Washington Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president

Much has been written about the benefits of standing.

My watch has a reminder that every hour reminds me to stand up and move around. A quick internet search will yield many articles about the benefits of standing.

Harvard Business Review reported on a study of 100,000 individuals over 14 years that found that those who sat for more than six hours per day or were more likely to have died, many from heart disease, than those who sat less than three hours per day. This was true even for those who exercised regularly. Standing burns more calories, is good for the back and guards against the forming of blood clots.

If you chose to stand like the body was designed to do, you will be in famous company like Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Winston Churchill and Ernest Hemingway to name a few.

However, there is another famous person who also stood.

Genesis 18:22 tells us,

God had just told Abraham that he planned to destroy they cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He was going to do it that very day.

Abraham stood still right there before God when he heard the news.

And then while standing, Abraham interceded for the people of those cities that might know God. He interceded until God agreed to not destroy the city if there were at least ten righteous found in the city.

Only then did he stop interceding with God. What a great picture of a righteous man standing and interceding for a place that was set for destruction.

In our area we have many people, and it is impossible to go a day without hearing of some evil thing that has happened in our area. And yet this is our mission field. It is the place that God has called us to reach.

There are people in every city and town in the Washington Conference territory that are open or may be open to learn more about a loving forgiving God who died on the cross to save them from this evil world.

We know that our cities and towns are also set for destruction when the Jesus comes and the earth is made new.

Yet now is the time for us to stand up and intercede with God for our communities and the people in them.

Now is the time for us to stand up and ask God what it he would have us do for our cities and the people in them so that they will know that Jesus is their way of escape.

Will you stand up either literally or figuratively and intercede with God for the communities in this conference?

Will you also go forward with God and be used by Him to share with those He places in your path? Let us all join in this mission to the people of our territory.