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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Carissa Vitorovic

The Adventist Cannibal

I hope you've been enjoying your break and hopefully doing a little bit of wilderness excursion yourself.

There I stood at the base of the mount as the thunder roared and as the lightning struck.

For those of you that have summited half dome in Yosemite before, you know there is only 1 thing standing between you and summiting that dome other than immense fear.

Those metal chains which you must hold on to for your very life.

How many of you have climbed Half Dome before?

Okay, so many of you can relate to this experience.

And there I was as a 9 or 10 year old who had just hiked up Half Dome and I had just this last bit to go and yet the thunder rolled and the lightning strikes.

Sadly that day I was not able to summit Half Dome and my little heart was so heavy as I walked back down that mountain.

Thus, for the next however many years, which I will not tell you, that burden weighed in my heart.

That was at the very top of my to-do list, of my bucket list.

The years went by and finally in 2019, so quite recently, I had my opportunity.

I would be meeting up with my parents and with some friends there in Yosemite.

We would camp out and then a couple days later we would summit Half Dome.

And I began the drive by myself from Loma Linda up to Yosemite.

Now if you know much about me at all, you will soon learn that spatial ability is just not my strength.

I would find my way nowhere if it was not for GPS.

And so there I was driving after work, and it's getting dark.

And as I drive along, depending upon my GPS, it takes me on this little detour.

And I knew we were less than half an hour or so from the campsite and I took this detour and this detour was a two-lane road that began to narrow as I progressed.

So now it is pitch black, there are no other vehicles, there are no homes in sight, there are not even any deer, there's just nothing.

I'm in the middle of nowhere, pitch black.

The only light that can be seen is that coming from my headlights.

I continue to drive down this road that once was a two-lane has now become 1.

And with fear building within me, I thought, you know, let me just call my parents and say, you know, I'm not really sure where I am, but I hope to see you soon.

And I pick up the phone to call and there's no reception.

You know that every horrible story begins with the phrase, it was a dark and stormy night.

But the road again became more narrow and I was just having this anxiety building within me trying to remain calm as I went on my way.

Finally, that road met up with another, the main road, that later a couple miles down the way brought me to the campground.

And you know that incredible sigh of relief?

About 5 minutes later, my parents also arrived at the campground.

They had come down from Sacramento, and I began to share with them about my harrowing experience.

And as I told about this road, my mom replied, well, that sounds exactly like the road we were on.

Because we too were detoured after there was a car crash, and so we ended up going down this road and it, da-da-da, and the story matched up.

You see, the entire time that I was panicking, the entire time that this anxiety was building within me, the entire time I thought, I'm lost, it's been a nice life.

If only I had known that in reality I was not alone.

Do you bow your heads with me as we pray?

Heavenly Father God, Lord, I thank you today that we are not alone.

Thank you for the journey that you have brought us through, the journey we will reflect on today.

Heavenly Father God, thank you for being our God.

Thank you for knowing us by name, for knowing each desire of our heart.

And Father, today we come to you because we love you, because we want to know you.

And I pray that Jesus and Jesus only may be lifted up.

May your Holy Spirit speak to each 1 of our hearts as you would have it.

We thank you, Father, and we trust in you.

For some people who awoke on this day, there was a great sense of relief, perhaps of joy.

But for others, to whom the morning light pierced through the cracks in their walls, it was a time of incredible disappointment.

Like the disciples after their own dark night, the faithful believers returned to the scriptures as their guide.

The darkness that they felt on that day mirrored that of humankind through a period known and predicted in the scriptures as the 1260 years.

From 538 AD to 1798, a period commonly referred to, and appropriately so, as the Dark Ages.

A time in which the knowledge of God, his character, and of salvation itself had been deeply distorted while the people suffered.

But as the saying goes, the sun always shines the brightest after the rain.

Light soon began to shine forth from the scriptures, but only to those who chose not to close their eyes.

As Proverbs chapter 2 declares, please turn with me there.

Proverbs chapter 2, beginning in verse 3.

As King Solomon wrote, yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding." I wonder how much gold we would find if we searched as deeply as we did during our morning devotions today.

I was raised again in the Sacramento area and that of course is where the gold rush occurred in California.

If it was found solely on the surface, it would soon cease to be a valuable element at all.

But it is because it is hard to find, it is because it is precious, that it has value.

And so also God is saying, seek me not as grass, not as asphalt.

And as you do, I will be found." Continuing in Proverbs 4 18.

Bible promises that the path of the just is as the shining sun that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.

You know, I value this promise so deeply because sometimes we like to think we've arrived.

Maybe after you were baptized or you joined into the faith, you thought, okay, well, I've done it now.

I studied all those 28 fundamental beliefs.

But is that how the Christian journey goes?

The path of the just, it shines ever brighter.

In fact, through the eternal days, we will continue to learn and to grow in our knowledge of God and the immensity That is our awesome God.

This recovery of light out of darkness has come in many different forms.

From the Waldensians of old who valued the scriptures so deeply that they were willing to risk their very lives.

To John Calvin and Martin Luther, powerful men of faith who restored a correct understanding of salvation.

They uprooted the system of penance and religious slavery by boldly proclaiming that grace is through faith in Jesus Christ.

To the Anabaptists who recognized the importance of baptism by immersion just as our Savior once did.

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The Adventist Cannibal

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