Closer To Heaven
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Support for the mission activities of the Seventh-day Adventist church has always been part of the Sabbath School program. This video is Mission Spotlight for this week.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASFFED3j_Dc&w=560&h=315]
(0)The post Mission Spotlight for December 3 first appeared on Sabbath School Net.
The post Mission Spotlight for December 3 appeared first on Sabbath School Net.
Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/mission-spotlight-for-december-3/
People came in a seemingly constant procession to look pityingly on 2-year-old Akurious in the hospital in Katima Mulilo, Namibia. The boy had been ill for months, and the people wept as they saw his terrible pain.
Image © Pacific Press
“The hospital is failing us,” one told Akurious’ parents. “You should consult with the witchdoctor.” “God will understand,” said another. “Just do it.”
After the last visitor left, Father turned to Mother. “What should we do?” he said. “Maybe the people are right. Jesus will understand.”
Mother couldn’t bear to see her only child in pain. She agreed.
The witchdoctor declared that witches had cast an evil spell on the boy and that he would recover with traditional medicine. The parents bought the witch doctor’s medicine and gave some to the boy daily. But the more medicine they gave, the worse he got. Father began to pray earnestly. “Lord Jesus, I know I’ve made a mistake,” he said. “I departed from Your saving grace. Speak to me, Lord, for the sake of my child. You healed lepers and made the blind to see and the lame to walk. Do that for my child, too.”
A short time later, Father had a dream. As he slept, he heard a voice call him by his name, Modesty. “Modesty! Modesty! Modesty!” the voice said. “This is My child. Why have you tainted him with evil spirits? I don’t want you to be involved with any witchdoctors if you want him to live.”
Shaken, Father got up and threw away the traditional medicine. He remembered hearing a Seventh-day Adventist physician give health presentations at camp meeting, and he took the boy to him. The physician diagnosed Akurious with pneumonia and tuberculosis and sent him to a hospital where he could treat him. Father continued to pray, and Mother joined him. They placed their full trust in Jesus. Akurious (pictured) now is 22.
Akurious’ parents, Modesty and Rebecca Kakula, went on to have four children. But with the birth of each child, they refused to take part in the traditional ceremony that townspeople hold for newborns. Instead, they took their babies to the Seventh-day Adventist Church to be dedicated to Jesus.
Dear reader, pray for people who sincerely accept Jesus but struggle to forsake traditions fully. These people end up with two levels of religion: a theoretical religion based on the Bible and a practical religion grounded in culture. They embrace Bible teachings but, when faced with real-life challenges, revert to tradition. Seventh-day Adventist missionaries seek to contextualize the gospel to facilitate personal Christian growth among these people and to help them realize that traditional practices don’t work. Thank you for your mission offerings that help spread a contextualized gospel around the world.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org
(0)The post Inside Story: Modesty! Modesty! Modesty! first appeared on Sabbath School Net.
The post Inside Story: Modesty! Modesty! Modesty! appeared first on Sabbath School Net.
Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/inside-story-modesty-modesty-modesty/
Further Thought: Read Ellen G. White, “The First Great Deception,” Pages 531-550; “Can Our Dead Speak to Us?” Pages 551-562, in The Great Controversy.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
“Upon the fundamental error of natural immortality rests the doctrine of consciousness in death — a doctrine, like eternal torment, opposed to the teachings of the Scriptures, to the dictates of reason, and to our feelings of humanity. According to the popular belief, the redeemed in heaven are acquainted with all that takes place on the earth and especially with the lives of the friends whom they have left behind. But how could it be a source of happiness to the dead to know the troubles of the living, to witness the sins committed by their own loved ones, and to see them enduring all the sorrows, disappointments, and anguish of life? How much of heaven’s bliss would be enjoyed by those who were hovering over their friends on earth? And how utterly revolting is the belief that as soon as the breath leaves the body the soul of the impenitent is consigned to the flames of hell! To what depths of anguish must those be plunged who see their friends passing to the grave unprepared, to enter upon an eternity of woe and sin!” — Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 545.
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(0)The post Friday: Further Thought ~ The Fires of Hell first appeared on Sabbath School Net.
The post Friday: Further Thought ~ The Fires of Hell appeared first on Sabbath School Net.
Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/friday-further-thought-fires-of-hell/
The biblical doctrine of conditional immortality of the human being — in contrast to the nonbiblical theory of the natural immortality of the soul — is made explicit in 1 John 5:11-12. To grasp the meaning of this significant passage, we have to remember that only the Godhead “has immortality” (1 Timothy 6:15-16, , NKJV) and is the only Source of life (Psalm 36:9, Colossians 1:15-17, Hebrews 1:2).
Image © Lars Justinen at Goodsalt.com
When sin entered the world through the fall of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:1-24), they and all their descendants (including us) came under the curse of physical death and lost the gift of eternal life. But our loving God implemented the plan of salvation for human beings to regain eternal life, the life that was to have been theirs from the start. As Paul wrote: “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Ephesians 1:4, NKJV).
The apostle Paul explains that “just as through one man [Adam] sin entered the world, and death through sin,” so through “the one Man, Jesus Christ,” the gracious gift of eternal life became available to all human beings (Romans 5:12-21, NKJV). Paul here is making an unambiguous reference to a literal Adam who brought sin and death into this world. One cannot make sense of anything in the Bible without a literal Adam who, through transgression, brought sin and death into our world.
Thus, the apostle John adds, “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11-12, , NRSV).
The whole picture becomes clearer in light of Jesus’ statements: “Everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day” (John 6:40, NIV), and “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live” (John 11:25, NRSV).
This means that eternal life is a gift of God through Christ, which is secured at the present but fully enjoyed only after the final resurrection of the righteous. The conclusion is very simple: if everlasting life is granted only to those who are in Christ, then those who are not in Him do not have everlasting life (1 John 5:11-12). By contrast, the theory of the natural immortality of the soul grants everlasting life — whether in paradise or in hell — to all human beings, even to those who are not in Christ. However popular this teaching, it is not biblical.
(0)The post Thursday: The Biblical View first appeared on Sabbath School Net.
The post Thursday: The Biblical View appeared first on Sabbath School Net.
Join It Is Written Sabbath School host Eric Flickinger and this quarter’s author, Dr. Alberto Timm, as they provide additional insights into this week’s Sabbath School lesson, “Resurrections before the Cross.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tE7uO2a3rA&w=560&h=315]
(0)The post 10: The Fires of Hell – It is Written – Discussions with the Author first appeared on Sabbath School Net.
The post 10: The Fires of Hell – It is Written – Discussions with the Author appeared first on Sabbath School Net.
Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/10-the-fires-of-hell-it-is-written-discussions-with-the-author/
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