"Nature as a Source of Health"

Sabbath School TodayWith the 1888 Message Dynamic 

Jesus Wept: The Bible and Human EmotionsLesson 12: "Nature as a Source of Health"

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge (Psalm 19:1, 2).

Our memory text for this week (quoted above) reveals that God wants to show Himself to us through the natural things that He has created. This is consistent with what Paul tells us in Romans 1:20, "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." Do you want to see the things of God and do you want to know His power in your life? The evidence of His presence is all around you. Just look and say, "Thank you."

"But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach" (Rom. 10:6-8).
"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me" (Rev. 3:20). 

There are eight principles of nature--remedies for improving, or reforming, one's health: proper nutrition, exercise, fresh water, sunlight, abstemiousness, fresh air, sufficient rest, and trust in God, for He is the One who wants to give you what He has already given you in Christ. Good health is part of the gift of righteousness, salvation, and eternal life. When you couple this with an intellectual understanding and heart-felt appreciation of the infinite Price He paid on the cross to give you all this, you have a winning combination. All these natural remedies, if practiced, will bring you closer to the evidence of the presence of God in your life and they will keep your mind and body in such a tone of health that God can more easily communicate the special things He has for you in these last days before Jesus comes.

In 1888, the Lord brought to His people a message that is yet destined to lighten the earth with its glory. Indeed it is the message of the three angels of Revelation 14:6-12 and was the beginning of the latter rain of the Holy Spirit, as described by the fourth angel of Revelation 18:1. This message is the beginning of the special things that God has for us to know and understand for these last days. It is called "the third angel's message in verity":

"The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones. This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. … This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel's message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure" (Testimonies to Ministers, pp. 91, 92).

Our health (using the natural remedies) is intimately associated with the third angel's message, but it needs the dynamic understanding of God's new covenant agape to empower it.
"As the right arm is connected with the body, so the health reform and medical missionary work is connected with the third angel's message, and is to work efficiently as the right arm, for the defense of the body of truth" (Review and Herald, June 20, 1899).
"I was again shown that the health reform is one branch of the great work which is to fit a people for the coming of the Lord. It is as closely connected with the third angel's message as the hand is with the body. … To make plain natural law, and urge the obedience of it, is the work that accompanies the third angel's message to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord" (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, p. 161).

"When the third angel's message is received in all its fullness, health reform will be given its place in the councils of the Conference, in the work of the church, in the home, at the table, and in all the household arrangements" (Review and Herald, June 20, 1899).

So when we receive the 1888 message in all its fullness, the eight natural remedies will be given their proper place, because they will be seen as a gift from Jesus' healing ministry in the heavenly sanctuary. The cleansing of the sanctuary truth involves God's people growing up into the fullness of Christ and being "sealed" by His self-sacrificing love. The 1888 messengers knew and understood the importance of the natural remedies in the last days before Jesus comes:

"When the health reform was given to the people of God, it was defined as that which is to fit the people for translation. That is the meaning of health reform. The leading thing, the great thing, that God intends health reform to do, is to prepare His people for translation. … We are in the most solemn time we ever saw. Let us consider it" (A. T. Jones, 1893 General Conference Daily Bulletin, p. 88).

"Genuine faith in the Third Angel's Message is evinced by a practical reception of all the truths brought out by it. Among them … involves a practical belief in true temperance, for that is a vital part of the Third Angel's Message. True temperance, or health reform, as it is termed, has been declared to bear the same relation to the last message that the right arm does to the body. Then if we do not believe and practice it, our faith is a crippled faith" (E. J. Waggoner, "Thoughts on the Twelfth Chapter of Hebrews," The Signs of the Times, Feb. 22, 1883, pp. 91, 92).

Some people perceive health reform to be a form of legalism, as if what we do with our health will somehow commend us to God and inspire Him to let us sneak in through the "pearly gates." Health reform that is motivated by a desire for personal heavenly reward or to avoid hell is legalism because of the self-centered motive in it.

Health reform is part of the third angel's message of Revelation 14:6-12. However, "the third angel's message in verity" of Revelation 18:1, the 1888 message, is not health reform. It is the heart-reconciling truth of the message of the cross converging with the cleansing of the sanctuary truth. It supplies the constraining love of God to practice "health reform."

So then, viewed from the cross/sanctuary perspective, "health reform" is the self-denying principle inherent in the repentance which God gives us during our cosmic Day of Atonement. "Health reform" is our appointed "fast." It is what is meant for us to "afflict your souls" (Lev. 16:29, 31). We may even now join in with the sufferings of Christ and count it all joy by saying "No" to the desires of appetite for that which is harmful; and "Yes" to that which God has provided through the natural remedies. When we join with Christ in self-denial, He receives the reward for which He died.

Receiving the 1888 message in it's fullness, is a heart-felt appreciation of Who God is, what He has done, what He is doing today, and what He is about to do--in you--and what it cost Him to give us good health. If this is your motive for what you do, there is no self-centered legalism motivating it. It is a faith which works by agape--not legalism.

Undoubtedly you want to honor God by letting Him impart to you the refreshing manifestation of the latter rain power in its fullness. Part of righteousness by faith is choosing to receive the blessings which God has provided in its natural setting.

Receive the "beginning" of the latter rain in its fullness, which will put everything else in its proper place. Believe the good news of "much more abounding grace." "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things will be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33).

"I was shown that if God's people make no efforts on their part [to yield to God's word, cf. Christ's Object Lessons, p. 61], but wait for the refreshing [latter rain] to come upon them and remove their wrongs and correct their errors; if they depend upon that to cleanse them from filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and fit them to engage in the loud cry of the third angel, they will be found wanting. The refreshing or power of God comes only on those who have prepared themselves for it by doing the work which God bids them, namely, cleansing themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, p. 619).

Now is the time for us to be "rooted and grounded in love," "filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:17, 19). Indeed, for a long time, God has wanted to bring the full manifestation of the refreshing latter rain in order to mature the grain for the harvest. You and I can be prepared to participate in the fullness of that latter rain that had it's beginning in 1888 by letting the message fill our hearts and minds. Then we will be properly prepared to receive God's gifts of the eight natural remedies which He has ordained to cleanse both mind and body. Let Him do it. He will show you the way and hold your right hand (cf. Isa. 41:13).

--Craig Barnes

Note: Unless cited otherwise, quotations are from Ellen G. White.
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Freedom From Addictions

I am an addict and a sinner saved by grace through faith.

 

One of the strangest aspects of an addicted life is doing the same thing over and over while each time hoping for a better or different outcome. When I finally get tired of this, I blame someone else for the reason things aren’t going the way I want them to go. I feel entitled, as if because I know so much and I am me, “Don’t you know!” There can’t be anything greater than me!

 

The common perception most people have about addicts is that they are using needles with drugs or are alcoholics stumbling about and blurring their speech! However, addictions are far more common than these narrow perceptions. One can be addicted to having to be right, or addicted to a person or relationship that is unhealthy. One can also be addicted to false ideas or beliefs! These all come under the heading of “Mind-Altering.” Whichever one you are familiar with there is a good chance that holding to this belief, relationship, or activity genders within some the feeling of being special, unique, and superior—usually toward others. Reality is their worst enemy. We will do whatever it takes to appear perfect, and to look “good” on the outside no matter the chaos erupting on the inside. Addiction is all about self and pride—all about us feeling better in the moment, no matter the cost or who is hurt in the process. Family, children, careers, marriages, homes, property, and reputation are sacrificed outright for our own selfishness.

 

I was raised in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and had a long history with methamphetamines and then crack. I wanted to stop. I would pray, “God help me to stop!” but nothing would happen and for a good reason. I was the problem—self and pride were the true addiction. God requires all glory; helping me would be inconsistent with me dying to self.

 

Finally one day as I was smoking a large quantity of crack in a desert wash, I began to cry, then to weep, and then it was like a prayer was squeezed from my lungs. “O God, this is me at my best—me using my best thinking! My best efforts will be to get more crack. I am powerless and weaker than weak—O God, have mercy on me! You know that I cannot stop, but you can come right through this crack smoke and deliver me.”

 

He did. If any man tries to tell you that Jesus is too pure to be with a sinner smoking crack, never believe him again—he is a liar and illiterate in the things pertaining to God.

 

Because I was still smoking, I avoided the verse in 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17 which says, “Surely you know that you are God’s temple, where the Spirit of God dwells. Anyone who destroys God’s temple will himself be destroyed by God, because the temple of God is holy; and you are that temple” (REB). It condemned me, and so by avoiding it “I wasn’t condemned any more”!

 

One of the greatest principles that came from the 1888 messengers, A. T. Jones, E. J. Waggoner, and E. G. White, was to take the Bible as it reads and to depend wholly upon the Word to accomplish that which it says. So let us explore a few statements and texts.

 

“Faith does not make facts. It only lays hold of them. There is not a single soul that is bowed down with the weight of sin, which Satan has bound on him, whom Christ does not lift up. Freedom is his. He has only to make use of it. Let the message be sounded far and wide. Let every soul hear it, that Christ has given deliverance to every captive” (The Glad Tidings, p. 107; emphasis added). Our part is to say with the psalmist, “O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; ... Thou hast loosed my bonds” (Psalm 116:16).

 

Don’t argue with the Lord, and say that you cannot walk straight. He says that you are loosed, and that is enough!Faith can lay hold of this fact and make it a reality in your life—whatever your bond may be! Faith is a heart-melting appreciation of what it cost the Son of God to literally go to hell for us. The love of God forgives the sinner and motivates true faith. This faith (seeing the message of the cross) which works by love (Gal 5:6) involves repentance—a turning from sin.

 

God did not need Abraham's help to fulfill His promise to give him a son; and God does not need our help to remove thebonds that hold us.  In both cases we are only to believe the promise of God - nothing more. Our fingerprints must be off of all of God’s work—remember Uzzah—he tried to stabilize the ark from falling, and upon touching it, he was struck dead. Keep your fingerprints off of things! Remember that our best effort to change our own lives has been, is, and will ever be but our best failure.

 

The Word declares: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt [sin], out of the house of bondage [your addictions]” (Ex. 20:2). Here is another wonderful fact—God has already delivered you from your sin [addiction] if you will but say “Amen” to this.

 

“Conversion does not put new flesh upon the old spirit; but a new Spirit within the old flesh. It does not propose to bring new flesh to the old mind, but a new mind to the old flesh. Deliverance and victory are not gained by having the human nature taken away; but by receiving the divine natureto subdue and have dominion over the human,—not by the taking away of our sinful flesh, but by the sending in of the sinless Spiritto conquer and condemn sin in the flesh” (A. T. Jones, The Bible Echo).

 

Thus we have shown that God has already set us free from all sin and addiction; we have identified broadly the thinking of the addiction as being that of self and pride (grandiosity); now we make one last connectionbetween self and pride being the addiction: “Pride is intoxication. Just as alcohol stimulates a man without building him up, and finally deprives him of reason, so a man, to use a common expression, ‘loses his head’ when he gets to hunting for the good traits in his character. And withal pride, like alcohol, furnishes no nourishment with which to build the man up” (E. J. Waggoner, “Faith and Humility,” The Signs of the Times, June 2, 1889).

 

The Lord in His great mercy has removed my drug, alcohol, and tobacco addictions—just as He promised He would! Today I have been working as an Alcohol and Drug Counselor for over 15 years. I can honestly say, “I never quit doing drugs or smoking—God took them from me because He loved me!”

 

All addictions are an attempt to fill the void in one’s life that sees nothing to love. Addictions to drugs, pornography, alcohol, pride, appetite, etc., are manifestations of loving a false idol. The allurement of sexual passion can easily become idolatry. And idolatry is the substitution of somethingor some onefor Jesus Christ. It is fellowship with Him, not with the idol, that the human heart truly yearns for; but the idol-worship (in whatever form it takes) deceives us with a trinket instead of the genuine. And deception is sin, says Paul. With many, the addiction is pornography, fantasizing—it’s all “lust.” People can go to church and even wave their Bible in the air and still be addicts. Does the true gospel have power to deliver us from this addictive obsession? We have to answer yes, or the world and the church are in hopeless ruin.

 

But the gospel is the Good News of what Jesus accomplished in His incarnation. Did He truly conquer this sin in the “likeness of sinful flesh”? Or did He sidestep the real issue by taking upon Himself a different nature than what we are saddled with? When He inspired the Bible, did He employ cunning rhetorical evasion to make us think that “in all points He was tempted like as we are, yet without sin,” while in reality He excused Himself from facing and conquering the realtemptation that plagues us all? The true gospel isthe power of God unto salvation from sexual sin to everyone who believes (see Rom. 1:16). So, everything depends on understanding what it means to believe!

 

The message to the Church of the Laodiceans is a message to addicts—addicted to self and pride, avoiding reality at all costs. We say we are rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing. We say we have “the truth,” but adultery, child abuse, divorce, and alcohol and drug use are increasing even among church people. This cannot be the result of believing the truth of the gospel] but is the result of having the love of the world in our hearts.

 

For the most part “we” did not see God’s message of identifying with Jesus’ cross in our denominational history. If we had accepted the message of righteousness by faith that God sent to His people in 1888, and accepted the Word as the power of God, today we would not have to say with humility that “we” are delaying the second coming of Christ. It is our pride, intoxication, and self-satisfaction that is manifest by our Laodicean apathy.

 

Will the message of the cross be in vain for us? God’s good news does away with sin, along with addictions and the love of the world. It is time for us Laodiceans to study just what this “truth of the gospel” is and learn how to believe it.

—Daniel H. Peters

"Jealousy"

Sabbath School TodayWith the 1888 Message Dynamic

Jesus Wept: The Bible and Human EmotionsLesson 10: "Jealousy"

"Jealousy [is] as cruel as the grave; its flames are flames of fire" (Song of Solomon 8:6).

In the most famous case of pre-meditated murder of all time--in the entire universe--jealousy was the primary motivation. In wanting to "be like the Most High" (Isa. 14:14), Lucifer actually wanted to murder God and take His place as Ruler of the universe. He proved this by crucifying the Son of God. His original jealousy became hatred, and hatred is always murder in essence. At least, the seed is there.

The Bible gives us example after example of the part jealousy has played in determining the outcome of major events; but throughout these stories there is a common theme--that jealousy never "wins," but is overruled for good.

There is a man in the Bible who could have committed the unpardonable sin, but thank God he did not. If he had, it would have been a very spectacular one, for it would have reduplicated on earth the "original" sin of Lucifer in heaven--jealousy of Christ. It was the sin of Lucifer against Christ, and it became for Satan the sin against the Holy Spirit (cf. Isa. 14:12-19; Eze. 28:12-19). The man who was tempted but overcame was, of course, John the Baptist. He had known the thrill of preaching the true message under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; but then it seemed the bottom fell out and the Holy Spirit left him for somebody else, as he saw the crowds abandon him and go over to the Man from Nazareth. He struggled with temptation, and Heaven looked on with concern, but the new "Elijah" stood the test. John's disciples even taunted him, "'Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you testified--behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him'"! But John replied: "He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled'" (John 3:26ff.). John was rewarded by a great report in the Bible; and a day yet to come.

Joseph was next to the youngest of old Jacob's sons, probably around 17 years old when his life was violently disrupted. His ten older brothers were the true church of that day; they were the "Israel" of the world, God's chosen nation-to-be, and they rejected Joseph and hated him. (There are some people today who feel rejected by the true church of today!) Sent on a self-sacrificing mission to help his ten older brothers, Joseph suddenly found himself the object of their bitter feelings of jealousy when they grabbed him and threw him helpless into a pit, lonely, hungry, probably bruised, while they sat down to enjoy a meal, possibly from home that Jacob had sent with him. Then his brothers most cruelly sold him as a slave to some heathen merchants who came by, thinking of course that they would never see him again. (It was their hatred of "righteousness by faith" that motivated them to do this awful deed!) We know the "rest of the story" as told to us in Genesis.

Ellen G. White witnessed at the 1888 General Conference Session the full force of the results of jealousy when the "Spirit of God was insulted":

"You cannot tell how it pains me to see some of our brethren taking a course that I know is not pleasing to God. They are full of jealousy and evil surmising, and are ever ready to show in just what way they differ with Elders [A. T.] Jones or [E. J.] Waggoner. … I can never forget the experience which we had in Minneapolis, or the things that were then revealed to me in regard to the spirit that controlled men, the words spoken, the actions done in obedience to the powers of evil. … The words and actions of every one who took part in this work will stand registered against them until they make confession of their wrong. Those who do not repent of their sin will, if circumstances permit, repeat the same actions. … I know that at that time the Spirit of God was insulted" (Letter Sept. 19, 1892, from Australia, to Uriah Smith; The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, pp. 1042, 1043; emphasis added).

Earlier in that year (Aug. 30) she had also written to Uriah Smith: "I know of no sins greater in the sight of God than cherishing jealousy and hatred toward brethren, and turning the weapons of warfare against them." "There are many who are as blind as were the Jews in the days of Christ" (ibid, p. 1011).

The Lord is a jealous God (Ex. 20:5), He has tremendous Self-respect, determined not to let the Jews crucify Christ again, and also determined not to let His glorious outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain to be "insulted" again. When Laodicea lays her self-righteous, proud offering on His altar, "wealthy, and have need of nothing" when in reality she is of all the seven churches of history the most "wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked," He will treat her offering as He treated the offering of Cain--just walk away until it withers and becomes garbage that the janitor has to cart away. The Lord will not accept the offering of those who choose to remain proud and self-sufficient.

"The jealousy of God was completely unrelated to human selfish dignity and possessiveness. God was jealous for His children because they went after gods which were nothing. False gods were the enemy's seductive lure to destruction. Waggoner said of God's jealousy: 'Instead of cringing and cowering with dread at the thought that God is a jealous God, we should rather rejoice with exceeding great joy; for it assures us that He who is the Almighty will effectually guard us from the arts of the cunning foe, who seduces in order to destroy.' The jealousy of God, far from being something to fear, was an assurance that God would cause His people to stand in the midst of an idolatrous generation" (Paul E. Penno, Calvary at Sinai, p. 364).

To idolize any person is to break the first commandment. Adam idolized his beautiful, charming wife, Eve; put her Number One, and led us all into sinful idolatry. Today's Laodicean idolatry makes Jesus sick at His stomach (Rev. 3:14-18), even if church membership rolls soar into the billions. Why is He so jealous of anyone who is our "idol"?

The honest truth is that He has given Himself to hell, has died our second death, has emptied Himself of His last breath--for us, to save us from utter ruin. It makes Him sick inside when we join the "great multitudes" who flock after Him while they trivialize their devotion to Him. Any honest, loving husband will be jealous if his wife is having an affair.

This hypocrisy has been going on for a long time, ever since Luke 14; it permeates Christ's last days church. Does it make sense that He at last puts His foot down and demands that we choose one side or the other, totally?

Yes, look soon for the strangest judgment ever seen on this planet since sin began. The crowds of Luke 14 never dreamed that in a few weeks they would be propelled into demanding His crucifixion. Silently as the thief coming at midnight, the final test will overtake us. We will determine who is Number One in our hearts. We could fool ourselves that we're getting heaven on earth, and end up finding it's hell.

It's time to let the Lord have all there is of us; share the cross of Jesus with Him (that's where we belong, you know). "Humble [ourselves] under the mighty hand of God" (1 Peter 5:6). Get down to rock bottom.

--Carol A. Kawamoto, with thanks toRobert J. Wieland and Paul E. Penno

Note: Bible quotations are from the New King James Version.
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"Self-esteem"

"All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever" (Isa. 40:6-8, cf. 1 Peter 1:24). [1]

"Abraham answered and said, 'Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes'" (Gen. 18:27).

"For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust" (Psalm 103:14).

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Self-esteem is defined by the world as learning to love yourself; this is a false gospel of Babylon that is motivated by self-interest. By the world's standards, our self-esteem should be based on some intrinsic worth we find in ourselves which supposedly distinguishes us from others and makes us special. We therefore can value ourselves. The true gospel based on God's love for us teaches self-respect.

The Bible teaches that God has "respect unto the lowly" (Psalm 138:6, KJV). The introductory inspired verses are not an insult. We are dust. He formed man from the dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7). It would be easy to blame mankind's inherent worthlessness on the entry of sin, but we were created before sin. God even gave pre-Fall mankind the Sabbath to remind us of how the dust He formed came to be worth more than dust. Therefore, even before sin, mankind's intrinsic worth was the value of common dust. Though sinless, humans have never had power to create or even transform inert matter into life. God can do both.

God's special love, agape, is not created by the value of its object. Since God is love, God loved His creation, and in love created value in it. Humans pervert God's love because we are born self-centered. We generally have trouble loving ugly or disagreeable people. We call them "unlovely." I have a friend who has only two or three pictures of herself as a baby. Her mother told her she was so ugly, she didn't want to waste the film. Our hearts go out to a person who was so abused. We are quick to assure them of God's respect. However, that doesn't change the fact that my friend, like me, only has the intrinsic worth of dust. What gives us all respect is not something from within us, but the sustaining love and power of God.

Satan appealed to Eve's ego when he suggested that by eating the fruit, she could enhance her intrinsic worth to become as God. Even though she and Adam had been created in the image of God, this gave them no value without His life-sustaining power. If the most talented sculptor in the world managed to carve a piece of marble into the exact shape of God, it would still be a piece of marble. The sculptor cannot transfer any worth to the marble other the shape he gives it. It is still just marble. The sculptor cannot give what he does not possess in himself--life. What created importance in the dust that God formed into His image was the breath of life He breathed into it.

The self-esteem "gospel" which has been so popular throughout the latter part of the 20th century and the first part of this century, is a subtle deception of Satan. He has perfected the art of sophistry in convincing Christians that before they can love others they must first love themselves. This is a subtle twist of the words found in the great commandment: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 19:19).

If Satan can get Christians to think that self-love, self-esteem is an essential part of the gospel, then he has defeated the principle of the cross. The cross is the revelation to our dull senses that God is self-denying. Satan has perpetually accused God of self-exaltation--that He asks of us more than He requires of Himself. The cross has forever settled the issue of God's self-denying love.

Now that issue plays out in the final crisis which is just upon us. If Satan can get us to buy into the self-esteem movement, then he knows that we will cave in over the "mark of the beast." The love of self will be the prime value, over loving God and neighbor in the great controversy.
In fact, the self-esteem "gospel" is one of the evidences that "Babylon is fallen, is fallen." There has been no restoration of true agape in popular Christianity. There is a woeful misperception of the cross of Christ. This popular trend has leeched into our circles to the extent that we have bought into the self-esteem movement.

Some believe Christ's admonition that "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" proves we are to develop "love" for ourselves. It was God who filled those words with their proper meaning: "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all" (Rom. 8:32).

We are natural-born self-lovers. It is a contradiction of terms to say that innately we are capable of loving others as ourselves. A self-centered person is incapable of loving others as he loves himself. So the only way that this commandment can be understood properly is through the prism of God's agape. God's love is self-giving. It led Christ to self-denial. It led Him to the point of giving His life for His enemies.

It was Jesus who spoke the words "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." If one wants to talk about loving oneself before he can love his neighbor in the context of self-giving agape, then it means to prefer harm to oneself over harm to another. It means the pouring out of one's own life in order to preserve the life of another, even his enemy. It means evaluating the life of another as more valuable than his own life. Jesus did not value Himself more than He valued you.

Does this mean we are to somehow conjure up a nice feeling about ourselves so we can transfer that to others? We have no such capacity, we cannot create genuine love. It is difficult to admit this, but the truth is, we are completely helpless to generate unselfish love. We may choose to permit Jesus to crucify our self. All ideas that we can contribute enough worth in ourselves to merit salvation are vane. Unless we choose to identify with Him we will always be offended by the cross of Christ.

"The cross is and always has been a symbol of disgrace. To be crucified was to be subjected to the most ignominious death known. The apostle said that if he preached circumcision (that is, righteousness by works), 'the offense of the cross' would cease (Gal. 5:11, KJV). The offense of the cross is that the cross is a confession of human frailty and sin and of inability to do any good thing. To take the cross of Christ means to depend solely on Him for everything, and this is the abasement of all human pride. Men love to fancy themselves independent. But let the cross be preached, let it be made known that in man dwells no good thing and that all must be received as a gift, and straightway somebody is offended" (E. J. Waggoner, The Glad Tidings, p. 113).
Does this mean we should develop low self-esteem, constantly talking about how worthless we are? The death of Christ establishes our value in His sight, but it also reinforces our total helplessness to create value in ourselves. This is the 1888 dynamic of self-respect. We choose to identify with the Crucified One. We choose to believe that He (not us) is worthy to receive honor, glory, power, and blessing.

The "gospel of self-esteem" is different from "the gospel of self-respect." The latter is from the Lord; the former is a snare. The Bible does not encourage self-esteem, but it does teach genuine self-respect.

True self-respect, a true sense of one's value, is rooted in the cross--the Son of God gave Himself for you; that makes you equivalent in value with Him. True, we have no value of ourselves; but agape creates value in its object. Let the truth sink in: your security, your value, is only "in Christ."

--Arlene Hill

Endnote:
[1] Unless noted otherwise, Bible texts are from the New American Standard Bible.

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"Resilience"

Sabbath School TodayWith the 1888 Message Dynamic 

Jesus Wept: The Bible and Human Emotions

Lesson 8: "Resilience"

What is the solution to suffering, persecution, and affliction? The popularized Protestant version of righteous by faith is "the power of positive thinking." However, the Lord Jesus has given us better good news than some psychological "trick" of looking within in order to overcome adversity. He has given us "much more abounding grace."

A Jewish teen had been captured in the Syrian war and found herself a domestic slave to the general's wife (2 Kings 5:1-14). Bitterness, hatred, and revenge might have captivated her heart. After all, no Israelite was ever to be a slave having been delivered from Egypt. She was born "free." The real reason she was a casualty of war was because of the rebellious sins of God's people. Her temptation was to hate her captors, and seriously question the divine destiny of the church of her day.

But she was a true Israelite and chose to believe in the freedom which God had given her. In other words, she understood righteousness by faith. She was a political captive. The Syrians might physically possess her, but she chose to give her mind a "captive" to God. She understood faith and consequently enjoyed freedom from sin.

We are living in a day when "every wind of doctrine" is sweeping the church. Unsuspecting youth, the very flower and future of the church, are turned off by the hypocrisy and legalism they see--casualties of war in the great controversy. They quietly go out the back door into "Babylon," while "Baal worship," the worship self disguised as the worship of Christ, subtly infiltrates the pews. How can the "Israelites indeed" overcome in the midst of the pathetic "lukewarmness" of God's remnant church?

In all the history of God's people the most difficult problem which the Lord Jesus has to resolve with His people is the controversy which His own Laodicean church has with Him. It is a know-it-all, "rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing" spiritual arrogance that has no hunger to grow beyond "me-first" adolescence (Rev. 3:17).

How did Jesus respond to adversity within the church? He faced the temptation just a few days before His crucifixion to leave Jerusalem and by-pass the cross. As He exited the temple one day, some Greeks inquired of His disciples, "We wish to see Jesus" (John 12:21). It was a real encouragement to the Saviour, when most of His own people were rejecting Him, that the Greeks desired to "see" Him.

Jesus explained to the Greeks the principle of His kingdom: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (John 12:24, 25). In effect He was rejecting the temptation to let Israel rot by abandoning her in order to do a glorious work in Athens. He chose rather the cross at the heart of the "work." His dying was not a sleep, but the real thing. Self-sacrifice is the law of His kingdom.

Jesus' response to adversity from within the church was resiliency,--the principle of the cross,--that through death comes life. Only then can He save the world. He gives that principle of resiliency to us, His disciples: "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also" (John 12:26).

What does this mean for us today who are confronted with adversity within the church? There is a progression in the third angel's message as it swells to a "loud cry," and "the latter rain" matures the harvest to face the final examination of "the mark of the beast" issue. Then the harvest is ready for the Reaper at His coming (Rev. 14:16).

The first angel declares with "a loud voice" that the cosmic Day of Atonement truth is the good news of "the everlasting gospel." "The hour of His judgment is come" (Rev. 14: 6, 7) is the cleansing of the sanctuary truth.

The second angel warns about the false christ and the false prophet of Babylon;--salvation in your sins and not from your sins. It is lawless to the core.

The third angel's message is a warning about the end product of the false gospel or the worship of self--man's self-appointed day of worship, Sunday; over against God's holy seventh-day Sabbath. The over-mastering temptation will be fear of self-preservation versus Jesus' revelation of agape--the seal of God as revealed in His "rest" of the Sabbath from all "self." "Here is the patience [resiliency] of the saints" in the final conflict.

What is the propelling force of the 1888 message? What does that angel of Revelation 18:1 bring to the third angel's message that illuminates the character of God "in verity"?

Finally, the truth of the cross converges with the cleansing of the sanctuary truth so that it becomes practical for the "saints," "And they overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death" (Rev. 12:11). Here is the message of resiliency for the afflicted saints.

The final hand-to-hand combat of overcoming temptation to sin will take place in the mind. "Their testimony" will coincide with "His testimony." He did not love His life more than He loved the world as its Saviour. They do not love their lives more than they love Him who gave His life for the world. Hence the constraining power of the Lamb has fully reconciled their hearts to the Crucified One. The Atonement is finished. The harvest is ripe. To change the metaphor, the Bride has made herself ready for her Husband (Rev. 19:7).

--Paul E. Penno

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"Hope Against Depression"

Sabbath School TodayWith the 1888 Message Dynamic 

Jesus Wept: The Bible and Human EmotionsLesson 7: "Hope Against Depression"

Just last week an e-mail came about depression: "It seems that these days more and more people in America suffer from depression, whether it is considered mild or severe. In fact, according to the U. S. National Institute of Mental Health, over 18 million people in America suffer from either Major Depressive Disorder or Dysthymic Disorder (mild but chronic depression) every year. Some people might simply attribute these numbers to the hectic lifestyle of many Americans and the daily stress they face, while others might believe that medical professionals are better at diagnosing the symptoms" [1] This report included an unhealthy diet and stimulants as contributors to these disorders. But is there an underlying cause besides these contributors? Can depression be overcome?

No matter where we turn in the Bible, we meet someone who suffers from what we call "depression": Job sitting on his dung heap scraping his sores with a potsherd. Jeremiah weeping while he writes his Lamentations, or surely Elijah in his cave at Horeb, praying the Lord to let him die. And we can't forget David, whose Psalms are a prime example: "Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD (130:1); that's the powerful name, that just saying it humbles one's heart. Then in verse 2 David begs, "Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications."

But the Prince of sufferers from depression is the Lord Jesus Christ; see Him in Gethsemane. His disciples, even Peter, James, and John, couldn't give Him an hour of their precious human time without going to sleep on Him (Matt. 26:36-40). He "began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed" (the King James Version says "very heavy"). How "heavy"? "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death." Have you ever been near there?

We know that Jesus never sinned, therefore we must conclude that to be "depressed" is not of itself sin. Depression is a temptation, not a sin. It's human, and Jesus, the Son of God, became human, the Son of man. He took into His soul all the depression that all humans have suffered, cumulative, corporately, and bore it, "even unto death," the final God-forsaken kind of hopeless death when He cried out in those "depths," "My God, why have You forsaken Me?" If you feel depressed, Jesus does not cast you off; He remembers how He felt on His cross.

If you are tempted by despair, if everything has gone wrong, disappointments and misfortunes seem to shout in your ears that God has forgotten you, and to top it all off, you are keenly aware of your own sinfulness, please remember Jesus. It would not be fair for you at last to "sit down with [Him] in [His] throne" (as He promises in Revelation 3:20) unless you have at least tasted a little of what He went through. Some "fellowship with Him in His sufferings" (see Phil. 3:10) is a great blessing to you in the end. If we remember Jesus, we can see how depression is not sin, even if some well-meaning people rub that in to make your sufferings worse (Job had his three "friends").

Remember and believe God's New Covenant promises to Abraham (Gen. 12:2, 3) and see yourself as a "child of Abraham" (Gal. 3:29). Learn how to believe those promises. Fast for a while, let your mind be cleared so you can hear the "still small voice" Elijah had to listen for (1 Kings 19:12). And best of all, have a good long quiet visit alone with that Prince of all sufferers. Choose, even if you don't feel like it, to believe His promises.

What can we do to help people who are depressed? It's important to give them "good news" from the Great Physician. God calls upon those who serve Him to minister to others in need. He told Abraham that his descendants would be a blessing to the world: "Thou shalt be a blessing, … and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed (Gen. 12:2, 3). Jesus saw that His mission was to help depressed people: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel [good news, glad tidings] to the poor [those who can't afford medical treatment]; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed" (Luke 4:18).

When we realize our debt to the "Savior of the world" we will want to be ready to "know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary" (Isa. 50:4), because the Lord has sent us to do the work that He would do if He were here in person.

The week's lesson topic crosses over many of the concepts or "points" of the 1888 message. Christ has "first-hand" knowledge of depression, He came all the way to where we are, taking upon Himself "the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom. 8:3). Thus He is a Savior "nigh at hand, not afar off." But the most comforting focal point is that Christ is a Good Shepherd who is seeking His lost sheep even though we have not sought Him. A misunderstanding of God's character causes us to think He is trying to hide from us. But at the point where every person stands, there is a Good Shepherd who has found him, comforts him, and has a message of encouragement and hope for him.

The gospel is the Good News of what Jesus has accomplished in His incarnation. Did He truly conquer this sin in the "likeness of sinful flesh"? Or did He sidestep the real issue by taking upon Himself a different nature than what we are saddled with? When He inspired the Bible, did He employ cunning rhetorical evasion to make us think that "in all points He was tempted like as we are, yet without sin," while in reality He excused Himself from facing and conquering the REAL temptation that plagues us all? Well, I must tell what I believe: the true gospel IS the power of God unto salvation from depression to everyone who believes (see Rom. 1:16). So, everything depends on understanding what it means to believe!

Depression is overcome--through believing genuine Good News.

--Robert J. Wieland[Excerpts from his writings]

[1] Cindy Jones-Shoeman, Feb. 2, 2011.
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"Good Thinking"

Sabbath School TodayWith the 1888 Message Dynamic

Jesus Wept: The Bible and Human EmotionsLesson 6: "Good Thinking"

Good thinking, bad thinking. White and black. But is there a "gray" area that plagues the Christian church? It all begins in the mind. "As [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7). The thoughts cherished will eventually govern the conduct outwardly. Deep in the thoughts is where the battle is decided, where we "fight the good fight of faith" (1 Tim. 6:12). It's the fight to believe when every ounce of your being seems to push you the other way. It's "bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5).

Our Sabbath School lesson covers the results of bad thinking--the undesirable behavior, and asks us to consider the "specific actions that we are called upon to do in order to live the kind of life in Christ we are promised" (p. 51). This is the "gray" area that plagues our thinking--a checklist of what we must do to change our thinking. Books and books (Christian and otherwise) have been written on the subject of mental health, but we would like to present this lesson topic in a different light, to stretch our thinking beyond ourselves.

Could this issue of good (or bad) thinking correspond to the Old Covenant and the New Covenant? Can Old Covenant thinking be passed down from generation to generation? For example, throughout ancient Israel's centuries, Baal worship kept infiltrating generations of God's true people. Only occasional brief revivals under kings like Hezekiah or Josiah brought temporary relief. The source of the problem? Always, the Old Covenant thinking their fathers embraced at Mt. Sinai and bequeathed to their children. Even today the spiritual failures of many sincere people are the result of being taught Old Covenant ideas, especially in childhood and youth.

The New Covenant truth was an essential element of the 1888 message, and even today lifts a load of doubt and despair from many heavy hearts. The Old Covenant idea of "obey and live" does nothing more than "gendereth to bondage" (Gal. 4:24; "slavery, NEB), while the New Covenant was established on "better promises" [the promises of God rather than the promise of the people, Heb. 8:6] (see Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 372).

"You are weak in moral power, in slavery to doubt, and controlled by the habits of your life of sin. … You cannot control your thoughts, your impulses, your affections. … You cannot change your heart, you cannot of yourself give to God its affections; but you can choose to serve Him. … Thus your whole nature will be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ; your affections will be centered upon Him, your thoughts will be in harmony with Him" (Steps to Christ, p. 47; emphasis supplied).

Some questions arise: Is it possible for any church in any age of history, anywhere in the world, to be "lukewarm" and at the same time be living under the New Covenant? Is this what Christ died to accomplish--to raise up a professed Christian church that is apathetic in its devotion to its Savior and thankfulness for His sacrifice on the cross?

You can't read very far in the New Testament without being confronted by a painful truth: spiritual lukewarmness is inconsistent with understanding and believing the New Covenant. Wherever we see such pathetic devotion, we can know we are in an area of spiritual experience dominated by Old Covenant ideas. They may have their roots beneath the surface of our consciousness, and it's the height of arrogance for us to boast that we are "rich and increased with goods" in our understanding of the gospel when Old Covenant principles still bedevil our thinking.

Old Covenant "Christian" living is highly popular, but it's difficult for Jesus to explain to the holy angels how His people can be content to go on generation after generation, century after century so spiritually naïve, so self-satisfied. In His message to the leadership of His church in the last days, He confesses that this lukewarmness perpetuated so long makes Him feel like throwing up (see Rev. 3:16, 17). He is suffering the pain of acute nausea; should not our concern be, not for self, but for His healing?

When asked, "How can I control my thoughts," Ellet J. Waggoner once wrote that there is only one remedy for our wayward thoughts, and that's found in Isaiah 55:7-9: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." In other words, let the Lord do our thinking in us. This is possible; for we have His assurance: "Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established" (Prov. 16:3).

The apostle Paul wrote, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). But how do we get that "new mind"? Not by "working," not by "doing." It's our choice, by faith, to "see" Jesus and permit His thoughts to become our "right thinking." If we don't resist the Holy Spirit, Christ, our great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary, will work to impart that "mind of Christ" to us--the greatest joy we can have to be totally "at-one" with Him. The process is ministered by "grace." As you begin to appreciate the dimensions of the agape that drove Him to the cross, His "mind" begins to be imparted to you. And you "overcome … even as [He] overcame" (Rev. 3:21).

As we near the glorious finishing of God's work in the world and the coming of Jesus, all the cobwebs and junk of legalistic, egocentric thinking will be swept out. Then when the Lord has a world church truly reconciled to Him, the world can be lightened with His final message (18:1-4).

--Carol A. Kawamoto[With thanks to Robert J. Wieland]

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