A Letter to the Church
My Beloved Church,
My dear church. We, as Seventh-day Adventists, are living in a time of trouble where the devil is bringing us to his yard so we can be entertained with his toys of destruction. From afar the rest of the world watches how meetings are unfolding and how we are fighting one another. I am sorry to you all but the church is not white vs. black, the church is not rich vs. poor, the church is not men vs. women, this has never been Republicans vs. Democrats, nor Trump vs. Americans. This is the church of Christ we are talking about.
I know we have small fights to fight but we cannot let those small fights take the place of the bigger one. We are just like Moses before killing the Egyptian, trying to free people through our power and we forget that we have none because it is God’s power and this is his people. Or, maybe we are just like the two Israelites that were fighting the day after, arguing about who put the best brick in the pyramid of Pharaoh.
There are thousands of people who no longer believe that the Spirit of God is guiding the Church and I ask: When did God take a back seat and let others guide the Church? We are told in Zechariah 4:6, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.”
We truly believe that when two or three gather in his name, God is there to bless us, to guide us and to unite us. Unfortunately, we are no longer interested in impacting the world but we are instead letting the world impact us. When the church doesn't agree with us we quickly go to Sister Ellen G. White to find a page about Pharisees not agreeing with Jesus, but when the church agrees with us but not with others, we also go to Sister White to find a page about God not agreeing with Satan in heaven.
What has happened to us? I know we can agree to disagree but we can't agree to disunite. One day we want to be Nehemiah against his accusers and another day we choose to be Esdras trying to unite others. We can't be humble one day and arrogant the other. In unity, the church can't be the ball and the bat. So, to all our leaders throughout the church: try your best to put this together and let God guide you.
Ellen White says, “never should the mind of one man or the minds of a few men be regarded as sufficient in wisdom and power to control the work and to say what plans shall be followed. But when, in a General Conference, the judgment of the brethren assembled from all parts of the field is exercised, private independence and private judgment must not be stubbornly maintained but surrendered. Never should a laborer regard as a virtue the persistent maintenance of his position of independence, contrary to the decision of the general body."
We are letting the ordination of women be the permanent headline of the church. It seems that it's not anymore about the labors of the many women that God is using, but about who is right and who is wrong. Sure, Jesus fought back against certain situations but he never let those situations be the headline of his mission, and we must take his example. The headline must be all the time the Promise of Jesus in the book of John 14:1-3. The headline must be the great commission of Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20, regardless of what is going on in the church or the world. We should also keep our attention on the commandments in Exodus 20 and the glorious end of the great controversy as depicted in Revelation. Our focus must be JESUS AND JESUS ALL THE WAY DOWN.
Soon our Lord and Savior will come. Revelation 22:20 says, "He which testifies these things said, Surely I come quickly." At all time, we must complete the verse saying "Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus.”
I love you my dear church.
Jorge E. Jesus Jimenez is a pastor in the East Adventist Association on the Dominican Republic. He and his wife Alida live in Hato Mayor del Rey.
Image credit: Unsplash.com
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