Forward to Zion: Ohio Hometown Camp Meeting 2011

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Forward to Zion

Rick Howard

Spiritual Formation, Ellen G. White, and Daniel 11:30-36

Dear Lord, You know the passion that is in all of our hearts to have You come back, to have You come and take us home and end this mess that we're in here.

But we know that Certain things have to happen.

And 1 of the things that has to happen is that each 1 of us needs to become impassioned.

We need to be filled with your spirit, to overflowing, so that we can't hold it in, and that it's the desire of our hearts to share with everybody that we meet the love that you had for us, how you saved us, how you changed our lives, how you gave us something to live for.

Come into our hearts with strength and with power.

And I pray for my brother Jack here as he continues on in this ministry, give him the strength and the ability to just keep going.

And I just pray that this book, The Great Controversy, which is the most important book Ellen White said that she wrote that needs to be in the hands of every human being that you would make it happen.

You have a thousand ways to do things where we don't see 1.

So, I pray that you would just continue with the unbelievable providential ways that you have been opening doors to get the great controversy into the hands of the people in this world.

And if we can be a part of it, if you would use us in 1 way or another, I pray that you would lead every single person here that is hearing my words right now, that on a daily basis, you would lead us to someone who we can share this book with.

And Lord, make a way for us to have copies of it in our car, wherever we are.

We know that you're going to do these things because this is your will and that you can't wait to come home to take us with you.

I'm going to carry on a little bit what you're talking about here because part of what I wanted to do tonight was besides wrap things up and have you see certain things, I want you to go home tonight understanding why the problems exist in our church that exist and what needs to be done to solve those problems.

How we got here and how we're gonna get out of it.

That's what I would like to share tonight.

And a part of that is how God leads us in our lives.

They just, you know, you just don't know, What should I do?

And I want to share just 2 events with you to show you how it works, because it really works.

This started 40 years ago almost with me, and I got a phone call.

Rosalie and I, my wife, we were sitting on our bed, Sabbath afternoon, in a house that we rented with 2 kids, little children, and we had to move out by the next weekend.

I quit my job, I went into business in order to earn enough money so I could go to the seminary.

Well, I sold the business for the debt that it was in and got out of it.

My plan was the next week, if nothing happened, to get in my car, drive out to Andrews, walk in and say, I gotta go to school here.

I knew God was calling me to the ministry but I didn't know what else can I do at this point?

He goes, there's somebody here that wants to talk to you.

And a man named Don Gray got on the phone.

He's the guy that's, he was the Lake Union Ministerial Secretary back at that time.

And he says, Rick, can you get out here to Michigan?

Don't worry, but the Lord has a place for you right now, and it's a program that I'm starting up.

Go borrow the money, and I'll pick you up.

I flew out to South Bend, and he picked me up with his wife and we drove up to Grand Ledge and Michigan Camp meeting was taking place.

And when we arrived, the conference committee was meeting.

So he went into the conference committee and I sat down outside and Elder Keemer came out after about half an hour.

He was the conference president and he talked to me a little bit and goes back in and James Hayward came out and talked to me a little bit and then a man named Myron Vagley who was the ministerial secretary back in those days.

And I still, believe me, it was a two-hour drive from South Bend to Grand Ledge.

And Don didn't tell me very much at all about what his plan was except, don't worry, don't worry.

The Lord has something going for you, you know.

And it was a little bit of a game on his part.

He's like that, you know, it's his nature.

And so then Don Gray comes out and he goes, Rick, you're hired.

And he says, well, it's a brand new program and It's for seminary graduates who didn't have a call.

And we would put them along with a pastor somewhere.

And they would work as a Cole Porter pastoral trainee.

And I said, well, I didn't go to the seminary.

He goes, I know, but you're the first guy in the program.

So he said, do you want to go to the lower peninsula or the upper peninsula?

So a week later, We moved out of our house and to the upper peninsula to Escanaba, Michigan.

And I was a pastoral coal porter trainee.

But if I sold enough books where the commission was higher than that, I would get more.

I never got more because my heart was in studying the Bible with people.

I probably had an average of 10 to 15 Bible studies a week.

When I got there, somebody gave me 250 great controversies and I put them in my trunk.

And everywhere I went, everybody that I met, if I showed the books and they couldn't afford it, they got a great controversy anyway, and a desire of ages.

I had both of them and I just gave them out, gave them out, gave them out.

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Spiritual Formation, Ellen G. White, and Daniel 11:30-36

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