1. What's In a Day? More About Jesus Seminar #23 - Guide To see the 26 Video seminars complete links list, visit http://nfltrashtalk.com/peaceful-resources/ To start the interview session, Lee asks Morris Why are you a Seventh Day Adventist? Morris answered, Well, it's based on the name, & the name was chosen for the organization in the 1860s and is descriptive of what we believe. Seventh Day, describes the day of the week that we try to honor, and the Advent is referring to the truth regarding Christ's soon coming, he continued. Anyone who believes Christ is coming back is an Adventist. There were about 27 different points of doctrine back when Morris was a teenager studying to be baptized into the church. At the time, he recalls that he was somewhat overwhelmed by that, but he was relieved to find out later that there are only two points that are necessary in order for me to be a Seventh Day Adventist. #1. Believe what the Bible teaches about man and death, and once we believe that, it removes all but a hand full of other churches. #2. If we add to that what God's Word tells us about the seventh day of the week, then there is only one church to join up with. The SDA Church. It's also interesting to note that Jesus and all of His disciples were Seventh Day Adventists! The Apostle Paul was a SDA, as a matter of fact, all of the early Christians mentioned in the Bible were SDA. But in the modern era, there are many churches that classify their church as 'Christian' that are not SDA. So, what hinders a person from being a SDA Christian? It's that they haven't yet done their home work enough to have discovered the truth regarding these two Bible teachings. So, a lack of knowledge in the truths taught by the Patriarchs, Prophets, Jesus and the Apostles is the biggest reason of all. 2. Perhaps the second most 'popular' reason would be peer pressure. People don't like to be consider abnormal, and so they tend to go along with the most 'popular thing going' in their own neighborhood, or their group of family and friends. So, a lack of knowledge and comfort are the two greatest reasons why people claiming Christianity as their belief system are not SDA. Lee comments, Perhaps the big reason most people haven't become seventh day believers is because they have never understood how God feels about that day - what it means to Him in terms of our relationship with Him. Morris replies, I think that's true. I think that God's presence is very much in the Sabbath, and I think that all of those who look for it, find His presence with them during that 24 hour period each week, and that His presence seems to be greater than what we experience on any other day of the week. So, why is that? One last question: Is it possible to be a SDA without being a Christian? Morris says, Absolutely! It's a scary thought but 'anyone can be a member' of the church, but if they don't have an ongoing relationship with Christ then they aren't a Christian. That's what it takes to be a Christian. @ the 7:00 minute mark Morris tells the parable, Johnnie goes to Sunday School. 3. It's rather unbelievable that, after all these years, there would be anyone who still believed that the Seventh Day Sabbath was something that was made for the Jews when it originated during the Creation Week! It's also unbelievable that it is still taught that it was changed by the Apostles to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus. So, it was in honor of Creation that God set aside this day from the very beginning of time, and there is nowhere that He declares that He wanted to CANCEL IT OUT and establish a new day. What God has established let no man attempt to toss aside. PURE AND SIMPLE! The Sabbath was given in honor of creation! End of story! You know that, & I know that; (So, what's wrong with the so called Moral Majority?) Evidently God felt that we needed a weekly reminder that HE created all things, including our world. 4. With the delusional infestation of the 'theory' of evolution being crammed into the minds of children for more than a half century (as 'required education'), it's no wonder that the origin of the seventh day's importance has disappeared from our society. All that any individual should need to validate the Sabbath are three major Bible texts. HMS Richards used to use the illustration of building a fence when referring to these texts. You put up the first post, and then the second, and then you can sight down from the first to the second and see that the third one is perfectly in line with the first two. Here we discover that the Lord has a day. It didn't tell us what day it is though. From Jesus own lips we here discover that the Lords Day is the Sabbath. 5. I'd say that anyone not seeing that the fence posts are strait on this just doesn't want to face the facts, and when God is the one stating the facts then whoa be unto those folks, and especially onto the ones who know the facts but continue to teach a lie. Think about this. There isn't a single astronomical reason for the week! There is for the Day, the Month & the Year. Days are measured by the earth making a complete rotation as it spins on it's axis. Months are measured by the moon completing one circle around the earth, and years are measured by the earth completing one circle around the sun. But the week comes into being from exactly one account! The creation week. That's it! How does the theory of evolution explain that? How do atheists explain that? Every time an atheist or evolutionist refers to a day of the week they are inadvertently admitting there is a God who created the world. When it is traced back throughout time, it is proven that the weekly cycle has never been broken. Although there have been changes in the calendar none of those changes have ever affected the consecutive days of the week, all the way back to Jesus time. Jesus kept the Sabbath, and since it was the same day of the week then, as it is now, that makes it good enough for me! 6. It was Jesus custom, or He made it a habit to go to the church to worship on every Sabbath day. (After all, HE created the day in the first place!) He didn't always get a very good welcome from every church group that he worshiped with either, but He kept on going. If anyone had a good reason to stay home from church it would have been Jesus. One Sabbath the crowd became so riotous that they dragged Him out to a cliff to throw Him off, but God our Father made Him disappear and He walked right through the crowd and got away. Now some people, once they realize all of this for the first time, begin to wonder how in the world that there ever could have been a change by so many different churches to begin worshiping on the first day of the week instead of the seventh day of the creation Sabbath. You can't change anyone's birthday can you? Well, the 7th day of the week is the birthday of the world celebration, but unlike our annual events God wanted to make this one weekly! He knew that we needed that constant reminder to come to him with thanksgiving for being blessed with another week of life. If we presume that we can change someones birthday (like they were attempting to do with one of our early presidents) it would have to mean that we don't really think to much of them wouldn't it? So, what in the world would be a good reason for worshiping on Sunday instead of the Sabbath day? Morris has 22 reasons why people worship on the 1st day of the week, & they are the list that his father used to use years ago in the old tent meetings! They were all trivial, mostly excuses for not worshiping God on the Sabbath, but the reason that was used most often is this. We worship on Sunday to commemorate Christ rising from the tomb. That all sounds like a very nice thing to commemorate, but it's not Biblical. There is something that already commemorates the resurrection and that's Baptism. So, although there is no Biblical reason for people to worship on the first day, that is the best sounding excuse of the bunch! 7. Morris father heard that there was a preacher from a First Day Church that was going to be giving his reasons for worshiping on Sunday, so he decided to go hear what he had to say. He started out by saying, It burns me up to hear people calling Sunday the Sabbath. It is not the Sabbath. Saturday is the Sabbath, He continued, and if you want to keep the Sabbath, then you are keeping one of the gloomiest days of the week! That was the day that Jesus was dead in the tomb. I worship on Sunday because that was the most glorious day of the week since Jesus rose from the tomb., he continued. It seemed like the people from his congregation thought that sounded pretty good, but when Jesus was asleep in the tomb, He had already said the words, It is finished, which meant that the devil was finished and the plan of Salvation had been completed! All the torture and pain that Jesus had suffered was over with, the plan of Salvation was complete, and He was resting peacefully in the tomb! It was a glorious day! God the Father wasn't the least bit concerned about whether or not he would be able to raise him up on Sunday morning. Jesus added His own version of rest on the Sabbath day as he rested in the tomb. The last reason Morris's father always used to show in his demonstration was the Bible text that is used most frequently to show why there was a change from the seventh to the first day of the week. 8. Daniel is describing a power here that many protestant reformers of old such as Martin Luther, and many other prophesies have identified to be the papacy. The papacy is admittedly proud of the fact that they changed the day of worship from the Sabbath to Sunday claiming it proves they have the power of God on earth! When we compare the prophesies of Daniel and Revelation we find out exactly how God feels about this power, and about this attempted change! He feels very deeply about it and gives one of the greatest warnings in scripture against the beast, his image and his mark & the number of his name. This is the historical part of the three angels messages. We studied the experiential part of it in an earlier seminar, but this historical part about the end times in Revelation is still valid and real. Many times at the end of his seminar on the truth about the Sabbath, Morris's father would have people come up & tell him that they had always known that Saturday was the Sabbath, but what they had never known however, was how God feels about that day. Knowing that, made all the difference in the world & they intended to make that change in their lives! In Hebrews we discovered that the main thing happening on the Sabbath day is a 'rest' period. There is a rest, and the rest he is talking about here is for the people of God. It was specifically referring to the children of Israel when they were wandering around in the desert after leaving Egypt. He invited them to enter into His rest, so what rest is it? 9. When we looked at the first part of the chapter, we realized that it was the rest from our labor to attain perfection on our own, & instead to enter into the relationship of Faith in Jesus to do what He promised He would do! God has promised to transform our lives, and to change our lives FOR US! Is the Sabbath a symbol of this rest? It certainly fits the bill for ME. Is rest a symbol of Sanctification? So what does it all mean? It means that we can cease from our own efforts, from our own attempts to gain the victory in overcoming... and in trying to acquire sanctification, and instead we may enter into rest as we give up and... LET GOD DO IT ALL! My what a challenge this is aye? It actually seems like hard work to rest in this case! Can YOU do it? 10. Can You Stop Trying, & instead Surrender? That can be hard work! We have a hard time accepting gifts from God! Go listen to The trouble with grace A tough truth for nice people. @ the 28:30-34:30 mark. Even Jesus admitted that grace could be problematic. Some people even have a hard time accepting justification, and so they have spent needless hours in painful efforts to try and work out there own salvation, by whipping themselves & lying on beds of nails, etc., all evidence that people have a hard time accepting gifts, even of forgiveness! God so loved the world that He Gave. By comparison, the Egyptian Pharaohs tried to buy their way to 'the after life' with gold and expensive adornments. To bad they couldn't have read John 3:16 aye? You can't buy a gift for yourself. It cannot be a gift if it isn't given, for free! But even if we get the, 'Justification is a Free Gift of forgiveness' part, then we still need to be able to also accept the free gift of Sanctification, the transformation God makes in our lives. Instead we keep trying to transform our own lives! We struggle and strive, only to fail as we attempt to be good, to do what's right, & to keep the commandments. Then in discouragement we turn our backs on God & the devil wins because we have lost connection with the only source of power that beats the devil EVERY TIME. To bad we didn't have enough faith to believe it, or perhaps we just didn't realize the truth or the facts! We can't get past that until we realize that it is a test of faith, & in order to get there you must show that you believe what God is saying; You must show you have the faith to believe that... 11. HE WILL DO WHAT HE PROMISED TO DO! Let go and let God... Accept HIS gifts! 'Fight TGFOF' & REST! Then watch and see what He will do. Don't get in his way, but stay connected. Don't try to judge HIS Progress on things in your life that need changing. That's HIS job and He will choose the pace! @ the 38:00-41:00 mark Morris tells the story of the 'hopeless drunk' who came to one of his weekend Spiritual 'Retreats'. (They should be called 'Spiritual Advances' not retreats. lol) Morris explains how beating alcohol is not our problem, it's God's problem. You can substitute anything else for alcohol you want there. God has NEVER asked us to fight the devil on our problems. The only problem that 'hopeless' guy had was that he was trying to fight his alcoholism, (which God has promised to handle for him) instead of letting God do it. Do Not Miss This Example If you, or someone you love has an addiction, or any kind of problem with any sin that they're struggling with, then they need to get a grip on the reality of this truth! Your problem, Morris told him, is that you are trying to fight your alcoholism instead of seeking God and letting Him deal with it! Really?, he replied. Yes, said Morris. Do you have a Bible at home, and the book Desire of Ages, or 'Steps to Christ? Yes, I think so, the man replied. 12. Well, could you spend a hour each morning seeking God by reading something of Jesus, and by going to your knees the best you know how and giving your life over to Him? Morris continued. Well, he said, I guess I could. Morris said, Why don't you do it? The man asked, Well, what happens if I fall again? Nothing happens, Morris replied. God doesn't go anywhere. He doesn't leave you. We don't leave our babies when they make mistakes! Why would a God of love treat us any different then we do our own children? When you fall, he continued, just get up and keep on going. Keep right on seeking Jesus day by day. Keep giving Him permission to do His work in your life & He will do that! He doesn't leave you! You would have to be the one to leave Him, because He will stay with you through thick and thin. The man replied, OK, I'll try! The following year at the next retreat he returned and brought a friend with him, and he took Morris aside and said, You were right. That's how it works! As long as I keep in touch with Jesus He gives it to me as a gift. What a beautiful lesson to learn right there folks. I guarantee you from personal experience that it IS exactly how it works. @ the 41:00 - 44:20 min mark there is the parable that represents Jesus coming to visit. After that parable Morris tells the story of Grandpa Nels' promise to God, if God would save the lives of him and his family from being burned alive. He began studying his Bible, starting at Genesis, and he got to Exodus chapter 20:8-11 & he discovered the Sabbath Day was the 7th day of the week. Grandpa Nels did his own homework. He discovered on his own the Bible truths that changed his life and the lives of his entire family. 13. Grandpa Nels Venden at 44 years old. He died 6 months later. Remember to Rest! Let Go & Let God do it ALL! To see the 26 Video seminars complete links list, visit http://nfltrashtalk.com/peaceful-resources/