Share your thoughts on this:

1. Share at least 3 things or more that you have discovered from today’s lecture. Explain!
There is hope that even though we faced disappointment in our lives, there is still
hope that will lead to constantly do what we have to do. It is very important for us to keep our
faith burning since we already know lies ahead of us when the time comes and we are guided
by the spirit of the prophecy.

The second one is to Trust in God and continue to serve Him no matter what
struggles we will face. In life we ought to experience not just disappointments. But also
betrayal, hardships, and trouble. We must always look upon Jesus because if we surrender our
lives to him then our burdens will be lifted up.

The times of trouble are the times that will show how deep our faith in Christ is. This
is because when we got in trouble, we know by ourselves that we cannot do it without help.

2. How do you perceive the great disappointment?

I know that God prepares us through disappointment. A great mission is preceded by great trail
and refinement. Before the Exodus, Moses endured the desert. Prison and exile prepared Joseph and
Daniel. David was a fugitive before a King. Elijah faltered before he was ready for translation. Peter
painfully learnt the cost of denying Christ before bravely heralding him. What then of the group who
would receive the final message to usher in Christ’s return?

What test might help prepare them? What might help them break with fossilised tradition and
receive dramatic new truth? The Great Disappointment! I perceive a divinely measured symmetry
here. The movement to announce the second coming would die and be reborn in the hope of the
second coming itself. Those who gave all, would lose all, and only then receive all.

A message destined to end in total triumph started in the humbling furnace of disappointment.
Before giving his final message to the world, God wanted a movement focused solely on Christ and
his return. His foreknowledge allowed God to transform human miscalculation into just such an
occasion. If God can embrace our failure we need fear no disappointment. 

3. How does this teaching has impacted your spiritual journey with Him?
 Many of the problems in the church today are the result of not knowing what it means
to live in the great Day of Atonement. Few even among believers seem to know the science
of salvation that looks constantly to Jesus and experiences the true meaning of how to "afflict
the soul," so that God can form us into His image, fully reflecting Jesus.

We hear much talk today about the necessity of change. Some eagerly introduce new
forms of worship with new types of music. Constantly there is the cry for more relevance.
The effectiveness of preaching is questioned, and music, dialogue and drama occupy an
increasingly important part of church services. More and more ministers and church members
hesitate to address "church standards." A greater laxness than ever results in an increasing
number of young people drinking, smoking, using drugs, wearing jewelry and other worldly
attire, and viewing worldly movies and videos. Few lead out in the biblical spirit of true
reform centered around the Scriptures, focused on the life of Jesus, so believers can reflect
Him more fully.

Our contemporary situation reveals the great urgency of recapturing the spirit of the
early Adventists. Unless today's believers rediscover the true meaning of the great
disappointment and also of its abundant blessings, they will not know what direction to give
to the remnant church and its mission. This failure could lead to a shift of direction that God
never intended.