Inside Story for Friday 23rd of May 2025

By Andrew McChesney

Diana’s thoughts returned to God after the calming voice stopped her from committing suicide. That Sunday, she took her three children to a small church in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They sat in the pew until the church musicians began to play. She didn’t like the music she heard coming from the platform. It reminded her of a bad part of her life. She walked out of the church with her children.

Diana’s life seemed to go from bad to worse. Thieves broke into her apartment and took what little she had. She became pregnant by her abusive boyfriend, and his only response was, “I’ll pay for the abortion.” One night, after the children were asleep in bed, she sat in the dark in her living room, filled with shame and self-hatred. She cried out in anger to God, “Is this what You saved me for?” The anger turned to sobbing as she remembered her years of struggles. “Jesus,” she pleaded, “I need You.” Instantly, she felt an intense rush of energy fill her. The room was pitch-black, but it seemed to be filled with light. It was as if she were being hugged by God from heaven. An overwhelming sense of joy, peace, and love filled her whole being. Shortly after, she fell into a deep, peaceful sleep. In the morning, the intense feelings were gone, but she sensed something was different.

A few months later, she met a strange and peculiar person. Loren Fish was a fourth-generation Seventh-day Adventist. His father was a pastor and church planter. But during Loren’s first year of college, he had wandered away from God, started drinking, and eventually dropped out. He met Diana at a dance club in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and he asked her for a ride home. Diana found the stranger annoying, but she gave him a ride. After that, Loren wouldn’t leave her alone. He found out where she worked and visited her there. Diana wasn’t interested in getting into another relationship. She hadn’t left the bad one that she was in. Moreover, Loren was four and a half years younger, and he seemed naïve and immature. In truth, she didn’t want him to know what a mess she was and didn’t want to get hurt again. So, she pushed him away. Loren left Santa Fe and settled down near Chicago.

Then one night, Loren called after Diana’s boyfriend turned violent, slashing her car tires and attacking her in the parking lot of the newspaper where they both worked. Diana was happy to hear his voice, and she remembered feeling safe with him. “You can come visit me any time you want,” she told him. Loren arrived that weekend, and he never left.

This mission story offers an inside look at how God miraculously worked in the life of Diana Fish, development director of the US-based Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School, which received the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering in 2021. Thank you for supporting the spread of the gospel with this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering on June 28. Read more about Diana next week.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-08-inside-story-part-4-ex-adventist-boyfriend/

Daily Lesson for Friday 23rd of May 2025

Further Thought: “The psalms of David pass through the whole range of experience, from the depths of conscious guilt and self-­condemnation to the loftiest faith and the most exalted communing with God.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

His life record declares that sin can bring only shame and woe, but that God’s love and mercy can reach to the deepest depths, that faith will lift up the repenting soul to share the adoption of the sons of God. Of all the assurances which His word contains, it is one of the strongest testimonies to the faithfulness, the justice, and the covenant mercy of God. . . .

“ ‘I have sworn unto David My servant . . . with whom My hand shall be established: Mine arm also shall strengthen him. . . . My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him: and in My name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto Me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation. Also I will make him My first-born, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and My covenant shall stand fast with him.’ Psalms 89:3-28.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, Pages 754, 755.

Discussion Questions

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-08-further-thought-in-the-psalms-part-1/