| Author | Message | ||
| Colleentinker (Colleentinker) |
I was thinking about the forum and praying for all of us this morning, and I realized with a new awareness that all of us who have left or are contemplating leaving Adventism really do have vulnerability to many kinds of deception. The shock of losing everything familiar can set us up for all kinds of defensesócynicism, emotional reactions to people or ideas that we embrace without discernment, doctrinal errors, self-protection against the waves of anger or rejection or criticism we face from the people we knowóthe list could go on. I am praying that we all will keep Jesus in the center of our focus. I'm praying that He will protect us from our own vulnerability and shine light on our own blind spots. I'm also praying that he will glorify himself through each of us as we grow in him and represent him in our lives and also that he will glorify himself through this forum. I've been wondering how some of you are doing. How are you and your husband, trpplbb? How is that difficult relationship we've been praying for, Lucias, and how are your work contacts? Joel, I know you're married now, and maybe you're not visiting the forum, but if you are, know that we're still praying for you and your wife. Doug, how is Bible study going for you? Are you finding fellowship and support in more deep ways? I thank God that he called all of us to himself and that he also brings us together here. Even in cyberspace, when the Holy Spirit unites hearts, their is true fellowship. Praise God for his complete faithfulness to grow us and protect us and reveal himself to us! I continue to pray for all of us! Colleen | ||
| Sherry2 (Sherry2) |
Thank you for your faithfulness in prayer to this ministry, Colleen. And all the lives it has touched. Thanks. Thanks for standing firm under pressure and unkind words that I'm sure have been said over the years to you and your husband for this site. Thank you for remaining confident in the Lord's ability to work, and remaining faithful through it all! Kudos to you. | ||
| Doug222 (Doug222) |
Thank you for asking Colleen. You have such a gift of encouragement. I am doing fine. Unfortunately, the study never did get any deeper, so I have pretty much backed out. I realize that everything is not for everyone, and feel the freedom to withdraw from activities that I do not see benefiting my spiritual growth--something I never could have done previously. Maybe there are those for whom the study is meeting a need, but it was not doing that for me (nor do I feel I was meeting anyone elses need by my presence). Somehing exciting is happening in my life right now. I have had several opportunities to share Christ with my mother, a long time Adventist. SHe converted to Adventism with my father nearly fifty years ago. She is excited about her discoveries, but is still has doubt that it can be "this easy." I shared a book with her that Lucias recommended, "12 Steps for Recovering Pharisees--Like Me." I HIGHLY recommend this book to all. She called me back a couple days after I sent it raving about it. She said she could hardly put it down. The book's subtitle is "Finding Grace to Live Unmasked." It is the PERFECT book for anyone who has been caught up in legalism. My prayer is that she will find Christ in this lifetime. I think she is on the verge. She is about 67 years old. She recently went to a retreat at an Adventist facility. She called me back and asked if I could send her another copy of the book. Evidently she was sharing about the book with someone else. I know she has also been sharing the contents of the book with some people in my family. Oh what a joy it would be in being a part of leading a family member (or anyone else for that matter) to a real relationship with Jesus. I've never done that before. Heck, you can't lead someone where you've never been yourself. I've heard that expression all my life, now I know what it means. Anyway, please keep her in your prayers. In His Grace Doug | ||
| Sherry2 (Sherry2) |
Very awesome Doug!!! Praise the Lord! I'll be praying for you too. What a story of encouragement. Thanks for sharing. | ||
| Gatororeo7 (Gatororeo7) |
Hello! I havent been in the forum for a little while. Between moving out of my dorm to finalizing wedding plans to finally getting married last Saturday and then our honeymoon, I've been quite busy, but it's been all worth it =). God is certainly blessing us with many things. For starters, a lot of our family and friends were very generous in helping us financially for the wedding and for our getting started in married life. We actually broke even on all the expenses we paid for for the wedding (it was a rather small, inexpensive one), but that is certainly a blessing. We also now have a seemingly endless supply of baby clothes for our new arrival due in July. Now that the craziness of the wedding is over, we can get even more excited for the next phase of our lives. I'm definitely excited about it. Spiritually, I know I could use some charging, and lately its been hard getting Sara motivated also, but yesterday we sat down together and started reading the gospel of John together. It was actually very enjoyable. I started back at an old job I had back in my hometown (actually I started tonight, and I'm even going to be working tomorrow afternoon, so far no objections), so I'll be making some extra money to also help out this summer. I plan to start looking for a church in the next week. We never really joined a church before I left for college and now that I'm back for the summer I definitely want to find a temporary home till I can get back to my church at school. I'm definitely in prayer about it, especially for her openness to going to a church thats not SDA, although she never has objected before. Overall, I'm in a great mood, God is wonderful, and I'm enjoying married life =). Thank you all for your prayers. God bless! Joel | ||
| Trippllb (Trippllb) |
Colleen, thanks for asking how my husband is doing. He actually is doing much better. In fact, just last night we made some real breakthroughs on planning going forward. I feel the holy spirit working so strongly in both our lives. He's becoming more open to talking about things of a religious nature. He still won't pray WITH me, but I know he prays himself. I'm letting the holy spirit work in his heart on that matter. We both still need your prayers. I'm still out of work, and things are still very tight. But, my faith has not waivered. I think that God is leading me in a direction where I work at my husbands company to grow the business to support my salary. Right now I don't get a check and it will continue that way, but we have both agreed to focus our talents and effort on having the business be able to support my working there full time. So many things are up in the air right now when I look at my future. I know God is leading in my life, where I do not know. | ||
| Sabra (Sabra) |
Has anyone seen Bacchiochi's latest newsletter? It is actually pretty impressive! Entitled "The agenda of Islam" It was written by a Jewish professor but apparently Bacchiochi agrees. I brought the point up to him the first time I wrote but since I'm not a fellow professor he didn't listen, hey, whatever works! It's newsletter #84 under www.biblicalperspectives.com if anyone's interested. Kind of puts a big hole in the Sunday law issue. |
