Hear about a precious gift that has been an immense blessing to me, and countless others, that has led us to a better life physically, mentally and spiritually. More information about Joakim’s new book about EGW called: “A Prophet for This Generation” can be found at: www.empowermissions.org/order

IMPACT Copenhagen 2015

<p>Hear about a precious gift that has been an immense blessing to me, and countless others, that has led us to a better life physically, mentally and spiritually. More information about Joakim’s new book about EGW called: “A Prophet for This Generation” can be found at: www.empowermissions.org/order</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Empower Missions

Joakim Hjortland

A Most Beautiful Treasure

Heavenly Father, thank you for this morning.

I pray that you may lead this message, lead my words, lead the time we have and speak to us.

Okay, this morning I'm going to tell you about a person that is both, I think, the most known of our pioneers and also 1 of our pioneers of our founding people of our movement and church, that had the greatest influence in the Adventist movement.

If it wasn't for this person, they would likely not have been a thing called Health Expo.

Adventists would probably not have been the longest living person, the people in the world as we are today.

We wouldn't have the second largest school system around the world.

Impact would probably never have started if it wasn't for this person.

I wouldn't have stood here and people like David Ashwick, Steve Wolberg, John Brancho and many influential people in our church and thousands of people they have reached would probably never have been led to Christ.

In fact if it wasn't for this person, this church building or this church would probably not have existed and the empty church as a denomination would probably never have come into existence either unless God would have used another person.

This person have had an incredible influence for good up through history.

I'm going to talk about us you Probably have a guest Ellen white which we talked a little bit about yesterday as well, and I call this message a most beautiful Treasure The most beautiful treasure, I don't know you might be incorrect English to say a most, maybe you have to say the most, I don't know, but I wouldn't be comfortable saying the most beautiful treasure because I think that's Jesus.

But this is definitely 1 of the most beautiful and important treasures I believe God has given us as a church, as we talked a little bit about yesterday as well.

So therefore I decided to call it that anyway, even though it might be incorrect English grammatically, I thought it was a good title for this message.

Now even though she had a lot of influence and she is well known, Ellen White, among our church and even outside our church.

Much fewer people really know who she was as a person and how she lived and how she was as a person.

We don't have a lot of time, but I want to give you a little glimpse of how she was as a person, a little bit more of her role and the role of this gift.

And yeah, I will share some different things.

I don't know what picture you have of Ellen White, but too many people when they think of her, they think about, you know, melancholy lady dressed in black that is rather glum and unhappy, you know.

They think of someone that is critical with this long list of do's and don'ts that point the fingers to you and take away the goodies of life and thus our happiness.

But I'm happy to tell you that the picture of Ellen White and her message is very, that picture of Ellen White and her message is very different from reality.

It's very different from what I have discovered.

I'm happy to tell you that when you get to know her, when you really get to know her and her writings, you get a very different and much better picture.

I want to give you a little glimpse of that.

I want to share you some fun facts first to begin with to help you see maybe a little different more different picture than what you have seen so far.

Did you know that Ellen White's favorite color was pink and that her bathroom walls in Elm's Haven, the home she lived in the end of her life, was pink.

Did you know that her favorite dessert was lemon pie?

Did you know that after the death of her husband, James, in 1881, the successful Adventist evangelist, Stephen Haskell, asked her to marry him, but she said no.

By the way, she actually had a picture of him in her bedroom in Elmshavn.

Outside her immediate family, He was the person she wrote most letters to, actually.

Did you know that she wrote, sisters when about their work should not put on clothing which makes them look like images to frighten the crowds from the corn?

And her granddaughter, Grace White, Jack, I don't know how you pronounce her last name, she said, I recall a young nurse who had only a few clothes and so grandmother gave her 3 dress lengths of material, 1 of red, 1 of blue and 1 of golden color.

She told this young lady, as she did several young women, that she should have at least 1 red dress.

Not that everyone should wear red dresses, but she looked good in red.

Actually, often she helped people getting some clothes.

She helped a lot of people in many different ways.

Anyway, did you know that during 1 of her working vacations in Colorado, that's by the way something that inspired me to kind of move out in the mountains in Norway this last fall where I was writing my book about Ellen White.

Did you know that during 1 of her working vacations in Colorado when she was almost 50 years old, She went on a 24-day long camping adventure in the mountains.

In short, the trip included sublime nature, campfires, riding in a wagon pulled by horses or walking behind it for scores of miles, rough and steep roads, earth covered by snow, frozen water, almost empty food supplies, doctoring a horse, feeding some hungry travelers, boat trip, praying, reading and writing.

It was quite an adventure when you read about what they did on this trip.

And by the way, the year, the summer before, she was riding horseback, but in an unfortunate situation she was thrown off the horse, so therefore she got injured, quite badly hurt.

And yeah, because of that, she wasn't riding horseback, as I understand, this summer.

She still had means, or, yeah, were injured from that.

Listen, this is a funny example of her sense of humor.

When she lived in Australia in an area full of thievery, a lot of thievery, so it was very poor in that time and yeah people were stealing to get what they needed.

When she lived there in this area she had a watchdog to protect the orchard and the garden and she named this watchdog Tiglat Pileser or Tig for short after 1 of the powerful wicked and hidden kings of the Bible.

So anyway, when you get to know her, as you get a little glimpse of her, I could give you many examples, You get a very different picture of her and her writings.

A very different and much better picture than many people have.

When you get to know her and who she was as a person, you will find that She had a sense of humor, she was a lover of beauty, she was kind and generous, she was dedicated and perseverant, she was respectful and sensitive, she was firm, but at the same time forgiving and redemptive.

She was reasonable and a logical proponent of independent thinking.

She used a lot of common sense, much more than many of her professed followers.

She was positive through negative experiences.

She went through a lot of tribulations, difficulties, but she was positive through it.

She was a loved spouse, mother, and grandmother.

She was a loved, caring neighbor and friend.

People around her loved her, amethyst, non-amethyst.

A faithful and appreciated church member, a powerful, well-renowned speaker and author.

But despite of all these virtues, all these good qualities, just like any prophet in time of the Bible, she wasn't perfect.

But she received a lot of God's transforming grace into her life and she was continually climbing upwards on the ladder of grace, on the ladder of sanctification towards the perfect ideal.

I'm tempted to give you a lot of examples, you know, it's so many beautiful stories and examples that have inspired me as I've been reading and studying about her life and her ministry.

We only have time to look at a little glimpse.

So I want to share just a few things to give you a little glimpse of these qualities that illustrate all these qualities, everything I just mentioned.

As I mentioned, I think yesterday I had the privilege to go to the States last January to do some research for the book I've been writing.

And 1 thing I had the privilege to see is I have the privilege to visit Elm 7 in California.

If you are around, if you have the opportunity, definitely recommend it.

You can also go to Battle Creek, which also lived and see many things.

But this is actually a national historic landmark in the States.

On the initiative of the states, of the government, they realized, they recognized her importance as an author and religious figure.

And so they decided to make it a national historic landmark.

She lived here from 1900 to 1915, the last 15 years of her life before she died on my birthday, a hundred years ago, this year, this summer.

And yeah, it's really nice, you can go and see, you know, walk where angels have walked.

You can see how she lived and get a guided tour there with a lot of information.

On the right, with her son, Willie White, William White, with this same size Bible.

And this Bible, some of you might Remember, you had this 1 time, or you had several interesting similar experiences, but 1 time, Ellen White, when she received a vision from God, she had this Bible.

It's the exact 1 she had in this occasion is the 1 on the right there.

You can see it in white estate in Maryland.

The 1 I'm holding there is the same size, the same type of Bible.

But she held this Bible in her left hand, arm length out on the side like this, for 30 minutes.

And this Bible, the weight of this Bible is more than 8 kilos.

And if you try just to take 2 kilos and stand like this, you can't stand very long.

I Actually, I was in Iceland having some seminars just a few weeks ago.

And then they had a Bible actually with the same size.

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A Most Beautiful Treasure

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