Family Pride

How proud are you of family?  Family is an important concept to most.  Family can be a constant challenge also to most.  We have an inner longing to ever improve our family dynamics.  I am proud to be a Seventh-day Adventist Christian today because of its devotion to ever improve family.

Our church was organized with the purpose of being a worldwide family.  We have over 21 million members in our growing, global church membership.  Worldwide there are 13 divisions, 122 unions, 600 local conferences which are all serving 140,000+ congregations.  These congregations are found in 208+ countries, worshipping in 924+ languages, and they all want to connect with you and consider you to be a part of their family.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church proves it is proud of its worldwide family through its unique tithe system.  Whereas many churches keep all the tithe for their own use, we send 100% of our tithe to our local Conference where it is spread far and wide through the unions and major divisions to continuously equip its churches and work throughout the world.  This work is about strengthening the lives of its family members and future family members through education, medical work, disaster relief, publishing work, and local church congregations.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church proves it is proud of its worldwide family through its unique diversity.  It is the most racially and ethnically diverse religious group in the United States, according to a report released by the Pew Research Center, a respected non-partisan organization in Washington, DC.  If a study was done for worldwide diversity, I'm sure the results would be the same.  People from all cultures, races and ethnicities are welcome to be a part.  This includes liberals and conservatives alike.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church seeks to ever improve its families by improving the health of each family member in mind, body and spirit.  Growing by taking our minds captive to Christ; growing healthier through lifestyle habits (such as diet and exercise); growing in God's grace and love - all are vital parts of the mission of this worldwide church.

How proud are you of family?  The Seventh-day Adventist Church wants to help everyone grow ever prouder of family.  You have a worldwide family within it that ever desires and teaches that God is the answer to keeping all families growing stronger and stronger in Him.

-Pastor Michael Brackett

Bearing Witness to the Truth

What is truth?  A fair question in a world where we are fed so much information continuously.  It seems that daily someone is proclaiming their “truth.”  But the way I understand truth, everything can’t be held up as true.   If we all went outside and it was gray, rainy, and cold we wouldn’t accept someone telling us it was sunny, warm, and the sky was blue.  Isn’t it interesting then, that many see truth as relative and subjective, when by definition, truth is the quality or state of being true, and that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality. Truth is true, regardless of what you or I think about it. 

Brought before Pilate and asked if He was a king, Jesus responded, “You say rightly that I am a king.  For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into this world, that I should bear witness to the truth.  Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”  In response Pilate asked the question, “what is truth?” (John 18:37-38). Maybe he really wanted to know, or maybe he didn’t believe truth could be understood, or perhaps he, like all of us at times, don’t want to know or believe what is true because it doesn’t fit our plan for life. 

I’m grateful for the consistent reliability of God’s word.  How about you?  Sure, it requires faith to accept, but the evidence is strongly in favor of it being true.  It is reliable, with places, people, and events supported by history and archaelogy.  Creation, a Creator, and a global flood, long believed by science to be myths, have more adherents today because the evidence fits better than other theories.  And Jesus?  Not only do we have recorded eyewitness accounts of what followers saw and experienced, but these were people who often laid down their lives for the “truth.”

Perhaps, greater than all of this is the personal evidence of a life changed by the power of the gospel,…mine….and yours, because of the truth that “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”  And if we believe it, and share it, it is the truth will set people free.  Free to love, free to live, free to have hope, and peace, and assurance in spite of all going on around us.  The Bible: still the truth, and still the best news ever.  

-Pastor Jim Bollin

Cycle of Rest

How is your work-cycle of life?  Do you get weary rushing to complete your weekly schedule only to have to do it all over again?  It's easy to get stuck in the rut of repetition, where time speeds up and your joy slows down.  There is practical advice to break the monotony:  Drive a different way to work; brush your teeth with the opposite hand; stand a different direction in the shower; wash your clothes the old-fashioned way in the river.  (Ok, I made that last one up.)  Experts have great advice on unique ways to invigorate our cycles in life.

There is One expert that excels above the rest, however.  The Lord Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, invites us to find perpetual rest in Him.  Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, "Come to me, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest."  Anytime we feel overwhelmed and overburdened, Jesus is there for us.  He lives to do this for us perpetually!  All His incredible energy - powerful enough to create all things just by speaking words - is focused and harnessed to help us.  What kind of love is this?  The kind of love that offers us rest consistently.

At creation, Jesus also created the Sabbath.  He rested the 7th day to be with us.  That 7th day continues every week as an open invitation to lean fully in His powerful and capable word.   Will we believe He can offer us rest?  Even if it means stepping away from our busy, weekly cycles of work?  Is He capable of giving us rest even if it means one less day working to be with Him?  That's between each of us and our Creator.  I want to trust more myself in His Words.  I want to put more weight into His ability over my own.  I want to deepen my experience with a weekly cycle of rest in my Creator.  Will I trust Him more and will I find more rest in Him than I could fathom?

His Word also says He is coming soon!  The rest we will experience on that day will be unlike anything we can imagine now.  We will finally feel energized completely.  Our souls will have a stillness in our Savior that we will savor forever and ever more.  I'm feeling more peaceful even now just thinking about it!  Lord, we lean into Your Word today, trusting You are there for us now, every week, and for eternity.  Thank you for offering us a perpetual cycle of rest to counterbalance our work-cycles in life!

-Pastor Michael Brackett

True To Our Name

What does your name mean?  I was surprised years ago to realize my middle name "Dean" actually means "church official."  I had been in ministry for years at that point, and thought it was refreshing to realize my name was actually congruent with my life!  Being somewhat "type A" I like it when things line up!

The name "Seventh-day Adventist" was chosen for us in 1860 by our church pioneers.  They believed choosing this name would help us convey our two most impactful beliefs:  1.  The Seventh-day Sabbath (Saturday) and 2.  The Second Coming of Jesus Christ.  Both of these beliefs were founded from deep Bible study and a desire to ultimately enter God's rest.  They were at rest with their decision on what to name this new movement and the rest of the story since then has revealed their decision was a sound one!  The Seventh-day Adventist Church has spread throughout the world by and large because we have been true to our name.  We seek to share the message to the world that God is inviting us to rest with Him every week and ultimately once and for all at His soon return!

How are our lives today resonating with our name?  Maybe your name would never personally line up with your vocation or calling today, but how are you personally lining up with our name "Seventh-day Adventist?"   Are you passionate about helping others find rest in our Lord Jesus Christ?  Will you join me today in praying for a revival for us all that we might be inspired to enthusiastically help finish the work God has given us in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20)?

I'm so grateful to be a part of this work with you today!  I'm especially grateful that God calls us all by His name today and soon will call us each by name into His eternal kingdom when He comes!

-Pastor Michael Brackett

A Word about Why I Am SDA Today

I've always been a talkative guy.  I guess it’s safe to say I’m an extrovert.  It's been reported that extroverts speak an average of 8,000 words per day.  Introverts:  4,000 words.  The guy sitting next to you on the plane:  1 million words.  Yeah, I've been that guy on the plane more often that I'd like to admit.  Maybe that's why I talk for a living now!

Growing up, the older I became the more I realized my words, however, were not quite as potent as I would have initially imagined them to be.  Are the things I have to say that meaningful, that important and that impactful to those listening?  In college I began talking less and reading more.  In particular I began to read the Words of Scripture.  Those were words that actually made an impact.  Finally, I found words that had power and proved to be profoundly meaningful to me.  These were the words that I began to have faith in, the words that would lead me to a life that would have much greater meaning and impact in this world.

I am a Seventh-day Adventist today because I believe this movement to be following God's Words in the Bible more closely than any other avenue of faith I have explored.  This church places preeminence upon God's Word above any person's word.  This church embodies what I slowly came to recognize in my own experience - God's Word is greater than all.

May God bless us as we continue to learn from, grow in, and share more His wonderful word.  Oh, and if you see me sitting next to your seat on your next plane trip, say a prayer for patience and buy some headphones!

-Pastor Michael Brackett

Expectation vs. Experience

I find the experience of the first women at the tomb interesting. The text reads,

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. (Luke 24:1-3)

Here's what’s interesting to me: The women going to the tomb expected one thing but experienced another.

 The text tells us, “...the women took the spices they had prepared…” which shows that they expected to anoint the dead, lifeless body of Jesus. But, as they arrived, they experienced something completely different. A risen, living, resurrected Lord. Friends this is the experience of every person who comes into contact with the Risen Jesus. An expectation, and a completely different experience.

            When we first come to Jesus, we expect that we have to prove ourselves but experience a grace and acceptance that we’ve never experienced before. We expect to work our way into the kingdom but experience that we are already in through faith in Jesus. We expect Jesus to be judgmental, and vindictive, but experience a God of love, who gave his life for us.

For those of us who have been walking with Jesus for a while, we think we have him figured out, and we expect him to be one way, but in our interactions with Jesus, we experience something more beautiful and more wondrous.

 Here’s my invitation for you today: like the women at the tomb, go to Jesus. And as you do, prepare yourself to experience a love, a grace, a wonder, and a hope that you have never experienced before.[1]

- Pastor Evan Davies

[1] Art piece by Katy Olsen.

The Benefits of Standing in God's Grace

When I was growing up, our home was a place of warmth and love and high expectations. However, there was very little in the way of words of affirmation or positive encouragement. We felt that we could never be good enough. Whatever, we achieved as kids, or in school; or whatever grades we worked hard for, our parents would say, “Well, if you had applied yourself better you could have gotten a B+.” And the next time, they would say, when the B+ was brought home, “You could have done better and gotten an A.” There were never any words like, “You did so well. We’re so proud of the extra effort you put in. We know that next time you’ll even do better.” So, I came to believe that no matter how much effort I put forth, I would never be able  to be all that God or other’s wanted me to be. This made me afraid to try. I felt like giving up.

Grace was a foreign concept to me. If it meant anything, it was for my past failures, but never for my present or future realities. So when I came across this text in Romans 5:1-2, which says: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” I could hardly believe that one could stand faithful, have a sense of making it with God, or with my parents, or teachers, or even my friends. How could I “Stand”, or be accepted if I could never be what I needed to be in myself? It is such a hopeless and defeatist way of believing. But this text brought me hope, acceptance, and a sense that even when I fail, I am not a failure in God’s eyes, that I still have a future and that He sees me as being perfect…in Him, of course…but nonetheless “making it.”

For us who feel we have to make it on our own, the Judgement is a fearful thing. But God says, He stands up for us! And if we believe this, that He does, and we STAND in this GRACE, we have NOTHING to fear. We are secure in Him. And should we stumble and fall, we are not rejected. We are loved and restored by His power. We are able to move forward with hope as we remain STANDING in God’s GRACE which makes us acceptable, and victorious!

Dear friends, please make this text the theme of your life: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.”

--Pastor Ben Moor

Standing in God’s Grace with you.