Are We Preparing for the Latter Rain?– Part XXXVII
A Sabbath-Keeping People (conclusion)
To all freedom-loving Americans at heart, Happy July Fourth! This annualAmerican federal holiday isthe official day commemoratingthe adoption of the Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom (Great Britain). The original declaration was prepared on July 2 by a Committee of Five, its principal author being Thomas Jefferson, assisted by John Adams, second president of the U.S., and leading advocate of the independence movement. The Continental Congress then debated on it, revised its wording and approved it on July 4. Today we celebrate the 238thMemorial Day of that Declaration of Independence.
“THOU SHALT NOT MAKE UNTO THEE ANY GRAVEN IMAGE.” Read the whole second commandment as spoken and written by God’s own finger in Exodus 20: 4-6; Deuteronomy 5:8-10. Graven is from the Hebrew pecel andpacal, “carved (graven) images;” “to carve, whether wood or stone.” See the following verses on idolatry: Lev. 26:1, 2; Deut. 4: 15-19; Judges 17: 1-6; 2 Kings 17: 41; 2 Chronicles 34: 7; Psalms 78:58; Isaiah 40: 19, 20; Jer. 8: 19; Hosea 11: 12; Micah 5: 12-15; Nahum 1: 14; Habakkuk 2: 18, 19; Acts 17: 29; 1 Cor. 8: 1-13. The prophet says: “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” 1 Samuel 15: 23, K.J.V.
TEMPERANCE or self-control which invariably includes self-denial and self-sacrifice, is one of the nine “fruit,” that is, evidence or manifestation that the third Person of the Godhead is indeed dwelling in us and that we are submitting to the divine government, management, and control with our informed consent and willing cooperation.
These nine fruit(s) of the Holy Spirit are the very graces and virtues that proud yet suffering humanity have pining for. Yes, the words, their definitions and concepts are subjects constantly expounded on, perhaps sermonized too often in the pulpits of Christendom; but few actually possess them. It is the counterfeits, crafted by Satan, the master deceiver that mankind has been so strangely obsessed with in spite of their multiplying consequences of suffering, disease, pain, and moral wretchedness.
Apostle Paul’s urgent plea for all Christians in these last days is: “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds (works,K.J.V.) of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This why it is said: Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of opportunity [redeeming the time, K.J.V.], because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5: 9-15, N.I.V.
Are We Preparing for the Latter Rain?– Part XXVIII
A Working People
The wise man said, “Go to the ant thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise.” Proverbs 6: 6 (see verses 7-11). Jesus said, “The harvest truly is great but the laborers are few.” Luke 10:2. “Occupy till I come.” Luke19:13.We need to pay closer attention to what “the Lord of the harvest” meant by “harvest” and “laborer” particularly in the context of preparing for the Latter Rain. Inspiration says, “The harvest of life is character, and it is this that determines destiny, both for this life and the life to come.” (Ed 109); it is “the end of probationary time,” “the end of the world.” See parable of the wheat and tares, Matt. 13: 24-30, 37-43 and Christ’s Object Lessons, pp. 72, 75.
FRIDAY MORNING MANNA
April 18, 2014
Nathaniel Fajardo
Email:[email protected]
Are We Preparing for the Latter Rain?– Part XXVI
A Loving People (continued)
If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love. John15:10, K.J.V.
A truly loving people, according to the Bible are those who abide in God’s love because they keep (do or obey) His commandments. Abide here is the Greek meno, “to stay in a given place, state, relation or expectancy):–continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand tarry (for), thine own.” – Strong’s Greek Dictionary.
It is possible to love family, fellowmen, and country and even die for them without loving God but it is impossible to love God without loving as Christ loves all sinners.
The New Commandment of the Third Angel’s Message. Jesus said, “This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are My friends, if you do whatsoever I command you.” John 15: 12-14, K.J.V.
Christ, throughJohn,author of the gospel bearing his name, the three small epistles, and the last book of the Bible, wrote to the churches: “Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye have heard from the beginning. . . .Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in Him and in you; because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light andhateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.” 1 John 2: 7- 9. John continues, “He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer and ye know no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” 1 John 3: 14, 15. “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 1 John 4: 20.
More and more conscientious people everywhere are alarmed at the moral decadence and self-indulgence threatening the very of core of human society of this generation of boasted advancement in education, technology, and enlightenment. How soon we forget the revolting results of the French Revolution where Reason was worshipped over Deity, Jesus was called a “wretch,” and the Bible burned publicly.
Both human history and Bible prophecy testify how earth’s greatest kingdoms and empires crumbled away—when, at the height of earthly power and prosperity of their time, they succumbed to gross idolatry, unbridled self-indulgence, and apostasy. Thus they fell, starting with the first atheistic empire, Egypt, Neo-Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece (Macedonian), and the Roman pagan empire. Revelation 13’s predictive prophecy of divine foreknowledge clearly reveals that America, “the greatest and most favored nation upon the earth,” will not return to its original nature as refuge for the persecuted and oppressed that it once was. However, the coming final war “will not be between rival churches contending for the supremacy,” “but between the religion of the Bible and the religion of fable and tradition.” It will be “the last great conflict of the controversy between truth and error.” We are now entering into it.
However, until national apostasy results in national ruin, and rapidly becomes global for “the the final events will be rapid ones,” for now, just as it was in the time of Israel’s national apostasy: “Elijah had thought that he alone in Israel was a worshipper of the true God. But He who reads the