![Message Magazine logo](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/message-mag-logo-mar-apr-22.png)
![Dotted border](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/dottedborder-down.png)
![Dr. Cynthia L. Hale](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/message-mar-apr-22-toc-1-mobile.jpg)
![Large Red Arrow](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/red-down-arrow.png)
One time, when a small child, I was very ill. My mother held to my lips a very bitter medicine. I turned my face from it, but still she held it to my lips, gently but firmly urging me to take it. Love was in her voice. She knew what I did not know: that only this could bring healing to me—and that I was her dearly beloved.”
—Message, circa April 1952, “His Plan” by Inez Brasier
![Small Red Arrow](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/red-arrow.png)
Lynnett S. Wesley
Lynnett S. Wesley is the author of her first book, We Need More Clouds. When you remarry or enter a partnership that includes children from a previous relationship, blending families can take adjustment. We Need More Clouds is a story about a blended family’s vulnerability, transparency, and love. This book is great for every family. It gives encouragement to families to look up to the clouds and find a story in each formation.
![Message Message Logo](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/message-logo-tagline.png)
![Seventh-Day Adventist Church Seventh-Day Adventist Church logo](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/03/seventh-day-adventist-church-logo.png)
Pacific Press Publishing Assoc.,
Virginia Ramsey 1-800-456-3991
Advertising
Samuel Archer
[email protected]
![dotted-gray](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/dotted-gray.png)
Marvin Brown
G. Alexander Bryant
Carlton Byrd
Virgil Childs
Byron Dulan
Alva James-Johnson
Abraham Jules
Kenneth Manders
Michael Owusu
Peter Palmer
William Winston
© 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. 87 No. 5 Sep/Oct 2021. 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.
![Recycle Recycle Icon](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/03/message-mag-march-april-2021-toc-fig-11.jpg)
![Small Red Arrow](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/red-arrow.png)
on’t ask me where I heard the story, but one motif remained lodged in my memory: the winter boots. Perhaps some compelling reasons are pushing that mental note to my consciousness now.
I remembered that the scene took place during early stages of the Jewish holocaust of the 20th century. German Nazi soldiers, having invaded Poland, forced Gerda Weissmann and her Jewish family out into the streets to meet their fates in concentration camps. On that sunny, spring day—before soldiers sundered this family, never to see each other again—the girl’s father insisted that she wear her ski boots.
Young Weissman trudged thereafter through death and labor camps. At length, she found herself driven in a 350-mile death march throughout Germany toward Czechoslovakia with 4,000 other women prisoners. Their captors did everything they could to avoid their being discovered and freed by Allied forces. Yet, through the march, deprivation, executions, starvation and cold, she had her boots.
![Small Red Arrow](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/red-arrow.png)
![Eye on the Times Person standing in front of large clock in clock tower](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/Rewewal_of_Conscience_02b.jpg)
![Man wearing headphones](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/wrongs-against-voting-rights-feature.jpg)
![dottedborder-up-black](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/dottedborder-up-black.png)
here are some who were and are willing to restrict the ability of other Americans to participate in the most fundamental right as a US citizen. Those persons celebrated the successful use of the antiquated filibuster to mark what they believe to be the end of the legislative road for the Freedom to Vote Act and John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in this Congress.
But I believe there is “a divine purpose behind the wrongdoings and schemes of men.” I believe Genesis 50:20 (paraphrasing), “what man meant for harm, God intends for good,” and certainly Romans 8:28, “all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called for His purpose.”
![dottedborder-up-white](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/dottedborder-up-white.png)
![A headshot portrait photograph of David Jones Peck grinning](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/David-Jones-Peck-Img-1.jpg)
avid Jones Peck was born in 1826 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to Sarah and John C. Peck. John Peck worked as a barber, wigmaker, and an African Methodist Episcopalian minister. Rev. Peck was also an abolitionist who was friends with William Lloyd Garrison and active with the Underground Railroad. By 13 years-old, David Peck caught the activist bug from his dad and served as president of the 40-member Pittsburgh Juvenile Anti-Slavery Society.1
David later helped break down barriers as the first African American to graduate with a medical degree from an American medical school in 1847 from Rush Medical College in Chicago, Illinois. Of course, he had serious obstacles to overcome. He could only attend Rush after white students voted to approve of him. The challenges continued after graduation, such as when he was removed from an auction for medical books because of his complexion.2
David Peck soon married and began his practice in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but abandoned it after being whiteballed by other doctors in the city of brotherly love. Next, the Fugitive Slave Law threatened the liberty of every Black American, even those born free like Dr. Peck.3
![Small Red Arrow](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/red-arrow.png)
What’s Your Legacy?
![dottedborder-up-black](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/dottedborder-up-black.png)
he longer I live, the more convinced I am of the impact of healthy food choices on overall health. And, I’m reminded of scriptural references from our Creator, that seem to support that concept:
- the test of Adam and Eve around appetite/desire
- the provision of fruits, nuts and grains as God’s original dietary for man
- the addition of vegetables after sin
- the allowance of flesh consumption, when the earth was bare because of The Flood, with specific restrictions around unclean animals and consumption of blood and fat
- the temptations of Christ around bread
- the fasting of Christ when tempted
- the reference to what we eat, drink or do glorifying God
- the leaves of the tree which are for the healing of the nation.
![Small Red Arrow](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/red-arrow.png)
![dottedborder-up-black](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/dottedborder-up-black.png)
“It is virtually impossible for people to [listen] unless they believe the other person understands, respects and accepts them for who they really are,” says author, relationship expert John Gottman. Acceptance is the foundation for all human relationships and if it’s missing from your marriage the results could be deep hurt, resentment, and even contempt.
We’d like to challenge you to move past the baseline act of acceptance to something deeper and more meaningful called Radical Acceptance, one of the four pillars of total intimacy.
![dottedborder-up-black](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/dottedborder-up-black.png)
![If](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/message-marapr-22-financial-drop.png)
Why should they be in your business if you drive the best cars, wear the best clothes, live in the best neighborhoods? They may not appreciate that you’re but one paycheck away from not being able to fulfil your monthly obligations.
If you told someone that the results of your physical revealed elevated hypertension, their Christian response is to prescribe a list of foods, and they may even pray and fast with you. However, when you are paying the minimum balance due of thirty-five dollars a month on your $7,500 credit card debt, no one is sounding the alarm.
![Dr. Cynthia Hale smiling](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/lights-camera-img01.jpg)
![](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/dottedborder-up-black.png)
![In](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/lights-camera-img04.png)
Starting the church with a congregation of five in her living room in 1986, Hale through the power of the Holy Spirt, grew the Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Georgia to more than 5,000 members. In identifying the secret to her success, she acknowledged that keeping the personal touch whether face-to-face, or in live services has always made the difference.
![How You Can Be A Ray of Hope](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/hope-img01.jpg)
![dotted border yellow](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/dottedborder-up-yellow.png)
![As](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/hope-img02.png)
Black Man’s Wealth
![Taking Care of the Engine That Makes You Run](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/sub.png)
Interview with Joshua Anthony
![A portrait photograph of Joshua Anthony smiling](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/Joshua-Anthony-Img-1.jpg)
![](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/dottedborder-up-black.png)
![In typography](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/Black-Mans-Wealth-Img-2-definitive.png)
recent years the rise in stress, depression, and anxiety, especially in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, caused us to learn more about mental health awareness. With all of these factors in mind, it is good to know that there are mental health care professionals ready to help where they can. One of those individuals is Joshua Anthony.
Anthony is an alumnus of Oakwood University, Meharry Medical College, and Northeastern University. He graduated from medical school in 2015 and is currently completing his residency in psychiatry at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. A biochemistry major at Oakwood, Anthony knew that he wanted to be a doctor but never imagined he’d be in psychiatry.
![A Resilient Mindset Begins Here](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/a-resilient-mindset-begins-here-feature.jpg)
![dottedborder-up-black](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/dottedborder-up-black.png)
![](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/a-resilient-mindset-begins-here-dropcap.png)
In a Psychology Today article, “What Is Resilience?” Jennice Vilhauer, the Director of Emory University’s Adult Outpatient Psychotherapy Program, evaluates what it means to be resilient:
![Antidotes for Anxiety](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/antidotes-for-anxiety-title.png)
![dottedborder-up-black](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/dottedborder-up-black.png)
![A](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/antidotes-for-anxiety-dropcap.png)
I have had struggles maintaining a balanced perspective in career pursuits and valuing others’ opinions that all led to anxiety, moodiness, and health breakdowns in my past, even as a Christian. In parallel, digging beyond Cheslie’s tragic headlines, stand as a stark reminder to me of the importance of seeking fulfilment, purpose, and joy in Christ alone.
As I perused the description of Kryst’s Instagram page, I saw the post “God first.” This led to me wonder: What could have led this successful youth who acknowledged God to make this life-ending decision?
![The Silver Lining](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/message-mar-apr-22-silver-title.jpg)
![Coins](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/message-mar-apr-22-silver-coin-1.jpg)
Ever Doubted the Credibility and the Accuracy of the Bible? Here’s a Study that Will Stir your Faith.
![dottedborder-up-black](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/dottedborder-up-black.png)
he Bible’s trustworthiness as the inspired word of God is a matter of considerable significance to Christians. It is not uncommon for even deeply committed Christians to find themselves dismayed by attacks on the Bible’s credibility.
The Bible book of Numbers is one target of such critical attacks. The large numbers cited in the Book of Numbers have caused many critics to dismiss those figures as highly improbable. An in-depth article in the Nelson Study Bible clearly presents the challenge.
![Dragonspeak: The Race Crisis in America title](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/03/message-jan-feb-2021-dragonspeak-title.png)
![Part Seven text](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/message-mar-apr-2022-dragonspeak-part-seven.png)
![](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/dottedborder-up-black.png)
![T](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/message-mar-apr-2022-dragonspeak-dropcap.jpg)
According to this verse, God did not make a man in his image, but mankind—the human race—to reflect his image and likeness (Genesis 1:28). He made the human race. Not races, but race. One race. This one race was to reflect the image or likeness of God.
So what is the image or likeness of God? The prophet Ezekiel caught a glimpse of the “likeness of the glory of God.” In this vision, Ezekiel “saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake” (Ezekiel 1:27-28).
![Red Square](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/red-square-arrow-v2.png)
![Get Unrealistic title](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/message-mar-apr-2022-unrealistic-title.png)
![](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/dottedborder-up.png)
![I](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/message-mar-apr-2022-unrealistic-dropcap.png)
One of the greatest issues facing God’s contemporary church is that we have become too realistic. We have tried to make faith pragmatic. We try to merge radical faith with common sense and the two are unequally yoked.
Every Joseph-like dreamer, every Daniel-like visionary, has to fight off the constant appeals for them to “be more realistic.”
![Small Red Arrow](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/red-arrow.png)
![Redemption Redemption in slab font](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/03/redemption.png)
![Relationship Relationship in. slab font](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/03/relationship.png)
![Readiness Readiness in a slab font](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/03/readiness.png)
![Red Square](/assets/2021/01/red-square-arrow-v2.png)
![The Experience The Experience Logo](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/the-experience.png)
![The Experience The Experience Logo](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/the-experience-mobile.png)
Rest for Your Souls
![Wooden shackle](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/message-marapr-22-rest-1.png)
At that time Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way! “My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
enderly He bade the toiling people, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Matthew 11:29.
In these words, Christ was speaking to every human being. Whether they know it or not, all are weary and heavy-laden. All are weighed down with burdens that only Christ can remove. The heaviest burden that we bear is the burden of sin. If we were left to bear this burden, it would crush us. But the Sinless One has taken our place. “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6.
![](/assets/2021/01/red-square-arrow-v2.png)
![The Experience The Experience Logo](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/the-experience-study.png)
![The Experience The Experience Logo](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/the-experience-mobile-study.png)
![Small Red Arrow](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/red-arrow.png)
![What's the Message? Podcast](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/resources-feature.jpg)
![Message Podcast Network Message Podcast Network logo](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/message-jan-feb-21-resources-img2.jpg)
![](/assets/2021/01/youtube.png)
Tune in to the
Message Podcast Network
![](/assets/2021/01/youtube.png)
Tune in to the
Message Podcast Network
![](/assets/2021/01/facebook.png)
What’s The Message?
![](/assets/2021/01/facebook.png)
What’s The Message?
![arrow](/assets/2021/01/arrow-down.png)
![Message Daily Devotion Creating Message Daily Devotion Podcast](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/message-jan-feb-21-resources-img4.jpg)
Follow us on Twitter (message1898), and Instagram (message1898), and sign up for our weekly newsletter at messagemagazine.com so you can catch the inspiration.
![Report](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/resources-fig1.jpg)
“One of our goals is to make the gospel of Jesus Christ a lot more simple, and we want them to know that the gospel is a lot more attainable. For a lot of our young people, the gospel feels too scientific, it feels too ethereal. Too many of our young people are walking around wondering if they can experience God. It seems as though that is something reserved for ‘the elites.’ We want to make it clear is that Jesus gospel came near. The whole salvation narrative, is not about a people that deserve God’s goodness, it’s about a great God that show grace for undeserving people.
So that it’s not something that they see as a theological concept, but something that is personal. It’s not until salvation is personal that it is lasting.
So, I’m praying that I can take what I received, pour it forward into the next generation, to help them settle, come to some conclusions…
Even people that don’t really accept Jesus or receive Christ into their lives until their older—their one regret and their only regret about serving God is that they’ll say: ‘man, I should have done it sooner.’
My prayer is that we can raise up a generation of young people that gives the best years of their lives to Jesus—their 20s, early 30s, where they’re strong and spiritual, and they realize that they’re not missing out on anything. So that when they are 45, 50 60, they’re not looking back on their lives with this lamentable regret saying ‘shoulda, coulda, woulda,’ but no, you can look back with a full cup, a sense that the mission is near complete because you’ve done what Christ has asked you to do.”
![Small Red Arrow](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/red-arrow.png)
![Adventist Community Services Adventist Community Services map](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/03/bless-and-img-1.jpg)
Atlanta, GA 30318
![Phone](/assets/2021/01/icon-phone.png)
![Web](/assets/2021/01/icon-web.png)
![Email](/assets/2021/01/icon-mail.png)
P.O. Box 519
Ashton, MD 20861-0519
![Phone](/assets/2021/01/icon-phone.png)
![Web](/assets/2021/01/icon-web.png)
![Email](/assets/2021/01/icon-mail.png)
Baltimore, MD 21217-3803
![Phone](/assets/2021/01/icon-phone.png)
![Web](/assets/2021/01/icon-web.png)
![Email](/assets/2021/01/icon-mail.png)
![The Masks We Wear title typography](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/the-masks-we-wear-img-title.jpg)
![dottedborder-up-black](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2021/01/dottedborder-up-black.png)
occurred to me how much masks affect our daily lives. I am not talking about the masks we are forced to wear in modern days to protect ourselves and others from Covid. I am talking about the elusive everyday masks we put on to hide our true personas from the world.
I wear a mask every day. Again, not the cloth mask required of my job, nor the mask of makeup I refuse to leave the house without. I am talking about the invisible mask I put on every morning before facing the world. The I’m fine, everything is fine, my life feels like it is falling apart, I am anxious, worried, stressed, but I don’t want to deal with it, so I will just pretend it does not exist mask.
![Message Magazine logo](https://digital.messagemagazine.com/assets/2022/04/message-mag-logo-mar-apr-22.png)