Message Received

By Youngsuk Chae

Kim Hye-sun is a devout Christian in South Korea. She yearned for God and wanted to know more about His Word. So she joined a Bible study with friends but didn’t understand the discussion. She soon stopped attending.

Image © Pacific Press

Hye-sun usually drives a car, but one day she felt like taking the bus. As she waited at the bus stop in front of her house, she overheard two women talking enthusiastically. “Read this message!” one woman said, holding out her cellphone. “Someone sends me a message every day, and I love them!”

“Really?” the other woman said. “Let me see.”

Hye-sun found herself drawn to the women. “Can I see it, too?” she asked. She didn’t usually talk to strangers, but she was curious.

On the cellphone, she read, “‘God is love’ is written upon every opening bud, upon every spire of springing grass. The lovely birds making the air vocal with their happy songs, the delicately tinted flowers in their perfection perfuming the air, the lofty trees of the forest with their rich foliage of living green — all testify to the tender, fatherly care of our God and to His desire to make His children happy” (Steps to Christ, p. 10).

“Wow!” Hye-sun thought, “This is what I need!”

She asked how she could receive the text messages. The woman with the cellphone promised to help. Soon she began receiving daily messages, and she expressed her gratitude by replying to each one. On Sundays, she texted back, “Have a good Lord’s day!” After some time, at her texted request for more information, she received The Great Controversy and other books in the mail. She has stopped sending Sunday greetings but continues to express joy for the messages and is reading the books that she has received.

The text messages come from Lim Myung-Sook, a Seventh-day Adventist deaconess who sends Ellen White quotations daily to about 2,500 people, including leaders from other denominations. Myung-Sook is praying that Hye-sun and others who read the messages will grow closer to Jesus. “I don’t know how many people read these messages and how the messages are making a difference in their lives,” she said. “I am just a sower. But I believe God will make the seed grow and reap its fruits.”

This mission story illustrates Mission Objective No. 1 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s “I Will Go” strategic plan: “To revive the concept of worldwide mission and sacrifice for mission as a way of life involving not only pastors but every church member.” Learn more at IWillGo2020.org. This quarter, your Thirteenth Sabbath offering will support two mission projects in South Korea.

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

Amen!(0)

The post Inside Story: South Korea ~ Message Received appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SabbathSchoolNet/~3/HtxxaRYPOfc/

Further Thought:

It is hard to imagine how even in the best of times, such as under David and Solomon, the nation of Israel could have been so blessed by God and yet could have so oppressed the poor, the helpless, and the outcasts among them.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

“Therefore, because you tread down the poor
and take grain taxes from him,
though you have built houses of hewn stone,
yet you shall not dwell in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards,
but you shall not drink wine from them.
For I know your manifold transgressions
and your mighty sins:
Afflicting the just and taking bribes;
Diverting the poor from justice at the gate.” ( Amos 5.11-12, NKJV).

“The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders of His people
and His princes:
‘for you have eaten up the vineyard;
the plunder of the poor is in your houses’” (Isaiah 3:14).

Discussion Questions:

<–Thursday

Amen!(0)

The post Friday: Further Thought ~ The Stranger in Your Gates appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SabbathSchoolNet/~3/laUpOVq3pAg/

Key Thought: Israel was by their kind treatment of the marginalized to be a powerful witness to their God and of their faith.
October 30, 2021

1. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 10:1-11..

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What here shows that God forgave their sins and reaffirmed His covenant promise?
3. Personal Application: As you look at you response to the Bible standards and the Spirit of Prophecy writings on Christian living and behavior, do you consider your self coicrcumcised in the heart oir stiff necked? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “What is the meaning of the images God uses here in circumcision, the heart, and the stiff-necked?” How would you respond to your friend?

2. Have a volunteer read Psalm 146:5-10..

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What is God saying here and what does it mean to us as Christians today?
3. Personal Application: Are we guilty of oppressing people, treating others badly, not giving or fighting for justice? Can we be guilty by not being involved? Share your thoughts
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “I don’t see how God is protecting the weak, feeding the hungry, and healing the sick or freeing the oppressed. It looks like all these things are just getting worse all over the world.” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 1:16; 16:19; 24:17..

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
2. What does it mean not to pervert justice or judgment for the stranger, fatherless, widow, or poor?
3. Personal Application: Have you ever experienced what you perceived as injustice because of who you are? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states: “I think all Christians should be actively involved in promoting and insuring human rights, not only here, but in every country. The rights of women, gays, illegal immigrants, prisoners, all the oppressed should be supported.“ How would you respond to your relative?

4. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 24:10-15.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What does this tell us about borrowing and lending and helping the poor?
3. Personal Application: Are people today more concerned with money and things rather than with people? 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).

Amen!(1)

The post 5: The Stranger in Your Gates – Teaching Plan appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SabbathSchoolNet/~3/oK5o_88NMLU/

Read Deuteronomy 24:10-15. What important principles are being expressed here regarding how we are to treat those who are under our control?

Again, we see the Lord’s concern for basic human dignity. Yes, someone owes you something, and it’s time to collect — but show the person a bit of respect, a bit of dignity, will you? Don’t go barging into his place and demand it. Instead, wait outside and let him come and give it to you.  Deuteronomy 24.12-13 seem to say that if some poor soul gave you his garment as “collateral,” you need at least to let him sleep in it overnight. The other verses deal with how one treats the poor who work for him or her, who can be so easily oppressed.

Image © Kevin Carden at Goodsalt.com

Don’t oppress them, because in the eyes of God it is a sin, and surely a grievous one too. Again, if Israel were to be a witness, a holy people walking in truth amid a world steeped in error, idolatry, evil, and sin, surely they would have to be kind to the weakest and most marginalized among them. Otherwise, their witness would be nothing.

Read James 1:27-2:11. What is James saying here that reflects what the Lord was telling His people in Deuteronomy? What significance is there in the fact that in these verses James links mistreatment of the poor with the Ten Commandments?

Though nothing in the Ten Commandments themselves directly relates to showing partiality to the rich over the poor, sternly adhering to the letter of the law while at the same time mistreating the poor or needy makes a mockery of one’s profession of faith and any claim to keep the commandments. Loving your neighbor as yourself is the highest expression of God’s law — and this is present truth now as much as it was in the time of James, and as it was when Moses spoke to Israel on the borders of the Holy Land.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

Amen!(0)

The post Thursday: Pure Religion Before God appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SabbathSchoolNet/~3/YV6dm72Eiuc/

You can view an in-depth discussion of The Stranger in Your Gates in the Hope Sabbath School class led by Pastor Derek Morris. Click on the image to view:

With thanks to Hope Channel – Television that will change your life.

Amen!(0)

The post 5: The Stranger in Your Gates – HopeSS Video Discussion appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SabbathSchoolNet/~3/7ilWQc7w3HA/