Some time ago I delivered a sermon dealing with being balanced Christians, because just about everywhere I looked it seemed like things were unbalanced, and as far as I can tell, things haven’t gotten any better over the years, and probably worse; in fact, if I read prophecy correctly it’s only going to get worse, so I thought it would be a good idea to dust this subject off once again.

I’d like to begin with the verse of scripture that impressed this subject upon my mind several years ago, and it’s found in 2 Corinthians 3:18, and as we read I want you to notice that the word “glory” is synonymous with character. You can read that in The Youth’s Instructor, October 23, 1902 and also in Christ’s Object Lessons, page 414.

2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with open face (or with an unveiled face so we can see, and not like the Jews whose hearts are veiled to this day) But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass (or a reflection in a mirror, which happens at conversion) the glory (or the character) of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory (or from one stage of character development to another), even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

In other words, the purpose of the plan of redemption is to restore in us the image of the Lord as we behold Him, or spend time with Him. As we behold Him our characters will be changed to reflect His character from one stage to another until we reflect His character fully. And you already know what’s going to happen when God has a people like that, He’s coming back! So how important is it that we form a part of that privileged group? It’s eternally important, isn’t it? So, being changed into the Lord’s image is a progressive work as we advance in character development, and it all comes through the operation of the Holy Spirit.

In Patriarchs and Prophets, page 91 it says, “It is a law of the mind that by beholding we become changed.” Do you suppose this statement still holds true? Absolutely! That would mean then that this “law of the mind” can’t be defied; it can’t be resisted; we cannot refuse to obey this law; we can’t change it any more than we can change the law of gravity. We will become like that which we focus our attention upon. We will become like those we choose to hang around. We will be changed into that which we chose to look at and that which we chose to listen to―guaranteed! And so the choice is ours, isn’t it? The power to be changed into the image of the Lord comes through the Spirit, but we have to choose to avail ourselves of it, because the God of heaven is not a God of force. He gives us the opportunity to serve Him, but we have to choose to do so, and if we choose, then He can work in us both to will and to do according to His good pleasure, and we’ll be changed in the process.

Now I know we can’t help being around, or listening to, or watching certain things, because we live in a world of good and evil; with other people who may not see things as we do, but we do choose who our close associations will be, we do choose what we listen to and watch when no one else is around. And of course, this truth can have a positive or a negative effect upon our characters depending on what we behold. And please don’t think you’re strong enough to resist this law of the mind and that you can disregard even one of God’s principles and keep from suffering the consequences, because you can’t, no one can, not even if you have the strongest willpower of anyone on earth, it’s just not possible. Your own willpower cannot change your heart, and that’s what needs changing if we’re going to reflect the character of Jesus. Unless we have heart obedience, we will never develop a character like Christ.

In The Desire of Ages, page 668 it says, “All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us.” And isn’t that what we want? Sure it is.

In The Great Controversy, page 555 it says, “The mind gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is allowed to dwell.  It becomes assimilated to that which it is accustomed to love and reverence.”

Also in Testimonies for the Church, volume 2, page 478 it says, “The mind of a man or woman does not come down in a moment from purity and holiness to depravity, corruption, and crime. It takes time to transform the human to the divine, or to degrade those formed in the image of God to the brutal or the satanic.”

So, it’s clear that the human mind can go either way, and that it takes some time for the process to develop regardless of which direction it goes. When you hear on the news of someone who committed a terrible crime, you can know that that person has been in a downward spiral for some time. Perhaps everyone thought he or she was a normal well adjusted person, but they were most assuredly doing something in secret before they committed their crime openly. And we should understand also that we can’t just put our character development in neutral and set the parking brake. If we try that we’re going down.

Notice these next few one liners. Testimonies for the Church, volume 4 page 344 “Indecision soon becomes decision in the wrong direction.”

Counsels on Health, page 179 “The human mind will have action. If it is not active in the right direction, it will be active in the wrong.”

1888 Materials, page 637, “God will balance the mind if it is susceptible for the influence of the Spirit of God; if it is not, then it will decide on the other side.”

So, if we don’t make a conscious choice to follow God, we follow the devil by default, it’s just that simple. If we neglect to submit to the Lord, we automatically yield to the powers of darkness. We don’t have several options to chose from, just two! We will serve God or serve the devil. Those are our two options, and so it’s not complicated.

Sometimes the best way to find out what we are supposed to be like is to find out what we are not supposed to be like, that’s one of the angles from which I would like to approach this subject this morning. What we’re going to do is look at several more statements from the Spirit of Prophecy and a couple verses in the Bible about how an unbalanced mind is developed, and by doing this we will also discover how to be balanced Christians, and balance, or the lack thereof, has everything to do with being changed into the image of Christ or not. But before we go any farther, I would like to define the word balance.

There are several definitions of the word, but the one that best fits the context of what we’re studying this morning is as follows: Balance is “An impartial  state of mind, in deliberating; or a just estimate of the reasons and arguments on both sides of a question; to reason or to compare.”

For example, could there be something in particular you believe that is based on an incomplete investigation of information on both sides of a question? If so, then the chances are pretty good that you can become unbalanced. Do you have a teachable spirit? If not, then again, the chances are pretty good that you can become unbalanced. Why do you believe what you believe? How have you come to your conclusions? Are you sure that what you believe is believed because you have taken the time to honestly and “impartially” look at both sides of a particular issue. Do you have preconceived ideas and opinions, and who doesn’t? or maybe even a little pride that may keep you from taking the balanced approach?

Whenever someone disagrees with me or challenges me on a position I’ve taken, I always try to be conscious of the fact that I could be wrong, and I’ll do my best to take another look at the subject from their point of view to see if it makes sense, and there have been a few times when I have been wrong and have had to change my mind. And I’ll have to admit that it’s not easy to do. That is where having a humble and teachable spirit comes in, and this is what we need if we are going to be balanced Christians and not get off on some tangent, or rush madly on to perdition because we have pride of opinion.

Testimonies for the Church, Volume 3, page 255, “God does not propose to remove all occasion for unbelief. He gives evidence, which must be carefully investigated with a humble mind and a teachable spirit, and all should decide from the weight of evidence.”

And you know what? If we do that, we will have a much better chance of having a proper understanding of whatever subject we’re studying and we won’t become unbalanced.

There’s one thing we know for sure; God only has one truth on whatever subject you may be studying, but at the same time we also know there are many different ideas and views about certain subjects. A correct understanding of some subjects are salvational and some are not, but even with the ones that are not, you will either have a correct and an incorrect understanding. You can pick whatever subject you like, and you’re understanding is either going to be right or wrong, and the rightness or wrongness will depend in a large degree upon how in depth your study has been, and realizing too that there are some things that are beyond our ability to comprehend, and on those subjects, silence is golden.

In Manuscript Releases, Volume 21, page 147 it says, “The enemy always works through those of unbalanced minds and imperfect characters.”

And so, we can see how balance or the lack thereof, is related to character. “The enemy always works through those of unbalanced minds and imperfect characters.” No exceptions! Always! That means then that the enemy cannot work through one who has a balanced mind and the character of Christ. He cannot! So we see how important balance is; and when an unbalanced mind is joined to religion, it is always followed by fanaticism and/or persecution, or in the case of the terrorist attacks we’ve seen lately from radical Islam, it ends with massive casualties and untold carnage.  Therefore we better know which of the two great powers is working in and through us or we will find ourselves working for the enemy in some capacity.

So let’s see what else the Spirit of Prophecy has to say about the unbalanced mind, and this next one may surprise you.

Sons and Daughters of God, page 73, “Flattery is an art by which Satan lies in wait to deceive and to puff up the human agent with high thoughts of himself. . . . Praise, flattery, and indulgence have done more toward leading precious souls into false paths, than any other art that Satan has devised. Flattery is a part of the world’s policy, but it is no part of Christ’s policy. Through flattery poor human beings, full of frailty and infirmities, come to think that they are efficient and worthy, and become puffed up in their fleshly mind. They become intoxicated with the idea that they possess ability beyond what they do have, and their religious experience becomes unbalanced. Unless in the providence of God they shall be turned from these deceptions, and become converted, and learn the a-b-c of religion in the school of Christ, they will lose their souls.”

Flattery is defined as, “False praise; or praise which gratifies self-love.” And doesn’t that fit perfectly today with this selfie generation? I don’t think any more has to be said about that because it’s everywhere you look today. If there ever was a “Me generation”, it’s the current one for sure, and a verse of scripture that would go along with this thought is Colossians 2:8:

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments (or the principles) of the world, and not after Christ.”

The words “Vain deceit” have to do with having a high opinion of yourself and your own accomplishments.

After the church service someone might say, “That was a wonderful sermon pastor.” And the pastor should say, “Praise God, because He’s the one who gets all the credit; it’s His Word and His Spirit, I’m just the messenger boy.” But too many times the response from the pastor is simply, “Oh thank you”, thinking to himself as he sticks his thumbs under his suspenders, “Yes that was a wonderful sermon, wasn’t it?” And the one praising the pastor, and the pastor himself do not realize what damage flattery is doing to their own souls.

We must be very careful not to flatter or praise another human being for the gifts and talents God has given to an individual. The world is full of this vain deceit today, and we don’t want to be responsible for helping a person think more highly of himself than he ought. And especially is this true of children that are being praised almost continually, because it sets them up as adults to think they’re special above everyone else. There’s nothing wrong with encouraging a child by saying, good job for a job well done, but this constant praise to make a child feel special when they don’t deserve it, is detrimental to their souls.

Now notice the next couple statements, they’re in a different category, but also contribute to an unbalanced mind.

Counsels on Diet and Foods, page 151, and you probably already know where I’m going when reading from a book like this, but please don’t close your mind if God asks you to change what you put in your mouth. Page 151, “Satan has overcome his millions by tempting them to the indulgence of appetite. Through the gratification of the taste, the nervous system becomes excited and the brainpower enfeebled, making it impossible to think calmly or rationally. The mind is unbalanced. Its higher, nobler faculties are perverted to serve animal lust, and the sacred, eternal interests are not regarded.”

You see, the counsel we’ve been given on diet is not primarily to help us live longer than others, if that happens it’s just a fringe benefit. The primary reason is to have a balanced mind so we can make right decisions and serve our creator instead of our fallen flesh, and I don’t know about you, but I need all the help I can get to keep my mind on the right track.

Here’s another one on page 177, “Your health is greatly injured by over-eating, and eating at improper times. This causes a determination (that is a decreased flow) of blood to the brain (That is why you get sleepy after a big meal). The mind becomes confused, and you have not the proper control of yourself. You appear like a man whose mind is unbalanced.”

What do you think happens at many church business meetings when you have a bunch of people who don’t have control of their appetite making important decisions about how to advance God’s cause? You have unbalanced minds making decisions that are out of harmony with God’s will, don’t you? How can it be otherwise?

And wouldn’t the same hold true with those who have the responsibility of running the nation and making our laws? Is it any wonder, according to Bible prophecy, that one day soon an oppressive law will be enacted and God’s people persecuted for keeping the seventh-day Sabbath? Intemperance unbalances the mind, and unbalanced minds then make laws that restrict religious liberty, and people have no clue that their diet is a major cause. So, if you want a balanced mind, you must eat a good balanced diet! Does that make sense? And not too much even of that!

Now these next few statements from Counsels on Diet and Foods are basically a reminder of things we should already know, but just encase you may have forgotten, or never knew, or have slipped into a bad habit, I’ll read them to you.

Pages 422, 423, “Through the use of stimulants (speaking of things like coffee & tea), the whole system suffers. The nerves are unbalanced, the liver is morbid in its action (that is, susceptible to disease), the quality and circulation of the blood are affected, and the skin becomes inactive and sallow. The mind, too, is injured. The immediate influence of these stimulants is to excite the brain to undue activity, only to leave it weaker and less capable of exertion. The aftereffect is prostration, not only mental and physical, but moral. As a result we see nervous men and women, of unsound judgment and unbalanced mind. They often manifest a hasty, impatient, accusing spirit, viewing the faults of others as through a magnifying glass, and utterly unable to discern their own defects.”

Now some people would say, “I drink coffee and my mind is not unbalanced, I don’t know what you are talking about.” Problem is, their mind is unbalanced, they just don’t know it. That’s the deceptive nature of stimulants; in fact, not only does a person that uses stimulants not realize what it’s doing to their mind, but they actually think it’s helping them to have a sharper mind. We need to understand that the devil is an expert at making people believe the opposite of what’s really true, he proved that in the Garden of Eden when the serpent directly contradicted what God said would happen if Adam and Eve should disobey. And so, he’s good at it.

Counsels on Diet and Foods, Page 434, “Some are never really drunk, but are always under the influence of cider or fermented wine. They are feverish, unbalanced in mind, not really delirious, but in fully as bad a condition; for all the noble powers of the mind are perverted.”

Christian Temperance & Bible Hygiene, pages 79, 80, “Since a healthy state of mind (that would be balanced mind) depends upon the normal condition of the vital forces, what care should be exercised that neither stimulants nor narcotics be used. Yet we see that a large number of those who profess to be Christians are using tobacco.” How interesting.

I found the following definition of tobacco in Webster’s Dictionary: “As a medicine, it is narcotic. Tobacco has a strong disagreeable smell, and an acrid (bitter) taste. When first used it sometimes occasions vomiting; but the practice of using it in any form, soon conquers distaste, and forms a relish for it that is strong and almost unconquerable.”

People that smoke don’t realize that tobacco is actually a narcotic. All you have to do is talk to someone who smokes or has smoked in the past and they will tell you that it is very difficult to quit once a relish for it is acquired. Most people start smoking or chewing when they’re young because they think it’s cool, so they force themselves to accept it against their body’s own initial rejection of it, and then they’re hooked. It’s amazing what we’re willing to do to ourselves to gain acceptance from others, isn’t it? And these same things can be said of alcohol. I know this first hand because I come from a family of smokers and drinkers and it has totally ruined their families and lives, and if the Lord hadn’t gotten hold of me, I have no doubt that I would already be dead like all of my siblings except one, and she suffers with COPD today because of smoking and is probably not long for this world.

If you’re a young person you should take these things to heart before you acquire a habit that will ruin your health and bar your entrance to the Holy City. And not only that, but smoking has become a very expensive habit that costs the average smoker between $200.00 -$300.00 every month, and besides ruining your health, it’s not being a good steward of the money the Lord has entrusted you with. And usually it’s these same people that say they can’t afford to return a faithful tithe to the Lord when that subject comes up. And here’s something else that can unbalance the mind:

Education, page 209, “By pursuing one line of thought exclusively, the mind often becomes unbalanced. But every faculty may be safely exercised if the mental and physical powers are equally taxed and the subjects of thought are varied.”

Now put this together with this next statement and you will get a true picture of the problems associated with those that pursue one line of thought exclusively.

Testimonies for the Church, Volume 3, pages 33, 34 “We see monomaniacs all over the country.  They are frequently sane upon every subject but one. . . There are some who concentrate their minds upon one subject to the exclusion of others which may be of equal importance.  They are one-idea men.”

Have you ever known any one-idea men? This is what leads to fanaticism and extremes. Many times those that think they are experts on a certain subject because they have spent years studying and writing and giving discourses about it have really become unbalanced, why? Because their whole lives have been given to one subject for so long, to the exclusion of other equally important subjects, that they become nearly insane. This is one of the problems with having a degree where a person spends upwards of 5-10 years, and even longer, studying one subject, and usually in schools that reject the Bible. There is danger of becoming unbalanced in mind when this is done, and people like this are likely to think more of themselves than they should and easily succumb to the flattery and praise we spoke of earlier. And do you know what will keep us from going to extremes, besides what we already read?

Listen to what it says in the 1888 Materials, page 671, “Let not anyone be afraid of going to extremes while he is a close student of the Word, humbling the soul at every step.”

A close student of the word means when you study a certain subject you go to the bottom of that subject before you draw your conclusions, and what I mean by that is that you exhaust all the inspired information you can find on that subject before you can be confident you have the truth, realizing even then that you must maintain a humble and teachable spirit and be willing to change your mind if new light comes to you. Sometimes, even though we have been careful students of the word, we can come to wrong conclusions because of preconceived ideas that taint our thinking, but we will not go to extremes if we are close students that have a humble soul.

The Review and Herald, October 21, 1884 says, “Let there be no frivolous or superficial interpretations of the Scriptures, but let each be prepared to go to the bottom of the subject presented.”

So, if we study the Bible carefully, and with a teachable spirit, we will never go to extremes or become fanatical on any subject.

Now, before we close, I want to mention a few problem areas I’ve seen develop in some of the churches I’ve attended over the past several years, and also in the lives of individuals that have become unbalanced. Some of the things I’m about to mention may sound a little crazy to you, but then again, maybe not if you are unbalanced in one of the areas I’m about to mention.

I’ve known of those who were willing to withhold their fellowship from others they were worshipping with because the rest of the folks would not accept what they considered all important truth. I knew of one individual that believed Canola oil should never be used, only cold pressed virgin olive oil, and others went so far as to say that no oil at all should be used. Some said the use of Microwave ovens will kill you and you should never use a cell phone because they will give you brain cancer.  Others say you should never wear clothes that have a combination of different materials; that woman should never cut their hair and never wear pants; that both men and woman must always cover their limbs, even in the hottest weather.

I remember one individual that was a member of the church I was pastoring at the time who refused to come to church because there was one person that brought a New King James Bible instead of an Old King James Bible, and that I should straighten him out about Satanic Bible translations, and I told this person that I was not going to start checking Bible translations at the door, which didn’t set too well with him, and he started going elsewhere to church, which was really the best for everyone involved. This is a good example of fanaticism from an unbalanced mind, and I knew this to be true because of some other things this man had going on in his life.

Before the incident I just mentioned took place, I was co-pastoring another church where some of the members wanted to disfellowship two people because they preferred a Bible translation other than the Old King James, but before the church could vote to kick them out, these two people asked for their names to be removed from the books and then got up and left on their own, and because of a wrong spirit along with a few other things that were happening at the time, my wife and I had to leave shortly afterward as well, because it became obvious to us that the Holy Spirit was no longer controlling the other church leaders. This whole thing is way more involved than I want to go into today, but suffice it to say that a church can be technically right and even doctrinally correct, but have a wrong spirit that will totally destroy the love we ought to have for one another.

I will say that whenever the subject of Bible translations comes up it can really stir up a hornet’s nest, and we don’t have time to get into that today, but to me it’s a fascinating subject and one that most people I’ve talked to have not studied in depth for themselves, but simply parrot what others have written or said about it, and we need to be careful not to take an extreme position without first going to the bottom of this, or any other subject, as we discussed earlier before we start spouting off about it.

Some reason this way, and they do this with many things, it’s wrong to use sugar, and since obeying the laws of health are just as important as obeying the Ten Commandments, eating sugar must be a sin and if we’re sinning we’ll be lost. And so they preach this wherever they go. But we’ve never been told this by inspiration. It’s true that eating large amounts of sugar should be avoided and that it would be better to eat meat than a lot of sugar, but using a little sugar in moderation is not wrong and is no sin, and to say it is is going beyond what God says, and going beyond what God says is a good definition of fanaticism. If you’re convicted not to use any sugar, don’t; in fact, you better not, because we’re told that if you think your food will hurt you, it most assuredly will, but don’t try to be conscience for everyone else. Read Romans 14:4 if you have questions about things like this.

In fact, let me read you something from Ministry of Healing, page 321, “Some are continually anxious lest their food, however simple and healthful, may hurt them. To these let me say, Do not think that your food will injure you; do not think about it at all. Eat according to your best judgment; and when you have asked the Lord to bless the food for the strengthening of your body, believe that He hears your prayer, and be at rest.”

Now, maybe some of the things I’ve mentioned have pushed one or more of your buttons this morning and maybe you would like to straighten me out about it, but I have to tell you friends, as a minister of the gospel, I have a mandate from God to preach the word, and none of these several things I’ve mentioned this morning constitute sin no matter which side you come down on. Neither do they have anything to do with the message God has given us to take to the world.

I don’t know of anyone I agree with 100% on every subject, but that does not mean that I am a Christian and they’re not, or that I’m right and they’re wrong. When it comes to things like this we simply have to agree to disagree and move on and not make a big deal of it, but when it comes to the pillars of our faith that’s a different story, there we must agree and have unity, but when it comes to preferences or little things that really don’t matter, we need to allow people to have their own opinion.

Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone”, but by what? “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”, and not every word that proceeds from the mouth of some pastor or Internet web site, or some uninspired book with an ax to grind, or from every conspiracy theorist that comes along. Does any of this make sense?

If we want to be balanced Christians we must do what this next statement says in Signs of the Times, May 8, 1884, “If you allow your mind to dwell upon the imperfections and moral deformities of others, you will be changed into the same image. You will become deformed in character, and mentally one-sided and unbalanced. Let the mind dwell upon the perfect life of Christ. If the thoughts are centered upon Him, and the conversation is on heavenly themes, you will be ‘changed into the same image from glory to glory.’”

Now we’ve come full circle from where we started. The important thing is to be changed into the image of the Lord (how?) from glory to glory; from one stage of development to another. One of the reasons we can’t seem to get along is because we’re all at different stages in the process, and we can’t expect everyone to always be on the same page at the same time, and just because we may have differences, we can’t let that stop us from taking the present truths of the third and fourth angels’ messages to the world.

In the 1888 Materials, page 519 it says, “Never can the heart be stirred up with envy, with evil-surmising, with evil reports, but the intellect becomes unbalanced, and cannot decide correctly any controverted point.”

What a powerful statement! Over the years I have seen people who have stirred up envy, with evil surmising, and evil reports and how they became fanatical and extreme in their views, and every one of them I can think has either begun to teach things that are totally off the wall, gone back to an apostate church, or have gone back into the world and have become more worldly than they were before.

You know, when Israel, God’s once chosen people, turned their backs on the truth, they became so wicked and deluded that even the heathen nations that surrounded them were surprised at how evil they had become, and they even taught those heathen more ways to sin than they had known before. That’s what can happen to the one who becomes unbalanced, and unfortunately I’ve seen this scenario play out too many times, and it’s sad, very sad when things could have been so much different.

Notice what it says in the Youth Instructor, January 31, 1895, “Learned men have given lectures in which have been mingled truth and error; but they have unbalanced the minds of those who leaned toward error instead of toward truth.”

Isn’t it much easier to totally unbalance someone who is already a little off balance? Much easier than someone who has both feet planted firmly upon the Word of God.

I’d like to close this morning by saying this: If our mind is unbalanced, especially in these last days when every wind of doctrine is blowing, do you think we’re going to be translated as one of the 144,000 when Jesus returns, or be among those who come up in the first resurrection? The answer is no! If we are going to be ready for the coming of the Lord, we’re going to have to be balanced; we’re going to have to allow the Holy Spirit to change us from glory to glory.

It really is all about balance, and this balance has to be developed before our Saviour comes. This is our probationary time, and there are no second chances. Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.”

During Noah’s day, when the whole world was out of balance, there was a small remnant that were able to walk the straight and narrow path without falling off, and I want to be a part of that small remnant in these last days, don’t you?

Think of a car that has unbalanced wheels on the front. The faster you go, the more the car shakes and bounces, doesn’t it? And not only is it unsafe to drive that way, but who is going to want to take a long trip with you? Nobody! You see brothers and sisters, the vehicle is the church, and the long trip is to heaven, and I want all of us to travel there together in a smooth running vehicle, don’t you? And hopefully we’ll be able to pick up a few passengers along the way.

Think of the person that walks a tight rope, they have a long pole they use to keep their balance, and if they tilt that pole a little too much toward one side or the other, they’re going to fall and lose their life, and that’s not at all unlike the balancing act we must accomplish in order to keep from falling off the straight and narrow path and down into the dark wicked world below, and we’ll surely take others with us if we fall. When the tight rope starts bouncing because of our imbalance, others will be affected.

When we drive down a one-way street, and there’s only one way to heaven and it’s all up hill, there is a ditch on either side, and the safest way to travel that road is to drive in the middle and not see how close we can get to the edge before we get sucked in. The problem is, sometimes we’re forced toward the edge in order to miss those who turn around and start heading down hill, and sometimes there may have to be a head on collision to save those who are behind us from getting damaged.

If you recall, Ellen White had an experience like that in dealing with Doctor Kellogg and his pantheistic theories. Rather than moving over to let him pass by and destroy others on the way down, the Lord said “Meet it”, and meet it she did. And sometimes we will have to do the same.

So, with all these thoughts in mind, let’s do our best to be balanced Christians, and even if we have a head on collision with unbalanced Christians, don’t let them push you off the path that leads to the kingdom of heaven. We may get a few bruises and bumps along the way, but it’s comforting to know that Jesus walked this path before us and He developed a righteous character just like we must do, “From glory to glory.” And if you have any doubts about that read The Desire of Ages, Page 762.

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