Sabbath: Struggling With All Energy
Image © Pacific Press
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: John 16:5-15; Colossians 1:28-29; 1 Peter 1:13, Matthew 5:29; Genesis 32:1-32.
Memory Text: “To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me” (Colossians 1:29, NIV).
A man and woman sat together on a talk show. Both had experienced the murder of a child. The woman’s son had been murdered 20 years before, and her anger and bitterness were as great as ever. The man was totally different. His daughter had been murdered by terrorists a few years earlier. He spoke about forgiveness toward the killers and about how God had transformed his hurt. However terrible the pain, this man had become an illustration of how God can bring healing to the darkest moments of our lives.
How can two people respond so differently? How does spiritual change occur in the life of a Christian, enabling that individual to mature through life’s crucibles rather than being completely overwhelmed by them?
The Week at a Glance: What is the role of our wills, and willpower, in the battle with self and sin? How can we avoid the mistake of letting our feelings rule the decisions we make? Why must we persevere and not give up when in the crucible?
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, August 6.
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Memory Text: To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy #Christ so powerfully works in me#(Colossians 1:29, NIV).
Psalm 46:7
You love righteousness and #HATED# wickedness; ..
Paul did not mince his words about wickedness nor did Jesus. Jesus called some of the pharasses a brood of Satan, and that their Father was the devil himself.
Matthew 23:2-37
That's a lot of judgement and did happen in history in 70AD !
Matthew 23:38
Christianity is not just love and let live. Anger and Justice has it's right place in God's nature and mankind's, against evil and evil acts.
However, it's not our job to judge anyone to a #final judgement# to the #lake of fire# aka #the second death#
Revelation 20:11-15
So.. What is the role of our wills, and willpower, in the battle with self and sin? How can we avoid the mistake of letting our feelings rule the decisions we make?
God and Christ Jesus are the only ones who can judge the destiny of every individual that ever lived.
The Godhead is consistent with their Divine Nature of Love, Mercy, Long Suffering, and Justice.
Revelation 20:15
We can rest assured that Christ Jesus will do the right thing in the divine nature and we should be conforming to that divine principle that will rule eternally in the New Heavens and New Earth, whatever that eternal environment is !
Revelation 22:13-17
Shalom in Christ. 🙏
Keep on trucking (meme)
The Jesus I know forgave even those who opposed Him even though He rightly called them children of their father, the devil.
Can you back it up with scripture please ?
Who are thrown into the second death/lake of fire
Here are my scriptures, for my comment ....as follow:
Revelation 20:14
14 Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
15 And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation 21:
7 “The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.
8“But the cowards, faithless,f detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars — their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
Shalom 🙏
Keep on trucking
Father, forgive then Luke 23:34
Children of your father the devil John 8:44
Don’t know if that’s what Donald had in mind, but those are the ones that immediately came to my mind
LOL...I'm Irish,
You could be right !
Father of lies ?
🙏👍
1 John 2:18
The Bible as a whole is about God’s forgiveness. He can forgive anything we do. We simply have to receive it. If we don’t receive it we don’t get it.
Jesus forgave the ones that nailed Him to the cross. He forgave one of the thieves on the cross beside Him.
If the Pharisees and church leaders that wanted to kill Jesus had received God’s Spirit and His forgiveness and repented of their plan they wouldn’t have wanted to kill Jesus anymore.
God forgave Saul (Paul) for his evil deeds didn’t He?
The context in Matthew 23 that I quoted was a reality in 70AD, when Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple sacked, the leviticus priesthood ended along with the Pharisees.
This is also a type that will occur when Jesus comes back in judgement on the world.
Of course Jesus forgives those who repent, and walk in his paths, thats elementary!
Shalom 🙏👍🏻
Keep in trucking
Jesus’ words “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” are found in Luke 23:34
Even in His agony, Jesus’ concern was for the forgiveness of those who counted themselves among His enemies. He asked the Father to forgive the thieves on the cross who jeered at Him. He asked the Father to forgive the Roman soldiers who had mocked Him, spit on Him, beat Him, yanked out His beard, whipped Him, put a crown of thorns on His head, and nailed Him to the cross. Jesus asked forgiveness for the angry mob that had mocked Him and called for His crucifixion (Mark 15:29–30).
It is important to note that Jesus’ prayer, “Father, forgive them,” does not mean that everyone was forgiven, unilaterally, without repentance and faith. It does mean that Jesus was willing to forgive them—forgiveness was, in fact, the reason He was on the cross. The words “Father, forgive them” show the merciful heart of God.
David,
You raise some interesting points that I believe need further examination.
You said that the words,
“Father, forgive them,” does not mean that everyone was forgiven, unilaterally, without repentance and faith.”
and that,
“Jesus was willing to forgive them—forgiveness was, in fact, the reason He was on the cross.”
You have seemingly taken the clearly expressed words of Christ and made them mean something other than what we would readily understand.
Why would Christ ask the Father to forgive His crucifiers, if He (Christ) was only WILLING to forgive?
Wasn’t God IN Christ reconciling the world to Himself?
God does not wait on man, He pursues us as lost sheep. No one pursues lost sheep who is only willing to forgive. The Pursuer has already forgiven the sheep, and THIS IS WHY HE PURSUES.
Christ does not hold His crucifixion against us in His mind, this is WHY He says, “they know NOT what they do.” He blamed His crucifixion on ignorance, that man may be forgiven.
If forgiveness did not happen at Calvary, why didn’t Christ say,
“Father forgive them, only when they repent and have faith?”
How does the cross, “show the merciful heart of God” if it only displayed a willingness of God and not the actual PERFORMED will of God?
“The merciful heart of God” that you speak of when it was shown on Calvary, was displayed broken, because He actually paid for something, and the cost broke His heart. Why would something that you are only willing to do break your heart, if it hasn’t happened, yet?
Isn’t Christ the great “I AM”, and NOT the great “I WILL?”
How could forgiveness be the reason Christ was on the cross, but no forgiveness was actually granted on the cross?
You have left the atonement “wanting” on the cross instead of “FINISHED” as Christ also said. Atonement is IMPOSSIBLE without FORGIVENESS.
Forgiveness was indeed granted and given on Calvary. Repentance and faith is our response when we believe in His finished work.
Take heed:
Our repentance and faith does not FINISH the work of atonement, Christ DEATH did that. Our repentance and faith BEGINS the work of Christ IN us that He accomplished FOR us on Calvary.
Benjamin, thank you for a powerful exposé of God's amazing grace and love.
Have you ever broken something, or had something break? How quickly and easily something can become broken. That's certainly what seems to have happened for Adam and Eve - from paradise to perishing in the blink of an eye.
But what about the repair process? Unfortunately repair is typically neither quick nor easy. This week's lesson touches on some of the dimensions regarding why the repair process is like this - though having looked ahead across this upcoming week, some days I think the lesson's focus is a little too narrow. If you happen to find that too on a certain day, please speak up.
Hopefully, this week we can unpack a little of the complexity of, and reasons for, the spectrum of struggles that can be associated with the repair process. Because, unfortunately, struggles are an inescapable part of being, for now, caught up within a 'fallen' reality (John 16:33; Hebrews 5:7-8) - even when we are walking with God.
I don't understand the image for this week, can someone please help me explain?
Looks like Jesus on his cross/firey crucible, for sure!
Shalom 🙏
Hi Riga,
This image is very unique to me, I agree it can seem a bit confusing, even troubling. But in my perspective, I see a person climbing on the cross to the escape the fire below.
The Symbols:
The fire below: The World
The cross: The cross we bear when we follow Christ.
My interpretation:
The only way to escape the death of this world is through our death on the cross.
We must climb on that cross daily, or we will perish with the world.
Just my thoughts on the image.
This illustration seems to be demonstrating the idea of exercising faith while wrestling with doubts and fears during trials. In a word: perseverance.
Lesson: "How does spiritual change occur in the life of a Christian?"
Through repentance – a change of mind; a turning from sin, accompanied by a turning to God (see Matthew 18:3; Luke 5:32) and regeneration – a new birth; the spiritual change that God works in a person’s heart to enable faith and salvation (see Matthew 19:28; Titus 3:5) and sanctification – a setting apart for special use; the process by which God changes the sinner into the image of His Son (see John 17:17; 1 Thessalonians 4:3).
Sanctification evolves removing sin from our lives. We all have spiritual dross—unhealthy and unwelcome practices and ideas that need to be removed. Believers in this world undergo a refining process that purifies our bodies and spirits (2 Corinthians 7:1) and proves the authenticity of our faith: “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:6–7).
This process enables us to persevere and not give up and mature through the crucible.