Stop Requested
August 31, 2009
Source: City Lights
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| Photo: Lisa |
We roamed the island via transit bus, hovering at stops, nostrils and lungs continually assaulted by exhaust fumes and cigarette smoke that seemed to hang in the dank air like toxic stench. Finally on board, clinging to handrails for dear life, we were pummeled and jostled at every turn by this 20 ton mechanical bully that pulled us down the street.
Students, workers, retirees – all travel weary souls, were sleeping and nodding or iPodding, or gazing straight ahead with uniform, vacant stares.
Time to get off
“Stop requested.” The automated male voice repeatedly intoned. Obediently, the mechanical beast lurched to a stop, belched out a half dozen trippers and inhaled a half dozen more back in before lumbering on its way.
“Stop requested.” I mumbled to myself. Oh, how I wanted to get off! Suddenly, I remembered that Jesus too was jostled and pummeled by the crowds when He walked this earth. Pushing, shoving, reaching and grasping, a sea of humanity ebbing and flowing and surging toward Him on a daily basis, each one hoping for a touch of the Master’s healing hand.
How did He cope with the stress? Where did Jesus find His center? Where did He find the strength to come back day after day and do it all over again?
Ironically, Jesus too, longed to escape and escape He did. The Bible reveals that He often took to the hills to talk with God. At other times He sailed off by Himself in a boat to a remote area to be alone.
But how can one talk to God in the city when the only hills in sight are embossed green upon the atlas on your coffee table? How can one paddle off to a remote area to be alone when the only boat within miles is rubber and launches from your bathtub?
There are places in the city to be alone with God but often we have to carve them out for ourselves. Try some of these suggestions:
- Get up early one morning while it’s still dark and the city hibernates.
- Seclude yourself in a bedroom with the box fan on high.
- Hang out in the living room, CD player splashing nature sounds (waterfalls or ocean waves).
- Drive the freeways; (eyes open!) play soft music in the background.
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By Kathy A. Lewis. Copyright © 2009 by GraceNotes. All rights reserved. Use of this material is subject to usage guidelines.
Original Post: http://e-gracenotes.org/article.php?id=181
Adventist evangelist and civil rights advocate E.E. Cleveland dies
August 31, 2009
Source: Adventist News Network
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Cleveland served the Adventist Church for more than 60 years as a pastor, evangelist, church leader, teacher, civil rights leader, and mentor to thousands of preachers.
"His genius was that he modeled and taught mass evangelism in large cities on nearly every continent," said James Cress, secretary for the Ministerial Association.
Cress recalled memories shared by former Ministerial Association Secretary Bob Spangler. Spangler believed Cleveland "probably did more than anyone to help us understand racial diversity and cooperative ventures."
"He taught us as a church to help break the racial barrier of exclusion," Cress said.
During his lifetime Cleveland published 15 books, including his autobiography "Let the Church Roll On." In it, Cleveland recounts working for racial equality within world church leadership.
When elected associate secretary for the Ministerial Association in 1954, Cleveland became the first black man to integrate a department of the Adventist world church headquarters. He remained in the position for 23 years.
Cleveland officially became a pastor at age 21 when he went to work for the Carolina Conference. His ministerial work, however, began many years before when he preached his first sermon at age 9. By age 13 he was serving as Sabbath school superintendent for his church in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Before his election to world church leadership, Cleveland worked as an evangelist in the South Atlantic and Southern Union Conferences. In 1977, Cleveland joined the faculty of Oakwood University -- then Oakwood College -- where he served as director for the department of church missions and as an instructor in the department of religion.
Cleveland received honorary doctorate degrees from Daniel Payne College in Birmingham, Alabama and from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan.
Cleveland's wife Celia Marie Abney Cleveland died May 29, 2003.
A service will be held Wednesday, September 9 at 11 a.m. at Oakwood University Church.
Original Post: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ann-en/~3/dENG61TDa7E/evangelist-and-civil.html
Sleepless Nights Spent Worrying — August 31, 2009
August 31, 2009
Source: It Is Written's A Better Way to Live video podcast.
Summary: Do you have a hard time shutting your brain off when it's time to go to sleep? Do you become overwhelmed by worry? What advice does the Bible give regarding worry, and what should we do with Jesus' counsel in this verse?
Verse: "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
—Matthew 6:33-34
Original Post: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/iiw/betterway/~3/-aBBwaVp2ZE/31
Sinister Silence
August 30, 2009
Source: Bible Says
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| Photo:Roy Thomas |
Hiding behind its mask, silence lies. This kind of silence isn’t honouring or noble or safe. It is a nameless, faceless, cruel, and cowardly enslavement that quietly and maliciously sneaks up from behind clasping its hand tightly over one’s mouth while painfully stabbing one’s heart. Not satisfied with the effect, it grabs an arm and twists it agonizingly behind a back, all the while, never, ever, showing its true face.
Silence works gleefully, knowing that the hush it brings is its birthright; leaving open before it the right to namelessly and facelessly prey on the next generation… and the next… and the next…. Silent anguish. Silent pain. Silent isolation. Silent accusation. Silent identity theft. Crushing…silent…hurting. Silence. It comes dressed in many coats of deceit, casting the blame elsewhere, living the high life while leaving its victims to foot the emotional bill.
Confess
There is a reason we are told to “confess our sins one to another….” Confess means to tell, to share, to identify. “Sins” are those things that hold us back from God. Things that hold us back from what God intended us to be, to enjoy, to experience.. To “confess our sins one to another” then is “to identify the things that hold us”. And what happens when we do this? We…. are…. set…. FREE. Openly identifying and acknowledging the things that hold us is dangerous business but not for ourselves as Satan would have us believe. The danger is to Satan for speaking blows his cover and he loses his hold on his victim.
"If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed". (John 8:38).
Yes, gather up the courage, find a trustworthy person, tell them the things that hold you, together bring these to our Savior and be free indeed.
"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" (James 5:16).
Yes, put on your armor, go to battle for another caught in the web of silence. Open your heart, open your arms, and listen to the things that hold them. Together bring these to our Savior, and watch Freedom unfold.
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By Rene Ammundsen. Copyright © 2009 by GraceNotes. All rights reserved. Use of this material is subject to usage guidelines. Scripture taken from the NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®.
Original Post: http://e-gracenotes.org/article.php?id=3297
The Things of This World — August 28, 2009
August 28, 2009
Source: It Is Written's A Better Way to Live video podcast.
Summary: All through the Bible, the city of Babylon is used as a symbol of spiritual confusion—human pride and rebellion against heaven. In the 21st century, sometimes it seems as if just about anything goes. God warns us again and again not to get attached to the things of this world, because they're not going to last.
Verse: "While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them."
—Daniel 5:2
Original Post: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/iiw/betterway/~3/u4yn2V0WQcI/28
First Adventist college in North Brazil opens
August 27, 2009
Source: Adventist News Network
With the official launch last week of the first Seventh-day Adventist college in North Brazil, church leaders hope the region's educational infrastructure will soon match explosive local membership growth in recent years.
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The Adventist Amazon College's 300-acre campus in the northern coastal region of Brazil is still under construction, but school administrators on site for opening ceremonies August 16 said classes are slated to begin next semester.
Church officials said the college will offer students in northern Brazil the opportunity to study at a local Adventist school and hope graduates will stay in the region where membership continues to outpace church resources and leadership. In some places, pastors oversee dozens of churches.
The college will open its doors to an estimated 55 theology students in February 2010, later expanding to offer additional areas of study, including education and business administration, church leaders said.
"There's a huge need for a college in North Brazil because of the growth of the church in that region," says Luis A. Schulz, assistant director for Education at world church headquarters. "What this school can accomplish for the mission of the church -- in training local young people in ministry and education -- is incredible."
The church region spanning northern Brazil accounts for nearly half of the country's landmass and some 350,000 Adventists.
Currently, students seeking an Adventist higher education in North Brazil travel to São Paulo, more than 2,000 miles away. Church officials say many students instead enroll in local public schools, where training in theology isn't an option.
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"Young people in North Brazil will benefit from the opportunity of professional, local training in ministry that this new college will provide," Marlinton Lopes, Adventist Church president for northern Brazil, told South American church communication officials after the ceremony.
Once the $16.5-million campus is completed, school administration anticipates an enrollment of more than 1,500 students. The main entrance, cafeteria, classroom building, chapel and a residence hall are already built, Schulz says, but construction continues on a library, church, an additional dormitory and houses for faculty and staff.
Original Post: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ann-en/~3/NfcYS6P40w0/first-adventist-coll.html
‘Video missionaries’ to film reality show on medical workers
August 27, 2009
Source: Adventist News Network
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The video project features the lives of two medical missionary families, plus the experiences of the videographers themselves.
The new reality series is sponsored by the Hope Channel, the Seventh-day Adventist Church's television network, and will run for 13 episodes.
"I'd like to bring to the screen the things God is doing in Lesotho, and put a face on the reality of medical missionary work through the families we're filming," said Derek Taylor, a junior film production major at Southern and current video student missionary.
The video student missionary program is a collaborative effort of Hope Channel and Southern Adventist University, located in Collegedale, Tennessee, United States. During their assignment, students will shadow medical personnel working at Maluti Adventist Hospital in Lesotho.
Taylor and two fellow students, Carolyn Taylor and Xavier Hazen, left for Lesotho in July. Carolyn Taylor is a biology major whose tasks, she said, include creating storylines for the episodes and appearing on camera. Hazen, a graphic design major, said he plans to help with production as well as design.
The three-person crew plans to wrap up the series in summer 2010.
Original Post: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ann-en/~3/kg3RizrL_1M/video-missionaries-t.html
Two Million children Caught in Rape-for-Profit
August 27, 2009
Source: ADRA Canada
I kiss my daughter good-night and turn off the lights. My little princess is safe. Miles away, another mother’s daughter lives through a night I can’t even talk about with my daughter. In an epidemic of immense proportions, younger and younger girls are being enslaved for the purpose of sexual exploitation.Original Post: http://www.adra.ca/wp/news/2009/08/two-million-children-caught-in-rape-for-profit/
Two Million Children Caught in Rape-for-Profit
August 27, 2009
Source: News Releases
I kiss my daughter good-night and turn off the lights. My little princess is safe. Miles away, another mother’s daughter lives through a night I can’t even talk about with my daughter. In an epidemic of immense proportions, younger and younger girls are being enslaved for the purpose of sexual exploitation.Original Post: http://www.adra.ca/Page.aspx?pid=309
Sound Principles Designed By Our Creator — August 27, 2009
August 27, 2009
Source: It Is Written's A Better Way to Live video podcast.
Summary: The principles found in the Bible for living a successful life aren't arbitrary ones God made up to make our lives difficult. They're sound principles designed by our Creator to give us the highest possible quality of life amidst a planet in rebellion.
Verse: "But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out."
—Numbers 32:23
Original Post: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/iiw/betterway/~3/mU2aTy2Y8tE/27
