Day of the Lord

Ron Weinland

June 9, 2012

Thought I’d just read a few things here, points that I thought I’d make here.  Remember that in God’s time within the new period of time we find ourselves, God’s purpose is to make us stand.  Again, a reminder of last Sabbath’s sermon, to stand firm, to stand fast in the way that God has given to us.  And to me that’s exciting, thinking about the whole thrust of the sermon last week, is that when we stand firm and stand fast for God, which is what we’ve gone through, He will make us to stand, and that’s what this period of time really is very much about.

Indeed, we are moving forward and as I have said, regardless of what we experience through any trials in life no matter how long we might suffer we know that it’ll be less than a year.  That’s our faith, that’s what we believe.  And at some point, perhaps before the Feast, perhaps after, we’ll be made to stand in the sight of others...and speaking of the Feast, I’m going to come back to that in a moment, a few comments concerning some of your planning because we do need to start planning ahead, thinking ahead.

But again, we don’t know the timing of events because of where we are, and we just have to go forward and God will reveal those things to us as we go forward and it’ll be a matter of His timing and we just follow Him wherever He leads us.

I thought I’d mention concerning the Feast of Tabernacles info, that will be coming out in a few weeks as soon as all the contracts can be settled and signed and sent back for the various locations, but everything will be very much like last year as far as the areas, so you can already start planning because there’ll only be a few changes.  That brings up a point that I think I’ll start mentioning now – we need to be cautious about travel plans.  I really think this year we need to be wise in the sense of going long distances.  I don’t think it’s wise to be travelling overseas.  We need to plan according to the day we know we’re in right now and it’s a unique time...and now we understand that there are definite things that have to be fulfilled during this period of time and we’ll know more by the time we get to the Feast. But again, it’s expedient to us to plan wisely and certainly it’s okay to transfer within the United States to other sites, but think about it if it’s a long distance from your area.  Consider those things, pray about them, strive to make wise decisions for you and your family.  If you’re by yourself that can make things different sometimes.

Today I thought it’d be good before I launch into the actual sermon to go ahead and do something I’ve been doing the last two sermons because I find that it encourages me, it’s exciting to me to read these letters, and I think it’s exciting to everyone else to hear similar experiences, to realize we go through all kinds of things when we experience some of the trials of life that we do and different emotions, different feelings in how God works with us – because we’re all different, we come from different backgrounds, there are different things that happen in our reaction because of our personalities because of who we are.  And yet this kind of binds us together too, of seeing sometimes in how we have the exact same struggles.  And struggles are fine; it’s how we react to them in the long run that counts, how we get through them, how we look to God, how God works with us and our response to God that counts and that we not turn away from that but let that work be done in us.  And that’s, sometimes, a difficult thing but it brings things out of us that we can’t see otherwise.  That’s what’s amazing to me, how that it brings things to the surface that we can see in ourselves that we really couldn’t see if those things hadn’t happened in our lives, and it causes us to dig deeper into the way we think, why we think, why we respond in the ways we do, and become wiser as a result of that and closer to God as a result of that as well.

Anyway, I want to read a few of these.

“I was kind of reluctant to share this because other than a lot of emails you have read in sermons I did have a big battle accepting this new revealed truth.  The evening of the 26th I found myself on my knees crying but I felt somewhat stronger as I read the post...but every time even after the Pentecost sermon I still had the feeling of ungratefulness.  Although I saw the new revealed truth clear as day I just didn’t understand why God would lead us this way without anything happening.  Even writing this makes me think of the Israelites standing at the Red Sea.  But re-listening to the sermon on Pentecost I understood that I was acting like Jonah when he realized that Nineveh wasn’t going to be destroyed...”

It was that moment...

“...so I have repented of that attitude realizing that it’s not about always understanding what God is doing but it’s about following Him in faith and hold on to the present truth until God shows us where we go from here.”

And there is so much truth in that.  We don’t always understand what God is doing.  I don’t fully understand what God is doing.  No person, no human being can, none of us in the Church fully can, but God reveals those things to us as time goes along and then in time we can look back and say, “Now I understand. Now I see what He was doing.”  And that’s how God works with us and we grow through that process.

Another one here, it says...

“One of the things that seems to me to be magnified in a situation like this is the vast gulf between those who are led by God’s spirit and those who are not.  When I see the reaction from carnal people I can see so clearly that it’s impossible for them to understand how God works.  It makes me even more grateful that I have been given the great blessing of having been rescued from the confusion of the scattered groups and from the world.  God’s ways make so much sense as He reveals His plan to us.  It certainly put me to the test and forced me to think long and hard about why am I here in the first place.  It was never about a date but about God’s truth and His way of life.  It makes me think back about the incredible serenity and joy I experienced when I first began to become familiar with what the COG-PKG was teaching.  I felt spiritually starved and couldn’t get enough spiritual food to satisfy that incredible hunger.  That was seven years ago.  I have been extremely blessed, far more than I could have ever imagined.  I hope and pray I’ll never turn my back on God’s great love, mercy, righteousness and undeserved grace.”

Another one here.  I’ve read a previous email here of an individual who was having a real struggle, a real battle, and those things are understandable, these things are not easy to go through.  This individual says...

“I just wanted to let you know I’m doing so much better now..  You have stated in your response to me to take my words to God.  I have poured those same words out to God many times from Saturday at noon to the day I sent them to you.  I am not sure why but I felt so much better after sending you the message.  I am so sorry for coming off so rough but I just really needed to let you know personally how I was feeling.  The posting you put up on the same day, Wednesday, really helped to clear so much up for me [or whatever].  I have since gone back to listen to the Last Great Day sermon and that has helped a lot as well.  I know the only reason I had such a hard time with this is because God’s ways are not my ways and I am so young spiritually.  I never would have ever considered God doing such a thing...I think that is why I rejected it on the Last Great Day.  Although I do not understand everything I have peace in knowing this is God working with me.  I even see why this is better for us to be matured quickly.  Those of us who came along in 2007 and 2008 and after need this even though it was painful.  I can see that I needed the humbling.  The verses we went over in Deuteronomy this Sabbath helped me a lot too.  Having been in traditional Christianity made this all the more difficult.  I cannot wait until we are done with this system. I am feeling stronger every day.  Thank you for letting me share my struggles with you.”

Another one here from another part of the world where an individual’s kind of stranded in many ways as far as having the ability of fellowship that we so often take for granted.

“I understand exactly what you mean by having to experience things before you can grow in understanding and character...”

And a little farther down it says...

“...I began to listen to the pre-recorded sermon...”

So there are areas of the world, obviously, that people could listen to the pre-recorded one.  It wasn’t the same as the recorded [live] one because I was still digesting and by the time it came for me to give the live one I had digested a lot more.  So anyway, going on it says...

“...I began to listen to the pre-recorded sermon and cried most of the way through it as I allowed it to dawn on me the disappointment of Jesus not returning yet and that Babylon would continue a little bit longer.  Also, the financial hole I was now in due to my spending all my money and then some (credit) to be prepared for the Millennium...but God gave me such a peace about it all.  I had never before experienced such a peace when I thought my world was busy crashing down around me.  After the sermon I tried to pick myself up a bit and strove to go forward, all the while crying out to God for encouragement.  By the evening, when I began to listen to the live sermon, God just filled me with this excitement and renewed energy.  There was so much power in that sermon that I had not felt in the pre-recorded one.  I was on fire again by the end of the sermon.  This was an experience I too do not ever want to give up or exchange for something else.  Like you said, it is in these moments that put our faith to the test and help us grow in leaps and bounds if we yield to God and allow Him to lead, guide, and direct us.  Indeed, the Body is stronger and closer already.  All week I have spoken with different ones around the world as we shared our different situations, all the while giving praise to God Almighty for what He is moulding in our lives; not at all concerned with our financial situations, many giving powerful testimonies as to what favour God has already shown them in their unique situations - very encouraging indeed.”

Another one here says...

“What a past few weeks it’s been.  On the 26th I had an emotional meltdown and I pleaded with God that if there be any other way that He please send His Son.  My soul ached as I did not want to continue on another day in this world’s system.  I remained hopeful although I have to say I had a very wonderful sleep that night and woke up with a sense of peace.  I know God was there and comforted me.  My mind flooded with so many thoughts, however I knew this is where God was and that I needed to wait on Him for understanding. I am so thankful how quickly He gave us an answer and am excited to see how God’s plan unfolds.  I still continue on with the same hope – we just have to wait a little longer.  Upon self-examination deeper I’ve realized I’m even more selfish than I previously have acknowledged.  Really though, I understand more deeply what Paul wrote, how wretched I am.  Human nature is something else.  I really was living in hope that the Millennium was going to fix a lot of my personal problems.  I was hoping to ‘get’ something from God.  Each day I could wake up with my ‘woe is me’ attitude or I could think, ‘thank God for the day!’  I am realizing simply what I choose to focus on in my attitude makes a huge difference in my life, the life of my children, and anyone I come in contact with.”

So, awesome!  Things that we learn as we go through some of these things.  I wanted to read this one here as well; after an individual writing about some things in their life, in the family, talked about a marathon that a few ran here recently... not sure about the sanity of that but we have several in the Cincinnati area that have been running some marathons.  It’s awesome!  10 miles was the longest I ever got and that was a miracle in itself, but to run a whole marathon is something else.  But individual wrote this and was writing about a popular saying concerning running.  There are a lot of different motivational sayings and so forth and this is one of them.  It says...

“...the one that is more real than ever is: “The person who starts the race is not the same person that finishes the race.”

That’s pretty good, because that’s what it’s about for us: we start it and we’re not the same when we finish it. And when you put yourself to that kind of a test and push yourself all the way, which is what this way of life is about; it’s about driving, being driven, strong, having a strong desire to continue and finish the race that God has set before us.

I want to read one more here because I got a real charge out of this last night when I got home.  I was fully drained from a week of ‘excitement’.  But this individual says...

“I hope you’re able to have a good week end this week, at least you know the Sabbath will be good...  You said that whatever happens in your matter God will be 100% in it.  I know that is true for you and its also true for all of us who call on God frequently instead of using our old habits and instincts to try to handle our problems.  It’s easier said than done because old habits and patterns are hard to break and they tend to pop up when the defecation hits the rotational air movement device.”

Well put.  But I love ‘the rotational air movement device’.   I needed that smile last night when I got home.  Still smiling.

And one more thing I’m going to do...  I hope that all of you have a sense of what has been happening since Pentecost in the world.  Things are speeding up, things are stirred up much, much more, so I hope you recognize this and are encouraged by the fact that God says this is His day.  We’re going to continue to go into this in the sermon today, but there are things happening in the world that you need to focus on, to understand that we live in a particular time and things are coming down the pike that are becoming more and more evident.  And if you’re able to see through some of these things, able to recognize some of the patterns of things that are taking place, it gives you a better perspective.  It’s coming...and its coming all too quickly, it really is.

So, I thought I’d just mention a couple of things here; this is all since the last weekend here starting Saturday, Sunday and on.  Here is one:

examiner.com

Market rumor: Pimco and JP Morgan halt vacations to prepare for economic crash[1]

June 3, 2012 |Kenneth Schortgen Jr. | Finance Examiner

Amazing what’s going on out there when they’re trying to get people in to prepare for.  I think I mentioned last week one from Great Britain, how they’re preparing in the government for a euro crash.  What are they going to do?  How are they going to address it?  So they’re starting to prepare for what they see on the horizon as a distinct possibility.  This is causing nations and people to think in a different pattern. It’s putting pressure on them in such a way that it’s going to eventually end up in the way they react to various situations that are taking place in the world.  It’s pushing them into a corner.  Toward the end of the article it says...

When one company decides to cancel vacations, or impose additional workloads on their employees due to projected events, it is not considered relative news.  However, when several institutions, analysts, and even the head of the World Bank acknowledge a coming crisis, then everyone needs to come to the realization that something big is on the horizon that will have an effect on both Wall Street and Main Street.  The rumors out on June 1 regarding Pimco and JP Morgan should be a wake-up call to all investors that Friday's market drops across the board are just the beginning of what could be a repeat of 2008, only much worse this time around.

Another one here:

CNBC

Tokyo Hits 28-Year Low Amid Global Rout[2]

Monday, 4 Jun 2012 | Reuters with CNBC.com

The Tokyo market slumped to a 28-year low on Monday as Asian shares dived on fears of a nightmare scenario of euro-zone breakup, U.S. economic relapse and a sharp slowdown in China....

So, all these things happening all at the same time.  Another one here:

NYTimes

Euro Zone Is Lurching to a Crossroad[3]

Published: June 3, 2012  | By Landon Thomas Jr.

LONDON — As Spain’s economic crisis deepens and uncertainty swirls over Greece’s future in the euro zone, the guardians of the increasingly fragile European monetary union are near a moment of truth: can they muster the will and resources to keep the euro zone from breaking apart?

The question has grown more urgent since the release of data Friday showing a record-high rate of unemployment in the euro zone, poor job creation in the United States and a slowdown in manufacturing in China. Combined, those signals have fueled fears of a second worldwide recession.

Then this is from the Business News CNBC...

CNBC – Business News

Three Months to Save the Euro: George Soros[4]

Published: Sunday, 3 Jun 2012

Euro-zone governments have around three months to ensure the survival of the single currency, billionaire investor George Soros said in a speech on Saturday.

....

The European Union is “like a bubble” – not a financial bubble but a political bubble -- that could pop as a result of the euro -zone crisis, Soros said.

So again, they recognize that what’s affecting things there is a political thing and the will of those nations and what they’re going to do and how they’re going to respond.

Another one...

Spiegel Online International | caseyresearch.com

The World from Berlin: Spain's Bailout Refusal Is 'Kamikaze Politics'[5]

06/06/2012

All these feelings that people have.

Pressure is growing for Spain to tap into European Union bailout money to stem its banking crisis, but the country has stubbornly refused.

Why?  Well, they’re giving up sovereignty; the more you give up, the more power a single government is going to have, and that’s what this is all about.

Instead, Madrid hopes to get around bailout conditions with direct aid to its banks. German commentators on Wednesday say that the time for pride has passed.

Little pressure here and there.  Another one...

Spiegel Online International

The End of Germany's Illusions[6]

06/05/2012 | A Commentary by Stefan Kaiser

Germany's booming economy and plummeting unemployment has long insulated the country from the euro crisis on Europe's periphery. Those times, however, are coming to an end.

It goes on to talk about sacrifices they’re going to have to begin making themselves.  Interesting... Spiegel writes about this situation on the fifth and then two days later Merkel comes out with this response:

BBC

Germany's Chancellor Merkel urges EU political union[7]

7 June 2012

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the EU needs a political union even if it means some countries integrating faster than others.

We know that’s going to be the outcome, don’t we?  That’s exactly what’s going to take place.

....

"Step by step we must from now on give up more competences to Europe, and allow Europe more powers of control."

Another one....

Spiegal Online International

Crisis Pushes Down Returns | Big Investors Don't Know Where to Put Their Cash[8]

06/05/2012 | By Sven Böll and Martin Hesse

The article says here in part of this, this is from Spiegel again...  Can’t find too much in the United States in the newspapers.

As the debt crisis makes government and bank bonds look increasingly unattractive, institutional investors are finding themselves with plenty of cash but nowhere to put it. Pension funds and insurance companies are desperately looking for safe havens which promise even modest returns. But some argue that the crisis creates opportunities for those with an appetite for risk.

Always playing little games.  Another one here...

Business Insider

2008 Was A Practice Run Compared To What Comes Next[9]

By Nicole Foss, The Automatic Earth | June 4, 2012

2008 was a practice run, or a warning shot across the bow, compared to what is coming over the next few years.

2008 did not demonstrate what a liquidity crunch really means, but this time we are going to find out.

People see these things on the horizon because nothing’s getting fixed, it just gets worse and worse and worse and someday someone has to pay the piper.  And so they understand these laws in motion that affect a worldwide economy.

As with many aspects of financial crisis, Greece is the canary in the coalmine, demonstrating what happens when liquidity disappears and it ceases to be possible to connect buyers and sellers or producers and consumers.

Another one....

Asia Times Online

Japan, China bypass US in currency trade[10]

By Kosuke Takahashi | June 2, 2012

These are all important because it shows a change in thought and attitude of what people are doing and how it affects the global economy.  This is a big one.

TOKYO - Japan and China started direct trading of their currencies, the yen and the yuan, on the inter-bank foreign exchange markets in Tokyo and Shanghai on Friday in an apparent bid to strengthen bilateral trade and investment between the world's second- and third-largest economies.

Another one...  It’s amazing how much this kind of stuff is in the news now.

Spiegel Online International

Secret Cooperation | Israel Deploys Nuclear Weapons on German-Built Submarines[11]

06/03/2012

A German shipyard has already built three submarines for Israel, and three more are planned. Now SPIEGEL has learned that Israel is arming the submarines with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. The German government has known about Israel's nuclear weapons program for decades, despite its official denials.

So it says here...

Germany is helping Israel to develop its military nuclear capabilities, SPIEGEL has learned. According to extensive research carried out by the magazine, Israel is equipping submarines that were built in the northern German city of Kiel and largely paid for by the German government with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. The missiles can be launched using a previously secret hydraulic ejection system. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told SPIEGEL that Germans should be "proud" that they have secured the existence of the state of Israel "for many years."

In the past, the German government has always stuck to the position that it is unaware of nuclear weapons being deployed on the vessels. Now, however, former high-ranking officials from the German Defense Ministry, including former State Secretary Lothar Rühl and former chief of the planning staff Hans Rühle, have told SPIEGEL that they had always assumed that Israel would deploy nuclear weapons on the submarines.

Another one here...

Reuters | Edition: US

Russia turns east to embrace looming China[12]

By Thomas Grove | MOSCOW | Tue Jun 5, 2012

I don’t know if you saw some of those things about them getting together more and more and getting a little cozier.  I do want to read one section here though because what an interesting thing, different nations....  It reminded me of the scriptures we read I believe last week at the end in Chronicles where they went out singing before God and before it was all over with the armies had actually turned on each other, started destroying each other.  And you sometimes wonder, “How could they do such a thing?”  This is a good example of it right here because there’s not a great deal of love between Russia and China.  Okay?  But they have a common ground right now against the west and so there is this kind of a relationship that’s not a real good relationship but it’s one that suffices in a political manner for them.  So at some point here, very likely, they’re going to turn against each other.

....While the two countries agree on a common front to defend common interests globally, their relationship is thornier closer to home.

"Russia can talk about a strategic partnership with China but they will never be actual allies because China is too much of a potential threat to Russia," a Western diplomat said. "Russia cannot avoid being concerned about China."

Suggesting Russia's fears over China, Moscow has been bolstering its military presence in the Far East and around China....

Another one here....

Reuters

Putin says to push military ties with China[13]

BEIJING | Wed Jun 6, 2012

And so they have this process here of what they’re doing, sharing some military co-operation.  I’m not going to read all these, but anyway it just goes on and on and on.  Another one here...

The Telegraph | World

Tajikistan hosts China and Russia lead military exercises[14]

By James Kilner, Dushanbe | 06 Jun 2012

Talks about them getting together here starting this last week.  Another one....

Jakarta Globe

China, Russia 'decisively against' Syria regime change[15]

June 07, 2012

So they have this in common.  They want to have a unity here against the United Nations, or better said against the United States in the United Nations, to say, “Do not touch Syria!  Don’t bother Syria!”  And so they have this alliance in this sense, and are just using stronger rhetoric.

China and Russia said Wednesday they were "decisively against" intervention or regime change in Syria as Arab and Western calls mounted for strong international action in the 15-month conflict.

That’s the one to watch, what’s taking place right now, it truly is.  Another one.... This has been reported in several different areas but it says....

israelnationalnews.com

Russia Has World’s Largest Nuke Arsenal – 10,000 Warheads[16]

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Why are all of a sudden people talking about these things?  It’s because of what’s happening in NATO and what Russia’s doing in response and all these things that are going on all at the same time here.  Says....

Worldwide, there are an estimated 19,000 nuclear warheads held by eight countries. The list of countries includes Israel, which the Institute estimates has 80 nuclear warheads. Israel officially has a policy of “nuclear ambiguity” but is assumed by most everyone to have manufactured nuclear warheads. Previous estimates have been around 200.

The United States has the second largest nuclear arsenal, with 8,000 nuclear warheads. Both superpowers possess more than 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons; France is estimated to possess 300, followed by China with 240...

So Russia’s a big player in this...President Putin is the big player in all of this as far as what’s happening in that part of the world.  Says....

Britain with 225...  (and on and on it goes...)

The things I haven’t seen in ages in the newspaper and then all of a sudden all kinds of articles coming out about the subject.  Another one....

WND | Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin

Sea missiles being placed across Europe[17]

Published: 06/02/2012

WASHINGTON – As Russia continues to voice vehement opposition to a European anti-ballistic missile defense system,

This is why!  It’s because of what’s happening with NATO, it’s because of these things taking place here and because of Russia’s response with their new devices, their easy to use mobile launch devices that they say can penetrate through the NATO system.  So it says...

... European anti-ballistic missile defense system, the United States has continued with work on the defensive shield by installing an Aegis Ashore system which normally goes onto ships, according to a report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

The shield has been adapted for land-based use and will be deployed in Romania and Poland.

That’s got to make Russia happy, doesn’t it?  And we say, “Oh, it’s because of Afghanistan or Pakistan, or...”  Iran I guess is the main one that they’re using.  But anyway...

It is looked upon as providing yet another level in a multi-layer defense system that protects against an attack from Iran. It also includes the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, and Patriot missile batteries.

Russia, however, isn’t standing still and intends to deploy its latest mobile S-400 missile defense system in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad. Russia may upgrade its own ballistic missiles with more advanced warheads.

And on and on it goes, back and forth, back into a... I don’t even know how you’d even classify it.  Remember the cold war, things that took place and now it’s like, “So what!”  The world doesn’t care.

Anyway, I wanted to go through all those things before we began the sermon here today.

So again here, going back, here it’s two weeks later – thinking about what we’re experienced, that it’s incredible indeed.  We’ve gone through a very great battle, very difficult battle, all of us responding in different manners, but again, being made stronger as a Body and though some of you many not feel that way, but as a whole by everything I’ve read and talking to different ones, we are stronger.  There is greater conviction today.

I think as the children of Israel, we came up to the Red Sea.  We’ve used that expression so often I can’t help but think of that over and over again, and that has been a bit of a common saying among us when we come up to times like this, or times in our lives.  We talk about the ‘Red Sea’ because I’ve mentioned this so many times, and asking God to show us the way, what way do we go?  And for the Church at the end-time, spiritually, in a massive way, we’ve come up to the Red Sea at this time and we’ve come to hear God telling us to stand still.  That’s the message, that’s what God has been telling us, “Stand still!”  And, “Stand fast!”  And He will open the way before us.

So we’ve been told due to what has been revealed to us at the end of the story of the two witnesses that God will make His Church to stand in this ‘day of the Lord’.  This is the period of time that He’s going to do it and He’ll begin the process of delivering 63,000 people who were scattered at the time of the apostasy.  To me that is an awesome thing to understand!

And by the time we came to the very beginning of May 27th we’d finished our job of circling Jericho and the period we have now entered is when God will bring down the walls of Jericho...but it’s in His ‘day’.  God brought it down in a day but this ‘day’ is for a year.  And so again, that example there of Jericho, the walls being brought down, and for us to understand spiritually Babylon is going to be brought down all in this period of time as this sermon is entitled today the Day of the Lord.

I have a lot of things I want to read as we go through this before we get into the actual scriptures but Mr. Armstrong wrote about ‘the day of the Lord’ in different publications in the Worldwide Church of God.  It’s been interesting going back and looking at a couple of those things.  And I would caution people on some of that as I mention some booklets here today, because if you’re well grounded and understand where we are then you’ll understand what has transpired through time.  But again, there are things here to me that are still awesomely exciting.

So it’s rather interesting to consider how the Church has dealt with this subject through time, this period of time called ‘the day of the Lord’, because something happened that in partiality we’ve come back to, in one respect, that God has helped us to understand and see that there were things given to Mr. Armstrong - which I am so thankful for – that there are things that were given to him, not understanding it fully as far as the timing is concerned, but neither have we.  And to understand there’s still that period of time that is very much there called ‘the day of the Lord’ and what he was inspired to write about concerning what it was, what it covered...it’s just that the timing has been a battle for us for a long, long time.  And slowly but surely God has been correcting that course as far as timing is for us, until we finally come up to this very point in time.

I mention this because so many of these things happen because God has a plan and in that plan there is a great being who does not know everything, who hasn’t known everything.  He has an idea of various things because God has revealed it at different points in time... And how has God done that?  Through the prophets.  Satan hasn’t known, hasn’t understood the plan of God fully until God has given it to him in different aspects of time and most of it’s done in this book through the prophets.  And then when Jesus Christ came and walked on this earth He gave more.  But to understand it all?  To even understand that God had a 7,000 year plan...when do you think that God gave that to mankind?  Do you think the angelic realm was told it’s going to be 7,000 years?  ...or do you think, as so many things in this book are, that God has revealed them in a progressive manner in His time to the angelic realm and to the Church?  Interesting.  Do you think the early apostles understood?  Can you go back there and read about the 6,000 year plan that God has so that they would know that Jesus Christ came along approximately 4,000 years and we’ve got 2,000 years more to go?  Boy, that would be inspiring wouldn’t it?

It’s like some of the scattered Churches out there, “Oh, it’s probably going to be about a hundred years away.”  One group, very early on, started talking about, “...it may be about a hundred years from now when Jesus Christ will return.”  I can just tell you right now they’re a zealous group....  I’m saying that sarcastically.

You know, Mr. Armstrong had a sense of urgency all the time. He had a focus, God gave him that, and that sense of ‘right now’, ‘urgent’, things were ‘pressing’ constantly in that respect, to get things done because we didn’t know exactly the time.  And so there was always that preparation five and ten years possibly ahead but knowing it could happen quickly, and God gave him that sense of urgency and that drive that was there and that which stirred us up about the work and what was taking place and what had to be done and what needed to get done.

And then Mr. Armstrong began to write about God’s plan.  He didn’t have it at the very beginning.  You can’t find it in scripture ahead of time.  And the different eras hadn’t known. The different era’s had to experience what they experienced.  God purposely did not tell them!  He told them nobody knows the day or the hour, it’s not for you to know, it’s not your time!  That’s what He told Daniel!  That’s what He told the apostles, in essence, later on, “It’s not your time, it’s not for you.”  And then finally Paul was given certain things to say, that something must happen before Christ can return, an apostasy, that’s the greatest clue that God ever gave of something that would have to happen in the Church, a great falling away and what would take place during that time period.

And then Mr. Armstrong came along and God began to give to him a greater meaning about the 7th day, about a 7 day plan, and about the 1,000 years contained in there, a full 7,000 years, and even the hundred years.  Because I don’t believe personally in any fashion or form that any of the apostles understood any of that!  They didn’t understand what was coming and how it was coming.  They believed it would come another time, that man would live again.  Even that portion, we don’t know fully how much they knew of those things.  They knew God had the power to resurrect but where can you go in the scriptures before you can first find out, before you can first know of assuredly in what is written here that there is a plan beyond the thousand years?  Very little said about it; a little blurb in the Old Testament and then finally towards the end of Revelation it can be pieced together.  Awesome!  Great White Throne...and even that’s grown in understanding through time, through the time of Mr. Armstrong up to his death and then a little bit there into the ‘90’s and then finally everything began to go by the wayside and began to be watered down.  Awesome what we have lived through and how we grow and how we come to understand the things we do, to understand that it is progressive revelation that God gives to His Church.

And so when we came up to this point in time, to the Red Sea, God’s message was, “Stand fast!”  And if you will stand fast in Him, He will make you to stand.  Now, you couldn’t have that picture in your mind until you had the sermons given about the two witnesses, and finally what God began to reveal in some of those later verses.  And where did that take us?  Almost right up to the end...right up to the end!  Satan never fully knowing everything that’s going on or why, but we continue to follow God and God uses that in His warfare and His battle.  God knows when to give us certain things and what it’s going to do in our lives, the impact it’s going to have.  God moulds and fashions us, we are in His hands.

That’s why, though I don’t relish the thought of some things that can happen soon, we’re in God’s hands, and if you leave yourself in God’s hands and He has a purpose for it great things will come out of it!  That’s the Great God we serve!  ...and especially in these times we live in!  Awesome to understand the glory, the might, the power of Almighty God.  We go forward!  It’s about GOD!  It’s about what GOD is doing, and we yield ourselves to that in humility, truly!

So again, Mr. Armstrong wrote about ‘the day of the Lord’ in different publications for the Worldwide Church of God and it’s rather interesting to consider how the Church has dealt with the subject through time.  First we’re going to review some of what is written in the booklet, ‘The Book of Revelation Unveiled at Last’ which was published first in 1959, then again in the 1970’s, although there’s still another booklet called, ‘Inside the Book of Revelation’ that was published after Mr. Armstrong’s death as well, but still carrying on some of the same things that were there and a chart that is also in that particular booklet.  And some of those charts have changed a little bit from time to time but not the period called ‘the day of the Lord’; that period stayed the same.  Interesting!  To me it’s awesome!  ...and I’m deeply thankful that God gave that to Mr. Armstrong, to uphold so many of the things that God gave to him in a very powerful way.

And then again, there’s this chart as I mentioned, ‘The Seven Seals of Revelation’ and the different things that are there, but here’s a summary of what was covered in these publications as the first 4 Seals of Revelation.  I’m going to go through and show some of this, and a little bit later I’ll talk about the Chart that’s in ‘Time Has Run Out’ because part of that’s copied in there (if you remember the booklet, ‘Time Has Run Out’), there’s a chart in there and up top it shows what the Church had believed in times past about the timing of various events.  God showed us, by the time we got to there, what really happened during the first 4 Seals.  The horsemen of the apocalypse were about the Church.  And so we have learned those things.  It wasn’t about what was taking place in the world, but God hadn’t given them before, God didn’t give that to Mr. Armstrong.

And so here’s what was being covered in some of the writing in that booklet, in those booklets....and it goes back and forth and compares Matthew 24 with Revelation and the Seals and I’m just giving a recount here of what was said concerning the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The 1st Seal, #1, is equated with what has been going on for ages stated as:

“1st, FALSE TEACHING about Christ, doing away with His true Gospel.”[18]

And so that covered kind of a nebulous space of time but it’s something that’s gone on for a long, long time meaning, in one respect, the reality is it had to have opened a long time ago, whatever.

“2nd, wars, climaxing at this crisis at the close of this age in WORLD WARS—“

That’s the wording that’s used...

“...nation against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  We are now in the second recess between stages of WORLD WAR!”

So that Seal had been opened up a long time ago as well, and so we saw the wars and WWI was basically referred to, and WWII; and it’s like in a recess and then finally the third one is going to come to have a greater fulfillment of what this Seal is about.   And then...

“3rd, FAMINE, and 4th, PESTILENCE, or epidemics of DISEASE”

And so there’s this build up about those events and some of the things the United States had been going through anyway at different times we could see in weather.  And the reality is through time things have progressed along as far as some of these things from time to time in the world.

Then this is what is stated next after talking about the four horsemen of the apocalypse and those 4 Seals: it says here....

“And that’s where we are, right now! And this is just the beginning of the colossal WORLD EVENTS prophesied for this 20th century A.D.  The first two world wars have occurred.  Rumors of wars will continue.  Next to strike the earth are famine, disease epidemics and World War III—all of such staggering magnitude as this world has never dreamed!”

Next we come to the 5th Seal of Revelation and it states this:

“Yes, when we come to the full FURY of the famine and disease epidemics, and what undoubtedly will be the continuance of the world war, THAT will be the very BEGINNING of the MUCH-prophesied GREAT TRIBULATION! And THAT is now the NEXT event that God Almighty WARNS this world is coming!”[19]

And so the 5th Seal is referred to as the ‘great tribulation’ and national captivity and this great tribulation is said to last for 2½ years.  Why?  There’s another year behind it.  And so this period of the great tribulation, which is all going to be tribulation, but the first part specifically for 2½ years in the Church, through these booklets, and things we’ve understood in times past, was to cover the 5th Seal, and it’s called ‘the great tribulation’.

That’s why my wife often talks about there are just too many pieces... a chunk taken out by the time you have great tribulation and all that has to happen in the world and the war and the World War III and then by the time you get to the Trumpets and some of those and the 5th one especially and things that happen in Europe – how can you have all that?  Again, there’s too many chunks.  You can’t have that kind of percentage there.  And so some of this just didn’t seem to fit at a point in time.  We began to understand that.

And so then it goes on here.  I hope you have all that pictured in your mind, the 5th Seal and this (if you had a picture of all these seals and a graph), you come to the 5th one and right above it you have this little marking that says 2½ years.

1: Image taken from ‘Time Has Run Out’ booklet, Church of God - PKG, P. 20

It’s what we believed for so long.  It’s all that we understood to that point in time because we understood there’s going to be a period of time that involves a 3½ year period, there are certain things that are evident and those things are mentioned as well.  But anyway, going on...

The literature of the Worldwide Church of God then stated that the 6th Seal would be ‘heavenly signs’ of the sun...signs of the sun, moon, and the stars.  And from this point there would be one more year of tribulation in the world.  Now, some include this 6th Seal to be a part of that one year because it happens quickly, it’s all at once, and so it’s there and that starts that final year and some don’t; it’s like a separate event and then it starts.  So different charts had some different things on it, but basically there is that one year that’s left right behind the 5th Seal.  And so from this point there would be one more year of tribulation in the world and it would then happen during the time of the opening of the 7th Seal and the 7 Trumpets of Revelation being blown.  That, to me, is awesome!  One year.  And on the old graph it pictures from the 1st Trumpet to the end will be one year.

2: Image taken from ‘Time Has Run Out’ booklet, Church of God - PKG, P. 21

Now, that’s not fully true yet but at least that’s what it was called.  And they called it ‘the day of the Lord’.  He spoke of prophecies in Joel and other places, and believed that those things that would happen during that time period were events being described in other places throughout the Bible called ‘the day of the Lord’, ‘the year of God’s vengeance’ or wrath, or other places in how it’s stated.  We’ll look at different scripture today than we saw last Sabbath.

And so again, this period of time referred to as ‘the day of the Lord’, understanding it is a full year.  Candidly, I had forgotten any of that because by the time we came to this point in time God had revealed to us, like in the book here, ‘Time Has Run Out’, by this time we had clearly seen that our tribulation and the first four horsemen was fully about what happened to God’s own Church after the apostasy and that the 1st Seal did not open in times past, ever how far back that might have been, that we came to a point where we witnessed that as far as a Church is concerned, the sign, if you will, of Christ’s return, the sign of the beginning of the count, the apostasy.  To me that’s awesome...the beginning of apostasy and what took place December 17, 1994 and the time then that has followed.

And so God helped us to understand what those things were about, that indeed Matthew 24 did go along with Revelation and the first four Seals, but it’s all about God’s own Church and what they would go through, what would happen in the ministry, the food, the famine, the pestilence, and what happens to one spiritually when you’re not fed anymore.  And so that went on and on.

So we came to understand that but it wasn’t the beginning of the last 3½ years, it was the beginning of the Seals being opened.  So where did it all begin?  And God gave that to us in time, He began to show us.  We thought we understood certain things and then had to shift forward a few months here because of the truth about Trumpets and Pentecost, understanding that the wave sheaf had everything to do with Christ being accepted by God, and when that is done, after the Passover, during the Days of Unleavened Bread, we came to understand about the wave loaves and the importance of that picturing the firstfruits of 6,000 years, and that having to be waved and received by God, to be received by God, by Him.  And what day pictures that?  Pentecost!

Came to understand that indeed that is the time of the resurrection of the 144,000.  It doesn’t fit in any other Holy Day.  The 144,000 are about those in Pentecost, the firstfruits.  And so God gave us those things.  Awesome!  As He reveals things to us, and we keep going forward; and slowly but surely...even the old chart gets a little bit better, it gets a little bit clearer.  It’s like Mr. Armstrong used to talk about, there’s this picture and we fill in all these pieces and it just get’s clearer and clearer.  And that’s what God is doing.  And sometimes He lets us see that what we thought we had in the puzzle up here didn’t really fit right there, it fits a little bit lower, your picture wasn’t fully clear.  That’s fine!  Good!  We follow God.  Because as one individual wrote today it’s about following God.  That’s what we’re in this about!  It’s about a way of life first and foremost!  It’s about the truth that God gives to us of how to live, of the truth that’s based upon the Sabbath and the Holy Days...how we treat each other, that when we do it in God’s love...that we learn those things.

That’s why I love 1st Corinthians 13.  God says though you have all these other things, though you know all prophecies, what GOOD IS IT IF WE DON’T LIVE THIS WAY OF LIFE with all of our being in the way we treat each other and think about each other and talk about each other?  And so God has used this to draw us closer together, to become more at one with each other, to become a stronger knit family.  That’s what He’s given to us...and what value can you place on that?  What value can you place there?  Is it easy?  Absolutely not!

You know a lot of things that draw a lot of families closer together?  It’s what they share in life that’s hard!  Life was not meant to be easy, in marriage, in rearing children!  And it’s those moments, if you do it right, are the very things that make you stronger as a family, where there’s a greater love, where you stand by each other and support each other and come to each other’s side when you’re needed.  Those are the bonding moments of life that draw us close together, and that’s what God has given to us in His Church!  ...the bonding moments of life that make us more at one than ever before, to where you feel more for each other, have a greater desire toward each other, a greater love toward each other that comes from God...and not haughtiness and pride that ALWAYS gets in the way in relationships...but humility and love and thankfulness for each member of the Body.

And even a change in attitude toward people in the world, that we’re not better than what they are, that we don’t look down upon them, that we don’t do what they do to us, but to understand they can’t help it.  And I so look forward to the day – even those who attack – I look forward to the day truly! I have come to understand this past week far more what Jesus Christ said, “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing!”  ...when Stephen says, “Father, please don’t put this sin to their charge!”  Can we feel that way toward others in the world around us or do we react in kind like Satan would like us to do?  ...to look down upon people, to be hard toward them, to think evil of them.  We can’t be that way!  We truly can’t!  We should have compassion and understand they’re in Egypt spiritually!  Truly!  You’ve got to go through some experiences in life before certain things hit you with all of it’s being and we can understand those scriptures and say, “Oh, I agree with that.”  But there are moments in life when they come alive for you.

Last week that came alive for me; it’s real, it lives!  That’s my feeling.  That’s my desire.  They don’t know what they’re doing; that’s the way it is and that’s the way they should be treated...not with contempt, not with anger, not to respond in kind.  That’s why it says Jesus Christ responded to people in a certain way.  He didn’t revile back when He was reviled.  He didn’t strike back when He was struck at.  And that’s a way of life to live.  That’s far more important than you knowing everything about when it’s going to happen and how it’s going to happen and whoop-tee-doo, and because someone’s given the job of a prophet that somehow he must have a crystal ball and just know everything that happens and if he doesn’t he’s a false prophet.  That’s not how God works and He never worked with the prophets that way, truly didn’t.

That’s why I’m more excited than ever.  Things written in ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’ will come to pass just as it’s written...and I believed it all up to the last hour.  If God wants to push it into one hour that’s great, we’re not going to have experience much.  Isn’t that going to be great if...  and then the response to that can happen over time, over months...whatever...but it didn’t make much sense and now we understand why.

And so all these graphs, this one here, 7th Seal of Revelation – just showing to you here – but starting with the 1st Trumpet all the way up to the 7th Plague, ‘The Day of the Lord – Time of God’s Wrath’.  Thought it would be that last year.

3: Independent source of GN Magazine to show title of Seventh Seal

It is a year but it’s after the witnesses have finished their job.  It’s after the 1260 days.  It’s after the 1335 days.  It’s after the 1290 days.  It’s another year.  It’s called ‘The Day of the Lord’. It’s God’s time!  And everything that’s been written, as a whole, about ‘The Day of the Lord’ is very true, of what God’s going to do in that ’day’ from Pentecost to Pentecost.

I want to read some things here.  This is from the booklet, ‘The Book of Revelation Unveiled at Last!’  I just want to read a couple things here, what it says about this period of time.

“THE GREAT DAY OF GOD’S WRATH – ...”

It’s God’s time.  It’s not about what... Satan’s had... he’s been doing what he’s been doing, and you know what?  We now... it was about the Church!  It was about Satan’s last hurrah and what he’s going to do to the Church.  He’s still going to do some things in the future and some of the things that are going to happen, the destruction, and very much like when they wanted to climb into pigs and run over the cliff and kill them, they just want to destroy because that’s their nature, that’s the way they are, and there are things they’re going to do until finally as they have learned in time, their end comes quickly here too.  I am so thankful of that because of what he’s done to mankind, what he does to the world and holds people in captivity.  To me, that’s a day of celebration indeed, the day that being is no longer around the presence of mankind!  A day to celebrate, a day to glorify and thank God in ways that we never have...when people are finally free from the kind of attacks that come from them because they add so much misery and hardship to human life.  So it says here....

“THE GREAT DAY OF GOD’S WRATH – and that, as I will show you, is the great DAY OF THE LORD!”[20]

Then under the heading ‘Tribulation is NOT the Day of the Lord’.  He’s making a distinction here showing they’re separate, they’re different time periods.

“Tribulation is NOT the Day of the Lord

So here we have three successive world-shaking events to come – first, and, now, next to occur in possibly this decade or the next, THE GREAT TRIBULATION.  Second, immediately after the Tribulation, the heavenly signs in the sun and moon and stars.  Third, following the supernatural signs in the heavens, the terrible DAY OF THE LORD!”[21]

Now, he didn’t know what those things were in that particular vision of what it was, a prophetic vision of things that candidly happened that were prophetic about Israel, about the power and the wealth that God had given this nation, that which is in New York City area and what happened to those seven areas, those seven towers if you will, and that which came crumbling down and what God gave a picture of something that is a matter of striking at our military, the Pentagon, and that which attempted to strike at the leadership and wasn’t able to.  But all of that in the scenario there, prophetic for what was to come to pass, what will yet take place because people will not listen to God.

Later on he went to say...

“The Great Tribulation is not the wrath of God – ...”[22]

That which we have gone through in a spiritual plane, that which has happened to the Church, those things we have gone through in God’s Church, about God’s Church through time.  Because even as we came down to the end here, just before Pentecost, we came to understand more about God’s desire for His Church and for everyone who is scattered, that when we began this process, candidly, so much of that two day fast, that was what was in my heart and mind.  It was about whatever it takes, whatever it takes to save more people, to potentially save more people; and if it means the suffering of whatever people have to go through, so be it.  And God gave us time and grace and has brought us down to a period of time to where now when He fulfills those things it’s going to have such a powerful impact that He brought us to a prophecy to understand what His will was, from that moment anyway, that that was His will, that His will is to potentially save 63,000 people.  And I thought that maybe we could have 3,500 or so, maybe three times that amount, maybe God would have mercy and bless us with three times that amount, kind of like when the situation of Abraham and Lot... if there are so many will you... and that going back and forth.

And yet God’s purpose and God’s will in His love toward His people that He hasn’t forgotten...   I think of all the people I’ve known - some of you who’ve been through that period of time know full well what I’m talking about – hundreds and hundreds  and hundreds of people, I believe into the thousands, of people I’ve known.  I’ve known hundreds of ministers let alone people in God’s Church from area to area to area, and ‘...walked to God’s House side by side and council blended sweet’...and they gave tithes and they gave offerings and they sacrificed in their lives and they gave to the Church and they served the Church and the Church was blessed in the time of Mr. Armstrong. Truly!

Those who responded... there were attitudes, but as a whole the Church that continued to go forward, we were blessed and people gave a lot, and God does not forget what people did though we came to a time we let down, and to fulfill something in this book that would help millions in the future – so be it!  So be it!

So be it that we should suffer so much if it helps so many more!  Isn’t that what this way of life is about?  Isn’t that what agape is about?  It’s about a desire, a willingness to sacrifice ourselves, whatever it might be, for the sake of others!  Isn’t that what agape is about?  God Almighty, who from the very beginning has sacrificed in ways we can’t BEGIN to comprehend as human beings.  When He created beings in an angelic realm KNOWING FULL WELL what was going to take place by giving free moral agency and making one being the greatest of them all – knowing choices that beings will make who are not a part of the God Family, and live differently because of a spirit that was placed in them because they’re spirit beings, that whenever they would sin – from the moment the wrong thought and the wrong mind came in that mind was gone; it went in a different direction from God and had no desire, would not come back because it’s etched in spirit, things that God has helped us to understand far more.

And God sacrificed peace.  He sacrificed Jerusalem so we could have something greater, because there’s no other way to have something greater except He was willing to sacrifice and allow war and destruction of His creation.

And that which would happen with mankind...to know that mankind was not only going to go through various things because of those beings on this earth, but it was designed that it should be so to speed up the process, so that misery doesn’t have to be lived in that much longer.  And then God shortened the time span of man so that the misery wouldn’t be so great in human beings and the sin so defiling and evil, and God mercifully then brought along a flood – all a part of His plan from the beginning!  He didn’t hit His hand on His head and say, “Oh... what have I done by letting them live several hundred years?!”  God had a plan; it’s for us to learn from and to understand.  And so God brought on the flood.  Awesome – awesome – awesome – our Great God, in how He moulds and fashions us.

“So here we have three successive world-shaking events to come – first, and, now, next to occur in possibly this decade or the next, THE GREAT TRIBULATION.  Second, immediately after the Tribulation, the heavenly signs in the sun and moon and stars.”

And that’s where I interrupted it, talked about the 5th Seal and what it pictures.

“Third, following the supernatural signs in the heavens, the terrible DAY OF THE LORD!”

Later he went on to say....

“The Great Tribulation is not the wrath of God – just the opposite.  This is the wrath of SATAN THE DEVIL.”

How close can you get to exactly what so much of that period of time was except it was longer – the wrath of Satan the devil...wrath that came upon God’s people in God’s Church, that began to wear us away, wear us down.  We responded by being lukewarm and all the things that transpired through what they were doing through individuals in Pasadena, at headquarters, and finally culminating in an apostasy.  And so we came to talk about tribulation, we came to understand that it was a struggle in God’s Church and what was happening.  We used those terms, ‘the wrath of Satan the devil upon God’s people’, upon God’s Church.  And God has allowed it for a purpose and for a reason, by design.

And then it says here in this segment;

“He knows he has but a short time.”

But to know the exact time, he hasn’t known, no more than we have fully known.  Amazing!  There are certain things he can deduce through certain things that are happening in the world and as we get closer realizing, “Well, that can’t all happen there... so what does it mean?”  It’s like, “These are God’s people and why would God mess around with them?  Look at them, they are so foolish; I’ve got them trapped at the Red Sea.  Whew!  This time they’ve had it.”  And we’ve come back stronger, standing fast in God – that’s where we are – and God will take care of the rest.

Then a few pages later a good summation is given and the summation is this:

“They put to death God’s SON who brought the GOOD NEWS of the KINGDOM OF GOD -- Which is the WORLD TOMORROW – they martyred Jesus’ APOSTLES who went out into the world with the message of God’s way of life, and GOD’S RULE over our lives.

All these men of God have pleaded with this rebellious world in love.  They have brought a message of PEACE, of LOVE, of MERCY and compassion.  Through them God has pleaded with this stiff-necked and self-willed world for 6,000 years.  God has warned the world of where its own ways and devices will finally lead – to the total annihilation of human life from off this planet!

In love and tender mercy, God has given this stubborn, misguided human race every chance for 6,000 long years, to save itself from a self-imposed destruction.  But men would not heed.  THEY WILL NOT HEED TODAY.  They continue, even now, to devise forces of destruction that will result in the suicide of the human race, unless God does intervene.

But God is about to step in and speak to this rebellious and hell-bent world in the only language the world will heed – God will now punish this world for its evil!  As any loving parent punishes his child who will not listen to kind and loving admonition, so now God is going to punish this world with just judgments – with PLAGUES so terrible that the world will at last be forced to turn from its wicked ways and to seek God and HIS WAYS that lead to peace and everything good.  God will prevent the suicide of humanity.  He will save this evil world from itself.  And that is the period coming, described in more than 30 different prophecies scattered through both Old and New Testaments, as THE DAY OF THE LORD, which shall lead directly into the SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, to bring us, at last, WORLD PEACE!”[23]

Just didn’t understood where it fit, and neither did we.  We now understand it’s at the end and it does cover the period continuing on from where the 1st Trumpet has already blown to a continuation of that at some point here in a more massive way in the world, and then the rest to follow in God’s time.

I think it would be good if we zeroed in a little bit more on this period of time.  Let’s turn over to the book of Joel where it talks about ‘the day of the Lord’, an event where all 7 Trumpets will now fully play out within this period of time...in God’s time.  And to understand too that there are some terminology used in the Bible that speaks of a day, there is a day at the end of all this where this all culminates, where it all comes to a head and that is the period when God pours out the 7 Last Plagues.  So that period of time is still very much a part of the picture, but the period before that that leads up to that is still referred to as ‘the day of the Lord’ and it’s referred to as a year in period of time; but there’s another day at the very end of it as well, a literal day where God pours out even more on the world....on those He says who are destroying the earth.

It’s been quite a long time since we’ve actually gone into some of these scriptures, but let’s notice here again what we looked at on Pentecost.

Joel 2:30 - And I will show, the word means ‘give, deliver, bestow’; so this is something that God does.  He delivers it.  He say’s, bestows if you will, or gives it, wonders.  In the Hebrew it means ‘in a display of power’ – His power, what He gives to this earth, in the heavens and the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars, or columns as it says in Acts, vapours of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and so even when you go back to that earlier part, that which is a prophetic ‘type’ in the 5th Seal, it’s talking about what leads up to finally the very end, and especially the power that’s going to be unleashed even on the very last day...but there are things that lead up to that, there are things that are going to happen to fulfill this more and more as we go forward.

And it says... and the moon into blood, before... Remember this is not a factor of time, it’s not a word for ‘time’ as it has been read in times past, ‘before something takes place’.  That’s not what its saying; it’s not saying before in time, it’s saying before in the sense of the location, or the presence of, in the place.  And so it’s literally talking about in or into the presence of the great and terrible/fearful day of the Lord comes. Well, we’re there.  That’s where we are.  We’re in that period of time that’s already begun.

A more perfect translation of this would be, And I will deliver/give a display of power in the heavens, and in the earth, and blood and fire and columns of smoke... in other words these things come from what God has brought into place in His timing; and we’re going to read some interesting scriptures a little later here if we get to them.  ...the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood in the presence of the great and fearful day of the Lord, when it comes.  ...and it has come, and these things will take place in time. They will happen in a timeframe through the Trumpets to increase and the Thunders that will increase.

Thunders are already increasing out there.  All those news articles, that’s what those are about.  What we’re going through right now is about Thunders being increased.  This past week, a lot of Thunder!

Joel 1:1 – The word of the Eternal that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Hear this, you elders, and so, interesting here if you know what it’s speaking of here.  It’s basically talking about how stories were told, how truth was told, how things were passed down about the life, the history of Israel and the things they had gone through to a younger generation, and refereeing to these elders and those things that they would pass on and talk about to others to teach.  Hear this, you elders, and give ear all you inhabitants of the land. Has this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? In other words, has this ever happened to where you could talk about something like this?  Has anything like this ever occurred that I’m about to tell you?

Tell your children about it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.  I think of what we’re going through right now.  Someone put it in terms similar to that, about looking back on this period of time farther up and remembering and being able to share what we have experienced and what we went through, what so many of you are going to live on into that age are going to be able to do – to indeed do these kinds of things.  We don’t understand sometimes the awesomeness of what we’re going to be able to teach and to share with others. There has never been a time like it on earth.

If you resurrect 6,000 years of people, this period of time is going to become one of the most awesome to be spoken of in the sense of seeing what God does, seeing how God brings it to pass.  And you can read about a lot of stories of things that God has done in awesome ways throughout time, and this, this tops it all and you get to live it.  Sometimes we begin to think of how difficult some of the things are that we go through and we have to get a hold of ourselves because what we go through is not hard.  It may seem hard at the time you’re going through it and it may seem like it’s not much fun and it may drain you, like when I went home Friday night I was drained, I didn’t have a bit of energy in me, I had to go to bed early.  I was drained! I had nothing left in me after going through this and that is nothing compared to what so many before me have gone through.  Truly!  So we have to keep things in perspective, we truly do.

We are so blessed!  We have electricity!  We have air conditioning!  We have an ability to travel and do things in a way that are so convenient and so easy...and sometimes we become a little fattened because of that.  Truly!  And it’s always good to remind ourselves of people who’ve gone before us.  When I think about the prophets, and people of old, and the apostles, and how many were martyred and killed in some nasty ways!  God says some were... you know the ‘magic act’ of sawing somebody in half?  It came from something that was real, when they put them in a box and slowly slice through them, sawing them in half, ‘cutting them asunder’ as it talks about in Hebrews.  You ever think you’ve got it bad?  Finances?  Struggles in life?  Well, maybe you do because of the age we live in, and maybe it does feel bad, and maybe it doesn’t feel good, and yes it is hard...but it’s really nothing in the scheme of things.  It’s about sacrifice, it’s about giving for whatever God’s purpose is, because there’s something greater being worked out here below and we’re blessed to be a part of it.

And everyone who’s gone before, who has died, who has been martyred, who has been killed in some horrendous ways – all to the glory of God Almighty in that in which they stood firm and stood fast and did not flinch and did not apologize for it and didn’t care about the mocking!  That’s what it says about Jesus Christ!  He didn’t care, the mocking was nothing!  And that’s what it talks about with others, because of what they valued that was so much greater.  That’s what our life is about.  But sometimes we can let those things get to us.  Sometimes if we’re not careful we get things out of perspective and we turn inward and we can turn selfish and we can turn, “Woe is me...” and so we can get up in the morning and we can feel bad about things or as one individual wrote that we just read earlier, start practicing a smile, start thinking about the sermon that was given not too long ago about thanksgiving to God in fasting, being thankful to God.  It changes the whole outlook on life, because if we’re not thinking about being thankful to God, what things do I have to be thankful to God about, if we can’t go over those quickly and see that we have been so blessed then something is wrong with us spiritually, truly.

I am being blessed today in speaking to you.  I understand a strength and a power that comes from Almighty God and I am so thankful for it because I know that’s where it’s coming from...so much so that it has me a little concerned.   This may be my last one.  And so be it!  So be it!  I have run a great race; I have loved it.  Not that I have run well in the sense of looking to myself, but I’m saying it’s been great, the experience and the service and the opportunity of sharing and to be able to share that with one another.  And God’s Church goes on no matter what happens...it truly does, and we’ll be blessed mightily, truly.  Somebody said we only have three hundred and some days left... what is it?  I’m not going to count them, it’ll come, it’ll pass – all to the glory of God Almighty.  That’s what it’s about.  If your life is in God’s hands and that’s where you’ve placed it, so be it!  So be it!  Rejoice in it!  Be thankful for it!  Thank God and press forward.

Joel, again here going on...Tell your children about it, let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.  And they will!  “I’ve got to tell you what my grandfather told me!”  “I’ve got to tell you something my great-great grandfather went through.”  And they’re going to want to know about it.  “You mean he was one of them?  ...one of your family members?  Awesome!”

That which the palmerworm has left has the locust eaten; and that which the locust has left has the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm has left the caterpillar has eaten. More and more destruction.  Spiritually this has happened to the Church.  If you look out there, at what’s taken place, such devastation, such devastation, such weakness to this point in time – destruction after destruction after destruction of that which is spiritual.  And in a physical manner those things are going to come to pass in so many places on this earth. Thankfully it won’t be for a long time.

Verse 5 - Awake, you drunkards, those who are intoxicated both physically and spiritually by this world, by this.... I watch it sometimes on TV, I can’t take too much of it, some of these things with the stock market.  I turn over there to see what happened that day and I think, “Insane!  Absolutely insane!”  And this hope they have and this love affair and this intoxication and they have to be drunk to do what they do – if you understand.  And this is what it’s talking about.  It’s a drunkenness of the system; it’s what gives them their buzz in life.  And when it’s not going well it’s a bad buzz - and all the things that happen, it’s what people are intoxicated with, their way.

It says here, Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and howl, wail all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; in other words all that can intoxicate is taken away; everything that’s given you this little high every once in a while and when you get up and you’re so excited about, “Oh, we’ve got it back again!  We’re going to get it all back!” ...and that make-believe world that people choose to live in.  When God takes it all away and it’s not there and they can’t go back to it again, they can’t have this up and down thing anymore and these lies about getting it all back and a thought that maybe if we go out and print a few more billion or trillion dollars that that reality can come to pass, that that’s not going to do anything... it doesn’t even make good Charmin™ [toilet paper] when all that’s taken away, that’s what God is saying, it’s all going to be taken away, that which you’re intoxicated by, that which keeps you going, that which you hold onto, your television program, whatever it is you’re involved with, with whatever magazine you’re putting out, your group, or whatever it is that keeps you going about how ‘you’re the true Church of God’, even though you think that maybe others are being worked with, then you’re the one...because that’s why you’re not going someplace else.  And God brings it to a reality.  At some point He beings to strip away their ability to hold onto what they’re holding onto, their wine is taken away.  It’s taken away in the scattered Church and it’s taken away in the world.  God takes away that which can intoxicate, what people choose to be intoxicated by; they can no longer have those things.

And what an awesome thing – to me it’s a beautiful thing – that man comes to that point in time, because that’s what brings people then, potentially, to repentance if they can repent.  That will do it.

...for it is cut off, literally meaning, taken away from your mouth, you can’t drink it anymore. And God is going to take it away, that’s what ‘the day of the Lord’ is about.

Verse 6 - For a nation, as in foreign, Gentile, in essence, has come up on my land, strong, and in great number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has jaw teeth of a great lion. In other words to rip apart and destroy. He has laid my vine waste, physical and spiritual, because through every bit of this it’s still about God’s people.  God’s people that have an impregnation of His spirit that is not being nourished at this time that causes a spiritual sleep, waiting for a time that God will revive it and give it life again.  He has laid My vine waste, and snapped/splintered my fig tree: he has stripped it bare and cast it away; the branches, in other words, what supports and gives it strength thereof are made white.  In essence God will remove that in which they trust and what they believe that gives them support and strength.

Lament/mourn like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the House of the Eternal; the priests, the Eternal’s ministers, mourn. For the Church that was scattered the ministry stripped of food, drink, there is no source sustaining them, they have nothing that is spiritual that is there, it’s gone.  And in time, even more is taken away.

The field is wasted, the land mourns; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil has become weak; Be ashamed, husbandmen/farmers; in other words, those who are to plant and to plow, and howl, vinedressers, for the flour and the grain; because the harvest of the field has perished. God takes everything away.  So much of that has been happening over a long period of time because of what different people have done.

Verse 12 - The vine has dried up, the fig tree has become weak; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field have withered: trees - prosperity, economy, that which is symbolic of what’s happened in the Church already, in the scattered Church and that which God will bring physically upon this earth more and more. ...because joy has withered away from the sons of men. Again, physical and spiritual; God takes these things away, joy, and it gets tougher and tougher and it brings people to mourn.

Gird, it’s a word that means, ‘to fasten as in securing your clothing’.  It’s like putting on a belt.  We don’t have anything exactly like that but it’s like in securing your clothing.  Gird yourselves, and lament, you priests: howl, you ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, in other words – “Be humbled! Become humbled before Me.”  That’s what God is telling them, you ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering have now been withheld from the house of your God.  In other words we have arrived at that time when all things will become fulfilled physically and spiritually; both apply here in what is being talked about.  Physically...first of all it starts with the physical nations of Israel, but it’s been happening for a long time with spiritual Israel, and now we see this coming because we know where we are, we’re in ‘the day of the Lord’...and we know the answer of what follows.

Notice verse 14 - Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, who’s He telling that to?  To the ministers, to the ministers who won’t listen, to the ministers who haven’t listened...that’s the answer and God says Sanctify a fast and call a solemn assembly, gather the elders, it’s a time of repentance, a time of drawing closer to God, do something about this!  Do something because of the condition you now find yourself in, that you’re coming face to face with, or that you should have come face to face with a long time ago.  ...gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Eternal your God: Where?  Into the Church!  Into the Temple... and cry unto the Eternal, for mercy, basically, for forgiveness, for help.

So the reality is, will the ministry of the scattered do such a thing?  They never have.  They’ve never listened.  That’s what this booklet was all about; that’s why this book was written, ‘Time Has Run Out’.  It was directed toward the ministry of the Church first and foremost, that’s who it was about, that’s what God inspired, that’s what God gave, to let them know what was taking place.  No one listens.  No one cared.  So the ministry that was scattered will not hear, only become worse in that.  That’s why there’s going to be such destruction; 7,000 by name.

Those already in God’s Temple, in God’s Church, hear God’s plea, and the reality is that we’ve had different fasts at different times and we’re going to have another one.  ‘Sanctify a fast...’ for them, for the Body, for the 63,000 that are out there again.  That’s what it was about in the beginning, in the two day fast, and we’ll have another one concerning this particular fast here.

So, our fast will be to repent and seek to draw closer to God and to seek humbly God’s help to prepare us spiritually in humility for those who will begin to be brought to repentance because of the 7,000 that are going to be removed by God.  God’s going to do this. It’s something that God does.  The day of God’s wrath, ‘the day of the Lord’, is about this period of time and about what’s going to take place in this period of time, and it’s so important that we get this message today about what God is telling us WE can do and what WE should do, that we want to do what God says because we understand we’re in this ‘day’ now.  We understand this is the period we’re in that’s prophesied in the book of Joel.

And since others cannot hear or have chosen not to hear, we do, we want to hear, and we want to cry out to God.  Because there’s something special that has to take place in our lives concerning them and that which is genuine in spirit with great desire in how God’s going to work in us toward them, an attitude of mind, especially those who are going to live on – not as much about those who are going to be changed – but you don’t know if you’re going to be changed, do you? You don’t know what God has planned for you!  It’s not owed to any of us, is it!  And we have an attitude of mind, if it’s God’s will to go on we will go on and we will not mourn about it, we will not feel ‘woe is me’ about it, we’ll glorify and thank God that we’re able to go on and share with this world and with others!  Whatever it is He’s given to us...right?  That’s or attitude, that should be our spirit, and if it isn’t then more than likely we’re definitely going to go on, even more so.

So, we’re going to sanctify, set apart for holy use and purpose – that’s what it means – a fast and call a solemn assembly as we assemble before God in a Church wide fast this coming week.  Any day, any time you choose, it’s an assembly before God, a solemn assembly, not on a High Day, not on a Holy Day, not on a Sabbath, although you can do it on the Sabbath if you choose.  Any time of your choosing after today... and to be done so seeking humility and becoming more aware of pride, especially toward the 63,000 whom God seeks to save.  It’s important, because some are going to be tried through this, some in God’s Church, and by those who are brought back.  Because you see, some are going to pass you up so fast it’s going to make your head spin!  Do you believe that’s possible?  I know it is, and it’s going to take a humble spirit and love not to become jealous, not to think that something more is owed to you – because it isn’t – but to be thankful for them and those who are coming.  Others, it’s going to take time to heal. We’re all different and God’s going to do different things in different people – but all of you who are new, you need to understand you’ve been given a lot, you’ve been given a lot of knowledge, a lot of understanding of many things that they don’t have.

Some of them have 10, 20, 30 years of faithful service in God’s Church and then fell asleep, and when God awakens them by the power of His spirit and lets them see what happened... and when they see it some are going to become very strong and on fire in ways that you haven’t even experienced in God’s Church because they bring something that you don’t have.  And that’s humility.  I don’t mean that they have the humility, but it takes humility to hear that, to see that.  They have experience of all that time where God’s spirit worked with them and God can bring that back just like that.  I hope you understand the power of God’s spirit to bring people back quickly, to charge people up to repent so deeply in their lives because of what they experienced.

Most of the people you can talk to who were caught in some nebulous area out here, or with different groups after the apostasy, when they came to see what had happened, that we fell asleep, and what we were doing, what had taken place, and what we were guilty of – and all of a sudden that experience... There was actually a deeper conversion at that point than they’d ever experienced in their life.  Is that true?  Those of you who lived that you know it’s true; a deeper conversion, a deeper conversion than when you’re first called.  That’s why I’ve talked about babes are babes, we’re young, but God has brought us through an incredible trial together.  But you have so much to share and still to give and you’re the primary ones through whom God is going to continue to work through in so many things into the future here, but He’s going to be adding to that mightily.

So, be prepared and welcome it, rejoice in it.  Do not be envious or jealous of it, because I have seen too much of that in the Church in times past and we should know human nature and what it’s like.  Even today in God’s scattered Church we have it, it exists in the ministry, jealousies, envying – we’re human beings.  Let’s acknowledge it!  Let’s admit it!  We have those battles as human beings – nobody’s perfect!  I’m not perfect!  I’m getting a big whiff of that right now.   We’re to humbly go forward and do the things we can do in the best way we can but even in that you’re going to make mistakes, you’re going to do things that aren’t perfect in your life...and the thing you can never interfere with or have interfere in your life ever though is an attitude of jealousy or envy toward others in the Body!  And I’m just telling you it’s going to happen!  It’s going to happen in the next year!  ...and it’s going to happen beyond that!  And you have to bring those things into check and don’t allow it to happen, because the day you do God cannot use you!  I’ve seen that too.  Or God will quit using you if He’s using you; it’ll stop on a dime, if you understand; it’ll stop *boom*, so fast it’ll shake the tar out of you and you’ll have to repent and seek God’s grace and God’s mercy.  That’s just the way it is.

And so this is an important fast!  I cannot tell you how important this fast is, a preparation for those whom God is bringing, that we have great desire for them and understanding their service.  They’re asleep.  They’re asleep, but when God Almighty awakens them and that faithful spirit that existed before that all of a sudden will be reignited with great power and a depth of conversion they have never had before.

And I’m just going to tell you, you don’t understand that, except for those of you who’ve been through it.  You cannot understand what you have not experienced.  You can have knowledge of it.  And there is a difference.  That’s not to put you down, that’s not talking down to anyone, it’s helping us to understand a reality of life, that until you have certain experiences of life it’s not in you fully yet, it’s not you yet.  You have just gone through some things to take a deep look at some of that in your own life, and until you have those experiences at times you don’t know fully what you’re going to do.  That’s why we’ve talked about the apostasy, and that’s why I’ve told you that every one of you – I don’t care where you are – if you’d lived at that time you would have done EXACTLY the same thing!  You’d have fallen asleep!  You can’t help it!  Nobody’s better than somebody else!

We’re not better than those who lived at that time! We’d have all succumbed to exactly the same thing; it’s a spirit!  It’s the way it is!  But sometimes we tend to think of ourselves as better than what we are.  That’s the message to Laodicea, ‘you’re rich and increased with goods’; don’t ever let that happen.  Don’t ever look down upon somebody because they fell asleep in the apostasy.  Welcome them!  Love them!  Learn from them! Become stronger because of their life and because of their experiences.  We are a Family and we go through many different things, and it’s about having a respect toward each other – not an envy or a jealousy toward each other.

Of all things, going back in time, if anything could have been taken out of the Church that would be toward the top of my list – jealousy and envying - that existed in the ministry, that existed in the membership, that existed throughout the Church from top to bottom.  Jealousy and envy and who’s got the better job, who has the greater responsibility.  Whoop-tee-doo, la tee dah... who gets to put the cookies out?  We had fights!  When we were coming back from the apostasy there were some people that got upset with each other in the Church because, “It’s not your job, it’s my job to put out the cookies! Who do you think you are?”  I think, “Who cares!”  Who gets to put up the chairs?  Who gets to take down the chairs?  Who gets to do this?  Who gets to do that?  Who gets to be the greeter at the door?  We had all these kinds of things, different things that people got lifted up by.

It’s like we have a greeter at the door, we have a lot of people coming in, somebody new comes in that doesn’t know and it’s a larger group of people, 300, 500, 600 people in the Church and someone who comes along, they recognizes them and they’re a greeter at the door.  “Oh, I’m a greeter at the door! ...Going to greet people as they come in, “Look at me... Look at me...” I was given the job of a greeter at the door!””  Who cares!  Do your job!  Be thankful!  Don’t let it lift you up, you look like an absolute idiot if you do that.  And so do we if we get lifted up by our job.  I don’t care who we are... if I were to get lifted up by my job and think I’m great or think I’m something special God wouldn’t use me!  Why?  Why do that?  So we have to be careful because these are vile, ugly, evil things that God doesn’t want in us.  All important as we prepare to go forward, as we’re standing fast, standing firm in God’s way of life, that we want to do it right, that we want to correct giant mistakes that have been made in the past, and that after all we’ve suffered, do we learn from our suffering, that we do it for each other...that we’re to do it for each other.

It doesn’t matter what God calls upon you to do.  If there’s some suffering in it, if there’s some giving up of your time, your money, your energy, whatever it is, great, to the glory and the honour of whatever God is moulding and fashioning in each and every one of us.  Truly, it’s to His glory and to His honour, and if we get in the way because pride begins to rise up, that’s not good.

And so that’s what this is all about.  This is what God began to show me last week, of what we need to focus upon, what we need to begin to see, what we need to begin to grasp, what we need to understand as we go to this next phase, of realizing what this period of time is all about.  It’s still first and foremost about God’s people who are already out there.  They’re God’s people, it’s just they’re asleep.

So again, as God works to make you stand you in turn are going to have to seek humility, recognize pride and how pride will work to emerge in you...because it does!  Pride works to emerge in us in life, it truly does.  It wants to!  It wants to raise self up and it does so often when we don’t even recognize its happening.  See, as a minister I see it powerfully because of experiences God has given to me, because of those experiences I had to learn those things through time, of experiences that have been difficult and hard in the Church.  And as I work with the ministry I see it.  I see it.  ...and God sees it in me, He sees it in all of us, but He has patience with us and works with us and helps us to come to see it ourselves so we can repent of it in varying levels, and we continue on and we continue to grow.  And that’s a beautiful thing about God, if our desire is to conquer it and overcome it.

Let’s notice some scriptures....1 John 2:16 - For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world.  And that world is in us; that’s so much of our battle, isn’t it.  It’s the battle we fight because this is what we are as human beings.  It’s what Paul talked about, ‘O wretched man that I am...’; we see these things in our human nature, we see this war that’s going on, but you’ve got to fight the war.

Isaiah 2:10 - Enter into the rock, and hide yourself in the dust, for fear of the LORD/Eternal, and for the glory of His majesty. This is prophetic.  We use it so often around Feast of Tabernacles, talking about the time that’s coming. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, that’s what happens in ‘the day of the Lord’, that’s what happens before Jesus Christ can return, before the Millennium can be established, and the Eternal alone shall be exalted in that day.

Verse 12 - For ‘the day of the LORD’, ‘the day of the Eternal of hosts’ shall be upon everyone who is proud and lofty, and upon everyone who is lifted up; and he/they/the individuals, shall be brought low: We don’t want to be a part of that.  We want to go into this period of time with that spirit of attitude of mind of humility, to understand the very reason this ‘day’ is here is because of the pride and haughtiness and mankind that has lifted himself up.  And so we’re going to go into it with God’s favour and with God’s help...and we will by seeking greater humility and asking God for help to see the pride that exists in us, in that which we tend to lift up that sometimes or so often we don’t even recognize.

And so we’re going to beseech God in our fast, when we fast in this following week, that which we have sanctified, set apart for holy use and purpose, for the future, for the future of God’s work, for the future of what’s coming for ‘the day of the Eternal’ that is upon us.

Isaiah 13:1 - The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.

Verse 3 - I have commanded My sanctified ones, I have also called My mighty ones for My anger, even those who rejoice in My majesty, My excellency. The voice of a multitude in the nations, like as a great people/a great number; a tumultuous noise in the kingdoms of nations gathered together: it’s going through here and talking about some things that are spiritual and some things that are physical and all in this particular time period of what God is doing.

I have commanded My sanctified ones, spiritual and physical.  There are those that God has set apart in this world.  There are those that I read about in these news articles, His mighty ones.  God causes nations to rise and nations to fall, kingdoms to rise and kingdoms to fall, for a purpose.  There are things that God allows Satan to do, but as a whole in all of this God does the moulding and fashioning and this here about the end-time, something that God is doing.  I have commanded My sanctified ones... “...those whom I have set apart for holy use and purpose,” sanctified by God Almighty because He has set them apart.  They may be very physical and very carnal and in some cases that’s the purpose, to raise them up in such power and such purpose in their attitude and mind – like one individual I mentioned in particular who has the greatest arsenal in the world at his fingertips.  God has raised up His mighty ones to do certain things at the end-time, and God has also raised us up to be where we are, to go into this period of time, and God will strengthen us and cause us to stand during this period of time.  So there’s a lot going on in ‘the day of the Eternal’ that we’re blessed to share in, that we’re blessed to be a part of, both in a physical world around us of things that are going to transpire, and in God’s Church as we yield ourselves to Him.

The voice of the multitude of mountains; like as of a great people in great number, a tumultuous noise in the kingdoms of nations gathered together.  I think of some of those things we’ve talked about and talked about those who come together at a certain place, Arm-mageddon.  It’s about what God’s doing in the entirety of the world that a portion of it is accomplished there, but not as we’ve thought in times past.  I envisioned, thought, well, what’s God doing and He tells us about this location and we understand that there are certain amount of armies and stuff and to complete from destroying each other these nations come together – and they will – but not all going to be in the same location when these things happen and their armies, where they’re scattered around the world and what happens.  It’s about what God has brought together for the end of the world. Terms that are used like ‘Jerusalem’, ‘Babylon’, ‘Armed-Megiddo’... or ‘Armageddon’.

They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Eternal, and the weapons of His indignation, to destroy the whole land. Even technology, things that God has given, God has been in control of it and God has held nations back from doing certain things.  But God knows what mankind will do with those things.  Just as He created a being He knew who he would become. When God gave technology to mankind God knew what man would do with it and man is responsible for the choice and the decision made, but God’s in control of the timing...and He’s gathered them together for this great ‘day’, with certain people to fulfil those roles in government, in Germany, in Russia, in China and in the United States.  Every where you look God has gathered people together.

He has moulded and fashioned conditions and circumstances in life, just as He’s done in days of old through time in things He fulfilled and accomplished through Cyrus, as an example, but even others obviously – through Alexander the Great, through the four generals that followed later on and divided up the kingdom, to the coming of various kingdoms at various times and the resurrections of the Holy Roman Empire.  God was in control of the timing and brought things to pass in His timing.  Man’s going to do it but God moulds and fashions things in a scenario, or a picture, if you will, or what’s the term you could use, a tapestry that He creates.

Cry out; for the day of the Eternal is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. It shows the source – God Almighty.  Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt: It’s not going to be so easy.  It’s not going to be as easy as it looked like it might be on the 26th of May this past year.  It’s not going to be so easy.

And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be... and that’s where we stand in God and He will make us to stand.  Not only to stand because of standing in His truth, His way of life, but He will take care of us.  He is our Petra.  We used to look at that as Petra being a location in Jordon, the place of safety.  God is our place of safety.  You can do all you can and you should do all you can, and we have done things to plan and prepare, but when it’s all said and done God Almighty is the one who takes care of you.  God Almighty is the one who protects you.  Your life, my life, is in God’s hands for whatever transpires, for whatever comes to pass – the glory and the honour is God’s.  The timing is God’s!  God knows best!

...pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that’s in labour: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. Behold, the day of the Eternal comes, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.  That’s what God’s going to do in this; the proud, the lofty, the sinners.  The world has to change!  God’s going to begin changing it.  He’s going to cause man to see, to experience His power, His might, that He is God and that everything that’s been said through time and in the end-time is true and He will bring it to pass, just as He said it would!

And He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it: For the stars of the heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: and the sun shall be darkened in it’s going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.  What happened in a very small way in a city, when I watched it on TV, and saw through that cloud and saw the depth of that smoke and the depth of the debris and the depth of the dirt and everything that was thrown up into the air around those buildings and the eeriness of the sun that was going down, the redness that shone through because of what light does when it comes through that much dust and dirt and debris.  Only a foretaste of what’s going to come to pass in a massive scale on this earth one day in different parts of this earth...and certain parts literally.

One little volcano – one little, teeny weenie, itsy bitsy volcano can interrupt air traffic around the world, and we haven’t seen anything yet!

And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible/the dreadful/the oppressors.  When pride gets in the way we become oppressors, that’s what happens in life.  That’s spiritually what take place.  It has no place in us, it’s not to be a part of us.  And that’s what this fast is about, that we search out our heart and our mind and we ask God for help to see it when it raises its ugly head, and to realize it gets in the way of family, it gets in the way of love toward each other, it gets in the way we should look toward each other and the care and concern we should have for each other.  When pride and jealousy... because those are fruits of pride when different kinds of things take place; they have no place in this Body, in our lives, they so hurt relationships.

James 4:5 - Do ye think the scripture says in vain, The spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy?  I’ve talked about this here sometime back and said that there are two aspects of this verse and how it’s looked upon so often, but to understand there is something inside the human mind that has to do with pride, that there’s actually a lust to be envious of others, jealousy, envy.  And when does that come in?  Something that someone else has...that someone’s a senior elder?  ...that someone’s an elder?  You see, I know and I believe with all my being that no matter WHO it is, and you can look on it as WHATEVER way you want to as human beings, that GOD has placed every person where they are as much as He’s placed me here as a prophet and as His apostle at the end-time.  I KNOW how God works...and I hope you know how God works, and those things are in the Body and they need to be gotten rid of.  Don’t worry about it!  We’re all going to become part of God’s Family, which makes all those things look puny and insignificant.  Those things are there to teach us and we learn from them!  We learn about our own human nature!  It’s not about how great somebody is or “...somebody has a different kind of job that I would really like to have!”  “...that’s the one I have because it says I’ve arrived!”  No, it doesn’t!

There are many parts of the body/Body. You want to start cutting certain ones off?  ...certain ones out? ...you can do without?  ...you don’t love?  ...you don’t need?  ...you don’t embrace?  ...you don’t recognize the value, the importance?  ...the working together in unity and harmony?  ...that we all need each other?  That’s why Paul had to use those examples, “Boo hoo, I want to be the eye!  I’m the big toe!  No, I’m the big toe nail!”  It’s amazing, human nature, the trivial, pitiful things that we sometimes do as human beings, but it brings things out in us.

Brethren, we are a Family.  We’re a Family!  This is about God’s Family!  He’s offering us to become Elohim!  Love and care and concern for every member of the Body, never speaking evil of one another.  Does anyone in the Body irritate you from time to time?  Does somebody kind of rub you the wrong way?  You know what the problem is? It’s you, not them.  It’s you!  It’s in your mind!  It’s what you allow in your mind in the way you think.  It’s not them!  It’s you.  You are the problem and you’re the one that needs to repent and you’re the one that needs to ask for help to live better toward them, truly!  We should have a deep love and respect for each other.  Respect!  Can we respect each other the way God wants us to?  Can we be respectful to others no matter who they are, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing. Have mercy upon them.  Don’t hold this sin against them.  I look to the time they can be freed.”

Yep, the spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy.  Do you see it?  ...because it’s in each and every one of us as human beings.

But He gives more grace. Therefore He says, God resists the proud, that’s for sure! I’ve seen that in the Church.  I’ve seen people stripped of things in their life, because it’s a spiritual thing.  They lose the truth, they lose understanding, they lose soundness of mind and until or unless they repent; but gives grace to the humble. It means more of His power, more of His life, more mercy, more help, more inspiration, more spirit, more things, more ability to accomplish more, to do more.  There is a scripture, I can’t think of it right now, I think it’s in Corinthians where it says God just gives more and more grace so that... gives away more and more so that they can give away more and more of His way to others in what they live toward others, and that’s God’s desire, just to give more and more so you can give away more.  But you have to grow to that and be in that!

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Yield, submit, to whatever we go through in life, to whatever our experiences are, to whatever suffering we go through for someone else.  It’s not about ‘me’.  You all need to say that.  “It’s not about ‘me’, it’s about God, it’s about His Family and our part to share in it!”

Submit yourselves therefore to God. When you start thinking about you, about me, lust has raised its ugly head, envy’s there, pride is there.  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  It’s about resisting that spirit! Because that’s what happened from the beginning!  He began to find fault with God, how God was doing it.  You’ve got to be careful when you begin finding fault with anyone, especially in God’s government, because it goes back to God.

Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.  That’s how it works...and fasting is a very powerful tool in doing so.  It shows a desire, “God in heaven, I need your help.  By going without food and water I learn quickly here how weak I am.  I am weak.  I need You all the time!  I need Your life, Your spirit working within me.  I can’t do this, only You can!”

Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded.  Be afflicted, and mourn, that’s what fasting has involved in it.  There is a time to look into our lives and to abhor what we see, the nature, to come face to face with it and repent before God and go onto another plateau of living and life and strength... be afflicted, fast, fast before God, and weep:  tears.  Tears! At times the tears have to be there as a part of repentance because you really see deep inside, the sin.  ...let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. That’s why fasting isn’t always a time to be chipper, it takes things out of you and there’s a purpose for a lot of that, and it helps in the process.  This doesn’t feel good.  It doesn’t feel good to go without, and it shouldn’t feel good spiritually to go without.  We need to be closer to God every day of our life.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Eternal/the LORD, and He shall lift you up. Do not speak evil one of another, Isn’t that amazing what it goes on to say?  Family relationships!  Do not speak evil one of another.  We’re all guilty of it.  There are times we find fault with somebody else and what they’ve done in the Body or how they’re doing it or whatever, and we open our stupid mouth and we say something stupid about someone else, we find some fault that we make a big deal out of or whatever, and it’s not a big deal.  The big deal is our response in our thinking toward it.  We have to be so careful.

Do not speak evil of another, brethren. He who speaks evil of his brother and judges his brother, because we make ourselves judges?  Who are we to judge God’s servants?  They’re God’s!  You’re all God’s servants and God says we’re not to judge His servants.  That’s His job!  He judges us!  He works with us!  He moulds and fashions us!  And we may have a job sometimes in the midst of some of that, when there are difficulties or problems to deal with, to work with, to help people in that process as far as various phases of the ministry.  But over all?  We have to be so careful how we even yield our self to that process – not to hurt someone but to help someone, to be merciful to someone, to give people time, to be firm about certain things, yes, but to be more merciful than anything else because that’s how God deals with you.

...judges his brother, speaks evil of the law, and judges the law: but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.  There is one law giver who is able to save and destroy.  Who are you who judges another?  So we should ever be so careful, what we do and how we do it.

One last verse we’re going to take the time to go into here since I read all those letters and those news things.  Isaiah 61 – ending there.

Isaiah 61:1 - The spirit of the Lord Eternal is upon me; because the Eternal has anointed me to preach good news unto the meek; this is about Christ but it’s been about all who follow.  This takes God’s spirit to be able to do this, it comes from God.  ...to teach the good news, to preach the good news to the meek;  He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, I think of the messages over the past year; this is what this is about, to heal.

...He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, that’s this world and we look forward to being a part of the healing process.  We look forward to being a part of the healing process for the 63,000 who are coming, because they’re going to be hurting...and if you receive them with open arms as your brothers and your sisters... “Everything in the past – who cares!  We’re so glad you are here! None of that matters, it’s all behind; we go forward together.”  Just like when someone walks through the door for the first time and there’s that bond you have with them, and this should even be richer, the prodigal son that God loves and looks forward to bringing back and coming back in a harmony and a unity with Him.

...He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable, in other words, the accepted, in Hebrew here meaning ‘as in according to God’s will’, the acceptable year of the Eternal, and the day of the vengeance of our God; that’s what this period is about... to comfort all who mourn; Those who are repenting, those who are changing...and we’re there for them.

To appoint unto them who mourn in Zion, those who mourn in Zion... to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, [*pauses to think about it... it’s very moving*]... the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Eternal, that He might be glorified. And they shall build the old waste places and they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, and the desolations of many generations.

~~~end

1. Market rumor: Pimco and JP Morgan halt vacations to prepare for economic crash

2. Tokyo Hits 28-Year Low Amid Global Rout

3. Euro Zone Is Lurching to a Crossroad

4. Three Months to Save the Euro: George Soros

5. Spain's Bailout Refusal Is 'Kamikaze Politics'

6. The End of Germany's Illusions

7. Germany's Chancellor Merkel urges EU political union

8. Big Investors Don't Know Where to Put Their Cash

9. 2008 Was A Practice Run Compared To What Comes Next

10. Japan, China bypass US in currency trade

11. Israel Deploys Nuclear Weapons on German-Built Submarines

12. Russia turns east to embrace looming China

13. Putin says to push military ties with China

14. Tajikistan hosts China and Russia lead military exercises

15. China, Russia 'decisively against' Syria regime change

16. Russia Has World’s Largest Nuke Arsenal – 10,000 Warheads

17. Sea missiles being placed across Europe

18. Page 22, The Book of REVELATION Unveiled at last!

19. Page 24, The Book of REVELATION Unveiled at last!

20. The Book of REVELATION Unveiled at last!  - Page 29

21. ... Page 30... Tribulation is NOT the Day of the Lord

22. … Page 31

23. … Page 33

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