Friday: Further Thought ~ To Serve and to Save
Further Study:
Read Ellen G. White’s description of Jesus’ healing and teaching ministry in “At Capernaum,” The Desire of Ages, pages 252-261.
“In the work of soul winning, great tact and wisdom are needed. The Savior never suppressed the truth, but He uttered it always in love.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
In His [dealings] with others, He exercised the greatest tact, and He was always kind and thoughtful. He was never rude, never needlessly spoke a severe word, never gave unnecessary pain to a sensitive soul. He did not censure human weakness. He fearlessly denounced hypocrisy, unbelief, and iniquity, but tears were in His voice as He uttered His scathing rebukes. He never made truth cruel, but ever manifested a deep tenderness for humanity. Every soul was precious in His sight. He bore Himself with divine dignity; yet He bowed with the tenderest compassion and regard to every member of the family of God. He saw in all, souls whom it was His mission to save.” — Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers, p. 117.
Discussion Questions:
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Summary:
Deliverance requires a Deliverer. God’s servant nation would be delivered by two deliverers: Cyrus, who would set the captives free from Babylonian exile, and an unnamed Servant, whose identity as the Messiah is progressively revealed. This Servant would restore justice and bring the community of survivors back to God.
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We were staying in a small caravan park on the edge of the escarpment at Eungella in Northern Queensland on one of my bird photography trips. During the course of our overnight stay, we got into a conversation with the manager of the park. She was an interesting person. She had been an executive of a talent management company for the media and had also been a deacon in the Church of England. She told us that she had read a book by Ellen White called "Steps to Christ" and had been so impressed by it that she decided to visit Sunnyside in Cooranbong.
She sat in Ellen White's chair and she prayed that the Holy Spirit would touch her in some way so that she could work like her. She told us that within a week, right out of the blue, she had this sudden thought that she should work for homeless people. Within two weeks, she was given the lease on an old motel for $10 a week to put her plan into action. She then started her work of providing food and shelter for homeless people in Sydney.
There is much more to this story, and we only heard part of it in our short stay in Eungella, but for me the really interesting part of it is the fact that Ellen White, through her writings, inspired this woman into an act of compassion that made a difference to the lives of the suffering here in Australia. We often think of Ellen White in terms of Adventist doctrinal correctness and church reproof. Here in Cooranbong, Australia she was known for her compassion. The fact that the woman I met in Queensland had been inspired to compassion should not be a surprise to us.
Our reading of Isaiah this week has essentially been a picture of compassion and delivery. Cyrus was seen as the deliverer of compassion towards Israel. He typified the compassion and delivery given to us by Jesus, who in turn set an example for us. The very big sin of Christianity is that somewhere along the line compassion gave way to coercion, and once again the idol of self and institutional aggrandizement took first place.
It is not just a nice pithy statement.
Thank you for sharing this powerful story brother! It helps make this week's lesson really come to life!
What a challenge - say something short & significant!
My challenge to you and me - have these words this week inspired me to share my goods and my faith with others?
Yes it has. Help me do what you want me to do dear LORD, go where you want me to go, reach out to whomever you want me to reach out to. Amen.
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” [James 3:17.]
To Serve and to Save
Quote from above reading from EG White.
In New Fields
'In laboring in a new field, do not think it your duty to say at once to the people, We are Seventh-day Adventists; we believe that the seventh day is the Sabbath; we believe in the non-immortality of the soul.'
In a group conversation recently, someone asked me if I will say to someone dying of covid19. "Don't worry or don't be afraid you will not spend Christmas here but you will spend it with Jesus the other year. I said no, but at that time the conversation changed. I do not have to say what my church preaches but what the bible says in love. Many believes when they or love ones die they go to heaven with Jesus.
Many times is not what we say but how we say it. But the essence of what she is say is, how do we witness to unbelievers, or non SDA? The strategies we use to teach/preach/witnessing to a SDA is different from a non SDA.
Many SDA knew the bible inside out so the standard many times is higher or different from others. The way we conduct a revival for church members is different from the way we conduct a crusade for outsiders.
We are about to undergo a change of leadership in our church. Our very beloved Pastor is retiring in just a few weeks. I for one, am very apprehensive about the change but it is inevitable in every church. In my adult/married life, I have only been through this once before and it was a complete disaster. We (the Church) did not get to choose a replacement. The first woman Pastor in our conference was appointed to us by our conference office. Before I go any further, it was not the fact that she was a woman that resulted in the disaster. I support the ordination of women. It was her leadership style that killed a church.
Most of you are likely familiar with a very well known book, “The Purpose Driven Life”, written by a quite well know Pastor, Rick Warren. A good book on individual growth. There is a lessor known book that he also wrote, “The Purpose Driven Church”. It sounds like a great follow up to his very successful first book but in my humble opinion, it is not. In essence it describes a cult like structure around which he built a very successful church of about 20,000 members. I will not attempt a critique. You may read it for yourself and draw your own conclusion. The point is that this new pastor in our church, was bound and determined to use this method to grow HER church and she only wanted people that supported HER process. She drove off all the core members, including my family, over the course of a year. The church did not survive and she eventually ran off with another pastor and left her husband and 3 daughters behind. The point being, she used nor possessed any of the attributes described by Mrs. White in today’s lesson.
I had been wondering exactly what it is that our current pastor possesses and has portrayed over the last 17 years that has made him so beloved by the church. Today’s lesson, and specifically Mrs. White’s description of a tactful, kind and loving approach to ministry, is his key. It is these characteristics that I will suggest to our board that we look for in his replacement. Thankfully, this time we get to choose.
Every interaction with others is an opportunity to allow God to reach humanity through us.
I’m a registered nurse and have had the chance to work with young, old, well to do and poor. I’ve worked with inmates and those who had influence in this life. It’s sad to see how people are often treated due to circumstance especially by those who claim to be Christians.
It’s hard not to be affected when I see people treated harshly because of race, economic situation, gender or anything else that makes us unique individuals. Sometimes I’ve spoken up against it, and at other times have asked the Lord to help me lead by example. There are times when treating others with kindness (while maintaining Christian boundaries) has made me a target for the ridicule that was being heaped on someone.
In the end, our words and actions God will not ignore. As Christians we will see how our words influenced and affected others.
“Go ye into all the world to save and to serve” – that is the ‘Great Commission’.
In Mark 16:15KJV, Jesus calls man to “go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
In Matt.28:18-20KJV, ‘Jesus came and spake unto them, saying’, - “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach (or make disciples/talmidim) of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all this whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
When looking for the bible reference to the call ‘to go into all the world’, I came upon an article which expresses my deeply held thoughts clearly about 'the disciple being one with God', and I decided to share an excerpt of the article with you.
Talmid or Talmidim is the Aramaic word for what we usually refer to as disciple(s) or follower(s). This word expresses the deep oneness we experience with the Father in Christ – John17:15-21KJV. This true oneness is beyond the identification or affiliation of a member of a group, it is oneness in Spirit and in deed. The following is only an excerpt from this very insightful article which talks about the true meaning of being a disciple. I hope it will bless you as it has blessed me.
(TALMIDIM by Dave Brisbin, June 14.2016, Foundational Concepts)
Brigette- that was a beautiful reading about what is takes to make a disciple. Looking at the bible when Jesus rendered/announced/gave the disciples those words to 'go and teach/preach and baptized' was a command for them to do. But before they could literally teach/preach and baptized they had to be baptized with the Holy Ghost(we call it the falling of the former rain upon humans). He went on to say at his ascension, stay in Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Ghost. Acts 1:8 Without the Holy Ghost we can do nothing.
Many Christians want to be a witness for Jesus and do great works for him but if we try in our own strength we will be loosing a great battle. It is the power of the Holy Ghost within the believer that does the work in them.
I like how he said it is a process. The Lord works with those who are sold out to him. He knows everyone heart.
I thought it interesting that the EGW quote the author chose for today is also found in Steps to Christ page 12.1. I do believe Gospel Workers is a compilation of quotes from may books and periodicals of EGW. It is my wife's very favorite
quote.
The quote in Steps to Christ is found in the very 1st step, Getting to Know of God's Love for Man. And in Gospel Workers it is under the topic of Tactfulness.
We hid under the guise of, 'the Holy Spirit does all the drawing of souls to the foot of the Cross', and lay aside tactfullness and wisdom.
Happy Sabbath all.
What Ellen describes above is seen in all who exhibit the "Fruit of the Spirit", which only happens with those who are empty of self, in whom the Holy Spirit may dwell as in Jesus. In this manner alone will any become a witness of Christ to the world(Acts 1:8).
Robert I agree with you. E.g, Look at the process in the bible about understanding things as a Christian, Paul used the terminology- baby knowledge as compared to an adult knowledge. Heb 5:10-14. Or Paul stated when he was a child what he did, when he became an adult he put away childish things.
1 Corinthians 13:11. Here we are looking at two physical processes with spiritual meaning. So it is with spiritual processes, humans cant do anything without the Holy Spirit. For those who held crusades in the past, we spend so much money without even one soul won to Christ. Did we tried doing it in our own strength? Some spent less money and kept winning souls for Jesus. I can only tell people, it is the Holy Spirit who brings the conviction then the conversion to that person. It is good to be tactful but with the Holy Spirit in the picture.