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I have published a new book, this time a novel (parable). I decided to publish it as an E-book through Amazon. You can obtain it and have it downloaded to an area reserved for you in an Internet "Cloud," then read it on a Kindle device, or on your computer (using a free downloadable app from Amazon). Here is the link for the book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Q7COXT4 Angel In the End of Time: A Parable of the End Times (Kindle Edition) Ronald R. Lambert (Author) Kindle Price: $4.99 Book Description: Many people seem to have gotten the idea that the interpretation of Bible prophecy is something like a competitive sport, and vie with each other to see who can come up with the most fabulously fanciful version. But 2 Peter 1:20, 21 strictly forbids fanciful interpretations: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” This leads us to recognize what must be the one and only reasonable way to avoid a private interpretation of Bible prophecy. That is to follow these three basic rules of interpretation: (1) Allow only the Bible itself to define all its prophetic symbols. (2) Allow context to indicate when in history to apply the prophecies. (3) Use common sense literary analysis—especially noting how the phrases involved are used elsewhere in Scripture—to determine whether a given passage should be taken literally or symbolically. The fact that these simple rules do work, and provide consistent results with symbolic prophecies written many centuries apart in three different languages, is one of the strongest evidences for the divine inspiration of Scripture. It shows that all the prophecies did come from One Divine Mind. Jesus Christ did much of His preaching employing stories that helped his listeners understand what He was trying to get across. This story is told from the viewpoint of a former guardian angel, Laron. We meet him as he chooses to address the family and friends of the young lady who had been his charge, who was killed. Then he proceeds to Atlanta, Georgia, where terrorists detonate a small nuclear bomb. Next he must hasten to the White House, and try to resist the efforts of the enemy (fallen angels) to persuade the president to authorize use of a much more powerful nuclear bomb to prevent any contagious diseases that may have escaped from Level Four containment in the Centers for Disease Control from spreading throughout the countryside. After that, we follow Laron through the key events outlined in Bible prophecy for the time of the end, including the final organized conspiracy to place the whole world under the control of one religious authority, that unfortunately is not on God’s side. There is no “Secret Rapture.” All living on earth face a final judgment based on the choice they must make, whether to put their faith in the righteousness of God the Creator and Redeemer, or in the supposed righteousness of the creature--humans and human institutions. The Mark of the Beast is the Mark of creature worship. A note about E-publishing: authors typically get 70% royalties, so can afford to charge much less for books, allowing more people to be able to afford to read them. While the E-publisher does not get as large a percentage as a print publisher, the E-publisher has negligible actual publication costs. Amazon currently has about 60% of the E-book market. Next to Amazon is Barnes & Noble, with 30%. More and more public libraries are offering rental of E-books. Also, I discovered that going to the Amazon Kindle library, I find a lot of short stories available by themselves, some of them by well-known writers. For example, there are a couple of short works by Lee Child, that feature his popular character, Jack Reacher, that are available no where else, at prices of $1.99 or lower. In the past, to get a short story published, I had to get some magazine editor to like it enough to publish it in his magazine (such as Analog Science Fiction, where I have been published several times). Or someone compiling an anthology of short fiction might solicit short stories already published, and occasionally some that are new, to include in his anthology. The market for short fiction thus has always been very tight--until now. Now it is easy to get a short story or novelette published. I would hate to see the demise of printed books, but clearly E-books are the way of the future. They allow much greater freedom, and make literature much more readily available.

We each have an individual story to tell. If we are Christians, we may have a story of how God has led in our lives. Here is my story. It is true. I was 12 or 13 when I learned about accountability when my five year old sister and I went for a walk in the woods. We were behind our house in Carmel New York. My mother warned me there was a swamp with quicksand back there and not to get lost and I decided it would be fun to get a little bit lost. It is really hard to get a little bit lost and soon we were really lost and in the swamp. I was up ahead looking for quicksand- at least it would get me first, I reasoned morbidly- when I heard a stressed out little voice behind me. “Laura” she said, “Please don’t leave me.” I realized in that moment what I had done, endangering my sister whom I loved dearly on a whim, and I prayed. I had prayed before, the Now I lay me down to sleep type of prayer my aunt taught me during one of our annual trips to see my Dad’s family down South, but this prayer was special because I realized my own sinfulness and my need of God. It was a “Please get us out of this mess and I’ll serve you” prayer. And he did. I climbed another hummock of grass in the marshy swamp and heard a noise that sounded beautiful for the first and only time in my life. It was a car, and where there were cars, there must be a road, and where there was a road, there must be a way out of the swamp. I looked up ahead and saw a little hill we climbed. We were quiet on our way back to the house, my sister still afraid, me losing the sense of the prayer and promise to serve Him but not fully. Years later, it became a reality. Fast forward to my sophomore year in college when a classmate and I were driving to a junior high school for a social science project. I heard my name clearly yet quietly. It was winter, the windows were closed, the radio was off, and he hadn’t said anything. An hour later, in the noisy lunchroom at the junior high, I heard it again but reasoned someone had said my name and my ears picked it out of the din. He dropped me off in a nearby town where I had lunch and took the bus out to the highway leading to Grand Valley State. Everyone knew there was no bus from the city of Grand Rapids out to the school, and so they would pick up hitchhikers, not that it was a good idea. That day, I stuck my thumb out and someone I could neither see nor feel pushed my arm down. I was not fully a follower of the Lord, then, but I knew the voice of the Holy Spirit. In my mind, I asked if it was okay to hitchhike, and twice I received the impression No, but I stuck out my thumb and got a ride immediately the third time. Meanwhile, a red station wagon had gone by. That station wagon picked up two young women with their groceries at the light in Standale, where the road was four lanes wide, so probably would have picked me up if I had had my thumb out. It takes less time for 1 woman with no groceries to get in the car than 2 with groceries, so the station wagon would probably have been in front of the blue sedan in the other lane when the road narrowed. I was thinking about the unexplainable events that had just occurred when I heard my name again. I started to say something to the driver, who motioned to be quiet and look ahead. In front of us there was a terrible head on collision in the middle of occurring. Two students in a red convertible from Grand Valley were thrown from their vehicle and killed instantly. It was very bad. They had collided with the blue sedan. The woman who had been in the sedan was injured but conscious and walking around as blood ran in small rivulets down her face. She didn’t look good, but she would survive. If I had gotten in the station wagon it would have been in front of her car, and I would have been in the front seat without a seatbelt on- I never wore one back then- when the road narrowed. I would have gone through the windshield, and three people would have died that day, on that busy stretch of highway going out to Lake Michigan. I went home and prayed the payer of thankfulness, and asked God again that if He was really there He would help me to know and to serve Him. Soon after I purchased an ancient Bible in a Goodwill nearby, and treated the old book with reverence and awe as I learned the words of life. My cousin Pam and I were close to one another but did not know the Lord, and I know my Grandmother prayed for us. We both were converted that fall before she died at Thanksgiving. I felt the Spirit of God filling me as I lay in my bed and prayed the Lord’s prayer one night across the street from Lake Michigan. It was like my whole body was filled with light and for a little bit I did not need to breathe. After that I stopped reading the philosophy books I had been studying in college and started reading the Bible. Some were New Age and I could sense they had a kind of power, but it was the wrong kind. Others just did not have much meaning once I found the Lord. After I graduated from college I was fasting and praying for God to lead me. I had received a pamphlet that contained the chapter “The Invitation” that was a chapter from Desire of Ages and when I read it, I could sense that whoever wrote it knew the Lord like the disciple John did - my favorite Bible author. It was published at a Christian farm and health food community about an hour away and I was impressed to go there one Saturday. After I arrived, I sat down under a tree and in my mind I heard a voice “I’ve brought you here and I’ll be with you here and wherever I lead you, and I’ll tell you when to go.” Back then, they had one rule for determining whether someone could stay there, which was if they felt the Lord had led them, so I stayed. That afternoon I sat down in a reading room upstairs from their chapel and picked up the book Councils on Stewardship. It said that money from the sale of alcohol was ill-gotten gains and would not benefit the receiver. I had just gotten a part time job at a local tavern after graduation, but when I read that I decided never to go back and pick up my check. Later I went to pick up a check from an employment agency for working part time at Amway. I opened it on the way back and they had the exact amount they owed me in a computer generated check. In addition, they had a hand written check that was dated on my birthday, August first which was a Sunday, the day after I came to live with the Adventists and decided to not get the check from the bar. I mailed it back to them and told them they did not owe it to me, and they mailed it back and said they did, so I accepted it. I felt like the Lord was showing me that anything I gave up for Him, He would give back or provide for me. About that time I met a couple. The husband was from Hungary and his testimony influenced me deeply. He had walked through three international border crossings. The first, the guards found him, took his money, and let him go. The second, he prayed, and he was invisible to the guards even though he was in a customs building. And the third, the guards nodded and smiled to him and let him pass without papers, again in an international customs building. Even though his experiences were different than mine, I knew it was the Spirit of God guiding him as well. I stayed at the health ministry in Michigan about 9 months then volunteered in a Christian school for the handicapped in Tennessee for 14 months. I worked briefly selling religious literature in Pensacola Florida, where I was walking down a street one day and heard a voice in my mind “Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.” I crossed the street to the door I had the impression about it and knocked. The woman who answered was a day sleeper and so was not going to invite me in, but I asked her for a glass of water, and she had me come in and sit down. I sold her several books, and a magazine on quitting smoking for her husband, who was there and nonparticipating, but did not object. After when I returned to deliver the books, she told me how surprised she was that her husband had not thrown me out, because he until recently had been connected with the Mafia. When I was 28 I became ill about the time I moved from Wildwood to New York. I knew moving there at that time was not God’s first choice for my life. Soon after moving there I started having symptoms of an illness I probably already had, a form of cancer called Hodgkin’s disease, in the lymph nodes. Before they knew what was the matter, they put me on a flight back to Wildwood where I had lived for years, and while waiting at the airport I prayed silently for a rainbow to show me everything would be alright. When I got up to Wildwood I stayed at one of the doctors’ houses and his daughter gave me a picture of a rainbow. When I told her this part of the story she gave me another one she had done for her parents. I felt like the Lord was telling me things would be alright, but not in an instantaneous miracle, but that he would use people. The women in the hydrotherapy department gave me fever treatments The hottest was a water temperature of 113 while they kept my head cold with ice packs and monitored my pulse. They did not put an ice pack on my heart because the biggest lymph node was between my lungs, and I requested no pack there. The hydrotherapist agreed as long as my pulse did not get over 120. It stopped at 116. My body temperature got up to 107.2 , and we saw shrinkage of the lymph node on my neck and my symptoms disappeared for almost a day. 107 is extremely hot, and I did not want any more treatments that hot. I thought of Jesus and what He was willing to go through for us. Usually when we have a really bad trial we cannot just say forget it and still have salvation. In this case, I could say no more hot fever treatments, and they would stop. But Jesus did not do that. He could have come down form the cross, but it would have cost us our salvation. Because I had the fever treatments first, I had chemotherapy but did not need radiation. Later I was able to fellowship and witness with other dear friends who had cancer because I understood what it was like. I used to love reading the newsletters from the New York Van Ministry and the Lord worked it out so I could work there for a year. We had many miracle stories there, and at times I helped to edit the newsletter. One time in Manhattan a transit cop with a gun came up to me on the street where we had a table of Adventist Christian literature in front of the blood pressure screening van and asked me “Do you think the world’s coming to an end soon?” I asked him what he thought. “A lot of people say it’s not.” "In Noah’s day they said it wasn’t going to rain,” I answered. “You’re right, they aren’t paying attention. The world is coming to an end soon.” I offered him a Great Controversy but at first he politely declined. "I know it already" he said. I thought he was a Seventh-day Adventist. I could tell he loved the Lord. "Oh? I asked. "Yes I'm a Jehoveh's Witness" he replied. " I started praying silently. " I had a friend who was a Jehoveh's Witness and he read this and he said he found out things he didn't know. " I didn't tell him my friend became a Seventh-day Adventist. "Okay" he said. "I read other things. I'll take it. I'll read it." Muslims also came asking for literature and wanting to know more about Christ. I remember one gas station attendant who had received a Steps to Christ from the driver on the blood pressure van another time. When he came by, he asked for more to share with his friends. The driver went inside the station for a minute and the attendant came around to my side of the car and asked me to not let him leave until he had given him more Steps to Christ for his friends. Another man came up to me on the street in Queens where we had the blood pressure van with a table of literature arranged in front of the van. "Why are you doing this?" he inquired kindly but hesitantly. " We are Seventh day Adventists," I replied, " We are here to teach people more about health and more about Jesus." "I am a Muslim," he said. "I would like to know more about Jesus. What would you suggest?" After leaving the Van Ministry I began taking prerequisites for a Master in Nutrition at Andrews. Even though I did well there and subsequently teaching nutrition for 10 years, after that finances sort of deteriorated, maybe to get me where I am now. I worked at a health ministry in Bakersfield for 10 years. One day I was feeling stressed and in a rush. I am learning not to rush into things when feeling like this. I took my foot off the gas while entering a big intersection at California Avenue and South H Street, while I wondered why I was doing this since I usually accelerated when crossing wide streets to keep from being caught when the light changed. That’s the last thing I remember until I woke up 45 minutes later and hurting all over. They had used the jaws of life to take my car door off after someone t-boned me in the driver’s door. I was in pain but my thinking was crystal clear and I was filled with peace. They had to take me to the level I trauma unit in the area and they did not even pause on the way in, after they ran tests on me one of the nurses told me how lucky I was. I knew it was more than luck. I was really thankful I did not have broken bones and it did not cause facial lacerations or any bleeding except a really big bruise on my leg. Later a friend who got the items out of the trunk of my totaled car said the guy at the shop said the front axle (and engine block probably) stopped the other car from coming deeper into mine and another 2 feet further back and… Makes me realize why I took my foot off the gas. A few years ago the Lord impressed me not to move to a town out in the country about an hour from where I lived and worked in Bakersfield, but I moved anyway. Long story short, I bought a house, the economy crashed, the house value went down, I got laid off and lost in both houses. But I always had all the material things I needed. After I got laid off, I was looking to rent a condo in Bakersfield because I figured I would need to eventually move. I woke up one morning and heard like a whisper in my ear saying " Go look at that condo you've been thinking of renting." So I went down and looked at the condo. They were willing to rent it to me but needed my bank statements. While I was eating lunch before going to the bank my best friend called and asked me if I could watch her elderly parents. She needed to take her daughter down to Bakersfield for classes and wait for her. I explained why I couldn't and she decided to drop her daughter off and get someone else to bring her back. After we talked, I was impressed I no longer needed to follow up on the condo. That Friday night we had vespers at her house. I started to talk about my puzzling experience with the condo when the man who drove her daughter home told what had happened. He kept trying to pull out to pass a truck on the freeway but could not move his arm to turn the steering wheel. Then a car passed them speeding going the wrong way on the freeway in the lane he would have turned into. My friend has poor night vision, and she could have been in a head on collision, but God had other plans. I always felt like some time I would like a pause in my life where I wasn’t doing anything too special but had time to have a deeper experience with God. In 2010 I got laid off from work due to the economy and since then while I haven’t needed anything a lot less money has been coming in from the types of things I have been doing. I never planned to be home helping Mom, but a few months ago when home on vacation I could see walking was getting harder for her and she needed more than occasional help. At times it has been very challenging in part because she does not believe and in some respects our values are really different Last week I took her to a nearby town. She was signing over her car title to me in order to save on insurance since I now drive for her. (She is 86) After taking the freeway back to the area we live in, we stopped at her long time mechanic for an oil change. I asked them to check the tires because I was unsure how old they were. I was assured they had plenty of tread, but I asked them to check them anyway. The oil change took a little longer than I expected, but when the man came to the waiting room to tell me my car was ready, he held up a 3 inch nail and told me it had been in our tire and the extra time was to patch the tire. So thankful we did not have a blowout or a flat on the freeway. I know our stories are still being written, but this is some of mine. I hope it may be a blessing to someone else.

Each of the following clues refers to a well known Carol. Can you name the carol? CAROL CLUES 01. Move hither all those who are loyal in their belief ___________________________ 02. Yuletide occurrence preceding all others __________________________________ 03. Soundless nocturnal period ____________________________________________ 04. Hallowed darkness __________________________________________________ 05. Half way during a crisp night befell the event ______________________________ 06. Commence cherubs harmonizing _______________________________________ 07. Cherubim audited from aloft ___________________________________________ 08. Yonder in a feed trough _______________________________________________ 09. A diminutive municipality in Judea _______________________________________ 10. Majestic triplet from faraway ___________________________________________ 11. Exuberance directed to the planet _______________________________________ 12. Omnipotent Supreme Being eliciting repose to ecstatic distinguished males ______ __________________________________________________________________ 13. A dozen 24 hour Yule periods __________________________________________ 14. Vertically challenged adolescent percussionist _____________________________ 15. Homosapien of crystallized vapor _______________________________________ 16. Embellish interior passageways ________________________________________ 17. Precision metal musical devices ________________________________________ 18. Precious metal carillon ________________________________________________ 19. Desire for a pair of incisors on 25 Dec ____________________________________ 20. Projected VIP arrival in the city _________________________________________ 21. A caribou with vermillion olfactory appendage _____________________________ 22. First person singular experiencing an hallucinatory phenomenon about a natal celebration devoid of color ­____________________________________________ 23. Bipedal travel through amazing acreage during the period 21 December and 31 March in the Northern Hemisphere ­______________________________________ 24. Secret observation of maternal parent osculating with a fat man in a red suit _____ __________________________________________________________________ 25. Jovial yuletide desire for the second person singular or plural by the first person plural ____________________________________________________________

Each of the following items refers to a well known litem often associated with Christmas. Can you name the item? CHRISTMAS RIDDLES 01. Sweet walking stick _____________________________________ 02. Evergreen geometric shape _____________________________________ 03. Unusual gift bag _____________________________________ 04. Rocket foot digit _____________________________________ 05. Tinkling chimes _____________________________________ 06. Precipitating sweetheart _____________________________________ 07. Seasonal woody plant _____________________________________ 08. Gay pastry _____________________________________ 09. Christmas laundry soap brand _____________________________________ 10. Sweet granulated fruits _____________________________________ 11. Cold season and place Alice visited _____________________________________ 12. Winter precipitation homosapien _____________________________________ 13. Precious ore debutants _____________________________________ 14. Changing weather hello _____________________________________ 15. Clear, tasteless popsicle _____________________________________ 16. Holy man’s shaving cut _____________________________________ 17. Alphabet minus the twelfth letter _____________________________________ 18. A mother caught flirting _____________________________________ 19. Men crazy about women’s breasts _____________________________________ 20. Special lady victim in an accident _____________________________________

At one time I thought the effort was more than I could endure. Then I gradually began to realize that God didn't ask me to do some great thing, for Him or anyone else. He just ask me to come unto Him and He would do all that I needed to be assured for receiving the free gift of eternal life. 28"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.…Matt 11 Emphasis theirs' LHC 4"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.…John 15 13I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. ...Phil 4 God is Love! Jesus saves!

I hadn't known that 9V batteries were a potential fire hazard...

I am not disputing or trying to erode the Adventist point of view on this. But if we are to have credibility we must be certain of the basis for our position and understand that it is ours and not unequivocally supported by Scripture. If we insist on stretching and bending every contrary piece of evidence to our POV we will only erode our credibility, especially among those serious Bible students who can and wil look at the reliable and objective resources. For us to use that sort of loose iesogetical approach only opens the door to questioning and doubting the veracity of everything else we have to say.

I appreciate this perspective. I think it goes well too with what Gerry has been sharing. There are various levels of sin. Making poor health choices may not be a sin that leads to damnation but rather a sin that leads to physical disability or an early death. I think it fair to say Ellen White was talking about the caffiene as the problem. It is addictive and comes in these dark liquids like coffee and cola. Too much of those can cause problems. I know. I have felt the pains of kidney stones. There are many in society that never drink water. Caffiene creates an addiction and they only drink coffee, tea and cola. That can easily become a health issue. Now there is an aspect to coffee that we miss out on as a church. Many evangelistical churches have put in a Starbucks-style coffee shops and use it for Bible study and prayer groups. Our denomination cannot copy that as coffee and cola does run against our health message but coffee drinking can create a warm social atmosphere. I have often went out with friends for coffee. I do, of course, look for the decaf coffee but too much of that will cause kidney stones as quick as the other. I will touch on the alcohol issue once again. I am a recovering alcoholic and sobered up at the tender age of 16 after living on the streets and running with a gang. Most addict-alcoholics that sober up in their teenage years do not stay sober. I believe one of the reasons I am now going on 30 years of sobriety is because of the abstainance position in the Adventist church. I think it would be so much easier to relapse if I were to see my Christian brothers and sisters drinking socialabily without any problem. The temptation would be for me to say if they can live a good Christian life and drink,,,, so can I. God has people in all churches but Adventists are called for a special purpose and I think the vow of abstainance to alcohol, like that of John the Baptist, is consistant with our purpose.

Robert, James 1:14-15 makes no allusion to a sinful propensity. The Greek word there for "desire" (NKJV) is "epithymia" - is used in literature to define an enticing desire, a longing for something forbidden...it makes no reference to sin or a sinful propensity. It is our own bias on this side of the sin issue that puts the "sinful propensity" spin upon that word by translating it "lust". To say that Eve did not desire the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil would be a denial of Genesis 3:16 - she certainly did desire it to take hold and eat, without having a sinful propensity. James 1:14-15 covers the process that gives birth to sin: the enticing desire, which turns into a dwelling surrender to the enticement, which then tempts through the enticement to deny one's trust in God and His Word, which in turn becomes sin, which then in turn becomes one's death. Eve did not need a sinful propensity for that process to take place - only a surrender to an enticing desire - which is exactly what Genesis 3:6 states what happened. Having a sinful propensity only catalyzes the process, making the surrender to the enticement and disregard for God and His Word so much more easier. I seriously doubt Eve really understood what was happening to her during the entire process, as Satan had masterfully disguised and arranged each and every step she took into sin. She could truthfully confess to God she was deceived each step of the way. Note that this did not mitigate her guilt in any form or fashion before God in Genesis 3:16.... Adam, on the other hand, walked into sin fully aware of the choice he was making. There was no deception placed before him. Blessings,

Joshua, Thanks for posting this. I truly appreciate your candid honesty. I have struggled with alcohol and drugs off and on myself since I decided to become a believer 45 years ago. One thing I have learned is that God has never abandoned me during those times. He has always been there calling me --- calling me. I have come to believe He wants to have a relationship with me - in good times and bad times. In response, I WANT Him here with me - in good times and bad. He knows me and all that I do or don't do anyways. Why not welcome His presence all the time? He wants to have the same relationship with you - in good times and bad. He just wants YOU - that's all. He'll deal with your issues and weaknesses as He sees fit after you return to the family. The prodigal son didn't come back to the family because he had repented of his ways. He came back because he was hungry! The father didn't care - he had his son back. So it is with your heavenly Father. He doesn't care what drives you back to the family; He just wants you back in the family!

God knew that in creating beings with free-wills that it was possible for them to oppose Him and His agape love. In fact He knew that Lucifer would rebel before He created Him, yet He created him anyway. Lucifer (the morning star) was perfect in all his ways, until iniquity (his bent-to-self) was found in him. Why did God allow self-love (the essence of all sin) to develop? Answer: "Satan's rebellion was to be a lesson to the universe through all coming ages--a perpetual testimony to the nature of sin and its terrible results. The working out of Satan's rule, its effects upon both men and angels, would show what must be the fruit of setting aside the divine authority. It would testify that with the existence of God's government is bound up the well-being of all the creatures He has made. Thus the history of this terrible experiment of rebellion* was to be a perpetual safeguard to all holy beings, to prevent them from being deceived as to the nature of transgression, to save them from committing sin, and suffering its penalty." [PP 42,43] Apparently iniquity would have cropped up anyway....If not Lucifer, some other being. So the only way to preventing "iniquity" from happening again was to allow it to reveal itself. This is our predicament. Note: *When Satan rebelled against God in heaven [Revelation 12:7-9], he was really rebelling against the God’s agape love the spirit of His law [Matthew 22:36-40; Romans 13:10; Galatians 5:13-14]. The idea that “love (agape) seeketh not her own” (i.e., self) [1 Corinthians 13:5] was too restrictive to Lucifer. Consequently he objected to it and introduced the principle of self-love or eros [Ezekiel 28:15; Isaiah 14:12-14]. Therefore, ever since his fall, the enemy of God and man (Satan) has hated the concept of agape.

"They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink." Matthew 27:34 in regard to Jesus at the crucifixion. (Vinegar can be wine that has soured.)

A potentially difficult meeting in heaven between David, Uriah, and Bathsheba? Do you know what I mean? Perhaps David and Bathseba's [first] baby will even be there, restored to his mother. What a prospect ! But it interests me that Jesus will lead the Redeemed to the Tree of Life, and that He will direct them to eat the leaves of the Tree, and that those leaves are for the "healing" of the nations. The healing is not going to be a physical one, but there will be some kind of healing take place after the Redeemed have entered the City of God. I suspect that it may have some bearing on relationships between people such as those mentioned above. I do expect that the fruit of that Tree will be sweet to the taste, but the leaves... I'm not so sure.

In heaven I believe we will have be able to associate amicably with everyone there; but we will likely tend to associate more frequently with those who "click" with us. I don't no the English equivalent, but in Spanish, the word is "simpatico". We will tend to associate more frequently with people with whom we are "simpatico".

I agree with you LynnDel. JoeMo the disciples were always squabbling but after they had earnestly prayed and received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, their relationships with one another changed and they were no longer continutally at odds in this way. They did have differences of opinion but no petty squabbling. And I imagine that since there we no longer will see through a glass darkly but face to face, the basis for differences of opinion about things that are really important will be greatly reduced.

You can be sure if the perpetrators of the knock out game are caught, as opposed to being shot on sight, they will be sent to trial by the grand jury. Once they are sent to trial they will most assuredly convicted. They definitely won't get away with it. No worries though. There's a more sure trial on going. Nobody on this earth, white, white cop, black cop whoever really gets away with anything. A better judicial system. An account of every word, every thought. All the skeletons will come out of the closet. Seventy years, or however long somebody lives, of so called moral and social superiority will seem like not even a drop in a bucket compared to eternity.

I am rather late in this discussion, but here's my 2 cents. There is something that is often overlooked in the discussion of what constitutes sin. 1 Jn 3:4 is often the first cited to define it. The OT as seen in Ps 32:1-2 describes it in 3 levels or categories. 1) Pesha - transgression which = rebellion, willful, high-handed kind of disobedience, 2)Chata - sin = missing the mark, which can be intentional or unintentional, 3) Avon - iniquity, perversity, to twist, distort, a condition of being perverse. If we are presented with a choice between a healthier drink/food or whatever and something less healthful and we choose the latter, are we not missing the mark? Clean meat is not condemned by Scripture, yet it is clearly less healthful than a vegan diet. Is that missing the mark to choose something less healthy? It would seem so to me. But the Apostle John also speaks of a sin "that does not lead to death," 1 Jn 5:17. Would the subject under discussion be one of them?

A small child was asked what love is. - It is when Mom pours a cup of coffee for Dad and tastes it first to be sure it is not too hot for him.

A few weeks ago we ordained some deacons and deaconesses. In our preparation meeting one our sharper ordinans noted that Paul says "Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience" (I Timothy 3:8-9). Jokingly, he observed that as a newly ordained deacon he can still drink, but not much. The Apostle Paul did not go as far as SDA's go. I think it is good that we teach abstinence but we have to be honest and say that this is not what the Bible commands. We are about being true to scripture, right? Isn't this thread about coffee tho' ? BTW if drinking coffee is a sin then so is soda. A Sprite can keep you out of heaven.

This has been answered in another post, I think. The master of the feast certainly liked the wine Jesus had made. He considered it superior. Ever watch a wine expert examine wine? Its more than just the fermentation of interest to the expert. The scriptural account leaves room for a "grape juice" interpretation. Though, it would be a minority view, probably. To call this minority view a contradiction is not necessary.