OAFSaSNotes 2022

3/12/2022 Sabbath School Notes:
(bullet points = facilitator; circles = attendee)

  • What is faith?
    • Believing in something, even if it seems improbable or there’s conflict.
    • To believe in or on something.
  • To prepare, I read Nahum and 1 John. Let’s go to 1 John 1:8 (LEB)– “If we say that we do not have sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
    • I look at Hebrews 11:1-3 (LEB) — “Now faith is the realization of what is hoped for, the proof of things not seen.  For by this the people of old were approved. By faith we understand the worlds were created by the word of God, in order that what is seen did not come into existence from what is visible.”
    • I have a friend who got bad news from the oncologist. Yet, he is relaxed. You can see it in his eyes. That’s faith.
    • Can you have faith in the wrong thing, though?
    • Belief in the wrong thing? I think so, yes.
    • Holy Spirit will help us see the fault in our thinking.
  • If you don’t accept that help, your acceptance of the lie becomes stronger. That’s why we are to turn to the Bible to help us not believe our own lies.
    • Yes, my own brain will lie through its teeth to me!
  • I read several commentaries. They talked about the difference between faith and belief. Part of our nature is to have sin. Even when forgiven, we have a sinful nature, says the commentaries.
    • Yet, we can have lots of hope if we think about how God will change you at translation.
    • Is sin continuous, so we need to ask forgiveness continuously?
    • God is the perfector of our faith. So, He’ll continue to change us. It’s a process. We need to be right by Jesus. I think there will be a group of people who will stand by Him.
    • He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it. He’ll give me the mind of Christ.
  • What stops you from being sinless today…not just before the End?
    • It’s a lack of love.
  • What stops us from reaching perfection away from sin now?
    • genetics, culture, circumstances, etc. I’ve gotten better, though.
  • So we mellow with age.
    • Yes, and we grow in understanding about Who He is and how we don’t measure up.
  • What stops you from being sinless today?
    • me!
  • We are to be the champions. What’s the definition of that? I am doing as He asks. To the best of my knowledge, I’m loving God. So, go through the list of the fruits of the Spirit. If I’m not those things, I am in sin. Then, I need to go back to God for forgiveness and help. When does that forgiveness happen?
    • What? Without asking?
  • You do have to be repentant. You need to want to change. I continually learn and grow.
    • It’s like what people tell the missionaries. “You are teaching me stuff I didn’t know, so I’m not accountable. Do you not love me?”
    • I believe He is working on us today. In the moment, we focus on the problem rather than on God. I got all anxious rather than trusting God.
  • So, where was the sin?
    • I acted, then I had the realization that I didn’t do it right.
  • Is the sin in the moment or only once you have the realization?
    • In the moment. Then, He shows me I was wrong.
    • My instant reaction is to think ill of a person stopped in the road to take a photo. Then, I feel bad for thinking it. I repent.
    • I think there’s always been a remnant in each time period of history. At the End, there will be a remnant, too.
  • We’re all potentially at the end of our age…our own life. I could die tomorrow. That’s the end of my age.
    • We look to Christ for our example. Hebrews 11 was to people who weren’t perfect. They hung onto God. They had the Promise, and they were waiting for Him.
    • Read on to verse nine in 1 John 1 — “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, so that he will forgive us our sins and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
  • Forgiveness happens when?
    • At the moment.
  • The purification process doesn’t remove our propensity for sin.
    • Back in the sacrificial system of the Jews, you don’t get the sense everyone in all the tribes took a lamb to the Temple every day.
  • We seem to have two ways of handling sin: 1) Turning to Jesus repeatedly; 2) Figuring God accepts us despite all we do. Can we continue to sin and God accepts us? Can we be forgiven for continual, intentional sin?
    • Abraham lied about his wife being his sister.
  • Yes, Abraham sinned by lying that he was Sarai’s brother. But, he asked forgiveness. Because he sought forgiveness and had a change of heart, he was forgiven. If he hadn’t, there’d been no forgiveness.
    • In this human walk, we have a choice. Sin is death. If the Holy Spirit is not involved in the decision, it is death. I need to release my ego and put myself in God’s hands. That’s life.
  • We have this idea that we have to prepare for the End. I argue we each have the same test today. Our tests are just as hard as their tests will be in the End Times.
    • If we’re followers of Christ and don’t intentionally sin…We are tempted and we justify, then we do the sin. Most people following Christ do not PLAN to sin.
  • Willful sin is knowing it is wrong and doing it anyway.
    • God’s grace is amazing. I’ve seen where we are protected even in our sin, then we figure out later that we’d sinned and He was there for us anyway. That’s impactful. We recognize later that we’d sinned, when we look back, and we see God’s mercy. That strengthens us.
  • I think it will be a challenge for some Christians when God does “bad” things. We tend to say that God “allows it.” But, look in Revelation. God is the one pouring out the bowls. We’ll need to stick with Him.
    • It seems like God is refining my character. He knows my tendencies, my character flaws. He’s working on me.
3/5/22 Sabbath School Notes
( Facilitator = bullet point; attendee = — )
Ron’s introduction of what Sabbath School will be about:
God goes to great lengths to have a relationship with each of us. It is a human and Divine partnership. It’s what God wants, and that’s what the Bible is about. I have biases and blindspots that color what I read. God calls us to community. We engage as a community, and God is revealed. We want to study Scripture through the lens that there’s meaning for me in everything I read in the Bible. What does God want me to adjust or modify to please Him? What does God want me to gain from each Scripture? How do we, as a community, apply it?
[passed out first page of hand-out]— Scofield Bible, Romans 15:4 – “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
— The Message, Romans 15:3-6 – “That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped out. ‘I took on the troubles of the troubled,’ is the way Scripture puts it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it’s written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!”
  • If we take the concept that the entire Bible is written for me…
    — Why don’t you wear a prayer box and long side-burns?
  • Maybe I should. Maybe I’m failing.
    — Need to take into account your culture.
    — Animal sacrifices were eliminated by the Cross.
  • We need to work together at untangling the Bible to see what’s in it for us. “God in Heaven alone is infallible and trustworthy,” says White. He trusts us to read and interpret with His help. We need to be involved, to engage with Him.
  • I was similar to other kids, yet there were some differences. We lived in the same culture, though, there in rural Nebraska.
  • Let’s look at where the Bible says not to mix the two different materials in your garments. What was the reason? I believe that it was because garments with that mix were to only be worn by the High Priest. It was reserved for him.
  • Only the Emperor was allowed to wear purple. It was reserved for him. If you wore purple, you were in trouble.

  • Today’s health practices are similar to what we were asked to do back in the Old Testament.

    — Even in our denomination, the question has come up whether we should baptize someone wearing jewelry. Yet, there’s a missionary that baptized lots of people wearing jewelry because it was a part of their culture.
    — We are all different parts of the same body. In AA, we learn, “Take what you can use and leave the rest.” The Bible is written that way. As I grow, different verses stick with me right then that didn’t before.
    — Yes, we all have different interests.
    — The book hasn’t changed; I have.

  • God chose Abraham and his descendants with all their failings. These are the protectors of the oracles. Jewish culture preserved it. Jesus was born a Jew. The foundation of the Bible is Jewish. God/Jesus is interwoven throughout the Jewish culture. Do you have to participate in the culture? I don’t think so. Spending time in the culture, though, is beneficial in understanding the Bible.
    — If you’re Jewish, you’re circumcised. If not, there’s no need to be, its says in the New Testament.
  • In Acts 15, what we are to do now is boiled down to a list of things that are important. So everything else outside that list is okay to do? I can do anything I want? It is between me and God. He wants us to be healthy, so He described clean and unclean foods. Is it okay to eat food offered to idols? Colossians talks about it. There are countries where food is given to idols and it is out in the open where the poor come along and take the food that is at the idols. They often share the food, too.
    — Yeah, I saw that where I went, too.
    [Church bell rang.]
2/26/22 Sabbath School Notes:
[Facilitator = bullet points; attendee = –]
  • What do you think of when you hear “perfect sacrifice?”
    — There’s only one.
  • Why do we need a sacrifice?
    — My question is, “why blood is required?” Is it the actual blood that is required for cleansing, or is it the only ransom?
  • Why? Yes, why? Old Covenant Moses was given instructions on how to set up the sacrificial system. What did they have to do when the built the Tabernacle?
    — They sprinkled blood on everything.
    — I wonder if it has something to do with acknowledging we are created beings and He’s our Creator.
    — Yes, blood is our life.
  • I didn’t ask to be alive and to have blood in my veins. Now I, as a Hebrew, must go make blood sacrifice?
    — It isn’t about us; it’s about God.
  • What is God really telling us?
    — I think one of the hardest parts to remember. We think of the Tabernacle as the first point when sacrifice happened, but sin started in the Garden. The plan of salvation existed from the beginning. We had the opportunity not to choose sin. When we chose sin, God showed us something had to die. “I’ll do it for you, but this is what it takes.” The Tabernacle was another lesson on sacrifice.
  • I think the sacrificial system was to meet us where we are, to help us understand.
    — All of the blood represents Christ and His righteousness.
  • There’s no sacrifice without the blood. Jesus walked the Earth because of sacrifice.
    — The Bible condemns human sacrifice. Yet, look at the human sacrifices in the Bible: Isaac and Jesus.
    — It took God to provide the sacrifice, to BE that sacrifice.
    — Immortals cannot die. If He can’t die, how was Jesus sacrificed?
    — He gave up His immortality.
    — He stopped being God.
    — He was God AND man.
    — Did the God part die? Can immortality die?
    — Did Jesus save us via a 3-day nap?
  • The Bible tells me my brother [who died] is not completely gone. We’ll be brought back to life. What happens to that spark of life while we’re dead? Where is my brother’s spirit right now?
  • At baptism, I’m told sin is dead in me. But, I still deal with arrogance, selfishness, and addiction. What I hear is the point of it is sacrifice. He is offering me the idea of being a living sacrifice. For me, the challenge is learning that everything is about God is not God. It’s the great mystery. Everything about Him is outside Himself. Everything about Him is sacrifice. If I want love, I need to learn how to love. If I want life, I need to learn how to die.
    — Through His sacrifice, we can do that. Otherwise, I cannot do it alone. I need Him
  • You are saying we need the life of His blood. I wake up every morning, and I need to decide. Do I want to live or die?
    — We decide that from moment to moment, too.
  • In the depths, you can still be loved. I need God’s love in order to show love. Read Hebrews 8 and 9. Paul talks about this.
  • [class dismissed]
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2/19/22 Sabbath School Notes:
[Facilitator = bullet points; attendee = –]
[We were given “yes,” “no,” and “maybe” paddles so we could each answer whether or not the statement was true about us.]
Lesson built upon Session 6 of The Bible Lab’s “God.0 The Search for the Original Version of God’s Character.” http://www.thebiblelab.com/god.0.html
  • I like scary movies.
  • I think I have a pretty good understanding of why Jesus had to die for our sins.
  • In some ways, I feel guilty that Jesus took my place on the cross.
  • I have not felt comfortable questioning why God would choose to sacrifice His own Son.
  • At some point in my life, I’ve viewed God the Father as my judge, and Jesus as my defense attorney.
  • Satan has never truly had authority and ownership of this planet and its inhabitants.
——————–
  • Reasons Jesus had to die:
    — Show us the consequence of sin.
    — Show all the world the results from sin and how it is cured.
    — To prove death can be beaten.
    — There had to be a blood sacrifice.
  • This lesson is about Jesus as our High Priest and why He had to die.
  • Can’t God just forgive us all without the need for death?
    — Jesus’ death was planned before the Earth was created.
    — It took His death to define what love is and show the contrast between love and sin.
    — Jesus was our propitiation of our sin; overpaid?
  • Who decided Jesus’ death was the price to be paid? Was it God saying, “I need blood,” and that’s what happened?
    — At Creation, God told them not to eat of the tree or they’d die. Eve and Adam chose disobedience. Jesus died for humanity.
    — I think Satan chose the death price.
    — My sin affects multiple people. He is the only one who could live a perfect life.
  • God is the giver of life and death?
    — One tree that bore 12 fruits. That counteracts natural death.
  • Is Satan different than us? How is he living so long?
    — Maybe he has a stash of his own fruit. 🙂
    — Jesus gave Himself as the Lamb.
    — Jesus stepped up to the plate to be the example. Scripture was fulfilled because of our choice.
    — I created these people, so how do I save them? God was unwilling to have His created beings die.
    — Is it us that demand death? He understood we would demand death for sin. This is the prescription of what we demand.
  • Why did Jesus have to die? Look at 1 John 2:2 — “and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
    — So, let’s look up ‘propitiation?’ Dictionary says “The act of appeasing a god.” God needed appeased, so death? Look at 1 John 4:10 — “In this is love; not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
  • Sinners were bought from someone at the price of death.
    — bought from Satan.
    — Jews have the idea. In Jewish marriage, the father of the son goes to the father of the daughter to pay the bride price. God, the Father, paid the price that was demanded for the Bride (us).
  • It was a struggle for the archangel to take Moses’ body.
  • Since Satan is the owner of this world, he has ownership of us first.
    — Satan’s opinion doesn’t matter. Our opinion does.
    — The Bible says that Satan will have God’s throne.
    — It says God surrenders His throne.
    — Did Satan truly think he won over Jesus?
    — A high bar was set. Satan was hoping Jesus wouldn’t resurrect because maybe He’d committed some hidden sin.
    — Look at Mark 10:45 — “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
  • After 4000 years, humanity still is not convinced that Satan is a liar and a murderer. Jesus was murdered, despite his purity from sin.
    — God is fair and loving. Satan is the opposite. God created the plan to show the difference between them. Humanity’s opinion on the subject matters.
    — When is it that humanity judges God? This judgment, after seeing everything in its entirety, comes after millenium.
  • [END]