Passover and Unleavened Bread

Ronald Weinland

April 23, 2024

As with every High Day, every annual Holy Day, you’re to be told what each of those annual Holy Days is about. We’re to reflect on them year by year as they are to be the framework for our focus on God’s plan. God wants us to continually focus on those things, to be inspired, moved, and motivated by what He’s doing, to be in awe of what He’s doing as we are able to experience and see these things through time and grow in understanding of these matters. And again, it’s about God’s plan of salvation for each of us and for all others. God tells us, actually, commands us to remember, to guard, to watch over these truths.

Well, before I begin, some people like a title on their page. This is Passover and Unleavened Bread.

There is something that I mentioned at the end of a series recently that’s led me to desire to repeat a statement that was made in the Unleavened Bread sermon I gave last year. The series I’m referring to was entitled The City of Truth. A truth was referred to at the end of that series and a statement was made just before reading that truth. This is it: “This next truth, and the last we will cover for this series, is to me quite sobering because it is witness that many do not grasp well this truth, and why it is true.” Number 37. That’s the one we’re going to look at.

37 (16) The remnant of God’s Church from Laodicea has been given the greatest proof ever of Joshua the Christ perfectly fulfilling all the symbolism contained in the entire Passover day of Abib the 14th. [Incredible!] Ever since the 1970s there have been ministers throughout the Church teaching that Christ fulfilled some aspects of Passover on the 15th day of Abib and not on the 14th (which was when the Israelites observed Passover [obviously]). Mr. Armstrong taught that this teaching of the 15th was false…

Isn’t that amazing? It was written in the book about the Holy Days, and he makes it very plain. I think the one heading even is 14th or 15th. It’s like, why couldn’t everyone in the Worldwide Church of God through all that period of time understand and grasp this is God’s apostle, he is the one that is restoring truth, if you will, to the Church? And we have that belief. We understood that since Sardis and what God was doing through him. To hold on to something that is so simple and so plain about Passover!

And yet I think of all the ministers who have gone through Ambassador College, who went out and because of one evangelist at headquarters that was teaching this stuff, and they held it inside themselves in their heart that that evangelist was correct. So, in some cases, they didn’t openly teach it in the sense of sermons and the like, but they held on to it because that’s what they believed. They didn’t believe God’s apostle. They didn’t believe what was written there that’s so simple to prove.

Three basic scriptures! Three basic scriptures is all you really need. Now God has given us a lot more because of some of the thinking and ideas that people have when they try to cram them down other people’s throats about the fifteenth. And you think, why couldn’t people accept that? It just shows a continual thing that’s happened in God’s Church over and over and over again.

What’s in us? What’s in us? What do we believe? God not only wants to give us the truth, He wants to refine it within us and to build upon it. That’s what we go through constantly, continually. It’s a process that’s exciting, really, inspiring when God builds upon it and adds more to it, and we see more. Every time God gives something more it just makes it so much clearer, that plan, that purpose, and it’s so much more inspiring and uplifting.

And yet I marvel at others who began to raise themselves up. People who wouldn’t come and listen and sit at the feet of God’s apostle in that huge auditorium, that beautiful auditorium that was dedicated to God, to God’s service. Instead, they would sit in their own homes and whatever, I don’t know, maybe in their pajamas, I don’t know, I wouldn’t be surprised. Even if they did listen because I don’t believe that all of them did all the time when he was giving a bible study or even a sermon.

But during bible studies, they weren’t there. I remember the one prerecorded sermon went out and he asked, “Where are all the ministers?” He saw one that was way in the back and then he said something else according to that, for those of you who remember that. But think, what happens? What’s wrong? Do people get to a point where they just become familiar? Which is what happened. “He’s getting older.” “He’s getting older.”

And toward the end, it’s always, “He’s talking about those two trees again. Let’s not go because he’s just going to talk about the two trees again.” I can just hear it. Incredible! And you think, sad, sad, sad, sick, sick, sick.

Mr. Armstrong taught that this teaching of the 15th was false, yet it continues today. Along with fulfilling the symbolism of the Passover lamb, Joshua also fulfilled the symbolism of the Passover sacrifices performed by the Levitical priesthood on the afternoon of the Passover.

That wasn’t even understood in Worldwide. It wasn’t grasped that Christ fulfilled all those things, that which happened in the day and that which happened in the night. It’s like, “Why did he have to die in the afternoon later on?” Then the thing of the Passover sacrifices and they began to get all these things all confused and messed up. And you think, the Passover sacrifices it’s referring to is so simple. Yet it’s like there is this door that just slams shut that people can’t see the simplicity of certain things unless it’s God’s time and God just gives it. Then it’s so clear. That’s why I love the title of the magazine The Plain Truth because when God is working with your mind to see that which is spiritual it’s so plain, so clear, so evident.

And so, you think of the Passover sacrifices. This is why the Jews got mixed up too. They messed up the things about the Passover lamb on the night of the fourteenth with the preparation for the Passover day sacrifices that would be there for the High Day. As soon as the sun goes down they’re going to celebrate. They’re going to have all kinds of sacrifices… they’re going to have all kinds of food deep into the night. That’s what they did. They started killing animals. The scriptures make it really clear they killed cattle as well.

And you think, “Well, now wait a minute. So, that can’t be the Passover then can it?” Duh. Because God says it’s a lamb or a goat, you know, young. But it’s not a cow! It’s not a bull! So, just those words alone ought to help people understand what the Passover sacrifices are. It’s that which is going to be offered as soon as the sun goes down, but the killing of them had to start in the afternoon. A lot of work! Incredible!

I get riled up when I go through these things and see the simplicity of what God has given and what people have done to the truth. It’s just so frustrating.

So, reading it again, I may get through this paragraph yet.

…Joshua also fulfilled the symbolism of the Passover sacrifices performed by the Levitical priesthood on the afternoon of Passover, before the beginning of the 15th. This daylight portion of the 14th, which contains great meaning for what Joshua fulfilled, has not been fully understood. All of what Joshua the Christ fulfilled took place “between the two evenings…”

I think, two places in scripture where this expression is used, “between the two evenings.” Because he had to fulfill what was happening in the night and he had to fulfill what was happening in the daylight portion of Passover as well. He fulfilled it all! That’s why God is so specific. I love it. God is so specific about things leaving nothing to question. It’s there. It’s plain. It’s clear.

“Bane ha erebyim,” between the two evenings. We used to think in the Church (because God hadn’t given us that yet), that between the two evenings was between the moment, in essence, that you see the sun disappear, but it’s not dark yet. So, when it gets totally dark it’s between those two evenings. Now, that totally dark one, I don’t know how you really measure that. Going out and looking, “Yep, it’s totally dark now!” Duh. How can you do that? But when the sun goes down, that’s clear. When it goes down again it’s clear again: “Between the two evenings.”

All of what Joshua the Christ fulfilled took place “between the two evenings in the night of the 14th and in the day of the 14th, and not on any part of the 15th.

Beautiful! So, I think of after the Apostasy this was the focus of God’s Church. It was the strongest thing in essence that we’ve ever been given concerning proof that the fifteenth, you know, it’s not there. More proof about the fourteenth. We had to have that because there were so many out there, so many in the group that we had associated with for a time, calling themselves United, which was far from it. But so many of the ministry there believed in the 14/15th Passover, and they were starting to teach it now because they had a little bit of freedom because they didn’t have to worry about what headquarters might say.

I’ll tell you what, we have been through some battles. That’s what makes us stronger. That is what makes us able to be used by God in a more powerful way. We’re being trained for very specific things. Not everyone has had to go through these things in the last two thousand years to the degree and to the level God’s Church has at this point in time. I’m very thankful for that, for what’s being molded and fashioned up here. Beautiful what God does to us and gives to us.

So, it was this Truth #37 at the end of that series entitled, The City of Truth, that has moved me to repeat a statement that was made in the Unleavened Bread sermon from last year. This is the quote: “The entire plan of God [we know this] cannot be seen in truth unless there is one primary element understood from the very beginning. And over the last two eras of God’s Church many have tried to pollute, alter, and discredit this truth.” Why? Satan would love to destroy everything that God gives. What better than to attack that particular day, the beginning of God’s plan? Because you can’t go forward into the fulfillment and the meaning of the other Holy Days unless that day is set and absolute in your life, the Passover. Beautiful! Awesome!

So again, this is about the very beginning of God’s plan. Let’s take a look at that. Leviticus 23. We constantly go there. It’s always inspiring, always uplifting. The day it begins sounding like the two trees you’re gone. The day you spiritually begin to think it sounds like the two trees, “Well, we hear this every…” A matter of fact, we hear it more. We hear it more than a couple of times in a year because it’s repeated pretty much every Holy Day! It just starts sounding like the two trees. “We know it all. Why do we need to hear it again?” Because God says we do. And for those who are filled with God’s spirit, you know what? It's inspiring! It’s exciting that we see such a thing!

The world doesn’t see it and grasp it, so why doesn’t it move us spiritually? If we’re not moved spiritually something is wrong with us and we’ve got to cry out to God, “Strengthen me! Help me to be moved spiritually by Your word always!” There is no excuse that we aren’t moved by and inspired by the word of God. There is life in it and that life is the life of God the Father and Joshua the Christ living and dwelling within us. It’s the power of the holy spirit. And if we start quenching that power and that spirit, we’re not that moved and motivated then, we’re not that excited when we hear certain things.

I’m sorry, and I’m not, but I think of the battles we go through. Whew! How hard it is, the fight. You never give up. But so many do and that’s what hurts.

Leviticus 23:4—These are the “feasts,” the appointed times. Just to know that, that it’s not about “feasts,” it’s the appointed times that God has set aside. …of the LORD, even holy convocations. They’re holy because God’s presence is in the day and God’s presence, especially for God’s people, those who are begotten of His holy spirit in the Church, to be in them more powerfully on that day.

“Holy,” that’s what makes it holy, the convening of God’s people. Now, some even today listening on Mixlr or maybe watching on YouTube are by themselves, and they’re not by themselves. They’re convening because it’s a holy convocation. On a spiritual plane, they’re convening before God Almighty and they’re wanting to hear and to listen to what God is giving. Incredible!

It’s a holy convocation, which you shall proclaim in their appointed times. It’s amazing how they changed the words. You think, was that done on purpose, to put down “feasts?” Well, a lot of it is done by stupidity and ignorance and they think they know what it’s talking about, and they don’t have the foggiest idea (speaking of translators), because they don’t have God’s spirit.

And “seasons.” Why did they use “seasons” in one sentence here and “feasts” in another? Why didn’t they just call it what the word means? Well, we know why.

Verse 5—The fourteenth day of the first month at even, bane ha erebyim, “between the two evenings,” is the Eternal’s Passover, Yahweh’s Passover. It all begins there. It can’t be between any other two evenings. It’s between the two evenings of the fourteenth. Now, this isn’t rocket science. There are two evenings having to do with the fourteenth. Duh! I mean DUH, DUH, DUH, DUH! The beginning and the end!

Verse 6—The fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It’s not Passover. And when does the fifteenth start? At the second part of those two evenings. When the sun goes down the Passover is over, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins. So plain, isn’t it? So simple if you have God’s spirit, if you’re not quenching the spirit of God. Otherwise, it becomes like two trees, “Two trees!”

I marvel at that one, I really do, when people in the church start talking about, “Is he going to talk about anything else besides those two trees?” Now, that’s when somebody kind of really needs a bit of a slap on the side of their head. I mean, enough to spin them around type of thing. Wake up! Smell the roses! I could say some more, but I’ll stop. I’d like to anyway.

Seven days you are to eat unleavened bread. And so, someone comes along just before the Apostasy and says, “Well, it means that if you’re going to eat bread it should be unleavened.” That’s not what it says here. It doesn’t say, “You can eat unleavened bread on two days and then on the third day if you don’t want to have any, that’s fine. Then on the fourth day, if you’re going to eat bread and you eat it, make sure it’s unleavened.”

No, it says, “Seven days you are to eat unleavened bread.” So, we do it every day! Beautiful! Because seven is important to understand, what it means. It has to do with that which is complete as far as God’s plan is concerned. Seven days. The weekly cycle. Seven annual Holy Days. Seven thousand years. On and on it goes. This has great spiritual meaning in it in that respect.

So, what does that mean? It means when you’re called, and you are to come out of Egypt spiritually, you’re to get rid of the leaven out of your lives. You don’t do it just for a certain amount of time and then all of a sudden you’re not eating that which is unleavened. If you’re not eating that which is unleavened in real life what are you doing?

So, it shows this is the way our life is to be the entire period of time, fighting to be unleavened every day of your life. Incredible!

The first day, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no servile work. But you shall bring, “come forth with” is what it is, it’s not the word “offer,” it means bring/come forth with an offering, now it gets specific, made by fire. “Made by fire.”

We learn from that then on a spiritual plane, that what we offer up before God is a matter of that which is tried and tested through fire and hardship, and we willingly choose to go through that. We willingly want, we desire to go through whatever it takes to grow, to change, to become more convicted of God’s way of life.

And it’s hard. It’s hard for self, for our human spirit, for our nature, for our selfish nature. It’s hard. It’s not easy. But what a beautiful thing as we’re able to change and be transformed in our thinking because of this process. Because it takes hardship and trials of life to change.

You know, if God intervened every time we had a problem, just took care of us every moment, “Don’t worry, I got that covered.” God lets us go through and experience things. Just like, to me, the most important thing I do in one year is the Passover service in the sense of God’s people, conducting that, because of all that it means. I felt bad afterward because to me it was just such a poor job. Now, I could say it’s allergies and all that, but it happened and yes, weakness of body, and when I get through that, it’s a weakness of mind.

Anybody that experienced that down in Bowling Green knows. Well, they weren’t saying, “You’re out of your mind!” But when I went up there to the computer to shut it down I couldn’t. That’s how much it affected me. I couldn’t save the system because I didn’t know what to do. Thankfully, my wife was there constantly telling me to get outside. So, I got outside and started breathing fresh air.

We’re physical human beings. Amazing! Now, God could have prevented all those things from ever happening, but He doesn’t. He lets us experience them. He lets us go through them because we can be strengthened through those kinds of things.

I’m just talking about something minor there, but when it’s a matter of things that we go through that are hard and difficult and it hurts in the mind to deal with, and we have to weigh things out. Well, because of those moments we have to make choices, and sometimes it’s the most important choices of life that we have to make when we’re going through the fire, but we’re willing to do it.

That’s what this is about, this is what we’re to bring forth to God constantly in our life, to become unleavened. See, this is something for seven days, but it pictures something of a lifetime for us. We go through the entire process desiring to be unleavened, coming out of sin, have no leavening in our life. I’m sorry, we want to become unleavened; we don’t want to have any leavening in our lives at all. We want to get rid of the sin. We battle at that. We choose to battle at that.

We want that no matter it might hurt at times. Because it’s good when this hurts, self hurts, in that respect, bringing it into subjection to God, making the right choices and decisions when those times come.

I think of the Apostasy. It was one of the greatest fires ever in God’s Church as far as a trial is concerned. I think of the choices people were making right and left quickly, and it wasn’t a pretty sight.

But you shall bring an offering made by fire unto the Eternal seven days. So, we’re to do it all the time! We’re to be of that attitude and spirit toward God all the time! That’s what this is about.

The seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall do no servile work in it.

So again, we’re mightily blessed to understand the spiritual meaning of this Holy Day season, of every Holy Day season. This is amplified when we consider the ability that God has given us to see clearly those things that are of the spirit. Because we can’t hold on to those things, we can’t even begin to know them unless God’s spirit draws us. Then we make choices about baptism and desiring the impregnation then of His holy spirit so that that life can be in us all the time, and to begin fighting that fight so that self really can be transformed and changed because it can’t be transformed and changed until that spirit is in there!

And so we make those choices and then we’re able to begin to grow and produce fruit in our life, change in how we think as we come into greater unity and agreement with God Almighty. And so, what an awesome thing, a blessing to understand those things that are revealed to our minds only through God’s spirit. We can’t know them otherwise.

That’s why I used to hate the expression when people talked about going out and proving certain things to themselves in scripture. It’s like, we can go through the concordance, and we can go through our Bible and prove it to ourselves. Baloney! It can’t be done without God’s spirit. If it’s God’s spirit then you’ll understand that you follow the guidelines, the direction of what we’ve already been given to build upon those things spiritually in order to grow, to see that they’re true.

But to prove it to ourselves like we can find something that’s wrong and then change it and do something different? We had a lot of that in God’s Church. And you know what? They’re all gone. They all left in time. Incredible! So again, this reminds me of what we read recently concerning what Christ said to the Jews who had no ability to grasp what he was saying.

John 8:29—Even He who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone. That had to mean a lot to him, to know that truth, that was true in his life. Because there wasn’t anything else around in that respect as far as God working with various things to bring about or to give truth at that particular time period. Here it was nearly four thousand years later, and you think, “He’s with me; He’s in me.”

The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please Him. Powerful! “Always do those things.” Unique. The Son of God.

As he spoke these words, many believed in/toward him, to what he was saying. Then Joshua said to those Jews who believed in him… It’s about him being the Messiah. It all goes back to whether he’s the Messiah or not because that’s what they were looking for. All the time until the day he marched into Jerusalem, and they started laying palms down before him and crying out about the son of David and so forth because they believed that he was the Messiah.

But they saw it on a physical plane in so many respects. They didn’t grasp the spiritual. They weren’t being given that. Some of those very likely did in the sense of Pentecost then, that God was working with, being drawn. But as far as the majority, it’s a matter of something that they were stirred up in and God was in part of that stirring them up. Because Christ said if they don’t do it the rocks will cry out. It’s going to happen by the power of God.

Again here, thinking about what Joshua was going through, what he was experiencing. I want to go back to this and go on. Then Joshua said to the Jews who believed in him… So again, it was a very physical thing in the sense of believing he’s the Messiah and come to take away the Roman rule or somehow he’s going to start ruling and the Romans aren’t going to anymore, and so they wanted to be relieved from that.

If you continue in my word. Awesome! If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples. So, he started giving things that would lead up to, finally, Passover and the things he would say on that particular night. They didn’t grasp what he was saying, “If you continue in…” “If you abide in…” “If you remain in…” “If you dwell in…” Then he reveals later on that Passover night by God living in us, by the power of God living in us, that’s what this is all about.

And you will know the truth. How? By God’s dwelling in us, by our ability to dwell in the truth. It’s on a spiritual plane. It’s something that only God can give. People can’t know the truth, can’t hold on to the truth without God’s spirit continually coming into their life. That’s the way it works. And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. It’s God’s truth that frees us from bondage more and more and more as we grow.

They responded to him, We are Abraham’s seed and were never in bondage to anyone. So, they took offense to some of this, “We’re not in bondage,” because they didn’t grasp what he was saying. Why? Because they didn’t have His spirit. They didn’t have God’s spirit working in them (I should say) at that point to understand what this meant, that to be in sin is a matter of being in bondage, that you have to come out of spiritual Egypt. They didn’t grasp those things so they went back to this thing of Abraham again because they could only see on a physical plane.

So, how can you say, You will be made free? Because they took offense. “We’re not in bondage! We’re free!”

Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is the servant of sin. You’re in bondage. So, when can you know that? Well, when you’re called by God.

Now, people can talk about and read certain things and say, “Well, this is sin and that’s sin, and the Ten Commandments, and that’s sin,” and you can look at certain things. But to understand it on a spiritual plane of things that people are one day when they’re called if they’re going to grow spiritually have to conquer and overcome through the power of God’s spirit? To understand spiritually, that’s another matter, to come out of sin.

We also recently covered some important scriptures that have much to do with the meaning of this Holy Day season. Romans 5:1—Therefore, being justified by, and literally here, because of faith. Because that’s about God’s grace and what He gives to us that is able to work in us.

It’s a powerful thing that we’re able to live by faith if we make the right choices. Because God gives us the ability to see the truth, to know the truth, the ability to believe it’s true. But it’s up to us whether we live it, whether we put it to practice, whether we’re going to produce fruit, which requires then more of God’s spirit in the sense of crying out to Him and praying for the ability to accomplish those things in our life that we’ve just recently been going through.

So again here, “Therefore, being justified by…” We’re justified because if we live by what we’re given to believe, which is our choice, and we ask for God’s help to do that, well, to do that faithfully, He blesses us and helps us to accomplish it. God counts that as righteousness to us. That’s how we’re justified. It’s not by how good we are, how great we are, how much we know, how intellectual we are, what we can figure out on our own. Because whatever we can figure out on our own is absolutely worthless. Might as well be flushed down the toilet, put your head in there.

Human beings, we’re so messed up until God calls us, and if we continue to be at one with God, if we continue to seek to be at one with God, He blesses us with more and more growth and more and more understanding that becomes more and more exciting.

Therefore, being justified because of faith we have peace with God. What a wonderful thing that there is a peace and a unity and a oneness there. That should be encouraging and uplifting to us.

…through our Lord Joshua the Christ. It continually mentions him in all these things because it begins with Passover. We have to have Passover constantly in our life. We constantly need to be able to be forgiven of sin. We constantly, because of our carnal human nature, have to go before God and ask for forgiveness of our sins. As we believe that and know that we’re forgiven. Awesome!

…because of whom also we have access to faith into this grace wherein we stand. So, this grace that God has given to us, the ability to be forgiven of sin, the truth that He gives us to see, to understand, the patience He has with us, the love He pours out, all these things are a matter of God’s grace.

“Wherein we stand.” We’re so blessed to stand in that, in a relationship with God Almighty. Peace before God. God loves peace. Jerusalem, City of Peace. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what God is building, a Family that’s filled with peace. Because what we experience as human beings is drama, drama, drama, drama, drama, drama, drama, drama, drama, drama. That’s what we experience because we’re carnal as human beings. We can’t help it.

And sadly, it’s so insane that some believe they have to have drama, that somehow this excites their life, and they want to share their drama with others. You know what? When I start hearing drama, turn down the dial, chill until there is no sound. Don’t want to hear it, don’t need it. No, thank you. Keep the drama to yourself. Don’t share it with others. You’re not helping them, you’re not encouraging them, you’re not uplifting to them, you’re just giving them a bunch of stuff that’s not pretty. It's just the opposite of peace, drama is.

Isn’t that an insane thing that human beings like? You turn on the TV, what is it? Drama. Some of these stupid shows they advertise! What is this one they do, about Jersey, New Jersey, whatever, and they bring in all these stupid people? They do. They bring in all these people, and people want to watch it. They get excited by it. “What are they going to do this week? What are they going to say?” “Who is going to get into this drama?” And it’s like people relish it. “I need some more drama in my life! I love this! I just love it.” “Whew, feels so good when I have some drama like that!” I mean, isn’t that insane? It really is nuts! Yet that’s the way human beings are.

I got so involved in the drama there I forgot where I was. See, that’s what it’ll do to you. It’ll mess you up.

Therefore, being justified because of grace, if you will, faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Joshua the Christ because of whom also we have access to faith unto the grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So, we get rid of the drama, we’re blessed to live in this way of life and have this peace. Those are the things you can rejoice in. Those are the things that give happiness and fulfillment of life, excitement of life.

And not only that, but we glory in tribulations. Not necessarily when we’re starting to go through them, but when we see what they’re doing in our life and we see the change that’s taking place up in the mind, and the closer relationship with God Almighty when it’s done right. It’s beautiful.

I’ve said many of times, and I mean it with all my being, I wouldn’t trade any of the hardships I’ve ever gone through in the Church for anything. There’s not enough money in the world. It doesn’t matter. God’s way matters, the truth matters, our ability to change and become a part of the God Family, that’s what matters. The short life we have on earth, it’s a means to an end depending on how we respond to God and use it. Because to live forever at peace in God’s Family, that’s what it’s about.

Someone sent me (from here), sent me a thing on YouTube about the universe. It was really uplifting this morning. I watched part of that, went through it, and this guy was talking about how vast it is and gave a lot of different examples of things that our minds just can’t comprehend.

Then he started talking about Hubble, what an incredible breakthrough that has been, to be able to see farther out into the universe. Then he put a little piece of sand on his finger and said the Hubble is like putting this piece of sand up there and looking out because the Hubble is only looking in one part of the universe. And if you think about all around the earth, and yet there is just that vastness, and then you have this one little line going out there, that’s what they’re looking at! That in itself is so vast!

It ended with part of it talking about how it’s indeed the stars, the galaxies, the things that are out there, if you knew them all, had them all, more than the grains of the sand on the earth here, sand of the sea. Anyway, I thought it was well put in that respect.

But we’re so puny. We’re so little. But I think, it’s out there for us! God created it for His Family! The angels rejoiced when they saw that God began to create and have things of creation in His plan and purpose for everything that’s out there.

We can’t begin to grasp what it means of what we’re going to be doing. It’s there for a purpose, and it’ll be exciting beyond your comprehension, of what God planned for us to be a part of and what we’re going to be doing. Our puny little minds can’t grasp it at all right now. You have to be spirit to begin to grasp it.

Going on here, “We glory in tribulation also.” Like I said, not at the moment but later on. …knowing that tribulation works patience, and this is important. What it says here is important and it’s not translated very well, but it has more meaning to it once we grasp the full meaning of what it’s saying here.

…and patience, experience. You know, you can’t give experience to anyone of God’s way of life, of what we’re living. It’s something you have to go through yourself in order to become even more deeply convicted of God and God’s way of life and God’s purpose in one’s life.

…and patience, experience, and experience, hope. Hope is a beautiful thing. It’s amazing how we have incredible hope of things that are in front of us, even soon. Our hope is the sooner the better to clean up this world.

So, we’re going to pause here just a little bit and think about this word “patience” and what it really means. It seems that this is too often associated mainly with the idea of impatience, when that’s really not the primary focus of this word at all, of impatience – for something we want to happen more quickly, such as being in a long line at a check-out, or it used to be. It’s not so much anymore because they have these things where you can do it yourself. I love it. You can go in there and find it because it’s easier to get an open space. But if you have to wait for the big ones, why bother? Just do it ourselves. So, things move more quickly. Then in traffic, another favorite of most people. When you get in traffic and it’s really slow. A lot of people just think about impatience and patience there and so forth and this has a lot more meaning to it in what it’s telling us as far as God’s way of life. It truly does.

The word is actually derived from a compound word that gives a better grasp of what’s supposed to be conveyed in the idea here when it is quoted as patience. There is another word they really should put with it every time in order to really appreciate it more fully.

Let’s notice Luke 2, a place where it’s translated without any idea of patience. It doesn’t use the word patience at all. But it just helps to show a little more here as we go forward here.

Luke 2:42—Now, when he was twelve years old—talked about that here recently—they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the Feast. When they had finished/fulfilled the days, as they returned, the boy Joshua lingered behind. It’s that same word “lingered behind,” or “tarried behind” as it says in the King James, in Jerusalem. And Joseph and his mother didn’t know it. I get a charge out of that one there. It’s like, probably with some of the same ones and this line of people that are going to other places and he’s there, and then where is he?

So, keeping in mind that the word carries with it the idea, again, of “staying or remaining behind,” or “staying under,” as the word is used in the Greek language, it’s something that is important to grasp here in the meaning of it. That’s why such expressions such as “patient endurance” or “patiently enduring” under something, in other words. This is what it’s conveying, is the word, when you talk about “patience” in the context of some of the things it’s talking about. But you can’t do it without the word “endurance.” It’s supposed to be a part of it, the thought and the thinking in this respect.

Now, what he was talking about, it’s only used because of very clearly what happened there, what he was doing remaining behind or remaining under. It’s just if you look at other Greek words there, it shows that this one here has those accounts too if it’s used in that context. But most of the time in scripture it has to do with this, “patient endurance,” “enduring patiently.”

It’s not just about patience and being impatient. It’s about enduring impatience in this way of life, for what God has placed before us. That takes work. It takes thought. It’s a process. As it says here, “Tribulation works patient endurance.” It’s hard! But you understand the value of it and you’re willing to go under or suffer with whatever it is to get where you’re going, and it takes time to get through it.

So, yes, patience, time, endurance, enduring it. A willingness to suffer for the right reasons, to enter into Christ’s sufferings, all these expressions sometimes that we find in scripture. This is what it’s talking about here. It’s this thinking in our minds that we’re willing to go through the hard times, the difficult things, whatever it is, because we can grow in that. All these things here that we can grow in and be molded and fashioned by God in and how one thing develops another as it says here.

Yes, hardship, tribulation – patient endurance is something you need. Because you know what, we’re in this until the end! There isn’t a time when you’re going to take a break for a year like I told about here not too long ago. Somebody wanted a year off! I can guarantee when the year is over they’re not going to come back. They’re not going to want it. “Well, I did it! I went out there on my own for the year and I am ready to come back! I am supercharged!” No, you’re super weak now because you cut yourself off from God, from the Sabbath and the Holy Days, from food that God was giving Sabbath by Sabbath. And what do you have? You have nothing. You have nothing. You threw it all away. Needed a year off. Pow. That’s about as effective, the end result. Sad. Choices, choices, choices that are constantly before us.

You didn’t want to patiently endure another year, whatever it is you might have to go through because of hard decisions you have to make in some of the things you’re doing in order to obey God? So, what does that mean, a year off? “Got some things out here I gotta do that really don’t fit into the Church and obeying God.” That’s what it comes down to.

I don’t understand. I do understand, and it’s hard. It’s hard, it’s hard, it’s hard. You can only work on self. There is no one else you can take into God’s Kingdom into God’s Family. It’s our choice, our individual choice, and it’s up to us to fight, to be willing to go through tribulation, to go through hardship, to keep at the task, to patiently keep fighting and enduring whatever comes our way as we’re in this human flesh. Who wants to stop that? Who wants to quit? I don’t! This is our life. We live a short physical life to determine life eternal – everlasting, if you will. It’s not eternal, but it’s everlasting from then on. How can we compare?

God offers us this little, short time, whatever that is in our lifetime, until our change can come or until we die and are able to be resurrected and to be there forever and ever into the future. Is that precious to us? Do we want it? Do we fight for it? Individual choices for every person.

So again here, beautiful scripture when we grasp some of the things that are said.

Romans 5:3—Not only that, but we glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patient endurance, because you’ve got to have it. Every time that you endure something patiently that you’re going through because you’re looking to God for help to know what it’s about, to know how to handle it, to know how to deal with it, to make the right choices and decisions along that course. Because everything is about choices and decisions, and you keep at the fight. That’s what this is about.

…and patience, experience. Because God can’t pump this into your mind. You’ve got to experience certain things because it develops things in the mind that is a matter of your conviction and your relationship with God Almighty, and the strength and the power that God can give to you in life, fruit and so forth.

…and experience, hope. It just makes it stronger and stronger. We know what’s coming. Hope. We look forward to it. Hope. We know that Christ is going to return soon. We know it. Hope for this world.

So, to come out of bondage, to come out of sin is not a one-time experience, it’s lifelong. For seven days you’re to eat unleavened bread. That’s a battle because this mind up here – selfish. You have to come out of sin, and you have to fight it constantly. It’s a continuing battle that requires patient endurance, a willingness to go through whatever we have to go through in order to grow, a persistent perseverance, a real steadfastness if you will. It’s really about the name of Israel. Perseverance. I want that name. I want to be a part of that Family. Everyone can only choose that and decide that themselves.

Romans 5:8—But God commends His love… I love what this word “commend” is fully in the Greek. It means “standing together with.” Standing together with – God commends/standing together with His love. Beautiful. Agape. …toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God.

So, meaning that our carnal human nature resists God. It fights against God until God begins to draw us, humble us, whatever it takes in order to begin to work with us to call us. That’s why the world has to be humbled in a massive way in order to usher in the Kingdom of God, the rule of Christ on this earth. Mankind has to be humbled and go through the worst times of all human history in order to knock the kind of haughtiness and pride that exists out of there out of people.

Those who want to keep fighting and those who want to keep resisting, it’s not going to take too long in the Millennium to take care of that. It’s going to be destroyed. People who resist God, God’s not going to allow it in the sense of things that they’re going to not obey.

If it has to do with the Feast of Tabernacles, and He said they won’t come up, they’re going to have choices. If they don’t come up, they’re going to suffer; they’re going to have hardship come upon them. It’s going to hurt them, their life. And if they still won’t come up, they’re going to die. That’s what He says. Just paraphrasing it. They’re going to be put to death.

God is not playing games. His Son is going to reign with great power, a beautiful time. One truth, religion, one truth in the world. One judicial system that’s right and knows, knows everything that happens. It won’t be any doubt if someone kills somebody. It’s going to happen. Different things that people choose to do they’re going to know. Not a matter of sitting down in court in the world and it depends on mankind’s abilities. It’s not about justice in the court system. It’s about winning, each side, and whatever they have to do to.

Some of the things going on today, it’s just revealing more and more how horrible it really is, how lacking it truly is. But in the world we’re coming into in the Millennium, 144,000 and one. The 144,000 will be working with so many of these things, and it’s going to be quick, going to be carried out quick. It’s not going to be carried out for years and years and years and years.

But God commends/standing together with His love toward us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Beautiful when you know what this is about.

It’s by his life that’s able to live in us. Now God the Father and Joshua the Christ could dwell in us. It’s that life that can dwell in us. That’s how we’re saved. To be able to be forgiven of sin so that we can continue moving forward in God’s plan and God’s purpose, so that God will continue to mold and fashion this mind and transform the way we think so that one day we can actually be born into His Family. That’s what this is about.

Now, not only that, but we also joy in God through our Lord Joshua the Christ, through whom we have now received the atonement. There is nothing more beautiful. Like the expression we use for Atonement – at one with God, in essence. To become at one, to be in agreement. What an awesome thing that we can go from carnal human nature, to fighting and resisting at times, and then growing and then come to that, those moments in time of our calling and being in the Church that we come into greater agreement. Because it has to happen in the mind. We’re the only ones that can have this happen, each one of us by our choices. To want to be in agreement at one with God. Not to disagree with anything but to agree with everything that God gives and to seek to have that in our thinking.

That’s why I think of what I said earlier about Herbert Armstrong and some of those who didn’t believe what he wrote about the 14/15 Passover. They weren’t in agreement! And because of that sin in their life they couldn’t grow. They were around the Church for years and years and years and years, and there were some who were as high as you could go in the sense of being under Herbert Armstrong as evangelists, and they were out there doing things. Not of God but had this framework of knowledge of how to work within the church, but they weren’t in the Church! They didn’t have God’s spirit working in them.

Some of them lived a lie for decades and God allowed it. Do you want to know why? So we could experience it, so we could learn from it, so we could become more convicted, at one with God to understand it doesn’t matter the size of the Church – it could be in the millions (and then you’ve really got problems) – but the size we were, even there, couldn’t control it, couldn’t make it be at one in doctrine that was taught.

Just because somebody went to Ambassador College doesn’t mean they’re going to go out and faithfully teach it. And too often we found then that because of carnal human nature we begin to get lifted up, human beings, by our own understanding and thinking about certain things and begin to distort, to change, to read into scripture of things that were never learned at Ambassador College. Then you realize, huh, we can’t trust in that; it leads to an apostasy.

That’s why God let us experience that. To understand what Herbert Armstrong taught from the very beginning, God Almighty revealed there can only be one who is trusted – Him. Then His Son was brought into being at one with Him. Then others can be brought into unity and oneness with Him. They have to be of Elohim, truly at one with God Almighty, and 144,000, they can be trusted.

Mankind can’t be. As long as we’re human beings, even with God’s spirit, we cannot be trusted. That’s the way it is. Those are the lessons. Unless you faithfully follow God, seek to obey God, yield to God, whatever God is doing in your life, that you continue to repent and change. Even in that there is a limit. Because what is our history?

That’s why I am so thankful that we have the technology we do today. God has blessed us with this in order to have a unity and a oneness that we really haven’t experienced in God’s Church. Greater ability to be on top of everything so that nothing comes along that begins to be taught that’s wrong.

I think of things that have happened since all this began up in the Toledo area, and then Detroit, and then growing. Small but growing because it’s about what God is doing. Different ones who came along and got up here. Someone got up and started preaching about a movie he had seen, The Passion of Christ. I came really close to throwing up right there on the spot. Like, gag!

You want to fill your mind with that kind of garbage, that kind of protestantism? That’s not the Church of God! We don’t believe that garbage! You want to put that in your mind and then think about God that way, think about Christ that way because of some stupid movie that’s so far off base it’s not even funny? “Oh, but some of the things they taught were so good. It gave me a better understanding of what he went through.” I’m sorry, but I can’t help myself. So, I had to get up and correct some of that. This happened a lot of times, not just a few.

What a blessing it would have been if Herbert Armstrong had already been part of Elohim and just could go around and know exactly what’s happening with all the ministers. “Hey!” and show up right there in services as they began to teach something wrong. “Hey! You did not learn that! Where did you learn that? Where did you come up with that cockamamy idea and you’re telling God’s people that right now? Shut your mouth. You’re fired!”

But that isn’t what happened. We had to go through the experience to become more deeply convicted that only God can be trusted when it’s all said and done. We go through a lot to get where we’re growing.

Colossians 1:12. Incredible picture, Passover, coming out of Egypt, coming out of sin, this life-long process of what we’re to do, how we’re able to do it. Beautiful things that God has revealed to the minds of a few through time.

Colossians 1:12—Giving thanks unto the Father who has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Our inheritance, what we’re going to receive, what God plans for us. Is there something else we want? I’m left speechless sometimes to think we want something different, or we don’t want to hold on to what we see and know.

Who has delivered us from the power of darkness. That’s what God offers us, “to be delivered from the power of darkness,” to no longer be in ignorance, to no longer be swayed by human thinking which is based on selfishness, to be able to see what is true and to grasp it and hold on to it, seek to live it and change and grow in the mind.

Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love. Agape. We can begin to experience it in our life. We can begin to live it in our life because of God’s spirit. The more God’s spirit is in us the more we can live that toward others.

…in whom we have redemption, in other words, the payment in order to be released, which is his death, the ability then to be forgiven of sin. That was the payment. We can’t pay for it. Nothing we can do in that sense when it comes to sin. It has to be paid. This is the way it’s paid for, through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

Who is the image… Literally in the Greek, it means “the portrait,” or “the picture of” if you will, “as a representation” of the invisible God. Same mind. Unity and oneness, absolute as he is on this earth.

Those scriptures we read on Passover night, the things in John 14, which to me, again, are the most powerful, most awesome things that ever have been revealed to human beings. That God Almighty can dwell in us. That Joshus the Christ can dwell in us and we can dwell in them. There is nothing more beautiful.

Then what God gave us not too long back, that that’s God’s purpose, that in time when we’re in Elohim He will dwell in us forever. Because it’s a spiritual thing. It’s the power of the mind and the spirit of God. Our minds being at one with God always. No carnal thinking. No disagreement. No jealousies. No envying. On and on it goes.

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. The firstborn of all creation. The first to enter Elohim.

Verse 16—For by/through him were all things created. That’s God’s plan. He is the chief cornerstone. Everything is built upon him and what he’s going to do. …that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers.

All things were created because of him. It’s not “by,” it’s the word that means literally “because of him.” That was God’s plan from the beginning before anything was ever created, anything. We can’t comprehend that. …and for, or as it is for the purpose, if you will, the purpose for him.

Even he is before all things, and by/in through him all things consist. It’s a word that literally means (compound), it’s “together with” in the sense of standing: “Together with; to stand together.”

Even he is the head of the Body, the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in all things he might have the pre-eminence. God’s plan for His Son. The only one who was to ever be His literal Son in the sense of being born in a woman, physical human being, but God the Father truly being the Father.

Verse 19—For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. We don’t really grasp that verse. We can strive to to the degree of what’s really here because it’s so powerful and so all-inclusive of what it’s talking about. …should all fullness dwell . . . and having made peace through the blood of his being nailed on a pole by/because of him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him whether things in earth, or things in heaven.

Verse 21—So you who were, it says “some time,” but it’s the word “formerly,” so you who were formally alienated/excluded and enemies in your mind by evil works, yet now has he reconciled. So again, we understand this process. God makes it very clear that as long as we live in sin we’re against His way, we’ll fight against His way. Human beings do; they don’t want it. Until we’re humbled and God begins to draw us and call us so He can give us then of truth in our minds, and then we have to make choices of whether or not we want this.

But again here, to understand what we’re like as carnal human beings, and as we read earlier “to be enemies of.” It says it here, “and enemies in your mind by evil works.” …in the body of his flesh through death, to present—to stand beside—to present you holy, blameless, beyond reproach in His sight if…if you continue, “if you stay” as the word is, which is to continue, if you stay in the faith. So, so many people, so many people. Everyone has to make their own choices. But this thing of once having been an enemy to God’s way of life and then God forgives us of our sins, but to go back to that, to being an enemy of God, to being anti – against Christ? Hard to understand choices human beings are willing to make sometimes.

That’s why we’ve been talking about you cannot let up, you have to be on guard, you have to desire this way of life, you have to fight for this way of life, you have to cry out to God, to pray to God constantly day by day that you want to produce fruit in your life, that you want to be at one with Him. And if we don’t follow through and do the things we know we’re supposed to do then we’re not treasuring this and wanting it to the degree that we have to want it in order to become a part of God’s Family. To going back to being against God again, to become antichrist. It’s so foreign.

If you continue in the faith, grounded and settled. Grounded! So many become ungrounded, just let it go. Because you can’t do it on your own, it has to be done by God. That’s why this series we’ve been going through fits so well with what we’re going through in Passover and then this, the Days of Unleavened Bread and what we’re addressing.

If you stay in the faith grounded and settled, and not be moved away from the hope of the good news, what God has given to us, which is about the beginning with His Passover with His Son. And if we don’t treat that with awe and gratitude and thankfulness, what awaits us?

…which you have heard, and which was preached to all creation, as it is, in/through all creation which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. So again, to those whom God is calling, and as it goes out into the future, more and more.

But that’s why I marvel how we used to have this concept of the Millennium, and concept, especially of the Last Great Day – it’s like a utopia. Not at all. That’s why there are a lot more than 144,000 needed to be ruling in God’s Family, to be in God’s Family when the Great White Throne takes place. Need a lot more in the God Family in order to deal with what’s going to be resurrected because there are going to be a whole lot of them—not just a few—who don’t want God, who want to continue on with the way they had lived before!

They’re going to want to make drugs because “I loved it,” whatever pleasure they get out of that, you know. And drink alcohol. Fornication. Adultery. Human beings that have lived that all their life, sometimes their minds just become set in that. They’re not going to want God.

Maybe for us in God’s Church, it’s hard to understand. The longer you’ve been in God’s Church maybe the harder it is to understand. But that is the carnal mind and so we can choose the carnal mind, the way we want things to be, or the way God says it should be and say, “Yeah, that’s right. That’s what I want. That’s what’s best in order to have peace.”

Because I treasure peace. I’ll tell you, because I hate drama! I can’t tell you much how much I hate drama. Don’t want to hear it! People can’t get along in God’s Church – drama, drama, drama – evil. It’s evil. It’s totally opposite of what we’re told on Passover night! We’re to love the Church, the Body of Christ, which means everyone in the Body.

Now, not everyone who attends church is in the Body. I’ll just say that. It never has been that way in God’s Church. There’s only one time it’s going to be that way in God’s Church and that’s at the very end when the cleansing is done. I hope we understand that. So, just because someone attends Sabbath services doesn’t mean that they’re in God’s Church! But you’re to treat them in that manner until God reveals something else. You’re to love them, to be patient, to be caring, not to be harsh in judgment. But if God reveals something else as time goes along then we accept and receive that as well. It's not easy.

I’m going to be honest with you. I am wearied in this job. I’m wearied. I have conversations with God, and I know it has to be done. I don’t like this portion of it, when people choose not to continue on. Want a year off. You think, you’re going to get more than that, I’m sorry. You’re going to die before the Millennium. You’re not going to be allowed to live into it.

But you didn’t listen, you didn’t believe it. You think something else is true. That’s your choice. But you’re going to find out; you’re going to become a believer. Because when you wake up naked from your resurrection you’re going to be humbled and “Ahhhh!” That’s why people are going to be resurrected naked. They’re not going to be resurrected wearing clothes. What is that some of us are wearing over there? I’m not going to mention the name. And you’re there in your altogether and it’s going to be a humbling experience.

“You were dead. You died 3250 years ago, okay? A lot has changed.” All the people who are resurrected? Amazing! But one day everybody is going to know that God Almighty is God Almighty and that His Son Joshua is indeed His Son and is almighty and powerful because God has given him that in His Family, to bring all things into subjection to him. Beautiful!

Again, just being honest. It’s wearisome. It’s hard. It gets to the point where I have to fight against trust, trusting others. You’re afraid to get too close almost. I can understand why some doctors sometimes have this thing of distance between patients because they get hurt so many times in trying to help people and save lives and they get invested in it and it rips them apart sometimes. And so, people become more distant.

I have to ask for help in that, not to let that happen in God’s Church. Because who is going to betray me next? Who is going to betray you next? Because they betray us all. Who? Who? Who?

Because, brethren, I am telling you there are more who are not living this way of life; they’re living a lie! Why? Why, why, why? I don’t know who they are, all of them. Some I have suspicion of. Because it keeps getting cleansed, the Body does, and I see things that are telltale signs, and so I strive to stay more alert and ready. If I need to step in, I’ll step in. Then some things catch you off guard.

We’re either living this way of life all the time, day in and day out or we’re not. And if we’re not we’re living a lie and we’ll not be blessed in it. It’s as simple as that. I’m going to be so thankful when we get on the other side of this where I have the ability in a better way to deal with human nature. That’s why I even marvel more at the patience God has with us because I know the patience He’s had with me. He gives us all opportunity to change and to grow, to conquer and to overcome.

But you can only ensure this in your individual response to God Almighty. You can’t bring anyone else into God’s Kingdom. You can’t give it to anyone. You’ve got to want it with all your being and love it and be willing to go through the suffering and realizing there are going to be so many who just never choose it and never want it when it’s all said and done. That’s gut-wrenching. It’s hard. It rips you apart inside. But it’s the truth. It’s the reality of it. It’s hard to live.

I’ll just share with you a little bit more. I call it a “manly cry” because men don’t cry. That’s what I grew up believing. You don’t show emotion. First time I tried to hug my dad he pushed me away; couldn’t do it. This was after being in the environment of the Church for a long time before he was finally put out because he went with Garner Ted, made that choice. It’s a choice. But at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles in Corpus Christi, went up to hug him. Couldn’t do it. Horrible! So, grew up that way, men don’t cry. Well, yeah, you can. Yeah, and sometimes it’s good to go before God, and if you’re moved by something to cry.

This way of life is hard. Our battle is great. You have to be convicted that this I what you want, and you have to be willing to fight for it. You’re not going to get by with lying to God; you’re not going to get by with things of that nature. There is a reckoning.

I think of the Feast of Tabernacles sermons we had. I marvel at them, candidly, and I’m fearful that many didn’t even grasp the depth of some of that. There was a lot there. We might remember 2005 or some other Feast where things were given that were new. What was given last year was pretty profound if we grasp it on a spiritual plane. It’s God’s way of life or it’s not. It’s that simple. Willing to fight for? Only each one of us can answer that.

So, I have to fight this sometimes in my reaction, my thinking, when things are being done in a wrong way knowing we have such a little bit of time left. Realizing that things are being ramped up in the sense of time and being dealt with because this Body is being cleansed. It should sober you to the core of your being. That’s why I know there are others out there who are not living God’s way of life like they should be.

They may be attending Sabbath services…or not. Which blows my mind sometimes. You know, whenever we travel to an area… Now, as a whole, the ones that are going to beat themselves up the most are the ones that have legitimate reasons, and because they’re growing and those who sometimes beat themselves up the most are the ones who need what I’m saying the least, if you understand what I’m saying.

But I marvel sometimes how that God’s apostle can go to different Church areas and people don’t even bother to show up! Have we not learned the lesson? It’s about everybody being able to come together and rejoice before God!

It’s just exactly what happened at headquarters with Herbert Armstrong and the evangelists and different ones who wouldn’t come and sit at Herbert Armstrong’s feet to be taught because they didn’t think they had anything to learn because they knew it already. And because of that their minds were slammed shut and they couldn’t receive anything anyway if they sat there and listened to it because it’s a spiritual thing. If we’re not in unity and oneness with God spiritually we can’t receive what He has for us. We’re just going to be sitting there.

I don’t mean to get so riled up but then on the other hand I know sometimes it’s good. I don’t get it sometimes. Now, there are legitimate reasons sometimes, different sicknesses, old age, inability, some of those things I understand. But sometimes those things haven’t existed and there are people out there who don’t have the slightest excuse whatsoever. And if you can’t grasp that one you’re just not with it. Don’t you see you’re asleep spiritually?! If we can’t grasp something of that magnitude that’s that small?

Yes, God’s apostle! Not trying to get anything from that. It’s not about me! It’s about each one of us and whether we get it. It’s an attitude toward God. That’s what it comes down to. It’s how do we think about God? I don’t apologize for that, talking about an apostle. I know who I am! God’s proven it to me over and over again. That’s why I try to help the Church to see those things about the truths that He’s given. Because if we can’t get those we don’t get the rest of the picture!

Just like those who didn’t grasp Herbert Armstrong and what God was giving to him. They would have kept their mouths shut if they knew who he was, if they were convicted, “This is God’s apostle. All truth that’s been given to me I’ve learned through God’s apostle. I didn’t learn it on my own.” It blows my mind – the Sabbath, the Holy Days, the plan of God, all the other things you want to look at in those 18 Truths. Where did that come from? It came from Almighty God through God’s apostle! So, pretty clear.

But so many didn’t have the mind that they should have had toward God because it’s always about God. If God gives something we should understand that and grasp that and uphold that. I know that over all you do. But there are ones who don’t and who play games and who have their own little standards and little things that they hold on to.

That’s why I know too that there are some who still have problems hearing an evangelist that gets up here on occasion. Because it’s a woman. If anyone has the slightest smidgeon of that kind of attitude and spirit you’ve cut yourself off from God until you repent of that sick, stupid, weak, miserable attitude.

I hurt when I see in different places people in the ministry, as small as we are right now, that aren’t respected for the position and the place. People who forget who they’re talking to and who’s talking to them. They have a job to do. Sometimes they don’t respect the place, the office. That’s between you and God, your thinking toward God.

If your mind is right, you’re not going to be disrespectful. You’re going to listen to what’s being said. You’re not going to resist it, you’re not going to fight against it, you’re not going to talk about it to others in a wrong way.

I know she’s not going to like it but even my own daughter is not respected as she should be by everyone in Europe. Now, she’s going to cringe when she hears that and she’s going to hate that I even said it probably, but I am God’s apostle, and some of you over there better get your act together and you better quit playing games and being disrespectful. Because it hurts. It hurts her. It hurts me. But it hurts you most of all because you’re wrong in your stinking, rotten attitude!

If you’ve got an attitude toward God’s prophet, toward God’s apostle, toward God’s evangelist, you’ve got a major problem in your life and you’ve cut yourself off somewhere from God’s spirit and you’re just playing games here for a little while because it’s not going to last much longer for you.

I’m just saying, we’re so close right now I don’t know when this is going to start. It could be during the Days of Unleavened Bread, it’s that close. Or it could begin in Pentecost and maybe we have a year of horrible turmoil around the earth. I don’t know yet. We’re going to know when it happens though. We’re going to be convicted of it. These things just keep getting ramped up out there as far as the world is concerned and this thing of nuclear war.

Now Russia moving more nuclear missiles closer to the borders of NATO and so forth. They’re not playing games and they keep threatening. Medvedev. You know, they’re saying things, and they don’t say it without having discussed it amongst themselves. Putin doesn’t have to say it all, he lets these others say certain things out here. That should scare people.

It is starting to scare people in Europe. They’re starting to get worried, and they don’t know how to do it. “We’re not NATO but we don’t like NATO because we’re sick and tired of the United States and their involvement and their causing a lot of our problems. They want us to put sanctions on, so we’ve got to suffer and freeze in the wintertime because they put their stinking nose in it.”

So, they’re getting upset at us, and it’s not too long before they finally agree. Of course, that’s the Fifth Trumpet event. So, when is the first one? Don’t know. We’ll know when it happens.

So, brethren, I don’t like to get loud like that. I don’t like to do some of these things, but I’ll tell you what, I was thinking about the scripture this morning in Isaiah, “Cry aloud; spare not.” Because that’s God’s desire, and why I’m saying these things, because I want to see everyone come through this and make it. But you know what, they’re not. That’s the hard part. That’s the part that cuts deep. That’s the part that causes tears and the anguish. Because it’s hard.

But you keep doing what is right and you keep moving forward regardless of other people’s choices in life sometimes. Those are the things that hurt. Betrayal. “We walked to God’s house side by side.” That song just keeps going through my mind right now. “We walked to God’s house side by side, and counsel blended sweet.” This is our Family, and it hurts.

Hebrews 11:32. So, we are to persevere. We’re to hold fast. We’re to patiently endure all things that pertain to our calling. It wasn’t meant to be easy. On the contrary, it was meant to be hard. Because it forces us to make choices and decisions that reveal what’s in us, that helps cement them in us. When we make the right choice, then the next time make the right choice, and you keep making the right choice, you become stronger and stronger and stronger, and more and more at one with God. There is nothing more precious than that in your life, to become more at one with God.

So, we have so many examples, again, of those who have gone before, who have done just that through great adversity, suffered. It wasn’t meant to be easy. It’s all part of engaging in a lifelong battle that leads us out of bondage.

Hebrews 11:32—Then what shall I say more? For the time would fail me, of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, and of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong. Think what God’s doing in us, making us strong and stronger. So, it’s through the weakness, it’s through the hard times, it’s through the difficult times. God lifts us up though; we keep fighting. …became valiant in fight, turned to flight of armies of the foreigners.

Verse 35—Women received their dead raised to life again. Yet others were tormented, not accepting deliverance, so that they might obtain a better resurrection. What do we want? Do we see it? Do we embrace it, and do we love it? If we do then we’re fighting for it constantly. It’s a fight. It’s a battle.

Even others had trial of being mocked, and flogging, yes, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were put to test, and were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskin and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—of whom the world was not worthy. That’s powerful. When God is doing things within His people the world is not worthy of it, but God’s desire and plan is to give His way of life to all who will receive it. But they have to want it, they have to choose it. And so many won’t.

…of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. Even all these, having obtained a good report through faith, did not receive the promise. We know we die; human beings die. But we hold on. That’s our hope, that resurrection that God gives.

Even all these having obtained a good report through faith, did not receive the promise. God having provided, “saw before” or as the word is foresaw something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. In other words, born into Elohim. So, God has His plan. All this focusing on the first resurrection in the sense of the 144,000, and then the work that will be done in another great resurrection, and on and on it goes.

Hebrews 12:1—Therefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside the weight, and the sin which does so easily encircle us. It’s about coming out of sin. It’s about this fight that just never ends because our nature is carnal and selfish. We just have to keep fighting.

…and let us run with patient endurance…let us run with patient endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Joshua, the author, or the beginner, if you will, and finisher, the completer of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured being nailed to a pole. It uses a word here “despising” but it’s one that just means “to think little of.” …he thought little of the shame. He was willing to go through it, “Whatever.” …and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, unless you should become wearied and faint in your minds. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. So, he set that awesome example for us. We haven’t come close to fighting like he fought.

So, have you forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to children, My son, do not lightly esteem the chastening of the Lord, Nor faint when you’re reproved of Him. For whom the Lord loves He disciplines. Something we have to go through. And how we do it, well, that’s up to us. …and scourges every son whom He receives.

So, you think of the incredible love God has for us, and when we understand and grasp and comprehend what it means when we have a willingness of wanting this nature corrected, of wanting to make sure that our way, if we’re going to the left hand or to the right, that God corrects us through whatever maybe is spoken to us. If we’re able to receive it and then if it doesn’t happen that way maybe it happens more direct (said, spoken) to us so that we hopefully and prayerfully get the picture.

Because God’s desire is that we all succeed. He started a process in us, and He wants to finish it. But whether it happens or not is up to us. It’s our choices, whether we eat leavened or unleavened bread.

1. Chapter 1