I've Found a Key.

Frustration. I just wrote a whole blog just to delete the thing by mistake. How many times I am reminded that the Devil really does exist. this wouldn't have happened except that today I wrote on a spiritual topic. So, because I thought to do it today, he thought to oppose it. I will not be foiled, however. I will be patient and I will try to repeat what I had previously written. Yuk! I don't feel like spending another half hour at this dumb computer, but here goes.

(Do you mind if I abbreviate a little?)

The weather is great. It will be in the 70's Fahrenheit this week. Spring is in the air.

I preached at Copper Mountain on Sabbath. Eldon and Marilene Stevenson came with us. (Friends from Australia.) We went from Copper to DayStar that same day. We arrived in Moab, Utah, just on time to take in a concert by a young Philippino lady called Mary Grace. She plays the piano with her left hand and a right stump for an arm. Absolutely amazing.

We went to DayStar to attend a MPI board meeting. Mission Projects, Inc. support my wife's project with two Bible workers. They wanted a report. She did a great job. I had the privilege of doing a report for Riverside Farms Pioneers. I enjoyed that a lot, even though I left RFI thirteen years ago. We got home at 11:30 pm Sunday night and I had to preach at 7:00 am Monday morning.

I've got two more calls to preach this year. One to Japan and one to Kentucky. Dr. Naren and Hannah James are here from Kentucky. He was a patient here four years ago. They are the ones who want me to do a revival meeting in their church before their planned evangelistic series.

My Secretary, Frances Martin, retired this week. She's been faithful for 86 years. We really appreciate her and we intend to keep her at EVI so long as she can care for herself.

My wife is shopping for tickets to Africa. Caleb 11, Christina 13, and Deniece will be going with her in May. The adventure is about to begin. I sincerely wish I was going with them, but I really can't. There is so much to do around EVI.

So there! That is the short version of the news for today. Now, what was I saying about righteousness by faith?

I think it was something about the relation of R by F to the third angel's message. A sermon by Dave Fiedler gave me a clue this week. The issue has to do with authority. The great controversy is between man-made religion and God's way to salvation. Cain invented his own religion in opposition to God's. He tried to coerce Abel to join him in rebellion, but Abel would not put Cain in the place of God. He lost his life for it. The Pharisees were bent on controlling the consciences of the masses, Jesus included, thereby placing themselves where God belonged. There is a name for that--Anti-Christ. The Popes waxed violent in their efforts to rule the people's consciences. George I Butler marshaled his pastors against Jones, Waggoner and White. "Stand by the old landmarks," was his battle cry. The implication was that Jones and Waggoner were going to destroy the church with their heresies. The pastors followed their boss like sheep to the shearing. They put Butler where only God should be.

Finally, the third angel's message points to a Beast determined to control the consciences of the whole world. The issue will be righteousness by faith in the works of men vs. righteousness by faith in the gift of God's salvation. Like Abel, many will lose their lives for the faith. Many more who expect others to think and to decide for them will follow the Beast to perdition. Solemn thought, isn't it?

Do you live by faith in God's love for you, or do you live by faith in yourself. We are already deciding how we will vote in the day of reckoning .

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.