Education for Such a Time As This

<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>

E.A. Sutherland Education Association

Seminars

Deborah Ausburn

Legal Aspects of Vocational Training

Doug Baker

Education and the Three Angels

Charles Sarr

Origins of Self-Supporting Work

Mustard Seeds

Ken Caviness

Why Science Does Not Weaken My Faith

Steve Blackburn

Steve Dickman

Rusty McKee

Denzil McNeilus

Panel: Establishing and Maintaining Industries

Alistair Huong

Reflections from a Product of the System

How many of you heard Charles Saar do the history of self-supporting work?

Okay, so I just want to make a reference to these pictures from Madison College.

And I think Charles probably told you that she called them the boys And that they had this unique experience that as they were at Battle Creek College, they boarded in her home.

And so they often had meals together with her.

And she shared with them really the vision of education that started as moving Battle Creek to Andrews and then stepping out further and establishing Madison College.

But the idea was that she had this body of knowledge that was given to her as the vision for us establishing schools that finish the work.

And then they kind of hammered out in a practical experience that kind of education at Madison.

And she was a partner with them, she was on their board.

But then a number of us can connect the dots a little further.

For example, Steve Dickman, his father went to school at Madison College and then went from Madison College to where they are now at Harvard Hills to establish that school.

And so there's a connection from Steve to his father, to E.A.

Sutherland and Percy McGann, then to Ellen White.

And for me, it's a different kind of connection.

My connection comes through Little Creek.

Little Creek Academy came from Professor Straw, who taught at Madison College.

Then he went over to Knoxville with Roger Gouge, and they established Little Creek Academy.

And then Bob Zollinger, they pretty much raised Bob Zollinger there.

And so, Professor Straw took an earnest interest in Bob and taught him these things and then Bob went from there and you know was at Laurelbrook and he still is there And then I came to Laurelbrook in 1992, and Mr.

Bob began taking this earnest interest in me.

And when he worked with me, he would find times to share with me some wisdom or something about the vision of how education should go.

And from time to time he would speak to me and he would say, when you go off and you start a school, you'll need to know this.

And, you know, he's saying these things to me and I'm thinking, what have I done?

I was called to be here and you know, at the resurrection, the second coming, I'm going to be here.

But he didn't understand that, and apparently neither did the Lord, because the Lord moved in my life and then brought me to heritage where I've been for the last 20 years.

And over the course of those 20 years, there's been things that the Lord taught me in addition to the body of knowledge that came from them.

And so I put together a book that's in the hall and you have it on your thumb drive.

And the 2 parts of that book are this body of knowledge of how to run the school that develops the character of Christ in students.

And then the second part about how we get from where we are into eternity.

Now, the other aspect of that that I want to share with you is this idea of mustard seed.

It's already been brought up that Jesus said, when the Son of Man returns, is he going to find any faith?

And faith is, it's the key issue for us at the end of time.

That righteousness, the righteousness of Christ comes to us by faith.

There is a great deal of work to be accomplished, but all that is not done of faith is sin.

It's, the apostles said unto the Lord, increase our faith.

Now that seems very legitimate, but not his response.

He says, if you had faith as a grain of a mustard seed, you might say to this sycamine tree, be thou plucked up by the root and be planted in the sea, and it will obey you.

Who in their right mind is going to say to a sycamine tree, I'm done with you.

I think the reason Jesus chose such a really ridiculous sounding example, yeah, OK, but when we pray, we, at least me, I'm imagining you too, have this idea that, you know, I really need to make the case to the Lord why he needs to do this.

Lord, I need this because of this and this and this and this, and that's why you should listen to me and answer my prayer.

You know, you cannot say, oh, it's an evil sycamine tree, we've got to get rid of it.

You know, there's no way that you could say to the Lord, I've got to get rid of this tree, you know.

And his point is, you don't have to justify your case.

It's like that woman who took healing from Jesus.

It was his knee-jerk reaction for virtue to go out from him and heal her.

And that's the point of the mustard seed and the dimensions of that is that very little faith on our part moves mountains spiritually.

And that's whether it's issues with us personally, with our heart, whether we're trying to overcome sin, or it's the literal challenges that we have in our institutions where we work.

You know, I need to raise a million dollars.

Now, that's a mountain right there, right?

We did it in $20 increments, which that's a lot of $20, right?

But my point is that the Lord is ready to move in ways that you don't anticipate and you don't understand, all you need to do is have that faith.

You know, if you can just express to him that you've got this utmost confidence in him, You know, his natural reaction to that is, all right, well, you know, be it according to your faith.

So, I wanna share with you some stories because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word.

In other words, when I share with you things that God has done for me or done for my students, it inspires confidence in God by hearing it.

This little passage in Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, it needs a little thought.

For by grace are you saved through faith, and that is not of yourselves.

Even Faith itself is a gift to us, right?

You don't just concentrate real hard and bear down and muster it up.

So faith, grace, by grace you're saved through faith, that's not of yourselves.

It's a gift of God, but there's another gift too.

He goes on to say, not of works lest any man should boast.

In other words, when we have these enormous accomplishments, there is no way that we can boast and say, look what I have done.

You know, I've built this grand building, you know, or I've graduated all these students.

There's no way that we are to say, yeah, I did this.

We have to give credit to the Lord because it is all Him.

Every aspect of salvation and every aspect of His life.

And this next verse here, because we're His workmanship and we're created in Jesus Christ unto good works.

So he creates us to put these good works in our life, right?

And notice the next thing it says about the good works.

God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." In other words, God thought the whole thing through and you just like walk into the situation and then you connect to him with faith, something wonderful happens, right, and he ordained that that should be just like, you know, like clothing that we wear.

You know, it's like, wow, what a great experience.

We get to know Jesus personally and deeply when we have these wonderful kind of experiences.

And I want to bring out another aspect of it.

Like when God wants to do something wonderful for me, he puts me in a situation that I do not like.

Briefly, when I came to Heritage, God was clever.

Back to Menu

Series

Seminars

Mustard Seeds

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

Other Teachings in Series

Legal Aspects of Vocational Training

1h 7m

Education and the Three Angels

1h 10m

Origins of Self-Supporting Work

1h 9m

Mustard Seeds

1h 1m

Why Science Does Not Weaken My Faith

41m

Panel: Establishing and Maintaining Industries

2h 53m

Reflections from a Product of the System

1h 11m

Sound Doctrine