This page has the resources provided or referenced at the 2026 Michigan Camp Meeting. Eventually it will also include the audio recorded.
8x11 PDF A5 PDF A4 PDF Booklet PDF Read Online
This is the main study guide that we followed.
8x11 PDF A5 PDF Read Online
A few key thoughts from the letter:
"Pure religion has to do with the will. The will is the governing power in the nature of man. If the will is set right, all the rest of the man will come under its sway. The will is not the taste or the inclination, but it is the choice, the deciding power; the kingly power which works in the children of men unto obedience to God or to disobedience." {Lt 49, 1887, par. 12}
"You will be in constant peril until you understand the true force of the will. You may believe and promise all things, but I would not give a straw for your promises or your faith until you put your will over on the believing and doing side. If you will fight the fight of faith with your will power, in the work, I have not the least doubt that you will conquer." {Lt 49, 1887, par. 12}
"Your part is to put your will over on the side of Christ in the matter of faith. Just as you yield up your will to the will of Jesus Christ, God immediately takes possession of that will, and works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure; and all of your nature is brought under the control of the spirit of Christ, even your thoughts are subject to Him." {Lt 49, 1887, par. 13}
"Your life, by yielding up your will to Christ, is hid with Christ in God and allied to the power which is above all principalities and powers. You have a strength from God that holds you fast to His strength, and a new life, even the life of living faith, is possible to you. But your will must co-operate with God’s will," {Lt 49, 1887, par. 13}
"Will you say, “I will give my will to Jesus, and I do it now”? From that moment, be wholly on the Lord’s side. Disregard the pitiful clamoring of appetite, of custom, of passion. Give Satan no chance to say, You are a wretched hypocrite. Close the door so that Satan shall not thus accuse you and dishearten you. Say, “I will believe, I do believe that God is my helper,” and you will find that you will be triumphant in God. Every emotion will, by steadfastly keeping the will on the Lord’s side, be brought into captivity to the will of Jesus. You will then find your feet on solid rock. It will take, you will find, at times, every particle of will power which you possess, but it is God that is working for you, and you will come forth from the molding process a vessel unto honor. Talk faith. “I will believe, I will believe that God can and will give me, Henri Frey, the victory.” {Lt 49, 1887, par. 14}
"He will do for you that which it is not possible for you to do for yourself. The result will be that you will become a grand cedar of Lebanon. Your life will be noble, your works will be wrought in God, there will be in you a directness, a power, an earnestness and simplicity that will make you a polished instrument in the hands of God. I am not speaking to you idle tales, but words of truth and verity. Try it and see." {Lt 49, 1887, par. 14}
"You need to understand that your will is the spring of all your actions. This will of man that is of so great consequence was at the fall given into the control of Satan, and he has been working in man to will and to do of his own good pleasure, but to the utter ruin and misery of man. Now God made an infinite sacrifice in giving Jesus, His beloved Son, to become a sacrifice for sin, that God may now say, without violating one principle of His government, “Yield yourself up to Me, give Me that will, take it from the control of Satan, and I will take possession of it, I will work in you to will and to do My good pleasure.” Then He gives you the mind of Christ, the will becomes transformed and the character formed after Christ’s character." {Lt 49, 1887, par. 15}
In carefully studying the quotations on grasping the divine nature, I discovered that in about 1909 she began speaking more of abiding in Christ. That does not mean she stopped talking about laying hold of the divine nature, but there was a definite change that you should know about. At that time she also began speaking more on raising children. The reason for the shift to speaking more of abiding was a vision received where she was shown the blessings of abiding in Christ. From that time she writes that she had an intensity of interest in abidingi in Christ that she had never had before. If you read to the bottom of the quotes, you will find where I discuss this and show examples of what I am talking about.
Here are her thoughts on the vision she received:
"I had a very singular experience in my home. I was writing on this subject to one of our people, and while I was writing, I lost all consciousness of anything around me. I was placed in that relation that I could understand what it means to be a branch of the true vine. And it was so wonderful, and yet so simple, that we could every one, be a branch of the true vine. This lesson in the fifteenth of John has been regarded by me with an intensity that I never regarded it before, and I will read it through now. {Ms139-1909.4} … Verses 5-7. Now the will of the man is placed as the will of the Son, as the will of Christ, and therefore nothing will transpire with them that shall attain this oneness. It is a wonderful position. I never saw it as I did on this special occasion. {Ms139-1909.6} … Verses 13-16. Why, this came upon me with such power, of the power that we are not grasping the grace that we might have. Now Christ tells things just as they are. We can be laborers together with Jesus Christ in God, to glorify God. {Ms139-1909.9} … The prospect that was before me as I sat there with me [my?] pen in my hands and had lost consciousness, why, the scene that was presented, and the works that were being done by Christ! The influence of His Holy Spirit that was being resisted, because they did not come up to the standard that it was their privilege to come up to, and for which the Lord sent Jesus to make it possible that humanity might grasp divinity, and divinity might lift up humanity to become one with Jesus Christ. Humanity and divinity combined could bring in a position of oneness to God that is presented. And when we consider, as when I began to come to myself, the privileges that we were to claim from this chapter—it seemed to me that I was in heaven. It seemed to me my whole being was brought into a unity with Jesus Christ, and that we could have this unity, the human being could take hold of the divine nature, and become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in world through lust." {Ms139-1909.13}
In this letter Ellen White admonishes the Maxsons to remove meat from their diet. Included in the letter are insights on how God overcomes addictions. Such admonishments are still true in our day. Notice what she says about eating flesh foods in the last days:
"Again and again I have been shown that God is trying to lead us back, step by step, to his original design,—that man should subsist upon the natural products of the earth. Among those who are waiting for the coming of the Lord, meat-eating will eventually be done away; flesh will cease to form a part of their diet. We should ever keep this end in view, and endeavor to work steadily toward it. I cannot think that in the practice of flesh-eating we are in harmony with the light which God has been pleased to give us. All who are connected with our health institutions especially should be educating themselves to subsist on fruits, grains, and vegetables. If we move from principle in these things, if we as Christian reformers educate our own taste, and bring our diet to God’s plan, then we may exert an influence upon others in this matter, which will be pleasing to God."—Ellen White, Christian Temperance (EGW) and Bible Hygiene (James White) 119.1