Learn to Live with Others’ Differences

[Stan]

"“Learn to love one another, learn to live with one another, learn that other people can disagree with you and still be your brother or sister in Christ,” Dan Jackson, President of NAD

http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=4857

I love this attitude.

[Dr. Shane]

They need to put FB and Twitter share buttons on their page.

[LifeHiscost]

"“Learn to love one another, learn to live with one another, learn that other people can disagree with you and still be your brother or sister in Christ,” Dan Jackson, President of NAD

http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=4857

I love this attitude.

I was a Seventh Day Adventist Christian for about 30 years before I learned that God gives everyone the right to be and think who they want to be, and only need apologize for it when God reveals to him/her just how unlike Him we all really are.

God blesses!

[Gibs]

Yes living with others differeces as God has made all men free and it is the choice each will make as to whether he or her will be in the Kingdom of God.

That isn't easy any more as most are walking away from God and the world is now moving fast to annihilate true Christianity which will be the first to be crushed. There is a great pretentious following that is greiveous to God.

When EGW says "I was Shown" We sit up and pay attention, -

"I was shown the necessity of those who believe we are having the last message of mercy, being separate from those who are daily imbibing new errors. I saw that young and old should not attend their assemblies; for it is wrong to encourage them by attending their meetings while they teach error that is poisonous, and death to the soul, and teach for doctrines the commandments of men. And the influence is not good. If God has delivered us from such darkness and error, we should stand fast in the liberty wherewith he has set us free, and rejoice in the truth. God is displeased with those who go to listen to error, when they are not obliged to; for unless he sends us to these meetings, where error is forced home to the people by the power of the will, he will not keep us. The angels cease their watchful care over us, and we are left to the buffetings of the enemy, to be darkened and weakened by him, and the power of his evil angels; and the light around us becomes contaminated with the darkness. {ExV54 45.2}

I saw that we had no time to throw away in listening to fables. Our minds should not be thus diverted; but should be occupied with the present truth, and seeking wisdom that we may obtain a more thorough knowledge of our position; that with meekness we may give a reason of our hope from the Scriptures. While the mind is occupied in hearing false doctrines, and dangerous error, pressed upon the hearers, it cannot be dwelling upon the truth which is to fit and prepare the house of Israel to stand in the day of the Lord".

I would like to say more but better hold my peace for now. Bro. Gibs.

[LifeHiscost]

Quote:

"I was shown the necessity of those who believe we are having the last message of mercy, being separate from those who are daily imbibing new errors. I saw that young and old should not attend their assemblies; for it is wrong to encourage them by attending their meetings while they teach error that is poisonous, and death to the soul, and teach for doctrines the commandments of men. And the influence is not good. If God has delivered us from such darkness and error, we should stand fast in the liberty wherewith he has set us free, and rejoice in the truth. God is displeased with those who go to listen to error, when they are not obliged to; for unless he sends us to these meetings, where error is forced home to the people by the power of the will, he will not keep us. The angels cease their watchful care over us, and we are left to the buffetings of the enemy, to be darkened and weakened by him, and the power of his evil angels; and the light around us becomes contaminated with the darkness. {ExV54 45.2}

I saw that we had no time to throw away in listening to fables. Our minds should not be thus diverted; but should be occupied with the present truth, and seeking wisdom that we may obtain a more thorough knowledge of our position; that with meekness we may give a reason of our hope from the Scriptures. While the mind is occupied in hearing false doctrines, and dangerous error, pressed upon the hearers, it cannot be dwelling upon the truth which is to fit and prepare the house of Israel to stand in the day of the Lord".

Unless one is deliberately attending a meeting to learn for personal use, that which is obviously inconsistent with the Word, we have two sources of comfort in God's promises.

"Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”"Hebrews 13:5 NKJV

"Let Israel now say, that his mercy endureth for ever."Psalm 118:2 KJV

God blesses!

[Kevin H]

Wondering the date and context of that Mrs. White quote. She was writing when churches were falling into either liberal non-believing modernism/preterism downplaying the Bible and promoting purely social gospel, or else they were falling into fundamentalism/dispensationalism. As the time she lived it was the worst time to attend these other churches as they were bringing Christians into one of these two camps. However as Mrs. White got older, those two hericies of modernism/preterism; fundamentalism/dispensationalism settled, and we were more critical of these (exept that Fundamentalism made too strong a foothold in our church) there was more interaction between Adventists and non-adventists, including Mrs. White being a very popular preacher in non-adventist churches on Sunday morning.

There is a very thin line here that we have to be careful with trying to maintain the ballance between this definate warning that we still need as the two heresys are alive and well. Yet the practice of the older Mrs. White to not be so inclusive that we end up being too sepperate from the other. Mrs. White pictures our church as having a pastoral role among churches. What good is a pastor who refuses to have anything to do with his paritioners?

[Overaged]

[Overaged]

Yes, something worth emulating, for sure.

Quote:

If we have a sense of the long-suffering of God toward us, we shall not be found judging or accusing others. When Christ was living on the earth, how surprised His associates would have been, if, after becoming acquainted with Him, they had heard Him speak one word of accusation, of fault-finding, or of impatience. Let us never forget that those who love Him are to represent Him in character. {MH 489.1}

"Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another." "Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing." Romans 12:10; 1 Peter 3:9. {MH 489.2}

The Lord Jesus demands our acknowledgment of the rights of every man. Men's social rights, and their rights as Christians, are to be taken into consideration. All are to be treated with refinement and delicacy, as the sons and daughters of God. {MH 489.3}

Christianity will make a man a gentleman. Christ was courteous, even to His persecutors; and His true followers will manifest the same spirit. Look at Paul when brought before rulers. His speech before Agrippa is an illustration of true courtesy as well as persuasive eloquence. The gospel does not encourage the formal politeness current with the world, but the courtesy that springs from real kindness of heart. {MH 489.4}

[Gail]

Love- the hardest lesson to learn in a practical sense.

[Neil D]

Quote:

Jackson added, “Because of His activity and intervention, there is always a refuge, a home, a place to be, a spiritual table to put your feet under, but God does not stop there. He provides us with refuge, and then He says, 'Give it to others.' Do not accept God's grace, if you do not intend to be gracious. Do not accept the mercy of God, if you don't intend to be merciful.”

And for Adventists, this message of reconciliation is “as much a part of the vital theme for us to proclaim as is the Sabbath or any other part of Scripture,” he said.

He recalled the story of a congregant who wanted his name removed from the church rolls. “I smoke,” the man told Jackson, “and when I come to church, everyone can smell my sin.”

Jackson urged the parishioner to reconsider; saying the only difference between the enslaved smoker and others in the church was that "you can't smell their sin."

He told the congregation of church leaders and lay delegates: “If God would attach an odor to every sin, humility would not be a problem in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.”

"Do not accept God's grace if you do not intend to be merciful. "

Reminds me of a friend of mine, who felt he could not be a Christian...He was an "all or nothing" kind of guy...and when he became a 'christian', he felt that he became more obnoxious, and rude, and disagreeable and generally a poor human being [Those were his comments on being a christian]. He could not give mercy, because he had a wrong picture of God [my commentary on him]. So, we became friends based upon kindness and compassion. He responded to that...He's dead now....died of an overdose of depression, lack of depression drugs, liquor, and seeing his own problems in the worst part of his life when he was the weakest...

Oh, if only there were odors to sins, then the comment of "stinking to high heaven" might alert us to our real problems...And who knows, we might be inclined to take baths...in the blood of a lamb...