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 Bible Study Guide”, is titled “Turning Hearts in the End of Time”. A good finale to this quarter. We Adventists, like so many Christians today and so many “faithful” since the beginning of time have strived our whole lives to create a “heaven on earth”. To create circumstances and events that will lead to a peaceful existence and for us to be well-respected and honored by our peers. At times it has been our highest goal. And we have believed that our being respected by the world equates to the God we worship being respected by the world. We believe that this is the way to “turn hearts”. But this is a fallacy. We like to believe it because subliminally we want “self” exalted. Our reputation among men assumes the ascendancy over… well… over God’s way of reaching people. The quarterly uses this last lesson to drive home the point that God’s self-abnegating way is the only way to really “turn hearts”.
“The world needs desperately a demonstration of unselfish, caring, lasting commitment--- and unswerving devotion to God… Until the principles of gospel, unity, love and self-sacrifice are made manifest among us… we will be powerless to share the message with others. All the eloquent sermons, all the logic and the Biblical presentations aren’t enough. The world needs to see manifest in our lives… the repentance, the turned hearts, the love, the commitment we preach about.” (Quarterly for Thursday, June 27). Amen! And the way of God is the way of the cross.
“He permits us to encounter obstacles, persecution, and hardships, not as a curse, but as the greatest blessing of our lives. Every temptation resisted, every trial bravely borne, gives us a new experience and advances us in the work of character building. The soul that through divine power resists temptation reveals to the world and to the heavenly universe the efficiency of the grace of Christ” (Mount of Blessing pg. 117). This is God’s way. For Judah’s sake, for Babylon’s sake , for the world’s sake it was necessary for Judah to humbly submit and be taken captive by evil forces (Babylon), and for Jerusalem to be destroyed to the ground by Nebuchadnezzar’s army. For Judah’s sake, for Babylon’s sake, for the world’s sake it was necessary for Christ to humbly submit and be taken captive by evil forces, and to be destroyed to the ground… on the cross. Humbleness and submission for the good of others is God’s way, was to be Judah’s way… is to be our way. But “self” has blinded our eyes and darkness has engulfed us.
We sinners are notorious for trying to merge “self” with godliness. We interpret all God’s actions from this skewed perception. We interpret God’s actions in terms of “self” and our preoccupation with our self-preservation. We interpret our role in society as primarily demonstrating personal piety. But this is not God’s way. Our “Prophet” has stern words for us, in this regard:
“The world is perishing in its misery; but this hardly moves even those who claim to believe the highest and most far-reaching truth ever given to mortals. God requires His people to be His helping hand to reach the perishing, but how many are content to do nothing. There is a lack of that love which led Christ to leave His heavenly home and take man's nature, that humanity might touch humanity and draw humanity to divinity. There is a stupor, a paralysis, upon the people of God which prevents them from understanding what is needed for this time” (6 Testimonies pg. 445).
But we do not want this way. We do not want God’s way. We want our way. We want the way of preeminence and the resulting earthly respect; not the way of quiet submission and the resulting earthly apathy. We want the way of earthly praise and veneration; not the way of earthly ignominy and indifference. We want loudly proclaimed esteem; not silent scornful disdain. We want worldly success and applause; not worldly laughter and derision. And we want it (we say) to demonstrate the superiority of God. We want the world to see our superior qualities in order to demonstrate God’s superior qualities. But God’s way is not this way. God’s way is so opposite of our way that we will not follow it. Of ourselves, God’s way seems so wrong and we see no value in it. Like Judah in Jeremiah’s day, we today will not submit to the education/ discipline of God. Instead we today call His education/ discipline Satanic… just like the Jews of Jeremiah’s day… just like the Jews of Christ’s day. We today do not like God’s way. His way? The way of the cross.
So the question for each of us as we finish this quarter is, will we be led by our God of humility and other-centeredness? Will we follow Him in the blood-stained path of other-centered love? Or will we insist on the hollow applause of the world insisting that such approval of us equates to approval of our God? It is the only way to turn hearts… to win hearts. The power of love… true, heavenly love.
With brotherly love,
Jim