13 May 2021 Seeking an Understanding, by Seth Pierce, 2020. Published by AdventSource (5120 Prescott Avenue Lincoln, NE 68506) 140 pages. Reviewed by Lindsey Painter If you’ve ever met Dr. Pierce, or heard him speak, you will not be surprised that he has written a book urging Seventh-day Adventists to communicate with one another better. […] Source: https://atoday.org/seeking-an-understanding-by-seth-pierce/
News Briefs for May 13, 2021
News reports from Kenya; Chico, California; Paradise Adventist Academy; Tanzania and the North American Division (NAD): A Facebook complaint from an unmarried Adventist woman in Kenya was picked up by Tuko, a national news site after the woman complained that single Adventist men were ignoring their single female counterparts in church. Obuba Kwamboka Naumy complained […] Source: https://atoday.org/news-briefs-for-may-13-2021/
Inside Story: Columbia ~ “Let’s Go to Church”
“Let’s Go to Church!”
By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission
Something curious happened once Dr. Hernando Díaz began working at the Seventh-day Adventist clinic on the campus of Colombia Adventist University in Medellin, Colombia. He couldn’t stop praising God.
Image © Pacific Press
Hernando had long been a Christian, but he had never loved God so much. When no one would hire him as a physician, the Adventist Medical Center offered him a flexible schedule that allowed him to spend as much time as he needed with his critically ill 2-year-old son, Samuel.
His love for God overflowed. He prayed with every patient who consented. He told everyone who would listen that God had miraculously saved his son’s life and marvelously provided him with the job at the clinic. He invited people to the university church, where he and his family regularly worshiped on Sabbath even though they weren’t Adventists.
One Sabbath after his baptism, Hernando stopped at a red light as he was driving the family to church. A street vendor approached the car holding packs of chewing gum for sale. The sight was typical in Medellin, but Hernando had an unusual response. When he rolled down the window, the street vendor eagerly came up to him, hoping to make a sale. Hernando didn’t mention the chewing gum at all. “Let’s go to church!” he said.
The street vendor didn’t hesitate. “Let’s go!” he said.
Hernando could tell from the street vendor’s accent that he was from Venezuela. Thousands of Venezuelans have crossed the border into neighboring Colombia to look for work amid an economic crisis at home.
Hernando shared his personal testimony with the street vendor as they traveled to the university church.
The next Sabbath, the Venezuelan man returned to church with his own family. He and his family never missed a Sabbath. He now cooks and sells food on the street outside the Adventist Medical Center, using a food cart donated by church members. He and his family are taking baptismal classes. Hernando is praying that the family will give their hearts to Jesus, joining the six other people who have been baptized through his efforts.
Hernando said it isn’t difficult to lead people to Jesus. He follows the instructions that Jesus gave to the formerly demon-possessed man: “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you” (Mark 5:19; NKJV).
“I haven’t stopped glorying God with my personal testimony,” Hernando said. “It has touched many hearts.”
This quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help open a missionary training center at Colombia Adventist University.
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 ~ Covenant at Sinai
Further Thought:
Read Ellen G. White, “The Exodus,” pages 281-290; “From the Red Sea to Sinai,” pages 291-302; “The Law Given to Israel,” pages 303-314, in Patriarchs and Prophets.
“The spirit of bondage is engendered by seeking to live in accordance with legal religion, through striving to fulfill the claims of the law in our own strength.
Image @ Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
There is hope for us only as we come under the Abrahamic covenant, which is the covenant of grace by faith in Christ Jesus. The gospel preached to Abraham, through which he had hope, was the same gospel that is preached to us today, through which we have hope. Abraham looked unto Jesus, who is also the Author and the Finisher of our faith.” — Ellen G. White Comments, The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 1077.
“During the bondage in Egypt many of the Israelites had, to a great extent, lost the knowledge of God’s law, and had mingled its precepts with heathen customs and traditions. God brought them to Sinai, and there with His own voice declared His law.” — Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 334.
Discussion Questions:
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Summary:
The covenant God formed with Israel at Sinai was a covenant of grace. Having given abundant evidence of His gracious love and care by an extraordinary deliverance from Egyptian slavery, God invited the nation into a covenant with Him that would maintain and promote their freedoms. Although Israel responded in the affirmative, they lacked a true faith motivated by love. Their later history indicates that, for the most part, they failed to understand the true nature of the covenant and corrupted it into a salvation-by-works system. We need not follow Israel’s failure and ignore the marvelous grace which has been extended to sinners.
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Be Not Stiff-necked, but Yield
Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord, and enter into His sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever; and serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you. 2 Chronicles 30:8.
If those who hide and excuse their faults could see how Satan exults over them, how he taunts Christ and holy angels with their course, they would make haste to confess their sins and to put them away. Through defects in the character, Satan works to gain control of the whole mind, and he knows that if these defects are cherished, he will succeed. Therefore he is constantly seeking to deceive the followers of Christ with his fatal sophistry that it is impossible for them to overcome. But Jesus pleads in their behalf His wounded hands, His bruised body; and He declares to all who would follow Him, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” … Let none, then, regard their defects as incurable. God will give faith and grace to overcome them.
We are now living in the great day of atonement. In the typical service, while the high priest was making the atonement for Israel, all were required to afflict their souls by repentance of sin and humiliation before the Lord, lest they be cut off from among the people. In like manner, all who would have their names retained in the book of life, should now, in the few remaining days of their probation, afflict their souls before God by sorrow for sin and true repentance. There must be deep, faithful searching of heart. The light, frivolous spirit indulged by so many professed Christians must be put away. There is earnest warfare before all who would subdue the evil tendencies that strive for the mastery.—The Great Controversy, 489.
With God at Dawn p. 134
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Prayer Requests
—-I just received an update: my Dad’s aneurism has gone from a 4.6 to 5.5 in size and he now needs surgery and we are under a serious lockdown. His condition is now dangerous. His creatine levels have not decreased, so his kidneys are not good and he’s severely dehydrated. Please continue to pray for him. The aneurism is in a place that if it bursts it will affect his heart. He is truly in God’s hands right now. Whatever his will. Please continue to keep us in prayer. God bless. Shannah
—-Prayers appreciated for our son, Joel who is having open heart surgery May 18th. Astrid
—-Please pray for Libby! She had surgery a few days ago & hasn’t woke up yet. She screams through the night and still can’t wake up. PLEASE PRAY! Kathy
—-prayer request. for Tracy she has a brain bleed has for two weeks. they are watching it. M.
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Dear Friends,
When Ronnie Jay was in college, he lived in a basement apartment rather than in the dorm. On one occasion, he heard of storms and tornadoes in the area, so he stayed up until about three o’clock in the morning to make sure that he could warn Brian and Esther if a tornado was near. His plan was that he would call them and then they would jump in the car and drive the three blocks to Ronnie’s apartment where they would be safe. After all danger was past, he went to bed.
Imagine his surprise when he woke up the next morning to find five inches of water on his floor! The heavy rains from the thunderstorms that had dumped huge amounts of water on already saturated ground. His heart sank as he saw his computer tower and the rest of his possessions standing in that water. Quickly, he went began unplugging all of his electric cords. He felt electric shocks go through his body as he did so, but it had to be done. It was truly a miracle that the water was not electrically charged for he had many items plugged into power strips which lie on the floor.
When Ron went with him to make a claim on his renter’s insurance, the agent told him that flooding was not covered under his policy. Ron chided the man for selling our son, who lives in a basement apartment, a policy without flood insurance and cancelled the policy.
How swiftly our life can be turned upside-down. How quickly all that we have worked so hard for can be ruined. It can be gone in a moment in the blink of an eye. In view of this, Jesus advises, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matt 6:19-21
Peter reminds us of a soon-coming event where everyone’s material possessions will be no more. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.” 2 Peter 3:10-14
May we look away from the things of this world and keep our focus on Heavenly things. May we make our “calling and election sure,” that we may dwell in the Place where there are no floods, no tornadoes, no more death, pain, or sorrow. 2 Peter 1:10, Rev 21:4 May we all be there is my prayer.
Rose
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