{"id":10976,"date":"2022-06-07T21:53:53","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T21:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/?p=10976"},"modified":"2022-06-08T14:52:31","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T14:52:31","slug":"wanted-people-of-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wanted-people-of-vision\/","title":{"rendered":"Wanted: People of Vision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">07 June 2022, St. Louis, USA [Audrey Andersson]<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are there life events that define who we are and how we act? For the apostle Peter, the\u00a0Passover weekend when Jesus was crucified was one such event. He fell asleep in\u00a0Gethsemane. His initial violent bravado in cutting off the High Priest\u2019s servant\u2019s ear was followed\u00a0by a cowardly denial, cursing and saying that he was not a follower of Jesus. His despair was\u00a0all consuming, but on the Sunday morning, when he heard the women say the tomb was empty, it\u00a0gave way to hope. Only when Jesus appeared in the upper room did he begin to comprehend\u00a0something of the reality of the resurrection.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_53857\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"  data-origwidth=\"800\" data-origheight=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qvD2TlRXo2s?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/ted.adventist.org&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&rel=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Audrey Andersson \u2013 General Vice-President of General Conference\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After that meeting, when contemplating what to do next, he decided to resume his career as a\u00a0fisherman. He was a man without a vision. He had no ambition, no clear direction in life. He returned\u00a0to Galilee. His return to fishing was not profitable. After a night\u2019s unsuccessful fishing, he meets\u00a0Jesus again. Jesus confronts Peter with his denial. He is restored. He is assured of Jesus\u2019 forgiveness\u00a0and commissioned to feed Jesus\u2019 followers. Despite this, change does not happen overnight.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fast-forward fifty days to Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Gone is the cowardly, foul-mouthed fisherman. Peter is transformed. He stands up in Jerusalem, fearlessly proclaiming the\u00a0message of the risen Saviour. People who had been in the mob crying for Jesus to be crucified now\u00a0asked, \u2018What shall we do?\u2019 What made the difference? <strong>The presence of the Holy Spirit gave Peter\u00a0the vision.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reflecting on what has taken place over the last couple of years through events which that at times\u00a0still seem unbelievable, such as the Covid-19 pandemic with hospitals full to the brim of\u00a0seriously ill people, mask wearing, social distancing, and cancelled worship services &#8211; people\u00a0experienced a fear of which they did not know how to fight. Compound that with more recent\u00a0global political, social and economic events, they are looking for answers, for people of vision to\u00a0show the way forwards.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The story of Pentecost in Act 2 reminds us that the church has a message of hope and\u00a0healing. A message which has never been more relevant. <strong>There is a danger that, like Peter when he was in Galilee,\u00a0we know the message, but there is no discernible change in our behaviour<\/strong>. The church needs\u00a0leaders. The hour calls for those, from the local church to the General Conference who will catch the vision. Who will take the message of salvation and hope to their neighbours, to\u00a0the stranger in the street, whether it is convenient or not?<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>This is not the time for the status quo. It\u00a0is the time to be filled by the Holy Spirit, and to catch the vision of a living Saviour\u00a0and spread the Good News throughout the world.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div><em>Pastor Audrey Andersson is a newly elected General Vice-President of General Conference,\u00a0St. Louis June 2022<\/em><\/div>\n<div><em>[Header photo, left to right: Maurice Valentine and Audrey Andersson \/ Photographer: Jimmy Botha].\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is not time for the status quo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1577],"tags":[487,1096,1125,715,1021],"class_list":["post-10976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-organisational-updates","tag-audrey-andersson","tag-general-conference","tag-jesus","tag-leader","tag-vision"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10976"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11002,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10976\/revisions\/11002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}