What Adventists Teach About Salvation
This sermon was taken from here: http://www.collegedalechurch.com/?id=121. The speaker in this recording is John Nixion, the head pastor at Southern University’s campus church. Six years ago Pastor Nixion was the head pastor at the Oakwood College church, it was my freshman year in college. During my first semester he preached a week of sermons that opened my eyes to the reality of the Savior’s deep love for me. Just before the week was over I asked Christ into my heart.
Six years later am as still, by the grace of God, a Christian Seventh-day Adventist (SDA). At times I have heard and read others say that SDA’s teach a doctrine of salvation by works. I am convicted by the scripture, “Let not then your good be evil spoken of” Romans 14:16. Hence I have posted this sermon here as voice on the web as to what SDA teach and hold to be true on the all important topic of Salvation in Christ.
Today as I heard this sermon (a recent one by Nixion) I felt rejuvenated to seek and serve my God with all He has given me, and I am certain you will in like manner be blessed. This is just about 30 minutes in length.
The Last Chapter Files
This incomplete cellphone quality video footage captures one of the final apparitions of our high school male singing group, “The Last Chapter” (to be spoken with an echoing deep voice). Andrea, Ean (piano, unseen in the video), and I were all in our final year of college with this was shot. The song is one that we wrote in high school and was originally intended for four voices.
We started out as Freshmen in high school. We wanted to do the guys group thing but we wanted to do our own way, so we committed to writing all the music we performed. After a year in highschool, a couple insignificant performances, and some slight changes in personnel (due to a couple members who moved away), we nailed down during our sophomore year a core group of 4 singers, a pianist, and drummer. We also adopted the name “Last Chapter” given to us by our pianist’s mother who suggested the name for a group of singers who would be seeking to give God’s message during the last chapter of earth’s history.
A fifth singer/musician joined us a year later, and our last 2 years in high school saw dozens of performances and a couple of concerts. In what appeared to be our final performance we sang an original composition accompanied by our high school stringed orchestra during our high school graduation ceremony.
As we all went our separate ways for college, this group was very rarely thought of in my mind. My freshman year was a blast. I joined my college traveling choir, a gospel mass choir, met up with a few other guys who sang and did few performances, made a ton of new friends, and started kicking it hard with this brother named Jesus (He’s really cool, you should get to know Him too).
But the “fat lady” hadn’t finished singing yet. My second year of college saw four members of our group together again at the same university (2 tenors, our baritone, and our pianist). Yet because we were all so busy in our respective fields of study the resurrected Last Chapter didn’t accomplished nearly as much as did its high school incarnation. We did manage, however, to write a few new songs and do a decent number of performances, including a talent show (in which we won 2nd place) and live world-wide broadcast performance on the campus church for a Christian television network.
We continued only to get busier and busier as we neared the end of our college years and a couple of times our “group” dwindled down to a duet and our pianist as was the case in the above clip.
Currently the Last Chapter is awaiting its third resurrection (which may just happen concurrently with the resurrection the dead, 1Thessalonians 4:16).
Click the vintage photo below to see the full size pic.
Back: Dave (bass), Ezra (tenor), Andrea (baritone)
Front: Evert (piano), me (tenor), Joe (1st tenor), Sean (percussion)
Holy Spirit (46 degrees) Music Video
This video was the final project for my introductory video editing class that I took during my second to last semester in college. I shot most of the footage last minute in the cold Michigan December. Ironically the song speaks of the weather being 46 degrees outside, but on the day we shot the video it was precisely 20 degrees colder than that (26 degrees)! Though the project was edited and burned onto a DVD just minutes before I had to present it in class, the teacher said for an intro class that he had no negative critique of the project save the fact that I forgot to clean off some dirt on the lens of the camera on a few shots. The project also earned a 3rd place award in my departments end of the year gallery which was supposedly judged by local professional videographers. Yet there is no doubt that the final out come of this project was a bit crude and unpolished and could have been much better if we had more time and if we weren’t all as busy as we were.
Ezra and Geoffrey (Flow Track Star), the artist featured in this video, are both good friends of mine that go way back. Geoffrey and I go back to our scrappy high school years, and Ezra and I go back to before our conception (Our mothers’ were roommates in college).
I could say a lot of other good things about these characters but you can find out more for yourselves by visiting their music pages on Myspace:
Ezra: http://www.myspace.com/ezraseven
Geoffrey: http://www.myspace.com/flowtrackstar
A Better Way to Live
A couple of months ago It Is Written launched a new web initiative called A Better Way to Live. This microsite provides a new video devotional by Shawn Boonstra each of the 5 work days every week (that equals approximately 240 morning devotionals every year). These devotions are on average only 3 minutes long, and are designed to give busy people an added “spiritual boost”.What makes this website extra special to me is that I given the task of designing and developing the custom player on the website (The overall site design and css was developed by my co-worker, while most of the back-end functionality was handled by our programmer using the Drupal content management system). While building a custom Flash video player wasn’t something new for me coming into this project, like my previous Flash project for It Is Written, the vision for A Better Way to Live demanded me to cover some uncharted territory.
The new custom player features the ability to provide users with code to embed a particular devotion into their website (as I have done above), the ability to email a devotion to a friend, and (my personal favorite) the ability to watch the devotion fullscreen (this feature is only available at the home website: www.itiswritten.com/betterway). All these features are made available within the Flash video player via the option button on the bottom left. While these features are old news in today’s web, I thought this undertaking was special since not too many Christian ministries have yet taken advantage of some these new and powerful Flash-based features.
All the same, my hope is that you (the reader of this post) do find an opportunity to take advantage of this devotional site. I myself have already found some these simple devotions to be enriching and encouraging. In the “midst of a crooked and perverse” world we can use all the help we can get to turn our minds heavenward. “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” Isaiah 6:3 nkjv.
Radio Debut
Perhaps in a later post I’ll write more about this experience, but here’s the skinny. A couple of weeks ago I had an opportunity to sing for a small rally in downtown Spokane promoting an end to domestic violence. Afterwards I was approached by a radio show host who invited me to sing on his local poetry program that airs on KYRS a low-powered community radio station here in Spokane. In general, the program was quite informal, I was interviewed by two gracious assistant hostesses, high school juniors, who made me feel most comfortable and welcome. I had to sing all songs without accompaniment or backup – just bare plantation Acappella. I was supremely nervous, mostly because of the fact that I didn’t spend the proper time thinking through what I was going to sing and say. The end result: a dry mouth, compulsive melismas, and stuttering speech that would make Porky Pig appear to be a proffesional orator in comparison. Never-the-less I thank God for the opportunity which I think turned out better than it should have. And now I believe I must reappear next week to sing another set of songs along with one of the hostesses. I’m not sure if I’m up to another show as yet, but we’ll see.Ah thinga thee, I thinka thiga think, thats all folks! Oh and here are some pictures.
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Watch!
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning— lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!” (Mark 13:32 – 37)
I looked up the word “watch” in the original language that Jesus uses in this text and it means to be sleepless, to stay awake. But why is Jesus so urgently asking us to stay awake? What is that supposed to mean to me?
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"Be Not Afraid"
When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him. (Luke 5:8-11);
Many a time I have felt as Peter has in this text. Because of my sinful and unworthy condition I hesitate to enter into the presence of God. I have also met many people who feel that they have jacked life up so badly that they cannot draw close to God until they get it all together first. But Jesus’ word to us is the same as it was to unworthy Galilean fisherman, “Be not afraid”.
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Yo world!
Alas! My first ever blog post! Indeed I am very excited.