Everyone Welcome

Sabbath School and Church

Church In Person or On-Line

Everyone is welcome to attend the worship hour. It starts at 10:45 a.m.  

We broadcast Church live on youtube.com. Church will start at 10:45 AM.  Go to youtube.com and search for "greeley sda".  Click on the circle with the church picture.  You may need to choose the "Live" tab.

OR click on the "Sermons" link in the menu selections above to access the services. (On a phone or tablet the menu selections will be in a button that looks like three bars at the top of the screen.) Select "Live" in the tabs.

Weekly Church Meetings

Wednesday - 1:30 p.m.  Midweek study 

Sabbath 4:00 - p.m.  End Time Events with Shawn Korgan

Food for Thought

“Unusual Gifts” - Jerry and I had driven to Estes Park one Sabbath afternoon this past summer hoping for a cooler place than Greeley to go for a walk. We stopped at the Visitor Center where there are sidewalks to walk in different directions. Since Jerry can walk considerably faster than I can with my walker, he was some distance ahead of me. The sidewalk we were on goes through a walkway underground. I was walking through when I noticed one woman had slowed her pace to walk with me. Soon she asked, “How are you doing?” I smiled and told her I was fine and then asked her the same question. She hesitated but did say she was okay.  

She then walked on but stopped near the exit. On the wall was a grouping of mosaic tiles – maybe 4 inches square – with different pictures painted on them. When I caught up with her, she had another question for me. “Have you ever really looked at all those tiles?” When I said that I hadn’t, she had one more question: “Do you see the one with the Bible verse on it?” When I wasn’t immediately seeing it, she walked over and pointed to it. I read the verse aloud and said, “That is a really nice verse. Thank you for sharing that with me.” She said, “Thank you for letting me share with you. I really needed that today.” She started to walk away, then turned and said, “I know the Holy Spirit helped me see that verse today.” She then walked on and was lost in the crowd.

I decided that my needing to walk more slowly because of MS (Multiple Sclerosis) perhaps had some advantages. It has given me some interesting encounters with people. In addition to the one I just wrote about, there was the time I was walking in a park and a college girl stopped me and wanted to pray for me. There was also the time I was struggling to walk into the grocery store and a lady stopped me and prayed for me right in front of the store with people coming and going all around us.

It reminds me of something I had read recently written by a lady with MS. She had titled it “The Gift of MS.” She began by saying what MS had taken from her: dreams, careers, physical and cognitive abilities, pride, self-esteem. Then she had an equally long list of all the things the disease had given her: listening skills, ability to express empathy, adaptation to changing circumstances, and letting go of perfectionism. She said it was a gift she never expected to open, but yet a gift to be thankful for in many ways.

Perhaps that is what Paul meant when he said, “There was given me a thorn in my flesh.” (2 Cor. 12:7) He had asked God to take it away, but God had said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9) Thinking of all this has helped me to better understand what Paul said in 1 Thess. 5:18: “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Sharon Oster

The Hope of Heaven - “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3 NIV

Jerry was pastoring two churches in the Northwest corner of Arkansas when the conference president called and wanted us to move to the Slidell, LA, church in Southern LA. Of course, one doesn’t say “no” to your conference president so we began the packing process Sometime later the moving van was loaded with our things, and we were ready to leave the next morning when the head elder of the Slidell Church called. He told Jerry a young couple in the church had just had a stillborn baby, and they wanted Jerry to have the graveside service in New Orleans the next morning after we arrived.

Early the morning after our arrival while the movers unloaded our things on a hot, humid September morning, Jerry went to New Orleans for the service. Not too much time later another call came from the same couple and another stillborn baby. Again there was a service in an above-ground cemetery in New Orleans and another small casket was placed on top of the one already there.

I remember walking into the lobby of the church the next Sabbath after the service. The father of these two babies was standing there when a member walked up to him and said, “I know just how you feel.” Angrily the father shot back, “No you don’t know how I feel!” Only Jesus truly knows how we feel and only Jesus can truly comfort. “I, even I, am He who comforts you.” Isaiah 51:13

One year at camp meeting Jerry and I heard a couple tell their story of losing their children – all five of their children! The mother also wrote a book about their experience titled, “They’re All Dead, Aren’t They?” One evening the parents, George and Joy Swift, decided to go out for the evening, leaving the two younger girls in the care of their 14 and 12-year old brothers. This was a decision they regretted the rest of their lives. A “friend” of the boys apparently wanting a gun he knew was in the house, came in and took the gun and shot and killed all four children. Hence, the title of the book. The oldest girl, in a hospital at the time of the murder, died 18 days later of cancer.

The first half of the book relates the story of the tragedy. The last half of the book tells the story of Joy Swift’s journey from paralyzing grief, through Catholicism, and finally into the Seventh-day Adventist Church where she learned the real truth about death and the resurrection. She has lived with the hope of seeing her children again ever since.

How thankful we can be that God will someday turn tragedy into triumph and dry our tears. But for now He gives us peace that passes all understanding. (Phil. 4:7)

Sharon Oster

“Pressing the Pause Button” - 

“The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” 1 Cor. 15:26

Last Saturday evening (August 2) Jerry and I were at the memorial service for his nephew, Lon Anderson. There was a sizable group of people gathered at the country family-owned cemetery. During the service there were a number of us shedding tears, perhaps in sympathy with Lon’s sister who was crying. Even nature seemed to be in sympathy as a few raindrops fell now and then. Near the end of the service while someone played taps on their trumpet Lon’s sister and daughter spread Lon’s ashes on his mother’s grave. She had been killed in a car accident when Lon was just a little boy. What a joy-filled reunion when they meet again after a nearly 60-year separation!

A cemetery seems to be a good place to press the pause button on the busyness of life and reflect on what really matters. I think that is what Solomon meant when he wrote “It is better to spend your time at funerals than at festivals. For you are going to die, and you should think about it while there is still time. Sorrow is better than laughter, for sadness has a refining influence on us. A wise person thinks much about death, while the fool thinks only about having a good time now.” (Ecclesiastes 7: 2-4 New Living Translation)  Of course, we know Jesus views death as pressing the pause button on life – just a sleep until His coming and the resurrection. When referring to Jairus’ daughter who had died, Jesus told the people who were mourning, “She is not dead but asleep.” (Luke 8:52) When Lazarus died, Jesus told His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” (John 11:11)

A cemetery is a good place to think about the choices we are making in life. God’s choice is that we will all be with Him for eternity. But of course, He never forces us to make that choice. As we linger in a cemetery, we know we still have the gift of time to make the right choice.

I remember many years ago Jerry assisted with a funeral for a family whose young mother had died. Not having a church of their own, they had come to our church seeking help. As the service proceeded, Jerry watched a family with no hope. Their despairing, heart-breaking cries signaled their agony of a good-bye that was to be forever. Paul has said he doesn’t want us to grieve like those who have no hope. (1 Thess. 4:13)  I am reminded of a song that was sung at my young cousin’s funeral years ago – “What a Day.” The words of the chorus are as follows:  

 “What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see,

And I look upon His face – the One who saved me by His grace;

When He takes me by the hand, and leads me through the Promised Land,

What a day, glorious day, that will be.”

What a day indeed!

Sharon Oster