Quotations from the writings of Ellen G. White with the phrase . . .
r e a l c o n d i t i o n ( 4 RELATED PHRASES )
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The phrase 'real condition' appears 25 times in the published writings of EGW See page on Original site Related phrase: true condition ( ) - - true spiritual condition ( ) - - our real condition ( below )
But we must have a knowledge of ourselves, a knowledge that will result in contrition, before we can find pardon and peace. The Pharisee felt no conviction of sin. The Holy Spirit could not work with him. His soul was encased in a self-righteous armor which the arrows of God, barbed and true-aimed by angel hands, failed to penetrate. It is only he who knows himself to be a sinner that Christ can save. He came "to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." Luke 4:18. But "they that are whole need not a physician." Luke 5:31. We must know our real condition, or we shall not feel our need of Christ's help. We must understand our danger, or we shall not flee to the refuge. We must feel the pain of our wounds, or we should not desire healing. Christ’s Object Lessons, page 158, par. 1 Read entire Chapter 13 |
| We must have a knowledge of ourselves, a knowledge that results in contrition, before we can find pardon and peace. It is only he who knows himself to be a sinner that Christ can save. We must know our true condition, or we shall not feel our need of Christ’s help. We must understand our danger, or we shall not flee to the refuge. We must feel the pain of our wounds, or we shall not desire healing. { ST April 9, 1902, par. 9 }
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| Encouragement has often been given him,--a word here and a word there,--to show him a way of escape from his peril. He has been represented as one who is slipping over a precipice, and the hand of Christ is the only one outstretched to save. Notwithstanding these plain warnings of danger, he sees not his peril. He does not realize his condition. But God knows all things; He is infinite in knowledge and in all wisdom concerning the real condition of every man. Our thoughts are open before Him. And as God knows all things, He knows the mind of every man that He has created. We are the work of His own mind, through Christ Jesus. {SpTB07 53.1}
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| The common people heard Jesus gladly and gathered about him in the temple to receive his teachings. Never before had such a scene been enacted. There stood the young Galilean, bearing no earthly honor nor royal badge. His dress was coarse and travel-stained. Surrounding him were priests in their gorgeous apparel, rulers with robes and badges significant of their exalted position, and scribes with scrolls in their hands to which they made repeated reference. Yet Jesus stood calmly with the dignity of a king invested with the authority of Heaven looking unflinchingly upon his adversaries, who had rejected and despised his teachings and had long thirsted for his life. On this occasion they had assailed him in great numbers with a determination to provoke him to utter words which would ensnare him and serve as means by which they might condemn him. But their questions only opened the way for him to set before them their real condition, and the fearful retribution that awaited them if they continued to provoke God by their many and grievous sins. {3SP 56.1}
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| The words of Jesus to His hearers in the synagogue struck at the root of their self-righteousness, pressing home upon them the bitter truth that they had departed from God and forfeited their claim to be His people. Every word cut like a knife as their real condition was set before them. They now scorned the faith with which Jesus had at first inspired them. They would not admit that He who had sprung from poverty and lowliness was other than a common man. {DA 239.3}
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| It was the last day of Christ's teaching in the temple. Of the vast throngs that were gathered at Jerusalem, the attention of all had been attracted to Him; the people had crowded the temple courts, watching the contest that had been in progress, and they eagerly caught every word that fell from His lips. Never before had such a scene been witnessed. There stood the young Galilean, bearing no earthly honor or royal badge. Surrounding Him were priests in their rich apparel, rulers with robes and badges significant of their exalted station, and scribes with scrolls in their hands, to which they made frequent reference. Jesus stood calmly before them, with the dignity of a king. As one invested with the authority of heaven, He looked unflinchingly upon His adversaries, who had rejected and despised His teachings, and who thirsted for His life. They had assailed Him in great numbers, but their schemes to ensnare and condemn Him had been in vain. Challenge after challenge He had met, presenting the pure, bright truth in contrast to the darkness and errors of the priests and Pharisees. He had set before these leaders their real condition, and the retribution sure to follow persistence in their evil deeds. The warning had been faithfully given. Yet another work remained for Christ to do. Another purpose was still to be accomplished. {DA 610.1}
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| How are you to know that the word spoken in the desk has been a savor of life unto life unless you visit in families, praying with them, and drawing out the true state of their minds, the real condition of their experience, that you may point them to the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world? There is need that the breath of God should blow upon them, and give them spiritual life. The churches need to be enlightened in regard to practical religion in the home life.--Address to Ministers (Ph 118) 17. {PaM 229.2}
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| In the parable of the vineyard Jesus brought before the Jews their real condition. The householder represented God, the vineyard the Jewish nation hedged in by divine law which was calculated to preserve them as a people separate and distinct from all other nations of the earth. The tower built in the vineyard represented their temple. The Lord of the vineyard had done all that was necessary for its prosperity. So God had provided for Israel in such a manner that it was in their power to secure the highest degree of prosperity. The lord of the vineyard required of his husbandmen a due proportion of the fruit; so God required of the Jews a life corresponding with the sacred privileges he had given them. But as the servants who demanded fruit in their master's name were put to death by the unfaithful husbandmen, so had the Jews slain the prophets who had come to them with messages from God. Not only were these rejected, but when he sent his only Son to them, the destined Heir to the vineyard, thinking to preserve the vineyard to themselves, and to secure the honor and profit accruing therefrom, the haughty Jews, the unfaithful servants, reasoned among themselves, saying, "This is the heir; come, let us kill him." Thus Jesus revealed in his parable the dark purposes of the Jews against himself. {3SP 34.1}
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| "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." The solemn question should come home to every member of our churches, How are we standing before God, as the professed followers of Jesus Christ? Is our light shining forth to the world in clear, steady rays? Have we, as a people solemnly dedicated to God, preserved our union with the Source of all light? Are not the symptoms of decay and declension painfully visible in the midst of the Christian churches of today? Spiritual death has come upon the people that should be manifesting life and zeal, purity and consecration, by the most earnest devotion to the cause of truth. The facts concerning the real condition of the professed people of God, speak more loudly than their profession, and make it evident that some power has cut the cable that anchored them to the Eternal Rock, and that they are drifting away to sea, without chart or compass. {RH, July 24, 1888 par. 1}
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| There is a disposition with many parents, to keep up a perpetual dosing of their children with medicines. They will always have a supply on hand, and when any slight indisposition is manifested, caused by overeating or exhaustion, the medicine is poured down their throats; and if that does not satisfy them, they send for the doctor. If he is an honest physician, and declines to give the child medicine because he is wise enough to know it will be for its hurt, the parents are offended and think the physician inefficient, and send for another, who is less conscientious, and who will give medicine to satisfy the parents, who were blinded by ignorance in regard to the real condition and need of their child. And not unfrequently parents are so anxious to do all they can to save their child, that they change physicians, having two or three to attend the same case. The child is drugged to death, and the parents console themselves that they have done all they could, and wonder why it must die when they did so much to save it. Upon the grave stone of that child should be written, Died, of drug Medication. { HR September 1, 1866, par. 1 }
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real condition of the patient
| In cases of severe fever, abstinence from food for a short time will lessen the fever and make the use of water more effectual. But the acting physician needs to understand the real condition of the patient and not allow him to be restricted in diet for a great length of time until his system becomes enfeebled. While the fever is raging, food may irritate and excite the blood; but as soon as the strength of the fever is broken, nourishment should be given in a careful, judicious manner. If food is withheld too long, the stomach's craving for it will create fever, which will be relieved by a proper allowance of food of a right quality. It gives nature something to work upon. If there is a great desire expressed for food, even during the fever to gratify that desire with a moderate amount of simple food would be less injurious than for the patient to be denied. When he can get his mind upon nothing else, nature will not be overburdened with a small portion of simple food. —Testimonies for the Church,. Vol. 2, page 384.2; { CD 190.3} {HL 214.4}
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| In cases of severe fever, abstinence from food, for a short time, will lessen the fever, and make the use of water more effectual. The one who is acting physician needs to understand the real condition of the patient, that he should not be restricted in diet for a great length of time until his system becomes enfeebled. While the fever is raging, food may irritate and excite the blood to a greater degree; but as soon as the strength of the fever is broken, nourishment should be given in a careful, judicious manner. If food is withheld too great a length of time, the stomach’s craving for food will create fever, which a proper allowance of food, of a proper quality, will relieve. It gives nature something to work upon. If there is a great desire expressed for food, even during the fever, to gratify that desire with a moderate amount of simple food would be less injurious than for the patient to be denied. When the patient can get his mind upon nothing else but food, nature will not be overburdened with a small portion of simple food. { PH101 17.1 }
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| But we must have a knowledge of ourselves, a knowledge that will result in contrition, before we can find pardon and peace. The Pharisee felt no conviction of sin. The Holy Spirit could not work with him. His soul was encased in a self-righteous armor which the arrows of God, barbed and true-aimed by angel hands, failed to penetrate. It is only he who knows himself to be a sinner that Christ can save. He came "to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." Luke 4:18. But "they that are whole need not a physician." Luke 5:31. We must know our real condition, or we shall not feel our need of Christ's help. We must understand our danger, or we shall not flee to the refuge. We must feel the pain of our wounds, or we should not desire healing. {COL 158.1}
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| In true conversion, the sinner is first convicted of his real condition. He realizes that he is a transgressor of God's law, and that the Lord has claims upon him which He will not relinquish. He sees that the connection between himself and God has been broken, but that if he repents of his transgression, confesses his sin, and takes hold by faith upon the grace of Christ, the connection that has been broken will be restored. {1888 130.5}
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| I was shown that if he continues in his present course, blinded to his real condition, he will be glad after a while to find some pretext for giving up the Sabbath. Satan is surely leading him, as he has led many others, away from the body in a course of deception and error. How much safer for Brother B to bring his soul into harmony with the truth than to misinterpret Scripture to bring it into harmony with his ideas and actions. If he would bring his actions into harmony with the principles of God's law he has a task on his hands of which he has scarcely dreamed. The carnal heart is at enmity with God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. {3T 441.3}
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| “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” The solemn question should come home to every member of our churches, How are we standing before God, as the professed followers of Jesus Christ? Is our light shining forth to the world in clear, steady rays? Have we, as a people solemnly dedicated to God, preserved our union with the Source of all light? Are not the symptoms of decay and declension painfully visible in the midst of the Christian churches of today? Spiritual death has come upon the people that should be manifesting life and zeal, purity and consecration, by the most earnest devotion to the cause of truth. The facts concerning the real condition of the professed people of God, speak more loudly than their profession, and make it evident that some power has cut the cable that anchored them to the Eternal Rock, and that they are drifting away to sea, without chart or compass. { RH July 24, 1888, par. 1 }
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| Ministers are wanted who feel the necessity of being laborers together with God, who will go forth to bring the people up in spiritual knowledge to the full measure of Christ. Ministers are wanted who will educate themselves by solemn, reverential communion with God in the closet, so that they shall be men of power in prayer. Piety is degeneration into a dead form, and it is necessary to strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die. The work of the ministry has been neglected, and the work is raveling out because it has not been wisely bound off. How are you to know that the word spoken in the desk has proved of benefit to the hearers, unless you visit in families, praying with them, and drawing out the true state of their minds, and the real condition of their experience, that you may point them to the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world? There is need that the breath of God should blow upon them, and give them spiritual life. The churches need to be enlightened in regard to practical religion in the home life. Again and again the necessity of living a virtuous life, of having a sanctified heart, of revealing a growing conformity to the image of Christ, must be presented to the people. Do they realize that the work of sanctification is to be the work of a lifetime? Jesus prayed that his disciples might be sanctified through the truth, and declared, “Thy word is truth.” He said: “I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified.” Are the undershepherds following the example of the great Shepherd of the sheep? Are they representing Christ, as he represented the Father. Practical religion as it was manifested in the life and character of Christ is a rare thing. Many in our churches are strangers to the experience that it is the privilege of those who believe in Christ to have in the things of God. { RH May 24, 1892, par. 3 }
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| The men of Nazareth refused the Prince of Life. The power of God that had stirred their hearts as He read and expounded to them the Scriptures, was resisted, and their passions were stirred as He spoke truths that revealed to them their real condition.... { 11MR 283.2 }
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| The men of Nazareth refused the Prince of Life. The power of God which has stirred their hearts as He read and expounded to them the Scriptures, was resisted, and their passions were stirred as He spoke truths that revealed to them their real condition. The lips that had so recently acknowledged and blessed Him, now uttered curses, and with the fury of demons they laid hands on Him, and dragged Him from the synagogue, out of the city, and thought to thrust Him over the brow of the hill. But the angels of God protected Him, and hid Him from the sight of the infuriated throng, and He passed on His way unnoticed. { 1888 397.1 }
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| It is the opinion of the mass of professors of religion that human creeds are indispensable to the maintenance of gospel order.... But what is the real condition of the churches with all their creeds to aid them? They are in a condition but little less than perfect confusion.... It is evident, therefore, that human creeds do fail to accomplish the work for which men plead their necessity.—Ibid., December 13, 1853 { 1BIO 288.1 }
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| Through December James White joined Ellen White’s voice through four Review editorials. Under the same title, “Gospel Order,” he came to grips with the matter in a practical way. In the first editorial he pointed out the confusion that exists when gospel order is overlooked. The result is “perfect Babylon.” Was having a creed the answer? “What is the real condition of the churches with all their creeds to aid them?” { WV 74.9 }
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