The theme for the next quarter, July – September 2008, is “Agents of Hope: God’s Great Missionaries”
Millions around the world have no faith in God, no hope in anything past the world around them. No wonder, then, that so many focus on the comforts of this life, seeking solace in pleasure and the various worldly distractions. The Christian faith—which calls upon us to “fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18, NIV)—is foreign to them.
As Christians, we are God’s agents to bring these people hope, to show that there is a God who loves and cares for them, to show that although life has many outrageous horrors, it is not ultimately an outrageous horror but that God will finally make all things right.
The Bible gives us many inspirational stories of God’s agents of hope. In this quarter’s lessons we will focus on some of these outstanding missionaries; on whom they were and what they did in seeking to bring others to a saving knowledge of the Lord of salvation.
Ellen G. White tells the story of a man nearly chilled to death in deep snow. He was about to give up struggling for his life when he heard the moans from a fellow traveller nearby. His first impulse was to rescue the other man. When he found him, he rubbed the man’s frozen limbs. He finally got him to his feet and carried him through the drifts to safety.
Then “the truth flashed home to him that in saving his neighbour he had saved himself also” by quickening “the blood which was freezing in his own veins.”—Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, p. 319.
The point? A healthy church is a church focused on mission to others. Sharing God’s love with the community brings fresh life and energy into the church.
Our prayer is that this quarter’s lessons on biblical agents of hope will lead us into a renewed commitment to share God’s love with our neighbours and friends and in mission fields around the world. In so doing, we may just find that we have entered into a whole new dimension in our Christian lives.
This week the study kicks off with “For Such a Time as This: The Apostle Paul”

Song service starts at 9:45 for 15 minutes, followed by the Sabbath School service and study groups.