I just received another e-mail promoting an atheist author’s book for Christian readers. There’s been a splash of books by atheists with directions for how Christians should handle their faith. But I’m asking myself and you, “Why would Christians follow blind ’swimmers’, so to speak, when they can dive deeply into the treasure house of God’s Word with our own Christian leaders?”

I’m all for respectfully listening to what atheists and other non-believers have to say, but when it’s my time to speak in the conversation cycle, I want to be sure to reach their heart as well as their ears—and definitely influence their thinking. That’s why I’m so happy to have the Exegesis pages in LEAD that take me to depths I would not reach alone in my Sabbath School lesson study. Also the Exegesis and Hermaneutics section of LEAD teaches me how to troll the depths of Scripture in general. Authors for these sections, Dr. Ekkehardt Mueller and Dr. Kwabena Donkor not only know the fine points of theology, they are active in the “real world” so their answers connect with real questions.

Ekkehardt Mueller playing the harpsichord on a Sabbath afternoon

Lesson 9: Believing in the Son of God

D T H V R K T P O X Y X K K H Q J M T E S R X Y V
Q E Z Z N E J R G H C K W I E T I O M N P O T M E
K K T E M H T K T R F O Y I J U A O H J I T I E Z
U P E N P P C A Q R R N N A T X C E T T R A E S U
E L B A I L E R W T U F H T A R W N D S I E V S H
L Z D I I O W Y H G M T N U E O O I O N T R R I S
U N V E K M N Y H E M P H V F N B G I W U C E A E
I O U W N I M N Z L P K O H F L L A U U A C S H L
X E L Y B Y U O A O T O Y N A Y T G I Z L B U V F
J C K S X B W J R Y C L S C M N G U N R A M S B F
M Z R J K U B C T T U V L S U W E X C P P N P V E
S P O L I T I C S N A N B O Z G H W T L O K J Z H
Y L H T R A E M L K E L F G Z A S I P B P I C G C
P I D L D D L L H I R M I T S G S R E T E R N A L
U C A Y S L Z A J S M S G T N M X D T P W Y P M G
C Y S E R E H N V A P I J D Y R I H L V O E P F G
H P P R B E L I E V E H L G U E Y R A U T C N A S
A F R F I B W G T Y V Y U I N J E T P C G T X C E
R E V O L U T I O N A R Y C T V X I I F H F U E S
I A U I M B B R D O V E E D I A H U Z N H R T T S
S S S I Z I S O T F I G O D X S R Z L H I D I S E
M T R U S T S J M N P O E K R O G Y E X G R E S N
A X V P G D S E J Z L N B O Y A W A X Z N L T Y T
H I G T A V S T J B C C W E S M R B Z Q B Z V R I
P G A R C E X D Q E A F Y J W Z A D Q A R C U J W

ABLE
ANNOINTED
BAPTISM
BELIEVE
BLOOD
CHARISMA
CHRIST
CREATOR
DEATH
DENY
DOVE
EARTHLY
ETERNAL
EVIDENCE
FACETS
FEAST
FLESH
FOUNTAIN
GIFT
HEAR
HERESY
IMMORTALITY
JUDGMENT
KNEEL
MESSIAH
MILITARY
OBEDIENCE
ONLY
ORIGINAL
OVERCOME
POLITICS
PROMISE
RELIABLE
REVOLUTIONARY
SANCTUARY
SERVE
SPIRITUAL
TRINITY
TRUST
TRUTH
WATER
WITNESSES
WON
WORSHIP
WORTHY
WRATH

Wikipedia Report: “Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways‘ third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London’s Heathrow Airport to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. On Wednesday 21 December 1988, the aircraft flying this route—a Boeing 747-121 named Clipper Maid of the Seas—was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members.^[1] Eleven people in Lockerbie, southern Scotland, were killed as large sections of the plane fell in and around the town, bringing total fatalities to 270. As a result, the event has been named by the media as the Lockerbie Bombing.

“In 2001, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, a Libyan, was convicted of involvement in the bombing and sentenced to life imprisonment. On 20 August 2009, the Scottish Government released him on compassionate grounds to return to Libya as he was suffering from terminal prostate cancer and had a life expectancy of less than 3 months.”

How has the Sabbath School lessons Loved and Loving: John’s Epistles, especially Lesson 8, impacted your response—emotional and visible—to the freeing of the convicted bomber and Libya’s response? How does the thought that “love costs and pays” in response to Lesson 8 direct your witness about this world news media blitz?

Brothers
Sisters
Mark
James
John
commandment
Love
Revenge
Believers
Antichrists
God
Cain
Murder
Righteous
Life
Atone
Know
Born
Spirit
Abide
Confess
Word
Tongue
Children
Condemn
Confident
Plea
Faith
Attitude
Obedience
Naked
Peace
Body
Home
Commandments
Believe
Shut
Burden
Heart
Mind
Scribes
First
Soul
Strength
Community
Sacrifice

Love Costs and Pays

Reading Marcia Conner’s article in Training and Development confirmed my thoughts that Tweeting could benefit Sabbath School leaders in local churches. Here are some possibilities:

• Supplement your training programs and those provided by conference leaders. Tweeting could enable you to follow up with workshop facilitators to sharpen skills that you had only limited time to internalize in a meeting filled with other sharp learners.

• Only so much can be said during the time allocated for a Sabbath School class strategy session. Tweeting can enable the planning—plus discussion and fellowship—to continue.

• Leaders who twitter can follow up the limited time for fellowshipping at training events, connecting more firmly with other workshop attendees who have similar challenges. You could also be affirmed for your successes.

• Sabbath School members can become better acquainted. Shut-ins who can twitter have another pipeline through which to share their thoughts and insights about the Sabbath School lesson.

• Although tweeting tutorials are readily available via blogs, online courses, in-person workshops, and video instructions on YouTube, perhaps “Tweeting” would be a valuable workshop to host for Sabbath School leaders (including class facilitators) and the Sabbath School Council in your local church.

• Need facilitators? Chat with your communication leaders—and all those savvy youth and young adults in your church and area churches. Hosting tweeting tutorials could provide that teachable format for enabling members to see their Adventist education dollars paying off—invite the staff of your school, academy, or university to come in and share their tweeting abilities.

Lesson 8: Loving Brothers and Sisters

Unscramble each of the clue words.

Take the letters that appear in boxes and unscramble them for the final message.

The introduction of the smart phone into our society has changed the way people interact on the phone, internet and work. Its also changed how information is shared with the introduction of apps.

One such app that I recently discovered is YouVersion. The developers of this application Lifechurch.tv created this tool  “to impact the world using innovative technology, more importantly, we are engaging people into relationships with God as they discover the relevance the Bible has for their lives.”

This is a powerful little application that allows you to look at different versions of the Bible simultaneously, tag different chapters, verses, words, take notes and collaborate with others in the community.

The only draw back to this application that I can find is my lack of a smart phone, and my inability to take the app for a full test run. But for those of us that are not smart phone inclined there is still a web based version available for us to use.

If you have a smart phone and are looking for a Bible app and are willing to try YouVersion, take it for a spin and then let us know what you think.

Answers and new Lesson 8 puzzle next week.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver was the sister of President John F. Kennedy and a champion of the disabled. She founded the Special Olympics, died Tuesday, August 11, 2009.

The Special Olympics, which started as summer camps held in the Shrivers’ backyard, now serves about 2.5 million mentally disabled people in 190 countries, according to the Special Olympics website. And today, 3.1 million people with mental disabilities participate in 228 programs in 170 nations, according to the Special Olympics.

For many mentally challenged adults, Sabbath School is an oasis, a bright spot, a warm and welcoming place. LEAD magazine helps members and their friends who want to study the Word of God do so by providing volunteer class facilitators practical tips and lesson activities on the same subjects that the rest of the adult division Bible students are enjoying—and growing with.

Helene Hubbard, PhD, MD prepares the Bible study materials for this special needs group in her section of The Bridge called Emmaus Eyes. She has won an award for her work with this population in Florida.

You will want to make sure that your church provides this option for your Sabbath School discipleship and evangelism. And then share the experience.

Pacific Press Publishing Association recently re-released an updated and expanded edition of Searching for a God to Love. This book helps direct the reader into a more in depth and personal understanding of God by drawing examples from the authors own experiences and key biblical principles that help give our finite minds a better understanding of God.

Not only is this book a great read on a personal level, it can also be used in small group study. I would also recommend sharing it with young adults, Adventist and non-Adventist alike that are dealing with life’s perplexities and are questioning whether or not God really exists and if he really cares about me with all of the other problems going on around the world.

Check it out, you wont be disappointed.