The End Has Come: Jesus is Almost Here

Prayer meeting is always a welcome haven from the challenges of the working week. We've been studying concepts based on the Adventist classic "Preparation for the Final Conflict" by Chaij. Our pastor really believes that these recent economic troubles are a signal that Christ is at the gates. Not just coming soon, but actually coming in no time at all.

This sense of urgency has affected me more than I'd like. While I'm glad Christ is coming in no time at all, it also has made me overwhelmed at what that entails about the End Times. I'm almost thinking of putting everything else on hold since Christ's coming is months or a few years from now.

It is exciting, but it's challenging as I have to continue living my life. Just today I considered not buying anything at all as far my hobbies are concerned, because there's no time for hobbies anymore. Again, I'm not sure that living like that is potentially healthy, but then again, if these are the last days, months or years of planet Earth's history, who has time for hobbies anymore?

In church we recently watched a video about pastor David Gates. He's a very spiritual and knowledgeable man who outlines just how close we are to the End of Time. If you want to check out his major sermons, The Approaching Storm series, the link is attached:
http://gospelministry.org/blog/?page_id=451

How will this all turn out? At what point do we stop blogging and focus on what the Lord impresses us to do to get ready to meet him in the immediate future. We can't speak of Jesus coming soon anymore. We've been saying "soon" for 2,000 years. It makes no sense to speak of soon. Why not simply say that Jesus is almost here.

I really do believe that Jesus Christ is coming back in my lifetime.

Ellen G. White and the Positive Thinking Movement

Christian approaches to the role of the mind and the power of positive thinking may seem like odd bedfellows to some. Nevertheless, Norman Vincent Peale (Power of Positive Living,) Robert Schuller (Move Ahead With Possibility Thinking ,) and Joel Osteen (Your Best Life Now) are examples of past and present Christian ministers who brought this approach to large numbers of people.

The secular world also has its gurus that promote positive thinking. Louise Haye (You Can Heal you Life Now), Wayne Dyer (Inspiration : your Ultimate Calling) and of course, Rhonda Byrne (The Secret).

Without having read Schuller's work I became aware of his popular book in the early 70s as I was canvassing door to door with Adventist literature. One of the couples I met spoke to me enthusiastically about the power of positive thinking. I had already been thinking along those lines although I cannot pinpoint how I arrived at such an attitude. I know I believed deeply in positive thinking as I had just converted the year before to Christianity and everything seemed suddenly sunnier in spite of the imperfections of young adult life continuing in my own life.

Actually, come to think of it, a year before the encounter with the lady who was a Robert Schuller fan, I had taken part in The Positive Way at Atlantic Union College. Most of it was based on Glenn Coon's system of claiming bible promises. The other significant component was Ellen G. White's Christ Object Lessons. However, because of limited free time due to school work it was not actually studied in the course even though it was handed out as one of the seminar materials.

I lost my original paperback copy years ago and I recently purchased a hard cover version of this excellent book. I read it for a bit then became sidetracked with other spiritual books, and the greatest side tracker of them all, the Bible.

In Ellen White's time the positive thinking movement, or the New Thought Movement, had its beginnings. I know that because contemporaries of Ellen White's are the ones mentioned in Rhonda Byrne's The Secret. One example might be William Walker Atkinson (1862–1932) who wrote and published Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World. Three of its tenets that can be found in Ellen White's work are the following: 1) divinely attuned thought is a positive force for good, 2) all disease is mental in origin and 3) right thinking has a healing effect.

My recent fascination with wanting to read Christ's Object Lessons stems from trying to find these and other New Thought movement influences in Ellen White's work, especially Christ's Object Lessons. Of course, she focuses on Christ's parables and not just on positive thinking for the sake of positive thinking.

Recently I reached for Christ's Object Lessons again and am looking forward to studying its life-affirming chapters because of a fascination with how Ellen White approaches the positive thinking lifestyle.

Righteousness by Faith

What happens while you await sanctification? Yes, sanctification is a life-long process. Perhaps I'm fusing both justification and sanctification into one big term: righteousness by faith. Do you do right things even when you don't want to? If you do them is it righteousness by works or is it buying time till these right things happen naturally? If you don't do the sanctified act or thought, are you suddenly unsaved? If you really are experiencing bona fide righteousness by faith, are you even conscious of it? If you focus too much on yourself and what you are or are not doing, is your focus on the wrong person? If you focus on Jesus as much as you can, do you also need to monitor your actions? If you are monitoring your actions and they are either missing the mark or are hitting the mark more and more, how do you know that it's the genuine article and not wishful thinking?

Righteousness by faith is a gift of God. You can try to find it by engaging in various activities or spiritual exercises. They are not a guarantee that you will receive the gift of justification by faith, but it's better than not doing anything at all. One can engage in bible reading & payer. One can focus on the person of Jesus and visualize him on the cross and in the different stages of his life. One can attend religious services in a Christian church that one finds helpful. One can surrender one's will (power to choose) to Christ and ask him to grant you the gift of surrender. One can do all these things and yet not be guaranteed the gift of righteousness by faith.

Perhaps salvation itself arrives mysteriously. When you are living your life or trying to live it, this elusive gift may arrive much to your surprise.

Some folks can say "I accept Christ. I want his gift of eternal life. I repent of my sins. I want something more than this world can give me." They may be sincere and perhaps that is all they need to "come to Christ." However, others may have other experiences or other baggage that gets in the way and these wonderful phrases are simply that--phrases.

In the final analysis, one can only come to Jesus time after time and tell him that if he wants to save you, he has to "take your heart because you are unable to give it to him of your own accord."

Evangelism and Gays - Resources

"Below are posts that deal with different approaches regarding ministering to gays, lesbians and transgender individuals. Since no one approach is practical or life-saving to every person who seeks an answer, every link should be explored with an open mind. May God guide you, in his mercy and loving kindness, to the approach that will keep you alive, healthy and seeking after him and the salvation he offers freely to you through Christ Jesus.

The links below are not listed in any particular order. Read them all in order or read them as the Spirit moves you. Don't make up your mind until you have considered all approaches be they traditional, practical or idealistic. What may appeal to you now may not appeal to you as the reality of life requires you to seek another approach. If you can suggest an approach that should be listed here, please be so kind as to mention it and I will consider if it is valid enough to list in these resources. God bless all who are seeking an answer.

Evangelism and the Male Homosexual

Ellen G. White Bookstore Opens in a Chic Gay Ghetto

Gays in a Sexless Heaven

Trembling Before G_d

Pro and Con: How to integrate same sex-attraction and emotional attraction to members of the opposite sex.

Ex gays? Theory or Reality

Dilemma of a Homosexual

Homosexuality and the Bible (Walter Wink)

Reaching Out: One Man Tells of His Lifelong Struggle with Homosexuality

Sex Addicts Anonymous

God's Arts of Light

Why speak of the dark arts of the enemy as some restless souls are wont to do from time to time? Our God's arts of light are infinitely more intriguing and beneficial.

Briefly, these arts are:

prayer, meditation, chanting of Bible verses, chanting of Spirit of Prophecy texts, healing via religious visualization, grace, righteousness, acts of kindness, righteous laughter, spiritual music, fasting, ...

These are only some of the Holy Arts. There may be others that time will make evident.

Activities:

1. Chant portions of scripture that deal with Light or other principles of grace. Chant these aloud if by yourself or in a group of believers or mentally chant them to yourself. Chant each phrase or text once, pair it with another similar verse from another part of scripture, or the Spirit of Prophecy, and then begin the second or third repetition. The goal is to eventually do this spontaneously or even subconsciously.

Examples: "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom then shall I fear. The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom then shall I be afraid?" Psalm 27

"I am still convinced of this: I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord. Be strong and take heart [cheer up] and wait on the Lord." Psalm 27

"God is the source of life and light and joy to the universe." Steps to Christ, 77.1

2. Whether sitting up in a quiet place or lying in your bed late at night or early in the morning, engage in the following mental exercise:

Imagine Christ himself standing next to you and placing his hands on your head or your shoulder as he transmits healing light all throughout your body.

3. I've been praying in new way for some months now. I call it visualization-oriented prayer. Sometimes when I'm dropping off to sleep or when I rise, or even when I'm working out at the gym, I visualize Christ--a faceless Christ which I do intentionally to avoid any hint of idolatry--who is standing next to me and either healing me of whatever pains I'm experiencing, or actually clothing me with his robe of righteousness. I don't think many people pray visually and it shouldn't take the place of word-oriented prayer. Sometimes, though, an image can express so much more spiritually speaking when words fail, or when the concurrent activities do not allow for actual words to be entertained as one prays. Perhaps this could be one way of fostering an attitude of prayer even when one is not using actual words.

The Death of Time

"The end has come," Ezequiel chapter 7 announces.


Living in a timeless reality would be heaven, indeed.


If something dies, something else can live. Counter time, neo-time, non-time are possible replacements for what we know as time.

Minimal blog post: These are scraps of blogs that died before they could really live. Sometimes the title is the most significant aspect of the post. Other times, a lot is left to the reader's imagination. I include them as one would include unbaked loves of bread at the dinner table.

Post Laodicean Adventism

In my church the Laodicean message is brought up now and then.

However, might not the church as a whole be evolving towards an unnamed Post-Laodicean church, in effect, an 8th church? Instead of focusing on its lukewarm condition it looks ahead to a grace-induced condition.

I've thought that if one focuses on being lukewarm year after year, one might just get one's wish and stay that way.


Please visit Sherwood Cox's post, http://www.sabbathpulpit.com/what_happend_to_the_laodicean_message

Christian Belief is Divine Madness

Yes, the Christian life has much to offer, but it also requires a lot from the believer. One really has to be experiencing a form of divine madness in order to continue to meaningfully live and benefit from the Christian life.


Recently someone said that the Christian life is generally for people in great debt, stress or need. The rest, it seems, have other priorities as they don't experience these as much. However, anyone--whatever their socioeconomic situation--can experience these unpleasant situations in varying degrees.

Abraham, Isaac & Jesus' Death

The ire of God killed Jesus, our substitute. Abraham stands for God and Isaac for Jesus. Abraham did not get to kill his son. God, whom Abraham symbolizes in the incident where Abraham was instructed to kill his only son, Isaac, did kill Jesus. It doesn't sound pleasant to say it, but when you analyze this particular story and think about the fact that God is able to take the life of sinners since he is the life giver, it make sense.

The good news is that in spite of killing or letting his only son die, God was able to save mankind.

It's seldom said, but God did not have to resurrect Jesus. He very well could have let him remain dead. Jesus was also the beneficiary of God's forgiving love.

Also, Jesus risked a lot in dying for humanity because he could possibly have failed and then not only humanity would have been lost, but Jesus as well. Had that happened, would God have found another solution? Who would then have to died to save both Jesus and humanity had that become necessary?


The similarities between the near sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham and what really did happen to Jesus have other dimensions, as well. Isaac almost died and should have died if Abraham would have gone through with it. Paul mentions that Abraham hoped that if he did kill his son, God could potentially bring him back to life. Christ, in fact, did die, but not for very long. In three days' time God brought him back to life. In this regard he is like Isaac who almost died, but was saved just before the knife came down.


There is no feminine principle in the Godhead, but if there were it would have to be either Jesus, or the Holy Spirit. In this story of Abraham and Isaac, the third person, Sarah, was left in the dark lest she influence the sacrifice of her only son. Not much is said in the Bible about how the Holy Spirit felt about Christ's approaching death. We can only assume that he too was pained by it though supportive of it, nevertheless.

Mysteries of the 7th-Day Sabbath

Something as important as the 7th-day Sabbath was not kept by many Christians for almost two thousand years. Yes, there were pockets here and there, e.g., the Waldenses, but here's the problem.

Christianity was blessed with the rest of the commandments during the time the Sabbath was not as widely kept as it is today. 12 million Adventists, as well, as others, keeping the Sabbath can be considered a mark of popularity for the 7th-day Sabbath when compared with the centuries when it was seldom, if ever, kept. Perhaps not until the Reformation, were one or two other commandments not kept either, e.g, the first and the second commandments. (See Exodus 20)

It sometimes bothers me that something as important as the 7th-day Sabbath should have been re-introduced back into mainstream Christianity earlier than sometime in the 19th century. Jews, of course, continued keeping the 7th-day Sabbath as they had done during their entire history whether by the nation as a whole or by a remnant during periods of captivity by other nations.

It is almost as if for some reason, the gift of the Sabbath was removed from the world until modern times. Why would something apparently so important as the fourth commandment be withheld from Christians the world over? Of course, it really wasn't withheld since humans themselves decided to worship on another day. Had they wanted to they could have taken a long hard look at the 4th commandment with different eyes. Was all of Christianity blinded so they couldn't see the mystery of the 7th-day Sabbath? Are there cases where one wants to see something familiar in a new and essential way, but is kept from doing so? By circumstances, by people, by over-familiarity with the status quo?

This set me to thinking if some other nameless blessing that humanity once had access to and, with nothing more than restudy of the Bible, could once again be brought to light? Perhaps I'm hungering for new light or rediscovery of old, forgotten light? Perhaps we have to await Present Truth as it brings something equally important to Christians and humanity as a whole, at some point in the near future.

Let's hope our wait for this now hidden light or truth is a short one.