…people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8 NLT

in 1972, the Statler Brothers released the song, “The class of ’57 Had Its Dreams.” The song talks abut how their high school class had their dreams and then goes on to describe how each class member “today” has turned out to just be working regular jobs and living an “everyday” life. After describing various class members everyday life the chorus rings,” but the class of ’57 had their dreams.” The point of the song is that their dreams never came true. They just turned out to be ordinary people living ordinary lives.

Image © Pacific Press from GoodSalt.com

This has me wondering, am I the only one who is living the dream, just enjoying everyday life?  My life is very routine. I am your everyday Bible Worker, except that I am the only Bible Worker I know who has never had a baptism by just going door to door, and believe me I have tried. I read stories about evangelists having interesting life-changing visits with the person seated next to them on the plane. I fly on a plane and no one knows I am there, until I accidentally push the stewardess call button while turning on the light. I duck into a quiet restaurant for an appetizer with a couple of close friends and I am just another face in the crowd. No one sees anything out of the ordinary about me, because there isn’t anything special about me. 

I drive a Hyundai. My home is very modest, the kind you overlook. If I want to take a vacation from my church responsibilities, it is easy to find a nearby church where nobody knows my name. I am just an average guy living an average life, and you know what? I love it! I love my everyday life! I love my everyday routine! I love being an average everyday guy living an average everyday life. This is my dream! I enjoy my one-on-one Bible studies. I enjoy my quiet friends at the neighborhood restaurant. I enjoy reading at home alone late in the evening, just my iced water with a hint of orange juice, and  soft background music, as I bask in my solitude and anonymity. 

Is it okay that I don’t have more ambition and loftier dreams? I don’t suppose I would be the dream son-in-law for an ambitious father. That’s okay. I know I am fulfilling my purpose in life by simply doing what I know is right – the best I can at least – being merciful to those in my community, and walking humbly with my God. There! That is my ambition in life – to walk humbly with my God! No wonder I feel so fulfilled while living such an ordinary everyday life. I am sorry the class of ’57 does not realize they are living the dream! Everyday ordinary life is the dream! God does not call upon us to do anything “great.” He only requires that we walk humbly with Him. 

One night earlier this summer, I went with my men’s small study group to a baseball game. We didn’t have a suite. We sat in the grandstands like everybody else and spilled nacho cheese on our shirts, as we enjoyed being just another face in the crowd. We enjoyed each others’ company on the drive home, as we studied the small study group lesson via our cell phones. The driver listened as he watched the road. They dropped me off at my humble home, where I went inside to enjoy my late-night reading in anonymity and solitude. While reading on my laptop I saw an email. It was from a student I had a long time ago in my Bible chain-referencing class at school. She is all grown up now and doing well. In the email she asked if she could call me to ask a Bible question. A couple of seconds later we were talking on the phone. After all these years, she said she thought to call me, because in her words, I was one of the greatest influences on her life and why she is a Christian today.

When I hung up the phone, I sat there in my humble little chair in my humble little home, marinading in the recent conversation. Sure, to the usher that night who showed us to our seats and to the stranger sitting next to me, on whose jeans I accidentally spilled cheese sauce, I was a total nobody, If I was anything at all to them I was a minor nuisance and nothing more. But to one young woman who had a Bible question that night I was somebody. I remembered what I had heard before, “To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.” 

So to the Statler brothers I want to say, the class of ’57 is living the dream! Enjoy your everyday life. Enjoy just being an ordinary everyday face in the crowd living an average ordinary everyday life. That is the dream! Live the dream of walking humbly with your God. It’s okay if you are just one person to the world. By just walking humbly with God every day you will still be the world to one person. Probably more. 

Amen!(0)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SabbathSchoolNet/~3/SXD1M2O4HD0/

Revenge and Forgiveness

By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission

The long blade of the machete glinted as 21-year-old Wilder swung it over his head.

Image © Pacific Press

His eyes flashed with anger. He aimed for his stepfather’s neck.

At that moment, his stepfather, Alberto Rui Quaresma, raised his arm, and the blade sliced deeply into his forearm.

Alberto spent the next 24 days in the hospital in São Tomé, capital of the island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe off the West African coast. He underwent surgery, and doctors put a metal plate in his arm. He angrily plotted revenge. He would get a machete and cut Wilder’s arm, too.

Wilder wasn’t arrested after his biological father pulled some connections. He had attacked his stepfather over a scolding.

Lying in the hospital bed, Alberto noticed that a woman, Maria Rita, came every day to visit her brother, injured in a motorcycle accident, in the same room. He admired her kindness to her brother and announced one day, “I have fallen in love with you”.

“No”, Maria Rita replied. “I don’t want to have a husband. All men should be thrown in the fire”.

Her reaction surprised Alberto, who realized that she was carrying hurt from a past relationship. He could understand. At the age of 44, he had had three common-law wives, and the son of his most recent wife had tried to kill him.

Maria Rita didn’t want to discuss marriage. She changed the subject to God.

“God is love, and God can change your life and make you a new creation”, she said. “God will help you to forget what happened and forgive that boy”.

After being released from the hospital, Alberto saw Maria Rita occasionally on the street. One day she invited him to attend a 40-day revival meeting at her Seventh-day Adventist church.

Alberto was fascinated by the presentations and was baptized five months later. Later, he proposed to Maria Rita, and she accepted.

Today, Alberto, pictured left, is 50 and works as foreman at a cement warehouse. He also is the treasurer, stewardship director, and Sabbath School teacher at his local church.

He is praying for an opportunity to share with Wilder how God changed his life. The two sometimes meet on the street and exchange greetings.

He laughed when reminded that Wilder tried to kill him the last time they had a serious conversation.

“I’m not worried because God is with me”, he said.

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

All Rights Reserved. No part of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide may be edited, altered, modified, adapted, translated, reproduced, or published by any person or entity without prior written authorization from the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

Amen!(0)

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

Further Thought: Read Ellen G. White, “The Assyrian Captivity”, pages 279-292; “The Call of Isaiah”, pages 303-310, in Prophets and Kings.

“Against the marked oppression, the flagrant injustice, the unwonted luxury and extravagance, the shameless feasting and drunkenness, the gross licentiousness and debauchery, of their age, the prophets lifted their voices; but in vain were their protests, in vain their denunciation of sin”. – Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 282.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

For Isaiah, “the outlook was particularly discouraging as regards the social conditions of the people. In their desire for gain, men were adding house to house and field to field … Justice was perverted, and no pity was shown the poor … Even the magistrates, whose duty it was to protect the helpless, turned a deaf ear to the cries of the poor and needy, the widows and the fatherless …

In the face of such conditions it is not surprising that when, during the last year of Uzziah’s reign, Isaiah was called to bear to Judah God’s messages of warning and reproof, he shrank from the responsibility. He well knew that he would encounter obstinate resistance”. – Pages 306, 307.

“These plain utterances of the prophets … should be received by us as the voice of God to every soul. We should lose no opportunity of performing deeds of mercy, of tender forethought and Christian courtesy, for the burdened and the oppressed”. – Page 327.

Discussion Questions:

Summary: 

The Old Testament prophets were passionate and often angry and upset defenders of the way and will of God to their people. Reflecting the expressed concern of God Himself, this passion included a strong focus on justice for the poor and oppressed. The prophets’ calls to return to God included putting an end to injustice, something God also promised to do in His visions for a better future for His people.

Amen!(0)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SabbathSchoolNet/~3/Dyq24rl-9p8/

Read Isaiah 1:15-23; Isaiah 3:13-15; and Isaiah 5:7-8. How would you describe the prophet’s response to what he observes in society around him?

Isaiah’s opening sermon—the first five chapters—is a mix of scathing criticism of the kind of society God’s people had become, warnings of impending judgment in response to their rejection of God and continued wrongdoing, and offers of hope if the people would turn back to God and reform their lives and society.

Isaiah

But perhaps the strongest emotion that comes through his words is a sense of grief. Based on his understanding of who God is and what He wants for His people, the prophet is mourning what has been lost, the countless forgotten people who are being hurt, and the judgment that is to come on the nation.

Isaiah continues this pattern through his prophetic ministry. He urges the people to remember what God has done for them. He also offers these people the hope of what God wants to do for them in the future. Thus, they should seek the Lord now, for this renewed relationship with Him will include repenting of their current wrongdoing and changing the way that they treat others.

In chapters 58 and 59, Isaiah specifically returns to the concern for justice. He again describes a society in which “justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter” (Isa. 59:14, NIV). But he also affirms that God is aware of it and that God will rescue His people—the “Redeemer will come” (Isa. 59:20, NIV).

Throughout the book of Isaiah, a significant part of the prophet’s attention is given to proclaiming the coming Messiah, one who would ultimately reestablish God’s reign on earth and would bring justice, mercy, healing, and restoration with Him.

Amen!(0)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SabbathSchoolNet/~3/2qv5fuRRdGU/

You can view an in-depth discussion of “The Cry of the Prophets” in the Hope Sabbath School class led by Pastor Derek Morris. You may download an MP4 video file, and audio file or a PDF lesson outline from the HopeSS site.

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

Amen!(0)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SabbathSchoolNet/~3/ZD7CQ3Mcdi0/