Closer To Heaven
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Join It Is Written Sabbath School host Eric Flickinger and this quarter’s author, Dragoslava Santrac, as they provide additional insights into this week’s Sabbath School lesson, “The Lord Reigns.”
(0)The post 4: The Lord Hears and Delivers – It is Written – Discussions with the Author appeared first on Sabbath School Net.
Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/4-the-lord-hears-and-delivers-it-is-written-discussions-with-the-author/
View an in-depth discussion of The Lord Hears and Delivers in the Hope Sabbath School class led by Pastor Derek Morris.
Click on the image below to view the video:
With thanks to Hope Channel – Television that will change your life.
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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/4-the-lord-hears-and-delivers-hopess-video-discussion/
Daily Lesson for Wednesday 24th of January 2024
Read 1 Corinthians 10:1-4. How does Paul describe the Exodus story? What spiritual lesson does he seek to teach with it?
Read Psalms 114:1-8. How is the divine deliverance of the people of Israel from Egypt poetically described here?
What a poetic depiction of God’s marvelous deliverance of His children from the bondage of Egypt is given in Psalms 114:1-8. All through the Old Testament, and even in the New, the deliverance from Egypt was seen as a symbol of God’s power to save His people. Paul in these verses in 1 Corinthians does just that, seeing the whole true story as a metaphor, a symbol of salvation in Jesus Christ.
Image © Review & Herald Publishing at Goodsalt.com
Psalms 114:1-8 also depicts divine deliverance through God’s sovereignty as the Creator over the powers of nature, which was how He saved His people in the Exodus. The sea, the river Jordan, and the mountains and hills poetically represent the natural and human powers opposing the Israelites on their way to the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 1:44, Joshua 3:14-17). God, though, is sovereign over all of them.
In fact, for many of God’s children in all times and in all places, the way to the heavenly Jerusalem is fraught with danger. The Psalms encourage them to look beyond the hills and toward the Creator of heaven and earth (Psalms 121:1).
The spirit of Psalms 114:1-8 is captured by Jesus’ calming of the sea storm and His proclamation that the church has nothing to fear because He has overcome the world (Matthew 8:23-27, John 16:33).
The Lord’s great deeds on behalf of His people should inspire the whole earth to tremble at His presence (Psalms 114:7). The trembling should be understood as acknowledging and worshiping rather than as being terrified (Psalms 96:9, Psalms 99:1). With God on their side, believers have nothing to fear.
What are some of the spiritual dangers we face as believers, and how can we learn to lean on the Lord’s power to protect us from succumbing to these dangers that are as real for us now as they were for the psalmist?
(0)The post Wednesday: Defender and Deliverer appeared first on Sabbath School Net.
Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24a-04-defender-and-deliverer/
Daily Lesson for Tuesday 23rd of January 2024
Read Psalms 17:7-9, Psalms 31:1-3, and Psalms 91:2-7. What does the psalmist do in times of trouble?
The psalmist encounters various sorts of troubles and, in them, turns to the Lord, who is a refuge in every adversity. Trust is a deliberate choice to acknowledge God’s lordship over one’s life in all circumstances. If trust does not work in adversity, then it will not work anywhere.
Image © Graham Braddock at Goodsalt.com
The psalmist’s testimony, “I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust’ ” (Psalms 91:2, NKJV), springs from his past experience with God and now serves to strengthen his faith for the future. The psalmist calls God the Most High and the Almighty (Psalms 91:1-2), remembering the surpassing greatness of his God.
The psalmist also tells of the security that one can find in God: the “secret place” (“shelter” or “hiding place”), “shadow” (Psalms 91:1), “refuge,” “fortress” (Psalms 91:2), “wings,” “shield,” “buckler” (Psalms 91:4), and “dwelling place” (Psalms 91:9, NKJV). These images represent safe havens in the psalmist’s culture. One needs only to think of the unbearable heat of the sun in that part of the world in order to appreciate the shadow (or shade) or to recall the times of wars in Israel’s history in order to value the security provided by the shield or the fortress.
Read Psalms 17:8 and Matthew 23:37. What image is used here, and what does it reveal?
One of the most intimate metaphors is the one that refers to being “under the shadow of Your wings” (Psalms 17:8, Psalms 57:1, Psalms 63:7, NKJV). This metaphor elicits comfort and assurance by implying the protection of a mother bird. The Lord is compared to an eagle who guards its young with its wings (Exodus 19:4, Deuteronomy 32:11) and to a hen who gathers her chicks under her wings (Matthew 23:37).
How, though, do we deal with the times when calamity strikes, and we can’t seem to see the Lord’s protection? Why do these traumas not mean that the Lord is not there with us?
(0)The post Tuesday: The Lord Is a Refuge in Adversity appeared first on Sabbath School Net.
Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24a-04-the-lord-is-a-refuge-in-adversity/
The beautiful picture on the front of our lesson pamphlet brings us our theme hymn for this quarter with it’s two variations in melody:
Hymn 552/546 – The Lord’s My Shepherd.
Psalm 100:2: “Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing”.
We find in our Sabbath afternoon introduction that God is “near to all who call upon Him….” (Psalm 145:18) –
Hymn 668 – O Thou Who Hearest. God will draw near to us:
Hymn 405 – O God, Unseen, Yet Ever Near and we will be safe being
Near To The Heart Of God – Hymn 495.
Learning more on Sunday, we are able to be found
Leaning On The Everlasting Arms – Hymn 469 (if you have the pre-1985 hymnal Hymn 615 – Safe In The Arms of Jesus), knowing that
In Christ There Is No East Or West – Hymn 587 because
O God, Our Help – Hymn 103.
“Assurance of God’s Care” (Monday) is in
Hymn 99 – God Will Take Care of You and
Hymn 101 – Children Of The Heavenly Father all because we
Only Trust Him – Hymn 279. Our trust in God continues into Tuesday’s study time.
Our refuge is a very intimate one being “under the shadow of Your wings” (Wednesday):
Hymn 529 – Under His Wings.
Our Strong Deliverer is sung in verse 2 of
Hymn 538 – Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah, which also shows our Defender.
“The Sanctuary service represented the salvation found in Jesus” and we are reminded of this (particularly in verse 3) of
Hymn 100 – Great Is Thy Faithfulness just as is written in Psalm 143:2, 9-12) (Thursday) because “the sanctuary service represented the salvation found in Jesus”:
Hymn 646 – To The Name That Brings Salvation.
To learn unknown hymns, you will find the accompaniment music for each one at: https://sdahymnals.com/Hymnal/
Another great resource is for when there is a hymn you wish to sing but can’t find it in your hymnal. Go to https://www.sdahymnal.org/Search and in the search bar type a special word in that is in the hymn. I am sure you will be amazed at the help you will be given.
2 Timothy 2:15 KJV – “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
(0)The post 4: The Lord Hears and Delivers – Singing with Inspiration appeared first on Sabbath School Net.
Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/4-the-lord-hears-and-delivers-singing-with-inspiration/
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