Dear Brother in Christ, I am writing from the pampas of Canada. My spirit has been refreshed by the love that you show forth in your conversations in your blog, even to those who are rude. I too, am a former Adventist, raised as an Adventist pastor’s daughter. I have many Adventist relatives who worked on the ministerial level. My mother had mighty miracles confirming to her as a youth in Finland that Adventism was the true way. My father and uncle had angelic manifestations where the spirit directed them to join the Adventist way. In such a family I was raised. How could I question Adventism or ” Sister White”? Yet God in His mercy drew me out of this spiritual slavery with a mighty hand and stretched out arm! Praise to his Name! Please read the following story, for it tells my tale.
In Christian shape,
Suvikaarina Rahn
An elderly Christian woman was walking one day through a park, and she saw a forlorn figure seated on a bench. The young lady seated there had her head in her hands and was weeping sorrowfully. The older woman’s heart went out to the crying figure, and she stopped to speak to her.
“Why are you crying?” she asked. “ Maybe I could help you in some way.”
“No, you cannot help me,” replied the younger woman. “ I have searched everywhere for a solution to my problem . Indeed, I have asked a thousand people, and no one has been able to help me. So I am sure that you cannot help me, though you are so kind to offer.”
“ Well,” replied the older woman, “ if a thousand couldn’t help you, I am sure that I am no better than they, but I know one, the Son of God, he is able to give wisdom to help. Tell me your problem, and I will ask the Spirit of Jesus to direct me to give you help. “
The younger woman looked up with tear filled eyes and said, “ You speak of God. This is my problem. I want to know how I can do the will of God as he has commanded, and I cannot succeed. I long to know God and to please Him, but I find that I am a failure. “
The older woman looked in amazement at the young lady. She had never seen anyone so young longingly searching for righteousness and holiness. Her sincere face touched her deeply.
“Tell me,” she said, “What do you believe the will of God to be, that you strive so earnestly to succeed in?”
The younger woman’s head dropped in apparent despondency as she replied, “ To love others as He has commanded. I do not possess that kind of love. We are told in the Word of God that the love God asks of us is patient, kind, never boasting, never keeping a record of wrongs done; it is not proud or envious. Many Christian ministers have told me, when I asked them about this, that I am too hard on myself. They said that God overlooks our wrongdoings for Jesus’ sake. Otherwise Jesus would not have needed to die, if we could keep his commands perfectly they say. I feel relieved for a while, but when I start reading the Bible, I become discouraged. I see a different message in there. “
“What message do you see in the Bible?” asked the elderly Christian.
“ For instance, said the young woman, “ Jesus said that whoever hears his words and does what he says is like a man who builds his house on a rock, but whoever hears his words but doesn’t do accordingly is building his house on the sand. Also He said in another place that nothing going into a man from the outside can defile a man, but what comes from within the heart, that defiles a man, for from the heart comes hatred, murder, adultery, pride, evil thoughts, envy, deceit, blasphemy, foolishness. These are the things that defile a man. From these words it is evident that pride, envy, hatred and such inward thoughts, must be repented of, for they defile us. But how can I change my thoughts? How can I make myself clean and pure on the inside? This is my dilemma.”
The Christian woman answered, “ I am very happy to tell you that God has the solution to your dilemma. The solution he has given is in the same Bible that has awakened your heart to your own sinfulness. This glad news has come through Jesus, the only begotten Son of God. This promise of deliverance was already given to the prophets of old before Jesus came. God spoke through Ezekiel in this way, ‘A new heart I will give to you and a new spirit I will put within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit in you, and you will walk in my statutes and keep my judgments and do them’ And through Jeremiah, God spoke in this way,” I will make a New Covenant with them. I will put my law into their minds and write it upon their hearts , and I will be their God and they shall be my people, and every man will no longer teach his neighbor and every man his brother to know the Lord, for they shall all know me,from the least of them to the greatest of them, and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more, says the Lord.’ These promises were fulfilled when Jesus died for our sins and rose again for our justification. After he ascended to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God, he sent down the promised Holy Spirit. This Spirit he gives to all who believe on him for remission of sins. The Spirit of God sheds abroad the love of God in our heart, so that we no longer envy, hate and boast nor think in the way we formerly thought in our wicked minds. To have and walk in His Spirit is what makes us followers of the Way in truth and deed. Then the promise of God is fulfilled in us, where he said, ‘Their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, And they shall sorrow no more at all.’ When He says, ‘sorrow no more at all,’ He does not mean that we will no longer have troubles or temporal sorrows and griefs, but that this sorrow, which even you, my dear daughter, have in your soul, this thirsting for righteousness, will be fully satisfied, for God himself dwells within us, who believe in Jesus, working in us what is well pleasing in His sight.”
The young woman listened with keen interest. Hope and joy began to arise in her soul over what she had been told. But a question lingered.
“The ministers and pastors whom I have spoken to, as I have been searching for answers, they say that I already have the Holy Spirit. They told me that I wouldn’t even be wanting to do God’s will, if I didn’t have the Spirit of God.”
“They are blind leaders leading the blind,” the elderly woman answered. If they understood the Scriptures, they would know that whoever sins is a slave of sin, but whoever the Son sets free is free indeed. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans that sin no longer has dominion over us, for we are not under the law, but under grace. The Apostle John wrote that this is how we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments; and His commandment is that we love God and love one another, and believe in Jesus, whom He has sent. Truly, the Spirit of God is working in you already, but you still need to be made into a new creation in Christ Jesus.
There was a moment of silence as the young woman pondered these things. Then she asked, “ How can I be made a new creation? How can I receive this new heart so that I could live in this way?”
Her instructor was overjoyed to hear these words and she answered,” The Apostle Paul said it this way, ‘ As God’s ambassadors we beseech you, be reconciled to God. God made him who knew no sin to made sin for us, so that in him we might be made the righteousness of God.’ Jesus has blotted out by one sacrifice, all of your transgressions. He invites you to come and take of the water of life freely. This water signifies the Spirit, which he has promised to everyone who receives the forgiveness of sins by faith in his blood. Jesus said this about the Holy Spirit to the Samaritan woman , ‘ If you knew the GIFT of God and who it is who is speaking with you, you would have asked of him and he would have given you living water.....whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but that water shall become in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.’ If you ask Jesus, he will give you the gift of the Holy Spirit. This gift is the blessing that Abraham was promised when God said, ‘All nations will be blessed in you.’ Jesus , the Saviour, came from the offspring of Abraham, and through Jesus all people in all nations are offered this new life in the Spirit. Even as the Apostle Peter said, we ‘become partakers of the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.’
“Hope and faith is rising in my heart! “the young woman said with bright eyes. “If Jesus said it, it must be true! I do believe that Jesus died for me. I will ask for this water of life, so that I may walk in righteousness. Please tell me, do you experience this love towards others every day? Tell me what you have experienced.”
“I am delighted to answer that, yes, I experience God’s love every day towards everyone. It is an immeasurable gift! The love of God has made me free indeed! For what is more of a bondage than hatred and greed? What shackles could be heavier than envy and strife? “
“Do you never have moments when you feel something other than God’s love? “ asked the young woman.
The answer came with humility, “ I do indeed know and am daily aware that in and of myself I have no ability to love, and this is why I put on the Lord Jesus Christ as my life, because He is love. His righteousness is everlasting, and He tells me to take of this water of life freely. Not just once in the beginning of my walk with him, but every moment of every day. Faith is the key that makes this walk in the Spirit possible. Faith in God’s promise. You see, dear friend, God’s Word is true. He is not a man that he should lie. Yet in order for his children to have abundant richness of complete assurance that this life is given to them freely, God promised it by an oath to Abraham and his offspring, not offspring in the natural fleshly meaning, but the offspring or children of the faith, whether Jews or Gentiles. Dear daughter, read the letters of the Apostles in the New Testament. In so many words they teach how by faith we may walk in this Way. You will be filled with assurance that He is with you every moment of every day, living in you and you in him.”
“Thank you for your loving words! “ exclaimed the younger woman. “This must be what Jesus referred to when He said in the book of John, that unless we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, we have no life in ourselves. It is to become one with him, joined together in his life. Truly I know I have no life of goodness in me, but even as you were speaking, I lifted my soul to God, asking Him to give me to receive His Spirit, so that I, too, may live as you live, showing kindness and mercy to everyone!”
Dear Brother in our Savior, Jesus Christ, I was very comforted by your reply. Yes, I would be very pleased if you posted my letter on your blog. Yes, indeed, without his goodness and mercy we are not able to move forward on the way. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!
In Christian agape love,
Suvikaarina Rahn
