ECYC 2014: Revive Us Again

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Eastern Canada Youth Conference

Seminars

Valmy Karemera

Adventism in Conflict: Church Issues in End-Time Perspective

Robert Blais

What is Righteousness by Faith?

Scripture Our Only Safeguard

How Does Righteousness by Faith Work?

Jonathan Zita

Family in End-Time Perspective

Is Righteousness by Faith Possible for Me?

Leaving the Cities: Why, When, How?

Wesley Sifflet

Time of Trouble: Who Am I?

Aboubacar Sidiki Camara

The Omega Apostasy

Father in heaven, we are thankful for the opportunity to spend some time with you now discussing certain topics that are very important in these last days.

We invite the presence of your Holy Spirit to come in our midst to teach us, to impress our minds, forgive us for our sins we've committed against you or others.

And we really pray that our minds may be open not just to understand but to change our lives in accordance with your will.

So the title of what I was asked to share was leaving the cities, why, when and how.

And I guess I've renamed it to benefits of country living, you know, because sometimes you need to leave the city, you need to go, go, go.

Get out, you know, or else you're going to die.

And it is true that there's good reasons that we need to leave the cities.

But I think sometimes instead of focusing on the fear, let's focus on the benefits of why God is actually asking us to do that.

So we're going to cover basically 3 main points.

The first point is why country from the spirit of prophecy?

Why are we even told that we should go and live in the country, right?

The second aspect that I'll be covering today is benefits of country living.

And these are only, you know, my wife and I, we do live in the country.

We don't quite live in the boonies, But we do live, you know, where we have a cornfield on the right and we have a farm on the left.

So we do enjoy the benefits of somewhat, you know, country living.

These are just from our own experience some of the benefits that we have experienced.

And the third point that I like to talk about are challenges.

Because you know I've met people that have moved into the country and then a few years later they move right back into the city, right?

And they're very discouraged with the country living.

And if you're not prepared, if you don't know some of the challenges, if you don't do it in a gradually intelligent way, I think it can actually be a negative experience and not a positive 1 as God intended it to be.

So let me start with why country from the spirit of prophecy.

And I do encourage you, last talk we talked about Adventist home.

This time I want to encourage you to read a book called Country Living.

It's a very good book written by Ellen White and none of you have an excuse anymore because you can read it on your phone, on your laptop, or you can even go to your Adventist book center and buy a copy.

So the next, there are many reasons why we should, there are benefits to the country that Ellen White mentions, but there's 3 main ones that my wife and I, we realize that it seems it's really a benefit for us.

It says, this is Country Living page, No, it's Testimonies, Volume 5, 232-233.

It says, few realize the importance of shunning so far as possible all associations unfriendly to religious life.

In choosing their surroundings, few make spiritual prosperity the first consideration.

I mean, I grew up, my parents, my dad was a pastor, very limited income, my mom didn't work.

And so I never remember them discussing what would be the best spiritual environment, their discussion was, where can we actually afford to find a place, period, to stay, right?

So she's saying, few make their spiritual prosperity the first considerations.

Parents flock with their families to the cities because they fancy it easier to obtain a livelihood there than in the country.

The children, having nothing to do when not in school, obtain a street education.

From evil associates, they acquire habits of vice and dissipation.

The parents see all this, but it will require a sacrifice to correct their error, and they stay where they are until Satan gains full control of their children.

It's better to sacrifice any and every worldly consideration than to imperil the precious souls committed to your care.

They will be assailed by temptations and should be taught to meet them, but it is our duty to cut off every influence, to break up every habit, to sunder every tie that keeps you from the most free, open, and hearty committal of yourselves and your family to God.

Instead of the crowded city, seek some retired situation where your children will be as far as possible shielded from temptation and there train and educate them for usefulness.

The prophet Ezekiel thus enumerates the causes that led to Sodom's sin and destruction.

Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters.

Neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor and needy.

All who would escape the doom of Sodom must shun the course that brought God's judgment upon that wicked city." And I want to mention something.

Some people say, well, you shouldn't bring your children in the country because you are sheltering your children.

Believe me, if your children are living with you, they have enough issues and temptation because you're not perfect, amen?

So it's not like if some people act as if the parents are perfect, they're going to go out there and have a perfect home.

There's going to be plenty of temptations, plenty of trials, plenty of issues in the family without all of the outward influences.

So if you're worried about, you know, and then there's the philosophy about, you know, and most people don't really fully believe that, meaning you need to toughen it up.

Well, do I need to taste marijuana to be able to know that it's bad?

Do I need to smoke it to be able to tell my kids that they shouldn't do it?

Should my kids be exposed to pornography so that they will not get involved with this again.

You know, so most people don't fully believe that, fully to the end.

So when you read this, it really sounds as if you are sheltering them to a certain degree.

I'm a little bit digressing but I want to come back.

I believe the issue is not raising children in the country.

I don't think the issue is sheltering children.

I think it's sheltering children from information.

So let me repeat that in a different way.

There are people that will take their children into the country, homeschool them, but Because there's a lot of things that they don't face in the country, topics are never brought up.

And then all of a sudden they hit 18 and bam, they're gone into the world and you're thinking, whoa, what happened?

Because if you study the statistics, it's almost equal.

Homeschool kids out in the country versus kids that go into the secular school from Christian families, it's almost equal the amount that will leave God in the church and the ones that remain.

So the difference is not necessarily homeschool or country living or whatever it is, the difference is that as a parent, do you take responsibility for the educating of your children?

Meaning, if my children are homeschooled and I'm sheltering them in the country, do I actually talk to them about homosexuality?

Do I go and visit a prison with them and process with them what their thoughts are?

Or is it because I'm way out in the country, they never have an opportunity to meet anything or talk about any of these kind of things, and I'm so busy working for God or doing some kind of living that we never ate.

I have no idea what's happening in their mind and then BAM they hit 18 and they're gone right.

So some of the studies that are coming out they're showing that the difference is not so much of course there are benefits to country living, but because the stats are so similar between a kid that goes to public high school and 1 that has a Christian education, the difference comes with the parents, or if it's a teacher or a mentor, to be able to talk with them, process with them.

And so 1 of the gentlemen he says, you know I homeschool 5 of my kids, he said, but I started to realize some of this stuff.

He says now, he's a Sunday keeper, but he says, you know now I take my kids to baseball.

And he said this, I used to never take my kids to baseball because there's too much swearing he says but now I take them to baseball and when we drive home we talk about what's been happening I don't know if you catch the concept I mean You may not fully agree with everything, but the concept is I have responsibility for the training of my children.

The training is to process with my child many things about this world, the issues and some of the hot topics that are out there, things that I would rather avoid and not talk about.

I need to be able to be there to strengthen them with the Word of God to guide their thoughts so that when they hit 18, I'm not blown away with the decisions that they make to leave God and the church.

The Physical surroundings in the cities are often a peril to health.

The constant liability to contact with disease, the prevalence of foul air, impure water, impure food, the crowded, dark, unhealthful dwellings are some of the many evils to be met." So, you know, I do believe that the suburbs have, are better now than it used to be back then.

But I still believe that the quality and the freshness of the air in the country is way better than the city.

For the second 1 I just read, it's Country Living, page 6.

And then, the last 1 I just want to talk about from the Spirit of Prophecy, why country is for our own spirituality.

It is true that she speaks a lot for the children, right?

Series

Seminars

Leaving the Cities: Why, When, How?

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Plenary Sessions

Building a Wall of Protection While It Is Still Day

1h 43m

Something Better, Changing Patient Behaviour

45m

True Success in Reaching People

56m

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior: Justified in the Courtyard

41m

GoTential

Producing a Reproducer

44m

Why Jesus Needs Closure

1h 4m

Plenary

Something Better

56m

The Mount of Blessings

Light of the World

40m

Antichrist: The One You've Never Known

Antichrist, Episode 6: Revealed

38m

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

18 When the Day of Atonement Ends

50m

Love Versus Force

51m

The Miracle Worker

The Miracle Worker- Part 1

32m

Sound Doctrine