July-September
This year the Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement Church celebrates our 22nd General Conference session in Roanoke, Virginia, U.S.A. I am pretty excited that it is being hosted in the United States for the first time since 1986. I am planning to go to the meetings, and I hope those reading are able to make it as well.
It’s the 22nd General Conference session. Think on that for a second. That’s 88 years of existence of the SDARM as an organization. I had the opportunity to go to Sibiu four years ago, for the 21st General Conference session, and I remember one of the speakers say something along the lines of 84 years being too long of a time. He hoped that there would not be a session in 2015, because we had been able to accomplish the work we needed to do. Well here we are, it’s 2015.
I am the children’s Sabbath school teacher at my local church, and I asked the students if they understood what it meant to be an Adventist. Perhaps it might be a negative reflection of me as a teacher, but in general, they did not understand the word. I think those of us who are older, certainly do understand the word; however, are we living its meaning? I think as a church we are like the anecdote about the frog in a pot of water. A frog is placed in a pot of boiling water, it will struggle and try its hardest to jump out. However, put a frog in a pot of cold water and slowly bring it to a boil, the frog will fail to perceive the change in temperature and be slowly boiled alive. How does that apply to you and me? Well, we are the frog in this scenario and the pot is the world we live in. It’s heating up, literally and figuratively, and we aren’t reacting to the changes in temperature. So what can we do? Glad you asked. Here are 5 things we can work on and perhaps the 22nd GC session will be the last one we get to attend.
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).
Remember the frog? He’s just relaxing in the nice comfortable water. His primary focus is, How can I get better grades? How can I get that promotion? What’s that car I want? How can I make this water more comfortable for me? Is he wrong to want a better life? No. Absolutely not, but if that is his primary focus, then yeah, it’s an idol. Our first example is Jesus. The Lord did not live for Himself. He gave up all He had so that you and I would have an opportunity to have a life free of sin and sorrow. As Adventists, our primary goal is not how can I make this life a better place for me, it’s how can I prepare for a life with Jesus.
In Luke 10, a certain lawyer approaches Jesus and tests Him with a question: What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus throws the ball right back into the lawyer’s court: “What have you heard?” To this the lawyer responds (v. 27): “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” Jesus agrees with him and goes on to tell the parable of the Good Samaritan in response to the lawyer’s question of “Who is my neighbor?”
There is suffering all around us, whether it’s our next-door neighbor who just lost a job, or the homeless person on the avenue. Our focus is to accomplish the gospel commission, yes, but even Jesus attended to the physical needs of His hearers before imparting them with the gospel. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the “church people” saw what had happened to one of their own. Their reasons? “I’ll be late to church!” “I don’t want to be defiled by this person.” It took a despised foreigner to do the noble act of love that was required. Which brings me to . . .
Ah, love. In our heads, it is often something that is light and beautiful and makes me feel good. During weddings, 1 Corinthians 13 is often a staple/standard text. But if you carefully read it, it destroys our notions of what love is really like. Love is often treated a transactional interaction. You treat me well, I treat you well. However, the description of 1 Corinthians 13 is one of abnegation, of active service regardless of how someone else treats you. It is complete selflessness. It is divine and something that isn’t borne of humanity. It’s impossible for us to love our neighbors this way without being connected to the source of love. Oh, right, this type of love isn’t just for a marriage relationship; it’s a guide for how we should relate to each other and to God. Which means . . .
If you have ever explored the history of Enoch, it is an amazing account. Read Patriarch and Prophets, chapter 6. This man literally walked with God. His life was so tied up in the Lord’s that he was taken up to heaven (Hebrews 11:5). How was he able to have such a connection? He realized how beautiful is the love of God for His children.
“Of Enoch it is written that he lived sixty-five years, and begat a son. After that he walked with God three hundred years. During these earlier years Enoch had loved and feared God and had kept His commandments. . . . But after the birth of his first son, Enoch reached a higher experience; he was drawn into a closer relationship with God. He realized more fully his own obligations and responsibility as a son of God. And as he saw the child’s love for its father, its simple trust in his protection; as he felt the deep, yearning tenderness of his own heart for that firstborn son, he learned a precious lesson of the wonderful love of God to men in the gift of His Son, and the confidence which the children of God may repose in their heavenly Father. The infinite, unfathomable love of God through Christ became the subject of his meditations day and night; and with all the fervor of his soul he sought to reveal that love to the people among whom he dwelt.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 84.
A turning point for Enoch was the birth of His son. He reached a higher understanding of who God was and what His character was like. We should ask God for those experiences.
Also like Enoch, we are to walk with God. “Enoch . . . spent much time in solitude, giving himself to meditation and prayer. Thus he waited before the Lord, seeking a clearer knowledge of His will, that he might perform it. To him prayer was as the breath of the soul; he lived in the very atmosphere of heaven.”—Ibid., p. 85.
This is the hardest part. In a world that is increasingly secular, where the mention of God is usually for sport or ridicule, it’s often hard to find the courage to share with others the message that you believe in. However, the best sermons are not necessarily those that come from the pulpit. Our lives should be a reflection of our relationship with our Maker. As God transforms our lives to ones of service and love, our lives themselves will be a sermon, and we will recognize fear as a hindrance. In 2 Timothy 1, Paul writes to encourage Timothy and in verse 7 he says: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
Let’s make the next four years count. Let’s become aware of the boiling water and jump out before it’s too late. And lastly, let’s seek the kingdom and love those around us with the love of God.