Immediately, my mind went into high gear. If sending the story to four people would get me two years of blessing, would sending it to eight get me four years? How many would I have to send to ensure a lifetime of blessing? Would sending it to three get me 1.5 years? Or is four the absolute minimum for getting any blessing at all?

Of course, I could be barking up the wrong tree in trying to determine if the blessing progression is arithmetic, geometric or exponential. I mean it could be kind of like Jesus’ story of the workers sent into the farmer’s field: They all got paid the same no matter how long they worked. So maybe there’s no more blessing for 100 forwarded emails than for four. Was the person who made the promise seeking to keep me from wasting a lot of time for which I’d have no return on my investment?

Maybe increasing the number of recipients raises the intensity of the blessing rather than the duration. So would I rather have a super-charged, high-voltage blessing that fades quickly? Or would I prefer a low-keyed, low-voltage blessing that hangs around a long time?

By the way, how will I know when the two-year promise has expired? Will I notice the blessing simply ebbing away, with more and more hassles invading my life? Or will it be dramatic and sudden?

Maybe an opening will come in traffic, so I’m able to walk across a busy street without having to wait interminably. As I’m thinking about how fortunate I am, maybe I’ll suddenly remember that it was almost exactly two years ago––just a few seconds shy, to be precise––that I forwarded those four emails. And for a moment I stand there in the middle of the street contemplating how exquisitely wonderful life has been since I claimed the promise contained in that email.

Then I hear the an air horn and the screech of brakes just before the Mack truck runs over me. My two years of blessing, good though they were, are up.

Do you detect a touch of cynicism in my voice? It’s the same when I need a good laugh so read my horoscope. The difference is that the horoscope is based on star alignment and a lot of other stuff I put no faith in. But when equally outlandish promises are made in conjunction with stories about God, I get ticked.

I think He deserves better.

Jim Coffin, Senior Pastor

"So," the mother concluded after a comprehensive description, "that’s what married people do when they’re really, really in love."

With a grimace and a look of utter revulsion, the youngster asked: "Do they have to?"

It’s not the first time a good product has been badly packaged. Back in 1973, in a survey of community attitudes toward Seventh-day Adventists (done in Australia), the researcher concluded: "Adventists seem to put forward very relevant principles in an unfortunate way."

Perhaps nowhere is this truer than in our presentation of the Sabbath. Our method is kind of like a father who threatens to beat his son if the child doesn’t eat his ice cream.

We don’t normally expect good opportunities to necessitate a threat. We pursue good things because they’re to our advantage and bring enjoyment. Certainly, the Sabbath should do just that.

In essence, God says, "Folks, work is honorable. Work is necessary. But enough is enough. So I’ve mandated that you spend at least 14.28571 percent of your time as vacation. Every seventh day is dedicated to physical, mental, social and spiritual refreshment.

"Not only do you get a break from many of the pressures of the daily grind, but through this weekly celebration you’re perpetually reminded of who you are.

"And who are you? You’re a special creation made in my own image—made for grand and glorious things. I don’t want you ever to lose sight of that. This weekly ‘Sabbath,’ as I call it, gives you time to learn about, tap into and develop the tremendous potential I’ve given you."

I could go on listing the beauties and benefits of the Sabbath. And probably I should. Because, unfortunately, Adventists haven’t been leading the pack when it comes to positive portrayals of this wonderful provision from the hand of God.

To our discredit, an increasing number of people from a variety of spiritual backgrounds are beating us to the punch in effectively selling the beauties of at least "a Sabbath." Instead, we focus far too much on the negative.

Our typical evangelistic presentation spends little time talking about the beauties and benefits of the Sabbath in its holistic context. Instead—when you get right down to it—we say something like: Most of the world worships on the wrong day. Unless you get it right, you’re going to receive the mark of the beast. If you receive the mark of the beast, God’s going to kill you. So wouldn’t you rather worship on the right day than be burned to death?

Realistically, any persistent bad behavior can potentially cause me to be lost eternally. If I treat my wife badly, I may find myself in the "lake of fire." But should I be urged to treat her well because I love her? Or because I have to ensure that God won’t kill me?

Poet T.S. Eliot declared: "The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right thing for the wrong reason."

Let’s ensure that we’re presenting the most appealing reasons for doing God’s bidding.

Jim Coffin, Senior Pastor

I think it was an excellent idea––because both doctrines describe something really good. The bad part is that we’ve too often presented both the Sabbath and the Second Coming as "cold-pricklies" when they both should be presented as "warm-fuzzies."

Last week we talked about the Sabbath and how we’ve been guilty of turning a wonderful blessing into a do-it-or-God-will-kill-you fear-driven burden. And we’ve too often done the same to the doctrine of the Second Coming.

What’s the Second Coming all about? It’s about how the Creator/Sustainer/Redeemer of the universe is going to be reunited with His creatures after being long-separated. Except for a wonderful 33-year interlude two thousand years ago, God and His creatures haven’t engaged in ongoing, face-to-face interaction since Adam and Eve’s fall into sin. At the coming of Jesus, that’s all going to be reversed. And a lot of other bad situations will be reversed, as well.

As it says in Revelation 21: 3, 4: "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

That sounds pretty appealing to me. In fact, it can’t come any too soon from my perspective. All pain and suffering? Gone. All sickness and death? Gone. All animosity between individuals and groups? Gone. All natural calamities and accidents? Gone.

At the coming of Jesus, the Bible tells us, "The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore, encourage each other with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).

The English language has several words to describe the state and/or place of ultimate perfection: Eden, Utopia, Paradise, Elysium, Heaven, Nirvana. Whatever we call it, when Jesus returns, that’s where we’re headed. And the Bible tells us that we can’t even imagine how good it’s going to be because it so far surpasses anything we’ve ever experienced or even dreamed of.

The question concerning the coming of Jesus isn’t: Am I good enough? The answer to that is a resounding No! The question is: Is Jesus my Friend? Have I accepted Him as my Savior? Have I confessed my need and accepted His gift of eternal life? If I have, then Jesus’ coming is the greatest thing I’ll ever experience. It should be all joy and no fear.

Jim Coffin, Senior Pastor

For the past two weeks I’ve looked at what I consider some bad packaging of good products in the spiritual realm. And those products are two of the most important doctrines of the Seventh-day (Sabbath) Adventist (Second Coming) Church.

As I see it, the doctrine of the Sabbath tells me where I’ve come from––specifically, that I was created in God’s image by God Himself. And the doctrine of the Second Coming tells me where I’m going––specifically, that I’m invited to spend eternity in Paradise with God.

Fortunately, the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s emphasis isn’t just about the past or just about the future. It’s also about getting the most out of the here and now. And that’s where we encounter another "cold-prickly" that should have been presented as a "warm-fuzzy." I refer to our emphasis on healthful living.

Here’s the deal: Everyone wants to be healthy. No one wants to be sick, out of shape or prematurely aged. So one would think that healthful living should be an easy sell. But it isn’t. In part, because we’ve been far too prescriptive and far too judgmental. And in the process we’ve turned off a lot of people.

Looking at balanced living from a physiological perspective, there are really three main components: rest, exercise and diet (RED, if an acronym helps you remember). Since we all want to be healthy, we should all have at least some motivation to get adequate rest, sufficient exercise and a healthy diet (which may involve not only what we eat but how much we eat).

But instead of outlining principles and encouraging people to, over a period of time, develop an ever-improving lifestyle, focusing on what they feel needs to be addressed right now, we get prescriptive. And then judgmental. And nothing kills enthusiasm like prescriptiveness in conjunction with judgmentalism.

Our founding fathers and mothers looked at the basic principles of healthful living and asked questions such as, "Granted what we know about caffeine, how should we relate to caffeinated beverages?" And they declared them verboten. Thus, as a youngster, I knew the long-standing rule that I was to avoid Coke and Pepsi, but Orange Crush and 7-Up were OK. One category called one’s Adventist bona fides into question. The other carried no stigma whatsoever.

Of course, during my lifetime we’ve learned a lot more about sugar and its effects. So caffeine may not be the most harmful ingredient in soft drinks. But it’s hard to change taboos mid-stream. So people who understood the generally non-beneficial nature of all soft drinks felt the delineation was sort of ridiculous. And they used the inconsistency as license to drink whatever soft drink they so chose.

And that’s sort of the way it’s gone. Because many of us––at least of the Baby Boomer generation––were handed a list of do’s and don’ts that really don’t make a lot of sense, and because we’re so sick of being judged by others who use faulty standards by which to judge, we’ve just given up on the whole issue.

But healthful living actually deserves serious consideration. Which we’ll attempt in more detail next week.