| Author | Message | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 4873 Registered: 9-2006  |
I am praying that God will use LAM and FaF in a mighty way to confront SDA-ism, I praying for him to raise up such a formidable force with LAM and FaF that the Adventist organization has to deal with it. I am serious about supporting LAM and FaF. I am praying for more formers to come on the forum who have not been here. I am praying for formers to stand up and be counted. I am praying for people to watch this one hour. At Gethsemane Jesus ask his disciples: tarry ye here, and watch with me. Later after he had prayed some time he came back and found them asleep and he said: What, could ye not watch with me one hour? And still later after he had preyed a third time he said: Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand. The time for watching was over. I pray for God to raise you up as watchers at the wall, warriors who will fight the good fight of faith and will not relent in the face of the Adventist onslaught that is sure to come. A wall of strong Christians like nothing Adventism has ever seen. I don’t believe God will use people like me, he will use people like you to raise up a standard against the lies that keep people bound in iron chains. If he would use me I would be glad to do the job, but I really feel in my heart he has told me no, so I stand down. You’re the ones he wants to watch at this wall, you may not can see it, but I do see it clearly. He will answer your prayers if you will watch at the wall. This is our hour to watch, Peter’s hour was then, it is our hour now and we can’t wait to move, can’t depend on someone else when we have been ask to watch. We can’t wait until the hour has past, the clock is ticking. If I could shove strength down you I would, you need to stand up and be strong and watch with Jesus this one hour of time. Realize the power of the one to whom you belong. River | ||
| Seekinglight Registered user Username: Seekinglight Post Number: 179 Registered: 3-2009 |
A song popped into my head that reminds me of this tour. Here are the lyrics, based on Joel 2:1 They rush on the city, they run on the wall Great is the army that carries out His Word The Lord utters His voice before His army They rush on the city, they run on the wall Great is the army that carries out His Word Blow the trumpet in Zion, Zion Sound the alarm in my holy mountain Blow the trumpet in Zion, Zion Sound the alarm! Here's a clip of The Gaither Homecoming Friends singing the song at David's Citadel in Jerusalem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-mStYKXeNU&feature=related One of my favorites, for sure  | ||
| Sparrow Registered user Username: Sparrow Post Number: 48 Registered: 10-2008  |
River, I appreciate your raising the sense of urgency. I, too, will pray for FAF and LAM. I am making myself a note on my prayer list. | ||
| Sparrow Registered user Username: Sparrow Post Number: 49 Registered: 10-2008 |
River, how do you see formers standing up and being counted? What does that look like to you? I will pray for the Lord's advice to me about how I can stand up and be counted. | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 4874 Registered: 9-2006 |
Sparrow, I don't see a single former acting alone as being able to cause the SDA organization to take much notice, but through constant pressure from a group of formers such as FaF and LAM we can force them to deal with us. What standing up and being counted looks like to me is by supporting LAM and FaF financially and with much prayer. Now there are some who just cannot give financial support right now, but being faithful to pray is free. Knowing your not alone when you witness to your folks is without cost so we do what comes to hand that we can do. Knowing you have FaF and LAM standing with you is without cost to you. It is unity, Christians acting as one in unity toward a common goal to free more Adventist, they in turn will add to the numbers. Asking what the Lord would have us each to do, watching for an opportunity to help. Look at it this way, Paul Carden spoke at Faf week-end, God has sent aid, but Paul Carden did't have to come and speak. I see unified formers, each doing what they can, whether it is prayer, contributing or just what ever you can do, voices. This forum can be a melting pot of ideas. You just said it yourself: " I will pray for the Lord's advice to me about how I can stand up and be counted." Thats where you start. But Sparrow, I wouldn't wait for bells to go off and a big thing God gives you to do, but when you look around and do the little things you can do, do them, he will add to that. It is only when we move out that he will add to that moving out. Look, we don't need to ask God for something to help us when we have FaF and LAM right here and now. Be willing to be led. Be willing to sacrifice. Be willing. I see a mighty army of formers being formed, a mighty army of warriors unified and with one purpose and that is to go back and yank captives out of Satan's hand. This is what it looks like to me. River | ||
| Jrt Registered user Username: Jrt Post Number: 544 Registered: 10-2008 |
By God's grace, I stand. | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 4876 Registered: 9-2006 |
It is by Gods grace any of us stand, The minute we think we stand on our own we have already fallen. I don't mean loss of salvation either, Christians can fall into pride and fall on our face, the thing about that is that God can pick us up and we can live to fight another day. When we fall, he picks us up When we are empty, he fills our cup When we are grey, he gives us skies of blue When we were was lonely, he gave us you When we are overwhelmed, he fights our battles When we are threatened, his sabor rattles When we are dry, he give us rain When we are hungry, he gives us grain When we need encouragement He give us nourishment And by his grace we stand And he will give us the land By his will he holds us By his life he enfolds us Praise him today, and praise him tomorrow Praise him in health, or deepest sorrow River | ||
| Indy4now Registered user Username: Indy4now Post Number: 524 Registered: 2-2008  |
Thanks always for the encouragement River! ~vivian | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 4877 Registered: 9-2006 |
My heart is so heavy right now with what I am about to say. I know it’s going to go over like a lead balloon. In 2nd Corinthians the writer had this to say to them. Corinthians II 6:11 O Corinthians! We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open. Corinthians II 6:12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. Corinthians II 6:13 Now in return for the same (I speak as to children), you also be open. Corinthians II 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? Corinthians II 6:15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? Corinthians II 6:16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people." Sprinkled throughout the Christian churches we have this situation. Young women become of marriage age and meet a man and their hormones are screaming. The only problem is, is that the person they have met is not following Jesus and these women say to themselves, Oh I love him so, I’ll go ahead and marry him, then I’ll get him saved, but the years go by and after the hormones settle down through child bearing the marriage bed settles in and she is still married to an unbeliever. Now watch this! This works the same with cults as it does a common old sinner man. Later the Holy Spirit woos her back toward Jesus and she becomes recommitted and now she has a problem and she is married to an unrepentant sinner or a cult follower and the war in her heart is on. She cry’s and she cry’s as she tries to keep the peace in her marriage. She sits in church alone and she sits in church alone and the tears flow. Preachers who preach the word of God cuts her heart to the quick because the word of God is sharper than any two edged sword, dividing asunder even the bones and the marrow. She says to the preacher (or perhaps she doesn’t say it) but its there, Oh preacher, that just can’t be right, you just don’t understand. Then she goes home alone, the way she came alone and tries to keep the peace, but there is war in her heart. She crashes against the boundaries that Christians have time and time again and her heart breaks and she hates the preacher for having preached, she hates the situation she is in. She wakes up to the situation and she goes to bed with the situation. Recently we had a young woman come on the forum, she had met an Adventist man and she sought advice here and the advice was? Run! Get out of there before its too late! Why was that good advice? Because she is going to end up in a war she can’t win. I don’t know what happened to the young woman, but I hope she heeded the advice. It was advice hard won by people who know. Her answer was in her Bible, she didn’t need to come here to get it. As in 2nd Cor. 6:10 the ministry sometimes gives us cause to be sorrowful. In 6:14 he is not changing the subject, he is simply repeating instructions to avoid to avoid any compromising unions. The Corinthian’s have not been exactly forthright with Paul, but he has been forthright with them. Paul knows the heart ache that will follow anything that will compromise their Christian integrity. Warning against marriage to an unbeliever is not the only application, but it obviously applies. Another application is to be yoked with someone who has idolatrous practices. It applies to cults. It applies to Adventism because the Adventist church is their idol and they serve it night and day. The church gives them no rest, no assurance, but they keeping going back and back, hoping against hope to bring a little milk from a dry cow. In 2nd Cor. 6:11 Paul exclaims, Oh Corinthians! Our heart is wide open. You can hear the heaviness in Paul’s heart as he ministers and alludes to Deuteronomy 22:10 "You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. It just is not wise to trace a race horse together with a mule and try to plow your field, first one will lunge at the traces and then the other will lunge at the traces. What it does is wear both animals out. To try to pull a heavy plow through compact soil when first one and then the other are lunging at the traces is a cruelty to both animals. So after the hormones have settled, the young man or young woman finds themselves either joining the partner or sitting in church alone and unequally yoked. If they join the unequal partner in compromise it will set off a fire storm within their own hearts and there will be no peace, if they do not join them they will have no support and no peace. Now watch this. When the former Adventist decides to go back down to the Adventist church to be with past friends or family, he/she sits in that pew and a firestorm breaks out in the heart. Why? An unequal yoke has occurred, like a fish out of water his heart flops around and gasps for air. The diver can put on his tanks and go down into the solid like substance of water, but at all times he knows he can’t breathe water. Down there, if anything at all happens, he runs out of air, a breather malfunctions, his mask leaks, he is in trouble, he has entered an un-natural environment. For the former who has had his spirit become alive, when he enters that environment he/she is no longer in a natural environment. Like the diver, he has to take his oxygen with him. He used to be a water breather, now he is an air breather and he has to re-surface and he’ll pop out of there gasping for the clean air of the gospel. The word of God is sharper than any two edged sword and if you mess with it, it will cut you asunder, if it says don’t be unequally yoked, that’s what it means and it ain’t the preachers fault neither, he can’t change it, so either you say amen or oh me one or the other, but there is no use making the preachers heart heavy with your lack of complete honesty. You say to the preacher, preacher, you just don’t understand my situation when you say things like you do and you shouldn’t say things like you do. Friend, why blame the preacher? He don’t preach calling out your name, he is just being what God made him into and he is just preaching to the masses, he don’t even realize you are there, his mind and heart is on God’s word. Now you say, “not all preachers are preaching Gods word.” You know what I am talking about so let’s not dance around the rose bush. There ain’t no use in playing ring around the rosie, pocket full of pose’s with a preacher. Preachers are hard headed and they are Gods instruments to bring your attention round about. River P.S. Sorry Vivian, I was just softening you up for the big one. | ||
| Indy4now Registered user Username: Indy4now Post Number: 526 Registered: 2-2008 |
were you just preaching to me? haha! I really liked your analogy of the diver when he's diving... because it is very stifling to be in a room with 3 other Adventists coming at you. Stifling and frustrating because the ones I've come into contact with can't seem to hear or understand what I'm showing them in the Bible. I'd like to say there's a veil there, but it's not in front of their eyes. They can read what I'm showing them. The veil is between their eyes and brain cells. However, God is a great God, and if He reached me while I was still Adventist, I have hope for my family. ~vivian | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 9910 Registered: 12-2003  |
River, I also particularly like the analogy of the diver. I've thought many times about this particular passage in 2 Corinthians—"unequally yoked" can mean many things. I've often thought about the fact it also refers to making close business deals with an unbeliever—going into business with one, or making some sort of business alliance with an unbeliever. Any time we place ourselves or our assets in a position to be compromised, we have acted outside of faith. Now, Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 7 that a believer married to an unbeliever who wishes to stay married is to stay in the marriage. Such persistent patience may be the means of salvation to the unbeliever. I want to reiterate River's underlying warning, however, to those here who may be contemplating entering a long-term relationship such as marriage with an Adventist. I just want to say that you do not have any idea what you will face if you marry the Adventist. Adventists are more "Adventist" than they are American or Canadian or whatever. And when the children come, they will viscerally fight for the children to be raised Adventist. If you are not clear about what's really wrong with Adventism, you will be ill-equipped to deal with the pressure. God can redeem anyone...He has redeemed us! He asks us to trust Him with our hearts and emotions and lives. He alone can satisfy us, and He alone can redeem even our relationships. Colleen |
