This lesson is a study and discussion on Jesus’ healing ministry in John 9, and the application it has for medical missionaries living in the end times.

AMEN 2021: While It Is Day

<p>This lesson is a study and discussion on Jesus’ healing ministry in John 9, and the application it has for medical missionaries living in the end times.</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>

Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

Plenary Sessions

Brian Schwartz

Building a Wall of Protection While It Is Still Day

Father in heaven, as tonight, we begin these meetings by discussing the call that You gave to Your people to come and restore, restore Jerusalem and the wall around it that had been broken down after 70 years of captivity.

Lord, it seems that we too have been wandering in the wilderness and in some respects we've been in captivity in Babylon.

And I just pray that as you are doing a parallel work of restoring the gospel with true worship and restoring the wall of protection around it, that that can begin tonight in here at Amen.

Well, if you have your Bibles, I'm gonna invite you to turn to the book of Nehemiah.

A book that should be familiar to most of us.

It follows Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah.

Back in August of this, just a few months ago, I began studying the book of Nehemiah.

And I just felt impressed that there were some major similarities between the time of Ezra and the time of Nehemiah and our time today.

And so I was really impressed with a statement in Prophets and Kings, page 677, that states that the work of reformation and Restoration and reform carried on by the returned exiles under the leadership of Zerubbabel, Ezra in Nehemiah presents a picture of a work of spiritual restoration.

This, that is to be wrought in the closing days of this earth's history.

They were the guardians of true worship, the keepers of the holy oracles.

Varied were the experiences that came to them as they rebuilt the temple in the wall of Jerusalem.

Strong was the opposition that they had to meet, but these men moved forward in unwavering confidence, in humility of spirit, and in firm reliance upon God, believing that he would cause his truth to triumph.

Prophets and Kings, page 677, The work of revival and Reformation did not just happen all at once.

As soon as Cyrus had conquered Babylon after 70 years of captivity, Cyrus is impressed.

He was inspired by seeing probably from the Prophet Daniel revealing to him that there were prophecies written by naming him by name that he would destroy Babylon, that he would take over the city and that there had been 70 years of captivity prophesied by Jeremiah the prophet.

And so he allowed some of the captives to return.

Actually, he allowed any of them to return, and surprisingly, only a few came back.

Then a few years later, Ezra was inspired to continue the work of reform.

And He inspired particularly the priests and the Levites to go back into, he was really being a Levite and of the priestly class himself.

He was inspired to initiate true worship.

And it wasn't until almost 70 years later that Nehemiah came along.

And Nehemiah continued to bring resources, and he inspired the people to then complete the process of protecting the city against enormous opposition.

And so as Ezra was a priest and a Levite, he was focused on restoring true worship.

He called his people to repentance, especially for repentance of the sin of intermarriage with the heathen that were all around them.

He wasn't of the royal class, but he did have influence.

He was the king's cupbearer, Artaxerxes, the third king of Persia.

And so he used his influence and he had a burden from God to restore the wall in Jerusalem and to strengthen his people and to protect his people.

So as we review of the work of these men, Ezra in restoring the temple and leading revivals around true worship, and Nehemiah around restoring the wall and calling for repentance and bringing reforms, it led me to think about the work that we are called to do in these last days.

There is a parallel work going on in Adventism.

We need revival, we need repentance, we need Reformation, and God is calling Seventh-day Adventists to enter into this work.

It's not reading, writing, and arithmetic.

It's revival, repentance, and reformation.

And it's never been more needed than it is now.

We are called, as Seventh-day Adventists, to give the very last warning to a dying world.

We are called to give the very 3 angels' messages to the world.

And likewise, there is a wall that protects those messages.

And so it is the work of Nehemiah in restoring the wall that I primarily want to focus on again tonight.

So, turn in your Bibles just to the very beginning of Nehemiah, chapter 1.

1 of my brethren came with men from Judah and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity and concerning Jerusalem, and they said to me, the survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach.

The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down and the gates are burned with fire." Continuing with verses 5 and 6, And I said, I prayed, Lord God of heaven, oh great and awesome God, you who keep your covenant and your mercy with those who love those who love you and observe your commandments, Please let your ear be attentive and your eyes open that you may hear the prayer of your servant which I pray before you now day and night.

For the children of Israel your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against you.

Both my father's house and I have sinned." Nehemiah is entering into intercession for his people.

He's confessing their sins but also the sins of their forefathers so that they don't have to repeat the same history.

Nehemiah had a position of respect in the Persian realm, but no standing with his fellow Jews except for his enthusiasm, his passion, and his fidelity for the cause of God, that they could see so clearly that they were willing to join in and follow him, and join in in the work of rebuilding the wall.

God laid a burden on his heart and he followed that call.

Because of his passion, he was able to arouse the nation of his day to rally around the cause of rebuilding the wall.

In his day, some of the Jews from the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Levi, had returned to Jerusalem and the surrounding towns.

Under Ezra's leadership, they had mostly rebuilt the temple.

However, because they were there with people from all other nations that had been brought in during the captivity, they were there with idolaters, they were there with heathens, they were there with a mixed multitude, the Samaritans.

The Samaritans actually claimed to worship the true God, but they didn't follow his commandments.

And so they had a form of godliness, but they denied the power thereof.

The Jews had intermarried with many of these people.

They had intermarried with even the Ammonites, those people that God had said to have no contact with.

Look at what Prophets and Kings, page 673 says.

And now, Nehemiah turned the attention to the danger that again threatened Israel from intermarriage.

In association with idolaters, In those days, he writes, I saw Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, and of Ammon, and of Moab, and their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and they could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people's." Do we have the same problem today?

Do our kids know how to speak a spiritual language?

Do we know how to speak a spiritual language?

Or are we so immersed in the culture around us that we can't appreciate spiritual things.

The Sabbath wasn't being observed in those days.

The poor were being so oppressed that they had no hope of ever getting out of debt, no hope of ever getting their own place, and they were being kept down by the elite, the people that still had wealth in that time.

And so they had alliances with their enemies of Judaism.

They had intermarried, and they were on the very verge of going back to associating with the very people that had led them into idolatry in the first place.

There was no way that God's people could be a distinctive people and a separate people.

They were oppressed and they were at risk of losing their identity.

Horonite, and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard of it, they were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel." The Samaritans, the Ammonites, the Moabites did not want to see a wall established.

They did not want to see the Jews be able to return back to their identity, their worship services, and their call as a people that were unique in that time.

And they did everything they could to oppose it.

Nehemiah 2 chapter 2 verse 11, So I came to Jerusalem and was there 3 days, and I arose in the night, and a few men with me.

I told no 1 what God had put on my heart to do at Jerusalem.

And in verse 15 he says, so I went out in the middle of the night to the valley and I viewed the wall and then I turned back and entered the valley gate and so returned.

And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done.

I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the officers or others who did the work.

And in Nehemiah chapter 2 verse 17 he says to the people, you see the distress that we are in?

How Jerusalem lies in waste and its gates are burned with fire, come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach.' And I told them of the hand of my God, which had been good upon me, and also of the King's words that he had spoken to me.

And then they set their hands to this good work.

There is a work that God has called us to do.

David Turay

The Right Hand, The Right Time

The last year we moved to Rochester, Minnesota.

Every time I walk around the hospital and they said, where did you come from?

I said, well, I moved here from California.

People look at me with a strange look like, is something wrong with you?

Should we, you move from California to here?

And in the words of my young son, it's like, yeah, we were just chilling.

And it's a place where I have come to become very keenly aware that people are hanging on to every single sentence that I say.

In fact, sometimes they're writing it even when I don't think it's that important.

Just because of the context in which we're meeting each other.

Obviously, you know how it is, they look at your profile and...

We live in a world today where people know how, we know how to mock at each other and make each other look probably 10 times greater than what we really are, but at the end of the day we're just clay and we're just humans, and sometimes that comes out.

I had an interesting experience with with a gentleman who had traveled from Kentucky coming for a fairly major operation.

Saw him, got him to the operating room in the middle of the night, took care of him, saw him the next day, and then by the second day, you know, I'm rounding with the same chief resident, brilliant lady, wonderful, she's about 4 foot 10.

And so finally this guy couldn't hold it anymore, he looks at the 2 of us and he goes, well when do I get to talk to the doctors at the Mayo Clinic?

And Brielle and I looked at each other and said, I don't really think this guy thinks too highly of us.

But I think the importance of what I'm starting to settle into is that health matters to people, And I don't say this lightly.

Just like the enemy responded to God's challenge in the story of Job.

He says, he's faithful to you but I tell you what, just touch his health.

Make him not feel well for a couple days, and you see what he does.

And all the more reason why I recognize the very crucial place that you are and that I am.

That we can step in as God's instruments, yes clay, yes full of all the errors you can imagine, but yet God says this is a job I'm not giving to angels, I am giving it to you.

Whether you're a respiratory therapist, a social worker, a physician, Or you're just a layperson who has taken the effort and the time to educate yourself on your health and be an instrument to help others live the same.

Nothing will open doors for the truth like evangelistic medical missionary work.

This will find access to hearts and minds and will be the means of converting many to the truth.

Think of how closed-minded we've all kind of just settled into our own realities, and it's becoming harder to pierce the noise with the gospel.

But when you're sitting across the table from them and they're thinking you are here to relieve whatever ails me, What a privilege you have and I have.

Like the little girl in Eamon's court to say, but there is a prophet In our case, but there is a God.

And I've had to use that phrase many times, especially when I feel completely powerless to address their issues.

They've bounced around 5 hospitals, complex problems, sadly often the effect of a life not well lived as far as caring for their health and now you're sitting across the table with them not knowing if you're gonna be able to salvage all the damage of many, many years of the wrong choices.

All you could say is, but there is a God in heaven.

So in this moment that we have together, I just wanted to go through a few things.

To be able to understand what you and I are looking at, I thought it was very important to go back and look at the context at which this health message got developed.

What was the circumstance that surrounded the delivering of the message?

Why did God choose non-physicians, non-nurses to transmit a message about health.

And in fact, he used heathens, like you're going to be seeing shortly, to set up the scene.

And then coming down to what does that still mean for us today?

Does the health message have relevance for us?

In this era of highly technological delivery of medical care, Is there room for a message that on the surface is seemingly so simplistic?

I was an intern on a mission trip in Brazil, and the patients would come and say something like, you know, I have this headache, could you order me an MRI, please?

And I'll ask, I said, how many do you want?

Is this irrelevant for the health message?

Let me dig back into history a little bit.

These 2 individuals on the screen, you look at their faces, well what do they have in common?

Right on the surface they are a couple of really very few men on this planet who've occupied the seat that they have.

Other thing they have in common is they have the 2 best doctors you can imagine in the world.

There is a lot of interest in keeping him alive because their deaths destabilizes the whole society and even beyond.

So their healthcare has to be really good.

And the first president lays in bed Only months after his retirement from the presidency, at the tender age of 67, and he's dying and didn't know that at the time.

On horseback, rounding around his property, It was a rainy day, cold in Virginia, and He came in and as his custom was, he had to be punctual to everything he came to.

He was late coming in so he didn't change his clothes, he just came straight, sitting in damp clothes.

The short story was, by late that evening he was complaining of fever.

02:00 in the morning, he was having difficulty breathing.

At 730 in the morning, he had his own dedicated bleeder.

730 in the morning, he has his own personal bleeder, and they went and called for the bleeder, removed some blood, and here are the ingredients he took.

He had some molasses, butter, and vinegar.

By 09:00 his doctors already showed up, 1 of them, and they did some blistering, essentially apply some hot compounds to the neck.

The idea was to counteract the inflammation on the inside, you have to apply something to the outside to essentially remove those humors that were causing the difficulty breathing and inflammation.

We all now know chances I probably had epiglottitis.

And again, bled some more, 11 o'clock, the second doctor shows up and says, gentlemen, we got some work to do.

And then the story goes, by the end of the day, he had been bled more than 40% of his blood volume.

When I was preparing this talk, Mantha goes, my daughter had a chance to read some of this stuff off my desk, and he goes, why would somebody do that?

The enemy has a way of blinding us, and it's easy to follow what everybody else before you is already doing.

The idea then was, if you had a fever, your body was reacting too potently, and the way to calm your fever down or lessen your reaction to whatever was causing you to have a fever is to reduce your body's potency.

At least that was the pathophysiology, if you want to call it that, back in the day.

That was cutting edge medicine and you and I know by 10.30 in the evening of the following day he had died.

To understand what was being done then in medical practice you have to go back and look at some of this is 1 of the most detailed documents of actual patient encounters and what you and I might call today an HNP or discharge summary, so to speak, of a patient.

Robert was a surgeon, a physician from Edinburgh who had carefully documented over 200 of these, and they've made it, 200 patient encounters, and they made it to this time.

I put this on the slide just so I can draw your attention to some of the medicines that were given in those days.

So nicotine given, halip which was a cathartic drug, This is a plant that grows in the Sierras in Mexico.

But this story, particularly of patient Johnson at the documents caught my attention.

So after digitalis was given, The last sentence there was really what caught my attention.

I dismissed him much relieved, but with little prospect of being ultimately cured.

Do you feel like that someday in your practice?

TJ Knutson

Knutson Family Testimony

It's a great privilege to be able to come and share how good God has been in our lives.

And I just want to ask 1 more word of prayer if you would pray for me also.

Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for the blessings of the Sabbath, for your faithfulness and goodness throughout our journey.

I pray that you would anoint my lips, that it would be your words that I can share with your brothers and sisters, your sons and daughters.

God never leads his family, his children otherwise than they would choose to be led if they could see the end from the beginning.

God never leads his children otherwise than they would choose to be led if they could see the end from the beginning.

And this has been a, I guess you could say a point of serious contemplation.

If we could see from God's frame of reference, Would we choose the path that he has allowed us to come?

Infinite love has orchestrated and ordained.

And I just want to encourage you this day.

In Ministry of Healing, page 100 and paragraph 2, it says, our confession of his faithfulness is heaven's chosen agency for revealing Christ to the world.

We are to acknowledge his grace as made known through the holy men of old, but that which will be most effectual is the testimony of our own experience.

And that's what I want to share with you today.

It's true, brothers and sisters, it's true.

In Revelation chapter 12 and verse 11, it reads, and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.

And they loved not their lives unto the death.

I'm starting my story today when I was a student at Southern.

And after being a student missionary in 2001 and 2002 to the Marshall Islands, I came back and I remember praying an interesting prayer, But it was heartfelt and it was sincere.

I said, Lord, whenever you ask me to do something, I want to make it my habit to say yes.

And in less than 1 week, I was asked to speak at the Friday Vespers for the university and I am not the upfront speaker kind of person but God has a way of preparing the hearts of each 1 of us and I want to encourage you prepare to say yes when God gives you a nudge in a direction.

I was at Loma Linda University School of Medicine, class of 2008.

In the middle of that, I married my sweet wife, Mary Ann.

Went to Michigan for 3 years of residency.

And back to Northern California, we started our life after residency with 3 kids, just about as soon as we got there, working ER in emergency medicine.

Level 2 trauma center in Reading, watching things change as I saw unfolding in the world, such as people declaring that the Protestant Reformation was over, our society rapidly becoming more and more like Sodom, like Gomorrah, the scripture came to my mind as it was in the days of Lot.

I started to have a strong impression in me that the Lord is coming soon.

And how he grew the ability and confidence to share him in the workplace is something that I want to begin with as we get into the rest of this story.

After medical school residency and a year or 2 in practice, I became convinced after seeing patients day by day in the ER that approximately 90% of what I saw was in some way preventable.

And the topic of health reform and adopting a more plant-based diet, it's never become, it's never been easier to share because now everyone knows that.

There's the, There's the forks over knives.

There's all these different resources that are out there coming that have now made people keenly aware, especially as their health is getting worse and worse and worse, as I see that, it is now not completely surprising to people when you talk to them about a plant-based diet.

Now, as I started to just get my feet wet with sharing the health message with people, pretty timid at first, you know, Say, well, there's a documentary that you could watch, it will tell you a lot about it, and maybe you should eat less meat and more plants and so on and so forth, and just kind of leave it at that.

But somewhere along the line, A conviction came upon me.

I'm not gonna be plagiarizing God's message anymore with the patients that I see and telling them to watch this or that without in some way, be it big or small, attributing that wisdom to God, our creator, our savior, and the 1 who was the inventor of health.

Consequently, naturally the pace of an ER doesn't lend itself for long periods of conversation with patients.

But it was enough that it whet my appetite and I pretty soon became pretty, It became my joy and my love if I could somehow share something that would be more of a lasting health benefit to them than simply, you know, we've did some labs, we've done a CT, we've done an ultrasound, they're all normal, there's nothing seriously wrong with you, go home.

On the contrary, validating them along the way, I learned something that has been very beneficial in bridging the subject of the health message.

And that is something like this, telling them, we've gotten some tests on you, labs, CT, ultrasound, whatever we've gotten, and nothing seems to be emergently wrong.

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Series

Plenary Sessions

Sabbath School Lesson Study: While It Is Day

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

Building a Wall of Protection While It Is Still Day

1h 43m

The Right Hand, The Right Time

1h 10m

Knutson Family Testimony

1h 30m

Sabbath School Lesson Study: While It Is Day

1h 35m

Student/Resident Panel: Keeping Your Faith Relevant and Urgent Throughout Academic Training

59m

Seizing the Moment

1h 56m

Sound Doctrine