Image © Pacific Press

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Mark 12:29-31, Deuteronomy 10:1-19, Psalm 146:5-10, Matthew 7:12, Deuteronomy 27:19, James 1:27-2:11.

Memory Text: “Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:19).

As we read last week, when asked by a scribe about “the first commandment of all” (Mark 12:28), Jesus answered by giving the affirmation of God as one, and then He said: “And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30).

However, Jesus continued, talking then about the “second, like it” (Mark 12:31), something that the scribe hadn’t asked about. Nevertheless, Jesus, knowing how important it was, said: “And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:31).

No commandment greater than these? Jesus linked love for God and love for one’s neighbor to each other as the two greatest commandments, and those commandments were the greatest of all.

Again, Jesus wasn’t coming up with something new, something that the Jews hadn’t heard before. Instead, the call to love Him supremely — the idea of loving one’s neighbor and of loving other people as a way to express our love for God was, yes, taken from the book of Deuteronomy.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, October 30.

Sunday–>

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p>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=/Ol-d4C-5Ajk]

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Power of a Book

By Kazuhiro Hiraga

Nine-year-old Saki loved to read on the Japanese island of Okinawa. She especially loved to read books sold to her family by a kind stranger who had knocked on their door. Again and again she read the set of five books, Uncle Arthur’s Bedtime Stories. Her favorite story was about a boy named Wilford and his Surprise Package Company. Wilford liked to surprise people with gifts. Saki felt happy imagining the joy of the people who received the gifts.

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The books also introduced Saki to Jesus. Her family was not Christian. Her parents, like many people in Japan, did not worship Jesus. In the books, she read that Jesus loves children and wants to make them happy.

Saki grew up and moved to Tokyo, the capital of Japan. She got married and became the mother of two little boys. Somewhere along the way she lost her favorite Bedtime Stories books.

When her eldest son was old enough, she began to look for a school for him. Near their home, she noticed a private school called Tokyo Saniku Elementary School. Curiously, she looked up the school on the Internet. She was surprised to learn that it was a Seventh-day Adventist school. She had never heard of Adventists, so she looked for more information online. To her surprise, she read that Adventists not only have many schools but they also publish many books for children, including her beloved Bedtime Stories. She knew that she wanted her son to study at the Adventist school.

But first she wanted to know more about the Adventist Church. An Adventist church was located on the property of the Adventist school, and she began to attend its Sabbath worship services. She felt great peace as she sang hymns and listened to sermons.

Saki got hold of a new set of Bedtime Stories and began to read them to her sons. The boys loved the stories. As Saki read to her boys, she began to read another Book on her own – the Holy Bible. Just as her son started the first grade, she joined a Bible study group at the school. Months later, she gave her heart to Jesus and was baptized.

Today, Saki Takahagi, 35, still reads Bedtime Stories to her young sons. She also shares the Bible with them. She loves the Bible, and she loves Jesus.

Saki learned about Jesus through the Bedtime Stories and later by searching for information on the Internet. Part of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will go to a project to help many Japanese people, especially young people, learn about Jesus through the Internet. Thank you for planning a generous offering.

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

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Further Thought:

“The cross of Christ will be the science and the song of the redeemed through all eternity. In Christ glorified they will behold Christ crucified. Never will it be forgotten that He whose power created and upheld the unnumbered worlds through the vast realms of space, the Beloved of God, the Majesty of heaven, He whom cherub and shining seraph delighted to adore — humbled Himself to uplift fallen man; that He bore the guilt and shame of sin, and the hiding of His Father’s face, till the woes of a lost world broke His heart and crushed out His life on Calvary’s cross.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

That the Maker of all worlds, the Arbiter of all destinies, should lay aside His glory and humiliate Himself from love to man will ever excite the wonder and adoration of the universe. As the nations of the saved look upon their Redeemer and behold the eternal glory of the Father shining in His countenance; as they behold His throne, which is from everlasting to everlasting, and know that His kingdom is to have no end, they break forth in rapturous song: ‘Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His own most precious blood!’” — Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, pages 651, 652.

Discussion Questions:

<–Thursday

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However much some Christians, for various reasons, seek to separate the Old Testament from the New, it can’t be done, at least not without all but denuding the New Testament of its true meaning. The New Testament, in its revelation of Jesus and its theological explanations of His life, death, resurrection, and High Priestly ministry, points to the fulfillment of many of the Old Testament prophecies and types. In many ways, the Old Testament forms the background, the context, the basis for the New. Both testaments reveal the goodness and love of God.

This is one reason why, over and over, the New Testament, including Jesus, quotes the Old.

Read Mark 12:28-30. What was the question asked about the “first commandment of all”? What does Jesus respond and from where does He get His answer?

Image © Kevin Carden at Goodsalt.com

It’s interesting that a scribe, someone who had dedicated his life to understanding the law and how it should be applied, would have asked this question. However, many laws they might have believed that they needed to obey (later Jewish tradition said that there were 613 laws), it’s not surprising that they would want it all distilled into one question.

And what does Jesus do?

He goes right to Deuteronomy 6, starting out with the “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one!” (Deuteronomy 6:4), and then quotes the next verse as well, about loving God with all your heart, soul, and strength. He pointed to the key affirmation of the Lord as their God, their only God, and based on that great truth, they are called to love Him supremely.

What could be more “present truth” than this command? In the very last days, when final events unfold and everyone will be called to choose one side or the other in a very dramatic way, the commandments of God (Revelation 14:12) will play a crucial role.

Ultimately, the side we choose, even in the face of persecution, will be based on whether or not we truly love God. That’s the deciding issue, and we can come to love God with all our heart and soul and might only as we come to know Him for ourselves and experience for ourselves His goodness, love, and grace. If need be, that’s something to die for.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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