Upon all who believe, God has placed the burden of raising up churches. The express purpose of the church is to educate men and women to use their intrusted capabilities for the benefit of the world, to employ the means God has lent, for His glory. He has made human beings His stewards. They are to employ His intrusted talents in building up His work and enlarging His kingdom. Our churches, large and small, are not to be treated in such a way that they will be helplessly dependent upon ministerial aid. The members are to be so established in the faith that they will have an intelligent knowledge of true missionary work. They are to follow Christ’s example, ministering to those around them. Faithfully they are to fulfil the vows made at their baptism, the vow that they will practise the lessons taught in the life of Christ. They are to work together to keep alive in the church the principles of self-denial and self-sacrifice, which Christ. His divinity clothed with humanity, followed in His work as a missionary. It is imparting the knowledge of Christ’s love and tenderness that gives efficiency to all missionary operations.

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The Lord Jesus desires the members of His church to be an army of workers, laboring for Him according to their varied capabilities, and carrying out the principles of self-denial and self-sacrifice, preserving that love for God which drew them away from the world, and which will draw them together. The work is to be one grand, harmonious whole in Christ Jesus. The faith which works by love and purifies the soul is the holy, uplifting, sanctifying agency which is to soften and subdue jarring human nature.

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With grace in their hearts, believers are to work the works of Christ, placing themselves, soul, body, and spirit on His side, as His human hand, to impart His love to those who are out of the fold. Believers are to associate together in Christian fellowship, regarding one another as brothers and sisters in the Lord. They are to love one another as Christ loved them. They are to be lights for God, shining in the church and in the world, receiving grace for grace, as they impart to others. Thus they are constantly kept in spiritual nearness to God. They reflect the image of Christ.

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Let not our ministers expend so much time and energy in laboring for those who know the truth. Let them instead seek for those outside the fold. When our churches fulfil the duty resting upon them, they will be living, working agencies for the Master. Then we shall see the missionary work, in all its branches, evangelical and medical, broadening and deepening at every point of its progress, because of the inflowing of hundreds and thousands of streams, until the whole earth is covered as the waters cover the sea. Our ministers are displeasing God by the feebleness of their efforts to let the truth shine forth to the world. Nothing so strengthens the churches as to see the work progressing in other portions of the vineyard. When the ministers understand the great blessing to be derived from laboring for those who know not the truth, they will leave the churches, after impressing upon them the importance of devising plans and methods whereby they can do within their borders the same kind of work that the ministers of the gospel are doing in the regions beyond.

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All can labor for the salvation of those who are out of the ark of safety. When church members stand pledged to the service of God, pledged to do missionary work; when they take hold of the work unselfishly, because they love the souls for whom Christ died, and are desirous of uniting with the Great Missionary, He will come very near to them to instruct them. Life is full of opportunities for the practical missionary. Every man, woman, and child can sow each day the seeds of kind words and unselfish deeds. The world is not a playground where we are to amuse ourselves; it is a school in which we are to study earnestly and thoroughly the lessons given in the Word of God. There we may learn how to receive and how to impart. There we may learn how to seek for souls in the highways and byways of life. If those who engage so earnestly in the games of this world would strive as earnestly for the crown of life which fadeth not away, what victories they would gain! They would become true missionaries, and would see how much could be done to relieve suffering humanity. What a blessing this would be! What we need is practical education. When ministers and people practise the lessons Christ has given in His Word, they will become Christ-like in character. Mrs. E. G. White. —