_{In 2008, Houston received top ranking on Kiplinger's Personal Finance "Best Cities of 2008" list, which ranks cities on their local economy, employment opportunities, reasonable living costs, and quality of life.[159] The city ranked fourth for highest increase in the local technological innovation over the preceding 15 years, according to Forbes magazine.[160] In the same year, the city ranked second on the annual Fortune 500 list of company headquarters,[161] first for Forbes magazine's "Best Cities for College Graduates",[162] and first on their list of "Best Cities to Buy a Home".[163] In 2010, the city was rated the best city for shopping, according to Forbes.[164]}
^ Adventist historian George R. Knight notes several other leading evangelicals who considered Adventist doctrine to be heterodox; these included Donald Barnhouse (prior to 1950), Norman F. Douty, Herbert S. Bird, E. B. Jones, Louis B. Talbot and M. R. DeHaan. See "Questions on Doctrine, annotated edition". Andrews University Press. 2003: xiii–xxxiii
In relating to the seventh and other days of the month, the Zoroastrian calendar contributed to the Jewish calendar.[19] A number of writings by early Christians in the New Testament apocrypha (Zostrianos, Marsenes and Allogenes) describe God's revelation received by a man named Zostrianos. Further evidence of Zoroastrian influence on Judaic tradition is demonstrated through Nehemiah, the Priest in the Book of Nehemiah, a book of the Neviim contained in the Tanakh. With the support and protection of Artaxerxes I of Persia (445/444 BCE), Nehemiah purified the Temple and the priests and Levites and enforced the observance of the law of Moses.[20]
Day of the Vow or Dingane's Day (Afrikaans Geloftedag or Dingaansdag, December 16) was the name of a religious public holiday in South Africa commemorating a famous Boer victory over the Zulu. Celebrated as annual Sabbath (a holy day of thanksgiving) since 1838, it was renamed Day of Reconciliation in 1994. The anniversary and its commemoration are intimately connected with various streams of Afrikaner and South African nationalism.

^ Lomax, John Nova. "This Is Texas." Texas Monthly. February 2013. Retrieved on April 30, 2013. "No, the rightful standard-bearer of our state—the city with the greatest number of people, of cultural happenings, of medical facilities, of gangbuster enterprises—is located 165 miles to the east of Texas's pink-granite dome." – The first part is discussing Houston. The "pink granite dome" is the Texas State Capitol in Austin.

From the biblical sabbatical year came the modern concept of a sabbatical, a prolonged, often one-year, hiatus in the career of an individual (not usually tied to a seven-year period). Such a period is often taken in order to fulfill some goal such as writing a book or traveling extensively for research. Some universities and other institutional employers of scientists, physicians, or academics offer paid sabbatical as an employee benefit, called "sabbatical leave"; some companies offer unpaid sabbatical for people wanting to take career breaks.

The origin of the Hebrew sabbat [t'B;v] is uncertain, but it seems to have derived from the verb sabat, meaning to stop, to cease, or to keep. Its theological meaning is rooted in God's rest following the six days of creation ( Gen 2:2-3 ). The Greek noun sabbat [savbbaton] translates the Hebrew noun sabbat [t'B;v]. The noun form is used primarily to denote the seventh day of the week, though it may occasionally refer to the Sabbath week ( Lev 23:15-16 ) at the end of every seven Sabbaths or fifty days, or the Sabbath year ( Lev 25:1-7 ) in which the land was to be at complete rest.
The city of Houston has a strong mayoral form of municipal government.[215] Houston is a home rule city and all municipal elections in the Texas are nonpartisan.[215][216] The city's elected officials are the mayor, city controller and 16 members of the Houston City Council.[217] The current mayor of Houston is Sylvester Turner, a Democrat elected on a nonpartisan ballot. Houston's mayor serves as the city's chief administrator, executive officer, and official representative, and is responsible for the general management of the city and for seeing that all laws and ordinances are enforced.[218]
"Should Adventists cooperate ecumenically? Adventists should cooperate insofar as the authentic gospel is proclaimed and crying human needs are being met. The Seventh-day Adventist Church wants no entangling memberships and refuses any compromising relationships that might tend to water down her distinct witness. However, Adventists wish to be "conscientious cooperators." The ecumenical movement as an agency of cooperation has acceptable aspects; as an agency for the organic unity of churches, it is much more suspect."[101]
Houston is a flat marshy area where an extensive drainage system has been built. The adjoining prairie land drains into the city which is prone to flooding.[64] Underpinning Houston's land surface are unconsolidated clays, clay shales, and poorly cemented sands up to several miles deep. The region's geology developed from river deposits formed from the erosion of the Rocky Mountains. These sediments consist of a series of sands and clays deposited on decaying organic marine matter, that over time, transformed into oil and natural gas. Beneath the layers of sediment is a water-deposited layer of halite, a rock salt. The porous layers were compressed over time and forced upward. As it pushed upward, the salt dragged surrounding sediments into salt dome formations, often trapping oil and gas that seeped from the surrounding porous sands. The thick, rich, sometimes black, surface soil is suitable for rice farming in suburban outskirts where the city continues to grow.[65][66]
When Desmond Doss joined the United States army in the middle of World War II, he believed his duty was to obey God and serve his country - in that order. In spite facing numerous obstacles as he maintained his unwavering convictions of not killing and keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, Doss would go on to heroically save 75 lives in the heat of battle.