5 dead, 4 injured, when church building collapses on members during downpour. Collapse of building attributed to poor building materials used during construction. Tragedy comes just one week after six Adventist young adults drowned in Lake Kariba during an Adventist Youth camp meeting. 10 January 2022 | Five members of the Bethsaida Seventh-day Adventist Church in […] Source: https://atoday.org/church-building-collapses-and-kills-5-including-child-in-zambia/
3: The Promised Son – Singing With Inspiration Inbox
The titles of the thirteen Sabbaths of study this quarter give us two hymns to use as the themes:
Hymn 593 – In Times Like These and
Hymn 177 – Jesus, Your Blood and Righteousness.
Sunday speaks of the last days in which we live just as we sing in
Hymn 617 – We Are Living, We Are Dwelling. The lesson then goes on to encourage us of our father’s faith in days gone by:
Hymn 304 – Faith of Our Fathers. The finale of this day’s study is
Lo! He Comes – Hymn 211.
We are thankful that we have the Word of God in our Bibles today to encourage us. Thank you God that you have spoken to us through Jesus:
Hymn 60 – Blessed Jesus, At Thy Word. God spoke through the prophets of old for the people then, and now:
Hymn 413 – God Has Spoken By His Prophets showing that His Word is pure:
Hymn 274 – O Word Of God Incarnate.
Hymn 41 – O Splendor of God’s Glory Bright adds to Tuesday’s study time as do
Hymn 234 – Christ is the Worlds Light and
Hymn 345 – Christ is the World’s True Light.
Creation is studied on Wednesday:
Hymn 320 – Lord of Creation and
Hymn 72 – Creator of the Stars of Night.
Just as Jesus was “installed, or adopted by God as the promised Ruler, the Son of David” so we are in
Hymn 468 – A Child of the King.
We are bound for The Promised Land! Hallelujah!! –
Hymn 620 – On Jordan’s Stormy Banks. Come, Lord Jesus, come – very soon.
To learn unknown hymns, you will find the accompaniment music for each one at: https://sdahymnals.com/Hymnal/
Another great resource is for when there is a hymn you wish to sing, but can’t find it in your hymnal. Go to https://www.sdahymnal.org and in the search bar type a special word in that is in the hymn. I am sure you will be amazed at the help you will be given.
2 Timothy 2:15 KJV – “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
Amen!
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Monday: God Has Spoken to Us by His Son
Read Hebrews 1:1-4. What is the central idea of these verses?
In the original Greek, Hebrews 1:1-4 is only one sentence, and it has been argued that it is the most beautiful in all the New Testament from the point of view of its rhetorical artistry. Its main assertion is that God has spoken to us through His Son, Jesus.
Copyright by Lars Justinen Goodsalt.com
For the Jews in the first century A.D., the word of God had not been heard for a long time. The last revelation to be expressed in the Written Word of God had come through the prophet Malachi and the ministries of Ezra and Nehemiah four centuries before. But now, through Jesus, God was speaking to them again.
God’s revelation through Jesus, however, was superior to the revelation that God had made through the prophets because Jesus is a greater means of revelation. He is God Himself, who created the heaven and the earth and rules the universe. For Paul, the deity of Christ is never in question. It’s all but assumed.
Also, for Paul, the Old Testament was the Word of God. The same God who spoke in the past continues to speak in the present. The Old Testament communicated a true knowledge of God’s will.
However, it was possible to understand its fuller meaning only when the Son arrived on earth. In the author’s mind, the Father’s revelation in the Son provided the key to understanding the true breadth of the Old Testament, just like the picture on the box of a jigsaw puzzle provides the key to finding the correct place for every one of its pieces. Jesus brought so much of the Old Testament to light.
Meanwhile, Jesus came to be our Representative and our Savior. He would take our place in the fight and defeat the serpent. Similarly, in Hebrews, Jesus is the “pioneer” or “captain” and “forerunner” of believers (Hebrews 2:10, Hebrews 6:20). He fights for us and represents us. This also means that what God did for Jesus, our Representative, the Father also wants to do for us. He who exalted Jesus at His right hand also wants us to sit with Jesus on His throne (Revelation 3:21). God’s message to us in Jesus includes not only what Jesus said but also what the Father did through Him and to Him, all for our temporal and eternal benefit.
| Think through what it means that Jesus — God — came to this earth. Why should this truth bring us so much hope? |
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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/monday-god-has-spoken-to-us-by-his-son/
Oil in Your Vessels
They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Matthew 25:3, 4.
Many receive the truth readily, but they fail to assimilate truth, and its influence is not abiding. They are like the foolish virgins, who had no oil in their vessels with their lamps. Oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, which is brought into the soul through faith in Jesus Christ. Those who earnestly search the Scriptures with much prayer, who rely upon God with firm faith, who obey His commandments, will be among those who are represented as wise virgins. The teachings of the Word of God are not yea and nay, but yea and amen.
The requirement of the gospel is far-reaching. Says the apostle, “Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Colossians 3:17). “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Practical piety will not be attained by giving the grand truths of the Bible a place in the outer courts of the heart. The religion of the Bible must be brought into the large and the little affairs of life. It must furnish the powerful motives and principles that will regulate the Christian’s character and course of action….
The oil so much needed by those who are represented as foolish virgins, is not something to be put on the outside. They need to bring the truth into the sanctuary of the soul, that it may cleanse, refine, and sanctify. It is not theory that they need; it is the sacred teachings of the Bible, which are not uncertain, disconnected doctrines, but are living truths, that involve eternal interests that center in Christ. In Him is the complete system of divine truth. The salvation of the soul, through faith in Christ, is the ground and pillar of the truth.
Those who exercise true faith in Christ make it manifest by holiness of character, by obedience to the law of God. They realize that the truth as it is in Jesus reaches heaven, and compasses eternity. They understand that the Christian’s character should represent the character of Christ, and be full of grace and truth. To them is imparted the oil of grace, which sustains a never-failing light. The Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer makes him complete in Christ.—The Review and Herald, September 17, 1895.
Ye Shall Receive Power p. 16
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for Kim. The hospital is pushing for her to go on hospice, but the family does not want her to. Her boss is trying to get her into another hospital who will give her the operation she needs. Please pray that her boss will be successful in getting her the treatment she needs. Brenda
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Dear Friends,
Before I was five, my aunt Joyce still lived with my grandparents. So did I as they had adopted me when I was a baby. My aunt loved all children, but I was especially dear to her. So, for those first five years, she used quite a bit of her paycheck to shower me with expensive gifts. Imagine her disappointment when as a very little girl, I played with the box instead of the toy.
As I got older, her gifts were enjoyed, but I did not appreciate the hours of work that she put in at the factory in order to buy these expensive gifts. Gilmore’s Department Store was the fanciest and most expensive store in Kalamazoo; and because Auntie Joyce loved me, she bought my presents there. One time when I was very little, she saw a portable dollhouse with very expensive and realistic miniature furnishings. Each week she would buy a piece of furniture, so that by the time I was old enough to enjoy playing with it, I had the complete set. How I loved that dollhouse! It was one of the few things that I really enjoyed playing with.
I can never remember really thanking Auntie Joyce for all the lovely things she bought me. Oh, when I was old enough to talk, I said “thank you,” because I had been taught to be polite; but I took her gifts for granted as though as though I had a perfect right to them.
How often do we do the same with our Great Creator’s gifts. How often we enjoy His wonderful blessings with scarcely a thought of the Giver. We might even thank Him politely for something special, but our heart is not filled with gratefulness. We are as He sadly described His followers of old, “this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.” Isa 29:13 How often we forget that, “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17
How little we appreciate His Greatest Gift of all and take this Greatest Gift for granted.. Because of His great love for us, He sent Jesus, His only Begotten Son, to suffer and die for us. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” John 3:16,17 Yet, how often we live our life as though we were worthy of such a sacrifice! We can never be worthy, “but God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom 5:8
Do we daily thank Him for the great sacrifice that He made for us? Do we have thankfulness and love for His goodness welling up within our hearts? Do we respond to Him by loving obedience? Can others see His character shining through us? Are His praises continually on our lips? “Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” Ps 107:8 Paul advises, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” 1 Thes 5:18
May He open our eyes to His blessings each day. May we thank Him for bearing our griefs, and carrying our sorrows, being wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. (Isa 53) May we praise Him from from a heart filled with love and gratitude for His marvelous grace.
Rose
Source: https://rosesdevotional.org/oil-in-your-vessels.html
Sunday: In These Last Days
The first paragraph of Hebrews reveals that Paul believed he was living in “the last days.” Scripture employs two expressions about the future that have different meanings. The prophets used the expression “last days” or “latter days” to talk about the future in general (Deuteronomy 4:30-31; Jeremiah 23:20). The prophet Daniel used a second expression, “the time of the end,” to talk more specifically about the last days of earth’s history (Daniel 8:17, Daniel 12:4).
Read Numbers 24:14-19 and Isaiah 2:2-3. What did God promise He would do for His people in the “latter days”?
Image © Pacific Press from GoodSalt.com
Several Old Testament prophets announced that in the “latter days” God would raise up a King who would destroy the enemies of His people (Numbers 24:14-19) and who would attract the nations to Israel (Isaiah 2:2-3). Paul says that these promises were fulfilled in Jesus. He defeated Satan and, through the proclamation of the Gospel, is attracting all the nations to Himself (Colossians 2:15, John 12:32). In this sense, then, “the last days” have begun because Jesus has fulfilled God’s promises.
Our spiritual fathers died in faith. They saw and greeted the promises from “afar,” but did not receive them. We, on the other hand, have seen their fulfillment in Jesus.
Let’s think for a moment about God’s promises and Jesus. The Father promised that He would resurrect His children (1 Thessalonians 4:15-16). The wonderful news is that He initiated the resurrection of His children with the resurrection of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:20, Matthew 27:51-53). The Father also promised a new creation (Isaiah 65:17). He has begun to fulfill that promise by creating a new spiritual life in us (2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 6:15). He promised that He would establish His final kingdom (Daniel 2:44). He inaugurated that kingdom by delivering us from the power of Satan and installing Jesus as our ruler (Matthew 12:28-30, Luke 10:18-20). This is only the beginning, however. What the Father began to do in Jesus’ first coming, He will bring to completion at the second.
| Look at all the promises God fulfilled in the past. How should this help us to trust Him for the promises not yet fulfilled? |
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