God's Sabbath

D ISPUTE R ESOLUTION

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The two parts of the meeting in Jerusalem

Peter’s advice

Period when they sought the solution through " nor mal" human procedures

Period when they listened to the plans of the heavenly Plan-maker

all permitted God to be their Problem Solver. They subsequent ly followed the instruction sent to them by the Holy Spirit. Just in time, the church had turned in the right direction. If it could only be kept in the same pathway from then on, the speedy and successful achievement of its mission would be assured.

AGolden Opportunity

Only one person spoke up for God’s principles at that meeting, but that one voice turned the tide completely. When each of us learns to appreciate what happened there from a spiritual per spective and what this means for us today, we will have a great er sense of our individual responsibility to know and to stand for the Sabbath rest principles. The time will come when God needs the voice of each of His children to turn the tide in the right di rection. For a given individual, the opportunity may arise only once in his or her lifetime, or it may occur a number of times. Whenever it comes, we must be ready as Peter was. If, at the crit ical moment, we do not speak the right words of counsel under the Holy Spirit’s direct guidance, then events will be balanced in the wrong direction and could delay the work for decades. But even if the right words are spoken at the right time, there is no guarantee that the tide will be turned. The people may be so determined to have their own way that they will not heed the divine counsel. An example of this was when Samuel protested