Many people are interested in the future, but they can’t understand the ominous developments. We have so much available to us.
While on a plane recently, I was seated next to a history professor from the University of California at Riverside. He team-teaches courses in modern ethical dilemmas at various universities. We became friends quickly. He told me that his mother was a Ukrainian Jew and his father a Mexican Roman Catholic. I prayed, “Lord, show me a way into his mind.”
As we talked about world developments since September 11, I could see he had a keen mind for liberty issues. He knew about the developing restrictions of personal liberty. We also talked about the repression of certain religious ideas. When he asked me what I see coming in the future, I realized that the Lord had answered my prayer.
I surprised him by saying that the main groups who had been persecuted in history were Sabbathkeepers. I gave the examples of the Nazi persecution of Jews as an example, which he could understand, and the early Christians who were all Sabbathkeepers.
I explained that Sabbathkeepers will again become objects of repression. He saw the point when I reminded him that many Christians will demand that we get America to return to God if there are more catastrophic terrorist attacks, and that laws will be enacted to get everyone in church. “What day would that be?” I asked. He replied, “Sunday.”
I asked rhetorically, “Where will that leave us Sabbatarians?” I offered him a copy of Great Controversy. He was so eager to get it that as we got off the plane, he reminded me to send it.
About three weeks later I was at an Ontario, California airport security checkpoint when I realized that my friend was right in front of me. I surprised him when I spoke to him by name. Providentially, we were seated together again!
This time I prayed, “Lord, show me a way into his heart.” I asked him about how his parents got together. He told me the whole story, including his own rejection by Jews, Catholics and Protestants. I saw him soften. Several times I could see tears in his eyes as he told me the painful experiences of his youth fifty years ago when religious differences were as big as racial ones. We talked more in the Denver airport. When we parted, he gave me a big hug and told me that we were “cementing a great friendship.”
I sent him Great Controversy, which he had never heard about even though he knew and lived among Seventh-day Adventists at Riverside, California. Please pray for Carlos, that the Holy Spirit will especially speak to him as he reads its powerful pages.
Many people are interested in the future, but they can’t understand the ominous developments. They see “men as trees, walking” (Mark 8:24). We have so much available to us. We have the truth. We have the Spirit of Prophecy. Faithful stewards of our prophetic message will enlighten others whenever they have a chance. Go for it!
