10 September 2019 | An anonymously authored Twitter account recently shared accusations that Huntsville, Alabama-based Oakwood University community members had perpetrated incidents of rape and sexual assault. In a statement to Adventist Today, Pastor Christopher Thompson, Communication Director for Breath of Life and Oakwood University Church, said that Twitter handle @OUmetoo1 published accusations the owner […] Source: https://atoday.org/anonymous-twitter-account-shared-rape-accusations-of-oakwood-community-members/
Sharing Scripture for September 8 – 14
This is a tool for you to use if you lead a Sabbath School (SS) class or small group. It is keyed to the Bible texts used in the current week’s Adult SS Lesson and includes a brief story from current news you can use to introduce the discussion and then a series of discussion […] Source: https://atoday.org/sharing-scripture-for-september-8-14/
Wednesday: Judgment Hope
Read Ecclesiastes 8:14. In what ways do you see the stark and powerful reality of what is written here?
While suffering, oppression, and tragedy are hard enough to bear in their own right, the injury or insult is harder still if it appears to be meaningless or unnoticed. The possible meaninglessness of sorrow is heavier than its initial burden.
A world without record or final justice is the ultimate in cruel absurdity. No wonder atheist writers in the twentieth century lamented about what they believed was the “absurdity” of the human condition. With no hope of justice, no hope of judgment, no hope of things being made right, ours would indeed be an absurd world.
But the cry of Ecclesiastes 8:14 is not the end of the story. At the end of his protests, Solomon takes a sudden turn. In the midst of his laments about meaninglessness, he says, essentially: Hold on a minute, God is going to judge, so everything is not meaningless; in fact, now everything and everyone matters.
Read Ecclesiastes 12:13-14. What does this tell us about just how important all that we do here is?
The hope of judgment comes down to what one believes about the core nature of God, life, and the world in which we live. As we have seen, the Bible insists that we live in a world that God created and loves, but a world that has gone wrong and in which God is working toward His plan for re-creation, all through the life and death of Jesus. God’s judgment is a key part of His setting our world right. For those on the receiving end of so many of the world’s wrongs—those who have been marginalized, brutalized, oppressed, and exploited—the promise of judgment is surely good news.
What does it mean to you to know that, one day, and in ways we can’t imagine, the justice that we so much long for now will finally come? How can we draw hope from this promise? |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SabbathSchoolNet/~3/cmdl5ar3SgI/
Jurisprudence of the Cross Conference Starts This Sabbath from Emory University
An eight-part series “The Jurisprudence of the Cross” will be presented by Dr. Major G. Coleman beginning Sabbath afternoon, September 14 at Emory University Law School. The event will be live streamed via the following link: https://emory.zoom.us/j/885215924 and you may also hear just the audio by calling 1-646-558-8656. Coleman is a law school professor and […] Source: https://atoday.org/jurisprudence-of-the-cross-conference-starts-this-sabbath-from-emory-university/
Seminar Trains Congregation Leaders in Tanzania
The Sabasaba Seventh-day Adventist Church in Tarime, Tanzania, was filled with 5,000 pastors, local elders, deacons and deaconesses from the Mara Conference the week of 19 to 22 August for ministry training led by Pastor Anthony Kent from the General Conference and Pastor Mussa Mitekaro from the denomination’s East Central Africa Division (ECD). The event […] Source: https://atoday.org/seminar-trains-congregation-leaders-in-tanzania/