That’s right. All. That includes your pastor, your neighbor, Mother Theresa, Barack Obama, you and most definitely me. We have all sinned. It’s a tough pill to swallow and as we get closer to Christ our understanding of this will go through different stages. Here are a few:

DENIAL
We all have heard the denial of this fact in one form or another. It comes in the shape of the “humanity is inherently good” theories. The lesson points out however, that when we understand what true goodness is, and when we measure ourselves against God, the only good one, we find that we all are flawed.

DECEPTION
The lesson talks about a number of misconceptions the world may have about sin and evil. One is that humanity has and will continue to improve and that morality is increasing. But is this really true? There are arguments on how many days of peace the world has had since World War 2, and although no one has settled on a number, most people’s estimates are alarmingly low. Our turn away from God and into sin has meant increasingly violent times across the world.

On a much smaller scale however is the self-deception that leads us to think ourselves better than others because we see our sin as less extreme than that of others. Another self-deception is to think that we can fix our own sin problem through our own effort. But we would be wrong on both counts.

ACCEPTANCE
It can be depressing to realize our true state. But what a relief to know that through Jesus we can find redemption and salvation. When we accept our sinfulness and turn to Him, we can find righteousness through faith in Him. It means we can be truly without sin before the father, because we become covered in Jesus’ righteousness.

REPENTANCE
There is no other way to Salvation. Once we realize our sin, we’ve got to admit it, and give it up. And no one can do this for us - we must do this voluntarily on our own. When we do, however, we receive the power from God to overcome the temptations that come our way in the future.

RECREATION
We all come before God sinful, but we do not need to stay this way. God’s love created for us the opportunity to be cleansed and to have new life in Him. We are no longer the sinful beings we were, but we are recreated into sons of daughters of Christ.

In Romans, Paul tells us that all of have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. But later in 2 Corinthians 5:7 he reminds us that “… if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

That’s a final stage worth striving for.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am not knocking crusades. I know they work. I just wonder whether they work here - that is, within North America. I think the question is worth examining when you realize that the North American Division, with a growth rate of 4.3% over the last five years,  ranks 8 out of 13 in terms of church growth among all our divisions*. In fact Divisions with the most developed countries seem to have the slowest rates of church growth.

Could it be that the traditional methods may not be as effective here?

Just for fun, do your own study. Next time you’re at church count all the people who became new members in the last twelve months. Minus from that number immigrants who transferred their membership. Then minus those who were re-baptized. Take away all the children who’ve been attending church for years but who just decided to get baptized. Now tell me how many you have left.

If your count was as low as mine then maybe, like me, you’re thinking that we need to find new ways to spread the gospel to those around us everyday. You know who I mean. The person who sits beside you at work - the one who just made the last payment on his 2009 hybrid and isn’t really in need of anything. Or your hairdresser who’s too busy running her own business to take a week night off. Or your next door neighbor Fred and his partner Gregory. They need to know Jesus too don’t they? So why aren’t we finding post-modern methods to share the gospel in our post-modern world?

In the book Evangelism, Ellen G White urges us to seek the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in spreading the gospel, and tailor our outreach methods to every situation. In other words, the one-size-fits-all strategy for evangelism will not work.

So how do we do make the change? Maybe by making our evangelism more individual focused than mass focused; or by using things like our health message to welcome in our health trendy society.//For this reason I am excited by the recent efforts of our church leaders to make this year’s evangelism strategy a bit different by including outreach in the areas of health, family and finances.**//But most of all we should be intentional and Spirit led about evangelism, recognizing that it is broke the way it is now, and we should fix it.

*Stats provided by Adventist Global Mission Frontline Edition 20th Anniversary Edition.

** Added July 2, 2010.

Sports were kind of a big deal to the Greeks, which was probably why in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 9:24-27) and again in his letter to the Philippians (Philip 3:12-14) Paul likens the Christian walk to a race. In a race there is a prize or a goal that every one strives for. Similarly in the Christian walk our aim is to grow in Christ, so that we can win the final prize of eternity with Him.

In order to compete well in a physical race, training, preparation and the “e” word (Exercise) are necessities. Yet consistency seems to be a problem for a lot of us when it comes to exercise. For me, as soon as the temperature drops below 10? C ( 50?F) it’s a wrap. The only exercise I will be doing after that is the walk from my front door to my car.  The consequence however is that the fitness that I worked so hard to achieve over the warmer months, wanes away due to lack of consistent exercise.

Isn’t it kind of the same thing with our spiritual lives too? In order to develop the strong Christian characters that will take us through to the end, we need to exercise our faith. And this comes through challenging ourselves to study more; in taking chances based on our faith and in putting our complete trust in God. Too often though, we hit the winter season in our Christian athletics program. This winter season comes with distractions that shift the focus away from spiritual exercises. Distractions like exam periods, where we are too busy studying to have daily devotions; or work pressures that leave us too stretched to share an encouraging word with someone else; or even church activities that keep us so overscheduled we have no time to spend in meaningful prayer with God. Our winter season might even be a period of doubt, where we can’t believe in God’s promises to us because we can’t see the tangible proof, and so we stand paralyzed, unable to exercise our faith. Whatever our winter season may be, the longer we stay in it, the more we will decline in our spiritual fitness.

The good news however is that it doesn’t take a lot to get us going again in the right direction. Even a body that had not been exercised in a long while will begin to show improvements with small acts of physical activity. My creaky, lazy body may not be able to jog a mile my first week out. But I can walk around the block. And the next week I can walk two blocks, two times. In a month, if the exercise is consistent, six days a week for at least thirty minutes a day, I should be able to jog a couple miles without difficulty.

Our spiritual life is the same. Small steps like daily prayer and study and sharing our testimony with others help us develop the spiritual fitness we need to run Paul’s race.

God expects us to maintain our physical beings and our spiritual beings by exercising both. So what are you waiting on to get going?

Have you ever had that feeling? Like your best wasn’t good enough - like the entire sum total of your efforts wasn’t adding up to diddly squat? Of course you have. It’s called failing. And we’ve all experienced it in some shape or form at one time or another.

I recently went through a week of failure. It started with a Week of Prayer which did not look anything like the vision I had for it; continued with a bad presentation on Tuesday and climaxed with a failed attempt at explaining the basics of the Sabbath to a co-worker. By Friday it had led me to a vexing question:

Does God sometimes intentionally let us fail?

No, don’t protest, just think about it. How else could I pray and do my best and still end up a loser? I had taken on Week of Prayer outside of my usual responsibilities? Didn’t that count for something? I had said yes to presenting even though I absolutely hate speaking in front of others. Shouldn’t God have blessed the efforts of my willing heart? In the past three months I’ve made a concerted effort to increase my devotion time and study God’s word so I could be ready to give an account. So what happened to the words that God was supposed to give me to say as He promised in Luke 21:14,15?

So based on this I have to conclude that sometimes God leaves the door open for us to fail. At the very least it seems like failure is inevitable even if you are walking with Christ. And I’m not just spinning wool here, people. I’ve got proof:

Proof # 1 - Botched Exorcism
Matt 17:14-21 : A man brings his son to Jesus to be healed because the disciples tried but failed to do it. Talk about your bad performance review. I can just imagine how the disciples felt. And you could tell they were embarrassed too, because they “…came to Jesus privately…” to ask him what they had done wrong. But wasn’t Jesus the one who had sent them out in the first place? Hmm. Let’s continue.

Proof # 2 - Peter and the Rooster
Matt 26:69-75: Peter denies Christ three times. Jesus told Him it was going to happen. And though Peter thought He would never deny Christ, when he heard the cock crow three times, and realized that failure indeed was his. Who was more committed to Jesus as a disciple than Peter? It seems like moments of failure in this Christian walk are inevitable.

Proof # 3 - 1844
Really? Need I say any more? I have a new appreciation for William Miller. I thought my failure with my co-worker was rough, but imagine studying and praying and prophesying the return of Jesus not once, not twice, but three times and being wrong all three. I cannot begin to imagine the feelings of despair that arose from the 1844 Great Disappointment. Miller prayed and studied for years to come up with the dates in 1843 and ‘44, so how could he get it so wrong?

In every situation there were good intentions. So what went wrong?

In listening to a sermon by W.D. Frazee on Relating to Others’ Failures, my attention was drawn to the following text:

“Woe unto the world because of occasions of stumbling! for it must needs be that the occasions come; but woe to that man through whom the occasion cometh!” - Matt 18:7 ASV

The second part “…for it needs be that the occasions (of stumbling) com;” was what caught my eye. Are you telling me that occasions of failure are inevitable? But why? Here are a couple suggestions:

To reveal to us what is in our own heart
Sometimes it is only through failure that we see our own pride and devotion to self. At times these can even be disguised as zeal for Christ, but in the face of failure the difference it is clear. But as our own selfish motives lie open before us, we have the chance toe let Christ exchange them for humility and meekness.

So God can fulfill his purpose
Ministry of Healing p 489 reads”…He who is imbued with the Spirit of Christ abides in Christ…Nothing can touch him except by the Lord’s permission. All our sufferings and sorrows, all our temptations and trials, all our sadness and griefs, all our persecutions and privations, in short, all things work together for our good. All experiences and circumstances are God’s workmen whereby good is brought to us…”

To help us stay dependent and keep us humble
As one writer said, “Our short-changed prayer life is a warning signal, but we find that easy to ignore. Failure is much harder to ignore.”Another points out that self-confidence can be a great hindrance to God using us. But there’s nothing like a touch of failure to send us running back to God, submitting completely to His will and His guidance.

To test us and give us experience dealing with problems
Judges 3:4 reads “And they [other nations residing in Canaan] were left, to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of Jehovah, which he commanded their fathers by Moses.” Frazee noted that as Israel entered the Promised Land God allowed many of the heathen nations to remain in Canaan and to prevail against Israel on occasion to test the loyalty of the newer generations of Israelites to God. Could God be using our challenges and failures to test us? To prove to ourselves and maybe to others our loyalty to Him?

As I lick the wounds of my own week of failure I have learnt a few things about myself, which in essence, was what God was trying to do all along - teach me. What is He trying to teach you?

Photo thanks to Bob.Fornal

Hmm.

The web definitions are not much better:

“humble in spirit or manner; very docile; tame obedience; evidencing little spirit or courage; overly submissive or compliant; compliant and anxious to suit his opinions of those of others”

In our go-get-it, grab-life-by-the-horns, don’t-let-others-walk-over-you culture, meekness as defined above just doesn’t cut it. It is seen as a sign of weakness.

But the lesson gives us a slightly different definition of meekness, calling it instead “an attitude of humility toward God and gentleness toward people - when we recognize that God is in control and we can trust Him even when things don’t go the way we like…” According to this definition, meekness still involves submission and compliance - but not to others - only to God.

That’s all well and good in theory but what does it mean on a day to day level? What does being meek mean for me when the cashier is rude to me in front of a long line of people; or for an employee who gets terminated in a rather unethical manner; or for a church brother who gets criticized for his best efforts? How do you display meekness in those situations?

For answers to these questions, the Bible points us to men like Abraham, who practiced meekness by placing others before himself, particularly his nephew Lot whom he gave the better portion of land. Another model is Joseph, who practiced meekness through forgiveness, and did not hold his brothers’ sin of selling him into slavery against him. Instead of exacting revenge when he had the opportunity, Joseph blessed his brothers from the wealth of his hand. The Bible is filled with examples of people who took humility to a whole new level, such as David, who despite having every right to defend himself from Saul’s attempts on his life, chose instead to not harm Saul though he had multiple opportunities. And most obvious of all, Jesus, who bore the shame and humiliation of the cross to save people who He knew would turn against Him.

Though each situation differed there are common threads through each.

1. Meekness is an attitude we must choose. It definitely does not come naturally, but Romans 12:3 counsels us with the words “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” The situations we face in life will call for us to decide if we will live for ourselves or for others.
2. Through each situation, the men of God chose to submit themselves to the will of God, and thus were witnesses and gave glory to Him through their lives. In living lives of humility we die to self and God is more clearly seen through us.

Though the world may see such an attitude as weakness, Matthew 5:5 “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth” shows us that the Lord will reward us for it. In Psalms 22:26 we are also promised that “The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.” As we surrender to God he satisfies all our needs.

Meekness is not about being weak. It is about having confidence, not in ourselves, but in the Lord.

It is ironic that joy is the focus of our lesson on a week where the world is zoomed in on the devastation that has taken place in Haiti. How can you even begin to talk about joy as you look at the images of bodies in the streets, a crumbled city, and panicked people, whose fear and tragedy consumes their very existence both day and night? Our lesson describes happiness to be the result of pleasant circumstances - so there is certainly no happiness there. But can there be joy? How do we find joy in tough times?

Philipians 4:4 commands us to “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.” It suggests that we should be in a constant state of joy throughout life. But since we know that life is not always filled with pleasant moments, how are we expected to rejoice in the midst of suffering or despair?

John 16:33 gives an answer:

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

These words came from the mouth of Jesus himself as He spoke to His disciples about His impending crucifixion and death. He was encouraging them to find peace and joy even through the loss of their leader and Saviour. It may sound trite when taken on its own, but we must understand that Jesus as a human being experienced loss and grief Himself. He was beaten and bruised. He was abandoned and betrayed by those closest to Him. He was scorned and rejected by those He came to save. He was killed unjustly through no fault of His own. But worse than all of this, He was separated from His father. The One with whom He had spent eternity, seemed to withdraw from Jesus as He hung on the cross with the weight of our sin. Jesus knew grief. Isaiah 53:3 called Him “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” The deepest sorrow that those in Haiti feel, the deepest sorrow that any of us could feel, Jesus felt. And yet He says “..be of good cheer.”

He understands our grief and understands that we must go through it, but just as He promised the disciples I believe He can turn our sorrows to peace and our peace to joy. “Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.” - John 16:20.

And why should we have this constant joy despite trouble? Because God has promised to supply all our needs (Phil 4:19), because He has prepared a place for us and promised to come back for us and not leave us in our suffering (John14:2,3). Because we can talk to Him at any time through prayer and He will hear us (Heb 4:15,16). Because death is not the end of it when we know Him (1 Cor 15:54) and because there are countless other promises that make joy in Christ worthwhile.

So as we pray for those in Haiti, and for ourselves when we go through our own difficult times, let us remember to ask God to help us to claim his promises, and to give us the true joy that stems from knowing Him.

Though GYC ended on Sunday it takes a while to recover from all the the miles (and snow) that we had to cross to get back home. I am so glad however that I was able to experience this amazing conference. It is good to know that there are so many young people across North America and the world committed to living lives sold-out for Christ.

Sunday as we wrapped up, Brother Braxton gave his last emotional message, which asked the question “Is it in your heart,” - was the cause of Christ, the desire to finish the work of the gospel truly in our hearts as it was in the hearts of the many who have gone before us. It is something we all should think about.

I had to rush out to make it back to T-dot (Toronto) about that time, but from what I saw, the final dedication service saw the introduction of the new GYC team for the next two years. To see the list visit HERE. If you’ve been keeping alert you might recognize a few names.

The final message to attendees was presented by Chester Clark III and entitled “Which Cloud are you in?” Based on the Hebrews 12:1 text, he encouraged us to know the cloud of witnesses that was surrounding us. We were challenged to make sure that our lives, both on the inside as well as the outside, reflect the Christ that we serve. You can see his message in full HERE.

To watch most of the main sessions from GYC visit USTREAM here.

You can listen to and download any of the many seminars and some of the plenary sessions at AUDIOVERSE. They are listed by date for your convenience.

If you want to purchase DVDs of the main sessions you can do so from Pan De Vida Productions.

Finally, GYC 2010 is already in the planning stages. It will be held in Baltimore, Maryland from December 29 - January 2, under the theme “No Turning Back.” God’s willing, I hope to be there. I hope to see you too!

Devotion: Just this one time

On sabbath morning with the help of speaker Sebastian Braxton we looked a bit at the story of Hezekiah, how he was blessed by God by being given unexpected victory in battle, and being given 15 extra years of life. However, Hezekiah missed the opportunity to share Jesus with the Babylonians who came to see him after God turned back the sun. He had had a chance to witness to these men about God and possibly change the course of Babylonian history…but instead he told them about his riches. Braxton pointed out that many times in our lives God will give us opportunities to witness for him. He gave his own testimony about how God used him to witness in what seemed like a bad situation (By the way, you REALLY want to hear that testimony if you haven’t before) and encouraged us not to miss our opportunity to do the same.  ”God moved the Son for us. God is saying ‘Can you just witness for me, just this one time.’” To hear the message in full visit ustream here.

Q&A with General Conference

One of the most interesting periods of the sabbath morning was a Question & Answer session with representatives from the General Conference. Reps present included General Conference Vice Presidents Mike Ryan, Ted Wilson, Mark Finley and Ella Simmons among a few others. GYC President Justin McNeilus, Board member Israel Ramos and GYC VP Amy Sheppard challenged the group with a number of tough questions submitted by youth attending the conference or participating online.

Among the questions asked were issues like the amount of money spent on public/net evangelism initiatives such as satellite crusades streamed online. Pastor Finley responded by assuring attendees that this method of evangelism was very effective and since they already had the airtime through 3ABN it was a effective way to minister. Elder Don Schneider added that many of his own family members were won through public evangelism, and a quick poll of the crowd confirmed that so were a number of attendees.

One of the most controversial questions raised had to do with the hiring of faculty who did not espouse SDA beliefs at our adventist schools. Dr. Simmons responded fervently that our adventist schools exist to teach adventist world perspectives and spiritual understandings. Furthermore, if our schools were not thoroughly adventist, they should not exist. She noted that it was imperative that the professors and faculty at our schools espoused what the church stood for. Pastor Wilson added that where this seems not to be the case, church members should bring concerns and issues to the forefront through the system channels, such as the school’s board of trustees or the school administration. Dr Simmons added that our faculty, students and church members have a responsibility to ensure that we stand for truth in out institutions.

Justin noted however that recent issue such as the teaching of evolution in adventist schools by some professors, and the public endorsement of non-christian lifestyles by some adventist administrators have been brought to the fore and there was a sense that issues were not being dealt with as quickly as they should.

The panel members all noted that these issues were not being ignored. Elder Schneider underscored however that it was important to deal with people on a one-on-one level, rather than a trial level. Dr Ryan also made a point that really stood out to me. He said

“There had to be disciples who were concerned about Judas, yet Jesus went year after year without seemingly dealing with it.”

He noted that there was something to be learned from that. Pastor Finley added that Christ’s ultimate goal was always to redeem everyone possible and in dealing with situations like this it was important to keep that goal in mind. For the second Q&A visit ustream here.

Outreach Report

The outreach program is a life-changing experience for many GYC attendees. This is the time where attendees put their faith into action by going door to door in the community and witnessing to those in the surrounding areas. This year 38 buses took conference attendees around the Louisville area to hand out tracks, offer bible studies and witness to those in the surrounding community on Friday afternoon. From the two hours of outreach, 2200 people went out to witness; 23,780 doors were knocked on; 12,454 people were spoken to; 30 000 GLOW tracts were given away; and 942 requests for bible studies were received. It was amazing to see what could be done with young people mobilized for Christ.

Divine Message: Superstars for God in the last generation

This was the focus of Pastor Finley’s message. He took us to Daniel 3 where we looked at how Daniel stood for God even in captivity. As we went through the story he brought out the following four qualities of Daniel’s life and of all who would be superstars for God:

1) Superstars for God know how to thrive in adversity - they don’t expect an easy ride

2)Superstars for God understand their identity through Christ and their destiny

3) They understand how to maintain integrity in the face of compromise

4) They leave a legacy for God

“God’s stars don’t blaze and burn out like the pop stars and icons of this world. God’s stars shine forever.”

Evening Message: UnAshamed of the Coming Christ

What does it mean to be unashamed in this age? In this Saturday evening message Pastor Assherick looked at why we should have an urgency to be ready for the Second Coming. It should not be out of fear that we might be lost, but instead it has to do with our character development. Ellen White points out that our characters are the only things we take with us to heaven, and therefore we should be living each day, building characters for heaven. Pastor Assherick pointed out that the decisions we make today create the persons we will be tomorrow. We should choose Christ and live for him completely now. Why is now so important? So that our hearts do not become hardened as did some in the bible. Now is the time because our person tomorrow may not have the moral or spiritual sensitivity to make the decisions we can today.

As I look back over the sabbath I am amazed at how God used all these speakers to pull together one unifying message for the day. In the devotional Braxton talked about how Hezekiah’s failure a witnessing for Christ eventually led to the Babylonian war against God’s people which led to Daniel being in captivity. Pastor Finley’s message almost seemed to pick up where he left off, showing how despite his situation Daniel succeeded in being a superstar witness for Christ while in captivity. Pastor Asscherick pulled it all together by showing how developing Godly character prepares us to stand unAshamed here on earth (like Daniel) and be ready for Heaven. Is there any doubt that this was the specific message that God had for us? Hardly.

GYC 2009 is here!

Wednesday evening went by like a blur. But Thursday morning started bright and early with devotion for those who could make it from the hotel over to the Kentucky International Convention Centre for 7am. Our speaker was Sebastien Braxton, director of STRIDE (Student Training and Resource Institute for Discipleship and Evangelism). Using the story of Nathan’s confrontation of David in 2 Samuel 12, he spoke about how sin is never victim-less and always destructive. But when we meet Jesus and he changes us our lives can be different. “Yes, I used to be the guy with the baggy jeans and the clothes that could fit my big brother - but now, because of what Jesus has done in me, I’m different.”  We all have things in our past that people can call us out on, but once God has changed us we have nothing to be ashamed of, because with him we are a new creation.

If you have ever run from God or had to face extreme hardships for the cause of Christ, then the testimony of Denzia Hush (above) will speak to your heart. During the midday plenary, this Croation-born young woman shared her testimony of being born muslim, dabbling in New Age religions, Spiritualism, drug and alcohol use and even deviant behaviour before coming to accept Christ. Though she had read the New Testament and always had an interest in Christianity, it never truly changed her life until the day an experience with spiritualism left her hovering on the brink of sanity. It was only when she cried out to Jesus that she was able to be saved. Even then she was thrown out of her home and faced conflict with her parents over her decision to live a life sold out for Christ. But despite the struggle she has never once looked back.

To close off the evening David Asscherick, minister and director of ARISE (A Resource Institute for Soul-Winning and Evangelism) talked about what it means to be unAshamed of the crucified Christ. He drew on the conference’s theme text Romans 1:16:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

As he spoke about what it meant for Paul to profess (unAshamed) salvation through a crucified Jew to congregations for whom Jews were of low consequence, and crucifixion a dishonour, and how Paul was rejected by many who knew him because of this message, one can’t help but look at oneself. How many times have I been ashamed of Christ? Of this gospel? How many times has my fear of others’ reaction, or my lack of faith kept me from sharing God’s truth with someone who needed it?

It’s only been a little over day, but it hasn’t taken long to figure out the point of this conference. It is not so much for us to fellowship with other adventist youth - though that will happen. It is not so much to hear good speakers -though that is a inevitable feature. The purpose is make us unAshamed and prepared to finish the great commission:

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. (20)Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. - Matthew 28:19, 20

What are you waiting for?

For a schedule of this year’s speakers and topics visit http://gycweb.org/Conference.html