Toothache

We are home after a two-week vacation. It was a blast visiting with Angie and Steve and their five children. Not all children however. Vanessa is 17 and going to college. Brianna is 16 and well on the way to outworking all of us. Christina is 13 going on 24, for hight anyway.

The second week was hardly a vacation. I preached 10 times--sermons I had only ever preached once. It'a a lot of work to wrap my head around half familiar yet unrefined material. Not all the sermons were winners, as far as I am concerned. But everyone was gracious.

I had a toothache for the better part of one week. Actually, I think I've had a toothache for the better part of ten years, but I've learned to keep my teeth from aching by rinsing my mouth with hydrogen peroxide once of twice a day. My understanding is that hydrogen peroxide kills bacteria and bacteria is responsible for much of the pain. However, after ten years of dodging the bullet, there was no more I could do. Dr. Richard Mehrer did me the honor of pulling my tooth. It was cracked from top to bottom. The man is the best dentist in the business. No pain, no problems.

We are back in Eden Valley. Today we have four bosses from Maranatha looking our place over to ascertain the extent of the construction they face. So, excuse me, I have to go.

Week of Prayer or Weak in Prayer

Janet and I are in Cashmere, WA. We drove from Colorado to Washington earlier in the week. I thank God for getting us over safely, but it wasn't easy. We hit snow and icy road conditions in Wyoming and it never let up until we left Idaho. Stressful driving. Otherwise, all is well.

I've been working on sending our Graphic Designer all the articles and photos he needs to put our winter edition of the Faith Ventures magazine together. The rest of the time has been restful. Brianna and I have been gathering the troupes for our daily exercise routine. I love it. Usually, vacations are not conducive to exercising.

Tonight starts the Week of Prayer. Originally, I had thought to do a series on God's Call for You. It's a great series, and everyone needs to know God's will for themselves, but I taught half of that series for the LIGHT school at EVI and Brianna and Dakota already heard it. Instead, I will do a series on Righteousness by Faith in relation to the Third Angel's Message. I've only ever prepared and preached these sermons once to my staff at EVI. So it isn't like it is a series, or that the sermons are tried and true winners. On the other hand, I have no way of refining these messages except to have the opportunity to share them as often as I can. So, here goes. (May God's blessing attend this week's weak effort.)

The next issue is how to get this knowledge of Righteousness by Faith into my Christian experience so that the lost notice and the saved praise God. Do the lost see Jesus in you? Is that important? Is anything else more important than that? If anything else is more important to us, then that is idolatry. Lord help us.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Joking or Sense of Humor?

I did something different for a change. Leonard and I installed a laminated floor in David and Candi Katsma's dining room and living room today. It's always a blessing to be able to do something practical. You can see where you've started and when it is finished you can take some satisfaction in a job well done.

I also preached today. This sermon, on the a long standing controversy, but every time I used a Bible verse or a SOP quotation to show how the "liberals" defend their position, my "conservative" staff couldn't help but jump into the fray as if they had to show why the other people's arguments are not sound. We got through the talk unscathed, I think. On the positive side, I find it a good idea sometimes to stimulate my staff with something controversial. At least I know they are alive.

The LIGHT school is into its third week. Our girls, Brianna and Dakota seem to be enjoying their stay with us. Sweet little Brianna is full of energy. I never realized. Between every class she runs around the building five times. The others just look at her and shake their heads. Instead of walking to school, she runs to school. I do a one-hour exercise class for my staff three days per week. She is right there, pumping iron like the best of them. Then she uses my weights when things get boring. When the kids go tobogganing, she is right there. One of our boys has a two-wheel skateboard. She mastered that in no time flat, and while waiting for lunch she was skating up and down the halls and all around the dining tables with the greatest of ease. All that, while fighting a mysterious ailment of sore muscles. Brent, our expert herbalist, has her on a powerful potion. It about curls your hair to drink it, but she does.

3ABN called me this week. Besides the little business they had about something unimportant, they asked me to do some TV programs with Shelley Quinn. Oh me, I've been trying to avoid that. I wouldn't mind doing the Prodigal Son or something, but talking heads seem so difficult for some reason. Anyway, I agreed to do it. We should start filming in 2012. So don't hold your breadth. Maybe I'll have a heart attack between now and then. What a relief that would be.

One of my staff asked if I would do a sermon on jesting and joking. I think she is trying to tell me something. Nah! Can't be. Well, maybe. If I didn't have a sense of humor, I'd be dead, I think. Can someone tell me where the balance is? Joking, bad??? Sense of humor, good??? When does a sense of humor become unacceptable jesting? I'd welcome any advice.

One More Time

When it gets to be more than a week since I've written, I get no peace. I have to write. Ugh! But about what? I any case, here we are.

We had wonderful weather last week--up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. It was balmy. My wife and her side-kick, Deniece, did a wonderful job mapping out where we will build the new houses. They are forever planning and organizing. We couldn't do it without them. Saturday night, Earle Bearce called me. I forget what he wanted, but my wife asked to talk to his wife about joining her in Africa. If Carol and Earle were there, I think it would free Janet up considerably.

The LIGHT School is in full swing. We have eleven students for the month, including Brianna, our granddaughter, and her friend Dakota Tall. It is such a blessing for us to have them in our home. Love it. Brianna is something else. For all the pains she is apparently suffering, she runs everywhere, she exercises all the time, she amazes me. When Jason and I went to visit them in Washington, last August. Brianna was a lifeguard (as is Vanessa). Brianna, big as a peanut, can hold a double-sized brick in the deep end of the swimming pool with both hands and stays afloat for two minutes. Try it sometime. It's torture. You wouldn't know anything hurts for all the activity in that little girl.

There was an accident at EVI, last week. A couple of kids, 18 years old, drove onto the campus. The girl was driving. On the way out, she was driving too fast going around a corner and lost control. She over corrected and left the road at almost a ninety degree angle. She drove between two trees, which if she had hit one might have been fatal. She drove through a field, and jumped a creek (about ten feet embankment) and landed on the other side facing the way she had been coming. The kids showed up at my house full of mud and a little blood on her face. We called their parents and the police. Everybody was amazed that they had no greater injuries. It would not have been good had either one been killed. One or two of us pointed out to the parents that these kids had guardian angels. They were all very polite and grateful that we took the kids in and helped them.

The weather is taking a turn for the worse. Zero Fahrenheit tomorrow for a high, 20 below for the low.

Don't forget we live during the Anti-typical day of Atonement. Do you know what Jesus is doing in the Most Holy Place of the sanctuary. He is purifying to Himself a people--the 144,000. Will you be among them?

A Lot of Nothing

What is amazing about writing a blog is that you never feel like you have anything to say. On the other hand, I read enough of my kid's blogs to know, that if someone doesn't write pretty soon, it is unsettling. So here I am, settling your nerves, with nothing to say.

My wife and I came to a conclusion today. She will be happy, if happy is the right sentiment, to help Eden Valley until she returns to Africa. Because she feels totally unqualified to oversee the building of the Lifestyle Center, she has decided not to tackle that project. We are grateful for anything she is/will contribute. On the other hand, I will remain in America, Eden Valley to be exact. We both agree that I will like it better at EVI than in Africa. That may not be altogether true, but that is the conclusion we've arrived at. I thank God for His guidance. I believe He led in our deliberations. Thank you for praying with us. I wrote my board members and several have responded positively to the news. What would I do if they had responded negatively?

Little Joy Grabiner broke her wrist, yesterday. Steve, her dad, called last night asking for us to go visit her. We'll probably do that tomorrow night. I did talk with her this afternoon. She is quite chipper in spite of it all.

I'm looking to contact Howard Burkhart. Does anyone know how I can reach him? I have a big ole' cottonwood to cut down by a house, and it is a bit too intimidating for me . . . in my dotage.

The L.I.G.H.T. program starts this Sunday. (A one month course on medical missionary stuff.) Brianna is part of the student body. We are as excited as can be to finally have one grandchild come live with us for a month. Imagine.

Christina and Caleb are racing to see who is going to raise enough money to go to Africa with Memere in the spring. I imagine they'll both succeed. What a blast Memere is going to have. Wish I was going with them. (Uhh, I'd better not start that again.)

We got word today. Well, we got the implication that Jason is safe in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Apparently, he got there before others and organized everything. I hope that isn't overstated. In any case, we are happy to hear that perhaps he and his family made it safely through that devastated country.

We've got a couple of fellows cleaning the scrap metal off of EVI. To date, one week, we have sold $3,500 of scrap. One of the guys said that there are fourteen more loads to go. (Nearly $1,000 a load. I hope he's right.)

The fellow who had a week of prayer here last week, Dr. Fred Bischoff, asked if he could post my series on the Prodigal Son on his website. Isn't that nice? It's an honor that he should think it good enough. I thank the Lord.

We had 200 elk in our backyards yesterday. Pretty site, but I don't know what that means for our raspberry shoots. Deniece's house was surrounded last night. They were eating the hay with which she insulates her trailer. She wondered if they were aggressive. I said, open the window and say, "boo." I believe that will work.

Well, that's all that's new at lake Woe-be-gone.

Christless Preaching

I believe I announced, a few weeks back, that I was asked to speak at the ASI National Convention next August. The topic is suppose to be Righteousness by Faith in relation to the Third Angel's Message. This is a bit backward, by the way. Usually, you hear of someone who has some wonderful insight into a topic and you invite him/her to come and share it. In this case, the speaker was chosen, and was told to get a wonderful insight. A bit more difficult.

In any case, I've been praying a lot, and researching a lot, and coming up with little insights--not so good that I'd want to preach them at ASI. Nevertheless. I believe the Lord will hear my prayer and give us something to chew on by August.

The original question was: If EGW said that the Third Angel's Message is righteousness by faith in verity, why then do our evangelist, when preaching on the 3rd Angel, only preach on the Mark of the Beast? The original answer went something like this: R by F is not explicit in the text, it is implied. It is there by contrast. The Beast's theology on righteousness is righteousness by works, righteousness by force, righteousness by legislation, bribery, flattery, and if none of the above work, then it is righteousness by torture.

With the Beast, you cannot possibly have R by F. Faith implies a trust in God as opposed to tradition, the church, the Pope, or in men, or in religious dogma, etc. R by F is right-doing thru' faith in God's power.

After researching for a couple of months, I was beginning to feel very sympathetic toward our poor evangelists. When I put myself in their shoes and tried to see how I would do differently, I have to admit pure frustration. Who am I to question our elite preachers, or to think I could do better? So I began to prepare a sermon to explain why preaching the 3rd Angel in relation to R by F couldn't be done. Just then, the Lord sent some light. (Dr. Fred Bischoff comes along.)

I posed to famous question to him, and here is what I heard. "The message is marred in our hands." 1888 Mat. 367:1. That is a Spirit of Prophecy quote on the 3rd Angel of Rev. 14.

Here is the whole paragraph: "The message that was given to the people in these meetings (Minneapolis 1888) presented in clear lines not alone the commandments of God--a part of the 3rd angel's message--but the faith of Jesus, which comprehends more than is generally supposed. and it will be well for the 3rd angel's message to be proclaimed in all its parts, for the people need every jot and tittle of it. If we proclaim the commandments of God and leave the other half scarcely touched, the message is marred in our hands." Ouch! That is exactly what we've been doing since 1888.

Again, talking about the 3rd angel's message, she says, "The discourses of some (since 1888) might be correctly represented as like the offering of Cain--Christless." 1888 Mat. 212:1.

Can we see what is happening here? We've been presenting the history and the prophecies of the three angels of Rev. 14, but the messages have been void of the gospel. Facts, history and prophecies are important, but they give our Christian experience the wrong flavor, if not seasoned with the righteousness of Christ.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone.

It's 2011 in Colorado and so far the climate is mild. We weathered a storm last week. I feared it would make my trek to Copper Mountain on Sabbath a bit treacherous, but it didn't. Actually, Janet and I got to church an hour early. We had a great time.

This week, Dr. Fred Bischoff from Loma Linda is doing a week-of-prayer on our campus. The guy is a walking encyclopedia on the Spirit of Prophecy. I enjoy asking him questions. His answers are very insightful.

This month, we are having a lifestyle session, starting on the 9th, and a L.I.G.H.T. program, starting on the 23rd. It appeared for the longest time, that we would have two very light programs. (As in unattended.) We've been praying and things are filling up. Praise God.

My wife is helping with the Master Plan and is organizing what it will take to build. She is amazing. Eden Valley is upping the anti on her. At first, we offered to pay her way to Africa twice a year, if she would help us. Now the offer is up to four times a year. Do you think she'll bite? She doesn't do much, but laugh. Actually, she is laughing a lot, lately. Our attempts to keep her strike her as being funny.

I heard her tell Steve Grabiner the other day that she thinks I would be happier at Eden Valley than in Africa. It sounds to me like she thinks I ought to stay here. If truth be told, I wouldn't be unhappy in Africa. I'm happy wherever I am, but it does seem to me like I would accomplish more at Eden Valley. I had decided to go to Africa, and I couldn't un-decide. Now it appears like the consensus is growing that I should stay here. That's what happens when you make decisions before consulting the Lord with much prayer. Because I was feeling so incompetent in 2008, I decided it would be best to resign for leadership. I am not so excited about leadership to this day, but when you have a great team, the picture changes considerably. Who needs to be a great leader, if every player is led by the Lord?

We are still looking for an OCI president. As far as I am concerned, I know only one available qualified person , but it isn't unanimously agreed. All I can say is, God will choose whom He will!

At present, we have a wonderful team at EVI. Not a discordant note in the gang. This, I believe, is what God can bless.