Safe in Jesus: Part 2

By Andrew McChesney

One afternoon, 16-year-old Almira decided to take a nap after returning home from school, exhausted from months of fitful nights. She lay down on a couch, her face to the open door of the room. She was at home alone.

Image © Pacific Press

Suddenly, she sensed the presence in the room. Looking toward the door, she saw the presence for the first time. He looked like a gray cloud, completely obscuring the doorway. Almira didn’t know why, but she understood that something terrible would happen if she even blinked. She stared at the doorway for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, she had to blink. In that split second, the gray cloud darted to her. Almira felt like she was entombed in a giant stone, helpless and unable to move. She struggled to breathe. She pleaded with good forces for help. There was no response.

At that moment, she remembered a prayer that she had memorized. It was a non-Christian prayer associated with her ancestors’ traditional religion. She recited it. For a moment, she was free and could breathe. But then the presence captured her again. She repeated the prayer again and again. She was released and recaptured, released and recaptured.

Growing weary of the struggle, she frantically wondered what she could do to save herself. Abruptly, she remembered that one of the Russian teachers at the supernatural courses had mentioned Jesus Christ was more powerful than all good and evil forces. The thought flashed into her mind to call upon Jesus. She opened her mouth to speak. She only managed to utter the first syllable of Jesus’ name, and the gray cloud fled. She felt like Jesus had entered the room and thrown the evil captor off her.

Almira had no doubt that she needed Jesus. But how? She was not a Christian. So, she went to her ancestors’ traditional place of worship for two months. She began to sleep better, so she decided that Jesus must also visit that place of worship.

Then her older sister, Faniya, came home with two friends whom Almira had never seen before. She learned that day that Faniya had started going to a Seventh-day Adventist church located on the same street as their apartment building. The two friends were members of the Adventist Church. Almira related her story to the Adventist girls.

“That is Satan,” one girl said.

The other girl said Almira had entered Satan’s territory by taking the classes on the supernatural.

“But Jesus is on your side,” she said. “Only He can free you from Satan’s power.”

Read more about Almira next week. Thank you for your mission offerings that help spread the gospel in Russia and around the world.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/inside-story-safe-in-jesus-part-2/

Further Thought:

 Study carefully the following preamble to the discussion questions listed below:

What is the specific context in which Paul writes Ephesians 2:11-22 as he describes the sweeping effects of the Cross on human relationships?

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

 He is addressing the relationships between Jewish and Gentile believers who together are members of the church. He expresses an obvious concern that they understand and live their shared, reconciled status as fellow members of God’s household (Ephesians 2:19). However, in the context of the letter as a whole, Paul demonstrates a broad, far-reaching purpose. His theme is God’s grand, ultimate plan to unite all things in Christ (Ephesians 1:9-10) and his scope includes “every family in heaven and on earth” (Ephesians 3:15, ESV).

More important, the unity of members within the church — the specific topic he addresses in Ephesians 2:11-22 — itself has a wider purpose that Paul discloses in Ephesians 3:10: “so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God [in creating the church out of both Jews and Gentiles] might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (ESV). Through actualizing the unity Christ won on the cross, believers are to signal that God’s ultimate plan to unite all things in Christ is underway. Their reconciled relationships signal God’s plan for a universe unified in Christ. So it is appropriate to look to Ephesians 2:11-22, set in the context of Ephesians as a whole, for biblical principles concerning a topic of importance today, relationships among people groups or races.

Discussion Questions:

<–Thursday

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