Stand Firm - Stand Fast

Ron Weinland

June 2, 2012

It’s now one week later after we believed that Jesus Christ would begin His return starting with His appearance in the atmosphere.  I thought I’d ask today: What have you personally experienced over the past week?  We’ve all gone through a lot of things, we truly have.  I’ve received a lot of different emails expressing that, a lot of different reports from different areas.

Have you now been strengthened by the experience or weakened?  Is your faith you live by stronger today than it was a week ago?  Are you more deeply convicted than ever?

Those are the kinds of things that candidly we are brought face to face with once in a while in our life, moments that are greater than others.  A lot of times we live and life just happens to us, other times God doesn’t allow that, we go through things that truly try us to the core of our being.  This has definitely been one of those great times.

So the period of time we’ve now entered, ‘the day of the Lord’, is about what God will, now in a more personal and direct manner, work with you, this world, and the Church that was scattered after the apostasy.  It’s God’s more direct involvement.  And for those of us in the Church this process begins with us.  It’s still about us!  It’s always about us!  It’s always been that way in God’s plan, and the prophecies and everything that we’ve gone through in times past, the opening of the 1st Seal; it’s always been about God’s Church because that is where God is working first and foremost.  He isn’t working with the world in that respect, as far as bringing them into His Kingdom or giving them those opportunities, the training and the moulding and fashioning that it takes to become a part of His Family.

And so again, to me this is exciting because of things we were given even before this past weekend, about what God was doing and the reasons why, in a scattered Church, and especially now this year because of those things that are going to come to pass over a period of time.  It becomes more exciting, it truly does, because God loves us, God loves the people who are scattered.  He hasn’t forgotten their sacrifice and the things they did.  People became weak, people went through trials.  We all did; we all fell asleep.

And I think of the grace and the mercy of God to have such a plan to bring us back into a oneness with Him.  So though we make mistakes, though we go astray, though we do the things we do from time to time in our lives and God allows those things to exist to teach greater lessons, it’s awesome to understand that He has an incredible plan, especially when you think about the 63,000, to bring them back. That to me is a beautiful and awesome thing, it truly is.

So again, for those of us in the Church this process begins with us, not the world, not even the Church that was scattered.  It starts here with us.  And that’s a great deal of what the sermon is about today.  It’s about us.  It’s about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it...then definitely we see the process that’s going to take place in the following year that does have to do with the world and does have to do with a group, the Church that was scattered.

So, that which you have been called to fulfill, to be a witness as part of sharing the life, the experience and the purpose being fulfilled through, in essence, what God gave in Revelation 11, God’s two witnesses, is very much about what we’re still living and what God is still fulfilling.  And so, as stated before, the job of 3½ years that God gave His two witnesses is now over as far as the witness given through their life.  And now the next phase of what God said would follow has begun, it’s already started and it’s about God making the two witnesses and all others who share in this witness ‘to stand’.

That’s what this is first and foremost about and that’s what God is going to fulfill.  That’s what the conclusion of the story of the 3½ years of a witness that God gave to this world was all about, what God is doing to do.  And so again, to make us ‘to stand’, to be manifest that they stand with God, that they stand in the truth that God has given and God will manifest that His truth was indeed given through them, given through all of us.  It’s been in our lives, it’s what we live; it’s what those around us have witnessed.

So if God is going to make His two witnesses to stand in His timing as the year progresses, then His plan is to make you stand as well.  And so what does that mean at this time?  Before God will make you ‘to stand’ before others as standing with Him, as that verse talks about, you must be standing firm with Him in His truth!  That’s where we are right now!  God will make us stand, but the first step before that can happen in our life is it must be absolute and manifest in our life, in our conviction, that we stand firm in God – truly - before He will make us to stand before the world.  That’s where we are!  That’s a lot of what we’ve just gone through.

What all have experienced is that which is powerful in revealing our true relationship with God and how firmly we do stand. It also reveals where we are yet weaker and where change needs to follow quickly!  We don’t have time, a lot of time, in an instance like this, because things must march forward.  But it begins with us and so God has brought us to this point to examine things, to look at things in our lives, to get that addressed first and then He will fulfill the rest, but it begins with us, it’s about us.

So how quickly do we respond to God speaking to us?  How quickly do we turn right or turn left?  I’ll tell you, on the way here today talking to my wife we were discussing many things and one of the things that has struck me very strong in this day is that if we hadn’t gone through the Last Great Day sermon, the carnage spiritually would have been great.  It truly would have been.  But God prepared us.  He was telling us then you won’t have 3½ more years, but He didn’t tell us what we did have... but He did tell us to be sober, to watch, to look deeply into our lives, and to know where we stand!  ...that we are convicted of that, that we’re deeply convicted of that, that we know where His Church is, that we understand the process whereby He works with us! And the stronger that is in us the more He will fulfill what’s to come to pass in our lives yet ahead of us.

We’re going to review a few things today as we’ve gone through this process, and look at some of the things that God tells us.  All that is happening is first in importance about each of us, those who comprise the Body of Christ, the Church of God.

This sermon today is entitled, Stand Firm – Stand Fast.

Many of you have never been through a trial like this.  The closest you came to it was on the Last Great Day of the Feast.  It’s the closest you ever came to ever having to examine something so deeply in your being, to where God brought you face to face with something you had to look at deeply inside yourself!  There are moments in time where we can’t see, we don’t know ourselves fully, we don’t know what’s in the deepest parts of the recesses of our being until God brings it to the surface, and then we’re able to deal with it, because those things help us to see what the reality is of what we’re dealing with in our own lives, of things that are deeply hidden in us.  That’s why God basically tells us that we don’t know ourselves, we don’t know what’s inside of us – God does and He brings those things out as a part of a process to help mould and fashion His way of life, a deeper conviction of His way of life within us.  And candidly, that process doesn’t end until it’s over!

Thankfully I look forward to a period of time now, not quite a year away, but a period of time where this world won’t have to go through these types of things.  They don’t have to go through some of the same things you do and you have – but neither will they have the kind of opportunities for the kind of moulding and fashioning to the same degree, in the same manner, in the same speedy process, with the same opportunities behind it that you have.  And you will understand that more deeply as time goes forward.  It’s a beautiful way that God works with us, it truly is.  It isn’t easy!  It tries you to the core of your being to know what is the core of your being, truly.

So let’s turn over today beginning in Romans 12.  Let’s begin in a most basic point and then move forward.  Very simple scriptures here, verses we’ve heard so many times before...but a time to stop, to pause, to consider where we’ve been this past week.

Romans 12:1 - I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, always – always – always consider God’s mercy in our life.  You see, there’s a danger in life when we don’t grasp God’s mercy, when we begin to see ourselves in a light that isn’t realistic or good.  We begin – its normal human nature – to lift ourselves up.  It’s normal human nature to begin to think that we stand, and God says when that happens, ‘Take heed, lest you fall.’  There comes a point in time so often in our lives where we go through different phases of things where just as with Laodicea, which is very human, very much a part of human life, where we can get to where we’re rich and increased with goods on a spiritual plane.  And the more you’re given the more that can become a temptation, to where the knowing - because we’ve been given so much - that we begin to take more to ourselves that is not healthy spiritually.

I think of the time of the apostasy – there was 21 Truths at that point in time, and so much of that had been watered down and weakened.  And I think where we are now!  How much more of a temptation that can be to the normal human mind, with God’s spirit as well, obviously.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice: That’s a pretty tall order.  It’s something we really can’t do of and by ourselves.  It’s something we have to pray about, to ask God for help to accomplish and to do.  To understand what a living sacrifice is all we have to do is go back to our Passover, to Jesus Christ, and see what He did in the name of love, love for the Family, love for the purpose and the plan of God.  We have to look at ourselves and understand that so much of what we go through is about being a lively sacrifice, a living sacrifice.  There are things we must sacrifice for the greater good, for the Body, for what God is building, because that’s what God has called us to.  He’s called us to be a living sacrifice.  That means this road is not easy, the race is not easy, what we’re doing is not easy – but it’s for others.

How much – and I especially think of those who have been in the Body before the apostasy or at the time of the apostasy – how much are you willing to do, to sacrifice, for those 63,000 people?  What are you willing to go through?  What are you willing to suffer for their sake?  What?  To what degree?  It’s what a lot of this has been about.  ...and for the world, for that matter, because it’s a part of God’s plan and how God’s going to work it out.

...holy, holy because God’s in it, because that’s the only way it can be accomplished, acceptable unto God, because God must be in it for it to be acceptable by Him. To be accepted by Him it has to have His spirit, His life in it, in us, to accomplish these things. It can’t be done because of our own strength, our own human nature and our ability, our willpower.  That’s not what it’s about!  We’re brought to the moments of weakness where we’re at the Red Sea.  We can’t do any more but stand firm and stand fast in what God has given to us...and then He will deliver us.  That’s what He does!  That’s how He works!  He brings us to that point to see, for us to see what we are, that we can’t do it, I can’t do it, you can’t do it...but with God’s help, with God doing it, with God showing us the way, with God giving us what we need we can do it, and that’s awesome.

...acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service.  We don’t always get our way!  We don’t always get what we want or would like to have!  I would far rather today, knowing this last week, that I didn’t have to observe another birthday, but I did!  That wasn’t my will to want to do that!  And for others who are older, in many cases a lot older, who are struggling a lot more in their physical health, I long for that day for them - a new body, just physically speaking, and spiritually too. 

So again, this is a tall order, yet it’s our ‘reasonable service’.  That’s what God’s called us to.  He didn’t call us to a cake-walk.  (A lot of you probably don’t know what a cake-walk is, but anyway.)  It’s not easy!  It’s not a matter of what we want or didn’t want as in, “I don’t want another year.”  Are you willing to live a prophetic day in service, in sacrifice to God, to His purpose and to His will?  Are we going to stand up to God and say, “No!”  Are you willing to do so for, again as I said, 63,000 people who are scattered, lost, asleep, starving spiritually, spiritually dying?  Absolutely!  Absolutely!

There are certain scriptures that just go through my mind, have been going through my mind and I think about them, and I think about the example on a physical plane of the disciples on that last night, that last night when Jesus Christ with all of His being so knew what He was going through in ways that we have never experienced, cannot in this physical life, Him being the Son of God and the mind, the Word that was in Him in the proportions and the way that it was, so powerful.  That it was so real to Him, what He was getting ready to go through, because those scriptures in Isaiah and other places were so alive in His being, He knew what He was going to go through – beaten beyond recognition and then dying a horrible death.  He perspired droplets of blood it was so real to Him...and nobody has ever done anything like that because of what they know they’re getting ready to go through.  Awesome!  And He went and prayed several times, and He came back and He found what?  He found them sleeping, and He said, “What?! Couldn’t you have watched another hour?”  Can’t you go another ‘day’?  Can’t you live another year in service to Me as ‘your reasonable service’, to what you’ve been called to?  Absolutely!  Sacrifice?  Whatever God says; whatever God gives so be it... so be it.

Verse 2 - And do not be conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that’s what this is... in our lives, that’s what it’s so much about, it’s about this mind that can change!  But we have to go through these things, especially in this age for what God is preparing us for.  And in the future people are going to have go through things as well, of having the mind transformed, but they’re not going to have Satan and demons around anymore. They’re not going to have the same things in society in the world we have today – thank God for them!  But we still do because of opportunities and things that God is moulding and preparing us for as a part of His Family that’s unique to us and to His building and what He’s building.  And so we go through this process!

That’s why that posting.  There is so much in that posting that can be expounded upon and we can delve into more deeply, of those moments in time that we’re brought face to face with, that we look into a mirror and we can see things in ourselves that we otherwise would be incapable of seeing, moments that determine what you’re going to do next, what will be your next step, what are you going to do, and are you standing fast, standing firm in the truth that God gives.  Is that the decision that’s made then?  Is that’s what’s deep inside of us that God is bringing out?  ...or do we resist it and do something different that takes those things away?

...be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove, you have to live something to prove it, to know it, to have it inside of you, to exist, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. What is God’s will in all this and how do I yield myself to it?  How do I prove it?  We live it.  We do it.  And then God reveals to us what we need.

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every person that is among you, not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think; going back to verse 1, what we just discussed; but to think... the Last Great Day’s sermon – soberly: Soberly! To understand our frame, to understand how we are to deal with battles and struggles and what the process is and what it means as a part of yielding ourselves to God, that He does the moulding and fashioning.

...but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every person the measure of faith. And so, so often we don’t know where we are in that ‘measure of faith’ until we are brought face to face with it.  What have we been doing with it?  How have we been growing?  Where are we?  What is it we yet need to address?  Because all of us have things to address in our life when we go through trials of this nature.  We have things to look at and to ask God for help to change, to do better.

So do you now understand faith in a better way than you did before?  At what point do we tell God, “No more!”  There are incredible lessons through all this!  Or, “This cannot be true!”  Therefore, what we have been given... is that true?  If this can’t be, then what about other things and the doubt that can come into the human mind.  Questions about, “How much was true and how much was false?”  ...and how do you decide and determine those things?  And all the things that can go through a human mind.  And how does one then judge such matter after such an experience?  By what standards?  And what will one try to take with them and what will one leave behind as far as God’s word is concerned?  We pick and choose?  Do we go through the 57 Truths and start marking lines through and throwing certain ones out?  And then which ones do we keep and how do we judge such matters?  ...and do we have such a right?  These things bring us face to face with some of these on occasion in life.

Once the children of Israel were seemingly entrapped at the Red Sea, was this then proof that everything told to them had been false?  God didn’t bring them out there to die in the wilderness, and yet He told them He was going to deliver them...all the things they saw, all the things they experienced in the plagues upon Egypt?  And so the miraculous events that occurred that brought them to where they were, did it all mean nothing?  What about all the miraculous events in your life and the things God has given you and the truth that’s there, the things that have inspired you and moved you and motivated you to see clearly in your life when those things are given?  And where do they come from?

That’s why I talk about (and I’m going to read letters a little bit later), but what an awesome thing when you hear comments and some talking about how that they remember how it all started.  I remember how it all started with me.  It wasn’t because I knew anything about the Bible; couldn’t even find things, I’d look in the index.  Where’s that book?  I had no idea where things are and after a while you know where everything is.  But in the beginning, didn’t know where anything was, didn’t know what it said, didn’t know what it was about - *snap, snap fingers* - it was all there, something God just gave in a moments time and all of a sudden from then on.  It’s awesome, the journey.

So, when do we come to a point where we say to God, “We’ll follow you this far and not any farther.”  Because that’s kind of what the Israelites came up to.  It’s kind of like...and for them there wasn’t any choice.  What are you going to do now?  “The Red Sea, two mountain ranges here on the sides and we can’t escape there and the Egyptians, they’re out to kill us!”

Brethren, the lessons are not over and the training has not ended.  That’s the way it is as long as you’re in this body.  It never ends!  We’re getting ready to go into a time, not too long from now, when that walk, that portion will be easier than it is now, where a lot of the stress and strain of things will be taken away; a totally different world where it won’t be like a race that it is now.  It’s a race now!

Our growth is not complete.  God is moulding more within us so that we can give more.  That’s how God works!  He moulds more in us so that we can give more, so that He can do more through us.  That’s what our growth is all about, and then He gives us those opportunities later on in life.

I think of what God has given me, the opportunity of doing that which I love.  I can’t wait when it comes time to give a sermon because I’m inspired, because I’m inspired because I see what God has given.  I’m inspired when God blesses me in writing a post and I begin to write not knowing where everything is going and it just flows and those things that I never thought about begin to come together in a way that drives the point home.  I know where it comes from!  I understand that.  Sermons that are given, I’ve learned to thrive in this environment!  This is what I love, being able to share what God has given.  But I know how it’s come about as well.  Everything in the past brings you to that moment in time, to whatever it is and whatever you’re able to share with others.

God is moulding within us those things so that we can give more to others in the future.  So was there a point when you began to doubt that everything we have been given isn’t fully true, that somewhere there are mistakes, somewhere there’s something wrong and something wrong with the one God has given to us?  Because that’s how we tend to think sometimes as human beings.  We’re all physical human beings but there is a work that God does that is absolute and sure.

There is so much more I could go through on some of this but you all have different experiences and there are things that God brings us face to face to look at and to examine.

Let’s turn over to Deuteronomy 8.  You see, this is not about me being right or wrong, it is about what we believe, whether it’s true or not.  Things have changed through the process here and people can find fault with that.  The only ones who will be able to see what is true are those with whom God is working.  No one else can!  That’s why you can’t talk others into or convince others about what you do and why you do it, and now you look even more foolish than you did before, because in a lot of people’s minds you’re still ‘following that man’, because they can’t help it!  They really can’t help it!  We understand that and what God is doing.

It’s not a matter about whether something was true or not; we should know what is true, but sometimes these things test us.  I think of some things that have happened.  I think of the Trumpet that sounded December 14th, 2008.  It sounded on that day.  Whether it’s a continuing blast, how it works, God hasn’t really shown that, because I know it’s not complete yet...but it started back then.  We’ve had sermons about those things.  But the others to follow?  Awesome!  More to come, brethren, in how God reveals and gives to us deeper understanding of what He’s doing and how He’s doing it and why, and why things were written the way they were.

Deuteronomy 8:1 - All the commandments which I command you this day shall you observe to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Eternal swore unto your fathers. This happened to them on a physical plane!  We’re at one that’s physical and spiritual because what we’re getting ready to go into is a different age that’s very physical, but it’s spiritual in the sense of the Kingdom of God being here and 144,000 reigning with Jesus Christ and Satan and the demons no longer being around in the environment.  And so there are those things that God has given to us to prepare, to have, to take into that age with us.

I think of just the last seven truths that Jesus Christ gave to fulfill a final phase of His ministry, the last 3½ days of His ministry.  That’s what the last seven truths are about.  They’re very much about a work and things that He had not given before, that He did not give to the disciples, that He gave later on for a purpose, because we’re going into a new age where things are going to change in structure and how things are accomplished and what God is doing with a greater and a more perfect focus in the next thousand years.

So He says that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Eternal swore unto your fathers: and you shall remember all the way which the Eternal your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, there are things they were to remember – very much on a physical plane, of things, candidly, they really couldn’t, save for a few.  I think for us, you shall remember all the way, be moved by it, made stronger by it, the 50th Truth – all the way that God has led us.  God could have waited and just given us that in the beginning but He didn’t do it that way.  He didn’t do it that way because how would that work in our life if every time everything was so easy and nothing put us to the test – because it’s about the test, it’s about the fire so often even in how He works with us, to see what our attitude and our response is to Him – whether we will speak back to Him in what we do and say, “No more!”  We don’t accuse God as human beings, but we will accuse others or find fault not realizing what He’s given to us.  Whatever He’s given to us has come from Him!  What we think and what we say is about a relationship to Him!

That’s why I think very early on in the ministry, something that God revealed and gave to me, that I was carrying, in how people were responding to things being taught.  It was coming back on me and I felt heavy because of that, I felt a heavy burden because of that, and then the teaching of what God told Samuel, “It’s not about you, Samuel.  It’s not you, it’s Me, it’s about Me, it’s about their relationship with Me.”  See?  And that’s what we all come to see!  We have a relationship with God all the time in our life and we have to be careful how we walk that walk.

So, the 50th Truth?  How do we receive it?  The Last Great Day?  And now May 27th... in the way that God leads us.  How about in those sermons?  Are you ready to turn right?  Are you ready to turn left?  You need to get more prepared to do that!  When God tells us to turn right or turn left that we’re ready to do it and we do it quickly because it’s from God!  That’s beautiful, it really is!  But sometimes it brings us face to face with things that we truly have to look at in a deep way.

What did He say?  ...and you shall remember all the way which the Eternal your God led you these forty years in the wilderness.  The wilderness for us is the world around us, a spiritual wilderness.  Mr. Armstrong used to talk a lot about the spiritual wilderness, crying out in the spiritual wilderness.  And we live in a spiritual wilderness as far as the world is concerned and with what happened in the Church, even on a spiritual plane, we see what’s happened even spiritually to those who once walked to God’s House side by side.  But for us it says, and you shall remember all the way...all the way that God has led us, different things He’s given to us at different points in time, all the truths He’s given to us but especially those that have tried you.  The others that weren’t a trial?  Wasn’t too hard was it?  It was exciting!  It was inspiring!  But when it tries you that’s something else!

And why did God say that?  Why did He do it?  Why did it happen this way?  ...to humble you: How much is humility worth?  How much do you embrace humility?  How much do you embrace wearing the itchy, scratchy sackcloth?  How much do you truly spiritually embrace that and grasp its value?  How much do you loathe pride?  How much do you hate it?  ...and if you see it in the world and you loathe it and you hate it, you come to see it in yourself more and more and you hate the very essence of its being, you want every bit of that wiped out of you, taken out of you, jerked out of you, pulled out of you, scraped out of you, cut out of you, because it has no place in the Family of God!  It is such an ugly disease, pride is, and yet it’s all around the world, truly.

I think of how I saw it in the Church toward the end through time, and even past that period of time! Pride is so ugly in life, it truly is!  So how much do we value humility?  When God brings you to your knees, to a time of humility, do we accept it, do we receive it?  Sometimes we strike back, strike out, sometimes angry with God.  People have gone through some of those emotions, maybe not understanding all the time that it’s God, but sometimes even there.

...to humble you and to prove you...?  How does God prove us?  You’re not proven until you’re put to the test, and it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t already know you, it’s the fact that He’s proving you and He’s helping you to see that, to be able to experience that yourself, to prove you, to prove to you His way as well.

I think of the example Jesus Christ gave of oxen, of going out and trying them, of proving them.  That’s how you know what they’re capable of.  Let’s say you were out doing it by hand as far as your agriculture was concerned and you were hoeing everything and all of a sudden you have oxen to work with!  I mean, that’s night and day!  And you’re so anxious to go out and try it!  I think of farming that’s in my blood, because I grew up with it, and I think of different machines when I was able to try something bigger, a combine that was better and newer and bigger, a tractor that was bigger and better and able to do more and pull more! I loved going out and trying it, to prove it, to prove what it could do, to enjoy that!  And that’s what God does in us, to prove us, to take us through these things to prove us and to make us better, stronger, to accomplish more! And that’s a beautiful thing!  ...and to prove it to us so that we understand what we’re proving in our lives.

...and to prove you, so if it was always smooth in your life, if all the truth that was ever given to you was smooth in your life then you’re going to miss out.  That’s why I love what I experienced when I first came into the Church and the first experience I had when Mr. Armstrong wrong the first book after I’d been called – he’d written much more before that – ‘The Incredible Human Potential’.  And I remember there were people out there who didn’t like it and there were some ministers who didn’t like it, and they said, “Oh, he’s now going on and starting to tell that we have an immortal soul!”  And I thought, “What are you listening to?  I hear the same sermons!  You’ve got to be...”  I’m serious!  I thought, “I’m new and I think you are looney tunes! What is wrong...?  What are you hearing?! He’s never said anything remotely like that!”  And then you learn in time that there are times people can hear and there are times they can’t hear.  And if you can hear it’s because the relationship you have with God...and it’s not because of how good you are or what you can see, it’s what God has given to you because of that relationship.  And others can’t see because they’ve gotten to a point, those ministers whoever they were, different individuals, because they were already resisting and fighting other things having something to do with Mr. Armstrong or with the truth that God had given to them.  And so that was my first experience.

The next great big one was Pentecost, 1974.  See, the other was about 1972, then in 1974 we came to Pentecost; went through that and experienced that and I saw large portions of the Church leave.  Hundreds!  Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people!  I didn’t know them all personally but in some areas, huge areas, total Church areas totally gone!  Three hundred, four hundred, six hundred people in one area – overnight!  Well, not overnight because they were listening to a minister who started doing exactly what Satan did.  Lucifer, from the very beginning when he started doing that, chirping – chirping – chirping to other of the angelic realm, of what’s not fair, this isn’t right, that’s not... Why is it this way?  Why is He doing it that way?  What about us?  Unfair! Unfair! Unfair! Unfair!  (And then people begin to believe it if they listen to that long enough.) ...and a spirit changes and spirit’s permanent...  and so for some of those angelic beings, they became demons, against God.  Satan – the devil, the adversary, working against God.  But it’s that spirit!

And so we have to come to moments in time where God proves us now, to put us to the test, to humble us, whether we will humble ourselves before Him, whether we can be proven, whether He can work those things and accomplish them in us.  That’s why these things happen!  First and foremost it’s about us!  It’s about the Church and how God works with us to build and mould something greater within us.

...to humble you, to prove you, to know what is in your heart, You see, God already knows but then it’s revealed, to know, so we can know what’s in our heart.  And some who don’t receive that can never know that, but for us we can know what’s in our heart.  It helps us to see what’s inside of us, something we maybe couldn’t see before.

...whether you would keep His commandments, His words, all His words, not just His commandments; the words that come from God include everything that He gives to us, His truth.

And He humbled you, and allowed you to be hungry, in other words He held back food that He could have given. He held back food that He could have given but it put people to the test.  He doesn’t always give us all the food.  He doesn’t give us all the truth all the time.  We grow in it.  That’s why we talk about the present truth, because that’s where we are at that moment in time with what we’ve been given, and then we have a response to God at other points in time when He gives us more.  And at certain times some of those things test us.

It tested the Church, to some degree, it tested some people’s lives when we came to a point about women, about a truth that Jesus Christ was giving to the Church that He said in essence to us in His final 3½ year ministry, to God’s Church, to His Church, that He was going to fulfill that role, that part in Daniel that’s now fulfilled already because He gave us that truth, that this is not the way God intended it from the beginning, but because of ‘the hardness of their hearts’ and because of the  human life and because of the way God created man and woman, that a process began that God allowed, because of the masculine strength of a man and those things that took place that He allowed to exist then from that point forward.  But that’s not God’s will for mankind to live that way.  It isn’t God’s will that marriage be that way, that mothers and fathers have that image that’s given to their children.  On the contrary, God says you are one.

And so we learn and we begin to learn in the Church of God, the prejudices that are there, of things that we must conquer and overcome about wrong thinking that sweeps our society!  It’s what our society is in the way people think about each other just in the sexes alone!  ...just between male and female!  And what God is doing is bringing us to a point of great freedom for the world!  And that’s a big one!  But you see, in some cases, through time, people have had to address certain things in their life – some women, some men – we all had to address things that are inside of us and sometimes some of that hasn’t been easy for some people.  It’s just the way it is in life!

And so I mention the 50th Truth, the Last Great Day, and May 27th because those are really big, but sometimes some of the others along the way are big too, aren’t they?  They truly are.  And so they try us to see what’s inside of us – will we humble ourselves and receive what God has for us in order to receive a greater joy and happiness with what He is doing in His revelation He’s giving to us of a better life we can live and how to live it.

And so He says, “I’ve given you these things. I’ve held back food from you... I’ll give it to you but I’ve held back some again here to know whether or not you will keep My commandments.”  In other words, He knows what we’re going to do but sometimes we have to come to see what will we do?  We have to experience it.  There are things you cannot learn until you’ve experienced it.

I think of all the things we’ve put on the EMC that go out to the ministry in lectures.  And we receive it to varying levels and varying degrees depending on where we are in our relationship with God.  And I understand that when certain things are given we feel we know when we hear it, and the reality is you don’t truly know it until you have experienced it.  You can have knowledge, but to truly understand it, to truly be able to exercise it as a part of your mind and your being, you can’t do it until you’ve had the experience, or an experience that is related to it, to drive the point home.  That’s the way it works!  And that’s the way it is in our spiritual life!  There is a lot of knowledge!

People went to Ambassador College, had all kinds of classes and things that were given to them about relationships and about marriage even, and about family and raising children.  But until you’re there it’s just knowledge.  You think you know...  I’ve heard ministers get up and give sermons who were not yet married, and they were missing something because they didn’t yet have the experience.  Experience puts it in a different light!

I’ve heard ministers get up and give – and a lot of people have in God’s Church – give sermons about raising children and rearing children and no experience!  You can’t get it all out of a book; you have to have experiences in life.  And after you go through those things you learn, you understand, and you grow in wisdom.  And so it is with our entire spiritual life, and it is an awesome journey!

And so He says He could have given us that but He humbled you and allowed you to be hungry and fed you with manna; something different, something different that God was giving to us through time, truths that God gives to us at different times – not all of it.  ...which you did not know.  When God gives us manna spiritually we don’t know it.  Every truth that comes along, we didn’t know it, and so He feeds us in His time, in His timeframe, how He wants to, how He desires to do it, which we don’t know.

...and neither did your fathers know; God has given us things that no one else has known!  That’s why I marvel!  That’s why I love the progressive revelation of truth that God has given!  I think of Abraham oftentimes and I realize that how he was judged by what he was given, he didn’t have anything that was in the New Testament in essence.  All that truth that came later, he was not judged by those things, he was judged by what God gave him to that point in time.  And on and on it’s gone through time, more and more and more.

...that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Eternal does man live.  And that’s the way it is in our lives.  The more and more truth we’re given, we make adjustments and we live by it – whatever it is!

Truth about women being in the ministry; women and men, you make adjustments... you make changes with the truth that you’ve been given.  It may be uncomfortable to anoint someone else, to anoint your own husband, and you do something, that because you have never had that as a part of your life, it seems a little uncomfortable because it hasn’t been a part of us, but now it is a part of us.  And so, by every word that God gives to us, all the truth that God gives to us, we then begin to live by that and adjust our lives accordingly.

And we come to May 27th...and we adjusted our lives accordingly.  It’s a prophetic ‘day’.  Awesome!  And we have to make adjustments and it’s not easy...and we go forward.  It’s beautiful!

Your clothing you wore did not become old: What an awesome thing, forty years and the clothing didn’t wear out.  ...neither did your feet swell, their shoes stayed the same; they didn’t wear out to where they were running around barefooted ...these forty years. God takes care of us, He clothes us with what we need to make it through what we are going through as we rely upon Him to be able to walk this way of life. He gives us what we need to walk this way of life, truly.

You shall also consider in your heart, that as a man chastens his own child, so the Eternal your God chastens you.  Corrects you, gives you guidance and correction in life, of some things that aren’t going to be easy at times because it is a course correction, a knowledge correction, an understanding God’s will correction, as the example I gave about women, that God never intended it to be that way when it started with Adam and Eve. But God allowed it; and because it was going to be a physical age. And that was the best way to deal through the physical ages, but it wasn’t and isn’t God’s way. It’s something that’s been allowed.  There have been a lot of things allowed for 6,000 years so that we can learn, so that mankind can learn, so that we can crave and desire what He says we can have instead of what we have now or what people have had for the past 6,000 years.

You shall also consider in your heart, that, as a man chastens his own child, so the Eternal your God chastens/corrects you.  He does because He loves us.  Not in harshness but in love that sometimes we don’t really fully grasp and we grow in that understanding through time, we come to understand more deeply the kind of love that God has for each one of us, the mercy and the grace that He gives us.

So have we been tempted to say that this is not from God?  ...that God is not merciful?  ...or God’s minister is wrong?  ...or whatever else comes into the mind that works against the acceptance of the truth that God loves us and moulds us and fashions us for our own good?  Because He does!  It doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy but we have to be careful how we react and how we respond because these are some of the things that people have experienced, and God wants us to address them so that they’re behind us, so that we learn, we have experience, and we are made stronger.  And as a whole the Body is being made much, much stronger.

Verse 6 - Therefore shall you keep the commandments, in other words, all the words, all that God gives whenever He gives it, of the Eternal your God, to walk in His ways, it’s not our way, it’s never been about our way; it’s always been about what is God’s way... and to fear Him. To fear to go against Him.  To fear to say anything against Him and His way that He is leading us.

For the Eternal your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains of deep, that spring out of valleys and hills; A land of wheat, and barley, and vines... and what is in front of us we can’t even begin to grasp and comprehend; it’s so much greater than what the Israelites had when they went into that physical land at that time.  The one before us is so much greater!  It says, a land wherein you shall eat bread without scarcity, you shall not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig brass.

Dropping on down to verse 16 - Who fed you in the wilderness with manna, again repeating some of this, which your fathers did not know, so that He might humble you, so He mentions it again, driving the point home.  God repeats things to drive things home, to help us to grasp and comprehend the point of it all so that you can better handle His making you to stand before others.  ...that He might humble you and that He might prove you, to do you good at/in your latter end; And you say, or in other words, so that you don’t say, is what it’s saying here in the Hebrew, in your heart, my power and the might of my hand has made my wealth possible.  The truth that God has given to us, what we’re able to live – never – never – never... never – never... it always comes from God!  So it’s never a matter of look at me, of what I have, or I am right.  It isn’t about our being right, it is about God being right.

Verse 18 – But you shall remember the Eternal your God for it is He that gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers as in this day.  So, that’s what God’s doing; He’s moulding and fashioning His way, His covenant, that relationship with Him in our lives more and more deeply as we continue forward.

I want to take a little bit of time here to consider some of the things written in the latest post.  I’m not going to go through it all but I just want to hit some highlights.

THE DAY OF CHRIST’S COMING: [1]

May 30, 2012

The beginning of the post dated April 20, 2012, states: “As readers of this site know, May 27, 2012, is the time that I have stated as being the date Jesus Christ will return as King of kings over all government on this earth.” The Church of God – PKG looked to that specific physical day as the literal time of Christ’s return and faithfully looked for his coming right up to the last hour on the Sabbath of the 26th.

God’s people have lived through many difficult stages of time throughout our history. What we have just experienced has been one of those difficult times. Such events can be very unsettling, and they tend to move people to intensely reflect upon their Biblically based belief system.

That’s what happens if we use it properly.

At such times, a person generally makes decisions that more fully reflect their truest personal choices...

In other words, what is the core of our being at that moment in time.  In other words...

...(our deepest convictions) about what they will embrace and what they will reject concerning their own religious belief.

....

So, it’s quite a process, things to meditate upon, to think about, to pray about.  Dropping on down where it says...

Pentecost of May 27, 2012

The day of Pentecost, 2012, will prove to be most important to the return of Jesus Christ. As a prophet, God gives to me prophetic interpretation and additional prophecy not previously given in scripture. He does not do it all at one time, but in a “progressive” manner, as in a “building” process that involves a growing revelation of His will.

Just like building a building; you have to go by different levels until it’s done.

That has been the case with how God has led His prophets throughout the ages. Because of this, that which has been spoken by the prophets has never been the “complete” and final revelation of a matter until it is God’s time to actually bring a prophecy to the actual moment of fulfillment—to be made manifest. This has always given critics and non-believers ample room to twist and mock what they do not understand in prophecy.

So in many respects, my job as a prophet is simple, since I speak and write what God gives to me. As with prophets throughout time, I do not always understand what God has given until He reveals more. People expect that a prophet somehow knows everything.

...and we don’t; no one ever has. We know more now at this stage in life than we ever have throughout history, but we don’t know it all.  It’s not about what we know, it’s about what God gives to us and what we receive.  So again, it goes on to say....

Read the stories of prophets and you will quickly learn that they did not “know” all that God had given to them. Jesus Christ was the only exception and even he did not tell all that he knew.

Prophecy given by God, in a similar manner to when Jesus Christ gave parables and prophecies, is not intended to be readily seen nor understood.

God could give us all the food at one time if He wanted but look at our history, look at the time through Mr. Armstrong and what God gave.  It didn’t all come all at once.  But I think of what God’s given us  since the apostasy.  We have been given much in a very short time, we truly have.

God is the source, and He has purpose for “when” and “how” He gives prophecy and then reveals the prophetic events.

Timing has changed in some things, we have seen that, but the events remain the same.

As the Bible contains so many examples of such things, more about this will be covered in future sermons.

....

Going on here....

Still May 27, 2012

Who believes what I have said as God’s prophet and end-time apostle to God’s Church? It is only those who support and/or are part of the physical organization of the Church of God – PKG.

No one else does!  That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone!

May 27, 2012, stated as the day of Christ’s return, is looked upon by all others as foolishness and proof that I have been wrong and indeed evidence I am not a true prophet of God.

And sadly it’s happened to a few that were in fellowship.

These same people did not believe this before and now they have only become more emboldened in their own spirit of “correctness.”

Those who believed it before are the ones who still believe it today!

In other words, if you believed it before you believe it now; you’re the only ones who can.

Most will respond to this by saying, “How can such a thing be?”

“How can you go on and continue believing what you believe?”  “How could you believe...?”  “That...”  “Oh yeah, there He goes again, spiritualizing it away – now you have another year... I was expecting that.”  So, some can say....

“How can such a thing be?” “What do you mean by this?” That would be the mild response, as others will certainly be even more convicted that I have simply “lost it” altogether.

....

When should we ever be concerned about what others think?  ...what others believe?  Because they can’t see what you see.  On the contrary, those you’ve had battles with, in family or on the job, or whatever, we should have compassion.  They can’t help what they can’t see.  And I understand their reactions; I understand sometimes the anger and the frustration.  I feel for them!  I look forward to the day they can be freed from that...but it isn’t yet in all cases by any measure.  Going on....

God’s Day

Now it is God’s turn—Gods “time”—to deal with a disbelieving world! God’s day has come and it is the day of Christ’s coming.

In a recent sermon entitled, “God’s Mercy,” prophecy in Ezekiel 12 was covered concerning this very time. From the beginning of time, God has given prophecy through His servants to be recorded concerning the end of the age of mankind and the beginning of His rule of government on the earth through His Messiah (Gk. “Christ”).

The last of prophecy (final prophecy) that God has given in this 6,000 year period of time has been replicated in a work that God gave His two end-time witnesses to represent over the short period of 3½ years. The vast accumulation of end-time prophecy recorded throughout 6,000 years of history is magnified in the book, 2008 – God’s Final Witness.

As God inspired what was recorded in this book, He also revealed the date He wanted the world to have that would be the time of His Son coming to earth as King of kings. It is a prophetic day that God gave. It was the day of Pentecost, 2012. But, we were not told by God that this was a prophetic day, so we prepared for a literal one-day event on a physical plane. May 27, 2012, has come and gone, but it is the prophetic day of Christ’s coming.

To me that’s a beautiful thing.  To me what’s even more beautiful, thinking about it coming here today, it includes Pentecost and it ends in Pentecost this time.  To me that has incredible meaning because of what God has given us to understand about the firstfruits and what He’s going to accomplish in order to bring this all about, to fulfill it.

People can chide, ridicule and condemn all they like, and I understand their frustration and disbelief. But I can only give what God has given to me. That is my job. For those who believe God, we follow where ever and how ever He leads. We continue to “move forward” in the “way” God is leading us.

....

And then this section here called, ‘Pentecost to Pentecost’, just jumping down here at different stages.

Pentecost to Pentecost

God has great purpose in “when” and “how” He reveals His word. The very annual Holy Days of God reveal such things that involve His plan of salvation that is being worked out for mankind.

....

This “Day of the Lord” is a prophetic day that has a duration of a full year in its fulfillment. It began on Pentecost of 2012 and it will end on Pentecost of 2013. God has revealed that May 27, 2012 was the “prophetic day” for the return of His Son as King of kings. It will take one year to become fulfilled. This is as true as the prophecy of Christ being cut-off in the midst of the week, within three and one-half days from the beginning of his ministry. That three and one-half days lasted a full three and one-half years to become fulfilled.

....

And then finally the last of the post, the last three paragraphs here.

God says of the two-witnesses that He will make them to “stand”...

That’s where we are today, that’s what we need to understand today, to stand fast, to stand firm.

God says of the two-witnesses that He will make them to “stand” in the sight of others. God will prove the words and work He has given through them. This is true for the entirety of God’s Church, as the two-witnesses reflect God’s work through all His people at this end-time. He will make all His people to “stand” in the sight of all others in this world—in His time and in His own way.

God will make His words to “stand” in the sight of all living on this earth.

That’s why I love Ezekiel, and it’s referred to in this posting and what I gave in that sermon earlier.

God has a plan to deliver millions into His new age that is coming—into the millennial reign of His Son over all the earth. Over this prophetic “Day of the Lord,” God is also going to offer deliverance to 63,000 people who were baptized before the apostasy of 1994.

I love that God gave this so we can write this and in time those people as they come to see what’s written here, to be encouraged awesomely, to understand the love of God and the mercy of God and those with whom God has been working.

However, this also means that throughout this “prophetic day” that God will shake His scattered Church throughout this following year by the death of 7,000 specifically named by Him who will not be allowed to live on into the Millennium.

God’s final day has now begun!

I want to read to you – I think this would be a good place to read one more section here.  I was going to read it later but I want to read it here.  We’ve had to rewrite a couple of things on the site, obviously, and one is under the ‘Topics’ section of the ‘FAQ’, and this section here is entitled, ‘Christ’s return – Timing’ – so if you look under that section where it says ‘Christ’s Return – Timing’ this is what’s there.  I’m just going to read certain parts of it because one part here to me is awesome, truly is.

Christ's Return - Timing | ↑ top [2]

God previously revealed to His Church that the timing for the return of Jesus Christ would be Pentecost (May 27) of 2012. However it was not until that very day that God revealed to the Church that the “day” was prophetic—the “Day of the Lord” spoken of in the Book of Joel. This “prophetic day” is a year in length and continues from Pentecost of 2012 (May 27th) to Pentecost 2013.

....

And then a little farther down.

In the Book of Joel, after the prophecy concerning the pouring out of God’s spirit, an event that actually began in the Church on Pentecost of 31 AD, Joel continued by stating prophecies of final major events that would take place at the end-time. These are the very events referred to in the book 2008 – God’s Final Witness. God has now revealed the final prophetic timing for the fulfillment of all these events.

And then I’m just quoting it here again...

“And I will show wonders in the heaven and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars [Heb. – “columns”] of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the presence of the great and the fearful day of the LORD [Eternal] that comes” (Joel 2:30-31).

This “Day of the Lord” is a prophetic day that has a duration of a full year in its fulfillment. It began on Pentecost of 2012 and it will end on Pentecost 2013.

And we’re hearing this a lot but it’s driving home a point for those who will read these things.

God has revealed that May 27, 2012, was the “prophetic day” for the return of His Son as King of kings. It will take one year to become fulfilled. This is as true....

Again, we just read that, I guess I just quoted that same verse here, same section as what it said in the posting.... This is the part I wanted to get to:

This day is also spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, as he writes of those things that lead up to the final events of the end-time and the establishment of His Kingdom to rule on the earth.

What’s amazing is that even when you look at the King James version here, every once in a while you’ll notice that right after a chapter heading there’s a little blurb there that will sometimes tell you what’s coming in the following chapter and something that kind of bowled me over in some of this, because some of that stuff is just so far off the wall sometimes, but they understand it’s talking about the Church.  It talks about ‘God’s Message to the Church’, and things that God is doing and it’s in that context.  And so some of those are kind of interesting because some of them are right on, they just don’t fully understand where the Church is and what the Church is.  But anyway, this matter of Isaiah again.  He’s going through and talking about...and if I’m able to give those sermons as we go forward here I’ll give them, probably go into Isaiah here in some of this and talk about some of this process.  But again, it says here...

This day is also spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, as he writes of those things that lead up to the final events of the end-time and the establishment of His Kingdom to rule on the earth. He foretells of the Millennium and the final events that precede it. Isaiah writes about the timing of these final events: “For it is the day of the Eternal’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion” (Is. 34:8).

Now the King James Version doesn’t get that as well as some of the others, actually, if you go through and you can even look at the Hebrew here...and just thinking about some of that in the ‘TOPICS’ section here it says...

Rather than delving into the meaning of the Hebrew words in this verse, it would be better to simply look at various translations that give a good overview of the deep and timely meaning of this prophetic verse.

I was talking to an individual up in the Michigan area that reminded me of this verse here, said this is what gave him the strength and the boost after all this had happened, to drive the point home.

“For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense, for the cause of Zion” (Amplified Bible).

The Church.  Another one...

“This is the time when the Lord will rescue Zion and take vengeance on her enemies” (Good News Translation).

Another one, and these all mean the same thing, they stated it...like some of the different Hebrew words here and they’re all contained in the meaning.

“For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause” (NIV).

Beautiful!

“For a day of vengeance [is] to Jehovah, A year of recompenses for Zion's strife,” (Young’s Literal Translation).

I think of all we have gone through, all that we have witnessed over 3½ years and now we’re at that day.  This is that year and this is what God is doing to make us stand.

And finally: “The Lord will have a day of vengeance, a year of revenge in defense of Zion” (God’s Word Translation).

God is going to make you to stand; it’s His time!  It’s beautiful in what it says.  It comes in a difficult way because of man resisting God, but after 6,000 years this is the day we’ve come to, this is the time we’re in.  Going on with the next paragraph in that ‘FAQ’:

The Church of God, spiritual Zion, now finds itself in this time period when God will make His people “to stand” in the sight of others, for God will reveal that all the prophetic events they have warned and taught are now to come to pass.

Let’s turn over to another section of scripture, 1st Corinthians 16.  Although in many cases this process has been painful, people have gone through a lot; but we’ve gone through it speedily.  I’m encouraged and excited because I see something that God has brought us to and how He’s done it.  I think of the Last Great Day and the awesomeness of what we experienced at that time to prepare us for what we have gone through.  And because of that we’ve gone through it very well, we truly have. If we hadn’t have been moulded and fashioned like that we would have lost a lot of ‘young’ people, we’d have lost a lot of you who are new.  It’s a good lesson for you!  It’s a good lesson for you to learn from, to understand, not to be lifted up by what you’ve been given but to be sober-minded, to understand those who have gone before you, what happened to the Church during the apostasy, what the Church went through then.  We’re never to be lifted up; we’re never to think we’re rich and increased with goods.  We’re always to be sober-minded, to fight this fight all the way, to never give up, to always stand firm in what God gives us, indeed, and to lead whatever way He leads us.  If we know this is His Church, His people, we’re going to respond quickly, and that’s where we are.  And we have.

It hasn’t been without pain.  Things hurt sometimes.  What I’m getting ready to go face, it hurts!  There’s stress!  There’s stress with it!  It’s just what we go through.  Some have financial issues, some have job issues, we all have different things to face, but we yield ourselves to God and it’s God’s battle, and whatever God purposes that’s what will come to pass, and if we yield ourselves to Him He’s there to fight, truly!  Maybe not in the way we always would like to see an answer but He will fight, and when it’s all said and done we’ll be made ‘to stand’.  Truly.

So, in many cases some of this process can be painful.  It has produced far greater strength, faith, conviction, and determination to press forward – more than ever before, more than I’ve ever seen in God’s Church. By all the emails and stuff I’ve received – awesome – to go through something like this so quickly...doesn’t mean you go through things without pain.  We don’t get there without pain, that’s a part of the process.  But it’s how we deal with the pain, because a lot of the pain is a result of seeing self, of seeing things in our self, of dealing with things in physical life that we really don’t want to deal with, that we wish we never had to, but it’s better for us spiritually if we do, that that’s what makes us stronger.

That’s why I’ve said over and over and over and over again, I wouldn’t trade anything I’ve ever gone through or am getting ready to go through, for what I know is moulded and fashioned inside of me.  Because God prepares us to be in His building wherever He prepares us and He gives us what we need to accomplish what needs to be done later so that we can do more and more and more.

So God has used this time to help each of us individually more fully ‘stand’ in His ways, in His word, in the way of life that He’s given to us.  And so we go forward.  And so this brings us down to the title of the sermon again here, Stand Firm – Stand Fast.  You know, those admonitions are given over and over and over again.

Some few, thankfully few, have not come through this.  I feel confident that several of those are going to come back at a certain point in time.  But some few have not come through this; some young people have not come through this, young in age and young in experience.  Disheartening.  It hurts.  I heard of one young man in Canada today, young woman in the United States, young man in Australia...and a few others here and there.

So, some few have not come through this and that’s painful.  Sometimes if there is a matter that some respond very poorly...you know sometimes it’s a matter of some people just, it’s more than they can bear.  And I understand that.  Sometimes though, there have been a... there are very few out there, but thankfully it’s few, two or three that I know of, who are riled up and writing as sometimes people do, some nasty things.  And I understand that, but it’s better if they’re separated from the Body, and that happens quickly; it’s better for the Body to bring us into greater oneness and unity.  And so we come to understand this is the work that God has given to us, that He’s done in us, and it’s beautiful, it truly is.  It’s sometimes hard to go through.

I Corinthians 16:13 – All of you, watch!  Watch!  I don’t know what lies ahead fully.  I know that ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’ is going to ring truer and truer.  I’ll tell you what, you have to be deaf not to hear the Thunders right now.  They are intense, and we get to experience that in a greater way now.  And at some point the 2nd Trumpet will sound.  I don’t know when, God hasn’t shown that – made it very clear we won’t know until it sounds, but we will know when it does sound.  It’s going to be so very evident in the world.

All of you, watch! That means to be spiritually on guard, to be spiritually alert, because until this is over... and candidly, for all of you who continue on - there will be those who will be changed from mortal to immortal and their life will be a little different - but for all the rest you continue to do this all your life, to be spiritually on guard!  But you’re going into a much better world and you’ll be given guidance and direction then.

All of you, watch! Stand fast in the faith, in what God has given you that is true, the belief you have.  You stand fast in those things!  ...act like men; it’s an expression that means, ‘as of war’.  Now, when you’re in a battle you fight!  ...you throw yourself into it!  ...you don’t wimp out and you don’t run away even though that might be what’s in our feelings and our emotions!  “I don’t like this!  I don’t want to go through this!  I don’t want to have to go back out and face this!” Join the club.   It’s part of the battle.  It’s part of the battle – you just go forward stronger than ever before with greater determination than ever before because you know what is true! And you can run... you can run one more lap; you can do it!  You can run another lap!  It may not be in you but it’s in God to give it to you, and all you have to do is cry out to God, “Father, help me, give me what I am lacking!”  ...because we all lack, truly!  That’s a part of relying on God!

All of you, watch! Stand fast in the faith, act like men, in other words, of war, be strong God says.  Well, we can’t do that on our own.  We have to cry out to God to help us in this, to be strong, to be able to be able to fight and war and to recognize this is a war, it is about your life and about the life of everyone else that’s listening today.  It’s a battle all the way to the end!

I can’t wait until that being, who is an adversary, is put away!  I cannot wait until he is brought down!  And this is the year of bringing him down.  This is the year that the process begins in greater earnest, a little bit at a time.  It takes a year!  It takes a year.

Let all things be done/all the things you do, in other words, be done with agape. That’s what matters more than anything else.  It’s about your relationships, to fight this way of life, to hold fast to what God gives to you and then to live it, and to live it in our relationships.  And when we get to the letters I think you’ll see a common tone throughout in a lot of them; people have come to see that this has drawn us closer together, you know, where people are able to laugh about some of the pickles they’re in.  I’m not laughing a lot yet but...  I just don’t like what I have to go through.  It’s just the environment itself is something I don’t want to have to do but I’m going to do it and I’ll be able to look back and laugh no matter what happens.  I may have to be a spirit being...  ...but I’ll get there.

I want to read you just a few news articles here today too.  I think this would be a good place to do some of this.  As I said, the Thunders, powerful, powerful.  That’s what was missing in some of this that couldn’t be grasped, but I know that all things are in God’s power.  As we drew closer and closer to the end thinking about war, thinking about the power that’s out there, and thinking that if God wants to bring it into the last hour that He can do it in the last hour, but some things didn’t fully fit and I thought, if that’s what God’s plan is then that’s merciful, I’ll be glad to receive that one.  It’d be a whole lot easier.  Well, now we realize there’s a little bit more to do in all this.

Here’s an article from the Telegraph, UK.

The Telegraph

Lloyds of London preparing for EU Collapse[3]

By Andrew Cave

27 May 2012

The chief executive of the multi-billion pound Lloyd's of London has publicly admitted that the world's leading insurance market is prepared for a collapse in the single currency and has reduced its exposure "as much as possible" to the crisis-ridden continent.

Pretty tough spot to be in, isn’t it? There are times past, just because of things there, thought... well, the euro will never collapse – it may well collapse.   We don’t know how everything is going to turn out.  It may be because of that, that causes them to do what they do.  We don’t know.  We don’t have all the answers to how everything is going to fit into place.  We can speculate, which we’re prone to do oftentimes, and that isn’t always good, but we tend to do that.  But, awesome what we see taking place in front of us.  You think people are worried over there?  I’ll tell you what, we’re not getting the blunt of it over here but they’re hearing it over there.  You want to talk about Thunder?  It’s throughout the continent right now.  It’s not just in one location, it’s everywhere throughout Europe right now – wars and rumours of wars – it’s all over there, truly is.  Things that leaders are talking about, things they’re considering.

Here is another one, May 28th.  All these are just happening in the last few days.

Financial Times

Cameron in eurozone contingency talks[4]

By Nick Reeve

Published May 29, 2012

David Cameron on Monday summoned top policy makers to discuss contingency plans for an implosion of the eurozone...

We talked about an implosion in the economic system in the world.  Well, if it starts there it’s going to ripple around the world; it can’t stop there.  See, that’s the point.  It says...

... as Spanish bond yields neared the danger zone, reports the Financial Times.

So again, I’m not going to read all the article, the main content of it all but it gives the gist of it.  Powerful that Great Britain has to consider this because they know if that happens there they’re in big, big trouble first because of all their exposure back and forth with the continent, close, close relationship and ties, not having the euro, having a little breathing room because of the pound, but pulling them down so fast what is their hope?  So they’re trying to make some kind of contingency plans.

Another one here from Spiegel in Germany.

Spiegel Online – International | Reuters

Growing Concern: World Bank Blasts Europe’s Euro-Crisis Management[5]

Is the euro entering the end game? With Spanish banks on the brink and the Greek political situation uncertain, many senior economic leaders say that the time for drastic action is swiftly approaching.

And that’s very mild compared to some of the things being said.  Another one....

Mail Online | dailymail.co.uk

Beware A Rerun of the Great Panic of 2008[6]

June 1, 2012

Do you think it’s for a reason that everybody keeps going back to and being reminded of when it began, and why the book contains the name that it does?  Brethren, these things aren’t by accident; it’s because of what God’s doing and how God does it.  It says:

Head of World Bank warns Europe is heading for 'danger zone' as world markets suffer bleakest day of the year so far.

- Robert Zoellick: 'Far from clear leaders ready for impending catastrophe'

- Raft of dismal news from around world wreaked havoc on market

- Manufacturing output crashed in Britain, jobless up in Europe and U.S.

- Fast-emerging economies such as Brazil and China running out of steam

This has people worried, just slowly falling apart - well, actually quite quickly right now.  Another one....

This Summer an 'Eerie Echo' of Pre-Lehman: Zoellick[7]

Published: Thursday, 31 May 2012 | 9:14 PM ET

By: Jean Chua

Writer for CNBC.com

The summer of 2012 is looking like an “eerie” echo of 2008 but euro zone sovereign debt has replaced mortgages as the risky asset class that markets are anxious about, said Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank.

Banks are under stress and depositors have begun to “jog,” Zoellick wrote in an editorial in the Financial Times on Thursday.

....

You know what he’s saying?  They’re taking their money and running.

To prevent investors from fleeing in panic, Europe must be ready with more than liquidity injections to contain the consequences of a possible Greek exit.

Is Greece going to go?  Possibly, and it’s just causing more major problems there.

“If Greece leaves the eurozone, the contagion is impossible to predict, just as Lehman (Brothers’ collapse) had unexpected consequences,” Zoellick said.

....

The creation of euro zone bonds has been a controversial subject with France’s new President Francois Hollande calling for the currency bloc to issue common bonds and Germany rejecting such a move on the grounds it will weaken fiscal discipline.

But Zoellick argues time is running out...

You know, I read something like that and I see it’s in bold letters on the page.

But Zoellick argues time is running out...

...and I think, how incredible...the things that happened to the Church, the kind of things that happened that God warned about to the scattered Church are the very things that are coming out in the news.

But Zoellick argues time is running out and euro zone leaders “may be nearing a 'break the glass' moment: when one smashes the pane protecting the emergency fire alarm.”

Do you think people are on the edge?  Do you think this affects markets and the way people think?  Absolutely!

If a crisis does occur, the European Central Bank may not have the ability to “respond fast, fully, and forcefully” because of differences on the bank’s board, Zoellick said.

As you go along in some of these things you just see what can thrust 10 nations, in order to survive, together to a point quickly and powerfully so.  Another one here...this one is from Jose Manuel Barroso.

euobserver.com

Barroso sees political momentum for more integration[8]

30.05.12

By Honor Mahony

BRUSSELS - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has said he is going to push for an "early" plan for further integration in the eurozone, claiming political momentum is on his side.

They know they have to do certain things; others are resisting it, the Germans and others because they don’t like what they’re saying.  Everybody has a different idea of how to speed this process along.  They’ve got to do something and they have nothing to sink their teeth into, it’s clay and iron, it’s strong  but clay, they can’t bring...  something will bring them together.  We’re getting closer.

Another one here...

The Telegraph

Euro is facing disintegration, Commission warns[9]

By James Kirkup, Deputy Political Editor | 31 May 2012

....

Spain remained at the eye of the financial storm yesterday, amid continuing fears for its banking sector.

Investors in Spanish banks are withdrawing money at a record rate, figures showed yesterday. More than £55 billion was withdrawn and moved out of the country last month.

....

Even more money is thought to have left the country since then, raising fears that Spain is locked in an unbreakable cycle of market panic.

The flow of money out of Spain has raised fears that its banking system could collapse, requiring a bail-out that its government cannot afford.

Just gets stronger and stronger, louder and louder.  Another one here, it’s entitled...

Zerohedge.com

"The End Game: 2012 And 2013 Will Usher In The End" - The Scariest Presentation Ever?[10]

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/31/2012

It says in this article here...

The founder of Global Macro Investor "previously co-managed the GLG Global Macro Fund in London for GLG Partners, one of the largest hedge fund groups in the world. Raoul came to GLG from Goldman Sachs where he co-managed the hedge fund sales business in Equities and Equity Derivatives in Europe... Raoul Pal retired from managing client money in 2004 at the age of 36...

Amazing!  It goes on to say....

.... his latest presentation, which is, for lack of a better word, the most disturbing and scary forecast of the future of the world we have ever seen....

They’re just certain points they list here as we go through this.  He says...

- We don’t know exactly what is to come, but we can all join the very few dots from where we are now, to the collapse of the first major bank…

And what’s happening in Spain?  Governments had to step in. How long can they do these things?

- With very limited room for government bailouts, we can very easily join the next dots from the first bank closure to the collapse of the whole European banking system, and then to the bankruptcy of the governments themselves.

- There are almost no brakes in the system to stop this, and almost no one realizes the seriousness of the situation.

- The problem is not Government debt per se. The real problem [and this blows my mind] is that the $70 trillion in G10 debt is the collateral for $700 trillion in derivatives…

Crazy world!

- Yes, that equates to 1200% of Global GDP and it rests on very, very weak foundations

Babylon’s coming down.

- From an EU crisis, we only have to join one dot for a UK crisis of equal magnitude.

- And then do you think Japan and China would not be next?

- And then do you think the US would survive unscathed?

....

It’s going to be very fast.  And then the individual goes on to say...

- It is the big RESET.

In other words the whole thing has to come down and then we have the big ‘reset’, something else... in other words this has to go away and something else will come on the scene.  The big ‘reset’ he’s calling it.  And so he goes on talking about this process of what can happen, what can follow and several things are listed here.  Then he says, basically getting down to the worst scenario at the end...

- After that…we put on our tin helmets and hide until the new system emerges

And then the final line here...

From a timing perspective, I think 2012 and 2013 will usher in the end.

And it will, just God’s letting the world see it more and more where we are and people can’t deny it, that’s where they’re getting to.  Here is another one...

The Telegraph

Syria on edge of 'catastrophic situation', William Hague warns[11]

By Ruth Sherlock, Beirut and agencies | 01 June 2012

I don’t know if you’re watching some of those things.  Syria is a big problem in the world right now.  It’s not like Libya, it’s not like Egypt, it’s not like some of the other things that took place; Syria is a lot different, mainly because of Russia’s involvement and some other matters with Iran and so forth.

Here’s another article, it says:

Reuters | Edition: U.S.

Russian Arms Shipment reaches Syria[12]

- US condemns supplying weapons

United Nations, May 31, 2012

May 31 (Reuters) - A Russian cargo ship that Western officials say was heavily laden with weapons for the government of Syria docked at the Syrian port of Tartus last weekend, a rights group said on Thursday.

....

Washington condemned the reported arms delivery.  A spokesman for Russia’s UN mission said, “We’ll look into this issue.”

The games they play.  Isn’t that amazing?  “We’ll look into it.” Like they don’t know what’s really going on.  Anyway....

The Telegraph

China and Russia reaffirm support for Syria[13]

30 May 2012

China on Wednesday restated its opposition to military intervention in Syria, as Russia sought to halt fresh UN Security Council action after a massacre of civilians sparked global fury.

How long are they going to hold off before somebody goes ahead and does it?  Right now they want the United Nations backing but they know they’ll never get it from China and Russia, it’ll get vetoed, and so who’s going to step in?  Do you think they’ll step in?  What kind of a war will that be?

The renewed support by Moscow and Beijing for the Damascus regime came as numerous Western nations, including the United States, Britain and France, expelled Syrian diplomats in the wake of Friday's massacre and after France floated the idea of armed intervention to protect civilians.

It won’t take long.  Another headline because of all that’s taking place and because of President Putin being in Europe visiting with Germany and so forth, some of the different leaders there, and France.  It says...

Der Spiegel | 05/30/2012

Chilly Peace | German-Russian Relations Enter a New Ice Age[14]

By Ralf Neukirch and Matthias Schepp

All because of the Syrian conflict and things that are taking place.  Another one....

TIME |Cyber

U.S. Admits to Waging War Against Iran[15]

By Thomas P. M. Barnett | June 1, 2012

I don’t know if you read some of this but cyber attacks are taking place.  I thought this was interesting; it just shows some of the hypocrisy sometimes in the world, what takes place and what people call certain things.  How long do you think the rest of the world is going to hold off before they start doing more of the same thing?  They’re already doing some of it but it’s going to become greater.  It says:

Check out this New York Times story about President Obama speeding up waves of cyber attacks against Iran.

It goes on to say...

But just remember this when next you hear about other countries’ “unprecedented offensive cyber attacks against the U.S.”

If anybody else does to America what we’re doing to Iran right now, our national security types would describe it as open warfare.

...We have a recent U.S. government national cyber security strategy document that says what we’re now doing to Iran — if done to us — would constitute an act of war worthy of a commensurate kinetic response on our part...

And over and over it goes; I’ll stop there.  I wanted to get to these letters anyway.  Before I do, we’ll read one more section here just to remind us what we’re doing. Exodus 14:13-15 – this is what we’re doing.  Talking about, And Moses said unto the people, Do not fear, stand still; that’s the same word, stand firm in place.  Stand in what God’s given to you, that’s what we’re shown even coming up to this point of May 27th. God says stand firm in what you have, the truth you have.  We have to stand firm in what God gives to us before He will make us ‘to stand’.  That’s so simple and so basic; and we have to do that!  It says, and see the salvation of the Eternal, then God will fight the battles for us, which He will show you today: and for us it’s ‘the day of the Lord’.

And then He tells us in verse 15 to go forward, as we read earlier.  But anyway, I wanted to read some of these letters here.  I thought it would be good to go through some of this because I think it’s encouraging, I think you’ll find it encouraging.  We’ve gone through all kinds of gamuts of emotions and that’s to be understood – the main thing is that we stand in what God has given to us and we move forward.

I wanted to read this one first, set the stage, from an individual that has been with us on two different occasions and has come back and is back again, and this time with a kind of conviction, a determination I found very moving and exciting.  It’s a beautiful thing when people go through things – not that part of it, because we never like to see that when someone is not able to be in fellowship - and they go out and learn some difficult things in life and come back with humility and learn spiritual lessons that make them stronger.  And I think of the Church that’s coming back, 63,000 people and the strength they will have when they come back.

This individual says:

“I just wanted to say Hi and how amazing it is to be back!  What I went through was rough in every way...”

...and says “...learning the same lesson twice”, but I can tell you right now, much, much stronger.  He says...

“...was sadly what I had to go through, but without those trials I would not have been able to be here.  I now understand more fully how Ron has stated how he wouldn’t trade any of the trials...”

Speaking of what I said earlier...

“I am humbled beyond words of God’s incredible mercy and how He deals with us in moulding and fashioning us...”

That’s beautiful because that’s what God does, it’s how He moulds and fashions us as we yield ourselves to the process.

“I am in awe of what we just went through and words fall short to say how exciting it is to live through and share in with God and His Church, again, humbled by it as I truly did not deserve a bit of God’s mercy...”

And none of us do!  See, that’s the key!  That’s what it’s all about.  None of us do!  We’re so blessed.  That’s what he goes on to say...

“...I know none of us do, but it’s incredible to truly come to begin to grasp and see it, “O wretched man that I am.””

See, that’s what Laodicea lost, that ability to see what we are without God’s help, without God’s strength.  This is what our human nature is like, “O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?”  God will through Jesus Christ, that’s what He say.  He goes on to say...

“...”O wretched man that I am,” inspired by those verses even more.

Today’s post blew me away!  I understood it before but not nearly like I do now.  It’s so beautiful to understand it is 3½ years, just the last ‘day’ being a prophetic day, just in a literal year.  It makes perfectly clear sense.  Of course there is only one way we can see that and that’s inspiring in itself.”

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful – says so much, a lot learned. Some are still learning this.

“Again, humbled by it all.  I will say it was awesome hearing so many of the emails and everyone’s responses that you read on Pentecost.  I too experienced very much the same feeling – initially it was a bit of a jolt.  After reading the post on the Sabbath of the 26th my mind was spinning, if you will, but it wasn’t long before it just cemented my decision and conviction of this being God’s Church.”

That’s what we went through – how much stronger did that become?

“We follow Jesus wherever He leads.  I love coming to this momentous time, awesome is all I can say.

Anyways, can’t wait for all the rest that God is going to reveal in His time.”

Another one here from a long time member.

“In the days leading up to May 27th my mind kept going through the Thunders and the rest  of the ‘City’, the 63,000 scattered about...”

This is very meaningful to those who have been around since the apostasy, when the apostasy happened, and that desire that’s so deep inside of us, the excitement that God has a plan of bringing back so many.  Because we hadn’t seen that before until it was God’s time to show what He was getting ready to do.  Going on...

“Upon hearing the May 27th sermon I can’t help but think back to April, June of 2008 before the 50th Truth was given and many were tested in their strength and their faith, but in 2008 many came along and we were so blessed for greater fellowship and God revealed so much more.”

What a beautiful thing!  I can’t help but think about the example of running down the hill.  That’s what we started doing in early 2008 and people sacrificed and they gave of themselves and their wealth, if you will, to do something.  And what was the fruit of that?  Many times more people in the Church!  We experienced that, we had that taste, we were able to promote the book in a way that we never had and God gave them the fruit of all those things.  And there’s a lot of seed still out there as a result of some of that and what’s been done since.  And I think of this period of time that we’ve come up to – awesome again – of marching around the city...and we did it.  We did it...and now it’s God’s time to bring down the walls and He’s going to do it.  It’s going to be over a year’s time.

We’ve done the marching, just as we ran down the hill – we’ve done the marching.  And what did we do on the last part of the marching?  We went around seven times!  We did it more zealously, we put more into it again, we knew this was it!  For us, this was it!  And so what happened again?  I’ll tell you what, a magnification of what happened back in early 2008, and far more was put into, again, the promoting of the book and the ability in several languages now to be received out there and downloaded, which it was.  Inspiring!  Incredible things that took place!

I heard today here too, that even in the States I guess there was even advertisement of ...the-end.com on FOX, running... someone was telling me, about a couple weeks?  Is that right?  On the news?! ...on the bottom on the screen there I guess, I didn’t see it.  But I was also told in some part of the Arab world that even on their TV they were advertizing.  We didn’t do that advertizing, but others did it.  We were able to advertise in Arabic, Italian, French, Dutch...who have I missed... Spanish, obviously English, in a magnitude that is far, far beyond what we did back in 2008.  Awesome!  And the fruit of that is this year!  The seeds that have been planted are this year!  You will be able to taste of that, just as you did back then, but in ways we can’t even begin to comprehend...far, far beyond.  To me, that’s such an awesome thing!

So it says...

“...but in 2008 many came along and we were so blessed for greater fellowship [because of what was done] and God revealed so much more.  Our lifelong test is to remain faithful to God and He will lead, guide, and direct, and protect us from any shooting arrows that come our way, and to test us to see if we’ll rely on His faithfulness [well said] and have patience and wait on Him.”

Sometimes we’re tried in those things, brethren, that’s just the quick of it, that’s what it’s all about.  Another one here, it says...

“Today’s posting was met with mainly the same comment from everyone we’ve talked to; WOW!  Most had thought of Christ’s return as an escape hatch from something within their own life, as you pointed out [their finances, job, marriage, different things of struggles of life sometimes, of things that people are trying to work out].  Some asked how the 50th Truth could not be true.  As you explained it is true but the fuller understanding.  Now we’re beginning to see what a blessing it is for it to be working out the way that it is.”

Another one here says...

“What we have been given this past Pentecost and that post, and Jesus Christ not returning this past Pentecost but next, hasn’t been too hard of a trial...”

Some of you may feel differently about it.

“I’ve come out of it with a more genuine zeal for the truth, being more zealous and hot spiritually and on fire for God’s way of life and having more excitement.  I already knew no matter what happened that I am in God’s one and one true Church, the Body of Christ.”

And that’s a lot of some of the reason it went as well as it did, to be candid with you.  The greater the conviction, a new person...

“I had kind of been slacking on schoolwork since I thought Christ was returning and I wouldn’t be able to finish it.  But now that there’s more time I am more motivated than ever before to work harder on it.”

Well, great spirit, great attitude.  And that’s what we should do.  We press forward.  When you press forward you work harder, you put more into it.  We’re not done!  We do what we can as long as we can, truly.  Goes on to say....

“I am looking forward to this coming year, the day of the Lord coming to pass and all that’s spoken of in ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’ being fulfilled and I’m already planning ahead for the Feast of Tabernacles.  I’ve kind of drained all the money I had getting things for when we thought Christ was going to return but I have faith, with God’s help, I’ll be able to have enough to keep the full eight days of the Feast.”

Another one here...different things people go through.

“I have to admit I was struggling at the end of the 26th because I was so on fire that day, full of anticipation and caffeine.  I had laid so much on the line as far as my personal life and never even considered a plan ‘B’.  Maybe I was one of the few, if not the only one that was fighting somewhat during the sermon on Pentecost. [No.] It wasn’t toward you or the Church, I just felt that crushing disappointment really.  I thought my attitude of disappointment wasn’t what it should be as I realized the consequences of what my personal moving forward would be.  It all seemed so overwhelming and I felt selfish for dwelling on my looming problems.  Sometimes I need a few days to process my feelings.”

You know, we’re all different.  That’s awesome in all this, we’re all different.

“At this point I obviously couldn’t see the bigger picture.  I knew there had to be more to God’s plan as I felt so strongly that our backs were at the Red Sea, we were trapped and waiting on God to deliver us.  I kept on thinking how God does nothing without revealing it to His prophets first and that the 27th wasn’t over so there had to be more we weren’t seeing.  I knew we were being tested, I could hear your voice from the Last Great Day sermon telling us to choose now, asking us what do we believe.  I remember you saying that either you know God is working in your life or you don’t know.  During the Last Great Day sermon I absolutely remember feeling like Abraham sacrificing Isaac which made me realize it was a test, so I held onto all the things we had been taught leading up to this point in time and the message from the Last Great Day sermon pushed me through.  Amazed that I still felt peace even in the midst of being disappointed.

During the Pentecost sermon I had to examine my attitude that I was fighting to hide.  I wear my heart on my sleeve and for me to hide myself isn’t easy.  I felt so bad inside and I realized it was because I was afraid to show my disappointment.  I prayed through listening to the sermon for God to help me and then I just felt like He wanted me to know that it was okay to feel disappointed and that I needed to trust in Him. [Beautiful!]  I wanted to cry.”

Have you ever cried?  Did you cry this past weekend?  I’ve had tears. It’s not easy going through these things, things we share together sometimes.  It hurts but you go forward.

“I must tell you that throughout my calling thus far I have noticed several themes and patterns as to how God is moulding me.”

These are the things you see that are personal.  Each one of us has a personal relationship with God and there are certain things that we begin to see that God does in our life and no one can take that away from you.  It’s a personal relationship and there are patterns, and we’re all different, but we see these things because God wants us to see them.

“I came into God’s Church with evident trust issues and God has taught me over these last four years that I can and need to trust Him, and I do.  The other constant is that I have learned that God always intervenes in perfect timing, right up to when you think you can’t go any farther.  There have been so many examples of that in my own life and I have come to see it more and more as I continue to grow.  I feel stronger than ever since Pentecost and excited.

Please know how excited we are that God’s plan continues.”

I want to make another comment here.  In this the individual talks about children and how that they have seen children respond during this time in a very unique and a beautiful way in their eyes, of matters of faith even.  You look at different ones in the Bible throughout time and young people and the faith they live by and what God gives to them, don’t have to be baptized to have certain things working in your life, because you’re set apart in a very special way, children.  And so it goes on to say...

“Please know how excited we are that God’s plan continues and that we will be made ‘to stand’ with Him.  The plan of God is brilliant and we are so thankful to be part of it.”

And here is another one, an individual who had been part of Worldwide.  Again, different emotions, different things that people have gone through and some realities of some things that have happened.

“I have to tell you with regret that I find it impossible to regain my confidence in the leadership of PKG.  How could I be sure that what I am told in the future would be the truth?”

Shaken to the core, something not there that needed to be there.  We have to see God, we have to see what God is doing, we have to see God’s Church...and that’s something that no one can give to any of us.  It’s something we either have because of our relationship with God or not.  Goes on to say...

“Under these circumstances I feel it best to withdraw my support as it would not be genuine if I remain.  The Church has meant everything to me in the time I have been with you; maybe too much trust in Mr. Weinland and not enough in God.  One cannot serve two masters.”

Too bad.  Not able to even understand the purpose of the parable.  But anyway...  To me that’s frustrating as a pastor because I wish everyone had it and was able to see and could see through errors and mistakes but that’s not the way it works.

Here is one from Australia...the other one was from a place over in the UK – maybe shouldn’t have said that, but anyway, doesn’t matter.

“Now that your emails are probably dying down a bit we’d like to take the time to thank you both for all you have done and continue to do for the Church.  Everyone in here in [this part of Australia] is still in one hundred percent unity, which is great to see, and excited about the coming sermons.  We would also like to say you’ll be in our prayers for everything that is coming.  Following your lead to the end because we know who is leading you.”

Different spirit.  That’s what we have to understand – What is God doing?  Where...? How does God work?  Another one here says, from the West Coast here, says...

“Just a quick note to let you know you didn’t need to look behind you, we’re there.  Keep moving forward and we’ll follow you as you follow Christ.”

That’s what it’s all about; I’ve given sermons on that.  That’s how we live our lives.  Another one here, it says....

“Thank you very much for the latest posting, it cleared up much.  Read it two days ago and [this individual’s wife] and I are more with you guys than ever before.  There is no turning back but only to fight ahead.”

Another one here...

“I have talked to many brethren this week, many with the same stories of financial difficulties and so forth by our thinking this was the end.  The great thing is it has been drawing us even closer.  We have checked in on each other, laughed at our hardships, and I keep thinking to myself, “God is building a Family.””

It’s beautiful.  It’s what’s taking place, closer together than ever before.  It’s not easy sometimes what we have to go through to have that added spurt in life.  Here is an individual that is very open about things, has come through this and I just thought I’d read a few of the comments here.

“I am writing you to just let you know how very much I have been struggling.  On the Last Great Day I was shaken and felt as if it was a tiny taste of what the apostasy must have been like.  I eventually decided it was just a test and that there was not an option.  Christ could be here on May 27th no matter what.  I obviously failed the test because I had asked myself for months what would I do if Christ did not come on May 27th.  My answer was always I will lose faith in God if May 27th does not happen.

I really tried to have an open mind but I could not consider any other thing.  I think this was because I believed it with everything in me.  Obviously now, the events of the past few days have shaken me more than I could ever imagine.  I have had to face the fact that I have been misled. I have been all over the place with my thoughts.  So much of me wants to turn away from God altogether but I cannot do that as He reveals if He is real I will be making a huge mistake and will pay dearly for it.  I know I am going to go nowhere else to get even close to the truth of the Bible, so here I am begging God for mercy and begging Him to get me through this most difficult time.”

And so sometimes we go through great struggles and have to cry out to God, because God’s the one that has to bring us through those things.

“I do not want to go anywhere else as nowhere else has the truth, but right now I do feel distrustful and am begging God to get me through this and help me to trust again in you.”

It’s not in me!  ...it’s in God.  See?

“Honestly, I have had a hard time trusting, and trusting it will be next year’s Pentecost.  I cannot let myself get my hopes up again.”

Well, we can go through things like that and come through it and get back on track again.  But again, those things bring us to moments we see things in life that are not easy sometimes, they’re difficult battles.  Another one here....

“Wow!  What a weekend this was!  First let me say that we are still here waiting on God to lead us through you as we have always tried to be faithful followers.  We have proven that this is God’s Church and there is none else.  We hold fast to the truths that have been given and that is what our beliefs are built on.  That being said, this was really hard to go through; not necessarily a testing of our faith in God but a testing of what I’m not really sure of yet, I’m still processing...”

And sometimes things are such a shock we...  I think of when I gave that sermon on the Last Great Day.  I saw people and heard of people in different areas that just shut down, and there are times, sometimes, when your mind just shuts down, it’s so much.  And we all have different experiences in life and we go through a process, but the desire is, obviously, we get through it and we go forward.  And that’s what God has brought us to.  It’s been a tough week, or a tough few days, or whatever it was we went through.  It goes on to say...

“I’m a little slower in working through my human emotions.  I’m just now in the beginning stages of getting excited for the next phase.  Re-reading the book is helping me with that.”

Another one here in upper mid-west...

“I have just read your latest posting and I want to say that it truly has given me more hope and confidence in all that God has given through you for me to believe in.  Thanks for helping us to “see” and “hear” God’s word through your postings; they truly do help to encourage me and inspire me to press on and to finish the race.”

God gives us what we need when we need it, doesn’t He? Truly does. If that posting hadn’t have been there, there would still be a lot of struggles going on out there, truly.  It’s how God works.  Here’s one from the Netherlands.

“I think it’s a very weird and sobering experience, all we went through the last weeks.  It was surrealistic before but now also after.  That was not the only shaking we experienced – first the knowledge of Christ did not live before He was born, then the 50th Truth, and now this.  As always, after revelation of where we are in time things fall in place much, much more.  The ‘day of the Lord’ has now started and all the physical things we expected to come, but did not, will now start to happen.  Amazing and also scary.

I want to tell you that God showed me some time ago through whom He was working by the first booklet, ‘Time Is Running Out’, and through God’s help I am more convicted of that than I ever was before.  Although the experience is a difficult one I am very happy with all that I have been blessed to experience because it is forming me in a way I never could imagine.  I’m not looking forward to the experience but I look forward to the end result.”

So again, really good to see how we all experienced this process in different ways, and to realize we relate in different ways to what different ones have said.  We’re in this together.  We’re a Family.  Another one says... very simple and to the point.

“Thank you, first of all, for the two sermons over the past couple of days – got us back upon our feet and healed our small wounds.”

Sometimes, if we’re not careful, our wounds seem bigger than what they are and we’ve got to remember they’re small compared to...  I constantly think about what people have had to go through before in times past.  We have it so much easier, so much better.

“We are still here and we will be here; no other place on earth we could go.”

And then they sign their names here and it says....

“Two specks of dust from hot and dry Florida.”

I love that too, because there’s a humility we sometimes express to show that a recognition here, an expression that God’s merciful, and look at us in what He’s doing.  That’s the thrust behind something like that.  Another one here...

“Your last posting was so moving I don’t have words to say how I feel as all I know is we came to the Red Sea and now we have passed over to the other side and we’ll have to move forward with whatever God has for His little Church.”

True.  Another one; I got a charge out of this because sometimes how things hit us and where our mind is.  Individual says...

“A short note to say we’re still holding fast to the truth.  I was so upset with myself when the time passed and I was still here [] and I went to God to repent for my lack of faith and growth.  About this time my phone received a text telling me to go to Acts 2:1 and in my anger at myself I read it as Acts 21.  I wondered, what does this mean? [] Would you be put in prison as Paul was?  I then had to go to God in asking Him for your protection, and later reread the text and saw my mistake.”

I thought I’d just interject there; whatever comes it’s in God’s hands.  I appreciate everyone’s prayers because it’s not easy to go through but on the other hand I know that whatever transpires is 100% in God’s hands – nothing happens to us save God is in it.  Okay?  So...depends on what He has planned, and I’ll be giving a sermon next week and I candidly don’t know from then on – I really don’t.  I know that the Church goes on. I remember the time when I had the heart attack and Laura and I were talking about what happens after I have the open heart surgery.  If I’m not here the Church goes on, God has a work to do and I know that I finished the job that I had to do already.  It’s over.  And so whatever God has in store for me, so be it, and we will learn, you will learn through whatever happens, through whatever transpires, and you will be blessed in whatever you go through.

It goes on to say here;

“I then had to go to God asking Him for your protection... [reread the text and saw my mistake...] needless to say, I did receive much comfort from those verses. [] What a day of soul-searching and prayer, and then I remembered what I had recently read in ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’ and realized we had more to go through.  Today’s sermon confirmed my thoughts and although it was my desire to have this society come to an end and God’s government instituted on earth that will not be for a while yet.  I am now praying for strength for myself as well as for God’s Church to go through this ‘day of the Lord’.

Another one here...I’m going to take the time to finish these.

“The past couple of days have been something else.  As sunset came Friday evening I felt such intense anxiety and stress... many if’s going through my mind.  I kept going over the truths, the possibilities, the if’s in my mind, and before I fell asleep I had already determined that no matter what happened yesterday, I know this is God’s Church.

I know where I was when God called me, I know how events in my life have made me seek answers, and finally in a very heartfelt emotional prayer I asked Him to show me who He was...that if He would show me where His Church was that I would go there, not realizing just how different it was from the world at that point.  I have come to see very strongly that I had been deceived my whole life and even said so in my prayer.  Within days He led me to the books.  I know how God has worked with me much more so now than ever I dreamed of in that fateful day in 2007.

I am not saying yesterday was easy by any means!  I had every thought go through my mind as you can imagine, how, why, what does this mean...  I cannot say that I am not immensely disappointed that He is not yet here but I understand that He has more to show us and I’ll continue forward.  I will take my correction.  It is just more humility for me that I ever so continuously need. The mocking started for me rather quickly but my skin has become quite thick to it over the past 3½ years; it really has lost its sting.  I listened to the sermon you posted as soon as I could and as usual God was there right on time with the answers so I’ll move forward. I’ll take my correction and work to jump the obstacles that are in my way and do my best not to murmur.

I am still here, I still have my faith, and I still know this is God’s Church.  I will keep fighting, I will keep running and looking to my Father to give me the strength to keep going even when I feel so tired...”

Another one here, this was done on Saturday night just to give you a little bit of a taste from a long time member.

“We as a Church are heading for exciting times as this day, May 27th, will be a very special day in our history.  Perhaps this day represents the spiritual return of Christ to the scattered sheep and a beginning of an awakening of repentance of 63,000 who will be reunited with God’s Church.  Only God can do that.  Whatever this day means God will reveal it to us.  What we have to learn we will learn.

The first Pentecost God gave us His commandments. The first Pentecost of the Church of God under the new covenant God gave His holy spirit and many were added to the Church.  On Pentecost 1997 [the person wrote 1997, it was ‘98] the remnant became the Church of God. (Hopefully I have the date correct.)”

We did begin, literally...that’s when a resignation with another organization took place, that’s when we began as far as a Body but we were not able to be on our feet until a year later....and that was interesting, Pentecost to Pentecost.  It was Pentecost of 1998 when God began to work with us as the Church of God – PKG.

“What gift has God given us this Pentecost?  It is almost time for the birth and we all need great spiritual strength for the last part of labour.

....

Everything God has given us thus far in understanding is so, it is true.

....

No one knew what he [Noah] was given to do by God, he did what God asked; God sealed the ark and Noah and his family waited for seven days.  I am sure they could hear the people mocking them even more so than before they entered the ark.  Perhaps even Noah’s children had things to say, questions, doubts.  I am sure it wasn’t an easy time for Noah but when it was God’s time the rain came.

We seem to have finished one task only to be given another.  Since Pentecost is the time of firstfruits then it follows that Pentecost 2013 may be the time – God will show us and teach us.”

It’s amazing how God’s spirit leads us at times to get where we need to be.  Finally at the end it says...

“I have, over the last few years, feared our children and their children’s future but lately I have felt great peace concerning them and after the new understanding about the 63,000 even deeper peace filled me.  We are all excited about the future, excited about our place in Church history, excited for those who will live into the new age and just plain excited to live in these times.”

I’m going to keep reading until I get through the ones I have here. I may not have opportunities like this in the future.

“I just wanted to send a note now since we basically shut everything down and turned off our computers, cell phones, and so forth May 26th.  And also, no words could come to mind as so much was going through our heads the last two days. I know God prepared us for this moment from the intense trials we have been going through since January 7th.  This Sabbath was very hard and Pentecost was much better and relaxing getting back together with brethren and realizing that we were still alive and holding onto the truth we had been given.

The reality really set in today with finances, work, family, and all the other things that we now have to deal with, but as always we are following God and His Church until our lives are over no matter when Christ returns.

I was thinking about the title of the sermon last Sabbath, ‘A New World’.  Knowing and understanding now that yes, we’re all entering a new world of living in a new mindset going forward.  We are living in a new world in a spiritual plane with new truths and understanding of the choices and the life changing moments we have before us.  And right away on Pentecost we had a number of trials that were new to us and helped us to change our minds on certain things we had been doing.  God answers prayer and He answers them so quickly that I am truly amazed at His glory.  But we don’t always like or feel good right away about the way He answers our prayers.  In a way I feel that Christ not returning physically May 27, 2012 was an answered prayer in the fact that it will bring the Church closer, it will only deepen our love for each other and it will give us more strength because it was a major trial by faith.”

These are beautiful.  When you see people, so many letters here of people in the last four, three, two years, so moved by God’s spirit.

“Truly, we will not enter the Kingdom of God unless we are as children.  We told our son for a while that Christ was coming back and he was very excited at his young age.  Then we told him a day before that Christ would be here in one day.  After it didn’t happen he asked something about it and I said that now Christ is coming in one year (he didn’t understand how long a year was) but he simply said, “Okay.” And smiled.  I pray God give us that kind of attitude, just to follow and not to ask questions.

Beautiful, that’s exactly what Christ said to do.  A matter of humility, isn’t it.  And another one here from someone who grew up in the Church, who has lived this way of life and the struggles we went through as a matter of the apostasy and going into adult life at that time, talking about some of these things and then the individual says...

“All those emotions flood my mind [going back and remembering the past and those things that were there], laughter, joy, tears, the gamut of emotion...

....

It is because of that past I am able to be as strong as I am today.  The present, to live in the here and now (the present truth), the future, how it has now been stretched out before us and how I cannot wait to walk into it with greater strength and further training.  As time went past, 12:30, I thought back to the Feast and the last sermon, how it was preparing us for this day, only being able to truly see it and appreciate the sermon having lived through this Pentecost, as my decision was on that day at the Feast, was the same as Saturday afternoon – I know the truth. I know where I am. I know God is with us. I know what I lived through. I can go to 2nd Thessalonians and prove it. [She lived it!  She lived through it!]  There is no denying the pain, the hurt, but those things do make us stronger in time.

My second thoughts were with those who are new in the Church who didn’t have that experience.  I felt hurt for them because I wasn’t sure who would still be with us.  I hurt at the thought of losing more Family that we hold so dear to our hearts.  I prayed for them, for their strength, which is something that they have to want, they have to seek it out, they have to fight for it, and I know it’s their relationship with God.

I am so glad that you read the emails that people have sent to you; it brought me strength to know the unity that God was bringing to us.  You could hear the encouragement, the confidence, and the oneness threaded throughout all of them.  We move forward indeed.  This was such a test for us, to see where we are spiritually, to follow the path.  This may have been a sharp left turn but turn I did and we are again moving forward.

We are still here moving forward and looking to God for His guidance.”

And I’m going to read another scripture. Let’s turn over to 2nd Chronicles...an amazing story here that is similar to something we’ve already read, but I think it would be good to read part of this.  It’s an incredible story in 2nd Chronicles here of a great battle that Judah had.

2 Chronicles 20:1 - It came to pass after this also, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle. Then it goes on to say, Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There comes a great multitude against you from beyond the sea, this side of Syria; and, behold, they’re at Hazazontamar, which is Engedi. And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Eternal, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So there are times in life where we have moments of great trial, obviously.  This is a great moment for them, they’re being attacked.  We become accustomed to that I think in the Church, sometimes our attacks are greater than others and there are battles we fight, seek to draw even closer to God.  And that’s what they were doing here.  And these are.... back then, when you read about some of these armies, huge, tens of thousands of people coming up against them in massive armies.

Dropping on down here just to tell part of the story, verse 17 – this is what God told them when it came down to it finally - You shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand still, that’s what God tells us on a spiritual plane, in whatever He gives to us, stand still.  We’re to stand in His way of life and He’ll make us to stand, truly does.  And He’ll fight our battles for us.  There are things we cannot do.  There are things beyond us.  There are things I’m going into – they’re way beyond me – I have no power, not a slightest iota.  It’s what God does and whatever purpose He has, that also goes with it.  The things you’re facing.  The things you go into within the following year, it’s the same thing we do, we look to God to fight our battles because they’re greater than we are, indeed.

...set yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the Eternal with you, and that’s where we are, especially in this year.  God is with us in a very powerful way.  When we lived a witness there were things we had to be in a sense, not do on our own, but in a sense in order to be that witness there were things we had to live through and experience for the sake of that, because of a 6,000 year period of what we were reflecting in a 3½ year period.  Now is different. Now is a time that God intervenes. Now is a time that God upholds us.  That’s why that scripture in Isaiah 34 is so powerful.  You read it in the different verses there, go to that site, to the ‘FAQ’ and read some of those – what it’s saying there is so incredible, it truly is.  O Judah and Jerusalem, do not fear, nor be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them for the Eternal will be with you.

Just dropping on down to verse 21, I want to read part of the story here.  This is such an amazing thing, things that God does sometimes that are so profound.  Verse 21 - And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Eternal that they should praise the beauty of His holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Eternal; for His mercy is forever.  That theme that always runs through our lives, His mercy is forever. And they went out singing.  Not as an army, but singing, because God said “Stand still! This is My battle, I’ll fight it for you.”

And when they began to sing and to praise, the Eternal set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, I don’t know what all that means, but the results here are spoken of... which were come against Judah; and they were struck down. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and to destroy: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another. They turned on each other!  ...for whatever took place. I don’t know what happened, but God had them turn on each other   when it was all said and done, so Judah didn’t have to do a thing save praise God, sing to God, glorify God, stand still, stand firm.

And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked to the multitude, and, behold, there were dead bodies fallen to the earth and no one escaped. And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry: and they were three days in gathering of the spoil, it was so much.

So, the point being; when God gives victory, when God gives favour, when God gives help, He does it in a big way, and this year is a big year.  This is a big day, ‘the day of the Lord’.

~~~end

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8. Barroso sees political momentum for more integration

9. Euro is facing disintegration, Commission warns

10. "The End Game: 2012 And 2013 Will Usher In The End" - The Scariest Presentation Ever?

11. Syria on edge of 'catastrophic situation', William Hague warns

12. Russian arms shipment reached Syria Saturday

13. China and Russia reaffirm support for Syria

14. German-Russian Relations Enter a New Ice Age

15. U.S. Admits to Waging War Against Iran

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