Category: Devotionals

Categories
Daily Manna Devotionals

WILL LIFE ‘RETURN TO NORMAL,’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS? (Last of XII Parts)

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

WILL LIFE ‘RETURN TO NORMAL,’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS? (Last of XII Parts)

The reader must bear in mind that this 12-part series, is based on the book, Great Controversy, entitled “The Impending Conflict,” that deals with specific changes and events of a combined religious and political nature that will gel around a specific religious and moral issue (not abortion nor LGBTQ rights) and morph into a national Christian movement in AMERICA, revealed in prophetic symbology in Revelation 13 as “the beast” that starts out with gentle and peaceful “lamb-like horns” but strangely changes into “one speaking like a dragon.”

What this unifying issue is, was revealed earlier in this extract from the same chapter (emphasis mine):

“As the work of SABBATH REFORM extends, this rejection of the divine law TO AVOID THE CLAIMS OF THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT, will become well nigh universal [the word catholic actually means “universal.”]. . . . Yet this very class [rejecting the law of God] put forth the claim the FAST-SPREADING CORRUPTION is largely attributable to the so called ‘CHRISTIAN SABBATH,’ and that the ENFORCEMENT OF SUNDAY OBSERVANCE would greatly improve the morals of society. THIS CLAIM IS ESPECIALLY URGED IN AMERICA, where the doctrine of the TRUE SABBATH has been most widely preached [since 1840-1844 when the first, second, and third angels’ messages of Rev. 14 began to be proclaimed successively to this very moment. It will soon “swell into the final loud cry of the fourth angel of Rev. 18]”- GC 567.

We end this series with his last paragraph:

“The dignitaries of CHURCH AND STATE WILL UNITE TO BRIBE, PERSUADE, OR COMPEL all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments.

POLITICAL CORRUPTION is destroying love of justice and regard for TRUTH [explains why lying appears to be order of the day everywhere, particularly in the venerated human institutions]; and EVEN IN FREE AMERICA rulers and legislators, in order to secure PUBLIC FAVOR [not the favor of a righteous God], will yield to the POPULAR DEMAND FOR A LAW ENFORCING SUNDAY OBSERVANCE. [Now mark this]: “LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE, which has cost so great a sacrifice, WILL NO LONGER BE RESPECTED.

“In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet’s words, ‘The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make WAR with the REMNANT of her seed, which [who] keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.’ Rev. 12:17, KJV.” – Great Controversy, E. G. White, 1911 ed., p. 582.

This ends this series but not our due diligence to study the prophecies in order to properly interpret current events and discern which is genuine or counterfeit to deflect our attention from the path forward laid out in the prophecies of the Bible, not the last-day “soothsayers and magicians” of “Mystery Babylon the Mother of Harlots and the Abominations of the Earth.”
God help us, NMF

Categories
Daily Manna Devotionals

WILL LIFE ‘RETURN TO NORMAL,’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS? (Part XI)

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

WILL LIFE ‘RETURN TO NORMAL,’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS? (Part XI)

As the PROTESTANT CHURCHES reject the clear, scriptural arguments in defense of God’s law [as our consciences convict us to do here in our ministry, in spiritual and doctrinal harmony with faithful Seventh-day Adventists worldwide], they [the once-Protestant churches] will long to SILENCE those whose FAITH THEY CANNOT OVERTHROW BY THE BIBLE. [so they will resort to other non-biblical, unChristlike means and methods].

“Though they BLIND their own eyes to the fact, they are NOW adopting a course which will lead to the PERSECUTION of those who CONSCIENTIOUSLY REFUSE to do what the rest of the CHRISTIAN WORLD are doing [the “majority rule” of the ‘vox populi, vox dei”], and acknowledge the claims of the PAPAL SABBATH.” – E.G. White. Great Controversy, 1911 ed., p. 592.

If by now, we still rely on the natural propensity to simply “follow the crowd” and what is “trending,” and how many more “likes” and “followers” an idea or an influencer (whether religious or secular) has or boasts of, instead of being a “more noble Berean” (Acts 17:11), we are unprepared for what is coming with irreversible certainty, per Bible prophecy!

To be continued. God bless, NMF

Categories
Daily Manna Devotionals

WILL LIFE ‘RETURN TO NORMAL’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS? (Part X)

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

WILL LIFE ‘RETURN TO NORMAL’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS? (Part X)

“And there was war in heaven: MIchael and His angels fought against the dragon, and dragon fought with his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found anymore in heaven.
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world : he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Rev. 12: 7-9, KJV.

“Satan’s policy in this final conflict with God’s people is THE SAME that he employed in the opening of the great conflict IN HEAVEN. He professed to be seeking to PROMOTE THE STABILITY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT, while secretly bending every effort to secure its OVERTHROW.”

NOTE: All revolutions to overthrow secular governments throughout mankind’s history, no matter how successfully historians (both real and those with a hidden revisionist mission to alter the truth) may glorify its cause, justify the devastation and human toll as “collateral damage” in the pursuit of a “more sublime goal,” hail its leaders as “heroes,” and those who died fighting for this “cause” as “martyrs”—-are not divine in origin in both aspiration and actions undertaken, but satanic, as the opening verses in Revelation cited above clearly reveal.

“And the very work which he [Lucifer] was thus endeavoring to accomplish, HE CHARGED UPON THE LOYAL ANGELS.

NOTE: The two-thirds of the angels who chose to remain loyal, and thus are in the majority, whom the Bible describes as “mighty angels” excelling in strength, are the very “ministering spirits” guarding God’s people against their once former fellow-angels-turned-into-demons and evil spirits. If only our eyes could be opened to see the spirit world surrounding us and the earth (Satan is also described as “the prince of the power of the air,” Eph. 2:2), we would see the battle raging non-stop between them since the fall, but “ten times” more intense in these last days (“Satan knows his time is short.” Rev.___) for the control of the hearts and consciences of mankind. It is as real yet far greater than the wars taking place on earth’s battlefields and warfronts, whether against nations or in the cities and neighborhoods.

“The same policy of deception has marked THE HISTORY OF THE ROMAN [not Christian’] CHURCH [which we are tracking in our simultaneous, ongoing text-message series].It has professed to be the VICEGERENT OF HEAVEN, while seeking to exalt itself ABOVE GOD, AND TO CHANGE HIS LAW. Under the rule of Rome, those who suffered death for THEIR FIDELITY TO THS GOSPEL were denounced as evil-doers; they were declared to be IN LEAGUE WITH SATAN; and every possible means was employed to cover them with reproach, to cause them to appear, in the eyes of the people, and even to themselves [this is what “gaslighting” means], as the vilest of criminals.

“SO WILL IT BE NOW. While Satan seeks to destroy those who honor God’s law, he will cause them to be accused as LAWBREAKERS, as men who are dishonoring God, and BRINGING JUDGMENTS UPON THE WORLD.” – E. G. White, Great Controversy, 1911 ed., p. 391.

To be continued. Bless all, NMF

Categories
Daily Manna Devotionals

WILL LIFE ‘RETURN TO NORMAL’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS? (Part IX)

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

WILL LIFE ‘RETURN TO NORMAL’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS? (Part IX)

So here’s what “the Spirt of prophecy, which is the Testimony of Jesus,” reveals in language a child can understand of what the prophecies already revealed, in their appointed time but in prophetic symbology and language that are “spiritually discerned” but not by the “carnally-minded.”

Resuming where we left off earlier, describing that all manner of calamities and disasters, actually as “visitations that will become more and more frequent and disastrous….because they have transgressed God’s law and broken the everlasting covenant,” here’s what follows:

“And then the great deceiver [Satan, the yet-invisible master mind, working through unnumbered known and obvious, as well as camouflaged and working in secret agencies, individual and institutional] will persuade men that THOSE WHO SERVE GOD are causing these evils!

The class that PROVOKED the displeasure of Heaven, will CHARGE all their troubles upon those whose OBEDIENCE to God’s commandments is a PERPETUAL REPROOF to transgressors.

“It will be declared that men are offending God by the VIOLATION OF THE SUNDAY-SABBATH; that this sin has brought CALAMITIES WHICH WILL NOT CEASE UNTIL SUNDAY OBSERVANCE SHAlLL BE STRICTLY ENFORCED; and that THOSE WHO PRESENT THE CLAIMS OF THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT, thus destroying the reverence for Sunday, are TROUBLERS OF THE PEOPLE, PREVENTING THEIR RESTORATION TO DIVINE FAVOR and TEMPORAL PROSPERITY [mark! temporal prosperity!].

“Thus the ACCUSATION urged of old [the past ages and dispensations] AGAINST THE SERVANT OF GOD WILL BE REPEATED, and upon grounds equally well established. [nothing new: history of prophecy fulfilled, will repeat itself as prophecy soon-to-be fulfilled]. (Here’s where the compounded Elijah-John the Baptist Experience will play out, antitypically):

“And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but THOU and thy father’s house, in that YE HAVE FORSAKEN THE COMMANDMENTS of the Lord, and thou hast followed BAALIM.” 1 Kings 18: 17, 18, KJV. (Baalim of Baal, was the SUN-GOD of the grossly -idolatrous ancient Phoenicians).

“As the WRATH of the people shall be excited by FALSE CHARGES, they will pursue a course toward God’s ambassadors VERY SIMILAR to that which APOSTATE ISRAEL pursued toward Elijah.” – Great Controversy, Ellen G. White, 1911 ed., p. 590.

To be continued. Bless all, NMF

Categories
Daily Manna Devotionals

WILL LIFE ‘RETURN TO NORMAL’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS? (Part VIII)

WILL LIFE ‘RETURN TO NORMAL’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS? (Part VIII)

“I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Rev. 19:10, KJV. “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Rev. 12:17. “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they who keep the commandments of God, have the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12.

From these three verses alone, all pointing to the last of the seven stages of the church since after Pentecost(Rev. 2, 3), clearly says that the church and people who are identified as keeping the commandments of God (not man) and have the faith of Jesus (not their “own faith”) are the “remnant of the church’s “seed,” therefore the remnant of the original church the 12 apostles founded with Christ, not Peter, as it’s Corner stone. The Rock of ages.

How but natural, proper and true to form and substance, that it is to this remnant of the original that Jesus Himself entrusted, as a divine bestowal, the last gift of prophecy, especially qualified as equal to the demand for the closing messages and work of the final revival and reformation to prepare the literal spiritual final generation of the church as well as warn the world of the close of probation, followed by the second advent of Christ. It is called “the Spirit of prophecy, which is the Testimony of Jesus.”

I share with countless sincere, diligent, prayerful seekers of the advancing light of “the present, testing truths” “as it is in Jesus,” the well-studied, proven-beyond doubt, experimental knowledge (still in full progress) that this last gift of the Spirit of PROPHECY, which is the TESTIMONY of Jesus was given to and through a humble, simple, grade 3 educated, sickly woman, when two apparently much more older, educated, and qualified men, one black the other white, declined the calling—-again, as the last of the special line of messenger-prophets (not in the class of the minor or major prophets, and certainly not in the line of the godly Protestant reformers of the Reformation whose main work was to fulfill Christ’s own prophecy recorded in His own mini apocalypse in Matt. 24.

Verses 21, 22 reveals “the great tribulation,”’ (not to be mistaken for the “times of trouble” in Revelation) would be “shortened for the elect’s sake lest there be no flesh saved.”

The Reformation in the 16th century brought the bloody Dark Ages of the papal rule over the world about 5o years before it ended, according to the 1260-day prophecy with the capture and imprisonment of Pope Pius VI by Berthier, general of Napoleon’s French Republican army.

To be continued as to what the Spirit of prophecy says His people should expect, prepare for, and not be blind-sided again, as the Covid pandemic shamefully revealed, exposing our lack of knowledge of God’s word, and the consequent faithless faith! Bless all, NMF

Categories
Daily Manna Devotionals

A SPECIAL “EASTER” MESSAGE FOR ALL TRUE BELIEVERS

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

A SPECIAL “EASTER” MESSAGE FOR ALL TRUE BELIEVERS

All diligent Bible students know this incontrovertible Biblical historical:

Jesus, before His death, NEVER included in all His instructions and teaching lessons through precept and life example, any explicit neither even remotely implied or inferred, “read-between-the-lines” instructions “to remember to celebrate His resurrection.

After He died and resurrected and immediately ascended to present to the Father His sacrifice, as to whether it was sufficient, and was accepted, He returned to His chosen disciples on earth in His already-glorified flesh-still concealed to mortal eyes, in order to reiterate certain things they could comprehend and appreciate only AFTER His death and resurrection. and give final instructions.

He never included in this final consultation any instructions to celebrate His resurrection THAT HAD ALREADY TAkEN PLACE (which was not witnessed by any mortals eyes, as part of their gospel commission. Why Christianity and even the secular world jointly celebrate Easter SUNDAY can be easily explained and understood if one knows the answer to why December 25 is celebrated as Christmas Day, the birthday of Christ—with also no Biblical proof whatsoever. You may already know the answer, I hopefully hope.

But “Easter Sunday,” the way that man and the Church/es have chosen by their own doctrines, not the Bible, to celebrate (with sunrise services and “egg-hunting” for the kids, etc.), has a vital lesson to teach in the larger picture of the plan of salvation. It is this:

Unless Christ resurrected from the dead, thereby conquering death and the grave, preceded by His obtaining complete victory over “the world, the flesh, and the Devil,” He COULD NOT ascend to heaven and become the faithful believers’ merciful High Priest. Mediator, Advocate, Intercessor and finally the righteous Judge of all the earth. And when His final work IN THE HEAVENLY SANCTUARY IS FINISHED, only then can He make good His promise recorded in John 14:1-3 that “HE WILL COME AGAIN.”

This time not as a helpless Babe, but as “the King of kings and Lord of lords,” and “God of gods,” this time TO RESURRECT not Himself, but His righteous dead of all the ages who were “sleeping in their dusty graves” (or ashes, etc.) awaiting in “deep and dark silence” that glorious resurrection morning when the Resurrected Savior will call them forth and clothe their corruptible flesh “with an incorruptible” one and their mortal nature with “immortality,” and the CROWNING them with life eternal.

Even as man, who, among all creatures, including angels, was alone “made in the image and likeness of his Maker” was the CROWNING act of His CREATIVE genius and power, so will men who are eternally redeemed be the CROWNING evidence throughout His boundless universe in the ceaseless time of eternity, of His REDEMPTIVE power “to save to the uttermost.

And since only in Him resides “life original, unborrowed, and underived,” and IMMORTALITY, the incarnated, resurrected, and soon-coming Resurrector should be the focus of His living , commandment-keeping saints” who have “the faith of Jesus,” and practice “the truth as it is in Jesus,” not the religion of man or the churches.

May God bless all on this FIRST WORKING DAY OF CREATION WEEK. NMF

Categories
Daily Manna Devotionals

WILL LIFE ‘RETURN TO NORMAL,’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS?

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

WILL LIFE ‘RETURN TO NORMAL,’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS?

The end-time, line of prophecy, combined Elijah-and-John- the-Baptist messages and work, in their respective dispensations, generations, times and places, one following and building up on the former, are the cumulative, prophesied magnified content and burden of the worldwide closing messages and work of the Third angel of Revelation 14 for these last days.

Their messages and combination work of revival and reformation, either as a last attempt to “snatch” Israel (of the ten northern tribes) from the brink of their terminal-stage apostasy, or to warn the Jewish nation, the chosen people, whose religious leaders were called a “generation of vipers” (deadly venomous snakes). John the Baptist “warned to flee the wrath to come,” by bringing forth fruit meet (worthy) of repentance.” This was the necessary preparation for the promised-by-way-of-prophecy Messiah to come.

They had to be “purged” by the “fiery baptism of the Holy Spirit or else be reserved to be “burned as chaff with unquenchable fire” in the cleansing fires of the last days as the final reward of unjust and wicked. (Note: both messenger-prophets accomplished their work but those warned, rejected them and their messages, in fact and truth, they rejected God, the Giver of the messages. The few of accepted it, carried forward the lighted candlestick of truth, its flame “a light to the feet and a lamp to the path ahead in march of time).

These two messenger-prophets’ messages-work were so pivotal in the preservation and progress of the plan of redemption in the Old and New Testament dispensations that the they were designated by God himself as “messengers” first, then, prophets, in that order—describing the solemnity, gravity, and time-sensitive nature of their messages and the specific work it entailed in order to accomplish a specified divine purpose.

The Bible repeatedly emphasizes the necessity of establishing the truth “in the mouth of two or three [credible, harmonious] witnesses,” at the very least. These two, in this context, are Elijah followed by John the Baptist. (Note: the New and Old Testaments are also symbolized in apocalyptic prophecy as “two prophets” and “two witnesses” (Rev. 11:1-13 that belong to a distinct and separate line of prophecy within the 2300-days of Dan. 8’:14) and are never to be misapplied to either Moses and Elijah, as the hyperliteralistic Rapture, Premillenial, Zion-centric interpretation teaches, nor to Moses and Elijah (who appeared with Christ at the mount of transfiguration, to reveal to Peter, James, and John, three witnesses and thus to the world through their testimony, a miniature representation of the future kingdom of glory made up of both resurrects and translated saints).

Therefore, following the “two or three witnesses” rule in the continuum of the specific and special messenger-prophet line, who, in these last days, is the third and last of them—-to help prepare a people and warn the world of the events on earth and in heaven, leading up to the close of earth’s probation just prior to Christ glorious second advent?

It is absolutely essential to know who, based on the same Bible and its prophecies, as well as church and denominational history of the advent movement, because it is from this third and last messenger-prophet that we are basing our information and enlightenment as to what to expect and prepare for, post Covid pandemic or simply moving forward from hereon.

To be continued. Bless all, NMF

Categories
Daily Manna Devotionals

WILL LIFE ‘RETURN TO NORMAL,’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS? (Part VI)

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

WILL LIFE ‘RETURN TO NORMAL,’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS? (Part VI)

“The time of thy visitation.” Yesterday we read that “these VISITATIONS will become more and more frequent and disastrous.” When Jesus went to visit the city of Jerusalem for the last time, the Bible says (emphasis mine):

“And when He was come near, He beheld the city [symbol of the world in the last days], and WEPT over it, saying, IF thou hadst known, even thou, AT LEAST in this thy day, THE THINGS WHICH BELONG UNTO THY PEACE (Needed for peace, margin) but NOW they are HID from thine eyes. But the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee about, and keep thee in on every side, and lay thee even with the ground [leveled], and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because THOU KNOWEST NOT THE TIME OF THY VISITATION.” Luke 19: 41-44, KJV.

“Visitation,” as translated to English in the KJV from the Hebrew in the Old Testament or from the Greek, both particularly mean, “go and official account; reckoning; inspection.”

When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, then made the mournful announcement of its impending desolation, 40 years later, by the Roman armies, led by its commander Titus, He added that it also was because “they knew not their time of visitation.” They did not pay attention to the ominous signs of the times, fails to heed and even rejected the warnings mercifully sent through His chosen messengers.

They were given the precious opportunity to be warned and prepared but they did not grab their early, merciful “time of visitation” and therefore God’s “day of visitation,” God’s “purposed time” of reckoning” for that time and people, was soon upon them. Consider the following prototypical examples and their final application-fulfillment in these last days!

“Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees [enact man-made religious laws, specifically the coming Sunday law], and that (who) write grievousness which they have prescribed; to turn aside the needy from judgment, and TAKE AWAY THE RIGHT FROM THE POOR OF MY PEOPLE [the inalienable rights, freedoms, and liberty to worship God according to dictates of conscience]……and what will ye do in THE DAY OF VISITATION, and in THE DESOLATION WHICH SHALL [not may or might] COME from far? To whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?” Isa. 10: 1-3, KJV.

In short, too late. You were given opportunity after opportunity but you despised the life-and-death (not peace-and-safety) messages, the messengers, and actually, the divine Giver Himself!

Here’s another:
“THE DAYS OF VISITATION ARE COME, the days of recompense are come; Israel [both ancient and literal, and modern, antitypical, spiritual Israel] shall know it; the (false) prophet is a fool, the (counterfeit) spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity [transgressions of God’s law] and great hatred [towards the faithful Sabbath-keepers].” Hos. 9: 7.

Here’s the last example for now:
Micah 7: 1-5: “Woe is me! For I am AS when they have gathered the summer fruits….there is no cluster to eat: my soul desires the first ripe fruit. The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is non upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood: they hunt every man his brother with a net. That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince [civil powers-that-be) asketh [for bribes], and the judge [justices, jurors, etc.] asketh for a reward; and the great man [even “the man of sin,” “the son of perdition”], he uttereth his mischievous desire: so that they wrap it up. The best of them is AS a BRIER [like a thorn]: the [counterfeit] most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge.

[Therefore] THE DAY OF THY [false] WATCHMEN AND VISITATION COMETH [is coming] NOW SHALL BE THEIR PERPLEXITY.” Micah 7:1-5, KJV.

To be continued. Bless all, NMF