My greatest need in trials, is the need for absolute trust in God.  My great weakness has been murmuring, complaining about my lot (in good company with the Israelites in the wilderness!!) and harbouring resentment against God, resisting the path He has chosen to lead me on to purify my character.

In conversations and discussions I am often confronted with the idea that Jesus became the Son of God at his birth by Mary.The view that the "sonship" was not more than a "job" that Jesus has done in his time here on earth, met often to me. It is also argued that in the Old Testament the Son of God does not really come into appearance. Is that the truth?

Some thoughts on how to get peace as part of the family of God and how to relate to the world, particularly as it relates to authority. What is our relationship to both those above us and those below us? Seeing how God works through the hierarchies of the world, that we may have peace with our fellow man in the midst of chaos, is the Christian experience that Jesus wants us to have.

The Bible tells us that God made man in His image. What is the significance of this for us? A. Definitions of Image and Likeness Gen 1:26-27  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

This accusation was made against her in her day and is being touted again today, even among some Adventist circles. We allow her to answer the charges in her own words from an article entitled, Incidents on the Voyage to the North Pacific, which appeared in the July 18, 1878 issue of Signs of the Times. (Frank Klin)

Gil shares some thoughts we should consider to have a more well-rounded end-time Christian experience.

Pastor Stephen Bohr recently released a good, long article in his newsletter of many examples of the Father's headship of the Son, even before creation. It is entitled 'Reflections on Upward and Downward Mobility'. What he is getting at is how it is in Christ's character to lower Himself, while it is in human carnal and Satanic nature to want to lift himself up. Jesus has "downward mobility" and that is how we are honored, but Lucifer drives men to lift themselves upward, and that is "upward mobility" beyond what God has designed for us.

Probably my single favorite EGW quotation is the following from "The Desire of Ages."But turning from all lesser representations, we behold God in Jesus. Looking unto Jesus we see that it is the glory of our God to give.  "I do nothing of Myself," said Christ; "the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father." "I seek not Mine own glory," but the glory of Him that sent Me. John 8:28; 6:57; 8:50; 7:18. In these words is set forth the great principle which is the law of life for the universe. All things Christ received from…

The Pastor of Southern Adventist University faints twice at two different times preaching a sermon on God's active punishing wrath against sinners.

A Faithful Remnant Some believe that Philadelphia not only means “brotherly love” but also “faithful remnant.” The Philadelphians constitute the faithful remnant of the universal church, 9 who will be translated when Jesus comes. The statement ‘ ‘For thou has a little strength,” has been rather difficult to explain. It seems that the open door of missionary opportunity was set before them because they had a little strength, the only spiritual strength left in Christendom. The Sardians were wholly dead and powerless. Now God had found a people with a little strength for missionary endeavor. They had responded to the…

This is not a book review but simply a heartfelt response to Adrian Eben’s book The Return of Elijah. And I will confess that because of the amount of highlighting and underlining done along the journey through this material, The Return of Elijah is currently the most colorful book in my collection. Brother Adrian requests the reader to “Please see this book as written by a son who is coming to his father and saying, ‘Dad, I think I found something amazing…” (p. 249). Although that ‘amazing’ truth was revealed to me prior to reading the book, (and yes, Brother…

     Seven (7) Characteristics of the Covenants                      This is a continuation of the blog series on the Two Covenants  known as "Married to Another" Up to now we have considered seven different examples of the two Covenants. Now we will explore seven characteristics of them before examining the seven divine love languages. Here is the short version summary. Notice that many of these characteristics overlap each other.   1)     The Covenants were based upon blood sacrifice: This awakened gratitude, love and conviction leading to self-distrust, humble confession of…

[In light of current events in Turkey and Syria as well as the dispute between China, Japan and the USA over territorial waters, this prophetic outline by A.T. Jones in 1901 provides an informative context that I believe has relevance to current events. This is Chapter 10 (pages 85-104) from the book The Great Nations of Today by A.T. Jones]

In 1983 Roy Allan Anderson admitted that the doctrine of the Trinity was the main and crucial doctrinal question in the Evangelical Conferences.  Notice the following statement by Anderson in the Review:  “‘What do you folk believe about the Trinity?’  Was a question put to me some years ago [1955] by two gracious Christian gentlemen [Walter Martin and George Cannon] who came unannounced to the General Conference headquarters in Washington, D.C....Both men were Christian college professors who had read much about Adventists, but all from detractors, and one of them was commissioned to write a new book about Adventist  beliefs. …

Alora and I received a wonderful blessing at the recent camp in Georgia.  It started when brother Michael and Gerry with Mirta and my wife traveled the 10 hour drive to north Georgia. Before we left Orlando we prayed to our heavenly Father for guidance and protection during our journey. The drive itself seemed short because we were talking, sharing and studying the Word and the Spirit of Prophecy and singing praises.  I read the chapter in the Great Controversy titled "The Scriptures our Safeguard", where it states "we are to trust in no man, but only in a plain…

The concept of submission and free will seem to be in opposition to each other in the human mind, and yet, this is the very heartbeat of heaven itself. The relationship between God and His Son is modelled after this pattern. Agape amongst all the heavenly hosts is made manifest by worship and adoration to God by a heartfelt, freewill response. When you think about it, worship by its true definition can only be of free will. Love can only be expressed in the framework of free will. Adoration and praise can only come as a heartfelt response. Do we…

When we share the begotten Son, we can point to the Nicene Creed, and then it is not only us who are speaking, but that whole great church council. It is an appeal to authority of the most powerful type, especially because most people agree that it represents early Christianity and (nominally) agree with it. It can give us confidence when people try to paint us as being loners who invented this new doctrine – we did not; we are not alone on this. Remember these words in the Nicene Creed: "We believe… in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of…

The Hebrew week was totally centered around the Sabbath. The word for Sunday was just “first”, Monday “Second”, etc. the first 6 days had no special name, they were just numbered. Only Sabbath, the 7th day, had a special name: “Shabbat”, or “stop working” or “rested”.  The whole week is seen and lived with the Sabbath in view.

My thoughts this morning centered upon Abraham who was a type of the Father and Isaac, who was a type of Christ and the sacrifice both the Father and Christ would make.When Abraham was talking to God about an heir and suggested to God that his servant would be his heir, then God said no, this would not do because it does not demonstrate My sacrifice and who the Son is, Abraham one from your own body will be the Heir. If Christ was simply just another God, not coming out of the Father, then a servant would have been fine as an…

   In the time of Christ the people of Palestine lived in walled towns, which were mostly situated upon hills or mountains. The gates, which were closed at sunset, were approached by steep, rocky roads, and the traveler journeying homeward at the close of the day often had to press his way in eager haste up the difficult ascent in order to reach the gate before nightfall. The loiterer was left without.