Link to the 3rd Quarter:

https://ssnet.org/lessons/22c

Link to the 1st lesson:

https://ssnet.org/lessons/22c/less01.html

Let the discussions begin.

The first lesson of the quarter was a great lesson -- Jesus our perfect, loving, caring shepherd guiding us (His sheep) through the paths of life toward His everlasting kingdom.

But this weeks lesson is a little more difficult.
The journey isn't all pleasant, there is refining, pruning.....

Wednesday's lesson quotes Jeremiah 9:7-16. and the quarterly explains it thus:



Jeremiah is addressing the NATION. Of course the nation is made up of people who are clinging to sin, however the "crucible" is coming on the whole nation "to purge out the wicked".

The lesson focuses mainly on the individual, not on a corporate body.
Yes, the verses are a warning to individuals, for had they forsaken their sins, and truly worshipped the LORD, the terrible events would not have occurred.

But maybe we need to think a little about the meaning for the whole "nation".

They were "God's people". They had the promises. They had the temple of God's presence. The Messiah was to be born from their nation. They still followed a "form" of the religion God had given them. Surely nothing would happen to them?

Jeremiah 7:9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;
7:10 Then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

They were going through the FORMS of worship, but they didn't have strong godly leaders, and there was a lot of corruption and disregard for the genuine truth. Yes, there were still sincere believers, but they were not the majority.

Do we have the warnings that Jeremiah 9:7-16 may be addressing our present day church?

The following is taken from the book "Last Day Events" a compilation from E.G.White's writtings.

The shaking of God blows away multitudes like dry leaves.--4T 89 (1876). {LDE 180.1}
Chaff like a cloud will be borne away on the wind, even from places where we see only floors of rich wheat.--5T 81 (1882). {LDE 180.2}
Soon God's people will be tested by fiery trials, and the great proportion of those who now appear to be genuine and true will prove to be base metal. . . . {LDE 180.3}
When the religion of Christ is most held in contempt, when His law is most despised, then should our zeal be the warmest and our courage and firmness the most unflinching. To stand in defense of truth and righteousness when the majority forsake us, to fight the battles of the Lord when champions are few--this will be our test. At this time we must gather warmth from the coldness of others, courage from their cowardice, and loyalty from their treason.--5T 136 (1882). {LDE 180.4}
The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out--the chaff separated from the precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take place.--2SM 380 (1886). {LDE 180.5}
As the storm approaches, a large class who have professed faith in the third angel's message, but have
not been sanctified through obedience to the truth, abandon their position and join the ranks of the opposition.--GC 608 (1911). {LDE 180.6}

God's Faithful Will Be Revealed

The Lord has faithful servants who in the shaking, testing time will be disclosed to view. There are precious ones now hidden who have not bowed the knee to Baal. They have not had the light which has been shining in a concentrated blaze upon you. But it may be under a rough and uninviting exterior the pure brightness of a genuine Christian character will be revealed. In the daytime we look toward heaven but do not see the stars. They are there, fixed in the firmament, but the eye cannot distinguish them. In the night we behold their genuine luster.--5T 80, 81 (1882). {LDE 181.1}
On every occasion that persecution takes place, the witnesses make decisions, either for Christ or against Him. Those who show sympathy for the men wrongly condemned, who are not bitter against them, show their attachment for Christ.--ST Feb. 20, 1901. {LDE 181.2}
Let opposition arise, let bigotry and intolerance again bear sway, let persecution be kindled, and the half-hearted and hypocritical will waver and yield the faith; but the true Christian will stand firm as a rock, his faith stronger, his hope brighter than in days of prosperity.--GC 602 (1911). {LDE 181.3}

(and) I view the church in a more dangerous condition than they ever have been. Experimental religion is known but by a few. The shaking must soon take place to purify the church. {2SG 284.1}

Read Job 1:6-2:10. What caused Job's suffering?

Satan appears in heaven at a heavenly meeting claiming he walks to and fro on the earth.
The significance of "feet touching" or "walking" on property symbolizes ownership. Basically Satan is asserting that the earth is his territory, he walks all over it

God says -- wait a minute, you don't control everything down there, consider my faithful Job.

The main reason Job ends up suffering is to show the falseness of Satan's accusations --
Satan claims Job only does what God wants because of God's blessings and protection. Remove those and Job will throw in his lot against God, Satan claims.

God says, OK, you can remove those blessings.
In the depth of suffering and loss, will Job continue to trust and follow God?

It's easy to trust God in the good times, but how does our faith fare when things are going all wrong?

Well we know what Job did in spite of all his suffering. He remained faithful to God, even though he didn't understand why all this suffering was happening to him.

We recognize what happened to Job from the story of the Satan at the front of the book. But Job and his friends understood through the story of the Leviathan in chapter 41.

Most cultures have a story of a hero (usually a god) who fights a dragon/leviathan. The Lord's speeches from the whirlwind were based on this. In paganism the issue is who is stronger. In Job the issue is that if strength was the important thing then the Lord could defeat the leviathan easier than tossing s pebble to the ground. But what Job was going through, and what we are going through is what God is doing to get the victory over the leviathan: (Letting the issues of the great controversy play out and creatures make choices on the weight of the evidence.)

A side note of interest: Ancient names were reflections of their characters. One of the names of the leviathan was "Rahab" Our friend from Jericho was seen by the wicked Canaanites as the devil incarnated. She was the most wicked Canaanite, if not the most wicked person in the world. On Joshua's list of Canaanites to kill for their wickedness, her name was on the top of the list. But God was able to save even the worst Canaanite, and thus he could have saved any if not all the rest if only they would let him.

Interesting regarding Rahab, which tells us that anybody can be saved, if they want to be saved.

Lesson 4 was all about "character" as in the image of God.

Lesson focuses on the crucible of purification.

Purification requires a standard.

In our case, the standard is the image of God in us and the image of Jesus Christ, who is the perfect reflection of the image of God (Hebrews 1:3).

Purification also requires an agent of purification, which the Bible often presents as fire (1Peter 1:7, Revelation 3:18).

The result of purification is our character, represented by the oil in the lamps of the ten virgins in the parable of Jesus (Matthew 25:1-13).

I always thought the oil only represented the Holy Spirit, until I read this and then realized the oil also represents our purified character. This makes sense as the work of the Holy Spirit is to also purify our character.

This weeks lesson is about seeing the Invisible. How can we see God when He is invisible. Mondays scripture passage gives us a crucial answer though it is not expounded on in the quarterly section. It is found in John 14:6-9. Thomas asked questions to which Jesus answers. ?If you have known Me you will know the Father? he who has seen Me has seen the Father?. Study the life of Christ for it is the picture of God

In other words, study the character of Christ for it is the picture of God.

Rejoice in the Lord always!!!


How does one do this when everything seems to be going wrong?

What does it mean to "rejoice"?
Does it mean to be happy when things go wrong?
Or is it looking at the situation from a broader perspective?
In a lot of ways I think it means to "praise" God, even when we don't feel like it.

Think of the Israelites in the wilderness.
What did they do when their food ran out, or when the water wasn't flowing?
Did they focus heavily on the problem, complaining, and despondent?
Or did they praise God for how He had led them so miraculously in the past, and from this gathered courage and trust that God would take of them? Thus finding peace and a certain joy?

Last night at our Prayer Meeting over Zoom, a lady, who's husband was expected to pass away from covid and pneumonia within that night or the next day, was nevertheless still praising the Lord.

The older we get the more we experience loved ones and friends dying around us. We celebrate a persons 100th birthday not really realizing all the grief they endured as everyone they once knew one by one entered the grave till only they are left of the generations they once knew. The older one gets the more precious God?s plan of salvation becomes. God is to be praised for what He has done in making eternal life available While death is the lot of every human born, yet God in His mercy has opened the door to eternal life. so we need not mourn as those who know not our God. when the last trump sounds the dead in Christ will rise incorruptible We will see them again and live eternally together with Christ. It is this assurance that allows and compelled us to praise God even when our hearts are breaking. He will make all things right. All trials will seem small when we see Him!!!

Excellent post dedication. I've thought this. We spend about 1/3 of our life meeting or other contact with people who for one reason or another form a special part in our hearts. Then the middle third we loose some of these but meet a few more, and the last third basically saying "Good-Bye" to these special people.

I like what Hank Williams in his character "Luke the Drifter" said in his version of "Beyond the Sunset" "Memory is one gift of God that death cannot take away."

Our loved ones live on in our hearts and memories, and even more importantly in God's heart and memory. In a sense, living in God's heart and memory is being more alive than our conscience existence. But we miss them as they sleep and wait for the one who is the resurrection and the life to come.

The Christmas season is very important for family. While many miss this point as the chapter division is in the wrong place, we have a story that starts in John 10: 22 and goes to John 11: 54.

In John Jesus had 7 "I AM" statements. Although each story does not follow a particular order of events, they all have points that will appear in one order or another in these stories. They all have a temple feast, Jesus says something in private or public which is an application of an aspect of the feast, there is a crisis that is related to that aspect of the feast, Jesus says the "I AM" dealing with all this information, and Jesus does a sign that resolves the issue.
We have 3 stories at Passover, occurring in 3 different places far from each other, and clearly over 3 different years. We have 3 stories for the feast of Tabernacles, they were all in Jerusalem and written together where it sounds like Jesus did all three in the same year, which well could have happened, but it may have been events over 2 or 3 years telescoped together. Then we have 1 story for an unexpected temple feast; Hanukkah. Thus making Hanukkah the only temple feast that did not become a Biblical feast until the New Testament.

While the original "feasts of the land" were indeed feasts of the land, dealing with the major agricultural points of the year (even the Canaanites kept these feasts; but in a very horrible way). Thus since we are not living in the land and do not have the agricultural concerns connected to them, no matter how much people try to argue that we need to keep all these feasts, they just don't have the same message for us and thus we can't really keep them outside of the land. Now we can think about them, especially when they occur, and we can pray for the people living in the land, but they are only lessons for us. (during the exile people left in the land worked out a series of places for smoke signals to let those in Egypt, Assyria, and especially Babylon .when the feast arrived in the land; However, the Sabbath was universal and did not need smoke signals from the land. but they greeted the Sabbath when the sun set at their location.

Now, the feast of Tabernacles has not met it's ultimate antitype yet, so a good one to keep in our memory. And Hanukkah was not a feast of the land, and did not become a Biblical feast until Jesus made it one. There are many lessons that is good for us to remember; as we are heading to persecution. But the big issue is that Jesus tied Hanukkah to the resurrection of those who worship God. We have the story of one of his friends who worshiped the true God that got sick and died. He came and said "Yahweh the Resurrection and the Life" "I AM the Resurrection and the Life" and he raises his friend Lazarus.

It is as if Jesus saw how important family would be to us at that time of the year. People who have lost loved ones have the pain anew as there are the empty seats around the holiday table. As characteristic of Jesus, he gives a special message for those crying Christmas tears; who has the empty seat at the holiday table. The empty seats grow each year. It is a shame that we overlook that Jesus gave us a special message set in that very special season. The Christmas season has room for things like remembering the birth of Jesus; the angels, Shepherds (who were probably 60% to 80% women), the wise men, family, winter wonderlands, Christmas presents, Santa, Frosty, Rudolf, Scrooge, even grandma getting run over by a reindeer, Can we not include in our thoughts for this season the message that Jesus gave us for this time of the year? I don't know if we have any pastors here, or even lay preachers; but if you find yourself preaching during that season, the Hanukkah/Christmas season; take some time to share with your listeners the sermon, the message that Jesus gave us for this time of the year?

Remembering and celebrating Christ's incarnation and first advent is a great way of entering into a "PRAISE" experience with our God.

But most of the world worships santa, the counterfeit that has led the world into praising commercialism, debauchery and greed, and has actually fought against God and His marvelous gift, Christ our Lord and Savior, and sought to crowd out any connection with Christ.
So much in life diverts the mind from God's awesome truths and plunges the human race into counterfeits till Christ is considered an insult to people's feelings and needs to be hidden and the counterfeits fill every shelf and decoration.

How do we resist the deluge of counterfeits and dark shadows satan has cast upon the world?

Our lesson for Thursday gives a great answer!!!

PRAISE
Don't go down into the valley of darkness covering the world, instead SING praises to God!
When the evil armies gathered to smoother truth, God's people stood on high ground above and sang praises to God and the enemy destroyed itself and was gone.

So this world is also destroying itself with its descent into darkness and counterfeits, our only hope is turning to God in awesome praise, commitment, and obedience. He is our Lord and Savior, our refuge, our help, our Savior, our Redemption and hope and life!

This weeks lesson speaks of meekness. What is meekness? biblical meekness? According to the lesson meekness is enduring injury with patience without resentment as well as having a meekness of spirit What meekness is NOT is being a push over or simply a ?yes whatever you say? person. Meekness is being able to stand when others misrepresent and hurt you without lashing back or getting all mad. How do others describe meekness Moses was noted as the meekest man yet he was also a powerful leader standing solidly for God.