Mission Takes Flight
Written by Bill Knott
Mission Takes Flight
Forty-eight hours from now I will set off on a trip of 425 miles (684 kilometers)—to the 150th anniversary of the Adventist church in which I was baptized at age 12.
If I add up all the pieces of my actual travel—20 minutes driving to the airport; 1 hour and 15 minutes in flight; 58 more minutes driving to my final destination—the total is just 2 hours and 33 minutes.
If Ellen or James White, Stephen Haskell, or J. N. Andrews had been making that identical trip when the South Lancaster Village Seventh-day Adventist Church was organized in 1864, they would have traveled nearly 16 hours by train and slept a night in New York City—if their train was very fast and no cows were on the rails blocking the steam locomotives.
I will work a full day Thursday, attend committees, edit articles, answer e-mail, and then fly to my destination after dark. My ideas of what I can accomplish for the day—my mission—are built on my knowledge of the technology that will get me there.
Method frames our imagination of what we can accomplish in mission.
When all the world walked or rode a horse—which was the case for most of the past 6,000 years—the gospel traveled at the speed that disciples traveled, which is to say, about four miles (6.4 kilometers) per hour on foot or 15 miles (24 kilometers) per hour on horseback.
But when the methods changed, so did our estimates of what we could do in spreading the gospel. Today, not only can I make long trips in a fraction of the time it took Adventist pioneers to travel that distance, but I no longer always need to go there in person. By videoconference, Skype, FaceTime, or similar digital platforms, I can see and be seen half a world away from where I sit in my office chair.
Mission is changing because methods of doing mission are changing. And that’s a good thing. No, actually, that’s a great thing!
As you read this month’s cover story, “Tides and Skies,” pray for the vision to use the best methods to accomplish the greatest mission to which the Spirit is inspiring you.
Reaching Unbelievers
Written by Ellen G. WhiteReaching Unbeliever
New life, new plans, and new methods
By Ellen G. White
In the providence of God, those who are bearing the burden of his work have been endeavoring to put new life into old methods of labor, and also to invent new plans and new methods of awakening the interest of church members in a united effort to reach the world. . . .
In years past, I have spoken in favor of the plan of presenting our mission work and its progress before our friends and neighbors, and have referred to the example of Nehemiah. And now I desire to urge our brethren and sisters to study anew the experience of this man of prayer and faith and sound judgment, who made bold to ask his friend, King Artaxerxes, for help with which to advance the interests of God’s cause. Let all understand that in presenting the needs of our work, believers can reflect light to others only as they, like Nehemiah of old, draw nigh to God, and live in close connection with the Giver of all light. Our own souls must be firmly grounded in a knowledge of the truth, if we would win others from error to truth. We need now to search the Scriptures diligently, that, as we become acquainted with unbelievers, we may hold up before them Christ as the anointed, the crucified, the risen Savior, witnessed to by prophets, testified of by believers, and through whose name we receive the forgiveness of our sins.
As we exalt the cross of Calvary before others, we shall find that it exalts us. Let every believer now stand in his lot and place, catching the inspiration of the work that Christ did for souls while in this world. We need the ardor of the Christian hero who endures to the end, ever beholding Him who is invisible. Our faith must have a resurrection. Wherever we are, and whatever our opportunities, whether limited or extended, we are to exert a positive influence for good.
In order to fulfill the purpose of God as laborers together with Him, it is not necessary that all believers work in the same manner or along similar lines. No precise lines are to be laid down. Let the Holy Spirit direct each worker: and let each be willing to listen to the counsel of those who have been chosen to lead out in the various activities of the church. Thus the truth will ever stand on vantage ground.
Some can best recommend the truth, not by argument or talk, but by living the principles of truth, by leading a modest, humble life as consistent disciples of the meek and lowly Christ. Especially is this true of those who are unable to give an intelligent reason for their faith, and of those who have a zeal not according to knowledge. Such believers should talk less in vindication of our faith, and study their Bible more, letting their deportment bear eloquent testimony to the power for good which the truth exercises in heart and life. . . .
God desires every believer to be a soul winner; and He will bless all who look to Him in confidence for wisdom and guidance. As they move guardedly, walking in wisdom’s way and remaining true to the Lord God of Israel, the purity and simplicity of Christ, revealed in the life practice, will witness to the possession of genuine piety. In all that they say and do, they will glorify the name of Him whom they serve. n
Seventh-day Adventists believe that Ellen G. White (1827-1915) exercised the biblical gift of prophecy during more than 70 years of public ministry. This material was first published in The Church Officers’ Gazette, Sept. 1, 1914.
SABBATH GATHERING: Members and community residents gather for Sabbath services on Saibai Island.
Tides and Skies
Written byTIDES AND SKIES
By Bill Knott
Lift up your heads—to see what God is doing
Wide was his parish, houses far asunder,
But never did he fail, for rain or thunder,
In sickness, or in sin, or any state,
To visit to the farthest, small and great . . .*
More than 9,000 air miles—and 600 years—separate the “country parson” of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and an Adventist pastor named Darren Peakall in the Torres Strait off the north coast of Queensland, Australia. Chaucer’s medieval preacher was justly famous for faithfully visiting his scattered flock in all kinds of weather to bring the Word of God to everyone in his territory, “small and great.”
And Darren Peakall—not at all medieval—is faithfully doing the same thing, in all kinds of weather, half a world away, and for the same reasons. But the muscular Australian doesn’t usually walk or ride a horse, as did his English counterpart. Reaching scattered church members among the 274 islands of the Torres Strait requires planes and boats. More precisely, planes instead of boats.
A Ministry of Presence
“Visiting church members is really the key to my ministry,” Darren says softly, his tanned face compressing with concentration lines. “How can I help them—as Jesus did—if I can’t actually sit down with them and find out what their issues are, one to one?
“People met Jesus beside wells, at wedding feasts, in boats, or walking in the streets. That’s where their lives got changed. We focus on His public sermons—his amazing stories and His timeless truths. But learning the gospel usually requires personal time—walking a road, sharing a meal, sitting in the bottom of a boat.”
A quick glance at the geography of Darren’s far-flung pastoral district illustrates why he’s focusing on a ministry of presence more than large-scale public evangelism. The hundreds of islands dotting the 150 kilometers (93 miles) of ocean that separate Australia’s Cape York Peninsula from Papua New Guinea (PNG) are mostly uninhabited, many of them volcanic upthrusts now surrounded by dense mangrove swamps. The 14 inhabited islands are home to just 8,000 people, most of them Melanesian islanders historically and culturally distinct from Australia’s aboriginal peoples.
According to the pastor, Seventh-day Adventists are spread across just five of the 14 inhabited islands—Saibai, Moa, Hammond, Prince of Wales, and Thursday Island, where Darren and his wife, Robbie (Robyn), live on the upper level that includes a parsonage and a chapel. Typical Sabbath attendances at the island churches can be counted on two hands: a large gathering, including visitors who sometimes come by boat from Adventist churches in Papua New Guinea, might grow as large as 30.
“It takes a long time to do almost anything in these islands,” Robbie says wistfully. “I’ve learned that building relationships doesn’t happen as quickly as we might wish. And the sheer distances involved—five and a half hours each way by boat to travel the 150 kilometers from our home to Saibai—means that we don’t get to see church members on the regular weekly cycle that many of us are used to. You have to change your expectations of church to be successful here.”
Rethinking Relationships
You also have to change your expectations of the support you can expect from family and friends, say Darren and Robbie. “Home” for them is Perth, Western Australia, more than 4,800 kilometers (3,000 miles) away—“at least two flights,” as Darren says, noting the practical impossibility of driving a car that distance in the annual vacation time allotted. Their four children, ranging in age from late teens to mid 20s, are clustered near Perth. Their parents’ missionary posting isn’t easy to accept.
“My younger son feels the distance keenly,” Darren says, grimacing slightly, “because he and I have a special friendship. ‘I’ll miss you: I hate not having you here,’ he told me when we came here. And even though all the kids and other family members have come out to visit us several times, you want the people that you love closer than the other side of the country.”
“I ring my mum up twice a day,” Robbie says. “She’s alone—my dad passed away several years ago—and we encourage each other. Darren initially wanted me to be as excited about this work as he was—and he’s excited, hasn’t really wavered since we got here. He just loves what he’s doing and has grasped it with everything he’s got.
“One day he could tell how much I was missing the family, and he asked me, ‘Don’t you want to be here?’ And I said, ‘I want to be with you, and I want to serve the Lord. Is that not enough? I know you miss the kids, but I miss the kids!’ ”
Robbie’s story is punctuated by the memories of three hospitalizations in her first 18 months in the Torres Strait. A round of antibiotics following an episode of bacteria in her bloodstream, weakened her immunity, and she somehow contracted a serious infection, clostridium difficile (C-diff), that disturbed her heart rhythm and sent her to the cardiac ward directly off a flight en route to the islands. Recovering her energy hasn’t been easy in a schedule that frequently calls for her to travel for multiple days by boat with Darren to his scattered church members or, alternately,
keep up a round of activities without his support and encouragement.
Learning how to draw appropriate boundaries as a pastoral spouse has also been part of the on-the-job training for Robbie. Now, just over two years into the first pastoral district the couple has ever served, she remembers the challenging first weeks when everything—house, island, church, and climate—seemed new and strange.
“Some members told me just after we arrived that the previous pastor’s wife used to make them chocolate éclairs,” Robbie chuckles. “They asked me, ‘Oh, why don’t you do what she did?’ Well, I love cooking and offering hospitality, but making éclairs—that’s not my gift. I prefer whenever I can to work alongside Darren and just concentrate on the things he’s concentrating on.”
Ministry at Water Level
What Darren is frequently concentrating on is the logistical difficulty of moving around in a pastoral district that stretches across some 48,000 square kilometers (18,500 square miles), but where only slightly more than 1 percent of the territory is dry land.
“Time and tide wait for no man,” the old proverb declares. Equally true, however, is the observation that time and tide are frequently the obstacles that prevent the very things most needing to be accomplished. Just getting to the places members live and worship requires a keen awareness of how dependent life in the islands is on the rise and fall of tides.
Several of the islands Darren visited during his first two years in the Torres Strait are surrounded by vast mud flats at low tide that prevent even shallow-keeled boats from approaching. Arrive at the wrong hour, and you will wait a kilometer or more from shore, watching daylight ebb and opportunities for ministry go with it. Load the small dinghy too fully or carry one too many passengers, and you will risk being swamped in mangrove shallows infested with saltwater crocodiles.
“Knowing that the crocs are out there certainly keeps you awake and alert,” Darren says, grinning. “Once when Brett Townend (Northern Australian Conference president) was visiting, the dinghy we were maneuvering along the coast started to take on water just after we passed a group of crocs. I have to admit I won’t soon forget the look on my boss’s face!”
More typical, however, is the sense of time and ministry possibilities lost because of the challenges of traveling on the water. The 11-hour round trip by boat from Thursday Island to Saibai, just four kilometers (two and a half miles) off the PNG coast, usually requires two days and an overnight stay on the island just to conduct a worship service, visit several member families, and host a story hour for the island children. The 440 liters (115 gallons) of diesel fuel required for the round-trip Saibai run costs A$800 (about US$745; 540 euros) each time. That number doesn’t include the costs for maintenance and repair on the boat.
The cost in time for traveling on the water is equally formidable.
“Every three weeks we used to pack up for the weekend and travel to Moa Island on the boat,” Darren says. “To make it worthwhile, we went there for three or four days, sometimes longer.”
“Somebody once asked us, ‘What’s it like?’ They probably thought that traveling by water for hours to a tropical island sounds romantic. Don’t get me wrong—the Torres Strait is beautiful. But these aren’t romantic islands: these are working islands, where people live real and difficult lives. I told the person who asked me, ‘It’s really not as lovely as it sounds! It’s like we’re camping every couple of weeks for an extended weekend. You’ve got to pack up and bring all your food, and know everything you’re going to need well in advance. That tends to take some of the romance out of it!’ ”
Raising the Plane
Even though he had invested five weeks of full-time training while still in Perth to obtain the commercial skipper’s license necessary to operate the mission boat in the Torres Strait, and another four weeks’ orientation in the boat with the pastor who preceded him in the district, it didn’t take Darren long to realize that being at the mercy of the tides was hampering the church’s mission in the territory. An experienced pilot, he had spent months flying in and out of isolated aboriginal communities in Western Australia, some of that time as a self-supporting literature evangelist offering books and DVDs to the inhabitants of remote towns. Noting that each of the major inhabited islands of the Torres Strait had well-developed airstrips, Darren began to realize that he could push the church’s mission forward much faster if he could reach his isolated church members and family-sized congregations by plane instead of by boat.
“We could all wish that Adventist work in this area had developed a bit differently,” he says, “but the truth is that these small worshipping groups really need a pastor to help them stay connected to their faith—and sometimes, even to each other. ‘Church’ sometimes happens only when the pastor is able to be present to lead out. In the weeks between a pastor’s visits, activity slows down, and sometimes even stops. When you are only seeing members every third or fourth Sabbath for a few hours, it’s almost impossible to do the training that will create stable local leaders in these remote places.”
After nearly 18 months in his district, Darren began dreaming of a way to move the church’s presence and mission in the Torres Strait to a higher level—quite literally, into the air. With the help of a pastoral colleague from the Northern Australian Conference who also was an experienced pilot, Darren drafted a proposal for the conference executive committee that called for leasing a propeller-driven plane for 100 hours of pastoral work in the last six months of 2013.
The Northern Australian Conference is the second smallest of the nine conferences in the Australian Union, even though its territory is the second largest geographically, including fully one-quarter of the continent in the northeast quadrant of the nation—Ayers Rock in the desert to islands in the Torres Strait. With only 2,500 members, 35 congregations, and 18 pastors, the Conference rarely has additional funding for innovative projects. And moving from the time-honored but very slow method of traveling on the water to a proposal for serving the Torres Strait district by air initially caused administrators to re-examine their faith in what God might be doing in the northernmost part of the Conference.
“When you don’t have an abundance of resources—or tithe—you think very carefully about new possibilities,” says Brett Townend, president of the Northern Australia Conference since May 2012. “A mistake in planning or an unexpected expense could mean that you won’t have the resources to keep pastors in the field or congregations moving forward with their mission. You have to keep the whole picture in view, even as you try to make sure you’re responding to what the Holy Spirit seems to blessing in one area.”
Ministry Takes Wing
After carefully working through the details of Darren’s plan, the executive committee gave permission for the experiment to move forward. By the time of the June 2013 Big Camp (annual camp meeting), funds had been allocated to pay for the 100 hours of flying time and fuel that Darren believed would dramatically push mission forward in the Torres Strait.
“It worked out that for that typical 11-hour trip to Saibai, our northernmost point in the district, instead of the $800 we usually spent on diesel fuel, we could bring the cost for traveling by air down to less than $500 for the same trip,” Darren says with a former literature salesman’s enthusiasm. “And then on the time, it’s only about an hour’s flight time from Thursday Island to Saibai, even in an old, slow plane with nothing spectacular about it. The plane was built in 1958: it was 55 years old when we first found it. I looked at the instrument panel, and at first I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding!’ But the thing is, it worked, and was reliable.”
Now round trips to the most distant point in the far-flung district could be accomplished in just over an hour, reducing travel time by more than 90 percent. Mid-week prayer meetings with a small Adventist congregation at Kubin Village, on Moa Island, suddenly became possible. Bible studies with individuals interested in Adventist faith that had previously languished when conducted only every third or fourth week could now be kept active and growing through weekly contact. For the first time ever, a pastor could regularly reach Weipa, a remote coastal mining town on the western side of Cape York, where a small Adventist church company of 15 is now receiving frequent pastoral visits from Darren in the plane. This would have been impractical with the boat, and these members are now feeling part of the wider sisterhood of churches, despite their geographical isolation.
“It was something like an adrenaline shot for ministry in this district,” says Darren, now looking back on almost a full year of traveling by air. “You begin to think about ministry in different ways when you can actually begin to connect the dots more often than once a month. And members, too—they begin to expect more of themselves and of their church when they see that their congregation can have a regular and vital place in their community. Baptismal candidates stay on track toward good decisions; discipleship happens as faith gets nurtured. Our faith in what God wants to accomplish in the Torres Strait begins to climb as we see our mission beginning to get off the ground.”
Higher Still
In January 2014, Darren and Robbie took an even bigger step after careful and prayerful consultation with the conference officers. Taking out a sizeable personal mortgage, they arranged to buy a newer, speedier plane (a 1976 Piper 235) that can carry additional weight and up to three persons beside the pilot. Through a contract approved by the executive committee they have leased the new plane to the Northern Australian Conference, and use it multiple times a week to make member visits, conduct prayer meetings, and lead worship services throughout their vast, watery district.
Arranging the financing at their own expense—and risk—caused the Peakalls some careful thought and prayer. At minimum, the decision will delay their own investment in a house and their planning for eventual retirement.
“We’re all in,” says Darren with a trademark toothy smile. “We’re putting our own money where we think God wants us to put it. And we’re trusting that God is going to move on hearts in places we haven’t even heard of to keep this plane flying and this mission growing.”
No longer bound to the rhythm of the tides, ministry is taking flight in the Torres Strait. From the air—above it all—you can see much further, chart the objectives more carefully, and get there more quickly.
That’s the kind of mission that heaven always blesses. n
* Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, (Barnes and Noble, 2007), p. 27.
If you are interested in more information about the aviation project in the Torres Strait, or would like to support it with your prayers and resources, contact the Northern Australian Conference at:
https://na.adventist.org.au
or write to:
Northern Australian Conference—Torres Strait Project
PO Box 51, Aitkenvale QLD 4814
AUSTRALIA
Phone: 07 4779 3988
Bill Knott is the editor and executive
publisher of Adventist World.
ISLAND MAZE: The Torres Strait links the Coral Sea to the east with the Arafara Sea in the west. The maze
of reefs and islands often makes it tedious and difficult
to navigate by boat.
CONNECTED: On Moa Island Darren makes regular visits to those with whom he has formed relationships. Lightbearer II is pictured in the background.
BY ALL MEANS: Northern Australian Conference president Brett Townend near Saibai Island at the controls of the dinghy from “Lightbearer II.”
FAMILY SUPPORT: Members of the Thursday Island family spans
generations and ethnic groups.
BEGINNING THE JOURNEY: Darren Peakhall takes delivery of the newer plane that will change the way ministry is done in this part of the world.
ALL IN: Darren and Robbie Peakhall have invested their finances, as well as their time and energy, in taking the gospel to this vast territory.
Where in the World Is This?
Written by Adventist WorldWhere In The World Is This?
Scroll to the bottom of the page for the answer!
Revived By His Word
A Journey of Discovery Together Through the Bible
God speaks to us through His Word. Join with other believers in more than 180 countries who are reading a chapter of the Bible each day. To download the daily Bible Reading Guide, visit RevivedbyHisWord.org, or sign up to receive the daily Bible chapter by e-mail.
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JULY 1, 2014 - EZEKIEL 4
71 years ago
On June 2, 1943 Choi, Tae Hyun (1888-1943) died after being tortured by forces that occupied Korea during World War II.
He was a graduate of Won Heung Middle School and studied at Korean Baptist Seminary. In 1910 he joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church and entered evangelistic work, serving as a licensed minister in the Central and West Chosen missions (1910-1922).
After his ordination in 1922, Choi, Tae Hyun served variously as district leader in Manchuria, a Bible teacher at Korean Union Training School, and as a mission president.
During World War II he was president of all the Adventist work in Korea. But occupying forces that controlled the country had a policy to suppress Christianity. He was imprisoned, along with many other Christian leaders, and tortured to death. He was probably the first Seventh-day Adventist martyr in Korea.
Source: Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia
33 percent
Worldwide, one in three women does not have access to toilets or facilities to care for feminine hygiene. Case studies show that attendance at school drops for young women when they begin menstruating, and it is estimated that women collectively lose 97 billion hours per year looking for a place they can have privacy.
Source: The Rotarian
54 percent of people who have high
blood pressure don’t know it.
Have your blood pressure checked at least twice a year. Normal is 120/80. Anything higher than that could indicate the beginning of high blood pressure. Consult your
doctor if you have questions.
Source: Journal of the American Medical Association/Women’s Health
50 WORDS OR LESS
My Favorite... Bible Promise
n “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. . . . I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:1, 2). These verses remind me that even though I face trials, God is with me. Also, Jesus will come again and take His children to heaven.
—ABI, Southeast Asia
n “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new’ ” (Rev. 21:4, 5).
These words are very meaningful for me as I recall the death of my son, Leif. He loved Jesus and died at the age 18 in a car accident as he traveled home from South Queensland camp meeting in September 2008.
—Geofrey, Queensland, Australia
n As a new Adventist suffering various traumas, I had the audacity to write then General Conference president Robert Pierson, asking for a Bible promise that could help a person in desperate need. I received his letter with these words: “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).
—Margaret, Australia
Next time, tell us in 50 words or less about your
favorite hymn. Send it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Put in the subject line “50 Words or Less.”
ANSWER:
In Porto, Portugal, General Conference youth ministries director Gilbert Cangy (left) poses with Inter-European Division youth leader Stephan Siegg and several others during an outreach effort at the Geracão Adventista em Missão (GAM) event in early 2014. The group was at the São Bento station.
Letters
Written by Adventist WorldLetters
Big-Picture Theology
Thank you for publishing Lothar Wilhelm’s article “Big-Picture Theology” (April 2014). Way to go! This needed to be said, and Wilhelm was very articulate in doing so. I fully agree that Adventists should accept “the Bible alone” as “our rule for faith and life.”
Jen H.
Oregon, United States
Moderation?
I’m writing in response to the health article “Moderation?” by Peter N. Landless and Allan R. Handysides (March 2014). Alcohol drinkers frequently point to Jesus’ miracle of turning water into wine as justification for their indulgence. Nothing could be further from the truth! The Greek word for “wine” can mean both alcoholic wine and nonalcoholic grape juice. We can safely assume that Jesus would never give people a drink that would lower their inhibitions to the point of committing such sins as theft, adultery, and murder, things we know all too well happen with the consumption of alcohol.
Jesus turned the water into grape juice.
Mark Brown
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
An Urgent Prophetic Calling
Thank you for printing Ted N. C.
Wilson’s article “An Urgent Prophetic Calling” (February 2014). Wilson put into words what I have been trying to say! No one—neither my church nor my family—is listening, and I feel alone. I realize I must be the change I want to see, and I know being a leader sometimes means I may have to stand alone. I will follow where God leads and continue to be used as a mouthpiece.
Please pray for me. God bless!
Linda Eskridge
via e-mail
Immanence!
There are two spelling mistakes in Tim Matsis’ article “The Fence” (January 2014). First, and most important, the word “imminence,” which means nearness, in time terms, of occurrence, should read “immanence,” which in Christian usage (at least, mainstream Christianity: see Reader’s Digest Word Power Dictionary) signifies God being present throughout His creation. The Christian concept of God has always seen Him as both transcendent (above, beyond, distinct from His creation, not to be identified with it) and immanent.
The other error is the spelling of Matsis’ hometown: it should be Invercargill, not Invergargill!
Reverence and respect in the worship of God? Yes! Too much so-called contemporary worship is more like a pop concert with a veneer of religiosity. If Roman Catholics, High Anglicans, and Eastern Orthodox go too far in the other direction, it is at least well meant. Herein lies a possible danger: quite a few of those raised Seventh-day Adventist will desert to groups where a higher standard of behavior in church is the norm.
Barry Gowland
Fishermead, Milton Keynes, England
You’re right, twice! We apologize for introducing these errors, which changed its meaning, into this devotional.—Editors.
95 Years Ago—and Today
Thank you for your feature on our institutional anniversary (“95 Years Ago,” Idea Exchange, April 2014). It was a pleasant surprise to be
mentioned.
The last paragraph reads: “Today the Union Adventist Educational Complex (Complejo Educativo Adventista Unión) has three campuses, including a campus in Ñaña that includes Peruvian Union University and Peruvian Union Academy.” The Union Adventist Educational Complex (Complejo Educativo Adventista Unión) no longer exists, and does not have three campuses that include the university and the academy. It has grown into Peruvian Union University, which has three university campuses one of which is in Ñaña, Lima, Perú. On the campus of Peruvian Union University (Universidad Peruana Unión) is the university school named “Union School”
(Colegio Unión).
Le-Roy Alomía
Director of Public Relations
and Corporate Image
Letters Policy: Please send to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Letters must be clearly written, 100-word maximum. Include the name of the article and the date of publication with your letter. Also include your name, the town/city, state, and country from which you are writing. Letters will be edited for space and
clarity. Not all letters submitted will be published.
Too much so-called contemporary worship is more like a pop concert with a veneer of religiosity.
—Barry Gowland, Fishermead,
Milton Keynes, England
How Faith Grows
Written by Mark A. FinleyHow Faith Grows
By Mark A. Finley
I recently conducted a weekend series of meetings for college students about the Holy Spirit and revival. After one of the presentations a student asked, “Pastor Finley, how can I have more faith? My faith at times seems weak. I would like to have greater faith, but I am not sure how to go about getting more.”
The student’s question was not new to me. Over the years I have heard it regularly. In this month’s lesson we will explore how to have a growing, vibrant, living faith.
1. What did Jesus say about faith at end time? To discover Jesus’ answer regarding end time faith, read Luke 18:8.
Evidently, genuine faith will be in short supply when Jesus returns. A lot of things may pass for faith, but in this passage Jesus reminds us with this very question about the need for authentic, biblical faith.
2. What is biblical faith? How does the Bible define it? Find the answers in Hebrews 11:1.
Faith is the foundation of our Christian experience. It is the assurance that God loves us, and desires only good for us. Faith believes God’s promises implicitly. Faith is a relationship with God as a friend we know well that leads us to do whatever He asks.
3. What is another word for faith? What do you discover in Proverbs 3:5, 6? How does this passage help you understand faith?
Ellen White defined faith this way: “Faith is trusting God—believing that He loves us and knows best what is for our good. Thus, instead of our own, it leads us to choose His way. In place of our ignorance, it accepts His wisdom; in place of our weakness, His strength; in place of our sinfulness, His righteousness. Our lives, ourselves, are already His; faith acknowledges His ownership and accepts its blessing.”*
4. Who is the source of all faith? How do we relate when we feel as if we have little or no faith? Read Romans 12:3.
Faith is a gift God gives to each believer. It is not an emotional feeling, or some type of humanistic, positive-thinking mind-set. When we make a conscious decision to surrender our lives to Christ and become children of God through His Holy Spirit, He gives us the gift of faith. Faith grows as we exercise the faith we have.
5. If faith is a gift God gives us, how can we increase our faith? Read Romans 10:17 and 2 Corinthians 1:18-20.
As we read God’s Word with a prayerful attitude, the Holy Spirit develops a stronger faith within us. As we accept God’s promises as His eternal “Yes” to us, our faith grows.
6. Does merely reading the Bible always benefit us? What surprising truth do we learn from Hebrews 4:2?
Reading the Bible alone will not grow our faith. It is possible to read the Bible in a careless, detached manner. When we read the Bible with a trusting heart, claiming God’s promises as our own, our faith will grow.
7. Reflect on the story of the woman with the “issue of blood” who Jesus healed in Luke 8:43-48. What does her experience tell us about faith?
At least two vital truths about growing faith are contained in this story:
First, the woman believed that Christ could and would help her in her desperate situation. Her faith was not in herself; it was not in her faith; it was in Jesus. Biblical faith always has a focus, and that focus is Jesus.
Second, as this woman exercised her faith, it grew. If you desire a growing, vibrant faith, recognize as a child of God that Jesus has given you the gift of faith. Believe His Word; fill your mind with His promises; exercise the faith you have. Then watch your faith grow.
*Education (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1903), p. 253.
Prayer With Praise
Written byPrayer With Praise
Please pray for my family. My brothers’ wives and neighbors hate us without a cause.
Dick, Kenya
Please pray for me. I need the Lord’s healing.
Angelita, Philippines
Please pray for our daughter and her family, and our son and his family, that they will realize they need Jesus in their lives.
I praise God that after 59 years of prayer, my husband accepted Jesus and joined the Adventist Church.
Betty, United States
I have an uncle who has cancer. He left the church and now, at almost 80, he feels that he isn’t prepared to die. Please pray that he surrenders his soul to Jesus before his imminent death. I also ask for prayer for his wife and family to have God’s solace.
Milene, Brazil
Even though my dad is the breadwinner in our family, I pray that he would seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, rather than giving our needs first priority and transgressing the law of God.
Brian, Kenya
Thank you for praying for me. I got my admission to university!
Elo, Cameroon
Thanks for praying for my mother. God worked that situation out for us, and I praise His holy name.
Ann, United States
The Place of Prayer: Send prayer requests and praise (thanks for answered prayer) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Keep entries short and concise, 50-words or less. Items will be edited for space and clarity. Not all submissions will be printed. Please include your name and your country’s name. You may also fax
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Backpack Essentials
Written by Chantal J. Klingbeil
NUMBER 13
BACKPACK ESSENTIALS
Surviving the coming world crisis
By Chantal J. Klingbeil
I was thinking about essentials as I struggled up the steep hiking trail with a heavy backpack. We had been warned to take only the absolute essentials for our five-day hike. We would be far from any store, so each of us had to decide on what was essential, and then be willing to lug our own food, clothing, and sleeping bags on the trail. Aching shoulders and blistered feet forced many of us to rethink what was essential at our first midday rest stop.
That evening everyone was reevaluating the essentials in their backpacks. Suddenly expensive brand names lost their attraction. No one was interested in having anything just for show. Everything was reexamined with a whole new set of standards. Was it light; was it useful? Even an expensive jar of organic honey had no takers. The next morning, as we all set off, it was amazing to see what we were all willing to leave behind in the trash bins. Only the essentials remained in our backpacks. Only the really important things stayed in our packs.
More Than a Hike in the Park
The Bible speaks of a time in the future that will be more challenging than a strenuous hike. In fact, Scripture describes it as a crisis of cataclysmic dimensions. Economically, environmentally, and spiritually we will face “a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation” (Dan. 12:1). It won’t be a localized event. This will be a worldwide crisis in which all will have to decide what is really important. It will be a time in which we will not be carrying anyone else’s beliefs or sliding by on what someone else says. There will be a small group of “leftovers” who will be hanging on to what really counts. As we get ready for the biggest crisis on earth, what will we have to hang on to? What will remain—and who will remain?
What Remains
Perhaps you remember when teams were chosen at school. Not being very athletic, I dreaded being left after everyone else was chosen. It’s not very complimentary to be left as the last. Sometimes it seems that “those remaining” (or the remnant) don’t fit in. Then again, after a hurricane it is very nice to be the remnant. It means that you are a survivor.
Throughout history God has always had a remnant. There have always been those who went against the flow. They took God at His word and were more intent on being friends with God than hobnobbing with the high and mighty. Remember Noah. He was a strange one. He took God at His word and spent his time and money building a boat and inviting others to join in the promised escape. He was also part of a remnant—the only family who was left when all the earth was destroyed by a flood (cf. Gen. 6-9).
So what will it take to survive when our world will once again be destroyed—this time by fire (2 Peter 3:10-12) and not by flood? What will it take to be a survivor, to belong to the remnant?
Having the Right Contacts
Those who survive know that it is not what they are carrying in their backpacks that will guarantee their survival. They know that it is not what you know but who you know that counts. They know the Winner. “These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Rev. 14:4).
The book of Revelation goes on to give other identifiable characteristics of these survivors. They follow Jesus everywhere because they have “the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12). They reflect Jesus’ unshakable confidence in God and the authority of Scripture. Their faith encompasses all the truths of the Bible, which Jesus believed and taught.
Revelation 14:12 also says that these individuals “keep the commandments of God.” They know that “not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). These survivors know that their survival is completely dependent on Jesus, and they are willing to do things His way (John 15:10). They are not ready to exchange any part of God’s law for human-made counterfeits.
Revelation 12:17 tells us that this “rest”—besides keeping the “commandments of God”—also have the “testimony of Jesus Christ.” John doesn’t leave us in the dark as to what “the testimony of Jesus” is; later in his book he tells us that it is “the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10). Prophetic guidance helps the remnant be survivors.
We Seventh-day Adventists believe that Ellen G. White, who meets all the biblical tests of a true prophet, was appointed by God as a special messenger to draw attention to the Bible and help prepare people for Jesus’ second coming. Ellen White herself noted that “the fact that God has revealed His will to men through His Word, has not rendered needless the continued presence and guiding of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, the Spirit was promised by our Savior to open the Word to His servants, to illuminate and apply its teachings.”*
Passionate Mission
The remnant is purpose driven. These survivors are not members of an exclusive remnant club who think themselves better than everyone else and lock themselves up in their own little members-only world. They have their mission statement clearly marked out for them in the book of Revelation. The three angels’ messages of Revelation 14:6-12 are God’s answers to the satanic deception that clouds the world just before Christ’s return (Rev. 13:14-16). Because they are passionate about Jesus, they are passionate about getting the world prepared to meet the Jesus they love and follow everywhere.
So what remains in your backpack? Do you have it loaded with “essentials”? Why not ditch the backpack altogether and follow the Lamb? We will find Him leading us out to a world in crisis that needs to know that they too can be survivors, ready to welcome Jesus with open arms as He returns at just the right time. n
* Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1911), p. vii.
Remnant and Its Mission
The universal church is composed of all who truly believe in Christ, but in the last days, a time of widespread apostasy, a remnant has been called out to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. This remnant announces the arrival of the judgment hour, proclaims salvation through Christ, and heralds the approach of His second advent. This proclamation is symbolized by the three angels of Revelation 14; it coincides with the work of judgment in heaven and results in a work of repentance and reform on earth. Every believer is called to have a personal part in this worldwide witness. (Rev. 12:17; 14:6-12; 18:1-4; 2 Cor. 5:10; Jude 3, 14; 1 Peter 1:16-19; 2 Peter 3:10-14; Rev. 21:1-14.)
Chantal J. Klingbeil serves as an associate director of the Ellen G. White Estate at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A. She is married to Gerald and has three teenage daughters.
At Sexuality Summit, Adventist Church President Reflects on “Human Brokenness”
Written by Adventist WorldAt Sexuality Summit, Adventist Church President Reflects on “Human Brokenness”
Speaking to nearly 350 church leaders at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on March 17, 2014, Seventh-day Adventist world church president Ted N. C. Wilson urged them to recognize that “human brokenness” is ubiquitous, dependent on the healing that comes only through the restorative power of Christ.
“Let us make it our personal goal, and the goal of this summit, to speak the truth as Jesus spoke the truth—to remember that every word by His disciples should be a word that helps someone else become a disciple of Christ,” Wilson said. “There is a way to speak the truth that leads to life, so let us talk and share and learn from each other in that way,” he said.
The world church leader went on to define the parameters of the summit. Its goals, he said, did not include revising the Adventist Church’s perspective or statements on human brokenness to match “the changeable spirit” of current social trends and values. “Nor have we come to describe that brokenness in any greater way than the Word of God defines every human sin,” Wilson said.
Sin is not a hierarchy of human failings, he said—with some shortcomings “less dangerous or damaging” than others—but an expression of living life out of harmony with God.
He called it both “inconsistent and morally wrong” for the Adventist Church to isolate practicing members of the LGBT community for discipline “while it ignores those engaged in heterosexual premarital sex or adultery. God’s standard for sexual behavior requires that only in the union of one man and one woman in heterosexual marriage can the gift of sexuality appropriately and biblically be enjoyed. Any departure from that standard must be addressed with similar seriousness and a similar attempt to bring about correction, repentance, and restoration.”
A major goal of the summit, Wilson said, is to develop an awareness of how to compassionately steer those living lives out of harmony with God toward “salvation and recovery.”
“We have come here because we are committed as a people to speaking the truth to each other and to the world around us, and because we are committed to learning how to speak that truth as Jesus did,” he said.
Wilson’s keynote relied significantly on Scripture and the writings of church cofounder Ellen G. White to describe Jesus’ approach to sharing truth. “Christ ‘was never rude, never needlessly spoke a severe word, never gave needless pain to a sensitive soul. He did not censure human weakness. He spoke the truth, but always in love,’ ” Wilson said, reading a passage from Steps to Christ, White’s classic volume about conversion and spiritual rebirth.
The summit included testimonies from former members of the LGBT community who wrestled with brokenness and now describe themselves as “redeemed” from that lifestyle.
“We must listen as they tell us about their struggle and their pain; and we must not let our pride pretend that their mistakes are any worse in the sight of heaven than the ones we ourselves have made,” Wilson said.
—Daily news bulletins from the summit provided by Adventist Review and Adventist News Network (ANN) are available at adventistreview.org and news.adventist.org.
“We Come to God and Then We Go for God”
It’s one of the most important holidays in Europe. Shops are closed, sacred concerts abound, and churches report record visitors during the traditional Easter weekend. Over the past eight years Adventist young adults from all over Germany and Europe have met for fellowship, inspiration, training, and outreach at the city of Mannheim.
The motto of this year’s meeting, held April 17-21, 2014, was “Lift Up Your Heads.” Speakers focused on personal readiness within the context of the final events prior to the return of Jesus Christ. “We come to God and then we go for God,” stressed Doug Batchelor, president of Amazing Facts and one of the main speakers, during the Thursday night opening sermon as he took his audience to the moment of Isaiah’s call to ministry.
The organization of this year’s YiM congress was beset with an unusual amount of difficulties and challenges, reported Baden-Württemberg Conference youth ministries director Marc Engelmann during the opening ceremony. Fire marshals of the town had reduced the holding capacity of the school’s main auditorium from 1,200 to 200. City officials had sent a note indicating a changed cost structure, potentially adding €50,000 to the final bill, just weeks before the event was to begin.
Yet in spite of these challenges, participants were able to enjoy fellowship, workshops, and inspirational music and preaching in a quickly erected tent holding more than 1,500. Carrying to the front of the platform a sack full of “burdens” Engelmann shared, “I am so happy that I can lift up my head and look to Jesus—we wish you this experience in the coming days.”
Challenged by speakers throughout the five-day event, the young adults attending YiM responded strongly: 67 decided for baptism; 58 committed to give a year of service to Jesus; and 12 accepted God’s call to prepare for full-time ministry.
Service to others was another important component of YiM. Young adults shared food and hope with people who were homeless on the streets of Mannheim and visited shut-ins and residents of several retirement homes. Friday saw hundreds of youth involved in missionary outreach.
More than 500 volunteers, roughly a third of all participants, demonstrated commitment. They served everywhere—preparing food, cleaning restrooms and showers, helping as ushers and security personnel, working with the audio and video of the congress, and helping in many other ways. Following the final sermon on Monday morning, they, together with other participants, moved 1,500 chairs back into classrooms and containers, swept 129,000 square feet (12,000 square meters) of classrooms, hallways, auditoriums, and other spaces, and returned the school complex back to its original state—all in two hours.
Joachim Broegaard, a medical student from Denmark, traveled more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) to meet old friends and be inspired by the programming. He also was happy to connect with other people interested in medical ministry in Europe. Translation into English, Czech, and Polish of the sermons in the main tent underlined the international nature of the event.
Before the sermon on Thursday evening Michael Dörnbrack, a pastor and one of the founders of YiM, introduced Benny and his two friends John and Elli. A number of years ago Benny, an avid rock climber and passionate Adventist, had brought his rock-climbing buddy John to his Pathfinder group and had later begun to study the Bible with him. John, in turn, had invited his girlfriend, Elli—so a friend brought a friend. Dörnbrack challenged the audience to “not have a submarine faith,” which only shows itself on Sabbath morning for two hours.
Before the 2014 YiM participants packed their backpacks and suitcases on Monday, they once again sang the theme song of the congress: “Lift up your heads, see Jesus our King.” It was a little foretaste of heaven.
—By Gerald A. Klingbeil, associate
editor, with contributions from Marcus Witzig, Baden-Württemberg Conference
Details Released in Cyber Attack That Defrauded Adventist Church of a Half Million U.S. Dollars
New details have been released in the ongoing investigation of a sophisticated cyber theft that defrauded the Seventh-day Adventist Church of approximately US$500,000 during a four-week period late last year.
Church leaders say a compromised password appears to have allowed online scammers to hack into the Gmail account of a church employee authorized to initiate instructions for money transfers. Impersonating the employee—and unbeknownst to him—the scammers sent e-mails to financial personnel at Adventist world church headquarters, approving the transfer of funds on behalf of a denominational entity. An elaborate filtration system set up by the scammers marked all responses from headquarters as “read” and “deleted,” thus bypassing the employee’s inbox.
Meanwhile, the scammers laundered funds from 16 fraudulent transactions through the personal bank accounts of five apparently unwitting victims, church financial officers said.
“We have modified procedures to do our best to prevent anything like this from happening again,” said Robert E. Lemon, treasurer of the Adventist world church.
Lemon said incidences of fraud in which scammers troll the Internet for e-mails giving instructions to “pay, transfer, or send” funds are growing in occurrence. In such cases scammers carefully study account holder’s e-mails so they can send transaction requests that closely mirror the tone and content of legitimate e-mails. Some hackers may even include personal comments—often work or family details gleaned from actual e-mails—to make the transaction requests appear more genuine.
“We urge church employees and members to exercise extreme caution when acting on instructions for handling funds that come through an e-mail without a second independent verification through another means, such as phone call, text message, or fax,” Lemon said.
At headquarters, internal controls were in place that church leaders said should have alerted financial personnel of a problem with the first transaction. But several key employees who would have questioned the transactions were traveling or were otherwise out of the office at the time, Lemon said. Additionally, the transfer amounts and explanations were “within the normal scope” for the denominational entity in question, he said.
Church financial personnel discovered the fraud after growing suspicious of the high rate of transaction requests and an alert from one of the banks involved. The scammers quickly discontinued fraudulent activity associated with both the e-mail account and the linked bank accounts.
While the church was able to recover some of the funds that were still in the bank accounts before they were frozen, Adventist financial officers said they’re unsure whether the remaining losses are recoverable. Cooperation with U.S. federal authorities in the ongoing investigation is expected to continue, they said.
“There is no indication that any employees were involved in unethical behavior, and no church e-mail servers or bank accounts were accessed or compromised in the scheme,” Lemon said.
“Having something like this happen on our watch is very difficult for those of us in treasury,” Lemon added. “We would like to thank each church member for their faithfulness and solicit their prayers that God will help us guard His funds in an ever-changing landscape of online fraud.”
—By Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN
CLARITY AND TACT: Seventh-day Adventist Church President Ted N. C. Wilson delivers the keynote address at the opening of the “In God’s Image: Scripture. Sexuality. Society.” summit at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on March 17, 2014.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: Adventist young adults engage people in the community with some of the more colorful aspects of Bible prophecy at the Youth in Mission Congress in Germany.
Snake Worship — in Church?
When the symbol overshadows the real thing
By Atuanya Cheatham DuBreui
I once saw a TV program about some small churches in the Appalachian Mountains in the United States that practiced snake handling as a regular part of their worship services. Congregants cited Mark 16:18 and Paul’s encounter with a poisonous snake in Acts 28:1-6 as reasons they participated in such a dangerous activity; it demonstrated their faith in God and His protection. The TV narrator, however, went on to state that each year several church members were bitten, some fatally so.
Faulty interpretations of Scripture? Presumptuous faith? Possibly, but these daring Appalachians are not the first to include snakes in their worship experience.
In 2 Kings 18 we meet King Hezekiah of Judah. His father, Ahaz, had been an evil, idolatrous monarch who led the nation into spiritual apostasy and moral decay. As a result, God allowed the Assyrians to capture and occupy several major Judean cities.
Hezekiah, unlike his father, “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” (2 Kings 18:3).* He knew that in order to save his people, he must rid the country of its infatuation with idolatry and turn the hearts of his people back to God. Therefore, he began a major reformation in the land, destroying the high places, smashing sacred stones, and cutting down Asherah poles.
He also ordered the Levites to purify the Temple of God, removing “everything unclean” that had been set up in God’s house to worship idols! Among the items on this demolition list was an interesting historical relic: “The bronze snake [that] Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it” (verse 4). Snake worship—at church?
Faith and Object Lessons
You may recall the story behind the bronze serpent. A few centuries before, the Israelites had been a wandering nation of former slaves following God and His chosen leader Moses through the wilderness en route to the land of Canaan. Although God always provided for the Israelite’s every need, He also tested their faith at times by allowing their supplies to get drastically low, or having them face intimidating obstacles. Unfortunately, the Israelites often failed these tests and took to bitter complaining against both God and their leaders. In response, the Lord sent “venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died” (Num. 21:6).
The Israelites got the message. They cried out to Moses and pleaded with him to speak to God on their behalf. In His love and mercy for His wayward children, God instructed Moses to make a bronze snake and set it on a pole. Anyone bitten by a snake could look up in faith at this symbol of sin and be healed; those who refused God’s means of salvation, however, were doomed to die.
In and of itself, this bronze snake had no healing properties. Like the sanctuary services, the burnt offerings and sacrifices, and the holy days, the serpent was yet another object lesson by which God revealed the simplicity and beauty of His plan of salvation.
Just as literal serpents had bitten people and brought death, so Satan, the original serpent, had deceived humanity’s first parents and poisoned them with the deadly venom of sin.
Instead of leaving us to our chosen fate, however, Christ became a serpent on a pole. He became sin for us. He traded our poisoned natures for His pure and holy character. He accepted the slow, painful, and inevitable death that was ours so that we might have the abundant life that was His.
And all the Israelites had to do was look up in faith to the Savior and accept the healing and salvation He offers. And it’s all we too have to do.
As years passed, however, the Israelites lost sight of this beautiful illustration of God’s love and salvation. Some began to look at the serpent as a good-luck charm, an omen of good fortune. They began to attribute their healing, their blessings, and their prosperity not to God but to the serpent. They began to honor and rely upon the symbol rather than the Savior it symbolized.
As they had once burned sweet incense in the Temple to God representing their prayers and thanksgiving to Him, they now burned incense to the brazen serpent. Hezekiah knew he had to destroy this rival for his people’s hearts if they were ever to turn to the true God.
Snake Worship Remix
By the time Jesus arrived as a humble teacher in Israel, the Jews had put away idol worship with a vengeance, but they had created a new, subtler form of “snake worship” instead. They were vigilant guardians of tradition, customs, and “human rules they have been taught” (Isa. 29:13). At some point the Jews, especially the Pharisees, had concluded that their salvation was not based upon God and His mercy, but was the direct result of their heritage and nationality, their meticulous adherence to the law (by both letter and tradition), and the majesty of the Temple in which they worshipped.
Christ did not criticize the majority of these practices. There was nothing intrinsically wrong with most of them, except that those who relied upon them as a means of salvation had “neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness” (Matt. 23:23). The Jews had taken the law in its most literal and technical form, and endowed it with sanctifying and saving powers that it did not possess.
Jesus pointed out that these Jews only honored God with their mouths, but their hearts were far from Him. They talked about God, but few of them really talked to Him or knew Him personally. They worshipped the law of God, while ignoring the God whom the law described.
Look Up and Live!
One warm evening Nicodemus, a leading member of the Jewish ruling council, secretly sought an interview with Jesus. Like many of his Pharisaic associates, Nicodemus was guilty of burning incense to the “brazen serpents” of his own making.
After explaining the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart, Jesus stated: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” (John 3:14, 15). Jesus reminded Nicodemus that it is not sacred symbols or longstanding traditions; it is not prophetic messages or even godly prophets; it is not anything we do (or don’t do) that saves us. It is Christ (cf. Eph. 2:8, 9)!
Do we have any brazen serpents to which we are burning incense? They can be objects, people, ideas and teachings, traditions and customs, attitudes or practices, even ministries and activities, On the surface they appear godly, and may even have a history of serving God’s purposes; but they now stand as idols, blocking our access to and worship of the one true God to which they once pointed.
It is so easy for any of us to value much higher what we do (or don’t do), what church we attend, or what we know than loving “the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” and writing the commandments He has given on our hearts (Deut. 6:5, 6).
When King Hezekiah destroyed the brazen serpent, he helped the Israelites see the true, living God. As we lift up Christ—not the things that symbolize or represent Him—we too are freed to experience God’s healing, and taste the joy of salvation found in Christ, our true Savior and Redeemer.
1 All Scripture quotations in this article have been taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Atuanya Cheatham DuBreuil lives in Wesley Chapel, Florida, United States. She is married to John-Antony, and is a mother of three.
ON THE BORDER: This sculpture on Mt. Nebo, the site where tradition says Moses viewed the promised land, represents both the serpent in the wilderness that brought healing, and the Son of Man who brings salvation.
The Adventist World, an international periodical of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The General Conference, Northern Asia-Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists®, is the publisher.
