In this seminar, I will share my own experience of significant loss. Experiencing pain and suffering is one of the most acute temptations of faith and raises tough questions about God. It even has the potential to destroy our faith. How can we trust God when our prayers are not answered? How can we learn to develop an attitude of gratitude? 

ASI 2018: Business Unusual

<p>In this seminar, I will share my own experience of significant loss. Experiencing pain and suffering is one of the most acute temptations of faith and raises tough questions about God. It even has the potential to destroy our faith. How can we trust God when our prayers are not answered? How can we learn to develop an attitude of gratitude? </p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Unusual Living

David DeRose

The Methuselah Factor: Reaching Our Communities with an Extraordinary Message for Living Longer and Better

Father in heaven, thank you for the privilege you give us of coming together.

Thank you so much that you've allowed light to shine on our paths, pointing us to you, to your principles, to your grace, to your love.

Father, you're longing to reach not only us with a clearer understanding of who you are and how you want us to cooperate with you, but you're trying to reach the world and you've entrusted us with a comprehensive message to do that.

Please help us learn things that encourage us on our own journey as well.

Whether they're watches or cell phones, we have different ways of keeping time.

And so the question is, are these timekeeping devices our friends or are they our enemies?

Well, you say, if we didn't have them, we wouldn't be here right now.

And in fact, maybe some people aren't here right now because they don't have 1.

But we get to a certain point in our lives where it seems that most of us are more concerned not about, well, reaching certain milestones as far as having another event on the calendar, but we're more interested in turning back the clock.

I see some of you looking bewildered, that's good.

That's a testimony to your youthful attitude.

Some of you are shaking your heads no, but I would like to suggest to you that medical science is suggesting that there are at least some things we can do to at least forestall, maybe even turn back some of the effects of aging.

And it relates to a science called hemorheology.

Now no doubt some are not here today because they heard we would be speaking about hemorheology and they said, well we know all about that.

Actually I find that most, even professionals, have not even heard the term hemo-reology.

Well, literally it comes from a couple of roots.

Hemo, that refers to blood, and reology, that refers to the science dealing with the flow properties of complex materials.

So civil engineers tell me that they've taken classes on rheology, the flow properties of fluids.

If they're dealing with the waste in a community, they have to know about rheology because sewage is a complex fluid, as you might have gathered.

But if you were to look in a medical dictionary, you'd find some definitions for hemorheology, and here are a couple of them.

The first 1 is the science of the physical properties of blood, blood flow in the circulatory system.

And then The science of the relation of pressures, flows, volumes, and resistances in blood vessels.

Oh, you say, boy, that sounds very scholarly, but what does it mean practically?

Well, really, hemorheology is the science of the red blood cell.

A number of us were there, many ASI members.

We were having an international conference dealing especially with lifestyle medicine.

Now on that particular trip I did not rent a car.

Maybe some of you have had the experience of renting a car in Europe.

I can remember once driving a car on 1 of those European streets and it seemed that well the further and further I went the narrower and narrower the street became and the buildings became closer and closer together and finally it seemed I only had 2 choices.

I could either back out or I could try to squeeze between the 2 buildings.

How many of you would like to guess what I did?

Yes, it would have damaged the car, right?

It doesn't have any ability to squeeze through passageways that are more narrow than its diameter.

Now the question is, what about your red blood cell?

Can they squeeze through passageways that are smaller than the diameter of the red cell?

Well I see those of you that have some medical background, you're nodding your heads yes, and that's correct, because your capillaries are actually smaller in diameter than your red blood cells.

The creator has designed that the red blood cells actually have to squeeze through the capillaries, and this maximizes contact between the red blood cell and the blood vessel wall, which maximizes the ability for exchange, which is what the red blood cells are all about.

So what your rental car can't do in Europe, your red blood cells can do in your body, provided you have good hemorheology, which allows those red blood cells to flow smoothly through the passageways in your body.

So hemorheology in a nutshell is simply the science that describes how effectively blood flows through your vessels, nourishing your tissues, taking away wastes.

Well, years ago, someone, actually far wiser than me, and I would suggest far wiser than any of us in the room, inspired someone to write these words.

Perfect health depends upon perfect circulation.

I believe it was the creator himself who inspired this statement.

Now, I'm sure many people have read this over the years and they've said, well, this is just wonderful poetry.

Perfect health depends on perfect circulation.

I mean, surely a metaphor for how important it is to have a healthy circulation.

But I would suggest to you that this is cutting edge medical science today.

Because what the research is showing us is if we improve our blood fluidity, we can decrease our risk of a host of conditions.

Stroke, coronary artery disease, blindness, cancer, cognitive decline, high blood pressure or hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol problems, weight gain, bone and joint problems, physical aging, and suboptimal physical performance.

How many of you are interested in this topic?

Now you say, come on, I mean surely, is this really that important and we haven't heard much about it?

Well, we can't look comprehensively today, but I want to spend the first portion of our time, I've roughly divided this presentation into thirds.

The first third, I want to go over with you why hemorheology is important, Because after all, no matter how much we talked about it, if you didn't think it was important, you would say, well, why did he tell us all these things that we could do to improve our blood fluidity if it doesn't really matter, okay?

So we wanna spend a little bit of time with that.

The next third of the presentation, I wanna tell you how you can use this material in your efforts to help your community.

Really, we're talking about health evangelism, how you can use the science of blood fluidity as a effective entering wedge.

And then last, we'll talk about some specific things that you can do and some specific things that the media and even the medical community by and large is getting wrong.

And I want to spend some special time dealing with caffeine and alcohol and their impact on optimal hemorheology and optimal health because a lot of confusion out there, not only in the world, but dare I say it, even among Seventh-day Adventists.

Well, those of you that are looking bewildered, I'm glad you have such a fine community that you're surrounded by.

Well, actually some of you may have seen a DVD series that we've already produced on the topic.

It's called Longevity Plus, and we're in the process of releasing a new book called The Methuselah Factor.

It should be out in the next few months, with God's blessing.

DeRose, I don't need any of these resources, I can just Google it.

I can learn everything I would possibly want about hemorheology.

Well, the problem is most studies don't comprehensively look at blood fluidity.

You've got to know what things to look for.

And, well, furthermore, when even a study looks at something that impacts blood fluidity, they may never use the term hemorheology.

So I'm going to try to walk you through the literature, give you some high points, things to look for, and let's take some examples from this list that I showed you earlier.

This is a study published some years ago, a fascinating study, looking at nearly 300 individuals who had signs of severely impaired blood flow to the brain.

They had either had a stroke or what we call a TIA, a transient ischemic attack.

Some of you realize that looks just like a stroke, but it reverses, usually within a matter of minutes, but by definition, within 24 hours.

So, 297 people, they've all got signs of disease.

Disease, blood flow to their brains, and they're comparing them to healthy individuals.

They found that if their blood fluidity was worse, they had a greater risk of TIA or stroke.

And here are some of the things that you'd be looking for if you were doing a medical research literature review on blood fluidity.

Who would like to give us a definition of hematocrit?

Frank Hasel

Longing for God When Times are Tough

Our gracious God and patient Father in Heaven, thank you so much for your grace, for your mercy.

You've been a God and you are a God who has experienced loss and pain and suffering.

And I ask that you will be with us this morning in a special way.

Give me the right thoughts that what I will say, there are so many things that could be said that the things I will touch upon, that they will be a blessing and an encouragement to those who are here in this room.

And may the words of the psalmist in Psalm 115, verse 1, become reality this morning where he says, Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, because of your loving-kindness, because of your truth.

So if you have come here and expect a seminar where I will give you 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 good reasons how to deal with difficulties and challenging situations, this is the wrong place.

And there is room for you to leave immediately if that is your expectations.

What I have in mind is that I will share a little bit from my own experience, my own life experience, and what has helped me to cope with some things that were not so easy and challenging, and hopefully share a few things that have been helpful for me to maintain my spiritual, to remain spiritually sane and even joyful, despite some challenging things that can happen in life.

What words can describe what cannot be explained?

So How would you explain to a person who has never ever fallen in love how it feels to deeply deeply love another person?

Now if you were to ask me, how is it to lose your mother?

I could tell you that I saw my grandmother die, but not my mother.

So every experience of loss, every unique experience, All the most beautiful things and the most painful things in life are things where we have difficulties to even find the appropriate words to describe what is going on and what is happening.

So in every suffering and every significant loss in life is unique.

And when I talk about loss in life, significant loss, I'm not just talking about death, to make things very clear.

You know, if you experience severe sickness, if you experience a loss of mobility, if you experience a loss of a limb, your arm, your leg, your hand, maybe even 1 finger, and you are a musician and you're used to play the piano and all of a sudden 1 or 2 fingers are missing, that is significant loss.

If you lose your job, if your marriage breaks, that is significant loss in life.

And I think we all experience at 1 point or another some type of loss.

Someone once said, every person you meet loves something, is afraid of something, and the third thing I forgot, but every person has lost something.

Yes, loves something, is afraid of something, and has lost something.

If you want to start a meaningful conversation with anybody, you start asking those questions.

And some people are not willing to talk about the real tough questions.

They might be willing to talk about the things they love, and you will learn something important about the person.

They might be willing to share a little bit about the things they might be afraid of.

And perhaps they are willing even to share the things that they have lost.

And you will find that if you talk to other people on that level, it connects.

And you really get to know the other person on a level that you will never ever just in small talk conversations.

So every person experiences loss of some sort in his or her life, and every experience of loss is different.

And I cannot provide an answer to all the difficult questions that come along with those experiences.

But what I will do this morning is I will share a little bit from my own experience, from my own life story, hoping that it might be an encouragement to some of you and that it will help you to confront your own challenges in your own life and find your own personal way on how to deal with them and with the experience of suffering and pain and loss and even death.

I've been born and raised in Germany, I told you, and I've been blessed by a very, very happy childhood.

And my mother used to say, let children be children as long as possible.

And if you have very positive childhood memories, they will last a whole life.

So I grew up in a Christian home, in a Seventh-day Adventist home.

My parents are Seventh-day Adventist Christians, and they were committed Seventh-day Adventists.

And They grew up, I grew up in the faith, so to speak, and I believed in God.

Still, every person at 1 point, earlier or later, has to face some tough questions.

And as a teenager, I went to an Adventist school and I had some Adventist teachers, and some of these teachers were good teachers, and some of the teachers, they raised questions in my mind, and they didn't provide the answers to those questions and those kind of questions kind of threw me off and I even started questioning the reality of God and some other things.

Now hardly anybody would have noticed except perhaps for some very, very good friends who knew me very closely.

But these questions were very challenging for me, and they're, these are kind of questions that defy easy answers.

But still, for many, many years, I was never, ever confronted with severe suffering or death even in my own life.

And it is interesting, perhaps we in the Western countries, like in Europe, North America, Australia, we are so enlightened and so progressive in our thinking, in our education in the 21st century, that we think we have advanced so much in the sciences and in medicine that we kind of push away the reality that there is suffering and pain and even death and that we cannot really control life.

And that there is sickness and that life is fragile.

So how do you deal with that unpopular reality in life if it confronts you?

You know, I'm reminded of a passage in the New Testament in the book of Romans.

So I don't have a PowerPoint presentation, I have your full attention, right?

In Romans chapter 8, there's an interesting passage that comes to my mind when we talk about the subject.

In verse 16, 17, and 18, the Apostle Paul makes a statement.

In some other places, you find a similar idea, but let's just focus on that passage.

And he says, The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, he continues, verse 17, heirs also.

Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

But now comes a passage that we don't like.

If indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified within.

So we like the glorifying part, but we don't like the part that talks about suffering, and suffering is part of our human reality, is part of our Christian reality.

And I think we have to learn as Christians, and I believe as Seventh-day Adventist Christians, to bear adversity and difficulties and challenges of life in such a way that the way we deal with that will be an inspiration to others, will instill hope rather than desperation, and that we have to learn even to die in such a way that people will see that is different from what I see with other people who don't have that hope.

So that is something we don't often talk about, but I think it's part of our human existence and reality.

So in my own life I was confronted with significant loss in the year 2009.

By the way, I will share some personal things, things that are very close to my heart and you will realize that I'm even touched today when I talk about this.

So this is not just easy talk for me, but I will do it to the glory of God.

So I see I experienced significant loss in life in the year 2009 when my wife was unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer.

She had breast cancer and it was cancer of the most aggressive form.

And my wife Ulrike, she was only 43 years old when that breast cancer was diagnosed with her and I can tell you she didn't choose to have cancer.

Neither did we as a family chose that she should become sick.

And she was still young, I think, with 43.

We had 3 children, 3 sons at that time, the youngest just 11 years old, the oldest 19, and we felt this is not really what we have envisioned for our lives.

After several years, fulfilling years as a mother and a housewife.

My wife had just started and begun to teach in her profession again.

And she was appreciated by the children and by the parents and her peers.

Nicholas Miller

Speaking as a Dragon? A Report on Religious Liberty and Biblical Justice Today

Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for your watch care over us, the way you've brought most of these people anyway, many hundreds of miles, some even thousands of miles, to this spot to learn more about you and the times in which we live, that we may speak up more strongly and act more vigorously for the Kingdom of God that is growing among us as we wait for the greater fullness of the Kingdom of God's glory that I believe is soon to return.

May your Holy Spirit guide me as I speak in Jesus' name.

So I have a couple of books that I want to share about here at the beginning.

1 of them is, will serve as a good part of my presentation today.

500 Years of Protest and Liberty, from Martin Luther to Modern Civil Rights.

It, last year, it was the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's 95 Theses.

And so I took that as a time to write some new material, but also gather some material that I've published in Liberty Magazine over the last 20 years and put it together in a special anniversary edition that asks the question that traces the rise and development of religious liberty from Martin Luther and the Ninety-Five Theses all the way to the election of Donald Trump a couple of years ago.

And I ask some important questions about how our heritage, our Protestant heritage, that all the evangelicals, Trump promising to restore Christianity to influence in this country, Is that the genuine heritage of American Protestantism or is it something else?

And so we'll explore that in this book and in this presentation today.

So there's another book that just came across my desk in physical form about 1 month ago.

Now you're all familiar with the traditional Adventist eschatology of a conflict of worship at the end of time being the final test and that conflict being demonstrated over days of worship, right?

And whether Sabbath or Sunday, the seal of God and the mark of the beast.

And many of you are familiar with this because you've read the book The Great Controversy, right?

And it is the scenario that's set out in the Great Controversy.

And some people have grown critical of that scenario because there's not much action with Sunday laws these days.

Secularism has been on the rise in the West, And they say that Ellen White was reflecting what was happening in her day.

Do you know when the version of the Great Controversy was written?

There were Sunday laws pending on the floor of Congress.

And so some people say she was just reflecting the culture of her time.

Those of you who know your Adventist history know that she didn't originate this prophetic understanding.

Rather she drew on Uriah Smith and his Daniel and Revelation.

But those of you who really know your Adventist history will know that it was Joseph Bates who was the first Seventh-day Adventist in 1849 to write about the Sabbath as the seal of God and Sunday and Sabbath being the last great controversy on the topic but while I was doing my dissertation I came across in electronic format an old old manuscript not 100 years before Uriah Smith and Ellen White and Joseph Bates wrote but 200 years before on another continent a Seventh-day Baptist by the name of Thomas Tillam wrote a manuscript, more than 100 pages, where he defended the keeping of the Seventh-day Sabbath.

And in that book, he talked about the last great controversy would be the conflict between Sabbath keeping and Sunday keeping.

And he identified the Mark of the Beast as being enforced Sunday worship.

That book hasn't been in print for more than 200 years.

I found a scanned copy of it in an electronic database that I don't think Adventists had ever seen because this had never been mentioned anywhere that I had read.

Well, I made a copy of it available on the internet and an organization based in England called Wilderness Publications has republished it for the first time here.

It's a rare and important document because it shows that it doesn't prove that our reading of Revelation is correct, but it certainly does respond to the argument that it was a creation of 1880s America or 19th century America.

No, Another Christian living 200 years earlier on another continent read these same things in the book of Revelation.

So I think it's a very exciting and powerful evidence and support for the Adventist historic position.

I have 5 copies of these that are available in the back afterwards for those that are interested.

The name of this book is The Seventh-Day Sabbath Sought Out and Celebrated and the author is Thomas Tillam, though The full title, and this is a little bit disappointing, oh, they have it on the inner fly, The Seventh-day Sabbath Sought Out and Celebrated, or The Saints' Last Design Upon the Man of Sin, With Their Advance of God's First Institution to its primitive perfection, being a clear discovery of that black character in the head of the little horn, Daniel 7.25, the change of times and laws, with the Christian's glorious conquest over that mark of the beast, and recovery of the long-slighted seventh day to its ancient glory.

So it was when they wrote the titles long enough that it encapsulated the whole argument of the book, just in case you couldn't buy the book.

So speaking as a dragon today comes from a prophetic book and chapter of the Bible.

My title is alluding to what chapter of the Bible?

Revelation 13, there is a lamb-like horn, a lamb-like beast with horns like a lamb, and it speaks as a dragon.

And my question for you this afternoon is, what do those 2 horns represent in prophecy?

Other people have framed it in terms of Protestantism and Republicanism.

So those of you who had Bible class in academy or in college, you remember that it was this lamb-like beast arising out of the earth, not in the middle of civilizations, but arising at the end of the 1260 year period.

We identified with America and we were taught that it started by supporting freedom and equality and fairness, but at some point, it would move to speak as a dragon.

How would it manifest this speaking as a dragon?

So we had in our heads that it was this lamb-like beast that at some point in the future would speak as a dragon.

But did our pioneers believe that it would only speak as a dragon in the future?

When did our pioneers believe that America started speaking as a dragon?

Does the text suggest there's a period of time between it being lamb-like and between it speaking as a dragon?

The text just says it has 2 horns like a lamb and it speaks, it spoke like a dragon.

Series

Unusual Living

Longing for God When Times are Tough

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

ASI 2009 Morning Devotional

Knowing Him as a Family, Part 2

40m

ASI 2010 Seminar: Spiritual Growth

Come Search with Me: Let’s Look for God

1h 32m

Throne Exchange

30m

ASI 2012 Youth Meetings

ASI 2012 Youth Meeting

15m

Personal Spiritual Enrichment

Powerful Sanctuary Secrets

1h 7m

ASI 2014 Plenary Sessions

This Testimony

1h 57m

Special Interest Forums

Medical/Health

1h 2m

Another Eye, Another Apple

35m

Faithful to the Finish

46m

Market Gardening Track

A Balancing Act

59m

Twin Cities

Good, but not Good Enough

47m

Secrets from the Ancient Sanctuary

05 Millions are Looking at the Wrong Temple

46m

Sound Doctrine