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Adventism's Greatest Need
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August 22 - Adventism's Greatest Need

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Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Matt. 5:6.

"A revival of true godliness among us," Ellen White penned in 1887, "is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs. To seek this should be our first work." But, she noted, many Adventists were not prepared to receive God's blessing, and many needed to be converted. "There is nothing that Satan fears so much as that the people of God shall clear the way by removing every hindrance, so the Lord can pour out His Spirit upon a languishing church and an impenitent congregation"(RH, Mar. 22, 1887).

By the late 1880s Ellen White had become deeply concerned about the condition of Adventism. Too many leaders and members had a theory of the truth, but were failing to grasp the truth itself.

That burden was not new to her writing. In 1879 she had written that "it would be well to spend a thoughtful hour each day reviewing the life of Christ from the manager to Calvary. . .By thus contemplating His teachings and sufferings, and the infinite sacrifice made by Him for the redmption of the race, we may strengthen our faith, quicken our love, and become more deeply imbued with the spirit which sustained and faith at the foot of the cross." She went on to say that she longed "to see our ministers dwell more upon the cross of Christ"(4T 374, 375).

The same emphasis rang true at the 1883 General Conference session, at which Mrs. White told the assembled ministers that "we must learn in the school of Christ. Nothing but His righteousness can entitle us to one of the blessings of the covenant of grace. We have long desired and tried to obtain these blessings, but have not received them because we have cherished the idea that we could do something to make ourselves worthy of them. We have not looked away from ourselves, believeing that Jesus is a living Saviour"(1SM 351).

Again, she penned on the eve of the Minneapolis meetings, "the burden of our message should be the mission and life of Jesus"(RH, Sept. 11, 1888).

The greatest lack of Adventism in the 1880s was that of Jesus and His love. It is still the greatest lack.

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 The sower multiplies his seed by casting it away. So it is with those who are faithful in distributing God's gifts. By imparting they increase their blessings. God has promised them a sufficiency that they may continue to give(COL 86).
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