What are we doing to make a tangible difference in the communities in which we live? If the doors of the Seventh-day Adventist church were locked tight and closed indefinitely, would anyone in your town notice? When your county reviews its plans for dealing with a natural disaster, do they include the local Seventh-day Adventist church and school on the list of responders? Does your church have a food bank, a clothing bank, support group for people struggling with addictions, divorce recovery program, or community health programs? Are you involved in some of the programs associated with Adventist Community Services?
And by the way, Adventist Community Services is not an exclusive organization limited to people over the age of 60. You will be welcomed with open arms even if you are only two or three decades old. They won't hold your youth and inexperience against you.
This is not an issue of small consequence. The Desire of Ages vividly portrays the great judgment day. "When the nations are gathered before Him, there will be but two classes, and their eternal destiny will be determined by what they have done or neglected to do for Him in the person of the poor and the suffering."1
That is a startling statement. Eternal destiny determined by what I have done for the poor and suffering. How about today, this week, this month? What have we done for those who have needs in our very own neighborhoods?
Adventist Community Services is doing a lot, and they could use your help. Volunteer today to relieve suffering and make this world a better place as we wait for the soon return of Jesus. Look for ways you can help in your community, or even with your next-door neighbors.
Community service is not just something we should do. It's something we should become, from the inside out.
"In that day Christ does not present before men the great work He has done for them in giving His life for their redemption. He presents the faithful work they have done for Him. To those whom He sets upon His right hand He will say, ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and ye gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was in prison, and ye came unto Me.' But those whom Christ commends know not that they have been ministering unto Him. To their perplexed inquiries, He answers, ‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.'"2
1, 2 Ellen G. White, Desire of Ages, 637.
