November 2021 Signs of the Times Newsletter!

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November 2021 Signs of the Times Newsletter The Signs of the Times newsletter is a collection of stories and quotes from past issues of Signs and These Times. ***************************      A great painter had three pupils. They were all anxious to learn the secret of their master's power. The first spent all his time in the studio, at the easel. Incessantly he copied his master's pictures, trying to imitate them with his own brush. He was up early, and was the last one to leave at night. He attended none of the master's lectures, went to him with no questions, nor spent much time in his company. He wanted to be his own director, and to make his own discoveries. As a result, he lived and died unknown, and never did any work worthwhile. He was disappointed with himself, and the master was disappointed with him.      The second pupil, on the contrary, spent little time in the studio. He scarcely ever soiled his palette or wore out a brush. He attended every lecture on art, and was constantly asking the master questions about the theories of perspective, of coloring, of light and shade, of grouping figures, and all that. He was a zealous student, and read all the books he could find which he thought might help him in his work. But for all his study and for all his efforts, he died without producing a single worthy picture to help delight mankind and to perpetuate his master's glory. His life also was a failure.      The third pupil was as zealous in the practical work of the artist as the first, and as zealous in the theoretical part as the second. But he did one thing which neither of them ever thought of doing. He came really to know and to love his master. He cultivated his acquaintance. They were much together, the young artist and the older one, and they had long talks about all the phases of the artist's life and work. So close and continual, in fact, was their communion that they grew to talk alike, think alike, and at last to paint alike. On the canvas of the younger glowed the same beauty and majesty as from the canvas of the master. So is our relationship with the great Master Artist.—By Charles G. Bellah, Signs of the Times, December 9, 1941. Quote: “The love of God is a golden chain which binds finite man to the infinite God. It is a love which ‘passeth knowledge.’ No science can explain it, no wisdom fathom it. The more we feel the influence of this love, the greater will be our amazement at it.”—By Ellen White, Signs of the Times, November 19, 1896. *************************** Don't miss the December 2021 issue of Signs of the Times: To order Signs, call: 1-800-765-6955 or CLICK HERE to order online. ***************************      A soldier in uniform one day entered the outer office of President Lincoln, and took his place among two score or more of other visitors who had come to see the President. As the soldier sat there waiting, Tad, the President's little son, entered the room, and his attention was attracted to the man in uniform. He noticed especially the empty sleeve, for the young fellow had lost an arm in the war.      To interest the little chap, and to help pass the time away, the soldier boy told Tad some very interesting and exciting war stories.      Tad asked why he had come, and the young man replied that he was very anxious to see the President.      The little fellow said excitedly, "The President is my father. Do you want to see my father?"      "I really do," the soldier answered.      "I'll get you in," the small boy promised, and he disappeared into another room.      Soon a secretary came into the room and told the waiting people that the President had only about five minutes more in which he could see visitors, and they had just as well go, for he would not be able to give them an audience until the following day. Men and women promptly arose to depart—all except the young man in uniform. The secretary assured him it was useless to wait.      "But the president's son was just talking to me," the soldier answered with assurance, "and he has gone in to ask his father if I may see him."      "You mean little Tad?" the secretary inquired.      "Yes sir."      "Don't worry, then, young man. If the President's son is in there pleading for you, you'll get in."      And he did.      Jesus died for you and me. If we have made His acquaintance—if we really know Him, and love Him, we need have no fears. He has gone to heaven to plead with the Father for us, and we will get in, if we keep true to Him. Read His promise in John 14: 1-3: “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”—By C. L. Paddock, Our Times, September, 1948. Quote: “Power dwells with cheerfulness.”—By Emerson, The Youth’s Instructor, March 17, 1908. *************************** NEW from Pacific Press—The Hope of Glory by John Bradshaw, the 2022 adult devotional. Order one for yourself, and copies to give as holiday gifts! CLICK to read the first chapter of this book online free. Also available as an eBook:  Kindle Nook Order ONLINE or from your local Adventist Book Center—1-800-765-6955. ***************************      It is said that Brainerd, a man seasoned in service and suffering for Christ, said of himself: “I cared not where or how I lived or what hardships I went through if only I could win souls to Christ. While I was asleep, I dreamed of these things; when I waked, my first thought was of this great work”. The same consuming desire to win souls to Christ glowed in the hearts of such men as Wesley, Whitefield, Rowland Hill, Moody, and others who gave their all to bring sinners to Christ.—By I. H. Evans, Signs of the Times, February 10, 1914. Quote: “We live by dying to ourselves, and die by living to ourselves.”—Unknown,  Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, December 3, 1864. *************************** Place this in your church bulletin or newsletter: Do you have a friend who needs Jesus? Thousands have found that sharing Him is as easy as sending a subscription to Signs of the Times®. The fresh and exciting articles open hearts and bring renewal. Get started today by ordering a sub from your Adventist Book Center. Call 1-800-765-6955 or go online https://adventistbookcenter.com/signs-of-the-times-magazine.html ***************************      The Rubik’s Cube was invented in Hungary in 1974. Inventor Ernő Rubik studied sculpture and architecture in college. His father was an engineer. In the 1980s, his invention exploded in popularity around the world. Hundreds of millions of Rubik’s Cubes have now been sold.      If you’ve ever attempted to solve Rubik’s Cube, you know how challenging it can be. There are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000―43 quintillion, 252 quadrillion, 3 trillion, 274 billion, 489 million, 856 thousand―possible arrangements for a Rubik’s Cube. But in 2010, a group of mathematicians and computer programmers discovered that a Rubik’s Cube is never further than twenty moves away from being solved. Once you learn the method for solving the puzzle, it really isn’t that complicated. But if you don’t know how to arrange the cube, doing so seems impossible.—By John Bradshaw, From The Hope of Glory. Quote: “The Lord of the Sabbath cleared away the rubbish of man-made rules and numerous restrictions regarding Sabbath keeping heaped upon the Sabbath which had made the day burdensome, instead of honorable; dreaded, instead of a delight.”—By Tyler E. Bowen, The Watchman Magazine, January 1922. *************************** November is TRACT month at your Adventist Book Center. Just $4.99 per hundred. CLICK HERE to see a wide assortment available. ***************************      Get your morning paper! Read about the great Houdini!" The newsboys were shouting on every corner, and rapidly pocketing the nickels. The public knew the magician had disappeared in the icy waters of the Detroit River, and many who had seen him go down supposed he was drowned.      The truth of the matter was that the magician had been handcuffed by the police, had jumped off the bridge into a hole in the ice cut by workmen, and had disappeared under the water in the view of thousands of spectators lining the river bank. After having been under the water for eight minutes, so that everybody thought he was dead, and while a diver was preparing to descend on a rope to search for his body, his head suddenly bobbed up, and he climbed out of the water minus the handcuffs.      Escape from the handcuffs had been no problem, but the current had carried him down the river so that he came up under the ice. He knew, however, that there was about a half inch of air between the ice and the water, and by lying on his back and keeping his nose in this tiny space, he contrived to get enough oxygen to keep, himself alive until he could find the opening.      It was sensational escapes like this which a generation ago earned for Houdini the name of "Hairbreadth Harry." Captivating the imagination of the public, they brought thousands to his performances to see him escape from handcuffs, chains, ropes, trunks, packing boxes, barrels, and other contrivances designed to hold him. He was buried in sealed coffins, sewed up in canvas bags, stuffed into milk cans and beer barrels, and even riveted into boilers. He always escaped.      Houdini's real name was Ehrich Weiss, and his home was in Appleton, Wisconsin. He ran away when he was 12 years old, and after working at odd jobs, launched into the career of a magician. His supposedly impossible feats made him world famous.      But while Houdini escaped from every bond and enclosure intended to hold him, he never escaped from the grave. He spent the last years of his life in exposing the trickery of spiritist mediums, and then, curious to know for himself and communicate to his wife the secrets of the world beyond, he entrusted to her before his death in October, 1926, certain secret messages, with the understanding that after he had passed away he would attempt to communicate them to her.      Faithful to her part of the bargain, Mrs. Houdini attended hundreds of seances, and kept a light burning before her husband's photograph for years. Every year, on the anniversary of his death, Mrs. Houdini made a futile effort to communicate with her deceased husband. But no message ever came, and on February 11, 1943, on a train near Needles, California, enroute to New York, she died without ever having had one word from the dead.—By Frank Coffin, The Watchman Magazine, May 1943. Quote: “God bless the good-natured, for they bless everybody else.”—By Beecher, Signs of the Times, November 14, 1911. *************************** NEW Signs of the Times special issue for Christmas—A King Is Born! Share with friends and family this holiday season. Order from your Adventist Book Center, or ONLINE! ***************************     Some have suggested it is an urban legend, this story of the New Mexico gem dealer Roy Whetstine. Walking through the exhibits of an amateur rock collectors’ convention, Whetstine stopped by the table of a rock hound from Idaho. In a Tupperware bowl of discarded stones selling for $15 each, he found a dull, egg-shaped rock. Carefully examining it, Whetstine turned to the amateur collector and asked, “You want $15 for this?” The collector snatched the stone from Whetstine, looked it over, then shook his head. “No, you can have it for $10.” And with that $10 purchase, Whetstine walked away with the world’s largest star sapphire, an estimated value of $1.7 million.      Urban legend or not, the point is inescapable. Beware of overlooking the familiar when searching for the exotic. The study of Revelation is not a search for the exotic. Its carefully crafted and positioned opening line—“the revelation of Jesus Christ”—is the priceless exhibit it offers. It is quite literally the revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not a hidden Where’s Waldo? figure. He is the towering God-man whose incarnation story has already been told in the elderly John’s fourth gospel. John now presents Him once again to the reader as the sine qua non of all divine revelation.      In the words of the American writer Ellen White: “Were thousands of the most gifted men to devote their whole time to setting forth Jesus always before us, studying how they might portray His matchless charms, they would never exhaust the subject.”—By Dwight Nelson, American Apocalypse. Quote: “Every promise in the Word of God is for us. In your prayers, present the pledged word of Jehovah, and by faith claim His promises. His word is the assurance that if you ask in faith, you will receive all spiritual blessings. Continue to ask, and you will receive exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think. Educate yourself to have unlimited confidence in God. Cast all your care upon Him. Wait patiently for Him, and He will bring it to pass.”—By Ellen White, Signs of the Times, November 18, 1903. *************************** Compiled by Dale Galusha. Please pass this newsletter on to others.