by Eric Rank

As I write this, I’m in the midst of moving my family 1000 miles away from the place we call home. The other night I lay awake, quite overwhelmed, reflecting on the impact of this decision to move. All I could think about were the things we’re leaving behind. We’re leaving my loving parents and family; I’m leaving a good job; we’re moving away from a comfortable house in a neighborhood we enjoy; and we’re leaving some very dear friends. With all this in mind, I summed up my feelings with a single, emotionally charged, frightened, anxious and melancholy sentence. I said out loud to my wife and companion in this adventure, “I’m really happy here.”

At this last minute I realized that I’m giving up a life that I truly enjoy to move to a place where just about everything will be different and few things certain. It’s very scary.

It reminds me of the story of Abram, when God tells him to leave his home to a land to be shown to him by God. When this happened he was 75 years old, and well-established in his life. Yet, because God made a promise to him, he faithfully packed up his household and moved, knowing only that it was commanded by God and that he would be blessed for his obedience.

In my family’s move, the one thing that I am certain of is that we’ll be blessed with the opportunity to grow spiritually. We are moving to an area where we will be building relationships with other brethren, challenging ourselves to grow spiritually in ways that we cannot in the place we’re moving away from.

When I become overwhelmed by the immense changes right now, I find comfort knowing that moving 1000 miles away from here is the best spiritual move that we could possibly make. But that still doesn’t make it easy.

What does make it easier is remembering that Christ told us not to love this life to the death. I have to apply this by always attempting to put spiritual benefits above physical comfort. As God promised Abram, He promises us, that if we succeed in obeying His commandment to live according to the way of His Holy Spirit, we too will be blessed.

by Robb Harris

I recently needed some work done on my
sprinkler system, so I hired someone to come out and service it.
During the process of tuning up my system, the man reset my watering
cycle in order to use less water, but get the grass to grow
greener. According to him, too much water in too short of a time
allowed less water to reach the roots. Shorter waterings on the
other hand, didn’t satiate the ground, and required less water overall.

Our
part of the country has also been in watering restrictions for the past
few years, which dictate how many times per week you can
water. This year our city hasn’t put any restrictions into
place, and I asked him about this, wondering if his modifications to my
system would comply with any upcoming restrictions. He told me
that in the past, when restrictions were in place, people used much
more water then when there were no watering schedules. The reason
being, if you are given only a few hours per week to water, you would
most likely be watering during that entire time. And if people
think the water tables are full, they worry less about getting all the
water they can, when they are allowed.

Although a bad example to
live by in regards to our water supply, this is a good test to see how
full our “Spiritual” water supplies are. In this age, God’s Truth
is in very short supply. Do we take advantage of it, when it’s
made available to us? Or do we have the outlook that because it’s
on hand for us today, that the same will be true tomorrow?

Christ
was full of God’s Truth, thus He didn’t have to learn any more like
us. WRONG! He continued to persevere, continued to overcome
throughout His ENTIRE life. Let’s remember His example when we
start feeling too full, satisfied and self absorbed, because God’s
Truth SHOULD ALWAYS quench our thirst.

by Louise Amorelli

Bread….the “food” of
life. It is one of the oldest staples of the basic diet.
Our physical well-being depends upon fueling our bodies, daily, with
bread and other foods given by our Creator to keep us healthy. Due to a
recent illness which left me unable to perform normal daily activities,
I was forced to rethink my eating habits. In doing so, I have
learned many valuable lessons–not only in my physical life, but also
in my spiritual life.

The correlation between our physical and
spiritual intake of “food” is remarkable. I realized first and foremost
that quality food is of great importance in keeping our bodies in
tip-top shape. In this fast-paced, fast-food society, this can be
quite difficult. Just as we need quality physical food, more
importantly, we also need quality spiritual food, inspired by God’s
Word. Just as we should seek out the better foods to eat, we must
also seek out God’s Truth among the “fast-food” religions of this world
that promise us an unhealthy spiritual diet which can result in
spiritual illness or death. As all nutritionists agree, the fast food
ingredients of fillers, preservatives and artificial ingredients are
detrimental to our health. They are realizing more and more the link
between good food and healthy bodies. These foods entice us with our
senses, but ultimately bring us physical illness which can lead to
death. Today’s religions, in this Satan-inspired world, do much the
same. They are pleasing to our spiritual senses by making us think that
God’s laws are done away with and that the commandments are no longer
in effect. It’s the fast-food mentality of quick
self-gratification, without considering the consequences.

I have
also learned that I should take the time and make the effort to cook
healthy meals. This may take some time, but it is time well spent.
During the food preparation, this allows me to enjoy the whole cooking
experience. Not only does it give me time to spend with my family, it
also allows me to de-stress away the worries of the day. In the
spiritual sense, we must take our time during our busy day to develop
our relationship with God through prayer, Bible study and meditation.
By giving our time to God, this will bring us spiritual peace of mind
and a healthy spiritual appetite.

In the sample prayer given in
God’s Word, we are told to ask Him to give us our daily bread. We need
to keep in mind the relationship between our physical and spiritual
bread which are both given by God. Let us make sure that we take
the time in our busy lives to nourish ourselves with quality “bread”
with no preservatives, fillers or artificial ingredients!!

Michael Link (25)

Sometimes it may seem natural to worry when we find ourselves in certain situations that seem too tough for us to handle. Things could happen in our lives that we may not be used to, and we would not know how to cope with them. We may have problems with work or school, or with our friends and loved ones, and sometimes even with ourselves. Naturally, we start to worry, thinking it’s too tough, and we may even start to forget how to react to these situations and sometimes may react the wrong way.

I have been there before, many times. When something got too tough, I began to worry and develop a bad attitude, even though I knew it was wrong. I forgot about the bigger picture and where I had to put my faith and trust. For the past 3 months, work had become slow for me, and in past experiences I would have started to panic a little bit. I could honestly say that this time I didn’t worry at all. I knew that God would provide as He says He will do, and I prayed about it and before I knew it, I got another job. The things that I least expected finally started to happen.

This wasn’t the only good thing that started happening, but several things happened and I have God to thank. Not only did I have the faith and confidence that God would provide, but I also had to have patience. Of course I had to do my part as well, but God tells us He will fulfill our needs when we ask, and only He knows what is best for us.

With God being in our lives, we know that we are in good hands. He tells us that we will be blessed far more than we can ever imagine, if we trust in Him, and He knows everything that we go through. He knows when we are in need and when we need help. So why do we worry?

by John Amorelli

New Jersey – the Mecca
for extravaganza wedding parties and entertainment in the wedding arena
scene! I was part of that wedding scene. Playing bass
and singing in a top notch wedding band that played the tri-state
area. The income was good, very good. There were times when
I thought that I could do this as a full time job. “Just think”,
I said to myself, “I could do this full time and not have to do the
routine nine to five day job.” I was even contemplating not
working as a massage therapist any longer. During the week, I
would be taking it easy and on the weekends I would be playing
weddings. Then something happened. Something big happened! I was
introduced to the Truth. I would be playing weddings (now this
included Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights). I started to feel
that something wasn’t right regarding playing on the Sabbath. As
God opened my eyes to the Truth, I started to realize that He was
trying to tell me something. God was revealing to me that
the Sabbath was His Day.

It finally got to the point where I had
to tell my band leader I could not play on Friday nights because of the
Sabbath. I asked him if I could play only on Saturday and Sunday
evenings and have a replacement for me on Friday nights. He
responded with, “ALL OR NONE!” So, there was no deal. I
eventually left the band. I was scared because I would lose a
major part of my income. “How will I pay the rent, bills,
etc…?” My massage income was not enough to survive on.

God
worked it out!! With fervent prayer, God has rewarded me with
increased income in my massage therapy business. I had sacrificed
playing in a top-notch wedding band every weekend with great income,
and reaped God’s blessings. We must not compromise with
God’s laws. We must give Him our ALL. We must have an attitude of
ALL OR NONE in our spiritual lives, and He will give us ALL His
blessings!!!

by Kalon Mitchell

How many times do we, as humans, limit God?
How many times do we think that, maybe, God would help us in a certain
situation, but yet still don’t ask Him about it? Throughout my short
time before becoming baptized, and even sometimes afterwards, I have
limited God and gone and done what I thought best, or just didn’t get
an answer. But yet each time I have put my full faith, confidence and
trust in God, He has answered me in amazing ways that I hadn’t thought
of or even imagined to be possible.

God tells us throughout the
Bible that He will take care of us in every way if we put our faith and
confidence in Him and ask Him for help. So the question I have for us
is simply this: Are we limiting God? The problem is: We are human. We
have sometimes an attitude of thinking that we know it all, and that we
don’t require any help. Some may feel that they know everything! But
yet God requires of us to become meek, humble and obedient.

So
let us all, in the following days, weeks, months and years, come before
our Creator with humility, and let us lay our problems, hopes and
dreams before Him, asking Him for His help and guidance.

by Phyllis Bourque

Many years ago, as a new 28-year-old
convert, and the mother of a newborn and a toddler of 18 months, it was
no small challenge to get ready for church. My mate was not being
called as I was, and so Sabbath preparations rested entirely on me. One
particular Sabbath, the children were fussy, I was tired, and it was
raining…all good reasons to stay home, or so my still somewhat
“Protestant mind” thought.  Missing church that day didn’t seem as
big to me as the hassle of getting everything ready to go. So, I stayed
home.

The next week when I went to church, many of the ladies
flocked around me, very interested in my well-being and the children,
as was their custom. They mentioned how they had missed us the last
Sabbath and wondered if any of us had been sick. I explained that such
was not the case, but that the challenge of getting the children ready
to go out on a rainy day was a bit more than I could handle. And then I
said, “….but God understands.”

An elder’s wife among the group
quickly spoke up and said, “Oh, He understands, alright. He understands
where your heart is.”  Her words were well-chosen and very
powerful, and they echo in my mind to this day.  I came to realize
then how my actions were related to my conviction.

In the ensuing
years, I have been faced with diverse trials–trials that I never could
have predicted, nor would I have chosen had I known the details ahead
of time. But through those trials, God has given me ample opportunities
to learn much-needed lessons in order to grow in my conversion, showing
Him where my heart was and is, as I go through those trials. I
certainly cannot claim perfection in this area, but I keep trying, and
those very powerful words from a friend have been helpful along the way.

Yes,
God does understand where our heart is.  Every day we show Him
where it is, in what we think, in what we say, and, most of all, in
what we do.

by Cali Harris

In building my relationship with God, I’ve
learned that when we ask for understanding, He really does give it to
us.  It may seem obvious, but lately I have realized how important
it is to ASK! 

I have asked for understanding in many
parts of my day-to-day life: understanding about what it means to be in
the fields of journalism and ethnic studies at college; understanding
about my job as a sales manager and what it is teaching me; and
understanding in how to be a positive influence in the lives of my
worldly friends.  But I have especially asked for understanding as
I study God’s Word–the Bible.  In my asking, God has answered me
more abundantly than I ever thought possible. 

Recently I
was surfing the Internet and came across the following quote, and was
struck by its poignancy in our lives as Christians: “Man’s mind, once
stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”
Attributed to former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes,
this statement can be applied to our experience as Christians when God
grants us understanding.  Our minds are indeed stretched by the
understanding He gives us, and we should never allow our minds to go
back to their “original dimensions.” We must take the knowledge we have
been blessed with, and constantly and continuously move forward, always
ASKING for more!

by Eric Rank

They call it “The Problem of Evil.” The argument
states: If there is a God who is perfect and good in every way, why
does evil exist in this world? For many, this apparent contradiction
brings people to intellectually reason that God does not exist.
However, not only do we know that the existence of God cannot be
determined by our limited intellectual capacity for logic alone, we
also understand that the existence of evil is something that God allows
for a reason.

The fact that God allows evil to exist in this
world begs the question of why He allows it. The answer is simple. It
is part of God’s plan for us all to overcome evil, following Christ’s
example. Just as God placed the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
in the midst of the Garden of Eden to test the obedience of Adam and
Eve, evil exists in this world to test our obedience. The existence of
evil does not contradict the existence of God, but rather, it exists so
that our character may be refined when we overcome it.

We
are
provided with a choice in life. Choose righteousness, or choose evil.
Choose life, or choose death. We know through God’s Word that he wants
us, and even commands us, to choose righteousness. He gives us the
option to overcome evil, but He does not force us to do it. Overcoming
evil and sin is our responsibility every single day. If we obey His
Word, and remain faithful until the end, we will have the opportunity
to be a part of God’s Kingdom.

by Manuela Link (22)

Many of us may be familiar with a popular TV
series called Smallville. It depicts the adolescent to young adult life
of the famous person, Superman. Despite his incredible abilities, Clark
Kent portrays a wonderful character to the public: having a soft-spoken
tongue, being compliant and respectful to parents, helping those in
need, being a true friend, trustworthy and strong — mentally and
physically.

Everyone knows him as Clark Kent, a hard-working farm
boy, but they don’t know his secret, his true calling or destiny —
that of which he will one day save the world. He keeps his abilities a
secret because he believes that if he accidentally shows his strength,
people may not accept him for the man he really is.

In the real
life, we too have a true calling. We not only have to be a light to the
world by showing our true Christian character, but we cannot hide from
the person we were called to be. We cannot be afraid of what others may
think of us, because we understand that God will help us through
anything. We should be willing to explain anything about the person we
really are, when asked, because in these situations, secrets only
separate friendships. I know why I’m here. I am not of this world, and
like the fictional Clark, my future of faith contains greater
possibilities.