Thursday, April 19, 2012

Reviewing the Adventist Review


April 12, 2012
Vol. 189, No.10
http://www.adventistreview.org/index.php?issue=2012-1510

NOTE TO READERS:
WORLD NEWS AND PERSPECTIVES is an important section of each magazine. I don’t usually report on its contents because it is available at the online address I provide with every review.

GENERAL OVERVIEW
This issue includes a number of essays and stories that are noteworthy. I’ll mention the ones I consider significant. But before I get to the reviews. . .

Even though I don’t usually feature a World News Report, I have to congratulate the 20,000 ADVENTIST YOUTH WHO TRADED VACATION FOR SERVICE in Lima, Peru as part of a Mission Caleb outreach. That started me thinking, “What if 20,000 Adventist young people and health professionals, generously supported by the North American Division, offered to be part of a coordinated “vacation week” involving the local nonprofits, police and fire departments, community service programs, and citizens living in a poverty area in Detroit or New Orleans or Philadelphia in an effort to make it a better place to live and work?” It boggles the mind. “Oh what a week of revival and reformation that would be!”

REVIEWS
Steven Chavez’s brief editorial, THE PERIL OF BEING GLIB, is a straightforward masterpiece of straight talk. His conclusion: “Glib answers to the complex problem of evil and suffering in the world are an affront and a sacrilege to an all-knowing, all-wise, all-powerful God. They do not reflect well on God or His people.”

It’s always reassuring to discover evidence that the younger generation is learning important lessons about evangelism. Jimmy Phillips discovered that he was SELLING THE SABBATH SHORT when he attempted to convince his nondenominational study group that Saturday was the biblical Sabbath.

“I finally had the chance to lead a Bible study about the Sabbath. As I announced the topic on a mid-January Monday, I was immediately met with looks of skepticism. For the next two hours I presented a rigorous defense of Saturday’s sanctity through both the Bible and history. Unfortunately, those skeptical looks became defensive words, and our study grew more contentious by the minute.

“I realized that despite my good intentions, my approach resembled an attorney defending the innocence of his client. And unless I missed something, the Sabbath isn’t on trial.”

Don’t miss Sandra Blackmer’s MIRACLE GREENHOUSE. It’s located at Sunnydale Academy in Missouri. “About 120 students currently attend the Academy. To learn more, go to www.sunnydale.org or call 573-682-2164.”

FAITH IS A PLACE by Harold McGregor, Jr. offers the best definition of faith that I have come across anywhere. “Faith…is seeing reality from God’s perspective.”

Two stories of tragedy and spiritual triumph are WAITING BY THE POOL OF BETHESDA by Edyln Aldridge and RESURRECTED HOPE by Danny R. Chandler.

Dixil Rodríguez has yet to disappoint. Her STANDING ROOM ONLY is a MUST READ story about a sermon preached by a five-year-old boy in a crowded elevator stuck for half-an-hour between the 17th and 18th floors.

CHURCH TRENDS is Monte Sahlin’s continuing attempt to get Adventists to think about practical church problems and how to solve them. Did you know that “the most common area of conflict is the personal behavior of a church member? More than one in four churches reported severe conflict on this topic, and another third reported moderate conflict”.  (2010 Faith Communities Today (FACT) survey conducted in the Adventist Church by Roger Dudley)

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