| Author | Message | ||
| Jrt Registered user Username: Jrt Post Number: 1329 Registered: 10-2008 |
YOU ARE NEVER REJECTED BY GOD but you can stay in your rejection of Him. So often in this fallen world we receive rejection by others. Even people we know who love us and care for us can at times portray a rejection of us or we feel rejected by them. Scripture records what our rejection worn hearts finds hard to understand. Romans 5:7-9 says, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." I remember as an SDA elder having a long discussion about someone who was a smoker who had not been able to kick the habit - but wanted to be baptized into the Adventist Church. They were told they could not be baptized. Huh?! Rejection. Message sent ... you must get your act together, before you can become one of us - or baptized. So often in the Adventist Church I saw rejection demonstrated, manifested, or alluded to in deceptive ways. God rejects that which is imperfect was the message that was sent. What we didn't understand was that while we were "imperfect" Christ died for us. Sadly, Adventist doctrine and writings are wrong ... It was when I understood the simple gospel of Christ as demonstrated in scripture ... I saw a salvation that was not about me becoming perfect, but about the perfect lamb of God suffering on a cross and experiencing the rejection of God for me. Not just experiencing the rejection of God - but paying the debt of my imperfection (sin). While I was a sinner - Christ died for me. Those who seek God are never rejected, forsaken, or forgotten. And even when we weren't truly seeking God for Who He is He was seeking after us. In Adventist doctrines and the writings of EGW I often sensed the rejection of God. I needed to act and do to be acceptable in the Lord's sight. Unconditional and everlasting love were concepts that were foreign, because they were never taught without somewhere else it was taught I needed to "get my act together". Oh, yes, sometimes there were right sounding words of God's love and forgiveness, but then there would also be God's rejection, because I wasn't living up to the "light" I had been given. Draw near to God ... He drew near to you 2,000 years ago when He became "God with Us". He will never reject you. "Therefore, there is NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus our Lord." The only way to be rejected by God is to stay in your rejection of Him and the sacrifice of the perfect Lamb of God. | ||
| Punababe808 Registered user Username: Punababe808 Post Number: 565 Registered: 4-2012 |
Yes, back when I was young the minister would pop this list of things you weren't allowed to do in front of your face to sign about 10 minutes before you were to be baptized. One thing on the list was smoking, another dancing, another booze, and so on. My friend went through the entire long series of home " Bible studies" with the SDA Bible worker and was never told during those studies she'd have to sign that the day of her baptized. The SDA denomination has their entire doctrine of salvation dependent on how well the person is able to preform. No kidding, back years ago I knew a SDA who was a drug dealer. I always felt sorry for his customers because he wouldn't provide their needed substance between Friday sunset and Saturday sunset. He told the addicts they needed to plan for that because he took his kid to church on Saturdays. He'd sell all sorts of bad for you substances but thebabyditter had to be sure there was no lard in the refried beans she served the kid. It's all about performance. | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 3193 Registered: 7-2007 |
Jrt; thank-you for that!  Having been an Adventist for over fifty years, it's tough to break free of the "gotta-be-good" mindset. Punababe808; wow! Adventism really causes people to be un-saved hypocrites, though this is the first time I'd heard of an Adventist being a drug dealer! (I can see how he might rationalize it as an Adventist - I think! First Ellen White says not to take any drugs at all, but Adventist doctors prescribe them all the time. Therefore he would tell himself that the drugs Ellen White spoke against were alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee - I think opium too; so as long as he sold something else, he would be okay! After all, Adventists do that all the time to a lesser extent. For example, Ellen White said never to go to a theater, but Adventists rent movies to play in their DVDs.) | ||
| Punababe808 Registered user Username: Punababe808 Post Number: 567 Registered: 4-2012 |
Yes. The really sad part is that this one friend of mine wanted to send hid kid through the local SDA academy/day school. Heyold me it was too embarrassing for him to ask for financial assistance because everyone in the local SDA community knew all his family quite well and he wouldn't want it known to them. Nonetheless, both him and his son have ended up with extensive prison sentences. | ||
| Butterfly_poette Registered user Username: Butterfly_poette Post Number: 347 Registered: 5-2011  |
Adventist drug dealer?! That is one sick Pharisee. |
