Every man's word shall be his burden - Ye say that all God's messages are burdens, and to you they shall be such: whereas, had you used them as you ought, they would have been blessings to you.
For ye have perverted the words of the living God - And thus have sinned against your own souls.
Every man‘s word - Rather, every man‘s burden shall be his word; i. e., his mocking use of the word “burden” shall weigh him down and crush him.
Perverted - i. e., put into a ridiculous light.
The Bible is the textbook, and it is to be searched diligently—not as we would read a book among many books. It must be to us the book that meets the wants of the soul. This book will make the man who studies and obeys it wise unto salvation. As food cannot nourish the body unless it be eaten and digested, neither can the Word of the living God profit the soul unless it be received as the teacher in higher educational lines, as above all human productions; unless its principles be obeyed because it is the wisdom of God.... TDG 127.5
Read in context »You pray, and ask God for wisdom, strength, and efficiency, and feel that you must have them. But perhaps, right after that prayer, it will seem as though a hellish shadow of Satan was cast right athwart your pathway, and you see nothing beyond. What was that? Why, the devil wanted to obscure your faith.... But there is no necessity for you to do that. Is feeling to be our criterion, or is it to the word of the living God? Are we to sink our faith in the cloud? That is what Satan wants us to do.... TDG 213.4
Read in context »