Closer To Heaven
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Our Sabbath School program has always been linked to the support of the Seventh-day Adventist Mission program. This video provides a little insight into this important work.
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(2)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/mission-spotlight-for-may-24/
Inside Story for Friday 23rd of May 2025
By Andrew McChesney
Diana’s thoughts returned to God after the calming voice stopped her from committing suicide. That Sunday, she took her three children to a small church in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They sat in the pew until the church musicians began to play. She didn’t like the music she heard coming from the platform. It reminded her of a bad part of her life. She walked out of the church with her children.
Diana’s life seemed to go from bad to worse. Thieves broke into her apartment and took what little she had. She became pregnant by her abusive boyfriend, and his only response was, “I’ll pay for the abortion.” One night, after the children were asleep in bed, she sat in the dark in her living room, filled with shame and self-hatred. She cried out in anger to God, “Is this what You saved me for?” The anger turned to sobbing as she remembered her years of struggles. “Jesus,” she pleaded, “I need You.” Instantly, she felt an intense rush of energy fill her. The room was pitch-black, but it seemed to be filled with light. It was as if she were being hugged by God from heaven. An overwhelming sense of joy, peace, and love filled her whole being. Shortly after, she fell into a deep, peaceful sleep. In the morning, the intense feelings were gone, but she sensed something was different.
A few months later, she met a strange and peculiar person. Loren Fish was a fourth-generation Seventh-day Adventist. His father was a pastor and church planter. But during Loren’s first year of college, he had wandered away from God, started drinking, and eventually dropped out. He met Diana at a dance club in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and he asked her for a ride home. Diana found the stranger annoying, but she gave him a ride. After that, Loren wouldn’t leave her alone. He found out where she worked and visited her there. Diana wasn’t interested in getting into another relationship. She hadn’t left the bad one that she was in. Moreover, Loren was four and a half years younger, and he seemed naïve and immature. In truth, she didn’t want him to know what a mess she was and didn’t want to get hurt again. So, she pushed him away. Loren left Santa Fe and settled down near Chicago.
Then one night, Loren called after Diana’s boyfriend turned violent, slashing her car tires and attacking her in the parking lot of the newspaper where they both worked. Diana was happy to hear his voice, and she remembered feeling safe with him. “You can come visit me any time you want,” she told him. Loren arrived that weekend, and he never left.
This mission story offers an inside look at how God miraculously worked in the life of Diana Fish, development director of the US-based Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School, which received the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering in 2021. Thank you for supporting the spread of the gospel with this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering on June 28. Read more about Diana next week.
(0)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-08-inside-story-part-4-ex-adventist-boyfriend/
Daily Lesson for Friday 23rd of May 2025
Further Thought: “The psalms of David pass through the whole range of experience, from the depths of conscious guilt and self-condemnation to the loftiest faith and the most exalted communing with God.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
His life record declares that sin can bring only shame and woe, but that God’s love and mercy can reach to the deepest depths, that faith will lift up the repenting soul to share the adoption of the sons of God. Of all the assurances which His word contains, it is one of the strongest testimonies to the faithfulness, the justice, and the covenant mercy of God. . . .
“ ‘I have sworn unto David My servant . . . with whom My hand shall be established: Mine arm also shall strengthen him. . . . My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him: and in My name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto Me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation. Also I will make him My first-born, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and My covenant shall stand fast with him.’ Psalms 89:3-28.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, Pages 754, 755.
Discussion Questions
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(1)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-08-further-thought-in-the-psalms-part-1/
Daily Lesson for Thursday 22nd of May 2025
After the Lord had appeared to Isaiah in the throne room scene of Isaiah 6:1-8, and after Isaiah had been told that his “iniquity is taken away” and his “sin purged,” he then answered God’s call by saying, “ ‘Here am I! Send me’ ” (Isaiah 6:8, NKJV). That is, once he knew that he was right with God, and despite knowing his faults, he was ready to work for the Lord.
Is it not the same with us? How can we proclaim salvation to others if we don’t have it ourselves? And we can have it, by faith in Jesus and what He has done for us.
Image © Educational Concepts Collection at Goodsalt.com
To be called into God’s presence is, ultimately, to be sent back out. In His wisdom, God has commissioned the redeemed to serve as His primary voice to a fallen world. At some point, the impact of His people on earth is going to be powerfully felt. Revelation 18:1 tells us that His final plea with the fallen planet will illuminate the whole world.
“No sooner does one come to Christ than there is born in his heart a desire to make known to others what a precious friend he has found in Jesus; the saving and sanctifying truth cannot be shut up in his heart. If we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ and are filled with the joy of His indwelling Spirit, we shall not be able to hold our peace. If we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good we shall have something to tell. Like Philip when he found the Saviour, we shall invite others into His presence.”—Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, p. 78.
In Revelation 14:1-20, the three angels’ messages are founded on the “everlasting gospel” (Revelation 14:6). That is, even before the proclamations go out about worshiping the one “ ‘who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water’ ” (Revelation 14:7, NKJV) or about the fall of Babylon (Revelation 14:8) or about worshiping the “beast and his image” (Revelation 14:9), the foundation of the gospel, of salvation in Jesus, is proclaimed. And that is because the warnings and messages of the three angels mean nothing apart from the hope and promise that those who proclaim these messages have in Jesus and what He has done for them. Apart from the “everlasting gospel,” we really have nothing of any value to say to the world.
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Dwell more on the fact that, even before the proclamation of the three angels’ messages begins, we are pointed to the “everlasting gospel.” What should this tell us about how foundational this truth is to all that we believe? |
(0)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-08-teach-transgressors-your-way/
Join the Hit the Mark panel as they discuss Sabbath School Lesson 8 – In the Psalms: Part 1. It’s the fastest hour of the week!
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(1)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/in-the-psalms-part-1-hit-the-mark-sabbath-school/
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