Feb 2014 The Latest Word by Downey Church

For the members, family and friends of the Downey Adventist Church

Silence is Trust at Work

Knowing God by Cary Fisher

ebruary is coming upon us which means Valentine’s Day is near, and stores will be cluttered with chocolates, balloons and greeting cards. Then, we will be able to buy all these sweet little nothings for the special people that we love. While Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love, we certainly know that there is so much more to it than giving someone flowers or a “be mine” candy heart once a year.

Love is such a complicated word with so many different meanings, but certainly, the Bible gives us the clearest understanding of what love is. In the first letter of John, The Bible says, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (I John 4:7-8). Interestingly, we usually think that our

knowledge of God is based upon our understanding of scripture; however, John points towards a different model for understanding who God is. As children of God, we show that when we experience His love, we are able to love others. When we are able to truly love others, it is then we know the true character of God. For example, imagine the knowledge of God that a mom gains as she loves and takes care of her child. She learns how God procontinued on page 1

This will also be a Children’s Sabbath. We look forward to hearing from the children and their views on love. This is one way our children learn leadership skills and we can show our support for them as

—Thomas Merton

INSIDE

Children’s Sabbath ebruary 15th will be a special Sabbath. This is the Sabbath closest to Valentine’s Day and we will be celebrating love; love for our families and friends, love for our church family and of course love for Jesus.

The purest faith has to be tested by silence in which we listen for the unexpected, in which we are open to what we do not yet know, and in which we slowly and gradually prepare for the day when we will reach out to a new level of being with God.

they grow and develop. If your child would like to be involved, please contact Pastor or Bill. Also, the Pathfinders will be delivering the flowers that you have pre-ordered. Please take this opportunity to not only support the Pathfinders, but show some brotherly love to some people at church. There will be a fellowship luncheon after the service. =

Get Rick Quick page 3 Who Do You Really Love? page 4 Taste & Inspiration on page 5 What’s happening? see pages 6 & 9 Our Church Family page 7 Kid’s Page on page 9

THE LATEST WORD Knowing God (cont. from page 1) tects and provides as she Love: Starts by Being Selflessness.” does the same for her little Nice”. On the 8th, the title After we finish this one. So, my prayer for all is “True Love: Continued series, we will start our of us is to comprehend a with Forgiveness.” Spring small groups with power of love that is far On February 15th, we a “kickoff” weekend. On greater than anything February 22nd, a holiday can prowe will consecrate duce. As we care the different small for each other, we Dear friends, let us love groups with prayer, understand that love and my sermon ultimately comes one another, for love will be titled “The from God, because comes from God. Decisions That We we know that God is Make”. This will be love. the first topic of our As we look at small groups with a our sermon calendar for will have a special Sabbath message on how positive February, we will start surrounding Valentine’s or negative choices affect off the month with a Day. The children will be our lives. three week sermon series leading our service. This Our theme for the called “True Love”. This is a great opportunity for small groups is called series will follow the them to learn leadership CREATION Health which famous love chapter of 1 skills and for how to share is about living a bibliCorinthians 13 which show their love for Jesus. The cally based lifestyle in all the attributes of what service will wrap up with order to be as healthy as love is. For February 1st, a sermon titled, “True possible. CREATION the sermon title is “True Love: Completed through Health is a phenomenal resource created by Florida Hospital, a Seventh-day Adventist hospital system. CREATION Health is an acronym which stands for C-Choice, R-Rest, E-Environment, A-Activity, T-Trust, I-Interpersonal Relationships, O-Outlook, and N-Nutrition. I find this program gives us a balanced program for living as healthy and happy as possible. I am personally very excited about this

“

small group series because of its practical and potential life-changing aspects. I hope all of us are able to participate in one of our groups, and this topic is definitely suitable for us to invite our friends. See you when the church gathers. =

”

The Latest Word V 26 N 02

WE DID IT

BILL AUMACK

responsible for this

LINDA AUMACK copy editor

LAURA LUNA

paper distribution

CARY FISHER pastor

address mail to: Downey Seventh-day Adventist Church 9820 Lakewood Blvd. Downey, CA 90240 office: 562.869.6013 fax: 562.622.1691

downeychurch@gmail.com www.downeychurch.com

February 2014 The Word & You by Linda Bewley

od’s word says, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations” (Psalm 100:4-5).

I missed the boat! Well, actually I missed an email from my pastor inviting me to be among a few people to share with our church family something for which I am grateful or thankful. When I learned that I did not get the email, Pastor and I decided that maybe another time would be better for me to share. To

Get Rich Quick be honest, I was a little relieved, because speaking in front of the church always makes me nervous. But my feelings changed after hearing the words shared by others. Their words encouraged me. The testimonies were genuine and heartfelt and helped me to remember that it is helpful, even necessary, to constantly remember and dwell on the blessings of life rather than difficulties. So as I sat in the pew, I felt a little disappointed that I had declined to participate. But you know what? God really does work in mysterious ways, because I’ve been praying about my article for this month, and I felt God say to me I still had an opportunity to participate by sharing my thoughts in this article! Yay!!! So here goes.

Worship Schedule February 1 Cary Fisher

February 15 Cary Fisher

True Love: Starts by Being Nice

True Love: Completed through Selflessness

February 8 Cary Fisher

February 22 Cary Fisher

True Love: Continued with Forgiveness

The Decisions That We Make

I am happy and thankful for God’s unconditional love and for the fact that He continuously forgives my sin and gives me new chances. My words do not seem to capture my thoughts on this subject. Maybe that’s why a passage from the book of Lamentations is among my favorite portions of Scripture. “I remember my affliction and wandering [and other stuff!] . . . and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and

therefore I have hope. Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is [His] faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:19-22.) I don’t know about you, but I really do need a new chance each morning, and I am grateful that Scripture reminds me that God is faithful to me according to His promise. Secondly, I am happy and thankful for my church family at Downey and the fact that I can go to church each week. What a huge blessing that is to me! The

situations or trials of the previous week are seemingly erased or swept away when I am with loving, caring people who come to worship the Lord. And after quiet time in the worship service and hearing teaching and encouragement from God’s word, I am refocused and feel prepared to face the week ahead. There is nothing like it in all that the world has to offer. And on the rare occasions I miss attending church due to illness or vacations, I feel a small void until I

return. I honestly cherish my church and my family there. The friendships I’ve made and the people I’ve met at the Downey church are irreplaceable. There you have it. That’s what I hope I would have shared. I have a little plaque that hangs on the wall right next to my shower. I see it each morning, and it reads, “Get rich quick. Count your blessings.” Not a bad philosophy, wouldn’t you agree? =

THE LATEST WORD by Bill Aumack

Who Do You Really Love?

W Agape has to do with the mind: it is not simply an emotion which rises unbidden in our hearts; it is a principle by which we deliberately live. William Barclay

Do not waste time bothering whether you “love” your neighbor; act as if you did. C.S. Lewis

e use the word Love with great abandon. We love pizza. We love our dog. We love our favorite TV show. We love our local sports team. Occasionally we even love people. We love our spouse. We love our siblings. We love our parents. The strange thing about English, is we have one word to express all these different kinds of love. I don’t know about you, but I think the love for pizza, the love for my brother and the love for my wife are all very different. Yet I only have one word to express all these different feelings. It’s my understanding that Italian has something like 18 words to express different types of love. I don’t speak Italian, so I can’t verify that. But it would make sense that a romantic language would have more than one word for love. The Koine Greek (Koine means common) that the New Testament is written in has several words for love. Eros which denotes a sexual type of love (the English word erotic is derived from this word). Although this word not used in the New Testament. The noun storge is used for family love. There was also the very common word philia for brotherly

love. Philadelphia is the familiar English derived from this word. The noblest form of love was agape love. William Barclay describes as agape like this. “Agape has to do with the mind: it is not simply an emotion which rises unbidden in our hearts; it is a principle by which we deliberately live.” This is a type of love that is unconditional. Agape love is unconditional love. It is a choice we make to love another person whether they love us back or not. It means that you choose to love someone even if he is your enemy! Agape love is not based on emotion at all. In fact, it may be contrary to our every emotion. It is an act of the will. The other types of love are pretty easy. Anyone can experience romantic love. Criminals and gang members experience brotherly love. There’s nothing uniquely Christian about that. But unconditional love, that’s something that you don’t see very often. Agape love presents a real challenge for us Christians. It is tough to live out because it’s hard to love someone who

doesn’t respond to you in the way you would desire. And all of us are going to have certain individuals—sometimes even at church—that we have to struggle to love. And yet, God’s word is very clear: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. Now, you couldn’t find a more clear command about what we’re called to do as followers of Jesus Christ. Jesus “agape loves” us and commands us to “agape love” others. One way to help us love people who don’t love us back, is to “fake it until you make it.” Yes, that’s right, fake it. No that doesn’t make you hypocrite. It means that you’re an adult following God’s command, even when you might not feel like it. C.S. Lewis agrees and gives the same advice. In Mere Christianity he writes, “Do not waste time bothering whether you “love” your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.” So who do you need to REALLY love? =

February 2014 Taste & Inspiration Lentil Quinoa Salad

enesis 25 focuses mainly on the generations of Abraham. He had many sons, two of them being Isaac and Ishmael. Isaac had two sons. The older son was Esau, the other was Jacob. Jacob loved his brother very much. Esau was a skilled hunter. Jacob, a quiet guy that liked to stay home. He also really enjoyed eating the animals that his brother brought home from his hunting trips. One day Esau came back from one of these trips so tired and weak from lack of nourishment that he was willing to sell his rights as firstborn to his younger brother Jacob for the price of a bowl of lentil soup and some bread that Jacob had just prepared. This was very important because when Jacob got the blessings from his father, Isaac, that were originally to go to his older brother Esau—Esau

had murder in his heart. Even for his own brother. Now, this month’s recipe we submit is a very tasty one containing several nutritious ingredients including lentils and is pretty good if we do say so ourselves. But this, nor any other that we’ve ever tasted YET, was so good that it would entice someone to trade it for their inheritance. We hope you enjoy this recipe and we also continue to encourage you, our church family, to have fun in the kitchen and eat healthy. God bless you!!!

Ingredients 1/2 cup quinoa 1 1/4 cups water, plus 2 cups 1/2 cup lentils 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Pilar & Phillip 1/4 cup vegetable oil

little “pop” upon biting.

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Put the lentils in a sieve and rinse in cold water. In a saucepan, simmer the lentils in 2 cups water until the lentils are tender, but not mushy, about 30 minutes. Drain and cool.

1 lime, zested Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 2 green onions, chopped 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Directions Put the quinoa in a sieve and rinse in cold water. In a large microwave-proof bowl with a cover, add the rinsed quinoa and 1 1/4 cups water. Cover and microwave on high for 9 minutes. Let it sit for 2 minutes then stir. Quinoa should be tender enough to eat, but with a

In a small bowl, whisk the mustard and vinegar together, and drizzle in the oil to make an emulsion. Add the garlic powder, lime zest, and salt, and pepper, to taste. To assemble the salad: In a medium salad bowl, mix the quinoa, lentils, green onions, and chopped cilantro. Top the salad with the dressing, toss to coat and serve. Enjoy! =

Be sure to keep up with the latest news by signing up for the Wednesday email. You can sign up here www.downeychurch.org/Signups.html or send us an email at DowneyChurch at gmail dot com and we’ll add you.

Downey Adventist Church Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

1 5:24 pm sunset Visit www.downeychurch.org S.S. – Sabbath School C.S. – Community Service

10:50 am Worship Pastor Cary

3 pm Pathfinders/ Adventures

7 pm Band Practice 9 am Pathfinders/ Adventures

9:30 am S.S.

7 5:30 pm sunset

8 9:30 am S.S. 10:50 am Worship Pastor Cary

7 pm Women’s Prayer Group

7 pm Band Practice

14 5:37 pm sunset

15 9:30 am S.S. 10:50 am Worship Pastor Cary 12:30 Luncheon

7 pm Women’s Prayer Group

7 pm Band Practice

21 5:43 pm sunset

9 am Pathfinders

3 pm Pathfinders

22 9:30 am S.S. 10:50 am Worship Pastor Cary

7 pm Women’s Prayer Group

7 pm Band Practice

28 5:49 pm sunset

7 pm Church Board 7 pm Women’s Prayer Group

7 pm Band Practice

February 2014

Upcoming Events February Birthdays David Martinez – 2 Issac Diaz – 5 Mark Jackson – 7 Akeem Meade – 7 Jasmine Huinquez – 9 Irene Garcia – 11 Victoria Zamora – 11 Sheila Bathgate – 13 Maggie Zamora – 15 Ellis Perry – 19 Teresa Miranda – 22 Donna Morgan – 24 Armando Cabrera – 26 Kevin Williams - 28 Letty Duran – 29 Susie Duran – 29 If your birthday is left out in the monthly newsletter, please contact the church office so we can put it in.

Thursdays - 7 p.m. Women’s Prayer Group Fridays - 7:00 p.m. Band Practice Feb. Feb. Feb. Feb. Feb. Feb. Feb. Feb. Feb.

2 - Pathfinders / Adventurers @ 3pm 3 - Pathfinders / Adventurers @ 9am 14 - Valentine’s Day 15 - Children’s Sabbath 15 - Fellowship Lunch 15 - Pathfinders @ 3pm 16 - Pathfinders @ 9am 17 - President’s Day - Office Closed 27 - Church Board @ 7pm

The Latest Word deadline is the 5th of the month.

Coming Soon Mar 1 - Small Groups Begin Apr 12 - Celebration Sabbath Apr 19 - Easter Sabbath May 31 - SGA Chorale

THEâ&#x20AC;&#x2C6;LATESTâ&#x20AC;&#x2C6;WORD The Latest About

Our Church Family

ue to publishing schedules, this news is a bit dated, but we wanted to inform anyone that might not have heard yet. We lost two wonderful women at Christmas. Linda Miller Fernandez passed away Christmas eve, and Antonia Flores Vierna passed

away Christmas morning. Our hearts are heavy, but we rejoice that they both knew Jesus and we have the promise of seeing them again. Please remember both families in prayer as they deal with their loss.

Laura Luna has started as our church secretary. So when you contact the office, please be sure to say hi to Laura. We would like to thank Hatzuko for her service as church secretary. She decided it was time for her to move on to other things. We wish her well and she will still be around at church.

If you have any Church Family news, please contact the church office so we can get it into the newsletter. =

Volunteers Needed

e need writers to write articles for The Latest Word. If you have some ability as a writer and would be willing to submit some articles, please let us know. We would be open to some different writing schedules. You may have an idea for a regular series, that would be great. You may have a few ideas for a short run or something that would happen a couple of times a year, that would be

cool too. Or you may have one article that you would like to write and submit, that would be welcomed too. Please let us know if this sounds interesting to you. You could be part of the team that works on the best church newsletter.

Thank you to everyone who has been saving Box Tops for Education. That is greatly appreciated. For the Box Tops for Education, please save the Box Tops coupon. Please give your labels to Linda Aumack. Thank you for your support! =

February 2014

Ponder This... = “Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.” —Abraham Lincoln = “If I am not in God’s grace, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.” —Joan of Arc = “Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” —Robert Heinlein

Downey-Florence Seventh-day Adventist Church 9820 Lakewood Blvd., Downey CA 90240

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