What should Seventh-day Adventist Christians do in response to difficult times? Do we hunker down in a survival mode? No, in fact, just the opposite is true. Because we know that the end of the world and the second coming of Christ is near, we want to use our assets to tell others the good news of the gospel and what God has prepared for those who love Him. We understand that someday soon everything on this earth will be burned up.

 Read 2 Peter 3:3-12. What is Peter telling us with these words?

 We understand from the Word of God that He is not sending moving vans to take our stuff to heaven. It will all get burned up in the final conflagration when all traces of sin and evil, except the scars on Christ’s hands, will be forever destroyed.

 So, what should we do with our possessions? “It is now that our brethren should be cutting down their possessions instead of increasing them. We are about to move to a better country, even a heavenly. Then let us not be dwellers upon the earth, but be getting things into as compact a compass as possible.” — Ellen G. White, Counsels on Stewardship,p. 59.

 Of course, she wrote those words more than a century ago! But still the principle remains: time is always short, because our lives are always short. What are 60 years, or 80 years, or 100 years (if you have good genes and good health practices) in contrast to eternity? Your life can end before you finish reading this week’s lesson, and the next thing you will know is the second coming of Jesus. (Wow, that was fast after all, wasn’t it?)

 As Seventh-day Adventist Christians we must always live in the light of eternity. Yes, of course, we need to work hard to provide for ourselves and our families; and if we have been blessed with wealth, nothing is wrong with enjoying it now, provided we don’t become greedy and are generous with it in regard to the needy. Yet we must always remember that whatever we accumulate here is transitory, fleeting, and, if we are not careful, has the potential to be spiritually corrupting.