Friday, March 26, 2010

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow!

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow!
(Psalms 103, 2 Timothy 1:9, Exodus 15, Romans 12)
Health & Healing: Lesson 1
 


Introduction: How important is your health? Would you like to wake up every morning feeling great? If money is any gauge, I have read that in the United States alone over two trillion dollars (trillion, not billion) is spent each year on our health. Does God care about our health? Is there a connection between righteousness and health? Do we have an obligation to God to do our best to stay healthy? Let's dive into our new series of studies to see what the Bible has to say about health!
  1. Reasons for Praise
    1. Read Psalms 103:1. What does it mean to praise God with our "inmost being?" (This is not superficial praise. This is praising God from our core - from deep inside.)
    2. Read Psalms 103:2. I often hear people say we should praise God "because of who He is." What additional reason does the Psalmist give us to praise God? (He gives us benefits! This seems a selfish reason to give praise, but it is natural (and easy) to praise someone who helps us.)
    3. Read Psalms 103:3-5. What is the Psalmist describing? (The previously mentioned benefits that God gives us!)
      1. Let's list these benefits. (Forgiveness of sin. Healing disease. Pulling us out of a pit. Giving us love and compassion. Satisfying our desires with good things. Giving us youth.)
        1. As you look at this list, do any of these benefits have anything to do with health? (Yes! Giving us a youthful feeling and getting rid of our diseases.)
        2. Do you attach any importance to the fact that when the Psalmist lists our benefits he lists the forgiveness of sins first and healing of diseases second? (Eternal life is logically more important than life on earth.)
          1. Let's look at these two benefits - forgiving our sins and healing us from disease - in more detail.
  2. Praise for Forgiveness of Sin
    1. Read 2 Timothy 1:9. When did God formulate His plan to fix our sin problem? (Before the beginning of time. Before the beginning of our existence.)
      1. What does this suggest about God's thinking when He created us? (He created us with the knowledge that we might reject Him.)
        1. Assume you are a parent and your child has rejected you. If you could turn back time and not have this child born, would you do it? (A parent who says, "I would have this child anyway" shows incredible love. Our God has shown incredible love to us.)
    2. Read Ephesians 2:8-10. Do we deserve to have our sins forgiven and eternal life? (No. It is a gift from God, and not the result of our works. However, we have been created to do good works.)
    3. Now we understand why the Psalmist in Psalms 103:3 praises God for forgiving our sins.
  3. Praise God for Healing Disease and Giving Us Youth
    1. Read Exodus 15:26. What connection is there between obeying God and sickness? (God says that if we obey, he will not bring the diseases on us that He brought on the Egyptians.)
      1. Does this mean that when we get sick it is because we sinned? (Perhaps.)
      2. What does the book of Job teach us about this subject? (Job's "friends" were telling him that he was sick and suffering because he had not been obeying God. But, we know from the first chapter of Job that God told Satan that Job was "blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil." Job 1:8.)
        1. What should we conclude from Job and Exodus 15:26 about the origin of illness? (Sometimes we get sick because we have not followed God and sometimes we get sick because we have followed God. In addition, our common sense tells us that sometimes we get sick simply because we live in a sin-filled world.)
      3. Let's look again at the last few words of Exodus 15:26: "I am the Lord, who heals you." Is there both a negative and positive involvement of God in our health? (God seems to say He is a healing God. That is His normal attribute, the positive side of health. However, He also brings diseases on the disobedient. God is involved in our health in both a positive and negative way.)
    2. Read Jeremiah 7:22-23. Could God have just given the people commands about worshiping Him? (Of course. This is the way people viewed pagan gods.)
      1. What else did God do for us? (God is not just seeking our worship, He is seeking to have a relationship with us. He wants our lives to go well - and for that reason He has given us a series of commands. This is the positive side of obedience, the "healing" side.)
      2. What examples do we see of this in the Bible? (If you skim over Leviticus chapters 11-15 you will find numerous regulations that God gave Moses to keep the people healthy and disease-free.)
    3. Read Proverbs 3:7-8. Avoiding arrogance, fearing God, shunning evil: do these have any obvious connection to health and strong bones? (This suggests a connection between spiritual health and physical health. This seems more than the idea of God putting diseases on us as a judgment or a test, or healing us as a blessing. There is some inherent connection between righteousness and health. The natural result of obedience is a strong and healthy body.)
  4. Praise Sacrifice
    1. Read Romans 12:1. I thought Jesus was the Lamb of God who died to take away our sins. Why are we sacrifices?
      1. Let's work through this problem. What is the reason for us to be sacrifices? ("In view of God's mercy." This is a reference to the mercy Jesus showed us by dying for our sins. As His followers, we need to have the same sacrificial attitude.)
      2. How is our sacrifice different from that of Jesus? (We are a "living" sacrifice. I'll choose that over being a "dead" sacrifice!)
      3. How is this worship? (As part of our worship to a God who gave His life for us, we make some sacrifices.)
      4. Now for the tough question, what kind of sacrifice are we talking about? What does it mean for you to "offer" your "body" as a "living sacrifice?"
    2. Read Romans 12:2. What does this suggest is the answer to the prior question? (Our "sacrifice" is to conform to God's will and not the will of the world.)
      1. Romans 12:1 referred to our body and this refers to our mind. Are both involved in this living sacrifice? (Clearly, there is a physical component to this. A healthy body reflecting a positive relationship with God is part of the "sacrifice." Our actions begin with attitudes of our minds. We need to present a total sacrifice: mind and body!)
      2. Is health a part of this? (The parallel seems to be a renewed mind and renewed body. These reflect our total worship of God.)
      3. All sorts of people worship their body. This is one of the main goals of our age. Is that what is being discussed here? (The text warns us about conforming to the pattern of the world. Instead, our worship is a mind and body reflecting the greatness of our God.)
    3. Friend, if you have not thought about the relationship between health and spirituality, if you have not thought about taking care of your body as part of your worship of God, will you consider it today? Why not commit today to asking God to help you renew not only your mind, but also your body as part of your "living sacrifice?"
  5. Next week: The Power of Choice.


Copr. 2010, Bruce N. Cameron, J.D. All scripture references are to the New International Version (NIV), copr. 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society, unless otherwise noted. Quotations from the NIV are used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. Suggested answers are found within parentheses. The lesson assumes the teacher uses a blackboard or some other visual aid. This lesson can be found at: http://www.GoBible.Org/study/601.php

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

FOLLOW THE BIBLE


Read a statement from Mark Finley Vice President, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
Statement

Historically the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been known as "a people of the Book," although the terminology "people of the Book" originally came from the Qur'an, referring to the three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. "Do not dispute with the People of the Book: say, we believe in what has been sent down to us and what has been sent down to you; our God and your God is one" (Sura 29.45). The term "people of the book" was often used in reference to Adventists because, in the past, they studied their Bibles. For more than 150 years Seventh-day Adventist families have begun their day by reading the Bible and used its teaching for inspiration, guidance and source of encouragement for their daily living. Seventh-day Adventists promote the Bible as the voice of truth in this sinful world. Sadly, an alarming picture emerges today.

The findings of the Barna Research Study of June 2001 should concern us. In comparing seven religious practices of 12 major denominations, the Barna Study concluded that Seventh-day Adventists ranked number seven in the frequency of Bible reading, and only number twelve in prayer practices. The Barna study correlates with a survey (3,646 surveys returned) by the Institute of Church Ministry at the theological seminary at Andrews University reveals that only 51% of the Seventh-day Adventist administrators, pastors, and lay people who responded have any form of daily devotions and family worship. These studies indicate that Seventh-day Adventists in some places are no longer the "People of the Book."

We are reminded by the pen of inspiration that "no other Book is so potent to elevate the thoughts, to give vigor to the faculties, as the broad enabling truths of the Bible" (SC 90), and that "none but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible will stand through the last great conflict" (GC 593). Therefore, there is an urgent need for all leaders at all church levels to do something to increase the number of Adventists spending time each day studying their Bibles and witnessing for their Lord.

Follow the Bible is part of a coordinated initiative by church leadership to lift the vision of Seventh-day Adventists worldwide in renewing their commitment to read and share the Bible. Church leadership envisions an international Bible Route with a Bible traveling the world between GC annual council, October 2008 and GC session, June 2010. The eyes of the entire Adventist community will follow this Bible as it journeys the world. As it is brought into cities, towns, and villages, large numbers of Adventists will gather to recommit their lives to following the Bible. Millions of Adventists worldwide will participate in Bible reading marathons as the Bible passes through their areas. Church leaders will speak to large and small groups gathered to rededicate themselves to the word of God as the Bible is brought to their church or school. Thousands of evangelistic meetings will be planned to encourage seeking men and women to "Follow the Bible."

Therefore, Follow the Bible will have the following objectives:

• To create worldwide community awareness that Seventh-day Adventists are people who believe and follow the Bible as the Word of God.

• To revive and encourage Seventh-day Adventist members around the world to return to the Bible, to accept its authority, and determine to follow the Bible in their daily life.

• To involve Seventh-day Adventists around the world in personal study, small-group study, and sharing the message of the Bible to others in the community.

This will possibly be the most traveled Bible in the history of the world as it makes its journey, and momentum will build within the Adventist community. This Bible will be preached from and read in more languages than any other book in the history of mankind. All of the media ministries of the Church will cover the story. The public media will feature its journey. This initiative will surely restore the image of the Church, that Seventh-day Adventists really are people of the Book. We are truly people who Follow the Bible.

NEXT ARTICLE ON FOLLOW THE BIBLE IS CONVERSATION:-
Follow the Bible: a journey to spiritual renewal
Editor’s note: How many people in your congregation read the Bible regularly? What about your denomination? You might be surprised at the low ratio. “Follow the Bible” is an initiative launched by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, but we believe that all denominations would benefit by designing their own programs to encourage greater reading of the Word of God.

The editors of Ministry interviewed three leaders of the world church of Seventh-day Adventists: Jan Paulsen, president; Matthew Bediako, secretary; and Mark Finley, one of the vice-presidents.

Nikolaus Satelmajer (NS): What is the purpose of the Follow the Bible project?

Jan Paulsen (JP): We have been known historically, and we’ve described ourselves as the “people of the Book,” suggesting that the values we hold, the things we believe, and the impetus to our mission is all based and rooted in Scripture.

We have always encouraged our people to stay close to the Book, to read it. Yet the sad fact is that far too many of our people spend little or no time reading the Bible. They limit their spiritual nurture as far as the actual reading of the Word of God is concerned to what is being served when they attend a meeting—what is being read to them in church. They don’t spend time themselves in the Bible—or very, very little time studying the Scriptures. This is what drives the project. Follow the Bible is to lift up the Bible as the Word of God, to highlight its relevance as being a message that addresses all people, all cultures, all times, and to encourage our people to spend quality time with the Bible.

Willie Hucks (WH): Do you believe it will increase readership of the Bible among our church members? If so, how?

Mark Finley (MF): I’ll give you a little background on how Follow the Bible started. A group of us began to think and pray about what we could do to stimulate Bible reading among Seventh-day Adventist members. As we talked and prayed about it, we took a look at some of the data that was coming in that Dr. Paulsen referred to, indicating that Bible reading—although it has been a top priority for Seventh-day Adventists through the years—was beginning to come to the point in some minds where the Bible was not predominant, and some of them weren’t studying the Bible as they had in past years. So we wondered if we could come up with an idea—if we could do something symbolic—that people could rally around. So the idea of the traveling Bible came up. We would produce a Bible in sixty-six languages. Each book of the Bible is in a different language—probably unique in the history of Christianity. If we could bring that Bible to key centers with thousands of people coming to major congregations or rallies, we could stimulate Bible reading. That will happen really in three ways. It’ll happen at convocations where people will come by the thousands as this traveling Bible travels around the world—probably the most traveled Bible in the world. As these thousands come, sermons will be preached from the Bible, and people will be encouraged to read the Bible.

Secondly, as they come to each rally, they will be given a Bible-reading guide. It is unique in two ways. You can start any place. For example, let’s say that the rally is in January, you can start in January and read from January to January. If you come to the rally in March, you can start in March and read from March to March. We think that as Ministry, other periodicals, Hope Channel, and all of the media outlets focus specifically on this Bible-reading project, members will be thrilled to read the Bible with millions of others. They will be stimulated at the convocations where they will receive this Bible-reading guide.

Thirdly, there’s a Web site: www.Follow theBibleSDA.com, and anybody can log in to the Web site any place in the world, and they can join in this odyssey of the traveling Bible, and they can begin reading the Bible as well. So, we think it’s going to renew a spirit in pastors to preach on the Bible. We think the pastors will encourage people to participate and log on to the Web site. We can see pastors all over the world busing people into these large rallies. So we think that this will stimulate Bible reading among hundreds of thousands.

Matthew Bediako (MB): I believe that it is going to arouse interest in Bible reading. As I was growing up, we were known as people who really loved to read and know our Bible. It is not so now. Fewer members are spending time reading the Bible and praying. So, this will arouse the interest of more people to begin to read and pray often.

NS: Ministry goes to thousands of ministers.

What specifically do you envision they can do? What is it that they would be able to do with this project?

MF: There are a number of things that they could do. We will prepare three sermons and post them on the Web site so that pastors can download, take those sermons to use as a base, and modify them to preach on the Word of God. We think that pastors will be able to encourage their people as well to be part of this Bible-reading plan.

Pastors could also publish the Web site address in their church bulletins.

So, pastors will be able, in a variety of ways, to participate in the Follow the Bible project. I think one of the amazing things about it is that it’s not limited to any geographic area. The Bible is a universal Book; the Bible is going to pass through each part of the world.

I really encourage pastors, when they hear that the Bible is going to be at a certain place in their area, to make these convocations and rallies a special event and use it as a springboard to stimulate Bible reading among their members.

JP: I think every minister, whatever the denomination, will want the Word of God to be central.

MF: The title is unique: “Follow the Bible.” It’s easily translatable, you’re following the Bible with your eyes as it goes around the world, but you’re also following the Bible through a daily reading plan.

WH: What will happen regarding Follow the Bible at the 2010 General Conference (GC) Session1 to be held in Atlanta, Georgia, United States?

JP: A few months ago, the world completed the Olympic Games in China where the Olympic flame traveled the world and finally arrived at its goal. In a sense, the Bible is the spiritual flame that we lift up as a church. It is making the journey around the world, appealing to people everywhere to follow it. We lift it up, and I think it is a wonderful point that it should be the focus of arrival at the General Conference session. The General Conference session is a unique gathering of God’s people of Seventh-day Adventist believers around the world. It will deal with issues that may seem very businesslike and some of it is that. Yet, we are a spiritual community first and foremost. We are mission driven first and foremost—that is our agenda.

Everything that we are, that we want to accomplish for God is spelled out in the Word of God. So I think it is the most suitable, fitting thing that the GC session should open with our spiritual torch arriving, being delivered there, symbolically telling the people around the world that not only is it a spiritual community gathered here, but that which holds us together as a people is the Word of God. So, I see this as a symbolic act as well as just underscoring the study of the Bible.

NS: What do you all see beyond the GC session? Hopefully it isn’t just “Here it is in Atlanta, we brought the torch.” What do you envision after that?

MF: The General Conference session really connects the previous five years and launches the next five years. We would like to see that as the Bible is brought into the GC session, like the Olympic torch as Dr. Paulsen mentioned, and millions of Seventh-day Adventists have been following the Bible, that the General Conference session itself give emphasis to the Word of God, the very foundation of our faith, and this be a stimulus for our people beyond the GC session in reading and studying the Bible.

JP: There is another face of this which is fortuitous, but points to the same thing.

At this particular General Conference session, we are focusing on the life of the church pastor: the challenges, the fulfillment, the tasks, the assignment of the local church pastor, the one given the responsibility to specifically nurture and feed the flock. Where do pastors go to find what they need? They go to the Bible. So I see the linkage between highlighting the ministry of pastors to their congregations and the source to which they go.

WH: What is your long-term hope for this initiative?

MB: I hope that after the Bible has passed through a region, then that area will have a strategy whereby every church and every institution will put in place paths to encourage more people to read the Bible. I can see the possibilities.

For instance, one time in the Inter-American Division2 they had young people writing their favorite verses of the Bible on a sheet and it became a long sheet. They made a big publicity event of it—garnering a lot of interest. I hope this will help us encourage our young people to really begin to study the Bible.

MF: In one region, studies indicate that approximately forty-nine percent of Seventh-day Adventists do not have a devotional life in reading God’s Word.

Now, one can question any study and we recognize that; but let’s assume that it’s ten or fifteen percentage points higher than that if you look at the whole world.

Whatever the number is, our long-term goal is to raise it significantly. The focus of the initiative is not a big event. The big event, the large convocations and rallies, are to stimulate families to read the Bible. Our long-term initiative is to encourage members to read the Bible.

To encourage fathers and mothers to read the Bible to their children. To encourage our college students to get actively involved in Bible reading and devotional life in their dormitories. To encourage lay people to investigate again the great teachings of Scripture and to be stimulated again by the Gospels and by Jesus. Here’s a statement that tells us how important Bible reading is, “None but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible will stand through the last great conflict.”3 Another statement tells us that “If God’s word were studied as it should be, [there would be] a breadth of mind, a nobility of character . . . rarely seen in these times.”4 So, our goal is to help prepare our members for the coming of Jesus through their deep, serious Bible study that transforms their lives. That the same Spirit that inspired the Bible transforms people as they read it. Our goal is to help our members in this entire initiative find strength of character and renew their relationship with Jesus.

NS: Any major program has to be started and emphasized for a period of months, and years sometimes. What have you heard so far throughout the world?

JP: We have presented it at Annual Council and Spring Council5 to leadership from around the world. They received the idea enthusiastically. They saw instantly the spiritual impetus that this could communicate. All of us who are involved in leadership roles in the church, whether it be here from the world headquarters or from our regional headquarters around the world, have no other wish than to see our people become stronger and rooted in Scripture and be better able to share the values they hold to from Scripture.

So, anything that can help to make this better, stronger, and more effective, they support. When we presented it to our executive committee, they demonstrated huge enthusiasm for this.

It’s making its journey.

MF: Church leaders from throughout the world have really resonated with this idea. In one area of the world, the church leaders’ plans are being made so that various church units will participate in the traveling Bible event.

NS: Whenever the Bible has been the focal point in the past in Christianity, it always has brought positive change. The Reformation always started with the Word of God, whether it was Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Miller; whoever, it’s always been there.

MF: In the early Adventist movement, it has been the proclamation of God’s Word. God’s Word has provided that basis.

JP: If you look at our own church, particularly our own beginning—and I don’t mean just the one hundred fifty years in North America. I mean when our message came to northern Norway—my parents were baptized in the first wave of strong Adventism. People have strong convictions. The preaching from the Bible, the reading of the Bible lent itself to having very, very strong convictions about the values found in Scripture.

It wasn’t just a bland general spiritual feeling; they were strongly held values and convictions. Studying the Bible has been a part of our heritage.

1 It is the international gathering of Seventh-day Adventists that takes place every five years.

2 Church organizational unit for the Caribbean and the countries between North and South America.

3 Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1950), 593, 594.

4 White, Steps to Christ (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1956), 90.

5 These are major meetings of world leaders and representatives of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.