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.
(0)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/mission-spotlight-for-april-19/
Inside Story for Friday 18th of April 2025
By Andrew McChesney
After someone stole the family cow, Mother got a dog to watch their new cow. Mother also wanted the dog to guard the tithe: a big bucket of butter.
Father, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, was far away in a Soviet labor camp on charges of keeping the Sabbath. The cow was the only source of income for Mother and her two small children in the then-southern Soviet republic of Tajikistan. Mother milked the cow and exchanged the milk for food at a market. Mother also set aside 10 percent of the milk as tithe, churning it into butter and storing it in a bucket. When the bucket was full, she sold it.
One day, Mother milked the cow and told the two children to wait as she went to the market. “Don’t open the door,” she said. She checked that the bucket of butter was near the dog, who was tied up in the yard, and she left.
The children waited and waited. Then the gate opened, and a stranger entered the yard. The dog didn’t bark. The man, who was wearing Muslim clothes, walked over to the dog. It was as if the dog didn’t see him. The man picked up the butter bucket, turned around, and left. Later, the children excitedly told Mother about the man. No one understood what had happened.
Many years passed. Father was freed from the labor camp and resumed his duties as a pastor. He and Mother had five more children. Their eldest daughter, Nina, married and had children of her own. She also got a job, cleaning the offices of a fertilizer company. Now to get paid, Nina had to go to the company’s accountant. One day, as she was waiting for her salary, she told the accountant about the bucket of butter. The accountant listened politely until Nina described seeing the man in Muslim clothes. The accountant blurted out, “When did that happen?” Nina told her. The accountant began to cry. “Do you want to know how the story ended?” she asked. She said she and her four siblings grew up in Siberia. Their parents were killed during World War II, and they lived with their grandmother. Times were tough, and the day came when the food ran out. Grandmother called the five children to pray around the empty table. After praying, a knock sounded on the door. Outside stood a man wearing Muslim clothes. In one hand, he held a bucket of butter. In the other, he held a loaf of bread.
At the fertilizer company, the accountant begged Nina to tell her more about God. In time, the accountant and her daughter gave their hearts to Jesus and joined the Adventist Church.
To this day, no one knows the identity of the mysterious man. But Liubov Brunton, Nina’s daughter, has no doubt that he was an angel.
“For an angel, it took only a split second to transport the bucket of butter from Tajikistan to Siberia,” she said. “I just wonder where the angel found the bread. I can’t wait to get to heaven to hear the rest of the story.”
(3)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-03-inside-story-big-bucket-of-butter/
Daily Lesson for Friday 18th of April 2025
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
Once you realize how much data is available in the rest of the Bible to help you broaden your understanding of prophecy, it can be tempting to over-apply it. Throughout the centuries, some Christians have emphasized the symbolism and imagery found in Bible stories to the point where they virtually begin to treat the historical narrative as a myth. While layers of meaning are to be found just about everywhere in Scripture, we must always remember that God has a way of taking real events that involve real people and using them to teach us things about His future interactions with the church.
The wedding feast in Cana, for example, may offer insights into the metaphor of marriage used by prophecy, but the wedding was a literal event. “The word of Christ supplied ample provision for the feast. So abundant is the provision of His grace to blot out the iniquities of men, and to renew and sustain the soul.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 149.
Or as she writes here: “ ‘The Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.’ While ‘the secret things belong unto the Lord our God,’ ‘those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever.’ Amos 3:7; Deuteronomy 29:29. God has given these things to us, and His blessing will attend the reverent, prayerful study of the prophetic scriptures.”—The Desire of Ages, p. 234.
Discussion Questions
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(1)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-03-further-thought-images-from-marriage/
Many have seen the movies and read books to children about the knight in shining armor who comes and saves the damsel in distress. As we read we dream of someone caring for us the way the knight cares for the damsel. Would anyone ever pursue us with such desire?
Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com
What if I told you, that someone is pursuing you with such desire and even more so? What if I told you that Genesis 3:15 was where the original love story of the damsel in distress and knight in shining armor came from? Writers are not as original as they like to think. Fiction is often based on some truth, because writers have to get their ideas from somewhere. Since the story happened first here, I would guess that all the other books have been copy cats. Nothing beats the original version!
And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:15 NLT
Jesus is talking to Satan, or the dragon, since these stories need a dragon, right? The woman, the damsel, has fallen into the hands of the dragon, but Jesus tells the dragon that He is going to rescue the damsel. You could also say that the damsel is a princess, and the Prince of Peace is going to rescue her.
Sure enough, the Prince of Peace is faithful to His promise!
Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True. Revelation 19:11 NLT
The prince or knight always comes in on a horse, right?
His eyes were like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him that no one understood except himself. Revelation 19:12 NLT
Pure speculation on my part, but since the understanding of the name is not known, speculation is allowed. I have read of detectives keeping the names of missing people and even their pictures in their wallets because they are obsessed with their rescue mission. Could it be that Jesus has a special name for His damsel in distress inscribed on His person? Even written on His heart? There has never been in the history of love stories a prince who has desired and pursued a damsel like the Prince of Peace is pursuing you! There has never been a knight in shining armor who has desired a woman like Jesus desires His church!
Please remember. I am not making this rescue look like a fairy tale. Far from it! Fairy tale writers are the ones copying themes from the Bible and failing miserably at it! Hollywood doesn’t know what real love is and could never write a real love story. Let’s move on to the original and only true love story.
Then I saw the beast and the kings of the world and their armies gathered together to fight against the one sitting on the horse and his army. And the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who did mighty miracles on behalf of the beast—miracles that deceived all who had accepted the mark of the beast and who worshiped his statue. Both the beast and his false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. Their entire army was killed by the sharp sword that came from the mouth of the one riding the white horse. Revelation 19:19-21 NLT
Jesus keeps His promise and comes to the rescue of His damsel in distress. He destroys the dragon and his followers, who were causing distress to His bride, the church, like a damsel in distress. Now He and His damsel can marry, go to His castle, and live happily ever after.
I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” Revelation 21:3-4 NLT
There are so many versions of love stories because everyone loves a good love story. The Song of Solomon is proof that God loves a good love story, too, but not the cheap imitations. He loves the original story. The original version is the only one where they really do live happily ever after.
Please don’t waste time on cheap fairy tales that make you dream about someone desiring and pursuing you. Read the real story about a real Prince Who has real love for His damsel in distress, which is you! Read in the Bible how He promises to rescue you from the dragon because He really does love you with a love no paperback novel can emulate. There will never be a greater story. There will never be a greater love. There will never be a greater Prince or Knight in Shining Armor. And there will never be another damsel in distress who is loved, desired, and pursued as much as Jesus loves, desires and pursues you! He is too great a gentleman to force Himself on you. All He needs is your consent, and He will rescue you from the dragon so you can both live happily ever after.
(38)Daily Lesson for Thursday 17th of April 2025
Infidelity comes with a very painful price tag. The fallout spills over into the lives of children and others. Even the most patient of wronged spouses may eventually discover that there is a moment of no return, past which the marriage can no longer be redeemed.
Image © Pacific Press at Goodsalt.com
When our world reaches a point where hearts have hardened deeply enough that there will be no more repentance, no point exists in continuing history and allowing the unbridled suffering of sin to continue. Even though there is heartbreak over the lost, those who have suffered under this world’s dispensation of sin can celebrate that it is finally over—and that the world is being restored to the way God originally designed it. This time there will not be a turning away from God, because we have learned, the hard way, that God was correct about the devastation that comes from separating ourselves from Him.
“Marriage, a union for life, is a symbol of the union between Christ and His church. The spirit that Christ manifests toward the church is the spirit that husband and wife are to manifest toward each other.”—Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, p. 46.
Christ suffered unimaginable pain as the human race rejected Him and gave the affection that belongs to Him to other gods. And yet, even then, He gave Himself for us, paying in Himself for our infidelities and adulteries so that, if we repent and turn away from them, we have the promise of eternal life.
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Read 1 Peter 1:18-19. What are we told in these verses that gives us the assurance of the end as depicted in Revelation 21:1-4? |
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