Friday: Further Thought – Teaching Disciples: Part I

Daily Lesson for Friday 16th of August 2024

Read Ellen G. White, “Ministry,” Pages 426–431; “Who Is the Greatest? “Pages 432-442, in The Desire of Ages.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

“Before honor is humility. To fill a high place before men, Heaven chooses the worker who, like John the Baptist, takes a lowly place before God. The most childlike disciple is the most efficient in labor for God. The heavenly intelligences can co-operate with him who is seeking, not to exalt self, but to save souls.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 436.

“By all that has given us advantage over another,—be it education and refinement, nobility of character, Christian training, religious experience,—we are in debt to those less favored; and, so far as lies in our power, we are to minister unto them. If we are strong, we are to stay up the hands of the weak. Angels of glory, that do always behold the face of the Father in heaven, joy in ministering to His little ones. Trembling souls, who have many objectionable traits of character, are their special charge. Angels are ever present where they are most needed, with those who have the hardest battle with self to fight, and whose surroundings are the most discouraging. And in this ministry Christ’s true followers will co-operate.”—The Desire of Ages, p. 440.

Discussion Questions

Read again Mark 8:27-29. How often do you confess to others your belief in Jesus as the Christ?
What is the right balance between the mountaintop experience of communion with Christ and the down-on-the-plain experience of service to others’ needs?
In class, discuss the answer to the question about greatness at the end of Wednesday’s study. What did you determine is the difference between how the world views greatness and how God does? Who are some of the people the world deems great that perhaps God doesn’t? In contrast, whom might God deem great that the world ignores or even disdains? What does this difference tell us about how warped and twisted the world’s ideals really are?
How can you learn to take sin so seriously that, as Jesus said, you’re better off to be maimed than to sin?