Daily Lesson for Sabbath 8th of March 2025

Image © Pacific Press

Read for This Week’s Study: John 18:37, Romans 3:23-26, Romans 5:8, Isaiah 5:1-4, Matthew 21:33-39, Isaiah 53:4, Romans 3:1-4.

Memory Text:

“Pilate therefore said to Him, ‘Are You a king then?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice’ ” (John 18:37, NKJV).

Some years ago, an insightful children’s story was printed in Guide magazine. The story focuses on a boy named Denis, an orphan living as a foster child with a family in medieval times. Denis passionately hates the king of his land because, when his parents were sick, the king’s soldiers carried him away, and he never saw them again. Only later did he learn that the king separated them in order to spare the living all the horrors of the Black Plague. The truth about the king sets Denis free from the hatred that he had harbored almost his entire life. The king had always, and in every case, acted out of love for his people.

Many people today view God somewhat like Denis viewed the king. The evil they have witnessed or experienced brings them to hate or dismiss God. Where is God when there is suffering? If God is good, why is there so much evil? The cosmic conflict sheds light on this crucial issue, but many questions remain. Yet, when all our attempts at answers fail to satisfy, we can look to Jesus on the cross and see in Him that God can be trusted, even with all the questions that remain unanswered for now.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, March 15.

Sunday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-11-what-more-could-i-have-done/

Inside Story for Friday 7th of March 2025

By Andrew McChesney

To the Seventh-day Adventist pediatrician, the 13-year-old Alaska Native girl resembled a giant.

Four months after their first phone call, pediatrician Colette Reahl made the seven-hour drive from Anchorage to Fairbanks, Alaska, to meet Matrona for the first time at the facility where she lived with 19 other girls and boys. Matrona stood at 5 foot, 7 inches (174 cm). In comparison, Colette was a diminutive 5 foot, 3 inches (162 cm).

When Colette saw the girl, she thought, She looks like a giant to me. This should be interesting.

Matrona, who was sitting on the floor in a meeting room, was very shy and didn’t want to talk at first.

Colette sat down on a couch near her. A few awkward minutes passed, and then she remembered that she had brought a gift, an encyclopedia about animals, for Matrona. Colette opened the book and silently began to leaf through the pages. Matrona’s curiosity was raised, and she slowly inched her way over to Colette. Before long, Matrona was sitting beside Colette and looking at the pictures with her.

It was a pleasant first visit, and it lasted three hours.

The two met again the next month, and Colette gave Matrona a Bible. She suggested reading the Bible together over the phone. But when she called, Matrona made herself unavailable to talk.

Then Matrona moved to a facility in Anchorage. She was lonely and missed her friends in Fairbanks. She began to call Colette every day, trying to persuade her to adopt her.

Colette, meanwhile, started the process of changing jobs. Her work as a pediatrician in Anchorage was ending, and she was preparing to move to Bethel, the largest community in western Alaska, with a population of 6,000. She would work at a hospital there.

“Ewww,” Matrona said when she learned about the move. To her, Bethel was a small village, and she thought it would be boring.

This mission story offers an inside look at a previous Thirteenth Sabbath project. Pediatrician Colette Reahl is also coleader of Bethel (Alaska) Seventh-day Adventist Church, which received part of a 2024 Thirteenth Sabbath Offering. Thank you for helping spread the gospel with this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering on March 29. Read more about Colette and Matrona next week.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-10-inside-story-the-persistent-visitor-part-2/