Earth is a Battlefield 5 - Prevailing Hope

I'm sitting beside the Sabbath
Trail, which is this really cool trail,

that starts and ends at the Washington
Seventh Day Adventist Church,

in Washington, New Hampshire.

Which is the first
Seventh Day Adventist church,

the oldest Seventh Day Adventist church.

And this is a trail that
winds through the woods

for about a mile, it's got
twenty-two separate stops on it,

each of which has a part in tracing the
Sabbath through the Bible, through the ages.

If you ever get a chance to
visit, I highly recommend it.

For our purposes, this trail
is an ideal spot to continue

our look at the selfishness paradigm.

We have to wait to see a pure expression of
the loving-kindness paradigm, God's paradigm.

We won't see that until heaven.

But today, even though Satan
has twisted things around severely,

God, as master designer of
the earth, can still be seen.

The author Ellen White, in
the book Desire of Ages,

talks about how there's
both good and evil in the world,

and we can see God in nature still.

Where the only thing that is,
or can completely be evil,

is the hearts of those humans
who decide to be wholly evil.

And here is what she says
on page twenty of her book.

She says, "Now sin has
marred God's perfect work,

yet that handwriting remains.

Even now, all created things
declare the glory of His excellence.

There is nothing, save the selfish
heart of man, that lives unto itself.

No bird that cleaves the air, nor
animal that moves upon the ground,

but ministers to some other life.

There is no leaf of the forest, or lowly
blade of grass but has its ministry.

Every tree and shrub and leaf
pours forth that element of life

without which neither
man nor animal could live.

And man and animal, in turn, minister to
the life of the tree and shrub and leaf.

The flowers breathe fragrance and unfold
their beauty in blessing to the world,

the sun sheds its light to
gladden a thousand worlds.

The ocean, itself the source of
all of our springs and fountains,

receives the streams from
every land, but takes to give.

The mists ascending from its bosom
fall in showers to water the earth,

that it may bring forth and bud."