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Mother’s Wisdom

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I often marvel,” said a middle-aged man, “at the way my mother used to work out the kinks and knots in our young lives. She had such a faculty of lowering the pitch of our indignations and of placing before us in the true light all sides of our troubles. Instead of fanning the flames of our unjust and unbalanced estimates of the wrongs we thought we had suffered, she calmly judged the case and showed us where we were at fault. She showed us the unwise results of jumping at conclusions, and the wrong we did ourselves and others by forming unjust judgments of them. And I cannot remember that I ever heard her speak an unkind, uncharitable word of anyone. What a pity that we cannot see these wonderful characteristics in our young days, and that they are not revealed to us until so many of our mothers have passed away, and we cannot tell them how they influenced our lives for good?”

When my friend left me I found myself thinking of the wonderful influence of mothers. To the child what mother says and does is always right. Mother’s estimate of people and things is conclusive. What opinions she has must be right, for is not mother the wisest and best person in the whole world?

If the boy has a quarrel and comes home to tell her that his mate is the meanest boy in the world, that he has injured him and he hates him and will not speak to him again —“never as long as he lives”—the unwise mother will take her boy’s part; she will depreciate his mate in his hearing, and leave the impression on her son’s mind that he is perfectly justifiable in his denunciation of his former friend.

But the wise mother will listen calmly to her boy’s statement of the wrongs he thinks he has suffered, and then she will ask him what he did himself to bring about such a state of unpleasantness. She will not magnify the wrong, but make it as light as possible, and convince her boy that he was somewhat to blame himself, and that it “always takes two to make a quarrel, but one can always end it”—showing that a forgiving, forgetting spirit is the right one to be fostered, and that it is no sign of weakness, but strength, to go more than half way in the making up of quarrels and being good friends again.

Children often come in and tell some stories detrimental to their neighbors, which they have heard unwisely told over in some of their young companions’ homes. Oh, how much trouble and unjust prejudices have come from gossip of this kind spoken before children, who have not the discretion to keep it to themselves!

The wise mother never encourages such gossip. She deprecates it, and teaches her children that charity which makes the child and the man and the woman so Christlike all through life. If we mothers could only, as Madam Swetchine says, “employ heavenly forces to keep our balance amid earthly ones”!

Let us try to keep out of our own and our children’s hearts all bitterness and irritation and the words that have stings in them and hurt so cruelly. Let us be careful not to talk too much of the burdens of life, and estimate their weight in high figures—rather by patient bearing to show the strength that comes from the help given by the mother’s God, in whom she trusts and on whose arm she leans.

The true mother has no time or strength to give to the vanities of life. “Blessed is the memory of a good mother. It floats to us now like the beautiful perfume of some woodland blossom. The music of other voices may be lost, but the entrancing memory of hers will echo in our souls forever. Other faces will fade away and be forgotten, but hers will shine on until the light from heaven’s portals shall glorify our own. When in the fitful pauses of our busy life our feet wander back to the old homestead, and, crossing the well-worn threshold, we stand once more in the low, quaint room so hallowed by her presence, how the feeling of childish innocence and dependence comes over us as we kneel down in the evening hour just where we long years ago knelt at mother’s knee, lisping ‘Our Father’! How many times when the tempter lures us on, the memory of those sacred hours, that mother’s words, her faith and prayers, saved us from plunging into the abyss of sin! Years have piled great drifts between her and us, but they have not hidden from our sight the glory of her pure, unselfish love.” —Christian Work.

The Signs of the Times, November 12, 1894.

Lord’s Prayer Series – Claiming a Relationship with Others

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To be successful in our relationships with others we first need to know our own true identity and our relationship with our heavenly Father.

In Isaiah 63:9 and 10, the prophet describes the history of the children of Israel who were God’s professed people. He says, “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; so He turned Himself against them as an enemy, and He fought against them.”

Notice that while ever God’s people were obedient they were protected, saved, and delivered by the Angel of His Presence. The Bible describes angels as beings that are both stronger and wiser than human beings. An evidence of this is found in 11 Kings 19:35: “And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead.”

However, concerning the righteous, the Bible says, “The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them.” Psalm 34:7. Angels are both wiser and more powerful than man. The book of Ezekiel reveals that angels are subject to receiving directives and have greater awareness and knowledge than humans. Whenever prayers are sent to God, directions are given to the angels concerning the answering of those prayers.

Malachi said, “Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant of the fathers?” Malachi 2:10.

The disciples often heard Jesus praying to His Father and came to Him saying, “ ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught His disciples.’ ” Luke 11:1. The prayer He taught them is what we call today the Lord’s Prayer.

Contrary to what some people know, this prayer was not given to the world, but only to the disciples of Jesus Christ in answer to their request for not everybody can truthfully claim God as their Father but would be lying. The Bible says in Matthew 13:38 that, “The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.”

Jesus once told the religious leaders of His time that they were children of the devil. “Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.’ ” John 8:42–44.

Since sin entered this world the devil has claimed it as his own and when we are born we are not born as sons of God but children of the devil. This is affirmed often throughout the New Testament.

Paul said, “You He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air [the devil], the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” Ephesians 2:1–3.

Writing to the Ephesian church, he said that we were by nature the children of wrath, just as the others who are not Christians. That being the case, how is it possible to tell if a person is a child of God or a child of the devil? The Bible gives a very strict rule by which that can be determined.

John speaks very plainly on this subject. He said, “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and He cannot sin, because he has been born of God.” I John 3:4–9.

Clearly, then, a person born into this world is by nature a child of wrath. By committing sin he/she declares to the universe that he/she is a spiritual son of the devil for “He who sins is of the devil” (I John 3:8) unless he/she has been born again. This was the essence of what Jesus told Nicodemus: there is no other way to enter into the kingdom of heaven except to be born again. The born again Christian is then adopted into a different family, the family of God.

Paul explained this in Galatians 4:4–7: “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

If you have been born again, born of the Holy Spirit, then you are no longer a child of wrath but have become a son of God. A person who has not been born again has no right to claim God as his father, for that person’s father is the devil. The person who is living in sin has no right to say the Lord’s Prayer and call God his Father because he is a child of wrath, a spiritual child of the devil.

We have read what John and Paul said about this, but notice what Jesus said to Nicodemus: “ ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time in his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ ” John 3:3–7.

It is clear that to be born again is a requirement to enter the kingdom of heaven. You must receive what the apostle Paul calls in Galatians 4, verse 5, “the adoption as sons.” The apostle Paul repeats this concept often in his writings. Notice how he describes it in Romans 8:14–16: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

The fact that the first century Christians could now call God their Father and not just address Him as the Infinite, or Eternal, or Most Powerful One in the Universe, was considered a most precious privilege. He was acknowledged as Someone who had a fatherly interest in them. Right after His resurrection, Jesus told Mary Magdalene, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ ” John 20:17.

But how can a person who has been born a child of wrath and destined to destruction be born again and receive a new heart and a new spirit and receive eternal life and avoid his destiny of everlasting destruction? John explains this miracle in his opening remarks in his book where He wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it.

“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light that all through Him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” John 1:1–11. Jesus talked with them long about the fact that they would not receive Him. In John 5:40, He said to the Jews, “… you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

Again in John 8:47, He said, “He who is of God hears God’s word; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

Many times Jesus told the people of His time that they were going to lose their soul, lose eternal life because they would not receive Him. But then, there is a most wonderful promise in John 1:12, 13. It says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Those who receive Jesus and accept Him receive the right to become the children of God. They receive a right to be adopted into God’s family, to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, to be born with the Holy Spirit, to have a change of heart, to have a changed mind. When a person is born again of the Holy Spirit he begins to live a holy life. When the Spirit of God leads a person, he will live in harmony with the words of God.

Paul said, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” Hebrews 2:9–11.

If you are being sanctified, it is evident that the Holy Spirit is working a change in your life giving you the right to call God your Father and Christ your elder Brother. To be sanctified simply means to be made a holy person. This is not complicated. A holy person is not necessarily anybody special, but simply a person who lives in harmony with God’s law.

If you are living in harmony with God’s law, then you are a holy person, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Paul was very specific about this when writing to the Hebrews. He said, “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14.

When a person is born again it is the work of the Holy Spirit to make him/her into a holy person, giving him/her the right to call God, “my Father.” If people would think this through, there would probably be fewer people to glibly quote the Lord’s Prayer. It is a profound thing to call the God of heaven your Father. The apostle John drew this to the attention of the Christians. He said, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” I John 3:1–3.

The greatest privilege that any human being can have is to receive what the apostle Paul calls, “the adoption as sons.” To be born again, as Jesus said to Nicodemus, to receive the Holy Spirit into the life, to have a new spirit and new mind is promised to all who accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.

Having this new relationship with God also brings us into a new relationship with other people in this world, recognizing that we are all brothers. I John 4:20, 21, says, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God Whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”

The most wonderful thing that you can have is to be adopted into the family of God so that you can call God your Father. The value of sonship in God’s family can only be estimated when considering the price that has been paid for man’s redemption. Have you been born again?

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church of Free Seventh-day Adventists in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Current Events – Richard Dawkins on Attack

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Renowned evolutionary biologist and atheist, Dawkins has called on schools to protect children from being indoctrinated by their religious parents.

In an interview with The Irish Times, February 25, 2015, before a talk at Trinity College, Dublin, he said,

“Children need to be protected” from religious parents.

He argued that parents were given too much leeway over their children’s education, and that it was time to give more rights back to the individuals themselves.

“There is a balancing act and you have to balance the rights of parents and the rights of children and I think the balance has swung too far towards parents,” he said.

“Children do need to be protected so that they can have a proper education and not be indoctrinated in whatever religion their parents happen to have been brought up in.”

Physicist Lawrence Krauss, who also took part in the interview, agreed that the state had an obligation to properly educating its children.

“That means parents have a limited – it seems to be – limited rights in determining what the curriculum is,” Krauss said.

“The state is providing the education, it’s trying to make sure all children have equal opportunity.

“And parents of course have concerns and a say, but they don’t have the right to shield their children from knowledge. That’s not a right any more than they have the right to shield their children from health care or medicine. And those parents that do that are often tried and imprisoned when they refuse to allow their children to get blood transfusions or whatever is necessary for their health. And this is necessary for their mental health.”

It comes after a writer on the website of Richard Dawkins’ foundation claimed this new scientific theory could answer the question of how life began – and throw out the need for God.

www.salon.com/2015/02/25/richard_dawkins_children_do_need_to_be_protected_from_religious_parents/

How different from God’s ideal for his children.

“To parents is committed the great work of educating and training their children for the future, immortal life. Many fathers and mothers seem to think that if they feed and clothe their little ones, and educate them according to the standard of the world, they have done their duty. They are too much occupied with business or pleasure to make the education of their children the study of their lives. They do not seek to train them so that they will employ their talents for the honor of their Redeemer. Solomon did not say, ‘Tell a child the way he should go’ … but, ‘Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it’ (Proverbs 22:6).” Child Guidance, 39.

Bible Study Guides – God’s Ambassadors

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July 17, 2016 – July 23, 2016

Key Text

“My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother” (Proverbs 1:8).

Study Help: The Adventist Home, 187–194.

Introduction

“Parents … cannot displease Him [God] more than by neglecting to train their children aright. God has given them these children as a sacred trust, to educate for Him. In a sense they stand in the place of God to their children.” The Signs of the Times, September 25, 1901.

1 AMBASSADORS FOR GOD

  • What is the message of the fifth commandment? Exodus 20:12.

Note: “Parents are entitled to a degree of love and respect which is due to no other person. God Himself, Who has placed upon them a responsibility for the souls committed to their charge, has ordained that during the earlier years of life, parents shall stand in the place of God to their children. And he who rejects the rightful authority of his parents is rejecting the authority of God.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 308.

  • How are parents to help young children? Proverbs 22:6.

Note: “They [parents] are to work out the salvation of those who are too young to understand the difference between good and evil. They are in no case to think that good will naturally predominate in the hearts of their children. They are to guard carefully the words and actions of their little ones, lest the enemy shall gain an influence over them.” The Signs of the Times, September 25, 1901.

2 AN AWESOME RESPONSIBILITY

  • How should parents handle the most serious responsibility ever given to humanity? Ephesians 6:4.

Note: “For some reason many parents dislike to give their children religious instruction, and they leave them to pick up in the Sabbath School the knowledge which it is their privilege and duty to impart. … God commands His people to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. What does this mean—the nurture and admonition of the Lord? It means to teach them to order the life by the requirements and lessons of the word; to help them to gain a clear understanding of the terms of entrance into the city of God. Not to all who would enter will the gates of that city be opened, but to those only who have studied to know God’s will, and have yielded their lives to His control.” Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 109.

“Kindly, earnestly, tenderly, parents are to work for their children, cultivating every good trait and repressing every evil trait which develops in the character.” The Signs of the Times, September 25, 1901.

“You should have no work so important that it will prevent you from giving to your children all the time that is necessary to make them understand what it means to obey and trust the Lord fully.” The Adventist Home, 183, 184.

  • Who taught Timothy in his home, and how did their teaching affect his life as a child and as a youth? 2 Timothy 1:5; 3:15.

Note: “Timothy’s father was a Greek and his mother a Jewess. From a child he had known the Scriptures. The piety that he saw in his home life was sound and sensible. The faith of his mother and his grandmother in the sacred oracles was to him a constant reminder of the blessing in doing God’s will. The word of God was the rule by which these two godly women had guided Timothy. The spiritual power of the lessons that he had received from them kept him pure in speech and unsullied by the evil influences with which he was surrounded. Thus his home instructors had co-operated with God in preparing him to bear burdens.” The Acts of the Apostles, 203.

3 THE ROLE OF DISCIPLINE

  • What is the purpose of discipline? Psalm 144:12; Proverbs 25:28; 16:32.

Note: “The object of discipline is the training of the child for self-government. He should be taught self-reliance and self-control. … Help him to see that all things are under law, and that disobedience leads, in the end, to disaster and suffering. …

“The true object of reproof is gained only when the wrongdoer himself is led to see his fault and his will is enlisted for its correction. When this is accomplished, point him to the Source of pardon and power.” Child Guidance, 223.

“One child, properly disciplined in the principles of truth, who has the love and fear of God woven through the character, will possess a power for good in the world that cannot be estimated.” Ibid., 163.

  • How should we discipline the children under our care? Proverbs 29:15; Colossians 3:21.

Note: “First reason with your children, clearly point out their wrongs, and impress upon them that they have not only sinned against you, but against God. With your heart full of pity and sorrow for your erring children, pray with them before correcting them. Then they will see that you do not punish them because they have put you to inconvenience, or because you wish to vent your displeasure upon them, but from a sense of duty, for their good; and they will love and respect you.” Child Guidance, 252, 253.

“Great care should be exercised by parents lest they treat their children in such a way as to provoke obstinacy, disobedience, and rebellion. Parents often stir up the worst passions of the human heart because of their lack of self-control. They correct them in a spirit of anger, and rather confirm them in their evil ways and defiant spirit, than influence them in the way of right.” The Review and Herald, November 15, 1892.

“Parents, never act from impulse. Never correct your child when you are angry; for if you do this, you will mould him after your own image—impulsive, passionate, and unreasonable. You can be firm without violent threatenings or scoldings.” Australasian Union Conference Record, September 6, 1909.

4 OVERCOMING PARENTAL MISTAKES

  • What command is given to all children about obeying their parents? Ephesians 6:1. What can parents learn from the advice given to teachers?

Note: “The parent’s will, when it is in harmony with the will of God, is to be law.” The Review and Herald, December 18, 1900.

“Heavenly messengers are sent to minister unto those who shall be heirs of salvation; and these would converse with the teachers if they were not so satisfied with the well-trodden path of tradition, if they were not so fearful of getting away from the shadow of the world. Teachers should beware lest they close the gates so that the Lord can find no entrance into the hearts of the youth.” Testimonies, vol. 6, 161.

  • What should we do as we review those things which we have learned in our childhood? I Thessalonians 5:21.

Note: “In all who have been chosen to accomplish a work for God the human element is seen. Yet they have not been men of stereotyped habits and character, who were satisfied to remain in that condition. They earnestly desired to obtain wisdom from God and to learn to work for Him. … [James 1:5 quoted.] But God will not impart to men divine light while they are content to remain in darkness. In order to receive God’s help, man must realize his weakness and deficiency; he must apply his own mind to the great change to be wrought in himself; he must be aroused to earnest and persevering prayer and effort. Wrong habits and customs must be shaken off; and it is only by determined endeavor to correct these errors and to conform to right principles that the victory can be gained. Many never attain to the position that they might occupy, because they wait for God to do for them that which He has given them power to do for themselves. All who are fitted for usefulness must be trained by the severest mental and moral discipline, and God will assist them by uniting divine power with human effort.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 248.

  • How many generations of our ancestors will have influenced our habits? Exodus 20:5.

5 VICTORY POSSIBLE

  • When Moses was a young man, what choice did he make? How was he able to overcome the effects of his life in Egypt? Hebrews 11:24–27.

Note: “Moses had been learning much that he must unlearn. The influences that had surrounded him in Egypt—the love of his foster mother, his own high position as the king’s grandson, the dissipation on every hand, the refinement, the subtlety, and the mysticism of a false religion, the splendor of idolatrous worship, the solemn grandeur of architecture and sculpture—all had left deep impressions upon his developing mind and had molded, to some extent, his habits and character. Time, change of surroundings, and communion with God could remove these impressions. It would require on the part of Moses himself a struggle as for life to renounce error and accept truth, but God would be his helper when the conflict should be too severe for human strength.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 248.

  • How can we encourage our children to overcome sin? 2 Peter 1:4; I Corinthians 15:57, 58; Proverbs 24:16, last part.

Note: “Let the child and the youth be taught that every mistake, every fault, every difficulty, conquered, becomes a steppingstone to better and higher things. It is through such experiences that all who have ever made life worth the living have achieved success.” Child Guidance, 255.

PERSONAL REVIEW QUESTIONS

1 When are parents’ words to their children as the voice of God?

2 How can we bring up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?

3 What must be gained in order for discipline or reproof to be successful?

4 What great change must we go through to be used by God?

5 How can we overcome bad habits that we have formed in childhood?

Copyright © 2015 Reformation Herald Publishing Association, 5240 Hollins Road, Roanoke, Virginia. Reprinted by permission.

Current Events – Pope insists conscience, not rules, must lead faithful

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NICOLE WINFIELD and RACHEL ZOLL, Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis insisted that individual conscience be the guiding principle for Catholics negotiating the complexities of sex, marriage and family life in a major document released Friday [April 8, 2016] that rejects the emphasis on black and white rules for the faithful.

In the 256-page document “The Joy of Love,” Francis makes no change in church doctrine and strongly upholds that marriage is a lifelong commitment.

But in selectively citing his predecessors and emphasizing his own teachings, Francis makes clear that he wants nothing short of a revolution in the way priests accompany Catholics, saying the church must no longer sit in judgment and “throw stones” against those who fail to live up to the Gospel’s ideals of marriage and family life.

“I understand those who prefer a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion,” he wrote. “But I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness.” …

He insisted the church’s aim is to reintegrate and welcome all its members. …

“It can no longer simply be said that all those in any irregular situations are living in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of sanctifying grace,” he wrote. Even those in an “objective situation of sin” can be in a state of grace, and can even be more pleasing to God by trying to improve, he said.

The document’s release marks the culmination of a divisive two-year consultation of ordinary Catholics and the church hierarchy that Francis initiated in hopes of understanding the problems facing Catholic families today and providing them with better pastoral care.

The most divisive issue that arose during two meetings of bishops, or synods, was whether Francis would loosen the Vatican’s strict position on whether Catholics who divorce and remarry can receive Communion. Church teaching holds that unless these Catholics receive an annulment, or a church decree that their first marriage was invalid, they are committing adultery and cannot receive Communion.

Conservatives had insisted that the rules were fixed and that there was no way around Christ’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. Progressives had sought wiggle room to balance doctrine with mercy and look at each couple on a case-by-case basis, accompanying them on a path of reconciliation that could lead to them eventually receiving the sacraments.

Francis took a unilateral step last year in changing church law to make it easier to get an annulment. On Friday, he said the rigorous response proposed by the conservatives was inconsistent with Jesus’ message of mercy.

“By thinking that everything is black and white, we sometimes close off the way of grace and of growth and discourage paths of sanctification which give glory to God,” he said. “Let us remember that a small step in the midst of great human limitations can be more pleasing to God than a life which appears outwardly in order but moves through the day without confronting great difficulties.” www.yahoo.com/news/pope-insists-conscience-not-rules-must-guide-faithful-100149710.html

“No one can be condemned forever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel! Here I am not speaking only of the divorced and remarried, but of everyone, in whatever situation they find themselves,” the pope said. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-marriage-idUSKCN0X42TB

“ ‘Christ … has purchased for us a never-ending redemption. … His passion is … an eternal sacrifice, and everlastingly effectual to heal; it satisfies the divine justice forever in behalf of all those who rely upon it with firm and unshaken faith.’ Yet He clearly taught that men are not, because of the grace of Christ, free to continue in sin. ‘Wherever there is faith in God, there God is; and wherever God abideth, there a zeal exists urging and impelling men to good works.’ ”—D’Aubigne, b. 8, ch. 9. The Great Controversy, 180.

Bible Study Guides – Reformation in the Home

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February 19, 2017 – February 25, 2017

Key Text

“That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace” (Psalm 144:12).

Study Help: The Adventist Home, 317–325.

Introduction

“Children are what their parents make them by their instruction, discipline, and example. Hence the overwhelming importance of parental faithfulness in training the young for the service of God.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 37.

Sunday

1 THE PLACE TO BEGIN

  • Upon whom has God laid a grave responsibility to begin a work of reformation? Malachi 4:6; Psalm 78:5–7.

Note: “Could parents realize the great responsibility resting upon them when their children are innocent babes in the home, much sin and misery might be averted; temperance would then be taught at the fire-side and the table would afford practical lessons repeated every day. Line upon line, precept upon precept, children should be taught the necessity of self-control and self-denial; and then true reform would make rapid progress.” The Health Reformer, May 1, 1877.

  • Where is the source of the parents’ wisdom? Ephesians 1:17; James 1:5.

Note: “Let parents take their Bibles, and search that they may understand what are the requirements of God in regard to their children. Let them seek to understand what is included in parental duty. The word of God must be our rule in conducting our family affairs.” Christian Education, 230, 231.

“By prayer, by study of the Bible, and by earnest zeal on their part, they [parents] may succeed nobly in this important duty, and be repaid a hundredfold for all their time and care.” Child Guidance, 64.

Monday

2 EXTENDING THE WORK OF REFORM

  • What does the Lord intend to happen with the faith of the parents? Proverbs 22:6; 2 Timothy 1:5.

Note: “As you faithfully do your duty in the home, the father as a priest of the household, the mother as a home missionary, you are multiplying agencies for doing good outside of the home. As you improve your own powers, you are becoming better fitted to labor in the church and in the neighborhood. By binding your children to yourselves and to God, fathers and mothers and children become laborers together with God.” Counsels on Health, 430.

  • What should you do if you have failed to make God first in your life and in your home? 1 John 1:9; James 5:16.

Note: “If you [parents] have failed in your duty to your family, confess your sins before God. Gather your children about you, and acknowledge your neglect. Tell them that you desire to bring about a reformation in the home, and ask them to help you to make the home what it ought to be. Read to them the directions found in the word of God. Pray with them; and ask God to spare their lives, and to help them to prepare for a home in His kingdom. Thus you may begin and continue a work of true reform.” The Review and Herald, April 21, 1904.

  • As we commit ourselves fully to God, what will be the result of our faithfulness? Psalm 51:9–13; Isaiah 60:2, 3; Acts 16:5.

Note: “When the great light that God has given shines forth through human agencies, a great work will be done. In demonstration of the Spirit, and with power, the truth will be revealed in clear, distinct lines. But this work must begin in the home.

“As the right work is done in the home, parents will find their hearts subdued and melted. Strange prejudices that have been cherished by brethren and sisters in the church, prejudices that have borne evil fruit, will be overcome, and will disappear. A spirit of candor will come in, a spirit after Christ’s likeness. God’s people will give up the tenacious desire to have their own way and to urge their own ideas; for they will realize that they are in the presence of God’s Son.” The Review and Herald, July 15, 1902.

Tuesday

3 THE EFFECT UPON THE CHURCH

  • When reformation takes place in the home, how will this be reflected upon the church? Ephesians 5:27; Titus 2:14; Psalm 144:14, second part, 15.

Note: “In the home the foundation is laid for the prosperity of the church. The influences that rule in the home life are carried into the church life; therefore church duties should first begin in the home.” The Adventist Home, 318.

“He [the Lord] desires that the work of reformation shall begin in the home, with the fathers and mothers, and then the Church will realize the Holy Spirit’s working. The influence of this work will go through the Church like leaven. Fathers and mothers need converting. They have not educated themselves to mold and fashion the characters of their children aright.” The Review and Herald, March 18, 1902.

“God measures church-members by what they are in the home. When Christ’s words are obeyed in the home, the influence extends to the church.” Ibid., July 21, 1903.

  • How does the influence of a man in his home affect his usefulness in the church? 1 Timothy 3:5. How does this affect his hope of eternal life? Matthew 25:21.

Note: “He who is engaged in the work of the gospel ministry must be faithful in his family life. It is as essential that as a father he should improve the talents God has given him for the purpose of making the home a symbol of the heavenly family, as that in the work of the ministry he should make use of his God-given powers to win souls for the church. As the priest in the home, and as the ambassador of Christ in the church, he should exemplify in his life the character of Christ. …

“He who fails to be a faithful, discerning shepherd in the home will surely fail of being a faithful shepherd to the flock of God in the church.” Reflecting Christ, 179.

“The life on earth is the beginning of the life in heaven; education on earth is an initiation into the principles of heaven; the lifework here is a training for the lifework there. What we now are, in character and holy service is the sure foreshadowing of what we shall be.” The Adventist Home, 535.

“The great reformative movement must begin in the home. Obedience to God’s law is the great incentive to industry, economy, truthfulness, and just dealing between man and man.” Child Guidance, 489.

Wednesday

4 PREPARING TO WITNESS

  • When our heart is touched by the Spirit of God, how will we respond? Isaiah 6:8.

Note: “When God would have a special work done for the advancement of the truth, He will impress men to work in the mines of truth with prayerful earnestness to discover the precious ore. These men will have Christlike perseverance. They will not fail or be discouraged. They will sink self out of sight in Jesus. Men will go forth in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way for the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is their work to make crooked things straight. Some things must be torn down, some things must be built up. The old treasures must be reset in a framework of truth. They are to preach God’s word; their testimony must not be molded by the opinions and ideas that have been regarded as sound, but by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. They are to lift up Christ and call sinners to repentance, … urging upon all their personal responsibility to be kind and courteous, to do good and to win souls to Jesus.” The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, 169.

  • What will be the living proof of a renewed heart? 2 Corinthians 5:17; Colossians 3:10; Matthew 5:16.

Note: “If the heart has been renewed by the Spirit of God, the life will bear witness to the fact. … A change will be seen in the character, the habits, the pursuits. The contrast will be clear and decided between what they have been and what they are. The character is revealed, not by occasional good deeds and occasional misdeeds, but by the tendency of the habitual words and acts.” Steps to Christ, 57, 58.

“The love of our heavenly Father in the gift of His only-begotten Son to the world, is enough to inspire every soul, to melt every hard, loveless heart into contrition and tenderness; and yet shall heavenly intelligences see in those for whom Christ died, insensibility to His love, hardness of heart, and no response of gratitude and affection to the Giver of all good things? Shall affairs of minor importance absorb the whole power of the being, and the love of God meet no return? … We need an increase of faith. We must wait, we must watch, we must pray, we must work, pleading that the Holy Ghost may be poured out upon us abundantly, that we may be lights in the world.” Fundamentals of Christian Education, 198, 199.

Thursday

5 GOING TO ALL THE WORLD

  • In view of Christ’s soon coming, what is the message to be given today? Zephaniah 1:14; Amos 4:12.

Note: “As a people who believe in Christ’s soon appearing, we have a message to bear—‘Prepare to meet thy God’ (Amos 4:12).” Testimonies, vol. 8, 332.

  • How extensive is the work of giving the gospel message? Isaiah 61:10, 11; Matthew 24:14; Revelation 14:6.

Note: “The time has come when the message of Christ’s soon coming is to sound throughout the world.” Testimonies, vol. 9, 24.

  • How is this message to be given? Acts 4:29–31.

Note: “Today we need to speak the truth with holy boldness.” Selected Messages, Book 2, 52.

“The trumpet must give a certain sound, for we are in the great day of the Lord’s preparation.” Evangelism, 218.

“From these chosen men of God [who are His faithful ambassadors] the truth will shine forth. It will be heard from their lips, reflected in their countenances, and demonstrated in their lives. They will be marked by purity and uncorruptness. The grace of Christ has a refining, ennobling influence on the character.” Reflecting Christ, 347.

Friday

PERSONAL REVIEW QUESTIONS

1 How can parents begin a work of reformation in their homes?

2 As you faithfully fulfill your duties at home, where else will you be able to labor more effectively?

3 How does God measure us?

4 How can we be lights in this world?

5 What is involved in communicating the truth to the world?

Copyright © 2016 Reformation Herald Publishing Association, 5240 Hollins Road, Roanoke, Virginia. Reprinted by permission.