Dear Aunt Sevvy, I got divorced several years ago. The experience was embarrassing and discouraging, but in the intervening years I have rebuilt my life and relationships. I have met a wonderful woman and we have recently gotten married. The problem is, her oldest child is 12 years old and having trouble accepting that I’m […] Source: https://atoday.org/how-do-i-get-through-to-my-new-stepdaughter/
Judgments, Perceptions and Discriminations
by Melody Tan | 21 June 2019 | “By most measures, he was nondescript: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap,” the 2007 article from The Washington Post began. The author, Gene Weingarten, was writing about a busker’s experience on a Friday morning at a train station. […] Source: https://atoday.org/judgments-perceptions-and-discriminations/
Sabbath: God Created . . .
Image © Pacific Press
Read for This Week’s Study: Genesis 1:1-3:24, Acts 17:28, Psalm 148:1-14, Ps. 24:1, Gen. 4:1-9, Matt. 22:37-39, Rev. 14:7.
Memory Text: “He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, but he who honors Him has mercy on the needy” (Proverbs 14:31, NKJV).
Have you ever worked to create something—perhaps an item of art or craft, a meal, or some other creative work—only to have it broken or rejected by the person you gave it to? If so, you might have just a small glimpse of what God experienced when He made this world and gave human beings life, only then to see what He created broken by sin.
The Bible says that the world was created carefully and created “very good”. How God felt about His creation is evident in the accounts of Creation in Genesis 1 and 2. This is the context in which we should read the story of the Fall in Genesis 3 and the heartbrokenness of God as He confronts the people He has made.
Remarkably, our world continues to be something that God loves, even despite millennia of sin, violence, injustice, and outright rebellion. And even more remarkably, while God set in motion His plan for redeeming and re-creating the world, He has given us, as believers, roles to play in the fulfillment of His larger plans. Yes, we are the recipients of His grace; but, from the grace we have received, we have been given our work to do as colaborers with our Lord. What a solemn, sacred responsibility!
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, July 6.
Amen!
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Introduction: The Least of These . . .
Ministering to Those in Need
Seventh-day Adventists are called to proclaim “the everlasting gospel” (Rev. 14:6) to all the world. By so doing, we are simply obeying Jesus’ words about making disciples, baptising them, and “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:20, NKJV). And among the things He commanded was that we minister to the hurting, the downtrodden, the poor, the hungry, the imprisoned.
After all, it was Jesus who, after telling the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-36), then commanded His listeners: “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37, NKJV). It was Jesus who, in depicting the time when He would divide the nations before Him as a “shepherd divides his sheep from the goats” (Matt. 25:32, NKJV), talked about just how important helping the hungry, the sick, the naked, and the imprisoned really is. “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Matt. 25:40, NKJV).
In other words, along with proclaiming the great truths about salvation, the sanctuary, the state of the dead, and the perpetuity of the law, we are to minister to the needs of others. And what better way to reach people than by working in their behalf, too? As Ellen G. White famously wrote: “Christ’s method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, ‘Follow Me’”. – The Ministry of Healing, p. 143.
According to one count, Scripture contains 2,103 verses expressing God’s special concern for the poor and oppressed. Compared to many other aspects of faith, doctrine, and Christian living in general, the weight of references about ministering to those in need is overwhelming. We must get serious about working to relieve the pain and suffering that exists around us. This doesn’t take away from our work of spreading the gospel; on the contrary, it can become a powerful way of doing it.
Of course, it’s a good thing to help others, just for the sake of helping them. We should “do justly” (see Mic. 6:8) simply because it is both right and good to “do justice”. And yet, is it not even better when doing justice, when helping others in their immediate and temporal needs, also to point them to the “reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet. 3:15, NKJV), and that is the promise of eternal life in Christ?
Jesus healed disease, gave sight to the blind, cured lepers, even raised the dead. But all those to whom He ministered were going to die sooner or later anyway, right? So, in the long run, whatever good He did for them and their immediate needs, He also did more. Yes, He ministered to the hurting, but then He bade them, Follow Me. And that’s precisely why we, too, should minister to the hurting and then bid them, Follow Him.
No question, by seeking justice and goodness in the world, we are rehearsing the kingdom of God (see Luke 4:18-19) in a way that is at least as faithful, valid, and perhaps effective as preaching it. When we care for the poor and the oppressed, we are actually offering honor and worship to God (see Isa. 58:6-10). But if we fail to minister in behalf of the hurting, the suffering, and the broken, we misrepresent Him (see Prov. 14:31).
This quarter, then, we’re going to see what the Word of God says (and it says a lot) about our duty to minister to the needs of those around us.
“Freely you have received, freely give” (Matt. 10:8, NKJV). That says it all.
Jonathan Duffy has served as president of ADRA International since 2012. Before joining ADRA Australia in 2008, Duffy served as director of Adventist Health for the church’s South Pacific Division, where he had extensive experience in health promotion and community health development.
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Victors Through Christ
For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 1 John 5:4.
We need to draw near to our Helper, the One who is infinite in wisdom. He is our Minister and our great Medical Missionary, and He knows the straits through which His believers on this earth will pass…. He has been tempted in all points like as we are tempted. Let us not forget that Christ had the tempter to meet in every form, and that when He met him, He, our Saviour, was bearing the likeness of humanity. He is our Restorer, the Perfecter of His covenant with the human agencies who depend upon Him as their Prince and their Redeemer.
Christ conquered as the sinless, unfallen, perfect Man. As the Messiah He has won the victory over the temptations of the enemy, making it possible for us to overcome as He overcame. We are to overcome in every encounter with the enemy. We are to be victors by becoming partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Each victory that He gained in His humanity makes it possible for us, through receiving and believing in Him, to gain the victory. “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God” (John 1:12). Each victory that He gained in humanity secures for us its genuine fruits. Each assault of Satan overcome marks the occasion of a victory for humanity….
The deliverance of the people of God and His mercies to them in past trials are to be called to mind as an assurance of that which, if we trust in God, He will do for us in present and future emergencies. Whatever may have been their experience, if they will surrender to God with full purpose of heart, with humility and contrition, He will receive them. To all who by faith receive Christ as their personal Saviour, He will give power to become overcomers—sons and daughters of God. They become partakers of the divine nature, and fully realize His mercy and the grace of His Holy Spirit….
Let our prayers ascend to God in all humility. Let us through the grace Christ came to the world to impart confess and forsake our sins, with humble, contrite hearts. The Lord understands, for all secret things are known to Him. Not one mean action can be performed without God understanding every phase of temptation….
Throughout the gospels, Christ made frequent reference to the great conflict that He had with Satan at the beginning of His ministry. He makes constant reference to Satan’s kingdom as opposed to the kingdom of God. Let us be sure that we are on the Lord’s side,—Letter 14, January 3, 1906, to Dr. and Mrs. D. H. Kress.
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for the Mills family as their father died of a massive stroke after fighting for life since an operation for a brain aneurysm in March. Rose
—-Please pray for Doug who cracked several vertebra in his back. Rose
—-A prayer request… Greg has battled cancer for almost 7 yrs. The doctors are giving him only days to live. Andy
—-Please pray for my son his job changed and they are now requiring him to work every other Sabbath! Debbie
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Dear Friends,
Until I was nineteen, my mother and I had no car. We walked or rode the bus wherever we needed to go. This wasted many hours as it seemed that the bus was always late. We really longed to have a car, but there just was no money for it. There were so many times when we felt trapped because of our lack of good transportation.
It was such a treat when Floyd and Mary, my mother’s ex-in-laws, would let us use their car for the weekend as payment for watching their son. Tommy was a good boy and enjoyed being with us. He was a few years younger than I, and didn’t tease and torment me about my size; so we got along well together. What fun we would have going places that were not accessible by public transportation and doing things that we wished we could do.
Having that car gave my careworn and overworked mother a sense of freedom and relaxation. and changed her into a smiling, relaxed, energetic girl once more. All of the built up tensions and worries she daily experienced disappeared as we drove around southeastern Michigan and did things that she had been longing to do. All of the frustrations of the day to day survival evaporated.
Those happy feelings did not last long, however. As soon as the weekend was over and Tommy and the car went back home, my mother picked up the cares she had left behind and life went back to a normal routine. All the tensions and frustrations returned and it seemed to me that her weekend of freedom only made her more resentful of her lot in life.
Just as my mother had no lasting peace and happiness from having a car for a short time, so the pleasures of this world last but a moment. They are fleeting at best, and leave us careworn and exhausted and all empty inside when they are over. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” I John 2:16-18
Our Dear Saviour desires to give us “the peace of God, [a lasting peace] which passeth all understanding.” Phil 4:7 Just as He “arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still,” so He will bring peace and calmness to our troubled mind if we will ask Him. He assures us, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27
David exclaimed, “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” Ps 16:11; 119:165 Praise God! These joys, these pleasures never fade away! No matter what trials and troubles surround us, we can have peace in our heart!
May we turn from the vanities of this world unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein.” Acts 14:15 May we experience freedom from the worries and cares of this old world by looking forward to spending eternity with our Blessed Redeemer. May we daily receive the peace that passes all understanding that He offers us is my prayer.
Rose
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