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Devotionals

ACHAN’S SECRET SIN EXPOSED PUBLICLY BY GOD

June 17, 2020

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK;

ACHAN’S SECRET SIN EXPOSED PUBLICLY BY GOD. “For God will bring every secret thing into judgment, whether they be good or evil.” Eccl. 12:14.

Continuing from yesterday: “God’s command has been disregarded by of those appointed to execute His judgments. And the NATION was held accountable for the guilt of the transgressor. THEY have even taken of the accursed thing
and have also STOLEN, and DISSEMBLED also’ instruction was given to Joshua for the discovery and punishment [judicial procedures] of the criminal. The [casting of] lots was to be employed for the DETECTION of the guilty. The sinner was NOT directly pointed out, the matter being left to DOUBT for a time, that the people might FEEL their RESPONSIBILITY for the sins existing among them, and thus be led to SEARCHING of HEART and HUMILIATION before God.

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Devotionals

ACHAN’S SIN CAUSED DEFEAT OF ISRAEL’S ARMY IN CANAAN

June 16, 2020

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

ACHAN’S SIN CAUSED DEFEAT OF ISRAEL’S ARMY IN CANAAN. (See Judges 7: 1-26 first).

“But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things….for Achan took of the accursed things, so the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel.” Verse 1.

Achan means “trouble.” He is also called Achar. After their miraculous victory of taking down the massively-fortified city of Jericho, Joshua led the army to attack a small town called Ai. “The hearts of the people melted and became as water.” Joshua “rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eve tide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.”

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Devotionals

THE TENTH COMMANDMENT. “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, wife, manservant, maidservant, ox, ass nor ANYTHING that is thy neighbor’s.”

June 15, 2020

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

THE TENTH COMMANDMENT. “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, wife, manservant, maidservant, ox, ass nor ANYTHING that is thy neighbor’s.” Exo. 20: 17.

God is also called Palmoni, “the divine Numberer” and is a God of order who “numbers the numberless stars of the heavens” and the number of hairs on our heads. Number Ten in the Bible stands for ‘completion,’ hence there are only Ten Commandments that cover our “whole duty to God and to our fellowmen.

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FMM

Elisha’s Three Successive Different Prayers of Faith

Friday Morning Manna

June 12, 2020
Nathaniel Fajardo

email:[email protected]

Elisha’s Three Successive Different Prayers of Faith

(Based on: 2 Kings 6: 8-33; as told in Prophets and Kings, ch.21)

Before Elijah, only the second man after Enoch (the seventh of the godly patriarchs from Adam), was translated, God hand-picked Elisha to succeed, continue and expand on Elijah’s prophetic and reformation ministry. Elisha’s father was an affluent yet God-fearing farmer whose household were among “the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal during the time of well-nigh universal apostasy of Israel during the reign of king Ahab and queen Jezebel, his wicked and cruel heathen wife. See 1 Kings 19: 1-10, 11-20.

To underscore our focus today on faith versus fear, we cite the examples of two faith giants, Moses and Elijah, compared and contrasted to Christ’s temptations, who at their weakest moments, which were few were few and far in between yet momentous, allowed their faith to be temporarily overcome by fear. They yielded to the temptation to fear. Anytime and every time we yield t0 any temptation we sin against God. The following is quoted from Prophets and Kings:

Categories
Devotionals

THE EIGHT COMMANDMENT. “Thou shalt not steal.”

June 11 2020

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

THE EIGHT COMMANDMENT. “Thou shalt not steal.” Exo. 20:15; Lev. 19:11; Deut. 5:19, KJV.

“Both public and private sins are included in this prohibition. The eighth commandment condemns MAN-STEALING and SLAVE-DEALING [in all its different forms], and forbids WARS OF CONQUEST [all world wars were for conquest of other nations and peoples].

“It condemns theft and robbery.

“It demands STRICT INTEGRITY in the minutest details of the the AFFAIRS OF LIFE.

“It forbids OVERREACHING in trade [any business transaction], and requires the payment of JUST debts and wages.

“It declares that every attempt to ADVANTAGE oneself by the IGNORANCE, WEAKNESS of MISFORTUNE of another, is registered as FRAUD in the books of heaven.” E.G.White, Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 308, 309.

“Thou shalt not steal’ was written by the finger of God
Yet how much UNDERHAND STEALING OF AFFECTIONS is practiced and excused. A deceptive courtship is maintained, private communications are kept up. . . . To trifle with hearts is a CRIME of no small magnitude the sight of a Holy God. As we deal with our fellowmen in PETTY DISHONESTY so will we deal with God. Men who persist in a course of dishonesty will carry out their principles until they CHEAT THEIR OWN SOULS and lose heaven and eternal life.” Ibid, Adventist Home, pp. 57, 392.

Such is God’s all-seeing eye that sees through the lens of His law magnified by the Holy Spirit!   NMF 

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Devotionals

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT: “Thou shalt not kill.”

June 7 2020

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT:  “Thou shalt not kill.” Exo. 20: 13; Deut. 5: 17; Matt. 5: 21,22, KJV.

O if only men would understand the spiritual magnification of this commandment (and the rest of the nine), the nation and mankind would not be suffering all the prejudice, racial hatred and killings hemorrhaging society today!

“Whosoever HATETH his brother is a MURDERER: and you know no murderer has life in him.” 1 John 3:15. “The spirit of hatred and revenge originated with Satan: and it led him to put to death [thru his combined Jewish and Roman agencies] the Son of God. Whoever cherishes MALICE or UNKINDNESS is cherishing the same spirit; and its fruit will be unto death. In the REVENGEFUL THOUGHT the evil deed lies enfolded, as the plant in the seed.” E. G. White, Mount of Blessing, p.89.

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FMM

The Battle for the ‘Present Truth’

Friday Morning Manna
June 5, 2020

Nathaniel Fajardo

email:[email protected]

The Battle for the ‘Present Truth’

“Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in present truth.” 2 Peter 1: 12 (see verses 1-11), Authorized Version

Jesus Christ, God Creator in the flesh (John 1: 14; 1 Tim. 3: 16) declared, “I am the way, the truth and the life,” John 14: 6. “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, If you continue (abide) in My Word, you are My disciples indeed, and you shall know truth, and the truth shall set you free.” John 8: 31, 32.

In the plan of salvation the “good news” of the gospel is that Creator of man, condescended in the incarnation to become the Savior of mankind, fallen by sin and hopeless captives of Satan, by delivering, “setting them free” by His life example as a man, “tempted in all points as man is tempted yet without sin,” and by His death on the cross as their substitute and surety from, not in, the power and bondage to sin which is “the transgression of the law (1 John 3: 4). Hence the specific name given Him at His birth, “Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” Matt. 1: 21. Notice here that while Jesus died for the sins of the world, He saves His people from their sins! That is the truth.

Categories
Devotionals

BEWARE OF OUR OLD SUPERSTITIONS & FEARS

June 5, 2020

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

BEWARE OF OUR OLD SUPERSTITIONS & FEARS

As the Israelites impatiently waited for Moses (reminding us of how impatiently the first king of Israel, Saul, waited for prophet Samuel, and committed his first apostasy), something happened that lead worst things:

“Feeling their HELPLESSNESS in the absence  of their leader, they RETURNED  to their OLD SUPERSTITIONS.

“The ‘mixed multitude’ had been the first to INDULGE murmurings and impatience, and they were the LEADERS in the APOSTASY that followed.