Closer To Heaven
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by Herbert Douglass | 6 April 2023 | This essay was originally published on 29 December 2012 . I know, this question may appear to be a joke! But it has caused me to think for more than a mere few minutes. Most people reading these words would call themselves “Christian.” That is, Jesus Christ […] Source: https://atoday.org/would-your-church-call-jesus-to-be-its-pastor/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=would-your-church-call-jesus-to-be-its-pastor
by S.M. Chen | 6 April 2023 | I lived in an Islamic country for two years in the late 1960s. I have a small prayer carpet I got there, in the front hallway of my house. It contains deliberate flaws in its geometric pattern. There is a Muslim saying: “Only Allah is perfect.” The carpet, […] Source: https://atoday.org/gods-imperfections-reveal-ours/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gods-imperfections-reveal-ours
The Philippines was mired in conflict with rebels on Mindoro Island for 52 years. Land and money were offered to the rebels in exchange for peace, but nothing seemed to work. A seemingly endless cycle of ambushes and counterattacks left 40,000 people dead.
Image © Pacific Press
In 2017, Adventist World Radio (AWR) began broadcasting in Mindoro as part of an Seventh-day Adventist world church initiative known as TMI evangelism. TMI stands for Total Member Involvement, a program that encourages every church member to bring someone to Jesus. AWR leased time on local radio stations, and local church members got involved by giving Bible studies and inviting neighbors to evangelistic meetings. About 1,400 people were baptized at the meetings, and the broadcasts continued.
In 2019, rebels holed up in the lush green mountains of Mindoro began to listen to AWR. As COVID-19 swept the world in 2020, a number of them decided to surrender to Jesus.
Rebel leader Ka Martin could not understand what was happening, and he started to listen to AWR.
“He was hiding in the jungle, watching and trying to figure out why his fighters were leaving him,“ said AWR president Duane McKey. ”So he started listening to the radio.”
Martin was responsible for the deaths of dozens of people, including 21 soldiers whom he ambushed while they slept and shot them dead with one of their own machine guns. But as he listened to AWR, he also decided to give his heart to Jesus.
A bloodstained chapter of Philippine history drew to a close when about 700 former rebels, including Martin and his wife, laid down their weapons and were baptized at AWR-led evangelistic meetings. In all, over 60,000 people were baptized during the “Earth’s Final Countdown” meetings across the Philippines about a year ago.
“What bullets couldn’t do, God has done,” McKey said.
The Philippine government has granted amnesty to the former rebels. AWR is working with the government and a nongovernmental organization, ASI-member Farm Stew, to help the former rebels earn a livelihood through farming.
“We won’t stop the AWR broadcasts,“ said McKey, who also serves at assistant to the General Conference president in charge of Total Member Involvement. ”The local churches are now running the broadcasts, and we provide the sermons. The laypeople make this happen. This is a perfect example of Total Member Involvement.”
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org
(1)The post Inside Story: 700 Rebels Baptized appeared first on Sabbath School Net.
Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/inside-story-700-rebels-baptized/
“It is a law both of the intellectual and the spiritual nature that by beholding we become changed. The mind gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is allowed to dwell. It becomes assimilated to that which it is accustomed to love and reverence.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
Man will never rise higher than his standard of purity or goodness or truth. If self is his loftiest ideal, he will never attain to anything more exalted. Rather, he will constantly sink lower and lower. The grace of God alone has power to exalt man. Left to himself, his course must inevitably be downward.” — Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 555.
Subtly, imperceptibly, almost unnoticed at first, our characters and our personalities change based on the seeds that we are sowing in our minds. Sow good seeds, and you will produce good fruit. Sow the evil seeds of this world, and you will produce the fruit of this world in your character. If we sow indifference to God and spiritual values and priorities, we reap the fruit of indifference — apathy, spiritual complacency, and frustration in our spiritual lives. This is why those who think, Well, I know that one day final persecution will come, the ”mark of the beast” and so forth, but when it does, then I will get it together, are choosing a very dangerous path. God calls us now, at this moment, to surrender our lives to Him. The longer one delays responding to the Holy Spirit, the harder and harder one’s soul becomes to the promptings of God and more susceptible to fall for, and believe in, the lies of the evil one.
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(0)The post Friday: Further Thought ~ A Moment of Destiny appeared first on Sabbath School Net.
Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/friday-further-thougha-moment-of-destiny/
And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel. Exodus 14:8.
When light from God, strong and convincing, came to make known the great I AM, Pharaoh was compelled to yield. But as soon as the pressure was removed, his unbelief returned and counteracted the great light God had given. When he refused the evidence of the first miracle, he sowed the seed of infidelity, which, left to its natural course, produced a harvest after its own kind. Afterward the king would not be convinced by any working of God’s power. The monarch hardened his heart, and went on from one step to another of unbelief, until throughout the vast realm of Egypt the firstborn, the pride of every household, had been laid low. After this he hurried with his army after Israel. He sought to bring back a people delivered by the arm of Omnipotence. But he was fighting against a Power greater than any human power, and with his host he perished in the waters of the Red Sea.
The despisers of God’s law are practicing the same sin that Pharaoh practiced. They are hardening their hearts. The voice of God is rejected for human theories, for satanic suggestions and delusions. The Holy Spirit is resisted and set aside. The iniquities of the fathers are visited upon the children….
The Spirit of God keeps evil under the control of conscience. When people exalt themselves above the influence of the Spirit, they reap a harvest of iniquity…. Warnings have less and less power over them. They gradually lose their fear of God. They sow to the flesh; they will reap corruption. The harvest of the seed that they themselves have sown is ripening…. Their heart of flesh becomes a heart of stone. Resistance to truth confirms them in iniquity…. All should be intelligent in regard to the agency by which the soul is destroyed. It is not because of any decree that God has sent out against men or women. He does not make them spiritually blind. God gives sufficient light and evidence to enable them to distinguish truth from error. But He does not force them to receive truth. He leaves them free to choose the good or to choose the evil. If people resist evidence that is sufficient to guide their judgment in the right direction and choose evil once, they will do this more readily the second time. The third time they will still more eagerly withdraw from God and choose to stand on the side of Satan. And in this course they will continue until they are confirmed in evil and believe the lie they have cherished as truth.—Manuscript 126, 1901 (Sermons and Talks, 2:183, 184).
Christ Triumphant p. 103
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Prayer Requests
—–Please pray for the Family Camp Meetings that are going on through this weekend. Rose
—–Please pray for God’s leading in E’s and her children’s lives. R
—–Please pray for Meridith who is a young mother of four and having kidney surgery today. Eileen
—–urgent prayer request for a very dear friend of mine whose wife passed away a year ago this month. he is going in for heart surgery in the morning please pray God’s will be done. his name is Bud. thank you Mary
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Dear Friends,
Some years ago, Ron and I decided that an exercise bicycle would be the type of exercise that we would actually do as we could exercise while watching a favorite TV program. We felt that we had made the right decision when the clerk put a sale sign on the bike just as we were passing it. It was half price. We bought it and brought it home.
Of course, it had to be assembled. Thankfully, it came with good step-by-step directions. (Ron has had to put together items in the past that did not. What a frustrating experience that was for him.) Ron and I worked on it for quite awhile, but eventually it was ready for use.
Just as that exercise bike came with good directions for its assembly, so our Great Creator has given us the best of directions to lead us in the way that we should go. How important, then, it is for us not only to read but to follow those directions. If we do, we will find improvement in our spiritual walk.
James urges us, ” be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” James 1:22-25 How vital it is for us to read, meditate upon, and memorize God’s Holy Word. The Psalmist David found Scripture memory the secret of his walk with God. “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.” Psa 119:9-12
As we meditate upon God’s Word, the Holy Spirit reveals so many gems of truth in each text; that it becomes an exciting experience. Jeremiah says, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.” Jer 15:16 David adds, “I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.” “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.” Psa 119:15,16; 19:7-11 As we hide God’s Word in our hearts, we become changed into His image. Paul tells us, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Cor 3:18
How many times the Author of the Bible will bring the Scriptures we have memorized to our mind when we need them. Indeed, Jesus used this principle when tempted in the wilderness. He answered each temptation by quoting Scripture. (See Matt 4:1-11)
May we each day, hide God’s Word in our heart, that we may draw ever nearer to Him. May we be diligent to search the Scriptures for they testify of our Dear Saviour and His great love for us. (John 5:39) May we daily pray as did David, ” Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.” Psa 19:14
Rose
Source: https://rosesdevotional.org/results-of-hardening-the-heart-against-god.html
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