God’s Infinite Mercy – Pt. 2

Ron Weinland

May 19, 2012

Thought I’d mention we’ve had some requests wanting to know about what to do with Pentecost offerings, tithes and so forth.  It’s your responsibility to save them before God.  Just keep them; we can’t use them at this point. There’s no sense in sending it in.  By the time it got in it’s going to be too late but everybody still has the responsibility to save them, and regardless what happens to money it’s still a personal responsibility to do that before God.  So you just set it aside like you would at any other time in your own account, whatever... and so that’s to answer that particular question.

Also, the books going out, anybody that’s involved in that, about mid-week we’re going to cut it off to where people can’t order anymore, there’s no further point in that.  We’re just going to tell them that all they can do to receive it is to download it.  So everyone that’s involved in the book program, wherever you’re located, just understand that by mid-week, sometime late Tuesday or Wednesday we’ll cut it off so that people can’t order any more.  So after that point then, candidly, by Wednesday anything that needs to be mailed out should be mailed out on that particular date.  They may or may not receive a real book.

I have to admit, today seems a little strange, a little different indeed.

I’m going to incorporate something into the introduction of this sermon before we continue, or before we actually get back into it and get back on track to where we left off last Sabbath.  I want to read some excerpts out of an email that I thought was kind of thought provoking in the sense to help understand different emotions and feelings that people go through, thinking that you go through, especially now where we are.  And so I’m just going to break into the thought in this one here that happens to be from this particular part of the world as well.  This individual says....

I just want to express to you a little bit about how I feel and have felt since the fateful day in 2008 when for some strange reason I typed in something to do with ‘end-times’ and found two books written by Ronald Weinland.

Ever since I found out about the Church, that has been a long process of learning I must say, one of the hardest doctrines for me to accept was that man can become god.

And that is an incredible giant step for people.  That’s something that God gave to Mr. Armstrong early on, to understanding something so powerful that the world doesn’t comprehend, that that’s the purpose of why we exist, to become a part of Elohim.

He said in parenthesis here...

...(that doctrine still baffles me even though I see it more clearly now than I did before.)

I remember when I heard Mr. Armstrong say it in a sermon and I thought, “Now you’ve gone too far!”  However, because of the irrefutable truths, which I learned up until then, truths which quite frankly answered all the questions I have had ever since I was a Pentecostal, I chose to carry on listening and reading and sure enough in due time while listening to more sermons by Mr. Weinland on the issue, it became clearer and clearer.

I have found over the past three years that whenever I have doubt about any doctrines it takes time, but it eventually becomes clearer.  For instance, I didn’t fully understand the 50th Truth until I heard the word ‘firstfruits’ in the very last part of the sermon in relation to the wave sheaf, and everything right that very second seemed to come so clear in focus with certain scriptures dealing with and proving the issue coming to mind at that very moment...and that was after listening to that sermon quite a few times.

How often does that happen when you hear something and then later on all of a sudden the light goes on and you see it?  It’s an awesome thing that takes place by the power of God’s spirit.

I remember when I decided to tithe.  I cannot explain to you how strong the conviction was that not only should I tithe but I should tithe to this Church amongst the many I have come across and researched, and again, this is the reason for my dilemma at the moment.

I have thought in my mind it is quite unprecedented that someone from any era from the Church of God has ever declared that the date that Christ is coming... and over the past 3½ years when it is not at your doorstep you are not so troubled by the thought that the finality of things written is about to come to pass, but now we are almost three and a half weeks away...

So at the time of this writing.

Actually that thought just dawned on me right now and it’s quite surreal for me, yet I know this is the Church of God, for if it is not, or if it was not you would not have the truths you do.

I’m not sure if I want to read all the rest of the part here...but I’ll read some more here.

There are some truths which people may not consider new, but to me they are new because it was the first time I’ve ever heard or considered it, like the fact that life and death will still continue during the Millennium.  I didn’t believe that even previously when I found out about the Church of God.  I always thought that if I could only get into the other side I am guaranteed to live a thousand years...and then that sermon came on the Last Great Day of a certain Feast of Tabernacles and I was very disappointed, and at the same time laughed at my own folly.

I am not saying I can prove or understand all the truths.  To be honest, this latest one is most baffling to me – I don’t understand it.  I only understand the part that holy Jerusalem and the Temple being about the Church because Mr. Weinland has preached about it in previous sermons.  It was indeed one of the truths that I came to which made me understand what 2 Thessalonians was all about; understanding that the Church is the Temple, for instance, magnifies the role the man of sin played in it.

And that’s an awesome thing – an individual who is not yet in fellowship with us but who has been reading and listening for a long time searching out the different groups, and yet these are the thoughts going through his mind.  And yet what an awesome thing that someone is able to be brought to a point where they understand the Temple is about the Church and able to understand 2 Thessalonians because of that.  And you too are in the same boat.  At some point you came to understand 2 Thessalonians, that hit you finally, to understand this is about God’s Church, it’s about a sign that God gave about the timing when Jesus Christ would return to this earth, because before that it said He will not come until this event takes place in the Church.

It’s an awesome thing...and yet I think of the thousands that we’ve been talking about here that were a part of the scattering who do not comprehend that!  They reject that!  They can’t grasp what has happened to us.  They can’t grasp what has happened to God’s Church.  Some do, to a little bit here and there in parts, some will acknowledge certain things, maybe even mention an apostasy, but they do not understand it as you do in the fullness and the truth about God’s Temple and what that means concerning every prophecy from then on, concerning Laodicea, as an example, and being spewed out of God’s mouth...and all the stones came tumbling down, not just a few.  There’s not a certain amount....   Anyway, going on... I’ll never get to this sermon if I don’t do that.

And he said...

...and when I listened to certain ministers of the previous Worldwide Church of God trying to create a dichotomy between the three, the man of sin, the Church, and the apostasy, I tend to wonder “Why can’t they see it?!  It seems clear to me when it was first preached.”

Awesome!  That’s the power of God’s spirit, what He gives to us.  That’s why so often in times past I said, “Remember the truth!  Go over the truths that God has given to you.  There’s only one reason why you have them.  There’s only one reason why they’ve come to you, and it’s to understand how God works and where God works, quite candidly.”

He said...

This brings me back to the crux of this email, so many truths that have been revealed to build on previous truths revealed through Mr. Armstrong proves it is you whom God is working through.  I know it because I get the same feeling I got when I read John 3:13 and understood it, the same feeling when I asked about the transfiguration and I said the first thing that was impressed on my mind was that it was a vision even though I only read the verses that prove that later.

A feeling that I can’t quantify the words to this day, but I got that same feeling when learning about the truths from PKG - yet I am troubled about the 27th of May, 2012.

Well, join the club!   I’m being a little funny about it, but really!  If it doesn’t trouble you... We’re eight days from incredible events, of what we believe with all of our being.  Any way you look at it within about eight days your life is going to change mightily, no matter what happens!  That’s just reality!  And you have to be able to deal with it and you have to have thought about various things, the possibilities...because if you don’t think about the possibilities, even though there are certain things that you deeply believe with all your being, then a person would not be very wise, candidly.

And so this individual says:

...and yet I am troubled about the 27th of May, 2012, very troubled.  And yet not a day goes by that I don’t think (that the thoughts that this might not be the date of Christ’s return doesn’t cross my mind)...

Well, that’s normal, especially not being in the Body yet...and it’s even normal otherwise for people to wonder, to think, “What’s happened out there?” ...and here we are, this far away, and nothing’s happened...   We see the signs.  I see with all my being!  I don’t care what happens, when it happens, how it happens... well, I do care... but looking back in retrospect here, the reality is this world is ready for a World War!  Anybody who can’t begin to see some of those things and look at what’s happening with nations and how nations are positioning themselves, seeing what nations like China are doing and the gold they buy at different times, and all the different things that have to do with people trying to save themselves and positioning themselves – even governments in the world.  Something’s wrong!

If we don’t understand over here about Europe and have a sense of history, and even how the Germans are reacting to various things right now.  If you can’t comprehend why they respond to certain things the way they do - because they’re even fearful about power!  Do you realize that?  Comes out in the papers!  They acknowledge that they’re fearful of the use of a power – things to do with NATO and so forth.  I understand that!  Things because of their history and because of what’s happened in times past, and something that might trigger a coming back to of a use of power – because candidly, understand, the Assyrians use power!  They always have in history...they just don’t know they’re Assyrians.  But as far back as the Germans can go they know that they use power at different times and they’re a very aggressive kind of people when they do that.

And so if you put them in a corner, which they feel a little bit in a corner right now because of what’s happening in Greece – that’s putting them in a corner – and they don’t like that feeling, and they don’t like losing the power that they have right now.

We live in awesome times, what we’re seeing unfold here!  But all it takes is a little trigger and everything falls into place and power and nuclear weapons and how fast those things happen.  Somebody sees some taking off... others push a...  it’s even automatic.  I don’t know if you know that?!  They don’t even have to think about it.  It’s automatic in the system.  If no one were alive to give the command there’s an automatic response.  There’s an automatic response that comes out of the United States even if there’s no government.  It’s automatic.

Do you realize other nations have that?  They see certain birds in the air...that’s it!  Twenty minutes and the world changes, any way you look at it.  That’s the kind of world we live in and yet people can’t conceive of such things.

Continuing on here; again, he says....

Not a day goes by that I don’t think about this, that it doesn’t cross my mind, (the thoughts that this may not be the date of Christ’s return)...and I wonder, no one else out there has the truths that I have.

I know I have adopted a wait and see attitude but if this is not the date does that mean you are not the Church of God?  ...and if you are not the Church of God, who is?  Because no one else out there comes close for me...

Just wanted to let us know what they’re going through, what they’re feeling.  And we have to be honest with ourselves, things we have gone through.  I think of people who have said they don’t sleep at night at times.  There are times when you wake up at night, that you can’t sleep because things are running through your mind, and all these ‘what if’s...’...and it’s just normal, it’s natural, and you’re being bombarded by some of that anyway, okay?

So, again here, I thought that was a good introduction, a letter to set the stage for where we are, because we’re down to the wire.  When I prepared the sermon here this time I had a hard time at the end because it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I know it, but then it hit me in a very powerful way this is my last live webcast, this is it...and very emotional to think about that at that time.

So, I do want to make a couple other comments because I know there are relatives and people out there and friends out there that listen, especially now, because they’re concerned about their family members because they don’t see or believe what you believe, and they know a history of what’s happened to other people in times past when there’s been a date set and so forth.  And there are things that have come in about... “Well, what if somebody commits suicide because they’re so distraught?”  We are not of those kinds of people, no matter what happens.  We’re not people who become distraught.  We receive correction, we change, we strive to understand the mind, the will of God, we seek to grow and conquer and overcome...but to do otherwise is totally foolish and insane.  Life has its trials, life has its hardships and you go on from there.  We humble ourselves, indeed, to receive whatever God gives to us...and I’ll mention more in the sermon.

Last Sabbath we began a new series entitled God’s Infinite Mercy with this being Part 2.  We began this sermon by considering the vastness of the universe as we made some simple comparisons between the earth and our sun, the vastness, the size, and then another sun called VY Canus Majoris of which you would have to place – again, to me so awesome, just the size...  that God put something like that out there!  I mean, the fact that the earth is here is enough but then you think how incredibly great it becomes or how incredibly small it becomes and you’d have to place 2,000 of our suns through the diameter of it to get from one side to the other.  It just blows my mind!  The Great God that we serve!  And then we come to understand the power...or we think about, we meditate upon the power of the one Eternal Almighty God to create and sustain such things in the universe that we see around us, and it’s overwhelming to the human mind, to our understanding.  We come to understand how puny, how small we are, and then we come to think about – we should – the mercy of God, the love of God, the desire He has for us to become a part of His Family, to become a part of Elohim, because that’s what it’s all about – and that what He’s doing in us is far, far greater than just creating the vastness of a physical universe!  Far greater!  Us!  His desire for us!

And then I think of how we live as human beings because of our carnal human nature. And all human beings, save one, who’ve ever lived – everyone else, this selfish nature that’s just inherent within us, that we have to come to understand and fight against by choice, and choose God’s way.  And I think of the patience of our Father, the love... it’s an incredibly powerful awesome thing, over the past 6,000 years, how God has worked with us.  It is a powerful, powerful thing!

I think of the book of 1 John that speaks about much of the very essence of the very mind and thinking of God that’s reflected there, the very heart and core that comes from God, when it simply says, “God is love.”  And then we think about other things and we realize it’s reflected in our lives and throughout the past 6,000 years in this matter of mercy, how He’s dealt with us because of His great love.

So, let’s go back to the last section of scripture that we focused upon last Sabbath and repeat what we covered, in order that we get the context, and then continue on.  We went to Revelation 11 and then another section in Ezekiel that speaks of those with whom God is dealing with in Revelation 11, so I want to repeat that to get back in the context here, and again, referring to those who are referred to spiritually as Gentiles, meaning non-believers, those who are referred to in a sense of being Sodom and Egypt.

Revelation 11:13 - At the same hour, basically it says when the witnesses are resurrected, changed, there was a great shaking, that’s what the word means in the Greek, can be a literal earthquake or a great shaking, and a tenth part of the City fell, and in the quaking were slain by name, that’s powerful... by name of men/people seven thousand: or by name seven thousand of mankind/of people, but specific group of people, and the remainder, in other words the Greek word that means ‘the others’ or ‘the rest’, 63,000, were made afraid, brought to fear, and they gave glory to the God of heaven.  Now, you need to understand here...please understand this does not mean that all were immediately brought to fear.  There’s a process that people go through.  It doesn’t mean that it happens instantaneously or that people know about it instantaneously in that hour.  There is something that happened in that hour but there may be a bit of a time lapse here in what takes place, and that has to do with choices of people as well.  But God has made it possible, this is something that God is making possible for the Church.

And so again, people are not immediately brought to fear but that the offering from God to repent is immediately after the 7,000 are killed...of those specifically mentioned by God, or specifically named by God to this end...who are not to see, to live on into a millennial period.  They are to die and wait...specifically named.  Others not named to this specific judgment still have choices.  So indeed, anywhere from 3,500 to 63,000 people will have the choice, and God’s purpose in it all is to bring people to repentance, to be shaken by this so much, because everyone will know of some and maybe many who have died because of name, because of reputation, because of just being known within the scattered Body.

Let’s turn over to Ezekiel 20, and read this section that we were in...beginning in verse 33 - As I live, says the Lord Eternal, surely with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm and with fury poured out will I rule over you: Now, this is awesome when you think about it, because as a whole in times past, the Church of God – we as well – meaning the continuation of the Church of God but the Church of God that was scattered and the knowledge they had to that time when they were scattered, when reading this particular verse have only considered physical Israel, ‘with fury poured out will I rule over you’;  and indeed, that’s going to happen to the world, mainly because of what the world begins to do to itself, and then God intervenes to stop it.  But this is still about the Church – that’s what’s awesome to understand.

You go through and read so many things in Ezekiel; it’s about the Israel of God, the Church of God because that’s God’s focus.  When God begins to work with people things go up another notch.  It’s no longer a physical people, it’s not about a physical nation, it’s not about a physical people of Israel.  It doesn’t matter who people are as far as where they came from and so forth and their background!  It’s about what they become and what God’s giving to them.  It’s about something way beyond a physical group of people that God brought out of Egypt and worked with and gave lessons to mankind about how man can’t keep, when they’re even given God’s law, no matter who it is, no matter what tribe of people it is, they can’t keep His law without His holy spirit, and then you enter into Israel still, by God’s name, but now the Church, those whom God is preparing for a new age spiritually.

So He says, with fury poured out will I rule over you; and so God has been chastening the Church; God is directly involved with working with the Church. God is the one who spewed the Church out of His mouth. God is the one who called us in the beginning, who drew us out of the world. God is the one who determines who He’s going to awaken and when and how and why.

And I will bring you from among the people/from out of the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein you are scattered, Worldwide Church of God – scattered all over the place -  worldwide; and He says, wherein you are scattered... with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. Because there is a penalty for sin that God is going to make clear, that has to be taken care of so that people can learn from it, so they can be moved by it and shaken by it so they will repent...because nothing else, as a whole, for such a large group of people, will bring them to repentance, but for something like this to happen of this magnitude where it can happen so quickly in their lives.  It’s awesome when you see how God works things out!  When you see how God works with us as human beings you just have to stand back with your mouth open in awe, truly.

And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people and there will I plead with you face to face. God’s been doing that.  Scattered, in the wilderness, and some awakened and drawn out of that wilderness, others there that God will bring, will shake in time, but there’s been that out there that they’re learning lessons from, that when it comes time it’ll all be brought to mind quickly, powerfully.

Continuing on in the verses there...as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt so will I plead with you, says the Lord Eternal. And I will cause you, or ‘of you’ is what it’s talking about here to pass under the rod, a tenth, ten percent as we talked about last week.  Incredible!  ...and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: so some are going to pass under the rod for a different purpose...and then He says I will bring you then into the bond of the covenant.  That’s powerful, that which God is bringing into this world, that which is going to take place that continues a process in people’s lives, back into a covenant relationship that’s working.  Because if God’s spirit is not working in your life that process isn’t working, the moulding and fashioning, bringing you into Elohim.  It’s ceased in the Body that’s scattered; it’s stagnant in the Body that was scattered – asleep.

Notice what He says as He does this; He’s just reiterating something in a more powerful way...And, this is what He’s doing, I will purge out from among you the rebels and those who transgress against Me: and I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, where they’ve been scattered, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel:  speaking of those who are amongst those who rebel and transgress and that God has named by name because of what they have done, their sin is so great.  He says, because of what you have done you will not enter into the Promised Land...and that’s what He’s saying here, they shall not enter into the land of Israel, into the promises that God has given of a millennial period and the peace that’s going to be on this earth and that life that they’re going to be able to experience and see, let alone not being able to be resurrected at that time as a part of the 144,000, that’s always been the forefront of people’s minds.

But again, those who do not rebel and will repent can live into the Millennium.  That’s an awesome thing!

Now, consider this time of Christ’s return and the resurrection of 144,000 – just to think about just a short time from now.  Consider what it will be like for those who come to see the 7,000 among them die.  You know, when something happens and you can’t deny it any longer, you can’t say the apostasy didn’t occur, you can’t say that Mr. Tkach Sr. was not the man of sin... you can’t say that any longer!  You can’t say that the Church hasn’t been spewed out and that people have been asleep and that they haven’t seen this come upon the world!  Because they think we’re stark raving mad to think that you have a week left and nothing major has happened in the world and you still hold onto this belief that Jesus Christ is returning!  What’s wrong with you?!  Because they’re so blinded to the Church they don’t know what God’s doing with the Church!

And so when they come to see and come to know people who have died quickly, mightily, at one time, that God deals with personally by name – because most of them are in the ministry and the elders...I’ll just mention that.  A most notable portion will consist of elders and ministers and others who think of themselves as teachers, and they do it on this little machine here.  They love to get on here and preach and put out their little blogs, their little sayings and love to try to get out here to try to reach out to other people, to lead them into their thinking.  It’s not of God.  False prophets...people talk about false prophets and they want to point a finger at one (or two) but they don’t realize what they’re doing and what they’re fulfilling.  God will take care of it.

And this indeed will shake the Church in a very powerful way, the Church that was scattered.  And before we consider the impact upon those who turn to God at that time and glorify Him, because that means they’re going to repent, because this is going to hit them all at one time.  This is happening in the world, there is this in the atmosphere - we can’t deny it.  What other time...?  I mean, come on – everything that you’ve ever believed is all of a sudden there at your doorstep and it’s crept up on you and you’ve been caught unaware – totally unaware – totally blindsided – what a shocking thing!  People will repent quickly...some it may take a little longer because of pride.  There remain lessons to learn all the way to the end in all this – things that are going to be taught into the future throughout the Millennium and the Great White Throne.  These are the greatest of lessons in time to be taught in the future.

Some of this was mentioned in the last posting but I want to give you the whole context now, Ezekiel 12 – powerful – powerful – powerful – as you read through Ezekiel 5 and on through here and read some of these things, think about the Church and what’s happened to the Church you’ll see things and understand things and begin to grasp things you’ve never seen before.

Ezekiel 12:1 - The word of the Eternal also came to me, saying, Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house ...to deny an apostasy, to deny the very evidence of why everyone is scattered?  That really kind of just blows my mind! ...to deny the very evidence that they are a part of, and most in the midst of a rebellious House which have eyes to see, the world doesn’t.  Who has eyes to see? ...and do not see? And they have ears to hear, and do not hear! That was in the beginning, but as they went into a deeper and deeper and deeper sleep that obviously goes away because it’s a matter of God’s spirit.  But that’s what they had.  ...for they are a rebellious House.

Therefore, you son of man, gather your ‘stuff’, that’s how it’s translated in the King James here but it’s most translated as ‘vessel’, ‘as a thing in which to carry your goods, possessions, tools, jewels, weapons’ and so forth that’s used in a lot of different ways, but it has this context of carrying these things of value. And it may also be used as simple as these possessions without a specific vessel, it can be things about weapons, jewels, but it still carries this concept of something you’re carrying even if it’s not inside a particular vessel.  These are the vessels themselves but it’s a matter of carrying them for a purpose.

What an awesome thing, an example here, of how it’s translated – jewels.  What are your jewels?  What are your weapons?  What is it God tells you to carry?  ...to keep?  So He says, take your stuff in the King James...take these, and this word here, we’re going to use the word ‘possessions’ because it gives a better.... if you understand what you possess that you can take with you that God has given to you.  It’s in the mind, it’s in your being, it’s what you use in your spiritual life.  It’s everything that God has given to you and this is the discussion, this is what’s being covered here.  So we’re going to use the word ‘possessions’ every time we come across this word.  So if it says ‘stuff’, it’s ‘possessions’.

So again, therefore, you son of man, take your possessions together for removing yourself, and remove by day in their sight; and you shall remove from this place to another place in their sight: they’re going to see it; it may be they will consider it, though they are a rebellious house. So this starts at the very beginning when these things begin to happen.

Verse 4 - Then shall you bring forth your possessions by day in their sight, of those possessions to be removed: and you shall go forth at even in their sight, as they that go forth into captivity. This is really zeroing in on a particular time when all these things began within the scattered Church and all the things that began to transpire and what God is saying here.  There’s a 3½ year period at the very beginning of something until the Church was finally fully established by Pentecost of 1998.  And so there’s this period of time of things that took place in the Body, in the scattered Body; things that people read back and forth and people who knew each other and had communications in some things, and it has to do with receiving of truths and what was done with these truths and on and on.

In their sight you shall bear these possessions upon your shoulders and carry it forth in the twilight; God is saying that this is not going to be hidden under in a place somewhere, in a closet or under a bed, these things are going to be out in the open where everybody can see it and they’ll be talking about it.  I go back in history and I think about what I know that ministers out there have given sermons about or talked about, things that have been written that God inspired to be written, ‘Time is Running Out’, ‘Time Has Run Out’, sermons that were given on those subjects by different groups and different people – full rejection of it and trying to tear it down because they don’t want other people to think about those things and they’ve got to discard it, have to discredit it.  Otherwise people can begin to acknowledge and to say, “Yes, we were scattered!  We are the evidence of a scattering!  Yes, Mr. Tkach Sr. was the man of sin!  Yes, 2 Thessalonians is fulfilled!  Yes, Jesus Christ is returning!” Not twenty years from now like one group says or twenty-five or a hundred years from now - it’s soon because this was the only major prophecy in the Bible of evidence, that this is your sign that Jesus Christ is now coming!

In their sight you shall bear these possessions upon your shoulders, clear, to be seen, things that are said, things that are seen and heard that have to be dealt with by others because if you don’t discredit it, if you don’t tear it down there may be someone else in the Body or the group out there, or in your group, whatever the different people, how they think, that will come across this and they’ll see some of this and begin to think.

I remember at the very beginning the ministry was shaken – not all of it. We know a third of the Church went right back to Protestantism, a third of the people quit. Not the same thing happened fully within the ministry where people just quit, some of that very small in that area.  Many went in a particular direction of different groups and getting started in different areas and some of the things that took place there of what was believed and what they believed, what they were going to hold onto.  But in the beginning there was a lot of talk about, “Where are we?  What’s happened?  How can this happen to God’s Church?  What’s taking place here?”  And the thought of a scattering, an apostasy, you could talk about it in the very beginning...maybe some of these things are taking place.  But it wasn’t very long when organizations began to get started, like the one we became associated with, that all that stuff went by the wayside because now something was being built again, and the fear of what had taken place to us began to leave.

Verse 6 - In their sight you shall bear these possessions upon your shoulders, and carry it forth in the twilight: in other words, as the very end of the day draws near, or the very end, speaking of ‘the very end’ draws near; and you shall cover your face so that you do not see the ground: Interesting terminology that God uses here about covering the face, because this is going to come up again.  But here is a group, here is what’s being told ‘son of man’, and the example is being given here in this here of... you know, it reminds me about coming up to the Red Sea.  If you cover your face so that you don’t see the ground, you’re walking... What are you doing?  What is something you can learn from?  It’s walking by faith, it’s not following your own way you want to go or what way you think you should go.  You’re following God by faith; you’re doing what God says.  God gave some instruction here and so here a person’s just going to continue walking – and what God gives that’s the way they’ll walk.

For I have set you for a sign, the word means ‘a wonder’ unto the house of Israel.  Interesting!  ‘I have set you for a sign’, something to be seen, something that’s to be accomplished.  It can’t get much greater than two witnesses and what God gives of something that should be seen that’s not seen, that’s not accepted, that’s not received, and yet they witness of that in their life.

So, this word of ‘sign’ is an interesting word.  It’s used in the sense ‘of being conspicuous’, it’s used ‘of wonder’, as being of God’s power, something of God’s power, but of ‘things that are foreboding’ or ‘of ominous significance’, and as ‘a token, a sign of future events’.  It’s been there all the way through, things that God has given to say, “This is what’s going to happen, this is what’s going to come to pass.  Powerful – powerful!  A place that this is used helps to better understand this usage here; I’m just going to read this quickly here...

Ezekiel 24:24 - Thus Ezekiel is unto you a ‘sign’: and it’s in the context because of what was prophesied, according to all that he has done shall you do: and when this comes, when it comes to pass, you shall know that I am the Lord Eternal.  It’s about God.  It’s about people coming to grips with an understanding, a reality of “What I [God] says will come to pass.”  But human beings don’t accept it as a whole until it’s come to pass, and then they see it and then they acknowledge indeed, He is God, the one Eternal Almighty God.  Powerful, truly is.

Ezekiel 12:7 - And I did so as I was commanded: and I brought forth my possessions by day, as possessions for captivity, in other words, the word used here in the sense of exile, of going into captivity, to be removed from where, in essence, we had had our home.  It’s time to get out, captivity is coming, the enemy is at the door, it’s going to be conquered – GET OUT! Get out of here!  Move out of here!  Don’t stay around anymore or you’ll be a part of what’s destroyed!  And so it’s a matter of fleeing into captivity.  The Church that was scattered and what happened to us?  With the truth, a little bit of a different story, but it’s a matter of getting out and then what happens afterwards becomes important.

...and in the evening, in other words, when the sun goes down, I dug through the wall with my hand and I came through the twilight, a word that means ‘a thick darkness’; that’s why... (I haven’t gotten to this yet but it’s a word that means ‘I came through in the thick darkness’) and I carried it, again, possessions, upon my shoulder in their sight. And in the morning came the word of the Eternal unto me, saying, Son of man, has not the House of Israel, the rebellious House, said unto you, What are you doing? Haven’t they asked you, “What are you doing”? ...and the reality is in history, no, they didn’t.  That’s the point.  They didn’t ask, they didn’t want to know, they just wanted you to go – “Get away from us!”

So, Say unto them, Thus says the Lord Eternal; everything that has been taught, everything that’s been written has always been written in that context, ‘This is from God...’   What we have comes from God, it’s not about an individual or individuals, or whatever.  It’s about our being able to share in what God gives to us but there’s a way that God gives it to us.

Thus says the Lord Eternal: This burden, this load, this lifting, this carrying, concerns the prince of Jerusalem, it’s hard to sometimes understand some things that are written because you might draw the wrong conclusions.  It’s about the one who defiled the Temple; it’s about the man of sin.  ...and all the House of Israel that is among them.  And tell them, I am your sign, your token.  That’s what God said.  Awkward thing to do.  “Tell them you’re a prophet.  Tell them you’re a witness.  Tell them...”  Pshew!  “Do they believe?  Nah!  But that’s what you’re to do.  That’s what you’re to say. ...and especially about those things that are yet to come.  Tell them what I give to you.”  May 27th, 2012?

...and tell them I am your sign, I am your token, and like as I have done, so shall it be done unto them: for they shall be removed and go into captivity. And that’s what’s happened more and more, people have become captive to whatever group they’re with.  We had an opportunity of time to repent in a short period of time, 3½ years after the apostasy, that was granted to a portion of God’s Church; but God has to be the one to draw, God has to be the one...just like in a calling, to give those things.  Otherwise we’d all gone the same direction.  But God delivers whom He will.  And so people have gone deeper into captivity.

Verse 12 - And the prince that is among them shall bear them upon their shoulder, it’s saying ‘they’ here, speaking of ‘they’, the same group of ‘they’.  It’s what happens to them later on, what happens to the scattered group later on.  So this is initially what is still taking place here.

It says, For they shall be removed and go into captivity.  And the price that is among them ‘shall they’, it’s not spoken here but that’s what it’s referring to, bear upon their shoulders in the twilight, in other words the thick, the darkness, and shall go forth: and they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: and he shall cover his face that he not see the ground with his eyes. Different expression here in how it’s being used because it’s not a matter of faith, it’s about what they have done.

My net also will I spread upon him and he shall be taken in My snare: and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet he shall not see it, though he shall die there. Died in Babylon. Although Babylon wasn’t fully established yet that’s where he died. And I will scatter toward every wind all who are about him to help him, and all his troops will I draw out with the sword after them. Interesting language here if you go back and read Ezekiel 5 and the things that have happened in the Church; and again, prophetic expressions here that talk about ‘all those’ who were a part, ‘all those’ who were engaged in some of these things.  And He says, and I will scatter toward every one, so again here, it’s going back to a scattering and what takes place, all who are about him to help him, so even more so what happened to those who went in that particular direction, went back to Protestantism; also later on what transpired because most of the leadership that knew about certain things that were coming along, they didn’t do anything about it until it was too late and God holds them accountable; that’s why the things are said in the way they are.

Verse 15 - And they shall know that I am the Eternal, when I shall scatter them among the nations, and disperse them in the countries. Do they know right away?  No.  But God says they will know, they’re going to come to understand what happened to them, why they’re scattered.  They’re going to come to acknowledge the very fact that they’re scattered proves what He said is true. But I will leave a few people of them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; a few, a remnant, a small amount God says, that they may declare all their abominations among the heathen where they come; and that they shall know that I am the Eternal. So again, something that was to continue on, which is what we’re a product of – PKG – that’s what PKG...God has blessed in preparing for what’s coming.

He says, Moreover the word of the Eternal came unto me, saying, Son of man, eat your bread with shaking, and drink your water with trembling and with carefulness; Fear, in other words, anxiety, anxiousness.  We’re to be fearful before God.  We’re to remember what’s happened to the Body, we’re to remember what can happen to people.  We’re to be shaken by those things, sobered by those things and never lose it... ‘with carefulness’, that takes in all those things there, a matter of fear, fearing God, fearing to go against God, fearing to fall asleep, fearing to do what Laodicea did, to become rich and increased with goods, think we’re better than what we really are, to be sober minded, to understand our weak frame, how much we need God, need to cry out to God for deliverance constantly.

And say unto the people of the land, Thus says the Lord Eternal of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel; They shall eat their bread with carefulness: What are you talking about, ‘bread’? ...’water’?  The things that God gives to us.  Jesus Christ came along and talked about giving waters of living life.  He said, “You’re going to have to...”  this thing about eating the bread, partaking of the bread, what God gives to us, the truth, the way of life, the power of God’s spirit within us to understand what it means to be able to continue, that God dwell in us and we in God.  It’s a relationship with God that’s being discussed here, that we do it carefully...like the Night To Be Much Observed – watchful, on guard spiritually.

They shall eat their bread with carefulness and drink their water with astonishment, and that her land may be desolate from all that is therein, because of the violence of all those who dwell therein.  We see the way the way the world has gone.  We see what’s happened in the scattered Body, those things that trouble us, those things that help us to keep sobered, to keep focused on what we need to.

Verse 20 - And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and that’s where we’re coming to – things that are going to take place – but it’s also having to do with the Church still, different places that are out there.  ...and the land shall be desolate; and those things that come to pass physically as well, and you shall know that I am the Eternal, in other words, once they’ve all come to pass.

And the word of the Eternal came unto me, saying, Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged... in other words, it’s much farther away, a word that mean’s ‘to be drawn out’, drawn out much more.  That’s what I mentioned in the beginning here.  Who could look at this now?  Everything is in a sense of peace, being ‘peaceful’ in the world around us.  Things are still going on, people are able to travel, people are able to go out and eat, people still have jobs, as a whole, in society in the world.  Who can look at this in the scattered Body and think that we’re at the end?  And so what do people say?  Twenty years away, twenty-five years away, a hundred years away...and the farther something is away from you and it seems away from you...and that all has to do with because of their size, because of certain prophecies, that they believe that they have to become much larger than what Worldwide was in the time of Mr. Armstrong in order to have an apostasy.  Sad.  And so because of their rate of growth they can project forward and realize it’s going to take twenty-five, hundred years, before they ever come to something like that.  Whatever.

...And so He said here, Son of man, what is this proverb that’s in the land of Israel saying... and ‘in the land of Israel’ – in the Church, in the Church that’s scattered – what is this thing that’s being said?  ...that the days are prolonged and every vision/every prophecy fails, or has failed?  So, what’s failed?  Whatever they’ve been hearing that they don’t like.  ...and every prophecy has failed; who are they talking about?  Tell them therefore, Thus says the Lord Eternal; I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, The days are at hand, and the effect, interesting, it means ‘the word’.  ‘The effect’ is the literal Hebrew that means ‘word’.  The days are at hand and the word of every prophecy, (vision), prophecy.  ...the days are at hand and the effect/the word of every prophecy.  In other words it’s about to happen, it’s about to take place just as God says it would.

Then He goes on to say here, verse 4 - For there shall be no more any vain vision nor flattering divination within the House of Israel. In other words, everything else that’s being said, that’s what God calls it, a vain vision – for what you see.  You think it’s five, you think it’s ten years away, you think something like this can’t happen for ten years because of the way the world is?  Some believe that Europe is still coming together and there will be ten nations in time.  Little do they know, as I mentioned recently, there are ten nations.  In reality, as far as prophecy is concerned, to fulfil something that God has said - God can say there are ten who choose and make decisions and decide, that agree with each other...even if we don’t know who all ten are, which I believe we do.

But anyway, He says there is not going to be any more vain vision, things that others see, because what He brings to pass those things have no meaning anymore.  You can’t prolong something any longer; you can’t say something else is going to take place later on down the line because it’s happening now.  That’s what God is saying.

Verse 25 - For I am the Eternal: I will speak, and the word, same as that translated back up there as ‘effect’.  ...and the word that I have spoken, it’s not ‘shall speak’, it’s shall spoken shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged:  that word means ‘no longer drawn out’.  As they see it things are drawn out, they’re going farther into the future.  God says there comes a time when that’s not going to happen any longer.  He says, “I’m going to bring it to pass!” For in your days, O rebellious House, will I say the word, again, and will perform it, says the Lord Eternal.  So if we look at things physically in the world we can say, “I just don’t see how it’s going to come to pass.”  But I believe it with all my being.  Our life, and to whatever degree yours as well, has been of the same – to whatever degree that is for you.  Everything we have done has been about this time we’re coming to – all the way to the end, even on the last day, even if to the last hour if need be.  Whatever God’s timing is, so be it, and we hold onto it.

Do you realize that’s exactly what everybody who’s lived by faith has ever done until it’s come to pass?  That’s the only time it no longer becomes faith.  When you have the evidence it’s no longer faith, you no longer walk in faith.  God says put your hands to your eyes and just walk.  You do it by faith, that’s what it’s about, until it’s there.

It shall no more be prolonged, for in your days, O rebellious House, will I say the word and will perform it, says the Lord Eternal.  Again, the word of the Eternal came unto me saying, Son of man, behold they of the House of Israel say, the vision/the prophecy that he sees is for many days to come, it’s a long way away, it’s prolonged. ...and he prophesies of the times that are afar off.  Therefore say unto them, Thus says the Lord Eternal, there shall none of My words be prolonged any longer, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, says the Lord Eternal.

Ezekiel 13:1 - And the word of the Eternal came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, see, because it either comes from God, or it’s out of someone’s own heart.  So if there are two bodies, two people, two groups of people and they teach different things, either both are wrong...but only one can be right.  Only on can be of God, and the other has to be prophesying out of their own heart, in other words, what they believe and the direction they’re moving as an organization, as a group...or both are going in that direction and choosing from themselves.  And this is what God is referring to here, you do things out of your own heart, what you think is right, but it’s not from Me.  That’s what God is saying.

So He says, Son of man, prophesy against these prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear you the word of the Eternal; Thus says the Lord Eternal; Woe unto the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, in other words it doesn’t come from God, it’s just following what they think...  Thus says the Lord Eternal, Woe unto the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! In other words it hasn’t come from God, they haven’t seen anything.  Nothing’s happened, nothings been given to them to see.

O Israel, your prophets are like the foxes in the deserts. You have not gone into the gaps... I think back to the very beginning of all this, some of the things that were taught that God gave to show what the ministry had been guilty of, what the Church had been guilty of, and there are different expressions that are used about going into captivity, about battle, about war, and about the walls that surround Jerusalem as a whole; and talking about a war, that when there’s been a siege on a wall and it’s been knocked down and God says you’ve gone along and you’ve dabbed it with mortar, un-tempered mortar -  it’s not strong, it’s not solid, it can be broken down easily again – you’re at fault because you didn’t strengthen it like you should have.  You have been foolish for the way you have tried to build and maintain the wall, you’ve not stood in the gap, you’ve not stood in the places where it is knocked down, you haven’t gone to war there to put your life at risk.  That’s what God says, you haven’t gone there to fight that fight – Who are you, ministers, prophets, servants of God?  You should be in the forefront of everyone else and stand up for what is true!

I think of an individual – I’ve told the story before but I’ll tell it again – its worth telling because it reflects the attitude and spirit of what happened in God’s Church and what happened especially in the ministry of God’s Church, of not standing in the gap.  And that’s, candidly, where I started; that’s where God gave me a giant boost to go forward and that’s when it all began.  We were in a situation where the president of an organization had misused the funds of the Church by what the ministry had agreed upon.  There was an agreement made.  So, close to four and a half million dollars ($4.5 million) was misappropriated, misused, used in another area.  It was supposed to stay in the bank, and stay there until the ministry came together a year later to determine where those funds were to be best used.  So, all Holy Day offerings were to be set aside, guesstimated that it would probably be about a $4.5 million, and that’s exactly what was spent, and that’s exactly what it came to as a whole, right in that vicinity.

And so there were about 25% of us in the ministry of that organization that were displeased with the way things were being handled and what had taken place, that this wasn’t agreed upon, it wasn’t done the way we agreed upon doing it...which was a big mistake, should have been government from the top down but we weren’t in there yet, we still had some things to be reminded of again.  And I remember that there were a handful of us that divided up the ministry, that we were going to call and file a petition, to put their name on a petition to the leadership under the president, which was kind of two different governing bodies, a council and then a president, and there were these twelve people in there that we were going to send this petition to.  And so we kind of divided up the ministry, who we’d call to see if they would be a part of this, to show them that we’re behind you to deal with this individual because he should be dealt with for what he did because this is wrong!  You don’t do something like that in God’s Church, make agreement, especially so massive like that, of such a massive scale, and then go against it.

So anyway, I called up a minister and I asked him if he would sign.  And I knew some of his feelings toward this individual but I didn’t know how bad they were and I didn’t realize his foul spirit.  He said, “There’s probably no one...” and I don’t remember if he... he didn’t use the word ‘hate’ but it was close to it.  He says, “There is probably no one in the ministry that dislikes him more than I do.”  I thought, “Where is this coming from?!”  You know, it’s one thing to address something that’s done wrong, it’s another thing to dislike someone in God’s Church, and your fellow minister?  That kind of blind-sided me anyway, that response.  And so I won’t tell you what happened to him and why he said this, was such a decision, and why he had some interactions with this individual that put him on a different side, and he was not happy but he wasn’t ready to sign.  He wasn’t ready to stand in the gap!  Do you know what ‘stand in the gap’ means?  ...to stand in the gap for God’s people?  If you believe that something has been done wrong and you’re there to protect God’s people, then you’re to stand up there and do what you should do!  And he said, “Well, tell you what... once you get a hundred ministers to sign call me back and I’ll sign it.”  I couldn’t sleep that night, I was so irritated.  I became so on fire because of this very thing here about ‘standing in the gap’, and I thought, “You won’t stand up for God’s people after all we have gone through?!  You won’t stand up and let your name be known, that this is wrong and you’re going to protect God’s people?!  What’s WRONG with you?”

And so I wrote a letter to all the ministry, told them what was taking place.  I think I hit the email button and it went out to 400 elders and ministers, and in two days time headquarters cut me off from the email system because I’d sent this out to everyone.  Because who am I that I should send something like this out and tell what had been done wrong!  And I thought, “If you won’t, I will!”  So anyway, that’s where it all started, that’s literally the day it all began, where finally God fired me up and said this is what you must do.  If you’re not willing to fight, any of you, anybody, who are we?  If you’re not willing to fight for your brother next to you... your sister... (I’m using that in a spiritual manner, not a manner of sex).  What are we?  Who are we?

And that’s exactly what God is saying!  What do you believe?  If you’re not willing to stand in the gap in a war, in a battle, then what are we?

We’ll start in Ezekiel 13:1 again - And the word of the Eternal came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear you the word of the Eternal; this is from God!  It’s about God. It’s what God says! Thus says the Lord Eternal; Woe unto the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! O Israel, your prophets, God used that expression about the ministry of His Church.  That’s why we used to talk about later on in later chapters of Ezekiel and what it has to say about the ministry... O Israel, your prophets are like foxes in the deserts. You have not gone into the gaps; neither have you made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in battle in the day of the Eternal.  And what a battle!  What a battle!  That God says there was coming a time and there will never be a time like it again, of what would happen to His own Church, what He would allow to happen, and one rise up to change all the doctrines.

You know, when I was a young man I thought about what I was going to do in the future; matter of fact when I was thinking on some of those things I was reading a book about George Washington (Laura, I was actually reading a book...before I was a teenager.  ...and not a comic book, this was a book.  She wonders sometimes how I got through school not reading books.  I went through the texts but I wasn’t a reader until I came into God’s Church.)  Anyway, I was reading a book about George Washington and about some of the battles, and I decided then I wanted to go in the military.  “When I get older I’m going to enter the military...” and I wasn’t quite a teenager so I was really going out there – not that it got any better when I became a teenager, it just got worse.  But anyway, I decided I’m going to become a general.  “I don’t want to just go in the military and serve in the military, I’m going to work hard at this. I want to become a general and I’m going to fight whatever is needed.”  What I was reading about George Washington inspired me at that particular time.

And I think about different things that people have gone into.  I’ve talked about when I came into God’s Church, before I came into the Church, that some of that thinking was still there.  I wanted to become a jet pilot and at that particular time Vietnam was going on and so I wanted to go through ROTC which... (you don’t know what that is here), it’s a training program within a university, within a college, that after four years when you come out of it the government helps take care of part of the cost of the expense of going to school and then you go into the military as a Lieutenant.  So I decided if “I’m going there I want to go in that manner, as a Lieutenant in the military and I want to be a jet pilot because I want to kill as many as I can.  I don’t want a machine gun! I don’t want to throw a few grenades! I want to do some damage!” If you’re going to do something let’s do it big!  Let’s do it with a jet that can drop some big bombs.  Let’s really do something.  That was kind of some of the thinking that was there.

And candidly, there are young people in the world – this is the mindset when you go into the military, and the military is made to look like a glamorous thing.  And that’s the way I used to think until coming into the Church.  And the battles we fight now are far more important than any physical battles ever fought on earth.  What you fight once you come into God’s Church, the battles you enter into, they’re so much more meaningful, they pale into insignificance anything that’s ever happened and struggles and battles in physical wars.  This is the war that God is concerned with.  That’s why He talks about when you put on the armour; you put on the armour of God.  It’s talking about something spiritual that’s meaningful, that has deep meaning to it about what you’re going to live and what you’re going to fight and what you’re going to stand for regardless of what anybody else thinks.

And don’t you do that when you start coming along?  You have to make choices of what you’re going to stand for no matter what a mate thinks, your own child thinks, your own parent thinks, your best friends think.  It doesn’t matter!  You’ve got to do what you’re convicted of doing because it’s right...and it’s a battle!  And those are precious in God’s sight, the sacrifice, the fighting, the warring, and you carry that with you.

Since 1969 I’ve been battling and I’m worn out.  I’m at the end and I’m thankful for it.  I understand things Paul said in a deeper way now than ever before.  And that’s your life, all your life.  You struggle, you fight against your own nature, let alone what’s happening in this world.  That’s why I’m so thankful Satan’s going to be removed – don’t have to fight against him any longer.  All the broadcastings he and the demons do, they’re not going to be out there anymore.  What an awesome blessing!

Verse 6 - They have seen vanity, because so often things that are done, in sadly what happened to us in the Church, were done out of vanity, pride, vanity, vain!  It’s like, “How many people are in your church area?”  Those things happened.  And the less people you had, well, you’re not quite as significant.  “I have twice as many people in our area...”  And there were measuring things that people did in the ministry.  Vanity!  They fought and disputed over boundaries because they wanted another family in their count, in their number.  It became a matter of numbers.  Incredible!  Vanity-vanity-vanity-pride...and it’s not what it’s about!

They have seen vanity and lying divination, in other words, if you have 600 groups out here and they’re all going in some direction, but they’re all going in different directions, their own direction, what they believe is right; that’s what God says, lying divination, things that are being taught that come out of someone’s heart that everyone follows.  The only thing that makes God’s true Church different is that it’s God’s true Church, otherwise it’d be the same as all the others.  The only thing that makes something different, the only thing that makes us different, is God.  It’s God!

They have seen vanity and lying divination saying, “The Eternal says...” and the Eternal has not sent them: God’s only going to work with one Church, one group; and they have made others to hope that they would confirm their word. That’s what people hope in. That’s why they are where they are.  Some are in Living because they hope that what they’re doing, that they are the Church and that others will come to them in time.... and the others feel the same way.  Now, there’s Philadelphia who believes that if anybody comes to them it’s because everybody’s pretty much outcast into the lake of fire – unless they do come along – and... anyway,  sad – sad – sad.

He says, Have you not seen a vain vision, and haven’t you spoken a lying divination, wherein you say, The Lord says it; to get up and preach is saying this is what God has given, and He says, and I haven’t given it? Howbeit I have not spoken...Therefore thus says the Lord Eternal; Because you have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, says the Lord Eternal.  And what makes us different from anyone else?  God.  That’s it; God.  And everybody has to choose.  That’s what everybody does out here, they choose what they want to believe, that’s why it’s a matter of what is true and it’s a matter of what you hold onto that you see that God has given to you.

Verse 9 - And My hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, What does God say?  My hand...will be upon them.  I will deal with this.  ...and that divine lies: and they shall not be in the assembly of My people, God’s not going to let them come into the millennial period, period...or be a part of the first resurrection most assuredly.  ...neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; in other words, into the Millennium, into that which is prophesied in scripture as that time when Jesus Christ returns.... and you shall know that I am the Lord Eternal.   That’s why I am so excited, so moved by what God has given here at the very end.  Revelation 11, just like with Daniel, when we started going through Daniel, had no idea where that was going, some of that.  Blew my mind to think of the prophecies that were about His second coming that were there all the time and we couldn’t see them until we started going into it.  And I remember giving the first part of the series and not even knowing where the second one was going yet, and then it’s all there.  And the same way with Revelation!  Awesome what God has given!  And to show us all the way to the end He’s reserved the primary part of the Body, 63,000 that have the potential to be back, to come back very soon now.  It doesn’t make Satan a very happy camper.

And that’s what it’s about; it’s about what God is doing and whom God will mock when it’s all said and done.  He thinks he conquered the Church.  He thinks he defeated the Church.  Not at all!  God’s going to reveal His power in an awesome, awesome way through this act alone and what He’s preparing...and He says, ‘You shall know that I am the Eternal, the Lord Eternal.’

So who are we – each of us – that we should be so blessed to be offered so much by God?  Who are we?  Do we realize what we’ve been given?  When God begins to call people, calls us out of the world – who are we?  We’re no better!  So often we can see even more so there are far many, so many people around us so much better, to have been called, in the sense of how they live their life and what they do.  But I think of all of us: He gave us life to live of our own choosing of how we live it.  That’s what God gives to every human being.  Everybody has a choice out there in the world, how they live life.  A lot of people have a lot of strikes against them when they get started in life but they all have choices about how they’re going to live it.

To consider existence itself from God – What have you had if this is all that there was? Have you ever thought about things like that?  What if this is all that there was?  ...no more life.  What have you been given?  What do you have?  What has your existence been like?  What have you made of it?  How do you think?  Do you hold yourself responsible for your own choices in life and what you do and how you’ve done it?  What have you experienced in life to this point in time?

I hope we understand because of our own nature and the nature of others we’ve experienced both good and bad.  That’s the way of life. We experience good things and we experience bad things in life at different phases of life, especially in that of our relationships.  We experience bad things from people and we’ve experienced good things from people.

I think about over the past 3½ years, I’ve considered what has been the most important thing to me in my life concerning what I have lived, and I hope you feel this way.  It’s the way (if you’ve been here for that long, some of you are newer), it’s the way that God has given to me, the way of life.  There are so many people out here – you think of the different religions, what they have – and you think about what you have when God has given you truth about the Sabbath, about the Holy Days, about a plan that He has – how awesome is that?  The way of life, especially in relationships and how you treat each other, how you treat God, how you think toward God, why you refrain, or strive to refrain from and why you repent, but why you refrain from certain things of conduct in life.  Why you do it.  What does that mean to you?  What does that mean for the way you feel about yourself?  ...being true to yourself?  ...being truthful to yourself?  I don’t know if you value... how much do you value such things?  Just being truthful with yourself and about life.

Sometimes we don’t think very deeply as human beings, we really don’t.  We let life happen to us.  But God wants us to think about life and what we do and how we do it.

And in that way, speaking of what God has given to us, He has given to me experiences, both good and bad, in relationships, but the good far outweighs the bad, it truly does, due to the hope, the hope that God has given to us of what’s coming – especially in God’s Family like the one individual wrote about, something he had difficulty with in conceiving of the fact that we could become a part of Elohim.  That’s awesome!

To think that you’re going to go up and sit in a cloud for all eternity and look on a face for all eternity, that God would be that kind of a God to want something like that?!  You think, what’s wrong with that?!  What’s wrong with that picture?!  Or to be up there fishing in some kind of a spiritual stream all your life?  You know, if the fish don’t start biting right away I get bored, and what are you going to do when you get bites, when you get fish all the time?  Whoo hoo, this is good, good times!!  And you do that for about two hours?  You’re going to get a little tired of it!  You want to do that for all eternity?!  “He’s up there fishing!”  How often do you catch a fish?  What does it look like?  What is it?  Human beings have some of the funniest ideas sometimes.  You think, how can you hold on to something like that?  Or thinking you’re going to be jumping around in this hot place and people are coming running around and poking you in the butt with something hot... I’ll call it what it is finally!  You’ve got to feel for people in the world that don’t understand any more than that.

And you think about what God has given to you, what you’re able to know and what you’re able to see?  And each other....  one thing that Laura and I talked about last night, we had a great time yesterday being able to be with different ones in the Church and being able to be around different parts of London here, and it was very refreshing, so refreshing.  It’s always so refreshing just being around with God’s people and spending a relaxing time with different individuals just talking and getting to know each other a little bit better.  And we talked about how that it’s been so incredible over the past especially the last year and a half or so, just as the Body grows, as the Church grows and to see how people are growing closer together as a Family, working out different struggles, different things every once in a while.  But as a whole the affection, the desire that people have toward each other – incredible what God’s given to you, it truly is.

And so again here, the truth that God has given, has inspired, moved, and blessed me mightily, all the truth that God has given.  And if nothing more were to happen in this life than death I have been most blessed in this life.  Seriously!  To this point in time I have been blessed beyond my wildest imagination, truly, far greater than I was as a child thinking about becoming a General one day.  Can’t compare!

But we believe much more!  We believe much more than what’s limited here in time and what we’ve been given to this point in time and we believe much more.  We believe that our Passover, our High Priest, the Son of God will return to the atmosphere of this earth at the end of the Sabbath, Jerusalem time, May 26th, and 144,000 will quickly be resurrected and that later on on that day of Pentecost, May 27th, the feet of the King of kings will stand upon the Mount of Olives again.  Awesome!  Believe it with all my being!  ...and candidly, if that did not come to pass I realize that my physical struggle in this life will only increase in far greater conflict and mocking and attacks, but to this time I’ve already received that because of what I believe.  And I know that I have been very blessed in fellowship with God, with His Son and those whom God has called into His Body, into His Family.  And I know there is no other Church but God’s true Church, and if these things did not come to pass on the 26th and 27th, just to be real candid with you, I would simply seek repentance before God as I did during the apostasy, not knowing what was happening or why, and seek His help to understand what was happening.  That’s all you can do, to put yourself before the mercy seat of God knowing that He had more in His plan to be worked out, more that I or we needed to learn, and that His Son will still be coming very soon.  But I don’t believe that...  I’m just saying that.

For any one’s thinking and reasoning you have to think through such things.  We’re foolish if we don’t.  If you believe something out of stubbornness, out of pride, that doesn’t go well, it doesn’t bear well before God.  I have seen that over and over, people who do that in the world.  That’s like what God just addressed here a moment ago in Ezekiel.  It’s like you believe a certain thing and you want to confirm it that it’s going to come to pass, that you support it.  It’s stubbornness to hold onto something.  Sometimes people will move from something just out of stubbornness and pride in life.

So again, what I’ve just said here a moment ago has been stated as a realistic ‘IF’, because you have to consider in thinking, in life, realistic things of life and how one should respond in such a state.  How should one respond in such a state?  Well, that’s the only right way to be and to think!

Yet none of this, again, is viewed by me as a reality at all, and with all my being – I just want to state it again – I believe now, today, is my final live webcast, and I have mixed emotions about it, at what has taken place over the past 3½ years and where we’re headed now.

So, in this final live webcast in this physical body I can now say, as I said earlier, I have fought the fight, my wife has fought the fight, we have fought it together and fought it with a lot of people that God has blessed and called into this Body...and ready for next Sabbath.  God’s been very merciful to all of us brethren, He truly has.

I’d like to conclude today here by going through some scriptures, since I have time here.  Psalm 100, since we have a little time left in this sermon I feel it’s most appropriate that I end with some scriptures that we addressed in a sermon on March 31 in a sermon entitled, ‘A Fast with Thanksgiving’.

Psalm 100:1-5 -  A Psalm of praise. Make a joyful noise unto the Eternal, all the earth. We’re so close to that now!  What an incredible time!  Jesus Christ returns as King of kings, the excitement of what man’s being led out of in this world, Satan and demons no longer being around.  That in itself is so incredible! Serve the Eternal with happiness: and come before His presence with rejoicing.  It’s the way our life should be all the time but it’s getting ready to be enhanced mightily.

Know the Eternal is God: He made us, and not we ourselves; we’re reliant upon Him, we depend upon Him; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Nothing to become vain about!  Nothing to be lifted up about!  Nothing to think we’re better than someone else in this life!  Never! Never! Never!   We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture: Enter His gates, in other words coming into His presence, with thanksgiving, always-always-always-always... and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless, as we talked about in that sermon, as to kneel before Him, that’s what this word means here, ‘to bless Him’.  How do you do that?  It’s by your response, as to kneel before the Great God of the universe.

Be thankful unto Him and bless His name, His renown, His majesty, His reputation, His fame; that’s what it’s talking about here - esteem God, magnify God. For the Eternal is good; and His mercy is everlasting; and His truth is from generation to generation.

These are beautiful verses, talking about what God gives to us, a truth of life to live and how merciful He is, because we can’t live it perfectly.  We make mistakes, we have faults, we have weaknesses, we say things we shouldn’t say, we say things that we have to repent of, we have to learn to be humble, we have to strive for humility, it doesn’t come natural.  It’s natural for you to be filled with pride.  No matter what you DON’T have in this world, it’s natural to be filled with pride.  It’s just the way human beings are!  How incredible!  ...praise you the Eternal.

And we talked about here how so many of these Psalms making that following statement again and again, like Psalm 18:1 – O give thanks unto the Eternal; for He is good: for His mercy is forever. And then verse 29 ends by saying, O give thanks unto the Eternal; for He is good and His mercy is forever.  It’s how God deals with us and works with us as human beings.  It gives you a lot of confidence when you go before God then and ask for forgiveness because you want to live what’s right; you want to do what’s right before Him, and knowing that He’s a merciful God.

Psalm 136:1 - O give thanks unto the Eternal; for He is good: and His mercy is forever.  O give thanks unto the God of gods; the Elohim of elohim. I love that verse – the Elohim of elohim.  He’s creating Elohim, the Family – it’s His purpose from the very beginning and He is the head of it all, He is the Elohim of elohim.  Without Him it wouldn’t come to pass...that’s what He’s creating, to become a part of the God Family.  How awesome for us!  ...for His mercy is forever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for His mercy is forever. To Him who alone does great wonders: and we’re blessed to be a part of those great wonders because of His timing and what He’s doing in the world and where the world is going.

I think of some of those things that the Church has been preparing for, that the ministers have been preparing for, that we’ve talked about, that we’ve prepared for, and then we see this week has gone by and we’re not doing that job...yet.  And some of those who’ve been prepared have just been better prepared in the sense of thinking, in the sense of learning and the training that’s been given on the EMC, the Elders Management Console area, where you’ve been able to go in and listen to things that are given.  All with a desire to use wisely what God has given to us.

I think of the funds that God has given.  It’s all God’s!  Everything is God’s!  And the promotion of the book, the things we have done and how we’re doing it...and we’re able to share in this and be a part of this.  It’s been incredible, as small as we are, to do as much as we have.  Over 2 million books that have gone out there total now, small as we are, to have done something like that – that there is that spread all over, a little salt here and there.  Awesome!  We’ve been able to share in that together but we haven’t had to suffer yet, we haven’t had that difficult time yet.  Things have been very relatively easy in the world for us, considering.

I think of what it could have begun like, like we’d always thought it would.  God is merciful!  God is so merciful!  And to think how He’s taught us that toward the end here is a very powerful thing, because this is what God wants mankind... because mankind has always, as a whole, looked upon God in an opposite manner, “He’s a harsh God!”  That’s how the world paints Him, a harsh, cruel, demanding God.  They don’t understand the love of God, and so God’s ending up 6,000 years by showing how merciful He is, by magnifying that mercy, of what indeed we were deserving of as far as this world is concerned but what He’s kept back from happening until the very, very end...and then He’s going to intervene and stop it and remove Satan and the demons and take us into a beautiful age that we get to be the pioneers of – or that many of you do – others of us pioneers too, in a sense, what we’re going to be doing. Don’t know what we’re going to be doing, don’t know how we’re going to do it, but I know we’re going to be busy!  ...come the 28th everybody’s going to be working, hard.  We’ve got a lot of work to do.  don’t have to worry about occupations – there’s going to be a lot of work to do and God will sustain, God will take care of, God will provide; whatever is needed He’s going to take care of it all and help us become focused and help us to plan and organize.  And there’s a group of people out there, and many will be added to them, that are going to be able to go out here and help teach, help promote this way, help baptize people and bring them along.

The 144,000 aren’t going to be involved in baptizing, but everything we’ve prepared for, and even the internet... we have a system out there that as soon as this is over with we’re going to be able to clean up.   It’s going to be back out there again, but the Church is going to be the main thing that people are going to go to, that they’re going to have access to.  Most of the other parts of it is going to be wiped out.  That’s how God’s going to deal with it, He’s going to start teaching people the truth.  And what is the truth?  Church of God – PKG website. That’s where it is! That’s how you start learning.  It’s already there, and the matter of dealing with it and handling it is going to be magnified many times over.  Not right away, but it’s going to take time.

O give thanks unto the Eternal for He is good; His mercy is forever.  O give thanks unto the God of gods, the Elohim of elohim: for His mercy is for ever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for His mercy is forever. To Him who alone does great wonders: for His mercy is forever. To Him by wisdom made the heavens: for His mercy is forever. Everything that God’s made out here is for us to enjoy.  I can talk about a sun, a star that takes 2,000 of ours to go from one side to the other.

To Him, who by wisdom made the heavens, and we can be in awe of that; for His mercy endures forever.  Do you know why it keeps saying that?  ‘His mercy endures forever’?  Because it’s about us!  It’s about what God has given to us to enjoy.  I look out there and see trees that are blooming with white on them, you know as we were driving up here, I guess the train coming through too, seeing the countryside – beautiful countryside as soon as we got out of the concrete – and awesome what God has created out there to be enjoyed in life. ...because His mercy endures forever... because it’s about us!  It’s about what He gave to us that He wants us to enjoy!  Like we talked about the creation itself, whatever you have, whatever portion you have, what did God tell you, command you to do?  Dress it and keep it.  Some have wondered why we continue to plant flowers around the house, have flowers that we bring in and plant around the house and we’re not even there to enjoy it as a whole.  Because I love my labours. Because I love God. Because God asked us to do those things and whatever He gives us to keep care of, that we keep care of it well, that we keep it up and we dress it and keep it to His honour, to His glory.  And others are able to enjoy that in life – so be it.

Because something I don’t enjoy is something else I saw before we got to the green rolling hills, in the concrete jungle, so to speak, train going through there and all the paper flowing through the air, all the trash!  ...all the garbage that needs to be cleaned up!  I look forward to the day that people are going to have that mentality, of when they see garbage they pick it up and they throw it away, of people who don’t just leave paper lying around like in the subway when the sign up there says, trying to encourage them to get rid of it, to dispose of it.  How do they say it?  “Your newspaper is trash.” Or something like that, or garbage, or whatever it is, because they want you to realize that the news is trash...  It’s to take your paper off the train with you when you go. Don’t leave it there, don’t let it get caught in the...  Anyway, an admonition from the mayor of the city, I think it was.

But you think, people throw things out car windows; they don’t think anything of it.  ...throw paper on the ground; don’t think anything of it.  You think, “What about the next person?”  Went into a couple bathrooms here recently – urine all over the place!  You think, “How sick can you be you sick, sick person!!  ...to leave a place like this!”  It’s like they just splattered everything just for excitement, for somebody!  Like a dog marking its territory!  ...a wild cat!  You know, “This is mine!”  Well, you can have it!  I’d rather go outside in the alley.  Really!  It’s cleaner!  And the smell, the stench...  Sometimes we as human beings live like pigs, and I’ve been around pigs when I grew up.  We raised some, and they stink!  They stink so bad it gets in your clothes and you leave and it’s there permanently.  If you’ve ever been around pigs – that stench that’s in the air – and that’s the way some of these places are.  You think, “Can’t you take a little more pride in life?  Can’t you clean up your life a little bit more?  Can’t you start by cleaning your own room?” ...hint, hint, to parents having problem with their children in those areas, or to parents who haven’t really grown up yet.  You know, you start with your own place – keep it clean!  It’s amazing what it does to the mind!  ...the mind!  You clean up your mind, you clean up your life – how much better life becomes!  It does!  And if you’ve never experienced it you don’t know that!

Some people think that my wife and I are clean freaks.  I enjoy a place that’s clean and I spot dirt quickly.  I spot things that are dirty quickly, because to me it’s a matter of the environment you live in, what you choose to live in and I’d rather give something clean to others.  And when they come into the bathroom I’d rather leave behind a cleaner bathroom, in other words, for the next person coming in.  I started being taught that at Ambassador College when we first went.  I thought, “This is awesome!  ...that you actually think about the next person behind you.”  That when you see a piece of paper on the ground at Ambassador College you pick it up, because someone that’s coming in to see it for the first time you don’t want them to see any garbage out here.  You don’t want them to see trash!  You want to do something that honours and glorifies God!  But we lack that as human beings, and we should do that, to share in life with others the best we can give. So often we’re just not that way as human beings though, we don’t think that way.  But there’s so much to be learned from that because that’s more the mind of God – quality, beauty, beauty that He’s created out here for man to enhance.  I love beauty.  I love things when people take care of something and do something to enhance it to make it a little bit better.  Flowers, rocks, whatever it might be in life, just little things that take the little extra work. It enhances God’s creation, it beautifies God’s creation!

So everything is about us!  His mercy toward us, His patience toward us, and what we’re to learn through life, to enjoy, to learn the quality of life and to have and to grow in the kind of mind that God has, that’s what we’re talking about – quality, the mind that God has, in life.

To Him by wisdom made the heavens; for His mercy is forever; to Him that stretched out the earth above the waters: for His mercy is forever. To Him who made great lights: for His mercy is forever: The sun to rule by day: for His mercy is forever: all about us!  Things that we can enjoy, things that we can do, and in times past too, because today we have light and so forth, but there was a time when people depended more on the moon to be able to get around; His mercy endures forever. Stumbling around in the dark – you know you can make it from one place to another because His mercy is forever, because He’s thinking about us, He’s concerned about us, He wants to give us that which people could sleep at that time, but they can also get around at that time to get around from one spot to another without... anyway, it’s about us, it’s about making life better, enjoyable, the different things you can experience, the different changes in seasons.

Verse 16 - To Him who struck Egypt’s firstborn: for His mercy is forever: kill people; but it’s about God’s mercy - to teach something greater.  Life is in God’s hands and it’s difficult for people to conceive of, to grasp that if someone is removed from, and life ends, and it’s a judgment by the Righteous Almighty God of this universe that their life should end at a certain point, He gave it and He decides at this point it’s time to be taken away, the firstborn to be taken away; they’re ahead.  They’re ahead!  So that their mind is not polluted, if they’re younger especially, that’s who I’m talking about, if they’re younger that they’re minds aren’t polluted with what they’re going to have to go through to be a battle for them in the Great White Throne, that they’re going to be far ahead once they’re resurrected.  Because the vast majority of human beings, it’s meant for them to live twice, and they’re far ahead if they don’t have their minds fully polluted. They don’t have as much to conquer and overcome; they have a head start to embrace God’s way and God’s mind and God’s life in a new age.  But human beings don’t think like that.  They think, “What a harsh God to take the lives of so many people and then take these people out of here just to take out the Israelites!”  ...people who don’t like Israelites. There are plenty of them in the world.

And brought out Israel from among them: for His mercy is forever: With a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm: just like He says He’s going to rule over His Church, the people He calls, “With a strong hand, with a stretched out arm, I’m going to rule over you.” Basically is what He said... To Him who divided the Red Sea into parts: for His mercy is forever: on and on it goes, things about God’s mercy, because it’s about mankind, it’s about the Family of God, it’s about those whom God is working with and through different periods of time – because of things we’re to learn and things we’re to come to understand.

Psalm 36:23 – just jumping on down here- Who remembered us in our low estate: that’s a great place to be remembered; in humility, in a time of humility, in a time when you’re brought down, at a time when you’re brought low.  Not everyone’s called that way, but so often people are brought to a certain point in life where you have to come to see yourself, your state, to understand you need help, to quit relying on yourself, to realize you need to cry out to God for deliverance, you need to cry out to God for help and whatever it takes to humble you so that you will listen to Him when He comes along, when He starts working with you, and that you never stop doing that, that you never come to a point in time where in the Church all of a sudden you start growing in pride again!  This happened to thousands and tens of thousands of people!  ...to never let that happen to you!

And you need to watch that when you go into God’s Kingdom... in the sense of not the 144,000 but into a period of time where Jesus Christ is King of kings, because a little over a week from now, the next Sabbath you’re able to have a... well, whatever, I don’t know what point in time, ever how things are reorganized and done.  But after Jesus Christ is here, to never get to a point in time where you ever allow pride to come into your life because you were called at this time, because you had experiences in this age and the others didn’t, to ever think you’re better than them.

I’ll tell you what; it’s not going to take people very long to catch up with you, and for some of you, to pass you.  Please understand that, that’s life!  See?  Just because God has called us now doesn’t mean we’re always going to be out front.  It wasn’t meant to be that way!  We have a head start, we have a great opportunity, and we have great opportunities for what God has prepared us for, for jobs and responsibilities.  It’s not about always being out front! It’s not about being better than anyone else! It’s not about knowing more than other people!  It’s about sharing it with others, sharing it with one another.  And so there’s going to be a tendency to be Laodicea, for you.  You’ll come to understand that one day in a deeper way.  To look down upon others?  Never, never, never do that!

Many of you are going to be given a great boost at the very beginning here because you are out ahead, because God has moulded and fashioned that into you in a short length of time, to have some great opportunities here at the very beginning, because there’s no one else to fit into that position.  You’ve been placed there.  You are being prepared for that, see?  And so you’re going to have some incredible opportunities – don’t let it go to your head, don’t lift yourself up and look down upon others, because that’s going to be a human tendency.  It’s going to be a battle you want to fight against and not allow it to happen.

Because it’s only going to take about a year and a half to two years with this knowledge out there and the way it’s going to be out there and God’s spirit around this earth, and Satan and demons no longer being around...there are going to be people right up to where you are on a spiritual plane.  There are going to be people beyond you, where you are on a spiritual plane, because of something else God’s going to be working out in their lives.  You just use what God has given to you for the purpose God has given it to you and never compare yourselves with one another.  Just do it as a matter of service and sharing with God.  Does that make sense?  I hope it does, because that’s where we are in time.

And I hope that we get to come around and visit you still.  I’m looking forward to that.  I hope God allows that for us, to be able to be in and out a little faster than what we do now, because now we have to get a plane and we have to fight against time changes and everything else.  And I marvel at that!  To think that we might...  because who else is going to be able to do some of those things?  ...to continue on, to be able to work with, to get things going, to be able to have a personal relationship, to be able to continue on in that personal relationship that’s already started.  I look forward to that.  Just like yesterday and being able to visit with different ones and so forth, now we’re going to be able to do that in a better way, in a stronger way all around the world at different times.  Because I’ve already got it figured out well... eight hours in each... we can do it three times around the world all day long, all around the world.  If God allows that...  I hope He does.  To me, it’s exciting.

Again, always be mindful of who you are, what you have, what God has given to you, and hold onto the experience but never use it as a matter of pride and vanity.

Who remembered us in our low estate; for His mercy is forever. And has redeemed us from our enemies: for His mercy is forever.  A lot of battles, a lot of wars that have gone on for God to do this, to redeem us from our enemies, a world that’s out there. Who gives food to all flesh: for His mercy is forever. It’s not about physical food.  God will sustain us.  God takes care of us.  But it’s about that which goes above and beyond. O give thanks unto the EL, the God of heaven: for His mercy is forever.

One last section of scriptures: Psalm 116.  As was mentioned in that particular sermon; we’re going to take a look in a unique way in which thanksgiving to God is described, in a specific manner, in a specific way.  Psalm 116:1 – I love the Eternal, because He has heard My voice and My supplications.  Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live. The sorrows of death encompass me, and the pains of the grave got a hold of me: I found trouble/affliction/distress/adversity and sorrow.  And I have to say that every time I’ve ever found that I’ve grown.  I am so thankful for the hard, hard trials I have gone through.  We’ve gone through a lot in God’s Church.

Those of you who went through the apostasy, you have been through a lot.  There has never been a time on earth that’s been fought like this battle, truly.  Those of you who have been called out of the apostasy...those of you who were a part of Worldwide before it all began; you have fought some great battles.  ‘Great’ in the sense that you fought them with God, God was on your side, God upheld you, God strengthened you, and you have been so blessed in fighting those battles, they have been great battles, but they’ve made you who you are.  In some cases you don’t realize fully yet who you are – as to what God has given you in the mind – because character is a unique thing, qualities of God, character that God gives is something that’s moulded into the thinking, but it’s done through a period of time.  It’s not something that God does as He creates a star and puts it out there, massive as it is, just like that and it’s there.  We’re different.  It’s a moulding and fashioning, a transforming of the mind, the mind that God works with.

That He works with individual minds on a constant basis is something I can’t even begin to comprehend. In the most remote areas of life, to think about that, that God works with our thinking and He moulds and fashions within us matters of character that are going to be used later on for a purpose.  Each one of us in a part of a building, to fit in perfectly into that part of the building.  I marvel at that.  You think of the great pyramids and the rocks and everything that were built and everything to fit in a certain place, especially when they made certain chambers and everything...yet everything was made to come together to fit in a certain place in a specific way and massive, massive, awesome things that are done sometimes in construction; that this makes those look so puny, what God is doing.  But each one of us, in making that comparison, realize there’s a specific place that God is moulding and fashioning us, and it’s not a matter of being better than any other rock, any other piece of material.  It’s just a matter that we get to share in it.  It’s about Family!  And let God do the moulding and fashioning and yield yourself to it.

So as I read through something like this I can’t help but think about, I found trouble.  Boy, did I find trouble, we all found trouble.  We found distress, a word that means here ‘affliction’, ‘distress’, ‘adversity’.  Oh, pain...cut to the core, cut in the heart with daggers to where you felt like your heart was ripped out at times, truly!

So you go through trials and you go through sorrows sometimes; realize they might not be enjoyable to go through but with God, what He moulds and fashions in you you can’t pay the price, there’s nothing you can offer up.  You just yield yourself up to the process and realize that’s what it’s all about, as this chapter later on ends in verse 17 where it says: I will offer You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, what can you give God?  But you go through the process, whatever it is, to yield yourself to the moulding and fashioning, which is a sacrifice to our human nature.

Verse 4 - Then I called upon the name of the Eternal; O Eternal, I beseech You, the plead, to cry out, to implore, deliver My life. That’s what we do; that’s what we should strive to always do in God’s Church.  God is the one who has to deliver us.  Thankfully we’re about through the hardest part because of this physical world and the way it is, but it’s going to be difficult in the future here.  There are going to be things happen around you in the next few weeks and months that aren’t going to be easy.  It’s still not going to be easy, it’s going to be hard.  We think just because Jesus Christ is here things are going to be made easy overnight...  No, it’s not.  But the struggles are going to become different...but they’re going to be there.

The Eternal is filled with grace and righteous; yes, our God is merciful. Our Lord preserves, or keeps watch, or guards over the simple, the foolish.  Who is that?  Every one of us.  Every one of us!  I was brought low and He helped me.  It’s when we’re brought low that we can receive the greatest of help, because before that we resist Him.  Pride resists God.

Then on down to verse 12 it says - What shall I render, what can I give in return to the Eternal for all His benefits toward me? In other words, the ways He has dealt with me. I will take/bear/lift up/carry the cup of salvation, you just carry what God has given to you.  It’s not heavy; sometimes we feel like it’s heavy.  ...and call upon the name of the Eternal. I will pay/render/make peace/recompense/respond ...I will pay my vows, in other words by what I can give in giving my life, in other words what is said that comes out of your mouth, and what is lived by you, unto the Eternal now in the presence of His people.  And so many of you, as you go on, as you continue on, so much of what you’re going to give to others around you is what you give by your example of how you live, of how you stand up for this way in a right way, in a humble way.

Verse 17 - I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Eternal. It’s a great verse to end on...last one ever given by me in this body, live.  It’s not even live anywhere else except here. 

So, no matter what comes to pass – but I believe fully what is going to come to pass – be strong and of good courage.

~~~end