News and Outreach of the Golden Hills Seventh-day

Adventist Church

Volume 23, Issue 7

OLD

November, 2017 ♦ www.goldenhillschurch.org

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Gold Nuggets will be published eight times this year;

monthly, except for combined Summer and December-

January issues. All readers are welcome to submit items

for this publication. Inclusion and form are a function of

space and timing of receipt.

Next month’s deadline will be Sabbath, November 18.

As always, you may give items to me in person, leave

messages on my machine at 402-558-4529, or send by e

-mail to JudyLCarr@aol.com.

Sabbath, Nov 4 Potluck

Following worship Fellowship Hall

Sunday, Nov.5 Daylight saving time change

Monday, Nov 6 Pathfinder TLT

Food Collection

November 10-12 Pathfinder Campout

Sabbath, Nov. 11 Honoring Veterans &

Children’s Church Fellowship Hall

Tuesday, Nov 14 Church Board Meeting

7:15 PM Education Annex

Sabbath, Nov. 18 Communion Celebration

During Worship Sanctuary

Thursday, Nov .23 Thanksgiving

Tuesday, Nov. 28 Ministry Leadership Team

7:15 PM Education Annex

Mondays @ 6:30 PM Nov.6, 20 & 27 Pathfinders

Monday, @ 6:30, PM Nov. 6 & 20Adventurers

Tuesdays @ 6:00 PM Prayer Meeting

DoesitWork?

When we work out questions and thoughts about the

church and our life with Jesus, there seems to be one,

really basic question: Will it make a real difference in

my life? Does it work?

I wrestle with this personally when I come to my morn-

ing worship time; if I’m counseling others, and every

time I prepare a sermon. Does it work? Is what I am

learning and sharing making a difference in my life?

Or, am I just sharing a theory?

Do we just come to church because we feel the need for

social interaction and our friends are there? Is it just out

of a habit – we have always done it, so we just keep

coming? Or, are we renewed and energized as we

spend some time together looking at and worshiping

Jesus?

I can’t answer this question for anyone else, but I can

share what God has done in my life.

I can say with certainty that it makes a difference in my

life – it works – when I am able to set aside my agenda

and engage with God’s plan.

When I am just asking Him to add His blessing to the

life I have worked so hard to create rather than aligning

my life with His desires, it generally stagnates.

It all depends on who has control of me. Am I insisting

on maintaining control or am I willing to let Him be in

charge?

Recently I have been struggling with some thought pat-

terns that have plagued me much of my life. As usual, I

Continued on page 2, column 1

Gold Nuggets 2

November

Birthdays

16 – Kaitlyn Jones

22 – Colleen Turner

From the Pastor, continued from page 1

started fighting against it – praying for my victory over

this; trying to bring to mind Bible verses I was familiar

with, working to avoid circumstances that would trigger

these thoughts.

I was doing everything I knew to do to fight against this

and change what was happening to me – and it was only

got worse. I remember thinking “If I can’t beat this, I

shouldn’t be a pastor! If it’s not working for me, how

can I tell anyone else how to make it work for them?

It was at that point God finally broke through my mis-

guided thinking. It was like God was telling me this was

His fight, not mine and as long as I was trying to fight

it, I would fail.

The conviction then came to stop fighting, and just fo-

cus on connecting with Jesus.

I then prayed asking forgiveness for thinking I could

handle this. Then I asked God to come in and do what-

ever He wanted to do with it. Some thoughts came to

me about a couple of changes in where I was focusing –

which I said yes to.

For the first few days, I didn’t notice too much differ-

ence. I still found myself slipping into the old familiar

thought patterns with the corresponding feelings of fail-

ure and worthlessness.

But after a several days of following God’s suggestions,

I realized those thought patterns were starting to lose

their attraction.

And, in those times where I did fall back into them, ra-

ther than beating myself up, I was simply confessing it

and moved on – confident of God’s forgiveness and

healing.

As long as I was fighting the problem myself, even after

asking God to make me stronger so I could gain the vic-

tory – I was focused on and consumed by my prob-

lem. Rather than going away, it loomed up bigger and

bigger.

When I allowed God regular access to my mind and

heart, I was becoming more confident in His power and

love – and I saw the problem in the perspective of God’s

victory – He had already won the battle and was now

making it a reality in my life.

Continued on page 5, column 1

Daylight Savings Time ends, Sunday, November

5 at 2:00 AM.

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Twelve Secret Agents We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and

surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the

fruit of it. Nevertheless . . . Numbers 13:27, 28, NRSV.

God had described Canaan as flowing with milk and

honey (Ex. 3:8). Had God exaggerated? A firsthand re-

port would prove helpful, so Moses selected 12 secret

agents to spy out the land. “See what the land is like,

and whether the people who live in it are strong or

weak, whether they are few or many, . . . and whether

the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it

or not. . . . And bring some of the fruit of the

land” (verses 18-20, NRSV). Big assignment!

These undercover agents spent 40 days scoping out the

land. Upon completing their mission, they returned, as

Moses had asked, with a sampling of fruit. They had

found one bunch of grapes so enormous that they put it

on a pole carried on the shoulders of two men. (The He-

brew word to describe the pole indicated that it was

quaking and/or bending under the weight as the men

hiked back to camp.) They also brought back some

pomegranates and figs.

They returned with a majority and a minority report.

Every one of the spies agreed that the land truly was

productive. God hadn’t overstated matters. Canaan was

fertile. They proudly showed off the fruit. Can’t you just

imagine various people sampling the grapes, pomegran-

ates, and figs?

But there the accord stopped. The majority account indi-

cated that the Amalekites, Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites,

and Canaanites occupied the land. All the people living

there were huge, but the gigantic Anakim also lived

there, so dwarfing the Hebrew scouts that the 12 men

felt like grasshoppers!

Caleb and Joshua’s minority report espoused a confident

viewpoint: “Let us go up at once . . . for we are well

able to overcome it” (verse 30, NRSV). “The Lord is

with us” (14:9).

Minority reports are often troublesome and even of

questionable value. So, it’s not surprising that the peo-

Continued on page 4, column 2

Service in our

Community

This month, the Golden Hills

Community Presence Team

is thankful to all who helped

make the Sand and Ice Melt

Bottle give-away project a

success. These bottles were

distributed in our community

with invitations to the Pale

Horse Rides Series.

It takes a mountain of work to make this project a suc-

cess. From ordering the supplies, to designing , printing

and attaching the labels, to mixing the filler, to moving

the boxes of finished product to the fellowship hall, to

drivers who volunteered their time and cars, to the peo-

ple who knocked on doors to make the community con-

tacts. To these and more, I trust that you were blessed.

See more pictures and read more about this effort in the

Pathfinder column on page 4.

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Some announcements may not make

the newsletter deadline. See

www.goldenhillschurch.org

for the latest information.

Pathfinders

Stuff from a Bible Buff, continued from page 3

ple rejected this minority report. They even demanded

the death of the two dissidents. YHWH flew into a

rage . . . again. Moses . . . again . . . argued Him out of

His pique. God relented . . . somewhat. Caleb and Josh-

ua would enter Canaan. The other spies died shortly

from a plague. The rest of the masses would die en

route, except for the children.

None of us need be a Pollyanna, but negativism in the

face of God’s leading, is especially demoralizing and

can have far-reaching fallout. Let us shun it!

~ R. W. Coffen __________

Bible texts credited to NRSV are from the New Revised

Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Divi-

sion of Christian Education of the National Council of the

Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission.

What do you see in the pictures here?

I see young people who weren’t afraid to get a little dirty

– who didn’t think the job was too big—who worked

together to fit into a bigger picture—who offered hands

and feet to make the Mission Possible.

Yes, I see not just the future of our church, but the mis-

sionaries in our present church. Many of these same

missionaries assisted with distributing the bottles they

filled to strangers who live in the houses surrounding our

church.

Although not in these pictures, thanks also goes to the

Pathfinder leaders who responded to the call for help

and generously gave up their own program time to loan

and support the members of their units.

Gold Nuggets 5

From th e Pastor, continued from page 2

It is working just like God said it would through Jesus

and the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who

are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will

give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me

teach you, because I am humble and gentle at

heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For

my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give

you is light.” (Ma%hew 11:25-30, NLT)

“I will put my law in their minds and write it on

their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be

my people …” declares the L123. “For I will for-

give their wickedness and will remember their

sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33-34, NIV)

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will

be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impuri-

7es and from all your idols. I will give you a

new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will re-

move from you your heart of stone and give you

a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you

and move you to follow my decrees and be

careful to keep my laws.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27,

NIV)

I can say without hesitation, God has made an in-

credible difference in my life – not because I am in

any way special or holy (I’m as sinful as you are) –

but because He is faithful, powerful, and loving.

Stop fighting the evil in your life and trust God do

what He has promised to do. Asking Him to take

over the fight He has already won, makes a lot of

sense to me – and it works!

~ Pastor T. Martinsen

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Golden Hills Seventh-day Adven�st Church

3005 Golden Boulevard

Bellevue, Nebraska 68123