Get MoreSnap this code and check
out our video content
AHA! An Effective Approach to Strengthen Your Conscience
Confused with tradition, even the Church can’t overrule the truth.
Travel through time’s archives to discover the more things change…
Change is needed to protect communities of faith from predatory behavior.
The sticky art of standing up for yourself among fellow believers.
How God guides the reconstruction after your brush with a “human tornado.”
The first steps to lifelong freedom from bondage.
How your transformation comes to be.
media that takes you higher
Consciousness Hacking and Enlightenment
ANNUAL LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS INSPIRES CONTINUED VIGILANCE AND RESISTANCE
Buried Black History
The Amazing Plant Power of Mediterranean Cuisine
Millennials Are Not Rushing to Get Married
Why We Need Church
Authenticity Detector
God’s Law: A Recovery Disk for the Human Race
Editor
Carmela Monk Crawford
[email protected]
Graphic Design
Erica Keith
www.ericakeith.com
Pacific Press Publishing Assoc.,
Virginia Ramsey 1-800-456-3991
Advertising
Samuel Archer
[email protected]
Marvin Brown
Carlton Byrd
Virgil Childs
Byron Dulan
Garth Gabriel
Alva James-Johnson
Abraham Jules
Kenneth Manders
Michael Owusu
Calvin Preston
Marcellus Robinson
Calvin Watkins
Call 1-800-456-3991 Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Mountain Time for subscription information or address changes. MESSAGE (ISSN 0026-0231) is published bimonthly Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/June, July/Aug, Sept/Oct, Nov/Dec.
© 2018 by the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists, 9705 Patuxent Woods Drive, Columbia, Maryland, 21046, U.S.A. Address editorial correspondence to MESSAGE MAGAZINE, 9705 Patuxent Woods Drive, Columbia, MD 21046-1565 U.S.A. All subscriptions are prepaid. If you did not order MESSAGE, it is being sent as a gift from a friend. You will not be billed. To subscribe, mail payment to MESSAGE, 1350 North Kings Road Nampa, ID 83687, U.S.A. or call 1-800-456-3991. Subscription price: one year, $19.95 U.S. currency; single copy, $4.00; overseas, add $10.00 per year for postage. Prices subject to change without notice. Periodicals Postage paid at Nampa, Idaho and additional offices. Vol. 90 No. 6 November/December. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to MESSAGE, 1350 North Kings Road Nampa, ID 83687, U.S.A. Printed in the U.S.A.
Unless otherwise noted, Bible texts in this issue are from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Statements in this issue attributed by an author to other speakers/writers are included for the value of the individual statements only. No endorsement of those speakers’/writers’ other works or statements is intended or implied.
Vintage Vault
Cultivating One’s conscience
—Should Conscience Be Our Guide?,
by Paul K. Freiwirth, Message, October, 1953
Phillip McGuire Wesley, jr.
Listen
Turn Your Season Around
The book “7 Mindsets of Success” is a powerful and insightful guide to achieving success in all areas of life. Written by a team of experts, it offers practical strategies and mindset shifts that can help individuals unlock their full potential and achieve their goals.
One of the key strengths of this book is its emphasis on the power of mindset. It explores seven different mindsets that successful people possess, such as the “Passion First” mindset and the “We Are Connected” mindset. Each mindset is explained in detail, with real-life examples and actionable steps to help readers adopt these mindsets in their own lives. This book is available online or in stores.
editorial
and Enlightenment Engineering
ichie’s Plank Experience, for some users, starts with set-up: a board on the floor, sometimes with one end resting on a stack of sponges to make it “bounce.” Players don the Oculus Quest 2, a virtual reality (VR) headset that engulfs the line of vision and peripheral senses. Then after a simulated and dizzying ascent aboard the elevator of a skyscraper, to your abject surprise, the doors open to reveal the vertiginous effect of you standing on a wooden plank. Now far above the street, over the tops of towers, untethered, you walk that plank.
This virtual thrill-seeking comes with an elevated heart rate, rapid breathing, and panic, all at no extra cost. Some users tremble, on all fours, clutching the very board that they — moments prior—lay on the floor in the first place.
I haven’t tried it. My nerves can’t even handle the write up. The book Spirit Tech: The Brave New World of Consciousness Hacking and Enlightenment Engineering, however, clues us into the lengths to which seekers will go in “man’s search for meaning.” The plank walking was just an example of the effectiveness of technology at persuading the senses. Authors and researchers Wesley Wildman, Ph.D., and Kate J. Stockly, Ph.D., investigate the assistive technology and science behind such futuristic spiritual quests.
That all changed beginning on September 8, 1912, when 18-year-old Mae Crow disappeared. Mae was found unconscious in the woods the next day. She was severely beaten and believed to have been sexually assaulted. She never regained consciousness before dying from her injuries. Since she was a white, young woman, it was quickly determined that the suspect(s) must be black men.
Thousands of whites gathered to lynch those judged guilty but weren’t satisfied until their reign of terror drove all the blacks out of Forsyth County. Whites took ownership of the dispossessed land until Lake Lanier was created in the 1950s, submerging any remnants of Oscarville. There have been over 700 deaths on Lake Lanier since then, leading some to believe the lake is haunted. If I believed in ghosts, Lanier’s story would make it haunt-worthy.
By Donna Green Goodman
“The Mediterranean diet is perhaps one of the most widely researched eating patterns in the world. Following a Mediterranean diet is linked with a reduced risk of heart attack and stroke, a decreased risk of certain cancers (e.g., colorectal, head and neck, respiratory, gastric, liver, and bladder), a slower progression of atherosclerosis, and many markers of healthy aging” (Today’s Dietitian).
Whenever I thought of Mediterranean food, my mind went to things like falafels, olives, gyros, and spanakopita, which are connected to Greece. As I have looked a little more closely at the Mediterranean foods of Africa, I have discovered familiar flavors that are integral to this type of cuisine.
Cohabitation is on the rise among the young adult population as well. One report reveals “over three in five unmarried couples live with their partners, though more millennials live with their partner than Gen Z — with a difference of 65% to 35%.” What is causing this shift in perspective towards marriage? Here are a few reasons:
Life Design
Work out your spiritual muscle using the AHA approach.
What then, is the pathway to upgrade our conscience and lead to a more abundant life? In short, through personal understanding of conscience and an “AHA” approach for its development.
While the first day of the week had long been observed and venerated by pagan custom as the day of the sun, there had been Christians, particularly the Christian church in Rome, who, because of Jesus Christ’s resurrection, began to regard the first day of the week with significance. They had begun a tradition of gathering on it, although there had never been a biblical authorization for the worshipful observance of the first day of the week as holy, or set apart by God.
Travel through time, and rediscover that the more things change…
1493
1513
1623
Photo by Adobe Stock
– Elizabeth Earnshaw
A big part of setting personal boundaries is learning when to say no, (Titus 2:11, 12). I think we can safely conclude that in addition to ungodly influences and worldly practices and passions, it is ungodly to let others put stress on you.
Saying “No” is as easy as just saying “No thank you,” “Maybe next time,” or “My schedule is full right now.”
To set your personal boundaries, identify the most important things to you. Ask yourself, “What is important to me?” and “How do I want others to treat those things?”
No way was I going to live among the rubble. And I wasn’t about to try rebuilding without first clearing the “land” so to speak. The garden of my heart had been torn to shreds and needed to be replanted. You cannot have a firm foundation unless the land has been cleared and prepared for rebuilding. Therefore, I began picking up the pieces.
Today, our social media is filled with diverse misleading content that incites people to indulge in sin. A typical case is the influx of pornographic websites. In fact, it is easier to access sexual content today because of mobile devices. Millions of pornographic content pieces are cast and uploaded daily. Besides pornographic websites, social media platforms have become a marketplace for streaming sexual content and marketing products that encourage young people to adapt immoral lifestyles.
Despite its ever presence, it is possible to break the hidden chains of lust.
In God’s presence, all sin is forgiven and forgotten. Proverbs 16:6 (Msg) says Guilt is banished through love and truth; Fear-of-GOD deflects evil.
One way to rid oneself of guilt is via the power of love. As humans, we have a responsibility to realize that God loves you in spite of all you have done wrong. We have a responsibility to comprehend the fact that the love of God may even be shown on a greater level; that while we were in our most helpless position, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6). When you and I were at our lowest, He gave His life as a sacrifice for us. Although it is possible for a man to choose to die for another man, it is very unlikely that a man would die for a bad man (Romans 5:7). Despite the fact that we were evil, Jesus chose to die for us. How much more so now that God has adopted you as His child?
Congregations can abuse pastors. Pastors can abuse congregations and congregants. Congregants can abuse one another.
And spiritual abuse is connected to other forms of abuse such as sexual abuse, human sex trafficking, physical abuse, emotional and verbal abuse.
Because of its highly damaging potential it is important to identify, early, some of the warning signs of spiritual abuse. They include manipulation and exploitation by spiritual figures in power positions, enforced accountability, censorship of decision making, requirements for secrecy and silence, and coercion to conform (which translates to your inability to ask questions). Further, the requirement of obedience to the abuser and the suggestion that the abuser has a “divine” position plays into the power imbalance that enables the abusive relationship. Isolation as a punishment should be questioned, as should be a sense of superiority and elitism.
We sequester a small portion of the gym, where one of the guys plays gospel music on his portable speaker. For the most part, our time together is very jovial. We reminisce about what was as we try to cling to what is left.
There is a camaraderie and a fellowship that refreshes us. There is conversation that edifies us. But the collective encouragement of the group pushes everyone in their work out. We spot one another when weak, and we push one another when someone is tempted to give in. There is an accountability text thread for those who miss the workout, or for those who are tempted not to show up.
Facebook 
Twitter 
Instagram 
YouTube 
Christopher Thompson
The challenge is that when Adam and Eve downloaded the “sin” virus by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it corrupted their human central processing units (CPUs). Now, the human operating system does not process properly, we don’t reason well, our imaginations deflate us instead of inspiring us, and we have painful memories that trap us in cycles of harmful habits, negative behaviors, and addictions.
It is against this backdrop that God introduces the moral law and the ceremonial laws. God gives us the moral law as a recovery disk for our minds, hearts, and memories. God gives us the ceremonial laws as a way of reminding us that He will one day heal us and completely eradicate the sin virus.
Atlanta, GA 30318
404-799-7288
http://atlantaberean.com/bomc
[email protected]
