by Richard W. Coffen | 22 May 2019 | Sabbath, April 6—Hands on my wristwatch pointed to 9:25. Sabbath school class discussion would soon commence. George, with his Santa Claus white beard, sat in his usual corner. Snowbird Sylvia, a devout Catholic, had donned her best go-to-church dress. Beth, another snowbird, looked spiffy in her […] Source: https://atoday.org/inasmuch-a-true-story/
Inside Story: China ~ Why I Quit My Job
Why I Quit My Job
By Bo, as told to Andrew McChesney
A remarkable experience prompted me to quit my 17-year job as a worker at a thread-making factory and devote myself to full-time gospel work in China.
When I was 39, my son wanted to go to a trade school to become a lathe worker. But the tuition for the three-year course cost 10,000 yuan, money that we didn’t have.
My Seventh-day Adventist mother suggested that we pray about it. We prayed, but I didn’t expect a miracle.
When my sister heard about the problem, she contacted a friend who worked at the trade school and asked whether my son could apply for a scholarship. The friend, the school accountant, said scholarships were only available for low-income families and we didn’t qualify. But at her suggestion, my son went ahead and enrolled at the school.
Meanwhile, my mother, four sisters, and I pooled our money. When we went to school to pay, we were greeted by the accountant. She told my son to write a scholarship request letter on the spot, and she took it to the principal’s office.
When the principal looked at the letter, he asked, “By how much should I help this student?”
“You have the power to do whatever you like”, the accountant replied.
The principal wrote “500” on the letter.
When the accountant returned with the letter, I was so excited. I didn’t know what the “500” meant, but even a 500-yuan discount would be a big help.
We took the letter to the cashier’s office.
“Would you like to pay for one year or all three years?” the cashier asked.
“All three years”, I said.
The cashier did some calculations and announced, “Your grand total is 2,700 yuan”.
We were in shock! We didn’t know what happened or how she came up with that figure. Even today, we don’t know what happened.
Until that day, my faith in God had been shallow. But after that experience, I realized that God cares for us, and I decided to serve God with all my heart. I have few talents, but I decided that I could help clean the church or visit people.
Today, I am 54 years old and oversee five churches. I feel very unworthy to be called a gospel worker. But I believe that God is leading, and He will help me to do the gospel work.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.
Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org
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Friday: Further Thought ~ Season of Parenting
Further Study: “You should take time to talk and pray with your little ones, and you should allow nothing to interrupt that season of communion with God and with your children. You can say to your visitors, ‘God has given me a work to do, and I have no time for gossiping’. You should feel that you have a work to do for time and for eternity. You owe your first duty to your children”. – Ellen G. White, The Adventist Home, pages 266, 267.
“Parents, you should commence your first lesson of discipline when your children are babes in your arms. Teach them to yield their will to yours. This can be done by bearing an even hand, and manifesting firmness. Parents should have perfect control over their own spirits, and with mildness and yet firmness bend the will of the child until it shall expect nothing else but to yield to their wishes. Parents do not commence in season. The first manifestation of temper is not subdued, and the children grow stubborn, which increases with their growth and strengthens with their strength”. – Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, p. 218.
Discussion Questions:
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Thursday: Fighting for Your Prodigal Child
Read Proverbs 22:6. What is your understanding of this passage? Is this a guarantee, a promise, or a probability?
Sometimes as a parent you do everything you should—spend time teaching your children the right things, live according to your knowledge of God, send them to good schools, attend church regularly, become involved in mission work with them—and they end up leaving the faith in which you raised them.
The amount of pain is excruciating, and there is not a moment of rest from your concern for their salvation. The cause is not necessarily the parent’s fault. Children have minds of their own and are ultimately responsible to God for their actions.
Some have taken the words “when he is old he will not depart from it” as a promise, a guarantee that proper parenting will always result in their child’s salvation. But Proverbs often gives us principles and not always unconditional promises. What we can take out of this text is the assurance that the lessons learned in childhood will last a lifetime. Every child reaches an age when they either accept the heritage of their parents as their own or reject it. Those parents who were careful to provide their children with godly training have the assurance that what they taught their children will always be with them, and if or when their children walk away, the seeds they planted in their hearts will continuously be in them calling them home. Being a good parent is our choice; how our children turn out is theirs.
What should a parent do when a child goes astray? Turn your children over to God in earnest prayer. If anybody understands your pain, it is God, whose children, by the billions, have turned their backs on Him, the perfect parent. You can support your prodigals with love and prayer and be ready to stand alongside them as they wrestle with God.
Don’t be too embarrassed to ask for support and prayer, don’t blame yourself, and don’t be so focused on the prodigal that you forget the rest of the family. Parenting a prodigal can divide your household; so, build a unified front with your spouse and set clear boundaries for your child. Remember that God loves your child more than you do, look to a brighter future, and accept that your child is God’s work in progress.
It’s only natural in such a situation to blame yourself. And even if you have made mistakes, why is it better to focus on the future and on the promises of God? See Phil. 3:13. |
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We Shall Judge Angels
Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? 1 Corinthians 6:3.
During the thousand years between the first and the second resurrection, the judgment of the wicked takes place…. At this time the righteous reign as kings and priests unto God. John in the Revelation says: “I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them.” “They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” Revelation 20:4, 6. It is at this time that, as foretold by Paul, “the saints shall judge the world.” 1 Corinthians 6:2. In union with Christ they judge the wicked, comparing their acts with the statute book, the Bible, and deciding every case according to the deeds done in the body. Then the portion which the wicked must suffer is meted out, according to their works; and it is recorded against their names in the book of death.
Satan also and evil angels are judged by Christ and His people. Says Paul, “Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” And Jude declares that “the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” Jude 6.
At the close of the thousand years the second resurrection will take place. Then the wicked will be raised from the dead, and appear before God for the execution of “the judgment written.” Thus the revelator, after describing the resurrection of the righteous, says, “The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” Revelation 20:5. And Isaiah declares, concerning the wicked, “They shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.” Isaiah 24:22.
The penalty for breaking the law of God is proportionate to the price paid to redeem its transgressors. What unutterable bliss is prepared for those who will be saved through Christ, and what depths of woe for those who despise and reject His great salvation!
The Faith I Live By p. 354
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for my daughter who is having womanly problems. Buck
—-Prayers please…a dear friend just had a heart attack. Sylvia
—-Please pray for a grieving family. A doctor went to pronounce a child dead from a school bus crash, and it was his own son, who never before went on the school bus, but wanted to socialize with his friends, for once. 19 others are injured. Please pray. Antonnette
—-Please pray for a family whose son was murdered. Rose
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Dear Friends,
In the late 1960’s in Battle Creek, Michigan, there was a very old doctor, Dr. F, who should have retired years before. If the patient had good hospitalization insurance, it was not unusual to see him sit on the side of that patient’s bed and ask, “How long would you like to stay in the hospital?” If the person replied, “Oh, probably another week,” he would write the order for another seven days. He was not only unprofessional, but he was quite eccentric.
Worse still was his ongoing and one-sided feud with the physical therapy department. Years before, Dr. F had been offended because one of the therapists, Miss H, had been unsure of something that he had ordered and asked him about it. He became angry that she had dared to question his authority. She was not questioning his authority at all but could not convince him of it.
When I worked in that place, I didn’t like the man at all and avoided him as much as possible. One day, something happened that convinced me that my opinion of him was right. A sweet, elderly patient of his had a stroke. It was evident to all, that she very much needed physical therapy, but because of his dislike of that one physical therapist, Dr. F refused to write an order for it. The poor woman had to lay in bed day after day without any hope of recovery. She soon became depressed and died. The nurses all agreed that her death was from hopelessness.
How often we are like that doctor and tend to think too highly of our self. How many times we, like him, hold a grudge against someone that becomes all consuming until we can no longer think rationally, and that grudge not only affects our self, it affects the lives of all around us.
Holding a grudge eats us from the inside. It becomes all-consuming until we can think of little else. It breaks our hold upon God Who commands, “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.” Lev 19:17,18 Our Great Redeemer sees every situation in which we find ourself. If we have been wronged, He promises, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” ” Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”
Rom 12:19; Ps 37:7-11
We have the duty to resist vengeful feelings and the privilege of trusting Him Who knows the end from the beginning and assures us, “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.” Luke 12:6,7 Isaiah says of Him, “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” Isa 40:11
Think of it! We can trust Our Loving Saviour to take care of it all in such a way and at such a time as He sees is best. With loving, tender care our Dear Saviour gently leads us. He feels all of the wrong that is done against us, all of our heartaches, all of our cares. He will take care of it all in His own time, in His own way. “Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” Ps 55:22
May we rest in His love and care, not avenging our self, but trusting Him to make all things right. May we always remember, “My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.” Ps 121:2,3 May we declare as did Paul, “this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Phil 3:13,14
Rose
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