Sabbath: The Triumph _of_ God’s Love
Daily Lesson for Sabbath 22nd of June 2024
Image © Pacific Press
Read for This Week’s Study
Revelation 22:11-12; Jeremiah 30:5-7; Psalms 91:1-11; Jeremiah 25:33; Revelation 21:2; Revelation 20:11-15.
Memory Text:
“And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away’ ” (Revelation 21:3-4, NKJV).
We can face the future with hope. Although challenging times are coming, whatever suffering we must go through, whatever hardships we must endure, whatever sorrows we experience, if we have hope a better day is coming, we can live life today with purpose and joy. Franklin D. Roosevelt was president during 1933–1945, one of the most difficult periods of U.S. history. He was paralyzed by polio and unable to walk unaided. He once wrote, “We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction, that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.” Albert Einstein, one of the world’s most brilliant men, wrote, “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” Alfred Lord Tennyson, a popular English poet during Queen Victoria’s reign, once wrote, “Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘It will be happier.’ ”
In this quarter’s final lesson, we will see Christ’s steadfast love during the most exciting time in the history of the universe and His complete triumph in the great controversy. The Bible’s last book, Revelation, gives us hope for today, tomorrow, and forever.
*Study this week’s lesson, based on chapters 39–42 of The Great Controversy, to prepare for Sabbath, June 29.
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When I was a kid, we never bought cookies, biscuits and cakes. My Mum baked them in an oven. Fruit mince squares, peanut cookies, Anzac biscuits, and chocolate mint slices were all baked in the oven, and when cooled were put in biscuit and cake tins to be doled out at mealtimes.
I would come home from school and the house would smell so good, and I would be so hungry. Dad would be milking the cows and Mum would be out feeding the chooks, so I would be home by myself. I admit that I would pinch a cookie, or biscuit or two, just to tide me over until supper. But being a good Seventh-day Adventist child I knew that stealing was wrong and that Jesus was coming soon and those two things did not mix too well. I knew that Jesus was to appear in a cloud about the size of a man's hand, so I would check the sky carefully for hand-sized clouds because I did not want Jesus to come and find me with my hand in the cookie tin.
Sometimes, I wonder if we have grown up all that much. Are we watching for a sign that Jesus is coming so that we can put off making a real commitment to our Christian experience? Christianity is not about getting ready for Jesus to come. It is about living that relationship now.
[By the way, my mother was still alive when I was a grandparent and had learned a lot more about children and grandchildren and hunger after school. We had a great talk about cookie tins. She knew what I as up to all along and never said a thing. Mothers are really special!]
Great teaching and as child of God practicing good relationship with God now will build us be great and chosen children of God
I loved reading your story! Thanks for sharing it!
I do not fear God’s judgement because He is immeasurable fair and just. All God asks of us is to genuinely love Him with all our heart, to love our fellow man, and not to lean on our own understanding - Matt.22:37; Prov.3:5-6.
When doing this, we ‘abide under the shadow of the Almighty,’ and exclaim that “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” Psalm 91:1-2.
He promises that ‘no evil shall befall us, nor shall any plague come near our dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over us, to keep us in all our ways.’ Psalm 91:10-11.
In ages past, God chose to make the temple in the city of Jerusalem, build by man’s hands, His dwelling place. Jerusalem will again be His dwelling place, though this time it is ‘coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband’- Rev.21:2. It will never again be destroyed or abandoned.
Contemplating these circumstances takes me to think that His/our New Jerusalem is the culmination of all the work of His Love throughout all the ages - preparing mankind to live again in the presence of their Creator God.
Eden was lost because of sin. His heavenly Jerusalem, placed on the new earth, is where God again will dwell with man; having brought to an end the long journey of our reunification with Him.
What's more positive today than the message of God's love for everyone? Amidst all of the madness humanity goes through right now, what's more powerful than the promise of eternal life in a perfect environment? The gospel rescues the planet from this deafening state of emergency sirenes. It gives peace while deep dark tempests reaches the hearts!
God is great. Yesterday, tomorrow and forever.
Since 2017, I've been struggling very hard with some problems as my emotional and my phisics. It hasn't be easy to live with my jaw out of place and although I feel pain 24 hours for the last three years, knowing that it doesn't have cure. Well, it's hard to say but what God can promise me is: it will have an end when I come back. Hold on :')
I pray that the the God of love and mercy also provides healing and relieve from pain to you in this life. He is still the same One who made the blind to see and lame to walk 🙏
God is great,in Him my trust shall ever be🙏
I agree that if it is Christ who lives in us, you are always ready. When he lives in us, we will recognise the signs, like the watchman, tending his flock.
Thank you for all encouragement stories you shared.
This quarter’s lesson study has definitely brought home the seriousness of our commitment to our Savior and God. As we near the end of this age, we realize there is no time; our decisions must be sure. We must have Christ in us, the hope of glory. There is no more time for procrastination, there is a work to be done.
My prayer is that we will all hold fast to the promise of His return and continue to look for that Blessed Hope. We will not fear. Blessings.