2nd Sabbath Promotion: Investment

Good morning and happy Sabbath brothers and sisters in Christ! Glory be
unto God for He hath set his great love upon us that He hath gathered us
here together to worship His most holy name.

Investment

Hearing the word "investment" you might think about stocks, bonds,
mutual funds, interest bearing account, land, derivatives, real estate,
artwork, old comic books, jewelry, you name it all... but we are not going
to talk about these things rather we are going to talk about investing for
eternity, investing our lives to God.
Matthew 6:19-21 says "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth,
where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and
steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth
nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
God is not interested in our earthly riches, He is not interested in our
position and possession. He is interested in our faithfulness to Him. and
the best way to show Him that is through spiritual investments.

I have read from an article that there are four ways that we can make
spiritual investments
 1. Time in God’s Presence

There is no greater spiritual reward that replenished and refreshed by

God’s presence. David understood this and declared in Psalm 84:10, “For
a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be
a doorkeeper in the house of God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”
As we invest in God’s presence, we gain spiritual wealth and even
physical ones as well.

Spending time in God's Word isn't about gaining more knowledge. One
thing we understand in this information age is how to absorb a set of
facts, but our faith is more than a set of beliefs. It's about getting to know
Someone as real as the person next to us, yet as mysterious as the
universe.

We acknowledge we cannot see God— and sometimes indi ta

mabatyagan ang iya presence. So how should we connect with Him? We
can do it by practice. By practice it means that, it is an ongoing process,
padayon siya and we’ll never really get this perfect. Now, the question is
how do we practice?

We schedule time. It takes effort to find the time and energy to connect
with God on a regular basis - just as it does with any relationship that
matters. The truth is we can find a few minutes to be alone with God, but
we have to be intentional. Think of it as though you're scheduling an
appointment on your calendar to meet a friend.

We strive to be consistent. Commitment to faith is not reflected in the

number of days we can check time with God off on our calendars;
nevertheless, it does matter that we consistently set aside time to sit with
Him.

2. Godly Relationships

God is a relational God and commands us to be relational as well. The two

commands Jesus gave us pertain to relationships- building relationship
with Him and building relationship with others. When we grow in
relationship with others in a godly manner, we invest into our spirits and
into the spirits of others as well.

Before we build relationships with others, first dapat kita mismo nga mga
Seventh Day Adventist Christians mangin maayo para sa iban. For the
reason that we are all agents of God’s message, and if we’re doing ang
aton part as a Christian sa isa ka relationship, we might able nga madala
ang mga tawo sa palibot ta even sa mga daily routines or behavior ta lang.

3. Christ-like Character
 A Christ-like character is an asset that every Christian must desire.
While we can never be truly like Christ, we can do our best to become
like Him. One of the ways God allows that is to allow us to go trough
trials.

As a teenager nga nabata sa isa ka Christian family, one thing that I

realized is that, we could never attain a Christ-like character. We could
never have a perfect, a flawless character of Jesus Christ. But, we can
struggle. We can struggle, we can try and try to attain that Christ-like
character as much as we can bear it. It is our responsibility as a Seventh
Day Adventist Christian, as a Christian, to struggle everyday to choose to
goodness over sin. We may really never reach the peak, pero sa padayon
ta nga pag pursigi we might be able go near it, and that I think, is
something special God would bless.

4. Spiritual Gifts

One of us might have a gift or talent that we had invested into that brought
us a great return on investment.

Last Sabbath, we had our visitors nga halin sa simbahan sang Idial. Sila
and nagdala sang program and from my perspective, makahambal gid ko
nga kanami sila. I can say that their church really invested sa ila Youth
and it was evident sang ginpakita nila ang ila mga abilidad. As far as I
could remember, kaagi kami to guro simba wherein ang ila man to Youth
ang nagdala sang lesson study. And from that time, indi pa gid to sila
kahasa, pero now, makita mo gid nga nagbunga gid ang ila investment,
and indi lang sila ang ga benefit sa sina nga investment kundi kita man
nga mga kauturan nga makahalubilo sa ila.

Parehos man sa ila Brother Samuel and Sister Melinda, they did invest sa
ila Shekinah and Shiloh through singing lessons, and now we are enjoying
the benefits of it.

Now to recap, the four ways that we can make spiritual investments are:
Time in God’s presence, Godly Relationships, Christ-like Character, and
the last one Spiritual Gifts.

I hope these things, aton gid indi malimtan kag magpabilin saaton huna
huna kag tagipusuon sa aton journey in this Christian life. Happy Sabbath.