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| “The Right Use of Authority -- I wish to speak to my brethren who occupy positions of trust. As God's husbandry you are invested with the responsibility of acting in His stead, as His helping hand. Those who are placed in positions of trust must have the authority of action, but they are never to use this authority as a power to refuse and helpless. It is never to be exercised depress one struggling soul. Let those to given positions of influence ever remember them to carry out the mind of Christ, who, by creation and redemption, is the owner of all men.-- Letter 7, 1901 (Jan. 17, 1901 To Brethren Who Occupy Positions of Trust). Christian Leadership, page 27.1 |
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| I am the Vine, ye are the branches," Christ said to His disciples. Though He was about to be removed from them, their spiritual union with Him was to be unchanged. The connection of the branch with the vine, He said, represents the relation you are to sustain to Me. The scion is engrafted into the living vine, and fiber by fiber, vein by vein, it grows into the vine stock. The life of the vine becomes the life of the branch. So the soul dead in trespasses and sins receives life through connection with Christ. By faith in Him as a personal Saviour the union is formed. The sinner unites his weakness to Christ's strength, his emptiness to Christ's fullness, his frailty to Christ's enduring might. Then he has the mind of Christ. The humanity of Christ has touched our humanity, and our humanity has touched divinity. Thus through the agency of the Holy Spirit man becomes a partaker of the divine nature. He is accepted in the Beloved. Desire of Ages, page 675.3 |
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| The more you study the character of Christ, the more attractive will He appear to you. He will become as one near you, in close companionship with you; your affections will go out after Him. If the mind is molded by the objects with which it has most to do, then to think of Jesus, to talk of Him, will enable you to become like Him in spirit and character. You will reflect His image in that which is great and pure and spiritual. You will have the mind of Christ, and He will send you forth to the world as His spiritual representative.--Ibid., Aug. 26, 1890. Reflecting Christ, page 65.6 |
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| I saw that many would have to learn what it is to be a Christian--that it is not in name; but it is having the mind of Christ, submitting to the will of God in all things. Especially will the young who have never known what privations or hardships are, who have a set will, and do not bend that will to the glory of God, have a great work to do. They go along very smoothly until their will is crossed, and then they have no control over themselves. They have not the will of God before them. They do not study how they can best glorify God, or advance His cause, or do good to others. But it is self, self, how can it be gratified? Such religion is not worth a straw. Those who possess it will be weighed in the balance and found wanting. {1T 152.3} |
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| We should work as did our divine Teacher, sowing the seeds of truth with care, anxiety, and self-denial. We must have the mind of Christ if we would not become weary in well-doing. His was a life of continual sacrifice for others' good. We must follow His example. We must sow the seed of truth and trust in God to quicken it to life. The precious seed may lie dormant for some time, when the grace of God may convict the heart and the seed sown be awakened to life and spring up and bear fruit to the glory of God. Missionaries in this great work are wanted to labor unselfishly, earnestly, and perseveringly as co-workers with Christ and the heavenly angels in the salvation of their fellow men. {3T 210.2} |
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| The Lord has a work which is above the world's seeking. To those who have not the mind of Christ, the features of our faith and our work, the great object to be accomplished, is far above their comprehension, and unseen. But we are not to come down from our position of ever remaining a people distinct and peculiar from the world. Our vocation is high, holy and elevated. Our faith, if appreciated, will keep all true believers from political strife. We are to work for the spiritual recovery of mankind to God, to bring them under His theocracy. Then only are we a safe people. In keeping ourselves in close sympathy with God, our hearts bound up in love for Him, is our only security. {BTS, September 1, 1908 par. 1} |
| God is not pleased with the slothful work done in the churches. He expects His stewards to be true and faithful in giving reproof and correction. They are to expel wrong after the rule God has given in His Word, not according to their own ideas and impulses. No harsh means must be used, no unfair, hasty, impulsive work done. The efforts made to cleanse the church from moral uncleanness must be made in God's way. There must be no partiality, no hypocrisy. There must be no favorites, whose sins are regarded as less sinful than those of others. Oh, how much we all need the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Then we shall always work with the mind of Christ, with kindness, compassion, and sympathy, showing love for the sinner while hating sin with a perfect hatred.” EGW 1888 Materials (Miscellaneous Collection), page 144, par, 2, 3 |
