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Pastor Letter (January 22, 2021)

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Pastor Letter (January 22, 2021)

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Pastor Letter (January 22, 2021)

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Pastor’s Letter, January 22, 2021

          Follow-up to last week’s letter

 

                                      I used to Live Here Too ...                                                            

 

 

                                      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                 … Yet another student protest at the University of Vermont  

 

      How come Bob Hope, Queen Sirikit, Frank Sinatra, Beverly Sills, Arthur Rubenstein, and the Berlin Philharmonic chose to come to Ambassador College yet they never thought to come here?

                                                    Would You?

      You didn’t have to be discontent, anti-religious or defiant to authority to attend here – but it helped  - if you wanted to have many college friends. God began calling me soon after I arrived on campus and I was immediately surprised and dismayed that so much of the campus leadership was discontented. Fortunately I soon realized that most prevailing philosophies on this campus were lost causes as I contrasted them with what I was beginning to learning from the church.

                                                   Confusion in Israel

    Below is a collection of actual student protest slogans on campus when I was there.      

Down With the Establishment !!    Be the Noise & Resistance !!                                                                                  Get involved! Get Vermont out of the United States !!                                                                                             Evening auto mechanic classes for Women – Come rap about cars                                                  Get so independent that you will never have to depend on a man ever again !!                            All Power to the Sisters!!    No one tells me what I Can and Cannot do with my body !!                                                        Free the Chicago 7 and Free Angela Davis and                                                                            Free my professor who got thrown in a Washington D.C. jail for occupying                                  a highway bridge while protesting                                                                                                God is an undefined term..                                                                                                          There are no absolutes                                                                                                               Police are Pigs                                                                                                              Be the Noise                                                                                                                                                    Get rid of curfew hours                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Feel  free to protest anything – as long as you agree with us                                                      Don’t tread on me!                                                                                                                 I Admire anyone in search of the truth and be skeptical of anyone                                                      who claims to have found it                                                                                                                     Seek meaning in astrology                                                                                                          Police Brutality                                                                                                and the Resistance?                                 Stalin is a good guy                                                                                                                                                        Impeach God                                                                                                                                       Read my book  In The Defense of Anarchy 

 

     As I watched these discontented students, I wondered 

- OF WHAT SPIRIT ARE THESE PEOPLE ?????

    As said in I Corinthians 14:33, God is not the author of confusion and what you see here is unbridled borderline chaos. To be fair, the campus was not always in protest mode. It had some good moments and always had many well-intentioned people. Moreover I was elated to meet and be taught by a brilliant professor there. 

      However, like so many other institutions of this world, this university did not have a purpose bigger than itself. It did not know the way to happiness. (Jeremiah 10:23) It accommodated many lifestyles and choices that led to unhappiness and empty disillusionment. Moreover it increasingly disdained the Bible. At its best, it taught some of its students on how to make a living but it did not teach its students how to live. The atmosphere between Ambassador College and the University of Vermont was as different as night and day. One emphasized giving and the other stressed getting. God was vividly present at one and definitely not at the other. However when I considered switching schools, Ambassador counseled me to finish at the University of Vermont first and so I did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Staged death of bicyclists         A.C. home of joy and no protests        4 Students Shot dead at Kent                                                                                                                                             State during campus protest           

       

There was such a contrast between A.C. and where I originally began. One school was politically dominated and thoroughly divided into endless subgroups while the other focused on character development to recapture true values. 

      It made me wonder how much of the University of Vermont’s campus life mirrored Satan’s realm with his discontented demons. I can just see Satan and his demonic cohorts chanting the following protests:

 

Down with the angels that have not yet sided with me                                                                         Get planet earth out of the solar system !!                                                                                              Discover self-awareness at next demon rap session                                                                        In the Defense of Anarchy                                                                                                                                              Let’s cause another worldwide flood                                                                                                                        There is no difference between the sexes                                                                                                  We love peace so much that we will fight for it                                                                                    If Christ tries to come back, be the noise and the resistance!!                                                                                           All Sabbatarians are self-righteous!                                                                                                                                Have pity on the devil                                                                                                                                                       Question authority (and be one of us)                                                                                                                             I’ve been cheated - been mistreated - when will I be loved?   

 

    As you well know, we are living in challenging times. I urge you all to read Victor Kubik’s latest minister and member letter from yesterday (forwarded separately) regarding the book of Jeremiah and its relevancy for our present time.                                                                                        

 

 

Ocala

      We had a lovely Sabbath in Ocala last weekend. Pictures below captured some of the convivial atmosphere that was shared by all who came. This week Court Greenfield will have the sermon and we anticipate the arrival of Charlene Bratnick, a long-time member who has moved into the area. Also Sharri Swindle is hoping to be there in spite of her challenging health situation.

 

Ft. Myers

      We were blessed to have both Jeff Lockhart and visiting elder Jim Kocher speak to the brethren. Having them plus the McQuearys  and Zahoras with us helped round out the attendance. This weekend Chuck Smith will speak to the congregation.

 

Tallahassee

     This week Mike McCarty will speak to our group in Tallahassee. Several members worked at the “farm” where the majority of our services will be taking place. The farm is a large cottage just outside of Havana, FL. I plan to be there next Sabbath and hopefully meet with a couple of people that I have not yet met with.

 

Vero Beach

     We were glad to see Carol-Lynne rebound from the Covid experience that she had. She plans to be at church tomorrow. There will be a pot luck meal tomorrow as well as it will be the Veller’s last official time to come to Vero Beach to speak.

Best wishes to all,   bv

 

 

 

 

 

"Noise and Resistance Poster" by seven_resist is licesed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0   "DSCN1556.JPG" by zappowbang is licensed under CC BY 2.0  "day of silence" by zappowbang is licensed under CC BY 2.0 "Ambassador college grounds" by Machine Project is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0  "Ambassador college grounds" by Machine Project is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 "Waddesdon Manor Gardens, Buckinghamshire, England | Red salvias and African marigolds in a brillant floral display (16 of 30)" by ukgardenphotos is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 "04 May 1970, Kent, Ohio, USA - Sinh viên trường Đại học Kent State phản đối việc mở rộng chiến tranh ở Châu Á." by Tommy Japan 79 is licensed under CC BY 2.0Can we represent the college   true values"Waddesdon Manor Gardens, Buckinghamshire, England | Red salvias and African marigolds in a brillant floral display (16 of 30)" by ukgardenphotos is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 "Anger" by Isengardt is licensed under CC BY 2.0 "Myanmar: Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) unequivocally denounces police brutalities cracking down on students' protests" by Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) is licensed under CC BY 2.0                                                               Down with Police

Down with the establishmenmt     Down with the police     All power to the sisters        No more curfew hours      Anything goes – except authority        the police are pigs      Students instinctively know how to live without God’s help      In the defense of anarchy we progressively move forward by The Weekly Bull is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0