Pastors' Blog | Pioneer Memorial Church

By Pioneer Pastors

Nov

November 29, 2017

By Dwight K. Nelson

The list of the high and mighty who have been recently named in sexual harassment charges is stunning. From politicians to entertainers to media icons—it seems America now awakens each day with some new hitherto undisclosed revelation or charge of sexual abuse or harassment. Women victims, who have long been shamed or cowed into submission and silence by powerful male perpetrators, have found new voice and courage to speak out. And men, who once lived with wanton disregard for the women they mistreated with sexual abandon, now stand before the court of public opinion, their sexual libidos in full display. Even the secular press now touts sexual accountability, justice, and morality.

However, this sudden outbreak of sexual disclosure should hardly be unexpected, given the ancient prediction: "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves... lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people" (2 Timothy 3:1-2, 4-5 NIV). Perhaps the operative word from Scripture for today's headlines should be: "'How the mighty have fallen!'" (2 Samuel 1:27).

But what would Jesus say to the girls and the women who have been wounded and shamed by workplace or campus sexual abuse or harassment? Remember Mary (the sister of Martha and Lazarus) at the feast of Simon, the healed leper? There she was, kneeling beside Jesus, sobbing as she splashed expensive perfume over both His head and feet. Here Desire of Ages draws the veil aside with a disclosure not unlike the headlines of late. As it turns out, "Simon had led into sin the woman he now despised. [Mary] had been deeply wronged by him" (566). He (who was her uncle, no less [Daughters of God 239]) had led her into the shame of his own sexual sin.

So when Jesus responds to the hisses of disapproval for Mary's outpouring (from the nearly all-male) dinner guests around that table, He speaks cryptic but forceful words still addressed to every male abuser: "'Leave her alone'" (John 12:7).

The church and this faith community stand beside all victims of unwanted sexual abuse—for there is no place in either Kingdom or church for this predatory immorality. If you are a victim of such abuse, then seize the new freedom that many victims are now sensing and speak up regarding your woundedness. Find a spiritual counselor you can trust, and share your story of pain. And if you're a student on this campus, go this website for instructions on how you may report the harassment (www.andrews.edu/life/health-safety/title-ix/universitypolicy). If you are in a workplace in this country, here is a website to assist you in reporting this illegal action to the authorities (www.aauw.org/what-we-do/legal-resources/know-your-rights-at-work/workplace-sexual-harassment).

Does Christ forgive sexual sin? Of course He does. Desire of Ages responds: "You may say, I am sinful, very sinful. You may be; but the worse you are, the more you need Jesus. He turns no weeping, contrite one away. He does not tell to any all that He might reveal, but He bids every trembling soul take courage. Freely will He pardon all who come to Him for forgiveness and restoration" (568).

But can Jesus heal the victims of sexual sin? The story of Mary offers a resounding Yes. Desire of Ages promises: "The plan of redemption has invested humanity with great possibilities, and in Mary these possibilities were to be realized. Through His grace she became a partaker of the divine nature.... The souls that turn to Him for refuge, Jesus lifts above the accusing and the strife of tongues. No man or evil angel can impeach these souls. Christ unites them to His own divine-human nature. They stand beside the great Sin Bearer, in the light proceeding from the throne of God" (ibid).

And where better to stand than beside the One who can both heal our wounds and forgive our guilt? No matter the headlines—abuser or victim—the light shining from Calvary offers hope to us all.

Nov

November 15, 2017

A One Item Thanksgiving List

By Dwight K. Nelson

May I be a bit more personal with you in this blog and may I share with you a line that has come to mean very much to me? It was the early "morning after" I married off our little girl Kristin. A Labor Day morning—she and Andrew had gotten married here at the church the day before. I’m usually not one to be bothered by "Rainy Days and Mondays." But this Monday I awakened with an ache in my heart—the gnawing of a nameless, numinous sense of loss. Of a line crossed, an innocence gone, a chapter ended. And you can never go back. I got out of bed, tiptoed past her empty bedroom, and down to where I have worship. Opened my Bible to my psalm for the day. And wouldn’t you know it—God in his gentle mercy had timed that cycle through the Psalms, so that I would come to these words on the morning after my little girl left home for good.

Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Psalm 73:25-26

Our childhood comes, our childhood goes. Our friends come, our friends go. Our spouses come, our spouses go. Our children come, our children go. Jobs come, jobs go. Health comes, health goes. Life comes, life goes. And death comes. "The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD" (Job 1:21).

Until one morning we wake up to the words of Peggy Lee’s throaty whisper, "Is that all there is?"

John Piper in his book God Is the Gospel captures well this prayer of Asaph—that when you have God, you truly do have everything you’ve ever wanted or will ever need—that all things else, the litany of blessings outpoured 24/7 into our recipient lives, are simply divine incentives intended to lead us to deeper gratitude, not for the gifts so much as for the Giver: "All the enticements to God that are not God are precious and precarious. They can lead us to God or lure us to themselves. They may be food or marriage or church or miracles. All these blessings bring love letters from God. But unless we stress continually that God himself is the gospel, people will fall in love with the mailman—whether his name is forgiveness of sins or eternal life or heaven or ministry or miracles or family or food" (143).

Falling in love with the mailman—if we become so enamored with the blessings God sends us that we fall love with the gifts instead of the Giver—what a sad mistaken twist!

Eugene Peterson in The Message expresses Asaph’s prayer to God this way: "You're all I want in heaven! You’re all I want on earth!" There it is—a one item Thanksgiving list.

John Piper concludes: "That must mean, first, that if every other good thing were lost, Asaph would still rejoice in God. And it must mean, second, that in and through all the other good things on earth and in heaven, Asaph sees God and loves him. Everything is desired for what it shows of God. Augustine put it like this: 'He loves Thee too little who loves anything together with Thee which he loves not for Thy sake’" (144). Reread that line.

On his deathbed, Charles Wesley dictated to his wife his final hymn:

Jesus, my only hope Thou art
Strength of my failing flesh and heart
O, could I catch a smile from Thee
And drop into eternity.

A one item Thanksgiving list.

Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Psalm 73:25-26

Nov

November 8, 2017

"All I Heard Was Bullets Flying"

By Dwight K. Nelson

The unspeakable tragedy that befell the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday morning has not only broken the collective heart of church-going America. It has caused every church-going American to wonder if it could happen to us, too.

"All I heard was bullets flying everywhere," 73 year old Farida Brown testified, according to the Wall Street Journal. She and a friend, sitting on the last pew near the door, instinctively dropped to the floor when the staccato shooting began even before the black-clad gunman entered the sanctuary. "By the time Devin Patrick Kelley stopped shooting, most of the congregation would be dead or wounded. He killed 26 people and injured 20 more. Counted among the dead is the unborn child of Crystal Holcombe, who was also killed along with 7 family members, including her husband and children" (www.wsj.com/articles/a-survivors-account-from-inside-the-texas-church-as-bullets-rained-1510101060). Our hearts break.

Will this ever end, this accelerating mayhem that has become the daily fare of our world wide web news?

Over a century ago the American writer and spiritual leader Ellen White observed: "We are living in the midst of an 'epidemic of crime' at which thoughtful, God-fearing men everywhere stand aghast. The corruption that prevails is beyond the power of the human pen to describe. Every day brings fresh revelations of political strife, bribery, and fraud; every day brings its heartsickening record of violence and lawlessness, of indifference to human suffering; of brutal, fiendish destruction of human life. Every day testifies to the increase of insanity, murder, and suicide" (Testimonies to the Church 9:89).

" . . . beyond the power of the human pen to describe . . ." How tragically true.

And yet the rest of us awakened to the early morning glory of a silver midnight frost draped across our maples—miniature sparkles of ice just weighty enough to break loose leaves dying in yellows and reds, striking the ground below with tiny metallic thuds of protest. Death to be sure. But here at least even in death there still is beauty. This is not Texas.

But this is Earth. And across its pock-marked face the saga of human suffering and death spreads at rates and in degrees that startle even the most calloused observers.

Does the church, do the people and friends of God notice? If a century ago warranted a warning of inexplicable acceleration of epidemic crime and insane killing, what would that writer now say? What Jesus once said was even plainer, "'Even so, when you see these things happening, you know the kingdom of God is near'" (Luke 21:31).

How near? Near enough for the church of God to arouse from her lethargic slumber? Near enough for the young and the not-so-young of Adventism to turn aside for a day or two from the distractive noise and hypnotic clutch of our technological toys? Near enough for God's people to band together in prayer?

How about seven days of prayer, seven days and nights for opening our minds, our souls to the supreme God of the universe, the Savior of the world? Seven days and nights for praying the cry of the Damascus Road Saul to the Stranger in the blinding light, "'What am I to do, Lord?'" (Acts 22:10). (See the accompanying thematic guide for 7 Days of Prayer.)

Surely our God is earnest enough, creative enough, personal enough to answer the sincere petition, "What do You want me to do?" If it is racial reconciliation He calls us to pursue, surely He will show us how . . . right here . . . won’t He? If it is missionary zeal He hopes we will embrace, surely He will grant such fervor to our honest petitions, won't He? If it is His overcoming power He urges us to seek, surely He will grant to us the very victory power we long for, will He not?

Then let us ask in this time of diminishing time. Let us ask and receive, seek and find, knock and it will be opened to us—as Jesus urged us: ". . . how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who [Greek: daily/continually] ask Him!" (Luke 11:13). Because if the Holy Spirit is "the greatest of all gifts," then isn’t this the most urgent of all times to be daily seeking His fresh baptism of love and power and witness?

Nov

November 1, 2017

Coloring Outside the Box

By Dwight K. Nelson

It's time for another "favorite granddaughter" story (especially since after February I won’t have a "favorite granddaughter" anymore—I’ll have two of them—Ella’s going to have a sister!). Four-year-old Ella loves to color. So of course Papa and Grammy buy her a new coloring book every now and then. But the problem, if I might be quite candid about my granddaughter, is she hasn’t learned yet to confine her gloriously wild crayon colors to inside the lines. No kidding—she’s forever coloring outside the box. What’s up with that! Everybody knows you’re supposed to color inside not outside the box.

And yet it suddenly dawned on me this week that Jesus was no inside-the-box "colorer" either. Certainly not when it came to His prayer life. For years I’ve assumed that Mark 1:35 pretty much summarized His prayer routine: "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went to a solitary place, where he prayed." He was an early morning Man. And yes, there are those other references to His praying in the night, sometimes all night in fact. But nighttime, early morning time—that was it, right?

Wrong. Take the afternoon He fed 15,000+ people with that unselfish little boy’s lunch of 5 loaves and two fish. Once dinner had been served and His disciples had collected and redistributed all the left over bread and fish, "after saying farewell to them, He went up on the mountain to pray" (Mark 6:46 NRSV). There He is, coloring outside His usual routine box of prayer, choosing to leave the crowd to spend some late afternoon or early evening time alone with His Father.

Which, of course, isn’t that momentous a headline to be sure. But that’s the point. It wasn’t a headline at all. It was the One we call Lord and Savior pushing away from the rest in order to make time for being alone with God. Outside the box of His prayer routine.

But isn’t that what prayer is supposed to be for you and me, too? Pushing away from the crowd, stepping out of the room, leaving friends or family, anytime you wish, anytime you sense the need—making time to be alone with God, alone with Jesus, alone with the Holy Spirit. Now we know it’s OK to color outside the box of routine prayer when you want to be alone with Him.

Because what’s so routine about time alone with the One who keeps your picture on His refrigerator, so crazy is He about you? No kidding—"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God" (1 John 3:1 NIV). Love lavished on us—what’s not to love about that!

So the next time you sense His prompting, that quiet invitation to come be alone with Him to talk, do something really radical—color outside the box—and grab an unscheduled moment to sit alone with Him. One on one. That’s how life becomes a romance (as Oswald Chambers describes it) with the Dashing Young God of this universe. Alone. Outside the box. Just you and Him. Listening to each other.

"When every other voice is hushed, and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God [who] bids us, 'Be still, and know that I am God.’ Psalm 46:10" (Desire of Ages 363).

Oct

October 25, 2017

Why Was Luther So Sick?

By Dwight K. Nelson

It’s amazing how much one can learn of Martin Luther’s state of mind—simply because of the prodigious output from his prolific pen, because in every sense of the word his writings went "viral." Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of movable type and the printing press (seventy years before Luther) forever changed the human playing field. "In terms of its cultural impact the printing press was the most significant innovation in world history before the internet" (Derek Wilson Luther: Out of the Storm p. 41). Could it be Someone set the Reformer up for mass communication success years before he was born? "By 1500 every major town and city in Europe had at least one print works and there were already in existence more books than the world had ever seen—some thirty thousand titles, running to over six million copies." Thus it was possible for "'a little mouse like Wittenberg to roar like a lion across the length and breadth of Europe’" (ibid.).

So it isn’t hard to gauge Luther’s state of mind—but what about his state of health? Reading multiple biographies this summer I was stunned to learn how sick Luther was much of the time. Timothy Lull and Derek Nelson detail a painful life of ill health plaguing Martin throughout his adulthood. "He suffered for many years from tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and frequently had dizzy spells and fainting. Once he fainted in a pulpit and fell from it" (Resilient Reformer: The Life and Thought of Martin Luther p. 323). But there was more to come. Luther also suffered from: uremia (a kind of kidney failure), gout (painful joints caused by uremic acid build-up), and kidney stones. Given he lived at the end of the Dark Ages, we shouldn’t be surprised to learn Luther "praised his medicines coming from the Dreckapotheke (excrement pharmacy), including slurries of swine feces for reducing blood flow and horse dung for better breathing. Perhaps not surprisingly they seem not to have helped much" (p. 324). Surprise!

In 1537 Luther’s health tanked even further from a large kidney stone and its attendant bleeding. When he couldn’t urinate, the court’s physician prescribed massive amounts of water. And when this obviously only made matters worse, the doctor tried a mixture of garlic and raw manure. "In excruciating pain, Luther expected—and hoped for—death. Finally relief struck . . . [when] the sharp jostling of his carriage broke the [kidney] stone loose. Over a gallon of urine poured forth uncontrolled. Shocked by his survival, he exclaimed that night, 'Luther lives!’" (ibid.). Surprise!

But the more he aged the more afflicted Martin’s body. "His physical and emotional pain in these last years was so intense he frequently prayed that he be allowed to die" (p. 345). Now added to his list of ailments came a perforated eardrum (which festered with pus for weeks causing an acute inner-ear infection), severe diarrhea and vomiting, an abscess on his throat, his right eye going blind from a cataract, dysentery, rheumatism, and "crippling angina pectoris [chest pain due to coronary disease] episodically from 1540 until his death [1546] " (ibid.).

And yet in the midst of such painful suffering, Luther’s prodigious output of pastoral and theological writings poured forth unabated, as did his unrelenting challenge to Rome and his opponents, all the while shepherding his parish flock (now numbered by the thousands across Germany and even Europe). But therein lies the mystery of suffering, does it not? Do our lives produce fruit "in spite of" our personal suffering, or do they bear fruit "because of" that suffering? Sit down sometime and read 2 Corinthians 11:16-12:10. Brood over this lengthy list of personal trials and intense suffering the apostle Paul cheerfully (seemingly) endured in his peripatetic ministry for Christ. Like Luther he too pleaded to be released from the clutches of suffering. And to him (as no doubt to Luther) came the response of Christ, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Paul, Luther, you and I—would that we all might exclaim with the apostle—"Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

Soli Deo gloria. That He alone might be glorified.

Oct

October 18, 2017

"Ein' Feste Burg Ist Unser Gott"

By Dwight K. Nelson

Even the world recognizes the battle hymn of the Reformation, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." What is little known is the poignant story behind it—what Germans call sitzen leben ("setting in life"). And that back-story tells much about its composer, the excommunicated monk Martin Luther (who at the time and for the rest of his life lived under an empire-wide warrant for his arrest and execution).

In July 1527 a ravaging plague swept through the town of Wittenberg. Elector Frederick urged the Reformer to flee with all who were able to. But Luther "felt duty bound by his office as a pastor to care for the sick" (Derek R. Nelson, Resilient Reformer: The Life and Thought of Martin Luther 279). And so he and his pastoral colleague, Jonas Bugenhagen, made the decision to remain in Wittenberg. He later explained why in a long letter eventually published as an essay, "Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague." Yes, of course you may flee, though Luther also concluded "those who lived with special and public responsibilities to others needed to remain." And that included the pastors. Tragically along with thousands of others Bugenhagen’s pregnant sister Hanna succumbed to the plague. And a postmortem caesarian section could not save her baby.

Broken over this loss, "not least because his own wife [Katrina] was suffering a difficult pregnancy," Luther scribbled a note to Jonas, "May my Christ, whom I have purely taught and confessed, be my rock and fortress" (Nelson 280). That very month the little word burg ("fortress") appeared again when he wrote "Ein’ Feste Burg Ist Unser Gott" ("A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"). While this great hymn (based upon Psalm 46) conjures up apocalyptic images of the cosmic battle between light and darkness, truth and error, this simple back-story illumines the pastoral soul of the Reformer in the midst of life’s frailty. "It was no cataclysm of empires but love for a dead mother and child that led him to sing":

God’s Word forever shall abide, No thanks to foes, who fear it;
For God, our Lord, fights by our side with weapons of the Spirit.
Were they to take our house, goods, honor, child or spouse,
Though life be wrenched away, they cannot win the day.
The Kingdom’s ours forever!"

Luther would later write: "Music is to be praised as second only to the word of God because by her are all the emotions swayed. . . . [T]his precious gift has been bestowed on men alone to remind them that they are created to praise and magnify the Lord" (Dexter Wilson Luther: Out of the Storm 276). Evidence of his deep conviction over the place of music and hymnody in the life of the Christ follower, Luther published "the first hymnbook in the language of his people . . . [with] eight hymns in the first edition of 1524, and 40 in the second edition the next year" (Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal 489). Luther would eventually write 37 original hymns and publish nine hymnals.

"When considered alongside all the mighty tomes of biblical exegesis, Christian apologetic and religious polemic that poured from Luther’s pen, it must be conceded that, with the exception of the German Bible, nothing that he wrote had a greater or more lasting impact on ordinary people than his hymns" (Wilson 276-277).

In commemoration of this 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, why don’t you pick up a well-worn hymnal (perhaps you or a family member have one on a back shelf somewhere) or go to your Apple Store or Google Play and download one of the SDA Hymnal apps (be sure and read the reviews first). You may not know the tune or be able to carry a tune—but never mind. Just like Jesus did, we can express "the gladness of [our] heart by singing psalms and heavenly songs. Often the dwellers in Nazareth heard his voice raised in praised and thanksgiving to God. He held communion with heaven in song" (Desire of Ages 73).

Just like Jesus, just like Luther, in the early morning we too may find daily refuge in God through song. "A mighty fortress" indeed!

Oct

October 11, 2017

Zagreb From 37,000 Feet

By Dwight K. Nelson

Flying and writing at seven miles above the earth, I am thanking God for your prayer partnership as I return from 12 days in Zagreb, the Old Europe capital of Croatia. We called it Novo Nada (New Hope), our series of public lectures in the beautiful year-old Music Academy performance hall across the street from the National Theater. For nine nights and one Sabbath morning, the five Seventh-day Adventist churches in the city banded together to give public witness to their faith. Ninety-one "guests" (as they call them) joined with Zagreb Adventists in the nightly ninety-minute program—of music (featuring the well-known Agape Singers, the popular Heritage Singers like group known country-wide because of their television appearances and concerts) and lectures (translated by my new friend Pastor Dejan, campus chaplain for the academy/college at Marusevec). You may recognize our series theme sentence—"The Maker of all things loves and wants me"—which will always be the basis for novo nada/new hope anywhere on earth.

Regarding the language of Zagreb—any notion I might have had that it would be as easy to pick up Croatian—as it had been in Belgrade with the Serbian language back in April, 1996—quickly dissipated opening night with my butchered Croatian quip of "How good it is to be in Zagreb!” It wasn't pretty! But the audience seemed to take delight in my struggle, so I soldiered on each evening trying out a new phrase in their mother tongue.

Truth is, public evangelism's protocol and strategy in every country is different. But the goal is universal—as Jesus declared: "For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost" (Luke 19:10). Which by the way is what is driving our Unlock Revelation seminar that is still going strong here at Pioneer each evening. Zagreb's nine-night series was a compact and quick turnaround for inviting our "guests" to spend their "first Sabbath" at the Zagreb One Adventist church in town. Sixteen of the guests accepted our invitation, and ten made decisions that morning for baptism. (The evening series was livestreamed to Adventist churches around Croatia—but no report yet on their stats.)

The Zagreb team's strategy is to now follow up the 91 Novo Nada guests by visiting each home with a gift book just off the press last week, a translation of my book Outrageous Grace. Then this Friday evening they begin eight more nights of public meetings with a German pastor psychologist on "How to Find Happiness." It's going to remain a full court press for the pastors and members. But to reach a city and nation 85% Roman Catholic means the personal ties Adventists make with their neighbors are essential.

I'm confident their spiritual leaders are up to it all, having spent four morning hours with the 30 pastors gathered from across the small country. What a lively team! Our theme—how to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. In fact I learned that Helmut Haubeil, the author of the Holy Spirit book we've been studying here on campus, will be preaching in Zagreb in November (here is the new website for his book https://steps-to-personal-revival.info—now available for download in a host of languages including Croatian).

On a personal note and in grateful appreciation for your intercessory prayers, I need to testify I've not had an experience of public evangelistic preaching quite like this one in Zagreb in all the years I've been involved in evangelism. As I told the pastors here at Pioneer, I’m absolutely certain it was and remains the fruit of the Holy Spirit's own full-court intervention day and night in that city in response to concerted prayer. I remind you, many of us back in September began seeking God for a daily baptism of the Holy Spirit (as Christ invites us to do in Luke 11:13). Which is why I can be confident in attributing what I personally experienced and witnessed in Zagreb to His direct work. All of which says nothing about me—but says everything about the veracity of Jesus' promise—"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses . . ." (Acts 1:8). So whatever we do, let's not abandon our daily seeking for the Spirit of God's fresh, empowering baptism every morning.

But again, thank you for your prayer partnership these past two weeks. You perhaps will never know the spiritual impact your unselfish praying has in the lives of those for whom you pray. Please join me now in claiming for Zagreb God's great follow-up promise: "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion by the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6). Ninety-one souls on heaven's radar screen—plus an entire city—let's pray for them all.

And given America's escalating need for divine intervention (the whole world heard about Las Vegas), it doesn't take a 37,000 foot perspective to know we need to be praying hard for our own homeland, too. "Give us America, before we die!" Amen.

Sep

September 20, 2017

If I Were the Devil... or... Is the World Ending September 23?

By Dwight K. Nelson

If you surf YouTube, then you know there has been a crescendoing clamor by a fringe of people claiming a non-existent planet called Nabiru (nicknamed Planet X) will collide with our home planet Earth sometime on Saturday, September 23, 2017. I.e., in three days the world will end. Slick YouTube graphic animations portray what the explosive moment of impact will look like from somewhere out in space. One of the loud voices belongs to David Meade, a Christian "numerologist," who is warning that on the basis of the number 33 and the prophecy of Revelation 12, the Bible itself predicts this destructive collision between "Planet X" and Earth on this very date. Meade, however, has avoided claiming, as others are, the world will end—instead he clarifies: "'The world is not ending, but the world as we know it is ending,’...adding later: 'A major part of the world will not be the same the beginning of October’" (www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/09/17/the-world-as-we-know-it-is-about-to-end-again-if-you-believe-this-biblical-doomsday-claim/?utm_term=.c3efb9fa01d6).

Ed Stetzer, a professor and executive director of Wheaton College’s Billy Graham Center for Evangelism, has responded to the Washington Post: "'There’s no such thing as a Christian numerologist . . . You basically got a made-up expert in a made-up field talking about a made-up event’" (ibid).

The reason I mention this "non-event" at all is because the internet doomsayers are warning that the recent escalation of record-shattering hurricanes and killer quakes (and who can deny that over the last few weeks our hemisphere has been severely battered with a devastating string of these ecological disasters?) are evidentiary proof "Planet X" is hurtling closer and closer to this earth. Some go so far as to claim the recent U.S. solar eclipse 33 days before September 23 is itself an indicator of impending doom.

But of course in a university community like this one—and an Adventist campus at that—these warnings are quickly (and rightly) dismissed as evidence the lunatic fringe is still alive and well. But that is precisely my point.

If I were the devil and I were concerned that these strings of natural disasters were indicators my own time on this planet were coming to an end, I would do all in my power to keep thinking men and women from arriving at the same conclusion. After all, Jesus’ list of indicators preceding His return (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) strongly link upheaval in Mother Nature to His coming: "'On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory" (Luke 21:25-27).

If I were the devil, I would do all in my power to destroy any logical connection between these upheavals in nature and the return of Christ. I would inspire illogical, unreasonable minds to seize this escalation of natural disasters as proof of September 23’s impending doomsday. By leading unbalanced minds to embrace a biblically credible indicator (one the Lord Himself offered as a sign of His return), I would destroy the credibility of Jesus’ own indicator(s) in the eyes of the public and thus lead lucid, thinking people to reject any notion of "the end of the world." I repeat—no way would I want this civilization to be warned that in fact time is running out for this planet. The lunatic fringe would be my subterfuge to make sure nobody believes such gobbledygook.

But you and I know different, don’t we? Which is why Unlock Revelation begins this Monday evening (7:30) here at Pioneer. Because the Bible does speak with clarion voice to the times in which we now live. And to keep silent is to surrender the genuine harbingers Christ gave us to the hype of terribly misguided zealots who are dead wrong. Your witness and mine are God’s counterbalance to our mortal enemy’s desperate deceptions. People need to know the truth as it is in Jesus. Now more than ever. So please join me in making a personal invitation to someone you know who needs to know. If the choice is between YouTube and you, be assured God is banking on you.

Sep

September 13, 2017

A Script to Use with God

By Dwight K. Nelson

I don’t remember ever seeing so much interest in such a little book! And I don’t believe it’s because the book is free. I am convicted there is a deep soul hunger and thirst in my faith community for something Jesus called "the baptism of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:5). How else can you explain why Helmut Haubeil’s short book, Steps to Personal Revival: Being Filled with the Holy Spirit, was downloaded over 1,000 times last week? And I tell you the truth—I have already begun to see a marked difference in people who are taking up his invitation to seek for the baptism of the Holy Spirit every day. The power clearly isn’t in the book—but in the Giver of the Gift that many are now seeking.

Near the end of Haubeil’s book he offers a "model prayer with promises for the daily renewing of the Holy Spirit." I invite you to read that prayer right now—and if your heart is impressed, turn right around and pray this prayer as your own:

"Father in heaven, I come to you in the name of Jesus our Savior. You said: 'Give me your heart' (Prov. 23:26). I want to do that now by submitting myself to you today with everything I am and have. Thank you that you have already answered this prayer according to Your will, because Your word says that if we pray according to Your will we know that we have already received it (1 John 5:15). And You also said that You would by no means cast anyone out who comes to You (John 6:37).

"Jesus said: ‘If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him'" (Luke 11:13).

"You further said that You would give the Holy Spirit to those who believe in You (John 7:38-39), who obey You (Acts 5:32), who let themselves be renewed with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18) and who walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16). This is my desire. Please accomplish this in me. For this reason I sincerely ask You, Father, to give me the Holy Spirit today. Since it is a request according to Your will, I thank You that You have given me the Holy Spirit now (1 John 5:15). Thank You that I have received Your divine love at the same time, because Your word says: ‘The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit’ (Rom. 5:5; Eph. 3:17). I want to say with the psalmist: 'I will love You, O Lord, my strength' (Psalm 18:1). Thank You that I can love my fellow human beings with Your love.

"Thank You that through the Holy Spirit the power of sin has been broken in me (Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:16). Please save and protect me today from sin and from the world, give me protection from the fallen angels, save me from temptation and when necessary snatch me and save me from my old corrupt nature (1 John 5:18).

"And please help me to be Your witness in word and deed (Acts 1:8). I praise You and thank You for hearing my prayer. In the name of Jesus my Savior and Lord. Amen" (Haubeil p. 98).

I invite you to print off or cut out this prayer and place it where you meet with God every morning. It may feel a bit mechanical at first, but read the prayer, say the prayer, and in a few days it will become your own prayer, too.

After all, Jesus promises: "Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you" (Luke 11:9). Which means every day you and I ask, the Gift is ours, the one Gift that "brings all other blessings" in the universe with it (Desire of Ages 672)!

I’ve been praying for 100 people on this campus and in this community who will daily ask God for the fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit. Will you please help me answer that prayer? And then imagine what God is going to do around here!

Sep

September 6, 2017

Making Ground Zero Sense

By Dwight K. Nelson

Talking about Ground Zero! The world is abuzz over the reported underground detonation of a hydrogen bomb by North Korea this week. Other than state propaganda, information from out of the Hermit Kingdom is hard to come by. But analysts have concluded the 6.3 Richter scale quake in the northern sector of the isolated country on Sunday was triggered by a test nuclear explosion, perhaps North Korea’s largest nuclear detonation ever. Photographs of their feared leader Kim Jong Un examining a suitcase size hydrogen bomb only add to the speculation he now has the capacity to arm an intercontinental ballistic missile with a warhead that conceivably could threaten major distant cities in both the Far East and the U.S.

Why even a tabloid in London, playing on the fears of an anxious public, headlined the news, "North Korea nuclear attack threat: What will happen if H-Bomb hits London?": "A North Korea attack on the heart of London would utterly destroy around nine square miles of the city and instantly kill tens of thousands, according to terrifying new data provided by NukeMap. The website shows in horrifying clarity the extent to which an H-bomb attack would impact all corners of the city, which is one of the most obvious European targets for the rogue state" (www.express.co.uk/news/uk/849959/north-korea-news-nuclear-attack-uk-london-world-war-3-hydrogen-bomb). Perhaps a bit of tabloid overkill, to be sure, but an indicator nonetheless of the fear that continues to drive this hour of uncertainty on Earth.

And given all of this, jammed between two devastating and record-shattering hurricanes in our own hemisphere, on our own shores—one could be excused for more than the usual dose of paranoia over the state of affairs lately. Even the investors on Wall Street have embedded their personal fears into the gyrations of the major indices.

Any good news in the midst of all of this? Actually there is. Jesus’ own prediction of the prevailing mindset at this juncture in history—"people will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world" (Luke 21:26)—describes an unrest that plays into His mission to save lost people. Check this out. "Happiness researcher Dan Gilbert has written that ‘human beings come into the world with a passion for control, they go out of the world the same way, and research suggests that if they lose their ability to control things at any point between their entrance and their exit, they become unhappy, helpless, hopeless, and depressed.’ We want to be able to imagine the future, and we want to be able to prepare for it. Uncertainty makes this awfully hard" (www.unstuck.com/advice/afraid-change-science-uncertainty). Which being translated means times of overwhelming uncertainty drive the human to seek new certainty, new security.

Our default setting is always to try and turn disequilibrium back into equilibrium (homeostasis) as quickly as possible.

And when we try, guess Who’s standing at the door knocking? "Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other" (Isaiah 45:22). Because crisis and change are a valuable catalyst to urge the human mind to turn towards the possibility of the divine. You’ve tried everything else—and the anxiety and fear remain undiminished—so why not turn to Me now? "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

While we wouldn’t wish bad news on anyone, the fact remains that times of uncertainty and change are powerful opportunities to point those we know, those we love to the unchanging love of our changeless Lord—Whose impassioned appeal will remain unchanged to the very end: "Come to Me now."

PS—Why not pick up some printed invitations to Unlock Revelation (beginning September 25 @ Pioneer) in the literature rack? Let God make His invitation through you. It’s the right time, wouldn’t you say?