God loves to connect with humans. As far as God is concerned, no one has sinned so much that they cannot be reached. Oh, we humans love to judge a person as “having gone too far” and then feel justified at putting up barriers to enjoying friendship and fellowship with them. But not God; […] Source: https://atoday.org/at1-june-11-2021/
Church Leadership Accountability
by Alvin Masarira | 10 June 2021 | In October the General Council Annual Council voted “113-18G: Regard for and practice of General Conference Session and General Conference Executive Committee Actions.” It describes a process to enforce compliance with organizational policies, as well as actions voted at General Conference (GC) sessions and executive committee meetings. […] Source: https://atoday.org/church-leadership-accountability/
News Briefs for June 10, 2021
News reports from Sweden, Walla Walla University, Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy, Fiji and Southern Adventist University: The Swedish Union of Churches Conference recently hosted an “End it Now” conference aimed at protecting children and adults who have experienced domestic abuse. According to TED News, over 160 people from 27 countries participated in the […] Source: https://atoday.org/news-briefs-for-june-10-2021/
Inside Story: Colombia ~ Boy Revives Dying Church
Boy Revives Dying Church
By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission
A Seventh-day Adventist church elder asked Alejandro to preach his first evangelistic meetings at the age of 8.
Image © Pacific Press
“We want to plant seeds, not to harvest,” the elder told Alejandro’s mother.
The church was dying on Tierra Bomba, an island off Colombia’s coast in the Caribbean Sea. Its head elder had resigned and left the church on the last day of evangelistic meetings that he was leading. Church members were discouraged, and many had stopped worshiping on Sabbath.
Alejandro, who had preached since he was 4, was scared to speak at the first evening meeting. But Mother gave him a big hug, and they prayed together.
People packed the yard of a church member’s house to hear the boy speak.
Hoping to disrupt the weeklong meetings, the former head elder organized his own meetings in his home across the street from Alejandro’s site. He invited current and former church members to attend his daily meetings.
People walking to his house saw the boy speaking as they passed by and stopped. “Who was the child preacher?” they wondered. Many stayed to listen.
The former elder was upset to see people going to Alejandro’s meeting, and he marched over to demand that they come to his house.
“Come on!” he told people, grabbing them by the arm. “Let’s go!”
Some people went with him but, when he wasn’t paying attention, snuck back to listen to Alejandro preach.
This went on for several days. Then church members invited the former elder to the evangelistic meetings and he came.
As part of the meetings, Alejandro visited homes of people who had responded to his appeals for baptism. During the first round of visitations, three people confirmed their desire for baptism. During a second round, an unmarried couple asked for baptism. Alejandro’s mother helped them complete the paperwork so they could be married. A total of seven people were baptized at the end of the weeklong meetings.
Alejandro left Tierra Bomba happy. The church members also were happy. The church was strong and growing.
“Jesus triumphed,” Alejandro said.
Alejandro, a 10-year-old child preacher in Cartagena, Colombia, has led 18 people, including his parents and older brother, to baptism since he was 4. Read more in this quarter’s Children’s Mission, downloadable at bit.ly/childrensmission.
This quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help open a “Better Life” center to train missionaries at Colombia Adventist University in Alejandro’s homeland, Colombia.
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 ~ New Covenant Sanctuary
Further Thought:
“The highest angel in heaven had not the power to pay the ransom for one lost soul. Cherubim and seraphim have only the glory with which they are endowed by the Creator as His creatures, and the reconciliation of man to God could be accomplished only through a mediator who was equal with God, possessed of attributes that would dignify, and declare him worthy to treat with the infinite God in man’s behalf, and also represent God to a fallen world.
Image @ Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
Man’s substitute and surety must have man’s nature, a connection with the human family whom he was to represent, and, as God’s ambassador, he must partake of the divine nature, have a connection with the Infinite, in order to manifest God to the world, and be a mediator between God and man.” — Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, book 1, p. 257.
“Jesus continues: As you confess Me before men, so I will confess you before God and the holy angels. You are to be My witnesses upon earth, channels through which My grace can flow for the healing of the world. So I will be your representative in heaven. The Father beholds not your faulty character, but He sees you as clothed in My perfection. I am the medium through which Heaven’s blessings shall come to you. And everyone who confesses Me by sharing My sacrifice for the lost shall be confessed as a sharer in the glory and joy of the redeemed.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 357.
Discussion Questions:
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Summary:
The old covenant-sacrificial system was replaced by the new; instead of animals being sacrificed by sinful priests in an earthly sanctuary, we now have Jesus, our perfect Sacrifice. He represents us before the Father in the sanctuary in heaven, which forms the basis of the new covenant and its promises.
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