Our Father quotes

2) "The Bible is the Revelation of God to our world, telling us of the character we must have in order to reach the paradise of God....At no period of time has man learned all that can be learned of the word of God. There are yet new views of truth to be seen, and much to be understood of the character and attributes of God,--His benevolence, His mercy, His long forbearance, His example of perfect obedience....This is a most valuable study, taxing the intellect, and giving strength to the mental ability." Fundamentals of Christian Education, p 444.

"The knowledge of God...is the knowledge that all who are saved must have. It is the knowledge that works transformation of character. This knowledge, received, will re-create the soul in the image of God. It will impart to the whole being a spiritual power that is divine." Ministry of Healing, p 425.

4) "Sin originated in self-seeking. Lucifer, the covering cherub, desired to be first in Heaven...Therefore he misrepresented God, attributing to Him the desire for self-exaltation...Because God is a God of justice and terrible majesty, Satan caused them to look upon Him as severe and unforgiving." Desire of Ages, p 21.

6) "...the way was prepared for Satan to work through his representatives and hold up God before the people as a revengeful tyrant,--one who plunges all those into hell who do not please Him...Satan knew that if this error should be received, God would be hated by many, instead of being loved and adored..." Early Writings, p 219.

7) "...many would be led to believe that the threatenings of God's word would not be literally fulfilled, for it would be against His character of benevolence and love...Another extreme which Satan has led the people to adopt is entirely to overlook the justice of God, and the threatenings in his word, and to represent Him as being all mercy, so that not one will perish..." Early Writings, p 219.

"We are not to think of God only as a judge and to forget Him as our loving Father. Nothing can do our souls greater harm than this, for our whole spiritual life will be molded by our conceptions of God's character." That I May Know Him, p 262.

11) "We are not to estimate the character of God by the stupendous works of nature alone, but by the simple, lovely life of Jesus, who presented Jehovah as more merciful, more compassionate, more tender, than our earthly parents. Jesus presented the Father as one to whom we could give our confidence and present our wants. When we are in terror of God, and overwhelmed with the thought of His glory and majesty, the Father points us to Christ as His representative. What you see revealed in Jesus, of tenderness, compassion, and love, is the reflection of the attributes of the Father." In Heavenly Places, p 18.

"So full of sympathy and love was His attitude that the poorest was not afraid to come to Him. He was kind to all, easily approached by the most lowly. He went from house to house, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, comforting the mourners, soothing the afflicted, speaking peace to the distressed. He took the little children in His arms and blessed them, and spoke words of hope and comfort to the weary mothers. With unfailing tenderness and gentleness He meet every form of human woe and affliction. Not for Himself, but for others did He labor. He was willing to humble Himself, to deny Himself. He did not seek to distinguish Himself. He was the servant of all. It was His meat and drink to be a comfort and a consolation to others, to gladden the sad and heavy-laden ones with whom He daily came in contact....His love, pure and holy, blessed all who came within the sphere of its influence. His character was absolutely perfect, free from the slightest stain of sin. He came as an expression of the perfect love of God..." Medical Ministry, p 19-20.

12) "Christ alone was able to bear the afflictions of the many....He never bore disease in His own flesh, but He carried the sickness of others. With tenderest sympathy He looked upon the suffering ones who pressed about Him....With a power that never quaked He cast out the evil spirits that possessed mind and body, while the pain of the sufferers thrilled through His whole being. The power of love was in all His healing. He identified His interests with suffering humanity....Thus He expressed His love for the children of men. His miracles were part of His mission." That I May Know Him, p 48.

13) "Christ came to reveal God to the world as a God of love, full of mercy, tenderness, and compassion. The thick darkness with which Satan had endeavored to enshroud the throne of Deity was swept away by the world's Redeemer, and the Father was again manifest to men as the light of life...Christ declares Himself to be sent into the world as a representative of the Father. In His nobility of character, in His mercy and tender pity, in His love and goodness, He stands before us as the embodiment of divine perfection, the image of the invisible God." Testimonies, vol 5, p 738-739.

14) "The plan of our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. It was a revelation of 'the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal.' It was a unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God's throne. From the beginning, God and Christ knew of the apostasy of Satan , and of the fall of man through the deceptive power of the apostate. God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence and made provision to meet the terrible emergency. So great was His love for the world, that He covenanted to give His only begotten Son, 'that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'" Desire of Ages, p 20-21.

15) "He (God) has worlds upon worlds that give Him divine honor, and heaven and all the universe would have been just as happy if He had left this world to perish..." Review and Herald, March 9, 1886 (vol 2, p 26).

16) "Man through sin has been severed from the life of God....The bewitching power of Satan is upon him. All the ingenious subterfuges the devil can suggest are presented to his mind to prevent every good impulse. Every faculty and power given him of God has been used as a weapon against the divine Benefactor. So, although He loves him, God cannot safely impart to him the gifts and blessings He desires to bestow.

"But God will not be defeated by Satan....Justice demands that sin be not merely pardoned, but the death penalty must be executed. God, in the gift of His only-begotten Son, met both these requirements. By dying in man's stead, Christ exhausted the penalty and provided a pardon....He sent His Son into the world, that through His taking the human form and nature, humanity and divinity combined in Him would elevate man in the scale of moral value with God. There is no other way for man's salvation." Selected Messages, book 1, p 340-341.

17) "In redemption God has revealed His love in sacrifice, a sacrifice so broad and deep and high that it is immeasurable ....When Adams's sin plunged the race into hopeless misery, God might have treated them as sinners deserved to be treated. He might have commanded the angels of Heaven to pour out upon our world the vials of His wrath. He might have removed this dark blot from His universe. But He did not do this. Instead of banishing them from His presence, He came still nearer to the fallen race. He gave His Son to become bone of our bone and flesh or our flesh....He clothed His divine nature with the garb of humanity, and demonstrated before the heavenly universe, before the unfallen world, how much God loves the children of men. The gift of God to man is beyond all computation. Nothing was withheld. God would not permit it to be said that He could have done more or revealed to humanity a greater measure of love. In the gift of Christ He gave all heaven." Manuscript 21, 1900.

18) "The Lord could have cut off the sinner, and utterly destroyed him; but the costlier plan was chosen. In His great love He provides hope for the hopeless, giving His only-begotten Son to bear the sins of the world. And since He has poured out all heaven in that one rich gift, He will withhold from man no needed aid that he may take the cup of salvation, and become an heir of God, joint heir with Christ." Selected Messages, book 1, p 323.

"John cannot find adequate words to describe the amazing love of God to sinful man, but he calls upon all to behold the love of God revealed in the gift of His only begotten Son. Through the perfection of the sacrifice given for the guilty race, those who believe in Christ...may be saved from eternal ruin....He was willing to step down and submit to insult, mockery, suffering, pain, and death, in order to answer the claims of the immutable law of God, and made a way of escape for the transgressor by His death and righteousness....

"He (Christ) was willing to step down...and submit to insult, mockery, suffering, pain, and death, in order to answer the claims of the immutable law of God, and make a way of escape for the transgressor by His death and righteousness. This was the work which His Father gave Him to do...Every human being should look to Heaven with reverence and gratitude, and exclaim with amazement, 'Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us." That I May Know Him, p 60.

19) "The glorious plan of man's salvation was brought about through the infinite love of God the Father. In this divine plan is seen the most marvelous manifestation of the love of God to the fallen race. Such love as is manifested in the gift of God's beloved Son amazed the holy angels.... Christ consented to die in the sinner's stead, that man, by a life of obedience, might escape the penalty of the law of God....In Christ was united the human and the divine." Testimonies, vol 2, p 200-201.

21) "God has adopted human nature in the person of His son, and has carried the same into the highest heaven....Heaven is enshrined in humanity, and humanity is enfolded in the bosom of Infinite Love." Desire of Ages, p 25-26.

"Christ was hid in God, and God stood revealed to the world in the character of His Son....Love for a lost world was manifested every day, in every act of His life....In Christ the light and love of God were manifested in human nature." That I May Know Him, p 288.

"The love of God was Christ's theme when speaking of His mission and His work....Well did the disciples understand this love as they saw their Saviour enduring shame, reproach, doubt, and betrayal, as they saw His agony in the garden, and His death on Calvary's cross. This is a love the depth of which no sounding can ever fathom. As the disciples comprehended it, as their perception took hold of God's divine compassion, they realized that there is a sense in which the sufferings of the Son were the sufferings of the Father." That I May Know Him, p 69.

"The great condescension on the part of God is a mystery beyond our fathoming. The greatness of the plan (of redemption) cannot be fully comprehended, nor could infinite Wisdom devise a plan that would surpass it....Through this plan the great, the dreadful God can be just, and yet be the justifier of all who believe in Jesus, and who receive Him as their personal Saviour....

"God so loved the world that he gave Himself in Christ to the world to bear the penalty of man's transgressions. God suffered with His son, as the divine being alone could suffer, in order that the world might become reconciled to Him." Review and Herald, October 22, 1895 (vol 3, p 302).

"No line can fathom, no measurement compute, the love revealed by the cross of Calvary....In every pang of anguish endured we behold the throes of paternal love. The Father Himself travailed in the greatness of His almighty love in behalf of a world perishing in sin. By the sacrifice that has been made, the gift of eternal life has been placed within the reach of every son and daughter of Adam." That I May Know Him, p 369.

27) "Christ submitted to crucifixion, although the heavenly host could have delivered Him. The angels suffered with Christ. God Himself was crucified with Christ; for Christ was one with the Father." Bible Commentary, vol 5, p 1108, col 2.

28) "We have an inexhaustible storehouse, an ocean of love in the God of our salvation. He has placed in the hands of Christ all the treasures of the heavenly resources and says, 'All these are for man, in order to convince fallen, sinful man of My love...and that for his happiness I am working and will work.' The happiness of man is to know God and Jesus Christ who He hath sent. It was to make this vast treasure house of all good available that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He sprinkled every gift with His own blood....The gift to our world in sending Jesus is an exhibition of His grace which God Himself cannot surpass....But one thing is impossible with God--the power of eclipsing the greatness of His gift in showing His love for fallen man." That I May Know Him, p 338.

31) "When you look at the cross of Calvary you cannot doubt God's love or His willingness to save. He has worlds upon worlds that give Him divine honor, and Heaven and all the universe would have been just as happy if He had left this world to perish; but so great was His love for the fallen race that He gave his own dear Son to die that they might be redeemed from eternal death. As we see the care, the love, that God had for us, let us respond to it; let us give to Jesus all the powers of our being, fighting manfully the battles of the Lord." Review and Herald, March 9, 1886 (vol 2, p 26).

"The parable of the straying sheep should be treasured...The divine Shepherd leaves the ninety and nine, and goes out into the wilderness to seek the one that is lost....This speck of a world was the scene of the incarnation and suffering of the Son of God. Christ did not go to the world's unfallen, but He came to this world, all seared and marred with the curse....We must bear in mind the great joy, manifested by the Shepherd at the recovery of the lost....And all Heaven echoes the note of joy. The Father Himself joys over the rescued one with singing." Testimonies, vol 6, p 124-125.


	"LET THERE BE LIGHT" Ministries home \| Sermon Quotes OUR HEAVENLY FATHER quotes 1) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. 2) "The Bible is the Revelation of God to our world, telling us of the character we must have in order to reach the paradise of God....At no period of time has man learned all that can be learned of the word of God. There are yet new views of truth to be seen, and much to be understood of the character and attributes of God,--His benevolence, His mercy, His long forbearance, His example of perfect obedience....This is a most valuable study, taxing the intellect, and giving strength to the mental ability." Fundamentals of Christian Education, p 444. "The knowledge of God...is the knowledge that all who are saved must have. It is the knowledge that works transformation of character. This knowledge, received, will re-create the soul in the image of God. It will impart to the whole being a spiritual power that is divine." Ministry of Healing, p 425. 3) "Satan is to work to misrepresent the character of God, that he may 'seduce, if possible the very elect.'" Testimonies, vol 5, p 746. 4) "Sin originated in self-seeking. Lucifer, the covering cherub, desired to be first in Heaven...Therefore he misrepresented God, attributing to Him the desire for self-exaltation...Because God is a God of justice and terrible majesty, Satan caused them to look upon Him as severe and unforgiving." Desire of Ages, p 21. 5) "Thousands have a false conception of God and his attributes." Testimonies, vol 5, p 174. 6) "...the way was prepared for Satan to work through his representatives and hold up God before the people as a revengeful tyrant,--one who plunges all those into hell who do not please Him...Satan knew that if this error should be received, God would be hated by many, instead of being loved and adored..." Early Writings, p 219. 7) "...many would be led to believe that the threatenings of God's word would not be literally fulfilled, for it would be against His character of benevolence and love...Another extreme which Satan has led the people to adopt is entirely to overlook the justice of God, and the threatenings in his word, and to represent Him as being all mercy, so that not one will perish..." Early Writings, p 219. 8) "...spiritualism assents that...'God doth not condemn.'" Sons and Daughters of God, p 46. 9) "It is the darkness of misapprehension of God that is enshrouding the world. Men are losing their knowledge of His character. It has been misunderstood and misinterpreted." Christ's Object Lessons, p 415. "We are not to think of God only as a judge and to forget Him as our loving Father. Nothing can do our souls greater harm than this, for our whole spiritual life will be molded by our conceptions of God's character." That I May Know Him, p 262. 10) "Jesus came to represent the character of God..." That I May Know Him, p 288. "The Lord Jesus came to strengthen every earnest seeker for truth, He came to reveal the Father." Sons and Daughters of God, p 125. 11) "We are not to estimate the character of God by the stupendous works of nature alone, but by the simple, lovely life of Jesus, who presented Jehovah as more merciful, more compassionate, more tender, than our earthly parents. Jesus presented the Father as one to whom we could give our confidence and present our wants. When we are in terror of God, and overwhelmed with the thought of His glory and majesty, the Father points us to Christ as His representative. What you see revealed in Jesus, of tenderness, compassion, and love, is the reflection of the attributes of the Father." In Heavenly Places, p 18. "Tender, compassionate, sympathetic, ever considerate of others, He represented the character of God..." Testimonies, vol 8, p 286. "So full of sympathy and love was His attitude that the poorest was not afraid to come to Him. He was kind to all, easily approached by the most lowly. He went from house to house, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, comforting the mourners, soothing the afflicted, speaking peace to the distressed. He took the little children in His arms and blessed them, and spoke words of hope and comfort to the weary mothers. With unfailing tenderness and gentleness He meet every form of human woe and affliction. Not for Himself, but for others did He labor. He was willing to humble Himself, to deny Himself. He did not seek to distinguish Himself. He was the servant of all. It was His meat and drink to be a comfort and a consolation to others, to gladden the sad and heavy-laden ones with whom He daily came in contact....His love, pure and holy, blessed all who came within the sphere of its influence. His character was absolutely perfect, free from the slightest stain of sin. He came as an expression of the perfect love of God..." Medical Ministry, p 19-20. 12) "Christ alone was able to bear the afflictions of the many....He never bore disease in His own flesh, but He carried the sickness of others. With tenderest sympathy He looked upon the suffering ones who pressed about Him....With a power that never quaked He cast out the evil spirits that possessed mind and body, while the pain of the sufferers thrilled through His whole being. The power of love was in all His healing. He identified His interests with suffering humanity....Thus He expressed His love for the children of men. His miracles were part of His mission." That I May Know Him, p 48. 13) "Christ came to reveal God to the world as a God of love, full of mercy, tenderness, and compassion. The thick darkness with which Satan had endeavored to enshroud the throne of Deity was swept away by the world's Redeemer, and the Father was again manifest to men as the light of life...Christ declares Himself to be sent into the world as a representative of the Father. In His nobility of character, in His mercy and tender pity, in His love and goodness, He stands before us as the embodiment of divine perfection, the image of the invisible God." Testimonies, vol 5, p 738-739. 14) "The plan of our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. It was a revelation of 'the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal.' It was a unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God's throne. From the beginning, God and Christ knew of the apostasy of Satan , and of the fall of man through the deceptive power of the apostate. God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence and made provision to meet the terrible emergency. So great was His love for the world, that He covenanted to give His only begotten Son, 'that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'" Desire of Ages, p 20-21. 15) "He (God) has worlds upon worlds that give Him divine honor, and heaven and all the universe would have been just as happy if He had left this world to perish..." Review and Herald, March 9, 1886 (vol 2, p 26). 16) "Man through sin has been severed from the life of God....The bewitching power of Satan is upon him. All the ingenious subterfuges the devil can suggest are presented to his mind to prevent every good impulse. Every faculty and power given him of God has been used as a weapon against the divine Benefactor. So, although He loves him, God cannot safely impart to him the gifts and blessings He desires to bestow. "But God will not be defeated by Satan....Justice demands that sin be not merely pardoned, but the death penalty must be executed. God, in the gift of His only-begotten Son, met both these requirements. By dying in man's stead, Christ exhausted the penalty and provided a pardon....He sent His Son into the world, that through His taking the human form and nature, humanity and divinity combined in Him would elevate man in the scale of moral value with God. There is no other way for man's salvation." Selected Messages, book 1, p 340-341. 17) "In redemption God has revealed His love in sacrifice, a sacrifice so broad and deep and high that it is immeasurable ....When Adams's sin plunged the race into hopeless misery, God might have treated them as sinners deserved to be treated. He might have commanded the angels of Heaven to pour out upon our world the vials of His wrath. He might have removed this dark blot from His universe. But He did not do this. Instead of banishing them from His presence, He came still nearer to the fallen race. He gave His Son to become bone of our bone and flesh or our flesh....He clothed His divine nature with the garb of humanity, and demonstrated before the heavenly universe, before the unfallen world, how much God loves the children of men. The gift of God to man is beyond all computation. Nothing was withheld. God would not permit it to be said that He could have done more or revealed to humanity a greater measure of love. In the gift of Christ He gave all heaven." Manuscript 21, 1900. "The heart of God yearns over His earthly children with a love stronger than death. In giving up His son, He has poured out to us all heaven in one gift." Steps to Christ, p 21. 18) "The Lord could have cut off the sinner, and utterly destroyed him; but the costlier plan was chosen. In His great love He provides hope for the hopeless, giving His only-begotten Son to bear the sins of the world. And since He has poured out all heaven in that one rich gift, He will withhold from man no needed aid that he may take the cup of salvation, and become an heir of God, joint heir with Christ." Selected Messages, book 1, p 323. "John cannot find adequate words to describe the amazing love of God to sinful man, but he calls upon all to behold the love of God revealed in the gift of His only begotten Son. Through the perfection of the sacrifice given for the guilty race, those who believe in Christ...may be saved from eternal ruin....He was willing to step down and submit to insult, mockery, suffering, pain, and death, in order to answer the claims of the immutable law of God, and made a way of escape for the transgressor by His death and righteousness.... "He (Christ) was willing to step down...and submit to insult, mockery, suffering, pain, and death, in order to answer the claims of the immutable law of God, and make a way of escape for the transgressor by His death and righteousness. This was the work which His Father gave Him to do...Every human being should look to Heaven with reverence and gratitude, and exclaim with amazement, 'Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us." That I May Know Him, p 60. 19) "The glorious plan of man's salvation was brought about through the infinite love of God the Father. In this divine plan is seen the most marvelous manifestation of the love of God to the fallen race. Such love as is manifested in the gift of God's beloved Son amazed the holy angels.... Christ consented to die in the sinner's stead, that man, by a life of obedience, might escape the penalty of the law of God....In Christ was united the human and the divine." Testimonies, vol 2, p 200-201. 20) "Christ is the connecting link between God and man." In Heavenly Places, p 77-78. "...God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself..." 2 Corinthians 5:19. 21) "God has adopted human nature in the person of His son, and has carried the same into the highest heaven....Heaven is enshrined in humanity, and humanity is enfolded in the bosom of Infinite Love." Desire of Ages, p 25-26. 22) "God gave Himself in His Son that He might have the joy of receiving back the sheep that was lost." Christ's Object Lessons, p 191. "Because divinity alone could be efficacious in the restoration of man from the poisonous bruise of the serpent, God Himself, in His only begotten Son, assumed human nature..." That I May Know Him, p 35. 23) "God was to be manifest in Christ, 'reconciling the world unto himself." Patriarchs and Prophets, p 64. "Christ came to this world as the expression of the very heart and mind and nature and character of God." Medical Ministry, p 19. "Christ was hid in God, and God stood revealed to the world in the character of His Son....Love for a lost world was manifested every day, in every act of His life....In Christ the light and love of God were manifested in human nature." That I May Know Him, p 288. "God in human form has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel..." Testimonies, vol 6, p 230. "As a personal being, God has revealed Himself in His Son." Testimonies, vol 8, p 265. "Christ came to earth as God in the guise of humanity." Bible Commentary, vol 6, p 1053, col 1. 24) "You who feel the most unworthy, fear not to commit your case to God. When He (Father) gave Himself in Christ for the sin of the world, He undertook the case of every soul." Christ's Object Lessons, p 174. 25) "Justice demanded the sufferings of man; but Christ rendered the sufferings of a God." Bible Commentary, vol 7, p 913, col 1. "The love of God was Christ's theme when speaking of His mission and His work....Well did the disciples understand this love as they saw their Saviour enduring shame, reproach, doubt, and betrayal, as they saw His agony in the garden, and His death on Calvary's cross. This is a love the depth of which no sounding can ever fathom. As the disciples comprehended it, as their perception took hold of God's divine compassion, they realized that there is a sense in which the sufferings of the Son were the sufferings of the Father." That I May Know Him, p 69. "The great condescension on the part of God is a mystery beyond our fathoming. The greatness of the plan (of redemption) cannot be fully comprehended, nor could infinite Wisdom devise a plan that would surpass it....Through this plan the great, the dreadful God can be just, and yet be the justifier of all who believe in Jesus, and who receive Him as their personal Saviour.... "God so loved the world that he gave Himself in Christ to the world to bear the penalty of man's transgressions. God suffered with His son, as the divine being alone could suffer, in order that the world might become reconciled to Him." Review and Herald, October 22, 1895 (vol 3, p 302). 26) "'In Him (Christ) dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily' (Colossians 2:9). Men need to understand that Deity suffered and sank under the agonies of Calvary." That I May Know Him, p 70. "No line can fathom, no measurement compute, the love revealed by the cross of Calvary....In every pang of anguish endured we behold the throes of paternal love. The Father Himself travailed in the greatness of His almighty love in behalf of a world perishing in sin. By the sacrifice that has been made, the gift of eternal life has been placed within the reach of every son and daughter of Adam." That I May Know Him, p 369. 27) "Christ submitted to crucifixion, although the heavenly host could have delivered Him. The angels suffered with Christ. God Himself was crucified with Christ; for Christ was one with the Father." Bible Commentary, vol 5, p 1108, col 2. 28) "We have an inexhaustible storehouse, an ocean of love in the God of our salvation. He has placed in the hands of Christ all the treasures of the heavenly resources and says, 'All these are for man, in order to convince fallen, sinful man of My love...and that for his happiness I am working and will work.' The happiness of man is to know God and Jesus Christ who He hath sent. It was to make this vast treasure house of all good available that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He sprinkled every gift with His own blood....The gift to our world in sending Jesus is an exhibition of His grace which God Himself cannot surpass....But one thing is impossible with God--the power of eclipsing the greatness of His gift in showing His love for fallen man." That I May Know Him, p 338. 29) "Behold, what manner of love which the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God..." 1 John 3:1. 30) "But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." Luke 15:20. 31) "When you look at the cross of Calvary you cannot doubt God's love or His willingness to save. He has worlds upon worlds that give Him divine honor, and Heaven and all the universe would have been just as happy if He had left this world to perish; but so great was His love for the fallen race that He gave his own dear Son to die that they might be redeemed from eternal death. As we see the care, the love, that God had for us, let us respond to it; let us give to Jesus all the powers of our being, fighting manfully the battles of the Lord." Review and Herald, March 9, 1886 (vol 2, p 26). 32) "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing." Zephaniah 3:17. "The parable of the straying sheep should be treasured...The divine Shepherd leaves the ninety and nine, and goes out into the wilderness to seek the one that is lost....This speck of a world was the scene of the incarnation and suffering of the Son of God. Christ did not go to the world's unfallen, but He came to this world, all seared and marred with the curse....We must bear in mind the great joy, manifested by the Shepherd at the recovery of the lost....And all Heaven echoes the note of joy. The Father Himself joys over the rescued one with singing." Testimonies, vol 6, p 124-125.