Bike and Bible, Part 2

By M.B., as told to Kathie Lichtenwalter

My wife and I had saved money for many, many months to buy a bicycle for Hussein, the security guard for the building where we live as missionaries in the Middle East. God answered our prayers and helped us to buy a bicycle. As we inspected the answer to our prayers, we wondered out loud to each other, “What if we give Hussein a Bible with the bicycle?”

Image © Pacific Press

We wrote a card and wrapped a Bible that we had bought many months earlier. We prayed for the best moment to present him with the gifts. I carefully planned what to say. I knew that the bicycle would be meaningful. I hoped that the Bible would be a sensitive step toward sharing truth.

Hussein was overwhelmed with emotion when we arrived at his door with the bicycle. The bicycle looked impressive! But I never expected the expression on his face as he gently held the Bible and carefully turned its pages. He was in awe. He was delighted. But I don’t know who was happier – him or me. After two years of friendship, I was finally giving my friend and brother a Bible, the gift I had prayed about the most! My joy was indescribable.

A few days later, Hussein invited me to his home for tea. When I arrived, I found him reading Genesis. His eyes sparkled. He explained that he had never read the Creation story before. I knew we had much to talk about, and I prayed for the Holy Spirit to give me the right words. That evening, we spoke of heaven and death. I showed Hussein some beautiful verses in his new Bible. As we spoke, Hussein kept quietly leafing through the pages of the Bible. He seemed so engrossed with the Bible that I sensed God urging me to offer to study the Bible with him. I heard myself giving that wonderful invitation, “Would you like to study the Bible together?” To my astonishment, he accepted – and with great eagerness. That week, we began our Bible studies. That week, God continued His amazing work, and He is still working. Hussein and I are both growing closer to God and to each other.

My heart is filled with thanksgiving to God. I am filled with awe by the privilege of sharing God with Hussein. I am thankful to my wife for her kind and faith-filled support. I am thankful to relatives in my homeland who have prayed with us for Hussein. I am thankful for believing friends who have prayed for us during this experience. I thank God for sending us the money to buy the bicycle and for giving us the courage to share His Word with someone who is thrilled to learn about God from a new perspective.

Thank you for your mission offerings that help spread the gospel in the Middle East and around the world.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

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Further Thought:

 “‘Babylon the great’ in the book of Revelation designates in a special sense, the united apostate religions at the close of time. … ‘Babylon the great’ is the name by which Inspiration refers to the great threefold religious union of the papacy, apostate Protestantism, and spiritism.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

… The term ‘Babylon’ refers to the organizations themselves and to their leaders, not so much to the members as such. The latter are referred to as ‘many waters.’ (Revelation 17:1, Revelation 17:15).” — The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, Pages 851, 852.

“Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome.” — Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 588.

In the Old Testament, the spirits of the dead played a major part in Babylonian religion. The Babylonians had a strong belief in the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. They believed at death the soul entered the spirit world. The concept of the immortal soul is foreign to the teachings of Scripture. The Jewish Encyclopedia clearly identifies the origin of the false idea of the immortality of the soul. “The belief that the soul continues its existence after the dissolution of the body is … nowhere expressly taught in Holy Scripture. … The belief in the immortality of the soul came to the Jews from contact with Greek thought and chiefly through the philosophy of Plato, its principal exponent, who was led to it through Orphic and Eleusinian mysteries in which Babylonian and Egyptian views were strangely blended.” — Kaufmann Kohler, The Jewish Encyclopedia, “Immortality of the Soul,” (1906).

Discussion Questions:

<–Thursday

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Key Thought : The inhabitants of th earth will drink the wine of Babylon. These are false teachings and doctrines that lead to death. The three angels’ messages keep us from these deceptions.
June 3, 2023

1. Have a volunteer read Revelation 16:13,14. Revelation 18:2,23.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. Who is deceived by Satan? How do we understand these words?
3. Personal Application: What can we learn from people doing evil things thinking they were doing right for God? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “What difference does it make whether we believe the dead are sleeping in the grave or in heaven in the spirit? Either way, God is coming to get us and we will be saved. There is too much evidence that the spirit leaves the body at death.” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Ezekiel 8:16, 2 Kings 23:5,11.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What clear instructions did God give us about life and death in the Scriptures?
3. Personal Application: What examples of modern spiritualism exist in your culture today? How can we keep from being led astray by this influence? Share your thoughts
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “Everybody goes to church on Sunday. Christianity is under attack from everyone. Do you think God would reject Christians just because they go to church on the day of Christ’s resurrection? We are saved by grace not by obedience. God died on the cross for us. We are saved.” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Ezekiel 20:1-20.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What is the message here and how does the Sabbath fit in with this call to righteousness?
3. Personal Application: Is it possible that we could be on the slippery slope of compromise in our lives? What might these compromises be? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “Do you think your church is pure and following all the counsel of God, or have they compromised or are compromising their faith?” How would you respond to your relative?

4. Have a volunteer read Revelation 18:4,5..

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What is God’s appeal to multitudes still in fallen organizations?
3. Personal Application: What if our emotions point one way and the Scriptures point another way? What role does emotion play in our religious experience? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

(Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared.”Ministry of Healing, p. 148).

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The woman in scarlet and purple, riding on the scarlet covered beast, has passed around her wine cup, and the world is drunk with Babylon’s false doctrines. Speaking of the “wine of Babylon,” Ellen G. White makes this clear comment: “What is that wine? Her false doctrines. She has given to the world a false Sabbath instead of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and has repeated the falsehood that Satan first told to Eve in Eden, — the natural immortality of the soul.” — Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, Dec. 6, 1892. These erroneous teachings have deceived millions. As a result, God is giving His people, still entrenched in error, a final last-day appeal.

Read Revelation 18:4-5. What is God’s appeal to multitudes still in fallen religious organizations?

Image © Review & Herald Publishing at Goodsalt.com

As we already have seen (but worth repeating), many of God’s people are in religious organizations that have compromised biblical teachings. They do not understand the truths of Scripture. God’s loving appeal is straightforward: “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4, NKJV).

Read 1 John 3:4 and compare it to Romans 14:23. How does the Bible define sin? How do these Bible passages harmonize?

Sin is the transgression or the breaking of God’s law. The only way anybody can obey the law is through faith in the power of the living Christ. We are weak, frail, faltering, sinful human beings. By faith when we accept Christ, His grace atones for our past and empowers our present. He gives us “grace and apostleship for obedience” (Romans 1:5, NKJV). Heaven’s appeal to His people in churches that do not respect and obey the law of God is to step out by faith. His appeal to Adventists in Sabbath keeping congregations is to forsake all self-centered, human attempts at obedience and live godly lives by faith in the grace of Christ, which delivers us from sin’s condemnation and sin’s domination. And just as Israel’s faithfulness to the law (Deuteronomy 4:6) would have been a powerful witness to the world, our faithfulness, too, can be a powerful witness and help guide people out of Babylon.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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Join It Is Written Sabbath School host Eric Flickinger and this quarter’s author, Mark Finley, as they provide additional insights into this week’s Sabbath School lesson
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gaJluaIjMA&w=560&h=315]

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