The enemies of God, if they fail are not brought to repentance for their evil works, they don’t care. They are the products of evil in our midst. Paul honored the Bereans. They knew what to do concerning Israel, pray for guidance.

Hebrews 6:9 But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner.

Because we are believers we are not in the same category as those who would choose to reject God, so we are under a different covenant. Those who turn their back on God are not going to receive the things that accomplish salvation. The Holy Spirit led believers to accept the truth, and they are working to get the Word of God out by any means possible. We are not going to commit the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit, even if we make a mistake, we can still be forgiven.

Pastor Don told us that it breaks his heart when people who sin run away from the Church. he devil wants to isolate the person in their shame. When you mess up, remember that God is your Father. He will not turn us away, and you cannot hide from Him.

Many people have the wrong view of hell and think it is about torture. Torment is internal, coming from within a person, torture is external. The only reason a person ends up in hell is because they did not want to be in Heaven with God, they wanted to be out of God’s love. If you don’t want to be with God, hell is the only place He isn’t. Salvation is not accompanied by torment and torture. The will of man leads people away from God to torment. Man wants to blame God for everything,  tragedies and wealth, but much of what happens in our lives comes from the exercise of the will of man in disobedience or obedience to God.

Hebrews 6:10 For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

God is outside of Chronos time. He is saying that at the right time all the good works that you do, God will repay. He may not repay in kind, and He may not repay immediately, but we can rest assured that God is sovereign and all will be made right. We can be peacefully confident in the promise of God. The catch is John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

Therefore the better Promise is promised not by work, but BECAUSE WE BELIEVE ON JESUS WHOM GOD SENT.  We believe our Father (God) and trust Him. Yes, we do do good works, but works will not get us to heaven, they are just a manifestation of the faith that we have. Faith without works is dead.

The Holy Spirit in your spirit is your guarantee, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings us under conviction if we are too much in the world.

John 16 talks about the Holy Spirit, how He convicts the world of sin, is our comforter, and leads us into truth, bringing to attention what you need to know. We are in relationship with the Holy Spirit and that helps us to avoid sin and condemnation. We can’t know this in the flesh, for what we know in the flesh comes from our senses and observation. We see things and wonder what is going on. But our senses do not always show us reality, the Holy Spirit leads us into truth. Only the Holy Spirit can give us the correct interpretation of prophesied word, and not lead us into a rabbit trail to get lost.

Pastor Don gave us an example of how our senses can give us false information. Cynthia, his wife, has had dark black hair for much of the time we knew her. But recently she had some lighter shades of color put in her hair. If someone saw Pastor Don driving with Cynthia with her new hair color and relied only on their senses, they may have had the impression that Pastor Don was going out with another woman, for Cynthia’s hair color was dramatically different from what we were accustomed to. Without knowledge, we could have drawn the wrong conclusion.

Hebrews 6:11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end,

We do do good works, but that is not the basis on which God is responding. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. We store up treasures in Heaven, but it is not like Fort Knox. When we need it, God will open the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing. We do good works because we want God to say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” When we know God, then the works that we do will reflect God, and these good works are stored up in Heaven.

Matthew 6:23-24  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

We do not always know how God will pour out blessings. God can pour out blessings in other ways than just financial. We serve God, not the things of the earth.

Hebrews 6:11 (see above) shows us that we are to persevere until the end. Pastor Don told us that we are to help people, even if they will not help you back. Sometimes we feel that if we do something for another person, that somehow they owe us the equivalent in some way. But we do not have to worry about that. If we do something for another person and they don’t return it to you, give your service with a good attitude, and don’t worry about reciprocity. God will be our debtor. He will give us back in another way. We need to remember that everything we have is God’s.

Someone asked about giving handouts to people who beg on the street, especially when the person tells a story about how they need the money to pay a bill, but you suspect that the person will really use the money for drugs or alcohol. Pastor Don told us that he tells the person not to tell him a story, to speak a lie, he will give them the money but he tells them that the money he is giving them is God’s money, and if they use it for a wrong thing, God will put them in a bad place. Pastor Don told us that when he hands out money, he gives it to them in the name of the Lord.

Pastor Don then talked about the words that we use, telling us that a prophet will swear to his own harm. That if we say we are going to do something, we have to find a way to do it, because we have to be true to our word.

Pastor Don then gave us an example about how he had stopped using a particular booking agent for his music, and one day he got a job at a place that the booking agent used to get Pastor Don jobs at. The agent came to Pastor Don wanting a $5,000 commission. Pastor Don wrote him a check, even though that took all of his extra money and mailed the check. God repaid him back in time. God is faithful and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Hebrews 6:12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

We are not to be sluggish waiting for what we cannot see, but keep doing the work that God wants us to do. Express our need to the Lord, and keep doing the Good works and believe that God will reward us.

Pastor Don then told us that so many people hide from doing what they should be doing by using the excuse, “I have to pray about it.” Sometimes that is a feeble, lame excuse. Do we have to pray about being a servant in the church? Do we have to pray to open up the door for a person, or work in the parking lot, or help a person who needs food? We know God’s heart and when we do works of service that please Him, we don’t have to get a divine Word from God to do those good works. Do we have to pray to help clear a table of dishes and clean up after a church dinner? Now prayer is good, but there are some acts and good works that we can just do without seeking God about, because we know that they would please God. As we know His Word, we know what please Him.

Someone asked a question about faith, a carryover from the previous evening’s discipleship class. She pointed out that we receive a certain measure of faith, but we don’t seem to have faith for every situation in our lives, and how do we grow faith. Pastor Don took us to the story of Jesus calming the storm and asked us what do the disciples have faith for have faith for? The following incident came after Jesus already had demonstrated divine provision with the loaves and the fishes.

Mark 4:35 On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.”

Jesus told them that they were going to cross over to the other side.

Mark 4:38  But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

Jesus was not concerned about the storm, he was sleeping.  He had said that they would cross over to the other side, and He knew they would. The disciples woke him up asking if he didn’t care that they were perishing. Jesus had faith that they would cross over to the other side, but the disciples had faith for perishing. Jesus calmed the storm and then asked the disciples.

Mark 4:40 But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”

We looked at the same incident in another chapter.

Matthew 8:23-25 Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

In this situation Jesus is telling them that they don’t have faith for this situation. They just have a little faith.

Luke 8:22-25  Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.” And they launched out. But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy. And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!”  Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. But He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!”

And another incident with a storm

John 6:16-21  Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them. Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing. So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid. But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.

Pastor Don told us that in every situation where there is an absence of faith there is a presence of fear. The only one with all faith in all categories is Jesus. We haven’t attained to that perfect faith yet.

Sometimes we can come to the point of believing that something is possible but not probable. When we pray we are to pray in faith believing.

Notice that in John 6 when Jesus got to the boat IMMEDIATELY the boat was at the land they were going.

We are sealed, special to God. God loves us so much. In some situations He knows that we don’t have the faith for the situation and God gives us a gift of faith, even though we were bankrupt. He can give special faith for situations that you did not think possible. In some cases you are so beaten down, and in so many areas we are bankrupt. He loves us, and there is the fruit of enduring until the end. You can’t be in faith and at the same time in doubt and unbelief and worry. But Jesus can work with us if we can get our minds to neutral.

When Jairus sent for Jesus and learned that his daughter was dead, Jesus told him to believe. The daughter was healed on the gift of faith.

Someone mentioned that one time Pastor Don described how we build our faith, giving as an example a series of cubby holes. That if we get healed for a sore throat we put faith in that sore throat cubby hole. Then when we get a cold those cubby holes of faith for sore throat healing and colds are close together and you can transfer the sore throat healing faith over to the cold and get healed of that. But maybe you have appendicitis, and you don’t have faith for healing of that without surgery. So you pray that your surgery goes well and that you recover quickly. You receive that, so now you have recover quickly faith. As your faith grows in each instance you build more faith for certain situations that can transfer to similar situations. Your faith grows and as you walk more with God, at some point your ability to believe in faith increases so that it can be applied to situations that are dissimilar to ones you have had success with. We are all given a measure of faith, but it grows as we exercise our faith. God is good and He wants us to exercise and grow the faith that He has given us, not let it atrophy from disuse.

I pray you have a wonderful day.

Heather

We are on a detailed study of the elementary principles of faith, and Pastor Don wants to make sure we all have the knowledge about these, because Paul says they are ELEMENTARY. But for many Christians, they are not so elementary. This is one of our wonderful studies where we end up touching base on many issues based on the conversations of those present in the Bible study. A lot was shared, not just about eternal judgment.

Hebrews 6:1-3 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.

All the Gospels have truth in them. Truth is good and it does happen as God says it will. But at times our emotions and compassion for people cause us to get confused. God creates AND destroys. We forget we’ve given our lives to Jesus and it isn’t all about you. The Bible says, WHOEVER calls on the name of Jesus shall be saved.

Rotten apples can spoil the barrel. God is perfecting the will and love of a being that will be with Him forever. The individual previously had good and bad traits, but has a heart for God. God saves us and sets us apart and we are set apart as special to Him. He is working at cleaning up our wrong thinking, bad habits and attitudes. The five fold ministry is for the perfecting of the saints. Some of our thinking is wrong. And God will let us know that it is wrong. Jesus did not forbid us coming into the Kingdom because our theology was skewed. Between now and the perfecting that God wants, He will clean up our mouths, eyes, etc. Everybody in Christ is not perfect and right. The Gospel will clean us. From beginning to end, God takes us toward perfection.

Does evil exist? YES, Do evil people exist? YES Do evil spirits exist? YES. Why did God permit evil?

The reality of humankind is that they are beings to be perfected, and will be with God for eternity. We are not a robot or a tree. We are a being like Him, and God wants our company. We were made in His image and likeness, and God wanted to reproduce.

Our intelligent, capable, functional, eternal God has given us free will. It is not predestination. God does not want to be loved by a robot or force our love. He gave us free will so that we can choose to love Him or not. If here was no free will, there could be no true love. Love is a choice and a connection is made. If a wife was forced to love her husband we would be like the Stepford wives, and there would be no growth in the relationship, no communication, no passion. If we could never choose our spouse, how can we feel their acceptance. Unfortunately some will use their free will to choose to do things that are not godly and hurt others.

God wants us loving and peaceful and getting along. The risk of giving free will is worth it. Billions of beings who love Him, and want to be with Him. But there are others who do not like Him, and do not want to be with Him. For a time the wheat and the tares will grow together, and ultimately they will be separated, those who want to be with Him will be, those who don’t won’t.

Here follows a quick, abbreviated History.

God told Abraham to go where He showed him, to a land inhabited by people who do not practice law and moral behavior. At a later point, God told Abraham that his children were going to Egypt for 400 years, and then when God brings them back to the Promised Land, God would stop these evil practices, but before that the Israelites would increase their numbers in Egypt, in slavery. If God didn’t wait, Abraham would have had about 300 warriors which was not a large enough force to obliterate evil. After their sojourn in Egypt, Moses lead over a million out of Egypt to claim the Promised Land and obliterate the evil there, to establish the territory from Lebanon (N) to Jericho (S), to Jordan (E) and the Mediterranean Sea (W).

God instructed the Israelites to kill every man, woman and child in that land. When King Saul disobeyed God’s instructions regarding a conquest and kept the best of the animals, and the enemy king alive, God was not pleased and King Saul lost his anointing because of disobedience.

The problem was, you cannot maintain righteousness in a polluted environment. If any of the people in the land were left alive, they would ultimately pollute the Israelites with their false teachings and practices, and history shows that that happened, and even today the Israelites are paying for Saul’s disobedience.  Because some of the dirt will rub off.

Lot’s family lived in Sodom and Gomorrah, and although they maintained some of God’s rules, the culture and tradition of that place rubbed off, and ultimately Lot’s daughters committed incest with their drunken father.

How do we respond to that? Should God have saved Lot and wiped out his family? In our childhood we knew that there were some kids in the neighborhood that we should not get next to, for their bad behavior would rub off on us. We play God in our own little free will. God is saying, I don’t want it on My planet or in Heaven.

Church has to get matter of fact about it. God’s system is perfect, and He put it in place so that He can protect us. He is the only one who knows our heart and knows who will get saved and who won’t.

It is silly for a Christian who knows nothing about islam to say why can’t we all get along? If a muslim practices his faith to the totality of the koran, he is going to take you down.

Think of it this way, you cannot keep three pet roaches in your kitchen or have a family of rats in your kitchen. They will multiply and infest your house.

If an muslim dies in the war against infidels they are promised to receive 7-20 brown eyed virgins, all the wine and food that he can get. A muslim, if he doesn’t like what his wife says and does, can beat her and confine her to the couch for seven days. If she does not obey that, he can beat her and cast her out. It is a spirit, women beaten down,. There are cultural differences between the two faiths, and tolerance won’t work. Ifs you give to them, they will not give back in return. Their goal is to convert all to the muslim faith or kill the infidels who won’t convert. They will not tolerate any differences.

God will save some muslims and open their eyes. They will be the ones that God wills to be saved. God will also save hindus, buddhists and those of other faiths. He will take His remnant out of all of them.

Acts 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. All men who fear God are acceptable to Him.

All cultures have a universal moral code. Murder is evil. God is good He put in the hearts of all men this moral code. We know right from wrong. Those who do not want God in their lives don’t want the Gospel to be preached.

Today we do not know any Canaanites or Moabites. These cultures denied God and were destroyed. Now the Gospel is preached worldwide. God is bringing the harvest out of everywhere.

Today the Gospel is being spread world wide. God is going to bring His harvest out of every part of this world. We are under Grace, so that anyone with a heart can be changed and altered under mercy. But there will be judgment – and God will separate the good and the bad.

In these last days we are going to see an increase of religions that hate God. There are the muslims, the mysterious babylon that is likened to the european union who has come out against God. France and Belgium have taken God out of their constitution. God is removed from many aspects of life, and now we are getting back to religions that hate God openly.

The Law is a tutor to bring us to grace. We don’t ignore the Law, but we don’t exactly keep the Law. There is the Sabbath, which is a day of resting in the Lord. Some churches debate whether or not the Sabbath is Saturday or Sunday. The truth of the matter is, every day is Sabbath. For today’s Jews, who are under the law, it is still impossible to fully keep the Law, especially with the destruction of the Temple in AD 70. They have to observe all the sabbaths and all the holidays, but there are no sacrifices to atone for sins.

God is expecting us to get mature enough to have church every day, to keep the feasts that were manifested in Christ and to keep them eternally. The sacrifice under the law was the atoning sacrifice given by God for the High Priest to atone for his sins and for the people in the nation of Israel. But that sacrifice can’t occur in the Temple in Jerusalem where God wanted the sacrifice to occur, because in AD 70 the Temple was destroyed.

When Jesus was on the cross, the veil in the Temple ripped from top down, and the Holy Spirit left the temple. During the Passover following the one when Christ died for our sins, the priests went into the Temple to sacrifice, and came out with their clothes torn because they knew that the Shekinah glory was no longer in the Temple. This was recorded by Josephus.

Caiaphus and Annas prophesied under the Holy Spirit, but they vacated their office. On the Day of Atonement, the Priest would enter the Holy of Holies dressed in white linen, and as part of the sacrifice dip a white sash into the blood. If the sash stayed red with the blood, God did not accept the sacrifice. If it turned white, God accepted the sacrifice. The sash, the year after Christ’s death and resurrection, stayed red.

Yet God remains faithful, even when they were not.

Israel was the first culture to protect women’s rights. Christianity only elevates and dignifies women. Jesus elevated women. he put importance on women.

We are still to keep the festivals.

Colossians 2:16-17 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

If someone chooses to keep the sabbaths, we are not to be judged. Why did God put these things into effect? Because they bring us to a better understanding of Yeshua, and His life follows the progression of the feasts. The Feast of Pentecost was the giving of the Holy Ghost, and there are some that preach that people cannot function in the gifts and signs and wonders of the Holy Spirit.

We try to sort everything out in our physical minds, and are so busy trying in our own power, that we don’t spend time listening to the Holy Spirit’s guidance. He speaks to us and we are looking for a more complicated solution and miss the simplicity of the truth of the Gospel.

Pastor Don then said this which gave me pause (ouch):

GOD WANTS TO TALK TO US MORE THAN WE WANT TO TALK TO HIM.

2 Peter 2:4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;

God DID NOT SPARE. There will be judgment.

2 Peter 2:5  and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;

As with today’s times, at the time of Noah life was going on around the planet, people were doing their thing, and yet there was such evil on the earth that God had to destroy the evil. Only eight people were saved out of this judgment. But God will judge the ungodly.

Genesis 6:1-3 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

Pastor Don pointed out that the number of man is “6″ and it is no surprise that this event is recorded in Genesis 6. There were beings on the earth, cast down from Heaven with satan, when they rebeled against God. They committed the atrocity of mating with the women (daughters of men), and producing unholy offspring. We can read about this casting down of lucifer in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. God has plans to raise a savior from the sons of men – and the devil did not want that to happen. His plan was to pervert the bloodline by this unholy mating. Only Noah and his family were righteous (meaning that there was none of the unholy bloodline in their generations. It did not mean that Noah was without sin.) This was a plan from hell to prevent Jesus from being born on earth. Any group that has a rampant hate of Israel is satanic. Hitler was another pawn of satan to try and destroy the Jews so that Jesus could not return again.

We can see that this was rampant on earth, because a study of mythology has so many creatures that are not human, with unbelievable powers. The problem was, many men of that day did not stand up to satan and say, “No, you can’t have my daughter.”

Remember with Lot, when he entertained the angels, there were evil beings and fleshly men outside that wanted to do perversions. Lot was going to give them his daughter. That was wrong. But Lot did not have to do that because the angels protected Lot and his household.

Being righteous is not based on having no error in our judgments, but we are righteous as Romans tells us, because we believe in God. We do the best we can to obey God. Abraham was righteous not because of what he did, but because He BELIEVED God, and God counted that for righteousness.

In Genesis 6:5 we see God’s viewpoint Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

EVERY INTENT of the thoughts of his heart was ONLY EVIL CONTINUALLY. That is a sad indictment.

Jesus said that it shall be again as it was in the days of Noah and it is getting to be again like that in this day and age.

Genesis 6:11-13 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

God will give them a bath and wash them clean. What can we learn from this? To be honest, God has different levels of cleansing and purification. To obliterate evil is really an act of love to protect His children. Pastor Don said that if a criminal was to climb into his window at night and was seeking to murder and kill his children, Pastor Don would kill to protect his family. God gave the people a chance to change, and they refused. (Heather’s note, don’t forget it took 120 years to build the ark and Noah was called a “preacher of righteousness” so the people heard the message a long time and chose to discount it.)

Ezekiel 39:11-16 “It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea; and it will obstruct travelers, because there they will bury Gog and all his multitude. Therefore they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog. For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. Indeed all the people of the land will be burying, and they will gain renown for it on the day that I am glorified,” says the Lord GOD. “They will set apart men regularly employed, with the help of a search party, to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search.  The search party will pass through the land; and when anyone sees a man’s bone, he shall set up a marker by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. The name of the city will also be Hamonah. Thus they shall cleanse the land.”’

The judgement will cause major death, and it will take 7 months to bury he bodies to cleanse the land, and man will be employed doing this.

Ezekiel 39:21-29 “I will set My glory among the nations; all the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day forward. The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they were unfaithful to Me, therefore I hid My face from them. I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I have dealt with them, and hidden My face from them. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name— after they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, when they dwelt safely in their own land and no one made them afraid. When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and I am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations, then they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer. And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord GOD.”

The judgment of God is not to be considered without realizing that He also shows wonderful Mercy. God is good. God is wiping out the poison so that the poison does not take you out. He is destroying what will destroy you.

We need to remember that God is good and His judgment is just. He perceives far more than we can with our limited understanding.

Pastor Don continued this discussion the following Friday, and I will post that hopefully tomorrow.

Have a blessed night!

Heather

This is a continuation of the previous post found here.

Matthew 16:15-17 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

The fact of Jesus being Christ was revealed to Simon Peter.

Pastor Don said that we have to change our approach to evangelism. There will be some people you just can’t reach. If much is given, much is required. If a person has a little, more will be given. But to him who has none, none will be given. This comes from the parable of the Talents. But the reason for this is that revelations come from God, and are only available from God.

Can you read your mail if the postman doesn’t show up? No. So if the Holy Spirit who is God doesn’t bring you the mail, can you open it and read it? No. So we have to ask the question whenever we are witnessing to people, trying to lead people to the Lord. We are not looking to win the world, we are looking to find and lead and disciple those who have the witness of the Spirit. You are looking for the sheep that have been tweaked, as it wore, or open or spoken to. Now they may not have had the right revelation. You can get somebody that is looking in the new age or at witchcraft or looking for something in love or crossword puzzles or astrology, looking at all the different places. But the Holy Spirit is speaking to them, they just can’t translate the language. They just don’t know where to go.

That’s the one thing our church (Living Word Chapel – see link) does effectively. People come here, and we don’t discriminate. We’re not sending everybody to hell every Sunday out of the Pulpit. That’s not Pastor Don’s way. He knows the people are coming, they are searching. They’ve got something. The Holy Spirit leads them to us. One of our members was watching Pastor Don on TV, and as a response she finds out that the church is right here, near where she lives. How did that happen? We had a guy last Sunday from New Paltz, he saw the TV show, and came to check us out. The Holy Spirit leads people here.

We are looking for people who receive the revelation. Evangelism is not that hard. You don’t have to get up on a pulpit or a soapbox and do all of that. Someone was putting up telephone poles a few years ago on Pastor Don’s property, and recently they sent the same crew to put up more phone poles. A couple of years ago one of the telephone guys was a little curious about Pastor Don. He told us he didn’t give a speech or anything. The man just said, “Oh, I know one of your members.” I said, “Well, they’re not members of mine, they are members of the Living Word Chapel, and love Jesus.” That was all I said. So he came up to Pastor Don this time and said, “Don, when are your worship services?” He says, “I can’t come this week, but somehow its been on my mind. I think I want to come.” The great evangelist that Pastor Don is said, “9 and 12:30″. That’s all, no sermon, no speech. I didn’t say, “You want to pray? Let me lay hands on you.”

A question came out. Say you were sick and God healed you and people notice that you are all of a sudden healed, can you say, “To God be the glory, He healed me?” Pastor Don said yes, but period. Don’t go on and on.  Here’s why, the Holy Spirit is talking to them and if the Holy Spirit is ready to go to the next level, the person will say, “You know, I don’t have much time now, but could you tell me about that?” The person who asked the question then said, “Well, I see a different look on their face when I mention Christ.”

Pastor Don replied, when you start throwing your net further, they will often not want to talk more, so you just have to know that the Holy Spirit hasn’t revealed it to them yet. Someone made a comment that that’s how Jesus used the net. When the disciples were fishing they didn’t catch anything on their own, then Jesus told them where to cast the net and when, and they caught many fish.

Jesus has given us a picture of what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit throws out the net, all we’re supposed to do is find the fish, that’s all.  He’ll clean them. That’s why this is a great church, we accept people, no matter where they come from or what their background was. We’re not going to throw them out no matter the sin, murder, homosexuality, adultery, stealing, or whatever. We’re just as guilty of sins ourselves.

It’s funny, you take somebody that really feels that they’re righteous and all you have to do is talk to them long enough and you’ll find out what’s in their closet. And if there’s nothing in their closet, you’ll find pride. Pride in their righteousness. Just the other day someone said to me, I can’t believe it, you have over 100 people taking discipleship. My pastor grieves over the fact that if he has a Bible study only 2 or 3 show up. He does everything he can, and nobody shows up. Pastor Don said, “Praise God, Amen, God’s done it!”

Matthew 16:17  Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

How did Peter get the revelation? By Jesus’ Father (God), through the Holy Spirit. So often people get a revelation and then start taking credit for the idea. “Oh, I got a great revelation.” NO YOU DIDN’T, you received a great revelation. You didn’t go and get it. We start thinking, I’m so special because I got this great revelation. You didn’t go and get it, the Holy Spirit gave it to you. The Holy Spirit showed you something. You say, OK, show me the revelation. This is the foundation of the church. Look what it says in verse 18.

Matthew 16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

The Father does it by His Spirit, revealing that the foundation of the Church is Jesus the Messiah, and it is on that rock (Jesus) that the Church will be founded.

Pastor Don suggested that we need to be nice to people who aren’t saved today, because God could give them a revelation  in five minutes, and step out to being a spiritual giant overnight.

Someone then asked Pastor Don if an idea could come to a person, not from the Holy Spirit, and be used to pull a person off track from God’s plan. He said that it is possible to get an idea that is not of God, but the end of it is total destruction. The devil does not usually work in non harmful ways. He gives an idea that ends up a scam, for example, those emails saying that they have money for you – you need to test your revelation.  Every idea that you get is not a great idea.

Hebrews 6:5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,

How do we taste the good word of God and the powers of the age to come? Through the Holy Spirit. The revelation of the Holy Spirit is in all these categories.

Hebrews 6:6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

If they fall away, now remember the word IMPOSSIBLE used in verse 4 which is the start of this sentence “For it is impossible” to renew again to repentance. Why is this important. In discipling people and ministering to them, the devil plants it in the back of people’s minds that they have done something and are eternally rejected by God. The reality is that there is only one thing that qualifies a person to be eternally rejected by God. Are murderers eternally rejected by God? NO. Slanderers? NO, Liars? NO. Sexual perverts? NO, The only one is someone who qualifies according to the criterion, enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit, tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. If THEY then walk away from the Lord, saying that they don’t want the revelation of the Holy Spirit, that they want to reject the Holy Spirit, that they reject God and what Jesus has done on the cross and they leave not only the church, but they walk away totally, in total rejection. It says that if they did wake up one morning and say I want to come back, Jesus is saying that is not possible, they are eternally damned. And the reason is that they knew the truth.  There is a difference between I’ve made a mistake and I didn’t know, to I knew and reject. Who do we get the most angry with? A person who accidentally did something wrong or a person who should know better?

Why won’t lucifer be forgiven? lucifer knew God, he knew the power of God, he knew the reality of God. So we have to ask this question. Who is he talking about here? He was saying that Judas qualified on all these points and then crucified the Lord. Now here’s the problem. It isn’t that he couldn’t be saved, because anyone that can repent can be saved. But what is our basis of repentance? It is on the sacrifice of Christ. I’m taking my sin and putting it on the cross. I’m putting my sin on Jesus. But, if you turned your back and rejected Jesus on the cross,and Jesus died one time at the sacrifice and was the mediator between God and man. He’s to die once, then what can you repent of? You don’t have anything to repent on. As verse 6 shows, Jesus was only crucified once.

Someone asked about who can forgive sins, do we have the right to tell others that their sins are forgiven.

John 20:21-23 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

When we are born again we receive the Holy Spirit, and as we are consecrated with the one who revealed Jesus to us, we receive the dynamite power of the Holy Spirit by receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. But here it doesn’t say the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it just says in verse 23 that they have the Holy Spirit. We, as disciples of Christ, are told if YOU forgive they are forgiven, if YOU retain the sins of any they are retained.

Pastor Don said that if a guy came to his office and said I committed adultery, and I ask him what did you do about it, the man says that he has repented, is ashamed, and wants to make it right. I tell him what to do to make it right and he says, “I don’t want to do that.” then his sins are not forgiven. You are still in your sin and all the consequences of your sin are going to follow you. But when you get ready to follow good Biblical counsel, then you can come back to Pastor don and let him know. Your repentance is based on your willingness to act on it. Pastor Don told him that he would have to have his wife and him come to his office and talk about this, and work things out. He told the person his wife would beat him up about it for a year or so, but in the end, if they worked together through this, their relationship would be stronger. Some repent of the action or getting caught, but they are lying through their teeth, waiting for another escapade.

Pastor Don then asked why didn’t Moses get into the Promised Land. Remember that Moses was refused entrance to the Promised Land, because when the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness and needed water – Moses was told to strike a rock and water would spring forth. That is a symbol of Jesus on the Cross, and the water and blood that he shed. The next time the Israelites needed water, Moses was told to SPEAK to the rock, but in a moment of flesh he berated the Israelites and struck the rock – that broke God’s picture of Jesus being sacrificed once – and because of that second of rebelion and pride, Moses was prevented from entering the Promised Land. Moses qualified under all the points in Hebrews 6, and instead of speaking to the rock he struck the rock. Yet, He did repent, and God brought him to see the Promised Land on Mt. Nebo, but he was unable to enter the land because of that sin.

We ran out of time for the Bible study. (Heather’s comment, remember this is not so we can point our finger and accuse people of Blaspheme of the Holy Spirit, but there are many who fear that they have blasphemed the Holy Spirit and this teaching can be used to assure them that they have not done that.)

I hope this blesses you. The next Friday Bible study continues on this theme, and I will start sharing it tomorrow. Have a wonderful day.

Heather

We had to take one of my son’s up to visit his college of choice which necessitated missing one of my April Friday Bible studies (April 14 – I am catching up!).  I do know that family comes first, but I was sad at missing one of the studies because we had been going over the elementary principles of faith in great depth.  Truth be told, I am sad at every study that I have to miss, for Pastor Don teaches so much that I feel deprived when I can’t be there. My friend offered to record the study for me and I am so grateful to her for doing so.  I spent yesterday listening and taking detailed notes because it is on the Blaspheme of the Holy Spirit, a very charged topic. So I took the notes almost verbatim, because I want to get the teaching accurate for you.

Hebrews 6:1-3 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.

We are now on the subject of eternal judgment. After “love” Jesus next most frequent subject to teach about was “hell.” Why? Because He didn’t want us to go there. In the last Friday Bible study we looked at the Revelation of Christ and the end times. We have to remember that when the Bible says “forever” it means the ages of the ages.

There is nothing in scripture that tells us what will happen at the end of our age. This Bible is written to man for man’s time period. There was an age where God was in Heaven with the angels. And there was an age when God was in Heaven with the angels and He created man, and that’s another age. Well there’s another age coming which will be God in Heaven with the angels, and the angels come to earth with God, and God creates a New Heaven and a New Earth and we begin a new age with believers that have resurrected bodies and are now able to fully have the Mind of Christ as well as the Body of Christ, the resurrection Body of Christ. So that’s a different age. There is nothing that tells us what happens after that age or how it formulates. We don’t need to know because when we are with the Lord all things will become evident and we will be able to plug directly into the mind of the Father and then we will know all things. In the presence of God we will know all things and all things will be known to us quickly, instantaneously. We will have the mind of Christ.

Now, in understanding that, there are some who err in their teaching, and here’s the error. They draw conclusions as to when the ages of the ages will happen and what will happen. We don’t know. We don’t know when one age ends and another begins, unless God has told us in scripture, WE DO NOT KNOW. All we know is that God, the Father, is coming down, there will be a New Jerusalem on the earth. We are going to be with Him forever and ever. That means from age to the next age to the next age. What He is going to do then, we don’t know.

And we really need to hold people’s feet to the fire when they start telling us ridiculous things like at the end of the age everyone is going to be forgiven and there’s no more sin, no more punishment, no more nothing.

Well, wait a minute, these things occurred in Heaven with the angels before man was ever created, there was evil. So we know that the narrative of the relationship with God with everything that He’s created will continue. What that will look like we don’t know. So get that old thinking out of your head that when we get to Heaven there’s going to be singing and praising God eternally, and nothing else to do. I don’t know where that idea came from. We will be praising God continually but there is stuff to do. The angels are before the throne praising God continually, but in the meantime they’re getting instruction and they are doing what God tells them to do when He tells them to do it, and they are carrying out their existence.

Pastor Don told us that He can’t wait to meet his angel and ask him what it was like in the last age, before the age of man. And we don’t even know when God created the angels. They haven’t always been with the Father. We have no sense of life outside of Chronos time. You will grow hopelessly confused trying to figure out what forever looks like. So try not to believe what everyone tells you when they try to tell you what it’s going to look like because they don’t know.

Someone asked if, when we are in Heaven could 1/3 of us get kicked out like the fallen angels? Pastor Don answered saying that we can’t because with a resurrection body comes a change in nature and in mind. Right now we are flesh dominated, we are carnal, and when we accept that we can understand why we are the way we are. We are carnal. Our flesh dominates us, it causes us to formulate opinions, to make errors, make wrong judgments, to look at circumstances and this affects our life and our health. But, when we get a resurrected body, we are going to be able to pass off the flesh. Yes, we will still have emotions, but we will not have this flesh. There is more to the flesh than we think.

Pastor Don asked, how many of you have ever been hungry? Was your soul hungry? Does your soul need physical food? Well, what was calling out? Your flesh, your body. Your Spirit man doesn’t have a sex drive, that stems from your body, comes out of your flesh. Someone asked do you have free will? Pastor Don responded that you will always have that. The angels do. God will not take your will away from you. How can you love Him without free will?

Someone said, the only timeline we know is the 1000 year reign. Pastor Don said, no, we know about the thousands of years in front of that. The timeline we have is a 7000 year period, that the Bible tells us about. Everything after that, the Bible always expresses, and Jesus says, as the ages of the ages. You will be with Me (Jesus) for the ages of the ages. We have a 1000 year period where Christ will reign on the earth, on this specific earth. We know that because the Scripture says it specifically. We don’t know when that happens, because it’s sometime between the 6000th year and the 7000th year of man. For whatever reason, God has us born in this particular gap of time. We are in the age between the sixth day and the seventh day. The apostles want to be us, sitting at the table with us. (Heather’s note, Friday Bible studies we sit around tables.) We are in the first generation that Israel is back in the land. Since 1948, this is the first generation, and that’s the time clock Jesus gave us. He said, that generation (this period of time) is the one that will see it all and right now we are seeing it all.

The Midwest is getting battered right now with weather. (Heather’s note, look at the deadly tornados in just this past week, and the earthquakes.) All of that is going to continue. Jesus says it will be like the birth pangs of a woman, it’s just going to intensify. Pastor Don was talking about turning on the TV for the weather and seeing a news flash about a boy beating up his teacher, pummeling her in public. The people were standing around watching and one student took a picture with their cell phone. He said, in my generation we couldn’t even imagine speaking back to a teacher. You would be paddled by the principle and the gym teacher, then go home and both your parents would beat your head. What kind of world are we living in? The Bible tells us about how in the last days lawless men will wax cold. You have to be very cold to just stand by. It doesn’t matter what that teacher did, she didn’t deserve that. Others in the Bible study talked about similar incidents, like the 8 girls beating up one girl, and the 8 year old child who planned the abduction of her teacher with the help of classmates.

In this study we see an amazing transition when it comes to eternal judgment. In all the other parts of this passage, the baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, we had to go to other passages of scripture to learn about these topics. But the writer of Hebrews deals with eternal judgment in the subsequent verses of Hebrews 6. We are going to deal with the standard by which God makes judgment of who’s in and who’s out. Why are they in and why are they out.

The writer of Hebrews begins with the first condition, which is the BLASPHEME OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Jesus deals with this when He is talking to the Pharisees and He says clearly to them, you will be held guilty and judged for your blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. If you look it up, here’s what it means. It means speaking against the Holy Spirit. If you speak against the Holy Spirit in a serious manner, you are blaspheming. Jesus said you can speak evil against Himself, you can speak evil against Jesus and you will not be judged in the same manner. But to speak against the Holy Spirit and the Work of the Holy Spirit brings you eternal damnation. Brings you to the outside. And He (Jesus) says this not the the general population. He says it to the Priests and the Levites. Pastor Don asked, “Did everybody hear that?” He said it to the Priests and the Levites. They attack Him and respond to Him, but Jesus doesn’t change His position. He says, if you speak evil against the Holy Spirit, and to speak evil means not that you just call the Holy Spirit bad names, but it meant to speak and contradict what the Holy Spirit does, and how the Holy Spirit does it. Not only is the Holy Spirit God, but if you are speaking against the Holy Spirit, you are speaking against His mission, His call, and His duty and responsibilities. 

Pastor Don told us that this would be like, you can say anything about Don Moore, you can ride the rail with  him, but when Pastor Don steps into the pulpit there is a divine connection between him and the mission and the anointing. When Pastor Don is under the anointing of God, in the pulpit, and you attack him in the pulpit, God’s going to hold you accountable. Therefore, you must recognize that when anyone is doing ministry, at the time that they are doing the ministry they are to be held in special arrangement with God. If you criticize the singers, the dancers in the house of God while they are really trying to do their best unto the Lord, the Lord will take it personally, as an attack on Himself.

Pastor Don asked the rhetorical question, can you prove that?  Sure, what happened with the Apostle Paul? He was taking Christians, arresting them, throwing them into jail, some were getting murdered. Well Jesus appears to Paul on the Road to Damascus, and says, “Saul, Saul (Paul was named Saul before he converted) why do you persecute Me?” Saul says, “Persecute You? How am I persecuting You?” Well, obviously, if you’re attacking Christ’s body, you are attacking Him, and He considers the Believers as His Body, the Church is His body.  Therefore, we have to be careful about any of the saints that we verbally chastise or speak evil against. You can criticize and say well, she should have worn her dress longer, but if you say, “She should have worn her dress longer, the reason she did that is because she’s a hussy.” Then you’re guilty. You have gone too far, because what you are doing is implying that you understand the stated purpose and you understand the motive behind it.

So, when you attack the Holy Spirit it is a similar thing. There was a man in this church years ago who used to continue to get together with a certain other member of the church so that they could laugh at Benny Hinn. They didn’t believe in signs and wonders and all of that, so when Benny would come out in his white suit, they would make fun of him and the things he was doing.  This man died a premature death, before that he lost his job and moved out of the area too. The Lord removed him from the Living Word Chapel, which cleared the way for Pastor Don to become the pastor. This guy had moved himself into a position of power and he didn’t want Pastor Don. But the Lord removed him. Before he left, the man came to Pastor Don’s office (Pastor Don was already doing the pastor’s job even though the title had not been conferred yet.) and told him that he couldn’t stay if they put Pastor Don as pastor. He went to Las Vegas. The reason was that his heart was preparing himself to oppose Pastor Don, and Pastor Don was the one God called to be pastor of Living Word Chapel. He knew that he couldn’t stay because that was a battle he could never have won.

Someone then shared why they left the church for a season, and in response Pastor Don told us that some people who are walking with the Lord get to a place where they feel that some of their needs are not being met by God. For example, they are believing for prosperity and it doesn’t happen. We make a decision, some say my needs are not getting met here so we go off. Actually, sometimes what God is really doing is permitting us to go to these different places with that unmet need, and it helps us to realize that no other place can meet it either, that what we need to do and what we are supposed to do is stay the course. That there is some growing and stuff that we need to do. So then you go out in the world and you do your finances the way you’ve always done them, and then you find that things are not improving. Then you come back because you realize that I really didn’t want to follow instructions, I didn’t understand. Now I’m really ready to prosper, and then all of a sudden God does prosper you. And we do that in a lot of areas of our lives. So when we want to do something that Daddy (God) doesn’t approve of, we run away from the Church. It is part of the process that some (not all) of us prodigals have to do to check the Father’s heart. The prodigal son went away, he did his thing and what was the test?  The test was in his mind, if I go back and am rejected, I’ll be a servant.  He didn’t give his Father all the information. But the reality is the Father’s heart was bigger than what he had thought it to be. And so, when he went back, he was shocked to find, here’s a robe, here’s a ring, and the whole deal.  Who’s going to love the Father more? The Prodigal or the one who stayed?

After this background we got into the Word.

Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,

We were told to to underline the words that I put in bold.

It is IMPOSSIBLE, meaning it cannot happen. Now we have a series of things that a person needs to have before they can blaspheme the Holy Spirit. He has to be enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, be a partaker of the Holy Spirit (done signs and wonders and works) in conjunction with the Holy Spirit, tasted the good Word of God, and have an understanding of scripture and know that it is good and understand this aspect of the Word, and the power of the age to come. Therefore they have to know prophesy and have an understanding of the power that is released because of the prophetic word. A person has to qualify under all of these areas.

What is the Heavenly Gift? (Jesus Christ). What is the Work of the Holy Spirit in the earth? People came up with answers: comfort, guide, bring to remembrance the things that Jesus has spoken, to reveal truth, chasten and correct. The Holy Spirit’s main work is to convict the world of sin and reveal Jesus. If the Holy Spirit did not reveal Christ to us, we wouldn’t know Him. God the Father, through the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to us.

Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

The only one who would meet all these criterion for blaspheme of the Holy Spirit is a really mature adult believer, not a babe in Christ. A lot of people go around saying, “I think I’ve blasphemed the Holy Spirit,” but they do not meet these qualifications. In order to blaspheme Him you have to know Him. 

Someone brought up a question and I could not hear it in the recording, but Pastor Don pointed out that there are some churches that teach that there are varying degrees of sin – there is venial and cardinal, etc. Then you start making labels on it. The truth is, whether you murdered, lied, or stole a bagel when nobody was looking, all sin is sin.

Pastor Don gave an example. Years ago his wife baked a beautiful pie that was intended for company. Pastor Don knew that company was coming but when he walked through the kitchen he broke off a tiny bit of the crust to eat. His wife was very upset because she had baked the pie for company, and now when she presented the pie to the company the crust would be flawed. Pastor Don joked and said he offered to cut a slice out of the pie with the offending portion of crust in it, but he figured she wouldn’t buy that. Cynthia told him, “Don, you ruined the pie.” He didn’t see how he ruined it because it was just a tiny piece of crust. But she had wanted to present the pie as full and perfect.

If the pie is righteousness, even a little pinch of sin can ruin the whole pie just as much as if you cut out a slice or eat half the pie. So what Jesus is trying to say to us is that a little lie is just as bad as a bold faced lie. Cheating on your taxes is just the same as robbing a bank. So Jesus is saying, don’t touch the pie, if you mess with the pie you are guilty.  As far as God is concerned you are going to be judged, for any percentage. It doesn’t matter that we don’t commit one type of sin, if we are committing another. We cannot look at our sins and think we are better than another person who has committed a sin that we think is far worse. It is an automatic human response. Jesus would respond, “Yeah, you didn’t do that, but what you did was worse than what they did, and worse than all the other stuff you did.” That’s why He said that the books would be opened and we will be judged by everything we said or did. Even our idle words, our negative speaking. Do you know what maturity is? It is when you think it, you hold it before it comes out of your mouth. That is the difference between a spiritually mature Christian and a babe in Christ. A babe in Christ says it and has to repent. If we get more mature, the words don’t come out, and as we mature more, we won’t even think of it.

There is still much more to share, but this is a good place to stop for now, and I will write the rest for you tomorrow. I pray your day is abundantly blessed. Right now my oldest is putting together a new barbecue for us – the old one rusted away. I am already marinating chicken in Zesty Italian dressing for the grill, yum. And an ice cream birthday cake is in the freezer for my middle son, Edward, who just turned 18 today.

Have a blessed Memorial Day, and thanks for being my Xanga friend.

Heather

I will be posting a new blog tomorrow, but thought you might like to see a picture of Pastor Don teaching our Thursday night discipleship class.

There are more than 80 attending this class, and then there are two leadership classes that also have about 30 members each attending. By the way, I am the person in the blue and white checked dressed sitting in front of the guy with the black tee shirt.

Praying your Sunday was blessed.

Heather

I am catching up slowly with the Bible studies, but do not want to skip one – each one offers so much good to share.

We are working through the elementary principles of faith as mentioned in Hebrews 6:1-3 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.

Pastor Don spent some time on the Blaspheme of the Holy Spirit, which is explained in Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

In order to blaspheme the Holy Spirit you need to make a conscious, willful decision to reject the cross and all forgiveness of sin as nothing, and walk away.  The Holy Spirit brings things to your attention, but if you walk away after meeting all the conditions in the above passage, then you have lost your opportunity and the possibility of again receiving repentance. You can’t go back and say, after whole heartedly rejecting Christ, that now He counts for something – you would need another savior.

If you go to the store and spend a dollar for something, take that something, and then go back to the store and demand the dollar back.

If you trust Jesus for salvation, knowing what you know in Christ, and then say, “I don’t want God.” God takes that as a personal decision that is permanent.  We are not talking about a temporary backsliding or doubt and unbelief that can occur with believers or because of a crisis where faith is tested.  This is a person who is walking firm in their faith, someone who has walked in all of the power of the faith. It would be like a Billy Graham turning his back on Christ, after knowing Him the way Billy Graham knows Christ.

Lucifer and the angels, who knew God in Heaven, rejected God. God prepared hell and gehena and hades for them. We know that lucifer and those angels will end up in the Lake of Fire. There are false teachers in this day and age teaching that even satan will be forgiven by God and that no one will spend time in Hell.  Do not believe them.  At the end of the age everyone will be judged, and if our names are not written in the Book of Life, the Lake of Fire will be our destination.  God has clearly told us in His Word what will happen when this age ends. It would weaken the righteousness of the saints if there were no punishment, for then God would not be a just God. If punishment lasts 30 seconds we would want to keep people from it, but it lasts for the ages of ages.  We don’t know what the duration of ages of ages are, or what will be after the events of the last chapter of Revelation. We do not want to reject the work that Jesus did on the Cross for us.

Hebrews 6:7-8 For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

God is a fruit tester and what bears thorns and briers will be burned.

Hebrews 6:9-10 But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

The most important thing in the Body of Christ is not the facilities we worship in, but that we minister to each other and get past our stuff.  We care about each other in the body. Do we care more about each other than we do to our church building? When we are ministering to each other, our judgement is not as harsh.  When we minister to each other, we end up in ministry. Each job in the Body of Christ is important.  Pastor Don told us that an usher with an attitude problem can negate the best sermon that Pastor Don can preach. If we are not careful we can begin to think we are so righteous, and in our minds elevate ourselves above our situation.  Some people in church have no manners, no good sense, and will walk all over you. We need to forgive them, and remember that once someone forgave us and got us off the floor.

We also have to realize that our ministry is continuous.  We can’t teach Bible study and then go home and curse out the wife or husband.  We need to act like Jesus as much as we can and be careful about beating up the moneychangers.  Jesus did not let anger cause Him to sin. We are instructed in the Word to be angry and do not sin, do not be in excess. 

Hebrews 6:11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end,

We are to be diligent with the assurance of hope until the end.

Hebrews 6:12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises

Imitate those who are further along in Christ, and don’t be sluggish.

1 Peter 3:13-18 And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,

If you choose to go the distance with Christ or turn your back on God, you need to accept the rewards for going the distance as well as the punishments and bad stuff for turning your back. It is a false gospel to say that all will be saved and everything will be ok forever, or that you will suffer and be miserable all your life. 

If you don’t turn your back on God you will eat the good of the land, but there may still be persecution and strife.  Salvation does not prevent you from persecution.  It is better to suffer for doing good than for evil, for taking the high road rather than the low road.  We need to hang in there and we will end up on the plus side, eating the good of the land in the land of the living.  We do not want to despair to the point of giving up and rejecting God. 

Some try to tell us that even Judas Iscariot will be saved.  Judas knew about Jesus and he was also sent out to do the signs and wonders, then he turned His back on Christ. Remember to live is Christ to die is gain.

2 Peter 2:1  But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.

These false teachers and their teachings will bring on swift destruction.

2 Peter 2:2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.

The way of truth will be blasphemed and this will lead many people astray.  The Spirit and the Word MUST AGREE.  If it doesn’t you are out of balance.  God will not speak out of both sides of His mouth.  If the Word is out of balance with the Spirit, people can get self righteous and the letter of the Law kills.  The Spirit of the Law brings life.

2 Peter 2:3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

Some people claim to have an ultimate revelation that no one else has, don’t be deceived, judge the Word that is taught.

2 Peter 2:4  For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment

God did not spare the angels.  There will be JUDGMENT.

2 Peter 2:5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;

The whole ancient world was not saved, except 8 people.  In Genesis 6:5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

They were ungodly. Some don’t want anyone to be punished, only those who deserve it, who did things with full knowledge. But where do we draw the line? God is righteous and anything ungodly will be judged. Judas betrayed Jesus with full knowledge.

2 Peter 2:6-7 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked

There are many who say that the rapture will not happen.  But God saved Noah, delivered Lot from Sodom. The revealing of the antichrist is closer than ever, and why would God not deliver us from the wrath to follow? Noah and Lot were not all that righteous.  For example, Lot lived in Sodom, and ruled from it’s gate, and after he was saved there was incest with his daughters. Noah messed up and got drunk. We have to be careful who we sleep with, this behavior produced the Edomites and Palestinians.

2 Peter 2:8  (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)—

The evil torments, and we have seen such evil and lawless behavior in recent history.  Eight year olds bringing handcuffs, knives and tape to school to kidnap their teacher, the Twin Towers, suicide bombers.

2 Peter 2:9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,

God has to punish the unjust and remove the just from an environment of evil.

2 Peter 2:10-14 and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord. But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children.

Except man ceases from sin, evil incarnate will infect the land, and they will perish in their own corruption.

2 Peter 2:15 They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

This happened in Moses and Joshua’s time, as they were preparing to come into the promised land. Balaam had to go to God to get permission to prophesy to the pagan king. He sacrificed bulls and who did he sacrifice them to? He wasn’t a priest, and God caused Balaam to bless the people, not curse them. Why did Balaam think that God would reverse himself and what He says because we ask Him to? God is not going to change His mind because of a sacrifice. He is a Covenant Making God, and He will not break His Covenant. We so often go to God with our plan, but that does not cause us to do what the Lord wants.

We need to ask God, what is Your plan? We do not want to refuse to be obedient. We want to obey God. We need to examine ourselves and see what we have placed above God’s Honor and Respect. God will not go back on His Word. If God would change His behavior so that a prophet could prophesy what he wants to prophesy, God would be in error and life would be a mess.

2 Peter 2:15-16 They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

The prophet instructed the King how to subvert the people, and the people accepted the values of the prophet. Balaam lusted for money and that brought sin into the camp of the Israelites.

2 Peter 2:17 These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

Wells without water (the Word of God), and because they spoke lies, they would be reserved for the blackness of darkness forever.

This is not a prophesy for us, we need to remember that. For we have not turned our backs on God. We have not blasphemed God or the Holy Spirit. So this prophesy is not for us.

Praying your day is blessed, and that you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

Heather

We are blessed to have Pastor Abraham visiting from India.  As I learn more about his ministry I will be sharing it with you.  He oversees over 200 churches in India, in the interior of India where the population is predominately Hindu and Muslim, and where to become a Christian means that you literally put your life on the line.  Pastor Abraham told me that any one who wants to convert to Christianity is supposed to request permission from the government.  The government does not give permission ever because they do not want people converting from the Hindu religion, or the Muslim.  When a person converts and gets baptized without receiving government permission (which is never given), they are fined $2,700 and/or five years or more in jail. Not all of India has this policy, but in certain states in India, the person who ministers is fined and jailed. In other areas you can share the Word of God. But where Pastor Abraham ministers there is persecution for Christians. This payment is expected from people who are lucky to earn $20 a month. The proclamation that one is a Christian is met with major persecution, and at times death.  We really do not realize how blessed we are to live in this country where we have the freedom to worship freely.

As I learn where Pastor Abraham is traveling, I will share this with you so that, if you are near to where he will be preaching you can go and hear him, and perhaps your church would invite him to preach. Our church helps to support his ministry, but the needs are great for the people he serves.  Remember, in India to proclaim one’s self a Christian usually means the loss of a job, the loss of family, and often the loss of a roof over one’s head.

You cannot imagine how humble and sweet Pastor Abraham is.  He is such a blessing.  This may be his last time in the states for some time as his Visa is almost up, and being a Christian he may not find it easy to renew.

Here is what Pastor Abraham shared yesterday.

First he thanked us for our supporting of his ministry and how that allows the Gospel to be preached throughout India. (Pastor Don told us that, as with all the ministries that we support, he has personally visited them and made sure that the money really goes to do the work and that the work that is done is excellent.  Pastor Don has preached in India and met many of the pastors that Pastor Abraham works with.)

Pastor Abraham told us that in the area that he ministers there is a lot of persecution for being a Christian.  Even this year there were many who have been beaten for their faith. And yet, instead of pulling people away from Christ, the people are actually more committed to Christ and spreading the Gospel.  Those who give their lives to Christ have had their homes burned, and all their possessions taken from them, and many have to run away from where they were living just to save their lives.

During one meeting where people accepted Christ, truckloads of Hindus came in and started beating the Christians.  They threw them off the platform to the ground and started kicking and hurting them.  One of the Christians thrown off the platform was a pregnant woman very close to her due date, they threw her down, started kicking her stomach and saying that she should give birth in the dirt then and now.  God did not permit that to happen. She gave birth a few days later, and had a safe delivery. God did a miracle.

There are more than a billion people in India, and Pastor Abraham has asked us to pray that God would send revival to the Hindus and Muslims and the Christians – that all may know Jesus. Pastor Abraham said that God can do great and marvelous things and that there are blessings from Jesus.  He wants India to see the mighty work of the Lord.

God is looking for a group of people who are obedient and dedicated to the work of the Lord. If we are obedient and dedicated God can use us in a mighty and glorious way for His Glory.  God wants to use us for His Purpose.

Moses was a shepherd in the wilderness.   In his youth, he was raised in a palace, but due to actions on his part of killing a slave master, he ended up in the wilderness.  God spoke to Moses in the wilderness, and though he was fearful, he was obedient to God, and God gave him great responsibility.  He became part of God’s plan to rescue the people from Egypt. God asked Moses, “What do you have in your hand?”  Moses had a rod in his hand. He knew nothing, he was just guarding sheep, but God was able to use that rod to help free Israel. The rod was not a special thing, it was just what Moses had in his hand, and that was enough.  God can use that.

Exodus 4:2 So the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.”

Pastor Abraham then asked us, “What do you have in your hand?”  Obedience is enough. God can use what we have in our hands.

God told Moses to cast his rod on the ground and a snake appeared. Remember that the snake (serpent) was what convinced Adam and Eve to disobey God, so God used that snake to help convince Pharaoh to let the people go. God would use that rod, what Moses held in his hand, to begin to diminish the power of the devil in the nations – and all with what Moses held in his hand. Not only that, but Pastor Abraham shared that the fact that the rod turned to a serpent reminds us of the serpent who seduced Adam and Eve. When God had Moses grab the tail of the serpent and God turned it back to the rod, it shows that God is delivering the Israelites out of the bondage that was brought on the world through the sins of Adam and Eve.

We had some visiting young people in our church this Sunday, and Pastor Abraham told them that with obedience and dedication God can use them. Being obedient to God, Moses – once a servant to the King, now would go to the King and the King would bend to the full authority and power of God. 

God wants to use you – what do you have in your hand? With obedience, God can use you in even greater capacity. Our God is a wonderful God.  We need to be obedient and dedicated.

David and Jonathan were able to defeat a large group of Philistines with just a sword. It took boldness to attack this enemy, but one sword defeated an army of Philistines.  Just like David, if we are obedient God can use us.

1 Samuel 14: 6, 14-17 Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the LORD will work for us. For nothing restrains the LORD from saving by many or by few.” … That first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor bearer made was about twenty men within about half an acre of land. And there was trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. The garrison and the raiders also trembled; and the earth quaked, so that it was a very great trembling. Now the watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and there was the multitude, melting away; and they went here and there. Then Saul said to the people who were with him, “Now call the roll and see who has gone from us.” And when they had called the roll, surprisingly, Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there.

David was out feeding sheep when God called him for His purpose. Pastor Abraham then talked about Goliath and how David, a small boy defeated a giant, in the name of the Lord. What did David have?  A sling shot in his hand, and five stones.

1 Samuel 17:40, 50 Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag, in a pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine….So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David.

Real dedication and obedience helps us to face giants.  It did not take five stones to defeat Goliath, it only took one.  All of Israel had the victory because of David. And David had four stones left – these are for the enemies of Israel.  He could face them with those four stones.

Pastor Abraham told us not to worry about being qualified or educated.  What we need to be is dedicated and obedient.  God can use anyone.

John Bunyan was in prison, and all he had in his hand was a pen. In obedience to God, with that pen, he wrote Pilgrim’s Progress.  A book that has impacted millions of people all over the world.  This outstanding book is second only to the Bible, and is known in the whole world.  All he had was a pen in his hand and God used him to change the life of millions of readers.

If we have a little knowledge, a little talent, a little skill, God can use us if we surrender to God and obey God. By God’s Holy Spirit signs, miracles, and wonders can get people saved all over the world and cause them to dedicate their lives for the glory of God.

God can use you in a mighty way. He uses all kinds of people for spreading the Gospel and His kingdom.

He is a Living God, He is Jesus Christ, He is Holy.  God will use us for what He wants to change, and then all will see the glory of God, the love of God, and the power of God. God is over everything.

Let us be used for God’s glory.

I pray this teaching inspires you to begin to use what you have in your hands for the glory of God. Pastor Abraham will be in the states for a few months and I look forward to hearing Him teach again soon.

Have a blessed night.

Heather

About a month ago we had a visiting pastor from Uganda, Pastor Dongo.  He spoke a message that accentuates what Pastor Abraham preached.

Pastor Dongo told us that nothing is impossible with God.  It can happen.  We just go about it and pray and give love and support. Love is the Word in action. We need a sense of commitment and determination, just as Jesus was determined to carry out His Father’s will, no matter the cost.

Jesus was sent by God to do something, and He came to do it. He had a reason for being here, and every step He took was to further this. We, too, need to be committed to do the Word of God, no matter what it takes to do His will.  Sometimes it is a sacrifice, but Jesus was determined to do what He was sent to do by the Father.

God created the world, and it was good, wonderful, yet God knew that the world would need a savior, knew it before man was even created. When man was created in God’s image, man was given free will, and man chose to disobey God’s instructions. This brought sin into the wold, and because of that, God knew that something had to be done to redeem mankind. God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit had the plan of redemption in place before the creation of the world.

Jesus, the son of God, was given the work of atonement, to reconcile man to God.  Sin created an enmity between God and man.  God is holy, and sin and holiness cannot coexist.  In the light of the holiness of God, sin is revealed.  And sin needs to be judged and punished. Yet God wanted a relationship with man, so there was a problem.  Sin cannot be in the righteousness of God. The only way that we could meet and be with a holy God, was if there was a sacrifice to reconcile the relationship.  Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, the work of atonement that was needed to satisfy the holiness of God.

When Jesus was given this work, he was committed. Sometimes people will accept the responsibility but lose their commitment. They will be faithful, until troubles come or something interferes with their commitment. Then they cease to do what they promised to do.  But Jesus was not like that, He was committed to know the Will of His Father.

In John 4, the disciples were sent to the city to get food for Him, while Jesus stayed at the well to meet the woman at the well. When His disciples returned with the food, they were amazed that He was not hungry. He answered them as follows.  John 4:30-34 Then they went out of the city and came to Him. In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.

Jesus was sent by God.  He knew why He was sent, that He had a mission. Are you committed to fulfill your mission from God?  Jesus was willing.

There is no way to fulfill the purpose of God without sacrifice.  If you are not willing to sacrifice, you will not accomplish God’s will. In the world we are visitors, we are just passing through.  We were sent here to do something.  God has a plan and a purpose for us. When we stand before the throne of God we will have to give an account of our life. Has the Will of God been fulfilled in our lives? Jesus sacrificed Himself to do God’s will. We too have been sent by God.

Jesus told people that He was sent by the Father, and that He did only what the Father told Him to do.  Jesus was faithful to His mission and did all that God told Him.

Paul talks about his mission like a race, that he ran the good race and fought the good fight. Now the crown of victory is waiting for him.  Paul knew he was called by God, that God set him apart to preach to the people.  This was a challenge to him, and even in the face of numerous persecutions, he did what God called him to do. Paul was willing to sacrifice and fulfil God’s call on his life.

When we stand before God, we will look back on our lives and see if we obeyed God, and will receive crowns to cast at Jesus’ feet for our obedience. There will be rewards for our faithfulness, and those who are not faithful to God will lose their rewards.

Jesus told His disciples that His food was to do the will of God.

Pastor Dongo told us that it was not just to DO but to FINISH that is important. Some people start, but they do not finish. What satisfies us is to do the will of the One who sent us and to FINISH. Let’s use Jesus as our example.  Jesus started and FINISHED.  While it is important to start, it is more important to finish.Jesus did not stray to the right or to the left, He walked exactly where God wanted Him to walk and finished. He was committed, determined.  God is calling us to be determined.

Marriage is a commitment until death. Marriage is challenging, and the couples face different challenges in their marriage.  No matter the challenge, they are not to give up, but to stay committed to their covenant relationship.

When you plow a field you have to look forward, not behind you, or else your furrows are not straight. If you lose your focus, you can get hurt in the plowing or go off course. When we work for the Kingdom of God, we have to keep going forward, plowing the fields that He tells us to plow.  Jesus kept His hands to the plow, and what He started He finished.

Jesus was chosen to do the work of atonement for our sins, to sacrifice Himself for us. The Father (God) sent Him to do this. He kept walking towards the fulfillment of His mission, even though He knew that it would cost much in sacrifice.

John 5:17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”

The Pharisees and the Scribes and the priests were telling Jesus that this was the Sabbath and that he should not be doing work, but He told them that He did what His Father did, and His father worked on the Sabbath.  The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit worked the week of creation. 

When we were created, they knew that we would not obey. A vast gulf opened up because of our sins, and God sent Jesus to restore relationship with Him. Jesus worked a week of redemption. Jesus was telling them that He and God and the Holy Spirit cannot rest until restoration is made. The Sabbath rest was already broken by our sins. The week of redemption that Jesus went through is to bring us rest in God.  It is the love of God.

We are to imitate Jesus in everything.  To do the works He did, to fulfill the Great Commission from start to finish.  In our marriages, our education, or ministry, and our lives, we need to work the works that God gave us and finish our mission.

Pastor Dongo has a ministry of taking in orphans. Right now he works with over 800 children, and asked us to sponsor a child in Uganda- to provide food, education, clothes and all that these children need. Again, this is a ministry our church supports, and if you are interested in researching it you can check out Buyamba – www.ugandabuyamba.com to find out about sponsoring a child.

The needs are so many in this day and age, and I just pray that when a particular need moves your heart that you reach out and respond. I know we can’t do it all, but if each one reached out to fulfill a few of these needs, combined a lot of good can happen.

Praying your day is blessed.

Heather

Finally I was able to upload a sermon by Pastor Don.  It is a 30 minute sermon delivered on Mother’s Day.  Please enjoy. Please do not put headphones on for the first 30 seconds – I haven’t figured out how to get rid of the test screen.  I will see if someone from church can give me a copy without the testscreen.

Have a blessed day,

Heather

Part 1 of this Friday Bible study is here.  Wow, it seems so long since I have had any substantial computer time. I hope this gets remedied as the school year for my children winds down. I sure am missing visiting you more frequently.

Pastor Don was going over the history of Israel, starting with Adam and Eve, Noah, and now he spent time with the history of Abram, the smallest pagan tribe who God adopted and helped to grow into His tribe.  This tribe of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was given God’s covenant. No one could kill them off (a remnant always survived) and God always prospered them, and no matter who went against them, a remnant always survived, and through them, the rest of the world would get to know God.

When God picked them, he was looking for a tribe without idol worship and who was not intent on killing off their children to false gods. It would be through the tribe of Abram that God would send the Messiah who would save the world.

The Jews were called stiff necked, stubborn, hard headed. Pastor Don pointed out that in our families the children that exhibit these traits are the ones we pray the most for. Often Israel was portrayed in the Bible as a wayward wife, who was not faithful to her husband. But God prospered them. They were the smartest people on the planet, had good education, real estate, economics, and with God on their side, no matter who went to war against them, they would win. Everyone tried to do the Israelites in, the “ites”, Hitler. God promised to bless those who blessed them, and curse those who cursed them.

Pastor Don pointed out that a natural Jew who does not know the Messiah will have to go through the tribulation.

Although there are false teachings about how all will be saved in the end times, why would there be a judgment day without any consequences?

Revelation 20:13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.

People will be judged according to their works, and Jesus told us that we would also be judged for every idle word that we say. Many who have died and come back to life point out that they saw something like a movie of their life, and they view all that they ever said or did. All is recorded, and they will see where they could have done a better job. If we are honest we will see that there will be a whole bunch of stuff on our “videos” that we don’t want to see or hear. The good news, is that we will miss this judgment, for we will have already stood before the Judgment seat of Christ, we won’t have to have the White Throne Judgment.

Revelation 20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

The way our name is written in the Book of Life is if we receive Jesus into our lives. If we have rejected Jesus, and want nothing to do with Him, then our names will not be found written in the Book of Life.

Pastor Don spoke about the Bible Codes. How in the Torah there are hidden codes.  Isaac Newton felt that there were numeric codes hidden in the Bible. And one Jewish person was working on the Torah and discovered that in Deuteronomy by using skip codes (counting every so many letters and recording the next letter) that the Bible clearly spelled out the name of Messiah, all of his disciples, and the people around the Messiah that impacted His life. Michael Drosnin discovered, through the Bible Codes, that the Prime Minister of Israel at that time,  Yitzhak Rabin, was going to be shot. The Bible Codes also gave the names and time of the incident. Drosnin went to Rabin but Rabin went ahead to the meeting and was assassinated. Most of the time, though, the Bible codes are found after the incident occurs and confirms that God knew that it would happen.

Pastor Don then mentioned about Yacov Ramsel, who had Bible Codes revealed to him by God. Today many use the computer to seek out the codes. But God gave Ramsel a vision and showed him where to start and how many letters to count. In Isaiah 53, the name of Yeshua (Jesus) is listed multiple times.

There are computer programs that can be used to seek out Bible codes. And many have found their names, birth dates, and people around them in the Bible codes. The problem is we don’t know where to start or what the numbers to count are. But it may be possible that the Bible is the Book of Life.

Revelation 21:1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.

The sea can be a reference to the nations, and also water (which is the Word of God). We won’t need the written Word of God, for we will have God with us in this new heaven and new earth.

Revelation 21:22-24 But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.

This is the nations of those who are saved and who will walk in the light of the Lamb (Jesus).

Revelation 21:25-27  Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

This is again the ages of the ages. Notice that there will be no Chronos time there, for we measure Chronos time with the sun and the moon, but there will be no sun or moon, no clock. But aonic time will still go on, the ages of the ages.

Revelation 22:1-2 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

The tree of life will be fore the healing of the nations. There will be no division,no racism, we will be one new man.

Revelation 22:3-5 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.

Ages of the ages.

Revelation 22:14-15 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.

God’s plan was to create a being that can fellowship with God. The Church will be elevated to God status, David said, are you not gods? But Jesus was talking about righteous, and we are not righteous in our own strength, but only through Him. We will never be God, but we will be AS gods. We will rule and reign as kings and priests with God, but we will be ruling in line with God’s Word.

God permitted us to spend 7,000 years on earth to separate the wheat from the chaff, to find the perfect fruit, those who were written in the Book of Life.

Pastor Don then asked us why then would there be those outside of the city who were still immoral? He pointed out that during this time there would still be birth going on, and those who were born during the tribulation would need to have time to make a choice to accept God or to reject Him. Once their decisions are made the clock of creation would be totally stopped and there would be a new age.

Revelation 22:12 “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.”

There will be judgment.

Revelation 22:14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.

The future, this city is new

Revelation 21:2-8 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

This is again the ages of the ages.

Revelation 22:14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.

There are people who will be able to enter (who keep God’s commandments) and groups that will not be able to enter.

Revelation 22:17-18 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book;

Deuteronomy Chapters 28-31 and Exodus explain about the plagues.

Revelation 22:19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

This passage talks about all that is in Revelation, and that includes Chapter 21 and 22 regarding eternal judgment. So those who speak against judgment are disobeying this command of the Bible.

If anyone tells you they know what will happen after the White Throne Judgment and what happens with the Saints in the City, they are making it up.

The age of man will have ended according to the time period in the Bible. All that we know is that we are in the Covenant care of a loving God in the ages of ages. And this will lead to another age of prophetic time, but it will not be Chronos time.

We don’t know what happens to our cats, dogs, pigs.  It mentions that there is no sea, the sea is important to the stability of our current planet. We don’t know the new Adam, we don’t know if carnal life will exist. Those who do not pass the White Throne Judgment will be separated from God. There is no chance of reprieve, forgiveness, repentance for they rejected Christ, they made their choice.

Judas Iscariot will not be in Heaven. He had his choice, and rejected Christ. He will not have a chance to repent. We need to accept Jesus now, get it right now.

We then ran out of time so we will continue this next Bible study.

I pray that these teachings bless you.  Also praying that you have a wonderful day. 

Heather