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Flyinglady
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Username: Flyinglady

Post Number: 205
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 8:25 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I just received an e-mail from an SDA friend in Las Vegas that a new SDA church is being started in Henderson. I am sure she is telling me so I will go and become SDA again. I am not even curious about it.
My question now is, should I ask her to take me off the e-mail list? I want to keep in contact with her as she has been a friend, but is it worth it? I want to represent Christ and his love to everyone with whom I come in contact. I had invited her to my baptism and she did not come.
I pray for her and all the SDAs I know.
Any suggestions???
We do have an awesome God.
Diana
Colleentinker
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Username: Colleentinker

Post Number: 371
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 9:33 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Diana, I don't have an answer for you, but you might thank her for the invitation and explain why you are happy in your current church and not looking for another.

Unfortunately, some friendships do not survive long-term after one party leaves Adventism. I've no way to know whether or not this one may survive for you, but your friend does sound as if she is a bit upset about your leaving.

Ask God to guide you regarding this friendship. Whether or not it survives at this time, you can continue to pray for her. I have one friend whom I valued highly who no longer talks to me, but I pray for her every day. I know that the Holy Spirit can deal with her all the time, and I can at least touch her life through prayer.

Colleen
Patrickfoy
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Username: Patrickfoy

Post Number: 3
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 9:51 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Diana- I personally have stayed in touch with a few of my closest SDA friends since leaving the SDA church. I do this because 1.They are friends even if they are mislead. I have spend many years and many good times with them. 2. It keeps the door open for the spirit to work in their lifes, to see the truth of the Word and to realize the faults of their belief system. Now that I have said that, there are also those SDA friends that have written me off as belonging to the devil and forever lost and they would turn and go the other way if we came face to face in the grocery store. I pray for both, that the spirit will convict, but it is a blessing to have the personal contact for I feel that the Spirit will work through us in due time. One thing that I remember about the SDA church was the way that they would cast out any who disagreed, not having the patience of Christ.
I would continue to minister until I was told to get lost. But that's just me.
Patrick
Susan_2
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Username: Susan_2

Post Number: 662
Registered: 11-2002
Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 11:17 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

When I turned on my machine just now and saw the topic heading,"The SDA's are coming to my town" I began to laugh. It struck me like as if someone was to tell me about an immediate alian invasion. However, as as far as the e-mails go, can't you just press the delete button? You could try doing with your friend what I did with my former sister-in-law who is JW. This woman was constantly hounding me to attend her Kingdom Hall with her. Finily I told her I'd go one on one with her. I'd attend her Kingdom Hall and then she would have to attend a service over at St. Timothy's Lutheran with me. At the end of each outing we'd sit down and have a discussion based on the Bible on what we'd just heard. She totally told me off. Told me every church except the JW was dog vomit and guided by satan and she would never ever ever step foot in a den of demons but at least she never brought it up to me attending the JW meetings with her again. I hope your friendship stays intact. Somethings these relationships falter away. A recent Review article said that when people become friends in the SDA church and one on the people leave the church the friendship tends to loose it momention and within seven years there is no more contact between the parties. I think the Review article is correct in saying that this is because he main common interest is no longer there.
Flyinglady
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Username: Flyinglady

Post Number: 207
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 12:23 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Susan, I laughed when I read your first 3-4 sentences.
I wrote to my friend and thanked her for remembering me. I was the only one this was sent to. It was about an SDA church being established in my town and the prophecy seminar that would be held there. I told her I was very happy at my new church and that I learned what the gospel was-Jesus Christ, his birth, life, death and resurrection. I told her I had weekly Bible lessons and they went along with what I had studied and am studying independently. I asked her not to e-mail me anymore things about the SDA church and prophecy seminars. Then I said instead let us pray that God will send his Holy Spirit to lead us and teach us.
I will see what she says in return. She has never done this before so I did not just delete it.
I pray for her as I do all my SDA friends and family.
God will prevail
Diana
Pheeki
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Username: Pheeki

Post Number: 344
Registered: 1-2003
Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 12:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Henderson, is that in Kentucky?
Flyinglady
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Username: Flyinglady

Post Number: 209
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 12:38 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

No, Henderson is next door to Las Vegas, Nevada.
Diana
Thomas1
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Username: Thomas1

Post Number: 119
Registered: 4-2002
Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 1:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Diana,

Here's an idea. Start a once a week "newsletter" OR Gospel thought email. Keep it small and keep it centered on Jesus and His gospel. Put her on YOUR email list and add every SDA email you can find to the list. Always end with an invatation to go to His house for the weekend. Be especially creative on Easter, Christmas, Pentacost, and other special Christian days.

See how long it takes her to ask you to drop her. In the meantime, you can share the gospel to those who need it. They might even start forwarding it to others.

Just a thought about

Jesus!

<><
Thomas
Flyinglady
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Username: Flyinglady

Post Number: 210
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 7:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

My friend answered me and said no problem to not sending me things about the SDA church and the prophecy seminars. She still wants to meet with me for lunch once in a while just to talk about life. I am very happy for her attitude.
So, everyone, please pray for her. She is a dear friend.
I get a daily Bible thought from R. Chaffart and Pastor Martin. I just may forward those to her and other SDAs on my list. I will pray about it.
Thanks for all your thoughts.
Diana
Sabra
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Username: Sabra

Post Number: 124
Registered: 10-2001
Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 8:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hey, Diana, can you forward them to me? My e-mail is reedsome05@aol.com

Good idea Thomas...

I thought about aliens when I read the title too! HA! Speaking of such, did anyone hear what those lights were on the news? Some police video caught like a meteor falling but they say scientists are saying it wasn't a meteor. (I think they just don't want us to panic--same thing happened a couple of months ago.

Did anyone hear about it? Looked like a comet, it was huge and just burnt up in space. Weird.

Sabra
Patrickfoy
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Username: Patrickfoy

Post Number: 4
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 9:41 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Diana, you handled that perfect. My prayers are with you for your friend.
Patrick
Flyinglady
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Username: Flyinglady

Post Number: 214
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Friday, July 09, 2004 - 8:51 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Sabra, I will be glad to forward those to you. They are good. I forward them to members of my family and to a young friend I call my little sister.
Diana
Mary_jane
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Username: Mary_jane

Post Number: 15
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Friday, July 09, 2004 - 9:03 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Greetings, everyone!

I haven't posted in a long time, but I do follow along when I have time. Your "aliens" thought caught my eye, though...and I have a question.

You'll probably think I am a nut case...I tend to be pretty open-minded. I also love science fiction. Personally, I think if you believe in a God who can do anything...like for example...say let there be light, and there is...and so forth, well, science fiction isn't so wierd. Anyway...

I was watching "Independence Day" over the weekend for the third or fourth time, and later, in the middle of the night I was awake and started thinking...well, we're taught that Jesus and His angels will come down out of the sky and take the "good" people to heaven with Him. Okay, a lot of spaceships show up (or do the glorified bodies He'll give us enable us to go through the vaccuum of space all by ourselves?) and take some humans away, leaving the rest to the destruction of the earth. I started thinking, if some other beings showed up and wanted to take me and, say, ten percent of the people from earth, and, by the way, they're destroying the earth as we leave... somehow I think I would be trying to get off the spaceship to warn the others, and to get them to try to fight this thing. Maybe I would be too much of a coward to do anything...but I would really wonder. I guess I just watch too much scifi. But in the SDA church, they harp on all that end-day information, and scare you half to death, and you end up having nightmares about it. In reality, though, when you consider Jesus coming down from the sky, and taking some people "up" to heaven...it opens all sorts of imaginings. Part of the problem is that, even though I know a lot of people are "bad", and according to Biblical standards probably wouldn't be saved...don't believe in Jesus...etc., I just don't think I could blithely go off and leave them to destruction. For example, I have two step-grandsons who are in prison. They have obviously made a lot of bad choices. But they were probably "drug babies". If not, their mother was definitely on drugs when they were small, and they grew up "on the street". It's a very long story, but if God can change people, maybe he can "heal" bad upbringing, or something, to help people, and not just destroy people who have a lot of anger and problems in their lives, and not destroy them? I guess I can see some "promise" in that concept that God would "save" everybody. I guess there are really some people who really prefer evil, and choose that over good, but it seems to me that most people would choose good if they really felt they had a choice. I don't know. Any comments?

Mary Jane
Susan_2
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Username: Susan_2

Post Number: 669
Registered: 11-2002
Posted on Friday, July 09, 2004 - 9:24 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Mary Jane, Did you grow up SDA? If so, do you remember as a kid those horrible huge pictures from school and Sabbath School on the flip boards? I remember one picture had the ever faithful SDA's running to the mountains as the Sunday-keepers are chasing them to try to get them to obey the Sunday laws. On another picture there were two trails leading from earth to heaven. One trail was wide with beautiful scenery, georgeous everything along the way. The other trail was narrow with thornes and bugs and all sorts of icky things along the way. At the end of the trails was the gates to heaven with Jesus sitting at the top of the page. The icky trail got you in because the road to eternal life is a difficult path to take. The pretty trail got you sent back to earth for eternal annialation because there is a way that seems right but the end therein is death. Do any of you out there remember those pictures? Weren't they just about the most horrible things to show a child being raised Christian? Do the SDA's still do this to their kids?
Mary_jane
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Username: Mary_jane

Post Number: 16
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Friday, July 09, 2004 - 9:41 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Susan,

I don't remember seeing exactly what you described, but I wouldn't doubt that I have seen it. My father was raised VERY Adventist, nasty about-as-bad-as-it-gets Adventist. Compared to his upbringing mine wasn't bad. My half-brother, who is about 15 years older than me has some very bizarre memories. By the time dad married my mom (a Lutheran) some of that was mitigated. But it was really one big guilt-trip, where I was never "good enough". Between being less than perfect, then scared by all those end-time ideas, it is certainly not a welcoming, hopeful religion, the way I believe Jesus was. In fact, the only people he criticized were the church leaders. Of course, every time I've ever brought that up in an SDA church, I was thoroughly ignored, at least by the "good" members. I always played the Devil's advocate, I guess, but I could always look at the other side of the issue.

I don't know if they still do that to the kids, but I wouldn't doubt it. How else would they keep them in line??? Not by praise, I'm sure. You might make them self-confident, and that just doesn't work for cults, now does it?

Mary Jane
Pheeki
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Username: Pheeki

Post Number: 348
Registered: 1-2003
Posted on Friday, July 09, 2004 - 10:02 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I remember a picture (or maybe I had it in my head) of the narrow path that Ellen describes...the one that if you fall off of is impossible to get back on and you fall into the darkness. Anyone remember this? I tried to search for her writings on the narrow path but couldn't find it. Of course the narrow path is the Sabbath.

I wonder...if she makes it to heaven (she was a believer of sorts) what she will think of all those that are lost because of her teachings. Those who gave up and fell off the narrow path that was impossible to get back on!
Spokenfor
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Username: Spokenfor

Post Number: 37
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Friday, July 09, 2004 - 10:21 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Pheeki, I think the narrow path thing is in Early Writings, her first vision. The saints (aka Adventists) were on the narrow path and if they took their eyes off of Jesus they fell off the path to the 'wicked world' below. Ugh. I hate the way those writings stick in your head forever. What a load of nonsense! I've purged my home of them but sure wish I could purge them from my mind!
Flyinglady
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Username: Flyinglady

Post Number: 216
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Friday, July 09, 2004 - 7:01 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks Patrickfoy and every one else for your prayers. I am sure they helped me as I wrote back to my friend.
Just a few minutes ago I called a former SDA minister who got my son started on the Bible search for truth. I wanted to thank him for telling my son the truth and got him started on his search. I told him I was no longer SDA and why. He told me I probably felt very free. Which is how I felt when I gave up EGW and found out what the gospel really is.
It felt good to say thank you to him.
Just wanted to share that with all of you.
Cindy
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Username: Cindy

Post Number: 592
Registered: 7-2000
Posted on Friday, July 09, 2004 - 9:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hi Maryjane, I was thinking about your questions of God saving people (all?) and of those desiring to 'do good' versus 'do evil'.

I feel it comes down to 'who' they bow their knee to ultimately....themselves or God.

Do I want to be my own god? Or do I desire God to be my god? To be my God on His terms, not mine.

As Oswald Chambers wrote, this mindset of a self-governed person

"may work out in decorous morality or indecorous immorality, but it has the one basis, my claim to my right to myself. When Our Lord faced men with all the forces of evil in them, and men who were clean living and moral and upright, He did not pay any attention the the moral degradation of the one or to the moral attainment of the other; He looked at something we do not see, vis., the disposition."

What we think of JESUS (who is God!) will ultimately show where we really belong. Where we even desire to be--either RESTING in Him... or far away from His Presence.

grace always,
cindy



Colleentinker
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Username: Colleentinker

Post Number: 380
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 11:43 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Cindy, I agree. I also believe that when Jesus comes back, those who know him will desrie to be with him. They will recognize him, and they, who have already been willing to give up even things they loved for the sake of being true to Jesus, will still be willing and eager to go with Him wherever He is. that doesn't mean they might not feel remorse and grief for those they love, but being with Jesus, I believe, will be more satisfying and deeply meaningful than whatever or whoeveer they have had to leave.

I realize that this doesn't make much sense unless one has actually met Jesus and experienced the change He makes in one's ife.

I like what you said, Cindy, about what we think of Jesus ultimately showing us where we really belong.

Colleen
Flyinglady
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Username: Flyinglady

Post Number: 329
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Thursday, July 29, 2004 - 8:56 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

All my life, it scared me when I thought of Jesus second coming. Through getting to know more about God in my 12 step program, I have not been afraid for a long time. Since I have become a born again Christian, I look forward to His coming and want it as soon as possible.
I remember the pictures of the beasts and the prophecied as believed by the SDA church and the picture of the people and the 2 paths. All of the scared me ###@@#@#@$@@. You all know what I mean.
Thank God for his AWESOMENESS so I do not have to be afraid any more.
Diana
Sheryl
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Username: Sheryl

Post Number: 15
Registered: 5-2004
Posted on Friday, August 27, 2004 - 6:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Susan, and others posting, boy do I remember those flip charts and pictures. oh my goodness, what fear!! believe it or not, I still have a complete set of the Bible story books, I thought about reading parts of them to my five year old grandson as a supplement to Bible reading when he is able to understand some of this. I couldn't imagine scaring him with that now.
Susan_2
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Username: Susan_2

Post Number: 893
Registered: 11-2002
Posted on Saturday, August 28, 2004 - 7:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I'll tell you something about those sda Bible story books. The jw's have plagerized some of the artwork and put it in the jw "Bible" story book they make to warp the little JW babies. You can go to www.watchthetower.org and scroll down to where it says, "Watchtower steals artwork" and see it for yourself. It just strikes me as kinda funny in a pathetic kind of way that those cults have no shame-they steal from each other. You can read on there the stories of people who used to be jw and are not now. Very similiar to what we on hear say with the emotional abuse, the controlling aspect of the religion, the fear factor, the made up rules that are not Bible but the organization imposes them, etc. Very similiar.

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