“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. ” 2 Corinthians 5:20.
Prior to the beginning of the main conference, we had two days of workshops for the young people. Since we were all together anyhow, and it was holiday time we decided to gather two days earlier to hold 5 workshops specifically geared for issues that face young people today. The topics included: Handling Peer Pressure, Career Building, Church Membership, Love – Courtship – and Marriage, and The Christian and Civil Law. They were well
received and I am sure the young people can say they received a blessing. On Thursday evening we gathered for the opening of the conference. We had an extra blessing of having some interested believers travel from the opposite side of the continent from a city called Perth. They drove over 4000 km through the Australian desert without stopping for much more than to fill up their car with gasoline and to rest a little, when all the drivers were exhausted.
After dodging kangaroos during the night (4 of which they hit), and experiencing minor car troubles, (which waylaid them for a half a day), the Lord brought them safely to Sydney. They had many blessed experiences to share with us, as to the Lord’s providence in bringing them safely over all those perilous miles. Truly it was a blessed time to gather to worship the Lord together.
Thursday, December 28
The motto of the conference was, “.. be ye reconciled to God.” 2 Cor. 5:20.
Brother Eaton opened the conference and welcomed all the believers for their self-sacrificing efforts to come from far distances to worship the Lord in peace and unity.
He then went on to speak a few words concerning reconciliation. Because of sin, there was a separation made between God and man, necessitating a reconciliation to bring man back into harmony with God. Our human nature must be crucified in order for this reconciliation to be made possible. We must first be reconciled to God and then it is important that we are reconciled to others. If we let go of our human nature, God can work through us to reconcile us with our fellow man. Some are in danger of putting off this reconciliation until a future time.
Brother Eaton shared a true story of a father and son who argued and went their separate ways. They refused to speak with each other for many years. The mother was devastated by this occurrence. Eventually the sadness over this situation made her ill. On her dying bed, still father and son refused to reconcile. With her final strength, she took her husband’s hand and her son’s (who were sitting on either side of her bed), and placed their hands together. Then she breathed her last. At this, the father and son finally broke the silence. They hugged each other and cried. “Why did we wait so long?” they cried to each other.
“We wasted all these years by our hard heartedness and our hard headedness.” Let us be reconciled to God today and not put it off until tomorrow.
We continued with a service from Brother Henry Bering who was visiting from the United States of America. He first asked us the question, “Why have we come?” He received a few responses from the audience, such as, “fellowship, learning, to meet Jesus…” Then he asked us, “Are you ready for heaven?” He went on to speak to us about the “ticket” to heaven that Jesus is offering us. It does not cost anything, but many do not want to accept it. The ticket requires three steps: 1) Accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour. We are sinners and only through Christ can we gain the victory. He spoke of repentance and confession. 2)
The second step is Sanctification. It is not enough to repent with our words, we must also show our repentance by our actions, by returning what we have stolen, or making right things we have made wrong. 3) Glorification, our space journey begins. Are you ready? Our characters must be kept clean every day in order for us to be ready.
Friday, December 29
Friday morning we had a slight change of schedule due to a funeral of a dear sister, who was well known to many of the church members. Before we departed for the funeral, Brother Henry Dering presented to us a study on the Sunday Law. You will find this study in this issue of the Messenger.
We came together again on Friday evening and Brother Wolfgang Lorenz, who was visiting from Germany, opened the Sabbath for us with a few encouraging words on the topic of reconciliation. In 1 Corinthians 10:1-5, 11 we read that the record of Ancient Israel was written for an example for us.
In spite of all they went through, the Lord did not find them acceptable when they reached the borders of Canaan. They were all baptized in the crossing of the Red Sea, they were all members of the visible church – following the laws that the Lord laid out for them, yet only two were found worthy to enter Canaan. They had Canaan as their goal, but they did not achieve it. We have heavenly Canaan as our goal, what are we doing to prepare? Do we have the faith to carry us through the trials? Brother Lorenz then shared some of the experiences of life growing up in East Germany during communism. Life was not easy and the believers needed great faith to remain faithful amidst so much external opposition. Many of us who have not gone through such experiences are in danger of having too little faith when the greatest test comes to this world, with the Sunday laws and Jacob’s Trouble. Israel capitulated on the borders of Canaan, and Brother Lorenz encouraged us to increase our faith that we will not fail on the borders of the heavenly Canaan.
After Sabbath opening, Brother Altwein spoke to us on the father’s role in the family. He began by sharing something his daughter told him earlier in the year. His daughter told him that she had told some friends how she had never seen her parents fight. Upon sharing his daughter’s words with another friend, this other friend told Brother Altwein that he was wrong. He had given his daughters a wrong conception of reality. They should have fought so that the children would not be shocked when the time came for them to have families and they did face arguing. Was he wrong? Brother Altwein then went on to share many experiences from his life and how his father brought him up and how he brought up his daughters. While not everything was always done in the correct manner, we can learn from the mistakes of others so that we can avoid them in the future. The greatest gift a parent can give their child is to teach them to stand on their own.
Sometimes it may seem unkind, but parents must stand back and let their children start to make decisions and experiences for themselves.
Sabbath, December 30
For the Divine service, Brother Henry Dering compared our Christian experience to the night that the Titanic went down in the Atlantic Ocean in 1912. He gave a brief history of the Titanic and what happened. Man is building monuments to glorify self, but God is the ruler over all. He is greater than anything man can build. We are travelling through the icy sea of life with many ice bergs around us. One day we will hit a large ice berg, the Sunday Law. How will we meet the ice
berg? Will we sink as did the Titanic? Many did not believe that the boat was sinking and laughed when they were told to get into the lifeboats. Today also, many are laughing when they are told that Jesus is coming soon and this world will come to an end. They will not be ready, when the boat sinks. They will be found outside the lifeboat. We must make sure we are in the lifeboat today. Tomorrow may be too late.
In the afternoon, we had the young people present a study on the Fruits of the Spirit. Each young person took one Fruit and prepared a study about it, with one of our youngest youth (age 5) reciting for us Galatians 5:22,23.
Young people are the future of our church and we need to pray that they will remain on the strait and narrow way as Satan has many allurements for them, to try to detract them from reaching their goal.
After our youth meeting we had a testimony meeting when we heard many interesting experiences, from two young sisters who spent almost a year in Africa, to the experiences from the believers who traveled all the way from Perth to worship with God’s people.
To close Sabbath, Brother Altwein told of an experience he made 56 years ago. He was walking to a lake along a path through some gardens. He was walking for quite some time behind a wheelchair. Every once in a while he heard the man in the wheel chair say, “A little more to the left,” or “A little more to the right.” Brother Altwein went closer to investigate and found out that the man pushing the wheelchair was blind and the man in the wheelchair was paralyzed.
They needed each other. When we think of the Apostle Paul we think of a man with strong faith. Yet, Paul begged for the prayers of the believers (Roman 15:30). We all need each other now and we must all pray for each other, and especially for those who are responsible in the church. The devil takes no breaks, we don’t have free time occasionally from his attacks. He doesn’t like peace and will do all he can to make it disappear. We are ambassadors for Christ and se must continue to be united if we are to prosper in the future.
Sunday, December 31
For morning worship, Brother John Teal from Perth shared some more thoughts on reconciliation. Can a sinner reconcile himself to God? No! God has given us instructions on how this reconciliation process can be successful. “Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.” Exodus 25:8. God is taking the first step, He says, “I want to dwell among sinners.”
God wants to dwell among the rebellious people. God wants to dwell in you. In the Old Testament they built a sanctuary in the wilderness. In the New Testament there was the sanctuary built in Mary. It was the life of Christ, who came in the same body temple that we have. Jesus’ body was the same as mine. Jesus made similar experiences that we have. Jesus came and lived it and He wants to dwell in you.
After breakfast, Brother Bering shared with us his slides on the history of Reformation as prophesied in the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy.
We then witnessed the acceptance of a dear sister into fellowship. Sister Regina Weerts had been a member years ago, but had for many years walked with the Independent Adventists. She now expressed a desire to return to God’s church and once again be a member in God’s family.
Sister Nada Stefanovic followed by giving us an in-depth study on the role of the Mother. She covered many important points beginning with the Mother’s Role in being a representative of God to her children. She is the husband’s equal, and a co-worker with him and with Jesus. She is the queen of the home. She has been given a great responsibility in the raising of her children for the Lord. A king on the earth does not have a position higher than the mother. She will command her children. She will not be a slave to them, but as a director, directing the affairs of their life. To be a successful mother, a woman must be closely connected with the Lord and He will hear her prayers and aid her in giving her the wisdom she needs to successfully train her children for eternity.
After lunch we shared the Lord’s supper together. Brother Bering first spoke to us about the disciple Peter. He spoke of the “Look that Broke a Heart!” Peter appeared bold when he told Jesus he would go to prison and to death with Him, but he could not stand rebuke in the judgment hall. He was ashamed when ridiculed. He went as far as to tell a lie with swearing and cursing. The look of the Lord melted Peter’s heart.
It was not a look of censure, but a look of pity, tenderness, and sadness. After this experience Peter was converted. He never again denied the Lord. Even though he was converted, there was still room for growth and Peter continued to grow in grace until he died as a martyr for the Lord. When we sin, Jesus also has a look of pity and sadness for us – a look that will melt our hearts.
He wants us to be converted and live a new life for him. We closed our conference by sharing some more testimonies. It was truly a wonderful experience that we shared together and we look forward to another spiritual feast at the end of this year. Our believers from Perth are already making plans toward the next conference. Our prayer for you is that you all would be reconciled to God and be prepared for the Latter Rain which will be poured out in the near future upon the waiting, praying people.
AMEN
Wendy Eaton