Effective Sighing and Crying
"Approach the people in a persuasive, kindly manner with hearts filled with cheerfulness and Christlike love." -- PM 310.1
Contents
Effective Sighing and Crying 4
Focus Your Efforts Intelligently 10
Good Beginning Subjects to Study with an Adventist 10
Effective Sighing and Crying
We Davidians, with few exceptions, are all aware of the Lord’s special mandate to us to "Sigh and Cry" (1TG 52:21) against the abominations that are taking place in the church today. The message repeatedly emphasizes our responsibility to warn our brethren of the impending day of Judgement. “So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.” Ezekiel 33:7, 8
“If you, Brethren, stay inside God's hedge of inspired revelation, and walk with Him as did Enoch of old, you will have Him by your side every step of the way.” 2TG 46:47.
While almost all Davidians understand that the Lord is here instructing us to work for the salvation of His church, not all today will acknowledge that in giving us this command the Lord also requires us to discharge our duty in the most effective way we possibly can. Spiritual food, like material food, can be prepared and served in a pleasant and appetizing way, or it can be prepared and served in an unappealing and tasteless way. “Approach the people in a persuasive, kindly manner,” Sister White counsels us, “with hearts filled with cheerfulness and Christlike love.” (PM 310.1)
God has made each of us watchmen (Tract 1, p. 42) and entrusted to us the eternal outcome for many precious souls. He desires us to accomplish the work He has given us with determination, skill, and zeal. Never think of our work for the church as a burden. To have a part in saving perishing souls is the highest calling any human being can have at this time. It should be our greatest interest and joy to reach these perishing souls with the message of the hour before it is forever too late for both them and us. We should be happy and content to do the work the Lord has given us and we must never forget that He will only accept willing and happy service on our part.
Do not be tempted to let the church's lack of interest or slowness to accept the message trouble or discourage us, for the Lord has promised to richly recompense (Isa 61:7) all who strive to save their endangered brethren. Never take their rejection of the message personally, for they are not rejecting you
4but God. We must always keep in mind that we do not have the right to become offended or angry with our brethren when they mistreat or abuse us purely because of what we believe.
One of the most important factors determining our success or failure in presenting the message to Adventists is whether or not we exhibit true kindness and love for them at all times. Remember that it is not our place to judge who in the church will, in the end, prove to be wheat and who will prove to be a tare. Appearances, from a human point of view, can be deceptive, and God alone knows who will be saved and who will be lost. Many brethren, in fact, whom we in our human wisdom believe to be hopeless will, in fact, be among the wheat, while some who are professed friends and brothers in the truth will, as the Spirit of Prophecy tells us, prove to be “base metal.” (SD 202:1) Only God can judge these things. Never for a moment forget that it is not our place to condemn, criticize or attack any individual brother or sister in the church.
The Lord's Fishermen
There is a good reason Christ invites His followers to be “fishers-of-men.” After casting our line into the water, [positioning ourselves in an Adventist church so as to have as many opportunities as possible to come into close and friendly contact with our fellow Adventist brothers and sisters] like real fishermen, we often must wait patiently for a fish to come by. And much like an actual fish, our Adventist “fish” may often only nibble at the bait a little without fully swallowing everything “hook, line and sinker.” Becoming impatient and exasperated, at this point, some inexperienced fishermen may be tempted to either become discouraged or to become critical and condemnatory. Be sure to resist this natural human reaction, for it is not acceptable for Davidians to ever lose their patience or become angry or critical.
Worldly fishermen often exhibit great care and patience in their mundane fishing. Our work as fishers of men is infinitely more important, and we, consequently, should be determined to be infinitely more patient and dedicated. Never permit yourself to be discouraged, even if it takes you quite some time to
5hook your first Laodiceans fish. If we proceed with kindness, love and patience, the Lord will richly bless our efforts in the long run. It is thus vital that we never allow ourselves to ever become upset or hurt by anything the Laodiceans do or say to us. Remember that the church in Jesus's time treated him far worse, and any small persecution that we may endure today can hardly be worthy of comparison to what the early Christians went through for the truth. Keep in mind also that if we conduct ourselves in the right way, our more open-minded Adventist brethren will be forced, even if grudgingly, to acknowledge that we are conducting ourselves in a genuinely Christlike way.
Practical Crying
The Spirit of Prophecy tells us that “Ministers should impress upon the people for whom they labor the importance of individual effort. No church can flourish unless its members are workers.” RH, August 23, 1881 “I have wondered” writes Sister White, “why our people, those who are not ordained ministers, but who have a connection with God, who understand the Scriptures, do not open the Word to others. If they would engage in this work, great blessing would come to their own souls. God wants His people to work. To every man--and that means every woman, also--He has given His work, and this work each one is to perform according to his several ability.” DG 134
The first rule of success in our "crying" work for the church is to see the work for the church as a blessing and a sacred joy. All who faithfully sigh and cry for the sins of the church are soldiers in the front lines of God's great battle to purify and save all the faithful in His church today. If we are going to be truly effective workers [criers], we must be bold and
6courageous. We must be willing and eager to work for our brethren regardless of the costs to us in our time or strength. It in our power to choose to either let the Lord use us to be saviors to our endangered brethren in the church or to allow, through our inaction, souls to perish forever.
The spiritual battle Lord calls us to engage in can only be won if we determine to employ the spiritual weapons God designs for us to use. All who desire to be faithful and effective workers in the Lord’s vineyard should work for our Laodicean brethren with kindness and Christian love. In drawing souls to the truth, one smile is many more times effective than a thousand frowns. Years of failure can quickly turn to success when the message is taught with Godly earnestness, love and continual kindness.
When we work in the right way, our efforts will be blessed with real, visible fruit. When we work in the wrong way, we our only visible result will be to increase prejudice against ourselves and resistance to the message.
One wrong way of working for the church that has become firmly entrenched throughout Davidia is the method of trying to teach little bits and pieces of the Rod in Sabbath School through a constant barrage of questions, comments and sometimes, criticisms. It is grave mistake to try to use this method to win souls to the message because it almost always fails for the following and other reasons:
1. Many important Rod studies need to presented in their entirety to be properly conviction to non-Davidians. We greatly weaken there effect when we present these subjects in small pieces here and there, isolated from the entire study.
2. Many important doctrinal subjects also need to be presented in the right order to be as convincing as possible. In other words, never try to teach part 2 of a series before you teach part 1.
3. Many Sabbath School attendees will become annoyed if one person seems to be unfairly monopolizing much of the time of the Sabbath School class, or if the person appears to be contending with the Sabbath School teacher.
74. Sabbath School attendees will also often become annoyed with someone who seems to be forever sidetracking the class down some path that seems to have little or no connection with the lesson.
Sabbath School is not a chance to ramble on about any subject that you feel like speaking on. We Davidians must keep our comments tightly on the subject of the lesson for that Sabbath. It is far more effective to behave in a considerate and courteous way in Sabbath School, staying on the lesson subject, not taking more than our fair share of the comments or questions and always seeking to conduct ourselves in a friendly and kind manner. It is good to answer those questions that are put to us in pleasant and to the point way. We want our comments and answers to be understandable and acceptable to the brethren. Teach them to agree with you by speaking on points we are in agreement with the church on. People will listen to a friendly person they like and admire with a more open mind than to people they hardly know or who they actively dislike for their current or past SS class disruptions.
Always keep in mind this inspired advice from the Rod: “It is unbecoming to a Christian voluntarily to cause any disturbance during church services; neither is it possible by such methods to present the message to them or convince them that we are speaking "the words of life." Vol. 1 Symbolic Code No. 8, pg. 8.
Establishing a friendly, positive relationship with others in the class is has other benefits as well. You may later get an invitation to Sabbath dinner from someone or possibly you may be able to invite someone to your place for dinner. The relaxed atmosphere of a Sabbath dinner will give you a chance to deepen your friendship with the brethren and will may well eventually to turn the informal spiritual conversation into a slightly more formal “Bible Study” Keep any such studies short and positive. Your purpose, remember is not to try to give the brother or sister a complete mini education in the Shepherd’s
8Rod in the very first study, but rather to strengthen further the friendship and interest pf the Adventist brother. When done right, you will then have more chances in the weeks and months that follow to teach them the Rod step by step. On other hand, going too fast and far at the very beginning, will almost always result in overtaxing the prospects interest and ending his willingness to continue studying with you.
Your goal is to accustom the brethren to having a pleasant and spiritual uplifting experience from your studies. You need to demonstrate a superior knowledge of the message, the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy but your manner must never come across as conceited or pompous.
Very often, new brethren come into the message as a result of learning about it from a friend or family member who has only recently accepted it themselves. It is then, important for us to encourage new brethren to try to invite their family or church friends to a study as soon as possible. After the new believer has been clearly identified in the church as a Davidian, it may be more difficult for the new believer to get his friends and acquaintances to accepts a study invitation.
Developing a friendly and trusting relationship with the brethren in the church is a pleasant and enjoyable experience. Our purpose is to help save them from the rapidly approaching day of judgment by encouraging them to accept the message of reform and revival. We will have far more success with our brethren if we do this in kindness and friendship.
It is important for us to always be willing to face the truth about ourselves whether it is pleasing to us or not. In the past, we Davidians have often attempted to work for our brothers and sisters in the church in a fairly heavy handed and unskillful way, particularly in Sabbath School. Aggressive, off topic questions in the Sabbath School have often earned the ire and dis-approbation of the Sabbath School class as well as the entire church.
A hard, angry response from the church will often naturally encouraged more hard and negative talk from the Davidian. This cycle of misunderstanding and poor behavior often continues until the entire church is thoroughly turned against the Rod. But just because this may be your experience in the past does not mean it must be your experience in the future. Hurt egos
9and angry emotions have no place in Lords work for our Adventist brethren. We must do our job without reference to or consideration of our own feelings and ideas. How well we set aside our personal feelings and work whole heartedly in the new way will determine how effective we are in doing our masters business.
Focus Your Efforts Intelligently
Our work is too large and our resources too limited for us to not concentrate our efforts first on those who seem most interested and least prejudiced. Avail yourself of every opportunity to spend social time with those whom you are focusing on. You might even join some of the same church activities or ministries these individuals participate in order to be in greater contact with them.
It is important that after we succeeding in drawing closer to particular Adventist brother or sister we continue to exercise the strictest self-control and patience. Keep in mind that often our great desire to share the message with our brethren along with our old habit patterns can combine to tempt us to teach a new contact more of the message at one time than they are able to digest. The bridge of friendship and trust that you are building with your Adventist friend often takes weeks and months to become strong enough to reliably carry the heavier weight imposed by teaching a “new” message to our brethren.
The most single best thing you can do to be an effective sigher and crier is to slowly and carefully build up your Christian friendships with those Adventists who seem to be the most open minded and likely to accept the message. Even if you do not feel able to study with them yourself, you will be able at a certain point to invite them to a study, perhaps when an experienced fieldworker is in your area. If you are able to give studies yourself (and all Davidians should be so fitting themselves) here is a partial sample list of ideas for subjects to study on. Keep in mind that this is not given as the “definitive list” of subjects, for the Holy Spirit will from time to time impress experienced teachers to follow a different order.
Good Beginning Subjects to Study with an Adventist
1. The need for a revival of the love of God in our hearts and lives. This is a powerful subject that is irresistible to any true Christian.
2. The importance of the Spirit of Prophecy for the church. Many Adventists today have only a modest understanding and commitment to the Spirit of Prophecy. No church pastor, incidentally, can honestly be upset with us for teaching the importance of the Spirit of Prophecy to our fellow Adventists.
10The Laodiceans condition of the church and the need for Reformation of the church. Take it easy here, Sister White says more than enough on the subject. If we approach the subject with too much relish and zeal, we can lose our prospects interest. The subject should be handled in a loving way, with our underlying attitude being one of great concern, not criticism and condemnation. There should not be a trace of vindictiveness or self-righteousness in our tone or words. Remember that it is an introductory study on the need for Reformation and we are not trying to tell the brother or sister everything we know on the subject, just everything that they need to know at their elementary stage, and what they are willing at this stage to accept.
4. Up-to-date health reform. Here's an opportunity to get the brother or sister used to moving beyond the Spirit of Prophecy, to the best health authorities of our time. There is a great deal of new health reform information we should know about and be living and teaching, but in most cases, Adventists are not much more knowledgeable than world. This includes vegetarianism, a good diet low in sugar and refined flour products. It also includes adding more berries, nuts and green leafy vegetables to our diets than many do at this time. Good health reform will often mean taking extra vitamin D and vitamin K, among a number of other things such as supplementation with magnesium, selenium vitamin E (natural mixed tocopherols and doctrinal).
It includes vigorous outdoor exercise in the fresh air and sunlight almost every day and indoor strength and stretching exercises for those who cannot walk easily. Real Health reform means living and working in an area with the minimum possible pollution, as well as installing high-quality air filters when needed.
Finally, teach the importance of regular hours of sleep. Sleeping less than six hours a night will significantly increase our chances of serious heart disease, and many other illnesses, while sleeping approximately eight hours a night, is known to improve our mood, memory and general health. Explain the importance of not staying up late.
11Living the Truth
We must make sure that we ourselves embody the truth to be successful teachers of the truth. Most people are not going to want to listen to someone who appears to have significant spiritual deficiencies or problems in his or her own life. We need to be sure that we have removed as many beams as possible from our own lives before we go march out to assist our brethren with their splinters. People are most willing to learn from someone they respect but who is not distant, unfriendly or indifferent to them and their problems. If we have known sin or other serious deficiencies in our lives and we then take on ourselves the work of publicly teaching the message, we will be only bringing the message into disrepute with our Adventist brethren, many of whom will be only too willing to judge the entire message by how well we ourselves our living it.
Never be guilty of teaching this message of reform if you yourself are not living your life in full harmony with the basic principles of Adventism - faithful Sabbath observance, proper adherence to basic Christian morality, complete abstinence from all intoxicating and mind altering substances and true adherence to a vegetarian diet.
While we must not be patient and understanding with ourselves about our own weakness and sins, keep in mind that other people will progresses into the truth at their own individual rates. Many true brethren will take hold of the message quickly and bring their life in complete alignment with message within a short space to time. However, there are some, who for various reasons will take years to fully commit themselves to the Rod. Be patient with these brethren and remember that we are never to judge ourselves whether they are “honest” or not. Our job, until the very day the Judgement begins is to patiently and lovingly encourage all in the right path, and leave the end of the matter to the Lord himself.
Work in Joy and Peace
Our work for the church should not be burden to us. Working to save precious souls for whom Christ has sacrificed his life is the greatest privilege any human being can have
12today. The work of saving a soul for eternity can never be viewed by any true Christian as a tiresome burden. In fact, this work should be intensely interesting and enjoyable to us. The Lord has made us to be social beings. Take pleasure in making new friends with our Adventist brethren. As genuine Adventists ourselves, we should take part in all church activities that do not contradict our beliefs. Be willing to consider any position in church you are asked to fill. As long as our motives are purely to further the work for lost souls in the church, God will bless our efforts with success.
Whenever a fieldworker or a local worker is available, make every effort possible for them to meet and study with your new interests. Remember that there is no limit to the effectiveness of a Christian who does not mind who receives the credit or accolades of man, so long as the work of the Lord continues to inexorably move forward.
We are not to be of sad countenance. We are not to mourn and lament because of our trials, although we shall sigh and cry for the abomination done in the land… May the Lord bless you and make you stand firm, wholly on the Lord’s side. Letter 112, 1890. Ellen G. White Estate Washington, D.C. April 11, 1985, Entire Letter {14MR 288.3}
"The truth should be presented with divine tact, gentleness, and tenderness. It should come from a heart that has been softened and made sympathetic. 6T, p. 400.
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