Commentary on "Trumpet, Blood, Cloud, and Fire"

RICHARD PEIFER

 

Day 7: Friday, October 22, 2009

 

Overview

“If you live near a site of significant spiritual history, such as an Adventist Heritage Ministry site, visit it as a class” (Teacher’s Comments, from Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide).

 

Problems

The point of visiting such a site is to gain an appreciation of how God has led the SDA church. After all, the SDA church is Spiritual Israel for today. Right? Wrong! Jesus came to this earth to save people, plain old ordinary lost people. He did not come to save churches, not a single one.

If you’ve been struggling with thoughts that you’ll never measure up, that you’ll never be good enough, that you may have sinned too much to be saved, or that some failure on your part just recently may have cost you your salvation I have good news for you. But first, one more piece of bad news. If you think your ability to measure up has anything at all to do with your salvation, then you are not saved. And now, the good news…

Salvation is God’s free gift to you. It has nothing to do with your ability to do anything, because there is nothing any of us can do to earn it. If you accept His gift, then you will be saved forever, because nothing you do will cause Him to take it away.

Instead of cringing every time you blow it, you can say, “Thank you, Lord, for your forgiveness.” Instead of trying harder, you can rest. Instead of questioning whether you’ll ever know God’s will, you will know it. Instead of living in fear of punishment, you can live with joy and a peace that no one else can understand. Instead of wondering what the future holds, you will know that you, as a child of God, are as victorious as Jesus.

All of this, and more, is yours freely because of what Jesus did.

Although God’s mighty hand and outstretched arm performed innumerable miracles on behalf of Israel, the reality of “Christ in you the hope of glory” is a miracle so far beyond the Old Covenant as to render it obsolete and fading away.

 

Summary

1. Turn from the shadow to the reality!
2. Leave Adventism behind.
3. It is all Jesus, or it is nothing at all.

 

 

Copyright 2009 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised October 15, 2009. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.

The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.

 

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