"He is Risen Indeed," is Not Enough

There is a tradition among some Christians today, to greet one another on this day when most of the Christian world celebrates the resurrection of our Savior, with words such as this:
“He is risen!” one Christian will declare to another Christian.
The second Christian will respond, “He is risen indeed!”

I had a good Protestant friend in South Carolina who loved to greet me and Jeanne with this phrase on Resurrection Sunday every year.

But I was convicted to say more than just, “He is risen indeed!” in response.
I used to respond, “He is risen indeed. He ascended to the right hand of the throne of God, is now interceding in the Heavenly Sanctuary for us, and is coming soon in the clouds of Glory!”

She always smiled at me with a look that seemed to say, “You aren’t following ‘the script’ but I can’t fault you for saying that.”

You see, as an Adventist, I rejoice in the resurrection of Christ. “ If Christ be not raised, then our hope is in vain…”God’s word says (1 Corinthians 15). And yet, the resurrection of Christ is only part of the marvelous story. His work and intercession for us in the Sanctuary as our High Priest is assuring. His soon coming, where the Lord Himself will descend, with all the angels, with the trumpet call of God that raises the righteous dead, and we are all caught up to meet the Lord in the air and ever be with Him is the fulfillment of the blessed hope that I look forward to. (1 Thessalonians 4)

Not only do I look back to the surety of Christ’s resurrection, but I look upward to His priestly intercession, and I look forward to His personal appearing for my gathering into the presence of His glory.

I am an Adventist! I can’t just say, “He is risen indeed”—as magnificent as that is. I must declare, “He is risen indeed. And He ascended to the right hand of the throne of God, is now interceding in the Heavenly Sanctuary for us, and is coming soon in the clouds of Glory!”

How about you?

LOOKING DOWN, LOOKING AROUND, LOOKING FORWARD, LOOKING UP

There are times when ministries and organizations must adapt or adjust to circumstances or conditions around them. Several Adventist ministries and conferences have needed to reduce staff in the last 2 years. Greater New York is currently reducing 43 employees. ADRA has recently announced a significant reduction of employees. Here in our Conference we have needed to carefully work by faith and at the same time structure within good stewardship. And this has necessitated some reductions in staff during the present times.

So how is your morale?

If that is all we focused on, we could start to look down and start to feel that things are getting pretty bad. And as we look around to other Conferences in the NAD and the recent moves by ADRA, we could again be concerned that God has not been at work. Or that somehow things aren’t going right.

Yet as we look forward, we remember that God’s work is going to be triumphant, and that God has promised exceedingly great and precious promises. These promises have not failed. They have not been withdrawn. God has not been taken off guard by the challenges or adjustments that have come. His work, while having to be structured differently as conditions change in our Conference or on earth, is still being carried forward.

Our current call is to be looking up. No matter what the conditions are, no matter what the challenges are, no matter how things may change from time to time, we are called to lift up our hearts and voices in prayer and petition. As we do that, we will find that,
“…prayer is the key in the hand of faith to unlock heaven's storehouse, where are treasured the boundless resources of Omnipotence?” Steps to Christ page 95.

Those resources have not fallen short. Prayer is our avenue to practice dependence upon God and that is where our dependence is to be placed.

I believe God is at work in a mighty way across Pennsylvania. Yes we have some challenges and adjustments right now, but at the same time, there are countless blessings also taking place right now. As we look around, we see many members seeking a genuine revival in Jesus and seeking Christ’s transformation of life. We see in some churches people walking in off the street, convicted of keeping the Sabbath holy. We are seeing youth and young adults taking up the mission of Jesus and reaching out to those around them—one young lady in the Reading Spanish church has been reaching out to her high school classmates and several of them have been baptized and some of their family members are starting to attend. We see more lay persons willing to become spiritual leaders.

Where are you and I looking during these times? Are we looking down? Are we looking around? Or are we looking forward and looking upward?

God will lead us through these challenging times. He is at work right now. Let us continue to put our faith and trust in His leading.

LAUREL LAKE CHURCH ORDAINS AN ELDER

An Elder ordination service is evidence of a church family that has recognized God’s gift for spiritual leadership within an individual in the church. Elders are the backbone of the work of Christ through His visible church here today. In one Union in Africa, there are over 22,000 members and hundreds of churches. Only one or two years ago, did this field of 22,000 members have a second pastor added. That’s right! Only 2 pastors with 22,000 members and hundreds of churches. How is this possible? By following the Biblical instruction of Paul to ordain elders in every church. Elder’s are to be the spiritual leaders of a local church. Pastors are to be the mission leaders of churches and regions. Jeanne and I had the joy of attending Sabbath School and Church at the Laurel Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church on Sabbath, April 9. While there, I was asked to share the Sabbath morning worship message, which I had entitled, “Men Wanted.” This message is taken from the text in Isaiah 6:8, “Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying: ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I!, Send me.” (NKJV) Also a key part of this message is the Ellen White quote, “The greatest want of the world is the want of men,--men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.”--Education, p. 57. At the end of that sermon message, the Church Elders came forward and we invited Randy Mallory and his wife Cindy to come to the front.

Randy had been elected by the Laurel Lake Church as an Elder, and we had the privilege of laying hands on him and ordaining him to serve as a local Church elder as his wife knelt by his side.

I am thankful for each local church elder in the Pennsylvania Conference who is faithfully serving the Lord and leading the spiritual work in our Churches. And our Church families have much to be grateful for, with the men and women who have answered God’s call and like Isaiah have said when the church needed a spiritual man or woman to lead out in God’s work, “Here am I, send me.”

A DEDICATED LAY PASTOR IN SENECA

Friday early afternoon, Jeanne and I visited with Russ Mullins at the Seneca Church.

Russ was one of the early lay pastor students in Elder Jim Wibberding’s lay pastor class here in the Pennsylvania Conference. Although Russ is semi-retired from being a nuclear plant inspector, he has earnestly dedicated himself to applying himself to let the Lord develop him in ministry and pastoral leadership.

I had the opportunity to review the many materials that Russ has been learning and drawing from to better lead our church in ministry and outreach. He shared with me the ways he has been leading the church family to approach Christian witness and outreach by gaining an understanding of the postmodern way of thinking, and how to share a personal testimony of what Jesus has done in their own life. He has also led the members to understand that postmodern influences are felt even in our small rural towns, where people may not naturally respond initially to a prophecy seminar, but they will respond to friendship evangelism, and then come to grow in the Lord. Right now, the Seneca church has begun to have a few new families with children starting to come to church as a result of taking this approach of meeting people where they are, entering into a friendship and inviting them to experience for themselves what a church family can be like. The Seneca church has also worked on their building and appearance to make it more, “user friendly” by installing a better entrance, making the interior more attractive and enhancing the appearance of the inside front of the church sanctuary.

They have also done something that is so smart, and yet something that many churches take for granted! They have taken great pains to make the bathrooms as attractive and bright and pleasant as possible.

While we members may just accept the appearance of a bathroom, that is one of the first things that visitors notice, and they tend to gauge their opinion of a church by the bathroom appearance—its cleanness, smell and décor.

Russ is one of several dedicated lay pastors here in the Pennsylvania Conference who is committed to the Adventist message and to leading his church to fulfill the gospel commission. We appreciate our dedicated lay pastors here in Pennsylvania.

ERIE PASTOR, CHURCH AND CHURCH SCHOOL

April 7 and 8 Jeanne and I spent time in Erie with Pastor Preston Monterrey and his wife Valerie.

We spent quite some time sharing the joys and progress of the Erie church.

Preston has brought a calm and positive spirit into the 3 churches that he leads—Erie, Lowville and Cory. He also oversees the ministry of Russ Mullins at the Seneca Church.

Preston gave me a demonstration of the SDA radio station that broadcasts from the Erie Church.

The equipment is in two rooms of the Erie Church School. A small closet contains the broadcast equipment, computers and recording equipment.

A nearby room which is a storeroom for school books and other supplies, contains the transmission equipment that takes the program up through the antenna and out over the air waves. The Erie church broadcasts much programming from 3ABN, but the church also records and broadcasts local materials and programming. After visiting with Elder Monterrey, I visited the Adventist School of Erie. Steve Laubach is our teacher there and the school students have a very attractive school room for class.

Recently a very generous donation has been made and the second school room has been outfitted as a learning center with very up-to-date computer stations.

While I was there, I observed how the students had been making Christian bookmarks to give to the church members and friends, using the computer graphics software and then printing them off on one of the two new color laser printers.

The church school students have also provided the church service at each of the 4 churches in the district this Spring. Tomorrow, they will be providing the 4th of their services by leading out the worship service in the Erie Church. The Church School is preparing for next school year already.

Church members have donated for these signs to be placed around town as this is the time of year community people begin to be interested in a Christian school. Also, the School is planning an open house in the next few weeks.

An Early Morning with Blue Mountain Academy students

Friday morning at 7 a.m. found me joining Chaplain Shawnessey Cargile’s 1st period Bible Class. Shawnessey had warmly invited me to participate in one of his classes. I presented an over-view of the investigative judgment and the 2,300 day prophecy.

A wonderful tool is the ShareHim evangelistic messages presented through power point presentations on specially computer software. Many of our churches and committed lay people here in Pennsylvania have used this evangelistic software to share Christ’s messages in our churches and towns. These same computer presentations were used by our PA Youth and Young Adults in preaching last summer in Guatemala and then again back in Pennsylvania. As I shared the message of the prophecy pointing directly to Christ’s anointing, crucifixion and the gospel going to the gentiles, along with the beginning of the judgment hour in 1844, I used this software to not only teach, but also to demonstrate to the BMA students how they could use this for presenting Christ’s messages in an evangelistic setting.

How thankful we can be that our Conference here in Pennsylvania has the blessing of a Christian academy like BMA. Our students at BMA have the privilege of receiving a Christian atmosphere while they are preparing to take their place as adults in this present world. BMA is a school where the day begins with worship, Bible messages are openly taught, prayer is offered often, the name of Jesus can be spoken with respect and adoration instead of only as part of an expression of cursing, and worship and service for Christ are openly incorporated into the weekly life of each student. With all the good that public schools can provide, this is the difference that our Adventist students need, while they are going through their formative years.