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=BlvIOhpfuI4&w=560&h=315]
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Hernando Díaz stepped out of the hospital to rest in Medellin, Colombia. He had spent the past two hours with his young son, Samuel, as the boy’s blood was cleaned by a dialysis machine with an artificial kidney. His wife, Monica, was now sitting with the boy for the last two hours of hemodialysis.
Image © Pacific Press
Hernando collapsed onto a bench near a water fountain, and he turned on a sermon on his cellphone. Moments later, a stranger walked up and asked whether he could sit on the bench. Hernando nodded, listening to the sermon over the cell phone speaker. The stranger’s own cellphone rang.
“I’ve decided to kill myself,” the stranger angrily told the caller. “I haven’t been able to find work for two years, and I don’t want to live. Don’t call me.”
As he spoke, he seemed to forget Hernando on the bench. But when he hung up, he came back to reality. The sermon caught his attention.
“Is that a Christian preacher?” he asked.
“Yes, he is,” Hernando said. “I heard that you want to take your life.”
“Yes, that is what I want to do,” the man said. “I cannot bear it anymore.”
“I don’t think that it is a coincidence that you sat with me,” Hernando said. “You need help. Would you like help?”
“Yes, I would like help.”
“What do you do?”
“I’m an accountant, and I have a family that I can’t support.”
“If someone told you, “I can help you and supply your needs and give you hope for a better future,’ would you accept it?”
“Of course!”
Hernando spoke about Jesus, and the man gave his heart to Jesus on the spot. Hernando encouraged him to send out his resume with faith. The next day, Hernando sat on the same bench and saw the man looking for him.
“Guess what!” the man said. “Someone called with a job offer. I feel great!”
Hernando praised God and curiously asked who he had visited at the hospital the previous day. The man said he didn’t know anyone at the hospital. “Yesterday I felt an irresistible urge to come to the hospital,” he said. “I sat next to you because I didn’t know what to do.”
Hernando, a Seventh-day Adventist physician at the Adventist Medical Center on the campus of Colombia Adventist University in Medellin, has many similar stories. Over the past five years, more than 100 people have changed their minds about committing suicide after praying with him.
“They now are living normal lives,” he said.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.
Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org
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Read Ellen G. White, “Controversy,” pages 607, 608 in The Desire of Ages; and “The Law and the Covenants,” pages 363-373, in Patriarchs and Prophets.
How does Matthew 22:34-40 help us better understand 1. the place and meaning of God’s law within His covenant and 2. the concept that covenant is synonymous with relationship?
“There must first be love in the heart before a person can, in the strength and by the grace of Christ, begin to observe the precepts of God’s law (cf. Romans 8:3-4).
Image @ Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
Obedience without love is as impossible as it is worthless. But where love is present a person will automatically set out to order his life in harmony with the will of God as expressed in His commandments.” — The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p. 484.
“In the precepts of His holy law, God has given a perfect rule of life; and He has declared that until the close of time this law, unchanged in a single jot or tittle, is to maintain its claim upon human beings. Christ came to magnify the law and make it honorable. He showed that it is based upon the broad foundation of love to God and love to man, and that obedience to its precepts comprises the whole duty of man. In His own life He gave an example of obedience to the law of God. In the Sermon on the Mount He showed how its requirements extend beyond the outward acts and take cognizance of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” — Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 505.
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God’s law was an integral part of the covenant. Yet, it was a true covenant of grace. Grace, however, never nullifies the need for law. On the contrary, law is a means by which grace is manifested and expressed in the life of those who receive it.
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Image © Rolf Jansson from GoodSalt.com
God openly acknowledges Abraham’s faithful obedience to “my commandments, my statutes, and my laws” (Genesis 26:5). It is implied that God expected such a lifestyle from His human partner in the covenant. The full statement of the biblical covenant at Sinai makes it abundantly evident that conditions of obedience are one of the basic aspects of the covenant.
Exodus 19:5 made it clear, “if ye will obey … ” The conditional aspect of the covenant is undeniable; though bestowed by grace, though unearned, though a gift to them, the covenant promises were not unconditional. The people could reject the gift, deny the grace, and turn away from the promises. The covenant, as with salvation, never negates free will. The Lord does not force people into a saving relationship with Him; He doesn’t impose a covenant upon them. He freely offers it to everyone; everyone is invited to accept it. When he or she does, obligations follow, not as a means of earning the covenant blessing but as an outward manifestation of having received the covenant blessings. Israel should obey, not in order to earn the promises but that the promises could be fulfilled in her. Her obedience was an expression of what it is like to be blessed by the Lord. Obedience does not earn the blessings, in that God is obligated to bring them; obedience, instead, creates an environment where the blessing of faith can be made manifest.
| “Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess” (Deuteronomy 5:33). Is the Lord saying here to Israel that if they obey they will earn these blessings, that these blessings are what the people are owed? Or is He saying: If you obey, these blessings can result because obedience opens the way for Me to be able to bring the blessings upon you? What is the difference between the two ideas? |
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This video is produced by the South Pacific Division Discipleship team.
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Week 8_ Covenant Law_ study this lesson for May 22 from SPD Discipleship on Vimeo.
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Intercer is a website with biblical materials in Romanian, English, Hungarian and other languages. We want to bring the light from God's Word to peoples homes. Intercer provides quality Christian resources...[Read More]
