September 2019 Signs of the Times Email Newsletter

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September 2019 Signs of the Times Email Newsletter The Signs of the Times newsletter is a collection of stories and quotes from past issues of Signs and These Times. ***************************      I thought the sun was blotted out of my sky—that I had so sinned against God that there was no hope for me. I prayed—the Lord knows how I prayed; but I never had a glimpse of an answer that I know of.      I searched the Word of God; the promises were more alarming than the threatenings. I read the privileges of the people of God, but with the fullest persuasion that they were not for me. The secret of my distress was this: I did not know the gospel. I was in a Christian land, I had Christian parents, but I did not fully understand the freeness and simplicity of the gospel.      I attended all the places of worship in the town where I lived, but I honestly believe that I did not hear the gospel fully preached. I do not blame the men, however. One man preached the divine sovereignty. I could hear him with pleasure; but what was that for a poor sinner who wished to know what he should do to be saved?      There was another admirable man who always preached about the law; but what was the use of plowing up ground that wanted to be sown? Another was a great practical teacher. I heard him, but it was very much like a commanding officer teaching the maneuvers of war to men without feet. What could I do? All his exhortations were lost to me. I knew it was said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31), and I did not know what it was to believe in Christ.      I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair now had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning when I was going to a place of worship. When I could go no farther, I turned down a court and came to a little chapel. In the chapel, there were a dozen or fifteen people. The minister did not come that morning; snowed up, I suppose. A poor man, a shoemaker, a tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach.      He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason he had nothing else to say. The text was, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 45:22). He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter.      There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in the text. He began thus: “My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, ‘Look.’ Now that does not take a great deal of effort. It isn’t lifting your foot or your finger. It is just ‘look.’ Well, a man need not go to college to learn to look. A man need not be worth a thousand a year to look. Anyone can look. A child can look. The text says, ‘Look unto Me.’      “Aye,” he said, “many of you are looking to yourselves. No use looking there. You’ll never find comfort in yourselves. Some look to God the Father. No: look to Him by and by. Jesus Christ says, ‘Look unto Me.’ Some of you say ‘I must wait the Spirit’s working.’ You have no business with that just now. Look to Christ. It runs: ‘Look unto Me.’”      Then he followed up his text in this way: “Look unto Me; I am sweating great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hanging on the cross. Look! I am dead and buried. Look unto Me; I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend; I am sitting at the Father’s right hand. Oh, look unto Me! Look unto Me!”      When he had spoken about 10 minutes, he looked at me under the gallery, and I dare say, with a few present, he knew me to be a stranger. He then said, “Young man, you look very miserable.” Well, I did; but I had not been accustomed to having remarks made on my personal appearance from the pulpit before. However, it was a good blow struck. He continued: “And you will always be miserable—miserable in life, and miserable in death—if you do not obey my text. But if you obey now, this moment you will be saved.”      Then he shouted, “Young man, look to Jesus Christ!” I did “look.”      There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun: I could have risen that moment and sung with the most enthusiastic of them of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to Him. Oh, that somebody had told me that before:      Trust Christ, and you shall be saved.      It was, no doubt, wisely ordered, and I must ever say:      “E’er since by faith I saw the stream           Thy wounds supplied for me,      Redeeming love has been my theme           And shall forever be.”—By Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Signs of the Times, August 1989. Quote: “Mistrust those in whom the impulse to punish is strong.”—By Friedrich Nietzsche,Signs of the Times, October 1994. *************************** Don't miss the October 2019 issue of Signs of the Times: To order Signs, call: 1-800-765-6955 or ONLINE! ***************************      The midnight of the soul does come. It came to George B. Lieberman one night in 1947. He was on a train that jumped the tracks and rolled down an embankment. From that night on, this rabbi knew pain—real pain—for his legs were crushed. Then followed the long, lonely, pain-filled hours and days and months when the mental anguish of believing his ministry was at an end compounded his physical suffering. Here is what he said about pain:      “There are two ways to conquer pain: either we can try to escape it, or we can try to make it useful. . . . Pain is a cruel master. But can it not be a teacher?      “Yes, the first lesson it teaches is faith—religious faith. Of course, there are moments of rebellion when it seems easier to reject, to denounce—and to shake a fist against Heaven. But in the midst of despair and helplessness, the feeling that we can still lift our voices to the Power beyond ourselves, that we can still communicate our torment and our triumph to the unseen Friend and retain a light however dim—that is faith. . . .      “So upon its wings of destruction, pain carries a promise. And this is the great lesson it has taught me: the promise beyond pain is life.”—By C. William Fisher, These Times, June 1983. Quote: “A genuine word of kindness is often the best lever to raise a depressed spirit to its natural level.”—By Arthur Helps, These Times, March 1967. *************************** NEW from Pacific Press—Secrets to WELLNESS by Ernestine “Teenie” Finley. Around the world, Teenie Finley has shared health material in conjunction with her husband’s evangelist meetings. The material she has shared in workshops and seminars is now available in this attractive book. Great for personal study, use in seminars and giving as a gift. Read the first chapter FREE online. Order ONLINE or call your local Adventist Book Center--1-800-765-6955. ***************************      A terrific storm was raging, and in one home two of the larger children of the household were greatly frightened, both giving way to sobs. A five-year-old lad, who was not in the least disturbed by the storm, soon wearied of the cries of the older children, and blurted out: “Oh, stop your bawlin’! Don’t you suppose God knows His business?”—From Of Such is the Kingdom, Signs of the Times, August 25, 1909. Quote: “God don’t make no junk.”—By Ethel Waters, Signs of the Times, March 1988. *************************** Place this in your church bulletin or newsletter: Want to connect with your neighbor? Maybe a loved one far away? Each monthly issue of Signs of the Times® offers a compelling presentation of the full gospel message. The result is changed lives! Send a subscription today. Order from your Adventist Book Center. To order call: 1-800-765-6955 or online at: http://www.adventistbookcenter.com/signs-of-the-times-magazine-yearly-us-subscription.html ***************************      He was much too sickly ever to amount to anything. You could never say he was ever really well. He was quite tall and well-built, with broad shoulders and big hands, but that was about all you could say about his body. That and the fact that he didn’t die—which some of his brothers and sisters did. For he lived back in the days when America was known as the colonies, and almost every family could name a brother or sister or a mother or father who lay out in the graveyard beside the church.      The boy’s parents were well-to-do and sent him to college, though nowadays we’d probably call it high school. He graduated at 17, and that’s all the schooling he got.      He went into surveying, which meant he had to do a lot of camping, often near swamps. The swamps bred mosquitoes, and the young man came down with malaria. He didn’t blame the mosquitoes, for he didn’t know they carried the germs that made him ill. He called the terrible attacks of shivering he endured “ague” and suffered from them the rest of his life.      When he was about 19, the young man came down with smallpox which left scars all over his face.      His favorite brother, Lawrence, died. The young man was depressed, embarrassed by the scars, but not discouraged. You had to notice that about this young man. He was not discouraged.      Then he got tuberculosis, which kept him at home most of two years. By the time he finally recovered, the colonies were fighting the Indians. The young man volunteered.      Nowadays he would be rejected as unfit for army service. But no one told him that then, and, somehow, he didn’t seem to realize it.      The way soldiers lived in those days, there was a great deal of illness among them. Disease killed far more soldiers than bullets did.      The young man became so ill that he had to be helped onto his horse so that he could lead his men. Notice that—so sick that he had to be helped onto his horse, but onto the horse he got, and, sick or not, he led his men.      Maybe he would amount to something yet.      When the Indian war was over, he went home. Not long after that the colonies Broke away from England, and this sickly man became one of the leaders in the war for independence.      When the war was over, he was asked to be one of the leaders of the new country. He accepted.      For a while after that, his leg bothered him so much that he lay in bed for six weeks. Twice during those years he caught pneumonia and nearly died.      In spite of everything, he lived to be 67, which was quite old for those days. He outlived his children.      Finally, he got a sore throat. The doctor bled him, believing that the body would produce a serum to take the place of the “bad” blood and heal the patient. They crushed some cantharides beetles and applied the juice to his throat, which burned the skin and formed a blister. The doctors hoped this would draw the bad blood out.      The treatments were unsuccessful. Born in February of 1732, the patient died at ten o’clock in the evening of December 14, 1799. For a sickly boy, he hadn’t done too badly. We know him today as the Father of His Country, the first President of the United States, George Washington.—By Lawrence Maxwell, Signs of the Times, February 1978. Quote: “It is no argument that Christ is not in the ship because tempests and storms arise.”—Unknown, Signs of the Times, July 25, 1911. *************************** CLICK HERE for everything you need to give a Bible study to a friend! ***************************      A little incident, which illustrates the half-unconscious feeling which many people have about depending on divine providence, is related in the memoirs of Mary Somerville. When a girl she and her brother had coaxed their timid mother to accompany them on a sail. The day was sunny, but a stiff breeze was blowing, and presently the boat began to toss and roll.      “George,” called Mrs. Fairfax to the captain, “this is an awful storm! I fear we are in great danger; mind how you steer; remember, I trust in you!”      He replied, “Don’t trust in me, lady; trust in God Almighty.”      In perfect horror the lady exclaimed, “Dear me, is it come to that!”—Selected, Signs of the Times, August 25, 1909. Quote: “There are businessmen who see only things—sales-resistance, charts, profits; there are other businessmen who see faces—the faces of those who work for them, and the faces of those who have no work. There are statesmen who see only things—battleships, voting booths, newspaper headlines; and there are other statesmen who see faces—faces of the poor, faces of little children, and myriad faces slain in war. There are would-be preachers who see only things—church buildings, card indices, yearbook figures; and there are other preachers, ordained by a tenderness beyond the hand of man, who see faces—faces wistful and sin-scarred, lonely and brave. Jesus saw nothing on earth but faces; nothing in heaven but faces.”—By George Buttrick, These Times, September 1961. *************************** To see the most complete list of Adventist eBooks, CLICK HERE. *************************** And I smiled to think God’s greatness flowed around our incompleteness, Round our restlessness, His rest—by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, These Times, January 1961. *************************** Compiled by Dale Galusha. Please pass this newsletter on to others.

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