Securing Our Inheritance | Sodom
and Gomorrah Relived!
"To have strength, we must have exercise. To
have strong faith, we must be placed in circumstances where our faith will be
tried. The apostle
Paul, just before his martyrdom, exhorted Timothy, “Be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God.” [2 Timothy 1:8.] It
is through much tribulation that we are to enter the kingdom. Our Saviour was tried in every possible
way, and yet he triumphed in God continually. It is our privilege to be
strong in the strength of God under all circumstances, and to glory in the
cross of Christ."—Testimonies for the Church 3:67. {GW92
372.2}
Securing Our Inheritance,
This Day With God
May 23
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them
in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange
flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Jude 1:7.
The outlook in our world is indeed alarming. God is
withdrawing His Spirit from the wicked cities, which have become as the cities
of the antediluvian world, and as Sodom and Gomorrah. The inhabitants of these
cities have been tested and tried. We have reached a time when God is about to
punish the presumptuous wrongdoers, who refuse to keep His commandments and
disregard His messages of warning. He who bears long with evildoers gives
everyone an opportunity to seek Him and humble their hearts before Him.
Everyone has opportunity to come to Christ and be
converted, that He may heal them. But there will come a time when mercy will be
no longer offered. Costly mansions, marvels of architectural skill, will be
destroyed without a moment’s notice, when the Lord sees that the owners have
passed the boundaries of forgiveness. The destruction by fire of the stately
buildings supposed to be fireproof is an illustration of how in a short time
earth’s architecture will lie in ruins....
The twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew gives an outline
of what is to come upon the world. We are living amid the perils of the last
days. Those who are perishing in sin must be warned. The Lord calls upon every
one to whom He has entrusted the talent of means to act as His helping hand by
giving their money for the advancement of His work. Our money is a treasure
lent us by the Lord, and it is to be invested in the work of giving to the
world the last message of mercy....
He who looks at earthly things as the chief good, he
who spends his life in an effort to gain worldly riches, is indeed making a
poor investment. Too late he will see that in which he has trusted crumbling
into dust. It is only through self-denial, through the sacrifice of earthly
riches, that the eternal riches can be obtained. It is through much tribulation
that the Christian enters the kingdom of heaven. Constantly he is to war the
good warfare, not laying down his weapons until Christ bids him rest. Only by
giving all to Christ can he secure the inheritance that will endure through all
eternity.—Letter 90, May 23, 1902, to Brother Johnson, a layman.