Services at the Laurelbrook Seventh-day Adventist Church began with a Sabbath School song service led by Mariani and Shamarri (seniors), accompanied by music teacher Debbie Hess on the piano. The opening song was “Rock of Ages”. Alicia (senior) then welcomed everyone. Leeann (a freshman) had prayer and read Colossians 3:13 “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”

Billy (a junior) read a mission report from Brazil about a pastor who gave away his Bible at a church meeting. The Bible eventually ended up in the hands of a clinic nurse who gave it to a beggar who then began attending church. The beggar gained victory over alcohol and tobacco and joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Nicos (a sophomore) and Harley (a freshman) collected the Laurelbrook Missions Offering, which helps students and staff members go on mission trips. Alica had a few closing remarks about forgiving those who have hurt you from the book Beauty From Ashes and had closing prayer. The congregation broke up into two Sabbath School classes, one adult class taught by staff member Clayton Brandt and one student class taught by staff member Larry Puffer.

Following are some ideas from Alicia’s talk:

1.

God doesn’t cause hurts and problems to come to you, but He can turn these to your good.

2.

God may use your pain to set others free.

3.

You cannot be full of love and hate at the same time.

4.

Steps to emotional healing – (1) choose God’s way of healing, (2) choose to forgive in the strength of the Lord (you don’t have to confront your abusers to do this), (3) ask in prayer for God to heal you.

5.

Let God settle with those who hurt you.

6.

Hurting people often hurt other people because they don’t know any other way to behave.

7.

Jesus asked forgiveness for those who hurt Him because He felt that they didn’t know what they were doing.

8.

God hates the sin but loves the sinner. God sees the beauty inside the sinner that could be turned to better uses.

9.

Let’s forgive and accept people and not judge.

Following are some thoughts from the main Sabbath School lesson taught by staff member Clayton Brandt:

1.

We are privileged to have heavenly intelligences and other worlds observing our struggles with sin on this planet.

2.

Satan’s original accusation was that God’s government was completely wrong. God has to allow the controversy to go on in order that the other worlds may see that Satan is totally wrong, but He is keeping the controversy as short as possible.

3.

The whole universe must have the power of choice since they apparently were tempted and did not fall into sin.

4.

God has His records of whatever acts we commit so when Satan claims someone God has a record of his/her conversion with angels as witnesses.

5.

Jesus pleads for us as a Conqueror claiming the victory. He bought us with His blood, and His victory is, therefore, ours.

6.

We should guard others’ reputations just as we would want our own regarded. We should think of others as we would others to think of us (the Golden Rule).

7.

Isaiah 61:10 “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.”

8.

The father of a family is given the role of priest and should present his family before the throne of God and plead for God’s mercy and grace even if some family members are not following God’s way. Job often prayed this way.

9.

Romans 4:25 “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”

10.

God is actually on trial also. Satan’s rebellion started with Satan accusing God of not ruling the universe correctly. At the time of the cross, the universe was made entirely secure.

11.

By the end of the controversy between God and Satan, every being will know what sin and rebellion is like and won’t want to repeat the experience.

When services resumed in the sanctuary at 11:00, Bill Wennell, the new boys’ dean, had the invocation or opening prayer. Fred Douville (Laurelbrook’s director of maintenance) welcomed everyone and made the announcements, the congregation sang “Give Me the Bible”, and Fred had the morning prayer. He then called for the offering (church budget), the offering was collected by Roger Westfall (Laurelbrook’s vice president for personnel) and Wilbur Paulk (a retired member of Laurelbrook’s community who is one of the church treasurers), the congregation sang the doxology, and Fred had the prayer for the offering.

Chuck Hess (Laurelbrook’s president) reminded everyone that for prayer meeting the staff are viewing videos from George Akers about the principles of true education (the students have a separate meeting with Pastor Larry Owens).

Registrar Lois Davis told the children a story about a little girl named Judy who was waiting from a special birthday present from her Aunt Ellen. It turned out to be ten little dimes and a pretty picture. The girl gave a tithe to Jesus and then found something for Patty, who had been sick for a long time. The rest of the money went for a mission offering in Sabbath School. Chuck Hess then read Amos 3:7 “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” Music teacher Debbie Hess had special music on a psaltery, and Bill Wennell preached on “The Five Epocs”. The congregation sang “Faith of Our Fathers”, and Chuck Hess had the benediction.

Following are notes from the sermon:

1.

Questions for thought – why are you here and why are you a Seventh-day Adventist?

2.

The chapter that defines Seventh-day Adventism in time is Revelation 10 and Revelation 11:1-2.

3.

Epocs – period of time. We are going to study how the Lord saves in five different time periods.

4.

Enoch prophesied the Flood – his son was named Methuselah meaning “die shall be cast”.

5.

Genesis 5:3 “And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth.”

6.

The Flood came in the 1656th year after the world began. Noah was Methuselah’s grandson, the second prophet to predict the Flood.

7.

God raised up two prophets to predict the Flood. Scientists ridiculed the very idea of the Flood.

8.

In Epoc 2 (the Exodus), Abraham was first told about the Exodus and then Moses was raised up.

9.

Exodus 12:41 “And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.”

10.

Satan intervened through people at the Egyptian court during this period. Satan also intervened when Korah and his companions elected a captain and tried to return to Egypt.

11.

The first prophet is usually a prophetic truth prophet (the prophecy is future) and then a present truth prophecy (the prophecy for the present time).

12.

In Epoc 3, Israel experienced the Babylonian Captivity. The first prophet was Jeremiah, the second prophet Daniel.

13.

Daniel 10:1 “In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, but the time appointed was long: and he understood the thing, and had understanding of the vision.”

14.

Daniel 10:12-13 “12Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. 13But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.”

15.

Satan tried to intervene by influencing the Persian king Cyrus. The prophets Daniel and Jeremiah each had false prophets or Satanic influences.

16.

In Epoc 4, Christ came. There were two present truth prophets – John the Baptist and Jesus Himself.

17.

Acts 5:34-38 “34Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space; 35And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men. 36For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought. 37After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. 38And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought.”

18.

Gameliel, a member of the Sanhedrin, identified the apostasies that occurred during this time.

19.

There was only a small minority saved out of Israel.

20.

Daniel 8:13-14 Young’s Literal Bible “13 ‘And I hear a certain holy one speaking, and a certain holy one saith to the wonderful numberer who is speaking: Till when [is] the vision of the continual [sacrifice], and of the transgression, an astonishment, to make both sanctuary and host a treading down? 14 And he saith unto me, Till evening—morning two thousand and three hundred, then is the holy place declared right.”

21.

Daniel 8:14 is the foundational verse of the Seventh-day Adventist movement.

22.

Daniel 8:13-14 KJV “13 Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain [saint] which spake, How long [shall be] the vision [concerning] the daily [sacrifice], and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? 14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”

23.

“That certain saint” refers to God as the “wonderful numberer”.

24.

Ellen White often uses the marginal references.

25.

2300 years started with 457 B.C. according to the Elphantine papers.

26.

It ended with 1844. Several so-called prophets came up at this time. Only Ellen White with the message of cleansing the sanctuary was the true present time prophet.

27.

There were apostasies – Canright, A.T. Jones.

28.

Four simple questions:

A.

Why do we need Ellen White when we have the Bible? Can we disregard the present truth prophet raised up for the time?

B.

Is Ellen White canonical (her writings same level as the Bible)? The Holy Spirit actually told Ellen White what to write, the same inspiration the Biblical prophets used for their source.

C.

Can we depend on Ellen White theologically as well as inspirationally? Anything you find in Ellen White’s writings you can also find in the Bible.

D.

Which parts of Ellen White’s writings do you accept as inspired?