Inside Story for Friday 3rd of May 2024

By Rebeca Ruiz Laguardia

A Spanish housewife read a startling passage that prompted her to embark on a 35-year letter-writing campaign to proclaim Jesus’ coming to Spanish royalty, actors and singers, and the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

The missionary initiative was born when the housewife, my mother, Pilar Laguardia, read, “Men in business life, in high positions of trust, men with large inventive faculties and scientific insight, men of genius, teachers of the gospel whose minds have not been called to the special truths for this time—these should be the first to hear the call. To them the invitation must be given.”—Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 230.

Reading the statement, my mother wondered, How can I, a simple housewife, reach these people? Moments later, she hatched a plan. She would listen to interviews with prominent people on television and the radio and read them in newspapers and magazines. She would seek any hint that they were interested in spiritual matters and introduce them to God. My mother found many opportunities. As soon as she heard someone say “I wish I had faith” or “I’m agnostic” or “I have an emptiness inside,” she wrote a letter.

My mother has lost count of the number of letters that she has mailed to Spanish presidents and government ministers, bishops, priests, actors, singers, authors, journalists, and inmates. In addition to Fidel Castro, recipients include Spanish King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, Italian tenor Al Bano Carrisi, and authors Paulo Coelho and José Saramago. She never had trouble finding mailing addresses, even before the internet. Sometimes, newspaper articles offered clues. Other times, she called television stations and prisons.

Many people have responded. Madrid’s mayor wrote, “I’m reading the Conflict of the Ages series, and I’m in the chapter ‘The Awakening in Spain’ in The Great Controversy. It’s very interesting, and I will continue reading.”

A bishop expressed gratitude for Steps to Christ and the Conflict of the Ages and wrote, “May divine mercy do what’s needed to bring us light.”

Another bishop said, “I want to study the Bible better and to serve God better. Maybe I need to correct some of my interpretations of the Bible.”

Isabel, a physician who gave up her career to enter a cloistered convent as a nun, kept contact with my mother by phone and mail for months. In her first letter, she said, “You can send me all the Bible materials you want.” So, my mother did, and a seed was planted. The results are in God’s hands.

“The important thing is to plant seeds,” my mother says. “The Lord says, ‘Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days’ ” (Ecclesiastes 11:1, NKJV).

Join the Seventh-day Adventist world church in the mass promotion and distribution of The Great Controversy in 2023 and 2024. Visit greatcontroversyproject.com for more information or ask your pastor.

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Daily Lesson for Friday 3rd of May 2024

“God’s faithful servants were not toiling alone. While principalities and powers and wicked spirits in high places were leagued against them, the Lord did not forsake His people. Could their eyes have been opened, they would have seen as marked evidence of divine presence and aid as was granted to a prophet of old. When Elisha’s servant pointed his master to the hostile army surrounding them and cutting off all opportunity for escape, the prophet prayed: ‘Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes, that he may see.’ 2 Kings 6:17.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

And, lo, the mountain was filled with chariots and horses of fire, the army of heaven stationed to protect the man of God. Thus did angels guard the workers in the cause of the Reformation.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 208.

“When powerful foes were uniting to overthrow the reformed faith, and thousands of swords seemed about to be unsheathed against it, Luther wrote: ‘Satan is putting forth his fury; ungodly pontiffs are conspiring; and we are threatened with war. Exhort the people to contend valiantly before the throne of the Lord, by faith and prayer, so that our enemies, vanquished by the Spirit of God, may be constrained to peace. Our chief want, our chief labor, is prayer; let the people know that they are now exposed to the edge of the sword and to the rage of Satan, and let them pray.’ ”—D’Aubigné, book 10, chapter 14, quoted in Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 209.

Justification by faith, the great truth that Luther discovered anew, is the foundation of the gospel, the truth upon which our hope of salvation rests. His hymn “A Mighty Fortress” powerfully articulates the gospel: “Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing, Were not the right man on our side, The man of God’s own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He, Lord Sabaoth His name, From age to age the same, And He must win the battle.”—The Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 1985), no. 506.

Discussion Questions

1. How can we explain the balance between grace and law, between faith and good works?
2. Why do you think it is so easy to let our minds slip into legalism? How would you define legalism? Why is it so detrimental to our Christian faith?
3. Are there dangers if the concept of “salvation by grace” is not rightly understood? Where might that misunderstanding lead?
4. What do some people mean when they use the term “cheap grace”? Is grace ever cheap?

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24b-05-further-thought-faith-against-all-odds/