Author: jeremiahtan963404

Please be sure to read (or at least scroll) to the end of this e-mail, to see important praises, prayer requests, and announcements, including a family-friendly halloween alternative taking place at the Orange SDA church this weekend!

Anaheim SDA Church

Mid-week Pastor’s Update

October 26th, 2022

“The mouth speaks out of the overflow of the heart. That is what makes a person clean or unclean.” Matthew 15:18

What do you “put in your tank”?

I remember, back when I was teaching at Mesa Grande Academy some fifteen years ago, the outdoors club at our school went for a weekend camping/boating trip to Lake Havasu. Several of the teachers and parents came along, along with our school science teacher/assistant principal.

As we got everything packed, and everyone gathered and organized into the several vehicles, we agreed we’d stop at a gas station before getting on the freeway for the long drive. There, we filled-up, made sure bladders were empty, tummies were full, and got on our way. I was riding in a “dually” pickup, it’s bed in the back packed to the gills, and also pulling a trailer.

Several miles down the freeway, the dually (being driven by the science teacher/assistant principal) started to sputter and shudder quite strongly! “What’s going on?” we thought, “Do we need to stop and go to a mechanic?”

What we discovered had happened was that, at the gas station, the science teacher/assistant principal had filled up the dually’s tank with diesel fuel instead of gasoline! I don’t remember whether perhaps the vehicle was borrowed, or belonged to someone else in the group, but somehow he wasn’t familiar with the vehicle and, assuming it was a diesel engine, had put in the wrong type of fuel.

Several of us worried and wondered aloud whether we’d be able to go on at all, of if we’d need to abandon the vehicle (and perhaps the whole trip!) because of this error. But no, he said, being a science teacher, he knew that a gas engine can run (albeit poorly) on diesel fuel. Plus, it was a mix of gas and diesel in there, since the tank had some leftover gas from before the fill-up.

He explained that the reverse is not possible, though: that diesel engines cannot run on gasoline at all, because diesel engines do not provide a ‘spark’ to the ignition chamber: diesel fuel explodes on compression, whereas gasoline needs a spark.

So we continued down the freeway several hours to our destination. It was an uncomfortable ride, though: our teeth were jostling, and our ears were suffering from the sound!

Years later I thought of that experience in relation to how we live life: what motivates us: our actions, our words, even our thoughts.

God made our hearts, our “tanks” to run on something, but are we all too often putting in the wrong kind of ‘fuel’ to motivate & power us?

I think the blend of ‘fuel’ that many people put in their tanks is a mix of ambitions, fears, resentments, and aggressions. These are their primary thoughts which motivate and push them. Such people live pretty unhappily, and may even face a shorter lifespan due to stresses, addictions (entered into in order to cope with the negative effects of living in such a way), and even subjecting oneself to physical danger (perhaps through ‘thrill seeking’, or even drug use).

Then there’s the more gentle ‘fuel’ of competition, competitiveness, that probably much of society fuels itself on. Competition is viewed as healthy and overall helpful in the world of commerce & business, sports, politics, even evolutionary theory! “Survival of the fittest”, and “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” are common phrases based on such an outlook.

And I somewhat agree: competition often causes us to strive and perform at our best. Students in law school or business school, what have you, study their hardest to achieve their best, knowing that great success, wealth, and reputation lie down the road of victory. Athletes reach the very peak of physical and strategic ability in perfecting themselves for competition. And, competition ensures that only the most efficient companies, with the best return on investments will survive to sell another day. In this widely-accepted view, competition is really what makes the world go round.

But, is that the ideal ‘fuel’ God intends for us to put in our tank? Or does it result in the similar sputtering and shuddering that we experienced in the dually that day? While competition seemingly makes all parties strive for greatness, there are some who look at the whole pyramid of competition and just feel intimidated or even exhausted by even the prospect of entering into it, and never even get into the mix of things. Others, by definition of the majority, strain and struggle and might achieve a moderate level of success, but ultimately have to admit their limitations and accept that something/someone is practically always going to be better than they are. Though there are of course many psychological ways to cushion the blow and comfort oneself, competition inherently creates more losers than winners by its very nature.

So what would be the ideal ‘fuel’ God would have us ‘put in our tank’, to motivate and drive us? Is there a fuel that doesn’t exhaust, doesn’t intimidate, doesn’t eventually humiliate the majority?

You may already have a sense of where I am going: God’s solution, His ideal motivator in life for us is love. As 1st Corinthians 13 reminds us: love always cares, always protects, always hopes, always forgives, always perseveres, and *never* fails. It consoles and encourages the weak and the young, it motivates acts of kindness, goodness, and charity. And, possibly best of all, it doesn’t divide people into camps of ‘winners’ and ‘losers’. Everybody feels good in a loving environment! The strong use their strength to lift others up, and the week find themselves lifted up by others. Everybody benefits! It’s a worldview that bases itself on different fundamental principles than the competitively-based world does.

I think many many Christians try to run with both kinds of ‘fuel’ in their tanks simultaneously. “Love yet competition” is probably what’s actually in the minds of most people in the pews on a given weekend. But can they mutually coexist? Can each philosophy thrive without endangering or squelching out the other? I’m not sure. I think of the average male Sunday churchgoer, who listens to a lovely sermon on love and perhaps enjoys a potluck in Christian community, but then goes home to watch football players smash each-other for hopeful victory and glory (and lots of money coming in). Which of those messages makes the stronger impact on the soul? Which impresses the mind more strongly? Which one is the hypothetical person more likely to talk about with his co-workers on Monday? Again, I think of that sputtering, uneasy trip we had to Lake Havasu, with a mix of unintended fuel in the tank.

I’ve got to tell you: I’m kind of down on competition. As a teen, I never liked the way the athletes carried themselves in school (even though it was a Christian school). I never liked aggression, or the concept of “victory over” someone else. I read once in Ellen White’s writings that we shouldn’t engage in competitive sports, and I was surprised to read that, since varsity teams are really ubiquitous in our schools. But, it’s true: since reading that I’ve just seen it too much: that though it causes our students to strive and improve and strategize and cooperate toward a group goal (and keeps them physically fit in the meantime), I’ve seen competitiveness bubble-over into defining self-worth (either self-pity or pride, depending on their ability to achieve), I’ve seen parents go over the edge in the stands, yelling and cussing at the referees or the coaches (or even their own kids!) for what they’re doing out there. And, of course, a certain percentage of kids receive injuries they have to recover from for weeks, if not months. I wonder if similar damage could be going on in their hearts.

I’m really not here to judge anybody, I enjoy my fair share of sports too, but I just believe there’s a corrosion at the center of competition that is just inherent to it, which love doesn’t have.

Perhaps it comes from my joyful belonging times in choirs, plays, or worship teams that make me feel it’s so much better to be involved in cooperative endeavors than competitive ones. Of course: a running team, a cycling team, a camping trip, or a building project can all provide camaraderie, physical striving, and an overall situation in which people can come away all feeling fulfilled, like they’ve aided and contributed, rather than “I’ve won” or “lost”.

So, obviously I’m not advocating an extreme position that would exclude all types of competition (no pickup basketball games? No potato sack races? To propose such things would be absurd). I just want to ask the question: What’s the fuel you’re putting in your tank? Is your ultimate goal to uplift, help, and encourage everyone? Or to squash someone else so you can have victory?

I think whatever your answer is has far-reaching implications in life, in relationships, and in the professional arena. I believe over time the fruits of the one or the other will make themselves known. And of course, we know which motive/philosophy will exist and dominate in heaven. I don’t think I even need to say which one will. Let’s remember Jesus’ key line (among many) in the Lord’s prayer.

I pray a blessing for you and your family the remainder of this week and beyond. Greetings to your family from ours.

Sincerely,

Pr. Mark Tatum

(Please be sure to read all the way through this update, to find important prayer praises & requests, and announcements, including Hispanic Evangelism this coming week, and a Halloween alternative activity taking place at our sister church in Orange.)

Anaheim SDA Church

Mid-week Pastor’s Update

10/19/2022

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9

If you know me very well, you know I am a BIG fan of memes. My fascination probably started as a kid with those 1-panel “Far Side” comics: such wry humor, making you think and realize the absurdity of an aspect of life, in a single frame! Then, in high-school government class, I learned that single-panel political cartoons had been around for decades if not centuries.

I ingest a healthy diet of memes on almost a daily basis. Sometimes I go searching for memes on certain topics, other times they just show-up in my social media feed. Most are funny, some are thought-provoking and stimulating, but then there is a third minority category that I dislike: memes that bother me, and give me a sickening feeling in my stomach.

I had a huge one of those come across my feed earlier this week, of all places, in an Adventst Pastors’ group. There is plenty of fun and also serious discussion that goes on there, but we also sometimes post & discuss difficult and painful things, because it is of course important to know what the outside world is thinking & saying about Christianity & matters of faith and the church.

The following meme had behind it a picture of a denim-clad kid crying in a corner (like the one shown above). This text was in bold, white letters. The following emphasis points are from the meme itself:

“The entire basis of Christianity is that you are BROKEN, WEAK, sinful, and inherently bad. It then tells you that only Jesus, through the Church, can fix you. You are nothing without them. THIS IS ABUSE.”

This accusation stopped me in my tracks. It made me feel equal parts maddened, offended, and sickened. It made me pause for a minute and say “Can this be true? Does the church serve to perpetuate spiritual abuse rather than spiritual healing & help?”. I’ve long heard accusations that institutional religion is primarily a means of controlling people and getting their money, but this meme struck me differently. It was, I don’t know, more accusatory of Christianity and church being toxic and destructive to the individual soul, rather than to the broader society as a whole.

And I knew that having hundreds of thousands of people see this accusation come across their feeds would be instantly harmful to faith and church affiliation, because, in a way, it can partly match with a superficial understanding people have in society of what Christianity and church are and do. While doing that, it obviously highlights the negative, while pointing out none of the positive.

The comments posted in our group below it showed a variety of offense vs. admission that this is how we’re perceived. And I thought “How did our public perception get this way?”

After chewing on this for a bit, and settling my emotions, I thought of what I’d like to say to the person that wrote this.

First of all, I thought, I would want to listen: I would want to hear what motivated the person who created this to do so. Rather than go on my first assumption that they were just trying to twist the narrative & purpose of Christianity to appear destructive, I would want to know: were they somehow hurt by the church themselves?

Jesus reserved his probably most forceful and shocking words to people who hurt little ones (and I believe this includes spiritually, within the church or faith context) “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck, and they were thrown into the sea.” Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42, Luke 17:2.

A pretty well-known, simple, but profound phrase says “hurt people hurt people”, and I wonder if that’s what’s happening here. Someone was wrongly treated by the church or someone in a church, and they’ve decided to spew venom at the whole concept of Christianity because of it.

And then, after listening and helping them know they’ve been heard & understood, I’d gently ask them about some of their presuppositions. Is it really the church, externally, which tells people they’re bad? Or do our own consciences tell us that? Does the face in the mirror tell us that? Does the daily news on TV or the internet tell us that? If the similar accusation were made “Doctors tell you that you’re sick and that only they can cure you”, is it them who made you sick? Is to make someone aware of something distinctly different than causing it? And I hope they’d concede the point on that one.

I suppose it could also be that they want to ascribe to the feeling that humanity is generally good, rather than bad. And we, of course, want to feel like generally a good person. Largely, though, we do that by comparing ourselves with others: we soothe our consciences by thinking of criminals, the homeless, or drug addicts, what have you, and think “I’m better than most”. Christianity should drive us away from such thinking, but I don’t know how much it does in practice. What other contrast do secular people have to feel good about themselves, though? I don’t know. I can’t get into the heads of other people, whether Christian or atheist.

And in response to the 2nd half of the meme, I do believe that only Jesus can “fix” us, but is access to Jesus exclusively through the church? I wondered if this person knows of the historical and theological differences between Catholicism and Protestantism, because, yes, in the sacramental/Catholic model, the church does distribute grace as it provides the sacraments (including forgiveness being based on confessing one’s sins to a priest), but in Protestantism, the religious institution is secondary to the direct communication line between the individual and God: both in God communicating to us through His Word, and in us praying to Him in open and honest sharing of our feelings, needs, and hopes. Yes, these things are done and facilitated at church, but by no means are they the only place where they happen! Jesus himself said the most important place where communication with God takes place is in the private prayer time, the closet prayers, mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:6. And of course, hearing a sermon once a week is no substitute for daily feeding on God’s word in personal study/devotional time.

And thirdly I would ask the person: Does the priest or pastor who oversees the church not themself need the same benefit that the members do? The forgiveness and acceptance of God? The need to be educated & corrected on their own daily walk? The accusation that church leaders more-or-less say “you must bow before me/my authority to have access to Jesus and His salvation” is hugely problematic. I have had numerous occasions in sermon preparation times where I’ve changed the pronoun direction from “you” to “we/I”. Not “YOU need to get right with the Lord/obtain His forgiveness/get on a right path with Him”, but “WE/I” do!

So, I just left this meme feeling hurt and discouraged, because obviously I couldn’t actually reach the person who created this meme, to hopefully come to a more balanced understanding with them. And I couldn’t and can’t reach the probably hundreds of thousands of people who have seen/will see this meme online. The damage is done. And what can I really do to improve it?

Well, I tell you what I can do, what we can do as a local church community: we can do our very best, prayerfully, intentionally, to make sure the narrative and accusations described in this meme are NOT in the subtext of things we say and do. Jesus is a compassionate Savior! And he came to all humanity, to heal and help, and ultimately save. He doesn’t condemn us (John 3:17), we are naturally condemned to the grave by the ‘natural’ order of things in this world. Even atheists have to agree with that. And the church, in its right posture before people, doesn’t tower over the masses to demand obeisance toward it: rather, it itself strives to be the bride that Christ deserves (Ephesians 5:27). The church doesn’t stand in the place of God to the world, the church stands in the place before God of the ones needing help & purification from our heavenly fiancé! And we weekly (and personally daily) ask him to wash us and make us white as snow before him (Isaiah 1:18).

So: the light of such accusations makes me re-realize just how important our daily witness is to others. We of course have no idea what kinds of feelings & possible resentments people around us have to matters of faith, Jesus, and the church. But let us intentionally make sure all conversations are sprinkled with kindness, love, encouragement, and helpfulness. That when people who know us come across such an accusation, they say “No! That doesn’t match my experience with authentic Chrstians: whoever said this is off in their assessment.”

It is still with a burden in my heart over this that I wish you and your loved ones a good rest of the week, covered by God’s loving grace. May we be a light amidst the darkness!

Sincerely,

Pastor Mark Tatum

Anaheim SDA Church

Mid-week Pastor’s Update

October 12th, 2022

“He who is faithful with little will also be faithful with much, and he who is unfaithful with little will also be unfaithful with much.” Luke 16:10

At the “manufactured home” complex in which we live, our neighbor’s mobile home has a fenced-in porch that faces toward our space’s driveway. The family there has two dogs, a gray bulldog and a little brown chihuahua, who fly into a rage anytime they perceive something or someone moving in their sight. Sometimes we will hear the “alarm” of their barks going off, only to glance out the window and see that the Amazon delivery person (or UPS, what have you) has dropped-off a package. And when Jime, or the kids and I go out to get in the car to go somewhere, they go absolutely wild! Agressively barking and snarling, as if to say “if only this fence weren’t here, we’d rip you to shreds!”

Now, my kids like dogs very much. They’ve repeatedly asked us to get one (the answer is always “no”), and when we go to the grandparents’ house in Riverside, they spend a good amount of time playing with their dog (they’ve even told their teachers that that dog is “their” dog, apparently ;-p ).

So I’m sure that, if these neighbor dogs were nicer, that our kids would happily go over and talk to them, pet them through the vertical slats, and maybe even ask the neighbors to go onto their porch to play with the dogs. But as it is, they keep their distance from the fence of that porch, and never mention wanting to build a relationship with those dogs.

Sometimes I wonder how similar or different we as a society may look to heavenly intelligences. We are allotted our ‘little space’ in our society: the little property of our homes, but also the circles of influence in our workplaces and social circles. And I wonder if our interactions are more welcoming or aggressive in the aggregate.

Just as I think it’s a loss for both those dogs and my kids that they don’t take a friendlier posture toward them, I wonder how many opportunities for good interactions, friendships, and even bonded relationships are lost because we take a default posture of defensivism, or even aggression, toward others.

And, while I don’t believe we’re saved by our actions, I believe the record of our actions, amassed over time, gives testimony to the heart of the person. So if angels & unfallen beings are asking themselves “should earthlings be permitted to come join us?” our kindness & generosity vs. defensiveness & aggression here and now can clue them in to how wise that prospect would be.

Lately there’s been verbiage in the outside world that churches are hateful places that breed intolerance: I hope nothing we do serves to feed that narrative. Rather, I pray that the Spirit of Christ would be shown, both through our personal lives as well as through our corporate body when we gather together.

Above all, I hope that when Christ returns, He will indeed ‘find faith on the earth’ (Luke 18:8), partially because of our faithful, encouraging, friendly interactions and invitations into Kingdom life with Him.

May God bless you and your families this week and beyond.

Sincerely,

Pastor Mark Tatum

Anaheim SDA Church

Mid-week Pastor’s Update

September 28th, 2022

“From heaven the Lord looks downand sees all mankind;from his dwelling place he watchesall who live on earth—he who forms the hearts of all,who considers everything they do.” Psalm 33:13-15

In my daily commute to Riverside earlier this week, I had an experience that you have likely had a time or two yourself: I saw one of those “Google street view” cars, with the funny circular camera mounted on top. I even paralleled it coincidentally for a few blocks. That made me think of times I’ve used Google street view*, and thought ‘huh, well, that’s how they get those images’. I wondered whether the images were stored on a hard-drive and uploaded, or simultaneously streamed to Google’s servers.

Then I got to thinking about how crazy amazing it seemed to me when Google Earth came out, in the early 2000s. I remember spending probably in the neighborhood of 10 hours on my computer in my dorm room that week, looking at everything from familiar places and neighborhoods, to beautiful places like bays and national parks, to different capital cities and governmental centers around the world (like the Mall in Washington D.C.).

I remember thinking how amazing it was that images like these could be available, for free, at my fingertips at any time. I also remember thinking that it seemed crazy that it was legal! Minus a few “top-secret” places that were blurred out, you could see just about anything, anywhere that you wanted. But then I figured, well, the visuals are out there in the real world to be looked at by people’s eyes at any time, perhaps putting them on the internet isn’t such a logical leap of public availability.

Google satellite view changed the way I see the world. Of course, I’d used maps on family trips before, and I’d see the weather forecaster standing in front of their big wall map, but getting a ‘birds-eye-view’ just really put my life in context, simultaneously making sense of my place in it, but also making me feel really small!

I feel that the Bible does the same thing for us: it helps us “zoom out” from our own neighborhood and daily circumstances, to see and understand the meta-narrative that is around it: How God created this world, implemented the plan of salvation to redeem it, and is to soon come and conquer its nations (Daniel 2:44-45, Revelation 11:15). It both puts my life in perspective, with its joys, sorrows, challenges, and victories, and also makes me feel very small in the midst of the grand narrative! Yet, to know that I am seen, loved, cherished, and intimately known as an individual in the midst of all of it, boggles my mind to the point of scrambling my brain. "How precious are your thoughts concerning me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!" Psalm 139:17

In ancient days, people could only climb a really tall tree, or stand on a cliff-edge of a mountain to get a bit of perspective as to the layout of the land. Through the centuries, we’ve steadily advanced until now we have Google satellite and street views.

Similarly, Bible characters of previous generations only knew portions of God’s grand narrative. We know much more now (this is the positive side of the prophecy in Daniel 12:4 that knowledge would increase in the last days). But soon we will be lifted even higher, to see integrated purposes of God that go beyond our current understanding, but within which our world, and our personal story fits in like an interlocking jigsaw piece.

I’m thankful to Google for the added perspective it’s given me. But I’m even more thankful to God, eternally so, for giving us the “bird’s eye view” of His perspective on us, through His Word.

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

Sincerely,

Pr. Mark Tatum

* I often look-up satellite & street views before going somewhere new. I regularly do it before visiting Adventist churches, and did so before I first came to interview for our church at Anaheim! I still remember thinking “Can that be right? That church looks kind of weird and disproportional from the front!”. :-p