Friday, April 2
The Bible overflows with calls to sinners and backsliders. Compare Psalms 95:7-8; Isaiah 55:1-2, 6-7; Luke 15:3-7; Luke 19:10. What others can you find?
Read Ellen G. White, “The Creation,” pp. 44-51; “The Temptation and Fall,” pp. 52-62; and “The Plan of Redemption,” pp. 63-70, in Patriarchs and Prophets.
“There was a gospel sermon, I think, in those three divine words as they penetrated the dense parts of the thicket, and reached the tingling ears of the fugitives — ‘Where art thou?’ Thy God is not willing to lose thee; He is come forth to seek thee, just as by-and-by He means to come forth in the Person of His Son, not only to seek but to save that which now is lost.” — Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Treasury of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1962) Old Testament, vol. 1, p. 11.
Discussion Questions:
1. Because the kind and caring God is the One who seeks humankind, how can we respond to this expression of love by the Father and Jesus Christ even now? How does the Lord expect us to respond?
2. Contrast the biblical picture of humankind as fallen from a lofty place in God’s creation and in need of redemption with the evolutionary theory of development. Which offers more hope, and why?
3. How essential are loving relationships to human happiness? Why is a flourishing connection to God necessary to such relationships? Discuss the influence of healthy human relationships on the persons in those relationships (parent-child, friend-friend, husband-wife, employer-employee, etc.).
Summary: God created us in His own image so that a loving fellowship could exist between Him and us. Although the entrance of sin shattered the original union, God seeks to restore this relationship through the plan of redemption. As dependent creatures, life takes on true meaning and clarity only when we enter into union with our Creator.
