Mind, Character, and Personality, vol. 2

Section 11—Emotional Problems

Chapter 49—Grief (Part 2)

Turn From Uncontrollable Grief (counsel to a bereaved family)—Like Job, you felt that you had cause for grief and would not be comforted. Was this reasonable? You know that death is a power that none can resist, but you have made your lives nearly useless by your unavailing grief. Your feelings have been little less than rebellion against God. I saw you all dwelling upon your bereavement, and giving way to your excitable feelings, until your noisy demonstrations of grief caused angels to hide their faces and withdraw from the scene. 

While thus giving way to your feelings, did you remember that you had a Father in heaven who gave His only Son to die for us that death might not be an eternal sleep? Did you remember that the Lord of life and glory passed through the tomb and brightened it with His own presence? Said the beloved disciple: “Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.” The apostle well knew what he was talking about when he wrote these words; but when you give way to uncontrollable grief, is your conduct consistent with the comfort which they express?—Testimonies for the Church 5:313 (1885). 

Dwelling Upon Oneself Is Selfishness (counsel to a grief-stricken minister)—Now Brother_____, it is a species of selfishness to keep your mind dwelling upon yourself. It is not at all like the apostle Paul, who was a man of infirmities, yet himself was the last subject of his thoughts. He had trials such as you have never experienced nor ever will be called upon to endure, and yet he turns away from these; he does not dwell upon them but magnifies the grace of God. 

Your wife was the subject of disease and death. Your grief was just as intense as all your other troubles. You hugged the grief to your bosom, you loved to dwell upon it, and you allowed your mind and thoughts to be selfishly occupied with your grief, and as a consequence your health suffered. Then your daughter’s death was indeed a sad blow, but others have passed through the same under more trying circumstances. You allowed this affliction to unman you; you dwelt upon it, you talked of it, you aggravated your soul over a matter you could not change or help. It was a sin to take any of these afflictions as you have done. 

I know whereof I speak. If the mind is permitted to be clouded with grief, the food is not digested and as a result the system is not well nourished.—Letter 1, 1883. 

Grief Causes Blood to Rush to Brain (a personal experience)—While thus laboring in speaking and writing, I received letters of a discouraging character from Battle Creek. As I read them I felt an inexpressible depression of spirits, amounting to agony of mind, which seemed for a short period to palsy my vital energies. For three nights I scarcely slept at all. My thoughts were troubled and perplexed. 

I concealed my feelings as well as I could from my husband and the sympathizing family with whom we were. None knew my labor or burden of mind as I united with the family in morning and evening devotion and sought to lay my burden upon the great Burden Bearer. But my petitions came from a heart wrung with anguish, and my prayers were broken and disconnected because of uncontrollable grief. The blood rushed to my brain, frequently causing me to reel and nearly fall. I had the nosebleed often, especially after making an effort to write. I was compelled to lay aside my writing, but could not throw off the burden of anxiety and responsibility upon me.—Testimonies for the Church 1:576, 577 (1867). 

What to Do With Sorrow—Are you filled with sorrow today? Fasten your eyes on the Sun of righteousness. Do not try to adjust all the difficulties, but turn your face to the light, to the throne of God. What will you see there? The rainbow of the covenant, the living promise of God. Beneath it is the mercy seat, and whosoever avails himself of the provisions of mercy that have been made and appropriates the merits of the life and death of Christ has in the rainbow of the covenant a blessed assurance of acceptance with the Father as long as the throne of God endures. 

Faith is what you need. Do not let faith waver. Fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life. It will be a severe fight, but fight it at any cost, for the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Put your hand in the hand of Christ. There are difficulties to be overcome, but angels that excel in strength will cooperate with the people of God. Face Zion, press your way to the city of solemnities. A glorious crown and a robe woven in the loom of heaven await the overcomer. Though Satan would cast his hellish shadow athwart your pathway and seek to hide from your view the mystic ladder that stretches from earth to the throne of God, on which ascend and descend the angels who are ministering spirits to those who shall be heirs of salvation, yet press your way upward, plant your feet on one round after another, and advance to the throne of the Infinite.—Manuscript 66, 1895. 

Sympathizers Not Always Friends—If those around you are of that class who do not seek to turn your conversation and the current of your thoughts, if they sympathize with all your impressions as if they were a reality, the less you have of the society of this class the better. They are not your friends but your worst enemies. The Lord would have you be cheerful. 

You have buried dear friends; so have I; but I dare not ask, Why hast Thou cast me into the furnace? Why have I been afflicted again and again? The answer comes back to me down along the lines, “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter” (John 13:7). 

God’s purposes are often veiled in mystery; they are incomprehensible to finite minds; but He who sees the end from beginning knows better than we. What we need is to cleanse us from earthliness, to perfect our Christian character, that the robe of Christ’s righteousness shall be put upon us.—Letter 1, 1883

https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/78.448#462

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for the privilege of trusting You in every situation, even grief, knowing that the trying of our faith develops patience, even perfect patience, so that as we fully trust we can be assured to have everything we need. Thank You for our sin-pardoning Ssvior, Your Son, Jesus, in whose name we draw near to Your throne. Please bless us to fully embrace the power of Your grace to obey Your commandments, to show our love for You in action, and to be always a living witness for You that we ourselves and others might be uplifted and encouraged in rightdoing. Through the power of Your Holy Spirit,  please bless us to be all You would have us be and grant us the mind and love of Jesus that others might be drawn to You through how we live and what we say. Because we ask all these in the Awesome name of Your Son, Almighty Jesus the Christ, our Savior, we say Thank You and Amen.

******

DID YOU KNOW THIS…? 

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.—Philippians 4:7 KJV — The WORD OF GOD—It’s the only flesh that is safe to eat (meditate on) to live forever!]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Do you feel sorrowful, disconnected—without a place to feel at home or useful? I pray this might show you the way forward. Watch…
https://www.youtube.com/live/2QB6fcwVuws?si=fsEvZU-rkI-BngfD

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

FREE HEALTH TALK* open to the public Thursdays at 5pm at Country Life Natural Foods Store and Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurant, 1217 Eberhart Avenue, Columbus, GA.

Thursday, Sept. 10: “Nutrition for Healing”

*Exception: $10 for any cooking class

****

WHGR 91.5 FM went LIVE noon on Thanksgiving Day 2025, for Hurtsboro (my childhood home town) and surrounding areas, including Tuskegee, Alabama.

If you want to support Christian radio  programming for these final days, please visit
https://www.ucheepines.org/radio

Thank you!!!

****

I coordinate wonderful health and worship events and conferences online and onsite as a gospel medical missionary at Uchee Pines, a total plant-based health retreat, where doctors and practitioners specialize in lifestyle medicine. For event details, visit https://www.ucheepines.org/events

Therefore, if at any time you fail to receive this post as a text, please visit  
https://baiom.org/author/audreystovall/
where devotionals are first posted daily (almost without fail). From there devotionals are publicly shared to my page on FB, LinkedIn, and Signal (in My Story), and to a response-restricted group on WhatsApp (once again when I am able to find the time to successfully rebuild it).

NOTE: These began as daily texts to encourage my academy roommate and dear friend of nearly 50 years, until she suddenly passed March 2023. Now I continue to compile and send them to anyone who will receive them and to her family in honor of their mom. Lately, I have begun featuring consecutive chapter portions of a select Bible-based book.
If you agree to continue receiving them, then this is my personal gift to you; and in this way, I not only honor God but the memory of a very dear friend whom I desperately miss.
My personal prayer is that God will bless me to find ways to multiply this gift, so that we all may be encouraged to be found faithful in the sight of a Holy God, whenever Christ returns or our eyes are shut in the sleep of death.
It is a prayerful process that leads me to share from my personal study. 
So please feel free to forward to your loved ones or to anyone, as God leads you. I’m calling them Barb’s Devotionals.

Oh Elohim! How Excellent is Your name!

I give You all praise! I give You all glory!!! I magnify Your name!!! HalleluYah!!!

“O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, That thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, And hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, Yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, And whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

O LORD our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth!”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭8‬:‭1‬-‭9‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Mind, Character, and Personality, vol. 2

Section 11—Emotional Problems

Chapter 49—Grief (Part 1)

Breaks Down the Life-forces—Grief, anxiety, discontent, remorse, guilt, distrust, all tend to break down the life-forces and to invite decay and death…. Courage, hope, faith, sympathy, love, promote health and prolong life.—The Ministry of Healing, 241 (1905). 

Impairs Circulation—Sadness deadens the circulation in the blood vessels and nerves and also retards the action of the liver. It hinders the process of digestion and of nutrition, and has a tendency to dry up the marrow [interior substance] of the whole system.—Letter 1, 1883. 

Cannot Remedy a Single Evil—While grief and anxiety cannot remedy a single evil, they can do great harm; but cheerfulness and hope, while they brighten the pathway of others, “are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh” (Proverbs 4:22).—ST, Feb 12, 1885. (The Adventist Home, 431.) 

Every Situation Provided For—We are not to let the future, with its hard problems, its unsatisfying prospects, make our hearts faint, our knees tremble, our hands hang down. “Let him take hold of My strength,” says the Mighty One, “that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me” (Isaiah 27:5). Those who surrender their lives to His guidance and to His service will never be placed in a position for which He has not made provision. Whatever our situation, if we are doers of His word, we have a Guide to direct our way; whatever our perplexity, we have a sure Counselor; whatever our sorrow, bereavement, or loneliness, we have a sympathizing Friend.—The Ministry of Healing, 248, 249 (1905). 

Anticipating Trouble Doubles Burdens—We are in a world of suffering. Difficulty, trial, and sorrow await us all along the way to the heavenly home. But there are many who make life’s burdens doubly heavy by continually anticipating trouble. If they meet with adversity or disappointment, they think that everything is going to ruin, that theirs is the hardest lot of all, that they are surely coming to want. Thus they bring wretchedness upon themselves and cast a shadow upon all around them. Life itself becomes a burden to them. 

But it need not be thus. It will cost a determined effort to change the current of their thought. But the change can be made. Their happiness, both for this life and for the life to come, depends upon their fixing their minds upon cheerful things. Let them look away from the dark picture, which is imaginary, to the benefits which God has strewn in their pathway, and beyond these to the unseen and eternal.—The Ministry of Healing, 247, 248 (1905). 

Casting a Shadow—It is not wise to gather together all the unpleasant recollections of a past life—its iniquities and disappointments—to talk over them and mourn over them until we are overwhelmed with discouragement. A discouraged soul is filled with darkness, shutting out the light of God from his own soul and casting a shadow upon the pathway of others.—Steps to Christ, 117 (1892). 

Talk of Blessings, Less of Trials—The Lord’s merciful kindness is great toward us. He will never leave nor forsake those who trust in Him. If we would think and talk less of our trials and more of the mercy and goodness of God, we would find ourselves raised above much of our gloom and perplexity. My brethren and sisters, you who feel that you are entering upon a dark path, and like the captives in Babylon must hang your harps upon the willows, let us make trial of cheerful song. 

You may say, How can I sing, with this dark prospect before me, with this burden of sorrow and bereavement upon my soul? But have earthly sorrows deprived us of the all-powerful Friend we have in Jesus? Should not the marvelous love of God in the gift of His dear Son be a theme of continual rejoicing? When we bring our petitions to the throne of grace, let us not forget to offer also anthems of thanksgiving. “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me” (Psalm 50:23). As long as our Saviour lives we have cause for unceasing gratitude and praise.—The Review and Herald, November 1, 1881. (Selected Messages 2:268, 269.)

https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/78.448#448

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for the forgiveness of sin and the benefits of praise. Thank You for our sin-pardoning Ssvior, Your Son, Jesus, in whose name we draw near to Your throne. Please bless us to fully embrace the power of Your grace to obey Your commandments, to show our love for You in action, and to be always a living witness for You that we ourselves and others might be uplifted and encouraged in rightdoing. Through the power of Your Holy Spirit,  please bless us to be all You would have us be and grant us the mind and love of Jesus that others might be drawn to You through how we live and what we say. Because we ask all these in the Awesome name of Your Son, Almighty Jesus the Christ, our Savior, we say Thank You and Amen.

******

DID YOU KNOW THIS…? 

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.—Philippians 4:7 KJV — The WORD OF GOD—It’s the only flesh that is safe to eat (meditate on) to live forever!]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Do you feel sorrowful, disconnected—without a place to feel at home or useful? I pray this might show you the way forward. Watch…
https://www.youtube.com/live/2QB6fcwVuws?si=fsEvZU-rkI-BngfD

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

FREE HEALTH TALK* open to the public Thursdays at 5pm at Country Life Natural Foods Store and Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurant, 1217 Eberhart Avenue, Columbus, GA.

Thursday, Sept. 10: “Nutrition for Healing”

*Exception: $10 for any cooking class

****

WHGR 91.5 FM went LIVE noon on Thanksgiving Day 2025, for Hurtsboro (my childhood home town) and surrounding areas, including Tuskegee, Alabama.

If you want to support Christian radio  programming for these final days, please visit
https://www.ucheepines.org/radio

Thank you!!!

****

I coordinate wonderful health and worship events and conferences online and onsite as a gospel medical missionary at Uchee Pines, a total plant-based health retreat, where doctors and practitioners specialize in lifestyle medicine. For event details, visit https://www.ucheepines.org/events

Therefore, if at any time you fail to receive this post as a text, please visit  
https://baiom.org/author/audreystovall/
where devotionals are first posted daily (almost without fail). From there devotionals are publicly shared to my page on FB, LinkedIn, and Signal (in My Story), and to a response-restricted group on WhatsApp (once again when I am able to find the time to successfully rebuild it).

NOTE: These began as daily texts to encourage my academy roommate and dear friend of nearly 50 years, until she suddenly passed March 2023. Now I continue to compile and send them to anyone who will receive them and to her family in honor of their mom. Lately, I have begun featuring consecutive chapter portions of a select Bible-based book.
If you agree to continue receiving them, then this is my personal gift to you; and in this way, I not only honor God but the memory of a very dear friend whom I desperately miss.
My personal prayer is that God will bless me to find ways to multiply this gift, so that we all may be encouraged to be found faithful in the sight of a Holy God, whenever Christ returns or our eyes are shut in the sleep of death.
It is a prayerful process that leads me to share from my personal study. 
So please feel free to forward to your loved ones or to anyone, as God leads you. I’m calling them Barb’s Devotionals.

Wickedness comes to an end

Wickedness comes to an end. Elohim be glorified. Elohim delivers His righteous people. HalleluYah!!!

“O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust: Save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me: Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, While there is none to deliver.

O LORD my God, if I have done this; If there be iniquity in my hands; If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (Yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:) Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; Yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah.

Arise, O LORD, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: And awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded. So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about: For their sakes therefore return thou on high.

The LORD shall judge the people: Judge me, O LORD, According to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.

Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: For the righteous God Trieth the hearts and reins.

My defence is of God, Which saveth the upright in heart. God judgeth the righteous, And God is angry with the wicked every day.

If he turn not, he will whet his sword; He hath bent his bow, and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; He ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.

Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, And hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit, and digged it, And is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, And his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.

I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness: And will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭7‬:‭1‬-‭17‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Mind, Character, and Personality, vol. 2

Section 11—Emotional Problems

Chapter 48—Guilt (Part 2)

Crisis Often Points to Source of Strength—God often brings men to a crisis to show them their own weakness and to point them to the source of strength. If they pray and watch unto prayer, fighting bravely, their weak points will become their strong points. Jacob’s experience contains many valuable lessons for us. God taught Jacob that in his own strength he could never gain the victory, that he must wrestle with God for strength from above.—Manuscript 2, 1903. 

Remember Christ’s Grace—When, after his sin in deceiving Esau, Jacob fled from his father’s home, he was weighed down with a sense of guilt. Lonely and outcast as he was, separated from all that had made life dear, the one thought that above all others pressed upon his soul was the fear that his sin had cut him off from God, that he was forsaken of Heaven. 

In sadness he lay down to rest on the bare earth, around him only the lonely hills, and above, the heavens bright with stars. As he slept a strange light broke upon his vision; and lo, from the plain on which he lay, vast shadowy stairs seemed to lead upward to the very gates of heaven, and upon them angels of God were passing up and down; while from the glory above, the divine voice was heard in a message of comfort and hope. 

Thus was made known to Jacob that which met the need and longing of his soul—a Saviour. With joy and gratitude he saw revealed a way by which he, a sinner, could be restored to communion with God. The mystic ladder of his dream represented Jesus, the only medium of communication between God and man.—Steps to Christ, 19, 20 (1892). 

Burden of Guilt Foundation of Many Maladies—The paralytic found in Christ healing for both the soul and the body. The spiritual healing was followed by physical restoration. This lesson should not be overlooked. There are today thousands suffering from physical disease, who, like the paralytic, are longing for the message, “Thy sins are forgiven.” The burden of sin, with its unrest and unsatisfied desires, is the foundation of their maladies. They can find no relief until they come to the Healer of the soul. The peace which He alone can give would impart vigor to the mind, and health to the body.—The Desire of Ages, 270 (1898). 

Ignorance Did Not Remove Guilt—Had they known that they were putting to torture One who had come to save the sinful race from eternal ruin, they would have been seized with remorse and horror. But their ignorance did not remove their guilt, for it was their privilege to know and accept Jesus as their Saviour.—The Desire of Ages, 744 (1898). 

Do Not Lessen Guilt by Excusing Sin—We should not try to lessen our guilt by excusing sin. We must accept God’s estimate of sin, and that is heavy indeed. Calvary alone can reveal the terrible enormity of sin. If we had to bear our own guilt, it would crush us. But the sinless One has taken our place; though undeserving, He has borne our iniquity. “If we confess our sins,” God “is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).—Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 116 (1896). 

Humbled Souls Acknowledge Guilt—Those who have not humbled their souls before God in acknowledging their guilt have not yet fulfilled the first condition of acceptance. If we have not experienced that repentance which is not to be repented of and have not confessed our sin with true humiliation of soul and brokenness of spirit, abhorring our iniquity, we have never sought truly for the forgiveness of sin; and if we have never sought, we have never found the peace of God. The only reason why we may not have remission of sins that are past is that we are not willing to humble our proud hearts and comply with the conditions of the word of truth. 

There is explicit instruction given concerning this matter. Confession of sin, whether public or private, should be heartfelt and freely expressed. It is not to be urged from the sinner. It is not to be made in a flippant and careless way or forced from those who have no realizing sense of the abhorrent character of sin. The confession that is mingled with tears and sorrow, that is the outpouring of the inmost soul, finds its way to the God of infinite pity. Says the psalmist: “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”—Testimonies for the Church 5:636, 637 (1889). 

Essential to Forsake Sin—Here is where you bring yourself into condemnation, that you continue to sin. In the strength of Christ cease to sin. Every provision has been made that grace should abide with you, that sin shall ever appear the hateful thing that it is, sin. “And if any man sin,” he is not to give himself up in despair and talk like a man who is lost to Christ.—Letter 41, 1893. 

God Pardons All Who Come—God justly condemns all who do not make Christ their personal Saviour; but He pardons every soul who comes to Him in faith and enables him to work the works of God, and through faith to be one with Christ…. The Lord has made every provision whereby man may have full and free salvation and be complete in Him. God designs that His children shall have the bright beams of the Sun of righteousness, that all may have the light of truth. God has provided salvation for the world at infinite cost, even through the gift of His only-begotten Son. The apostle asks, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). Then if we are not saved, the fault will not be on the part of God, but on our part, that we have failed to cooperate with the divine agencies. Our will has not coincided with God’s will.—The Review and Herald, November 1, 1892. (Selected Messages 1:375.) 

Hope for All [See Steps to Christ, Chapters: “Repentance,” “Confession,” and “Faith and Acceptance.”] None need abandon themselves to discouragement and despair. Satan may come to you with the cruel suggestion, “Yours is a hopeless case. You are irredeemable.” But there is hope for you in Christ. God does not bid us overcome in our own strength. He asks us to come close to His side. Whatever difficulties we labor under, which weight down soul and body, He waits to make us free.—The Ministry of Healing, 249 (1905). 

https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/78.412#431

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for the forgiveness of sin. Thank You for our sin-pardoning Ssvior, Your Son, Jesus. Please bless us to fully embrace the power of Your grace to obey Your commandments, to show our love for You in action, and to be always a living witness for You that others might be uplifted and encouraged in rightdoing. Through the power of Your Holy Spirit,  please bless us to be all You would have us be and grant us the mind and love of Jesus that others might be drawn to You through how we live and what we say. Because we ask all these in the Awesome name of Your Son, Almighty Jesus the Christ, our Savior, we say Thank You and Amen.

******

DID YOU KNOW THIS…? 

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.—Romans 12:2 KJV —The WORD OF GOD—It’s the only flesh that is safe to eat (meditate on) to live forever!]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Do you feel sorrowful, disconnected—without a place to feel at home or useful? I pray this might show you the way forward. Watch…
https://www.youtube.com/live/2QB6fcwVuws?si=fsEvZU-rkI-BngfD

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

FREE HEALTH TALK* open to the public Thursdays at 5pm at Country Life Natural Foods Store and Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurant, 1217 Eberhart Avenue, Columbus, GA.

Thursday, Sept. 10: “Nutrition for Healing”

*Exception: $10 for any cooking class

****

WHGR 91.5 FM went LIVE noon on Thanksgiving Day 2025, for Hurtsboro (my childhood home town) and surrounding areas, including Tuskegee, Alabama.

If you want to support Christian radio  programming for these final days, please visit
https://www.ucheepines.org/radio

Thank you!!!

****

I coordinate wonderful health and worship events and conferences online and onsite as a gospel medical missionary at Uchee Pines, a total plant-based health retreat, where doctors and practitioners specialize in lifestyle medicine. For event details, visit https://www.ucheepines.org/events

Therefore, if at any time you fail to receive this post as a text, please visit  
https://baiom.org/author/audreystovall/
where devotionals are first posted daily (almost without fail). From there devotionals are publicly shared to my page on FB, LinkedIn, and Signal (in My Story), and to a response-restricted group on WhatsApp (once again when I am able to find the time to successfully rebuild it).

NOTE: These began as daily texts to encourage my academy roommate and dear friend of nearly 50 years, until she suddenly passed March 2023. Now I continue to compile and send them to anyone who will receive them and to her family in honor of their mom. Lately, I have begun featuring consecutive chapter portions of a select Bible-based book.
If you agree to continue receiving them, then this is my personal gift to you; and in this way, I not only honor God but the memory of a very dear friend whom I desperately miss.
My personal prayer is that God will bless me to find ways to multiply this gift, so that we all may be encouraged to be found faithful in the sight of a Holy God, whenever Christ returns or our eyes are shut in the sleep of death.
It is a prayerful process that leads me to share from my personal study. 
So please feel free to forward to your loved ones or to anyone, as God leads you. I’m calling them Barb’s Devotionals.

Observe and do these things

“Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear. I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality. Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure. Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities. Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after. Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.”
‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭5‬:‭20‬-‭25‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Mind, Character, and Personality, vol. 2

Section 11—Emotional Problems

Chapter 48—Guilt (Part 1)

Guilt Impairs Life-forces—Grief, anxiety, discontent, remorse, guilt, distrust, all tend to break down the life-forces and to invite decay and death.—The Ministry of Healing, 241 (1905). 

How One Gains Freedom From Guilt—This feeling of guiltiness must be laid at the foot of the cross of Calvary. The sense of sinfulness has poisoned the springs of life and true happiness. Now Jesus says, Lay it all on Me; I will take your sin, I will give you peace. Destroy no longer your self-respect, for I have bought you with the price of My own blood. You are Mine; your weakened will I will strengthen; your remorse for sin I will remove. 

Then turn your grateful heart, trembling with uncertainty, and lay hold upon the hope set before you. God accepts your broken, contrite heart. He offers you free pardon. He offers to adopt you into His family, with His grace to help your weakness, and the dear Jesus will lead you on step by step if you will only put your hand in His and let Him guide you.—Letter 38, 1887. 

Jesus Speaks Pardon—Satan seeks to draw our minds away from the mighty Helper, to lead us to ponder over our degeneration of soul. But though Jesus sees the guilt of the past, He speaks pardon; and we should not dishonor Him by doubting His love.—Letter 2, 1914. (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 518.) 

His Love Frees From Guilt—The love which Christ diffuses through the whole being is a vitalizing power. Every vital part—the brain, the heart, the nerves—it touches with healing. By it the highest energies of the being are roused to activity. It frees the soul from the guilt and sorrow, the anxiety and care, that crush the life forces. With it come serenity and composure. It implants in the soul, joy that nothing earthly can destroy—joy in the Holy Spirit—health-giving, life-giving joy.—The Ministry of Healing, 115 (1905). 

Greatest Sinner Needs Greatest Saviour—If you feel yourself to be the greatest sinner, Christ is just what you need, the greatest Saviour. Lift up your head and look away from yourself, away from your sin, to the uplifted Saviour; away from the poisonous, venomous bite of the serpent to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.—Letter 98, 1893. 

He Will Give Rest—He has borne the burden of our guilt. He will take the load from our weary shoulders. He will give us rest. The burden of care and sorrow also He will bear. He invites us to cast all our care upon Him, for He carries us upon His heart.—The Ministry of Healing, 71 (1905). 

All Sins Not of Equal Magnitude—God does not regard all sins as of equal magnitude; there are degrees of guilt in His estimation, as well as in that of man; but however trifling this or that wrong act may seem in the eyes of men, no sin is small in the sight of God. Man’s judgment is partial, imperfect, but God estimates all things as they really are. The drunkard is despised and is told that his sin will exclude him from heaven; while pride, selfishness, and covetousness too often go unrebuked. But these are sins that are especially offensive to God, for they are contrary to the benevolence of His character, to that unselfish love which is the very atmosphere of the unfallen universe. He who falls into some of the grosser sins may feel a sense of his shame and poverty and his need of the grace of Christ; but pride feels no need, and so it closes the heart against Christ and the infinite blessings He came to give.—Steps to Christ, 30 (1892). 

Guilty Need Positive Approach—No one is ever made better by denunciation and recrimination. To tell a tempted soul of his guilt in no way inspires him with a determination to do better. Point the erring, discouraged one to Him who is able to save to the uttermost all who come to Him. Show him what he may become. Tell him that there is in him nothing that recommends him to God, but that Christ died for him that he might be accepted in the Beloved. Inspire him with hope, showing him that in Christ’s strength he can do better. Hold up before him the possibilities that are his. Point him to the heights to which he may attain. Help him to take hold upon the mercy of the Lord, to trust in His forgiving power. Jesus is waiting to clasp him by the hand, waiting to give him power to live a noble, virtuous life.—Manuscript 2, 1903. 

Satan Presses a Sense of Guiltiness—The people of God are here [Zechariah, chapter 3] represented as a criminal on trial. Joshua, as high priest, is seeking for a blessing for his people, who are in great affliction. While he is pleading before God, Satan is standing at his right hand as his adversary. He is accusing the children of God and making their case appear as desperate as possible. He presents before the Lord their evil doings and their defects. He shows their faults and failures, hoping they will appear of such a character in the eyes of Christ that He will render them no help in their great need. Joshua, as the representative of God’s people, stands under condemnation, clothed with filthy garments. Aware of the sins of his people, he is weighed down with discouragement. Satan is pressing upon his soul a sense of guiltiness that makes him feel almost hopeless. Yet there he stands as a suppliant, with Satan arrayed against him.—Christ’s Object Lessons, 166, 167 (1900). 

Failed to Claim God’s Promises—I have since thought that many inmates of insane asylums were brought there by experiences similar to my own. Their consciences were stricken with a sense of sin, and their trembling faith dared not claim the promised pardon of God. They listened to descriptions of the orthodox hell until it seemed to curdle the very blood in their veins, and burned an impression upon the tablets of their memory. Waking or sleeping, the frightful picture was ever before them until reality became lost in imagination, and they saw only the wreathing flames of a fabulous hell and heard only the shrieking of the doomed. Reason became dethroned, and the brain was filled with the wild fantasy of a terrible dream. Those who teach the doctrine of an eternal hell would do well to look more closely after their authority for so cruel a belief.—Testimonies for the Church 1:25, 26 (1855). 

https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/78.412#412

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for the forgiveness of sin. Thank You for our sin-pardoning Ssvior, Your Son, Jesus. Please bless us to fully embrace the power of Your grace to obey Your commandments, to show our love for You in action, and to be always a living witness for You that others might be uplifted and encouraged in rightdoing. Through the power of Your Holy Spirit,  please bless us to be all You would have us be and grant us the mind and love of Jesus that others might be drawn to You through how we live and what we say. Because we ask all these in the Awesome name of Your Son, Almighty Jesus the Christ, our Savior, we say Thank You and Amen.

Visit this link to watch today’s Sabbath service livestreamed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/UcheePinesInstitute.  Invite your family and friends to join us online beginning at 9:15 am Eastern Time.

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DID YOU KNOW THIS…? 

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.—Romans 12:2 KJV —The WORD OF GOD—It’s the only flesh that is safe to eat (meditate on) to live forever!]

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Do you feel sorrowful, disconnected—without a place to feel at home or useful? I pray this might show you the way forward. Watch…
https://www.youtube.com/live/2QB6fcwVuws?si=fsEvZU-rkI-BngfD

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FREE HEALTH TALK* open to the public Thursdays at 5pm at Country Life Natural Foods Store and Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurant, 1217 Eberhart Avenue, Columbus, GA.

Thursday, Sept. 10: “Nutrition for Healing”

*Exception: $10 for any cooking class

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WHGR 91.5 FM went LIVE noon on Thanksgiving Day 2025, for Hurtsboro (my childhood home town) and surrounding areas, including Tuskegee, Alabama.

If you want to support Christian radio  programming for these final days, please visit
https://www.ucheepines.org/radio

Thank you!!!

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I coordinate wonderful health and worship events and conferences online and onsite as a gospel medical missionary at Uchee Pines, a total plant-based health retreat, where doctors and practitioners specialize in lifestyle medicine. For event details, visit https://www.ucheepines.org/events

Therefore, if at any time you fail to receive this post as a text, please visit  
https://baiom.org/author/audreystovall/
where devotionals are first posted daily (almost without fail). From there devotionals are publicly shared to my page on FB, LinkedIn, and Signal (in My Story), and to a response-restricted group on WhatsApp (once again when I am able to find the time to successfully rebuild it).

NOTE: These began as daily texts to encourage my academy roommate and dear friend of nearly 50 years, until she suddenly passed March 2023. Now I continue to compile and send them to anyone who will receive them and to her family in honor of their mom. Lately, I have begun featuring consecutive chapter portions of a select Bible-based book.
If you agree to continue receiving them, then this is my personal gift to you; and in this way, I not only honor God but the memory of a very dear friend whom I desperately miss.
My personal prayer is that God will bless me to find ways to multiply this gift, so that we all may be encouraged to be found faithful in the sight of a Holy God, whenever Christ returns or our eyes are shut in the sleep of death.
It is a prayerful process that leads me to share from my personal study. 
So please feel free to forward to your loved ones or to anyone, as God leads you. I’m calling them Barb’s Devotionals.