I’ve been trying to get stronger lately. Every morning, at an ungodly hour, (at least my wife thinks so) I get out of bed and head to the Meier Hall Health Club. This name “Health Club” is really a euphemism for a small, poorly ventilated space, in the basement of the Men’s Dormitory where guys go to torture themselves because we all know that while boy children are still in the womb our brains are washed clean with testosterone. Moving heavy pieces of iron, expending incredible amounts of energy, and accomplishing no practical work would seem crazy, but we can’t help it, we’re men. So I’ve been trying to get stronger. What about you? I think we would all rather have strength than weakness. The truth is that we are all trying to build ourselves up, strengthen our defenses and wall off our vulnerabilities. We all have our health clubs, testosterone or not, only some of us use means far more artificial then pumping iron. No one wants to be weak. Everyone despises weakness; everyone, it seems, except God. God goes out of His way to choose and use the most unlikely men and women. Men and women like you and me. Last week, on July 18, Nelson Mandela turned 90 years old. This man of small physical stature, after 27 years of imprisonment for his activism against apartheid in South Africa, emerges from his prison cell, a giant. Mandela, the first Black president of South Africa, is known more for how he came to power than for the office he held. His journey to power was not through violence and bloodshed but through forgiveness and redemption. That was how Mandela changed a nation. Jesus changed an entire world the same way. He continues to do so by using weak people - people like you and me. July 18 was a special day not only because I admire Nelson Mandela, but also because it was the birthday of another man I admire - my father-in-law. He turned 72, last week. In his lifetime he’s accomplished many great things, most importantly to me however, he fathered a beautiful daughter - Arlene Alisia Edwards. She’s got a new name these days, but she’s just as beautiful as ever. You met her a few weeks ago and we were both overwhelmed by your outpouring of love and well wishes. Thank you. Paul says, “when I am weak, than I am strong.” 2 Cor 12:10 This Sabbath embrace your weakness. God embraces you. This blog post has been guest written by Pastor Oliver Archer.
Pastors' Blog
By Pioneer Pastors
The body cell is the basic block of all human life. It is estimated that the human body is comprised of between 50-100 trillion cells. These cells die and are reborn each night. So in a real sense every day, our bodies are "brand new." If you haven't thought about it, human beings are creatures of "change." We are constantly changing every day. Yet when our cells die and cease to regenerate that process is called "aging." Old age and the inability of our cells to change are the beginning signs of death. We are living today in a time of tremendous transformation. Global warming has ushered in volatile and unpredictable weather patterns. Flood waters have raged in areas of the country that have seldom been hit by such catastrophes. It's all due to climate change. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, in a study titled "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey," found that more than a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood to join another religion or no religion at all. It's called affiliation change. Major colleges and universities are experiencing the retirement of their predominantly liberal faculty and a new generation of more centrist and conservative professors are replacing them. It is another transition that will bring with it a different perspective on the major social, economic, cultural and philosophical issues of our day. It's called ideological change. The Baby Boom generation is retiring and a new workforce of Gen-Xers and Millennials are replacing their parents and grandparents. We call it generational change. In the political arena, Barack Obama, has become the first non-Caucasian to be selected as the presumptive presidential nominee of a major political party. It's called, "Change We Can Believe In." We are surrounded by change and yet in the church we seem slow or in some cases resistant to change. How do we explain this dichotomy as Seventh-day Adventist Christians? Few modern faith communities have been called to accept more change in forming itself than have Seventh-day Adventists. Our forebears weathered the trials and uncertainty of the "Great Disappointment" to form what we now call the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Led by young adults, they struck out in faith and dared to follow the prophetic calling that God gave them through the visions of a young teenage girl. They made tremendous sacrifices, giving of their means and themselves to a cause that seemed illogical and ill conceived, but today we are the beneficiaries of their faithful, selfless service. They embraced "change" and because they did we have been blessed. So today, as you face the inevitability of slowed reflexes, an expanding waistline and graying temples, is the specter of change haunting you? Are you holding on so tightly to yesterday, that you cannot embrace tomorrow? Is your anxiety about the future robbing your peace in the present? Jesus, the greatest change agent of the universe admonishes us in Matthew 6:33-"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34-Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself . . ." So, "How Are You Handling Change?" This blog post has been guest written by Pastor Timothy Nixon.
Do Hard Things. That’s the title of a book I read this summer. Written by Alex and Brett Harris (19-year-old twin brothers of Joshua Harris—author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye) the book challenges teens to rebel against rebellion. To rebel against the low expectations people have of teens. The book is an invitation for teens to join the “rebelution.” To do hard things. It includes the challenge to respect the authorities in their lives, ask for direction and help and to collaborate.I’m no longer a teenager . . . yet the book spoke to me. It was a reminder that to be faithful to God and to the mission He has given the Seventh-day Adventist Church my life needs to be lived in constant rebellion against the standards of the world. That often means I have to do hard things.
Queen Esther was an early “rebelutionary.” We all know about Esther’s decision when called upon to risk her life. But it was all the “little” hard things that built her faith and prepared her for that big test.
Esther lived in a land of exile, her parents were gone and she was being raised by a wise older cousin. Esther’s outward beauty was so profound, yet it was surpassed by an inner beauty that allowed her to accomplish THE hard thing for God’s people. God knew He could trust Esther’s faith in Him. She sought and followed Mordecai’s godly counsel. She solicited the prayers of God’s people and her small group of maidens. She planned strategically and rose above the expectations of the enemies of God. The result was the saving of a nation and one more piece of the cosmic puzzle was put in place—preparing the way for Ezra and Nehemiah, the command in 457 B.C., prophetic fulfillment, and the Advent Movement.
Now other pieces need to be put in place before that cosmic picture is complete. God needs you and me to be faithful—to do hard things. To go where He wants us to go and to say what He wants us to say.
This blog post has been guest written by Pastor Esther R. Knott.
Imagine the emotion. Your son graduates from Ruth Murdoch Elementary School with high grades. Graduates from Andrews Academy on the honor roll and president of his class. Following his graduations from Andrews University magna cum laude, and the seminary with his M.Div., he is hired as a pastor in the Michigan Conference. Within just a few years he is the senior pastor of one of the largest churches in the conference, with an Associate Pastor and Bible Worker on his staff. You couldn’t be more proud. The promise that if you train a child up in the right way he will not depart from it has certainly come to pass for your family. You pray for that young man every night and thank God for His many blessings.
Then the phone call comes. There was seldom a week in his life you hadn’t been in contact. Even after he moved away, you talked by phone weekly and visited as often as possible. You never detected anything out of the ordinary. To say that this call caught you by surprise would be the understatement of the year. You listen in stunned disbelief as he tells you about a personal encounter he had last week with Buddha, and he’s becoming a Buddhist.
That’s how Paul’s parents must have felt when they first heard that their beloved son, a prominent Pharisee, was becoming a follower of the Jesus whom the Council had condemned and the Romans had crucified. They must have been devastated. And yet had the veil between the seen and the unseen been lifted, they would have seen that their prayers for their son were being answered beyond their wildest dreams. From a persecuting Pharisee bent on imprisoning Christians he became the foremost apostle of faith, setting people free with the good news of Jesus and the kingdom of God. And his story and message changed western civilization, and are as vital today as when they were first preached.
This blog post has been guest written by Pastor Skip MacCarty.
Dwight Nelson will continue his blog at the end of August. Check here next week for posts from guest bloggers.
After his sudden death last Friday, he’s become larger than life. And I for one miss him. I didn’t know Tim Russert, of course. But every Sunday morning I have timed my 10K run to end just as his “Meet the Press” was beginning. And for a few sweaty moments with my Sunday paper and breakfast, I would listen in on the celebrated journalist’s gentlemanly grilling of another public figure or two or three. “If it’s Sunday, it’s Meet the Press” was my preference, too. And, as it turns out, millions of Americans enjoyed the same weekly ritual. The accolades for Russert continue to pour in. What made this man so “familiar” with the public, and so beloved by his friends? What can those who “knew” him learn from his life? I sat down last Sunday and scribbled some random reflections. Live the joy of your life to the full each day. I was amazed at how many of his colleagues and acquaintances testified to the contagious exuberance with which Russert lived. He loved his work. He loved his work associates, from the veterans to the rookies in the Washington bureau. And he exuded it. What if we all did? Keep in touch with your roots and your family. Much has been made about his loyalty to the blue-collar neighborhood of Buffalo where he grew up. His best-selling book about his dad continues to speak volumes about Russert’s love for those dearest to him. And what’s so obvious is that Tim made certain his affections were obvious, too. On-air and off-air. On the phone to his boy two or three times a day. Everyone loved him for it. Celebrate the lives of your friends and acquaintances. If he knew you, and you were having a baby or surgery or mourning a loss, Russert was there to share the journey. Scribbled notes, little gifts, a visit, a phone call—apparently he made sure those he cared about knew he cared. What’s not to like about that? Do your homework. Russert was renowned for his early Sunday morning rehearsals alone in the studio. He read his questions aloud, imagined his guest’s responses, planned his rebuttal queries. He didn’t tolerate a lack of preparedness in his guest or himself. Mentor the young. I was intrigued at how many of television’s well-known reporters cut their eye teeth under Russert’s tutelage. He invested time and attention in the new team members, constantly exhorting them to pursue excellence. Share your devotion to your God and your church. The whole world knew Tim Russert was a faithful Roman Catholic. He didn’t keep it a secret. It was clear he was proud to be a member of his church, and unashamed to display his faith in God. True, he wasn’t an evangelical missionary. Yet in the world of hardball politics and journalism, Russert lived his faith. Would that there were more of him these days, wouldn’t you agree? Was he a saint? Hardly. But in a world where so many live such isolated and self-serving lives, here was a man who is being remembered for the very opposite. And in the eyes of God, isn’t that a value heaven celebrates, too?
The word that stumped him was “quaquaversal.” How these kids survive as long as they do in the Scripps National Spelling Bee is beyond me! Ten-year-old Tony Incorvati of Ohio made it to the third round a few days ago, until he ran into that amalgamation lurking in the bowels of some dusty dictionary. And no matter how hard he squinted, it wouldn’t come out right. Quaquaversal—“turning and dipping in every direction.” And while it won’t become a household word, it certainly is an appropriate one to describe life on this planet of late, isn’t it? Just when you think one crisis headline is tucked away and taken care of, the very next news cycle dips and turns, introducing yet another breaking story from somewhere else on earth. And while admittedly the news media hype disasters and major in crises, nevertheless the “talking heads” seem perplexed over the crescendo of these breaking headlines: tomatoes, oil, gasoline, floods, Wall Street, Greece, the Middle East—the “quaquaversal” collection from just this week, to name a few. Someone asked me the other day if all of this amounted to a harbinger, a collective alert regarding earth’s disintegrating future. And at the same time, someone else wrote and wondered if there is any point wondering if it did. Actually doesn’t the Second Law of Thermodynamics itself predict such disintegration? Known as the principle of entropy, you might remember from high school physics, this law describes the entropy or break-down of energy in the universe, resulting in increasing disorder and eventual disintegration. Is our earth on some sort of entropic path? Isaiah was an ancient prophet, not a physicist, and yet tucked near the end of his prophecy is a line that describes such entropy. “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, the earth will grow old like a garment” (Isaiah 51:6). Growing old like a garment, tearing at its ecological seams, ripping at its geological faults and plates. Is that what the headlines pronounce? Our planet’s entropy? But to the thinking man or woman of faith, isn’t there more than thermodynamics behind this litany of “quaquaversal” headlines? After all, didn’t Christ himself predict global entropy? Didn’t he link the promise of his return in Matthew 24 with a growing disintegration in nature (see vv 7, 29, 32), in politics (v 6) and in morality (vv 4, 9-12)? But rather than ending with a whimpering depletion of energy, Jesus predicts in the end an explosion of light and energy in his physical return to earth—“and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power [Greek: “dynamite”] and great glory” (v 30). So are we doomed by the headlines? Hardly! In fact, the greater the entropy around us the deeper the certainty can grow within us that the God who has called us friends will journey with us until that grand climax: “See, I am with you always, even to the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). Which means that no matter how “quaquaversal” the journey may yet become, we’ll never be alone—which is the greatest headline of all!
History was made Tuesday night, when Barack Obama was declared the winner of the Democratic presidential primaries, thus becoming the first African American to be nominated for President of the United States by a major political party. And given the painful history of race relations in this country, Americans of all parties, races and faiths surely hope this is a harbinger of better days to come. Which, of course, is not to suggest that the five month electoral journey to November 4 that Obama and John McCain now begin will be a love-fest of political or national unity. Being the earthy reality that it is, it is unlikely the American political process will become a model of decorum and civility. The question is: How should we who are followers of Jesus Christ relate to the politics and political processes of this electoral season? Surprisingly enough, Romans 13 offers three still relevant guiding principles for the citizens of any nation on earth, all of which are pertinent for the presidential election ahead. First of all, Paul declares that human governments practice a derived authority from God himself. “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Romans 13:1 NIV). I.e., followers of Christ are also citizens of earth, and as such we are under obligation to live peacefully under governmental authority. Secondly, Paul admonishes: “Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor” (Romans 13:7 NKJV). And that counsel certainly would include “votes to whom votes are due.” Following Christ neither prevents nor precludes the Christian’s obligation to participate in the electoral process of the land. Both our taxes and our votes are due to Caesar, and we must render them. And how shall we render our participation in the political process? Romans 13’s third principle is pertinent. “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10 NKJV). Like every other campaign, this one is sure to be infused with heated rhetoric, angry rebuttals, and uncivil recriminations—and all of that from the supporters of the candidates! The follower of Christ lives by a higher standard. Irrespective of our political persuasions, we must live out Jesus’ self-sacrificing, others-deferring love and compassion. “He must increase; I must decrease” is a doomed political mantra, but it is the quintessence of selflessness. Through the followers of Christ love can triumph over the most political of processes and mean-spirited of campaigns. In this season of uncertain history, let us model Christ’s love for all in the face of divisiveness, his abiding humility in the face of ego and rancor, and his peaceful trust in the One who sits above all political processes. And let us pray his prayer, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Amen.
“Scientists at loss to explain busy, severe tornado season.” So read Wednesday’s headline in the South Bend Tribune. “‘Right now we’re on track to break all previous counts through the end of the year,’ said warning meteorologist Greg Carbin at the Storm Prediction Center. And it’s not just more storms. The strongest of those storms—those in the 136-to-200 mph range—have been more prevalent than normal, and lately they seem to be hitting populated areas more, he said.” Just another fluke of unpredictable Mother Nature? Perhaps. But a week ago I went to www.dlinquist.com to track earthquake frequencies. The graphs begin in 1973 and climb gradually from 5,000 to 10,000 recorded earthquakes per year until 1995, when they spike to between 25,000 to 30,000 quakes per year by 2001 to 2005. 2008, only half through, has already logged around 25,000 seismic events (the most recent, of course, the May 11 national tragedy in China). Just another fluke on our unpredictable planet? One could so conclude. The massive human catastrophe of the cyclone in Myanmar’s delta region can be explained the same way, no doubt. But as the AP report about this year’s spike in tornados observed, “The nagging question is why. Global warming cannot really explain what is happening, Carbin said” (Ibid). At the risk of sounding like Noah, who for 120 years warned civilization of impending disaster (see Genesis 6 and 7), thus risking the taunt of the scoffers who have ever been quick to declare, “‘All things continue as they were from the beginning’” (II Peter 3:4), I am compelled to interject this reminder into the news media’s reporting of the recent spate of natural disasters. Jesus predicted that before his return: “‘There will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the seas and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of the heavens [and the earth—Matthew 24:7] will be shaken’” (Luke 22:25, 26). Do these disaster spikes prove true Christ’s prediction? Or does his prediction provide the interpretive paradigm for understanding nature’s crescendo? Obviously the answer will depend on the questioner. It is in the accumulation of spikes—natural, economic, political, moral, religious—that the discerning mind of faith hears the call of Christ, “‘Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near’” (Luke 22:28). And that’s why, unlike the headline, faith is not at a loss to explain its confidence. For its bedrock is not the accumulating global numbers in the end, but rather the person and promise of Christ, “I will come again” (John 14:3). The spiking statistics are simply a reminder that the end of earth’s heartache and misery is nearer than ever before, which is reason enough for faith to hope and love like never before.
Several years ago someone gave me a book on humility. I love a gift book, but does it have to be that personal! But as it turned out, the gift book was truly that. And it has become a gift that has continued to give. It’s Andrew Murray’s little classic, Humility. I’ve brooded my way through it three times now, and I’m certain it will bless your own soul as it has mine. Murray, the great South African divine, makes a point that has stuck and rubbed in my mind like a burr under the saddle. Reflecting on Jesus’ admonition—“He who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11, 18:14)—Murray gives this prescient bit of counsel: “What the command does mean is this—take every opportunity of humbling yourself before God and man. Humble yourself and stand persistently, not withstanding all failure and falling, under this unchanging command.” What’s he driving at? “Accept with gratitude everything that God allows from within or without, from friend or enemy, in nature or in grace, to remind you of your need of humbling, and to help you to it. Believe humility to indeed be the mother virtue, your very first duty before God, and the one perpetual safeguard of the soul. Set your heart upon it as the source of all blessing.” Did you catch that? Embrace whatever humbles you! “See that you do the one thing God asks: humble yourself. God will see that He does the one thing He has promised. He will give more grace; He will exalt you in due time.” (p 90) Embrace that which humbles you. Embarrassment, pain, betrayal, failure—the list is legion of those difficult human realities that on occasion humble us in the eyes of others, but nearly always humble us in the eyes of our own souls. Embrace that which humbles you. Why? Because could it be that in such an embrace we will at last have within our reach the very virtue of God that outshines all others—and without which we shall not see him? “Not I but Christ—Tales of Humility” is a new biographical series (perhaps autobiographical for us all) you can download from this site. Six life stories that tell the story of our lives. I invite you to relive them all with me . . . that we might learn to embrace that which humbles us . . . and thus embrace the One who saves us.
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