Connecting Columbia Union Seventh-day Adventists

This Month's Issue

Joe Wheeler. Photo courtesy Pacific Press

Joseph Leininger Wheeler, fondly known as “America’s Keeper of the Story,” has a doctorate in English, and has edited and compiled 94 books of stories that have sold more than 1.5 million copies. He is best known for the Great Stories Remembered, Heart to Heart, The Good Lord Made Them All and Christmas in My Heart series, whose 25th book was just released by Pacific Press Publishing Association and is available at Adventist Book Centers and other booksellers.

If this story were fiction, editors would reject it as being too implausible or coincidental to have ever happened. Yet these storm-induced events did occur a number
of years after Hitler’s armies ravaged Europe. Of true stories of Christmas, few are treasured and re-read more. It was published in
Christmas in My Heart 3 and reprinted here with permission of editor/compiler Joe Wheeler and Review & Herald Publishing Association.

Multiple studies have shown that practicing gratitude results in being more resilient, more relaxed and less materialistic. It is difficult to be depressed and full of gratitude at the same time. This should not be surprising for people of the Word. “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God.” (Col. 3:17). And “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (I Thes. 5:18).

“Estamos aquí porque hablando salvamos vidas”, dijo el Pastor José Rojas durante la apertura de We Stand For All (Estamos a favor de todos), un foro realizado en la iglesia de la Asociación de Potomac, Sligo, en Takoma Park, Maryland, planificado con la intención de fomentar el diálogo sobre la Iglesia y su rol en la justicia social.

La Junta Ejecutiva de la Unión de Columbia recientemente se reunió por primera vez luego de la vigésima séptima Sesión Electoral realizada en el mes de mayo. En su devocional, Ella Simmons, la primera vicepresidenta de la Asociación General y miembro de la Unión de Columbia, preguntó qué es lo más importante para la iglesia en este momento y les recordó a los miembros que, “las personas ordinarias pueden tener resultados extraordinarios”.

The words “rest” and “busy” are often used when speaking with Seventh-day Adventists about the Sabbath. Many recite from memory the Fourth Commandment and point to creation as our injunction to cease from regular “worldly” activity and rest from our labors (see Gen. 2:2; Ex. 20:8). But for many pastors, teachers and lay persons who work or volunteer at their local church, Sabbath is hardly a day of rest. And, for a few, it is another dreaded work day where they end up exhausted, wondering: Where was the blessing in that?

Before he saved dozens of wounded soldiers on the front lines during World War II, which earned him a Medal of Honor, Seventh-day Adventist combat medic Desmond Doss was called a misfit for refusing to carry a weapon, and commanders ostracized him for observing the Sabbath. Seventy years later, what is the military like for Adventists?