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.

"Why" Questions That Reveal Christ's Plan for My Day

Why do we work where we work?
Why do we live where we live?
Why do we shop where we shop?
Why do we play where we play?
Why do we suffer what we suffer?

It is no accident that we work where we work. It is no accident that we live in the place or community that we live. There is a reason and purpose why we shop where we shop -- beyond the fact that it has the best deals, or we like the styles at that location better. Where we play just might have a Divine reason. And the things that we suffer can be more than just random acts of distress, discomfort or disaster.

All these questions are answered in a much different way when we put them in the context of our calling in Christ.

Jesus calls us to come to Him. To accept Him and be with Him. But not only does He call us "to" Him, Jesus also calls us to be "sent" for Him. After coming to Him and receiving the great gift of His salvation and abiding presence, His power and His strenth, then Jesus calls us to be sent by Him out into our world, the world around us, to be a light for Jesus that others can see and become drawn to the Christ dwelling in us.

The reason you work where you work, is that Jesus wants to speak through you to those you work alongside of. You may be the only person to share with them, and Christ has placed you in your work place for that very reason.
The reaon you live where you live, is because you are the person or family that Christ has placed right in that neighborhood to represent Him.
Where you shop is a place where you can have an influence and witness for Jesus. Your fairness, integrity, kindness, and interest in the clerks and store owners can be more signficant than you may realize.
At places of recreation, such as where your children play, or the sports you are involved in, the gym where you work out, the park you go to, give points of intersection in the life of others, points that Jesus has planned so that you will have the opportunity to connect on His behalf.
And in a time or place of suffering, others will see how you handle it, and learn that there is a support level in your life that is not totally determined by your present experience of suffering, but is determined by your connection with Christ.

Why do you suffer the things you suffer?

Last week, I was driving with Will Peterson in my car, on our way to the Alleghany East Conference office which is near Pottstown, when we were "rear-ended" on US 422. I pulled over to the side of the highway and exchanged information with the driver who hit my car. Neither Will or I were hurt or have suffered any injury afterward, but my rear bumber got scratched and nicked, with some pulling away from the clasps that hold it in place.

When I called my State Farm agent later to report the accident, she told me if I wanted to file a claim with State Farm, I had a $500 deductible I would need to pay, but if I would have the other driver's insurance handle it, there should not be a deductible I would have to pay.

So I called the Erie agent and started the process.

There was a collision repair shop I prefered, but in talking to the Erie agent, I was informed that Erie had an "authorized" shop they could deal directly with. Since I knew the shop Erie dealt with did good work, I was willing to go there for the estimate.

Wednesday, when I drove into the parking lot, I recognized one of the body shop repairmen. Previously he had worked in the collision repair body shop for one of the major car dealers that is no longer in business. I didn't know he was working now at this shop. The last I knew, he had been working for a tow truck company.

So while I was waiting for my repair estimate to be written up, I got to visit with him, as he had just finished his time for the day. He had gone through a divorce just a few years ago, received custody of his daughters and his former wife had moved to a state down south. For the last 2-3 years he has not been attending church. Yet as we talked, he shared that he was getting re-married, and he was feeling the conviction to return to church.

Why do we suffer what we suffer? It is no accident, sometimes why we suffer what we suffer.

So we visited in the door of the body shop for 30 minutes or more. I had the chance to invite him and his young adult daughter to Grace Outlet for a church home. His finacee has not really been attending any church, and I had the chance to suggest that Grace Outlet would be the kind of atmosphere where someone who is not used to a church setting, would not feel "closed in" or that they would have to know some certain sequence or religious code. I also invited him to our Wednesday night Men's Group in our neighborhood.

That seemed to be a positive possibility in his mind and he appreciated the invitation.

Why do we suffer what we suffer?

Of all the cars along 422 hurtling down the road, several nearly collided with others, nearly ran others off the road, nearly rear-ended other cars. We had been driving fairly alert and safe, even to the point of slowing down well before the traffice stoppage. But my car was the one rear-ended.

I could have seen this as an aggravation which I didn't need. Delayed from our appointment. Then having to stand by the side of the highway and nearly struck as we exchanged information. Taking extra time to go to the body shop for the estimate, and in a couple of weeks, having the car in the shop for 3 days or more.

What an inconvenience!! Or...was it part of a Divine plan for the mission of Christ?

Of all the cars on the highway Tuesday afternoon, I think I was the only one hit in the rear end. That put me at the body shop, just at the right time on Wednesday afternoon, late in the afternoon, to "happen to bump into" someone who has been away from church, been through a breakdown of their marriage, and who is currently feeling convicted that Christ is calling them back to church. Maybe, just maybe, my little accident was intended to place me at a Divine Appointment -- to be on a mission for Christ.

You are I are called by Christ and sent by Christ. Are you available for mission 24/7? Each day, the events of our day can be part of Christ's mission through us to reach others for Him.

A New Take on John 3:16

Last Sabbath, I attended Church at the Trinity Temple SDA Church in Newark, NJ, as part of the Columbia Union ASI Chapter meeting, at the invitation of Denise Hayden, the Columbia Union ASI President.

While there, I renewed acquaintence with a Seminary professor of mine, Dr. Norman Miles, who is the current pastor of Trinity Temple. Before going out of the platform for the worship service, (which begins at 12 noon) and for which Elder Dan Jackson, President of the North American Division of SDA was the speaker, we met in the Pastor's study/office.

On the wall of the office, among the certificates, hung this little plaque.
"For God so loved the world He didn't send a committee."

While this may bring a smile to our face, especially as we think of the amount of time spent in Committee work, sometimes with a questionable amount of real action as a result, the quiet reflection on the message of this plaque is profitable.

God didn't send a committee. God didn't send all the heavenly host. He didn't send the leaders of the angels. He didn't send the 4 and 20 elders. There was not a heavenly council to decide who the best group of heavenly beings could be that might communicate God's love and rescue planet earth and the human family.

The outstanding and mind-boggling truth is....
God came Himself!

No Committee action. No delegation that was authorized to stand-in for God.

Just as in Revelation 21:4 it says that "God will wipe away every tear..."
And in Thessalonians 4:16 it say, "The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout...And the dead in Christ shall rise first..."

The plan and act of Salvation for each human member of the family of Adam, is so totally personal, and so totally all encompassing of God's complete time, attention and self-sacrifice.

It is God Himself, that has totally given all that He is, all that He has, and all that heaven can contain, just for the salvation of you and just me.

When we fully grasp that, when we come to know the totality of our Heavenly Father's commitment and gift to us, uniquely for us, personally for us, then and only then, do we begin to relish the chance to grow and live a transformed, revived and holy life. A life worthy of the calling. A life that reflects back the commitment made for our salvation, by fully giving up self for the Selfless One.

For God so loved the world He didn't send a committee. Hallelujah! He came Himself.
Wow!

UNION MEETINGS INCLUDE NEW BUILDING AT WAU AND POTENTIAL WAU OFFERINGS AT ATLANTIC UNION

Four times per year, as Conference president, I join all the other Conference Presidents of the Columbia Union by meeting with the Columbia Union Officers for regularly scheduled meetings and committees. This particular week also included a meeting of the Columbia Union Board of Education, on Tuesday afternoon.

Then on Wednesday, I met on the campus of Washington Adventist University. Early in the morning I served as a member of the Marketing sub-committee of the WAU Board of Trustees to discuss ways that WAU can continue to make the opportunities for Adventist Christian Higher Education better known throughout our region.

One of the unique opportunities for our Pennsylvania youth and young adults, is that WAU has agreed to offer the same scholarship matching grant to our Pennsylvania young people who participate in our PA ShareHim summer evangelism program of preaching a full series overseas and then a second series within PA. That means WAU is willing to fully match 100% of the $1,500 scholarship from the PA Conference for our young people participating in our summer evangelism program.

Later in the morning, I participated in the Washington Adventist University Board of Trustees meeting. While we were meeting, work was taking place outside our meeting area on the new Music Building. The excavation was preparing the ground for the foundation to go in. It is good to see this new building on the WAU campus taking shape.

WAU is beginning a serious conversation with Atlantic Union College and the Atlantic Union on WAU being the educational institution providing the educational coursework at the Atlantic Union College location. AUC has recently lost is accreditation, and WAU and AUC are diligently exploring the possibility of WAU becoming the college provider for SDA higher education in New England under the title, Washington Adventist University at Atlantic Union College. Technically, this means WAU would establish a branch campus of Washington Adventist University at Atlantic Union College.

You can read more about that on the Columbia Union Visitor or on the Visitor website. WAU would then be THE Seventh-day Adventist institution of Higher Education from New England down the Eastern Seacost through the mid-Atlantic.

POCONO GRACE AND LAY PASTORS LEADING THE WAY IN PENNSYLVANIA

One of our interesting and unique churches in the Pennsylvania Conference is the Pocono Grace Church. It was recently organized as a church about a year ago, but its origins as a church plant go back several years to the Stroudsburg Church as Jose Elvir and a small group of Hispanic laypersons had a dream of being used of God in Church Planting. At first the Hispanic group met as a Spanish Speaking Sabbath School.

However, a mission group began to form and the dream of a church plant took root. This church plant, though, decided to be a fully bi-lingual group and church.

Today, Pocono Grace is fulfilling that mission in East Stroudsburg.

Jeanne and I spent Sabbath, March 5, with this fine church family. My Sabbath morning message covered the gospel commission, the beginning of the Christian Church, the gradual apostasy within the Christian Church, the reformation and the unique calling and mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the last day mission before Jesus comes. Working with a wonderful brother who kindly translated my English into Spanish, what would have been a 30 minute sermon ended up taking 60 minutes to share.

Following church, Jeanne and I shared a wonderful fellowship meal. I had the privilege of sitting next to a woman who came as a young person from Belize. She told me that her grandfather had been a lay person, who ended up being a lay pastor and raising up or serving some 13 churches as a lay pastor. I also found out that this sister, who is an X-ray technician in a New York City hospital, and who specializes in mammography, led her next door neighbor to the Adventist faith. This neighbor and her two teenage sons were sitting across the table from us at the meal.

Following the meal, I spent time with the Church Family dialoguing about the role of lay pastors in the Pennsylvania Conference and the prayer we have for church plants and lay pastors – including men, women and young adults – to spread across our Conference as we seek to answer Christ’s gospel commission.

Jose Elvir, his wife (pictured here with me and Jeanne) and the other dedicated men and women, like Jeff Baker (seen in the top photo, speaking up front) and his wife, are committed to letting Jesus lead and serve through them.

Will you join me in praying for revival across the whole state of Pennsylvania. Not just in our churches, but in the hearts and homes of each person in this state. That they will come to see that Jesus is the only answer to the place in their heart and life that cannot be filled by anything else.

Another thing to pray for, is more lay pastors, and more Seventh-day Adventist members who are willing to by faith, put their hand into God's hand, accept His calling and His promise, and start a new "lay-led" work here in Pennsylvania in order to see the work of God multiply and grow. How will we reach the lost for Jesus, without taking the risk of working in new ways and new methods and by each of us becoming the priesthood of all believers as mentioned in Revelation 1?

The work of God in this earth can never be finished until the men and women comprising our church membership rally to the work, and unite their efforts with those of ministers and church officers.--Gospel Workers, p. 352

It is a fatal mistake to suppose that the work of soulsaving depends alone upon the ministry. The humble, consecrated believer upon whom the Master of the vineyard places a burden for souls, is to be given encouragement by the men upon whom the Lord has laid larger responsibilities. Those who stand as leaders in the church of God are to realize that the Saviour's commission is given to all who believe in His name. God will send forth into His vineyard many who have not been dedicated to the ministry by the laying on of hands.--The Acts of the Apostles, p. 110

ON HIS KNEE ONCE AGAIN

This last Sabbath (February 12, 2011) was the PA Conference Youth Rally at Blue Mountain Academy. Following the speaker’s time for the church worship service and after nearly everyone had left the room, I observed a young child come to the front where the “Jesus Painter” had left 3 canvasses from the time he spent depicting certain aspects of the life and character of Christ, while relating to the young people lessons from Christ and the experience of Christ’s work in his own life.

As the young child approached the painting with no one around to distract him, or to make him feel self-conscious, he gently drew closer and closer to the face of Christ. Then he slowly reached out and began to tentatively stroke the “hair” and “face” of Christ on the painting. Almost tenderly this child gently stroked and patted the face of Christ.


It made me remember the following quote from Steps to Christ:
“The poorest and humblest were not afraid to approach Him. Even little children were attracted to Him. They loved to climb upon His knees and gaze into the pensive face, benignant with love.” Steps to Christ, p. 11

How Christ, the Savior of the world, the Creator of the universe, the shaper of this earth in 6 days, the hand-crafter of the human family, and the originator of the breath of life, must look forward to the day when the earthly redeemed family can again stand in the presence of the Almighty. And just as this little boy drew close with no fear or concern, so we will once again experience the embrace of our “Abba.”

CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH

This week the Board of Trustees at La Sierra University has met to receive a report from the Education Department of the North American Division, and then consider the University's position on the theory of evolution and the Biblical record of Divine Creation, as it is to be emphasized and presented in the classroom.

As can be expected, a wide spectrum of reactions to the La Sierra Board's discussion and prayerful decision has been floating across the blogs and websites. A signficant number of comments are concerned about "Academic Freedom" and the ability of professors to teach what they understand to be truth. Also a number of comments are concerned that the "evidence" does not support a "short history of the earth" or a less than 10,000 year history of the human race. Other comments are concerned about Church Leaders seeming to have undue influence on an institution that is not directly under their sphere of responsibility for day-to-day operations (these same commentators fail to acknowledge that as members of the Board of Trustees, Church Leaders do have a responsibility for the philosophy, direction, administration and ultimately the operation of the institution that carries the name of Seventh-day Adventist). While the report from this week's Board of Trustees has not been made public yet, I have given much thought to the stakes involved.

In reading again recently in the powerful book, Great Controversy, I have noticed a principle that for me, aides me greatly in considering the relationship between "Academic Freedom," scientific thought and theology. The following 2 paragraphs help the Christian balance the understanding between Science and the Divine Inspired Word of Scripture.

"To many, scientific research has become a curse. God has permitted a flood of light to be poured upon the world in discoveries in science and art; but even the greatest minds, if not guided by the word of God in their research, become bewildered in their attempts to investigate the relations of science and revelation.
Human knowledge of both material and spiritual things is partial and imperfect; therefore many are unable to harmonize their views of science with Scripture statements. Many accept mere theories and speculations as scientific facts, and they think that God's word is to be tested by the teachings of "science falsely so called." 1 Timothy 6:20. The Creator and His works are beyond their comprehension; and because they cannot explain these by natural laws, Bible history is regarded as unreliable. Those who doubt the reliability of the records of the Old and New Testaments too often go a step further and doubt the existence of God and attribute infinite power to nature. Having let go their anchor, they are left to beat about upon the rocks of infidelity." Great Controversy 522

Now is the time to, "...contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." Jude 3 NKJV