By John Thiel, mp3

Scripture reading:Isaiah 52:13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. 14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: 

We are living in a grand and awful time as we see wicked spirits are gathering around.  The torment the evil one puts us through and we need to understand and conquer that torment.

The day is at hand. For the lessons to be learned, the work to be done, the transformation of character to be effected, the time remaining is but too brief a span.  {Ed 184.2}

To develop character, to reach a particular point in time, it’s too brief a span to reach it.  Sanctification is the work of a life time.  According to this quote, we don’t have a life time in fact we have too short a period, too brief a span.  The thought that affected me with this statement is, is it too late now to develop character to pass the judgement when God examines us?  Are we who are born in this time lost as we come to the knowledge of present truth which has been proclaimed since 1844? The above statement was written in 1903.  The day is at hand.  Here we are over 100 years from that time. Where do we stand now?  I had not been able to answer this for some time until recently.  I looked at the seven churches and focused on Philadelphia. The period of Philadelphia is the period of Gods church from 1833 to 1844 – the church of brotherly love and it pointed to the people who were being prepared for the message of the judgement when Jesus goes from the holy to the most holy place.  There commences the day of judgement. Read the rest of this entry →