by Rebecca Brothers | 14 June 2019 | Prior to serving a ten-month stint as an Adventist student missionary, I learned a popular evangelistic tactic called “friendship evangelism.” The theory was that to draw people to the Adventist church, you make friends with them first. You show them hospitality, and wit, and good humor. You […] Source: https://atoday.org/what-scares-me-about-evangelism/
Our Discouraging Small Church
Dear Aunt Sevvy, My wife and I just moved from southern California to a small city in the Midwestern plains—a work transfer. We’re very Adventist. So we went to church (the only church for an hour in any direction). Almost everyone was old. The Sabbath School class plodded through the lesson, though with criticism of […] Source: https://atoday.org/our-discouraging-small-church/
Sabbath: What Have They Seen in Your House?
Read for This Week’s Study: Isaiah 38:1-39:8; 1 Cor. 7:12-15; 1 Pet. 3:1-2; Heb. 6:12; Hebrews 13:7; 3 John 11; Isa. 58:6-7, Isaiah 58:10, Isaiah 58:12.
Memory Text: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9, NKJV).
Perhaps we have reached a stage whe n, thanks be to the Lord, our lives are (at least for now) going well: family is fine, work is fine, health and finances are, too. Or maybe not? Maybe your home, for now, is in pain, turmoil? Either way, when someone comes to visit your home, like emissaries from Babylon who visited King Hezekiah, what answer could be given to the question that the prophet Isaiah later asked the king: “What have they seen in your house?” (Isa. 39:4, NKJV).
What have people seen in your house? What have heavenly angels seen? What kind of spirit permeates our residences? Can one “smell” the scent of prayer? Is there kindness, generosity, love, or tension, anger, resentfulness, bitterness, and discord? Will someone who’s there walk away thinking Jesus is in this home?
These are important questions for all of us to ask ourselves regarding the kind of home that we have created. This week we will look at some of the issues that can make for a wonderful home life, despite the inevitable tensions and struggles that homes today face.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, June 22.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SabbathSchoolNet/~3/MkSETB3HvqQ/
Scientism and Other Grand Narratives
by David Geelan | 14 June 2019 | Science and its colleague technology have done much, throughout human history, to expand our understanding and control of the world around us and to enable us to enhance our lives. This is true for both high and low technology. I’m writing this on a computer much more […] Source: https://atoday.org/scientism-and-other-grand-narratives/
Heaven Begins on Earth
Heaven is to begin on this earth.
Those who take Christ at His word, and surrender their souls to His keeping, their lives to His ordering, will find peace and quietude. Nothing of the world can make them sad when Jesus makes them glad by His presence. In perfect acquiescence there is perfect rest. The Lord says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Isaiah 26:3. Our lives may seem a tangle; but as we commit ourselves to the wise Master Worker, He will bring out the pattern of life and character that will be to His own glory. And that character which expresses the glory—character—of Christ will be received into the Paradise of God. A renovated race shall walk with Him in white, for they are worthy.
As through Jesus we enter into rest, heaven begins here. We respond to His invitation, Come, learn of Me, and in thus coming we begin the life eternal. Heaven is a ceaseless approaching to God through Christ. The longer we are in the heaven of bliss, the more and still more of glory will be opened to us; and the more we know of God, the more intense will be our happiness.
When the Lord’s people are filled with meekness and tenderness, they will realize that His banner over them is love, and His fruit will be sweet to their taste. They will make a heaven below in which to prepare for heaven above.
As we walk with Jesus in this life, we may be filled with His love, satisfied with His presence. All that human nature can bear, we may receive here. But what is this compared with the hereafter? There “are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.” Revelation 7:15-17.
The Faith I Live By p. 367
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for my sister! She is talking to a psychic! I tired to warn her but she believes in him! Debbie
—-Please pray for my dear elderly mother. She has had an abscess in her ear that popped last Monday night and has been draining blood etc. She should have been taken to the Dr. right away but she is finally being taken this morning at 10:45. I have been very worried about this especially since she used to have MRSA in her eyes for a very long time. Please pray for God’s healing. Connie
—-Pray for my friend’s husband Randy who sawed his fingers down to the bone on his dominate hand. Pray that he will regain the full use of his fingers. Esther
—-Please pray for Marty who is in the hospital. Mike
—-Lori needs prayer for her son who underwent brain surgery. Please pray for this sweet little boy. Arlene
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Dear Friends,
When my children were little there was one thing that I did that they hated more than any other. Whenever they had a high fever that was above 102 degrees, I would put them in a tub of tepid water, wrap them in a wet towel, and pour the water over their body while they were sitting in the tub of water. This would always bring the fever down, but to them it was torture.
A few years ago, they got their revenge. I awoke feeling fine, but as the day progressed, I began to feel sick all over. I left work early and went to bed. My temperature was nearly 103. In reality, that was an even higher temperature since my temperature is normally over a degree and a half lower than it is supposed to. The first thing the girls suggested was a tepid bath in order to break my fever. Suddenly, it was now my turn to feel tortured. Tepid water when one has a fever feels very cold indeed. I now knew why my children had screamed and cried. Worse still, was the fact that they were getting way too much pleasure at my discomfort!
How many times in our dealings with others, we fail to take their thoughts and feelings into consideration. Often times we think of ourselves a little too highly and do not do not realize the cares and burdens they are bearing. Often times we misjudge them for the decisions they make and shun them. We do not realize that if we were put into the same situation, we would react similarly in many cases.
Our Dear Saviour was always so kind and caring even to the ones who were most despised by society. He “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.” Acts 10:38 Isaiah prophesied of Him, “The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD” Isa 61:3 He is our example, in spotless purity, in patience, in kindness, in gentleness, in courtesy, in firmness to truth and duty.
How He longs for us to allow Him to work through us. How He longs for us to speak words of sympathy to those overwhelmed with trials. How greatly He desires us to be burden bearers for those staggering under their heavy loads. Yet, how often we go along our self-centered way, thinking that all is well between ourselves and our Maker. How often we feel like we cannot be bothered.
“And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” Luke 18:9-14
The Pharisee in this parable was looked upon by others as being righteous and holy, but inside he was full of pride and selfishness. He did not know himself, however, and viewed himself in the same way that others did. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jer 17:9
Two men went to church that day, but only one partook of God’s grace. Only one had his sins removed from the record books in Heaven. “The LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” 1 Sam 16:7 Our Great Redeemer saw that Pharisee in a very different light than did his countrymen. He tells us, ” I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways.” Jer 17:10 He marked the way this man despised those who were not of his class. He saw the man’s pride and self-centeredness, his uncaring attitude, his “holier than thou” feelings.
The publican in this story was of the most despised class. Others considered him the “lowest of the low,” a traitor to his country and to his God.” So he considered himself to be. Yet, he went to his house justified. Why? Because he was sorry for his sins. He humbled himself before his Maker and asked for the forgiveness that our Loving Saviour so freely offers. John assures us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 1:9-2:2
May we treat others as would our Dear Saviour. May we be kind and loving to all as is He. May the “love of God [be] shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” is my prayer. Rom 5:5
Rose
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rosesdevotional/~3/CPBd69BOckI/heaven-begins-on-earth.html