| Author | Message | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 643 Registered: 7-2007 |
All of us who've been Adventists have heard sermons in Adventist churches on a whole bunch of topics - not just Ellen White and Adventist end time beliefs. We've heard sermons that evangelicals might appreciate too, though I think those sermons go over the heads of most, if not all the Adventist congregation; including the one preaching the sermon! One such topic is the metaphor of marriage, which in a good marriage, is a metaphor of Christ and the church. All of you who are really Christians, after you accepted the Lord, (for myself, it was after I asked for the Holy Spirit some months after I accepted the Lord, and then I asked for the Holy Spirit hesitantly because of my Adventist background), anyway after you accepted the Lord, you felt His joy, His love and His peace. This most definitely was NOT works! This is something that was completely unknown to me as an Adventist. I had know idea that a person REALLY COULD experience God's actual Presence in his/her life with the joy that goes with it. (Though being WITH God in Heaven will be SO MUCH more joyful, we can't imagine it!) The Bible speaks of the enjoyable result of a Christian's union with Christ through His Spirit. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace..." (Gal. 5:22); "But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him." (1st Cor. 6:17) "...you rejoice with joy inexpressible..." (1st Peter 1:8) As an Adventist, I also heard about the "fruits of the Spirit" and thought they were just more things I should DO. Of course my list included several other things such as "keeping" the Sabbath, or at least the behaviors that I considered "keeping" it, and reading the labels of food packages in stores to make sure I wasn't going to be eating anything with pork in it. I felt that if I kept my checklist and kept asking the Lord to forgive me all my sins, I would eventually be saved. (I had no concept of the Biblical principle of present salvation, even though it talks plenty about it, in verses such as: "...that you may KNOW that you HAVE ETERNAL LIFE..." (1st John 5:13) I didn't have any special joy either, as an Adventist, though I tend to be a naturally happy person. God was distant, but I thought that was the way it was supposed to be. I thought all that talk of Jesus "living in our hearts" and "a relationship with Jesus" was metaphoric. I had no idea of the present joy that a Christian has NOW!  | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 6487 Registered: 3-2004  |
Asurprise, When I gave up EGW is when the Holy Spirit lifted a burden off my shoulders that I did not know was there. That is about the time I started reading the NT without any other help. Since that day I know, now, that the Holy Spirit has been with me. He has been there all my life, I am sure. I just did not know it. He is the one that told me to read the Bible stories out of the Bible to my son and He told me how to raise my son. That was not as a traditional SDA. But I do have to say it was when I gave up EGW that I have felt the presence of God and the Holy Spirit in my life. I hear God's voice more easily and know that it is God. And the JOY I have experienced is like nothing else I have experienced. And I have it NOW. Thank you Awesome God. Diana L | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 644 Registered: 7-2007 |
Flyinglady; for me, it took a series of miracles to even find out that EGW was a false prophet and to find out that the SDA church was a false church. Before that, I didn't even know to read the New Testament without any outside help. I'm just SO GLAD that the Lord led me into the truth of the gospel!!!!! | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 4165 Registered: 9-2006  |
having the Holy Spirit WITH us and IN us is two different things. Having him WITH us does not mean we are saved and have him IN us. Having him WITH us is fact, he is Gods presence within this world, without him no one could be saved. The joy of the Lord belongs to his own whom he has come to dwell in. Once he comes to dwell IN us we then have the guarantee of the Holy Spirit which produces joy. I think what Asurprise is trying to do is explain, or more like exclaim, the distinction between the actual joy of the Lord and when she didn't have that. There are many cheerful people that are just naturally cheerful people, yet have no true knowledge of God and are lost in their sin. At least I THINK that is the way it is and I THINK that is what the Bible teaches. Its not that I think either of you are wrong in what you said, its just that I wanted to express the fact that the joy of the Lord belongs to those that are his own. That is why I think Adventist, at least for the most part go through the formality of church, w/water bottle gurgeling and whispering and such going on. yes the Holy Spirit is with them as a presence in this world, but I doubt very much him being IN them while they teach and consume a false doctrine. It seems to me to say that the Holy Spirit is in them would be to say that he promulgates and is approving of a false doctrine. This kind of thing seems to me a grave error on the part of some. I believe this is why the Adventist does not have any certainty of salvation or the Joy of the Lord, is not because of ignorance, but because he has not yet come in to dwell thus is unsaved as a billy goat. There are many Christians who do not possess the full joy of the Lord simply because they do not yet know they can place their full weight on the Lord.Thats ignorance of what the Lord has done and some evangelical works churches does not know to they can put full weight on the Lord, that is a lot of ignorance, or to put it another way, the ignorant all gathering together in the same place. Now you take my easy boy recliner, I have no doubt that I can go in there and flop down on it and it will take my full weight, its the same with the Lord, I can flop down on his lap, so to speak, and I know he will not drop me which produces much joy and I can cry Abba Father. Now you may disagree with this. John, can I borrow you for a moment? I am from Missouri, show me. Also if you feel that I butted in just tell me and I will butt out. Just trying to take up the slack while people are off having fun at the FaF week-end. Writing on the forum is much easier than cleaning this piled up filthy office, but if I don't do that sooner or later the office or me one will spill out the door into the hall. Besides I think the forum is much more important than my office. River | ||
| Borninchrist Registered user Username: Borninchrist Post Number: 90 Registered: 1-2009  |
River, go clean up your office. It's after sundown... :-) | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 4166 Registered: 9-2006 |
i can't clean my office George, it's the Sabbath and tomorrow is Sunday so I can't work on Sunday either and I work in another office all next week. Guess I may spill out into the hallway. | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 4167 Registered: 9-2006 |
And besides it's after sundown and its too dark to clean, can't see the filth. | ||
| Borninchrist Registered user Username: Borninchrist Post Number: 92 Registered: 1-2009 |
We make a good joke of it, but we well know this is a reality in the life of Adventists... Last year in December (we were still in the SDA church) we had a snow storm, not too bad really... If you shovel the end of your driveway to get out, the rest of the drive would've been OK. It was on Sabbath morning and guess what, the service was canceled. My wife asked me why, mind you she is from Newfoundland and what people in Southern Canada call a snow storm is considered a beautiful Spring day in Newfoundland. I said to her it's the Sabbath, an Adventist will never be caught dead with a shovel in their hand on Sabbath. It's funny and ridiculous, but true story. George | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 4169 Registered: 9-2006 |
yes George, A funny ridiculous and sad, but true. Sometimes I joke about idiots and stuff and to me is so illogical and on the surface it is. Down underneath all this is a spirit not of God that keeps them bound. To illustrate what I mean, consider the children of Israel in the time of the captivity, they had been kept captive so long that it seemed normal and Pharaoh made then build bricks without straw. when you gather straw to make brick yourself it has to be done at night and so no rest. This spirit does the same. It holds them captive without rest night or day. the law is this spirits cat of nine tails which comes down on the back of its captors. So in reality, all jokes aside we need to see them as God see's them, not on the surface, but through eyes of the Holy Spirit. We are free, but only through the grace of god, so we must do what we can, while we can, and see it that way and have pity and a heart of mercy. Like you said brother, never quit, never falter to help those who are without clothing, on the outside where dogs and sorcerers are like E.G. White. I sometimes get crazy George, is because I cannot dwell on the true situation for long at a time. Yesterday I went to the memorial service of a friend and Pastor for 30 years. I will miss his big grin, we had a thing every meeting, he would say "How are you?" and shake my hand warmly and I would say "Fair to midlin brother, fair to midlin." It was a silly thing, but it was love passing between two brothers. The memorial was to last 45 minutes, it lasted two hours, we sang songs and worshiped and told stories about brother Bill and the glory of God was there. His work is done here on earth, but I will miss that man. As I was getting ready to go, I thought "I'll get to see Bill and then I realized again that it was his memorial that I was going to. the work wont last long and then I too will go home. The older you get the more investment you have on the other side, you are a young man, but the years will pass so quickly, it seems like only yesterday and I was young and strong and in the military, newly married and our first son was born, that boy is gray headed. God sends people like you, Moses was a sheep herder and a wanted man on the back side of a desert, but he loved God and when God said go, he went. When God says go,you go my friend. River | ||
| Borninchrist Registered user Username: Borninchrist Post Number: 93 Registered: 1-2009 |
River, we're sidetracking here, but your post above touched me in a special way. Thanks! Now since we're off track already, let me give you something else to write about: Life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer it gets to the end, the faster it rolls out. George | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 4171 Registered: 9-2006 |
So true me boy, so true. Speaking of toilet paper, I gave my secretary a little man sitting on a commode with a roll of toilet paper and a sign, the work is never done until the paper work is done. she loved it and kept it on her desk. I am getting as bad as brother Bill telling story stories. Sorry Asurprise,too get off track, fingers crossed behind back and crooked grin on face. Ok, back to your thread, we love you. River | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 646 Registered: 7-2007 |
Oh, that's okay, I love you too Besides I think I've done the same thing - gotten a thread off track, that is. |
