Family Photos:  How Did I Get Here?

Greg Leuenberger

Midland SDA Church

October 18, 2014

How many of you are interested in genealogy, your family history? Anyone? I’ve always been interested in hearing the family stories and looking at the family photo albums. I’m using some family pictures today to give a testimony of sorts . Hopefully something I say may be of use to someone.

Picture    Sarah Amanda Greer

Here is a picture of my Great, Great Grandmother and her family. Her great grandfather, Edward Jackson, fought in the American Revolution. After the war he got married, started a family, and settled on a farm near the St. Lawrence River, which separates New York State from Canada

   During the War of 1812 he served again, this time as a sergeant.  Being familiar with the area, he crossed the St. Lawrence River on a secret mission, to check out the enemy. He was captured and confined for 8 months as a spy, until he escaped and made his way back across the river.

(Pause)

  Oh, I neglected to mention,……… he escaped back into Canada, …………….. he was in the British Army. …………. He was born in Ireland, joined the British Army, and was promised money or land in Canada for his service. He chose the land and started a new life in North America.

Picture   James Colbeck

I have English ancestors. This is James Colbeck, my Great, Great Grandfather. He came from a long line of gamekeepers on the estate of a squire. He packed up his family and came to Canada and then Michigan.

Picture   Wilders

These are the Wilders, some of my Scottish ancestors. Her son-in-law teased her that they had to leave a trail of bread crumbs up the gangplank to get her on the ship to America. Her frugality was probably useful when she became a widow with several children still at home.

Picture  Leuenberger

These are the Leuenbergers, my Swiss relatives. Immigrant life was tough. My Great Grandparents grew up 40 miles apart in Switzerland but met and married in Ohio. They came to Michigan and moved at least 3 more times until Great Grandma said this is it “I’m not moving again” My grandpa, sitting on the steer, was born in that log house.

   I’ve got more relatives in the mix, including some ornery Germans, and there are stories attached to all of them. Basically, they were just people trying to raise a family and get ahead in life, the same as all of your ancestors.

 We can look back and say “what if?”…………. What if this person didn’t marry that person or what if they didn’t move here or there. It’s all a very complicated puzzle and yet our amazing God keeps track of it all.

(Read Psalm 139 verses 1-14)

pause

How I “physically” got here is one thing but how did I “spiritually” get here , to the Seventh Day Adventist Church?..................... It was a long process.

Picture  Me and Eric

Here is another picture of my brother and me.

Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.”

My Mother took us to Sunday School, not every week but often. We’d sing songs , maybe do a craft, and learn about Jesus. I had some wonderful, sincere teachers, especially teen leaders, who made a difference.

   Not everyone has the gift to be a teacher, but to those of you who are, or have been in the past, THANK YOU!               Sabbath School is important.       Vacation Bible School is important.     We may not see any immediate results, but often we hear of people who come to the Lord because somewhere in their past, someone cared enough to take them to Sabbath School or Vacation Bible School.

 And how precious, the opportunity we have, to raise our children learning about Jesus as they grow.

Picture  Mom and Dad

I want to talk about this picture for a moment. This is a picture of my parents. I was blessed to have good parents, certainly not perfect or saintly, but good parents and I realize not everyone gets that.

Farmers take crop pictures. Our photo albums are filled with pictures taken with crops and livestock.

This picture was taken in the summer of 1997. That’s significant because it’s the last picture of my parents together. On Labor Day Week-end the side of Mom’s face went numb. We thought maybe it was Bell’s Palsy but it wasn’t, ……… it was a brain tumor, ……………… an inoperable brain tumor, …………and in 6 weeks,  Mom was gone.

  My point here is to focus on what is important,   God,   your family, your friends. Don’t take people for granted. We have no guarantee how long we will be on this earth. We have no guarantee that we will all meet here again next Sabbath. We do, however have a Bible full of Heavenly Promises .Here are 2 we all know.

1 John 1:9   “If we confess our sins, He is Faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

John 14:2 “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

  Make sure all the people in your life know they are important to you. Tell them,     Appreciate them,                                        Love them.          Love them with the love of Jesus.           And maybe you have bad feelings toward someone,      are holding a grudge,       or waiting for an apology that may not come,       let it go,          give it to the Lord.

Picture   Wedding

This is our wedding picture. We met on a blind date. (Have any of you been on a blind date? Did any of them not turn out too well?) Here’s the story.

I was farming and growing sugar beets. LaRayne was farming and growing sugar beets for the same company. Max was the fieldman, the agriculturist, the link between the farmer and the company and he had both our areas ,40 miles apart. Max had told LaRayne He had the perfect guy for her, but LaRayne told Max “no”, but made the mistake of telling her Mom the conversation with Max.  Unbeknown to LaRayne her Mom took a picture of her and gave to Max and told him “yes” LaRayne did need to meet this man Max had in mind.

  I had a phone number and a picture. Do I call? It took over a month before I called , and I probably wouldn’t have, but I trusted Max’s judgment. LaRayne only went out with me because I came recommended by Max, she only found out about her mother and the picture later.

  We dated 3 ½ years and got married. This December, we will have been married 23 years but it seems like it’s only been a few. I love my wife, I am so lucky to have her, I couldn’t imagine not being married to her.

  Does the story sound good so far? There’s a “ but “ here, one that doesn’t get talked about too much.

The words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:14  “ Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?”

LaRayne was an Adventist, was raised an Adventist, went to Adventist schools. I was occasionally going to church on Sunday to a non-denominational, mostly Baptist, church. So I wasn’t exactly a Philistine, but we did have a problem.

It didn’t work for King Solomon, it didn’t work for Samson, it didn’t work for a lot of people in the Bible and it almost didn’t work for us. My wife had some very hard and lonely Sabbaths going to church by herself and spending the afternoons alone while I was working. It would have been easier for her to give up and give in, but she didn’t.  

We had some very rough times together but we made it. I would say against the odds and only by the grace of God.

If you are a single person who would like to be married, please heed God’s Word , it is there for a reason. If you are in the position to counsel; you are a parent or grandparent or close friend, please discuss this, it’s important.      They may not listen but at least you tried.

As the saying goes, been there, done that.     And I,   We,   wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

Picture baptism

For some reason we don’t have a picture of my baptism. I was baptized at Edenville, maybe someone there has one but I couldn’t track one down.

So, how did I get to be a baptized member of the Seventh Day Adventist church? I can be slow to make up my mind, and very stubborn, (according to my wife), so it was a long, slow, process. It took 11 years of marriage, I was baptized in 2002.

The one big thing? My wife was very patient and kind through the whole thing, I wouldn’t have made it otherwise.

Early on in our Sunday or Saturday conflict I was going to show LaRayne where she was wrong. But she was raised with an Adventist education, Bible truth, the WHOLE Bible truth, not just selected parts here and there. That’s a huge key we have as Seventh Day Adventists, Bible truth from the whole Bible, what does the entire Bible say.

Well, this wasn’t going so well for me and I remember getting to the point where my prayer became,      “Lord, I believe this and she believes that, and we both can’t be right. If I’m wrong, show me, if she’s wrong, show her.” I prayed that prayer a lot, it got me through the struggle, it was the turning point where I began to see what God wanted to show me.

Now this might sound odd,     but I’m an Adventist because of some Adventists,       and also in spite of some Adventists.

 It’s not for the WHO but the WHY that I mention this. I don’t for a second question their faith or sincerity. While they may have had good results with others, our personalities didn’t mesh, their methods simply weren’t going to reach me. So perhaps today, if you are having trouble reaching someone, different methods or different people may have better success bringing someone to Bible truth.

How many of you are familiar with James Rafferty? You can hear him on Strong Tower Radio. Many years ago Pastor Dan Rachor “arranged” for him to fly across the country and do an evangelistic series in Edenville. He was the right person at the right time, as was Pastor Rachor. I could listen to them, I was starting to understand. Finally, God’s plan, the big picture, the Great Controversy, began to make more sense to me and I had some changes to make.

What happens to us when we die, the “state of the dead”, was one of the first major doctrines that made perfect sense to me when I studied the whole Bible. I grew up with hell-fire and brimstone, the secret rapture and Grandma is up in Heaven but Bible study didn’t support that. I remember thinking, all these accounts of people raised from the dead, and not one mention of them having been in Heaven? Or Hell? How could you leave that out of the Bible account? Or if Jesus’ dear friend Lazarus died and was in Heaven why would Jesus bring him back to earth to suffer some more? The account of the raising of Lazarus in John chapter 11 has a lot of detail, but no mention of Lazarus returning from Heaven or Hell.

I sometimes wish the discussion would be worded a bit differently. We have 2 choices,   to be eternally alive, in Heaven, with God or to be eternally dead, annihilated. To be eternally punished is not one of the choices, God is not like that.

I grew up with “prophets are just in the Old Testament” Think Jonah,   Elijah,   Elisha.    But again, that’s not what the Bible teaches. The New Testament has a lot to say about prophets and prophecy. In Luke, chapter 2 we have the account of Anna.

Read Luke 2:36-38

Acts chapter 21 mentions the prophet Agabus. Many passages, including  the list of spiritual gifts in 1 Cor 12, list prophecy and prophets as part of the body of believers until the second coming of Jesus. I have full confidence that Ellen White brought us prophetic messages when they were needed.

Another bible principle that I did not like nor agree with was tithing, but…. I have to tell you my tithing story.

The Bible is clear, God wants us to give our tithe and offerings, to pay that 10%, not because He needs the money but because it shows our willingness to obey, share, and not be so selfish.  We can’t out give the Lord.  He is sitting there waiting to pour blessing down upon us.  In Genesis, chapter 14, Abram paid a tithe after the rescue of Lot.  Abraham was faithful to God and God bestowed many a blessings upon Abraham.

In the book of Malachi the wording is strong.

(Read Malachi 3:8-10)

As a farmer, there are many ways to sell a crop. Generally, the worst prices of the year are at harvest so there are other methods to get a better price. One is to deliver your product to the grain company but not sell it. They will store it for a monthly fee until you choose to sell it at a later date, hopefully for a better price.    This is your future income, it’s the sort of thing you keep track of. How many bushels of corn, or wheat or beans, do I have where?

I had earlier told LaRayne there is no way I can afford to pay tithe, but I decided to pay tithe. My wife did, my in-laws did, lots of people did. I wrote out a check for my tithe for the year, put it in an envelope, and put it in the offering plate. Again, there was that sense that this is right, it’s God’s will.

A couple months later I got a letter from a grain company I do business with which basically said, “We’ve been checking our records and you have this many bushels left in storage, is this correct, and what do you want us to do?” I called and said no, I don’t think so, I couldn’t have that many bushels left, but they said yes, you do.

Of course, the value of those bushels was almost exactly what I had recently paid in tithe.

I hadn’t ASKED for a sign, I didn’t EXPECT a sign, but God GAVE me a sign anyway. God is good, you can’t go wrong following Him.

(Pause)

I must admit that the Sabbath was a hard one. I think I knew deep down that the Sabbath was right, long before I wanted to admit it.

Read Exodus 20:8-11

A passage familiar to most of us, and there are many more.

The Sabbath required a change, a big change. Being looked at differently, majority to minority status, keeping a day holy and special, rather than just a worship service. It meant being different. Different from my family, friends, and peers. It meant leaving the church I grew up in and the nice, sincere people there. We can see that church from our house.

Big changes, ……. And it wasn’t easy.

But, I must tell you, once I made that decision, to keep the Sabbath, I knew instantly that it was the right decision.

Yes, it took some adjustment, but I knew it was right, it was God’s will. Today I couldn’t imagine not having the Sabbath, God’s special day of rest and worship.

Read Isaiah 58:13-14

pause

There’s nothing noteworthy or important about my family or me. But I am special because God thinks I am special, He thinks each one of us is precious and special. If we spend time in God’s Word, the Bible, we can see the big picture, the universal battle between good (God), and evil (Satan). Over and over we can read about God’s love and mercy toward each one of us. God also filled the Bible with guidelines, not to rule us and control us, like Satan would have us believe, but to set us free to be what God knows we can be.

Many of you may have a similar story, if you didn’t have the privilege of being raised in an Adventist home. The choices weren’t always easy to make but they were the right choices.

Maybe someone listening today has some choices to make. Again, the choices may not be easy, but you simply can’t go wrong choosing God and what it says in His Holy Book.

As I work, I often listen to Strong Tower Radio and I heard something I want to share. Maybe many of you have heard this. I’m going to attribute it to David Asserick although I’m not 100% sure since I was in and out of the tractor several times during the discussion. This is a poor paraphrase but the thought went like this…..

When someone asks him about his religion or faith, or religious topics come up in conversation, he answers by saying,   “I believe the Bible teaches this, and this, and says this, THEREFORE, I’m a Seventh Day Adventist.  He doesn’t say I’m a Seventh Day Adventist and this is what we believe.

Do you hear the difference?

(repeat)

We can’t simply be cultural Adventists. I think there is a danger that as we become cultural Adventists that we don’t lose our spiritual Adventism.

There is nothing wrong with Adventist culture, it’s a good thing. I’m very thankful to be raising our sons in the Adventist culture. Not being an Adventist, I had some things to learn. Camp Meeting, Camp Au Sable, Pathfinders, Elementary Schools and Boarding Academies.       “You do what?  You send your teenagers away to school?” Yet, Keagan is in a Seventh Day Adventist elementary school and Cade is at Great Lakes Adventist Academy, they like, it they’re doing well,   and I think it is a good thing.

There are vegetarian pot-lucks, haystacks and Rook cards. I even like vege-links now. All these things, and many more, are a part of Adventist culture. As we worship and socialize with each other, these are the types of things that bind us together.

We must not stray, however, from Spiritual Adventism, what the Bible teaches us about how we should live, and work, and play. Or how we should interact with our Heavenly Father, Lord and Savior, and Holy Spirit.

pause

It’s the Bible, God’s Word for us here on earth. If we stick with the Bible, the whole Bible, we can’t go wrong.  And someday in the future He’ll be waiting for each one of us with open arms.