The rampant enthusiasm that shines through John’s letters reveals the heart of his message—there’s a whole new meaning and purpose to life because God has come to us, and will come again!

In Acts of the Apostles, Ellen White writes,

The church is God's appointed agency for the salvation of men. It was organized for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to the world. From the beginning it has been God's plan that through His church shall be reflected to the world His fullness and His sufficiency.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is a nonprofit organization that invests in building the vitality of communities in the United States. It recently completed a three-year study conducted by Gallup.

Report from the Field

For the last twenty-three years, except for isolated weekends, I’ve been a habitué of children’s Sabbath Schools—and a lot has changed since 1986.

I am a lover of open spaces. My earliest childhood affection was for windblown wheat fields, ripe for running and rolling and dancing in. On a recent flight, I rode the clouds over Michigan. It was nearing dusk and the sun seemed to stretch forever over a carpet of golden billows.

I never saw a moor,
I never saw the sea;
Yet know I how the heather looks,
And what a wave must be.

I never spoke with God,
Nor visited in heaven;
Yet certain am I of the spot
As if the chart were given.1

Is snorkeling a proper Sabbath activity? Is there anything wrong with playing soccer on Sabbath? Should you buy and pay for food on the Sabbath? These and other issues have been the major topics of discussion in some Adventist circles.

In reaction to discussions about proper Sabbath behavior, some have begun to emphasize the experience of the Sabbath. Busy people are encouraged to experience rest on the Sabbath.

There is little doubt that Seventh-day Adventists believe in the doctrine of salvation by “grace” through faith “alone.” Although there might still be pockets of the dreaded legalism located here and there in the SDA Church, most of our periodical and book publications make it clear that there is nothing any person can hope to do by way of “works of the law” to merit personal salvation.

April is the cruelest month, wrote T. S. Eliot. It certainly seems to be. Terrible things have happened in April. The Waco Massacre, the Oklahoma City bombings, the Colombine shootings—they all occurred in April. Holocaust Remembrance Day usually takes place in April, as does the Armenian Genocide Memorial (April 24).

The most authoritative way in which God reveals himself to us is through Scripture. Nature, the conscience, and non-canonical prophets are also important channels through which God communicates with us. Because of God’s irrepressible desire to communicate with us, however, his revelation confronts us constantly, in almost every situation.