? why

  

If I live to be a hundred there are some things I will never understand. Why do some people live through illnesses and some die? Why do some people have debilitating diseases and others perfect health? Why do some have plenty of money and others struggle to survive? Why do some get caught and others go free? Why?

Don't we all wonder about these questions? I do from time to time, and my answer is always the same, "I don't know."  I don't know much, and even less the older I get. My list of questions I want to ask when I get to heaven is long. 

In this life there are a lot of mysteries. We will not humanly understand many things. We are not even supposed to. Underlying all the unknowns is the one great thing we do know: God is still on his throne. He is still sovereign, still in charge. He knows what is going on. He doesn't just wake up one morning, look down, and say, "Oh my goodness! Look at that!!"  

There may be times we can't trust in the system, in people, or in circumstances, and we are asking why. But we can trust in the Lord God. And the promise is that one day, every tear shall be wiped away. Every sickness, every injustice, every heartache.

Jesus said we will surely have troubles here on earth, but to be undaunted and confident because He has overcome the world's power to harm us permanently.

Bottom-line, the answer to 'Why' is.... hang onto the promise, and hold onto the the Lord.

....bless

A young man came up to me at the end of my Sunday School class and asked me some questions.  "I can understand how 'God blesses me', but how can I 'Bless God'?"  What does it mean when we sing, 'Bless the Lord, O My Soul?'"

I asked him, "Do you have any children?"

"Yes," he replied, "I have a boy who is six and a girl who is five."

I asked, "At Christmas time, do they ever give you a present?"

"Sure," he replied.

"Where do they get the money," I asked.

"Well, I give it to them," he chuckled.

"That's exactly it," I said, "You pay for the Christmas presents your children give you.  You're so glad when they're talking about it with their mother.  They're whispering secrets. They're excited that they are going to surprise daddy.  Then, on Christmas morning, they come and say, 'Daddy, here is a blessing for you.'  It ultimately came from you, but it was a blessing because it came back with their love."

When we sing, "Bless the Lord, O My Soul", we are praising Him with the blessings He puts in our lives. 

......strength

It takes strength to be firm.
It takes courage to be gentle.

It takes strength to stand guard.
It takes courage to let down your guard.

It takes strength to conquer
It takes courage to surrender.

It takes strength to be certain.
It takes courage to have doubt.

It takes strength to fit in.
It takes courage to stand out.

It takes strength to feel a friend's pain.
It takes courage to feel your own pain.

It takes strength to hide feelings.
It takes courage to show them.

It takes strength to endure abuse.
It takes courage to stop it.

It takes strength to stand alone.
It takes courage to lean on another.

It takes strength to love.
It takes courage to be loved.

It takes strength to survive.
It takes courage to live.

                            --author unknown

"....as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.  Be strong and of good courage...." (Joshua 1:5b-6a).

     Heavenly Father, I know that many of my readers are going through difficult times.  Some are suffering because of family relationships, others because of addictions, others because of financial trouble, still others because of disease and physical pain.  Countless others struggle with the normal stresses that go with living in this world.  I pray that you would help each of them to sense your presence so that they will draw closer to you.  May they find their strength and their courage in you.  In Jesus' name, amen.

strength

As I worked my way through some devotional readings, I came across this passage: "The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." (Zephaniah 3:17)

I thought of my life. I thought of what the passage says about God and how He feels about me. He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in me. He will quiet me with his love. He will rejoice over me. I confess that although I do not know if I fully understand what it means to be quieted by His love, I do know that there is something inside me that says, "I need that, Lord!" As I pondered more, I prayed, "Lord, please quiet me with Your love."

"Lord, please quiet me with Your love."

"Lord, please quiet me with Your love."

"Lord, I get loud sometimes. Not so much verbally loud, but my spirit gets loud. My heart gets loud. My mind gets loud. The world around me gets loud and the loudness overwhelms me to the point that everything within me and around me seems to be loud. So, Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

In these times of unrest and confusion in our nation and world, I need to be quieted by your love, dear Lord. Decisions are being made that may well change the way we live and function as a people. Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

As the years pass more rapidly than my mind can comprehend, I need to be quieted with Your love.

I cannot keep up. I try, but I seem to fall farther and farther behind. Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

In times when I fear for my very life and for the lives of my family and friends, I need to be quieted by Your love.

In times when my spirit in under attack by the Enemy to such an extent that I begin to wonder if You are still there, I need to be quieted by Your love. Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

In times of discouragement when I have failed to live like You have asked me to live, I need to be quieted by Your love.  In times of disappointment over dreams that have faded and when other people have failed to live up to my expectations, I need to be quieted by Your love.  Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

In times of loss and my heart has been broken, I need to be quieted by your love. In times of sadness when a joyful spirit seems too much to consider, I need to be quieted by Your love. Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

In times of suffering and pain as the result of another's actions or my own, I need to be quieted by Your love. In times when others are suffering because of my actions and I am helpless to undo what I have done, I need to be quieted by Your love. And they need to be quieted by Your love. Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

In times of distress and anxiety over all that I must do, or feel that I must do, I need to be quieted by Your love. In times when life is so loud that I cannot hear my own thoughts, I need to be quieted by Your love. Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

Unless You quiet me with Your love, dear Lord, my life will surely be filled with noises that may drown Your voice from my ears. Lord, I need to be quieted by Your love.

When I remind myself that You are with me, when I contemplate Your power, when I consider that You take great delight in me and when I think of You rejoicing over me with singing because of Your love for me, I am quieted. My heart is quieted. My spirit rests. "Lord, You have quieted me with Your love."

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)

-tom

amazement

We are called to grow and mature, but never to "grow" such that we are led away from the simple and unchanging truth: God loves us so much that He provided a way to restore a right relationship with Him through faith in His Son.  Jesus died so we could live!  Does this awesome act of love still amaze us, or have we "matured" to more "important" matters?

"And He said: 'I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'" (Matthew 18:3)

When my daughter was four years old, I read her the story of young Samuel.  While discussing this story, my daughter showed me the excited faith God wants us to maintain.

As a young boy, Samuel was ministering with an old priest named Eli.  One night God called to Samuel, but Samuel thought it was Eli's voice.  Eli said he didn't call and told Samuel to go back to bed.  After God called a few more times, Samuel realized Who was calling and answered: "Speak, for Your servant is listening" (1 Samuel 3:10).  God then gave Samuel a message - but the message was all about Eli. 

My daughter asked, "Why did God speak to Samuel if the message was really to Eli?"  We talked about how we must be ready and willing to hear God.  I said Eli may have had some problems or distractions in his life which kept him from hearing God, so God spoke His message through a child.  I said little kids (like her) can often hear God better than old people (like me).

"But, I don't hear God talk to me," she said, with a little disappointment in her voice.  I explained how God doesn't usually speak so we can hear Him with our ears; rather, His Spirit speaks to our heart and we hear Him as we listen to our heart.  Her little eyes widened, "Like today when I was going to sit on one of the baby toys - Jesus told my heart I was too big and shouldn't do it so I listened to what He said."

I encouraged her that this is exactly how God speaks to us, we just need to learn how to listen and then obey.  My daughter thought for a moment and then slowly shook her head in amazement: "Wow! That's sooooo  cool!!"

"Heavenly Father, I pray that Your Word never becomes just a wonderful collection of stories.  You created us, loved us, and will one day call us Home to be with You for all eternity - and Father, that's sooooo cool!!  Help us to come into Your presence with a thankful and loving heart.  Strengthen our faith every day and allow us to continually look on You and Your wonders with a childlike amazement."

-steve troxel

intimidation

I was in 8th grade. We were in our physical education class, but the teacher wasn't around at the time. We were playing volleyball. A boy who was older, bigger, and meaner than I was kept trying to start a fight with me. I really didn't know why he wanted to fight. I was pretty confused. The next day he tried to start a fight again. I stood up to him and said, "I'm not afraid of you, but I'm not going to fight you, so leave me alone." So he did. He left me alone. That was one of my first big experiences with the ugly art of intimidation.

Think of how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego felt when King Nebuchadnezzar tried to intimidate them. They would not bow down to his idol. No matter what the King said or did, they would not be intimidated.  They stood up to the king in the face of almost certain death. They responded to his threats by saying:

"Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up." (Daniel 3:17-18)

The prophets of the Old Testament told the truth whether people liked it or not. The Lord told Jeremiah at the beginning of his prophetic ministry to be courageous and stand up to those who would try to intimidate him:

"Do not say, 'I am a youth, For you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you," says the LORD. (Jeremiah 1:7-8)

If we aren't careful, Christians can be intimidated today. The news sometimes presents Christians as hateful people because they are standing firm in their convictions. When Christians aren't "politically correct" or are not "tolerant" of other's immoral choices, they are made out to be narrow-minded and mean-spirited. Sometimes when Christians simply tell people the truth, it makes people mad.

If enough negative things are said about us and to us, we may begin to cave in to this form "intimidation." We will then begin to back off. We will hesitate to voice our convictions even on the most important of issues: that Jesus is the only way to a personal relationship with God.

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6) Despite the intimidation tactics of his enemies, the apostle Peter boldly declared: "Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the "stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.' Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:10-12)

Don't be intimidated. We must voice our convictions and keep doing what's right, but we want to keep telling this truth in love while proclaiming that Jesus is Lord and living godly and considerate lives before all people.

-mike barres 

! kidding

Reaching the end of a job interview, the Human Resources person asked the young MBA fresh out of MIT, "And what starting salary were you looking for?"

The candidate responded, "In the neighborhood of $125,000 a year, depending on the benefits package."

The HR person said, "Well, what would you say to a package of 5-weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50% salary, and a company car leased every two years - say a red Corvette?"

The graduate sat up mouth agape and said, "Wow! Are you kidding?"

And the HR person responded, "Certainly.....but you started it!"

That's the trouble with a lot of young people today (I never thought I would be old enough to say that!) -- they want to start at the top and work their way up from there.

We as Christians are sometimes the same way, though.  We want what's at "the top" without going through what lies below.  For example, we want patience (and we want it right now!), but we don't want the trials that develop patience.  We'd rather start at the top.  James said,

"My brothers and sisters, when you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience." (James 1:2-3, NCV)

Have you prayed for patience lately?  You need to expect that God will give it to you immediately.  And, on top of that, you will never have any problems in life at all.  None!  Everything will always go smoothly.  You'll suffer no injustices, experience no heartaches, and never know what it means to fail.  Am I kidding?  Certainly........but you started it!

May the troubles you experience today lead you toward patience and maturity in the days to come (no kidding!).
-alan smith

tale

"Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.  Live in harmony with one another...If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone... If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.  In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."  (Romans 12:15-16; 18-20)

For many years an elderly lady in our neighborhood was noted for her beautiful tulip garden, Just passing by the colorful display made the heart want to sing; her garden represented earth's beauty at its best.

Next door to her was the unkempt home of an old bachelor. His fence was battered and broken, weeds shot up everywhere, and the paint was peeling.

Such extremes of appearance, it seems, could not coexist for long. Neighbors wondered why the elderly lady didn't complain or make a phone call to city officials. Yet no confrontation ever occurred. The beautiful tulip garden and the messy yard remained the same year after year.

But this spring an odd thing happened. As I drove down the street, I was surprised to see a few brilliantly colored rows of tulips in front of the old man's house. The rest of the yard still looked like a disaster, but

those new, gorgeous tulips stood out. Curious, I stopped my car and walked up to the lady's home. She was outside weeding her flowers.

"Hello!" I greeted her. "I've always admired your beautiful tulips."

"Well, thank you," she said, smiling in a way that made those gray-blue eyes of hers twinkle. "If you will wait a minute, I will cut some for you to take home. They don't last long, mind you, but they sure brighten up a room!"

Within a few minutes, she had cut a dozen gorgeous blooms for me. I thanked her and then said, "I noticed your neighbor planted tulips, too."

"Oh, no," she said, winking at me. "I planted those for Mr. James. He lost his wife a few years ago, and his children have all grown and moved faraway. He lives such a bitter, lonely life," she sighed. "I call that my plot of hope."

"A plot of hope?" I asked, not sure what she meant.

"Yes, to give him back the hope that his own home can be beautiful again, that there is still goodness in life, and to let him know that Jesus loves him just as much as He loves me."

I clutched my bouquet of tulips and left that garden feeling I had learned much more about the meaning of brotherly love.

Dear Lord, remind me that handling a matter wisely is to do so with kindness. Let me offer hope instead of criticism. In Jesus name, Amen

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." (Galations 5:20)

-author unknown

still

..."Stand still and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today...." (Exodus 14:13)

The Israelites had just left 400 years of slavery in Egypt. They had fled to the desert, but they had come to a dead end at the Red Sea. Word reached them that Pharaoh had changed his mind. He was sending his troops to recapture the Israelites. They cried out to their leader Moses, complaining that he had brought them that far only to die in the desert.

Learning when to move and when to stand is the greatest challenge for a workplace believer. We are trained for action. We are not trained to sit idly and wait. We are trained to solve problems, not wait for them to resolve themselves. However, God says there are times to wait. We are to wait until He says go. If we go before He says go, we likely will make our situation worse.

If the Israelites had attempted to cross the Red Sea before it parted, they would have drowned. If they had fled north to try to avoid the Egyptians, God would not have moved in a miraculous way. God cannot work on our behalf if we continually try to solve our problem when He has instructed us to stand still. Standing still is sometimes the greatest action we can do, although it is the most difficult thing to do in the Christian walk.

Stand still when He says stand and see the deliverance of the Lord.

-os hillman

? Jesus

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner.

In their rush, with tickets and brief-cases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of baskets of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding.

All but one. He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned. He told his buddies to go on without him, waved goodbye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.

He was glad he did. The 16 year old girl selling the apples was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping, and no one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them into the baskets, and helped set the display up once more. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $20 for the damage we did. Are you okay?" She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly."

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister...." He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, "Are you Jesus?"

He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: "Are you Jesus?"

Do people mistake you for Jesus?  That's our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, His life and His grace. If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.

You are the apple of His eye  - even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.  Let us live like we are worth the price He paid.

-author unknown

questions

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace."   John 16:33

If I live to be a hundred there are some things I will never understand. Why do some people live, and some die? Why do some people have debilitating diseases and others, perfect health? Why do some have loads of money and others struggle to survive? Why do some get caught and others go free? Why do some people recover and get well, others don't?

Don't we all wonder about these questions? I do, from time to time, and my answer is always the same, "I don't know." I don't know much, and even less the older I get. My list of questions I want to ask when I get to heaven is pretty long.

In this life, there are a lot of mysteries. We will not humanly understand many things. Yet underlying all the unknowns is the one great thing we do know: God is still on his throne. He is still sovereign, still in charge. He knows what is going on. He doesn't just wake up one morning, look down, and say, "Oh wow, look at that!!"

We may not be able to trust in the system, in people, in circumstances or luck. But we can trust in the Lord God. And the promise is that one day, every tear shall be wiped away. Every sickness, every injustice, every heartache.

Jesus said we will surely have troubles here on earth, but to be undaunted and confident because He has overcome the world's power to harm us permanently.

Bottom-line: the answer to all these questions really is...  hang onto the promise, and hold onto the Lord.

-sally kennedy

bible

The story is told of an old man who lived on a farm in the mountains of eastern Kentucky with his young grandson. Each morning, Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading from his old worn-out Bible.

His grandson who wanted to be just like him tried to imitate him in any way he could. One day the grandson asked, "Papa, I try to read the Bible just like you but I don't understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bible do?"

 

The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and said, "Take this coal basket down to the river and bring back a basket of water."

 

The boy did as he was told, even though all the water leaked out before he could get back to the house.

The grandfather laughed and said, "You will have to move a little faster next time," and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again.  This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home.

 

Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was "impossible to carry water in a basket," and he went to get a bucket instead. The old man said, "I don't want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You can do this. You're just not trying hard  enough," and he went out the door to watch the boy try again.

 

At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got far at all. The boy scooped the water and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty.

Out of breath, he said, "See Papa, it's useless!"

"So you think it is useless?" The old man said, "Look at the basket."  The boy looked at the basket and for the first time he realized that the basket looked different. Instead of a dirty old coal basket, it was clean. "Son, that's what happens when you read the Bible. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, it will change you from the inside out.

That is the work of God in our lives.  To change us from the inside out and to slowly transform us into the image of His Son.  Take time to read a portion of God's word each day.

"Show me a Bible that's coming apart, and I'll show you someone who isn't"

zeal

The following story is one that is reported to have been told by Napoleon to spark patriotism among his men:

Once, while visiting a province he came upon an old soldier in full uniform but with one sleeve hanging empty.  He proudly wore the coveted Legion of Honor.  Napoleon asked, "Where did you lose your arm?"  The soldier answered, "At Austerlitz, sire."

Napoleon asked, "And for that you received the Legion of Honor?"

The man said, "Yes, sire.  It is but a small token to pay for the decoration." Napoleon continued, "You must be the kind of man who regrets he did not lose both arms for his country."

The one-armed man asked, "What then would have been my reward?"

Napoleon answered, "I would have awarded you a double Legion of Honor."  And with that, the proud old fighter drew his sword and immediately cut off his other arm.

What a great story of patriotic duty!  It apparently was quite effective in stirring up in Napoleon's men a desire to sacrifice even more for the cause of France!

There's only one problem with the story.  You may have already noticed the inconsistency.  But apparently it was years before anyone dared to ask Napoleon the question, "How did the soldier cut off his arm with only one arm to do it with?"

Nice story.  Stirring, moving, motivating......but it wasn't true.  And it's possible for the same thing to happen to us in a religious sense.  We can get all "fired up" without much thought as to the truth of what we're getting excited about.  Paul said of those who were motivated in such a way:

     "...They are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge." (Romans 10:2, NIV)

Zeal is good.  We all need more of it.  But we need to make certain that our enthusiasm is firmly based on our knowledge of God's will.

-alan smith

praying

1. Pray that NOTHING hinders your child from accepting Christ as his/her personal Savior early in life. 

(Matthew 19:14)

2. Pray your child learns to know God and will have a deep desire to do God's will for his/her life. 

(Psalms 119:27,30,34,35).

3. Pray your child hears stories from the Bible that will be the basis for his decisions throughout life. 

(Ecclesiastes 12:1, Psalms 71:17).

4. Pray your child will develop a keen sense of right and wrong and that he will truly abhor evil and cling to that which is good. (Psalms 139:23-4).

5. Pray your child will increase in wisdom (mentally) and in stature (physically) and in favor with God (spiritually) and man (socially). (Luke 2:52). 

6. Pray your child will develop a thankful heart and a positive mental attitude. (Psalm 126:2-3, Romans 8:31)

7. Pray that God will protect your child from Satan and his wiles in every area of his/her life. 

(John 17:55, Psalm 121)

8. Pray that God would make your child successful in the work God has for him to do. (Psalm 118:25, 139:9-10)

9. Pray he/she will have a strong sense of belonging to a family that is loving and dwells together in unity 

(Psalms 133, Colossians 3:12-14).

10. Pray that his/her entire life will be a testimony of the greatness and love of Christ. 

(Philippians 2:15-16 Thess 5:2-3)

forgive

It was a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck.

He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there -- the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie's pain-blanched face.

He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. "How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein," he said. "To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!"

His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? "Lord Jesus," I prayed, "forgive me and help me to forgive him."

I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. "Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness."

As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.

Corrie Ten Boom

retention

How to Keep Young People Like Me in Church

Commentary: Millennials need to be moved from being spectators to participants.

There has been a lot of talk lately about my generation, the Millennials, leaving the church in droves. 

Numerous books and studies have been released about this problem and what churches can do to dam the flow. If the pattern continues, our current church leaders may not have anyone prepared to relieve them when they retire. This is certainly a concern for the future of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Expectations about church involvement and attendance have shifted over the years. As Adventists, we like to think of ourselves as biblically grounded, not changing on the whims of society. But we are influenced by society. I spent more than a year extensively studying the Medical Cadet Corps, an Adventist Church program started in the 1930s in the United States to prepare young men of draft age to serve in noncombatant roles in the armed forces. I found that Adventists in the United States closely followed U.S. society in relation to opinions about the government and military service. Adventists are influenced by society, and we are changed by society.

The same has happened with church attendance. It used to be a cultural expectation for Americans to attend church. The older generations could count on their peers noticing and sometime commenting on any lapses. Adventists and many other Americans attended church regularly, just as mainstream society expected.

Now society has changed.

The expectation for regular church attendance has disappeared from mainstream society.

My peers and I do not feel as much pressure to regularly attend church. We are reflecting a cultural change in U.S. society. I do not expect my friends to attend church every week, and they feel the same way. It is not necessarily a decrease in spirituality that keeps my generation away, but more of a change in expectations.

The question remains: What can we do to keep young people in the church? I’m not here to talk about what has been suggested by others, but rather what has worked for me.

Obviously, I am still an attending and involved member of my church. I don’t stay for the varied song services or the dynamic Bible studies. Currently, my main reason for staying with my home church is my involvement and responsibilities in Pathfinders.

I have been a staff member for more than three years and enjoy interacting with the Pathfinders at church. I know for myself that my spiritual walk with God will always be changing and fluctuating. On the other hand, my involvement in Pathfinders provides a steady reason for church attendance and participation while my spiritual life sorts itself out.

I believe the key to retaining my generation is moving young people from spectators to participants.

I became a participant when I served on my first committee at 14. My father and I were elected to the committee that planned the annual church campout. My specific responsibility was to write and direct short skits to reflect the worship talks given throughout the weekend.

The skits turned out well, but the success was not all my own. Nervous and shy about my new responsibilities, I was encouraged by the presence of my father sitting next to me in the committee meetings. I believe my personal experience could be applied on a much larger scale to prevent a leadership void in our church.

Young people do not always have the experience needed to be leaders, but there are many in the church who could mentor them. Through involvement and development of leadership skills we give young people a tangible reason to remain involved in the church.

Here is a suggested model for including more young people in committees and in church leadership through a mentorship program:

1. Start young. Academy and college-aged students are at the perfect age to begin training for future leadership. They are already looking for reasons to retain their faith and involvement.

2. Assign mentors. Any young person being considered by the nominating committee should either select or be assigned a mentor. That mentor can be a relative, close friend, or someone experienced in the area of interest.

3. Ballots and elections. I would suggest that the young person and mentor be elected as one person on the ballot. The young person will be the official committee selection. The mentor’s priority will be the development of the young person’s abilities and leadership, not the agenda of the committee.

This model is simple and broad but I see in it a purpose to train and involve young people in the leadership of their local church. If implemented quickly, perhaps the leadership gap can be avoided and our young people will become participants instead of spectators. Dedicated involvement will decrease the likelihood of an absent generation

-kelti barcelow adapted from Adventist Review October 6th, 2015

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mistake

I'm always struck by this passage. Joshua gives a command to the heavenly bodies, and God rearranges the laws of physics so that they obey him. It's one of the greatest miracles in all of scripture. In its scientific magnitude, it is an even greater miracle than the parting of the Red Sea.

But that isn't the main reason I'm so taken by what happened here. I'm struck by the context. Joshua just blew it. The Gibeonites, posing as distant travelers, deceived Joshua and the other leaders into making a prohibited treaty with them. Joshua was clearly negligent for failing to inquire of the Lord before ratifying the treaty. Now, here in chapter 10, he's dealing with the aftermath of his mistake. The Gibeonites are in trouble; Joshua and all Israel are called upon to save them.

God could have washed His hands of the entire affair. He could have said, "You got yourself into this mess; you get yourself out of it. Don't look to Me to help you defend these wicked Gibeonites."

But He doesn't do anything of the sort. God is a God of people who make mistakes, people who blow it, people who mess up.

I don't like making mistakes, but when I do, God gently reminds me that the work of God isn't about me and how perfect I am; rather, it is about the God who shows up despite our failings.

-dwight clough