Voices

While living in a small, somewhat-forgotten country in Central America, I have spent a great amount of time studying, reading, and thinking. Between English classes, chores, outreach time, and grading papers, there remains a bit of time for searching deeper into the most important things in life. The blessing of Jodi's laptop computer has made it possible to watch hours and hours of sermons by some of the most capable speakers in America. So even though hundreds of miles from the nearest English-speaking church, I have had David Asscherick, Mark Finley and Doug Batchelor speaking to me from the comfort of my own room. I even attended GYC 2008. Thanks be to God for technology! Let me never bash it again!

I don't think I'll ever fully realize the blessings gained from the sermons I've watched here, in a vacuum, outside the influence of everything else that makes up my life. Like Luther stumbling upon the Bible chained and forgotten in a monastery cell, I discovered the word of God again while swatting at mosquitoes in my little cinder block room far away from my homeland.

Some gems I've found in my perusals, from the Bible, other books, or sermons:

"It would be of no surprise that if a study of secret causes were undertaken to find that every golden era of human history proceeds from the devotion and righteous passion of a single individual. This does not set aside the sovereignty of God; it simply indicates the instrument by which he uniformly works. There are no bonafide mass movements--it only looks that way. At the center of the column there is always one man or one woman who knows God and knows where he or she is going."

--Richard Ellsworth Day


"But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded." 2 Chronicles 15:7


"We cannot attain to the understanding of Scripture either by study or by the intellect. Your first duty is to begin by prayer. Entreat the Lord to grant you, of His great mercy, the true understanding of His word. There is no other interpreter of the word of God than the Author of this word, as He Himself has said, "They shall by all taught of God." Hope for nothing from your own labors, from your own understanding; trust solely in God, and in the influence of His Spirit. Believe this on the word of a man who has had the experience."

--Martin Luther


"Here is a lesson of vital importance to those who feel that God has called them to present to others the solemn truths for this time: These truths will stir the enmity of Satan and of men who love the fables that he has devised. In the conflict with the powers of evil there is need of something more than strength of intellect and human wisdom."

--Ellen White, The Great Controversy, page 132

"I am like Jeremiah, a man of strife and contention; but the more they increase their threats, the more my joy is multiplied . . . . They have already destroyed my honor and my reputation. One single thing remains; it is my wretched body: let them take it; they will thus shorten my life by a few hours. But as for my soul, they cannot take that. He who desires to proclaim the word of Christ to the world must expect death at every moment."

--Martin Luther


"For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him." 2 Chronicles 16:9


"Those who accept the one principle of making the service and honor of God supreme will find perplexities vanish and a plain path before their feet."

--Ellen G. White, Desire of Ages, page. 287


"What is the definition of sin?" John Wesley asked his mother.

She replied: "Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, reduces your relish for spiritual things; whatever increases the authority of the body over the mind, that thing is a sin to you, no matter how innocent it may seem."

--Sermon by David Shin, The Tipping Point of Revival, GYC 2008

"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
--Jim Elliot