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.