The Wake-Up Call

In my previous post I introduced the beginning of a new chapter… this post is about the foundation of that chapter. Because if I'm going to talk about Advent Ventures then we have to start where God starts.

With love.

The greatest show of love is found in the First Angel's Message of Revelation 14:6-7; although this connection can come as a surprise to some as it is often framed as a warning. But warnings are never God's starting point. The First Angel's Message begins with an invitation. An appeal. A revelation of who God is.

It begins with love.

If we open to 1 John 4:19 we find, "we love because He first loved us." It is the power of God's love, along with the enmity that He placed to restore our free will, that enables us to be capable of returning that love. Yet so many of us seem unaware on a real, heart level, how much God loves us.

God's Love at the Center

I believe with every fiber of my being that God's character is love, that His government is just, and that His advice for how to live is the only way humanity can ever truly thrive. He created us. He designed us. He knows what leads to health, peace, freedom, joy, and purpose. Yet, it feels we do not trust Him enough to believe this… maybe in thoughts we believe but in action many are still stuck… stuck at the First Angel.

I mean, theoretically we understand it. Many cognitively understand that the great controversy is, at its core, a trial on if God is actually love and if we can trust Him. The entire controversy is a response to satan's original claims that God's way is restrictive, oppressive, or unfair… that we cannot trust His recommendations for how to live. Our human existence is, for a lack of a better analogy, an experiment of what satan's system of living would look like. God permitted this to show a contrast of the two systems as we read:

"…it was decided that time must be given for satan to develop the principles of his government…" (HLv 506.4)

And I believe that the contrast between God's way and satan's counterfeit will soon become unmistakable. Not subtle. Not debatable. Unmistakable.

Why We Struggle to Feel God's Love

Here is the tragedy of our time: God is love, yet many of His children have no idea how deeply they are loved. Not because God is silent, but because the enemy has worked tirelessly to cut off every touchpoint through which God reveals Himself.

Think about it like this. If you want to feel the love of someone dear to you, you need interaction. If you cannot see them face-to-face, you call them. If you cannot call, you read their letters. If even letters are impossible, then you treasure any little sign or token they left behind.

This is what God did for us.

He gave us Scripture: His voice.
He gave us nature: His love letters.

I am convinced that nature is filled with hidden answers to the questions God knew we would ask… at my outpost here in Berivoi, Romania we make a focal point of our program taking time for "Object Lessons". Asking a question and then spending time in nature, actively listening for God to answer… and He does!

"By beholding the scenes of nature, the works of the Creator, by studying God's handiwork, imperceptibly you will be changed into the same image." Manuscript 85, 1908

God has embedded love letters for us to find that are powerful evidence of His love!

…But there is an enemy.

The Counter Plan: Remove Every Touchpoint

Communion with God is found in stillness, satan hijacks our attention with noise.
Scripture reveals God's voice, satan distracts us from opening it.
Nature contains God's love letters, satan covers them in concrete.

The deceiver has "Paved paradise and put up a parking lot."

The deceiver has replaced God's systems with counterfeits:
False priorities… which leads to:
False environments… which leads to:
False education… which leads to:
False employment… which leads to:
False economies… which leads to:
False food systems… which leads to:
False healthcare… which leads to not knowing the Great Physician…

Everything is designed to keep us from encountering the love of God.

And when you never see God's face, never hear His voice, never step into His creation… you begin to believe the lie that He is absent.

The Wake-Up Call

This is why the First Angel's Message is best understood as a wake-up call.

"Fear God and give glory to Him."
It is not fear in the sense of terror. It is fear in the sense of awe, trust, and return.

It is God shouting over the noise:
Remember who I am.
Remember who you are.
Remember My love for you.
Remember our time special together… the Sabbath.

Before we can come out of the false, we must wake up and spot the true.

It is all about waking up.

Waking up to the realization that we have been living inside false systems.
Waking up to the truth that anxiety, exhaustion, sickness, and emptiness are engineered outcomes.
Waking up to the fact that there is a true way… a real design… a life that God intended for us.

But the false has become so normal that we rarely question it… then misattribute our miserable existence to an unloving God.

In my ministry this year, this is the message I heard. We had fourty volunteers came through the outpost this year. Many of them arrived with no spiritual background at all. But once they were unplugged from the noise, once they stepped into nature, once they tasted simplicity… something awakened.

They began to ask questions.
They began to see design.
They began to sense that creation has a Creator.

The enemy's concrete was chiseled back just enough for the Creator's love letters to shine through.

Why Advent Ventures Must Begin Here

And that is why the guiding principles of Advent Venture Studio must begin with the First Angel. It becomes our primary filter for what we build and why we build it.
Every venture must awaken hearts to God's love for them. They must reveal His design not only for their existence but their abundance. To confront real problems created by false systems, and create practical, actionable pathways that reconnect people with their Creator… because a personal relationship with our Creator is the central point, and the resulting love is the ultimate goal.

May we all understand more clearly the First Angel… for what it is, an invitation.

An invitation to wake up… to open your eyes.

There is a love story unfolding.
There is a Creator who longs to reveal Himself to you.
There is a better way of living… a way that heals the mind, restores the soul, and reconnects you to the One who made you.
This is where the journey begins.

This is where Advent Ventures begins.