Friday: Further Thought – Overcoming Evil With Good
Further Thought: “In the Bible the will of God is revealed. The truths of the Word of God are the utterances of the Most High. He who makes these truths a part of his life becomes in every sense a new creature. He is not given new mental powers, but the darkness that through ignorance and sin has clouded the understanding is removed.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
The words, ‘A new heart also will I give you,’ mean, ‘A new mind will I give you.’ A change of heart is always attended by a clear conviction of Christian duty, an understanding of truth. He who gives the Scriptures close, prayerful attention will gain clear comprehension and sound judgment, as if in turning to God he had reached a higher plane of intelligence.” – Ellen G. White, My Life Today, p. 24.
“The Lord . . . is soon coming, and we must be ready and waiting for His appearing. Oh, how glorious it will be to see Him and be welcomed as His redeemed ones! Long have we waited, but our hope is not to grow dim. If we can but see the King in His beauty we shall be forever blessed. I feel as if I must cry aloud: ‘Homeward bound!’ We are nearing the time when Christ will come in power and great glory to take His ransomed ones to their eternal home.” – Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, p. 253.
Discussion Questions:
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Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.
Being intentional in choosing Christ.
Being submissive to the will of God is a sacrifice we are to make every day, every moment of ourlives.
Why is being submissive to the will of God a sacrifice? God wants us to be blessed (happy). Is it a sacrifice to be happy?
I think the sacrifice is our cherished SELFISHNESS. Selfishness will be obliterated by the light of God's Love in us.
We know what we have now--pride of life, arrogance, self esteem, material possessions.
We don't know what would happen if we were to give up these traits (possessions) and gain humility, meekness, self-respect, and experience the joy of giving away our possessions. This seems scary to us. We would have to enter unfamiliar territory and we just think what we might loose entering the life motivated by Love.
Now that I look at the exchange I think that we would gain better things than we loose. How exciting!
My question is from the lesson of Tuesday. Is it proper for a Christian to join the military? If yes, can he/she keep the Sabbath yet they work under order of even a fight on sabbath? They can be ordered to shoot and kill a fellow human being? If not proper, why do some military men have church offices in our denomination of SDA ?
There is no simple answer to these questions. While the church promotes the idea of non-combatant roles in the military it is left to the individual to make the ultimate choice about roles in the military. Regarding Sabbath-keeping I can only site the example of my father who served in the NZMC in the second world war. He and the other Seventh-day Adventists made it clear right from the outset that they would not take part in training activities on Sabbath, but in an emergency or in battle they could be depended on to take part willingly.
Read the story of Desmond Doss
Ellen G White, WOMAN OF VISION in the chapter discussing about the war between North and South states of America.
The President of the General Conference in that time wrote a letter to the president of USA that Adventist believers are not in a position to fight and kill fellow humans.
There are areas of service where men and women can serve like chaplain or as a medical personnel. Hacksaw Ridge is about an SDA individual who kept his faith and served. I also know personally of others who have served in the military and maintained their faith.
Jason, my father was drafted during the Korean War and went as a noncombatant because he didn't want to kill people.
I grew up during the Vietnam war with the draft also in force then. Our academies at that time had courses to train us in how to properly submit to the government requirements without violating our consciences. We were taught that joining the military forfeits our rights to a clear conscience, but if we were drafted we retained the right of conscience because it was not our choice to enter the military. When you join the military you are military property.
"What do you think is harder to do: to keep strict adherence to the letter of the law or to love God and love others unconditionally? Or could you argue that this question presents a false dichotomy? If so, why?"
Neither are possible without Christ, so I think it's a false dichotomy.
This is like asking, "What is harder, swimming across the ocean or flying to the moon?"
Loving God and serving the needs of others is so much more fun. If we have given our hearts to Jesus the life becomes meaningful and fulfilled. The law is also fulfilled because our motivation is God's Love.