Daily Lesson for Sunday 15th of October 2023

In order to reach others, God intends for us to move beyond our comfort zone. The desire to remain only with our own ilk and ethnic or social kind can lead to selfishness, even evil. This danger is one of the lessons derived from the story of Babel.

Image © Lifeway Collection at Goodsalt.com

This story of the people at the Tower of Babel reveals their great ambition. They were planning to make a monumental structure—a city and a tower such as existed nowhere else in the world: “a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves” (Genesis 11:4, NIV).

How often today do people seek to do the same? Whether through politics, art, business, even religion, it doesn’t matter. There are those who want to make a great name for themselves. In the end, how futile and meaningless their endeavors are. (See Ecclesiastes 2:1-11.)

The Bible says in Genesis 11:4 that these people wanted to build the tower so that they would avoid being scattered over the face of the earth. They wanted to stick together for their own selfish reasons. But God had another plan.

These people were also united for this work. But “the Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them’ ” (Genesis 11:6, NIV). This ambitious plan of the people was, in fact, evil.

Though Scripture does not say it explicitly, Ellen White says that they didn’t trust God’s promise that He would never destroy the earth with water again (Genesis 9:14-15). They intended to build for their own perceived safety rather than to trust God’s Word. Whatever their ultimate motives, God knew that their intentions were not pure but were filled with selfish ambition, and so He prevented them from achieving their stated goals.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/23d-03-moving-beyond-our-comfort-zone/

By Andrew McChesney

Eight months passed after the miraculous answer to prayer, and Seventh-day Adventist church members visited Father for a second time on a Sabbath in Conakry, Guinea. Fifteen people arrived with Father’s sons, Junior and Emilie, who attended an Adventist school on the church compound.“ We are here to pray,” a church elder said.

Father appreciated the gesture, but he had a question. “Why do all other Christians go to church on Sunday but you worship on Saturday?” he asked.

The elder invited Father to open his Bible to Exodus 20:8-10. Father read, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God” (NKJV).

But Father was unconvinced. “The seventh day is Sunday,” he said.

The elder asked him to turn to Matthew 28:1. Father read, “Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.” Father saw that the seventh day of the Bible was Saturday. “I understand,” he said. “Let’s pray.”

After the church group left, Father showed the verses to Mother. She was unmoved. “No, we will stay in our church,” she said. “I don’t care what they said. And even if our children go to their church, I won’t leave my church.”

Father suggested a time of prayer and fasting. “These questions started when our children began to attend that school,” he said. “We sent our children there to be educated. We don’t know whether God sent our children to that church to lead us there. If this is the church of Jesus, let Jesus show us.”

Father and Mother prayed and fasted for a week. “If this is Your will, let nothing prevent us from going to church next Sabbath,” Father prayed.

The next Sabbath, everything unfolded easily. Mother agreed to go to the Adventist church, and church members warmly welcomed them. Father was incredibly happy afterward. He felt like a burden had been lifted. He hadn’t been faithful in prayer before, but now he found the energy to pray regularly.

As he prayed, God answered, and his life changed. His work flourished. He began to get along with his parents and siblings. An older brother even named a child after him. He and Mother gave their hearts to Jesus in baptism.

“I have peace,” said Father, whose name is Pepe Voctorien Soropogui (pictured with his wife, Tido Grace Haba). “Jesus’ hand is in this church, and I thank God for bringing me here.”

Thank you for your Thirteenth Sabbath Offering three years ago that helped the Adventist Maranatha School expand into new buildings in Conakry, Guinea, in the West-Central Africa Division (WAD). Your Thirteenth Sabbath Offering this quarter will again help spread the gospel in WAD.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/inside-story-two-boys-two-prayers-part-2/

Daily Lesson for Saturday 14th of October 2023

Image © Pacific Press

Read for This Week’s Study

Genesis 11:1-9, Genesis 12:1-20:1-3, Daniel 9:24-27, Matthew 1:21, Genesis 12:1-20:10-20; Genesis 13:1, Acts 8:1-4, Acts 1:8.

Memory Text:

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8, NKJV).

God can sometimes move us out of our comfort zone and make us His witnesses. Sometimes this change can be used to accomplish His purposes, such as in the example of the dispersing of the people at the Tower of Babel. “This dispersion was the means of peopling the earth, and thus the Lord’s purpose was accomplished through the very means that men had employed to prevent its ­fulfillment.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 120. Abraham, meanwhile, went from his home country to another (Genesis 12:1-20) as a means of witness. The disciples of Jesus went from working among only their own people (Acts 3:1-26) to working for others, as well (Acts 8:1-4). In Acts 1:8, Jesus laid down a principle of evangelism: they would start locally, Jerusalem and Judea, then go to Samaria and, ultimately, to the ends of the earth.

But even if we do not leave our country, God still wants us to reach out to the people around us. When the church in Jerusalem was becoming complacent, its members were dispersed. Though persecution came and people suffered, these unfortunate events became a means of spreading the good news all over the world.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, October 21.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/23d-03-gods-call-to-mission/

The Mission program of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is an opportunity for us to understand the needs of others and share in supporting them. Please click on the image below to watch the Mission Spotlight presentation for this week: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2O_xEfR7Tk?si=GZ5YUAbe5vvn2572]

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/mission-spotlight-for-october-14/

Daily Lesson for Friday 13th of October 2023

For a witness unto all nations. “The Saviour’s words, ‘Ye are the light of the world,’ point to the fact that he has committed to his followers a world-wide mission. As the rays of the sun penetrate to the remotest corners of the globe, so God designs that the light of the gospel shall extend to every soul upon the earth. If the church of Christ were fulfilling the purpose of our Lord, light would be shed upon all that sit in darkness and in the region and shadow of death; instead of congregating together and shunning responsibility and cross-bearing, the members of the church would scatter into all lands, letting the light of Christ shine out from them, working as he did for the salvation of souls, and this ‘gospel of the kingdom’ would speedily be carried to all the world.

“From all countries the Macedonian call is sounding, ‘Come over and help us.’ God has opened fields before us. Heavenly beings have been cooperating with men. Providence is going before us, and divine power is working with human effort. Blind indeed must be the eyes that do not see the working of the Lord, and deaf the ears that do not hear the call of the true Shepherd to his sheep. Some have heard the call of God, and have responded. Let every sanctified heart now respond, by seeking to proclaim the life-giving message. If men and women in humility and faithfulness will take up their God-given, appointed work, divine power will be revealed in the conversion of many to the truth. Wonderful will be the results of their efforts.”—Ellen G. White, Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, November 14, 1912.

Discussion Questions

1. The credibility of the church’s influence in the community is determined mainly by the extent that we—the body of Christ—exemplify in our own lives God’s love in the fulfillment of His mission. How do you, personally, respond to this challenge?
   
   
2. How do you think your church is seen and understood by its non-Adventist neighbors? How do you know? If the perception is positive, what can you do to strengthen it more? If it is negative, what can you do to change it?
   
   
3. Why is keeping the “eternal gospel” as the center of our mission to the world so important? What ultimate hope can we pre­sent to anyone, anywhere, that is not centered on the great hope we have because of the gospel, the good news of what Jesus has done for us at the cross?
   
   

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/23d-02-further-thought/