A Heart-to-Heart -

Do the hungry need to be told to eat?

Do the thirsty need to be told to drink?

The Word said,

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be filled.”
– Matthew 5:6 (WEB)

And Wisdom says,

“Woe to those who don’t consume it.”

Why, then, do you need to be told to consume righteousness, which is pure unadulterated truth? Why do you who know to “be eager to be saved without being urged” continue to be urged without being eager?

Even a stork in the skies done know her junctures,
And a turtledove, and a swallow, and a crane done keep the time of their`a getting.
But my clan ain’t done know the adjudication of He Who Do His Thing.
– Jeremiah 8:7 (NABT)

This lack of knowledge isn’t due to lack of truth-filled food to feast upon. Rather, it is due to failure to digest and make use of the food. When one doesn’t turn food into energy by exercise, even the best of food will fail to benefit or satisfy, resulting in the condition described in the proverb:

A sluggard done buried his hand in the bowl;
even to his mouth he not return her.
– Proverbs 19:24 (NABT)

But how, then, can one accustomed to eating without moving, awaken and arise from their sluggishness? The answer isn’t yet another feast!

Go to an ant, sluggard! See her ways and wise up –
that absent a commander, an officer, or a ruler for her,
she ensure her bread in the summer;
she done collect her food in the harvest.
Until when, sluggard, you lay down?
When you stand up from your sleep?
– Proverbs 6:6-9 (NABT)

An ant is a worker, and not because a superior is continually telling it what to do and urging it to work. No! And yet the ant works.

The words of Christ apply to the church: “Why stand ye here all the day idle?” Why are you not at work in some capacity in His vineyard? Again and again He has bidden you: “Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.” But this gracious call from heaven has been disregarded by the large majority. Is it not high time that you obey the commands of God? There is work for every individual who names the name of Christ. A voice from heaven is solemnly calling you to duty. Heed this voice, and go to work at once in any place, in any capacity. Why stand ye here all the day idle? There is work for you to do, a work that demands your best energies. Every precious moment of life is related to some duty which you owe to God or to your fellow men, and yet you are idle!
– Ellen White, Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, p. 203.3

Calls can be disregarded. So you can’t depend on another call to come and to succeed in arousing you to action.

I was shown God’s people waiting for some change to take place—a compelling power to take hold of them. But they will be disappointed, for they are wrong. They must act, they must take hold of the work themselves and earnestly cry to God for a true knowledge of themselves. The scenes which are passing before us are of sufficient magnitude to cause us to arouse and urge the truth home to the hearts of all who will listen.
– Ellen White, Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 1, p. 261.1

Even a call from Christ Himself isn’t what will make a difference.

How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
– Jesus, Matthew 23:27 (WEB)

Truly I tell you, no one will ever enter the kingdom of heaven because I ordered it, but because you yourselves are full.
– Jesus, The Apocryphon of James, p. 2¹

Calls, warnings, counsels, admonitions come, but it is on you to respond to them.

“Keep (God’s) will so that you may be saved. Accept my warning and save yourselves.”
– Jesus, The Apocryphon of James, p. 11

So yes, the warning is the means God uses to offer us salvation, but our action is the means by which we avail ourselves of this salvation. Only thus can you “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). It isn’t salvation by your own ideas, but salvation by your own act of submitting to the truth as contained in the ideas expressed in God’s word.

In my heart I done stored your saying,
for reason that I not err before you.
– Psalm 119:11 (NABT)

Whose saying is it? Not yours. Who does the storing? Not God. By storing God’s saying in your heart (in your thoughts), you can have a new way of thinking—a new heart. Ezekiel says,

Cast all y’all’s offenses from upon y’all—them with which y’all done offended, and work for yourselves a new heart and a new gust.
– Ezekiel 18:31 (NABT)

Who is to do the casting? You are. You must cast off your offenses. And who is to work a new heart and a new gust (breath)? You are! This is not a matter of God reprogramming your thinking for you.

God will not do for us that which we can do for ourselves. But he has said: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” And when we comply with the conditions, he will fulfill his word.
– Ellen White, Review and Herald, May 20, 1884, par. 5

God has left each one a work to do for himself. Have you been faithful in this work? Have you studied to conform your character in every particular to the law of God? Have you sought to discover and remedy every defect in yourselves that would have a tendency to lead others from the path of strict rectitude? Has your life been so molded by the word and Spirit of God as to make you a blessing to all with whom you associate?
– Ellen White, Review and Herald, January 20, 1885, par. 2

None should remain in ignorance of God’s claims. All his promises are on conditions of obedience. All should work for themselves. They should do that which God requires them to do, and not leave God to do for them that which he has left for them to do.
– Ellen White, Spiritual Gifts, Vol. 4a, p. 148.1

Blessed are those who make Yahweh their trust,
but woe to those who don’t do what is theirs to do.

The Bible places the responsibility of our ruin at our own door, for everything depends on our own course of action.
– Ellen White, Letter 9a, 1891, par. 10

Again, Ezekiel says, “work for yourselves a new heart and a new gust.” This is a heart that operates according to truth—according to the word of God, not according to feeling or preference or personal ideology. When you work for yourself a heart like this—one containing God’s instruction —you won’t need anyone to tell you “Know Yahweh” for you will know Him (Jer. 31:33-34).

Pure religion has to do with the will. The will is the governing power in the nature of man. If the will is set right, all the rest of the man will come under its sway. The will is not the taste or the inclination, but it is the choice, the deciding power; the kingly power which works in the children of men unto obedience to God or to disobedience…. You will be in constant peril until you understand the true force of the will…. If you will fight the fight of faith with your will power, in the work, I have not the least doubt that you will conquer. Your feelings, your impressions, your emotions are not at all to be trusted, for they are not reliable….
– Ellen White, Letter 49, 1887, par. 12

So, awaken yourself and take hold of this all-important task of working for yourself a new heart and a new gust that you might love and serve God with all your heart, with all your breath, and with all that is you and yours. If you don’t do so in response to this, what will ever persuade you to do it?

If this isn’t the first such plea you’ve read, be careful lest, despite these many reproofs, you harden your neck. All such grieve the Gust of God and will suddenly be broken with no healing (Proverbs 29:1).

It is not evidence such ones need; this they have had, and are over fed with the precious banquet from heaven’s store house, and them then go away and begin to criticize the messengers and the message God sends until more food would only do them harm. Light from heaven has flashed upon them; they have had evidence piled upon evidence; what they need is not more evidence but a new heart, a converted soul, a new mind, a new purpose. Then they can hear and be blessed.
– Ellen White, Letter 8, 1898, par. 24

You must have a new heart, or you cannot discern the kingdom of heaven. It is not greater evidence that will bring you into a right position, but new purposes, new springs of action; you must be born again. Until this change takes place, making all things new, the strongest evidences that could be presented would be useless. The want is in your own heart; everything must be changed, or you cannot see the kingdom of God.
– Ellen White, Letter 55, 1895, par. 52

by Trent Wilde
April 10, 2024
1st New Moon

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You can read Mark Mattison’s public domain translation of the Apocryphon of James Here.