I have been shown that you were greatly deficient in your duties as a minister. You lack essential qualifications. You do not possess a missionary spirit. You have not a disposition to sacrifice your ease and pleasure to save souls. There are men, women, and youth to be brought to Christ who would embrace the truth could they have the light presented to them. In your own vicinity there are those who have an ear to hear.
(2T 150.1)
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VC
I saw you seeking to instruct some; but at the very time when you needed perseverance, courage, and energy, you became fainthearted, distrustful, discouraged, and dropped the work. You desired your own ease, and allowed an interest which might have increased, to go down. There might have been an ingathering of souls; but the golden opportunity passed for that time, because of your lack of energy. I saw that unless you decide to gird on the whole armor, and are willing to endure hardness as a good soldier of the cross of Christ, and feel that you can spend and be spent to bring souls to Christ, you should give up your profession as a minister and choose some other calling.
(2T 150.2)
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VC
Some have no experience in taking hold of the work as though it was of vital importance. They do not enter upon it with that zeal and earnestness which would show that they are doing work which will have to bear the test of the judgment. They work too much in their own strength. They do not make God their trust, and therefore errors and imperfections mark all their efforts. They do not give the Lord an opportunity to do anything for them. They do not walk by faith, but by sight. They will go no faster or further than they can see. They do not seem to understand that venturing something for the truth’s sake has any part in their religious experience.
(2T 339.1)
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VC
Some go from their homes to labor in the gospel field, but do not act as though the truths which they speak were a reality to them. Their actions show that they have not experienced the saving power of the truth themselves. When out of the desk, they appear to have no burden of the truth. They labor sometimes apparently to profit, but more frequently to no profit. Such feel as much entitled to the wages they receive as though they had earned them; notwithstanding their unconsecration has cost more labor, anxiety, and pain of heart to those laborers who have the burden of the work upon them than all their efforts have done good. Such are not profitable workmen. But they will have to bear this responsibility themselves.
(2T 339.2)
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VC
The Lord requires His servants to be energetic. It is not pleasing to Him to see them listless and indolent. They profess to have the evidence that God has especially selected them to teach the people the way to life; yet frequently their conversation is not profitable, and they show that they have not the burden of the work upon them. Their own souls are not energized by the mighty truths which they present to others. Some preach these truths, of such weighty importance, in so listless a manner that they cannot affect the people. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.”Ecclesiastes 9:10. Men whom God has called must be trained to put forth effort, to work earnestly and with untiring zeal for Him, to pull souls out of the fire. When ministers feel the power of the truth in their own souls, thrilling their own being, then will they possess power to affect hearts, and show that they firmly believe the truths they preach to others. They should keep before the mind the worth of souls, and the matchless depths of a Saviour’s love. This will awaken the soul so that with David they may say: “My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned.”Psalm 39:3.
(2T 504.1)
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Paul exhorted Timothy: “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.”1 Timothy 4:12~13. “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.”1 Timothy 4:15~16. What a weight of importance is here attached to the Christian life of the minister of God! What a necessity for his faithful study of the word, that he himself may be sanctified by the truth and may be qualified to teach others.
(2T 504.2)
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Ministers especially should know the character and works of Christ, that they may imitate Him; for the character and works of a true Christian are like His. He laid aside His glory, His dominion, His riches, and sought after those who were perishing in sin. He humbled Himself to our necessities, that He might exalt us to heaven. Sacrifice, self-denial, and disinterested benevolence characterized His life. He is our pattern. Have you, Brother A, imitated the Pattern? I answer: No. He is a perfect and holy example, given for us to imitate. We cannot equal the pattern; but we shall not be approved of God if we do not copy it and, according to the ability which God has given, resemble it. Love for souls for whom Christ died will lead to a denial of self and a willingness to make any sacrifice in order to be co-workers with Christ in the salvation of souls.
(2T 549.1)
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The work of God’s chosen servants will be fruitful if wrought in Him. Their words and works are the channels through which the pure principles of truth and holiness are conveyed to the world. Their exemplary lives make them the light of the world and the salt of the earth. The servants of God should, with the hand of faith, lay hold of the mighty arm and gather the divine rays of light from above, while, with the hand of love, they reach after perishing souls. Diligence is necessary for this work. Indolence will permit souls who might be saved, to drift beyond reach. God wants in His service ministers who are awake, who are energetic and persevering, who are faithful watchmen upon Zion’s walls, listening to hear the words from the divine Teacher and faithfully proclaiming the same to the people.
(2T 549.2)
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VC