Lesson 13: Power Struggle

This week’s lesson, based on the letter of 3 John, focused on a power struggle that was occurring in the leadership of one of the early local churches. For those of us who’ve been in church long enough, we’re well aware of the struggles that go on beneath the surface — about who the leadership [...]

Scared to Be Adventist

Why do we have a Seventh-day Adventist denomination? What is it that we offer that other denominations of Christianity do not have? Church membership has not been growing like it used to. The youth seem to be more excited about evangelical Christianity as opposed to anything “Adventist”. Many youth have fallen into the, “What does [...]

Lesson 12: John’s Letter to the Chosen Lady

The relationship between truth and love seems to be something most of us miss in practice.  When you really think about it though, can you have one without the other?  Can you be a doctrine-abiding Christian SDA without love?  Can you love without knowing the truth?
Assume it’s possible to know truth and not love [...]

Faith in seat 14F

It’s another business trip. Or vacation. Or trip to go see family. I’m in terminal D, or E, or F and I’m trying to bend time in order to get to gate 27 in a polar opposite terminal. This particular leg finds me deposited in the cavernous, air conditioned hallways of DFW, LAX, BWI, [...]

Adventists + Dating // Redux

Over the past week, we have explored many different viewpoints on the dating question.  Specifically, we’ve looked at it through the prism of Adventism. It is our hope that the viewpoints expressed in these articles have sparked meaningful conversation that won’t end here.
As Adventists, we cherish our beliefs, our church structure, our heritage, and yes, [...]

Lesson 11: 1 John

After this week’s lesson, it would be more accurate to consider the reading a potent combination of issues surrounding belief and love. In the realms of spirituality and religion, entire systems are made up of belief in what the system is and the love a particular disciple has for the deity involved. Christianity is no [...]

Adventists + Dating // OVERRATED

Overrated. That’s the word I use to describe this whole discussion.
OVERRATED.
Seriously, the social club that is the SDA church has become like the English nobility of old when it comes to the topic of marriage. We’re inbred. We all go to Andrews, Oakwood, Loma Linda, Southern, Babcock, Valley View and then [...]

Adventists + Dating // An Open Letter

Dear Brother Who is Eyeing the SDA Girl*,
I know it’s taken a lot of nerve and will-power to get to this point - the point at which you feel you can finally, after weeks of shy smiles, admiring glances, and small talk revolving around similar tastes in films and music, get up the nerve to [...]

Adventists + Dating // A few resources…

Every human being has been created by God in a unique way.  Each person walks down an individualized path that no other person can experience.  Despite these differences, there are similar circumstances all will encounter.  For this reason, humans inherently share information with each other so they can learn to avoid mistakes.  Society is slowly [...]

Lesson 10: Confidence

First John 5:14 states “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us”. So how to we define confidence? According to the Greeks, confidence is reliance, dependence or trust. For this week, we will define confidence as freedom of speech.

All my life [...]