Inside Story for Friday 1st of November 2024

By Andrew McChesney

For most of his life, Rob Schetky, a retired U.S. Navy officer, had struggled with the Bible and its meaning.

Once an agnostic, Rob was seeking God’s will, but the Sabbath posed a problem. He fumed when people skipped church and engaged in everyday activities on Sunday. He asked, “Why are you playing golf on Sunday?” But inside he wondered, Where in the Bible did God change the Sabbath?

Image © Pacific Press

Rob stopped going to church. He was looking for a new church in Fairbanks, in the U.S. state of Alaska, when an unsolicited book arrived in his post office mailbox. “That’s an interesting name,” he thought, examining the book. “I wonder what The Great Controversy is.”

Leaving the post office, he passed a stack of Great Controversy books that other people had discarded on a counter. It had been a mass mailing.

At home, Rob became engrossed in the book. He grew excited as he read how humans, not God, had changed the Sabbath day of worship. Wow! he thought. Someone is telling the history of the church in a very logical way.

Contacting a friend, he said, “I’ve found a great history of Christianity. It’s called The Great Controversy.” Later, the friend called back. “You’ve got to get away,” he said. “That’s the Seventh-day Adventist Church. They’re a cult!”

Rob was surprised. He hadn’t noticed the name of the book’s author, Ellen White, and didn’t know that she had cofounded the Adventist Church. “No, they are not a cult,” he said. “They just believe in the Word of God.”

After the conversation, Rob wondered if Adventists worshiped in Fairbanks. Looking online, he found a church located only a 10-minute drive away. On Sabbath, he grabbed his Bible and The Great Controversy and went to church. He had been reading the book for less than a month.

The first person to greet him at church was a Sabbath School teacher, Helen. She expressed surprise when she learned that he had come because of The Great Controversy. “You just destroyed my complaints,” she said.

She had been worried that the small size of the book’s text made it impossible to read. Yet Rob had already read three-fourths of the book—and he had come to church to learn more.

Today, seven years later, Rob is 70 and a church deacon. He still reads the Bible and the writings of Ellen White daily. “When I found the Seventh-day Adventist Church, I found a home, and I found truth,” he said.

Join the Adventist world church in 2024 in the mass promotion and distribution of The Great Controversy. Ask your pastor or visit greatcontroversyproject.com for more details .

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24d-05-inside-story-unsolicited-book-in-the-mail/

Daily Lesson for Friday 1st of November 2024

Read Ellen G. White, “At Jacob’s Well,” pp. 183–195, in The Desire of Ages.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

“As soon as she had found the Saviour the Samaritan woman brought others to Him. She proved herself a more effective missionary than His own disciples. The disciples saw nothing in Samaria to indicate that it was an encouraging field. Their thoughts were fixed upon a great work to be done in the future. They did not see that right around them was a harvest to be gathered. But through the woman whom they despised, a whole cityful were brought to hear the Saviour. She carried the light at once to her countrymen.

“This woman represents the working of a practical faith in Christ. Every true disciple is born into the kingdom of God as a missionary. He who drinks of the living water becomes a fountain of life. The receiver becomes a giver. The grace of Christ in the soul is like a spring in the desert, welling up to refresh all, and making those who are ready to perish eager to drink of the water of life.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 195.

Discussion Questions

<–Thursday

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24d-05-further-thought-the-testimony-of-the-samaritans/

I am sure that you have friends that no matter how long you are apart from them, once you get together, your friendship resumes right where it left off, as though you had never been apart. This may sound weird, but maybe in one dimension you never were apart! We have physical dimensions such as time and space, but have you ever thought that there is another dimension we can be in that is not bound by time or space? To me, that dimension is the spiritual dimension.

I believe the reason many of our Christian friendships take up right where they left off, even after long periods of no physical contact, is that we have actually been together the whole time “in the Spirit!” Why do those friendships take up right where they left off as though no time has passed by? Because we are in communion with the great “ I AM”. With God there is no time. He is in one eternal Now. He is not the “I was” or “ I will be”, He is the I AM. Same with space, The Holy Spirit is everywhere. The Holy Spirit is with our Christian friends, so if we are in the Spirit and our friends are in the Spirit ,then we are together.

1 John 4:8 tells us God is love. Romans 5:5 tells us God’s love is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost. God is not just the source of genuine love, He is genuine love. Therefore, all the love we receive from our friends actually comes from the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when I left my friends in Texas and went to Florida and made new friends there, I still received the exact same love I had in Texas, because all love originates from God.

Love does not come form human beings. We can not generate love; all we can do is let the Holy Spirit’s love flow through us. Therefore, the love I receive from people half-way across the world is the same exact love I receive from the people I live with right here. It all comes from God. As long as we have God’s love, we can’t miss a friend’s love, because the only love they gave us came from God and He is still with us!

I am so thankful for all my friends with whom I can share God’s love! Thank you all, who are my friends on Sabbath School Net, as well as my offline friends, for being a part of my life. I hope God has been able to love you through me as we worship Him in Spirit.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/one-in-the-spirit/

Daily Lesson for Thursday 31st of October 2024

Jesus’ discussion with the woman was interrupted by the arrival of the disciples. Though surprised that He was speaking with a woman, they did not question Him. Instead, they urged Him to eat.

The woman, meanwhile, left her water pot and rushed into the city to share with others what she had just experienced with Jesus.

Image © Lifeway Collection at Goodsalt.com

It seems strange that Jesus’ narrative about a harvest would interrupt the story of the conversion of many in the city. But John wants us to see how Jesus understood what was happening. Sharing the plan of salvation with a Samaritan woman was far more important to Him than eating. To lead souls to salvation was His purpose, and He used this occasion to teach His disciples the urgency of sharing the gospel with all people, even with those not like them.

There are many high points in the Gospel of John. Surely John 4:39-42 is among them. Many of the Samaritans believed because of the woman’s testimony: “ ‘He told me all that I ever did’ ” (John 4:39, NKJV).

The Samaritans asked Jesus to stay with them. The result was that many more believed because of the Word of Jesus. “Then they said to the woman, ‘Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world’ ” (John 4:42, NKJV).

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24d-05-the-testimony-of-the-samaritans-2/

Daily Lesson for Wednesday 30th of October 2024

The light was too blinding to look at directly. While recognizing Jesus as a prophet, the woman practices avoidance again. She asks Jesus a question of religious controversy between Jews and Samaritans—the proper place to worship.

In response, Jesus pointed out that the Samaritans did not know what they worshiped. Their worship was a synthesis of Judaism and paganism. The Jews worshiped the God who reveals Himself—another important admission for a Samaritan.

Image © Phil McKay at Goodsalt.com

Worship of the true God is not tied to a place. The discussion, therefore, about a place of worship was irrelevant to the conversation. For God is spirit, and those who worship Him must do so in spirit and in truth. The woman accepted the plain truth conveyed by Jesus and was ready for more.

In all four Gospels, this is the only passage before His trial in which Jesus plainly stated to someone that He was the Messiah. And He did it not to some large crowd or important personage but to an unnamed Samaritan woman, alone, at Jacob’s well. He is interested in any lonely soul who feels separated.

And so to this woman, who not only was from a foreign culture but also was not of the highest moral character, Jesus openly reveals who He is. And, having revealed to her His knowledge of her darkest secrets, He also gave this woman a great reason to believe in Him, as well.

<–Tuesday Thursday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24d-05-the-revelation-of-jesus/