The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them. Psalm 89:11.
[Many in this world] are proving themselves to be dishonest in dealing with God’s property. They love not the truth. They turn away from the righteousness of Christ to the beggarly elements of the world. They trample under their feet the precepts of God’s law, especially the Sabbath commandment. The heart of the Saviour is grieved by their conduct. He desires to save every soul whom He has purchased. O that men would understand this, and place themselves in connection with the great Master Worker!
Soon the Lord is coming to this earth with power and great glory, and the work that we are to do now is outlined in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. Who is doing this work? Who is building the Lord’s altars? Who is preparing the people for the great day of the Lord? Now, just now, everyone who claims to be a child of God should bring of his means to God’s treasury, that there may be a supply to draw from to provide the workers with facilities for entering new places to present the truth to those who have never heard it. Let there be no dearth in the Lord’s treasury. From His treasure God supplies all our necessities. Shall we be only consumers? Shall we not be producers, giving of our means that the truth may be presented to many people, who will acknowledge and accept the message, and in turn give back to God His own, and themselves be numbered among producers? ...
We are not only to receive God’s gifts. With a full sense of our accountability we are to bring a return to Him, that there may be in His treasury for the advancement of His work an ample supply of means, a supply from which His workmen may draw to enable them to carry the message from city to city and from country to country. God’s self-sacrificing workers should be provided with sufficient facilities to make their work a success....
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof” (Psalm 24:1). This world is the Lord’s storehouse, from which we are ever drawing. He has provided fruits and grains and vegetables for our sustenance. For us He makes the sun to shine and the rain to fall. The whole human family, good and evil, are constantly drawing from God’s storehouse. It makes every difference with those so highly privileged how they receive the Lord’s gifts and how they treat the contract the Lord has made with them. He has made them His almoners, directing them to draw from His storehouse, and then make a return to Him in gifts and offerings, “that there may be meat in mine house.”—Manuscript 73, December 12, 1900, “Bring an Offering Unto the Lord.”
From The Upward Look - Page 360
The Upward Look
Thought for the Day
How often has the life of the innocent been sacrificed through the intemperance of those who should have been guardians of justice! He who puts the intoxicating cup to his lips makes himself responsible for all the injustice he may commit under its besotting power. By benumbing his senses he makes it impossible for him to judge calmly or to have a clear perception of right and wrong. He opens the way for Satan to work through him in oppressing and destroying the innocent. "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." Proverbs 20:1. Desire of Ages, p. 222