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Why Did Heaven Need to be Reconciled?

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For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. Colossians 1:19-20 NLT

The Sacrifice on the Cross

https://www.goodsalt.com/details/lwjas0340.html?r=ssnet

Why did God need to make peace with heaven? This verse right here may help us understand just how real the war in heaven was. Even after Lucifer was cast out, those who remained may have still had their doubts. Did God really love them, or did Lucifer have some good points about God just being a tyrant?

On earth Eve was convinced God did not care for her and she needed to eat the fruit and disobey, if she really wanted to be happy.

While all this was going on, is it possible some of the remaining angels in heaven still had some questions? Have you ever been loyal to a boss not because you thought he was fair, but because you did not see any way out? So out of fear you remained loyal to him, still wishing you weren’t in that situation? If so, what did it take for you to reconcile the situation so you could have peace at work and not just conformity?

When the Son of God died on the cross He was not just atoning for Eve taking a piece of fruit she was told not to. Eve’s disobedience was a symptom of her doubts. The Cross of Christ did not just take care of the symptoms of sin. The Cross took care of sin itself! The Cross removed all doubt about God’s love. All questions in heaven and earth are answered at the cross! There can be conformity while rebellion is still in the heart. The cross goes way beyond bringing us into conformity and outward obedience. The cross replaces our thoughts of rebellion with peaceful thoughts towards God.

That which alone can effectually restrain from sin in this world of darkness, will prevent sin in heaven. The significance of the death of Christ will be seen by saints and angels. Fallen men could not have a home in the paradise of God without the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Shall we not then exalt the cross of Christ? The angels ascribe honor and glory to Christ, for even they are not secure except by looking to the sufferings of the Son of God. It is through the efficacy of the cross that the angels of heaven are guarded from apostasy. Without the cross they would be no more secure against evil than were the angels before the fall of Satan. Angelic perfection failed in heaven. Human perfection failed in Eden, the paradise of bliss. All who wish for security in earth or heaven must look to the Lamb of God.-Ellen White, Signs of the Times, December 30, 1889

Some have the idea that once we get to heaven, God will flip a little switch in the back of our heads that makes us stop sinning. After all, we will be in heaven and so we automatically won’t sin, right?

Wait. Where did sin begin? Heaven!

The reason why humans and angels will not sin, is the same reason why God reconciled both heaven and earth to Himself. The cross of Jesus. The cross cures the root cause of sin which is doubting God’s love. The reason there will be no sin in heaven is not due to a mechanical correction that the flip of a switch will fix. The reason there will be no sin in heaven will be because the cross will cure humans and angels alike from ever doubting God’s love, and thinking we need anything God has not given us. There will be no reason to rebel.

Rules without relationship causes rebellion. The love of Christ on the cross removes our fear of God, so we are not afraid to have an intimate relationship with Him. With our relationship cured, we will have no reason to rebel. We won’t be conformists. We will be free-thinking moral agents who are at peace with God because God is love.

Amen!(1)

The post Why Did Heaven Need to be Reconciled? first appeared on Sabbath School Net.

The post Why Did Heaven Need to be Reconciled? appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/why-did-heaven-need-to-be-reconciled/

1: Rebellion in a Perfect Universe – Teaching Plan

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Key Thought: Regardless of its intensity or time span, the most important aspect of the struggle was that Satan and his angels were defeated. They continued the warfare here on the earth.
October 1, 2022

1. Have a volunteer read I John 4:11-16.

  1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
  2. What does this passage tell us about free will as a condition to cultivating love?
  3. Personal Application: What does the idea of God is love tell us about the nature of His creative activities?. Share your thoughts.
  4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “When I look at parts of nature, I can see the manifest love ofr God, but other parts of nature don’t seem to show love, but death and destruction. How can I trust in the consistency of God’s love?” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Ezekiel 28:12-19.

  1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
  2. What can we learn about the mysterious origin of sin?
  3. Personal Application: How can focusing on giving thanks in everything help to overcome feelings of self-pity and depression? Share your thoughts
  4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “God has given us free will, but with free will comes devastating consequences. If one person’s free will infringes on the rights, safety, and security of someone else, how can we accept that as love when others can get hurt?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Isaiah 14:12-15.

  1. Ask class members to share a short
  2. What far-reaching consequences did Lucifer’s pride while in heaven bring to the world and the universe
  3. Personal Application: Why is it so easy to be proud or boastful of our achievements or positions? How does keeping the cross before us keep us humble? Share your thoughts.
  4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “Why didn’t God stop Lucifer’s rebellion in heaven when it started to prevent all the future death, destruction, and misery in the world for over 2,000 years?” How would you respond to your relative?

4. Have a volunteer read Revelation 12:3,4.

  1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
  2. What does it mean the dragon’s tail drew a third part of the stars in heaven and cast them to the earth?
    (Note: Read Isaiah 9: 14,15.)
  3. Personal Application: What are some ways you see this battle playing out on the earth? Share your thoughts.
  4. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

(Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared.”Ministry of Healing, p. 148).

Amen!(0)

The post 1: Rebellion in a Perfect Universe – Teaching Plan first appeared on Sabbath School Net.

The post 1: Rebellion in a Perfect Universe – Teaching Plan appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/1-rebellion-in-a-perfect-universe-teaching-plan/

Laurence Turner, on “Countering Old Testament Illiteracy”

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28 September 2022  | Brent A. Strawn, in his book The Old Testament is Dying, draws an analogy between the contemporary Christian church’s competence in reading the Old Testament and the ability to speak a language fluently. Acknowledging the limitations of any analogy, he argues that the church is losing its ability to understand the […] Source: https://atoday.org/82647-2/

Thursday: The Spread of Unbelief

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Read Revelation 12:1-20. What does this chapter teach about the spread of the rebellion in heaven to the earth?

The fall of Lucifer was not a simple clash of conflicting ideas. Revelation 12:1-20 tells us that a major war broke out in heaven between Lucifer and his angels on one side and Christ and His angels on the other. In this passage, Lucifer is called “the great dragon,” the “serpent of old,” “the Devil and Satan,” and “the accuser of our brethren” (Revelation 12:9-10, , NKJV). Christ is referred to as “Michael” (Revelation 12:7), which means “who is like God.”

The Fallen Ones

Image © Review & Herald Publishing from GoodSalt.com

Based on the allusion to “Michael the archangel” (Jude 9), some interpreters believe that He is only an angelic being. But in the book of Daniel, each major vision culminates with Christ and His everlasting kingdom — as the stone cut out without hands (Daniel 2:34, Daniel 2:45), as the Son of man (Daniel 7:13), as the Prince of the host and the Prince of princes (Daniel 8:11, Daniel 8:25), and as Michael the great prince (Daniel 12:1). So, as the Angel of the Lord is the Lord Himself (Exodus 3:1-6, Acts 7:30-33, etc.), Michael must be the same Divine Person, i.e., Christ Himself.

Revelation 12:1-20 provided a general overview of this ongoing controversy, which 1. began in heaven with the rebellion of Lucifer and one-third of the heavenly angels, 2. culminated with Christ’s decisive victory at the cross, and 3. still continues against God’s end-time remnant people.

Reflecting on the beginning of this controversy, Ellen G. White explains that “God in His great mercy bore long with Lucifer. He was not immediately degraded from his exalted station when he first indulged the spirit of discontent, nor even when he began to present his false claims before the loyal angels. Long was he retained in heaven. Again and again he was offered pardon on condition of repentance and submission.” — Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, Pages 495, 496.

We do not know how long that war lasted in the heavenly realms. Regardless of its intensity and time span, the most important aspect of the whole struggle was that Satan and his angels “were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven” (Revelation 12:8, NRSV; see also Luke 10:18). The problem, of course, was that they came here, to the earth.

What are ways in which we can see the reality of this battle being played out on earth? What is our only hope to overcome our enemy in this battle?

<–Wednesday Friday–>

Amen!(1)

The post Thursday: The Spread of Unbelief first appeared on Sabbath School Net.

The post Thursday: The Spread of Unbelief appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/thursday-spread-of-unbelief/

Timothy

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I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 2 Timothy 4:1, 2.

This solemn charge to one so zealous and faithful as was Timothy is a strong testimony to the importance and responsibility of the work of the gospel minister. Summoning Timothy before the bar of God, Paul bids him preach the Word, not the sayings and customs of men; to be ready to witness for God whenever opportunity should present itself—before large congregations and private circles, by the way and at the fireside, to friends and to enemies, whether in safety or exposed to hardship and peril, reproach and loss.

Fearing that Timothy’s mild, yielding disposition might lead him to shun an essential part of his work, Paul exhorted him to be faithful in reproving sin and even to rebuke with sharpness those who are guilty of gross evils. Yet he was to do this “with all longsuffering and doctrine.” He was to reveal the patience and love of Christ, explaining and enforcing his reproofs by the truths of the Word.

To hate and reprove sin, and at the same time to show pity and tenderness for the sinner, is a difficult attainment. The more earnest our own efforts to attain to holiness of heart and life, the more acute will be our perception of sin and the more decided our disapproval of any deviation from the right. We must guard against undue severity toward the wrongdoer, but we must also be careful not to lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. There is need of showing Christlike patience and love for the erring one, but there is also danger of showing so great toleration for his error that he will look upon himself as undeserving of reproof, and will reject it as uncalled for and unjust.—The Acts of the Apostles, 503, 504.
Ye Shall Receive Power p. 280
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for Richard who has stage three throat cancer. Pray that the treatments will be successful, and that God will use this to draw him and his family closer to Himself. Rose
—-Please continue to pray for E and children. This has been a tough week. R
—-Please continue to pray for Jaclyn. There was an opening with the doctor tomorrow for a sleep study. Since her seizures are happening during sleep she’s hopeful they will get some answers or at least get an idea for a treatment plan. Jennifer
—-Christen my nurse and her family lost their home. she was off 2 years as she had a brain tumor and has a shunt in her head.
her husband works in plumbing and heating for a company that also supplies restaurants. They have 4 daughters, the younger one is 10 years old and up to teen years. That surgery put them in a hole and they ended up losing their home. They are in a hotel trying to keep family in tack and get a place as soon as possible. I am asking for prayer for this special lady and her family. Betty
—-A really close friend/like sister of my daughter’s is very ill with double pneumonia after kemo. She is in remission from the breast cancer after a mastectomy. Please lift her up. Lord God be with Tammy as she battles these diseases and illness. Debra
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Dear Friends,

When Eileen was four, we lived in rural Pennsylvania. It snowed so much that winter that the snow was about seven feet deep on the level. Ron decided to make Eileen a snow cave in the back yard. He was sure that she would have many hours of fun in it. He worked and worked to make it a fun and safe place for her. Then he and Eileen crawled inside. They played together happily.

Eileen really liked her snow cave, but didn’t play in it like we thought that she would. Day after day, the snow cave stood empty. Ron was a little disappointed. I urged her to play in the nice cave he had made for her, so she would go outside for a few minutes. Soon she was back inside. Finally she explained that it was only fun if we were in there with her. She was lonely for our companionship.

So it is with our Great Creator, the One Who, “created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited.” Isa 45:18 “In six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day” in that perfect world of His creation. Ex 20:11 He, Who looked upon the work of His hands and pronounced them “very good” did not create an empty world. Gen 1:31 He created beings who could spend time with Him, who could love Him, who could appreciate the blessings that He daily showered upon them.

Each day the Great King of the Universe spent time with Adam and Eve in close fellowship. He walked through their garden with them and explained the marvels of creation to them. The fellowship and sweet harmony that they felt, filled them with joy and great happiness.

But one day when Adam and Eve “heard the voice of the LORD God [as He was] walking in the garden in the cool of the day [for their normal time of meeting]: Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.” Gen 3:8 They had listened to the evil one, who wanted to spoil God’s happiness. And through that sin, they had lost that sweet communion that they had had before.

God’s Great Heart of Love was filled with unutterable grief as He saw the beings that He had created in His own image, begin to take on the characteristics of the evil one. Their sweet harmony was forever broken. Their evening walk together in close communion was a thing of the past. The worship of all of the angels and all of the unfallen beings on all of the unfallen worlds held no joy for our Creator now. He longed to have sweet harmony with these fallen children of His. He could not bear the thought that they would have to bear the consequences of their sin. Christ Jesus volunteered to make “himself of no reputation, and [take] upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” to restore us to fellowship with Him forevermore. Eph 2:7,8 What love! What sacrifice! It is beyond comprehension.

May we love Him with all of our heart, mind, and strength and show that love by spending time with Him each day and by obeying His commandments is my prayer.

Rose

Source: https://rosesdevotional.org/timothy.html

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