News reports from Sweden, Walla Walla University, Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy, Fiji and Southern Adventist University: The Swedish Union of Churches Conference recently hosted an “End it Now” conference aimed at protecting children and adults who have experienced domestic abuse. According to TED News, over 160 people from 27 countries participated in the […] Source: https://atoday.org/news-briefs-for-june-10-2021/
Inside Story: Colombia ~ Boy Revives Dying Church
Boy Revives Dying Church
By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission
A Seventh-day Adventist church elder asked Alejandro to preach his first evangelistic meetings at the age of 8.
Image © Pacific Press
“We want to plant seeds, not to harvest,” the elder told Alejandro’s mother.
The church was dying on Tierra Bomba, an island off Colombia’s coast in the Caribbean Sea. Its head elder had resigned and left the church on the last day of evangelistic meetings that he was leading. Church members were discouraged, and many had stopped worshiping on Sabbath.
Alejandro, who had preached since he was 4, was scared to speak at the first evening meeting. But Mother gave him a big hug, and they prayed together.
People packed the yard of a church member’s house to hear the boy speak.
Hoping to disrupt the weeklong meetings, the former head elder organized his own meetings in his home across the street from Alejandro’s site. He invited current and former church members to attend his daily meetings.
People walking to his house saw the boy speaking as they passed by and stopped. “Who was the child preacher?” they wondered. Many stayed to listen.
The former elder was upset to see people going to Alejandro’s meeting, and he marched over to demand that they come to his house.
“Come on!” he told people, grabbing them by the arm. “Let’s go!”
Some people went with him but, when he wasn’t paying attention, snuck back to listen to Alejandro preach.
This went on for several days. Then church members invited the former elder to the evangelistic meetings and he came.
As part of the meetings, Alejandro visited homes of people who had responded to his appeals for baptism. During the first round of visitations, three people confirmed their desire for baptism. During a second round, an unmarried couple asked for baptism. Alejandro’s mother helped them complete the paperwork so they could be married. A total of seven people were baptized at the end of the weeklong meetings.
Alejandro left Tierra Bomba happy. The church members also were happy. The church was strong and growing.
“Jesus triumphed,” Alejandro said.
Alejandro, a 10-year-old child preacher in Cartagena, Colombia, has led 18 people, including his parents and older brother, to baptism since he was 4. Read more in this quarter’s Children’s Mission, downloadable at bit.ly/childrensmission.
This quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help open a “Better Life” center to train missionaries at Colombia Adventist University in Alejandro’s homeland, Colombia.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.
Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org
Amen!
(0)
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Friday: Further Thought ~ New Covenant Sanctuary
Further Thought:
“The highest angel in heaven had not the power to pay the ransom for one lost soul. Cherubim and seraphim have only the glory with which they are endowed by the Creator as His creatures, and the reconciliation of man to God could be accomplished only through a mediator who was equal with God, possessed of attributes that would dignify, and declare him worthy to treat with the infinite God in man’s behalf, and also represent God to a fallen world.
Image @ Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
Man’s substitute and surety must have man’s nature, a connection with the human family whom he was to represent, and, as God’s ambassador, he must partake of the divine nature, have a connection with the Infinite, in order to manifest God to the world, and be a mediator between God and man.” — Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, book 1, p. 257.
“Jesus continues: As you confess Me before men, so I will confess you before God and the holy angels. You are to be My witnesses upon earth, channels through which My grace can flow for the healing of the world. So I will be your representative in heaven. The Father beholds not your faulty character, but He sees you as clothed in My perfection. I am the medium through which Heaven’s blessings shall come to you. And everyone who confesses Me by sharing My sacrifice for the lost shall be confessed as a sharer in the glory and joy of the redeemed.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 357.
Discussion Questions:
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Summary:
The old covenant-sacrificial system was replaced by the new; instead of animals being sacrificed by sinful priests in an earthly sanctuary, we now have Jesus, our perfect Sacrifice. He represents us before the Father in the sanctuary in heaven, which forms the basis of the new covenant and its promises.
Amen!(0)
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Negative Feelings Play a Positive Role in Our Salvation
For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Hebrews 10:4 NLT
To me, a lot is said in the brief passage above. It tells me no one was ever saved by the Old Covenant. Those who lived and died before Jesus came were never saved by the law or by the Old Covenant. Before and after the cross, everyone is saved by grace and by the New Covenant. The same law of ten commandments exist in both the Old and New Testament while it never saved anyone in the Old or New Testament. Obedience has always been the goal in both the Old and New Covenant ,but it was never the means to attaining salvation. It is grace that gives us obedience. See Ephesians 2:8-10.
The purpose of the animal sacrifices were to help those in Old Testament times to look forward to the cross of Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. Many animal rights activists and animal lovers have wondered why God would design a daily sacrificial system where countless animals would be killed every day.
Image © Darrel Tank Goodsalt.com
What we need to understand is that it was not God’s plan for countless animals to be killed every day. In Exodus 12:1-6 God tells the people to take a lamb into their home on the 10th day of the month but not to kill it until the 14th day. Why did God want the goat in their home for four days before sacrificing it? I believe it gave them time to fall in love with their little pet so that it would break their hearts to have to sacrifice it. It was not God’s plan for countless animals to be sacrificed. It was God’s plan that the sacrifice would break their hearts, and they would turn from sin. Just as Samuel told Saul,
Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22 NLT
I can’t really blame those in the Old Testament who became callous in regard to the daily animal sacrifices. A while back I was praying to God and casually thanked Him for sending Jesus to die for me. As soon as I said “Thank you for dying for me” I realized I had just said that as casually as I would thank someone who bought my lunch! I had to remind myself of the awesome sacrifice Jesus made for me on the cross, and that He deserved more of a thank you than someone who just treated me to lunch. As someone participating in the New Covenant I need to allow myself to fully grasp the awfulness of my sin. This is hard when we are conditioned these days to “stay positive” and avoid being negative. We love popular preachers who motivate us and make us feel good about ourselves. But do negative feelings and emotions still have a part in our New Covenant lives? James says they do.
Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. James 4:9 NLT
Negative feelings and emotions play a positive role in our lives. They bring us to true repentance and true salvation which brings us to true joy. They teach us to avoid sin which destroys true joy.
So I don’t become callous to the blood of Jesus the way many in Old Testament times became callous to the blood of animals, I need to keep fresh in my mind the reality of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. No wonder so many inspired hymn writers wrote hymns such as “Jesus, keep me near the cross” and “When I survey the wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died. My richest gain I count as loss and pour contempt on all my pride.” And “my trophies at last I lay down, I will cling to the old rugged cross.” No wonder an inspired author wrote:
It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with His spirit. If we would be saved at last, we must learn the lesson of penitence and humiliation at the foot of the cross. -Ellen White, Desire of Ages, Page 83.
This is my prayer…
Dear Jesus I am sorry for the times I thanked you for dying for me the same casual way I thank someone for buying my lunch. Also I want to express how deeply I appreciate your awesome sacrifice not just by my words or even tears alone. I need the power of your blood to not only forgive my sins but to also empower me to live a life of obedience and thanksgiving. I want everything I do to shout “I love you Jesus!” In the name of Jesus I pray, amen.
Amen!(3)
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Covid-19 Testing Programme Launches at the Stanborough Park Seventh-day Adventist Centre
On 6 April, British Union Conference (BUC) Health Ministries Director, Sharon Platt-McDonald, was contacted by the Department of Health and Social Care, (DHSC) seeking to engage the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) churches in a pilot initiative to become Self-Test Collection Sites. With twice weekly briefing meetings, led by DHSC personnel Wilma King, and subsequently Debbie Searle, a partnership working ensued which entailed collaboration with churches nominated to participate in the first round of…Source: https://adventist.uk/news/article/go/2021-06-10/covid-19-testing-programme-launches-at-the-stanborough-park-seventh-day-adventist-centre/
