INTER-AMERICAN DIVISION MESSENGER Cg
on pleading and pleading with us forever?
~~ But we are not going to keep on
grieving the Holy Spirit, dear boys
and girls; today, this very day, we are
going to ask Jesus to send His Holy
Spirit into our hearts, and we are go-
ing to make sure He stays in our hearts
by confessing every sin that He tells
us about. Today the Holy Spirit is
pleading to come in. Will He be plead-
ing tomorrow? We do not know. Let
us kneel right now and say, “Dear Je-
sus, today I open my heart to your
“dear Holy Spirit.”
Lesson VIII — For Sabbath, December 16
LIVING WITH JESUS
Of all the wonderful things the Bi-
“ble tells us about heaven, have you ever
decided what you think will be the
best of ali? Could anything be more
wonderful than living with Jesus, talk-
ing with Him every day, listening to
His lovely voice, and walking with Him
hand in hand down the streets of gold
and looking up into His lovely face?
0, I want to go to heaven some day
and live with Jesus, don’t you? But
the Bible says we do not have to wait
~ until we go to heaven to have Jesus
with us. We can have Him with us
right now. In John 15:4 Jesus says,
. “Abide in Me, and I in you.” This is
Jesus’ way of saying, “You live for Me,
and I will live with you.” And this is
His way of promising to come and live
~ with us.
Jesus in Our Hearts
When Jesus comes to live with us,
where will He stay? We give the best
room we have to our earthly guests.
What room shall we give to Jesus? He
has already made His choice. He says
in Proverbs 23:26, “Give Me thine
heart.” In the heart, that is where Jesus
wants to stay. He wants to go there
so much that He stands just outside
the door of our hearts knocking and
waiting for us to throw open the door
and say, “Come in.” With what joy
Jesus comes into our hearts when we
say, “Welcome.” In Revelation 3:20,
He tells us He “will come in” and “will
sup” with us.
Keeping Jesus With Us
And Jesus says “I never, never want
to leave your heart. I have come to
stay always, but I'll go whenever you
tell Me to.” Tell Jesus to go? Could
anyone ever do that? Yes, sad as it is,
this very thing happens. You have told
Him to go, and so have I. When we do
things that do not please Jesus, it is
just the same as if we told Him to go.
Anything that does not please Jesus is
sin, and He cannot stay for one moment
where there is sin.
Talking to Jesus
To make Jesus happy, talk to Him.
Talk to Him in the morning, at noon,
and at night, kneeling in prayer and
then keep whispering to Him all day
long as we need His help. Talk to Him
about the things we have been study-
ing during this Week of Prayer. Ask
Him to uphold you with His strong
right hand, and keep you from slipping
into the pit of sin. But it must not be a
one-sided talk. Our heart-Guest must
be given a chance to talk to us, too. He
talks to us through His Holy Word,
the Bible. So we talk to Jesus in pray-
er, and then we let Him talk to us by
reading His Holy Word.
Walking With Jesus
And every day we must have our
walk with Jesus. He tells us He wants
to go with us wherever we go. He wants
to go to schoo! with us each day, to
follow us to the playground at recess
time, to sit beside us as we study at
cur desks. “I want to always go with
you,” says Jesus; “that I may ‘keep
you’ and ‘help you’ ‘in all your ways.”
He wants to help us with that hard les-
son, He wants to keep us from sin and
from danger on the school ground and
on the streets. How safe we are when
Jesus is with us. That day will be a
happy day in which we go on some er-
rand with Jesus. It would be a good
thing to pause again and ask ourselves
this question: “Have I gone on some
errand with Jesus today?”
This, boys and girls, is what it means
to be living with Jesus, and to have
Him living with us. We talk and walk
with Him, while He talks and walks
with us.
————
“Canvasser-evangelists are needed to
hunt and fish for souls. The canvas-
sing work should now be earnestly and
decidedly taken up. The canvasser
whose heart is meek and lowly and
humble can accomplish much good.
Canvassers who go forth in the spirit
of the Master have the companionship
of heavenly beings.”—‘Colporteur Evan-
gelists)” p. 31.
The chains of habit are generally too
light to be felt until they are too strong
to be broken—D. Johnson.
Our hlessings are equal to our needs
and far outnumber our misfortunes.
on the following page.
The Week of Prayer Readings for this year
are published in two issues of the MESSEN-
GER. This number contains the lessons for
the children. There is a lesson for each day of
the week prepared by the General Conference
especially for the children. We invite the at-
tention of the leaders of the childrens’ meet-
ings to the “General Suggestions to Leaders”
GENERAL NOTICE
The Week of Prayer Readings for adults
are printed in the December 1, 1939, number
of the MESSENGER. Please preserve your
copy of the papers and use them in the meet-
ings and in your home during the week.
May these readings and lessons help all,
both young and old, to heed and follow the
inspired, solemn admonition—“Prepare to meet
thy God, O Israel.”