Inside Story for Friday 28th of March 2025

By Andrew McChesney

Maria is familiar with adoration. As an opera singer, she has sung before admiring audiences in the main opera house of her native country as well as in a dozen other countries. She has received several top prizes.

But nothing prepared her for the adoration that she witnessed in North Korea. The admiration was not for her performance. It took place at a 72-foot (22-meter) bronze statue of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung.

Maria is a faithful Seventh-day Adventist. For her safety, Adventist Mission is not identifying her by her real name or nationality. She spoke to Adventist Mission in a Zoom interview.

During the visit to North Korea, Maria and a group of other singers toured the Mansu Hill Grand Monument, a complex of monuments depicting heroes from the country’s revolutionary history, in Pyongyang. The centerpiece of the complex was the towering statue of Kim Il Sung. (A second 72-foot statue, of Kim’s son, Kim Jong Il, was later added to the complex.)

Crowds of people swarmed around the statue of Kim Il Sung. Maria saw foreign tourists from Italy, France, and other countries. She saw North Koreans. They all bowed before the statue. Then she learned that she also was expected to bow as a sign of respect.

“You need to bow,” an interpreter told her group.

Maria’s mind flashed back to the first commandment, which says, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3, NKJV).

Then she noticed a state video operator filming everyone. She didn’t want to get into trouble.

As she stood there, she remembered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego refusing to bow to the 90-foot golden image of King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3:1-30. She thought, The book of Daniel really is not a legend or a fairy tale. That same scene is acted out in real life every day.

She stood straight and tall.

Some people might dismiss the bowing at Mansu Hill Grand Monument as a cultural experience connected to Kim Il Sung’s cult of personality, but Maria saw it as much more. For her, it was the moment when she was asked to take a public stand for who she adores.

Several days later, as she prepared to leave North Korea, she gave a copy of Steps to Christ to her interpreter. She prays that the interpreter and all North Koreans learn about Jesus, the Man whom she admires the most.

Reaching the people of North Korea with the gospel is an important focus of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division, the recipient of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering. Pray for North Korea, and thank you for planning a generous offering this Sabbath.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-13-inside-story-bowing-to-an-image/

Daily Lesson for Friday 28th of March 2025

Read Ellen G. White, “The Least of These My Brethren,” Pages 637–641, in The Desire of Ages.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

“Those who minister to others will be ministered unto by the Chief Shepherd. They themselves will drink of the living water, and will be satisfied. They will not be longing for exciting amusements, or for some change in their lives. The great topic of interest will be, how to save the souls that are ready to perish. Social intercourse will be profitable. The love of the Redeemer will draw hearts together in unity.

“When we realize that we are workers together with God, His promises will not be spoken with indifference. They will burn in our hearts, and kindle upon our lips. To Moses, when called to minister to an ignorant, undisciplined, and rebellious people, God gave the promise, ‘My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.’ And He said, ‘Certainly I will be with thee.’ Exodus 33:14; Exodus 3:12. This promise is to all who labor in Christ’s stead for His afflicted and suffering ones.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 641.

Discussion Questions

<–Thursday

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-13-further-thought-love-is-the-fulfillment-of-the-law/

Join the Hit the Mark panel as they discuss Sabbath School Lesson 13 – Love Is the Fulfillment of the Law. It’s the fastest hour of the week!

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/love-is-the-fulfillment-of-the-law-hit-the-mark-sabbath-school/

Daily Lesson for Thursday 27th of March 2025

If love is the fulfillment of the law, then one cannot keep God’s law in the full sense simply by refraining from doing wrong things. The law of love itself (expressed in the fullness of Scripture) not only commands us to refrain from doing evil but the law prompts us to do acts that reveal the love of God to others—not only to other church members but also to the world at large, which is so desperately in need of a true Christian witness.

Image © Lifeway Collection at Goodsalt.com

Here, James strongly decries injustice in society, specifically identify­ing the dishonoring of the poor and oppression by some who are rich. Then, he calls attention to the law of love for one’s neighbor, saying if you fulfill this law, then “you do well” (James 2:8, NKJV).

As Ellen G. White has expressed it: “Love to man is the earthward manifestation of the love of God. It was to implant this love, to make us children of one family, that the King of glory became one with us. And when His parting words are fulfilled, ‘Love one another, as I have loved you’ (John 15:12); when we love the world as He has loved it, then for us His mission is accomplished. We are fitted for heaven; for we have heaven in our hearts.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages p. 641.

When we love the world, as Christ has loved the world—then we are fitted for heaven. What a powerful expression of what it means to be a follower of Jesus!

Jesus commands His followers to “ ‘love one another;’ ” even as “ ‘I have loved you’ ” (John 13:34, NKJV). Jesus also proclaims: “ ‘By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another’ ” (John 13:35, NKJV). Love is so central to Christian faith because God is love (1 John 4:8,16). And those who claim to love God must love one another (compare with 1 John 3:11; 1 John 4:20-21).

Accordingly, 1 Peter 4:8 exhorts Christians: “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for ‘love will cover a multitude of sins’ ” (NKJV; see also Hebrews 10:24 and 1 Thessalonians 3:12).

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-13-above-all-love-one-another/

Daily Lesson for Wednesday 26th of March 2025

The relationship between love and law cannot be overstated. Indeed, according to Scripture, to love is to fulfill the law.

In Romans 13:8-10, Paul teaches that “he who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8, NKJV). After listing many of the last six of the Ten Commandments, Paul declares that these are “all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ ” (Romans 13:9, NKJV). Indeed, Paul teaches explicitly, “Love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10, NKJV). Again, in Galatians 5:14, Paul explains, “All the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ ” (Galatians 5:14, NKJV). But what kind of love is that which fulfills the law? What does such love look like?

Image © Review & Herald Publishing from GoodSalt.com

Jesus identifies the “weightier matters of the law” as “justice and mercy and faith.” And in relation to one law in particular—the Sabbath—we can see in Scripture that the Sabbath itself is integrally connected with deliverance and justice.

In Deuteronomy 5:1-33, the Sabbath commandment is grounded in relation to God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery. That is, the Sabbath is not only a memorial of creation but also a memorial of deliverance from slavery and oppression. And in the context about turning from one’s own pleasure to call the Sabbath a delight by taking delight in the Lord (Isaiah 58:13-14), the emphasis is on works of love and justice for others—doing good, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless (see Isaiah 58:3-10).

Given all of these teachings (and many others), those who wish to fulfill the law through love should be concerned not only about sins of commission but also about sins of omission. Love as the fulfillment of the law involves not merely keeping the law in the sense of refraining from committing sins but also consists of actively doing good—doing the works of love that faithfully advance justice and mercy. Being faithful to God is more than just not violating the letter of the law.

<–Tuesday Thursday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-13-love-is-the-fulfillment-of-the-law-2/