Eleventh Hour Workers
God is raising up the stones...
I understand the anger.
I understand the tears.
I understand the ugliness.
I understand the fears.
I understand the addictions.
I understand the scars.
I understand the emptiness
Found within a broken heart.
I understand.
This is a poem that I wrote about ten years ago, before I knew Jesus. Today, it would read like this…
Jesus understands your anger.
Jesus understands your tears.
Jesus understands your ugliness.
Jesus understands your fears.
Jesus understands your addictions.
Jesus understands your scars.
Jesus understands the emptiness
Found within your broken heart.
Jesus understands.
Growing up, I was considered the bad or wild child. Multiple arrests, starting at the age of 13, led me to being placed in the local juvenile detention center. Eventually, I was court-ordered to be housed in a residential facility for girls experiencing behavioral, emotional, and family difficulties. My parents weren’t involved in my life in any meaningful way, and not long after being released from the residential facility, I dropped out of high school and started living a lifestyle of working and partying. I was using hard drugs quite heavily during that time, but at some point, I decided that I didn’t want to live that lifestyle anymore, and miraculously, I was able to stop. However, alcohol replaced drug use and alcohol helped me to cope with life. I struggled with depression, anxiety, CPTSD, and PTSD symptoms. My mental health deteriorated as my alcohol use increased, and in my thirties, suicidal ideations took hold of me. The feeling of wanting to end my life was strong, and I would spend hours online looking at certain websites that featured people who had committed suicide. On October 5, 2018, after experiencing three separate breakdowns in my mental health spread out for almost two years, I attempted suicide. When I woke up in the ICU, I was grateful to be alive.
I spent most of my life feeling broken and empty inside, and I know millions of people around the world can relate. We try to fill the emptiness with all sorts of things, both good and bad, like drugs, relationships, television, social media, work, shopping…the list can go on and on…but none of these things are able to heal our hearts or to provide us with the quality of life that God desires to give us. A quality of life that is full of love, meaning, and purpose that is focused on others and not on self.
Jesus stepped into my darkness in a powerful way when I began studying the Bible with a Christian lady that God placed in my path after I was released from the hospital. It was through those studies that I came to know that there was a God in heaven who loved me and desired to have a relationship with me. I loved doing Bible studies, and soon, I started purchasing my own studies online to do at home by myself. After I was baptized in 2020, I began reading and studying the Bible independently instead of using study guides. I find joy, comfort, strength, wisdom for life, and the peace that only Christ can give in God’s Word. God speaks to my heart through His Word.
I recently graduated from the SALT program in Collegedale, Tennessee, and was hired to work as a Bible worker for the Pennsylvania Conference. My heart desires to help others to come to know Jesus and His great love for them. Jesus continues to transform my heart and my life through the power of His Word and His love. I pray that God will help me to create meaningful content that can be used to reach others who are suffering. Jesus understands our pain. Please help us to take His comfort into dark places. Your support is greatly needed and appreciated. Thank you.
Click the link below to hear Amanda’s interview and more of her story.
We continue our series on Biblical preaching with our guest, Dr. Carlton Byrd. Dr. Byrd, who currently serves as the president of the Southwest Region Conference, gives us a glimpse into his journey into ministry. He shares with us how as a pastor’s kid, he felt and found his calling to preach and what God has taught him in his journey.
Lucent Media is pleased to introduce our Certified Planned Giving Specialist, John Bridges. John has served as a pastor in the denomination for over 62 years and continues to serve in the capacity of development and trust services.
NOW IS THE TIME beyond immediate cash gifts.
So many of you have expressed a longing for spreading the Adventist message, and we are doing just that. Most of you know…if not, please do know …we exist to defend the Seventh-day Adventist message from the onslaught of errors, heresies, compromise, and neglect that seek or, in effect, dilute the three angels’ messages. Through print and digital media, we are focusing on creating an organization that will help a new generation see the beauty, balance, and strength of the Adventist message.
As we get our feet on the ground, your gifts are so very much needed and essential NOW. Thank you for the support we are experiencing from your graciousness. YES, NOW IS THE TIME to give the message and support it.
As an experienced Planned Giving Director, may I remind and encourage you to look at the avenues and options in giving your support to vitalize this ministry:
For those of you who have reached age 72 this year and have an IRA, a Required Minimum Distribution [RMD] is required by April 15 of next year and each year. If your IRA funds are not needed for your living expenses, it is truly one of the smartest ways for charitable giving as the IRS will allow you to make a direct Rollover to the charity with no tax consequences. It is all tax-free and does not become taxable income to you.
Do you need a steady income at a reasonable guaranteed rate? Consider a charitable gift annuity.
Would you like to remember this ministry as you provide for your family in your estate planning with a WILL or Revocable Trust? We will be happy to help you with each of these.
Call Pastor John Bridges
225-505-0231
Certified Specialist Planned Giving
Videos from the Week
Done by a good friend, this channel is all things Pathfinders. I never met someone with so much passion for Pathfinders! Like, subscribe, and get infected with the enthusiasm of someone who LOVES it!
My friend Jerome Masilamony shares how difficult it is to wait on God, but in the midst of it shares his experience of hearing God’s voice in the stillness. Check out his other videos as well.
Lucent Media is offering a Daily Devotional. Written by Jonathan Smith, the devotionals are Biblical, inspirational, and most of all, delivered to your inbox each morning. Here is a sample:
Singing and Crying By Babylon's Rivers
Psalm 137:1
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion.
Many times we have something good and take it for granted. We may ignore it, scorn it, think it is irrelevant or annoying, and then later we lose it. That's when regret sets in. As a teen, I loved playing with friends over being obedient to my mother, until she died. Oh, how bitterly sorrowful I was, that I was not cooperative.
Because they would not obey their Father, the Jews were eventually conquered by the Babylonians and brutally dragged hundreds of miles to a strange land. Then came the taunting and demands: For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song, and those who plundered us requested mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” Ps 137:3
What should they do? With their eyes full of tears, their feet hurting from the chains, their backs split open by whips, their city and temple in ruins, how can they sing at a time like this?
How shall we sing the LORD’S song In a foreign land? Psalm 137:4. My recommendation is SING! Sing O Israel, sing. Maybe now the songs you despised, the godly tunes you had long neglected, will convert your own stubborn hearts.
Sing, Israel sing! Perchance you will finally be doing what you were supposed to be doing in the first place, that is, evangelize the world. It may be just what the LORD intended. Put the good news of salvation in song. Tell of God's grace and mercy. Shout out to the world of His wondrous love and care. How many of us get the opportunity to testify of God, by the direct request of the heathen? Sing the LORD's songs, and silence Babylon. Sing if you're in prison so fellow prisoners and jailers will hear. Did not Paul and Silas sing in captivity and a great conversion occurred? (Acts 16:24-34)
Now is not the time to be silent, like the popular gospel song you must say, "I will sing of the goodness of God." God is good whether you are flourishing or mourning, whether you are healthy or sick, whether you are on top of the world or down in the dumps, in prison or free. Sing! It can bring healing and comfort, Sing, the pain will subside, Sing, the taunting demons will tremble and flee. Sing, for God inhabits the praise of His people (Ps 22:3).
Finally, how will you sing the LORD's songs if you don't know them? It is time to learn. Not just those trivial one-liners of endless repetition, but deep songs that tell the whole gospel, leaving nothing out. Babylon, that great harlot, will soon afflict the people of God again and in the time of the Great Tribulation, those songs will get us through. Start learning and singing.
We are offering this annual devotional to our readers at the price of $45 dollars for the year. They are all original, they are designed to help you think, and offer you new insight into the word of God. Click the link below to order your devotional.
Our sister publication Adventists Affirm will be launching soon! Stay tuned for details, because of our move, we are still waiting for everything to settle before we leap into that.
PureLight Missions continues to solicit your support for their ongoing projects. Click here and scroll down to learn more about what they are doing.
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