Inside Story for Friday 15th of March 2024

By Andrew McChesney

Returning to the barracks after a short stint of shoveling coal on a mountain, Sekule informed his commander that he would not bear arms, even in the ongoing Bosnian War.

“I don’t want to shoot people,” he said.

“You must take a weapon,” the commander insisted. “Otherwise, you will have to serve two years instead of one.” Noncombatants were required to serve two years rather than one in the army.

“I don’t care,” Sekule said. “I won’t carry a weapon.”

The commander sent Sekule to an intelligence officer. Only soldiers who were in deep trouble were sent to the officer. He could imprison soldiers.

Sekule explained his position to the officer.

“Fine,” the officer said. “Take a gun and, if you are sent to the front, give it back. That way you will serve only one year instead of two.”

“What do you mean?” Sekule said.

“Agree to carry a gun during training, but the training that you will receive will be on teleprinters instead of the shooting range,” the officer said.

Sekule agreed. He was assigned to office work, helping run military communications by typing on a teleprinter.

The Sabbath turned out to be a bigger challenge than guns for Sekule. Because of the war, Sekule needed to be trained quickly to work on a teleprinter. But he refused to attend training sessions on Sabbath.

Food, also, was a challenge. Military rations were prepared with lard. Sekule’s parents refused to send money for food because they hoped he would change his diet.

Sekule prayed, “Please bless me like You blessed Daniel. He decided not to eat unclean food, and I want to do the same.”

Sekule’s commander didn’t know what to do.

“You won’t work on Saturday?” he asked.

“No,” Sekule said.

“Do you have any suggestions about what we can do?”

“No.”

“You won’t eat meat?”

“No.”

“Do you have any suggestions about what we can do?”

“No.”

The only thing Sekule could eat was bread and tea. In four months, he lost 50 pounds (23 kilograms), dropping to 137 pounds (85 kilograms). He was skin and bones.

Sekule Sekuli´c is an affluent entrepreneur and faithful Seventh-day Adventist in Montenegro. Read more of his story next week. Thank you for your Sabbath School mission offerings that help spread the good news of Jesus’ soon coming in Montenegro and around the world.

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The post Inside Story: Skin and Bones: Part 7 appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24a-11-inside-story-skin-and-bones-part-7/

Daily Lesson for Friday 15th of March 2024

Contemplate the message of Isaiah 40:1-31 and Isaiah 51:1-16.

The songs of Zion make an absolute commitment to staying mindful of Zion and the living hope in God’s sovereign reign that it represents. While many blessings of God’s sanctuary are experienced in this life, the hope in the fullness of life and joy in Zion is still in the future. Many of God’s children long for the heavenly Zion with tears (Psalms 137:1). To remember Zion implies not merely an occasional thought but also a deliberate mindfulness and decision to live in accordance with that living memory (Exodus 13:3, Exodus 20:8).

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

Therefore, singing the songs of Zion carries a passionate resolve to keep alive the hope in the restoration of God’s kingdom on the new earth (Revelation 21:1-5). “There, immortal minds will contemplate with never-failing delight the wonders of creative power, the mysteries of redeeming love. There is no cruel, deceiving foe to tempt to forgetfulness of God. Every faculty will be developed, every capacity increased. The acquirement of knowledge will not weary the mind or exhaust the energies. There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 677.

A commitment not to forget Zion is an implicit pledge of the Lord’s pilgrims that they will never accept this world as their homeland but await the new heavens and the new earth.

Thus, the psalms of Zion can be sung by believers of all generations who long to live in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 3:12). The songs of Zion encourage us to anticipate the future world with hope, but they also oblige us to be agents of God’s grace in this present world.

Discussion Questions

1. How do we take the spiritual and theological principles that centered on God’s people in Zion, a literal place in Jerusalem, and apply them to the church and its mission to the world?
2. How can believers abide in God’s sanctuary today? (John 1:14-18, Hebrews 12:22-24).
3. How will Zion become the city of all nations as envisioned in Psalms 87:1-7? (Romans 5:10, Ephesians 2:11-16, Colossians 1:19-23).
4. How do you answer the person who points to the reality of the wicked prospering in this world while many “good” people suffer? What do you say? Why is it important to acknowledge that we don’t have full answers for everything here now?

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The post Friday: Further Thought – Longing for God in Zion appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24a-11-further-thought-longing-for-god-in-zion/