Friday: Further Thought – Life in the Early Church
Further Study: “We are stewards, entrusted by our absent Lord with the care of His household and His interests, which He came to this world to serve. He has returned to heaven, leaving us in charge, and He expects us to watch and wait for His appearing. Let us be faithful to our trust, lest coming suddenly He find us sleeping.”—Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, p. 37.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
“The people need to be impressed with the sacredness of their vows and pledges to the cause of God. Such pledges are not generally held to be as obligatory as a promissory note from man to man. But is a promise less sacred and binding because it is made to God? Because it lacks some technical terms, and cannot be enforced by law, will the Christian disregard the obligation to which he has given his word? No legal note or bond is more obligatory than a pledge made to the cause of God.”—Ellen G. White Comments, The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 1056.
Discussion Questions:
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What is my:
Vision - to live forever in a perfect world - the earth made new
Mission - to be like Jesus
Saturday: Broke Bread - Communion - This is my body broken for you
Sunday: Fellowship - three things - met together, ate together, and praised together
Monday - Disabled - who shall deliver me. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Tuesday - Desire - God's desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Wednesday - Deceit - Always leads to a disabled broken fellowship.
Thursday - Disperse - human origin disperses and scatters. God says, Gather my saints together unto me.
Friday - Pledge - When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it.
Your faculties are separate and distinct, yet each is dependent for its success upon the other. So each day God works with His building, stroke upon stroke, to perfect the structure, which thus grows into a holy temple for the Lord. One stone mislaid affects the whole building. This figure represents human character, which is to be wrought upon, point by point. There is not to be a flaw in it, for it is the Lord\'s building. Every stone must be perfectly laid, that it may endure the pressure placed upon it. God warns you and every worker to take heed how you build, so that your building may bear the test of storm and tempest because it is riveted to the eternal Rock. Take heed how you build. Every hour may be spent in placing the stone on the sure foundation, ready for the day of test and revelation, when we shall be seen just as we are. Man. Releases vol 2
Shirley:
My HOPE: is to live forever. I have taken the 1st step: chosen to turn to God through Jesus Christ. Hebrews 7:25. I have taken the 2nd step: repented. What is repentence? “But John explained, “I’m baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.””
Luke 3:16-17 MSG. I have taken the 3rd step: stepped into the water and was immersed, then I rose and chose baptism of the Spirit daily. John 3:5.
My VISION: Give me Lord the mind of Jesus, make me Holy as He is. May I prove I’ve been with Jesus, who is all my righteousness.
My MISSION. 1 Peter 4:7-11. James 2:38.
My STATEMENT: I am a Seventh-day-Adventist Christian.
Thanks brother Newbegin for the summary of the week's lesson its a wonderful comment.
Thanks God bless you.
My question is what is the difference between Pharisees and saducees?
The Pharisees and Sadducees were two sects of the Jewish nation in New Testament times. Both sects were represented in the Sanhedrin - the 70 member ruling body of Judaism. The Sadducees were the conservatives, relying on the Torah alone, while the Pharisees were more liberal and gave weight to the oral tradition. One major doctrinal difference is that the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, nor an unseen spiritual world. On the other hand, the Pharisees believed in a resurrection with rewards and punishment and also believed in angels and demons.
Most of this information is available directly from the Bible. eg Matthew 22:23; Mark 12:18–27; Acts 23:8
At the time of the New Testament, the Sadducees were the ruling class with control of the Sanhedrin and the temple (The high priest was a Sadducee). The Pharisees controlled the Synagogues.
Interesting. I always saw the Pharisees as the conservatives, with their emphasis on the letter of the law plus much more. They made up rules to help them keep the law. That made up what we may call "tradition." (We have our traditions too.) I saw the Sadducees as the more worldly "liberal" element because they weren't nearly so concerned about details.
That just goes to show that the labels "conservative" and "liberal" may not be all that useful. 😉 As I understand it, the Sadducees were "conservative" only in that they stuck to the written Torah. They were "liberal" in all other ways.
You are right about the labels. People tend to use them rather indiscriminately. Or rather, use them to cast aspersions on the side to which they do not belong.
The issue of conservative vs liberal becomes even more complex in New Testament times when you start looking at the communal sects such as the Essenes. In fact, it is rather hard to use labels such as these because they carry with them modern idea associations that really do not apply in historical situations.
Tuesday - Desire - God's desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.