Special Issue Time to Seek the Lord An Appeal from the Editors his special issue was to have been about money. We designated it as such many months ago, Tadvertised it, and were well into our planning when we felt impressed to make a radical change. It is time to seek the Lord. It is time to pray as we have never prayed before—not just on one day set aside by church leaders, or in connection with a particular event—but as a daily, ongoing MODIFIED way of life. Y ALL IGIT / D ISC D HOTO © P HOTO P J ple, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and esus is coming soon. Time to get our priorities in order. Time to put first things pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then first. Time to turn from our worldliness and turn to God. will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will The special issue on money can wait. It’s an important heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14, NIV). topic—Jesus devoted much of His teaching to it—but even “‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all more important is the keynote Jesus sounded and which your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and will must be ours: “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at bring you back from captivity’” (Jer. 29:13, 14, NIV). Again hand” (Matt. 4:17). He invites: “Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins Our salvation is all of grace, through faith alone, but we have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to have a part to play. The Christian life is a battle and a the Lord. Say to him: ‘Forgive all our sins and receive us gra- march: we are in a war, and the stakes are high, even eternal ciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria cannot life or eternal death. save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again The ancient promise to Israel is for us today: “If my peo- say ‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made, for in you 2 (1010) ADVENTIST REVIEW the fatherless find compassion’” (Hosea 14:1-3, NIV). for God, be it ever so feeble or uncertain, brings down His In The Acts of the Apostles, Ellen White describes how the life into our being. disciples of Jesus earnestly sought His presence and blessing The idea that we can know God—know Him as our in the days prior to Pentecost. They meditated and prayed; best friend, as our companion by the way, as our guide for they confessed and repented; they put aside differences and every decision, as our strength in every trial and our com- made matters right; they looked not only inward but were forter for every heartache—seems preposterous to the fired with a passion for people. And the Spirit came upon world. It invites mocking and derision, but we who know them with power. our God know that it is true. We live in the time of the “latter rain”—the power of Last April, Reggie White, a 12-time Pro Bowl selection in Pentecost again will come upon the National Football League, God’s people. We should not put off declared his decision to retire. A the promised blessing, waiting for couple days later he announced that some dramatic, mass demonstration he had changed his mind: the Lord of the Holy Spirit from heaven. No; In these articles had told him to return for one more it is our privilege to receive the gift year as a defensive lineman for the individually, personally, now. you will hear Green Bay Packers. The articles and testimonies that “God spoke to me and said, ‘You make up this special issue cluster Adventists made a promise,’” said White, who around the elements identified by is an ordained minister. “‘You Ellen White in her account of the promised you would play two years, pre-Pentecost experience, to which sharing deeply and I want you to fulfill your com- we have added the spiritual disci- mitment.’” pline of fasting, which Ellen White personal stories White’s reversal and public affir- frequently encouraged. In these arti- mation of divine guidance brought cles you will hear Adventists sharing of renewal hoots of scorn from the media. “It’s deeply personal stories of personal a rare man who is treated to divine renewal and revival and the hope intervention even once in a life- they have that the church they love and revival. time,” wrote Jim Litke in an Associ- will find new life in Christ as well. ated Press commentary. “Reggie We have intentionally included a White, apparently, is that rarer man wide variety of Adventist voices. Often, it seems, we still. He gets messages from above all the time.” Adventists spend so much time arguing, talking past one You don’t have to be a fan of Reggie White’s or even another, and failing to listen that we fracture the body accept that God told him to play football for another year to instead of building it up. see the yawning chasm of two thought worlds, the biblical It is time to come together. It is time to seek the Lord. and the secular. In the biblical portrayal of reality, God Among the various aspects that belong in seeking the exists, God is personal, and God intervenes in the affairs of Lord—repentance, confession, fasting, setting matters right, this world; further, we can know God one-on-one. a love for the unsaved—one stands out as preeminent: A story way back in Genesis highlights the biblical prayer. Every other element depends on personal, honest worldview. Here is Abraham, now old and anxious that his communion with God. beloved son Isaac will find a good wife. Abraham summons True prayer arises from a heart that feels its need. Prayer is his faithful servant and gives him an onerous task: Go back our entire being longing for God, loving God, adoring God. to my relatives in northwest Mesopotamia and find a life “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for companion for my son. you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. The servant must have trembled at the job assignment, When can I go and meet with God?” (Ps. 42:1, 2, NIV). but he determines to do his best. He loads up 10 camels with Nothing distinguishes the child of God from the child of presents and heads for the road. At last he reaches his desti- the world as does prayer. That was never more true than in nation, the town of Nahor. As he comes to the town well, this secular age that prides itself on its self-sufficiency, that an idea is forming. It’s evening—the time when the women thumbs its nose at a Higher Power, that tells you prayer is come out to draw water. for weak, dependent people who have to have a crutch. He makes a simple but—to a secular person—preposter- If we cease to pray—not formally or out of rote habit but ous petition to the God of heaven: “O Lord, God of my mas- one-on-one with God—we inevitably become secularized. The ter Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to world squeezes us into its mold, even while we still take the my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring, name of Christ and maybe even preach or teach in His name. and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to Conversely, the child of the world cannot begin to pray draw water. May it be that when I say to a girl, ‘Please let and remain a secular person. The very act of reaching out down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, ADVENTIST REVIEW (1011) 3 and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have our faltering words. Nothing—no thing—is too small or too chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you big for His gracious help. have shown kindness to my master” (Gen. 24:12-14, NIV). O that we Seventh-day Adventists might live as people of What happens? Before he finishes praying, the beautiful God and not people of the world. O that we might depend Rebekah walks up with a jar on her shoulder and fills it from on Him, might trust Him more, might love Him more. O the spring. Tingling with excitement, the servant hurries to that we might be men and women, and boys and girls, who meet her and requests a drink. She lowers the jar to her hands, pant for Him as the deer pants for the streams of water. gives him a drink, and then says, “I’ll draw water for your It is time. camels too, until they have finished drinking” (verse 19, NIV). Every day. The story is old, but new every morning. The God of Now. Abraham still visits His people, still condescends to listen to Time to seek the Lord. Contents 1 Time to Seek the Lord 26 Why I Fast F ROM THE EDITORS BY RUTHIE JACOBSEN 5 Preparing for Pentecost 27 An Anniversary Meditation BY ELLEN G. WHITE BY RICHARD DAVIDSON 8 Teach Me to Pray 28 Morning in the Valley BY DOUG BATCHELOR BY VERLIE WARD 9 Living in the Presence of Jesus 31 God Does Talk Back BY ORVILLE PARCHMENT BY WILLIAM LOVELESS 10 Our Eyes Are Upon You 32 Journey to the Cross BY DWIGHT K.