13 October 2021 | Policy amendments, reports from the department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty, ADRA, Hope Channel International and a doubling down on church senior leadership’s message on church identity and mission characterized the Oct. 12, 2021 third business session of the Executive Committee of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Oh, and […] Source: https://atoday.org/gcac21-third-annual-council-business-meeting-sticks-with-the-rules-while-schools-get-hard-knocks/
Courage
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Romans 1:16.
God cannot use men who, in time of peril, when the strength, courage, and influence of all are needed, are afraid to take a firm stand for the right. He calls for men who will do faithful battle against wrong, warring against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. It is to such as these that He will speak the words: “Well done, good and faithful servant; … enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”—Prophets and Kings, 142.
Hope and courage are essential to perfect service for God. These are the fruit of faith. Despondency is sinful and unreasonable. God is able and willing “more abundantly” to bestow upon His servants the strength they need for test and trial. The plans of the enemies of His work may seem to be well laid and firmly established; but God can overthrow the strongest of these. And this He does in His own time and way, when He sees that the faith of His servants has been sufficiently tested.—Prophets and Kings, 164.
Through the fidelity to the principles of temperance shown by the Hebrew youth, God is speaking to the youth of today. There is need of men who, like Daniel, will do and dare for the cause of right. Pure hearts, strong hands, fearless courage, are needed; for the warfare between vice and virtue calls for ceaseless vigilance. To every soul Satan comes with temptation in many alluring forms on the point of indulgence of appetite…. Intellectual power, physical stamina, and the length of life depend upon immutable laws. Through obedience to these laws, man may stand conqueror of himself.—Prophets and Kings, 488.
With God at Dawn p. 288
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for guidance for a decision that my son must make. B
—-I have two prayer requests: please join our church in lifting up the McNally Family during this difficult time: Levi took his life Saturday. Please keep Levi’s mother Sydnee, her husband, Brandon, the rest of the family, and Levi’s friends in prayer during this difficult time.
Maryanne – Prayer request. from Ginny Norris. Pray for her son in law he has lung cancer //Also pray for his salvation. She is hoping he will reaching out to Jesus.
—-Please continue to pray for Larry who had a stroke. Rose
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Dear Friends,
When Eileen was two years old, we lived in Pennsylvania. Ron had a job selling books door to door. We were having a very difficult time financially. Every day he would go out and work from morning till late at night. Every day he did not make enough money for our needs.
But God did not forsake us. During this difficult time He put it in the hearts of two church members to help us. One of these men was a goat farmer. He supplied us daily with goat’s milk. I did not like the taste, but I drank it anyway. It was very good for Eileen, who needed good nutrition. This man also sold Mason shoes and gave Ron a pair of expensive shoes. Ron was very thankful for them. They were very comfortable and he wore them for years.
The other member brought us coal for heat. (Before that I had been going daily out into the woods to gather firewood for heating and cooking. It did not keep the house warm and Eileen and I would have to get very close to the heating stove to get a little heat and often I would burn my clothes on it.) The coal burned much hotter and longer and kept the house comfortable. I was very thankful for his kindness.
Everyone has difficulties in this life. It is how we react to those difficulties that is important. Do we fight against the trial and blame our troubles on the only One Who can help us? Do we trust our Loving Heavenly Father through both the hard times and the good? Our very future depends on how we react to the trial we are going through. Paul explains the reason why trials must come. “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” Heb 12:5-11
There is a Bible story found in Genesis chapters 37, 39-50 that illustrates how God uses trials to get us where we can be the most effective in our witness for Him. When Joseph was sold by his own brothers, he had not only the fear of the future to deal with, but he also had the heartbreak of knowing that he was in this situation because those he loved hated him. What a difficult trial that knowledge was. Yet, through it all, he determined to be true to God. “God was with him, and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph’s kindred was made known unto Pharaoh. Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.” Acts 7:9-17
God lead even in who bought Joseph. If it had not been Potiphar, he might have been sold as a common laborer and perished quickly. But God did not allow that to happen. Joseph was His follower, His “man for the hour.” The rule of Joseph’s life was brought out in the words he spoke when urged to do evil, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” Gen 39:9 Although he suffered for his steadfastness, God did not allow the suffering to last. He lead in other lives to bring about his purpose for His faithful servant.
Even though he was thrown into the dungeon for three long years, God did not forske him but gave him favor with the keeper of the prison. Joseph got an even greater reward for his faithfulness. He became second in command in the kingdom of Egypt. Even beyond this blessing, even dearer to him than being ruler, was the eventual reunion with his family, for even though those he loved had hated him, he had love and forgiveness toward them. What an example he is to us.
May we determine, as did Joseph, to love God and keep His commandments no matter what trials we are going through. May we put away our feelings of bitterness toward those who do us harm. May we allow our Loving Shepherd to lead us all the way to His Heavenly Kingdom is my prayer.
Rose
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rosesdevotional/~3/lnzHHQkiEOY/courage.html
Thursday: Other Images
Biblical scholarship has long recognized the similarities between Israel’s covenant with God and other covenantal agreements between kingdoms. This parallel shouldn’t be surprising. The Lord was simply working with His people in an environment that they could understand.
At the same time, the idea of a covenant, a legal agreement between two parties, with rules and stipulations and regulations, can seem so cold and so formal.
Image © Krieg Barrie from GoodSalt.com
Though that element must indeed exist (God is the law-Giver), it’s not broad enough to encompass the depth and breadth of the kind of relationship God wanted with His people. Hence, other images are used in Deuteronomy to help portray the same idea as the covenant between God and Israel, but just to give it added dimensions.
Read Deuteronomy 8:5; Deuteronomy 14:1; and Deuteronomy 32:6, Deuteronomy 32:18-20. What kind of imagery is used here, and how could this help reveal the relationship God wanted with His people?
Read Deuteronomy 4:20 and Deuteronomy 32:9. What imagery is used here, and how, too, does this help reveal the kind of relationship God wanted with His people?
In each case, there is the idea of family, which, ideally, should be the closest, tightest, and most loving of bonds. God has always wanted this kind of relationship with His people. Even after their shameful rejection of Jesus during the time of the cross, Jesus said to the two Marys after He had been resurrected, “Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me” (Matthew 28:10). Even as the resurrected Christ, He referred to the disciples as “My brethren,” an example of love and the grace that flows from love for those who certainly didn’t deserve it. That’s essentially what the relationship between God and humanity has always been: grace and love given to the undeserving.
| What kind of relationship do you have with God? How can you deepen it and learn to love Him, while at the same time understanding your covenant obligation to obey His law? Why are these two ideas not contradictory but complementary? |
Amen!
(1)
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Love is why we have to…..
Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law. Romans 13:10 NLT
A young grade-school boy and his daddy were walking down a country road when they noticed a car pull over to the shoulder a few hundred meters up the road. The passenger door opened, and a little puppy fell out the door into the ditch near the shoulder of the road.
Image © Providence Collection from GoodSalt.com
The boy watched in amazement as the car then sped off. The boy ran to the aid of the little puppy. He found the puppy whining and confused, as well as looking malnourished. When the father finally caught up to the boy, the boy firmly told his daddy, “I know you may not let me keep him, but we have to take him home and feed him right now!”
What did the little boy mean by “we have to?” How did an abandoned puppy suddenly became his problem? Was there some law written in stone that the boy had to rescue this poor dog? As a matter fact there was a law, but it was not written in stone. The only reason why the boy said, “we have to” is because there was a law written on that little boy’s heart.
In Luke 10:30-37 Jesus tells a familiar story we call today, “The Good Samaritan.” In the story both the Levi and the priest knew the law of God which was written in stone, but yet they passed by a suffering brother, because that law was not written on their hearts. Then a Samaritan walks by who has the law of love written on his heart. He at once recognized what he had to do, not because of the law written in stone, but because of a law of love tugging at his heart strings. Like puppet strings, his heart strings controlled his behavior.
Writing God’s law of love on our heart is not new to the New Testament. The goal was never to have the law of love written on stone. The ultimate goal was always to have the law written on our hearts. This goes back to the Old Testament.
But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Jeremiah 31:33 NLT
And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5 NLT
“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. Leviticus 19:18 NLT
True justice must be given to foreigners living among you and to orphans, and you must never accept a widow’s garment as security for her debt. Deuteronomy 24:17 NLT
In the Old Testament as well as today, God does not just want the letter of the law written on stone. He wants the spirit of the law written on our hearts. That means showing love and compassion for a little puppy that will never be able to help you. It means showing love and compassion for a neighbor or foreigner who would probably just spit on you and pass you by if the situation were reversed.
This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts. 2 Corinthians 3:3 NLT
A Samaritan had to rescue a foreigner left to die in a ditch, a young boy had to rescue a helpless puppy. They had to because the law was etched upon their hearts.
Amen!(3)
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Ministry changed me
Pr Ben Martin is a changed man, but not in the way you’d expect. “I’ve lost almost all my ideals. There’s really only one that remains: God is good.” How did this happen and why is he pleased it did? Source: https://wp.avondale.edu.au/news/2021/10/13/ministry-changed-me/
