Another new year. How quickly the years come and go. Each arrives, bright with promise and hope, fraught with dangers and fears. One by one the sheets of the new calendar are quickly torn off, the new year is old and another is on its way.
How many more years must come and go before we see the King in His beauty and this mortal takes on immortality? How long before the righteous dead hear the voice of God and come forth from their earthen graves? How long until the living saints are caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air? How long must it be? How long before the long dark night of sin turns into everlasting day?
Listen! Don't you hear the cry for deliverance? It sounds from deepest Africa, from the islands of the sea, from India's coral strand, from the jungles of South America, from the restless Middle East. From a thousand hearts, from Washington, D.C., to Singapore, from Montreal to Berlin, the cry is heard, "How long, O Lord, how long?" How many more calendars to replace, birthdays to celebrate, funerals to conduct? How much more of crime, pollution, calamity and sin? How much more of heartache, suffering, sorrow and tears?
John, while on lonely Patmos, saw visions of the future conflict between Christ and Satan and of the glories that would follow. Finally, after viewing the city of God and seeing all things new he could but pray, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
Homesick for Heaven?
How is it with you? Is there a longing in your heart for Jesus? Are you homesick for heaven?
This being so, a significant statement from Ellen White cuts deeply into our hearts. It is both a promise and an indictment, brief and pointed. "It is the privilege of every Christian not only to look for but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." --Christ's Object Lessons, p. 69.
These words are a promise in that they assure us that we can indeed shorten the rebellious evil reign of the prince of this world and speed the Prince of Peace on His glorious return. The words are an indictment in that we have done so little, have failed so miserably in doing all that might have been done, and have thus delayed His coming.
1972 Must Be Different
But a new year is here. And 1972 must be different. This must be the year of the big change, the year that Christ sets His hand to finish the work.
Consider how quickly the doubting disciples were transformed into flaming apostles. Once the needed preparation for the Spirit was made, once the conditions were met, the promise was realized.
And we are told:
When the way is prepared for the Spirit of God, the blessing will come. Satan can no more hinder a shower of blessing from descending upon God's people than he can close the windows of heaven that rain cannot come upon the earth. --Selected Messages, book 1, p. 124.
The promise is sure, for God has spoken and He does not lie.
To us comes the solemn appeal: As ministers, as Christians, we must work to take the stumbling blocks out of the way. We must re move every obstacle. Let us confess and forsake every sin, that the way of the Lord may be prepared, that He may come into our assemblies and impart His rich grace. --Ibid., p. 123.
It Will Be---IF
Nineteen hundred and seventy-two can indeed be the year of the great change. It can be the year that sees the third angel's message swell into the loud cry that en lightens the earth. It can be if if we recognize the power of the Holy Spirit as our greatest need, and pray for it night and day; if like the apostles of old, we repent of our backslidings and seek above all else to reflect the likeness of our wonderful Lord; if we are willing to lay self and our own vested interests aside and think only in terms of what will best benefit the cause of God and be to His glory; if we are willing to be all, or nothing, as God sees best.
This is the experience that we must covet and pray for, weeping if need be be tween the porch and the altar. This must be our great obsession as we enter the portals of 1972.
As the bells toll the midnight hour and the new year breaks, as all about us the world makes merry amid sin and sensuality, would it not be well for ministers to gather with their flocks, praying for this much-needed experience? Is not the dawn of a new year a most appropriate season for renewed dedication to God and to His work?
The Power of the Spirit and MISSION 72
All of this becomes increasingly significant in the light of MISSION 72. Without the power of the Holy Spirit, without deepseated, thorough-going repentance and reformation, without genuine revival, MISSION 72 cannot and will not succeed. 1972 will come and go, and things will be about the same as they were before, and the coming of the Lord will be further delayed. But this need not be, and it must not be. If we were ever in earnest about anything, we must now be in earnest about our own personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the call to finish the work so that His coming will no longer be delayed.
Review again the great revivals that came to God's people in the days of Elijah, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Read again the story of Pentecost. These are harbingers, or precursors, of what God can now do, and is waiting to do for His church. Furthermore, the latter-day power is to exceed that of all time.
All of this is yet to be. And it can happen now, but only if the conditions are met. These conditions are wholehearted consecration and service. Ellen White declares:
When we have entire, wholehearted consecration to the service of Christ, God will recognize the fact by an outpouring of His Spirit without measure; but this will not be while the largest portion of the church are not laborers together with God. --Christian Service, p. 253.
We must enter into this experience, then like the apostles of old we will be prepared for a quick work on the earth. And, like them, we will be "astonished and over joyed at the greatness of the harvest of souls." (The Acts of the Apostles, p. 44).
Nothing Less Will Do
Nothing less than a repetition of Pentecost can do this for us. For this we must earnestly pray. Of the change that came to the disciples we read:
No longer were they a collection of independent units or discordant, conflicting elements. No longer were their hopes set on worldly greatness. They were of "one accord," "of one heart and of one soul." . . . Christ filled their thoughts; the advancement of His kingdom was their aim. In mind and character they had become like their Master, and men "took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." --Ibid., p. 45.
The Spirit animated them and spoke through them. The peace of Christ shone from their faces. They had consecrated their lives to Him for service, and their very features bore evidence to the surrender they had made. --Ibid., p. 46.
This is the plan and purpose in MISSION 72. But not only for those areas where MISSION 72 is being put into operation this year, but for every nation, city, village, and hamlet on the earth. Let us all, ministers, church officers, and laymen alike, unite now in this grand finale and the completion of our task. "Even so, come. Lord Jesus."
