| Author | Message | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 2172 Registered: 7-2007 |
I remember being surprised at an SDA camp meeting back when I was an Adventist, at the sheer numbers of unhappy looking older people; once when I was in the camp meeting store. I wondered how they could look so miserable when "we" had the end time "truth." "Us" younger people could fake happiness a lot better because Adventism was progressing at that time into more "saved-by-grace" thinking. The older people who looked like that hadn't adopted that thinking, I guess. (Despite that somewhat "saved-by-grace" thinking, I could never quite put my finger on just what I need to do/learn to have that "assurance" they were talking about, though. I could only get a few minutes "assurance" by coming up with a compromise between Ellen White saying that we can't say we're saved, and Ephesians 2:8-9 saying the believer "has been saved.") My heart goes out to those many many old people with the sad looks on their faces.  If only they knew that salvation really IS simple! How about the rest of you? Do you remember encountering people like that? | ||
| Skeeter Registered user Username: Skeeter Post Number: 1651 Registered: 12-2007  |
Yep ! Still know some Adventism is not a religion of joy... how can there be when there is no assurance of salvation ? Everyone is left with just HOPING they will be found "worthy" of being saved. (SIGH) being "worthy...." that pretty much excludes ALL of us. | ||
| Thegoldenway Registered user Username: Thegoldenway Post Number: 161 Registered: 5-2011 |
i remember the times when I was up on the platform during the church service and looking out at the congregation. Very rarely would I see anyone looking happy. In fact, it was kinda funny in a morbid way. I would always search for the ones with scowls on their faces and flash them a BIG smile. Sometimes they would crack and smile back and at times they would scowl at me even more haha I have been told by the scowlers that it wasn't appropriate for me to smile while up on the platform cuz it was a time to be solemn and reverent. Oh those were the days  lynn | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 2176 Registered: 7-2007 |
Oops, I accidentally put need instead of needed! ("I could never put my finger on just what I needed to do...") I do remember enjoying "grace" filled sermons, thinking, "if only it were that simple!" Sometimes I envied an obviously happy and content "Sunday" Christian - thinking how blissful they were not knowing the "truth." I had no idea that a knowledgeable Christian doesn't KEEP Sunday or any DAY - that Jesus is our REST now! | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 13010 Registered: 12-2003  |
Yes, Asurprise. And I see a lot of faces such as those you described if I go (which I very seldom do) into the Loma Linda Market. There's something about a place where the heart of the "health message" is marketed...very, very dark... Colleen | ||
| Gcfrankie Registered user Username: Gcfrankie Post Number: 829 Registered: 1-2007 |
Too make a long story short the small church that I had belonged to had an older member who thought she owned the church and tried to rule it with an iron hand. The board refused to confront her. One of the members went out and bought praise song books out of her own pocket and added them to the pews and when she saw them she immediately gathered them up and ditched them. To her the church service was to be keep very solemn. Forget joy in the Lord. | ||
| Tfelmon Registered user Username: Tfelmon Post Number: 49 Registered: 7-2011 |
My wife and I were at Publix grocery store one late Friday afternoon and we were behind an older lady in the check out line. After her transaction and looked at her ticket, she became irritated and thought she was ripped off...became stingy/snitty and walked off in a huff. It's sad, but both my wife and I thought "she must be an SDA." My mother inlaw works at a local hospital and it was years before her co-workers learned she was an SDA. They said "but, you're so nice!" To add more fuel to my fire, it is recomended among the building construction community in my area to avoid the SDA contractors...hmmm. | ||
| Handmaiden Registered user Username: Handmaiden Post Number: 262 Registered: 7-2008 |
The first encounter i had with sda's were a family (mom & dad and two grown sons) of contractors, who came to remodel my house about 15 years ago. They kept telling me that i was not a christian because i did not keep the sabbath and that i had not carefully read my Bible. Of course i told them i was saved and read my Bible everyday. We had many discussions and they finally agreed to read the NT with me, every friday evening for as long as they were working on my house. Thankfully i had a lot of work to be done and by God's grace they were able to see the TRUTH of the New Covenant and all of them left the sda teaching and church. God has been giving me sda's to witness to ever since. The more i learn about egw the more i realize what absolute control and micro managing and sucking every tiny bit of pleasure and joy and contentment out of life for her followers was what she tried her best to do. We had a lot of rules do and don'ts, growing up, and no certainty of salvation but nothing comapared to what all of you went through. i am so grateful to Jesus that He came to give life and life abundantly. | ||
| Belvalew Registered user Username: Belvalew Post Number: 1090 Registered: 7-2004 |
I'm responding to the question about the sourpusses. I'm sure that was my face for a number of years, and not just at church. I praise God that inside of me I was always searching for that blessed assurance, and that one day Jesus made it clear to me that I had to put down the red books in order to find it. | ||
| Trans4mer Registered user Username: Trans4mer Post Number: 11 Registered: 9-2011 |
This thread is sooooo.. much an 'IED' with me and I can surely relate to these posts. As some of you know, I'm pretty much a 'newbe' on here, but somehow feel at home. Maybe I'm a Gueness book of record holder, leaving the hellish mess at 71. My daughter (from previous marriage) sides completely with me, but my son and I are 'onguard' and at 'swords point' all the time, with 'no fly zones' of conversation. Alas he is very bitter and often hateful man but I still love him. My daughter and I both go all passive agressive if he starts 'charging up weapons' and just raise shields to maximum. I'm highly confident that my first marriage/family fell victim to an 'IED'. My former wife is still SDA along with my 'twisted' up son. Sometime I'll relate the path I finaly took, studying my way out of 'Kandahar'. I've had no experience yet, trying to deal with SDA's other than my bitter, combative son of course. Godspeed to any others here with similar family situations. | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 9443 Registered: 3-2004  |
Trans4mer, I like to see us senior citizens leaving adventism. We are not to old to learn something new. Praying for you son. Our Awesome God loves him very much. Diana L | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 13017 Registered: 12-2003 |
Belvalew, it's always good to see you again! And Trans4mer, we're so glad you've joined us. Colleen | ||
| Cloudwatcher Registered user Username: Cloudwatcher Post Number: 586 Registered: 5-2009  |
Really interesting post. I think I grew up thinking that old people were mean and grouchy and strict and rigid...basically kill joys and joyless..just waiting for their turn to die (rest). But now that I think about it, the Seniors at our church have so much life and joy and compassion and light in their eyes....it's a stark contrast (they still talk about their aches and pains, but it's somehow *different*). I want to grow old like *that*! | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 13020 Registered: 12-2003 |
Yeah, me too! I remember as a kid noticing that some people just looked "bad"--sour faces, or strange expressions in their eyes, etc. I didn't know what to make of it, and my mom told me that those people couldn't help how they looked, so I wasn't to judge them. So NOW I realize that our expressions really do reflect what's "inside". People who are born again look alive in a way others do not. I totally relate to your observation above, Delina. Another thing I've noticed in the Christian community is that when people grow older, they're not "sidelined". As long as they remain involved and responsive to the Lord Jesus, they are embraced and do the work He gives them to do. The elderly are not "has-beens" or second-class citizens. It's a completely new paradigm... Having eternal life really makes us and the community different! Colleen | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 9446 Registered: 3-2004 |
As a senior citizen I can say, Yes, Colleen & Delina, you are so right. My friends do not believe me when they learn my age. They tell me I act much younger. That is what I get when God tells me what to do and I do it as I get involved with younger people and love it. I enjoy being a senior citizen, even learning the lessons God is teaching me. He is FAITHFUL all the time. Diana L | ||
| Trans4mer Registered user Username: Trans4mer Post Number: 12 Registered: 9-2011 |
Hey Cloudwatcher, how'd you come by that handle? You seem so observant to things here, which in my experience with young people is uncommon. As a retired HS teacher I had occasion to notice those kinds of things. Keep up that sunny demeanor! We ole seniors 'get off' on that. BTW anyone know any tricks to getting a '50x50' pic on here? as Larry the cable guy would say, "I can't get er done". | ||
| Philharris Registered user Username: Philharris Post Number: 2587 Registered: 5-2007  |
Trans4mer, One way is to use a photo editing program to edit a JPEG file down to the required 50 by 50 pixels. If that is beyond what you know how to do, you can email me your picture and I can do it for you and send the modified file back to you. I will post this in the members section where I will give you my email address. Phil |
