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Devotionals

THE HUMANITY OF JESUS

September 27, 2020

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

THE HUMANITY OF JESUS

Whenever mortal sinners like you and me approach the subject of the Incarnation of Christ, we are warned to “take off your shoes from your feet for the ground in which you are standing is holy ground.” We would do well to take heed! Let all remember that “spiritual things can only be discerned spiritually.” The carnal mind disqualifies itself “for it is at enmity against God’s law.”

Now, please read Hebrews 2: 5-8 first. Then consider these:

“Christ is presented here as being ‘lower than the angels,’ though ‘crowned with glory and honor.’ He is shown to be VERY MAN, as truly as in the first chapter He is shown to be VERY GOD. His humanity enables Him to be the kind of High Priest [merciful and all-powerful Intercessor, Mediator, Advocate] men need.

Categories
Devotionals

THE ‘SECOND ADAM’ SUCCEEDED WHERE THE FIRST ADAM FAILED

August 26, 2020

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

THE ‘SECOND ADAM’ SUCCEEDED WHERE THE FIRST ADAM FAILED

“And so it is written, the first man Adam became a living being [soul, Gen. 2:7]. The last Adam became a life giving [‘quickening,’ KJV] spirit. However, the spiritual is not the first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust, the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly [spiritual, not carnally-minded]. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust [our unconverted state with an unregenerate heart], so we shall also bear the image [moral character] of the heavenly Man [the truly converted ‘new creature in Christ Jesus’].”

1 Cor. 15: 45-49, NKJV.

“The right hand of the Majesty on high’ is the seat of honor, or authority. This seat was given Christ when He had made purgation [‘purging’] of sin. He had finished the work given Him in earth to do. He had succeeded where Adam had failed, and had won for Himself if God [the Father] and the right to speak and act FOR MANKIND [as the ‘second Adam,’ and thus High Priest, Mediator, Intercessor, Advocate in the heavenly sanctuary where He ascended to at His resurrection].”

Categories
Devotionals

THE THIRD PHASE OF CHRIST’S WORK IN HIS HUMAN NATURE FOR OUR SALVATION

August 21, 2020

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

THE THIRD PHASE OF CHRIST’S WORK IN HIS HUMAN NATURE FOR OUR SALVATION

“When Christ at last cried out, ‘It is finished,’ He had completed the SECOND PHASE of His work. But there was still THIRD PHASE before Him, which included His SESSION at the right hand of God as [the penitent sinner’s merciful High Priest, all-powerful Mediator, Intercessor and Advocate] and the demonstration which He was to make IN His saints in earth—a work closely connected with that which He was to do in the SANCTUARY ABOVE, and vital to our [eternal] salvation.”

“Christ had demonstrated in HIS OWN BODY that it was possible to be completely victorious over sin; but the question would naturally arise as to whether His victory was merely a SiNGULAR DEMONSTRATION made possible by His unique relation to the Father OR whether OTHERS could do what He had done? Could men overcome as He had overcame?”

Categories
Devotionals

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ‘PURGING’ AND ‘PURIFICATION’

August 7, 2020

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ‘PURGING’ AND ‘PURIFICATION’

“When He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in high.”

Heb. 1: 3., NKJV.

“Christ by Himself purged our sins.’ These words introduce Christ as High Priest. The word ‘our’ is not found in the best manuscripts, and is to be omitted. The reading therefore is that Christ ‘by Himself purged sins,’ or better ‘made purification of sins. It is true that Christ purged ‘our’ sins, but the author [Paul] takes a more INCLUSIVE view, though later he will fully discuss ‘our’ sins.”

Categories
Devotionals

THE SECRET OF WHY THE SANCTUARY DOCTRINE IS IGNORED OR OPPOSED BY MAINSTREAM CHRISTIANITY

June 28 2020

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

THE SECRET OF WHY THE SANCTUARY DOCTRINE IS IGNORED OR OPPOSED BY MAINSTREAM CHRISTIANITY

“Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man shutters; and shutteth, and no man openeth.” Rev. 3: 7, 8.

These “doors” refer to the door to the holy and door to the most holy places of the heavenly sanctuary where Christ has been ministering as our merciful High Priest since His ascension after His resurrection two thousand years ago in 31 A.D.

Of the faithful believers of the Advent Movement who were studying the prophecies, “None could fail to see that if the EARTHLY sanctuary was a FIGURE or a PATTERN of the heavenly, the LAW deposited in the ark on earth was and EXACT TRANSCRIPT of the law in the ark in heaven; and that an ACCEPTANCE of the truth concerning the heavenly sanctuary involved and ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of the claims of God’s law, and THE OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH  OF THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.

Categories
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.

Categories
Devotionals

CLAIMING THE MERITS OF CHRIST’S CLOSING WORK OF ATONEMENT

May 5, 2020

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

CLAIMING THE MERITS OF CHRIST’S CLOSING WORK OF ATONEMENT

Mainstream Christianity clings to the mistaken idea that Christ’s work for the redemption of sinners ended at the cross. When Jesus said, “It is finished” as He was expiring, it was the sacrifice of His life and and shedding of His blood that was “finished” as the “Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.”

He then resurrected after His death to become our merciful High Priest, pleading His own blood in behalf of all penitent sinners who are repenting and confessing their sins. This is how the repentant sinner is justified by the blood of Christ, never by his “works!!”

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FMM

CALAMITY AND CRISIS REVEAL CHARACTER

Friday Morning Manna   

April 17, 2020

Nathaniel Fajardo

email:[email protected]

CALAMITY AND CRISIS REVEAL CHARACTER

     “The time of trouble is the crucible that is to bring out Christ-like characters. It is designed to lead the people of God to renounce Satan and his temptations.” –  E.G. White, Review and Herald, Aug. 12, 1884.

Central to our topic in this edition, at this global moment of the Covid-19 Crisis, is the parable of the ten virgins, which is a parabolic-prophecy having a double-application rather than full-bore type-antitype when the historical midnight cry and the soon-coming latter rain-powered final loud cry of the fourth angel of Revelation 18 are compared, the former preceding the latter.