MEDIA THAT TAKES YOU HIGHER
The Dead Sea and Me
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: THE DILEMMA CONTINUES
Garland H. White, Chaplain of Black Internationalism
The Plant Powered Benefits of Asian Cuisine
Unequally Yoked in the Bedroom
The Death of Truth
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. 89 No 4. July/August. 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
Cost of Discipleship
“One of the early Christian martyrs of the church, Ignatius, said before his death, ‘Now I begin to be a disciple. I care for nothing of visible or invisible things, so that I may but win Christ. Let fire and the cross, let the companies of wild beasts, let breaking of the bones and tearing of limbs, let the grinding of the whole body, and all the malice of the devil, come upon me; be it so, only may I win Christ Jesus!’
“Just before he was thrown to the wild beasts to be devoured, he said, ‘I am the wheat of Christ: I am going to be found with the teeth of wild beasts, that I may be found pure bread.’ We can be disciples of Christ only as we are willing, like Ignatius, to count all things ‘but dung’ that we may win Christ.’”
—“This Morning with God” A Golden Verse for Each Day,
by Eva B. Dykes, March April, 1963
Phillip McGuire Wesley, jr.
I See Good
Maurette Brown Clark is back with inspiring music that will grab your attention. She has released her new single titled “I See Good.” She has more music to release and I’m excited to see her journey. From songs like: “I Just Want to Praise You,” “One God,” and “It Ain’t Over (Until God Says It’s Over),” we have been blessed by her music ministry. She has shown great excitement over this new project and I share this exuberance. I recommend all to go and be a witness to her musical ministry. Her music can be downloaded from any digital platform.
editorial
aving waded into the Dead Sea on a recent tour of Israel, I was amused to topple on the water and float there like an inflatable raft. You see, the way my body is set up, I have no problem floating anyway. I was so enthralled, however, when my feet touched the seabed because of the large formations of salt I could feel with my toes. I plunged my hand in to retrieve them only to come up shouting in shock at the stinging splash in my eyes, nose and mouth.
The Dead Sea, at more than 400 meters below sea level, is the absolute lowest point on earth. Runoff from towns and villages along the famed Jordan River all the way through the desert and through the mountain leads into the Dead, A.K.A. Salt Sea. This shiny, briny lake, nine times saltier than the ocean, has no outlet, and is constantly mined for its minerals that make cosmetic creams and oils. I plunged my hand into my purse to buy these, and my credit card is still stinging.
“Many universities have for too long… concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts for the majority opinion. “Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”
By ending race-based admissions, the Court favored backing a colorblind Constitution and ignoring the history and impact of race, genderism, and classism in America. According to the National Constitution Center website, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights “were drafted by people of similar background, generally educated white men of property.” In essence, it could be argued that challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned applied only to the homogeneous context of “generally white men of property.” Although this opinion focused on race, it opens discussion on the systemic advantages and disadvantages of genderism and classism in America.
Garland H. White had other ideas. He was stolen from his mother Nancy at about age 10, and sold into Toombs’ possession. When Toombs became a U.S. House Representative in 1844, White accompanied him to Washington, D.C. White attempted to escape in 1850, but was soon caught and returned to Toombs. Toombs had the nerve to return with White to D.C. when elected to the Senate in 1852.
By Donna Green Goodman
In the new documentary “From Food to Freedom,” nutritional biochemist T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., unleashes powerful and persuasive information regarding a plant-based diet. Especially if you want to be well.
The doc traces the experience of six people thrown into a plant-based diet, but draws from Campbell’s nutritional study one of the most comprehensive nutritional studies ever undertaken known as the China Project. The 1980s study, in partnership with researchers at Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, took advantage of a unique opportunity.
“The Chinese population tended to live in the same area all their lives and to consume the same diets unique to each region. Their diets (low in fat and high in dietary fiber and plant material) also were in stark contrast to the rich diets of the Western countries. The truly plant-based nature of the rural Chinese diet gave researchers a chance to compare plant-based diets with animal-based diets.” (https://nutritionstudies.org/the-china-study/)
exual satisfaction is a big consideration in any healthy Christian marriage. We believe it is a key ingredient of the total intimacy that couples should strive for, and it should be this way based on Scripture.
Paul says it plainly, “The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs” (1 Corinthians 7:3, NLT). But there are various obstacles to getting this right every time in the marriage bed, and that’s understandable.
No one is perfect and can’t be expected to perfectly satisfy his or her partner 100% of the time. But some couples fall short of this goal consistently, and these are the ones we want to focus on. Is it possible that some couples are misaligned in some way? Is there such thing as being unequally yoked in the bedroom?
This is what destiny and purpose is all about. Explore the following for your self-improvement.
he summer will launch a million journeys, from sea to shining sea; but from the immature minds of millions of kids, ultimately one question will fall from juvenile lips…
“Are we there yet?”
It is the province of the young to focus on the destination rather than the journey. The glory of a scarlet sunset, the wonder of shooting stars across a velvet sky, the grand vistas of land, sea and sky — all of these things can become eclipsed by an “are we there yet” focus from immature inquirers. The beauty of the journey itself — and all of its lessons and wonders — can be lost when young minds become so concerned with the end of the journey that they neglect to pay attention to the rest of it.
he summer will launch a million journeys, from sea to shining sea; but from the immature minds of millions of kids, ultimately one question will fall from juvenile lips…
“Are we there yet?”
It is the province of the young to focus on the destination rather than the journey. The glory of a scarlet sunset, the wonder of shooting stars across a velvet sky, the grand vistas of land, sea and sky — all of these things can become eclipsed by an “are we there yet” focus from immature inquirers. The beauty of the journey itself — and all of its lessons and wonders — can be lost when young minds become so concerned with the end of the journey that they neglect to pay attention to the rest of it.
Spiritually, there are also pathogens and free radicals like temptations, persecutions, worries, fear, hardships, and all forms of trials that want to enter our spiritual lives to bring spiritual illness. Building a strong and healthy spiritual lifestyle is the best and most vital weapon to fight these agents of sickness. Here are four simple, yet powerful ways to provide the nutrition and power you need for a strong, healthy spiritual well-being.
Photo by Adobe Stock
Seven Secrets to Avoid Ruining Your Relationships
Jesus Himself said: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NIV). Once I realized that, I was secure! And once I realized that I was secure and eternally loved, I realized that I didn’t need to prove anything to anybody.
- The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, But the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness. (Prov. 15:2, NKJV)
- The heart of the wise teaches his mouth, And adds learning to his lips. (Prov. 16:23, NKJV)
- The lips of fools bring them strife, and their mouths invite a beating. The mouths of fools are their undoing, and their lips are a snare to their very lives. (Prov. 18:6-7, NIV)
Here is the difference. Believing is an “is”— much like arithmetic or true science. We don’t struggle with the possibility that there is some other explanation for 2 + 2 = 4, for example. Or that when we plant tomatoes, we get tomatoes.
It doesn’t keep us, or the neighbors, awake. We all believe in those universal truths. When you think of it, we carry out the act of believing a thousand times a day. We don’t check the legs of chairs before we sit down. We don’t check under the hood every time we start our car.
Faith = Pistis in the Greek Believing = Pisteuo in the Greek.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”
Derek Morrison in his book, “Luck, Coincidence or Providence?,” challenges Job’s statement by asserting that we should trust in God’s providence.
Morrison, who is of Afro-Caribbean descent, was fostered in 1964 at nine months old, into a loving white, atheist family, who lived in outer London. His memoir looks back and joins up the dots of his life through racism, riots, and reggae to faith.
Recently, commentators Don Lemon of CNN and Carlson Tucker of Fox News were relieved of their anchor duties because their colorful commentary finally crossed lines that their networks deemed inappropriate. Social media lights up on a nightly basis with misinformed or poorly informed opinions that are spewed with the dogmatic force of a literary sledgehammer.
Discipleship is not a ministry; it’s a way of life. Spiritual growth is a way of life and discipleship is intertwined with spiritual growth. They run hand in hand.
What did Jesus teach? “Go ye into all the world and make members of all the nations?” No, He said, “Go ye into all the world and make disciples.”
Atlanta, GA 30318
404-799-7288
http://atlantaberean.com/bomc
[email protected]
P.O. Box 519
Ashton, MD 20861-0519
301-774-0400
https://www.emmanuelbrinklow.org
[email protected]
Baltimore, MD 21217-3803
410-669-6350
https://www.bereatemple.org
[email protected]