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.
Friday, July 16, 2010
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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