CHRIST LIVED A PERFECT LIFE, CAN WE?

As Christians, we relish the fact Christ came and died for our sins and was resurrected, thus overcoming the power of the grave.  In I Corinthians 15:51-57 Paul tells us that when Christ comes for us, we will be given our immorality, death will be swallowed up in victory and our victory over death comes through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Many Christians only bother to go to church on Christmas and Easter.  These two holidays represent the beginning and ending of Christ's life here on earth. The first reminds us that Christ sacrificed His place at the throne of God and came and lived in the flesh, the other that He was resurrected and claimed victory over the grave.

But what about the rest of the story?  The actual life of Christ and what it represents to we who believe.  The fact that Christ overcame death is vital to the possibility of we the fallen race to actually obtain eternal life.  Just don't ignore the other vital piece of the puzzle.  Christ lived a perfect life. The only way life eternal is possible for any created being is to live a life in COMPLETE compliance with God's law.  Not 70%, 80%, or even 99.99999%.  It takes 100% obedience.  Christ endured every temptation and He overcame all of them.

Revelation describes those who will ultimately reign with God forever.  The message to the 7 churches uses the words "to him who overcomes" again and again. God repeats the important points we need to understand so we don't miss the point, and the point here is that we must be overcomers.  Except, there is a problem with this because no matter what we humans do, no matter how hard we try, we will never be overcomers of sin.  All the overachieving we can muster, will not be enough to make us overcomers.

Thank God that Christ did it and this gift is just as important to our salvation as the resurrection.  The even better part is that accepting this part of His gift is something we get to enjoy here and now, day by day, while still on this earth while we wait for the fulfillment of the second part of the gift when we overcome death at Christ's second coming.

If you ask a Christian if they believe they can have eternal life by accepting Christ's gift on the cross, you will most likely always get a "yes" in response.  If you ask those same Christians if it's possible to be perfect, you will probably get some very sceptical looks, perhaps a look of disbelief that you would even suggest such a thing, a few definite "no's" and just maybe a "yes" or two.

The beauty is that Christ wouldn't lie to us and He Himself told us we could, just look at Matthew 5:48 "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." KJV.  Take a look at how the NCV translation says it "So you must be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."  Christ doesn't ask us to do the impossible, so is perfection possible for the Christian?

Well, the problem lies with us, not God.  Our part in this is to let go of self so that Christ can abide in us.  We need to take seriously the advice of The Beloved in 1 John 2:28 CEV "Children, stay one in your hearts with Christ. Then when he returns, we will have confidence and won't have to hide in shame."  It is necessary to abide in Christ if we are to be confident at the Appearing.  We can be sure of the fact we are saved and ready for Christ when He appears. 

I got curious just what does "abide" mean so I went to the online interlinear Greek Bible and did a little research.  First, let's look at John 5:7 KJV "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."  Take a look at what the CEV translation says though "Stay joined to me and let my teachings become part of you. Then you can pray for whatever you want, and your prayer will be answered."  The Greek word for abide in this verse has a tense that is past, present, and future.  Isn't that amazing that the meaning is forever, from past to future just like God Himself.  The meaning of the word is shown as:

to continue to be present

to be held, kept, continually

in reference to time

to continue to be, not to perish, to last, endure 1b

of persons, to survive, live

in reference to state or condition

to remain as one, not to become another or different

to wait for, await one

Next, take a look at John 15:10 where Jesus says "If you love me, keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love". Here you find that the tense of the word abide is future and also that the mood of the word is indicative which means a simple statement of fact. If an action really occurs or has occurred or will occur, it will be rendered in the indicative mood. I found this very interesting because it shows that we are assured that if we obey, the fact is that we will abide in Christ.  So many Christians are under the delusion that grace saves them through faith in the blood of Christ and that nothing is required of them beyond that faith.  The Bible clearly states otherwise.  Our active role is the willingness to obey.  The dilemma is that we of ourselves can never accomplish this.

So, we must learn to abide, to wholly submit our will unto God's and allow His will in our place.  We cannot enter heaven unless we are perfect because sin cannot exist in heaven. Our time here on earth is to be spent letting go of self and letting Christ be in our heart so that His character replaces ours. We must acknowledge and accept the precious gift of Christ's death on the cross and His resurrection, just don't forget that He lived a life of perfection that He also offers to each of us who will take His will and let it replace our own.

CHRISTMAS TIME

Even though I see no snow when I look out my window because I live in the desert, I remember fondly the many Christmases I spent as a child just a short distance from the beautiful mountains in Colorado.  I think I was about 6 when we didn't have snow in our front yard so mom and dad put us in the car and drove us to the mountains because they had promised we would always have snow for Christmas.

Now, more and more it seems that here in our Christian founded country that Christmas has been has become politically incorrect.  When I see Christmas being attacked because it might offend someone to tell them "Merry Christmas", it reminds me how much the devil works to turn us against God.  The economic recession continues to place most of us in a financial situation that traditional gift buying isn't the same as it once was or even possible for some. I think this can be a Christmas blessing if we stop and realize it's not about the gifts we can buy others or the monetary gifts we receive.  Rather, the meaning of Christmas should be a time to refocus our lives.

The Jewish nation had been given great blessings from God despite the fact they continually promised to follow God only to turn and rebel against God almost in the same breathe at times.  Yet, God continued to call them a great nation and provide not only guidance but specific prophecy about when Christ would be born.  In Daniel 9, we find the 70 day prophecy which clearly depicts when Christ would come to earth.  The Jewish people had this prophecy and the Jewish leaders had studied it for many generations, yet only a handful of Jews accepted Christ when He did come to earth.

It is easy for us as modern day Christians to ponder just how stupid the Jewish nation was to not realize it was Christ when the scriptures had so clearly laid the timeline out. But, are Christians today any less guilty?  Many in the Christian world have literally torn apart the 70-day prophecy which is the prophecy that proves Jesus is the Christ we place our faith in and use the last week of the prophecy, the very prophecy that is the time frame of Christ's earthly ministry, and they put this one prophetic week or 7 year period at the end of time and claim there will be a secret rapture.  Just like the Jewish nation in Christ's day who studied the scriptures and looked toward the coming Lord missed what was in front of their face because the were looking for someone to save them from the Roman oppression of their day; Christians who use Daniel 9 to teach a rapture theory are also teaching an error which will cause many to not properly prepare for the second coming of the Lord because they think they'll have a second chance.

What about us who understand that there is no secret rapture taught in the Scriptures?  Are we immune from the errors of the Jewish nation in Christ's day?  I think there is a second potential error of not realizing how important it is to prepare our hearts and fully commit to living a life that will prepare us to be ready.  I believe it was the Jewish people who readied their hearts in prayer while studying the Scriptures who were open and ready to accept and recognize the Saviour when He came.  We need to be continually setting self aside and in a prayerful state of mind, asking God for His will to be fulfilled in our lives.  Reading the Bible, knowing the truths we do such as the Sabbath, lack of a rapture, or that we don't go to heaven when we die; these are not enough to prepare us for the Coming of our Lord.  The pharisees had studied the Scriptures and knew them by heart, taught them to others, and yet they were not prepared to accept the Lord upon His coming.

Unlike the precision of the first advent prophecy, we are not told the exact time the Lord will return the second time but Christ Himself told left us many signs and they are rapidly being fulfilled before our very eyes. May God bless you this Christmas season and I pray that your heart will be open to His will, that you receive the gifts of the Spirit rather than material presents so that you will stand strong and hold firm the truth of the Scriptures. 

"But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers." I Peter 4:7

Time Well Spent???

More and more lately, I find myself pondering the question of how I should spend my time if I truly think that Christ will come gather us to take us home soon.  If heaven is a full time opportunity, than shouldn't my preparation for spending eternity there also be full time,  not just here and there when it's convenient?  We know we must occupy while we are here but just what does that mean? 

Up until 2 years ago, my Sundays were filled with football during the fall/winter.  On Sunday, I pretty much would start out with the pre-game NFL shows and end the day with SportsCenter wrap up.  I have been known to hang out with friends and literally have 3 tv's setup to get more of the games.  Then when I starting getting back into Bible study, you can refer to my "how this all started" section for more info on that journey, I thought what a waste of time to spend the day with football instead of God, my friends and family, or other worthwhile activities.  God helped me go cold turkey so to speak on that.  I am not trying to say watching football is a sin, I'm just saying it was interfering in my spiritual walk.  Whether you should watch football or other sports is between you and God.

Then I started thinking about the videos sitting in my living room...should I have them there, should I be watching them?  Over the next 6 months, I discarded all my fiction reading materials from my shelves and about 1/2 the movies.  Now I find myself pondering just how much, if any, tv or movies are ok for me to spend my time viewing.  I don't have an answer for sure yet but I am more and more each day feeling that less and less is the right choice for me.

If you have read other sections of my blog like my thoughts on music in God's house and you have watched the Ivor Myers testimony, you know how much the devil uses these distractions to keep us from focusing on what's important.  Even more so, hollywood has so many other evil aspects.  I grew up when movies were still basically "forbidden" for Adventists to go to but during my academy and college years is when it started being acceptable.  I used to understand that the reason Ellen White admonished up to stay away from the "theatre" was because in her day that meant the burlesque shows.  I thought that made sense and didn't apply to what a theatre is today.  After reading this article, I know I was wrong in that assessment, I urge you to read Morning Trumpet Article.

We all have different growth rates in our Christian walk and the Spirit will guide us if we are willing to pray and listen to the response. 2 Tim 2:15 (CEV) tell us "Do your best to win God's approval as a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed and who teaches only the true message."  If I am a worker for God, what are my study tools...the products of hollywood or the Scriptures?

Monday Manna 008 - Why Not Tomorrow? - David Asscherick

The Green Movement

Over the past year or so, I find myself considering what, if any, impact will the "green" movement or environmental movement that is so prevelant today have on end time events.  As I listen to the talk about controlling our usage, taxing us, the progressive movements ideas on redistribution of wealth, the fact many in the "green" movement believe that population growth should be controlled by the government, and much more, I find that I think it may very well play a critical role.

I recently read Glenn Beck's "The One Thing" about environmental extremism and my attention was caught by several things.  One, the fact that they refer to the movement as "new age pantheism".  If you look back at our own church history, we know the story of Kellog and the route he took toward pantheism.  Next, the fact that this is now being brought into Christian churches and preached as if it were gospel.  Finally, the fact that the term green "dragon" is used.  Read Revelation and see if you don't find their use of the term "dragon" to be of interest.

Well, take a look at Glenn's talk either from the web link or the PDF link
Glenn Beck on Environmental Extremism - web link   Glenn Beck PDF Version

Then go to Resisting The Green Dragon website and watch the video intro to see what you think.  I haven't watch the full series yet but plan to.

Satan has used Sunday worship to cause many Christian's to worship on a day not designated by God in the 4th Commandment, the commandment that points us back to our Creator; and evolution to deceive many good Christians and turn their focus away from God, the one and only Creator.  Now it appears he is making another move that is aimed at drawing us away from our Creator and this one is connected to a one-world government and the economic system.  Take another look at Revelation 17 and 18, may God bless you as you explore His word and pray.

Music In God's House Part 2 - A Must See Testimony

I had a friend share Ivor Myers testimony DVD with me and it is fantastic.  If you think it doesn't matter what kind of music we play in God's house or how you spend your time with entertainment, please watch this and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you.  God bless!

To Be Nice Or To Be True To Your Beliefs

I have a good friend who sometimes laughs and says to me, "I don't always like what you tell me, but I usually discover it makes me grow stronger."  See, I have one of those very straightforward personalities.  If you have read my posting about "Music In God's House", you'll remember that someone else asked me "if I couldn't just keep my mouth shut" rather than have a dialogue about what is or isn't appropriate music in church.  I don't generally mince words and believe the world would be a much better place if we could all be comfortable with honest answers.  I realize many people think that being nice is more important than being honest but I disagree.  Sometimes these people misinterpret honesty as hostility.  I am not sure if this is because it gets them out of their comfort zone or if it's just because they view the world through different glasses.

So the real question becomes, as a Christian, am I supposed to always be bubbly and nice regardless of the situation or are there times when conviction of the Bible truth and awareness of our need to ready ourselves for eternity make it appropriate hold strong to your beliefs and be zealous in your desire to share with others and help them understand the importance of not allowing the things of this earth to distract us.  If we are among good friends, is it ok to challenge one another in a positive manner so we grow stronger together?  I like what Paul says in Romans 1:11-12 "I want to see you and share with you the same blessings that God's Spirit has given me. Then you will grow stronger in your faith. What I am saying is that we can encourage each other by the faith that is ours."

As I sit here and ponder this, I went surfing the net and found an article I really appreciate and I have linked it here for you to enjoy also.  Stubborn or strong conviction? By Reisinger

I am still prayerfully pondering my own question, I'll tell you the answer once God shares it with me.  In the meantime, I'm sticking to the advice in I Thess 2:14-16.

Justification - A New Definition?

What goes through your mind when you hear the word "justification"?  For most Christians, we immediately turn our thoughts to the idea of being justified by faith.  This was a core doctrine of the reformers and did much for the protestant movement.  John Calvin was perhaps the father of the Justification Doctrine.

I just wonder if there isn't a new idea among Christians about justification.  Does our idea of salvation by justification take a different turn?  Have you ever found yourself thinking "I know I shouldn't do X but I know God will forgive me if I slip up?"  Perhaps you think to yourself "It's ok for me to tell a little white lie because I don't want to hurt her feelings."  Or perhaps "I don't have the gift to witness and go door-to-door."  Or maybe it's even the thought "This is the last time I'm going to do X."

Are we trying to find our salvation by justification of actions and choices?  We should spend our time in prayer and study, asking Christ into our hearts to make us of pure heart, replacing our own will with God's will so that these temptations become a thing of the past.

Remember that we are saved by "justification by faith" not "justification by rationalization".  Don't let your definition of justification become that of justifying actions and thoughts to make yourself feel better.

T T W W T #5 - ANTICHRIST CONTINUED

This lesson, we continue our discussion about the anti-christ concept.  To recap lesson 3, we discussed that many Christians think there is some one person that will arise in the future who will be the anti-christ.  Steve Wohlberg does an excellent job discussing this error in his book "End Time Delusions", I highly recommend reading it.  The Bible has several different terms used for this same organizational power we often refer to simply as anti-christ: son of perdition, little horn, the beast, or the lawless one.  Since as Adventists, we have a clear understanding of the only earthly organizational power to fit all the characteristics, I will not elaborate on that, but will put links at the end of this as resources for more in-depth study if you need a review or if you are new to this idea.  Remember that the devil uses the tool of deception as his main arsenal and Christ warns against being deceived over and over so make sure you know what you are looking for to determine who this beast or anti-christ power really is. 

Before I continue, I want to comment that the idea of the papacy being the anti-christ is NOT an Adventist theory.  It was well understood by the great reformers and by protestant religions down through the centuries.  Only in recent decades, have other denominations strayed away from this sound doctrine and toward other deceptions like the "left behind" concept, check out this from a Baptist church history website Reformation History.

One of the primary goals this week was to discuss the characteristic of blasphemy.  The Bible gives two examples of what blasphemy is: 1) Mark 2:7 defines it as claiming to forgive sins and 2) John 10:33 defines it as claiming to be God.  In our previous lesson we discussed the importance of understanding that the devil is the power working through this earthly organization.  In heaven, lucifer was first pre-occupied with the throne:  "You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; above the stars of God.' " Isaiah 14:13

We see this blasphemous characteristic, of being in the place of god as a predominate trait for this earthly organization.  As you review all the characteristics and review history, there is only one organizational power which fits the description, that of the Roman Catholic papacy.  By no means does this mean that we would consider Catholic Christians or all people in the leadership of this church to be evil.  It means that the devil will use the leadership role of this organization as a tool to try and replace Christ here on earth.  There are numerous resources to find quotes directly from Catholic writings to show that the Catholic church made the change of the worship day from the 7th day to the 1st and they take full credit for this and acknowledge that they did so of their own power, not God's.  The change of the day of worship away from the Biblical Sabbath established by God in the Garden at creation and which we are reminded of in the 4th commandment and all through the New Testament including Christ's own life, is the fulfillment of the "think to change times and laws" predicted in Daniel 7.  An excellent resource for more information about the Sabbath is Sabbath Truth.  Look at the fact most Christians worship on Sunday rather than Saturday and many have no idea that it was the Catholic church who changed it, not God.  Subtle deception is a powerful tool.

I find the Catholic church's belief that the papacy has the power to forgive sins and to be of more power than Christ Himself to be very disturbing.  Here is a link to the reference  "duties of the priest" which has some very disturbing quotes. I have highlighted some key passages between pages 1 and 10 just to give you an idea of how the papacy places itself in the place of God.  Again, confirming the characteristics prophesied of in Scripture.

The other key focus of this lesson was to get our minds around the time in earth's history in which we live.  When you read Daniel 7 and 8, you see that Daniel was very confused about his vision.  The angel comes to explain to him that it occurs in the future, at the "end of times" Daniel 8:17.  So where in history does this occur and where are we today?  The main timeline is the 1260 years, sometimes noted as "time, times and half time" and sometimes given as 42 months; all of which equal 1260 days or in prophecy terms 1260 years (see 2 Pet 3:8, Num 14:34 and Eze 4:6 for day/year theory).  As you review history you find that the papal power overtook 3 of the 10 European nations denoted by the 10 toes or 10 horns in 538 a.d., this would bring us to 1798 as the end of the 1260 day period.  In 1798, the pope was taken captive which fulfilled the "receiving a deadly wound" prophecy in Revelation.  Now lets look at other signs for the end of time from Jesus own words.  In Matthew 24 He told the disciples about the sun, moon, and stars.  This is again repeated in the 6th Seal of Revelation 7 which also includes a great earthquake.  So here is the timeline we can get to:

1755 Lisbon earthquake
1780 Dark day and blood moon
1798 Pope captured (end of 1260 year prophecy)
1833 Stars fall

It is now 2010 so according to prophecy, we are definitely well into the "end of time".  We need to daily be focusing on strengthening our relationship with Christ because our eternal life depends on it.  Things of this earth are just temporal so spend time with God every day in study and prayer.  If you have just been drifting through your Christian walk, let me leave you with this text: "You know what sort of times we live in, and so you should live properly. It is time to wake up. You know that the day when we will be saved is nearer now than when we first put our faith in the Lord. Night is almost over, and day will soon appear. We must stop behaving as people do in the dark and be ready to live in the light." Romans 13:11-12 CEV. 

God bless you in your study and prayer.

REFERENCES:

David Asscherick Prophecy Series
Brian Mcmahon Revelation Series
Steve Wohlberg Website
Amazingfacts Bible Study Guide Who-is-the-Antichrist?

T T W W T #4 - TO HE WHO OVERCOMES...

In lesson 3, we began looking at the anti-christ. Before continuing that segment, I want to take a sidetrack into Revelation and the central character – Jesus Christ.

The first set of 7’s contains many blessings for those who overcome. Christ overcame so we can obtain salvation through Him. When we look at the very beginning of Revelation, we need to stop and realize that this book is about prophecy and Adventists do a great job focusing on the importance of prophecy. But we need to also remember that the reason for understanding prophecy is to be prepared for the future and we do that by preparing our character for eternity. Let’s take a look at the opening passage.


Revelation 1:1-7 (CEV)

This is what God showed to Jesus Christ, so that he could tell his servants what must happen soon. Christ then sent his angel with the message to his servant John. And John told everything that he had seen about God's message and about what Jesus Christ had said and done. God will bless everyone who reads this prophecy to others,] and he will bless everyone who hears and obeys it. The time is almost here. From John to the seven churches in Asia. I pray that you will be blessed with kindness and peace from God, who is and was and is coming. May you receive kindness and peace from the seven spirits before the throne of God. May kindness and peace be yours from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness. Jesus was the first to conquer death, and he is the ruler of all earthly kings. Christ loves us, and by his blood he set us free from our sins. He lets us rule as kings and serve God his Father as priests. To him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen. Look! He is coming with the clouds. Everyone will see him, even the ones who stuck a sword through him. All people on earth will weep because of him. Yes, it will happen! Amen

What is our role in overcoming?
What is it that we need to overcome?
How committed are we to accomplishing the goal?
What does it take to completely surrender to God’s will?
 Take a few minutes and answer these questions for yourself:  On a scale of 1 – 10 (10 = absolutely) 

1. How sure am I that I am saved? 
2. How committed am I to daily surrendering my will to God’s will?
   If you are not absolutely sure you are saved, what do you think is keeping you from believing this?

I have another section in this blog that I started “Can Christians Be Perfect” where I will be posting more direct thoughts on this topic. Our talk today is going to focus on 1 Corinthians Chapter 2. Let’s first look at verse 9.

But as it is written:  “ Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

What do you think of when you hear this verse? Most of us regard this verse as a reference to what is waiting for us in heaven. Is that really the context of what Paul is writing about? Let’s back up and take a look at the whole story here by reading the entire chapter. Click here for a comparison chart of 5 Bible versions.


When we look at the whole context here, what we see is that Paul is talking about the blessings that are in store for those who receive the Spirit of God. When we are willing to surrender our will to God’s will, the Spirit dwells within us and then we can realize the marvelous blessings that God has in store for those who have the accepted the wondrous gift of salvation.We also see here that Paul is discussing the necessity of giving up our natural self and living a spiritually minded life. We have to be willing to overcome the things of this world and focus all on the eternal life that awaits us.


To be an overcomer means to daily submit our lives to Christ. The first section of Acts of the Apostles, Ch 55 summarizes this point well, please read the attached link before continuing.


Here is where I will make the connection back to our talk about the anti-christ. As we saw last lesson, John, in his epistles, is the only writer who used the term anti-christ. We saw that in 2 Thess ch 2 that Paul uses the term “son of perdition” which is the term used for Judas. Do you see that in AA, the two examples of contrast are John and Judas?


As we study prophecy to be prepared, we need to always keep Christ at the center of our focus and daily walk in the light we are shown in the Scriptures.

Is All This Adventist Behavior Necessary?

Let's face it, Adventist history has what we often call the "legalistic" era. My dad was raised during that time and many other of my wonderful Adventist friends. My dad tells about being raised by a mother who didn't allow any cooking on Sabbath and on Sabbath morning you got up, put on your church clothes, went to church, came home and ate cold food, then sat in your church clothes and read the Bible until the sun went down.

When I was growing up, we would go to church and then we would either go to potluck or take our picnic lunch and pile into the back of dad's pickup and over the Colorado mountains we would go and enjoy God's nature. I look back on those times and am so thankful for them because this is how my parents used God's second book to teach me of His love.

So just what is legalism? Webster says: "a strict, literal, or excessive conformity to the law or to a religious moral code " I would put it more simply and say that it's when a Christian lets their behavior be the driving factor rather than their relationship with Christ.

Adventists have traditionally been known for being different because of our behavior: we eat different, we go to church on a different day, we don't smoke/drink, etc. I can see how the human nature can take what begins as behaving for the right reasons and let it become the driving force rather than the natural result. And then you have legalism. The great reformers called it justification by works. Adventists believe in justification by faith, not works. Thankfully, from my observations, most Adventists have come past this legalism.

So the question becomes, is all this behavior we are taught really necessary in the Christian life? I say most definitely. I also have observed that there is an unfortunate trend that perhaps the pendulum has swung too far the other direction in that behavior seems to no longer be regarded as necessary, certainly not to a degree which would place Adventists in the "peculiar people" category that we are supposed to be.

There is a prevalent thought process among Christians that since we are saved by grace, the law is no longer necessary to keep. It seems to me that this is the opposite mistake from legalism. Both do not focus on the whole story of salvation. One forgets the fact that Christ alone gives us salvation and the other forgets that as we accept Christ's gift of salvation and truly bring the Lord into our heart, the change of heart which naturally occurs is a desire to live a life according to Christ's standards.

Thus, behavior is necessary: not because our behavior can save us but because we ARE saved. God is love and because of that love; Christ came to live a sinless life, die and overcame death by His resurrection. If we have faith that accepting that sinless life and resurrection in place of our own then the natural result is our love for God will result in us wanting to live a life in tune with the standards of heaven. We can't forgot that it is not just Christ's death and resurrection that save us, it is the fact Christ lived a sinless life and overcame death. A sinless life is required of all. We are incapable of living a sinless life of our own accord. However, we can accept Christ's sinless life in our place and as we grow in our love of Christ, it becomes second nature that we want to keep His commandments. Spend some prayerful time in 1 John.

As we walk through daily life here on planet earth, we are faced with many choices of how to spend our time. Do we spend that time on activities that prepare our character for heaven or merely give us entertainment on this earth?

Enjoy this Ellen White Devotional

The Truth We Were Taught Lesson 3

This week we began our discussion about the anti-christ. The first thing we are doing is to lay a foundation of understanding by looking at some key verses.

First, let me say this is not an in-depth and comprehensive study on the whole anti-christ topic. There are many great Adventist resources if you are looking for that right now. The goal of this study is two-fold: first that we understand why knowing the true identify of anti-christ is so that we will not be deceived and second to understand that there are several different names used in the Bible to identify the "power" or organization that is most often referred to as the anti-christ.

The key texts and relevant idea from each for study this week are:

• 1 John 2:18 - anti-christ already exists
• 1 John 2:19 - they went out from among us (the church)
• 2 Thes 2:3 - Paul warns of a falling away from simplicity of gospel. Falling away here in the original language is "to be divorced from"
• 2 Thes 2:3 - the name used is "son of perdition" and the only other time this term is used is for Judas (see Luke 22:3 and John 17:12)
• 2 thes 2:7 - is already at work, term used is "lawless one"
• 2 Thes 2:4 - exalts himself above God, sit in temple of God, shows himself as God

To summarize the various terms used for this "power" are:

• Anti-christ
• Son of perdition
• Beast (see Revelation)
• Lawless one

Another important thing to note in reading these texts and in the full context of the writing, is the warning against being deceived. Remember that satan is hard at work to deceive the world and to draw our attention away from what Scripture actually says. There are a lot of false teaching in Christian churches today about the anti-christ.

The homework assignment is to read all these texts and the surrounding texts to gain a perspective on the context of each. We will discuss more about who the anti-christ is in the next lesson.

Reference for this week if you want to do some outside study is to listen to Steve Wohlberg and his series on the Antichrist Chronicles http://whitehorsemedia.com/broadcasts/?p=v

AACS Special Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb6yNilUbx0

The first song "Jesus Love Me" was sung while the children's offering was picked up which is why the older children are leaving the stage during the song. I paused the video then restarted for the actual special music which was done later in the service.

The Truth We Were Taught Lesson 2

Our second Bible study in this series focused on the relationship between Daniel 7 and 8 plus Revelation 13.

Daniel 7 finds Daniel still in Babylonian captivity and finds himself receiving another vision from God, this time rather than a great image, he is shown 4 great beasts. The first is a lion which represents Babylon, next is the bear representing the Medo-Perian empire, then the leopard representing Greecs, and finally the great and terrible beast which represents Rome.

While Daniel 7 is the chapter that Adventist's learned of the great investigative judgement, this particular study is focused on showing the coorelation between the above noted chapters. We will study the investigative judgement in another study.

Daniel 8 occurs two years later than Daniel 7 (compare verse 1 of each chapter). In Daniel 8, the vision starts with a Ram and then a male goat comes into the picture. The Ram represents Media and Persia and the male goat is Greece and we don't have to speculate on this fact as verses 20 and 21 tell us so. Note that Babylon is no longer refered to as that kingdom has been overthrown by the Medes and Persias (Daniel 5).

It is important to understand how Daniel and Revelation work together to explain prophecy. Thus, why we also turn to Revelation 13. This lesson is setting the groundwork to understand who the beast power of Revelation is. By walking through the history of the earth as so plainly shown in Daniel 2, 7 and 8 and then seeing how the symbols and descriptions of Daniel are also seen in Revelation, we can clearly determine who the beast power is which will be our topics for Lesson 3.

I have created a summary sheet which you can find and download from this link. Be sure to read through the 3 chapters for yourself with a paper and pencil, jotting down the descriptors for yourself and see how they line up. http://www.scribd.com/doc/37264699/TTWWT-Series-Part-2-Reference

Remember, always pray before you study your Bible and ask that the Holy Spirit guide your findings and that Scripture interprete itself to you, not letting our own imaginations make things up.

God Bless and Happy Sabbath.

Music in God's House

Music, what is appropriate in an Adventist church? This is a topic of great dispute today. It's also one that I find myself compelled to share my thoughts about. You can choose to agree or disagree. If you are one that thinks electric guitar and drums belong in the Sanctuary, I pray you will consider my thoughts and ask God to guide your thoughts.

First, just a reminder that I write that from the perspective of a life-long Adventist, not someone new to our denomination.


Last summer, I visited the small church I grew up in. I was more than disappointed when the church service began with a 40+ minute "worship praise" segment. There were a few things that didn't sit well in my gut. First, I don't sing. I long for the day I am in heaven and can carry a tune. So to be expected to not only sit and listen to music that I was uncomfortable with in God's house, but to be expected to stand up the whole time, was a bit much for me. Now I will say that the music they played wasn't what I would automatically put into the Christian rock category and there weren't any drums banging away. The music was far too loud for sure and definitely had more of a beat than I was comfortable with for worship in God's house.

Last week, I again went to visit my hometown. I took a walk with my friend who was on the trip with me who is someone that has been a Christian for a long time but has only been studying the SDA message for about 6 months. While this person has come to accept the Sabbath truth, there is still a period of growth to learn just what the Adventist lifestyle is all about. We went for a walk so I could show him my home church. It was a Wednesday evening and the front door of the church was open with a couple of cars out front. So we stuck our heads in to see if it would be an appropriate time to see the inside. There were two men there, one I know who leads the worship praise team. I saw a set of drums on the platform in the sanctuary...my heart was sad. The praise team leader very nicely asked if we would like to stay and listen to them practice. I replied that I didn't think drums were appropriate in God's house. We had a small discussion that each of us have done our own study on the subject, we have different conclusions. I thanked him, after showing my friend around and we left, not staying to listen.

On the walk home, I was asked "couldn't you keep your mouth shut?" Well, I explained my point of view to my friend who is learning about Adventism. Over the past few days, I've thought more about this matter and find myself sitting down to write about it on my blog.

The thing I ponder is not whether I could keep my mouth shut because I could certainly have chosen to do that. Rather, should I have kept my mouth shut? Obviously, my writing here is proof that I am not convicted after much prayer, that I should have. I never meant to judge those at the church and truly believe their hearts are in the right place, I just disagree. I was careful not to tell them they shouldn't have the drums, instead I told them I wasn't comfortable with the drums and I made the choice to leave.

So I ask myself, why is it that this topic bothers me so much and why am I so convicted that this is a serious problem growing in our churches. Before going further, I want to recap my own background to give you some insight. If you have read the "How This Started" section of this blog, you know about my background. I never went off the wild path of rebellion so many SDA youth do but I wasn't perfect either. One of the distractions I found myself enjoying was rock music. I went to academy and college in the 80's which meant Def Leppard, Van Halen and so forth and I had lots of their albums and went to a few concerts. However, in those years when I was listening to lots of rock in my car and home, I never felt it was appropriate in God's house. God's house is special and is to be treated holy.

My first encounter with the drums and guitars in an SDA church was about 10 years ago when I visited the La Sierra campus and went to their young adult Sabbath School. When the music started up, I couldn't tell the difference between that "worship" music and when I had gone to rock concerts. I got up and left and went searching for another SS group to join which luckily at that large campus I was able to do.

I've since seen the developing trend in our churches. It's not just the music either, it's the coffee and donuts on Sabbath. I visited another church in the Phoenix area last summer because Pastor Doug was speaking in their youth Sabbath School and I thought it would be a great opportunity to hear him in a small group setting. I got there early and was warmly greeted which was wonderful. I was then offered fresh coffee and told the donuts were on the way. When the donuts arrived, it was obvious they had been purchased that morning...on the Sabbath. I was appalled to think that this was occurring when someone like Pastor Doug was on his way to talk to the group, not to mention this church was conducting a huge evangelistic series and including some wonderful health nuggets at the beginning of each meeting. I knew that the series was close to the segments when the Sabbath truth would be taught. I told the person who offered me the coffee thank you but that I didn't believe it was appropriate to serve during SS. I sat there in silence trying to figure out how they could reconcile preaching the health message and the Sabbath while blatantly contradicting it. Again, should I have kept my mouth shut?

What is it that bothers me so bad? Here it is. Every time I've asked someone who is serving the coffee and donuts, or leading the loud music why, the answer I get is that we need to be more like other churches to bring more people into our denomination. WOW, that right there should alarm us. It's WHY this bothers me so much.

Would any faithful Adventist think that starting Sunday services is the right way to draw others to Christ through truth? Would any honorable Adventist school start teaching evolution as fact rather than creation in order to increase attendance? If not, then why should any faithful Adventist church whose desire it is to bring others to Christ through the love of the truth start acting like other churches to accomplish it?

There are many examples in the Bible of what happens when the Godly start acting like their neighbors. Let's look at Seth, from Patriarchs & Prophets p.81 we see that the two classes of Seth's and Cain's offspring remained separate. "So long as this separation continued, they (Seth's group) maintained the worship of God in its purity. But in the lapse of time they ventured, little by little, to mingle with the inhabitants of the valleys. This association was productive of the worst results."

You see, satan is a master of deceit and his main tool in Christianity throughout the centuries has been to deceive through compromise. He twists the truth just enough that it's close enough to the truth for Christians to easily justify it as acceptable. The obvious compromises to Adventists are the Sabbath vs. Sunday, creation vs. evolution, the state of the dead, and the secret rapture. Why is it that so many Adventists are willing to lower their guard when it comes to music and how we treat God's house? To willfully break not just the heath message when bringing donuts to church, but breaking the very Sabbath they claim to be keeping by buying the donuts on their way to church?

I have a friend who has pointed out that the Bible has examples of loud music being acceptable such as Mariam playing her tambourine. I would point out that Mariam did not play her tambourine in the most holy place of the tabernacle and our sanctuaries are our times "most holy place" where God dwells with us and we come to worship Him who created us.

If the wonderful simplicity of the truth in the Scriptures, presented in love and reverence of God isn't enough to sway a heart to accept salvation, then perhaps it's the love or the truth that's really missing from the message and not the music that is the problem.


Here is a link to an reference on a research project regarding Christian rock (let's face it though, the term Christian rock is an oxy moron).
http://www.av1611.org/crock/crock1.html

Do I Really Need To Behave

Behavior, well that is a big one in the Adventist denomination. If you were raised an Adventist, you were probably taught many things about how to behave. You might have felt there were just far too many rules applied to this religion.

I find it very sad when I search the internet and come across websites devoted to bashing Adventist beliefs and almost all of them are from former SDAs which makes it even sadder.

Perhaps I'm one of the lucky one's who had parents that always explained WHY we should behave different if we love God. Maybe some of these others, or maybe even you, didn't have that example from your parents, teachers, or pastors and it left a bad taste in your mouth about being an Adventist. Well, we all have the ultimate example in the life of Christ. We need to look to Him for our example of how to behave and to learn an understanding of why it does matter. If you read the Bible, never once will you find God telling you to behave "because He said so." Rather what you find over and over is that God says, "If you love me, keep my commandments."

This quarter, our lesson study is the book of Romans. Now Romans is just full of Paul talking about the law. A few weeks ago during our Sabbath School lesson discussion which was on Romans 7, I happened to start reading Psalms 119. If you haven't read Romans and this Psalm together, try it. David show fully shows his love for God and over and over says how wonderful the commandments are. My favorite verses are 10, 11, 31-35. Then over in verse 73 you find a wonderful reference to the 4th commandment when David acknowledges God as creator who gave him understanding to learn the commandments.

I started to really think about why if all throughout the Bible we find God reminding us that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments, so many Christians claim it's not necessary. Are those Christians right that grace is enough and the law is no longer required? Many of them say they are "New Testament" Christians so the law is null and void. Then why do we find so many of these reminders that loving God results in keeping His commandments in the NT? 1 John is one of the most wonderful books of love and completely includes obedience to the law with that love.

If the law if void and it is unnecessary to keep the law, why did Christ have to keep it in order for His sinless life to stand in our place for salvation? Christ Himself during His earthly life quoted the scriptures of the OT. Luke 4:8 shows that during Christ's 40 days in the wilderness, His response to the temptations was "It is written, 'You shall have no other gods before me.'". Here early in His earthly life, He turns to obedience of the law to overcome satan and He quotes the 1st commandment.

Christ lived the perfect life, in full obedience to God's law, that we might have eternal life. We must accept that gift by faith, there is nothing we can do of our own. It is the grace of God that allows Christ's life to be a replacement for our own, which is where the grace comes in. Just remember that obedience is not discounted because of grace but rather as we accept that gift and fall in love with the Godhead, it is because of our love that we naturally obey.

Let's take a look at the 10 commandments and see if they reflect a character of God that simply tells us "don't, don't, don't..." or if rather each one reflects a character of love.

Take a look at the last 6 commandments and think of them in simple terms of a relationship to another person. If you love someone, do you want to kill them? Of course not. If you love your spouse, do you want to cheat on them? Of course not. If you love your best friend, do you go around telling lies about them? Of course not. You get the idea. Now go to the first 4 commandments that refer to our relationship with God. If we love God and acknowledge Him as our creator and appreciate the life He has given us, do we go looking for another god to worship or make up our own poor imitation god? Of course not. And the 4th commandment is there in the middle of the Decalogue. A call to remember to keep the Sabbath holy. When we love someone, we look forward to special time together to draw closer. God has given us a weekly gift in the Sabbath that we might dwell in His arms and rest from the cares of the world.

There are some beautiful passages about how the law reflects the love of God's character in the Desire of Ages. The whole book is wonderful, but here are some pages that relate to this subject in particular: page 20-26, 69, 89 and 106.

The next time you find yourself wondering if all this behavior stuff is really necessary, stop and ask yourself "how much do I love God?" Do I love Him enough that my nature is compelled to draw closer to the Godhead in such a way that doing what He wants is second nature, I don't have to even think about it. Just as a husband or wife who is deeply in love with their spouse doesn't have to stop and think about whether or not to lie about that person or sleep with someone else, that is the simple result of the love. Behaving in the marriage is not what creates the love, it's the other way around. I think perhaps God created the two institutions of marriage and the Sabbath in the Garden of Eden so that through marriage, humans can have a simple example of how love for another human can show us how developing a strong relationship of love with the Godhead results in the natural obedience found in truly harmony with God's character.

Finally, keep this in mind. From the very beginning of sin's entrance into the universe, satan has done everything possible to make void God's law and make created beings believe it is impossible to keep. If we seek to know God and yet say the law is void, then don't we dismiss the very love that allowed Christ to selflessly come to earth and die on our behalf? see John 3:16. Adventists fully acknowledge the work satan has done with turning Christians from Sabbath to Sunday, from creation to evolution. I believe the false teaching of grace alone with no acknowledgement of the requirement of obedience to the law out of love, is another deceit that satan has accomplished well in the Christian community.

God doesn't ask the impossible of us.

Trip To Dad's NM House July 2010

Tools for Bible Study (T T W W T #1 D)

Bible - get a translation, not a paraphrased version.

Good to compare different versions - http://www.biblegateway.com/

Bible highlighters and pen - make a color chart:
I use green = prophecy, pink = promises, yellow = general important and blue = doctrine

Adventist prophecy series DVDs and Bible study guides. These are a great source of information to help you lay the basics. Remember though, the idea of this series is to learn how to dig for yourself so don't be lazy...get your Bible out and prove to yourself that the Bible study guide is accurate. Trust God only, do not rely on others for your salvation.

History resources - there are many of these on the internet. Google away but be careful that you are finding accurate resources and not just opinions and interpretations of others. One history website I like is http://www.flowofhistory.com/ and another is http://www.bible-history.com/.

Why Study Prophecy (T T W W T #1 C)

Why do we need to study our Bible, didn't we learn all this stuff before? Or maybe you are thinking, I don't want to embarrass myself and admit I don't know how to give a prophecy Bible study and I've been an Adventist all this life.

Knowledge won't save us, but remember that ignorance of the law is no excuse.
Knowledge helps us learn from history and it helps us prepare for the future.

Why do we need study prophecy? Read 2 Peter 1:19

How To Study The Bible (T T W W T #1 B)

ALWAYS be sure you are reading within the context meant. If you are reading a text, or someone uses a single text to try and prove a point, STOP and backup. Read the surrounding texts. Be sure you understand who is talking and who their audience was. A good example of this is Paul's writings. Paul writes to many different churches in his time and has specific messages for them. A good example of this will be given when I discuss justification in a later lesson.

Don't skip the boring stuff. A good example of something many of us skip over is the genealogies of the Bible. All those begats just seem useless. The reality is that they are a timeline. They help lay out the "when" of Bible history and at times are proof of the prophecy. A perfect example of this is how Luke 3:1 gives the exact time in history of Jesus' baptism, correlate this back to the 70-week prophecy in Daniel for proof that Christ is the person being talked about in the prophecy and that the prophetic timeline was perfectly on time.

Why Am I An Adventist? (T T W W T #1 A)

The first question is "Why am I an Adventist?" You might be wondering why I start with this question. It's important! Your answer might be, because I was raised this way or I know they teach the truth found in the Scriptures. Two year ago, that was my answer too. Then God really convicted me that type of answer simply isn't enough. Knowing that Sabbath is on Saturday and going to church each Saturday isn't going to save me. Knowing that we don't go to heaven when we die is Biblical truth, but knowing that won't save me. The only thing that will save me is my willingness to 100% commit my will to God's will and allow Him to control my life, to accept by faith alone the gift of the cross and accept Christ's death and resurrection in place of my own inability to live the life required for eternal life.

I'll get more specific on those topics in later sections. For now, I just challenge you to really determine for yourself, why are you an Adventist.

First, we are going to look at prophecy and study our Bible. The Adventist church has done a terrific job of being willing to tackle the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation during evangelistic meetings. If you were raised an Adventist, there's a good chance that you went to some of these when you were young or perhaps you studied this stuff during school. However, I'm convinced that most life-long Adventists have not sat through an entire evangelistic series or if they have, they didn't do it with fresh ears of trying to understand why ti's so important to their Christian walk. Rather, they perhaps are just curious to see if there's some new break through theory on how close we are to the Second Coming.

The Truth We Were Taught - Introduction

As I mentioned in a previous post, I decided to start a new Bible study group with a small group from my church. I had been asked by someone who was raised SDA, "how do we know that what we were taught is the truth?" Well, that is an excellent question for someone raised SDA to ask. Do we just assume it's true because our parents, teachers, and pastors told us so? That is dangerous because look how many good meaning Christians go to church on Sunday because that is what they were taught and yet nothing in the Bible supports that day of worship as being sanctified by God. We need to dig out the truth in the Bible for ourselves. I have not come across anything on my "dig" that has contradicted what I was taught growing up Adventist, now I know it for myself that The Truth We Were Taught is the Bible truth. I will post out bi-weekly studies on my blog to share with you. I will label them numerically so you can follow them in the proper order. God bless your journey as He has mine.

(To help you read them in order I will use T T W W T in the titles of this series so I can post the topic also and a lesson number and section letter. For example, the first lesson will be #1 and the different sections will be noted A, B, C etc.)

Growing Up Adventist... (Part 1)

Let me share a bit about myself to set the stage for this blog. I’m a 4th generation Adventist. I went to Adventist school from first grade through college. My grade school was a fairly typical SDA school, 1-8 grades in the basemenet of the church and I never had more than 20 classmates with all 8 grades combined. I went away to academy and then on to an Adventist college. I’m what you might call “a product of the system”.

I grew up in a very loving Adventist home with parents who always gave real answers to Bible questions. I wasn’t smothered by doctrine growing up but rather blessed with parents who showed how to live a good clean, conservative Adventist life by the example they set and because of their love for God. I never heard "because I told you so" as a reason to do or not do something. I learned sound Biblical doctrine and prophetic interpretation and knew it was the truth the Bible teaches because it was clearly shown to me from the Bible. So I never needed to question it once I became an adult.

I wasn’t perfect by any means and certainly went through periods of not doing everything by the book but I never felt compelled to rebel against the church as far too many SDA youth do. So far nothing to make you wonder what has prompted me to want to share with people I’ve never met. I’ll share that in another post.

ABOUT MY DAD (Part 2)

Two summers ago (2008), my dad bought a little piece of land in the pines and I went to visit and help him build a house on the property. Actually, let me back-up a bit and tell you about my dad. My dad was raised by what we call a "legalistic" mother. I am sure she meant well, as many Adventists in the era did but it backfired where my dad was concerned. Dad was most often given the "because I said so" or "because the Bible says so" as a response to his questions. As a child, Sabbath meant eating cold food because you couldn't cook on Sabbath and coming home after church to sit in his church clothes and read the Bible until the sunset. Thus, he left the church. After many years of studying his Bible for himself and venturing into many different denominations, he studied himself back into the Adventist church because of the truth.

My dad is great at helping people find Jesus and God's love in the Bible. He has been a devoted leader in the churches we have attended by being an elder and a great Sabbath School teacher. He likes to teach the practical application of the lesson and the Bible. Helping others learn how to develop a relationship with Jesus is what God has given him a gift to do. He challenges me and others in a positive way to daily apply the Bible to our lives and develop a friendship with the Godhead. I have friends who comment that I'm blessed with a dad who's like our very own Enoch because you just see his love for God in his life in a very humble way. I love my dad and thank God every day for giving him to me.

LET'S NOT FORGET MOM (Part 3)

My mom...well to put it simply, if you look up "mom" in the dictionary, you will find my mom's picture there. She is the mom that every kid loves and even as an adult, my friends adopt her. She is quiet yet strong, sweet yet not mushy. She's the mom that you just know is always there for you without her saying a word. She doesn't judge but always has advice if you want to ask.

Her most amazing spiritual gift is being able to quietly sit in the background and know who everyone is at church, what their spiritual gifts are, who is well suited for various church offices or volunteer positions, who needs a hug, or who needs to know that the church is happy they are part of it.

Mom always had dinner ready on Friday night for the family to bring in the Sabbath together. She made our clothes because we didn't have much money and we never realized we were poor because we were so loved that we were rich beyond comprehension.

When we were young (I'm the middle of 3 girls), we lived in Colorado and spent many summer weekends camping or just up in the mountains enjoying God's nature. If it rained, as it often does in the late afternoon in the mountains, we would huddle in the tent while mom read Sam Campbell books. If you don't know who that is, go find his books and read them for yourself or to your children!

Mom didn't grow up Adventist. She became an Adventist about the time I came along, when my dad came back to the church. To be honest, you'd never know she wasn't raised Adventist because she knows so much about the church history, always knows just where to send you for a good EG White reading. God knew just the kind of home to place me in to lead me where He wanted me to be as an adult and it all started with His choice of my parents.

Medio Persia - The ? that changed my journey (Part 4)

So back to the story about dad's house in the pines project. Dad bought a nice little piece of property in the pines, half way between where we live and my older sister, so it's about 8 hours away. I took a friend with me and we drove over to spend a week helping dad build the house. Dad had decided to design and build it himself.

One evening while the 3 of us sat in dad's camp trailer eating and having a nice Bible study, dad mentioned Medio Persia and I must have had the deer in the headlight look because he said, "you know what that is" and I just shrugged my shoulders. He then asked how it was that I didn't know. And thus my new journey began and why I'm writing this on the internet to share.

It really started because I didn't want to not have an answer if dad asked me another question like that. I decided to go read my Bible a bit better and figure out just what Medio Persia was. Sure, I'd heard the term before but couldn't have given a Bible study on it. Of course I had to go to Daniel and starting reading. For the first time in my adult life, I was really digging into Bible prophecy for myself and not just relying on my memory bank from what I was taught growing up. As I began reading it with the mindset of really understanding it for myself, the Holy Spirit was hard at work on me. This was the 2008 and I also found myself, for the first time, paying particular attention to politics. Always before, my choice of presidential candidates had been very clear-cut because I'm what they call a "Reagan conservative", Reagan was the first president I got to vote for in college. The 2008 election was not obvious to me since I don't believe Macain is a real conservative and I had no idea who this Obama character was so I needed information to make my decision. The combination of reading prophecy and paying attention to world politics more in-depth merged together and convicted me of the times in which we live. I know Adventists believe Christ will come soon, but I'm convinced we are truly living in the toenails of the image from Daniel 2. If you don't know what that means, I'll be posting more about my actual Bible study adventures.

Why I'm Sharing This (Part 5)

Over the past 2 years (since that summer in 2008), God has truly worked in my life. I'm convinced that I'm not the only Adventist out there who grew up in the system, believes the truth we were taught (check back later because I just began a small group Bible study on this topic that I'll be sharing), are very comfortable in their church and life, BUT aren't really convicted the way we need to be for the times in which we live. I call this the "comfortable Christian" syndrome.

I had no reason to think that I had a real problem in my Christian life. I knew the Sabbath truth and I honored it, I knew Christ is coming soon and I was looking forward to it. I was fairly active in my church in that I enjoyed giving vesper programs and helping out here and there. However, you wouldn't see me out going door-to-door or giving Bible studies. I used to have a corporate job and never felt compelled to share my beliefs with my non-SDA friends, you know I didn't want to push my beliefs on them. Does this sound familiar in your own life? Well, then one day I really listened to God's voice as He reminded me that Jesus gave His life for me (ok, I knew that and I accepted Christ as my savior so nothing new here) AND Jesus gave us a homework assignment. I always liked school and still take classes for fun here and have always been a good student except I was failing this class miserably. I hadn't even cracked the textbook open for this class.

Being a good Christian, being a good Adventist isn't enough. It doesn't matter if I know about the Sabbath, who the anti-christ really is, that a secret rapture is not taught in the Bible, or that we don't go to heaven when we die. What matters is that I have been convicted of it for myself, not just that someone else taught it to me, even if they taught it straight from the Bible. I NEED TO STUDY IT FOR MYSELF AND BE CONVICTED OF IT.

And this is why I'm blogging. I know I'm not the only SDA out there sitting comfortably in church every Sabbath and not questioning that I'm in the church that preaches Biblical truth, who hasn't been truly convicted of how important it is to dig in, and I mean really dig in, to the Bible yourself.

When my dad asked me, "how do you not know about Medio Persia", I didn't have an answer. About a month later, I was talking to him (now having an answer to his question) and I explained that when you grow up SDA you learn this stuff at a young age but that is very different than learning it as an adult, with an adult's understanding. He had been raised SDA but left the church and studied himself back into the church, as an adult. If you weren't raised SDA and you go to a prophecy seminar and learn this truth as an adult, you are blessed if you accept it. However, as a life-long SDA, you probably never sat in on a full prophecy seminar and listened as if you didn't know any of it with an openness to new truth. We never cover this in-depth in our quarterly Sabbath School lessons. Thus, here I am sharing with you because you found my blog. I believe God has asked me to share my journey because I was lucky enough to have a dad that I wasn't embarrassed to admit to that I didn't know this stuff the way I should. Maybe you don't have someone it's ok to admit this to. I am also a person who loves to study and learn so I've been studying my Bible a lot I want to share it with others.

I just began meeting with a small group of life-long Adventists and a few other Adventists in my church and I am calling this my "Trusting The Truth We Were Taught" series. As we go through it, I will follow-up with posting it here on my blog. This study approaches backwards from a normal Bible study. A study is usually structured to bring a person to accept the truth of the Scriptures. This one is designed for those who already accept the truth, but have never dug it out for themselves as an adult. The goal is for us to "have a ready answer" (1 Peter 3:15) and to become a constant witness to those we encounter so that we prepare ourselves for the soon coming and to finish our homework.

May God bless you as He has me.