By Edison García-Creitoff | 30 September 2021 | It is May 1863. Hiram Edson, James White, his wife Ellen, John Andrews, and John Norton Loughborough, and many others, are meeting to define the course of a movement that took root around 1840 with the idea that Jesus Christ is returning soon, and that everything possible […] Source: https://atoday.org/where-are-we-adventists-headed-with-doctrines-and-creeds/
News Briefs for September 30, 2021
News reports from La Sierra University; North American Division; South Pacific Division; Euro-Asia Division. From North American Division News: An annual college guide published Sept. 21, 2021, by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Times Higher Education (THE) has once again ranked La Sierra University No. 1 in the nation for its “Environment,” a classification that […] Source: https://atoday.org/news-briefs-for-september-30-2021/
Inside Story: South Korea ~ I Met Jesus at the Shop
I Met Jesus at the Shop
By Hong Soon-mi
It didn’t seem that life could get much worse. My husband was stricken with bone-marrow cancer. Then his parents died. I had to pay for my mother-in-law’s funeral on my own and then take on responsibility for my family’s livelihood.
Image © Pacific Press
Sometimes I didn’t even have 1000 Korean won (U.S.$1) to pay for my son’s school supplies. My salary wasn’t enough to cover my husband’s hospital bills. Every day, I worried that I wouldn’t have enough rice to feed my family. I wept. I felt so alone.
Then I met Park Yeon-sook. She wasn’t a relative or even a friend, but she tried to cheer me up. She saw that I was struggling financially, and she gave me additional work at her shop in Hanam, a suburb of South Korea’s capital, Seoul. The extra money helped pay for living expenses and hospital bills.
I was so grateful for the work. But I noticed something unusual about Yeon-sook. She seemed happier than other people. I thought this was strange, but I was greatly moved by her joy.
As I got to know her, I saw that she went to church on Saturdays. She didn’t worry about the income that she lost by closing her shop once a week. I was an atheist, but I wanted to go to church with her and find out why she had such joy and peace.
Yeon-sook never invited me to her Seventh-day Adventist church, but I resolved in my heart to go. So I started studying the Bible on my own. As I learned about God, the peace of heaven came into my life. I gave my heart to Jesus and joined West Hanam Seventh-day Adventist Church, where I now serve as a deaconess together with Yeon-sook.
There are many things that I don’t know, but I believe in God from the bottom of my heart. Yeon-sook never spoke to me about Jesus a lot, but I saw Jesus in her life. The same Jesus whom I met through her life is living in my heart today.
This year, my husband and son also were baptized and joined the Adventist family. It doesn’t seem that life can get much better. Thanks be to God for reaching my family through Yeon-sook and her shop.
This mission story illustrates Mission Objective No. 1 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s “I Will Go” strategic plan: “To revive the concept of worldwide mission and sacrifice for mission as a way of life involving not only pastors but every church member.” Learn more at IWillGo2020.org. This quarter, your Thirteenth Sabbath offering will support two mission projects in South Korea. Read more about Yeon-sook next week.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org
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Friday: Further Thought ~ Preamble to Deuteronomy
Further Thought:
For a deeper and very well thought out study on the great controversy theme, based on the idea of God as love, and written by a Seventh-day Adventist, see John Peckham’s Theodicy of Love: Cosmic Conflict and the Problem of Evil (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018).
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
The fact that this work has been published by a non-Adventist press shows how good biblical scholarship can reveal the reality of the great controversy as depicted in Scripture.
“In brief, I argue that God’s love (properly understood) is at the center of a cosmic dispute and that God’s commitment to love provides a morally sufficient reason for God’s allowance of evil, with significant ramifications for understanding divine providence as operating within what I call covenantal rules of engagement.” — John C. Peckham, Theodicy of Love: Cosmic Conflict and the Problem of Evil (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018), p. 4.
“The decree that Israel was not to enter Canaan for forty years was a bitter disappointment to Moses and Aaron, Caleb and Joshua; yet without a murmur they accepted the divine decision. But those who had been complaining of God’s dealings with them, and declaring that they would return to Egypt, wept and mourned greatly when the blessings which they had despised were taken from them. They had complained at nothing, and now God gave them cause to weep. Had they mourned for their sin when it was faithfully laid before them, this sentence would not have been pronounced; but they mourned for the judgment; their sorrow was not repentance, and could not secure a reversing of their sentence.” — Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 392.
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Consecration of Paul
And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. Ephesians 6:19, 20.
So to the apostle Paul, praying in the temple at Jerusalem, came the message, “Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.” So those who are called to unite with Christ must leave all in order to follow Him. Old associations must be broken up, plans of life relinquished, earthly hopes surrendered. In toil and tears, in solitude and through sacrifice, must the seed be sown.
Those who consecrate body, soul, and spirit to God, will constantly receive a new endowment of physical, mental, and spiritual power. The inexhaustible supplies of heaven are at their command. Christ gives them the breath of His own Spirit, the life of His own life. The Holy Spirit puts forth His highest energies to work in heart and mind. The grace of God enlarges and multiplies their faculties, and every perfection of the divine nature comes to their assistance in the work of saving souls.
Through co-operation with Christ, they are made complete in Him, and in their human weakness they are enabled to do the deeds of Omnipotence.—Gospel Workers, 112.
Many do not discern and appreciate how great is the influence of each one for good or evil. Every student should understand that the principles which he adopts become a living, molding influence upon character. He who accepts Christ as his personal Saviour, will love Jesus, and all for whom Christ has died; for Christ will be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. He will surrender himself without reservation to the rule of Christ.—Messages to Young People, 29.
With God at Dawn p. 274
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Prayer Requests
—-Jenny she prayer for a up coming court hearing. and two other people with her. M
—-Prayer requests from our Monday night study group : Ann’s niece Kaylyn is pregnant and has a misshaped uterus which could cause her and the baby harm—Ann’s friend Darlina is having surgery today. Pray that it goes well. Annie requests prayer for herself and her girls’ health. —Dr. Tan who is in the hospital with covid. Pray for his family also. —Betty’s brother-in-law needs prayer for a heart condition. Pray for Aaron and his family as his mother has died. —Evonia’s brothers need prayer. Also pray for her as she studies with a girl who came up to her and asked if she would like to study with her. —Sherlyn asks prayer for her granddaughter who just got glasses.
—-Please pray for Eileen’s Bible study. Rose
—-Please pray for a friend of mine who has pancreatic cancer. They did a 13 hour surgery and she is in ICU. They took her back to surgery today because the vessel that connects to her liver was not working and that was a 6 hour surgery. Please pray the Lord would heal her and if He intends to use the doctors, nurses and support staff that He would give them wisdom, knowledge and skill. Please pray that the Lord would take away any fear and pain and give her joy and peace and please pray this for her family and that the Lord would use this to move her husband and son to give their hearts to Christ. Teri
—-Please pray for an elderly man I know that has a severe sinus infection that spread to his chest. He is in the hospital. He has COPD. Please pray for this to subside in the doctors to treat him properly and God’s healing hand to move on his body. Debra
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Dear Friends,
When we first moved to this area, we noticed that our drinking water didn’t taste right when summer came. In the summertime, the algae blooms in the lake from which our water comes causing it to taste like drinking water from an algae infested fish tank. It only lasted a few weeks, but it was miserable to deal with. We tried a water purifying pitcher but it did little good. One summer that taste of blooming algae never went back to normal until autumn. We, like most people in our town, bought bottled water. The water department tried various remedies over the years to keep the bad taste out of the water. They must have been successful because I have not tasted it for years.
The bad tasting water helped us to understand the words of the True Witness, Who says, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” Rev 3:15,16 Although our water is not lukewarm, it is disgusting. Even as our water back then lost its palatable taste, so our Christian experience can sometimes lose its fervor. When we first accept Christ Jesus as our Saviour, we are on fire for the Lord. As time passes, however, we often settle down to a routine, to a comfortable norm: we become lukewarm and distasteful Christians. We think that we are “rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and [know not that [we are] wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” vs 17
Our Dear Saviour pleads, ” I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” vs 18 Repentance—what a blessed gift it is! Our Great Redeemer supplies this great gift of repentance to us, because He “is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish.” 2 Peter 3:9 Truly, the goodness of God leads us to repentance! (Rom 2:4)
How much we need that “godly sorrow [that] worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of.” 2 Cor 7:10 How much we need that repentance which brings forth fruits worthy of repentance. (Luke 3:8) True repentance is heartfelt sorrow for sin. True repentance makes a change in our life. The evil which we once loved, we now hate and spiritual things which were once distasteful to us, we now love.
The Great Creator yearns for us to allow Him to recreate us into His image. He pleads, “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit.” “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 18:30,31;36:26,27
May we allow our Great Creator to remove the algae of sin from our life that out of us may flow water pure and clean is my prayer. (John 7:38)
Rose
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rosesdevotional/~3/Pcrkix9rC5w/consecration-of-paul.html
