Living In The Light

October 21, A World Filled With Suffering

Justice is turned back, And righteousness stands afar off; For truth is fallen in the street, And equity cannot enter.
—Isaiah 59:14 LL 310.1

The giving of the gospel to the world is the work that God has committed to those who bear His name. For earth’s sin and misery the gospel is the only antidote. To make known to all mankind the message of the grace of God is the first work of those who know its healing power. LL 310.2

When Christ sent forth the disciples with the gospel message, faith in God and His word had well-nigh departed from the world. Among the Jewish people, who professed to have a knowledge ofJehovah, His word had been set aside for tradition and human speculation. Selfish ambition, love of ostentation, greed of gain, absorbed people’s thoughts. As reverence for God departed, so also departed compassion toward men and women. Selfishness was the ruling principle, and Satan worked his will in the misery and degradation of mankind. LL 310.3

Satanic agencies took possession of men and women. The bodies of human beings, made for the dwelling place of God, became the habitation of demons. The senses, the nerves, the organs of human beings were worked by supernatural agencies in the indulgence of the vilest lust. The very stamp of demons was impressed upon the countenances of men and women. Human faces reflected the expression of the legions of evil with which men and women were possessed. LL 310.4

What is the condition in the world today? Is not faith in the Bible as effectually destroyed by the higher criticism and speculation of today as it was by tradition and rabbinism in the days of Christ? Have not greed and ambition and love of pleasure as strong a hold on people’s hearts now as they had then? In the professedly Christian world, even in the professed churches of Christ, how few are governed by Christian principles. In business, social, domestic, even religious circles, how few make the teachings of Christ the rule of daily living. Is it not true that “justice standeth afar off: . . . equity cannot enter. . . . And he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey”? (Isaiah 59:14, 15). . . . LL 310.5

The world needs today what it needed nineteen hundred years ago—a revelation of Christ. A great work of reform is demanded, and it is only through the grace of Christ that the work of restoration, physical, mental, and spiritual, can be accomplished.—The Ministry of Healing, pp. 141—143. LL 310.6

Further Reflection: : Are you ever afraid to share the gospel in such a broken world? LL 310.7