Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15.
Conformity to the world is causing many of our people to lose their bearings. I feel deeply over this matter, because it is continually kept before me by the Lord...
If ever there was a time when those who have a knowledge of present truth should find their bearings, it is the present time. Although no one is to move independently of his brethren, yet each one must gain a knowledge of his own condition, his exact bearings. The question that each one should ask himself is, “What is my relation to God?”
It is conformity to the world that is causing our people to lose their bearings. The perversion of right principles has not been brought about suddenly. The angel of the Lord presented this matter to me in symbols. It seemed as if a thief were stealthily moving closer and still closer, and gradually but surely stealing away the identity of God’s work by leading our brethren to conform to worldly policies...
The Lord expects us to make most diligent efforts to free ourselves of the worldly spirit that has come in among us... The Lord calls for a reformation. In every place where believers have adopted worldly principles, He desires a voice of warning to be raised. “Cry aloud,” He says, “spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins” (Isaiah 58:1)...
From many minds a realization of the times in which we are living is as far away as is heaven from the earth. It seems that their duty to prepare to meet a soon-coming Saviour is entirely forgotten. God wants us to come to our senses. He wants us to act like rational beings, who are living on the borders of the eternal world.
Remember that in preparing yourselves for the heavenly kingdom, you are preparing others. The Scriptures say, “Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way.” ...
So long as we work in Christ’s lines, laying hold of the arm of the Mighty One, we are safe; but just as soon as we loosen our grasp of His arm, and begin to depend upon human beings, we are in great danger.
This very day the Lord desires us to reach a higher standard than we have ever reached in the past. Day by day we are to advance upward, ever upward, until it can be said of us as a people, “Ye are complete in him.”—Manuscript 96, July 7, 1902, an early morning talk before the Pacific Union Medical Missionary Council at St. Helena, California.
Reference: E.G. White, "The Upward Look," p. 202.
