by Jack Hoehn | 9 September 2021 | Timothy R. Jennings MD is a prominent Chattanooga psychiatrist who graduated from University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine in 1990 and did a psychiatry residency at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Atlanta. He has been especially noted for treating depression with […] Source: https://atoday.org/comeandreason-com-seems-unreasonable-on-covid/
Inside Story: Stepping Out in Faith
Stepping Out in Faith
By Terri Saelee
Someone told Father about Jesus in Iraq. Father fell in love with Jesus and joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Mother, however, decided to remain with her traditional religion.
After some time, life became difficult for the family in Iraq. Father, fearing for the safety of Mother and their two young daughters, moved the family to live as refugees in the United States.
In California, Father and Mother sent their daughters to public school. But Father prayed that the girls would be able to study at an Adventist school. He did not have the money to pay for church school and, even if he did, he did not know any Adventists who could tell him where to find one.
One day, Father visited a food bank that distributed supplies to needy families. While waiting to receive food, Father began talking with a volunteer and discovered that the food bank was organized and run by a Seventh-day Adventist church that happened to own a church school.
Father and Mother had been carefully saving money so that they could return to school and get better jobs to support their family. They decided to use their precious money to pay for their daughters’ tuition.
A short time later, Father arrived at the church school with Mother and their 9-year-old and 11-year-old girls. They sat in the principal’s office, their faces shining, as they waited for information about what to do next.
The principal and church pastor, who sat across from them, glanced at each other, and then at Father, Mother, and the girls. The eagerness on the faces of the parents and the girls tugged at their hearts. But the money that Father and Mother had saved up was not enough.
“We very much want the girls to study here,” the principal said. “But, unfortunately, there is not enough money to cover the tuition.”
The principal paused and glanced at the pastor again. She saw compassion in his eyes and felt encouraged to continue.
“We will enroll the girls in the school,” she said. “Let’s step out in faith.”
The four adults and two girls knelt on the floor and bowed their heads.
“Dear God, we need Your help,” the pastor prayed. “Please provide money for the education of these two precious girls.”
Shortly after the family left, the principal received a phone call. It was from the coordinator of the Adventist Refugee and Immigrant Ministries for the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s North American Division. She was calling to announce that she had money to help pay for the tuition of refugee children. The money, she said, came from a Thirteenth Sabbath Offering in 2011.
The principal could hardly believe her ears. Quickly, she called Father to announce that money had been found for his daughters’ tuition.
“I knew God would answer our prayers!” Father exclaimed.
Part of the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering this quarter will help refugees in the North American Division again. May God use your gifts to answer more prayers like Father’s. Imagine meeting someone in heaven who learned more about God and decided to serve Him because you gave.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.
Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org
Amen!
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Friday: Further Thought ~ Longing for More
Further Thought:
“We are not always willing to come to Jesus with our trials and difficulties. Sometimes we pour our troubles into human ears, and tell our afflictions to those who cannot help us, and neglect to confide all to Jesus, who is able to change the sorrowful way to paths of joy and peace.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
Self-denying, self-sacrificing gives glory and victory to the cross. The promises of God are very precious. We must study his word if we would know his will. The words of inspiration, carefully studied and practically obeyed, will lead our feet in a plain path, where we may walk without stumbling. Oh, that all, ministers and people, would take their burdens and perplexities to Jesus, who is waiting to receive them, and to give them peace and rest! He will never forsake those who put their trust in him.” — Ellen G. White, The Signs of the Times, March 17, 1887, p. 161.
“Can you, dear youth, look forward with joyful hope and expectation to the time when the Lord, your righteous Judge, shall confess your name before the Father and before the holy angels? The very best preparation you can have for Christ’s second appearing is to rest with firm faith in the great salvation brought to us at His first coming. You must believe in Christ as a personal Saviour.” — Ellen G. White, Our High Calling, p. 368.
Discussion Questions:
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Amen!(0)
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A Disciple’s Decision
And he left all, rose up, and followed him. Luke 5:28.
When Christ called His disciples to follow Him, He offered them no flattering prospects in this life. He gave them no promise of gain or worldly honor, nor did they make any stipulation as to what they should receive. To Matthew as he sat at the receipt of custom, the Saviour said, “Follow Me. And he arose, and followed Him.” Matthew did not, before rendering service, wait to demand a certain salary, equal to the amount received in his former occupation. Without question or hesitation he followed Jesus. It was enough for him that he was to be with the Saviour, that he might hear His words and unite with Him in His work.
So it was with the disciples previously called. When Jesus bade Peter and his companions follow Him, they immediately left their boats and nets. Some of these disciples had friends dependent on them for support; but when they received the Saviour’s invitation, they did not hesitate, inquiring, How shall I live, and sustain my family? They were obedient to the call; and when afterward Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye anything?” they could answer, “Nothing.”
Today the Saviour calls us, as He called Matthew and John and Peter, to His work. If our hearts are touched by His love, the question of compensation will not be uppermost in our minds.—Gospel Workers, 113, 114.
Principle is always exacting. No man can succeed in the service of God unless his whole heart is in the work, and he counts all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ…. Wherever He leads the way, they will rejoice to follow.—The Desire of Ages, 273.
With God at Dawn p.254
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for Mr. White who is in ICU. Amy
—-David needs prayer for mental and spiritual healing. Buck
—-Pray for my daughter Cassi as she moves back to ____. Connie
—-Please pray for Kinsey who has an inoperable tumor on her brain stem. J
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Dear Friends,
My grandfather, Edwin Harmon, had a lifelong love for trains. He longed to become a railroad engineer, but his father had other plans. The family trade was bookbinding and a bookbinder he would be no matter what his wishes were. My grandfather tried to protest and explain to his father that he wanted to be a railroad engineer, but it did no good.
As he learned the trade, he found to his surprise that he could do beautiful workmanship and was in great demand wherever he moved. Although outwardly he did his work perfectly throughout the rest of his life, in his heart he wished that he could have been a railroad engineer. During the long hours binding books, he daydreamed about driving a train. As he brought down that huge, iron handle on the machine that pressed the gold leaf into the book’s cover or spine, in his mind’s eye he was controlling the throttle on one of those gigantic, steam-spewing locomotives that thrilled him so.
As he walked the mile and a half home, he often stopped to watch a train that was picking up freight or passengers. As he sat on the bench outside of the station, he chafed against his lot in life and longed to complete his unfulfilled hopes and dreams. Sometimes, when I was a little girl, he would take me down to the rail yards to watch the trains with him. He would often tell me stories of the far-off days when he was free to hop onto a freight train and ride to interesting places.
How often we are like my grandfather. How many times, deep within our heart, we know that all is not well between us and our Maker because we are trying to serve God with a divided heart. Outwardly, we go through the motions of being a Christian, but our heart is not in it. We appear righteous to others, but inwardly “we are as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Isa 1:6 Our Loving Redeemer shows us the futility of it, “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Luke 16:13
How few can say, “With my whole heart have I sought thee.” Psa 119:10 John reminds us, “Beloved, if our heart condemns us not, then have we confidence toward God.”1 John 3:18 How much we need a new heart, an undivided heart, a heart overflowing with love for the One Who loves us so.
Praise God! We can have that undivided heart! When Esther was a teen, she wrote a song called A New Heart. *Lord, give me a new heart, A kind and a true heart, Lord, through me please show Others You care. Lord give me a new heart, A loving and pure heart, So others may find You And know that You care.
Our Great Creator promises, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Eze 36:26,27 May we claim this promise each day.
Rose
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Psalm 100:5
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
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