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Flyinglady
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Username: Flyinglady

Post Number: 940
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 - 7:21 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

An SDA friend sent this to me. When I first read it I wondered why the SDA conference did not help this family or if they did, in what way and how much. Why did not ADRA help them?
This Sunday, January 23, an Adventist family (the Sears) from California, will be featured on ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
This show rebuilds homes for families who are in great need.
17-year-old Jhyrve Sears (the main focus of the episode) underwent chemotherapy for a rare genetic disorder and was unable to return to her
home in Martinez, California. Stephanie Kinsey, communication director for the Northern California Conference, learned of what was going on with Jhyrve and recommended the family to be on the show for an "extreme" home makeover.
For more on the show and the family, visit
http://abc.go.com/primetime/xtremehome/index.htm Be sure to check your local listing for viewing times.

Diana
Susan_2
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Username: Susan_2

Post Number: 1366
Registered: 11-2002
Posted on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 - 9:19 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Diana, I will make a note to watch the program. In all fairness though I do not believe it is the calling of ADRA to assist individual families with those sorts of needs. I understand ADRA places its emphasis on disaster releaf, such as what happened several weeks ago from the tsunami and ADRA's second main calling is helping in greatly improvished communities. I just don't know of any other organization that is specifically set up for the kind of home reconstruction this family apparently needed. It sounds like a major overhall of the home and I honestly don't think that is ADRA's mission. Also, was the directors of ADRA even made aware of this families great need? My guess would be no. How arare of the needs of tghis family were even the local parishneres?
Melissa
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Username: Melissa

Post Number: 683
Registered: 7-2003
Posted on Wednesday, January 19, 2005 - 10:11 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I wonder if they let them work "on the 7th day"....

Personally, we enjoy the show because it actually does something good, but I always wondered what an SDA family would do since they work 7 days....
Pheeki
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Username: Pheeki

Post Number: 464
Registered: 1-2003
Posted on Wednesday, January 19, 2005 - 11:23 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Forget ADRA! The GC should be in the business of helping it's own. Or at least the local church. I have never seen such ungiving people as the SDA. The church I have started attending is nothing like that. They are starting a crusade in Feb. and March and each family that comes gets cool stuff like movie tickets, a superbowl package (everything you need to have a superbowl party)there is something every Sunday.

I told my husband this and he said it sounds like a bribe and I said, "They are trying to spread the Gospel and if that is how they want to spend their money...getting people in the church, I see nothing wrong with it." I have even heard of local churches that pick a family and they pay their credit card debt off and then in turn that family along with the church picks the next family and so on and so on...setting people free.

In my opinion, the SDA are to "heirach"-aly overburdened, they don't remember to help the poor, the very thing the Apostle Paul and company were eager to do.
Belvalew
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Username: Belvalew

Post Number: 104
Registered: 7-2004
Posted on Wednesday, January 19, 2005 - 4:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The tithing system within the SDA is set up so that all of the money leaves the local church and ends up with the GC, who then "graciously" allow some of that money to trickle back down to the local church, but never nearly as much as is donated through the tithing system.

Unless you are in a very large SDA church, each congregation is eaking out an existence. They really don't have a lot to share with their community unless they give more, over and above the required tithe. Having grown up in one of those small congregations I have lots of memories of people being as generous as they could afford to be. They delivered food to people in need during the holidays, dressed people who really needed the clothes, and really were trying to live the commission as Jesus gave it in Matthew 25. These were good-hearted people. There were also those in the congregation that would judge, harshly I might add, anything their fellow parishoners might try to do.

I agree that the riches of the church being bled off to those on the top may not be the best way of dealing with the tithe, but they will always tell you that if they didn't handle funds in that manner there would be some congregations that could not afford to pay their pastors. That's funny, tho, because every time we had to do work on the church itself, we had to collect those funds ourselves (bake sales, and such). The Conference didn't seem to be willing to help us out, not even with a loan.

SDA's are a paradox!
Susan_2
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Username: Susan_2

Post Number: 1372
Registered: 11-2002
Posted on Wednesday, January 19, 2005 - 9:05 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

About a year ago my back window was broke out by a thug with a cement block. I wasn't too bent out about it because I could drive my car with the window out. But, as luck would have it, our local window basher came back several weeks later and busted out my windshield. Now I was really bummed because I could not drive without a windshield. Several weeks after the windshield was bashed out I ran into a lady I know from church (Lutheran). She expressed her concern about not having seen me at church for several weeks and asked if everything was o.k. I told her my car window whoes. Within several hours, on that same day the pastor phoned me. He had heard of my sad story. He asked if I had the money to get a new window on the car. I told him I was broke. He made me a deal. He told me the church would pay for me a new car window if I'd promise to park my car in my garage from then on. I made the deal and I immediately got to work cleaning up my garage so I could park in it. The pastor asked me to get the best deal on the window I could and then tell the glass company to put it on the churches credit card, to have the glass company people call the church for payment. I spent an afternoon calling different glass companies so I could get the best possible deal for the church. Then the following day the mobil glass guy came out to my house and he was installing the window in my car. My elderly SDA mother came out and watched the fellow install the window. Later that day she commented to me that she didn't know I had the money saved to get the window. I told her I didn't, it was a gift. I try to say as little as I can get by with when talking with my SDA loved ones about anything having to do with church, religion, the Bible and so on. My comment sparked my moms couriosity and she asked me who would give me such a gift. I told her the pastor at the Lutheran church had heard about the situtation and he offered to have the church pay for the window. My mom looked at me in a very preplexed way and said something about wondering how come they would do such a thing and wondering what the motive behind the offer of such a kindness was. At first I thought I'd used the wrong word in my reply to my mom but then after mulling it over I decided God put just the right word into my answer to her. That word was "commandment". My answer to my mom was, "Well, the Lutherans take the commandment to do good to one another, to love one another very seriousely. As such, they are an extremely generous and giving people." etc. My mom looked at me and with total disguest she said to me, "Well, it's good to know they take one commandment seriousely. What about the others?" Then she went on to tell me she had never heard of a church helping out its members that way. And, I felt sad for her. The SDA's think they have such a handle on commandment keeping and yet my elderly always has been SDA mother had never heard of a church that actually puts into practice the commandment given by Jesus to do good to one another. Where I attend we have a weekly Wednesday evening Vespers during Lent. After the Vespers service we meet in the social hall for a simple meal of water, soup and bread, sometimes a simple salad is inluded. A bowl in on each table for donations and the money collected during Lent in those bowls goes into the fund that is marked for only helping out the church members if they get an emergency. That is the fund the money came from to pay for my window. I felt so sad for my mom as she was mulling the entire situtation over. And, I will say it again-it is not the goofy doctrines of the SDA church that quilifies the SDA church as a cult so much as the total committment to the organzation, the exclusiveness. People within that organization can see the Christianness of others and yet they are so bound to the organization because they have been taught the SDA is the only one true church. The word "commandment" to those people means the 4th (or to us Lutherans, the 3rd) and only that one. It's like the other commandments don't even exist. And, if this post sounds resentful then that is because I am resentful toward the SDA church. I honestly believe y family and my loved ones who are still SDA would hav much better quality of lifes if they were in a Christian fellowship that practiced the commandments that Jesus taught than making it's devotees practice the commandments how EGW said they had to be practiced. Do you others see real true genuine Christian joy in the lives of the SDA's you now and love? Do they show the peace of having been forgiven and being in grace? The SDA's I know often seem so sad. And, yes, it makes me resentful because I woud like for them to experience real Christian peace.
Melissa
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Username: Melissa

Post Number: 686
Registered: 7-2003
Posted on Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 6:12 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Interestingly, they had a piece on the local news about ADRA last night and about a local woman who has gone to one of the areas hit by the tsunamis. They didn't really say what she was doing, just that she was there. I hadn't really heard of that group until it was mentioned here, so it caught my attention when it was on the news.
Pheeki
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Username: Pheeki

Post Number: 466
Registered: 1-2003
Posted on Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 7:06 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I guess they did work on the Sabbath...December 10th was a Friday and the 11th was a Saturday.
________________________________________________

From the Northern California Conference Communication Department Stephanie Kinsey, communication director ___________________________________________

On Sunday, January 23, 2005, ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" will feature a new home for an Adventist family. From December 10-15, volunteers working around the clock demolished the family's once 1,200-square-foot house and unveiled the new 3,800-square-foot house.

The show reflects the power of prayer for the Sears family of Martinez, Calif. Since March 2004, Duke Medical University doctors in North Carolina have been treating 17-year-old Pleasant Hill Adventist Academy (PHAA) student JhyrvÈ Sears for Krabbe Disease, a life-threatening and rare genetic disorder. Because the treatment left her immune system compromised, doctors declared her old, mold-ridden house unfit to live in.

Yet in this dark time, their Adventist community surrounded them and with the show's involvement, the Sears family is a testament of the power of one community united with a common mission. "Through the community, God has provided us with more than I could have ever imagined," said Karen, JhyrvÈ's mother. "And after many dark, sleepless nights, I know that, like Daniel of the lion's den, God took care of us. And now, at last, we're home."

To read more about this incredible story, please visit http://ncc.adventist.org

Dennis
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Username: Dennis

Post Number: 288
Registered: 4-2000
Posted on Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 10:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Susan,

Thank you for sharing that wonderful experience. I will also share it with my Lutheran friends here locally. Is your Lutheran Church affiliated with Missouri Synod or ELCA? It is most delightful to know that your church family really cares about you. You are blessed, indeed!

Dennis Fischer
Dennis
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Username: Dennis

Post Number: 289
Registered: 4-2000
Posted on Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 11:34 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

THE INAUGURAL BENEDICTION: January 20, 2005

Hopefully, many of you heard the wonderful, well-spoken inaugural benediction by a Methodist minister from Texas. It was the best public prayer that I have ever heard. Oh yes, unlike the SDA Senate chaplain who has vowed to never pray in Jesus' name, this Methodist minister actually prayed in Jesus' name. I was immensely touched by this eloquent inaugural benediction.

Dennis Fischer
Melissa
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Username: Melissa

Post Number: 689
Registered: 7-2003
Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 6:12 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yes, Dennis, I heard that benediction. I thought it was very nice and I was also pleasantly surprised that he mentioned the Holy Spirit's leading or guiding (can't remember his exact phrase). It was a very "Christian" prayer, unlike some generic nameless god prayer.
Belvalew
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Username: Belvalew

Post Number: 105
Registered: 7-2004
Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 7:01 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Are you aware that this is the first time in Inaugural history when the name of Jesus was invoked. I thought it very appropriate given the born-again status of our president. I was equally touched by the president's inaugural speech. Now all we have to do is get past all the media jeering about how GW plans to bring freedom to the world. I, for one, agree that the only way we can have peace is for freedom to become a standard by which the entire world lives. Let's all pray for the president as he launches into another four years.
Chris
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Username: Chris

Post Number: 581
Registered: 7-2003
Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 7:07 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Both prayers at GWB's Jan. 2001 innauguration ended with the name of Jesus as well. He got a lot of flack for that and yet he was bold enough to do it again.
Dd
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Username: Dd

Post Number: 316
Registered: 7-2004
Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 8:47 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Whenever I mention to my SDA friends that I find GWB's open faith refreshing, I get a little frown for a response or something about their worry that he will not keep his "religion" to himself. (Remember the SDA panic when JFK became president?)

How could a term be stated for this SDA reaction to non-SDA Christian's faith (for the little dictionary that Colleen is "building")? In their mind only SDA's have true faith in Jesus. Any other Christian's faith is something that could be used against a SDA. Maybe something like non-SDA Christian Faith = SDA persecution...? You "Websters" out there can word it better!
Colleentinker
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Username: Colleentinker

Post Number: 1282
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 9:15 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Dd, good concept about the non-SDA faith equalling SDA persecution. Maybe it's something about "Brother in Christ" means "Another Adventist";

"NON-SDA Christian" equals "Apostate Protestant" or "one who doesn't yet have all the light".

"Apostate Protestants" equal "So-called Christians who worship on Sunday as opposed to the True Sabbath; people who will eventually persecute Adventist Sabbath-keepers".

Does this make sense?

Colleen

Pw
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Username: Pw

Post Number: 277
Registered: 6-2004
Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 10:10 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

When I was in the SDA (1986), the pastor expressed concerns about Pat Robertson because he was planning on running for the presidency at that time. He was fearful and expressed to us that we could end up being forced to observe Sunday keeping. What sounded reasonable at the time is only paranoia now that I reflect back on it.
Jeremy
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Username: Jeremy

Post Number: 278
Registered: 10-2004
Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 10:33 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It's pretty bad when the SDAs are as frightened (or moreso!) as the liberals/humanists/atheists are about President Bush's faith! Why should someone's Christian faith be scary, especially to those who call themselves Christians??

Jeremy
Pw
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Username: Pw

Post Number: 278
Registered: 6-2004
Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 11:04 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Is it any wonder how David Koresh and his clan from Waco ended up the way they did? They feared the government by taking SDA teachings even further and look at the results. I truly believe that this type of fear and paranoia is what truly keeps the SDA's in their icy grip. They create a persecution that doesn't even exist!
Dd
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Username: Dd

Post Number: 317
Registered: 7-2004
Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 11:13 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Good terms, Colleen. That was just what I was thinking...you are so good with words!
Susan_2
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Username: Susan_2

Post Number: 1374
Registered: 11-2002
Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 5:54 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Dennis, I hold my membership in the ELCA. However, I travel and I will attend any Lutheran church I run across while I'm traveling. We have a Messouri Synod church within walking distance from my house and I also attend there several times each month. The ELCA only has morning services whereas the Messouri Synod has a 6:30 p.m. service so I often hit up both.// The presidental inauguration was well represented by the SDA. Witley Phipps who sang the first song is SDA. I LOVE listening to him sing. I'd buy a CD of his if it were available at a non-SDA Christian bookstore. Then we heard the prayer from Admiral Berry Black. Frankly, I am not impressed with Admiral Blacks praying. I cannot discurn in his prayers that he is praying a Christian prayer. His prayers sound to me to be to a generic God.// Now for your dictionary Colleen I would like to submit the SDA diffination of grace. GRACE: A Christian is under grace only until he hears the truth of Adventism. If after hearing the truth of Adventism he chooses to reject Adventism he has lost grace and has therefore lost eternal life. If after hearing the truth of Adventism he becomes a Seventh-day Adventist he is given grace to be able to live a perfect life in adhearance to the 10 commandments, especially regarding the observance of the 4th commandment. If he fails in this perfection of law-keeping he is then fallen from grace, hence has lost eternal life until he can get his act together enough to be a perfect commandment keeper again.//How is that for a difination of grace? I think I did pretty good.
4drian
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Username: 4drian

Post Number: 44
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 10:01 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Great definition Susan. I copied and saved it on my computer (hope you don't mind).
Colleentinker
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Username: Colleentinker

Post Number: 1287
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 11:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Susan, I love it. I copie and pasted it into the Document, too!

Colleen

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