A causa de la investigación publicada por AToday, los administradores de la UMCH están tratando de imponer su liderazgo ante el cuestionamiento de los Ancianos locales. Diferentes líderes se pusieron en contacto con AToday para explicar lo que está ocurriendo en Chiapas. En la Asociación de Palenque se hizo una reunión de líderes el sábado […] Source: https://atoday.org/la-union-de-chiapas-intenta-ocultar-las-denuncias-de-malversacion-de-fondos/
Inside Story: South American Division ~ Part 12: Father is Baptized!
Part 12: Father is Baptized!
By Andrew McChesney
The day of Father’s baptism finally arrived, and he arrived with Mother and Junior at Manaus Central Seventh-day Adventist Church, a larger church where the baptism would be held, in Manaus, Brazil. About 400 people were seated in the main sanctuary. Pastor Sergio Alan A. Caxeta, president of the Adventist Church’s Central Amazon Conference, whose territory includes Manaus, asked Mother how she felt as she and Junior took a seat on the front row. “We’re fine,” she said, smiling happily.
The pastor acknowledged feeling uneasy until that very afternoon. Then he had prayed, “Lord, please help me. I’m not sure about my own strength. I want Your peace so I can have the certainty that Your power is here when I baptize Eduardo.” After the prayer, all doubt had vanished.
Ricardo Coelho, pastor of the family’s Alpha Community Church, led Father to the second floor, where seats were reserved for Alpha’s 300 members. Father greeted Dilma Araujos dos Santos and her son Clifferson, who first introduced the family to the Adventist Church, and the others. Then Pastor Ricardo asked Father to return downstairs to don a baptismal gown.
As Father descended the stairs, a man suddenly darted up and rushed toward him. Father turned to look at the man and, as their eyes met, the man’s pupils slid up into his head and his eyes went white. Then the man fell down and writhed on the stairs. “I’ve been ordered to kill him!” he shrieked.
Concealed in a pocket, the man was carrying a small dagger, the type that Father once had used to sacrifice animals at the temple. But before the man could pull out the dagger, Pastor Ricardo and several other men lifted him up and led him to a backroom, where they found the weapon.
A short time later, Father waded into the baptismal pool. Alpha church members sang a hymn from the second floor as he went under the water.
Afterward, Pastor Ricardo told the congregation about the attempted attack and invited a physician, Luiz, up to the front to speak. Luiz, who had examined the attacker in the backroom, was a frequent guest at the church but had never committed his life to Jesus. “I didn’t understand the reality of the great controversy between Christ and Satan until today,” he said, his voice shaking. “I saw it right here. Praise the Lord that nothing bad happened. It was God’s power.” He began to weep. “As a cardiologist, I felt for the attacker’s pulse,” he said. “I have never seen anything so abnormal. His pulse was too fast. No human could have such a high pulse rate and live.”
The experience changed Luiz’s life, and he decided to be baptized.
The knife attacker, it turned out, had struggled with satanic possession for some time. The evil spirits left when a pastor gave him Bible studies several months later. Through Father’s baptism, at least two souls were led to Jesus.
Your Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help open eight churches in the South American Division, including four in Brazil, where Father (Eduardo Ferreira dos Santos) and his family live.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org
Amen!
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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/inside-story-south-american-division-part-12-father-is-baptized/
Friday: Further Thought ~ Dying Like a Seed
Further Thought:
Read Ellen G. White, “Eli and His Sons,” Pages 575-580, and “The Presumption of Saul,” Pages 616-626, in Patriarchs and Prophets.
Submission to God’s will comes as we die to our own desires and ambitions.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
This opens the way for true service to others. We cannot live for God without becoming a sacrifice and living in continual openness to God’s voice. For us truly to submit our wills to our Father’s will, we must recognize the dangers of relying on ourselves and on substitutes for God’s Word and power. As submission to God’s will is at the heart of a Christlike life, God may allow crucibles to teach us dependence on Him.
“The neglect of Eli is brought plainly before every father and mother in the land. As the result of his unsanctified affection or his unwillingness to do a disagreeable duty, he reaped a harvest of iniquity in his perverse sons. Both the parent who permitted the wickedness and the children who practiced it were guilty before God, and He would accept no sacrifice or offering for their transgression.” — Ellen G. White, Child Guidance, p. 276.
Discussion Questions:
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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/friday-further-thought-dying-like-seed/
How to Cultivate an Intimate and Personal Relationship with Jesus #sermon #shorts
Do you have an intimate relationship with Jesus? This #short clip from the message, “How Can We Have a Close Encounter With Jesus?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmordFQjNkY&list=PL-k2Gb-DBYo9tb9fHW_AxGxJ1R8MpNnpa&index=23, by U.S. Senate Chaplain, Barry C. Black, explains why having a close relationship with Jesus should be our primary focus as Christians. We can strengthen our connection with Him by staying in constant communication with Him through prayer and studying His Word. Let us have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ by asking the Holy Spirit to be in charge of our lives and lead us closer to God daily. Watch the video to find out more about how we can have a personal encounter with Jesus. ————————————————————————————
The Seventh-day Adventist Church has been an established denomination since 1863. It is a global Christian family with over 21 million members who hold the Bible as the ultimate authority. We are believers who promise to help people understand the Bible to find freedom, healing, and hope in Jesus. Want to learn more about the Seventh-day Adventist Church? Visit our website at: https://www.adventist.org/ Click the notification bell so that you never miss a new video! Find us on social media by following the links below:
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Belief #26: Death and Resurrection (What Hope Do We Have?) – Pastor Ted Wilson
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K06ycSJ83M?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-GB&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=1280&h=720]
In this episode, Pastor Ted Wilson talks about death and the promise of the resurrection, the subject of the twenty-sixth fundamental belief of the Seventh-day Adventists.
One of the most painful and devastating losses we can ever experience is the loss of a loved one. While grief may lessen over time, the memory of that special person stays with us.
But we have an amazing hope of seeing our loved ones again. Jesus said in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” This promise assures us that death is not the end of everything. In Him, there is eternal life.
When does eternity begin?
1 Timothy 6:16 tells us that God “alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light.” In contrast, humans are mortal beings. Genesis 2:7 says, “God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being,” or in other translations, “living soul.” To be a living soul, one must have the breath of life and a body.
When God created Adam and Eve, He gave them free will, the power of choice. They could obey or disobey Him. But if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would “surely die” (Genesis 2:17).
Unfortunately, Satan contradicted God’s warning, tempting Eve, “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). But after they sinned, Adam and Eve discovered that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). They would “return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19).
The Seventh-day Adventist Fundamental Belief #26 states: “The wages of sin is death. But God, Who alone is immortal, will grant eternal life to His redeemed. Until that day, death is an unconscious state for all people. When Christ, Who is our life, appears, the resurrected righteous and the living righteous will be glorified and caught up to meet their Lord. The second resurrection, the resurrection of the unrighteous, will take place a thousand years later.”
Death is an unconscious state, a deep sleep from which a person awaits the resurrection. “For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing” (Ecclesiastes 9:5). “The dead do not praise the Lord, nor any who go down into silence” (Psalm 115:17).
Daniel also spoke of death as a sleep, saying, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2).
Jesus echoed this concept of death. Referring to Lazarus, He said to His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up” (John 11:11). At the same time, He was referring to His own resurrection that would happen soon.
Since death is a sleep, there is resurrection. This is possible through Christ’s death and resurrection. “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty” (1 Corinthians 15:13, 14).
“But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man,” that is, Jesus, “also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive” (verses 20-22).
In addition, Ellen White says in Heaven, page 35: “Amid the reeling of the earth, the flashing of lightning, and the roaring of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints. He looks upon the graves of the righteous, then raising His hands to heaven, He cries, ‘Awake, awake, awake, ye that sleep in the dust, and arise!’ Throughout the length and breadth of the earth, the dead shall hear that voice, and they that hear shall live.”
Because Jesus lives, we may live also. But as we’ve learned from Daniel 12:2 earlier, some will be raised to “shame and everlasting contempt.” This refers to the second resurrection, in which those who have rejected Christ as their Savior will be resurrected for their final judgment and destruction, which we will discuss in the next episode.
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).
What a great assurance that Jesus is coming and that He has the power over death!
Learn more about death and resurrection at www.adventist.org/death-and-resurrection.
Source: https://fulfilleddesire.net/belief-26-death-and-resurrection-what-hope-do-we-have-pastor-ted-wilson/
