By John Thiel, mp3

Amos 5:18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end [is] it for you? the day of the Lord [is] darkness, and not light. 19 As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. 20 [Shall] not the day of the Lord [be] darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?

How well do you cope with things that go wrong in your life? When some gross disasters and catastrophes happen, do you cope? In your family conflicts, do you cope? When you are affected negatively financially or bankruptcy, do you cope? When you are mistreated by other human beings when they are nasty to you after you’ve been kind to them and you expect a bit of propriety, but you don’t get it, do you cope?

When circumstances are truly negative around you, how do you cope? The message for this hour is How to Cope in the Day of the Lord. Do you fall apart temporarily when things go wrong? When difficulties surround you do you lose your cool? Do you get irate and frustrated? Our scripture reading describes dire experiences. It’s going to be a day of darkness and not light. It’s going to be a situation according to verse 19 like you’re being chased by a lion and as you’re running for your life and you just manage to escape the lion’s claws and you come around the corner and there is a bear. Then you run in another direction for your life and you’re being chased by a bear and a lion and you run into the house and there is a serpent which bites you. After you’ve managed to escape all those dangers and now you’re bitten by a serpent.

Isaiah 24:17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, [are] upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. 18 And it shall come to pass, [that] he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. 19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. 20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.

Who does that include? You inhabitant this earth?

Utter catastrophe in every respect is the day of the Lord. Reference is made also to Revelation with more descriptions of this terrible day;

We hear now of earthquakes in divers places, of fires, of tempests, of disasters by sea and land, of pestilence, of famine. What weight do these signs have upon you? This is only the beginning of what shall be. The description of the day of God is through John by the Revelator. The cry of the terror-stricken myriads has fallen upon the ear of John. “The great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” The apostle himself was awed and overwhelmed. {TM 444.2}

Loved ones crushed under falling buildings. All their buildings they have laboured for they have worked for years to establish are to be destroyed. Woe to you who look forward to the day of the Lord. What is it in there for you? As we consider the context of these statements especially Amos 5, as we consider the conditions and the lead up to it, how do you cope now? What sort of internal sensations are running through you now? Consider the lead up to these horrors that are coming. Already the earthquakes and disasters are multiplying. One of the big disasters was the first and second world war, then the twin towers, all the wars and bloodshed that are rampant around the world at this time. Horror. People have lost their ability to cope in those places.

Amos 5:10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

Those who speak uprightly who rebuke in their gate, what is their experience? They are being hated and abhorred.

Amos 5:11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading [is] upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them. 12 For I know your manifold transgressions, and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate [from their right]. 13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it [is] an evil time.

This is the line up to it. An evil time even before the day of the Lord. The prudent need to understand how to behave as its going to be worse.

Isaiah 59:9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, [but] we walk in darkness.

We hope for a better situation, we look for light but we get more darkness.

Isaiah 59:10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if [we had] no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; [we are] in desolate places as dead [men]. 11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but [there is] none; for salvation, [but] it is far off from us.

Can you identify? You are looking for a way out and there is nothing that relieves you by circumstance. Things seem to be getting worse and worse and we are suffering inside.

Isaiah 59:12 For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions [are] with us; and [as for] our iniquities, we know them;

Kind David said my sin is always before me. Very depressive.

Isaiah 59:13 In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. 14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. 15 Yea, truth faileth; and he [that] departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord saw [it], and it displeased him that [there was] no judgment.

As you go for help in the courts of justice, there is none. We see these things and we pray to God, please change our circumstances and nothing changes. Things get worse. Your own faults and sins come up before as you see cause to effect and you realise, it’s been my own doing and it depresses you more. The more it depresses and you look for a way out and you can’t see a way out. Indeed, this is the lead up to the day of the Lord. The final conflagration is worse still. The final conflagration is just like Jacobs experience. His life since he left home wasn’t getting better. He hoped to get a wife and he ended up with two. He hoped to have a happy home and it was constant conflict. Then on his way back, he was being met by Esau with an army. The Lord had promised him that things were going to be alright. Circumstances didn’t testify. This is exactly the same for the people living up to the day of the Lord living now.

Jeremiah 30:5 For thus saith the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. 6 Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? 7 Alas! for that day [is] great, so that none [is] like it: it [is] even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.

Here is a little note. But he shall be saved out of it. We’ll deal with that soon but let it truly come into our understanding that the time of the final conflagration, the day of the Lord, is as serious for the believer as it is for the wicked. The line up is already understood to some degree by us.

Let us read some of the detail that the time of Jacobs’s trouble includes;

As Satan accuses the people of God on account of their sins, the Lord permits him to try them to the uttermost. Their confidence in God, their faith and firmness, will be severely tested. As they review the past, their hopes sink; for in their whole lives they can see little good. They are fully conscious of their weakness and unworthiness. Satan endeavours to terrify them with the thought that their cases are hopeless, that the stain of their defilement will never be washed away. He hopes so to destroy their faith that they will yield to his temptations and turn from their allegiance to God. {GC 618.3}

While they are going through this terrible conscious hopeless which Satan really stirs up, they go through this;

Though God’s people will be surrounded by enemies who are bent upon their destruction, yet the anguish which they suffer is not a dread of persecution for the truth’s sake; they fear that every sin has not been repented of, and that through some fault in themselves they will fail to realize the fulfillment of the Saviour’s promise: I “will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world.” Revelation 3:10. If they could have the assurance of pardon they would not shrink from torture or death; but should they prove unworthy, and lose their lives because of their own defects of character, then God’s holy name would be reproached. {GC 619.1}

Can you see the mental anguish? The enemies are who? It was Esau his own brother remember. It was his own brother that he had done bad to.

Kings, governors, and great men will hear of you through the reports of those who are at enmity with you, and your faith and character will be misrepresented before them. Many will have to stand in the legislative courts; some will have to stand before kings and before the learned of the earth, to answer for their faith. {Mar 253.4}

Those who know you, will report you. These high men in position don’t know you. It is the people that you know, our friends, church members, people who know our mistakes and sins, they will report us. Can you imagine the mental pressure? They will report us and talk to the authorities about our sins. Our faith and character will be misrepresented.

They will have the privilege of bringing the light before those who are called the great men of the earth, and if you have studied the Bible, if you are ready to give an answer to every man that asketh you of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, your enemies will not be able to gainsay your wisdom. {Mar 253.2}

What? I’m being oppressed and overwhelmed by circumstances and I’m going to have to speak in my defense to the glory of God? These are all areas I can hardly cope with now, how do you like the idea of having to go into court for no fault of your own and you’re overwhelmed with your shortcomings? These are the realities that we already have some experience of to some degree and our own sins come up before us and all these horrible situations are oppressing us now only to get worse.

Amos 5:16 Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing [shall be] in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. 17 And in all vineyards [shall be] wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the Lord.

Why do we go through all this detail in a divine service like this? Because those who honestly love God he informs.

Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

Everything I have been reading this far is revealed by his servants the prophets. He doesn’t permit things to come up on us without showing us what will come.

Amos 4:11 I have overthrown [some] of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. 12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: [and] because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

What is prophesied in the day of the Lord?

Amos 4:13 For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what [is] his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, [is] his name.

Here in this divine service, we are here to worship God who is the one who treadeth down. Who will permit all the evils that we have done before him to come to haunt us by the circumstances that those things have created. As God foreshadows these things to come, Jesus our saviour is in the darkness with us. We read the description of this terrible dark day where justice is not there anymore.

Isaiah 59:15 Yea, truth faileth; and he [that] departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord saw [it], and it displeased him that [there was] no judgment. 16 And he saw that [there was] no man, and wondered that [there was] no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him. 17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance [for] clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.

Here is Jesus, as God foreshadows and prophesies the terrible oppression of the last days, Jesus sees it and comes part of it. Therefore prepare to meet thy Lord. What did Jesus do in the experience of the darkness? How did he express it? My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? Isn’t that how a person feels? Jesus was right there and there was no man to comfort him. He felt forsaken of God his father. That is how Gods people feel in the day of the Lord. God presented Jesus in this so that when it happens to us;

John 13:19 I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am [he].

What is the purpose of our gathering week by week as we fellowship here? This is why we keep encouraging people not to stay away at any cost in these last days. To prepare for that day. Prepare to survive this oppression, this horror. Prepare for this event. We need every ounce of revelation to be able to survive and to be able to be among the people of Jacobs’s trouble that will be delivered out of that. If we are not prepared, how can we survive? If we can hardly cope now to keep our minds stable upon the Lord. Here is the purpose for the studies of God’s word for meeting together and learning the details, learning where to find them so we can study for ourselves to prepare;

Had not Jacob previously repented of his sin in obtaining the birthright by fraud, God would not have heard his prayer and mercifully preserved his life. {GC 620.1}

Here is preparation.

Satan leads many to believe that God will overlook their unfaithfulness in the minor affairs of life; but the Lord shows in His dealings with Jacob that He will in no wise sanction or tolerate evil. All who endeavor to excuse or conceal their sins, and permit them to remain upon the books of heaven, unconfessed and unforgiven, will be overcome by Satan. The more exalted their profession and the more honorable the position which they hold, the more grievous is their course in the sight of God and the more sure the triumph of their great adversary. Those who delay a preparation for the day of God cannot obtain it in the time of trouble or at any subsequent time. The case of all such is hopeless. {GC 620.2}

God in his mercy, shows us what is ahead, shows us the horrible experience of Jesus in the midst of that and says now prepare. If you are not prepared and you will feel your case is hopeless it will be hopeless. You won’t be able to survive. If you can hardly cope now, you won’t cope then.  The reason for this message is because my life came up before me several weeks ago and I was tempted to go down into a terrible depression. As I was looking at all the consequences and detail, the light of God’s mercy shone upon me as I’m going to share with you, how to cope. If only I am prepared, can I survive that time.

Those professed Christians who come up to that last fearful conflict unprepared will, in their despair, confess their sins in words of burning anguish, while the wicked exult over their distress. These confessions are of the same character as was that of Esau or of Judas. Those who make them, lament the result of transgression, but not its guilt. They feel no true contrition, no abhorrence of evil. They acknowledge their sin, through fear of punishment; but, like Pharaoh of old, they would return to their defiance of Heaven should the judgments be removed. {GC 620.3}

We need to come to a correct appreciation of the developments that are right before us and the darkness that is already being experienced and how to meet it when it finally comes down in all its crushing blow.

I was shown that a most solemn work is before us. Its importance and magnitude are not realized. As I marked the indifference which was everywhere apparent, I was alarmed for ministers and people. There seemed to be a paralysis upon the cause of present truth. The work of God seemed stayed. Ministers and people are unprepared for the time in which they live, and nearly all who profess to believe present truth are unprepared to understand the work of preparation for this time. In their present state of worldly ambition, with their lack of consecration to God, their devotion to self, they are wholly unfitted to receive the latter rain and, having done all, to stand against the wrath of Satan, who by his inventions would cause them to make shipwreck of faith, fastening upon them some pleasing self-deception. They think they are all right when they are all wrong. {1T 466.1}

They don’t even understand what I must do to prepare. I have seen this, and I tremble at my own self. The only way I can see my way clear is to open my heart to the revelations of God.

Are the youth in a position where they can with meekness and fear give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of their hope? I saw that the youth greatly fail of understanding our position. Terrible scenes are just before them, a time of trouble which will test the value of character. Those who have the truth abiding in them will then be developed. Those who have shunned the cross, neglected the word of life, and paid adoration to their own poor selves will be found wanting. They are ensnared by Satan, and will learn too late that they have made a terrible mistake. {1T 507.4}

Indeed, there needs to be preparation. Therefore I want to spend the last part of this message to understand the preparation.

The Preparation

Transgression has almost reached its limit. Confusion fills the world, and a great terror is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very near. We who know the truth should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise. {8T 28.1}

It was overwhelming in the first world war, people were in absolute dismay. Many lost their faith in God and many couldn’t cope. It will soon come upon us with an overwhelming surprise. Let us now explore the preparation detail that is going to take us through this disastrous period in every respect and not to lose our coping mechanism. Here is what the Lord revealed to me and comforted me and took me out of my deep oppression of realities that were zooming through my system.

Amos 5:1 Hear ye this word which I take up against you, [even] a lamentation, O house of Israel. 2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; [there is] none to raise her up. 3 For thus saith the Lord God; The city that went out [by] a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth [by] an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel. 4 For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:

Seek ye me. Not the truth, not the facts of the bible, seek ye me and you shall live.

Amos 5:5 But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought. 6 Seek the Lord, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour [it], and [there be] none to quench [it] in Bethel.

Here is the key. We often miss the point of everything we have studied in God’s word. As this person rang me yesterday, they told me, I was reading the bible but I wasn’t getting anything out of it. Yes, when the oppression strikes, what it is that you need? God says you need me.

Amos 5:8 [Seek him] that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord [is] his name:

Seek him who can turn the shadow into morning. What are we learning here? Seek him who is the one who controls the darkness, the circumstances, he is the master over it all. He can look down upon it. Seek him. Observe where our safety lies in this terrible dark day;

If such scenes as this are to come, such tremendous judgments on a guilty world, where will be the refuge for God’s people? How will they be sheltered until the indignation be overpast? John sees the elements of nature–earthquake, tempest, and political strife– represented as being held by four angels. These winds are under control until God gives the word to let them go. There is the safety of God’s church. The angels of God do His bidding, holding back the winds of the earth, that the winds should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree, until the servants of God should be sealed in their foreheads. {TM 444.3}

What’s to be sealed in the forehead? The name of God, his character, your relationship with him. That needs to take place before this dark day comes. The winds of strife are being held back until we have learnt to cope. Our safety is in the God that can control that strife. To keep our spirits buoyant in physical mental social and physical darkness, we must see God. We must have a knowledge of God in our own psyche so that whatever the darkness is around, I have an appreciation of him. It is imperative we don’t lose this sense;

Could mortals view the amazement and sorrow of the angels as they watched in silent grief the Father separating His beams of light, love, and glory, from His Son, they would better understand how offensive is sin in His sight. As the Son of God in the Garden of Gethsemane bowed in the attitude of prayer, the agony of His Spirit forced from His pores sweat like great drops of blood. It was here that the horror of great darkness surrounded Him. The sins of the world were upon Him. He was suffering in man’s stead, as a transgressor of His Father’s law. Here was the scene of temptation. The divine light of God was receding from His vision, and He was passing into the hands of the powers of darkness. (Sufferings of Christ, pp. 17, 18). {5BC 1124.3}

Jesus experienced the darkness of the wicked. There he was in the midst of the darkness that is coming upon us and he couldn’t see the father. It is mind activity that is involved here. When Gods rays of light are not there, its horror. I know it. Abject horror. You’re ready to choke. Brain cramp. Horror. Jesus was surrounded in it with our darkness that we will experience when the conflagration takes place so that when we come to that darkness and we can’t cope and we have a deep sense that the rays of light of Gods promise are not on us, when that has a full impact upon our mind, by beholding Jesus we can see God in the darkness. When Jesus cried out, my God why hast thou forsaken me? What was the reality?

With amazement angels witnessed the Saviour’s despairing agony. The hosts of heaven veiled their faces from the fearful sight. Inanimate nature expressed sympathy with its insulted and dying Author. The sun refused to look upon the awful scene. Its full, bright rays were illuminating the earth at midday, when suddenly it seemed to be blotted out. Complete darkness, like a funeral pall, enveloped the cross. “There was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.” There was no eclipse or other natural cause for this darkness, which was as deep as midnight without moon or stars. It was a miraculous testimony given by God that the faith of after generations might be confirmed. {DA 753.3}

What must be confirmed?

In that thick darkness God’s presence was hidden. He makes darkness His pavilion, and conceals His glory from human eyes. God and His holy angels were beside the cross. The Father was with His Son. Yet His presence was not revealed. Had His glory flashed forth from the cloud, every human beholder would have been destroyed. {DA 753.4}

Jesus trod the winepress alone and God was there. Why is this given? Because when we go through that dark time of the day of God, and we have prepared for it by understanding this, we may as was stated, may benefit because in that darkness by understanding this truth we will know our God is right there who has control over it. Let the earth rock to and fro, let this whole thing grow to a full sense of hopelessness. The way to cope was to know that God was right there next to me as he was with his son. In the darkest hour of our experience we can know that God is right there will us. Right there on this planet, we know the earth is in a bad way, the sun is still there. The only reason why I am coping is because I have made it mine. You have to make it yours too. You won’t survive I promise you. If I didn’t have this knowledge I wouldn’t be standing here, I would be a hobo.

We have seen clouds interpose between us and the sun, but we did not mourn and clothe ourselves in sackcloth for fear that we should never see the sun again. We manifested no anxiety about it, but waited as cheerfully as possible until the cloud passed away and revealed the sun. Just so in our trials and temptations. Clouds may seem to shut from us the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness; but we know that the face of our Redeemer is not forever hidden. He is looking upon us with love and tender compassion. Let us not cast away our confidence, which hath great recompense of reward, but when clouds hang over the soul, let us keep our eyes fixed where we can see the Sun of Righteousness, and rejoice that we have a living Saviour. Think how beautiful was the light which we enjoyed, keep the mind stayed on Jesus, and the light will again shine upon us, and dismal thoughts will flee. We shall have joy in Christ, and shall go singing on our way to Mount Zion. {OHC 65.4}

It is exactly what happened to me. When you see these realities and your whole trust is in the forgiving grace of God, your depression goes.

You have not dared to trample under foot the commandments of God, and have stepped out on unpopular truth, let the result be what it may. Will the Saviour ever turn away to leave you to struggle alone? No, never. But He never told His disciples that they should have no trials, no self-denial to endure, no sacrifices to make. The Master was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.” We thank God that in your poverty you can call God your Father. {Ev 240.3}

Brethren, God our father in times like that.

Poverty is coming upon this world, and there will be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. There will be wars and rumors of wars, and the faces of men will gather paleness. You may have to suffer distress; you may go hungry sometimes; but God will not forsake you in your suffering. He will test your faith. We are not to live to please ourselves. We are here to manifest Christ to the world, to represent Him and His power to mankind.–Manuscript 37, 1894. {Ev 240.4}

Is he my father? Do I believe he has forgiven my sins? Do I believe what Jesus went through? Have I surrendered to that? Have I truly depended in total dependence upon my heavenly father as Jesus did? Therefore to cope with the darkest hour of oppression, we must prepare now at this time. I need to familiarise myself with Gods personal presence. You must not only know what is coming, and prepare yourself by obeying his word, that isn’t quite enough, you might be doing everything right, you still won’t survive. The only way to survive is to be familiar with your heavenly father here in your heart. I must prepare myself for that time by coming to a perfect understanding of a personal God.

Who Is God Pleased With?

Jeremiah 9:23 Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise [man] glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty [man] glory in his might, let not the rich [man] glory in his riches:

Our wealth, strength and wisdom comes from God. Although you’ve got it, don’t glory in it.

Jeremiah 9:24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I [am] the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these [things] I delight, saith the Lord. 25 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish all [them which are] circumcised with the uncircumcised;

Do you personally know and understand God? When you really understand what God delights in, when you are grovelling around in the sensations of the details of the past that are ever before you, as you are grovelling in the darkness that Jesus grovelled in, to know in that darkness, God exercises loving kindness, that he delights in. That is his nature. This is the reason why Jesus was able to cast himself on his father’s nature. You and I must do that do. Even those who are circumcised and done the right thing are going to be punished who don’t cast themselves upon God.

Jeremiah 9:26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all [that are] in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all [these] nations [are] uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel [are] uncircumcised in the heart.

If you understand God in the revelation of Jesus, if you believe as Jesus did, you will be saved out of it. It will be indeed like a dark cloud with the sun behind it and the dark cloud will pass around it and we will be saved. In our preparation how do we come to know God like that? What do we need to do when it overwhelms the world in a terrible surprise? Here is the answer when it comes as a terrible surprise upon the world. We need to be sure that this personal reality of a personal father is going to carry me through;

Christians should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise, and this preparation they should make by diligently studying the word of God, and striving to conform their lives to its precepts. . . . God calls for a revival and a reformation.–Prophets and Kings, p. 626. {ChS 41.3}

By diligently studying the word of God, what do we begin to know? We begin to know him. This is why we study the bible . I had to visit a person on Friday who was crying and asked me to come pray with them. They were reading the bible but the tears wouldn’t go away. They were reading beautiful scriptures but it wasn’t relieving them. I read this to them;

You need and I need that the spiritual vision shall be cleared and intensified to behold the scheme of redemption as we have never viewed it before. We want that our hearts should feel the mighty throbs of a Saviour’s love. In searching the Scriptures, in feeding upon the words of life, O consider it is the voice of God to the soul. We may be confused sometimes over the voice of our friends; but in the Bible we have the counsel of God upon all important subjects which concern our eternal interests, and in temporal matters we may learn a great deal. Its teaching will be always suited to our peculiar circumstances and calculated to prepare us to endure trial and fit us for our God-given work. {ML 283.2}

The Bible is God’s voice speaking to us, just as surely as if we could hear it with our ears. If we realized this, with what awe we would open God’s Word and with what earnestness we would search its precepts. The reading and contemplation of the Scriptures would be regarded as an audience with the Infinite One. {ML 283.3}

You won’t just come to the bible and pour through the material. You’re coming into the audience chamber of God himself. It’s his voice speaking to you. I must prepare for the darkness of the future by reading the bible like that. We open the bible with a sincere desire to know the will of God concerning me.

We are to open the Word of God with reverence and with a sincere desire to know the will of God concerning us. The heavenly angels will direct our search. God speaks to us in His Word. We are in the audience chamber of the Most High, in the very presence of God. Christ enters the heart. {ML 283.4}

I must prepare for that dark day by studying the bible like that. Then I will have a personal God illuminating my mind.  As you think about this, appreciate it. It brings tears to my eyes every time. This amazing privilege, the audience chamber of the most high God in the darkness has control over it all.

Communion with and love for God, the practice of holiness, the destruction of sin, are all pleasant. The reading of God’s Word will not fascinate the imagination and inflame the passions, like a fictitious storybook, but softens, soothes, elevates, and sanctifies the heart. When in trouble, when assailed by fierce temptations, they have the privilege of prayer. What an exalted privilege! Finite beings, of dust and ashes, admitted through the mediation of Christ, into the audience chamber of the Most High. In such exercises the soul is brought into a sacred nearness with God and is renewed in knowledge and true holiness and fortified against the assaults of the enemy. {CG 467.3}

Brethren and sisters, if we are not preparing to achieve this, the darkness that I described and our incapability to handle the disastrous experiences we are already meeting, we will not cope then. The Lord in his mercy is holding back those horrible winds of strife as the Lord knows I need that skill. He doesn’t want us to have the inability to cope then. There is knowledge you must grasp hold of and obtain. He will not neglect us. He is orchestrating the events of the earth, that’s why we are going through it. Eternal bliss are for those who cling to him.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Not for us the oppression of total hopelessness. He has hope for us as he had for his son and everyone of us who do not tread down the word of God. If we have failed to prepare we will not cope. May God complete in us this work and may we diligently apply ourselves to it.

Amen.