Category: Mid-week Manna

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
November 22, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 45

MAN’S VIGILANT ENEMY IS TRACKING HIM EVERY MOMENT EVERYWHERE

“By their fruits ye shall know them.” See Matt. 7: 16-20, KJV. 

Both Jesus Christ and Satan and their respective PERSONS are currently invisible to mortal eyes. (Their respective appointed times, manner, and appearance are specified in prophecy). The ascended Savior of man is still in the most holy in heaven, closing out His intercessory work as merciful High Priest and righteous Judge of all the earth. Christ’s actual Presence on earth is resident in and manifested by the invisible Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Godhead.

On the other hand, Satan, the enemy of God and man, is “the central power on the earth,” directing and implementing his “wrathful” plans and works through his “grand masterpiece of deception” on earth called the “man of sin,” “the son of perdition” of “the mystery of iniquity.” 2 Thess. 2: 2-12, etc.

Now this:
“While men are ignorant of his devices [‘unnumbered schemes’], this VIGILANT FOE is upon their track every moment. He is intruding his presence in every department of the HOUSEHOLD, in every STREET of our cities, in the CHURCHES, in the NATIONAL COUNCILS, in the COURTS OF JUSTICE—perplexing, deceiving, seducing, everywhere ruining the souls and bodies of men, women, and children, breaking up families, SOWING hatred, emulation, strife, sedition, murder.

 “And the CHRISTIAN WORLD [mainstream Christianity] seems to regard these things as though God had appointed them, and they must exist. [one of the many ways of transgressing the second commandment of the Ten, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” Exo 20: 7; Deut. 5: 11, etc. 

SATAN’S STRATEGY AGAINST GOD’S PEOPLE

“Satan is continually seeking to overcome the people of God  by BREAKING DOWN THE BARRIERS which separate them from the world [1 Pet. 1:9: Deut.14:2; cf. Rom. 12: 1, 2]. “Ancient ISRAEL were enticed into sin when they ventured into FORBIDDEN association with the heathen [‘Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers.’ 1 Cor. 6: 15-20; cf. James 4: 4; 1 John 2: 15-17]. 

In similar manner are MODERN ISRAEL led astray. [2 Cor. 4:4 quoted. Read!]. ALL WHO ARE NOT DECIDED FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST ARE SERVANTS OF SATAN.” -E. G. White, Great Controversy, 1911 ed.. p. 508, Pacific Press Asso. [all emphasis and words in brackets mine].

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:

November 15, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 44

WHY GOD’S ENMITY AGAINST SATAN AND SIN SEEMS TO SLUMBER

“His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.” Isa. 56:10.

“Woe unto the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down upon you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Rev. 12: 12, KJV.

Because “The great dragon, that old serpent, Satan the Devil” knows his time is short, what does he do and continues doing?

“Satan summons all his forces, and throws all his powers to combat. [But] why is it that he meets no resistance [when God immediately ‘put enmity between him and the woman’ in Eden (Gen. 3:15)? Why are the soldiers of Christ [in the professed ‘Bible and Bible only’ Christian churches] SO SLEEPY AND INDIFFERENT? [See Isa. 56:10 above].

“Because they have [1] so little connection with Christ [even if they are fully connected with the ‘church’]; because they are [2] so destitute of His [Holy] Spirit. [3] Sin [‘the transgression of God’s law] is not to them repulsive and abhorrent, as it was to their Master [4] They do not meet it, as did Christ, with decisive and determined resistance. [5] They do not realize the exceeding evil and malignity of sin, and they are BLINDED BOTH to the CHARACTER AND POWER of the prince of darkness.

“There is LITTLE ENMITY against Satan and his works, because there is SO GREAT IGNORANCE concerning his power and malice, and the VAST EXTENT of his warfare against Christ and His [true] church. MULTITUDES ARE DELUDES HERE. They do not know that Satan is a MIGHTY GENERAL, who controls the MINDS of evil angels, and that with well-matured plans and skillful movements he is warring against Christ to PREVENT the salvation of souls [living persons].

“Among professed Christians, and even among MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL, there is heard scarcely a reference to Satan, except perhaps an INCIDENTAL MENTION in the pulpit. They OVERLOOK the evidences of his continued activity and success; they NEGLECT THE MANY WARNINGS of his subtlety; they seem to IGNORE his very existence.” -E. G. White, Great Controversy, 1911 ed., pp. 507-8. (All emphasis and bracketed words mine).

If you have been spiritually asleep in these most solemn period of earth’s history, self-confident in carnal security having been assured by popular “peace-and-safety’ messages, “now is the time to awake out of sleep” and “make your calling and election sure” “for your soul may be required of you tonite. And how will it be?”

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
November 8, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 43

HOW, WHERE, WHEN, WITH WHOM AND OVER WHAT IS THE ENMITY MANIFESTED

“And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds be deprived. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” John 3:19-21, KJV. 

Thus declared Jesus Christ, who “in the beginning was the Word, was with God and was God,” verily “the Light and Life of the world,” “the only-begotten of the Father in and through whom He “created all things and upholds all things by the word of His power,” incarnate in human flesh and blood nature, the Lamb of God who alone can take away the sins of the world, the Redeemer, Savior, High Priest, Advocate, Intercessor, Mediator, and concurrently the righteous Judge of all the earth.

The image-character of Him “who is the same yesterday, today, and forever,” and “in whom is there is no variableness nor shadow of turning” being “the fulness of the Godhead bodily” is revealed “to the world, men, and angels” in the law of Him who is the “one and only Lawgiver.” This law is His everlasting covenant between Creator and creature, Savior and the eternally-saved. Deut. 4:13; Rev. 22: 14, KJV.

So why did fallen, sinful humanity of the world He created “not know Him nor His very own people, the Jewish nation of His time, refused “to receive Him,” but instead falsely accused Him to be crucified by their hated national enemies at that time—Rome of the Caesar’s? See John 1: 1-11)? Because of the difference rendered by the enmity of Gen. 3:15.

Note the following:

 “The difference between the character of Christ and the character of other men in His day was everywhere apparent and because of this difference the WORLD HATED HIM. It hated Him because of His goodness and His STRICT INTEGRITY. And Christ declared that those who manifest the SAME attributes would be LIKEWISE hated. As we NEAR the end of time this hatred for the followers of Christ will be MORE AND MORE MANIFEST. . . . 

When the light of heaven [of the present, testing truths of the gospel for the last days] rests upon us CONTINUALLY [not intermittently, sporadically, compulsively-impulsively], we shall REPRESENT Christ. It was the RIGHTEOUSNESS [‘unrighteousness is sin.’ 1 John 5:17) revealed [manifested] in His life that DISTINGUISHED [made Him ‘separate,’ ‘peculiar and distinct’] from the world and called forth its HATRED.” – E. G. White, Manuscript 97, Oct. 16. 1909; Upward Look, p. 303.

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
November 1, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 42

THE ENMITY AND WAR OF WARS OF THE COSMIC CONFLICT DESCRIBED BY THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

“And there was WAR in heaven: Michael [Christ’s title as Commander-in-Chief of the angelic army host] and His angels FOUGHT AGAINST the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place found ANYMORE in heaven. And the DRAGON was cast out [of heaven], that OLD SERPENT, called the DEVIL and SATAN, which deceiveth the WHOLE WORLD: and he was cast out INTO THE EARTH, and his angels were cast out with him.” Rev. 12: 7-9. 

 “And the dragon was WROTH [angry; hated] the woman [prophetic symbol of church], and went to MAKE WAR with the REMNANT of her  [the woman’s] SEED, WHO KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD, AND HAVE THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS.” Rev. 12:17 (cf. Rev. 14:12; 19: 10). 

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith.” 1 Pet. 5:8, 9, KJV. 

“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship with the world is ENMITY with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the ENEMY of God. . . . But He giveth MORE GRACE. Wherefore He saith, God RESISTETH the proud, but giveth grace unto HUMBLE. Submit yourselves therefore to God. RESIST THE DEVIL, and he will flee from you.” James 4: 4, 6, 7. 

“Finally, my brethren, be STRONG in the Lord, and in the POWER of His might. Put on the WHOLE ARMOR of God, that ye might be able to STAND AGAINST THE WILES OF THE DEVIL. For we wrestle NOT against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the RULERS of the DARKNESS of this world—AGAINST SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES [of our fallen, sin-cursed world!]. Wherefore take unto you the WHOLE ARMOR Of GOD, that ye might be ABLE TO WITHSTAND IN THE EVIL DAY, and having done all, to stand.  Stand therefore having your loins [of the mind] girt about with TRUTH and having on the breastplate of RIGHTEOUSNESS and your feet shod with the preparation of the GOSPEL of peace; ABOVE ALL, taking the shield of faith [‘the faith of Jesus.’ Rev. 14:12], wherewith ye shall be ABLE TO QUENCH  ALL THE FIERY DARTS OF THE WICKED.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the SWORD OF THE [Holy] SPIRIT, WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD [‘It is written;’ ‘Thus saith the Lord;’ ‘Unto the law and the testimony.’]. PRAYING ALWAYS [‘pray without ceasing’] with all prayer and supplication in the [Holy] Spirit, and WATCHING thereunto with ALL PERSEVERANCE and supplication for all saints.” Eph. 6: 10-18. 

“For the Word of God is quick [living], and POWERFUL, and SHARPER THAN ANY TWO-EDGED SWORD—piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a DISCERNER of the thoughts and intents of the heart.  Neither is there ANY CREATURE that is not manifest in HIS SIGHT: but all things are NAKED AND OPENED unto the eyes of Him with whom WE have to do.” Heb. 4: 12, 13. 

The quoted Holy Scriptures speak for itself on this topic (emphasis mine).

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
October 25, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 41

SATAN’S AGENCIES CARRY FORWARD HIS ENMITY AGAINST CHRIST TOWARDS HIS FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS

  “REMEMBER the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also. . . . he that hateth Me [and His faithful agencies, followers] hateth the FATHER also.” John 15: 20, 23, KJV (emphasis provided). 

In these most solemn, closing hours of earth’s probation, I thank and praise God for mercifully and wisely giving us the final “Testimony of Jesus which is the Spirit of Prophecy” (Rev. 12; 17; 19: 10). Through the inspired pen we obtain advancing spiritual enlightenment regarding what the great controversy and the plan of redemption of the gospel, including specifics on what “putting on the whole armor of God” in order “to fight the good fight of faith” and “overcome even as He overcame” (as produced by the enmity God Creator first put between Satan and man in the garden of Eden)—comprehends, not merely doctrinally and intellectually, but in practical, real-life spiritual application:

 “Satan’s agents are CONSTANTLY WORKING under his direction” —- [while the ‘ten virgins professing to be waiting for the Bridegroom’s grand appearing have fallen asleep in the midnight of the prophetic-parable of Matt. 25]—“to establish his authority and build up his kingdom IN OPPOSITION for the government of God. 

“To this end they [Satan’s agents] seek to DECEIVE Christ’s followers, and ALLURE them from their allegiance [to God and His law]. Like their leader they MiSCONSTRUE and PERVERT the Scriptures to accomplish their object. As Satan endeavored to cast REPROACH upon God, so do his agents seek to MALIGN  God’s people. 

“The SPIRIT [attitude, motive, character] which put Christ to death moves the wicked to DESTROY His followers. All this is FORESHADOWED in that FIRST PROPHECY, ‘I will put enmity between thee [the serpent, Satan in his first disguise, medium] and the woman, and between thy seed  and her seed.’ [Gen. 3:15]. 

Such is the WORK that will be carried out in the great controversy between Christ and Satan [and their respective ‘seed’ agencies and followers] to the CLOSE OF TIME.” – E. G. White, Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, Great Controversy, 1884 original edition, Pacific Press, Facsimile Reproduction

To be continued next week, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
October 18, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 40

SATAN’S ENMITY WITH CHRIST, THE ANOINTED ONE

“He is despised and rejected of MEN; a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and WE hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and WE esteemed Him not.” Isa. 53: 3, KJV (see vs 1-9; cf. Acts 8: 31-40). 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made [created] by Him [the Word]; and without Him was not anything made that was made. . . . He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the WORLD KNEW HIM NOT. He came to His own [the Jews and the Jewish nation], and His own RECEIVED HIM NOT.” John 1: 1-3, 10, 11, KJV. 

“The ANTAGONISM [enmity, hatred, rejection] that exists between the spirit [character] of Christ and the spirit [character] of Satan was most strikingly displayed in the WORLD’S RECEPTION of Jesus. [Satan claims fallen earth and sinful mankind his own kingdom. He offered it to Christ in the wilderness of temptation, Matt. 4:1-11.

“It was not so much because He appeared without worldly wealth, pomp, or grandeur [see Isa. 53], that the JEWS were led to reject Him. They saw that He possessed power which would MORE THAN COMPENSATE for the lack of these outward advantages [of wealth, pomp, grandeur]. But to the [sinless / PURITY AND HOLINESS of Christ called forth against Him the HATRED [enmity] of the ungodly.

His LIFE [not merely words and professions] of SELF-DENIAL and SINLESS DEVOTION was a perpetual reproof to a PROUD, SENSUAL PEOPLE. It was this the evoked ENMITY against the Son of God [the very promised Seed of the woman, the Messiah, the Lamb of God, Immanuel, God in the flesh].

SATAN and EVIL ANGELS joined with EVIL MEN [the deadly desperate confederacy of evil against truth and righteousness and defined by God’s law]. All the energies of APOSTASY conspired against the Champion [Author and Source] of truth.” -E. G. White, Spirit of Prophecy, Vol. 4, Great Controversy, original 1884 ed., pp. 325-6.

On whose side are you? Against whom and what are you directing and waging your enmity (hatred, animosity, war) against? “By their fruits ye shall know them.” The evidence is stark: either the “fruits of the Spirit” or the “works of the flesh.” (Gal. 5: 15-26).

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
October 11, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 39

GOD’S SAVING GRACE IMPARTS ENMITY, NOT LOVE TOWARDS SATAN AND SIN

“Ye adulterers adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is ENMITY with God? Whosoever will be a friend of the world is the ENEMY of God. . . . But He giveth MORE GRACE. Wherefore He saith, God RESISTS the proud, but gives GRACE to the humble. SUBMIT yourselves therefore to God. RESIST the devil, and he will FLEE from you. Draw nigh [near] to God, and He will draw night to you. CLEANSE your hands, ye sinners; and PURIFY your hearts, ye DOUBLE-MINDED. Be afflicted and mourn, and weep [not celebrate!]: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. HUMBLE YOURSELVES in the sight of God [not men!], and He shall lift you up [exalt before men and angels].” James 4: 4, 6-10, KJV. 

The first souls who needed to be saved were the first couple, the father of mankind. It is by God’s enabling, empowering, amazing grace that all sinners—beginning with Adam and Eve to the last rational persons alive before mankind’s second and last probation closes—have and will be saved.

Saved from what? From being deceived, yielding to, and being ensnared by Satan’s consummate craftiness in any of his unnumbered schemes, fierce temptations targeting man’s sinful propensities, inordinate desires, love of self, weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the carnal mind and nature. Hence, God’s messenger emphasizes this fundamental saving truths (all emphases mine and words in brackets mine]:

The grace that Christ implants [through the Holy Spirit] in the soul [of the humble and penitent sinner who ‘hungers and thirsts for Christ’s perfect righteousness] CREATES the enmity against Satan. Without this CONVERTING GRACE AND RENEWING POWER, man would continue the CAPTIVE of Satan, a SERVANT ever ready to his bidding. But the NEW PRINCIPLE [of enmity] in the soul creates CONFLICT [as part of the great controversy of the cosmic drama of the ages] where hitherto had been PEACE.

The power which Christ imparts enables [fallen, sinful, helpless] man to RESIST the tyrant and usurper [Satan working through his evil spirits and human agencies, individuals and institutions].

Whoever is seen to ABHOR SIN [the transgression of God’s law], whoever resists and CONQUERS those passions that have held sway WITHIN [the person’s mind and heart], displays an operation of a PRINCIPLE wholly from above.” E. G. White, Great Controversy, original 1884 ed., p. 325.

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
September 20, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 36

GRACE IMPARTS ENMITY AGAINST SATAN AND SIN

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not ye yourselves; if [grace] is the gift of God [even as eternal life is, Rom. 6:23]: not of works, lest any man should boast. For WE are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus UNTO GOOD WORKS, which God had before ORDAINED that we should WALK IN THEM [the good works ordained in us, His workmanship].” Eph. 2: 8, 9, KJV [all emphasis and words in brackets mine]. 

Adam and Eve, mankind’s parents, were alone “created in the image and likeness of God” as the crowning act of His “workmanship” in His 6-day work of creation. Both were certainly “created in Christ Jesus,” the Creator, that is, in His image and likeness. But in the fall of man in Eden by transgression of God’s command in yielding to the temptation of Satan disguised as the serpent, man instantly lost his original immaculate character-image of innocent purity that was manifested as a soft white light covering their bodies. This garment of light instantly disappeared when they sinned, exposing themselves as naked, a symbol of guilt.

In God’s omnipotence, omniscience, “mercy that endureth forever,” and mysterious “love that conquers all,” His plan of redemption, “prepared before the foundations of earth were laid,” immediately kicked in. “The moment there was a sinner, there was a Savior!” God’s kingdom of grace instantly begun, inaugurated in Eden by the first lamb offered, typifying and certifying in its substitutionary death and spilled atoning blood that “the “wages of sin which is death.”

Four thousand years later, “the only begotten Son of God” and the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world,” as the promised “Seed of the woman” who the serpent would “bruise His heel,” died on the cross of Calvary, the antitypical altar of sacrifice. His death and the blood of God shed for the remission of sins—-which was first inaugurated in Eden as the KINGDOM OF GRACE [that saved Adam and Eve from instant death] was now RATIFIED—no longer with the typical blood of sacrificial animals, but with the antitypical, all-atoning blood of God in Christ Himself in the New Covenant!

Thus the Mosaic, Levitical, Ceremonial law with its system of sacrifices and earthly priesthood under the Old Covenant of the Old Testament dispensation was “nailed to the cross.” The death of Christ, “the Lamb of God” at Calvary was the transition point from the Mosaic-Jewish dispensation to the the New Covenant in the New Testament Christian dispensation. The former presented and preserved the gospel in symbols, as with the muted light of the moon at night; the latter, the gospel in substance, as in the glorious light of day!

We who are still alive today are living at the very closing hours of the New Testament, Christian dispensation. The ENMITY or the “great controversy between Christ and Satan” and their respective “seeds “ or followers is soon to reach its prophesied stupendous climax in “the time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time” (Dan. 12:1; cf. Rev. 7: 1, 2, 13: 1-18; chs. 15, 16).

Have you diligently appropriated the divine principle of enmity imparted by the Holy Spirit that alone enables us to “put on the whole armor of God,” “fight the good fight of faith” “fight the battles of the Lord where champions are few,” daily “overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil” “by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony”?

This is major aspect of preparing to receive the seal of God in our foreheads—verily our “passports” giving us “the right to enter in through the gates into the city and eternal access to the the tree of life! Indeed, “saved by grace.”

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.