By Carl McRoy & Christopher C. Thompson | 27 May 2021 | What if radical abolitionists like Joseph Bates could hear the Muslim son of an Adventist mother proclaim a version of Revelation’s judgment hour message? What if Malcolm Little had encountered the mid-19th century change-agents that birthed the Seventh-day Adventist Church instead of the […] Source: https://atoday.org/70232-2/
AT1–May 28, 2021
We often underestimate the benefit of an affirming and accepting conversation. Pointing out a person’s strengths, or assuring them that an adverse personality trait is not as large to the rest of us as it is in their minds, can be life-changing. Jesus was the master at such conversations. That’s what we’re going to […] Source: https://atoday.org/at1-may-28-2021/
News Briefs for May 27, 2021
News reports from Adventist Health, Southern Adventist University, Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital, Loma Linda University Medical Center – Murrieta, Loma Linda University Behavioral Health and Brazil: Adventist Health (headquartered in Roseville, California) has decided to pioneer a more Trauma-informed approach to healthcare using the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) model in the 23 hospitals in […] Source: https://atoday.org/news-briefs-for-may-27-2021/
Friday: Further Thought ~ Covenant Sign
Further Thought:
Read Ellen G. White, pages 968-970, in The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7; “The Observance of the Sabbath,” pages 349-351, in Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6; “From the Red Sea to Sinai,” pages 295-297, in Patriarchs and Prophets.
The Ten Commandments define comprehensively and fundamentally the divine-human and human-human relationships.
Image @ Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
The commandment at the center of the Decalogue is the Sabbath commandment. It identifies the Lord of the Sabbath in a special way and indicates His sphere of authority and ownership. Note these two aspects: 1. the identity of the Deity: Yahweh (LORD), who is the Creator (Exodus 20:11, Exodus 31:17), and who thus holds a unique place; 2. the sphere of His ownership and authority — “the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them” (Exodus 20:11; compare Exodus 31:17). In these two aspects, the Sabbath commandment has the characteristics that are typical of seals of international, ancient Near-Eastern treaty documents. These seals are typically in the center of the treaty documents and also contain 1. the identity of deity (usually a pagan god) and 2. the sphere of ownership and authority (usually a limited geographical area).
“The sanctification of the Spirit signalizes the difference between those who have the seal of God and those who keep a spurious rest day.
When the test comes, it will be clearly shown what the mark of the beast is. It is the keeping of Sunday …
God has designated the seventh day as His Sabbath [Exodus 31:13, Exodus 31:17-16 quoted].
Thus the distinction is drawn between the loyal and the disloyal. Those who desire to have the seal of God in their foreheads must keep the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.” — Ellen G. White, The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, pages 980, 981.
Discussion Questions:
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Summary:
The Sabbath is a covenant sign that reaches forward to the time when the plan of salvation will be consummated. It points back to Creation and, as a sign of the covenant of grace, it points us to the final re-creation, when God makes all things new.
Amen!
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Inside Story: Columbia ~ Bawling Tattoo Artist
Bawling Tattoo Artist
By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission
Dr. Hernando Díaz was assisting a patient at the Adventist Medical Center in Medellin, Colombia, when a shadowy figure at his office door startled him. It was a shaven-headed man covered with explicit tattoos. Tattoos formed a black-and-blue web over his head. Tattoos covered his arms and hands.
Image © Pacific Press
“It’s my turn to see you,” the man declared.
“Please wait for your turn,” Hernando said.
Several minutes later, the man entered the office and immediately broke into tears. The big burly bloke was bawling like a baby. Hernando looked at the man’s paperwork. It said he was HIV positive. “I don’t want to have HIV,” the man said, tears streaming down his tattooed cheeks.
“What happened?” Hernando asked. “What do you do?”
“I’m a tattoo artist, and the body is my canvass,” the man said.
“How did you contract HIV? Are you promiscuous or a homosexual?”
The man said he was neither and had contracted HIV through his work.
“But I don’t want HIV,” he said. “I don’t want to die.”
“There is Someone who can heal you,” Hernando said. “I know you may not believe in God, but He can help you.”
The man acknowledged being an atheist. But he was willing to reconsider.
“Do you want me to pray for you?” Hernando said. “Do you want to accept Jesus as your Savior?”
“Yes,” the man said, weeping.
Hernando led the man through the sinner’s prayer. When the man said Jesus’ name at the end, he fell to the floor.
Hernando sent the tattoo artist away for a second HIV test. The next week, the man returned with a happy grin on his face. “I don’t have HIV,” he said. “I want to give thanks to God and you because God has healed me.”
Follow-up testing had given him a clean bill of health. He considered his HIV-negative status to be a miracle from God.
Months later, Hernando and his wife, Monica, were shopping at a mall when they heard someone screaming, “Doctor! Doctor!” The tattoo artist ran over to Hernando and picked him off the ground in an enormous bear hug. He praised God for working a miracle in his life.
The tattoo artist is one of dozens of people led to Jesus by Hernando, a 60-year-old Seventh-day Adventist physician serving at the Adventist Medical Center on the campus of Colombia Adventist University in Medellin.
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!(0)
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