Knox Seventh-day Adventist Church

Knox Seventh-day Adventist Church We would love to have you join us for praise & worship Sabbath afternoons beginning at 2:30 PM (CST).

09/06/2026

From Retired Pastor Ernest Peckham:
The walls of a room in an old Scottish mansion were filled with sketches made by famous artists. The practice began after a pitcher of soda water was accidentally spilled on a freshly decorated wall leaving an unsightly stain. A noted artist, Lord Landseer, was a guest in the house. One day when the family went out to the moors, he stayed behind. A few masterful strokes of a piece of charcoal turned the ugly spot into the outline of a beautiful waterfall, bordered by trees and wildlife. He turned the disfigured wall into one of his most successful drawings of Highland life.
Ezekiel 11:16-17 “Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone.’ Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’”
By His sovereign love and grace, God can bring good out of our failures, and even out of our sins. God used the time of captivity to be a “sanctuary to them for a while”. God did not ignore them but used this time to transform His people. He was not done with them; they would still be used by Him to accomplish His purposes. Their captivity would be a constructive discipline designed to bring His people back to Him. Their confinement would prepare them to be used as a part of His long-delayed purpose and plans.
God still cares for, and is present, with His people even when they are exiles. Then God tells them the arrogant pagan boasters would be removed and those separated from Him would be gathered to possess the land as He had prophesied through Moses.
Numbers 14:31-32 “But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.”
Fast forward to today. We are exiles in a land that is not our home. But God promises to restore His people to the land He has prepared for us. We will live with Him for eternity!

09/05/2026

From Retired Pastor Ernest Peckham:
Sometimes, because of their lifestyles, people are ripe for judgment. Take the case of the thriving and extraordinarily beautiful city of Messina, Italy. In the early morning of December 28, 1908, an earthquake struck, and 84,000 human beings died. Only a few hours before that devastating earthquake, which laid Messina and the surrounding districts in ruins, the unspeakably wicked and irreligious condition of some of the inhabitants was expressed in a series of violent resolutions that were passed against all objections. The journal ‘Il Telefono’, printed in Messina, published in its Christmas issue an awful parody, daring the Almighty to make himself known by sending an earthquake! And in three days the earthquake came!
Ezekiel 7:27 “The king mourns, the prince is wrapped in despair, and the hands of the people of the land are paralyzed by terror. According to their way I will do to them, and according to their judgments I will judge them, and they shall know that I am the LORD.”
“The king … the prince … the people”, all classes of the population, suffer in a similar manner. Social honor, money, or prestige spares no one from God’s “judgments”. The phrase “they shall know” or equivalent expressions occurs 88 times in the book of Ezekiel. This is a keynote that God commands Ezekiel to make known to the people. Their lack of knowledge resulted in them being taken into captivity. In captivity, God could teach them – humility was an educational process. Through difficult adversities God’s people would learn what they had failed to learn during the times of prosperity. By sufferings, which are the result of their own decisions, they will be forced to acknowledge God as Lord.
It is true also for modern day children of God, that whoever breaks God’s law, will find themselves imprisoned by their own judgments. Further, since we encourage each other to sin, we will find ourselves brought low by God. We all will be in trouble if God judges us based on our own merits instead of having our sins washed away by Jesus.
Lord, help us find that good part which cannot be taken away.
Happy Sabbath!

09/04/2026

From Retired Pastor Ernest Peckham:
A New York Court of Appeals decided against a plaintiff in an action for damages. The man who was walking along Fourth Avenue stopped on a temporary bridge to watch work being done on the subway. A workman advised him to move on, as he was liable to get hurt. The man refused, claiming he had a right to be on a public street. A few minutes later he was struck on the head by a piece of iron from a pipe high above. He was severely hurt and sued for damages. The court decided he was perfectly justified in staying where he was hurt after being warned. However, the warning he had received and ignored removed any further obligation on the part of the company. The court explained further that the contractor had no right to remove the man by force as he had performed his full duty by warning of the peril.
Ezekiel 3:17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.”
Ezekiel is called by God to be a “watchman”. He is to “hear” God’s words and deliver the “warning” to the proper person, or people, from God. The “watchman” correlates back to the time of a military sentinel who would keep a close watch on an area from a lookout. If he saw any threat, it was his responsibility to warn the troops of the approaching danger. This describes the special characteristics of Ezekiel’s work. He was to be on the watch for souls.
God has entrusted that work to us. We are to be His faithful watchmen. We are to not become disinterested, careless, or tired of the job. We are called to keep watch over each other as He trusts us to do this. He calls us to view with critical awareness those around us, and to share the good news of salvation. We are active participants in the lifesaving of others. Our faithfulness may save many people, whereas our careless negligence may rob us of not only the blessing, but the right to be in God’s eternal family. After all, if He can’t trust us down here …
The military takes a severe position as it relates to lookouts. The results of not doing their duty can be court martial or even death. We must wake up to our duty and take seriously God’s directive to spread the good news.
Lord, open our senses to those around us.

09/03/2026

From Retired Pastor Ernest Peckham:
An angry man rushed through the Rijksmuseum, the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history, in Amsterdam until he reached Rembrandt’s famous painting “Nightwatch.” He took out a knife and slashed it repeatedly before he could be stopped. Another time, a madman slipped into St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome with a hammer and began to smash Michelangelo’s beautiful sculpture The Pieta. Two cherished works of art were severely damaged. Did the officials throw them out and forget about them? Absolutely not! Experts working with the utmost care and precision made every effort to restore the treasures.
Lamentations 5:21 “Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old…”
Jeremiah prayed for repentance. He recognized that it would take a Divine act, “Restore us to yourself, O LORD”. Only God can restore lost sinners to be in favor with Him. Only He can impart the grace that makes it possible for sinners to repent and return to Him.
Romans 2:4 “…Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”
God does not leave any behind, unless they have first turned their backs on Him. Even then, if they turn back to Him, He quickly returns to them, showering them with mercy and love.
When God bestows repentance, it is powerful and effective: “that we may be restored!” It is His great desire to renew the relationship with us. When God confers on us His repentance, He changes us and restores us: “Renew our days as of old”.
Troubles may cause us to lose heart, but the way back to God is wide open for all who want to find Him. Put your whole trust in God, confess your sins, pour out your heart to Him and He will cover you in His grace and mercy.
Spare us, Lord, we want to be Your people.
Do not let sinners rule over us. Restore us to our place with You!

09/02/2026

From Retired Pastor Ernest Peckham:
“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.” (Edward Mote, 1834). Over 180 years later, we continue to sing these words of hope and assurance. This is our declaration that in the midst of trials and storms, we will cling to the rock that is our Savior.
What do you depend on? What do you put your trust in? So often it is, seemingly, in anything other than God. Jeremiah wrote:
Lamentations 3:21-24 “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’”
We depend on our ability to do things. We rely on our talents to get by when we have procrastinated. We feel that we still have time – we can do it. We trust in others, our spouse, friends, family, to cover for us. We expect them to do all the things we cannot, do not, or will not get to.
We rely upon many things other than You, our God. But we are at Your mercy, Your grace. So often we do not have enough of what is needed: time, money, energy, talent, or other resources – and yet, we put our trust in things, or technology.
Teach us, Lord, that You are our “portion”. You are all we need. The priests and the Levites were not to own land when Israel went into the Promised Land. You were their allotment, their “portion”, and their inheritance (Numbers 18:8, 20). You told Abram that You were his shield and his great reward (Genesis 15:1).
Lord, as You reminded Abram, remind us that You are our king. Though we can dream or scheme for riches, You are our greatest treasure, the strength of our life. King David acknowledged that You, O Lord, was his “chosen portion” (Psalm 16:5).
As we read Jeremiah’s message, our heart responds with praise. This is true, not just for today, but for eternity. Help us to focus on You, Lord – to hope in You – to depend on You – for everything.
May we see Him as our hope, our inheritance, our portion, our all in all. He is all we need.

09/01/2026

From Retired Pastor Ernest Peckham:
Three-year-old Marie Paule Thielle of Metz, France, received the Bronze Medal for “an act of courage and dangerous sacrifice.” But the one she rescued did not appreciate her. When Marie’s playmate, two-year-old Denis fell into the municipal pool, she grabbed him by the hair and held his head out of the water until her screams for help were answered. Marie said, “He doesn’t like me now because it hurt when I pulled his hair.”
Lamentations 2:13 “What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter Zion? For vast as the sea is your ruin; who can heal you?”
The author of Lamentations association with the suffering of his people is profound. He wants to reach out and “comfort” them but ultimately must admit that Jerusalem’s wound was too deep to be healed. There are times when people cannot alleviate someone’s pain as much as they desire. The author, Jeremiah, finds that no other group has suffered like those in Jerusalem. Their punishment is made more severe by the fact that God has punished them severely.
Isaiah 58:12 “Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.”
The word “breach”, as it relates to God’s relationship with His people, means break, gap, opening, rupture, split, alienation, and schism. It is a breaking of relations; an estrangement; a quarrel, a broken state. This is a good definition of what has happened to the church because of ignoring God’s laws. We do not like it when God pulls our hair as He tries to save us. To restore the breach is to restore the right way. As Christians, we have little or no influence over what other’s do, but our faith does control our actions.
Spiritually “a repairer of breaches” is one who restores the right way, beginning with himself or herself, working together to repair the break in the relationship. It is as if God reinforces the break with whatever is needed.
Thank you, God, for loving us enough to hurt us and to fix us.

08/31/2026

From Retired Pastor Ernest Peckham:
As the United States of America grew, the people opened their doors to all the sons of men. The words of Emma Lazarus, written as an inscription for the Statue of Liberty, said:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
But words by themselves may be cheap.
Jeremiah 34:17 “Therefore, thus says the Lord: You have not obeyed me by proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor; behold, I proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine, declares the Lord. I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.”
God had ordained freedom to any who were in slavery.
Leviticus 25:10 “And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.”
But the Israelites denied their companions this liberty and God said the result would be judgment on their own “liberty”. For their transgressions they would be left to the “sword, to pestilence, and to famine”, then ultimately into captivity to their enemies.
So, God calls this “liberty”. It was certainly not the freedom they longed for. That is not my idea of freedom either. I do not want to be free to perish by sword, plague, or starvation. But because they had oppressed their own people out of greed, God enslaved them, so they would long for a new kind of freedom.
What a timely passage this is for us. God says, “So, you do not want to listen and obey me? I will free you. You can do what you want, but I am still the Sovereign God. You are choosing the liberty(?) of death and eternal destruction.” That does not sound so good, does it?
We are all servants or slaves of something. Make a good choice. Choose God!

08/30/2026

From Retired Pastor Ernest Peckham:
At the dedication of Bunker Hill, the minister Theodore Parker led the prayer of dedication, and he said the prayer beautifully and eloquently, magnificently. The newspaper author, in writing about it in the Boston newspaper said, “It was the most eloquent prayer ever addressed to a Boston audience.”
Do you see the problem?
Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”
Prayer should not be addressed to an audience; it should be directed to the God of the Universe. Here God encourages us to “call” to Him. Jeremiah was imprisoned when the Lord told him to cry to Him, and God invites those whose minds are held captive to do likewise. Further, God gives the assurance “I will answer”. There is no time limit, circumstance, or emotional state that prevents us from talking to Him and God’s nature and character guarantee His answer.
We tend to call upon God when we are challenged or afflicted. In our deep need we seek Him for help in the solution to our predicament. Importantly, the assurance of His answering us is not in relation to the type of prayer, the timing of our call, or the place of prayer.
Isaiah 65:24 “Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.”
God may answer before we pray, or sometimes the answer is delayed, but is just as sweet a blessing when the answer comes. At times I have assumed the reply was no, but then God responds and I am relieved and exited. At other times God’s answer was in a completely different manner from my expectation. On occasion I have prayed for deliverance from a trial, but God provided strength to help me endure instead. I pray for wisdom when God tells me things I have not known.
We must exercise our faith in God’s response because He knows best and never makes a mistake. At times God is growing our character by our waiting and as the hymn says, “the way of the cross leads home”.
Cling to the One who listens and answers our prayers.

08/29/2026

From Retired Pastor Ernest Peckham:
A pastor was busy in his study, while his little boy looked at a book of pictures by the fireside. He suddenly wanted a large book he had left upstairs and asked his boy to get it. The boy was away a long time, and after a while the father heard sobbing on the stairs. He went to the staircase and saw his son crying, with the large book he had tried to lift and carry, lying at his feet. “Oh, Daddy,” he cried, “I can’t carry it. It’s too heavy for me.” The father quickly was up the stairs and scooped up both the book and the little fellow in his strong arms, and carried them both to the room below. He later thought, “And that is how God deals with His children.”
Jeremiah 32:17 “Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.”
This reminds me of the children’s song – “My God is so Big”:
“My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, There’s nothing my God cannot do.
My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, There’s nothing my God cannot do.
He made the trees, He made the seas, He made the elephants too.
My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, There’s nothing my God cannot do.”
Is there anything God cannot do? The answer to that question is YES! God is limited to His character: God cannot sin; therefore, He cannot lie; He cannot ignore sin; God cannot save apart from the sacrifice of Jesus; God cannot save those who refuse to believe. And we would not want Him to do any of those things. So, let us rephrase the question: other than the limitations that compose God’s character, can God be limited? NO!!
God’s omnipotence comes up when we are afraid, alone, or struggling with something too heavy for us to carry. It is in these situations that we must remember we are never alone. We are not abandoned by God to prove ourselves self-sufficient. Jesus died for our sins, so we would know we are never alone. If we call on God to help us, because like the pastor’s son, we cannot carry the weight, we do not ask in vain. He hears our cries, our prayers, and He promises to help us.
Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
Our problem is that often we want God to work things out – the way we want them. His promise is if we believe and leave it with Him, then we can rest. His promise will never fail.
Take God at His word. He can handle it!
Happy Sabbath!!

Just for this week, 8/29/2026, our Sabbath services will be in the morning. Sabbath school commences at 9:30 AM, CST, an...
08/29/2026

Just for this week, 8/29/2026, our Sabbath services will be in the morning. Sabbath school commences at 9:30 AM, CST, and church will follow at approximately 10:45 AM. Happy Sabbath! 🙏

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