Closer To Heaven
|
|
|
Our Sabbath School program has always been linked to the support of the Seventh-day Adventist Mission program. This video provides a little insight into this important work.
(0)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/mission-spotlight-for-february-8/
En muchos países occidentales, la cuestión política más acalorada en estos momentos es: «¿Cómo podemos detener el flujo constante de inmigrantes?». Por supuesto, los políticos también tienen otras preocupaciones: la guerra en Ucrania, el caos en Oriente Medio, las ambiciones nucleares de Corea del Norte, las incertidumbres en Siria y la innegable realidad del cambio […] Source: https://atoday.org/la-inmigracion-problema-u-oportunidad/
Inside Story for Friday 7th of February 2025
By Andrew McChesney
American missionary Joanne (Park) Kim was walking to her rented apartment in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. It was the dead of winter, and the midafternoon temperature was about minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 Celsius).
Then Joanne saw an intoxicated man lying on the sidewalk. She had been attacked by a number of drunken men over the past year in Mongolia, and she didn’t want to stop. What if he also attacked her? She started to walk past him, but then she stopped. A small voice seemed to say, “You can’t pass by.”
Image © Pacific Press
Joanne struggled with the idea of helping him. “Lord,” she said, “he weighs nearly twice as much as I do. How can I help him?”
She looked around. The street was empty. No other people were in sight.
Joanne looked at the stranger again. “If I walk by, he will die,” she thought. “His body will freeze in just a couple of hours.”
She saw apartment buildings all around. Each building had a small room on the first floor for a guard, so the entryway was fairly warm. The nearest building was about 1,000 feet (300 meters) away. “OK, Lord,” Joanne said. “I’ll get this guy over there.” Putting her arms under his, she prayed for strength and pulled. Somehow, she dragged him to the building. Placing him in the entryway, she stepped back and looked at him. A new feeling filled her heart. She felt compassion and pity.
This encounter marked a turning point in Joanne’s mission work. No longer did she harbor any ill feelings toward the attackers. Instead, compassion and pity washed over her. At last, she could love like Jesus.
Joanne went on to help plant the first Adventist church in Ulaanbaatar as a pioneer missionary with a supporting mission organization from 1992 to 1998. She returned in 2017, and she now serves as education and development director for the Adventist Church in Mongolia.
Even now, drunken strangers still attack her from time to time, but her love for God and His people is unshakable. “Satan does not give up,” she said. “He knew he could wear me down. But God gifted me with the Mongolian language and a change of heart. God loves even the drunk men who were attacking me all the time, so I need to love them and help them as best I can.”
You also can participate in the mission work in Mongolia through this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering, part of which will help open a recreation center where children can grow spiritually, mentally, socially, and physically in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
(2)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-06-inside-story-you-can-t-pass-by/
Daily Lesson for Friday 7th of February 2025
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
“The word of God reveals His character. He Himself has declared His infinite love and pity. When Moses prayed, ‘Show me Thy glory,’ the Lord answered, ‘I will make all My goodness pass before thee.’ Exodus 33:18-19. This is His glory. The Lord passed before Moses, and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.’ Exodus 34:6-7. He is ‘slow to anger, and of great kindness,’ ‘because He delighteth in mercy.’ Jonah 4:2; Micah 7:18.
“God has bound our hearts to Him by unnumbered tokens in heaven and in earth. Through the things of nature, and the deepest and tenderest earthly ties that human hearts can know, He has sought to reveal Himself to us. Yet these but imperfectly represent His love. Though all these evidences have been given, the enemy of good blinded the minds of men, so that they looked upon God with fear; they thought of Him as severe and unforgiving. Satan led men to conceive of God as a being whose chief attribute is stern justice,—one who is a severe judge, a harsh, exacting creditor. He pictured the Creator as a being who is watching with jealous eye to discern the errors and mistakes of men, that He may visit judgments upon them. It was to remove this dark shadow, by revealing to the world the infinite love of God, that Jesus came to live among men.”—Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, Pages 10, 11.
Discussion Questions
|
(3)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-06-further-thought-gods-love-of-justice/
In a groundbreaking stewardship initiative, the sound team at Oakridge Seventh-day Adventist Church has reportedly embedded subliminal messages into their instrumental hymn tracks, causing an unexpected surge in tithe returns and very confused first-time visitors. The tech-savvy sound team discovered they could layer barely audible “tithe now” messages between verses of “We Give Thee But […] Source: https://atoday.org/satire-church-sound-team-adds-subliminal-tithe-now-message-to-hymn-instrumentals/
Intercer is a website with biblical materials in Romanian, English, Hungarian and other languages. We want to bring the light from God's Word to peoples homes. Intercer provides quality Christian resources...[Read More]
