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Move over, Scrooge. Watch the power of these shrewd moves.
History’s indictments of unchecked power, and the power of a stand.
You may not know her name, but her case protects you.
How has this erroneous, racial Biblical interpretation survived these millennia?
The triumph of unity is within reach.
If You Don’t Know Me By Now: Samson’s Relationship Revelation
MEDIA THAT TAKES YOU HIGHER
Big Lies, and the Prescription against “Wokeness”
How to Protect Your Religious Rights, and the Rights of Others
Three that Got Away
Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide
Bridging the Orgasm Gap
don’t look up
Come as You Are, but Don’t Leave That Way
Mapping MaTThew 22:1-14
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© 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. 88 No. 6 Nov/Dec 2022. 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.
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Love, Not Force
. . . The kingdom of Christ will be built on love, not force. There will be no draftees in His army and no aliens among His citizens. He will raise the dead who in their lifetime chose Him as their King and Lord. He will change those who love Him from mortal to immortal in the twinkling of an eye.”
—“Christ–The Hope of the World” by Leonard C. Lee, Message, July 1963
Phillip McGuire Wesley, jr.
This is a new day of listening and reading. I pray that each book, music tune, or app will make an impact in your life as it has in mine. Please let us know by emailing me.
Book
Parenting Teens: A Tug-A-War to Adulthood
P. Koffe Brown
Parenting is by far the hardest job any human being will ever have. The teen years can be the most complex of the parenting journey. In this book series, Coach P. Koffe Brown brings together an exceptional group of thought leaders including Gregory Bloomfield’s chapter on Teens and Divorce. This book will be a blessing to readers and the teens they are preparing for greatness. Purchase Parenting Teens & the Tug-A-War to Adulthood at www.sisterpamellapublishing.com or Amazon (Best Sellers).
editorial
Big Lies and the Prescription against “Wokeness”
hen John Poulos, CEO of Dominion Voting Systems talked to“60 Minutes” in an October episode, the man looked weary and close to tears. Poulos and his company seeks billions in damages in a libel suit against media giants Fox news and OAN (One America News Network), purveyors of a conspiracy that claimed Dominion’s voting machines were manipulated online or somehow malfunctioned to advantage Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential elections.
For Poulos, the runaway rumors—though decisively and consistently debunked—still lead to death threats. In testimony to Congress, the nonpartisan research and thinktank Brennan Center detailed how the “Big Lie” has filtered through new restrictive voting rights laws that disenfranchise voters of color. New laws actually use language that incorporates the Big Lie’s talking points. People energized by the Big Lie’s falsity feel licensed to harass or even threaten election workers with criminal prosecution.
akwood Adventist Academy (OAA) announced that the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) has adopted a rule that would adjust game schedules to accommodate religious requests, a change that comes in response to a lawsuit filed earlier this year. The case Oakwood Adventist Academy v. Alabama High School Athletic Association arose after Oakwood’s boys basketball team was forced to forfeit a semi-final tournament game scheduled on their Sabbath. The decision by the AHSAA provides lasting protection for religious schools and their athletes and will serve as an example for other states.
If you are an adherent, what should you do in situations where you think your First Amendment rights are being violated?
never mean… to possess another slave by purchase, it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted, by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law.” That’s what George Washington wrote to John F. Mercer on September 9, 1786, according to the book George Washington, the Christian, by William J. Johnson, (Abingdon Press, 1919).
This didn’t mean America’s first president adopted plans to abolish slavery on his own plantation. Washington desperately tried to recapture those escaping his tyranny. However, three got away.
optimal health
The Plant-Based Lifestyle
Photo by Davner Toledo
Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide
By donna green goodman
my work as a wellness coach, I often encounter patients who say:
- “I know it’s not good for me, but it tastes so good!
- It’s hard to stop eating it, I grew up this way.
- I really don’t care.
- It’s the way my momma makes it; I’m going to eat it anyway.”
Whew! I truly understand where they are coming from! I was a chocoholic and would do whatever I could to get it when I wanted it. I knew it wasn’t good for me, but I rationalized that my exercise could walk away the negative side effects, so I quieted my conscience and kept on eating.
It wasn’t until the doctors explained to me that the caffeine could change my breast tissue and increase my risk of fibrocystic disease, fibroadenomas, and breast cancer that I was convicted of the need to eliminate it and make better choices.
John and April Nixon
Bridging the Orgasm Gap
“The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs. The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife”
(1 Corinthians 7:3-4, NLT).
BY JOHN AND APRIL NIXON
utual sexual satisfaction is something we should be trying to achieve in our marriages just like we endeavor to improve our communication, patience, and emotional attentiveness. After all, sex is a physical sign of a spiritual reality. Therefore, you should strive for openness, unselfishness, and generosity in the physical aspects of your relationship, just as you already do in the spiritual areas of you marriage.
The sad reality is that many Christian couples are not working on their sexual fulfillment at all. Whether it’s because of shame, shyness or not wanting to hurt their partner’s feelings, many couples simply don’t discuss the topic in their relationship. But make no mistake; this is a prevalent issue in Christian marriages today because so many just don’t see eye to eye in the bedroom.
any of us can attest that this holiday season will be very different from the most recent years in that the impact of inflation will require us to be more prudent.
Yes, the usual suspects are still at the top of many individuals’ shopping list—clothing, jewelry, footwear and electronics. But, should our gift giving be influenced by the major events of the past three years? For example, Covid-19 changed the way our world will operate forever. More importantly, it also exposed some of the major economic disparities between, the haves and the have-nots, people of color and minority groups, the rich and the poor, entrepreneurs and investors and savers and spenders.
I would posit that if we view our holiday season gift giving through that prism, more finance-related gifts would be on our shopping list.
2022 Conscience Calendar
Trace a historical thread of freedom and the compromise of conscience.
Jews are expelled from France, again. After being banished and having their possessions stolen and auctioned in 1306, Jews were welcomed back to France in 1315—for a fee. Their reentry was also conditioned on them not openly practicing their religion or engaging in usury (loaning money and charging interest). What was it about European Christian theocracies that made them hate and exploit Jews so much?
Hussites defeated papal crusaders, sent by Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund and Pope Martin V, at Německý Brod in Bohemia. Hussites, followers of Jan Huss (who had been burned at the stake in 1415), protested against the Church’s power over government. They also condemned indulgences, and advocated for equality between clergy and laity.
Price was 15-years old when King was assassinated, and his death filled her with rage.
When Chicago police killed Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in 1969, Price responded by organizing a protest sit-in at the predominately white college prep high school she attended. When administrators confirmed her role as the instigator, they expelled her.
The story begins in the ninth chapter of Genesis, verse 18 and crescendos in verse 24 with, “When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham.”1 The curse is spelled out in the subsequent verses:
“May Canaan be cursed! May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.” Then Noah said, ‘May the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed, and may Canaan be his servant! May God expand the territory of Japheth! May Japheth share the prosperity of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.’”2
Martin Luther King Jr. said that, “We must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or perish together as fools.” This sentiment has been my growing conviction as I look at the relationship between African-Americans and the black Caribbean immigrant population. According to the U.S. Census, the black or African American non-Hispanic population is the third-largest racial group in the U.S. at 12.1% of the population. In comparison, Pew Research indicates that “the Caribbean remains the most common region of birth for U.S. black immigrants. Just under half of the foreign-born black population was born in this region (46%). Jamaica and Haiti are the top Caribbean countries for black immigrants in the U.S.”
Through several dialogues with individuals over the years, observations in the context of serving as a denominational pastor and benefiting from the research of others, I have seen the growing need for greater dialogue between these two groups. Yet before I continue, I need to disclose a little about myself which provides context for my viewpoints. I was born on the beautiful island of Jamaica. For many Jamaicans who share an African ancestry, we find that countries like Ghana, Nigeria, and Central Africa were likely places of origin from the continent.
this series, “Built to Last,” we are exploring what it means to construct a life that is built to last. Jesus says in Matthew 6:1-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:12–13 “Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.”
They leverage all of the influence they can gather to get an audience with government leadership only to be brushed off as fanatical, offshoot scientists driven by political motives. The president, played by Meryl Streep, shows overwhelming indifference to the warning. She cites the number of warnings they get of planet-threatening occurrences that never materialize. She has heard the warnings, with such frequency, that she refuses to even look up.
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ELLEN G. WHITE
Just Don’t Leave that Way
“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
“For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Adrienne Rowe-Saulsbery
Resource: https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary
- What about this story/context/verse stands out to me?
- How is this different from the life I live now? How is this different from the society and culture I’m a part of? (Luke 12:35-40)
- How does this passage challenge me? Are there other verses that speak to my challenge? (Titus 3:1, 1 John 2:28)
- Where do I see Jesus, or miss Jesus in this passage? (Matthew 24:42-43) Are there verses that speak to this elsewhere in the Bible
- What am I missing in my life that God wants me to have? (Matthew 24:44) What other verses are there to support that?
- Is there someone else who could use this in their life? How can I share it?
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Healthy at Last with Eric Adams & Donna Green-Goodman
“We need to move in the direction of finally dealing with the origin of abusive behavior by law enforcement. Remember, policing was born out of slavery. And so it was never going to move far from its destructive past if we don’t force it to.
So I think there are couple of things we need to do:
We need to offer zero tolerance for officers who are abusing their authority and those who are there and witness the action and don’t do something. But there’s something else that many of us don’t include in this conversation.
When we had medical doctors who were not treating black and brown people correctly, the Howard Universities—the historical black colleges and universities (HBCUs)—encouraged us to go into medicine. Same thing with education. When educators were not treating us fairly, we opened our own schools and went into education.
The only place where we, as people of color, don’t play a major role inside reforming a particular industry is policing. We need to be recruiting black and brown people in all of our colleges into law enforcement. If we want the public safety ecosystem to change, we need to change it.
All of us know conscientious young black and brown people who could be commanders, detectives, and heads of police agencies.
We pay our taxes to have racists protect us. That makes no sense. It’s time for us to say we want to be in charge of our own public safety.
I want that little boy who’s sitting in a pew next to me, that I know is conscientious, to be a cop on my block, because public safety is a prerequisite to prosperity. They go hand in hand, and you can have justice and safety together.”
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