The king and his friend

An African king had a close friend who had the habit of remarking "this

is good" about every occurrence in life no matter what it was. One day
the king and his friend were out hunting. The king's friend loaded a
gun and handed it to the king, but alas he loaded it wrong and when the
king fired it, his thumb was blown off.

"This is good!" exclaimed his friend.

The horrified and bleeding king was furious. "How can you say this is
good? This is obviously horrible!" he shouted.

The king put his friend in jail.

About a year later the king went hunting by himself. Cannibals captured
him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some
wood, set up a stake and bound him to it. As they came near to set fire
to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being
superstitious, they never ate anyone who was less than whole. They
untied the king and sent him on his way.

Full of remorse the king rushed to the prison to release his friend.

"You were right, it WAS good" the king said.

The king told his friend how the missing thumb saved his life and
added, "I feel so sad that I locked you in jail. That was such a bad
thing to do"

"NO! this is good!" responded his delighted friend.

"Oh, how could that be good my friend, I did a terrible thing to you while I
owe you my life".

"It is good" said his friend, "because if I wasn't in jail I would have been
hunting with you and they would have killed ME."

- Source unknown

Romans 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

Depression Recovery

Watch this TV series online about depression recovery, on Lifestyle TV. You will get practical advice what YOU can do to get a better mental health. 

The presenter is Dr Neil Nedley. His material on depression recovery is the best I have seen in this field. I had the privilege of being in a team arranging a depression recovery program, in California, which Dr Nedley have developed. I can highly recommend it.

"Dr Neil Nedley's lifestyle series explores the problem of depression in a completely new way. Drawing on his years of medical practice, Dr Nedley shows how to treat depression's underlying causes instead of just treating symptoms. You will learn how to identify depression, and find a way out without dependance on drugs and counseling."

01. Depression, The Way Out - part 1

02. Depression, The Way Out - part 2

03. Lifestyle Treatment for Depression

04. Nutritional Therapy for the Brain - part 1

05. Nutritional Therapy for the Brain - part 2

06. Improving Emotional Intelligence - part 1

07. Improving Emotional Intelligence - part 2

08. Improving Emotional Intelligence - part 3

09. Making and Staying with Positive Lifestyle Choices - part 1

10. Making and Staying with Positive Lifestyle Choices - part 2

11. How to Deal with Grief and Loss

12. Enhancing Frontal Lobe Function

For more resources on improving mental performance check out Dr Nedley's website: http://www.drnedley.com

Disabilities turned to abilities

We all have trials of different kinds. Watch this inspiring video about Patrick Hughes. 

‎"How would you describe your disabilities? " "- Not disabilities at all, more abilities..." 


What are your abilities?

"The Lord permits His people to be subjected to the fiery ordeal of temptation, not because He takes pleasure in their distress and affliction, but because this process is essential to their final victory. He could not, consistently with His own glory, shield them from temptation; for the very object of the trial is to prepare them to resist all the allurements of evil." - Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy p. 528

The Seventh Day TV series with Hal Holbrook

Is there something special about the seventh day? What does the Bible say? Why do most christian denominations keep sunday?
The host Hal Holbrook will take you on an eye-opening journey through the history of the seventh day Sabbath. 
Don't miss this! The series is made by LTT productions, and there are 5 parts.


Part 1:

1. Origins - Views of human beginnings from Babylonian and Aztec myths as well as from the Bible and the Koran.
2. The Evolution Explanation - Darwin's theory of evolution challenges traditional view of origins.
3. Beyond Chance - A case against blind chance as a logical explanation of human origins.
4. Intelligent Designer - The Bible's portrayal of Creation and the Creator.
5. The Architecture of Time - The week and the Sabbath in the structure of human life.
6. Point of Contact - The weekly Sabbath in man's relationship with God.
7. A Day for All Mankind - The universal and perpetual purpose for the weekly day of rest.
8. Unholy Sabbath - National disaster strikes the "chosen people" due, in part, to their neglect of the Sabbath.
9. Sabbath Around the World - Somehow the concept of Sabbath extended into the culture and language of many peoples.
10. Reform - Revival of Sabbath observance among the Jews who returned from exile results in heroism and tragedy.

http://www.sabbathtruth.com/free-resources/seventh-day-video-series/articletype/articleview/articleid/966/the-seventh-day-part-1.aspx



Part 2:

1. Religion in Rome - A summary view of Roman religions during the time of Jesus.
2. The Jewish Sabbath - Strict Sabbathkeeping marked the Jews as unique.
3. The Sabbath Reformer - The Bible protrays Jesus as a revolutionary Sabbathkeeper.
4. Prophecy - Jesus predicted that His followers would be still be keeping the Sabbath at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
5. Christians and Jews - The two groups shared a view of a personal God and of the weekly Sabbath, but Christians found new meaning in the holy day.
6. The Christian Sabbath - Clear evidence for Christian observance of the seventh-day Sabbath in the first century AD.
7. Sundaykeepers - Second-century Christians in Alexandria and Rome begin observing the first day of the week instead of the Sabbath.
8. The Day of the Sun - Roman sun worship and its link to Christian Sunday observance.
9. Sunday Law - Emperor Constantine legalizes Sunday as the weekly day of rest in the Roman Empire.
10. The Sabbath Survives - Proof of seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath observance into the middle of the fourth century.

http://www.sabbathtruth.com/free-resources/seventh-day-video-series/articletype/articleview/articleid/967/the-seventh-day-part-2.aspx




Part 3:

1. Celtic Christianity - The religious background to the story of St. Patrick.
2. The Real Patrick - Once a slave in Ireland, Patrick responds to a divine call and returns to the Emerald Isle as a missionary.
3. Celtic Sabbath - Saturday observed as the Sabbath by Celtic Christians.
4. Margaret of Scotland - Margaret comes from England, marries King Malcolm, and attempts to reform Sunday observance in Scotland.
5. Assault on the Sabbath - The Church of Rome promotes the Sabbath (Saturday) fast as an expression of anti-Jewish sentiments.
6. Power Struggle - The "Sabbath fast" becomes a key issue in the rivalry between church leaders in Rome and Constantinople.
7. Deceptions - The "letter from heaven" threatens Sunday-breakers.
8. Fight for Truth - Resistance to church/state authority brings tragedy.
9. John Wycliffe: Champion of Conscience - An Oxford professor focuses new attention on the Bible as the supreme authority for Christian faith and practice.
10. The Lollards - Wycliffe's followers take his views throughout England and beyond.
11. The Church vs. the Bible - The church-state establishment opposes the spread of the Bible and the ideas of Wycliffe and the Lollards.

http://www.sabbathtruth.com/free-resources/seventh-day-video-series/articletype/articleview/articleid/968/the-seventh-day-part-3.aspx



Part 4:

1. Russian Reformation - This Sabbathkeeping movement reached the highest levels of Russian society and led to fiery executions in Moscow's Red Square.
2. Sabbath vs. Sunday in Ethiopia - Jesuit missionaries succeeded in converting the Emperor to Roman Catholicism, but attempts to quash Sabbath observance resulted in civil war.
3. Inquisition - Civil and religious authorities united to root out "heresy."
4. Purging the Church in Spain - Ferdinand and Isabella, the "Catholic Monarchs," used the Spanish Inquisition to rid their church of Jewish heresies.
5. 5. Portugal Exports the Inquisition - Inquisitors carried their campaign of religious persecution into the new territories of Portugal's expanding empire.
6. Authority: Sola Scriptura? - Protestant Reformers insisted on the authority of the sacred Scriptures, while Catholic leaders defended their church's stand on Tradition.
7. Anabaptists - Persecuted by Protestants and Catholics alike, these radical reformers stood for strict adherence to biblical teachings. Among them were new champions of the Sabbath.
8. The Seventh-day Men - While many Puritan preachers insisted on strict observance of Sunday, other prominent Englishmen called for a return to the Sabbath of the Ten Commandments.

http://www.sabbathtruth.com/free-resources/seventh-day-video-series/articletype/articleview/articleid/969/the-seventh-day-part-4.aspx


Part 5:

1. Roger Williams and Religious Liberty - This nonconformist preacher established the Rhode Island colony on the foundation of freedom of conscience for everybody.
2. To the New World - A Sabbathkeeping Baptist couple emigrate from England to Rhode Island and help establish the first Seventh Day Baptist congregation in America.
3. A Song in the Wilderness - Conrad Beisel and his followers establish a Sabbathkeeping community on Pennsylvania's Cocalico Creek — the Ephrata Coister.
4. A Voice from Germany - Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf directs the Moravian mission to the North American Indians and inspires his community to keep the seventh-day Sabbath.
5. Advent Movement - A Seventh Day Baptist lady shares her Sabbath beliefs with her pastor, and this leads to the establishment of the Seventh-day Adventist church.
6. Kingdom of Heavenly Peace - 19th-century China is shaken by the Taiping Revolution, a huge peasant revolt that is shaped, in part, by bibical principles including observance of the seventh-day Sabbath.
7. Eskimo Prophet - In Alaska's Kobuk River valley a man named Maniilaq learns about "seventh-day resting" from one he calls "the Grandfather."
8. The Shining One - Deep in the South American rain forest Chief Owkwa learns about the Sabbath from a bright celestial visitor.
9. Africa - The Sabbath's deep cultural roots in various parts of this continent.
10. Saving Sunday - The secularization of Sunday in 19th-century America leads some political and religious leaders to promote laws that would protect Sunday as the national day of rest and worship.
11. Sabbath on Trial - People who observe Saturday rather than Sunday as their weekly day of worship sometimes face financial hardship and legal trouble because of their beliefs.
12. People of the Sabbath - Although still a small minority, seventh-day Sabbathkeepers are increasing in number around the world.
13. Challenges - Sabbathkeeping theologians respond to critics who contend that observing the seventh-day Sabbath is legalistic or irrelevant for Christians today.
14. Eternal Sabbath - Bible prophecy points to the Sabbath as part of God's plan for a perfect world in the eternal future.

http://www.sabbathtruth.com/free-resources/seventh-day-video-series/articletype/articleview/articleid/970/the-seventh-day-part-5.aspx

There are also many other interesting info about the sabbath at Sabbathtruth.com

Photo by Digna reklambyrå Jönköping