Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “The Seven Seals”. For a long time, religionists have seen the parallels of the seven churches with the seven seals and the seven trumpets. All three repeat similar proclamations, reflecting the same prophetic timelines as they also give important insights and warnings to us individuals in all times. We can sometimes think that these prophetic messages are for certain groups (not us). But that limits God and limits His valuable counsel. As stated before, the messages have a historical application and universal application, as well as a prophetic application.
A scroll… with seals? Messages to churches? Trumpets? There’s something going on here that Heaven is real intent upon. Are these messages only to be spoken? Or are they to be proclaimed? And if so, proclaimed how? I expect that proclaiming with words only is not very effectual. Our proclamation is found in our lives… how we live. And this has been so much of the issue with popular Christianity. Most believe that “faith” is more like philosophy than a way of life. And so any Christian proclamation is more with words and clever marketing gimmicks than true “proclamation”. True proclamation…true faith in God is a way of life… not mere profession.
As a culture we have largely misapplied the term “faith” and so misapplied the idea of proclamation. Yes, we are to speak and proclaim with words. But if our lives are the very antithesis of what we say, than our words are not just meaningless, they are misleading… even leading others to turn away from the very truths we speak. And turn away from the very God they need. Our lives must be the proclamation; and then our words will carry weight. This is true proclamation. This is true faith. “Saving faith is a transaction by which those who receive Christ join themselves in covenant relation with God. Genuine faith is life. A living faith means an increase of vigor, a confiding trust, by which the soul becomes a conquering power” (Desire of Ages pg. 347). This is what the proclamation, the message desperately needs and is required…“conquering power”. And it is this lack that is the shame of popular Christianity.
Most are content with nominal Christianity (in name only). Will our mere profession serve us in the last day? Christ says nothing about our profession as having any qualifying merit apart from our lives… from what we do and who we are (see Matthew 24: 31-46). If our profession does not change our lives, it is worthless. And if our proclamation is not seen in our lives, it too is worthless. Faith that doesn’t change you is not ‘faith” at all. True saving faith is confiding trust in a Person. A trust that leads you to surrender all, commit all to the One you trust. A commitment so tight and so personal that it changes you. Therefore changing your actions, too. May we proclaim the truth with our lives, even as we proclaim it with our lips.
With brotherly love,
Jim