October 13 is the Spirit of Prophecy day

Dear church family, greetings from Minneapolis were we are conducting nightly meetings, well attended by interests facilitated by local churches. We miss our kids, and interactions with you.

First of all, today is the Spirit of Prophecy Sabbath, established in the late 1930s, when the Adventist world church’s Spirit of Prophecy Committee first called for an “earnest effort” to encourage increased study of White’s published writings. This whole month has an emphasis on the Adventist Heritage, and the next Sabbath commemorates the Great disappointment experience of 1844.

On this day it is important to remind ourselves that the description of our church used by our early Adventist pioneers was this: the Great Second Advent Movement.  Our church is about being engaged and moving forward. Our faith isn’t something that stands still; we play an active role in transmitting it from generation to generation, we are not spectators. Take time this week to read up on church heritage, reflect on the work of Holy Spirit through Ellen G.White in our church, renew your reading of the Spirit of Prophecy books.

This weekend the leadership of our world-wide church is assembled for the annual meeting in Silver Springs, Maryland at the GC headquarters.  Meetings began on the 11^th and will continue until 15^th.  On the agenda are administrative restructuring in Europe, Africa and Middle East, and the matter of ordination and women in ministry.  Pray for leadership to be guided by the Holy Spirit, to be obedient to the Spirit moving, to humbly abandon individual prejudices and preferences for the sake of seeking truth.

I would like to share a new discovery I made this week.  Going through this week’s Sabbath School’s lesson I was impressed with an instruction in teacher’s supplement to invite the class to share about recent learning from the scripture.  It is a good exercise for sharing a testimony of how the Holy Spirit impresses us daily with new truths.

I had learned also a new passage I never seen before.  Dwight Nelson preached a sermon last Sabbath at PMC on a passage from Psalm 68:11.  Popular King James version does not convey the original message. Other languages I know (Spanish, Ukrainian, Russian) all did fairly close rendering of the Hebrew text, yet I never paid attention to it.  So here it is: “The Lord gives the command: The women who proclaim the good tidings are a great multitude.”  From Hebrew text it sounds even more beautiful, “when God gives orders  multitudes of women will take the Good News and proclaim it widely.”

I encourage you to listen or watch the whole sermon at following site:

http://www.pmchurch.tv/

It is pivotal message for our church today, moving toward equality in ministry, toward priesthood of ALL believers, away from discriminative hierarchy, inviting every believer to serve.

Wishing you blessings on this Sabbath day.