Friday September 11
Further Thought: Read Mark 5:25-34.
“The wondering crowd that pressed close about Christ realized no accession of vital power. But when the suffering woman put forth her hand to touch Him, believing that she would be made whole, she felt the healing virtue. So in spiritual things. To talk of religion in a casual way, to pray without soul hunger and living faith, avails nothing. A nominal faith in Christ, which accepts Him merely as the Saviour of the world, can never bring healing to the soul. The faith that is unto salvation is not a mere intellectual assent to the truth. . . . It is not enough to believe about Christ; we must believe in Him. The only faith that will benefit us is that which embraces Him as a personal Saviour; which appropriates His merits to ourselves. . . .
“Our confession of His faithfulness is Heaven’s chosen agency for revealing Christ to the world. We are to acknowledge His grace as made known through the holy men of old; but that which will be most effectual is the testimony of our own experience. We are witnesses for God as we reveal in ourselves the working of a power that is divine. Every individual has a life distinct from all others, and an experience differing essentially from theirs. God desires that our praise shall ascend to Him, marked by our own individuality. These precious acknowledgments to the praise of the glory of His grace, when supported by a Christ-like life, have an irresistible power that works for the salvation of souls.” —Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 347.
Discussion Questions:
• What are the elements of a compelling testimony? Read Paul’s testimony before Agrippa in Acts 26:1-23. What was the foundation of his testimony?
• Why do you think our personal testimony of what Christ has done for us is so powerful? How, however, do you answer the question: OK, that is what happened to you, but what if I don’t have that kind of experience? Why should your experience be able to teach me anything about why I should follow Jesus?
• What are some of the things you would want to avoid when giving your testimony to a nonbeliever?
• Dwell on the question regarding assurance of salvation. Why is this such an important part of the Christian experience? How can we be assured of our own salvation while, at the same time, not being presumptuous?
Inside Story
Dead Woman Talking
By Andrew Mcchesney
Tomasz Karauda, a 28-year-old Seventh-day Adventist physician in Poland, was asked to sign the death certificate of a woman who was still alive.
A nurse wheeled the woman over to the respiratory unit where Tomasz was doing his hospital residency.
By all appearances, she was dead. She had lung cancer, brought on by years of smoking. Rigor mortis was setting in, with the blood settling in her lower back. Her skin, usually pink as oxygen-filled blood flowed through her capillaries, had turned pale as her blood drained into the larger veins. Her condition was irreversible.
“I had never seen anything like that before,” Tomasz said, recalling the moment. “She was dead, yet she was sitting in the wheelchair and talking.”
The woman had been hospitalized in the crowded intensive care unit, but her physician, seeing that he could do nothing more, had sent her out in order to free up a bed for another serious case. The nurse asked Tomasz whether the woman could stay in the respiratory unit.
The respiratory unit also didn’t have any free beds, so Tomasz placed a rolling bed into the corridor and gently laid the woman on it. Pulling up a chair, he sat down and spoke with her for the next two hours.
The woman knew that she was dying. She expressed regret over her life choices.
“I spent my entire life smoking,” she said. “If only I could go back and do it over again.“
Finally the woman took her last breath. Tomasz signed the death certificate. “It is a great responsibility to be a Christian physician,” said Tomasz, who studied at a public medical school. “No one taught us in medical school how to deal with a situation like that.”
He has found that it is helpful to take someone’s hand and offer hope, saying, “Everything is going to be all right,” even though the dying person knows that the only thing waiting is death.“Sometimes it’s best to say nothing at all,” he said.
“Sometimes the only thing you can do is hold someone’s hand and pray silently.”
The world is dying in sin. In many cases, rigor mortis is setting in, and the condition may seem irreversible. Will you hold someone’s hand? Will you pray? Will you offer hope?
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