https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPJDyFIU-IY
Join Dr. Lela Lewis, Pastor Kyle Allen, and Special Guest Dr. Zeno Charles-Marcel as they discuss the practical applications of self-restraint and sleep. Combined with everything we have been learning, discover how these are just two more keys in reopening the globe. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPJDyFIU-IY
GC ADCOM Refuses To Act On Norwegian Union’s Appeal Of Official Scolding
4 May 2020 | The General Conference has responded to an appeal of an official “warning” issued to the Norwegian Union Conference and other unions at Annual Council 2019. The General Conference Administrative Committee (ADCOM) response to the Norwegian appeal was characterized by a flat refusal to reconsider the scolding. The original warning was voted […] Source: https://atoday.org/gc-adcom-refuses-to-act-on-norwegian-unions-appeal-of-official-scolding/
Kansas City Reopening Rules Alarm Religious Liberty Advocates
4 May 2020 | A clause in Kansas City, Missouri’s, rules for a gradual reopening after COVID-19 has alarmed Adventists and other religious liberty advocates. In-person religious gatherings (including weddings and funerals) may resume, subject to the 10/10/10 rule (if held inside) or limited to 50 people outside, provided social distancing precautions are followed and […] Source: https://atoday.org/kansas-city-reopening-rules-alarm-religious-liberty-advocates/
$1.420 MILLION AWARDED TO ADVENTIST SCHOOLS
On March 6, 2020, Versacare Foundation awarded $1,420,000 in grant funding to 189
Adventist primary and secondary schools across the United States and Canada in
support of STEM education (science, technology, engineering, math).
This was
Versacare Foundation’s fifth successive year funding STEM grants and marked the
third consecutive year it funded every school that applied for a STEM
grant. The STEM grant program has provided funding in three categories:
- $5,000 for smaller schools of three classrooms
or less - $10,000 for larger schools of four or more
classrooms and 12-year schools - $10,000 for senior academies
The many
uses of STEM funds include the purchase of interactive classroom whiteboards,
tablets, or Chromebooks for student use, equipping or updating student computer
labs, installation of 3D printers and related software, initiating or funding
robotics programs, instruction in software coding, and the equipping of
chemistry, physics, and biology labs, and more.
Versacare
Foundation is the largest independent private foundation supporting the varied
ministries of the Seventh-day Adventist Church with grant funding. A
self-funded lay organization, it is composed of both lay Adventists and present
and former Adventist Church employees. It awarded its first grants in 1990,
totalling $26,000, to five different Adventist ministries. Since then, it has
awarded more than 1,430 grants
totalling over $28,250,000.
This year
13 Adventist schools in four conferences in Canada received Versacare funding,
totalling $105,000:
Alberta Conference
Mamawi Atosketan Native
School
$10,000
Parkview Adventist Academy
$10,000
Sylvan Meadows Adventist School
$5,000
Woodlands Adventist School
$5,000
British Columbia Conference
Deer Lake
Seventh-day Adventist School
$10,000
Fraser Valley Adventist Academy
$10,000
Manitoba-Saskatchewan Conference
Riverside Christian School
$10,000
Ontario Conference
Adventist
Christian Elementary School
$5,000
College Park Elementary
School
$10,000
Crawford
Adventist Academy
$10,000
Crawford
Adventist Academy East Campus
$5,000
Grandview
Adventist Academy
$10,000
Windsor
Adventist Elementary School
$5,000
The SDACC Office of Education is deeply appreciative of what
Versacare has done and continues to do in support of Adventist education across
the North American Division (NAD).
After funding nearly half of
all Adventist primary and secondary schools across the NAD with STEM grants,
Versacare Foundation has ended its STEM school grant program and, for 2021,
will focus on funding STEM training for teachers.
For more information about Versacare
Foundation’s grant program, please visit www.versacare.org.
Source: https://adventistmessenger.ca/news/church-social-closeness
Christ’s Love Cannot Be Measured
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38, 39.
Christ might, because of our guilt, have moved far from us. But instead of moving farther away from us, He came and dwelt among us, filled with all the fullness of the Godhead, to be one with us, that through His grace we might attain to perfection. By a death of shame and suffering He paid man’s ransom. What self-sacrificing love is this! From the highest excellency He came, His divinity clothed with humanity, descending step by step to the very depths of humiliation. No line can measure the depth of this love. Christ has shown us how much God can love and our Redeemer suffer in order to secure our complete restoration. He desires His children to reveal His character, to exert His influence, that other minds may be drawn into harmony with His mind.
Christ, our Saviour, in whom dwelt absolute perfection, became sin for the fallen race. He did not know sin by the experience of sinning, but He bore the terrible weight of the guilt of the whole world. He became our propitiation, that all who receive Him may become sons of God. The cross was erected to save man. Christ lifted on the cross was the means devised in heaven for awakening in the repenting soul a sense of the sinfulness of sin. By the cross Christ sought to draw all to Himself. He died as the only hope of saving those who, because of sin, were in the gall of bitterness. Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, a new principle of mental and spiritual power was to be brought to man, who, through association with divinity, was to become one with God.
To break down the barriers that Satan had erected between God and man, Christ made a full and complete sacrifice, revealing unexampled self-denial. He revealed to the world the amazing spectacle of God living in human flesh, and sacrificing Himself to save fallen man. What wonderful love! As I consider it, I weep to think that so many of those who claim to believe the truth are encrusted with selfishness….
I marvel that professing Christians do not grasp the divine resources; that they do not see the cross more clearly as the medium of forgiveness and pardon, the means of bringing the proud, selfish heart of man into direct contact with the Holy Spirit, that the riches of Christ may be poured into the mind, and the human agent be adorned with the graces of the Spirit, that Christ may be commended to those who know Him not.—Manuscript 91, June 26, 1902, “Christ’s Sacrifice for Us.”
The Upward Look p. 191
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Prayer Requests
—-Pray for my brother in law,Sammy,who is serious sick and adimitted at hosipital. Esther N
—-Please pray for my cousin’s little boy. He fell in the fire pit while she was cooking breakfast and is headed to the burn center. He’s two and it looks like it’s on his hands and torso. He’s had a rough life, premature, other health problems with his heart at birth, but he’s a little fighter. Pray for a quick recovery and peace for his family. Jennifer
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Dear Friends,
A few years ago, I was talking with a lady from work. She was lamenting that her sons had not been in contact with her for several years. This broke her heart as she loved her sons with all of the normal mother-love. As she looked back upon her life, she tried to think of a reason for their lack of love and care. I suggested that she call them and tell them how she felt. She assured me that she had in the past but it had done no good. After talking with this lady, I felt truly blest that my children call me so often and share with me all that is happening in their lives.
How often we neglect our Heavenly Father just as the sons of that woman neglected her. We get busy with our daily routine and forget to share our lives with Him. We put off Bible study and prayer. We might intend on these privileges that are to vital to our spiritual life, but always something takes our attention. How this breaks the heart of our Loving Creator.
When we think how wonderful it is, that our Dear Father in Heaven longs to be so near to us, we marvel at His tender care and great patience toward us, His wayward children. Words cannot express His great love fore us! Indeed, He emptied all Heaven in His Unspeakable Gift, the Gift of His Dear Son. “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift,” Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God our Father.” 2 Cor 9:15;Gal 1:4 Truly, He is “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” Ex 34:6,7
Think of it! He Who upholds “all things by the word of his power,” (Heb 1:3) is the One Who eagerly waits for even the most feeble and stammering prayer of one reaching out to Him with but a spark of faith. “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” “For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.” Isa 57:15; 41:13
Jesus speaks of His tender care for us, “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows….Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:7,27-32
The Great King of the Universe loves us so much! He Who made the worlds “so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” John 3:16 Jesus left all the glories of His Heavenly home to suffer all the hatred that the evil one could heap upon Him. He, Who came down to this dark and sinful world, “thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:6-11
And beside all this, He dwells within us, to comfort and strengthen us, to bring us into harmony with Him. He hears and answers each prayer. Just as a loving parent must often tell their child “no,” so does He. Sometimes we think that He does not answer, because we do not get just what we have asked for, but our Loving King weighs each prayer and gives us what is best for us. He is our Great Shepherd, our Guide, our constant Companion. We can safely trust in Him!
May we never neglect to communicate with our Loving Father in Heaven, coming to Him for guidance, for protection, for everything that we need, praising Him for His goodness and His wonderful blessings that He daily showers upon us. May we be diligent to serve Him with our whole heart, and soul, and being because of His great love for us.
Rose
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rosesdevotional/~3/GvGazHo-BnU/christs-love-cannot-be-measured.html