Discovering our gifts is not difficult. You will be able to recognize quickly the gifted ministry areas of your pastor and other key leaders in your church. All you have to do is observe what they are doing and notice how people respond to their ministry. However, it is another matter when it comes to … Continue reading –>
“Another year has almost passed into eternity. A few more days, and we shall enter a new year. My brethren and sisters, employ wisely the remaining hours of the old year. If you have in any wise neglected your duty, repent before God, and return to the path from which you have wandered. Remember how … Continue reading –>
That the Lord had not yet come is undoubtedly the basis for some of Paul’s counsel to the Thessalonians. What does Paul counsel the church at Thessalonica as they wait for the promised coming of Christ? 2 Thessalonians 2. 1 Certain events have to transpire in human history before Jesus will return, yet, the hope for the future … Continue reading –>
From the earliest days of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Adventists believed that Christ’s coming was soon, “nearer than we first believed.” As it stands, we’re still here, much longer than many among us anticipated. How are we to understand this “delay”?1 First of all, we’re not the only ones whose expectations about when the Lord … Continue reading –>
As Christians, as Seventh-day Adventist Christians, we live with the hope of Christ’s literal return to this earth. Some Christian groups have abandoned hope in this teaching or have pushed it off to the side or they have watered it down and so spiritualized it away that the Second Coming becomes essentially just a personal … Continue reading –>
Because “last things” center around the establishing of God’s kingdom, attention to “last things” has always been a paramount Seventh-day Adventist concern. So much so that we have drawn attention to the end times in our name: Seventh-day Adventist. The name itself points to our belief in the second advent of Jesus.1 How does Peter express … Continue reading –>
The description of our pitiful human condition is honestly and correctly painted in Scripture. Bible writers did not always despair, however, because they knew the final outcome. The last chapters in the books of Isaiah and Revelation assure us that the destruction of sin is coming and that God’s kingdom will be restored. God revealed … Continue reading –>
In both the Old and the New Testament, marriage is utilized to represent the tender and sacred union that exists between Christ and His people. To the mind of Jesus, the gladness of wedding festivities pointed forward to the rejoicing of that day when He shall bring home His bride to the Father’s house, and … Continue reading –>
Read John 2:1–11. What does this tells us about Jesus’ attitude toward marriage and romantic love? What does it mean that He gave His blessing to such boisterous and long-drawn-out affairs as Jewish weddings were in that day and age? 1 Jesus had just returned from the wilderness of temptation, where He Himself had drunk the cup … Continue reading –>
Libraries could be filled with books that deal with the difficult question of human suffering, difficult especially for those who believe in a loving and all-powerful God (for the atheist, suffering is merely part of what it means to live in a godless and meaningless universe and thus doesn’t present the difficult philosophical questions it … Continue reading –>
Genesis shows, right from the start, that romance was to be a basic part of the human experience. One man with one woman, period. That was God’s ideal, the biblical prototype that models what romantic love was to be about. It’s fascinating, too, how often the Bible uses imagery of love, of marriage, to depict … Continue reading –>
Though the Bible covers a lot of history, it has made time to depict some romances. There was a strong, affectionate bond between Abraham and Sarah. He doesn’t desert her during her long years of barrenness. In fact, it is only at Sarah’s urging that Abraham takes Hagar as a surrogate wife. The ties of … Continue reading –>
“And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Gen. 2:23).1 We need to begin with the initial chapters of Genesis for the first romance in Scripture, that of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve are special creations … Continue reading –>
Read for This Week’s Study: Gen. 2:21–25, Exod. 20:5, Isa. 43:4, 62:5, Song of Songs, John 2:1–11. Memory Text: “The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you’ “ (Jeremiah 31:3, NKJV). Key Thought: How are we to understand the loving side of God? Love is, perhaps, … Continue reading –>
“Let the converting power of God be experienced in the heart of the individual members, and then we shall see the deep moving of the Spirit of God. Mere forgiveness of sin is not the sole result of the death of Jesus. He made the infinite sacrifice not only that sin might be removed, but … Continue reading –>