Freedom for All
June 30, 2010
Source: ScripShot Photo devotionals
| "Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?" (Isaiah 58:6) NKJV Context |
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Statute of Liberty - by Ilya Klimanov © 2010 |
Center for Creative Ministry © 2010. All rights reserved. Use of this material is subject to usage guidelines. Scripture taken from the NEW KING JAMES VERSION ® Respond to this image. |
Original Post: http://creativeministry.org/article.php?id=1065
Love Letters
June 30, 2010
Source: Bible Says
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| Photo: Viv Van Der Holst |
One summer, while working at a Christian summer camp for children, I wrote letters several times a week to her. I enjoyed writing letters to my sweetheart, but it was even more exciting to receive letters from her. Nothing could make my day more special than to receive a love letter from the one I loved (except getting to see her).
Writing love letters is one way lover’s hearts are bound together. Each note may seem small, but over a period of time these personal expressions of love create stronger ties. Like threads around a person’s wrists, a few strands can be easily snapped, but dozens of strands cannot be broken without much effort. Many married couples have lost their first feelings of love for their spouse. Counselors tell us that if they were to repeat some of their early acts of affection those feelings would return.
We are Dear to Someone
God has sent us a love letter—the Bible. In the written word we find expressions of love and commitment. The Lord longs to be with us. God misses us very much and has feelings of affection for us (See Deuteronomy 23:5 and Zephaniah 3:17).This love is so special and life-transforming that it changes our lives for good. We are loved. We are valued. We are dear to Someone.
The Bible also compares Christians to a letter to be given to the world. The Apostle Paul writes: “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody” (2 Corinthians 3:2 NIV). Not only has God sent us a love letter in the Bible, but calls us to be love letters to the world. As we live for Christ, others will read in our lives God’s love for them. The Lord could have chosen angels or even emails to send messages to the world, but God chose you to communicate a precious message of love.
Some people have lost their first love for the Lord. Your life may be like threads that bind people’s hearts to God. When Jesus Christ lives in your heart, it will be like a wonderfully penned love letter to those around you. Paul continues, “You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:3). Your life can be a love letter from God to other people.
It’s fun to read old love letters. Perhaps it is time to write some new ones—today.
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By Curtis Rittenour. Copyright © 2010 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=3736
Adventist NewsLine: June 30
June 30, 2010
Source: Adventist News Network
Original Post: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ann-en/~3/qGPxSyW0NPE/newsline-june-30.html
June 30 Atlanta 2010 Today radio podcast
June 30, 2010
Source: Adventist News Network
Today's edition focuses on the prominent issue of creation and origins. We also discuss child protection, religious liberty and the involvement of young people in church leadership. The former secretary of the East-Central Africa Division talks about his new role as president, we review an Adventist film and take you inside the Prayer Room in the Georgia World Congress Center.Download: Atlanta 2010 Today June 30: Full 60-minute version
Download: Atlanta 2010 Today June 30: 10-minute version
Listen now: Full 60-minute version
Atlanta 2010 Today June 30: 60-minute
Listen now: 10-minute version
Atlanta 2010 Today June 30: 10-minute
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Original Post: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ann-en/~3/PLmM4FFObA4/june-30-atlanta-2010.html
Church Cooperation With WHO to Impact Community Health
June 30, 2010
Source: Adventist Review News
Areas of focus include physical growth, mental health, disease prevention.
Click here for the full article.
Original Post: http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=3585
‘Who’s Who’ at the Session
June 30, 2010
Source: Adventist News Network
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In addition to the thousands of Adventists attending the General Conference Session in Atlanta, several high-profile guests are present, representing various entities, political organizations, and faith groups.
On Friday, June 25, Kasim Reed, mayor of Atlanta, welcomed the Seventh-day Adventist Church to the city during the evening meeting. Reed, who was inaugurated mayor of Atlanta in January, thanked the Seventh-day Adventist Church for its work in the community.
"I applaud the Seventh-day Adventist Church and its dynamic membership for its commitment to educate their fellow men and women." Reed continued, "Yours is truly a stellar example of Christian compassion and a model of service that others within the religious and secular community would do well to follow."
Reed said he appreciated how many Adventists seemed to live what they believe. "Seventh-day Adventists demonstrate to all that it's simply not enough to believe the words of the Bible, but that one has to act on its timeless wisdom to make our society as good and as decent as we know that it could be."
The Adventist Church has been building a relationship with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) during the past several years, and James Hill, external relations director for the Washington, D.C.-based organization, visited Session. Hill, previously a participant in the Global Conference on Health and Lifestyle organized by the church's Health Ministries Department in July 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland, works to link the western hemisphere's largest health organization with other faith groups and health entities to battle such diseases as tuberculosis and cholera, and to stem the spreading AIDS epidemic.
Also attending Session are representatives from the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China (TSPM). The TSPM, officially combined with the China Christian Council, forms the umbrella organization under which all Protestants in the People's Republic of China are officially recognized. During his historic 2009 visit to China, General Conference president Jan Paulsen and a delegation from the world headquarters were hosted by representatives of the TSPM.
Many of Seventh-day Adventism's first generation came from Methodist and Wesleyan faiths, and the Adventist Church's organizational structure has many similarities with Methodist polity. George Freeman, secretary-general of the World Methodist Council, is another special guest attending Session. The World Methodist Council connects more than 70 million Methodists worldwide, and Freeman is in Atlanta on their behalf.
As this issue went to press, Neville Callam, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance since 2007, had been scheduled to bring greetings to the session delegates from the 47-million-member organization representing more than 200 Baptist faiths, not including the Southern Baptist Convention in the United States. Along with core biblical doctrines, such as the priesthood of all believers and the principle of sola scriptura, Baptists share with Adventists a long history of advocating for the separation of church and state.
John Graz, director of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty at the GC, says it's significant to have protocol guests attend the Session. "Most of these leaders already have had contact with us, but they don't know what we represent. It's really a great opportunity for them to see what it means to be an Adventist."
Graz also believes that developing relationships with other leaders will have many benefits. "These people are leaders that talk with heads of states and other religious leaders. They talk about what they see, they talk about the way we welcome them, and what impression they have of us. It means that every time you have somebody saying something about the Adventists, they may say something too."
Original Post: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ann-en/~3/d6-XBbM8-Xc/whos-who-at-the-sess.html
Reports feature Southern Asia-Pacific, Trans-Europe and West-Central Africa
June 30, 2010
Source: Adventist News Network
An audience in the Georgia Dome tonight heard reports from the church's Southern Asia-Pacific, Trans-European and West-Central African regions, where cultural, economic and religious diversity poses both challenges and opportunities for growth.
Delegates in Atlanta for the Seventh-day Adventist Church's 59th General Conference Session welcomed colleagues from both Vietnam and Timor-Leste this week, countries in Southern Asia-Pacific where outreach is difficult.
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In 2005, there were 35 Adventists in Timor-Leste; today, there are 500, the region's president, Alberto C. Gulfan, told the audience.
Gulfan also said a membership audit conducted in 2005 and 2006 ultimately led to growth and stronger faith among Adventists in the region, now home to 1.4 million members.
The Lisu, a 1.2-million-member ethnic group who live in remote regions of southwestern China, northern Thailand, Myanmar and eastern India, remained untouched by the Adventist message until recently. Now, through the work of Global Mission pioneers and friendship evangelism, Lisu attend church every Saturday.
In the Philippines, where text-messaging is ubiquitous, the church's text-messaging ministry is seeing new subscribers. Through a partnership with a national telecommunications provider, the church sends bible verses, daily prayer, bible trivia, church news and more directly to subscribers' personal cell phones.
Some 5,000 Adventist congregations in the Southern Asia-Pacific region participated in a world church Health Ministries initiative to make local churches community health centers. Members there offer classes on nutrition, smoking cessation and exercise.
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Trans-Europe is the church's smallest region by membership, but the largest in terms of "countries and challenges," its president, Bertil Wiklander, said.
With many of the region's countries among those yet unentered by the church, regional leadership welcomes even the smallest growth. "We praise God for every baptism we have, even if it is only one or two," Wiklander said.
The region has charted a 20 percent growth in baptisms over the past five years, and members have planted almost 300 new churches.
A cursory first glance at the region in its video report illustrated the area's affluence and self-reliance. Later, the region revealed the reality behind the façade -- loneliness, despair, crime, poverty, the "decay" of families and "fight" to keep young people in the church.
Dramatic music played as the region's top leadership streamed through a hallway toward a meeting room, where they presented specific regional programs that tackle perceived needs.
In Iceland, one seven-year-old invited his neighborhood friend to church because of the region's Kids in Discipleship program, which now covers 25 of its 40 countries.
At Stirling Station -- a ranch in Norway with a distinctly Australian flavor -- a couple runs a community-based church plant. Their project brings kids and their families together for hands-on activities ranging from woodworking to leatherworks, and has resulted in new members.
Twenty-one church plants in the Netherlands are attracting community members through relationships, a "long process" but ultimately a "really successful one," the country's church leader said in the report.
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Gilbert Wari, church president for West-Central Africa, the final region to report tonight, said the area had focused on personal evangelism during the past five years.
Women's Ministries leaders in Cote d'Ivoire, where the region is headquartered, led outreach on a local university campus, embracing the region's slogan, "Win one, each one." After students began accepting the Adventist message, the university gave them a place to worship on campus.
The region has also grown in financial self-sufficiency, from 30 to 70 percent over the past five years, a treasurer from West-Central Africa said in the report.
Stewardship conferences, meant to educate new members on the importance of returning tithe and offerings, were part of the region's concerted effort to work toward financial independence.
In Liberia and Sierra Leone, recent civil wars destroyed church infrastructure and left many surviving Adventists homeless and jobless. An effort to plant new churches and nurture members in small groups is helping shaken members rebuild their lives and faith, the report said.
Original Post: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ann-en/~3/em7IJsxyf-Y/liz-ssd-ted-wad.html
Nominating Committee Focuses on Associate Directors
June 30, 2010
Source: Adventist Review News
Brings back names that had been sent back to committee.Click here for the full article.
Original Post: http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=3588
Church Manual Revision Clarifies Women as Deacons
June 30, 2010
Source: Adventist Review News
Delegates continued to wrestle over 95 proposed changes, including an addition to make church-related activities safer for children.Click here for the full article.
Original Post: http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=3566
Nominating Committee focuses on associate directors
June 30, 2010
Source: Adventist News Network
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Robert Kyte, chair of the Nominating Committee, and Ismael Castillo, associate secretary, appeared before session delegates Wednesday afternoon, July 30, to present what Kyte called, two reports.
"Yesterday one of the reports we presented was referred back to the committee," said Kyte in his introductory statement. "The committee met today with the person who requested that the report be sent back to the committee. The item was considered carefully and prayerfully by the Nominating Committee and we are going to be resubmitting the report in total today."
Then Castillo recommended the following names as associate directors of their respective General Conference Departments:
Suastin Mfune, Children's Ministries; Mario Ceballos, Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries; Raquel Arrias, Women's Ministries; Gary Swanson, Sabbath School/Personal Ministries; Kathleen Kuntaraf, Peter Landless, Fred Hardinge, Health Ministries; Wilmar Hirle, Publishing Ministries; Barry Bussey and James Standish, Public Affairs and Religious Liberty.
The nominations passed with a clear majority.
Delegates then approved the following nominations:
Myron Iseminger, treasurer for the Upper Columbia Conference in North America, was elected an associate secretary of the General Conference.
Gilbert Cangy was elected director of the Youth Department. He previously served in Youth Ministries in the South Pacific Division.
Charles Simpson and Wilfredo Sumagaysay, both incumbents, were returned as associate directors of Trust Services.
Luis Schulz was returned as associate director of the General Conference Education Department. And others voted in as associate directors in that department were Michael M. Lekic, previously Education director of the Southern Asia Pacific Division; John Wesley Taylor V, previously serving at Southern Adventist University in North America; and Hudson Kibuuka, formerly Education director of East-Central Africa Division.
Mario Nino, Stewardship director of the Inter-American Division, was elected as associate director of the Stewardship Department.
Original Post: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ann-en/~3/gWPSeeg__Ds/nominating-committee.html
