Belfast 2022: Tracing the First Footsteps of Doncaster Bible AdventurersSource: https://adventist.uk/news/article/go/2022-03-24/doncaster-bible-adventurers-reach-the-summit/
Inside Story: Narrow Escape
Narrow Escape!
By Saengsurin Phongchan
God loves me a lot.
Image © Pacific Press
When a friend moved away to Australia, I agreed to visit her parents every once in a while back here in Thailand. It wasn’t easy to find the parents’ house. I had to look up directions, and I learned that the house was quite some distance from my own. For my first visit, I filled my backpack and several bags with groceries. Carrying the food, I hailed a three-wheeled tuk-tuk taxi to take me to the bus station.
Partway through our trip, the tuk-tuk driver suddenly said, “I can’t take you. Can I call you another tuk-tuk?” He didn’t give any reason for his change of heart. What could I do? A second tuk-tuk picked me up, but the driver took me to the wrong place. I got into a third tuk-tuk.
It took nearly two hours to reach the bus station. I was fuming in frustration when I arrived. Why had it taken two hours and three tuk-tuks for the usual short and simple trip to the bus station?
“Where are you going?” the ticket seller asked me.
I was so upset that I couldn’t talk to anyone, not even to the ticket seller.
“I’ll talk to you later,” I said, turning away.
After calming down, I bought a ticket and boarded a minivan.
During the trip to the house of my friend’s parents, we passed a wrecked minivan on the side of the road. Our driver stopped to see if he could help. Returning to the minivan, he somberly told us that several passengers had died in the crash.
“This is the minivan that left right before us on this route,” he said.
At that moment, I realized that I should have been on that minivan. I only missed the minivan because of the many delays in reaching the bus station.
My friend’s parents were relieved to see me. They had heard about the crash. “We were so worried because we thought you were on that minivan,” the mother said.
“God is so good,” I said. Then I told my story about the delays to the parents, who were not Christians.
“The God or angel who protects you is really great!” the father exclaimed.
Yes, God loves me a lot.
Saengsurin Phongchan was principal at the Seventh-day Adventist school in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, that received part of the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering three years ago. Thank you for your offering that helped the school, Adventist International Mission School — Korat, expand into a high school at a new site.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org
Amen!
(2)
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Friday: Let Brotherly Love Continue
Further Thought:
“After the descent of the Holy Spirit, … [believers] rejoiced in the sweetness of communion with saints. They were tender, thoughtful, self-denying, willing to make any sacrifice for the truth’s sake. In their daily association with one another, they revealed the love that Christ had enjoined upon them.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
By unselfish words and deeds they strove to kindle this love in other hearts. …
But gradually a change came. The believers began to look for defects in others. Dwelling upon mistakes, giving place to unkind criticism, they lost sight of the Saviour and His love. They became more strict in regard to outward ceremonies, more particular about the theory than the practice of the faith. In their zeal to condemn others, they overlooked their own errors. They lost the brotherly love that Christ had enjoined, and, saddest of all, they were unconscious of their loss. They did not realize that happiness and joy were going out of their lives and that, having shut the love of God out of their hearts, they would soon walk in darkness.
John, realizing that brotherly love was waning in the church, urged upon believers the constant need of this love. His letters to the church are full of this thought. ‘Beloved, let us love one another,’ he writes; ‘for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.’” — Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, Pages 547, 548.
Discussion Questions:
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Amen!(3)
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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/friday-let-brotherly-love-continue/
Belief #10: Salvation [How Can We Have It?] – Pastor Ted Wilson
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfNxAPiqtcg?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-GB&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=1280&h=720]
In this episode, Pastor Ted Wilson discusses the tenth fundamental belief of the Seventh-day Adventists—the experience of salvation.
The experience of salvation that reaches deep into the souls comes from God alone. “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God…Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, 5).
Only through Jesus Christ can we experience salvation. “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
Our tenth fundamental belief states: “In infinite love and mercy God made Christ, Who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might be made the righteousness of God. Led by the Holy Spirit, we sense our need, acknowledge our sinfulness, repent of our transgressions, and exercise faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord, Substitute and Example. This saving faith comes through the divine power of the Word and is the gift of God’s grace. Through Christ, we are justified, adopted as God’s sons and daughters, and delivered from the lordship of sin. Through the Spirit, we are born again and sanctified; the Spirit renews our minds, writes God’s law of love in our hearts, and we are given the power to live a holy life. Abiding in Him, we become partakers of the divine nature and have the assurance of salvation now and in the judgment.”
Jesus freely offers us the gift of salvation from sin. All we have to do is accept it. “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation” (Romans 10, 9-10).
Once we accept this gift, He forgives our past sins and looks at us as if we’ve never sinned. He then helps us overcome sin. As said in Jude 24 and 25, “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”
After accepting Jesus, He calls us to “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). He wants us to have a better, happier way to live. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:26).
Jesus meets us where we are and delights in saving us from our lost condition. There is no sinfulness His grace and forgiveness cannot redeem.
In response to His great love, we follow God’s law and teachings. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).
But if we make mistakes, God is still there to rescue us. Before He was crucified, He warned His disciples, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38).
Though we’ve chosen Jesus, we will still be tempted to sin. But He promises in Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Finally, Steps to Christ p. 70 explains what it truly means to experience salvation in Christ: “A life in Christ is a life of restfulness. There may be no ecstasy of feeling, but there should be an abiding, peaceful trust. Your hope is not in yourself; it is in Christ. Your weakness is united to His strength, your ignorance to His wisdom, your frailty to His enduring might. So you are not to look to yourself, not to let the mind dwell upon self, but look to Christ. Let the mind dwell upon His love, upon the beauty, the perfection, of His character. Christ in His self-denial, Christ in His humiliation, Christ in His purity and holiness, Christ in His matchless love—this is the subject for the soul’s contemplation. It is by loving Him, copying Him, depending wholly upon Him, that you are to be transformed into His likeness.”
As an appeal, Pastor Ted invites you to come to God now and experience this gift of salvation today!
Source: https://fulfilleddesire.net/belief-10-salvation-how-can-we-have-it-pastor-ted-wilson/
Series THE MESSAGE OF HEBREWS with…
Series THE MESSAGE OF HEBREWS with Pastor Kurt Piesslinger, M.A. |
13.LET BROTHERLY LOVE CONTINUE |
A loving brotherhood can be clearly seen. |
Memory Text: Hebrews 13:1 – Let brotherly love continue.
Content:
13.0 Introduction
13.1 Caring for God’s People
13.2 Covetousness and Sexual Immorality
13.3 Remember Your Leaders
13.4 Beware of Diverse and Strange Teachings
13.5 Go to Jesus Outside the Camp
13.6 Summary
My God bless you today and always.
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13.6 Summary – LET BROTHERLY LOVE CONTINUE | Pastor Kurt Piesslinger, M.A.
Series THE MESSAGE OF HEBREWS with Pastor Kurt Piesslinger, M.A. |
13.LET BROTHERLY LOVE CONTINUE |
A loving brotherhood can be clearly seen. |
Memory Text: Hebrews 13:1 – Let brotherly love continue.
13.6 Summary
Whenever people stay together it will be a blessing.
My God bless you today and always.
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Source: https://fulfilleddesire.net/13-6-summary-let-brotherly-love-continue-pastor-kurt-piesslinger-m-a/
News Briefs for March 24, 2022
News reports from the Blue Zones, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Loma Linda University, North America Division. Beating the System On March 6, 2022, Holbrook Indian School (HIS) celebrated 75 years of operation. The program can be viewed on the school website. The school also screened a video titled HIS Then and Now, which is […] Source: https://atoday.org/news-briefs-for-march-24-2022/
Jesus Won’t Return Until We Learn to Love and Accept Trans and Intersex People
By Stephen Ferguson and Lillian-Paige Turner | 23 March 2022 | While much of the world was dealing with Covid mandates and Russian invasions, the Australian Parliament was addressing the thorny question of religious discrimination. It was big news here. With concerns about increased anti-religious sentiment, Australia’s conservative Coalition-Government (led by the Liberal Party, confusingly […] Source: https://atoday.org/jesus-wont-return-until-we-learn-to-love-and-accept-trans-and-intersex-people/
Hebrews 13 and Sexual Fidelity for Married and Single Christians
Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 14:4-5 NKJV
About 5 years ago I wrote an article about single people resisting sexual temptations. A married person commented and told me the article was also very beneficial for married people as well. So in the light of a Scripture in this week’s lesson study, here goes my talk again for both married as well as single people.
Image © Lars Justinen Goodsalt.com
Hebrews 13 is making Christian living practical. Verse 4 is teaching about practical living when it comes to sex. So how does this relate to single people? Some may think that it has nothing to do with single people. After all what do single people have to do with keeping the marriage bed undefiled? Well, sadly there are single church members who get propositioned by married church members. When this happens we keep the marriage bed undefiled by turning down those propositions and reminding the married party about Jesus and their commitment. Verses 4-5 also talk about being content with what you have. As single people, we can be content with meaningful relationships that don’t include sex. After all, even if you are married, life is not all about marriage and sex. The Christian church at large is learning it has made mistakes in the past by stressing sexual purity and purity rings, and talking about how great sex will be once you are married. Now teaching sexual purity is no mistake! it is right on with the Gospel. The problem is the church made such a big deal about sex and marriage that it caused two problems. 1. It built up so much unrealistic anticipation for sex, that once those with purity rings finally got married and had sex they found it disappointing. It just didn’t live up to all the hype. 2. Focusing on sex and marriage all the time encourages people to think that life is all about sex and marriage, while it clearly is not. Jesus, who was single, endorsed the gift (notice its a gift not a curse or burden) of celibacy in Matthew 19:11-12. Paul joins Jesus in lauding the blessings of single living in 1 Corinthians 7. By reading Scripture you would never get the idea that life is all about being married, as some have preached and taught in recent years.
I believe instead of teaching young people to keep themselves pure for marriage, I believe we should teach them to keep themselves pure for Jesus. Instead of encouraging young people to constantly occupy their minds with waiting for marriage, I believe we should encourage them to occupy their minds on waiting for Jesus to come.
Today there are more and more divorced Christians, and people who have other ambitions, who are putting off marriage until later in life. Being single, I find myself in single circles, where single Christians, both men and women voice their sexual frustration. They are not trying to be provocative or seductive. They are just being real. They want to be Christians, but they are still sexual. We are not made sexual at marriage. We are made sexual at birth.
Being made sexual at birth, how do Christians control sexual appetite until they are married? How do Christian divorced people control their sexual urges? How do Christian widows and widowers satisfy their sexual needs? After 60 years of marriage, I don’t imagine sexual urges die after your spouse dies. Does God meet the sexual needs of all these single people?
And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 NLT
If it says God will supply all our needs, we have to understand that includes sexual needs of single people. If we can trust God to provide for our financial needs, we can trust Him to provide for our sexual needs as well. We can go to Him and tell Him about all our needs. Then we can trust Him to provide in a way that is best for us. We are familiar with a phrase in Desire of Ages,
Our heavenly Father has a thousand ways to provide for us, of which we know nothing. Those who accept the one principle of making the service and honor of God supreme will find perplexities vanish, and a plain path before their feet. –Ellen White, Desire of Ages, Page 330.
Was sex the context here? No. Am I taking things out of context if I say God has a thousand ways to provide for our sexual needs, when we serve and honor God? Maybe, but please hear me out. First, we need to understand that marriage does not guarantee sex. Sadly there are celibate marriages for various reasons we won’t get into here. Having said that, sex does not guarantee intimacy. I once read in a sexual purity book long ago, that some people will have sex to avoid intimacy! Instead of talking and being intimate with their hearts and emotions, they will just be physical to avoid being intimate. Now that’s not good either, because sex should involve intimacy. But here is my point: Many of us think we crave sex when we actually crave intimacy. All sex should be intimate, but not all intimacy has to be sex.
I think we crave healthy relationships more than we crave sex. I think Mary Magdalene found something in Jesus that satisfied her desire for sex, even though it wasn’t sex, and Jesus was the perfect Gentleman with her. I think she found something in Him greater than sex. She found true love and intimacy. She needed true love and intimacy more than she needed sex. So do we.
God does not require us to give up anything that it is for our best interest to retain. In all that He does, He has the well-being of His children in view. Would that all who have not chosen Christ might realize that He has something vastly better to offer them than they are seeking for themselves. –Ellen White, Steps to Christ, Page 46.
I have to believe this passage includes sexual activity. If God has not given you a Christian sex life right now, it is only because He has something vastly better for you right now. He knows all your needs, not just the needs of your bank account. He knows your sexual needs too. He cares for you in all your ways. By the way, a while back I heard a married Christian say, “sex is not a need. It is a want.” That would apply to married as well as single people. I am in no way implying that married people should limit sexual activity. I’m just saying when dealing with temptations and urges it is important to know the difference between needs and wants.
The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right. Psalms 84:11 NLT
If sex was good for single people God would give it to them, but sex is not good for single people, which is the only reason He does not give it to them. But love and intimacy is good for single people, and He gives that to them, through church, family, and a personal relationship with Him.
Though I don’t have all the answers, I believe God can supply the sexual needs of His single people, with pure love and intimacy, and a thousand other ways we know nothing about. The solution is to trust God with your sexual needs just like any other need.
Please let me paraphrase a popular passage.
Keep your [sexual] wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears before God. You cannot burden Him; you cannot weary Him. He who numbers the hairs of your head is not indifferent to the [sexual] wants of His children. “The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” James 5:11. His heart of love is touched by our [sexual] sorrows and even by our utterances of them. Take to Him everything [including sex] that perplexes the mind. Nothing is too great for Him to bear, for He holds up worlds, He rules over all the affairs of the universe. Nothing that in any way concerns our [sexual] peace is too small for Him to notice. There is no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read; there is no perplexity too difficult for Him to unravel. No [Sexual] calamity can befall the least of His children, no anxiety harass the soul, no joy cheer, no sincere prayer escape the lips, of which our heavenly Father is unobservant, or in which He takes no immediate interest. “He healeth the [sexually] broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3. The relations between God and each soul are as distinct and full as though there were not another soul upon the earth to share His watchcare, not another soul for whom He gave His beloved Son. –Ellen White, Steps to Christ, Page 100.
God loves single people just as much as He loves married people, and He makes single people just as happy as married people. God can appropriately meet the sexual needs of single people as easily as He can meet the sexual needs of married people. Believe in His love, and He will meet all your daily needs.
Amen!(0)
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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/hebrews-13-and-sexual-fidelity-for-married-and-single-christians/
Home Office immigration team partners with an Adventist lay ministry for understanding.
Six Home Office officials from specialist units of the UK immigration department engaged with nearly 200 attendees in a webinar discussion to build trust and understanding with the community.
The event on 5 March was organised and facilitated by an elder of the Milton Keynes Seventh-day Adventist Church, Dr Robbie Osei Addaih and his ministry team called ‘The Legal Team’. The group have been helping and supporting people with immigration challenges over the past ten years.
The Home Office team…Source: https://adventist.uk/news/article/go/2022-03-24/1098/
