Division Versus Unity, Pt. 1

Ronald Weinland

January 16, 2021

This will be a new series. It’s entitled Division Versus Unity, with this being Part 1.

This is going to definitely begin working into, heading toward the Passover period, days of Unleavened Bread. So, I can already see that happening as we’re approaching that period. I’m sure that whatever comes along after this series will be something similar in the sense of preparing us for that period of time.

We are going to look at divisions that are created by God and we’re going to look at divisions that are made by mankind, and knowing the nature and purpose of both obviously reveals much, and there’s much to still be learned about some of those kinds of things and to be reminded of some very basic things, but to build upon this and it reveals much needed truth in this world, if we can just be able to see these things. We can see it in the Church but people in the world, obviously, can’t.

We’re going to begin by looking at a story about one of the plagues that God brought upon Egypt in the time of the Exodus. So, going back to Exodus 8, we’ll begin there today.

It’s amazing to me how we can go through different things, and every time we do God just reveals a little bit more, makes certain things a little bit clearer and we just keep building and keep building. That’s an exciting process that never ends, candidly.

Exodus 8:20, it says, The Eternal said to Moses, Rise early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh as he comes out to the water. Then say to him, Thus says the Eternal, Let My people go, that they may serve Me.

Obviously, there is no greater purpose in life than to serve God’s purpose. It’s an awesome blessing once we’re called to that and begin seeing that. Here, God had a very specific purpose concerning that which goes back in time but built up to a point in time here where He’s going to have a physical nation begin to emerge or begin to grow in a more organized fashion as He began to work with a specific people.

Not because they were any better than anyone else on earth, it’s just that’s how God works. He had a plan to work with a particular family, and especially beginning with Abraham and on and the descendants of Abraham. That’s a part of a process and it had to begin somewhere.

It was God’s purpose and God’s plan, just like how God worked with David. There had to be that which was established who was a king, and that which would picture or portray that which would happen in the future, if you will, picture that which would happen later on about the King of kings.

So again, incredible things of how God plans and purposes various things.

Then it goes on to say, Otherwise, if you will not let My people go, behold, I will send swarms on you. It doesn’t say “flies” anywhere in the Bible. You know, we pick up some of these things sometimes, and it’s like pesky flies, must have been bad. It talks about swarms. It doesn’t say what it is. Some words seem to indicate that it was a lot of different things in the swarms, not just flies. There are a lot of things that fly that are very irritating in life. So, very obviously about more than just flies, but again, that’s how it was translated.

I will send swarms on you and your servants, and your people, and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms and, it goes on to say here, also the ground on which they stand. But again, poor translation. It’s just saying that there will be swarms on the land or throughout the land. That’s proper translation of it, not that they’re piling up in big heaps on the ground or anything like that and very obviously, there were a lot of them and on the ground, but sometimes we get the wrong thing in our mind and think, well, there are these big piles a foot deep over here.

But again, I thought I would read this thing about swarms. Just read a couple verses to you in the Psalms. You don’t need to turn there. Psalms 78:45 where it says, He sent sorts of swarms. So again, this indication here, again, it’s translated as flies, but it’s bringing out here at least there are different sorts and that’s the point here. It wasn’t just one thing; there were more involved here. They came a little closer to translating some of this correctly, but it’s speaking of God Almighty and what He did and referring back to this occasion.

He sent sorts of swarms among them, which consumed or ate upon them; and frogs, as it says here, which, again, not “destroyed,” but it caused corruption or ruin among them.

Then another Psalm here, Psalms 105:31. Speaking of the Eternal it says, He spoke, and there came, again, swarms and lice in all their coasts. So again, just talking about the different plagues and what had happened. some places, again, different translations do it differently.

But it’s amazing here. It’s always good to be reminded as you go through scriptures that people added a lot of things in there that sometimes just aren’t there and sometimes it gives the wrong thought and the wrong impression in the mind. Sometimes these things become more important, sometimes they’re just a matter of knowledge and understanding. But good to be reminded of that, to be on guard.

Going back to Exodus 8:22 it says, In that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, a division being created by God for a great purpose. It’s awesome. It’s beautiful what He’s saying here. …in which My people dwell so that no swarms will be there; in order that you might know that I am the Eternal in the midst of the land. But again here, God was giving that as a sign to show something. “It’s going to be all over Egypt, but it won’t be in this region; it won’t be upon My people.”

Again, it’s good to go through something like this at a time like this because it’s understanding here too that our lives are in God’s hands, and whether we live or whether we die, whatever God has planned for us, so be it. There can be nothing more perfect, nothing better in life than that.

And so, things will happen around us as we go through the period of time that leads up to Christ’s return, Christ’s coming, and whatever happens, even death, should not be discouraging to any of us. It’s a matter of understanding these things are going to happen around us but our lives are unique and God has power to do whatever He desires, even to resurrect at any moment in time whenever He desires to do that. I won’t go into that, but that says enough in itself.

He goes on to say, I will make or as it is, put a difference between My people and your people. Tomorrow will be this sign. So, it’s encouraging. It was encouraging to the Israelites to see, finally, they’re being separated totally from not going through these plagues. But up to this point in time they had to suffer right along with the Egyptians because they needed a bit of adjustment in their thinking as well because they weren’t totally on board in the sense of being delivered out of Egypt. There were times there that they found fault with Moses and with Aaron and sometimes did some, well, history of grumbling. That was just their nature.

Here is a point in time where that had to be very encouraging then to finally see there is a difference. “We are not suffering. We’re not going through what they’re going through.” God making it very clear to them that He is the Eternal.

It wasn’t being made clear to the Egyptians. They didn’t acknowledge those things. They recognized in time that something horrifying was happening and that they had a God—because they believed in all kinds of gods—that the Israelites had a God that was doing mighty things and if they didn’t get rid of the Israelites that they were going to all be dead. They finally came to that conclusion though they didn’t turn to God, obviously, or want to know more about God.

So, in this verse here the King James uses “put a division,” and some quote the word, “distinction.” It’s a division or a distinction. It’s the result of what He was doing here, obviously. But in Hebrew this has to do with the thought…the word comes from the thought of “redeeming,” which I found incredibly interesting.

Here it would be good to, in essence, to keep Israel from, in this purpose here, to keep Israel from suffering. We can recognize then that which is happening to us as God calls us out of Egypt. We recognize the difference in that between what was happening with Israel in Egypt and being called out as a people.

But it goes even deeper because this is only the beginning of a kind of redemption for Israel, we understand, and we understand that it’s meant to be on a spiritual plane not a physical plane. But this is a beginning.

There are types throughout scripture, just as we went through the series about David. So much that’s learned there about his life and a heart like David’s and then seeing the kind of government. It’s God who establishes His government, His people.

Again, we continue to learn in these things and to be inspired by the fact that these things point to the future, to events in the future.

Anyway, more was to follow as God would work to make them different from all others on earth. That’s exactly what happens to us as far as the Church is concerned. God is working to make us different from everyone else on earth. That begins to happen as soon as God begins to call us. It’s a beautiful thing.

Exodus 8:24—So, the Eternal did so. Thick swarms came into the house of Pharaoh and to his servant’s houses, and into all the land of Egypt. Again, it’s about being in all the land and not a matter of the depth or anything of that nature covering the ground. So, it’s throughout all the land. They did not escape these things.

It goes on to say, the land was corrupted, in other words, it had ruin or much waste, as the word means, because of the swarms, what they were doing.

Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Go, sacrifice to your God in the land. So, Moses said, It is not right to do so; for we would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians.

So again here, sometimes these things are kind of awkward and you have to know what is being discussed here. What does this mean “the abomination of the Egyptians”? Well, the abomination of the Egyptians, they had many gods. And to believe that there was only one God, that was an abomination to them. The Israelites were an abomination as far as they were concerned. The way they looked upon the Israelites in the first place, they were slaves, so how could their God be better than all of their gods? Because they had many gods. This was a horrifying thought in their mind, in their thinking in their mind because of their religion.

Because it doesn’t matter what religion it is in the world, when you grow up with that, when you think that way you think everything else is false. And if something else comes along, how do you look upon that? Well, we understand that. We know that, how people look on different religions, different ideas. They condemn. They look down upon. They look at them as being ignorant and so forth. So, people, whether they be in Asia, all the kinds of religions that are there… It doesn’t matter where you look.

It says here, For we would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to the Eternal our God. In other words, this isn’t going to work if you have us do it here. We have to go out away from here. Because this is an abomination to your people, what we’re doing, what we believe, and we can’t stay here lest our lives be in danger because of what’s taking place. That’s what it was about. That’s what he was saying, trying to reason with Pharaoh, who wasn’t very reasonable.

If we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? So, good point. Because the Egyptians looked down upon them, hated what they believed.

We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Eternal our God, as He will command us.

Can you imagine someone that’s as proud and haughty as Pharaoh was in spirit, to hear Moses talking to him this way? That had to be really, really hard. When you look at carnal human nature and the ego of human beings sometimes and how important they think they are, how great they think they are, and then you see something like this you realize, you know, they’re not so great before God. If God has a purpose, they’re not so great.

And so it is with what we’re going through in this world right now. Mankind, every leader on earth, is going to find out they’re not so great. They don’t know so much. People look to leaders to save them. That’s what God is going to destroy. That’s what God is going to bring down. That you can’t look to leaders.

You can’t look to one party over another party or whatever it might be. I don’t care what nation it is on earth. No one is going to be able to save them from what’s about to happen. It just gets worse and worse and worse to where hope disappears. That’s the state that God is going to bring mankind.

The only hope that’s going to succeed is if they will humble themselves and hope upon the fact that if there is a God… “If there is a God… Hopefully, there is a God that will save us!”

I remember first being called and some of the first things I was going through. Because I didn’t know if there was a God or not. And basically, I had that prayer that, after I went through a few things, got my head smacked pretty good, part of that 4 X 4 experience where my jaw was broken in two places and felt it coming out there, couldn’t close my mouth.

Anyway, not a good experience to have, but it was a humbling experience. Basically, went and prayed, “If there is a God…” “If there is a God…” Because I didn’t know.

That’s what it has to come down to. People have to come to a point where they’re so humbled in life that their hope, if there is any hope of things turning around, of changing in life, that there must be, hopefully and prayerfully, a God that will deliver us. Because what they’re being told by their leaders (religious, government, it doesn’t matter) is not coming to pass, is not working.

He was telling Pharaoh these things. I’m sure Pharaoh was doing a small burn inside. Then Pharaoh said, I will let you go… Because what they were going through in the plagues they had experienced just up to this point in time was overwhelming as far as what they were seeing, what it was doing to the land, what it was doing to the people, the peskiness of it, the hideousness of it, the horror of it. Because it wasn’t pleasant what they’d gone through even to this point in time just barely getting started in the plagues.

So Pharaoh said, I’ll let you go that you may sacrifice to the Eternal your God in the wilderness; only you’re not to go very far away. Intercede for me. And while you go, in other words, “Implore God on my behalf.” That’s what he was asking. In other words, to take this away.

Think of God talking about how that He laughs at our calamity, when we get ourselves in a pickle like this, continue to resist Him, do things our way and after a while you go through something like this and it’s like you’re doing it to yourself, you know.

Verse 29—To that, Moses said, Indeed, I am going out from you. I will implore/intreat the Eternal that the swarms might depart tomorrow from Pharaoh, from his servants and from his people. But let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully anymore. Can you imagine again, to be able to stand there and talk to a leader like that that has the ability in a moment’s notice to take your head right off? Which in most cases he would have done except the fact that the plague was there, and the only way Pharaoh saw out of it was that Moses go and talk to his God to get rid of it. At least he believed there was a power at work with Moses.

So, it says, And he went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the Eternal (verse 31). So, the Eternal did according to the word of Moses; He removed the swarms from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. Not one remained. Not one swarm was left. They were gone. Incredible.

But Pharaoh hardened his heart… Awesome here, to think about this process, of how God works with human beings, human nature. And whether it be us when we’re called and how we are…? Because whenever we resist God, we’re hardening our heart against God, when we want our own way, when we put another god before God.

In other words, I don’t care what it is. It can be something as basic as smoking or not paying tithes or offerings, and on and on it goes, or giving in to various pulls and so forth of the human flesh, “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life,” all that, of how we are as human beings, putting up god’s before the Eternal. In other words, not obeying God Almighty. That’s hardening one’s heart.

So, we’re guilty of doing those things because that’s just the way of human nature, to harden your heart. But here, after going through something like this, you think, this is pretty quick. Just right away, as soon as it’s gone, as soon as there is no more payment to pay here and all the plague is gone, it’s that belief.

It’s like this country. It’s like any country on earth. But like, we’re going to get back, the world is going to get back through this COVID thing and we’re going to get on the other side of this. “And if we just get enough vaccinations, we’re going to be okay and we’re going to get things back to normal and our economies are going to be good again!”

And you think, you can’t even add it up yet as to what has happened to your economies around the world. The reality, the truth has not struck home yet. It’s not here yet.

There are so many economists right now warning about what has happened up to this point in time, that what this year is going to have to be like. Because sooner or later it has to come to the forefront around the world of what has happened.

Where is the money going to come from? You can print money, but if there is nothing there…? And after a while, everybody is going to know you don’t have anything to back this up with and we’re not buying your stuff anymore.

What was it I saw, one of the articles here the other day? Russia has more value in gold, more gold now than they do in U.S. dollars. First time this has happened. That’s what they’re doing. China, Russia, some of these places are building up gold reserves, and so forth, and you think, “Hmm, wonder what they’re doing?” If anybody wonders that! You know, it’s like, “Duh!” Incredible.

So, again here, he hardened his heart at that time and wouldn’t let the people go. Surprise. Surprise. Moses, “Don’t deal deceitfully with us anymore. Don’t lie to us anymore, Pharaoh.” That’s basically what he’s telling him. That takes a lot!

It takes a lot for us sometimes to stand up for God and God’s way of life, to stand firm and say, “This is the way I am walking.” “This is the way I am living.” We all have to be able to do that. Reality!

For God to fight our battles, to be in a right relationship with God, He wants to know that. Because that’s a part of desiring God, of a heart and a mind that is after God’s heart, to please God, to honor God because we love Him, because we understand what He’s given to us, because we value what He’s given to us. Nothing else matters.

Nothing else matters in this physical life! There is nothing here for you in this age, in this world, except a means to an end. Whether it be a year of life, two years, forty years, a hundred, it doesn’t matter. What are we going to lift up as being more important than just living God’s way of life and fighting for it with all of our being?

We have so much in front of us, but as human beings we only see time through human eyes. That’s very deceitful because it’s very limited, very restrictive, very constraining, in that respect. It isn’t an ability to see into the future except for what we know and what we understand as far as God’s word is concerned.

We can’t grasp a thousand-year Millennium and the hundred years beyond that let alone everlasting life beyond that. We really can’t! We can know certain things about it, small as it is. Because we haven’t been told very much about what happens after that hundred years. But everything in the universe that’s out there is for a purpose, for God’s Family.

It isn’t over with yet. Creation isn’t over with yet. The continuing of life isn’t over with yet. There is so much beyond that that God has not fully revealed to us. But He put everything out there for a great purpose and it’s physical. There are physical things out there far beyond our grasp and our comprehension for a purpose. It’s not just so we can be here on this earth and say, “What is man that You’re mindful of him?” and then stop there.

It’s far beyond that because God has a plan for His family. He did for His angelic family and what they did in helping and being a part of the preparation of all those things, but that’s only a slight miniscule beginning. I think of those sermons I’ve given in times past to talk about if you could visit — and that’s with the understanding of the knowledge we have now, which we don’t have all that much, where we can see and know that there are trillions of stars out there, billions of galaxies. How can we comprehend something like that?

I remember that one time just going through and talking about if you could visit a thousand stars. Not even talking about their planets and everything else there. But if you could just do that every second (which, what would be the purpose of that?), but if you could do a thousand, how long would it take to be able to visit all of those that we know, that man knows to this point in time at least?

Because we can only see so far out there and know so far out there, and every time we get something else as far as technology is concerned there’s more! There’s more! It’s more than 13.5 billion years out there! It’s a trillion! Where does it stop? We don’t know. We can’t grasp that anyway.

But if you’re able to do a thousand every second, it’d take trillions of years— Trillions of years! —to visit them all. We can’t comprehend that. God has a plan and God has a purpose. It’s awesome!

Our physical lives, our ability to see time is so limited. We are so puny, so small before the Great God of the universe and the purpose and plan He has. But we can only see in short range things. So, we go through various things sometimes that might be with finances, some relationship, some great drama in life, like there isn’t any drama in life. Tons of drama!

We have all this drama around us and sometimes, if we’re not careful, we get caught in the trap of wanting to talk about the drama because, “That’s affecting my life! And I want you to share in my drama because I think my drama should be shared, and it’s important drama because it’s my drama!” Anyway, we get caught up in these things and our minds just go haywire, crazy, missing out on reality of life. Because we like to surround ourselves with drama.

It’s like watching As The World Churns and can’t wait until the next one, next program. You can come back thirty years later and it’s the same. “Oh, they’re still doing the same thing! I can’t imagine it!” Anyway, sorry.

Life, human life, it’s pathetic when you really see it for what it is. It’s short-lived. Seventy years isn’t that long. I’m past it now so, hey. It’s not that long. It really isn’t. You look back, you think, man, it goes by fast! Thank God there is the Almighty God who has a plan and purpose to take us so far beyond that. Not in these weak, physical bodies with being cased in “the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life!”

Because that’s our battle. It’s fighting against self in order to receive what the Great God says is before us.

So, what do we value? Well, God judges us in those things. We go through much in life to determine that.

So, here it is, Moses standing up to Pharaoh because he sees something about God, the Great God of the universe, and recognizes Him as the Great God of the universe, Yahweh Elohim.

I think of those verses back there that talk about God telling him, “I have not always been known by that name,” whether it be to Abraham, whether it be to Noah, whether it be throughout time. He revealed it to Moses, “Yahweh Elohim.” Incredible.

Incredible when you go through and you read those scriptures. You can go back to read some of those things beginning in Genesis on through and it refers to Yahweh Elohim, but they didn’t know him as that. The writers were referring to God by that name. But those who were in those time periods didn’t know God by that name. That’s what is revealed.

God progressively reveals Himself more and more. We have to make choices and decisions in our life by the time we get to this point at the end of 6,000 years as to whether we’re going to stand for God.

David stood for God, powerfully so. Knowing his life was in jeopardy, but his life was in God’s hands, he believed that with all of his being. That’s how we’re to live life because that’s where the value of life is. We can build things up in our lives of, well, whatever trials are coming our way, whatever hardship it might be, whether it be financial, whether it be health, whatever things worry us, affect us as human beings. But when you’re able to put it in the perspective of God’s calling and what He’s doing in our lives, the weight, the weight of those things isn’t very great. It really isn’t.

Anyway, no one can make those choices but us.

So again, God divided Israel, created division, a difference with them from all others around them, with all the Egyptians, to redeem them. To redeem them from all others on earth. That’s why I love that word, coming to understand it even more deeply here, that it’s about that which means “to redeem” in essence.

Let’s turn over to Matthew 10.

God was dividing them out in order to separate them from everyone else, calling them out of Egypt. We recognize then our part in that spiritually. He united a physical nation, began to unite them as a physical nation as a people under Him, under one God, the Eternal. No one else was going to have that, just them.

God does similarly with us on a spiritual plane when He calls us. We encounter great division in life as a great difference begins to be made in our lives when God begins to call us from all those around us. So, we see the similarities of those things. We focus on some of those kinds of things around Passover especially, and Unleavened Bread period.

But God creates such division in order to unite us as one, if you will, all of us under what is true in life. Mankind doesn’t. What mankind does is totally the opposite.

Matthew 10:28—Do not fear those… Now, this is easy to read and say, “Yeah, that’s me.” But to really believe this with all of your heart, to really want this with all of your heart, to live like this with all of your heart can sometimes put us to the test.

Do not fear those who kill the body. Well, we can say certain things until we’re there. But we have to have conviction. That means a conviction toward God of wanting God’s way of life regardless of anything else. In other words, we value it so much that even if it came to that...

So, we tend to as human beings esteem, lift up, fear – because that’s what it comes down to, because we don’t want to disappoint someone else. We don’t want to rock the boat perhaps with an employer or family member or whatever it might be in life sometimes, and so we can back down from what we should be doing in the sense of standing firm. Sometimes it just goes back to something like this.

Do not fear those who can kill the body. That’s taking it to an extreme so we can get the point. So someone takes your life. There are a lot of people in God’s Church who have lost their life because of this! Because God’s Church has been attacked for hundreds and hundreds of years. There are those who have gone out after them, specifically even the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church, to kill and to destroy God’s people. They had success to a certain point as God allowed them to in individual’s lives.

Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill… says, the soul. Then people have this distorted idea about, “Well, what is this ‘soul’?” It’s just life. It’s the life that God gives you.

There is another life beyond this that starts in the mind. It’s that which can receive the impregnation of God’s spirit and they can’t touch it.

They can’t even touch the other as well because God can resurrect an individual and give them life again and continue on in the hundred-year period. And so, it’s telling that, too. They can’t take away life. Only God has the power of life! So, what. I mean, it’s not a thing you relish or want to happen, but if it comes down to that, so be it. If it happens in life at the end of this age, so be it. I don’t care what your age is, what does it mean?

God has to be first and the conviction has to be set in that kind of relationship and belief to embrace such a thing.

...but rather fear Him. So, what is it showing here? …rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body, life and body, in gehenna. In other words, God has the power over life, especially in the future.

We can live life ever how we choose, because once we have life you can do whatever you want to do. You can disobey God. You can go out here and have a fling. You can go out here and have partying and booze it up and, you know, shoot it up, whatever it is in life.

That’s happened to people in God’s Church, okay? Everything imaginable that human beings go through has happened to people who have been baptized into God’s Church in times past. I don’t think there’s anything, there’s hardly a thing that I can think of, that hasn’t been done in the time I’ve been in God’s Church, okay?

Those things have happened for the past 2,000 years because we’re human beings and only each one of us then can make the choice of what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it, whether we’re going to esteem God or man. What’s the choice? The choice there is who do we fear, in the sense of do we fear disobeying God or disobeying or displeasing a person or some people?

That’s what we’re talking about. That’s what this fear is about. It’s about esteeming others, lifting up others above God.

Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. It’s hard for us to grasp such a thing, that God knows everything that happens in His creation. We can’t understand that kind of mind. You can’t grasp that. I cannot grasp that. I believe it, but I can not come close to grasping it.

All those stars we mentioned out there, let alone all the planets and everything else out there, He knows them all. That which would take trillions of years to visit, if you could do a thousand every second. We can’t grasp such a thing. It’s all of God, sustained by God. God knows what’s happening throughout the universe that He created.

Every human being that exists, God knows. We can’t grasp that. That’s why it’s very difficult sometimes for people to even believe that. Well? If we really grasp that we realize what we are. Somewhere in between those two fingers we might have some kind of existence. Because we’re nothing. We’re really nothing. But what God offers us is mindboggling. It’s astounding, incredible. We’re His focus because He’s creating a family.

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Now, as you get older sometimes that’s quite a task. Depending on what you’re going through and you take a brush through it—I don’t have to worry about that—but if you take a brush through it and “Ah!” a bunch of it’s on the brush and God knows exactly how many came out. I can’t comprehend that.

So, broken down in such refinement of knowledge, ability to know, just the fact of people praying all around the earth to Him at the same time. If someone is staying up late in part of the world at some point in time, and someone in God’s Church all around the world, different points, are praying to God, He hears them all. Hears it all.

We get in a crowd and it becomes noise. We can’t hear it all. We should glorify God that much more to recognize what we are and that He loves us and has an incredible plan and purpose for us, and that our physical existence is needful. There is no other way to create Elohim. But to realize this is not what it’s all about at all, life and death. That hurts; it’s painful for those who remain alive, who see that oftentimes, but that’s the cycle of life that God has given.

But the very hairs of your head are numbered. Therefore, do not fear; for you are of more valuable than many sparrows. So, Christ is saying this to them. We understand that. We know what he’s talking about here and saying. What comparison can you make with human life compared to that of a bird? But God knows everything that happens to every bird that dies.

Therefore, whoever confesses me before men… When I see something like this I kind of cringe a little bit sometimes when I read something like that. I feel for them because they don’t know. In traditional Christianity when people talk about the “need to confess Christ before others,” and some of the kinds of expression they use. They can’t grasp what they don’t know.

But how blessed are we that we know what that means and that they don’t? We look forward to the time when they can because then they’ll be free from some of the things that hold them in bondage, into false thinking and ideas about God.

Therefore, whoever confesses me… That word there, as compared to some other places, in the Greek language means “to speak the same,” or “to agree about.” In other words, there’s this unity in whatever is spoken. But it goes beyond that in scripture because indeed, those things have to come out of here first.

And so, if we speak the same thing, the mind of God, that which is given to us as far as His way of life. Then that’s why it’s such a beautiful thing within a body, within a Church, that if we’re able to come to that where we all speak the same thing as far as doctrine, as truth is concerned, and that which is given in sermons, and we’ve grown in those things, and we don’t speak something else outside of that because that isn’t wise.

What God has given to us is great wealth and treasure. That suffices, so why do we need something more than that? The reality is this is what we’ve been given. So, if everything we say is in unity and harmony with that, then that’s a beautiful thing. That’s what he’s saying here.

Therefore, whoever confesses me before men… So again, it begins so often because of how we are. This reveals what comes out of us, whether we’re in unity or harmony or not. That’s why I think of things that have happened through times past and going back to 1972 and 1974 and 1976 and 1980 and in through there, 1982 and on, and people speaking divisively out here. Ministers, evangelists speaking something different than what they were taught by God’s apostle. Tell-tale sign but the Church was too weak to recognize that. People, in many cases, were too weak to recognize that and some people got swept up then by the different things they were being told. Sad.

It’s about unity. God divides us, gives us division from the world in order to bring us into unity, harmony, oneness with Him for an awesome purpose. God’s purpose for division creates unity. Man’s purpose of division just creates more division and divisiveness and war and hatred, and jealousy, and lust, and evil.

And so, this thing of confessing then, obviously it becomes even spiritually more meaningful and scripture continues on and talks about the aspect of it’s not just a matter of what comes out of your mouth, it’s what you live. The ability of Christ living in us and what we have, that power and strength of God Almighty and Christ living in us reveals that truth, whether it’s true or not.

The witness. That’s what the witness is all about. It’s about God living in and through us that makes us different from those around us in the world because of God’s holy spirit.

Therefore, whoever confesses me before men, I also confess the same before my Father, or will confess the same before My Father who is in heaven. So, in other words, acknowledge, confess, yes. So, it’s a matter of being in unity and oneness. There is more to it, obviously. We understand that. But that which is received by Christ is received by God Almighty because they’re of the same mind. They’re of one mind.

Verse 33—But whoever denies me before men… So, that has to do with, again, what we speak, if it’s not in unity and harmony, it’s divisive or whatever it might be, or whatever is expressed or done in life that’s different.

Whoever denies me before men, I also will deny the same before my Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. Beautiful scriptures here, to understand what God is saying here, what Christ was saying here and what he was teaching and talking about this thing about peace. The opposite of drama.

Don’t think that I’ve come to bring peace on earth. If we really could see this and believe this then we know what our lives are going to be like. We know when something comes along, “Yep, there it is. It’s not peace. There’s something else coming at me and it’s not peace. So, how do I respond to that? How do I deal with that?”

Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. That’s the opposite of what Christianity teaches, in essence. Because, basically, it’s this peace on earth and good will to men and all, especially around Christmas time, and this is just a wonderful time of the year and aren’t we all happy?

There is not so much happiness out there that time of year. All you have to do is get on the road and you’ll find out real quick or go to a mall or go to someplace to shop or go out to eat. I don’t even like being on the roads at that time because they’re packed. Horrible.

So, it says, “but a sword.” Not peace but a sword which will divide, create division. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. It’s about relationships. Once God begins to separate us, make us different, begins to call us out of the world, and there’s this divide, there’s this division that’s created. We’re not the same. We don’t think the same any longer. Incredible, what takes place.

And a person’s enemies, speaking of that which is going to come toward them, hostilities and that which is hostile that comes at them. Where does that come from? And a person’s enemies will be of their own household. We all have to experience this in life. It’s just a part of life.

We go through this experience as we realize unless someone is drawn and called, as a whole, in the world, they don’t take kindly to what you’re doing, the changes you’re making. “You’ve changed; you’ve become different or whatever.” “Yeah.” That’s good. “You’re right.”

One who loves father or mother more than me… So, it comes down to this even. What relationship in life is of more value than what God is offering? Father? Mother? You have to make those choices. They’re not all that easy, are they, when you have to go through things like that?

One who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. So, it’s a matter of a comparison here. The point being, is God first? Because that’s what it always comes down to. Are we putting God first? Because that means obedience then to God; a desire to honor God and please God and serve God comes first. Other things that come in front of that or try to work their way in in front of that and disrupt that or hurt that relationship can’t. Because this has happened to God’s people over and over and over and over again by the thousands because people have made choices in relationships.

And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. That’s a horrible thing if you have to come to that point in time and make those decisions. Many in God’s Church have had to do that because there are times you just have to stand. So, what’s going to happen? Well, that’s in God’s hands and you must do what you must do before God Almighty. God comes first.

Because this life isn’t all that there is. What’s beyond is what’s important, whether it be in the Millennium or in the Great White Throne. And candidly, I feel very blessed to have learned this so long ago, that real family and a real relationship in life is that which is spiritual above all others.

Physical is a wonderful thing. It’s an awesome thing. But when God calls us that becomes so much greater, so much greater that when that’s embraced then it’s a choice of others, not ours. It’s not our choice and desire that someone would separate themselves, which sometimes has happened, obviously, in God’s Church, or someone who hasn’t been drawn and is not, in some cases, not pleased to dwell with us, or whatever it might be. Or a child or a parent who doesn’t really care to be around us anymore because of what we believe. You can’t help that. That’s their choice.

But you know that the greatest value is in the relationships within the Body. There is nothing that even comes close to that, sadly. That can bother people a lot sometimes if they’re close to us or around us or whatever in life. Again, we’ve all had to be tried in these things. I don’t care when you were called, whether it was 1969 as I was, or ’56, I think back here in one case, and you go on and on through different numbers here of when someone is called. We’ve been through a lot.

But we’re tried in those things, and God has to know, do you love Him? Do you love Him first and foremost in life? Is He first in life? Because He has to be. There is nothing else.

That’s why he goes on to say if we don’t have this, if we’re not striving for that kind of relationship with God Almighty, then we’re not worthy of the Messiah, we’re not worthy of the Christ, we’re not worthy of the holy spirit to live and dwell in our lives. Because we haven’t made that commitment. We’re still holding back and we fear something else more than what God has placed before us.

One who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. So, even within family you know what? They have to know about you, that God is first. That’s a healthy thing. It’s not an unhealthy thing. It’s a healthy thing. Because they have to make choices according to who you are and their relationship with you. They have to decide if that’s what they desire, in the sense of continuing on in a relationship, because you have already made up your mind of what’s first. Human nature, as a whole, so often just doesn’t like that.

So again, every one of us has had to experience such things, and it’s not enjoyable to have to go through because of all the emotion and things that happen around you. But you can have peace with God because you know that you’ve made a choice and a decision that’s between you and God and you hold dear to that no matter what else happens.

Anyone who does not take up or receive their pole and follow me is not worthy of me. Amazing what he said here. They couldn’t grasp all these things in the beginning. What does that mean? Because what he was referring to, they could, because of the language that was used at that particular time there, obviously, there were things that they could grasp, what he was talking about. In other words, making a stand here is what you’re going to do no matter what the repercussions might be. That was the thrust of all this.

But that’s what he’s saying. Basically, what he had to do for a short distance when he had to put it on his shoulders and the kind of condition he was in, what he was willing to go through and suffer for all of us.

He’s saying if we’re not willing to do the same thing…? What’s that mean? Suffer. If we’re not willing to go through the hardship of human life by putting God first. Because when you do a division has been made, when you put God first, and a division is made in your life. The rest of the world isn’t going to like what you have chosen to do. They’re not going to agree. We have to expect that.

That’s what we do, isn’t it? Doesn’t mean it’s easy for the human mind. But boy, what a beautiful thing when you do, when you have that kind of confidence, the boldness of life. Because you get a peace with it, a peace of mind that comes through the power of God’s holy spirit. It’s a beautiful thing.

Anyone who finds their life will lose it. So, if there is something else in life. I think of people who have made choices of relationships that they want so much that they sin against a mate, perhaps, whatever it might be, and lust after someone else and leave the Church in order to have someone else because they want this relationship because it’s so important to them. Because of whatever it is to the human mind, that lust that’s so powerful sometimes. Two months, three months, six months, a year, somewhere they are going to experience what they experienced when they came to that point. “Oh…” And their eyes start wandering.

That’s what always dumbfounds me, people who will cheat on someone and go to someone else and that person is so dumb to think, “They’re going to be faithful and true to me, because I’m special.” No, somebody has done it once, they’re going to do it again. If that’s what they want, if they see something else, see somebody else, strike up a relationship at work or whatever, someone else, and they start getting close to them and they’re going to want that relationship. It’s just the lust of human flesh! And it happens a lot!

I remember the first time I ever came across this in the ministry. Two older people out in New Mexico. Went to visit them and they were having marital problems. Now, they were old! They had to be at least seventy or so. It came out, come to find out, they were having relationships outside the marriage. I think, “What is wrong with you?!” How long do you have to live to get the point? Needless to say, they weren’t in God’s Church. But it’s amazing what human beings do.

So again, I love verses like this because Christ is just making it very clear. Once we’re called, we begin to see these things because before that you can’t. You begin to realize that we’re going to go through hardship because he says you have to be willing to take up the pole, carry it, and whatever (because that’s what came later), and if we’re not willing to do that we’re not worthy of them.

Are we willing? Is our life God’s? We said that. You said that at baptism. You declared that at baptism. That’s not a small thing before God. You made a covenant with God at baptism, “I am Yours. However You mold and fashion me, whatever I must go through in life, so be it, because it’s about being transformed, it’s about being molded and fashioned and put me where You know I should be.” Awesome, to have that kind of peace. Because that comes from God.

Anyone who finds their life will lose it… In other words, something that disagrees with God’s way of life and what He’s doing in your life and you want your life the way you want it. And so, how many people go off and do different things, who have been even awakened out of spiritual sleep after the Apostasy? Made some goofy, goofy, well, nutty ideas, stupid things, insane when it comes down to sanity. But when you get to that point you can’t think right. When you stray far away from God and you don’t have God’s spirit guiding and directing you anymore because you’re sinning… Anyway.

You’ll leave because you hear a sermon that, “Well, I may not be one of the 144,000! And I have to go someplace where I am one of the 144,000.” Or “I’m not a Philadelphian? I have to be a Laodicean? I have to admit that I was a Laodicean? I was never a Laodicean! I’ve always been a Philadelphian! I’m going to go somewhere where they say I’m a Philadelphian.” Okay, have fun over there.

A minister in God’s Church did that way, way, way, away. Went with a particular group that was very similar to that, in that sense, in what he chose to do. Sad. Incredible, what people will do because they want something that agrees with what they want to do, not with what God reveals to them, gives to them, and so forth.

That’s why we have to know the truth, where it comes from, be convicted of it, and understand there is only one way we can have it, one way we can see it. Incredible!

Anyone who finds their life will lose it, and anyone who loses their life for my sake will find it. In other words, what do you want to hold on to? Who? What? What do we want to hold on to? What are you going to take with you? When it’s all said and done and you’ve come to three score and ten or beyond, which many of us have, what are you going to take with you when it’s all said and done? Because there comes a day when you die. There comes a time when your life is over. So, what do you have? Sad we can’t think that way as human beings.

Anyone who receives you receives me. Beautiful verses. How? Why? Again, very blessed early on into God’s ministry to know this one. The only ones you can help are those whose minds are open, and if they’re not open you can’t help them because God’s not calling them. There’s no purpose of wasting a lot of time and answering tons of questions because they’re not there, they’re not of the same mind. You can cut through a lot very quickly, and only a few questions you have to ask very early on to find out whether God is drawing someone or not.

Yet there are people who have gotten tangled up in those things because they want to: “If you’ll just sit down. If we’ll go through the scriptures, we can prove these things.” Give me a break!

Either God is drawing us or He doesn’t. It becomes very clear. So, we can know and understand that in the world around us if someone is able to see the truth God has to be in it. Because if people can’t see the truth then you can’t communicate.

Just like today. It’s a very difficult thing to know how much to advertise, in the sense of promotion, or not, because right now the door is slammed shut because God’s not drawing people. Because the world has gotten harder, hardened, deeply hardened. Since 2008, 2012 it’s just gotten worse and worse and worse.

All this technology out there, Satan is very powerful today because of that, just because of technology alone. He has power that he’s able to influence that he hasn’t been able to use to that degree and that level as he has today. God is helping us to learn that too, because God is revealing very powerfully so, how dangerous that is, control. Control, control, control over life. Ability to know anything and everything.

Just like putting in the app today about seeing what the distance was or how much time that it would take. We get on the freeway and my wife looks at this app and it tells what the time is to get to services here because it’s in there and because I can know immediately by the time if there’s a problem along the freeway somewhere and whether I need to go around the loop somewhere or look for some other way to get here.

And it said, “Going to Church in Sharonville?” or “Going to Church,” basically, “LaQuinta?” Okay, you know a little bit too much. I don’t know how you got the Church part in there. I don’t know. I have to talk to my wife. Does it say on the side? You put down Church, see, now they know!

But the more people put out there the more that’s known. And sadly, the world uses it against you; things are used against people today very easily so. Things are used to bribe people, to coerce people, to sway people, and to control people. We just, as human beings, la, la, la, follow right along, you know, and don’t realize the danger of it all.

I’ll tell you what, there are some big changes that are going to have to take place when God’s Kingdom is established, on the internet, with technology and the use of technology. Because this power has never been able to be used until recent time. Look how mankind uses it. It’s a quicker way to destroy the mind’s of human beings. Sad. Pathetic. Horrible.

Anyone who receives you receives me… So, we understand what that means. It means God’s spirit is at work there. Because there is no other way, in that respect, that it can be done. Or something is working there to spark an interest, if you understand, and whether even if it’s the fact that someone is not against it. If they’re not against it and they want to be friendly because they respect what you’re doing, that’s a good thing, that’s a beautiful thing and something to be valued.

But this is going deeper than that because it has to do with a calling.

And anyone who receives me receives Him who sent me. This has more to do with the teaching, the way of God, and so forth, which can only be accomplished, again, by a calling, by God’s spirit. Because there is no other way to be here than by God’s calling.

Anyone who receive a prophet, this is amazing here, in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. Anyone who receive a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. What is it saying? God’s Church is a family and God has called us all to bless us all in His family that goes far beyond the scale of the Church, far, far, far beyond.

Even anyone who gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple… So again, what’s it about? Receiving each other. Receiving one another. Not ostracizing anyone, loving, learning to love one another, praying about the ability to love one another, to care for one another, to want what is best for one another, to truly desire that we see each other on the other side of this. Whether it be in the resurrection or to be able to live on in a new age, we should want that deeply so for each other.

Assuredly, I say to you, they shall in no wise, or in no means, lose their reward. So, it’s about family. God reveals those things to us in a beautiful way.

Reminds me of Revelation 20:4, like in the saying about God dividing us, separating us out from the world as He did the Israelites there in the land of Goshen, and beginning to make a difference, but for the purpose of redeeming them. For the purpose of redeeming them.

Revelation 20:4—I also saw thrones, and those who sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them, even the life of those who were beheaded… We know what that’s about. Cut off. It’s amazing how this has always been taken literally in many ways. It’s not a literal thing, it’s about that which we understand what the spiritual intent and meaning of it is.

It’s a word that means “to be cut off,” referring to the head, in that respect, so again, “to be beheaded.” That’s why it’s translated that way. But it’s “to remove the head.”

Even the life of those who were cut off for the witness of Joshua. This has a great deal more meaning when you really look at it on a spiritual plane like this. Because we are separated, cut off from the world around us, and all of God’s people who are called are indeed, there’s a division there, a powerful one because of God’s spirit and the knowledge that’s placed into our mind and the choices we’re able to make. If we make those choices then we’re just not the same anymore. Beliefs are so diverse, so different, and then we begin living a different way of life.

It’s talking about this as a part of a process here of those who were, in essence, cut off or removed from— if you want to look at the head – who is the head of this world, the god of this world? There’s a being. What a blessing when we’re cut off from that and we are now under the one who is the head of the Church, the head of the Body, Joshua.

It says here, even the life of those who were cut off for the witness of Joshua. That witness means that because of him dwelling within us we can live a different way of life. That is the witness, the proof that God dwells in His people, because there is no other way to know, to believe, to live the things we do and then to put them into action in our lives, to obey God, except that God has given us of His holy spirit and that Christ and God the Father dwell in us.

…even the word of God. So, that’s what it is. It’s the word of God that lives and dwells within us because Christ dwells within us because God the Father dwells within us and His word dwells within us and the word that was made flesh, that mind is able to be in our mind and we’re able to come into unity.

God’s purpose for dividing us out like this, causing this division in our lives is to bring us into unity and harmony and oneness with Him, with the word.

…and who had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received the mark upon their foreheads or in their hands. They too lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Incredible.

Luke 6:17. So, we live through this. We live this. What they lived was very physical there amongst the Egyptians as God was delivering them, redeeming them.

Luke 6:17—Then he came down (speaking of Christ) with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, even from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him, and he healed of their diseases as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits.

So, there were those things that were happening in that time in that region of the world, even more so because he was there. They knew he was there. They knew there was life in him that was from God Almighty, of God Almighty. They knew it because it’s spirit.

Those beings were more prevalent, in that respect, and grouped in those regions even more so because that’s where they wanted to be because of what was taking place. There were those in the world around them that they tormented because of that. Incredible, to understand things that are difficult for the human mind to comprehend, that there are demented beings who want to take control of this so they can have control of all of it to torment.

So, they were healed. And the whole multitude were seeking to touch him, because power went out from him and healed all. In other words, all those that were there before him that he gave that power to.

Verse 20—Then he lifted up his eyes toward his disciples, and said: You poor are blessed, and yours is the Kingdom of Heaven. In other words, that’s what’s before them. It’s a matter of their calling, what they were receiving.

So again, it’s poor of spirit. In other words, a willingness to humble ourselves, a willingness that they would humble themselves and follow him and go through the things they were going through in their life. Because God was working with him. He was drawing them. They weren’t yet baptized but they were drawn by God and they were making choices and decisions along the way because God’s spirit was beginning to work with them. They weren’t impregnated yet, but they were being drawn.

Just like we go through different things, whether it be for a few months or a few years and there are things we see and know, and God gives us time to act upon them and work with them and He molds different things in different ones of us, different experiences of things we go through.

You who hunger now are blessed. So, it’s this thing that goes on and on and on here of what he’s teaching here. It’s not about that which is physical. It’s not about wanting physical food. It’s seeing something greater than that. Blessed for you shall be filled.

You who weep now are blessed, for you shall laugh. Again, there’s a lot of sorrow in human life and when you begin to see things that God reveals on a spiritual plane there is even more, in that respect, because there’s that which we should feel toward all the world around us, toward those who are not able to see, and toward one another because of that compassion, that love, that care and concern because we see what others are going through.

We know this isn’t easy. We know that this wasn’t meant to be easy, living this way of life because we live it in a world that is against God. It wasn’t meant to be easy. But more can be molded in us because of that. Awesome!

You who are hated by people are blessed. Have any of you been hated by people? They hate what you do. They hate what you think. They hate who you are, in many cases, because of choices you make and stands that you take. You might not think to call it hate but really, that’s what it is when they look down upon you and mock you and make fun of you and all of the things that go on. God says you are blessed. Awesome!

When you know that you are blessed and you’re able to see what Christ stated when he said, “Father, forgive them.” “Forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.” They don’t and if you’re able to deal with things around you in life that gives you a peace in itself. They don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t see what you see and you can’t expect that of them. But you still have choices, and you have to act upon this way of life, and God comes first.

And when they separate you, exclude, in other words, revile you and cast out your name as evil for the Son of Mankind’s sake. So, that’s what happens. “You’re going to the Feast of what?” “You’re not eating… What is leaven?” Well, some people know what that is. But, “What is unleavened bread?” People think we’re nuts. People think you’re crazy when they know too much about what you believe.

So, you have to be careful that you don’t tell too much, unless you know they’re receptive. As a whole, people aren’t receptive. But if they know what you’re doing because they’re aware of that in a family or whatever and you’re doing certain things and you’re not eating toast when they are, it’s going to become known and anyway. It’ll show how they think toward you at least, as to what you believe, whether they’re pleased to dwell with that or whether they’re, you know, agitated by it.

Verse 23—Rejoice in that day and jump for joy! Now, we don’t tend to do that. “Oh, I love this! This really feels good!” No, it doesn’t. But spiritually, when you’re praying, you should thank God because it’s what you’ve been given, to know the value and the treasure of it because you realize they haven’t been given that though you want that for them, you desire that for them, and you can’t wait until their minds are opened up.

Are there people that you know of that you can’t wait, you look forward to that so much so, that their minds be opened? I know a lot of people that I am looking forward to that, especially to be awakened, not just called. Whether it be in community, different ones we’ve known of that have treated us in a unique way compared to others who have treated us in a different unique way that’s not so pleasant. And you look forward to the time when they’re going to be able to see and to know the truth. You really desire that for the other too, because they’re in bondage and they don’t know it.

Rejoice in that day and jump for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven. Because what’s of greater value? What God is offering us or what we have temporarily in this life?

People go out and have these relationships, temporary in life, you know, cheat on a mate, leave, do other things to cheat on a mate, whatever it might be, and on and on it goes that human beings tend to do, that human beings in God’s Church have done in times past. Prayerfully, not doing today.

“For indeed your reward is great in heaven.” In other words, it’s with God. You’re in God’s hands and He looks forward to giving that to us, truly does. Looks forward to the time that we’re changed. Wants that. Desires that. Has sacrificed mightily for that, way beyond what we can comprehend even.

Because in like manner their fathers did to the prophets. But woe to you who are rich. In other words, self-satisfied, don’t see a need for God and obedience to God, want our way. That’s what’s valuable to us. Or is God’s way valuable to us?

For you have received your consolation. In other words, what you have here now and what you receive here now in this life, though it be temporary, though you might only have a few months or a year or two years or whatever it might be left in this human life. That’s all you’re going to have if you don’t have God. That’s it until maybe, then, a hundred years, the hundred-year period. Then you’re going to get smacked in the face with reality – one hundred years!

To me, that is a horror story! You think there’s anything on a movie or whatever that’s ever been a horror story, doesn’t come close to that one for me. That one is the biggie.

When you have this opportunity, who would want to be in this body again? You know, to think…? Because I loathe this. I loathe being in this body, but I know it’s the only way to get to where we’re going. We have this now at this time to learn what we need to learn and to treasure what is in here, what God is giving us in here.

So, if that’s what people desire, God lets us make those choices. People have made choices. You know a lot of people just in the last few years who have made their choices and what do they have? Hopefully, the Great White Throne, because many of them are definitely excluded, some may have opportunity depending on a real humility of spirit and mind and perhaps how they became deceived or what they went through, have the ability to repent and change and begin to obey God and have that opportunity to live into a new age. But hopefully, if not that, then there’s going to be the Great White Throne. Hopefully, their minds haven’t gone so far that they’ve gone against God.

Verse 25—Woe to you who are full, for you will have hunger. So, anyway, I think of this one here and I think, what a horrible thing to be full spiritually and to not be hungry spiritually on a spiritual plane.

Because I’ve seen this over and over again in God’s Church, people who haven’t been hungry. I’m reminded of several years before the Apostasy, even going back to the time in Cincinnati for a period, though there was such an (How do I put this?) oppressive government at that time that I think people were more afraid to not go to Bible studies in most cases, and so they went out of fear. Not the right kind of fear, but fear of an individual.

But in many other areas much of the talk amongst the ministry and things that were talked about at refreshing program was about what’s happening? There’s not that same interest in Bible studies any longer and fewer people are coming. And boy, one thing that ministers didn’t like was to have to put it in their monthly reports. Anybody that thinks monthly reports have ever been oppressive?

Anyway, these monthly reports we sent in and part of that was about attendance and so forth, and Bible studies and so forth, and what’s happening in the area so they could have a feel, the pulse of the Church as well. That was needful for them in administering and seeing various things. But when ministers got together, even some in this area I still think, I can’t help but think about: “Oh, we don’t have that problem here.” Anyway. Sad that there are people, in that respect, when it came down to it, feared the wrong things, an individual rather than God.

Bible studies kept getting smaller and smaller and smaller in attendance and it was like, why have them anymore then. Maybe we should only have them, instead of every week or every two weeks, maybe we should just have them once a month, maybe every six months, once every six months.

What does that say? People aren’t hungry. Why did evangelists and ministers at headquarters quit coming to Bible studies that God’s apostle, Herbert Armstrong, would have in the auditorium. They weren’t there. I remember one time him crying out and that might have even been on a Sabbath, not just a Bible study. But I think it was on a Sabbath. “Where are all the ministers?”

One person, if my memory serves me right, held up their hand. Then he made a comment about him that I don’t know if it was very complimentary. But anyway, because of something else that was probably going on in life.

What a pathetic thing when people have ever gotten to a point in God’s Church that we get full, filled with God’s way and we don’t hunger anymore and don’t want to be fed anymore? That’s a horrible thing! But it’s happened. Always to be on guard against.

Verse 26—Woe when all people speak well of you. You ever seen that as a danger sign? You know, when people start wanting to be friends with you. …for so did their fathers to the false prophets. In other words, when we live this way of life the world, as a whole, is not going to think well of us. So, we expect that. We know that. We understand that. Goes with the territory. So be it. Praise and honor belong to God Almighty. Beautiful.

I think it’d be wise to stop there because there are some things in this next section that we’re going to that really take a little bit of time to build upon so, next Sabbath we’ll continue with Part 2.