Author: jeremiahtan963404

Anaheim SDA Church

Mid-week Pastor’s Update

January 25th, 2023

“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even somust the Son of Man be lifted up,that whoeverbelieves in Him shouldnot perish buthave eternal life.” John 3:14-15

You may be aware that, in our mid-week prayer meeting sessions, a group of us is reading through the book Patriarchs and Prophets by Ellen White, and discussing a chapter each week. A couple weeks ago we were reading the chapter that had to do with Moses, at God’s direction, fashioning and raising a bronze serpent in the wilderness, to save the people from poisonous snakebites they were receiving. It’s a fascinating story, and an inspiring one, particularly if you consider the fulfillment Jesus gave it in the verse quoted above from John 3.

But a sad ending to the story is that, generations later, the bronze serpent became an idol in-and-of itself, and was used for false worship. Approximately 700 years later, it was destroyed amidst a broad period of positive reformation during king Hezekiah’s time. You can read that story in 2nd Kings 18.

As I was reading the PP chapter a couple weeks ago to prepare for the discussion session, it struck me: this is the same thing much of Christianity has done with the cross! How have we gone from (metaphorically) looking to the true sacrifice God provided, to receive salvation by faith, to today having a proliferance of items of jewelry, tattoos, etc. that so many (including celebrities & sports stars) wear while disregarding God’s power and His principles.

And that’s not even to mention the proliferance of the crucifix among Catholics! I’m sure they’d say it’s a symbol reminder to point people to the true sacrifice, but it sure smacks of idolatry to me, if you read the text of the 2nd commandment: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image…you shall not bow down to them nor serve them….” (Exodus 20:4a-5, NKJV).

Just as in the wilderness with Moses was to the Israelites, our looking to the authentic sacrifice God gave in Jesus is salvific to us, and that is of course so beautiful! But lifting up the “object” while potentially diminishing or disregarding the real power behind it is to again idolize! And I think it ends people in a worse place than they began. Curses be upon the devil (and his agents) for twisting around things which God does for man’s salvation to be a source of perdition.

I was struck with how set-in-our-ways humanity is. God does something wonderful: we make an idol out of it. In Israel’s case, it had to be destroyed. In the modern-day cases of jewelry & crucifixes: they are so widely distributed that it’s impossible for a central source to destroy all of them. What’s more: in a land of religious and personal freedom (which are very good things), there is no central authority who even has the ability/authority to demand/ensure their destruction. Essentially, it is up to us as individuals to decide we must do away with them: indeed, with any impostor substituting for the actual power of God: even one that looks like it, or has been an authentic conveyer of His power before.

I have probably felt this over and over again some 50 times or more when reading the Bible: how, despite the fact that we live very different daily lives now than in Bible times (cars, cell-phones, credit cards and the like would stun and baffle old-worlders), its truths are timeless because our nature is the same as it’s always been.

But the good news, friends, is that the Lord we serve, the solution to the sin problem, is also the same. People feel like they’re always doing something new and different, but with years under our belts, and with the Bible as a perspective-giver, we find we agree with king Solomon: “There is nothing new under the sun” (see Ecclesiastes1:9).

I pray for you and your families, that your focus would only be on the true authentic source of salvation God has provided, and never to any imitators or impostors. May our faith be vibrant, our foundation sure, our zeal unquestioned in a world full of swampy indifference.

May God bless you and your families the remainder of this week.

Sincerely,

Pr. Mark Tatum

Apologies for getting this out a day late! Be sure to read to the bottom to see important prayer requests and announcements.

Anaheim SDA Church

Mid-week Pastor’s Update

January 19th, 2022

“What is Man, that you are mindful of him?” Psalm 8:4

If you have an interest in following tech news, you may know that in recent months advancements in AI (artificial intelligence) have come “close to home” in activities that we frequently do.

Computer and robotic replacements for formerly human-performed tasks are nothing new: from the invention of the 4-function calculator to modern assembly lines at car plants, automation has replaced human efforts in many aspects. People of course have been concerned for decades about what this would mean for working class people: that they could, through no fault of their own, suddenly find themselves edged out of a job by automatons who can work tirelessly, endlessly, on nothing but an electricity supply and occasional maintenance. Indeed, workers have had to accommodate: up-training to jobs that, as of yet, haven’t been automatized. In short, it’s great for raising productivity and, in the long run, decreasing costs, but at cost to human sustenance and fulfillment.

But what seems to be occurring recently is different: AI is now able to make quite stunning works of visual art, which I was impressed with when I first saw it in late 2022 (indeed, the picture above I ‘commissioned’ to be generated by an AI ‘bot’*). I immediately worried, though: what will this do to human-made art? Will artists, who already have an increasingly hard time sustaining themselves financially, continue to be a viable part of society? Why would someone pay an artist thousands of dollars to create something that a bit of trial-and-error could create using AI? I suppose similar concerns were expressed 100+ years ago regarding portrait painters at the invention of the camera.

But it begs the question: what is art? Is art something merely aesthetic that can be appreciated? Or does it have to do with intent of production on the part of the producer? Put another way, would an art gallery ever host a showing of purely AI creations? If so, would anybody go to such a showing? It seems kind of futile already to host art shows, since copious amounts of “art” can be made by going online*. But then we just find ourselves devaluing art! It’s no longer rare, it’s no longer tied to an artist who painstakingly made it… and that can’t be good, can it?

And then, a couple of weeks ago, I found something potentially even more alarming: I learned that AI ‘bots’ are able to produce written articles, essays, and the like! And analysts are saying these are quite good, approaching indistinguishability from those written by people! These exclamation points I’m using are more punctuations of surprised alarm than enthusiasm, because it begs the question: what will come of human production of written material? What will it mean for newspaper & journalism? For poets and authors? For pastors even, if a bot can do just as good a job?**

What I worry is that this will rob creative writers (and possibly speakers) of the motivation to create!

I remember reading a sci-fi book years ago where an alien species hovered their spaceships over the earth. They didn’t destroy anything, didn’t announce themselves, just hovered over the earth for a period of like 3 years. Humanity was at first shocked and alarmed, then accommodated (“got used to”) it, then gradually lost their motivation to do & achieve things, implicitly knowing that they were not the superior power of the universe, and that their destinies were more in the hands of these silent observers overhead than their own.

I worry that something similar is going to happen with AI! “Why strive to achieve? The AI bots & robots will soon be doing everything anyway.”

This certainly portends doom, and seems like a look into the abyss of despair.

But then I also consider: If humanity has, actually, made AI that can do things autonomously, it’s kind of a version of what God did when He made us. We’ve long known we’re created in the image of our maker; I believe the desire to create in our image (via kids and now via computers & AI) is an extension of that.

But the big difference is that God made us each *personal* sources of intelligence. Bound in a body, collected in a society of others, and given resources to work with, and others to interact with. These computer bots doing processes in the ‘cloud’ (really warehouses of servers in far-off, sparsely-populated places) is really soul-less! Like: this technology can totally outlive our generation, and will have a faultless memory going forward, but for what? It certainly begs an existential crisis both for us, and for it, if it ever gains the ability to consider its own existence.

This brings me back to the verse quoted above: “What is Man, that you are mindful of him?”

If we cease to be the superior source of intelligence in the universe, where does that leave us? Evolutionists might ponder that we have, in creating thinking computers, evolved ourselves out of usefulness.

But does our intelligence determine the value of our worth in the world/universe?

To be beloved by God: to be precious to Him, treasured by him, is where I have to turn to keep any sense of self-worth. I have to run into the arms of my “Abba – daddy” much as a toddler does to its loving parent.

Only God, and unconditional love from people which flows from God, can provide purpose outside of ‘being the greatest in the known universe’. We are not defined by our achievements – though we are invited to achieve by God, and look what we’ve accomplished!

But our best advancements are not unlike a 5-year old making works of finger paints for parents to magnetize to the refrigerator. We love the work because our beloved kids made them: they have no intrinsic value of their own. An elephant, or now an AI ‘bot’, can do better!

It has to go to the love: we have to focus on love. That is what will forever differentiate us from the cold brilliance we have created as a species. As Paul reflects on in 1st Corinthians, where so many other great things find their end, “love never fails” (v. 8).

I pray you will nestle into the love of God today, and that, grounded and couched in that unconditional love, that you’ll extend loving arms out to others. Invite them into the warm embrace as well. It alone is what will give us our sense of belonging and togetherness in the long-run.

Sincerely,

Pr. Mark Tatum

* https://www.fotor.com/features/ai-image-generator/ (I typed in “Biblical king David gazing up at starry sky”

** I watched a youtube video in which a Christian vlogger made a 3-minute devotional based on a Bible passage, and gave two AI bots from different apps/websites the same challenge, from the same passage, and read all three, challenging people to guess which one he had made himself. I had to admit, I didn’t know! Here’s the link to that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXdPaX8uCBU

Anaheim SDA Church

Mid-week Pastor’s Update

January 11th, 2023

“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.” James 5:17-18

Boy, we have been having a wet winter so far! I remember last winter we had a wet December, but then as soon as January started, the spicket seemed to be turned off! But so far this year, we have continued to have a couple of storms per week it seems – I’m finding myself thankful for days I can see the sun! But I have been loving seeing the grass-covered hills, and the snow-capped mountains in the distance. I pray this continues through February – March!

This of course has been a great relief to our multi-year drought, but it seems to be too much too fast! My heart is wrenched seeing scenes of flooded homes & streets, and hearing of deaths occurring due to the floods. We of course know that the earth itself suffers under the burden of sin (Romans 8:19-21), which, in my opinion, doesn’t exclude the possibility of man-made global warming & climate change. We are much of the sin problem, after all!

But, droughts and periods of famine have long affected and worried humanity. The first such drought mentioned in scripture is in Genesis 12, which caused Abraham to go down to Egypt, setting off a chain of events there.

Droughts & periods of rain are also sometimes accredited to the will of God in the Bible, such as the 7-year famine in Genesis 41-47, and Israel’s 3½ years without rain in 1 Kings 17-18 (referenced in the James passage above). Imagine how stressful & desperate these must have made the people, given that they did not have resources like we do, of reservoirs, canals, or desalination plants!

Peter’s Sermon in Acts 3, after the healing of the paralytic man, emphasizes what happens when we repent & turn to God: “That times of refreshing will come” (3:19). We’re currently being refreshed literally in California, but how much more important is the Spiritual aspect?

I think of what a spiritually refreshing time it was for Israel when Jesus came. In contrast to the Pharisees, who’s conversions were more effective to making people be children of hell than of God (strong language, Jesus! See Matt. 23:15) Jesus’ message included “preach[ing] the Good News to the poor; …heal[ing] the brokenhearted, to proclaim[ing] liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

What a refreshment that must have been to the people! Contrasted from a religion that created a “burdensome loads” for the people (Matthew 23:4), Jesus started his most famous sermon with a list of affirmations and blessings. Though you’re probably familiar with it, I encourage you to read this passage slowly, letting the refreshment of it “saturate” down into your hearts. Let Jesus speak this truth to you today:

“Blessedare the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those whohunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds ofevil against you falsely for My sake.Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, forso they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Matthew 5:3-12

Affirming this is of course not to say that Jesus didn’t have standards: He gave many challenging and high-bar teachings further on in the Sermon on the Mount. But I think it’s worth pausing to really hear, and feel, and believe, and internalize these affirmations: they are the context in which the rest of the sermon is given.

I pray that you would be refreshed today and this week, more than on the surface literal level, but deep down to your roots, that you may be, as Psalm chapter 1 says:

“…Like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever [is done] shall prosper.”

(v.3)

May God bless you and your families the remainder of this week and beyond.

Sincerely,

Pr. Mark Tatum

Anaheim SDA Church

Mid-week Pastor’s Update

January 4th, 2023

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4

Happy New Year! I hope your 2023 is blessed, filled with joy & fulfillment for you & your loved ones. Though it’s been gray and soggy for the most part so far, we know it will lead to beautiful greenery on the hills, and hopefully a significant dent in our drought conditions!

I’d like to share with you a thought process I went through last evening: you may know that each Tuesday evening we need to get the church’s dumpsters pushed up to the front of our property, to be collected Wednesday mornings. It’s something I have on my schedule each week: sometimes there’s some help, sometimes there’s not, but it’s not a big deal. What I do mind, though, is when it’s cold & rainy when I have to do it (which fortunately only happens a few times a year, given our climate). Working hard, while shivering and getting soaked? Ugh!

But, last evening was one of those. So I was grumbly as I headed to the church, and I was grumbly as I walked over to the dumpsters on the far side of the parking lot. And, though I was somewhat happy to see that only 2 of the 3 needed pushing, I was grumbly again to see that it was the “hard” and “medium” dumpsters that were full, the “easy” one to push being empty (I’ve learned their temperaments!)

And so, I pushed in the drizzle, taking breaks every now and then, thinking about what lay ahead for my week and all. I struggled a bit to keep them out of the trough in the driveway where the water runs down (which was a little tough, as they were slippery).

But as I finished the 2nd dumpster, and started to go back to the church to wash my hands, I realized something: I wasn’t cold anymore! I was warm to the point that I took off my jacket and slung it over my shoulder. My inner furnace had “revved-up” at the work I was doing, and I was toasty warm! I actually felt I could’ve pushed that 3rd dumpster without too much trouble.

And I just thought what a life lesson that was: something you dislike doing, grumbling as you’re approaching it, pushing through it (in my case literally), but you find it actually strengthens you and makes you more accommodated to the hardship (in my case, the cold) afterward.

And I thought of how many times and ways through life that principle rings true. We may struggle greatly in a high-school or college class, but we trudge through it, and are better for it in the end. We may be intimidated by the discipline needed for a new stage of life (say, starting college life, or entering the military, or prepping for a marathon, what have you). And I of course remember how my toughest year of life, my student missionary year in Costa Rica (which I’ve mentioned before), really grew my faith and ‘toughened me up’ for further chapters of hard work & potential discouragement in my life.

So we find that development is accomplished through adversity & perseverance, rather than ease and lax discipline (which is what we much more want in the short-run!). I believe God knew this as numerous times he called his servants to work through a problem, rather than simply be carried through it. He increased the workload of Adam & Eve in getting their food from the earth after the fall. He called Noah and his family to construct a boat to survive the flood (rather than providing it for them). He called Moses & the Israelites to trudge through the wilderness, learning perseverance and dependence on him, rather than simply transporting them to the promised land. And he let the Apostle Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” remain, rather teaching him that “My strength is made perfect through your weakness” (2nd Corinthians 12:9).

And Jesus, no less than any of the others, learned submission, obedience, and perseverance through incredible hardship, that he might become our Savior and worthy of the praise of the entire universe (see Philippians 2:6-11). Whereas I’m certain Jesus received praise and adulation before his incarnation, how much more once the angels & unfallen worlds saw how far he was willing to go to save the lost!

So, in light of that, I’m going to try to anticipate the benefits of challenges & hard work, rather than begrudgingly approach them. I pray you’ll be able to face difficulties similarly in 2023 and beyond.

May God be praised for giving us the strength and resources to overcome many an obstacle (See Jesus’ 7 promises to “overcomers” in Revelation 2 &3)!

May God bless your family this week and beyond, indeed for the whole of 2023.

Sincerely,

Pr. Mark Tatum

Hello again,
Oops! I realized I failed to attach the graphic for Sabbath afternoon’s hike. Here it is:

Please be sure to read (or at least scroll) down to the latter part of this update to see important prayer requests and announcements, including church potluck this Sabbath, and a Sabbath afternoon hiking trip!

Anaheim SDA Church

Mid-week Pastor’s Update

December 28th, 2022

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

Hello dear brothers and sisters,

I hope your Christmas celebrations and gatherings with loved ones and family members this last weekend were a joy and a fulfillment to you!

Now we are in the somewhat strange “limbo week” between Christmas and New Years, in which society’s kind of on vacation, but plenty of us still have work to do. I think that, rather than reflecting on Christmas (which the past couple devotionals have been focused on), or on the new year (which the next one will be), I will take a ‘pause’ this week to focus on our concept of God.

God is of course the God of Christmas: the one who sent his only Son to earth in love for the purpose of salvation (John 3:16), and He’s also the God of new opportunities, new creation, making all things new! (2 Corinthians 5:17, Revelation 21:5)

But, for the in-between times, just what kind of God is it that we love and serve?

Is it the ‘entirely fluffy’ god, the god of only certain selected Bible verses? An edited god, made after our preferences?

Or, for some of a different mindset, is it the mainly stern and demanding god, who’s also edited, crafted, formed under a different set of preferences?

I hope you can see where I’m going with this: we want neither of those above-mentioned partial gods, we want the Actual God: the Living God! The real, active God who intervened so many times in Israel’s history, in Jesus and the Apostles’ ministry, in the early church as recorded in the book of Acts, and countless other times through history, including the Reformation, the 1st & 2nd Great Awakenings here in America, in the founding of our church, and continues to do so in innumerable and unrecordable times & places around the world!

I mention this, because, in our mid-week prayer & book discussion group, we are currently in the portion of Patriarchs and Prophets that reflects on the stories & lessons from the book of Numbers, one of the toughest portions of the Bible; which contains numerous stories that many of us just wish were not there! There seems to be a lot of harshness, without a lot of redemptive stuff there. (I, for one, am finding myself thankful that we have a recent commentator in Ellen White who helps us understand the intended lessons and purposes of God in those accounts there).

Whether through subtly avoiding parts of our Bible, or outright ignoring them, we can find ourselves attempting to ‘edit’, or ‘modify’ who it is that we worship. We chalk-up certain attributes to God, but not other ones that are clearly stated! (See Exodus 34:6-7 for a stark example of this).

I once heard summarized by a kind of humorously cynical person: “God creates man in His image. Man rebels and falls into sin. Man then turns around and makes God in his image.” This is of course overtly true in idolatry (how many Buddhist and Hindu (not to mention Catholic) statues have the human form as the basis for their designs?). But I think many Protestants and Adventists do this as well, only on a more subtle level!

So: I want to be resolved in the New Year to take my concept of God from the Word: receiving it from the Bible, not generating it in my mind and then attempting to conform portions of scripture to it. Because this is where the power and vitality will be: when we are tapped into the real God, the real author and creator, perfecter and finisher of our faith! As intimately as a grape branch is attached into its vine. (see John 15 for Jesus’ illustration of the vineyard).

Though some parts of God’s Word to us may be tough to receive, we will find that they are just as vital as the ‘favored’ spots of ours. And over time, I believe we will find that the Living God is not merely the god we wanted; but rather, so much more than that: the God we really need!

For, undoubtedly, it will be this God who saves us: the one who gloriously and climactically invades earth from the heavens, who exists in external reality, not the one we conjure up in our minds to agree with our own opinions and conclusions.

I started with quoting the Isaiah verse above to emphasize how different, how much more categorically outside our best ideas is the greatness of God. I see him saying in that verse ‘Don’t just magnify your best thoughts and concepts upward, and consider that to be me: I am of a whole different type and scope and definition than your categorizations!’

So: I hope you’ll join me in loving and affirming and following the One True Eternal & Living God! Who by definition cannot be contained, defined, adequately summarized or conceived of, and who certainly cannot be represented by any earthly forms. He is truly high and exalted, unapproachable (except by his gracious invitation), and fundamentally different, operating on a whole nother level than we!

Alright: I’ve probably gone overboard in my effusiveness. But I pray that some of it is enlightening and inspiring to you. I pray you’ll be resolved to affirm the God who lives outside our heads & best concepts, who dwells in unapproachable light (1st Timothy 6:16).

As always, I pray a blessed week for you and your families, a good end to your 2022, and a prosperous and fulfilling 2023.

Sincerely,

Pr. Mark Tatum