Boasting. Where does it come from? The need to show that I am better than others? That I am morally superior, own more, have more of “something” than the next person? In America, they call this phenomenon, "keeping up with the Joneses." The idea is that everyone is supposedly all striving to keep up with this imaginary family, or real family as the
We are living in tempestuous times. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is not immune to the tide of decreased membership, spiritual atrophy and disillusionment that is sweeping sectors of Christianity. If the church is to survive, it needs to be open, relevant, and inclusive in its presentation of the gospel to the world. The local church is key to t
Do you recall when you first gave your life to Christ? I mean, the kind where you found yourself walking down to the front of the church with sweaty hands, perhaps with a burning sensation in your heart, and a driving need to connect and find out more about God? Maybe you weren’t in a church at all. You may have been down at the beach, on a mountai
In a famous work written nearly 497 years ago, called “The Freedom of a Christian,” Protestant Reformer Martin Luther wrote: “A Christian is a perfectly free Lord of all, subject to no one. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant to all, subject to all.” What does freedom mean for the Christian? Are we indeed subject to none, to all, or to One,
The apostle Paul discusses two important covenants in Galatians 4:21-31, the topic for this week’s Sabbath school lesson. Why does Paul choose these two covenants, represented by two women in Scripture, Hagar and Sarah, and what does he mean by this? Furthermore, what is the relevance of this to today’s Bible student? I propose that we look closely
Living in L.A. for 7 years, awakened me to the daily reality of people begging on the streets. People who beg are people who have lost something, perhaps everything. They are asking to be filled by passersby who may or may not have anything to share. Being a foreign student to the United States without a car meant that I walked pretty much everywhe
There’s an old saying that goes like this (somewhat modified, as taught to me by my father): “You can lead a horse to drink, but you can’t make it water.” This week’s lesson provides an abundance of good drink. Like animals on a long journey, we need to stop at times and quench our thirst. Let’s face it—life is difficult. It is important that we ta
The title of the Sabbath School lesson this week is, “The Road to Faith.” What does this mean? Is the author referring to another path leading to salvation that exists prior to or separate from faith in Jesus Christ? Are there two paths, one for Jewish Christian believers and another for Gentiles? Or are we all on the same road of faith all
The lesson this week continues on the topic of the relationship between the law of God and the promises of God in the context of God’s covenant with Abraham found in Genesis 15:1-6. Some key questions raised after reading Galatians 3:15-20 include: While some of these questions go beyond the extent of this week’s lesson and will be picked up again
One of Paul’s favorite subjects in his writings is the relationship between the law and faith. Having come from a background of Judaism and the life of a strict Pharisee, Paul regularly engaged former Jews in other ways of thinking to understand how the Gentiles were also heirs of Abraham. To this end, he discusses in Galatians the purpose of the l
