I was looking through some old threads in another place and came across these questions..... I'll ask them here....
What do people mean when they say "we serve an awesome God?" Does God want servants? Or are we not his children? Do children "serve" their parents?
Jesus said, "I no longer call you servants; I call you friends." Since Jesus is God incarnate, then we know that God calls us His friends. What an honor.
As to awesome? The word belongs. If my earthly parent were able to fling galaxies out into space and send them spinning in perfect order, I would most certainly be in awe, even though I am his child. So when God states that He has created the universe, then even if I were to know nothing else about His personality and character, that would be enough to make me want to fall down in awe and worship Him.
If christians are waiting for prophecy to be "fulfilled" then doesn't the waiting negate living a meaningful life?
"waiting" does not necessarily mean sitting with folded hands, doing nothing except waiting. One can do a lot of things while waiting.
If sda's believe in the gift of prophecy, why hasn't the gift been manifested in the church for almost 100 yrs?
well, there was one person in particular that I'm aware of, who claimed to have dreams and visions from God. It was some lady in France by the name of Jeanine Sautron. I read her stuff for a while because I don't believe in rejecting anything without first checking it out, and I could not find anything to reject -- at least, for a while. Her writing was very much after the order of EGW, pointing out errors in the brethren, encouraging people to read both EGW and the Bible and to improve their relationship with God, and prophesying about the nearness of the end of time.
But eventually the SDA church examined her testimonies and rejected them outright. After that, her writings began to wander into strange places, in my opinion, and I stopped reading her. I don't know if she gave up in discouragement and let go of her hold on God, as a result of being thrown out of the church, and thus her testimonies began to go off course. Or maybe she was indeed a false prophet to start with. Who knows. But it does give me pause when I read church history of how the organization related to the message of Waggoner, Jones and EGW in 1888. Tradition is a difficult thing to break.
And lastly because it needs to be asked annually.... if God owns everything, why do churches encourage their members to "give money to the Lord?"
answer one or all....or as many as you wish...
"Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto Me." When we give our money to help others, then we are giving the money to God.
