SECOND QUARTER 2026
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #1
APRIL 4, 2026
"REALITY CHECK".

 

       The Bridegroom Approaches: Facing the Mirror

 

As a little girl, I was never the type to daydream about being married or to sit down and plan out all the details of my future wedding. I honestly didn’t give it much thought. It wasn’t practical or relevant. However, as I’ve gotten older, the thought of marriage becoming a reality—or the possibility of being single forever—comes to mind more often as the years slip by. 

“And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him” (Genesis 2:18). Marriage is a gift from God, instituted and blessed by Him, created for companionship, intimacy, support, and to more perfectly reflect the self-sacrificing love and image of God in His creation. After the fall, it serves an additional purpose. Marriage functions as a mirror—revealing selfishness, exposing character, and providing an invitation to transformation. This is the ultimate opportunity to be fully known and fully loved.

It is often said that one of the most important decisions you will ever make in life is who you choose to marry. It is a decision that is to be made thoughtfully and intentionally. Counsel says that “marriage is something that will influence and affect your life, both in this world and in the world to come. A sincere Christian will not advance his plans in this direction without the knowledge that God approves his course”—Ellen G. White, Letters to Young Lovers, p. 39. However, there is another, more important relationship decision that has far-reaching, permanent outcomes and can alter the trajectory of your life forever. The choice to be in or out of a relationship with God. Your personal relationship with God is the most important relationship you will ever enter into.

God has always desired to be in intimate relation with humanity. “And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people” (Leviticus 26:11,12). Jeremiah 31:3 says, “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” These statements reflect a heart that longs for connection and closeness. In Genesis, we see the birth of that relationship—God forming man from the dust and breathing into him the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). Humanity was created to be in communion with God. But something changed. After sin entered, the same God who once walked with Adam and Eve in the cool garden now found them hiding from His presence (Genesis 3:8–10). Sin did not change God’s desire for relationship, nor did it influence His thoughts towards us (Jeremiah 29:11). Sin didn’t change God—it changed us. We could no longer dwell in the presence of God and live. 

Our condition now blocks the relationship God desires to have with us. Sin cannot exist in harmony with God’s unveiled presence. Scripture tells us that God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). This is not arbitrary—it is a reality of the universe, a fact. Just as oil and water cannot mix, neither can sin and righteousness occupy the same space. There is no middle ground. And yet, one of the greatest dangers we face is not outright rejection of God—but self-deception about our condition. Revelation describes this as the Laodicean state: thinking we are rich, increased with goods, and in need of nothing, while in reality we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked (Revelation 3:17). We are all too often blind to our condition and therefore, to our great need of a Savior. 

And yet—God in His mercy does not leave us there. His love compels Him to pursue us. “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten” (Revelation 3:19). God’s rebuke is not rejection—it is His love in action. He is willing to risk being misunderstood in order to reach us. His desire for restoration, to amend the broken relationship, outweighs His desire for personal comfort. He stands at the door and knocks (Revelation 3:20). He does not force entry or override our will. He waits. 

This reveals something profound: God respects your freedom so deeply that He will not violate it—even to save you. Freedom to choose means the freedom to be eternally saved or eternally lost. We can resist Him. We can ignore the knock. We can silence His voice. We can become so accustomed to distance that it feels normal.

The lesson brought up a rather sobering question: How would you describe your relationship with God today? Maybe you’re connected, eagerly making plans to spend time with Him, chattering on about the smallest details of your life. Or maybe you feel cold and distant? Whatever your answer is, change is only possible if you can honestly admit, recognize, and confront your current reality. Not the one in your head and not the one you project. The real, living, undeniable reality you find yourself in right now. 

While the question is important and worthy of serious contemplation, it only represents half of the relationship. The other half of the question is not how you think you relate to Him—but how He experiences you. Relationships are two-way streets. Have you ever stopped to consider how the heart of God feels in His relationship with you? Does He feel distant, lonely, or left out? And in spite of the hurt God experiences while being in relationship with us, His heart is set like a flint, steady, unwavering. James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” 

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you” (Jeremiah 31:3). God’s love did not begin when you were born. It did not activate when you repented or pulled your act together. It existed before the foundation of the world. He is not reactive—He is continually initiating, drawing us to Himself. In many ways, God finds Himself in a one-sided relationship, loving fully while longing, hoping, and wishing for that love to be returned. And yet He continues—for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish—even when that love is not reciprocated and ultimately rejected. 

Our relationship with God will challenge us as a marriage, or any close relationship, does. Coming face-to-face with the perfect love and righteousness of God will reveal every area in which we fall short. Our selfishness will be revealed in the light of His selflessness. Friends, the return of our Lord is near, and soon He shall come in all His glory. His presence and His holiness will not be shrouded but revealed in all their fullness. If we, like the disciples, have not allowed Him to wash our feet, we can have no part in Him. The same presence that is life, joy, and peace to the righteous will be terror to those who still clothed in the rags of sin. We will cry for the rocks to hide us from His presence. And this relationship is not just about the present—it is preparing us for His soon return.

The Bridegroom is near. He is even at the door. Now is the time to face self. Now is not the time to shrink back from the mirror of God’s law—from the holiness of His character. We must “seek the Lord while He may be found” (Isaiah 55:6). “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him” (Matthew 25:5-6). “The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil…” (Isaiah 33:14-15). The question is not whether the Bridegroom is coming, but whether we are ready to meet Him. Now is the time to face the mirror. 

 

— Anya Kinsley

 

For additional reading, see below

 

EXCERPTS FROM A SERMON BY ALONZO T. JONES, PREACHED IN THE TABERNACLE, SABBATH, JULY 29, 1893. PUBLISHED IN THE HOME MISSIONARY

 

What do the two cleansings of the temple signify?—The two calls out of Babylon. The first cleansing of the temple was at the beginning of His public ministry; the second cleansing of the temple was almost the last act of his public ministry. These two cleansings of the temple correspond to the two calls out of Babylon. The first cleansing of the temple represents the first call out of Babylon in the second angel’s message; and the second cleansing of the temple represents the second call out of Babylon where the angel of Revelation 18:1, 2 comes down crying mightily with a strong voice, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen,” “Come out of her my people.” And more than this: The first call out of Babylon was certainly at the beginning of his heavenly ministry in the Most Holy place, and as his second cleansing of the temple was almost the last act of his earthly ministry, and as this corresponds to the second call out of Babylon, it is plain that when this call goes forth, when the angel of Revelation 18:1, 2, comes down from heaven, we are then certainly in the time of almost the last act of his heavenly ministry in the Most Holy place. And we are certainly now in the time of the call of the angel of Revelation 18:1, 2, the loud cry of the third angel’s message; and are just as certainly in the time of almost the last act of our Saviour in his heavenly ministry for us, almost the last act of the cleansing of the heavenly temple. Almost the last act now; soon the last act itself will come; then probation will be past; and are you ready?

Now another line of thought. In the study of these lessons we have found a parallel all the way through, between the time of the disciples and our time, both on the part of the world who are working against God, and on the part of the disciples who should have understood God’s way. And we found that the disciples at the very time when they should have been the widest awake, were asleep. At the very time when they should have obtained an experience that they might not fail in the hour of temptation which was quickly to follow, the listlessly went to sleep. And in their failure to keep awake and watch that hour, they failed to stand the test that came in the next hour, and the next.

And all this, we found, corresponds precisely to the little time, the “short period,” which precedes the time of trouble,—the last work of the Saviour in the heavenly sanctuary for us just before the time of trouble comes. And we are to watch through this time, in order that we may stand through the next hour, as we read a moment ago.

Now let us notice again that act of the disciples in going to sleep there, just in the time when they should have been the most awake, in the time when it was most important that they should be awake of any time they had been with the Saviour. Can you see any connection between that record of those disciples, and the warnings that are given over and over and over in our day, not to go to sleep? Can you? When the Saviour told them that day, “Watch with me,” “watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation, the spirit indeed in willing, but the flesh is weak,”—do you see any connection between that and the word that he speaks to all now, “What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch”?

Let us turn and read it. Mark 13; and this chapter, you remember, gives the record of the signs of the times. “Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away.”

“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is. For  the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” 

Did he go away, telling them to watch? Did he come back and find them sleeping? Did he? Did he wake them up and tell them again to watch, that they enter not into temptation? You know he did. And now he says to every one of us, “Watch, lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.” “And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” Now is there any connection between this advice to us and the record that is made of the disciples’ failure to keep awake and watch? Is there? You know there is.

Well, why did he want them to keep awake? What was there that made it so necessary that they should be awake?—Ah, there was an hour coming right away, in which they were to meet things that they did not know of, but which he did know of, and which they could not meet unless they stayed awake and got the experience that was to be had in that hour of watching. Why is it, then, that he wants us to be so wide away just  now, and that we should not go to sleep? It is because we too are “soon to meet” an “hour of temptation,” in which we too shall fail as they did, unless we keep awake and watch in this our time of watching. You know that this is so. Then is it not “high time to awake out of sleep?” “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

— Alonzo T. Jones, “Get Ready for the Coming of the Lord”  The Home Missionary, October 1893, pp. 191—193.