“I would thou wert cold or hot.” (Rev. 3:15).

“Jesus answered, Neither hath this [woman] sinned, nor [her] parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in [her].” (John 9:3).

Here is an amazing testimony, not because of great miracles from heaven, but because of the great toleration and patience of Jesus from heaven, provisioned to the human race. Here is a woman who Jesus gave respect granted to His favorite creation of humanity. He has given our creation, our world, the human race the precious gift of special leeway on the power of choice. Jesus made us with the special power of love, as well as the discretion and discernment that comes out of our special ability to love. Because of love this great woman of God made her decisions to time her giving herself to full service to God, such that it would ease the impact that a sudden “about-face”, “to-the-rear-march”, the jerking, rude awakening it would bring upon her family, which she loved. She feared for her husband and children, and for her family’s rejection of Jesus. And Jesus accounted that kind of love for righteousness. He said, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me…. …these shall go… into life eternal.” (Matt. 25:40,41).

Within the bounds of godly love, which is moderation, Jesus leaves us to manage our affairs. Only when we go outside of godly love does He have to micromanage. Abraham lived within the bounds of godly love. He feared God and kept all of His judgments and statutes. “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment.” (Gen. 18:19).

Abraham was obedient, not by strict observance of the human perspective of God’s law, which excludes love. But he was obedient by his childlike trust in the Lord God, which led to godly love, charity, which “easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” (Jas. 3:17,18).

Therefore within that holy union Jesus could know Abraham, and Abraham could know Jesus. It was by this kind of faith that Abraham was accounted a saint before God. His was a life that operated by responsible faith and love, a faith and love that purified the soul and worked out true, godly righteousness that God could approve of and would bless. The Lord God could be just to justify His son. Abraham’s obedience was natural obedience that came from a new nature, that being which came from a new heart and new spirit when he “believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” (Rom. 4:3). Abraham’s gift from above was an obedience that Satan could not use to his advantage to destroy God’s children, and then cast contempt upon God’s character of love and righteousness.

This is what this woman of God received as she cooperated with Jesus in giving herself wholly to His service, as wife, and mother, and servant to others. And it all started when Jesus made His way into her heart as a child in a family that gave toleration of religion to the children.

One more thought: this lines up perfectly with the past quarter adult Sabbath School Quarterly’s subject. the battle that Paul was driving the church toward was the kind of works seen in the woman of this video. Paul was not for anarchy or antinomianism (lawlessness). But he was also not for rigid narrow sightedness regarding commandment keeping. He was all for the new person in Christ, and the fruition of the gift of God—the new heart of flesh, new spirit, whole new nature, new creatuion. Under that law, the law of mercy, the law of toleration and liberty of godly self-government, through the faith and love of Jesus implanted through surrender and continuous communing and surrender with Him moment by moment, the claims of the Law of God would be met in true commandment keeping.

 “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” (Acts 15:10). That was humanism and leads to the bondage of Satan. The devil doesn’t care what he uses to bind up the man and woman and child. He can use the oppressive Law as well as he can use carnival lawlessness.

As Martin Luther wrote,

“Were I to employ force, what should I gain? Grimace, formality, apings, human ordinances, and hypocrisy. . . . But there would be no sincerity of heart, nor faith, nor charity. Where these three are wanting, all is wanting, and I would not give a pear stalk for such a result.” The Great Controversy, p. 189, 190.

“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Matt. 11:12). By forcing out righteousness from an uncoverted heart that cannot operate by love and purify the soul, the soul is bound up in the cords of Satan’s manipulation, “the strength of sin is the law.” (1Cor. 15:56). It was the forcing of obedience that led the Jews to reject the gospel of their Messiah and His way to life. The city that He wanted to be His everlasting tabernacle Peter called, Babylon (see 1 Peter 5:13 and Isaiah 14:6) because the Jews used force instead of engaging “the Dayspring from on high” (Luke 1:78), that is “the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God” (Luke 1:78).

“Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city! She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the LORD; she drew not near to her God. Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow. Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.” (Zeph. 3:1-4). “But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matt. 9:13).

And the past quarter’s adult Sabbath School Quarterly is particularly pertinent for our day. In the Latter Rain of the holy Spirit, all attempts to drive the non-Adventist believers, the “sinners of the Gentiles” (Gal. 2:15) to come up to speed with the Adventism’s “We who are Jews by nature” (Gal. 2:15) to force the “Gentiles” into compliance with the Spirit of Prophecy, will be Satan’s work to force his rendition of “righteousness” into the soul. Such a Pharisaical work will supplant the holy constraints of the Lord of hosts and His “army of heaven.” (Dan. 4:35).

Through mercy this video’s woman of God, this wise Deborah, this Lydia arrived at excellence. She followed Jesus’ promptings to her heart as a vivacious and energetic youngster, and heard and heeded His voice. This was the experience of Abraham, and all the prophets, of Paul, and all the apostles. But fore-mostly, it was the experienced by the Lord Jesus Himself from the days of eternity.

Through mercy, and not by great works of religiosity that are driven out of a heart that is not made new by the holy Spirit of God, true obedience to God’s Law happens in the soul, and Satan’s violent works are exposed. “But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.” (Matt. 12:7).

And it is the forcing of righteousness, which under the cover of great religiosity, finally throws off every aspect of holiness, and swings to lawlessness, resulting in a damned Babylon in the end. “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” (Rev. 18:2). “And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.” (Rev. 17:16,17). “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” (Rev. 19:20).

Let’s hear of the right way to God’s blessing from the following testimony of this godly woman:

“This is going to be my salvation testimony, I guess you could say. So a little bit of history.

Growing up I loved going to church. I loved going to church. And it seemed like nobody else did. I felt weird that my cousins and sisters didn’t really like feel church, but would prefer to stay home. But I really did love it. We went Sunday, of course, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. If there was any type of function, any type of church picnic—anything—we were there. And I loved it. I would never tell them that. But I really did. I really loved going to church.

And we went to church for a while, probably from elementary to sophomore year of high school. And then we stopped going. And that really hurt me. Like I really loved going. And when we stopped I was, like, angry about it. You know, I really loved going.

My first, I don’t want to say, ‘encounter with God’, but the first time I ever recognized that I needed God in my life was when I was twelve years old. And we were there at church for a prayer meeting. And so normally you’re down there and your parents are praying. But, we were kind of messing around, playing, goofing off, stuff like that. But the pastor, while the praying was going on, he was reading a scripture in Psalms. And I don’t know which one it was. But I remember him reading Psalms. And one of the verses said, ‘Do not let thy words depart from thy heart.’ And that could have been a snippet of it. I don’t even remember if that was the whole thing. [‘Hear Me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of My mouth.’ (Prov. 5:7)? ‘My son, attend to My words; incline thine ear unto My sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.’ (Prov. 4:20,21)?]

But, as I was kind of half-playing around, and half-praying, that really caught me. And I stopped, and I told God, ‘You know, I know that my life is probably going to go in a way that isn’t pleasing [to] You.’ And I didn’t say that in my prayer. But I was just thinking, ‘Whatever comes about in my life, please don’t let Your words depart from my heart.’ And I really did mean that with everything [with all my heart?].

So, fast-forward. We stopped going to church and then I went off into the Army. And from the time I joined the Army up until I gave my life to Christ, I did not go to church. For as much as I loved it, the love for it kind of wore off. And I stopped going. I didn’t go at all. I mean like I didn’t go for Christmas. I didn’t go for Easter—everybody go to church on Easter. I didn’t go, and I got to a point where I didn’t feel bad about not going to church. I really didn’t go. And maybe two years before I gave my life to Christ I thought about it, ‘I probably should get back in church.’ But I never made the effort.

So when it all [my new birth] came about for me, when it all came about. About three or four months before I actually gave my life to Christ I was feeling a tugging from God, a pulling from God, saying, ‘You know what should be doing and you have to get your life right’, you know. But I was afraid to. I was afraid of the hardships that would come. I never grew up believing that giving your life to Christ would be a breeze. I knew there would be trials and tribulations. I knew the devil would tempt you more so, because you are now living your life according to God’s word. That was hard for me. So I was afraid to, I was afraid to do it.

And, then not only that but I was afraid of as to how it would affect my marriage. You know, I can’t lie. I was afraid as to how it would affect my marriage because my husband and I, we weren’t in church. We never went to church. We hung out together, partied, drank, smoked, dah, dah, dah. You know, did all that stuff. And I didn’t know how [that] me giving my life to Christ would affect my marriage. And then also, my husband felt like the people of the church were hypocrites. He felt like they were hypocrites, they said one thing in church and did something different. He felt that from personal experiences.

So I was afraid that he would think me going to church would change everything. I was afraid that it would change everything. And I didn’t want that. And it came [to] a point where I told God like, ‘I know You are for marriage. I know You are for marriage. And if I don’t give my life to You, it’s because I want to keep my marriage.’ As silly as that may sound, that’s what I felt, you know. ‘I want to keep my marriage.’ And I was like, ‘God You made marriage, You are for marriage. And I don’t want to lose my marriage. So, You know, I can’t do this [giving my life to You] right now.’ And I was afraid of the strain it would cause us. I was afraid that me start going back to church and living my life for God, and reading the Word, and him [her husband] doing things totally different, him living the way we had always had lived…. And I was afraid that it would just cause a distance between us, which would probably eventually lead to, you know, separating away from each other. Not physically, but emotionally. Just like not being there for each other, and that could eventually lead to a divorce, and I was afraid of that. So for a while I put it off.

And then one day, while watching videos, YouTube videos, and I’m sitting there and I’m drinking, and I found myself having to drink more just to even get buzzed. Like, I had to make my drinks a lot stronger just to get buzzed and even still, I didn’t want to drink. I didn’t want to, but I did it because it made me feel good and I wouldn’t have to think about, you know, God telling me to get my life right.

So that night, or early in that morning when I went to go to bed, I just kind of rolled over and was kind of like, ‘OK. Let me just say this little, quick prayer, and go on about my way.’ And then I heard—I don’t know if it was the holy Spirit or God telling me, ‘You know if you’re going to do this, do it right.’ And I got up out the bed, and I got down on the floor. And I just kind of started saying, ‘God, You know I need You.’ And eventually when I quit, [that is,] when I stopped holding on [back?] and tried to predict everything I was going to say, and just let it flow, I confessed every sin that I could ever think of, that I ever committed in my life. And I said, ‘God, You know, I’m miserable. I really am miserable without You.’

Like before I gave my life to Christ, my husband would say, ‘What’s wrong with you? You have an attitude. Like every second you are snapping off on everybody. What’s wrong with you?’ And that was truly it. It was a spiritual warfare. It was a spiritual battle going on within me. And I just thank God that He brought me to that place [of recognizing my condition], because if I never would have got there I probably never would have gave my life to Christ. So, I just thank God for that. He saved me, right there, on that floor, in my room, while I was drunk. He saved me right then. And my life has never been the same.

And I thank God for it. And you know, the fear that I had [for my family] God didn’t let it come to fruition because the next Sunday I went to church. The Sunday after my husband attended. And [now] me, my husband, and our children go to church faithfully. I just thank God for where He has brought us. I thank God for what He’s doing in our life…. And I just pray that if you see this video, if you’re struggling with wanting to give Christ your life and giving Him your heart, it is the very best decision you will ever make.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNw6SRxKf2U  59:55-1:09:42

“Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.” (Prov. 31:10).