Pastors' Blog

The baby's coming!" Since time immemorial those three words have sounded a universal red alert for families.

Take Jimmy and Laura Baker in Raleigh, North Carolina. Laura was great with child, but she's been that way it seems for weeks. Until late Saturday afternoon when Laura groans, "The baby's coming." Red alert! Bundling her into his arms and the family van, husband Jimmy floorboards the engine, screeching out the driveway toward the hospital.

That's when, according to WRAL-TV, State Highway Patrol Sgt. Brian Maynard happened to clock the speeding van on his radar—85 mph. Maynard goes on red alert, his blue lights blazing.

But in the van nobody is looking for blue lights, because while the young mother is gasping the baby arrives. Well not quite—there are a few centimeters left to go. Husband Jimmy stomps on the accelerator. That's when he sees the blue lights of the state trooper. Panicky but obedient, he pulls the van with mother and almost-here baby to the side of the road.

Trooper Maynard walks cautiously up to the car. The young husband yells out the same three words, "The baby's coming!" And with that Brian Maynard becomes an unintended midwife, bringing that tiny little life form fully into the world.

To a reporter, Maynard later described the experience as both "scary" and "rewarding." Last reports indicate mother Laura and newborn Halyn are both doing well (apnews.com/4cdadaa2cb2f4d5cb222ee8e6007f022).

When a birthing takes place, life heretofore may have perambulated along—but no more! Priorities radically change, values dramatically realign.

Last Sabbath we were blessed to have our guest preacher Pavel Goia (editor, Ministry magazine) cast a new vision for collective prayer. And at the end of his fourth presentation (to a nearly full house at Pioneer in the afternoon), we knew something had been birthed in our midst. And I realized, as did the rest of us, that we must respond. You can't just listen to those stirring appeals, those dramatic stories and do nothing! (All three Pioneer presentations are at www.pmchurch.org/prayerconference.)

Pavel's powerfully reiterated point—persistent, prevailing prayer ("don't quit praying so soon!") is the path not only to a deepening relationship with God but a door as well to His supernatural interventions in response to such praying. If you do nothing else, listen to the stories Pavel tells in all three online presentations (we have yet to upload his 10:30 AM sermon at the Spanish church). Whatever you do, don't miss the story he told in his first service sermon about Cuba and a team of American doctors who went there to conduct evangelistic series. That one story makes Pavel's reiterated point powerfully.

But we in this campus parish need to respond further. And so, as announced Sabbath afternoon, Pioneer members are invited to join the Village Church in their 10 Days of Prayer that begins 6:30 this evening (January 9)—the first 30 minutes will be for prayer and Bible reading, the last 30 minutes will be a health presentation. But the Pioneer pastors believe there is a further response to this new birthing that we at Pioneer need. And so beginning today (January 9) at our House of Prayer (7AM/7PM) services, we are organizing our "prayer force" into prayer units that will band together for specific deep needs we have. (HOP will begin at 7:10 PM today and next week to accommodate being at the Village for their 30 minute prayer time.)

Gary Burns once shared with me this acrostic—D-U-E—the 3 keys to transformational revival: D-esperation; U-rgency; E-xpectancy. Every story Pavel told modeled these three realities—the people were desperate for God to intervene, their need was urgent, and they fully expected that God could do whatever He wanted. (Don't miss that Cuba story in Pavel's first service sermon!)

What are you desperate for God to do in your life this New Year? What are we desperate for God to do in our lives, in our congregation, in our nation, in our world? Are we desperate enough to prevail in prayer, to persist in praying until God does respond? Are we urgent enough? Do we really believe and expect God to act?

Join us at our winter House of Prayer (every Wednesday at 7:00 AM/PM) here at Pioneer. God has birthed a new vision of persistent, prevailing prayer for us. Now that the baby has arrived, see how quickly and radically this Family acts to accommodate God's vital life changes!

This is not a story about Santa Claus falling asleep on his sleigh. First of all, none of us believes in Santa Claus. Secondly, how could you possibly fall asleep while piloting your flying reindeer around the world! And third, this story's true.

Having just survived a personal crisis with paid leave, a commercial pilot (unnamed and understandably so) checked back in to work with his company Vortex Air (Melbourne, Australia). He was glad to be back, and they were glad to have him.

This morning (6:20) his assignment is to fly a payload of freight from Devonport City on the island of Tasmania 155 miles northwest to King Island in the Bass Strait. As he straps into his twin-propeller Piper PA-31 Navajo Chieftain, the pilot runs through the usual pre-flight routines in preparation for his delivery. All systems are go, the control tower signals he is cleared for takeoff, and our commercial pilot is soon roaring up the run way and into the blue heavens. So far, so good.

When you fly commercial freight, there aren't a whole lot of options for conversation. No flight attendants because there are no passengers, just stuffed boxes. What's more these small puddle jumpers don't even require a second pilot aboard, given the shorter flights that deliver the goods. Christmastime or not, the packages must still be flown in. He knows the drill.

What he doesn't know is what happens next.

According to a statement released by the Melbourne based airline, the pilot "unintentionally fell asleep while in command of the aircraft."  "The issue became apparent when air traffic control was unable to contact the pilot in-flight," the statement went on—he was on auto-pilot (www.apnews.com/49ad75212fa145acbba1986302f79e88 ) .

Air traffic records indicate numerous radio calls were made to the sound-asleep pilot without any response from him. Radar records show he overflew his destination by 29 miles, when he suddenly awakened to discover his dangerous overshot. Switching off auto-pilot our pilot friend circled back to King Island and landed his freight plane without incident.

"'Vortex Air takes the safety of our passengers, crew and pilots extremely seriously and always abide [sic] by all safety procedures,' the airline said. 'This is an extremely rare occurrence, as demonstrated by the company's excellent safety track record,' it added. The company said it was assisting the pilot to 'safely return to full duties'" (ibid).

Needless to say authorities from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority "are investigating the incident and the company's management of pilot fatigue."

Three cheers for the sleepy but now wide awake pilot! After all who of us hasn't fallen asleep at the wheel or on the job?

But one of the melancholy truths tucked deep inside the Christmas story is the obvious reality that the people of the Advent—you know, the ones who for centuries had been reviewing the promises and rehearsing the prophecies of the Messiah's coming—were sadly asleep on the night the Messiah arrived. Running on auto-pilot all these fruitless and now pointless years and sound asleep when the greatest and most spectacular arrival of a Baby in the history of the universe took place, they zzz'ed away their golden opportunity to welcome the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords.

"God of heaven, wake us up!" is how the American writer Ellen White once warned of a potentially similar debacle brewing today (Last Day Events 26). "Surely, not I, Lord!" "Not me, Jesus, not me!" And of course, none of us could ever fall victim to the same dark enemy's same dark bewitchment: sound asleep when Messiah comes.

And the good news is we don't have to. We can have the same gift the Messiah had when He was with us! "He wakens Me morning by morning, wakens My ear to listen like one being instructed" (Isaiah 50:4). Need to be aroused and awakened to the reality of the times in which we are living? Me, too. Then why not this Christmas ask God for this extraordinary gift of divine awakening, morning by morning, His voice calling us to begin the day with Him—alert, awake and ready for action.

Here's His promise: "Those who place themselves under God's control, to be led and guided by Him, will catch the steady tread of the events ordained by Him to take place" (Last Day Events 15).

No auto-pilot, no sound asleep. This New Year grant us ears to hear the footsteps of our approaching God.

The mind-numbing speed with which the wildfire they are calling Camp Fire ravaged Paradise, California, is almost incomprehensible. At one point, observers reported, the inferno was torching the equivalent of one football field of ground every second for 90 minutes! That's 10,000 acres consumed in an hour and a half. If the fire's velocity were in a straight line, it would be traveling across the ground at 300 feet/second—or 204 miles per hour. It is no wonder the flames were almost unbeatable. In this town of 20,000, more than 6,700 structures were reduced to ash in a matter of minutes.

Mayor Jody Jones told a reporter: "'It's pretty devastating. It's huge. I would say 90 percent of our homes are gone. The entire town council lost their homes, half of our police department, most of our town administrative staff, just about every friend I know'" (https://fox40.com/2018/11/12/paradise-is-home-personal-stories-emerge-fr...). Fire chief David Hawks, who grew up in the town, described their efforts to contain the onslaught: "'I got into my firefighting gear and immediately responded to Pentz Road, which was where the fire was first reported in Paradise. As you can picture a snow blizzard, it's just an ember blizzard. And all those embers were pelting homes and pelting the ground'" (ibid).

Forty-eight deaths from the Camp Fire are now reported, with scores of individuals still missing.

Also lost in the firestorm was the Paradise Seventh-day Adventist church, the homes of the pastoral leadership team, the kindergarten through fourth-grade section of Paradise Academy, and the lower level of the Feather River Adventist Health hospital in Paradise. Newly arrived Paradise pastor Steve Hamilton, on the church website, writes: "All our staff members and the vast majority of our church family have lost their homes. If you need to contact the church office, please understand that we may not be able to respond as quickly as we might like"
(www.paradiseadventist.org).

But stamped across the church's homepage in fiery letters is #ParadiseStrong. Pastor Hamilton notes: "Though the physical attributes of our earthly Paradise are destroyed, the spirit of Paradise has spread across the country and around the world, as people are moved to volunteer resources to help. Despite the loss, we recognize that we're also blessed by the kindness and generosity of others" (ibid).

What can we, a half a nation away, do to help? Hamilton again: "In fact, at this point, we have donations of material in excess of what we have resources to distribute. For the immediate future, monetary donations are more useful. You can go direct to our Giving page [on their website], if you like. And course, prayers are always welcome" (ibid).

If you would like to send a donation for the Paradise relief (and rebuilding) effort, here are two suggestions from Mark Woodham, president of the Northern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, on the conference website: (1) donate online (www.nccsda.com) or (2) text NCCSDA to 77977 to give.

My psalm for the day this Wednesday included these words: "Who is like the LORD our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap" (Psalm 113:5-7).

Truth be told, this entire civilization is on fire, metaphorically and in California literally. But the tender-hearted Creator of Earth is not unmindful of what His children suffer here below. He needs no binoculars to observe our plight. He is Immanuel, the God who is with us. "In all [your] affliction, [I] am afflicted" (Isaiah 63:9). This is the One who promises to raise the needy "from the ash heap." And while we are all yet far from Paradise (the promised home of God's friends one day)—do not fear the fires that scorch your own heart and life right now. "'When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze,'" is His promise to you spiritually (Isaiah 43:2).

Because with Jesus the best is yet to come. In the words of the English writer John Milton, we will one day move from "Paradise Lost" to "Paradise Regained." And in that penultimate move, we shall know at last the greatest Thanksgiving of all.

Like all tragedies these days (so it seems), the slaughter of eleven worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh last Sabbath is already dimming in the national consciousness—drowned out by the cacophony of political rhetoric in advance of next week’s midterm elections.

And that is sad. Sad, because the virulent anti-Semitism that condemned these worshiping Jews to execution by firing squad is a tragic morality tale of what is yet ahead for America. For as fellow Sabbatarians, we Seventh-day Adventists with our Jewish neighbors know very well the countercultural contradistinction our choice to “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8) creates with the rest of America. While the public bows at the shrine of national sports on Saturdays or the temple of mega-mall shopping, Sabbatarians quietly attend their places of worship to bow before the Creator God of the universe. It was at that moment these eleven Jews were murdered in the refuge of their Tree of Life temple—what a heart-breaking irony!

Will it happen again? If you read the apocalyptic warning embedded in Revelation 13 as my faith community does, the calculus is certain—it will happen again. To Sabbatarians. Not only on a national scale, but globally as well. Is that somber recognition fearmongering? Hardly. It is rather the facing of truth even members of my own faith community have attempted to mitigate or at least minimize by forgetting.

Wake up! What was once unthinkable in this “land of the free and the home of the brave” has become the daily fare of this nation’s moral and ethical retrograding. And it doesn’t take high-powered optics to decide it really can happen here.

How then shall we respond? (1) Let us be proactive in seeking to build bridges to our fellow Sabbatarian Jews. We are the closest spiritual cousins they have within Christianity. It is more than an aside to observe that we Adventists are Jews with the Messiah. And the Messiah notwithstanding, we share a kindred spirit with Jews who revere the Torah of the Old Testament and the ethics of Christ in the New Testament. Be a friend to these who daily live with the anti-Semitism of other neighbors.

And (2) let us pray for God in mercy to hold back the apocalyptic winds that threaten the United States. The American writer, Ellen White, noted: “The Lord has done more for the United States than for any other country upon which the sun shines” (Maranatha 193). It is time for this faith community to seriously engage/reengage the people of this land in acts of compassion, deeds of unselfish service, bold advocacy for the marginalized and disenfranchised—in short, to live out the life of Jesus. Only when they see His love will they hear His truth. But we have become distracted by our own debates, we are complacent because our own wealth, we are disengaged from the very neighborhoods in which we dwell—all to our own loss and the loss of the apocalyptic mission we once embraced.

“We seem to sit as though we were paralyzed. God of heaven, wake us up!” (2SM 52)

The great Jewish lament of Psalm 137 must become our lament, too: “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion” (Psalm 137:1). Lament and pray, weep and work for America—before Babylon rises once more . . . before the deliverance of Zion shall come.