Psalm 24 should be a special chapter for all Seventh-day Adventists.
It begins with a declarative statement about our Lord’s power and the Sabbath day.
“The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.”
Then the Psalm addresses the cry of all who are awakened to the Great Gift given in Jesus Christ and the end result of the heart-felt desire and response:
“Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” And then we are given the answer to who that group will be. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob [God] Selah" (Psalm 24:3-6).
Verse 6 points to a unique final generation that matches the characteristics in verses 4 and 5. In my Bible next to Psalm 24 I have this passage from Ellen White written:
“Unless the church, which is now being leavened with her own backsliding, shall repent and be converted, she will eat of the fruit of her own doing, until she shall abhor herself. When she resists the evil and chooses the good, when she seeks God with all humility and reaches her high calling in Christ, standing on the platform of eternal truth and by faith laying hold upon the attainments prepared for her, she will be healed. She will appear in her God-given simplicity and purity, separate from earthly entanglements, showing that the truth has made her free indeed. Then her members will indeed be the chosen of God, His representatives. {8T 250.3}
“The time has come for a thorough reformation to take place. When this reformation begins, the spirit of prayer will actuate every believer and will banish from the church the spirit of discord and strife. Those who have not been living in Christian fellowship will draw close to one another. One member working in right lines will lead other members to unite with him in making intercession for the revelation of the Holy Spirit. There will be no confusion, because all will be in harmony with the mind of the Spirit. The barriers separating believer from believer will be broken down, and God's servants will speak the same things. The Lord will co-operate with His servants. All will pray understandingly the prayer that Christ taught His servants: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." Matthew 6:10. (8T pp. 250-251)
Recent articles on Fulcrum7 have been sobering, and perhaps even unsettling as we see how closely we are to fulfilling this prophecy written my Ellen White a long time ago. What can better characterize where we are than a picture of a female pastor stripping naked before her charges on a camping trip and then encouraging those she is leading to do the same?
The most saddening aspect of where we have fallen to is that we see evidence after evidence that this is being brought on us by Church leaders who demonstrate that they are more committed to following the World than the Bible. We see these leaders well-entrenched behind church bureaucracy in the General Conference, Divisions, Unions and Conference offices. We seem them supported by such numbers in membership that we realize that it is humanly impossible for those of who love our church--and consider ourselves faithful to the Truth as it is in Jesus--to effect any change against such an overwhelming host. We are utterly and completely helpless against such a host.
It is time for all who love Jesus and His Truth to unite together in a day of fasting and prayer. Did you know that our General Conference as already set aside the first Sabbath every quarter for this very purpose? You can find it here.
The first Sabbath of the next quarter is April 7. We would like to invite all readers on F7 to join together in this day of fasting and prayer from “evening unto evening,” the entire Sabbath of April 7.
Our challenges are many, but "with God, all things are possible" (Mark 10:27). Let us begin our day of prayer and fasting by asking God to set a burden, a prayer agenda on your heart and let’s see where He leads us in prayer.
And let us become that final generation identified for us in Psalm 24: 6. BTW, if you read the rest of Psalm 24 you see the marvelous grand entry of Jesus into the Holy City as He returns with ALL his saints.
What a day to pray for!
Doug Carlson & Fulcrum7
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"Call unto Me and I will show you great and mighty things that thou knowest not" (Jeremiah 33:3).