Long ago, on the Judean hills surrounding the city of Bethlehem, a small group of blue-collar laborers were on the night shift. Conscientious, curious and honest, they believed in God and hoped for the soon coming deliverer of Israel. On this night, God granted them the privilege of being a part of the most important story in the universe.
G.K. Chesterton is credited with a rather cogent reminder: "The object of a New Year,” he said, “is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul."
I believe he’s right. As we turn the proverbial page to yet another year, it’s high time to talk turkey — veggie turkey, that is, and I don’t mean the gastronomic sort. I’ve had my fill of that through Thanksgiving and Christmas.
In colloquial parlance, to “talk turkey” means to discuss something in a frank, open and serious manner in order to solve a problem.
Yesterday Herod’s troops murdered my son. “He might be the Fake King,” they said, “so Herod, the Real King, says all pretenders must die. Tough deal.”
They tore him from my arms and killed him. No checking parentage. No apologizing. No questions. Nothing. Just murder — heinous, hateful, ignorant and cruel. Yesterday.
Who’s afraid of a nursing infant? Herod, one of two despots in the Christmas story. The infamous ruler recognized in baby Jesus a genuine threat to his kingdom of coercion.
Foreign dignitaries had arrived from afar, inquiring the whereabouts of heaven’s royal child. Herod sensed trouble for his domain of darkness. He launched a plot mercifully thwarted: “Flee to Egypt,” God’s angels warned Joseph, so baby Jesus won’t be killed. Instead, Herod himself soon met his demise.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Student missionaries effectively answer the call each year for teachers across the globe. Dozens fill positions throughout Micronesia, including the republic of Palau, the focus of the North Pacific Union Conference (NPUC) Partners for Palau project. Dozens may go, but more are needed. Hailing from Alaska, Ellie Butikofer is taking a break from her formal college education to serve as an Adventist Volunteer Services (AVS) first-grade teacher more than 1,000 miles to the east of Palau, on the Micronesian island of Weno in Chuuk.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following statement was jointly issued by the undersigned student leaders of Seventh-day Adventist universities, colleges and other associations throughout North America who attended the North American Division Year-End Meeting as representatives. It is their response to the document approved on Oct. 14, 2018, by the General Conference executive committee entitled: Regard For and Practice of General Conference Session and General Conference Executive Committee Actions.
Brothers and Sisters,
Throughout childhood, I suffered guilt and despair despite sincerity of spiritual caregivers. Church school teachers warned that only perfectly Christlike children qualify for heaven. While God also loves imperfect people, they would be lost in heaven’s investigative judgment — which any moment could determine our doom. "But if you pray every day,” pastors added hopefully, “Jesus will come into your heart and cleanse you from all sin.”
Somehow sanctification didn’t happen as advertised.
In 1934 George Herbert Mead (and later with the help of Harold Blumer) created a communication theory known as symbolic interactionism. The essential idea is that people assign meaning to objects in the world and that influences how they interact. However, these meanings aren’t static. As we connect with other people we can modify meanings, which in turn change the way we act. And as our actions and responses change, they help shape the way we live.
At Sheridan Meadows, the Adventist retreat center near Republic, Wash., work was beginning to prepare for Northeast Washington Camp Meeting. A local contractor was hauling gravel and making our road so much nicer. While all the trucks were coming and going there was not much else to do, so the water was turned on for the first time of the season. There is most always something the winter freeze has ruined — water lines frozen and split, needing repair.