Setbacks

What does the future hold for you? the SS Quarterly asks. Seventh-day Adventists, rightly or wrongly, done well or poorly, often use the double-edged sword: the shortness of time and the uncertainty of life, to motivate people. The shortness of time is urged as an incentive for us to seek righteousness, and to make Christ our friend. This is not the great motive. It savors of selfishness. Is it necessary that the terrors of the day of God be held before us to compel us through fear to right action? This ought not to be. Jesus is attractive. Review and ...

Sharing Jesus with others has more to do with how we are built by God, instead of with how we must force ourselves to do what we are reluctant to do. What do I mean by this statement? Matt. 5:14-15 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 2Cor. 4:13 But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture— ...

Something we hate to admit is that we are the ones who often create our own setbacks! Yes, we live in a sin-damaged world and sin wreaks havoc on all, but: Luke 6:46-49 NLT “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say? 47 I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. 48 It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it ...

Sin is first and foremost a killer! If God had not intervened, anyone and everyone who sinned would die immediately. The only reason we sinners are not dead yet is because God stepped in and regifted us life; He did this in such a way that there was no gap between the time in which we humans sinned and the next smallest amount of time imaginable! From the outside, it simply looked like we had just kept on living. God’s grace gave us time, our lifetime--whatever that may be, but grace does not erase all of sin’s damages; now they ...

I did not wish to combine these three topics into one lesson, so I’ve decided to focus on just the law this week, while offering some thoughts regarding sin and the gospel to next week’s lesson on repentance and forgiveness. God’s law is a transcript of God’s character. We see this when we compare their shared attributes: God’s Character in His Law!GodGod's LawRighteous (Ezra 9:15)Righteous (Psalm 119:172)Perfect (Matthew 5:48)Perfect (Psalm 19:7)Holy (Leviticus 19:2)Holy (Romans 7:12)Good (Psalm 34:8)Good (Romans 7:12)True (Exodus 34:6)True (Psalm 119:142) Let’s look at a few of these just so we can anchor this thought in our mind, for example, ...

Perhaps this lesson might be better titled Exercising Faith since we never generate faith ourselves. As the SS Quarterly itself says: It’s not something we can generate ourselves, for “God has dealt to each one a measure of faith” (Romans 12:3), and faith is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-9). Thus, faith is a gift that God has given everyone, but that does not mean that everyone is exercising faith in God. Yet exercising faith is not a mere mental assent to a doctrine or a group of doctrines, or even to the existence of God/Jesus/Spirit. Faith that saves is ...

I’ve chosen to focus this lesson on the idea of Praying as Learners. From the cradle to the grave Jesus’ life was bathed in prayer. In fact, even before His birth we find both Zechariah and Jesus’ mother Mary offering praise to God, see Luke 1. The baby Jesus, brought into the Temple to be circumcised, was the object of thanksgiving to God as the deeply committed Simeon and Anna recognized Jesus as the long-awaited deliver of Israel, see Luke 2. And at the other end of Jesus’ life, Jesus’ final words, uttered as He hung dying on the cross, are ...

Though I am now using them for a different purpose than he did, I am indebted to Greg Boyd for some of the concepts I am sharing below regarding why we pray. Why do we pray? In a nutshell, the reason why we pray has to do with our God-given reality. Love requires freedom. Freedom creates risk. Risk creates moral responsibility. Moral responsibility is generally proportionate to influence. Influence is (generally) irrevocable. Power to influence is limited. Regarding love & freedom: genuine love requires significant freedom. And such freedom is supported through influence, not coercion. God influences humans. Humans influence other humans. Humans also influence God through ...

On my desktop computer I have a file titled Biblical Books. In that file is another file titled Amos, a biblical book I am currently studying. In my Amos file I have individual files for each chapter in the book of Amos, so Amos 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. I have additional files titled Background Stories of the Nations (that are mentioned in Amos 1 & 2). Another file is simply titled Exile, wherein I have placed a few documents I created while exploring the notion of Israel’s Assyrian exile. Another file is titled Key Words in Amos; another: Mourning in ...

Romans 10:17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. In 1978 I finally chose to attend college. I was then 22 years old. I was a bit anxious, knowing that I had not been in an academic program in four years! But I had spent the last two of those four years studying the Bible for myself. For 2-3 hours a day I had used an exhaustive concordance, my Bible, and any other religious books I had, cross-referencing as much stuff as I could. I also made notes on 4x6 ...