“And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin” (Isa. 1:25, KJV).

I grew up in a nominal Seventh-day Adventist home where guilt abounded. “I’m going to be good,” my cousin and I would say. But we drifted away from God.

At 21, I was sincerely, miraculously converted. For 18 years, I struggled with guilt and could never quite “be good enough.” So I drifted away again.

Fast forward to 25 years of being “in and out of the world.” The tender pleading of the Father’s Spirit—wooing, entreating and drawing this wanderer to the Father’s heart of love—awakened my soul to return to God.

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:4, NIV).

In the time we are living, especially with this pandemic, Revelation 21:4 fills me with hope and happiness because Jesus is coming soon, and there will be no more pain or crying. Recently, in a class in my Pathfinder’s club, we studied the first vision of Ellen White. That gave me even more hope, knowing that this will all happen, and that very soon we will live in a better place.

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Prov. 18:21, NKJV).

This verse reminds me of the power that words have, and that I have to watch what I say. Words can either encourage or destroy, and, because they can stick in one’s mind forever, they can positively or negatively affect the lives of others. This is important to me because I have not always been careful with my words, and have hurt people as a result.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27, NIV).

The law of inertia states that an object at rest or in motion will remain so unless acted upon by an outside force. Maybe not intentionally or consciously, but when things don’t go our way, we reason it’s the outside forces’ fault, not ours!

So that’s the reason I’m stressed and miserable. No one wants their progress halted or rest interrupted by “outside forces,” but can these forces really halt and interrupt? Do they have that power and control over us? Jesus tells us not to worry.

“Then [Jesus] said to the tree, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ ... Peter remembered and said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!’” (Mark 11:14, 21, NIV).

Here is an odd story about Jesus. Hungry, Jesus sees a fig tree with leaves because it was out of season. Finding it has no fruit, He curses the tree, and it dies. Why does Jesus do that? Doesn’t it seem unreasonable? Why does Mark tell this story?

The gospel accounts are not collections of random stories of things Jesus did. Each gospel book is a revelation of who Jesus is. So either Mark wants us to think Jesus is an unreasonable tree killer, or something deeper is happening here.