Sabbath: When Your World Is Falling Apart
Image © Pacific Press
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Isa: 7:1-9, Isa: 7:10-13, Isa: 7:14.
Memory Text: “If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established”(Isaiah 7:9).
One Sabbath Connie and Roy drove into their driveway after church. A bantam hen flew frantically across the yard in front of them. Something was wrong. The pet birds were supposed to be safely in their pen but had gotten out. Quick investigation showed a tragedy in progress. Beethoven, the neighbor’s small dog, also had escaped her yard and was down by the pond with Daisy in her mouth. Daisy was a beautiful laying hen with fluffy white tail feathers. Connie rescued Daisy, but it was too late. Her precious pet, now with a mangled neck, soon died in Connie’s arms. She sat down in the yard, holding the dead bird, and wailed.
Another pet was deeply disturbed. A tall, white duck by the name of Waddlesworth saw Connie holding Daisy and seemed to have assumed she had killed her. So, for the next few weeks, whenever Waddlesworth saw Connie, he would viciously attack her, pinching her painfully with his strong bill. Sometimes it is hard to sort out who your friends and enemies are.
This week we’ll look at a king of Judah who also had this problem, and we’ll seek to understand why he made the wrong choices he did.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, January 16.
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The events of 2020 and early 2021 have given new meaning to the notion of our world falling apart. In my quest for an appropriate thought this morning I thought of the story behind the popular hymn, "It is Well with My Soul"
Horatio Spafford was a successful lawyer and businessman as well as a committed Christian. In 1871, he lost his son and then he was ruined financially by the great Chicago fire. At the same time he suffered further loss from the economic downturn of 1873. He was to travel to England with his family in 1874 to support the evangelistic plans of D L Moody, but a change of plans meant that his wife and four daughters went ahead while he worked on his business interests. While the ship carrying his family was crossing the Atlantic, it collided with another ship and sank, his four daughters were lost and only his wife was saved. As Spafford was crossing the Atlantic later to meet up with his grieving wife, he penned the now famous words to "It is Well With My Soul".
Dear Maurice - Thank you for sharing one of the most moving hymns with your fellow pilgrims. I did not know the details of Horacio Spafford’s life and are humbled by the grace our Heavenly Father gave him to carry his cross! His hymn’s message brings tears of gratitude to my eyes every time - what solace, what peace of heart and mind can be ours as we seek to be sheltered by God’s Grace. Psalm 27:5; Exodus 33:22.
When your world is falling apart, who hasn't experienced that? Maybe you suddenly lost a loved one or friends unexpectedly. Your wife had a miscarriage, you lost your home through foreclosure or you got laid off from your job. You have experienced the Murphy Law (Anything that can go wrong will go wrong). How do Christian suppose to react in these situations? What about a young girl who has been abused by her dad or a family member? Where is God when your spouse is abusing you emotionally or physically?
Where is God through all of this? If we (Christians) can struggle through this, what about our Atheist friends? Do you remember the story of John the Baptist? He was preaching that Jesus was the Messiah. While he was in jail, he doubted the Messianic mission of Jesus (Are you the One or do we have to wait for another One). How do we react when our world turn upside down? What do you do when God SEEMS deaf to our cries? Jesus gave us the promise that He will never forsake us. I am giving you this verse to conclude.
" Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8: 35 - 39 NIV)."
Happy Sabbath and let us continue to fight the good fight.
When my world is falling apart there are two texts on which I center my thoughts John 3:16 and John 16:33.
If I accept His Covenant and Principles of Life then the LORD has promised me eternal life but not a trouble free life in this world only an inner peace and trust in His Plan for my life as part of His overall Plan of Salvation for the world.
We often find ourselves in such precarious situations in life.Do we then loose hope and faith?
Am reminded about the israelites journey from Egypt.Many thought they were going to die in the wilderness.Amidst the individual doubts the Lord was a pillar and a light to them.
Likewise at times our ships may be sinking and letting doubts set into our hearts.We just have to cling on hope of His words to remain same.
In this life there are what I call seasons of difficulty and distress. No matter how I’ve tried to avoid them by planning, working, organizing and making lists, they come anyway.
Unexpected trials often just show up. The death of my husband, the flooding of my home, major car repairs, loss of a child, and I could go on and on stating the hardships of this life...
BUT I will say, our God has always been so close. He sends exactly what I need. A Word, an encouraging friend, a serendipitous event that only He could do.
Often His Spirit will encourage me to look to the Giver of every good and perfect gift rather than focus on the gift itself.
The reward has been a tangible experience of God’s love, grace and mercy. I’m not unique or special in this. God will do this for even those who struggle to believe He will.
The key for me has been in asking. Even asking for faith to believe Him, and eyes to see His work as He does whatever it is He does.
I’m grateful.
You know things are falling apart when the vultures gather. Sometimes when I'm walking and I see them circling high overhead this makes me giggle as I wonder if they know something about my life's next minutes that I don't. But when the vultures are circling down low, landing, their flesh-tearing beaks ready to get in on the mess, it has become serious.
That quote at the end of Luke 17 is Jesus speaking. He follows it with a reminder to pray. Deeply pray. Day and night pray. Humbly intercede.
If man has nothing but himself as the source which can assure his survival, he is driven by his survival instinct to protect himself by arranging his life accordingly. We can see these efforts all around us, everyone has something to offer which promises to provide the assurance of peace on earth and harmony between mankind; the greater the chaos, the greater the desire to control this environment; the more he controls it, the more it will reflect the effects of his fallen nature.
What position do we take as Christians? How do we secure our ‘survival’ – we are not only flesh and blood, we believe to be also spirit? How do we secure the survival of this living soul? I am not thinking of every day calamities assailing our wellbeing, but the assaults directed against our faith in the God who promised that He will never leave us or forsake us.
Heb.13:5KJV - “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
James 4:8KJV - ”Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.”
For us, the real challenge is to remain faithful to the Word of God and His promises. Is our faith strong enough to withstand challenges of the kind which Horatio Spafford experienced and still bring forth praise and loving thoughts of protection the Father offers His children?
I am amazed and humbled by the depth of Grace which man of faith have experienced. The loving care of the Father inspired them to take their eyes off the circumstances and place them squarely on that which matters: God’s never failing Grace and Mercy. “No pain shall be mine, for in death as in life, Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul” this blessed man was inspired to write for the edification of all who suffer earthly loss. “But Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait, the sky, not the grave, is our goal’!
May we all be richly blessed by God’s Mercy and Grace to experience His peace in our soul during the time “when our world is falling apart”.
When Your World Is Falling Apart-
Two bibles stories came to my mind. 1. Jonah at the bottom of the boat sleeping while a storm was raging above and Jesus at the bottom of the boat sleeping while a storm was raging above. What are the similarities of these people and their circumstances?
What about us SDA? Many of us speak about faith and deep faith in God. Song says- Life is easy when you are up on the mountain...but things changes when you are down in the valley.
When life changes for us, do we still hold on to the unchanging hand of God? He said he never changes, but do we believe it?
One of my prayers daily is asking the Lord not to take my long term memories from me. I want to remember always where the Lord brought me from- the history of my life, so I will be confident in going forward in the future. When we, SDA forget the path we have trodden, we will be confused and faithless about the future. Minor things in life will cause our world to fall apart. The Lord will not bring us to a place where he knew we will not overcome because he had already made a place of escape.
I need to find the words of a hymn sung in the Anglican elementary school I attended 70+ years ago. There were words “He is least seen when the powers of ill are most around” keep coming up. My understanding was /is that when things go against God often seems absent but HE is there with me. 22 years ago I was suddenly dismissed from social work position my team members were quite upset many were surprised how calmly I reacted. I let them know that God would provide for me. HE has ! One of my team wrote me a note “ what has happened may be a blessing in disguise” I have not discovered the blessing but know God has provided for me all my life.HE stated Job was perfect yet allowed him to loose all but his life and John the Baptist to be beheaded it is my intention to continue to trust HIM so that I will one day live with HIM for all eternity . Troubles of the world will soon be done!
If my prayer is "thy will be done", do I believe it, no matter what prevails? Regardless the circumstances that come, can I joyfully sing "He leadeth me, O blessed thought!"?
We know the day we are living in, and that in this day the Lord will sit as a refiner of the sons of Levi(Mal 3:1-4, Dan 8:14; 12:10). If we are servants of God, He will refine us, and I've noticed that this refining is always by fire. If it is our desire to be like Jesus, this is how that prayer is answered. Remember His own life of trials and the resulting purity of His character and life, and how it is said of the redeemed that "these are they which follow the Lamb withersoever He goeth".