Clarence E. Hodges Ministries

                The Ministry Supporting All Ministries


In a recent Adventist Review, Dr. Ivan L. Warden’s article on gifts and ministries stated, "Imagine what could happen if churches today had a Jerusalem-upper-room experience. It would change our understanding of spiritual gifts and ministries. Correctly understood and gladly implemented, the principles of spiritual gifts and ministries (with the love and unity that they will bring to the church) would transform society as nothing else."

This was made plain by our Lord when in John 17 He prayed that we would be one as the Father and Son are one and that we would be one in Them. Paul stated the same but pointed out in 1^st Corinthians 12 that the body is a unit with many parts working together as one.

What good would religious liberty be to the church if there were no functioning ministries? What good would feet be if they were alone or the head if there was nothing else. By God’s grace, may we seek and achieve the unity expressed in the prayer of Christ in John 17?

The ministry of religious liberty has three important parts: (1) Education - Educate thought-leaders and others with Liberty magazine, educate church leaders and church members on religious liberty issues - - - problems and solutions, (2) Protection against religious discrimination regarding churches and church-owned properties, Christian education, parenting and custody issues, faith sharing to all, and religious practices in the workplace; and (3) Last-day events - prophecies, preparation for the final crisis, with the faith of Jesus. THE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY DEPARTMENT will assist and cooperate with churches and other ministries in the interest of these issues.

At his first National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, President Obama announced the expanded purpose of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The President stressed:

"The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over another –– or even religious groups over secular groups. It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state."

It is good news to hear that the new president recognizes, "the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state." It is also good to hear that one religious group will not be favored over another or even religious groups over secular groups in this administration.

***********************************************

SCC  Religious   Liberty  News September  2011   
AL, FL, KY, MS, TN      C. E. Hodges, Religious Liberty Director
Nashville, TN 37207

Soon - Time Shall Be No More

Vatican Says Sunday Is For God and Rest

Vatican official exhorts Catholics to set aside Sundays for God and rest.
     Rome, Italy, Jul 19, 2011 (CNA/EWTN News) - Sunday should be a day for worship, rest and time with family and friends, said Monsignor Miquel Delgado Galindo, under secretary for the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
      “The Church teaches us to set aside this day, the first day of the week on which we remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ, for divine worship and for human rest,” the monsignor recently told CNA.     (Catholic News Agency)
      “On Sundays Catholics should participate in the Holy Mass, the unbloody renewal of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross” and “the greatest expression of worship and adoration that man can offer to the Lord our God,” he said.
     Sundays should also be a day “devoted to rest with family and friends,” he added.    Msgr. Galindo underscored the importance of Blessed John Paul II’s 1998 Apostolic Letter, “Dies Domini,” which exhorts the bishops, the clergy and the lay faithful to keep Sunday holy and to treat it as the Lord’s day.   

Pope Forgives Sins of Youth

Vatican City, Aug 12, 2011 / 10:33 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has declared that pilgrims to World Youth Day in Madrid will be able to obtain a special indulgence while attending the event.
     “We are very happy because the Holy Father reinforces with this decision the penitential meaning of World Youth Day in Madrid,” communications director Rafa Rubio told CNA (Catholic News Agency) on Aug. 11.
     The indulgence will allow young people to draw closer to God and grow in their friendship with Christ, Rubio added.  An indulgence is the means by which the Catholic Church – with the authority of Jesus Christ – rescinds the temporal consequences of sins that have already been forgiven in confession.
     Indulgences replaced the severe penances imposed in the early Church and can be either “plenary” or “partial,” which respectively rescind all or part of the punishment caused by sin.
     The Pope’s intentions were announced Aug. 11 in a decree from the Apostolic Penitentiary in Rome, the Vatican body responsible for issues related to the forgiveness of sins.

Mark Of The Beast Technology?         

A hair-thin electronic patch that adheres to the skin like a temporary tattoo could transform medical sensing, computer gaming and even spy operations, according to a US study published Thursday.   This new micro-electronics technology, called an epidermal electronic system (EES),  has been suggested for placing an invisible MARK OF THE BEAST on individuals.  (Prophecy News Watch, 8-11)

Countries With Worst Religious Freedom Grades Are Mostly Islamic 

     Muslim-majority countries score worst across a range of measures in a comprehensive new study tracking government restrictions on religion as well as social hostilities involving religion around the world.
     The study by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, released Tuesday, found that nearly one-third of the world’s population lives in countries where religion-related government restrictions or social hostilities rose significantly between mid-2006 and mid-2009.
     Geographically, the Middle East/North Africa region boasted the largest proportion of countries – 30 percent – where official restrictions on religion increased over that three-year period.  The ten countries with the highest – that is, worst – grades when it comes to government restrictions on religion were  Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Maldives, Malaysia and Indonesia, China, Burma and Eritrea.
     By contrast, the vast majority of the cases documented in the report took place in Islamic countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Sudan – and included lengthy prison terms and the imposition of the death penalty, as well as extrajudicial retribution such as mob attacks and killings.  North Korea is among the most repressive.

Adventists Limit Their Religious Freedom

     The Personal Ministries leader of each church has significant responsibilities for promoting all church ministries during worship services on the first Sabbath of each month.  But boards and pastors too often ignore pages 98 and 118 of the SDA Church Manual.  Too many pastors expect or are expected to provide all the leadership and when they try to do too much, they do too little.  When we free the members from work and ministry, we deny the Church its freedom.  Can God be pleased?
     Everyone is to minister to someone.  Jesus calls upon each to take up a cross, deny self, and follow Him.  (Mk. 8:34) “Everywhere there is a tendency to substitute the work of organizations for individual effort.  They excuse themselves from contact with the world, and they become self-absolved.  Love for God and man dies out in the soul.”  (EGW, Ministry of Healing, p. 147)
     “Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.” Jer. 30:7
See www.scc-adventist.org & www.cehodges.com

 SCC  Religious Liberty  News & Information
August 2011   
AL, FL, KY, MS, TN      C. E. Hodges, Religious Liberty Director
Nashville, TN 37207


Religious Liberty and You

Value and Protect Freedom

Many persons choose a type of slavery over freedom.  Some are slaves to chemical addictions, illegal and prescription drugs, and other things or persons.  They will do anything to satisfy a desire, please a person, or secure things.  Intemperance, bad habits, ignorance, and poor choices may lead to such lack of self control.  This can happen in many such areas even with things which may be good in moderation.

In religion, there are extremes which may lead us to give up our religious freedom.  Religious fanatics often deny themselves the freedom that is found in Christ and His teachings.  If God wished, He could control us and everything we do.   But He gives us freedom of choice even in serving Him who has done everything good for us or serving Satan who has done nothing good for us.  Yet, we sometimes chose to obey Satan.   The love of God then pursues us and seeks to save us, from our destructive and enslaving ways, by His grace.  The precious and powerful blood of Jesus makes this all possible.  What a high price Jesus paid for our freedom.
Christ was persecuted for having different religious views and practices than the Jewish leaders of His day.  He built the Christian church which was persecuted for preaching and teaching Christ.  The entire book of Acts tells of the disciples being stoned, beaten, imprisoned, and killed for preaching Christ and Him crucified.  But the early church of God chose to obey God rather than man no matter the cost.  Obedience to God protects our freedom.  There are those in prison today because they refused to give up Christianity but they have more freedom than the judges which sentenced them.  Christ not only gives us freedom from the burdens of sin but eternal freedom in His eternal life. 
In the United States, many persons have been denied freedom because of some religious beliefs.  This was called a Christian nation and therefore, Jews, Native Americans, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, Atheists, and a few others were mistreated because they were not viewed as Christians or true Christians.   Seventh-day Adventists have been jailed and forced to labor in chain gangs for desecrating Sunday. Yesterday, the victims were non-christians.  Tomorrow, it may be Sabbath-keepers or Muslims, or some others.   Those who value religious liberty should value it for all.

The united States has served as a model for other countries in the areas of freedom and human rights.  From the beginning, it has been a place of refuge for those trying to escape religious intolerance and persecution.  Refugees any place in the world today suffer much from discrimination, intolerance, persecution, and denial of basic human needs, often including food, clothing, and shelter.   When disasters and hard times spread to all or most people of a region, nation, or the world, the masses look for someone to blame or someone on which they can take out their anger and frustrations.

    “The restraining Spirit of God is even now being withdrawn from the world. Hurricanes, storms, tempests, fire and flood, disasters by sea and land, follow each other in quick succession. Science seeks to explain all these. The signs thickening around us, telling of the near approach of the Son of God, are attributed to any other than the true cause. Men cannot discern the sentinel angels restraining the four winds that they shall not blow until the servants of God are sealed; but when God shall bid His angels loose the winds, there will be such a scene of strife as no pen can picture.”  (Testimonies, Vol 6, p. 408)

“The terrible disasters that are befalling great cities ought to arouse us to intense activity in giving the warning message to the people in these congested centers of population while we still have an opportunity. The most favorable time for the presentation of our message in the cities has passed by. Sin and wickedness are rapidly increasing; and now we shall have to redeem the time by laboring all the more earnestly.”--Letter 148, 1906.  {Medical Ministry, p. 310.2}

We need to be aroused from our inactivity, our pleasures, and our sleep and respond to the call of Christ for us to serve in some ministry.  Are we waiting for more tornadoes, disasters, for more destruction, violence, for more loss of life before we work for Him with heavenly angels?  He calls upon us to deny self, take up our cross, and follow Him.  (Mk. 8:34) Have you denied self or taken up a cross?

2011 Disasters Signs of 2nd Coming

In 2011 alone, the world has seen 19 major earthquakes from California to Argentina, Japan, New Zealand, Iran and more.  Millions of dead birds and fish have been discovered in Arkansas, Louisiana, KY, MD, TX, MS, Brazil and more.  Major floods were seen in Australia, Brazil, MS, TN, MO, and OK.  Major tornados hit AL, TN, MN, MD, KS, MS, and OK.  An outbreak of E. Coli has plagued Germany.  The Grimsvotn, Iceland volcano erupted and the North Pacific Tsunami cost Japan $ billions and thousands of lives.  North Korea has again threatened to attack South Korea.  This problem stems from citizens of South Korea sending balloons over the border with religious tracts and messages. The signs are increasing.  Prepare now, by His grace and His love, for His soon return.  Send Liberty Magazine to your leaders.

IN MATTHEW 24, Jesus warned us of the signs and tribulation that would be seen before He returns.  That is what we are seeing now.  His coming is soon.  Signs of sin, suffering and trouble are everywhere.  President Obama and other leaders warn us every day of what may happen to the world economy.  All can lose everything.  Who will be blamed?  Who will be persecuted?  The Time of Jacob’s Trouble is for God’s people but He will save us just as He saved the Children of Israel out of Egypt.  Be faithful.  Let us finish His work by His grace. 

 
RELIGION AND POLITICAL POWER

Listed below are churches, United States Senators out of 100, U.S. Representatives out of 435, and the total each denomination has in both. Church Senate House Total

Catholic:  Senate 26;  House 135;  Total 161
Baptist:  Senate 8; House 58; Total 66
Methodist:  Senate 10; House 47;  Total 57
Presbyterian:  Senate 12; House 31; Total 43
Episcopalian:  Senate 6; House 32; Total 38
Jewish:  Senate 13;  House 32; Total 45
SDA: Senate 0;  House 2; Total 2

This just shows those which are politically powerful and how politically weak Adventists are. Most important, Adventists should be spiritually powerful as a praying, unified, Holy Spirit-filled people.

Matt 5:11_12

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education
to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Employer Best Practices