“It is more palatable to human nature to do penance than to renounce sin.”
– Ellen G. White, 4SOP 383.
Are you finding yourself somehow attracted to the bigly distractions of political theater and stunts sweeping across America? Do you find some kind of a twisted, guilty pleasure of watching and listening to the “sounds of war” in both sophisticated and blatant lying, accusations and denials causing confusion that appear to rule the day?
How would you say if your relatives and friends celebrated your birthday with you in your home by doting on everyone else except you, and doing everything else that had little or nothing to do with the significance of your birth? “Unbelievable.” And you are right.
But the majority of the Christmas revelers have been doing just that where the groundwork for our eternal salvation from sin by the Creator eternally becoming a man of the same flesh and blood nature subject to all temptations man is beset with—the mysterious incarnation, not through Mary’s alleged “Immaculate conception”— but by the plan of redemption, is concerned.
Triumph of Christianity by Tommaso Laureti (1530–1602)/Wikipedia
FRIDAY MORNING MANNA
Biblical Numerology: NUMBER SEVEN – Part 20 Thyatira: Only One of the Seven Containing Recognition of Improvement
I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works: and the last to be more than the first. Rev.2: 19, K.J.V.
“As applied to Christian history, the message[s] to Thyatira [Rev. 2: 18-29] is particularly appropriate to experience of the church during the Dark Ages,” 538-1798 A.D. “The Dark Ages proved to be a time of surpassing difficulty for those who truly loved and served God” [as it will be in the closing, rapid final events of earth’s probation just ahead of our final generation], “and the Thyatira period may well be called the Age of Adversity. Because of persecution the flame of truth flickered and nearly went out” [had not God shortened the Dark Ages with the rise of the Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther in Germany about a quarter of century before 1798. Matt. 24: 21, 22.
Two major crises had reached a head in this watershed year, both directly bearing upon the message and work of proclaiming the third and the fourth angel’s messages ofRevelation 14: 6-12; 18: 1-5. One was in Adventism of the Advent Movement, the other in U.S. Congress. Both took place in America, the symbolical beast with lamb-like horns of Revelation 13.At first blush, the Adventist crisis had nothing to do with anyone outside the pale of Adventism, until we briefly review church history.
"Daniel's Vision of the Four Beasts" Photo Credit by Wikipedia
FRIDAY MORNING MANNA
Biblical Numerology: NUMBER THREE- Part XLIII
Historical Precedent on How Image of Beast will be Formed
See Revelation 13: 11-17.Not too long ago, in 1888, a national religious crisis unfolded in the land of the free presaging what will be the real final national crisis that will result in the final global crisis, completely fulfilling the remaining end-times Bible prophecy. The image of the beast will first be formed followed by the enforcement of the mark of the beast. We will address this important event in more detail in the next issue. First:
Waldenses, Albigenses, and Huguenots Photo Credit by Wikipedia
FRIDAY MORNING MANNA
Biblical Numerology: NUMBER THREE- Part XXXX
Remembering those the World and the Churches have Forgotten: Waldenses, Albigenses, and Huguenots
The last Monday of May is designated a federal Memorial Day, annually set aside for remembering people who died while serving the nation’s armed forces. It is not to be confused for Veteran’s Day, celebrated everyNovember 11 which honors and thanks all military personnel who served the U.S. in all wars, particularly the living veterans. Originated as Decoration Day after the American Civil War in 1868, Memorial Day typically marks the start of summer vacation season, while Labor Day, celebrated every first Monday of September, marks its end.
All the other creatures created before Adam was, were named by him as his first task. Gen. 2: 19, 20. He was to have “dominion” (from the Hebrew radah, meaning, reign, rule), authority over all the earth and it creatures, exercising the same wise and gentle care of his Creator, having been created in the image and likeness of his Maker.
Kingdom comes from two words, “king” and “dominion.” The then perfect earth and its creatures “great and small” was originally designed to be Adam’s kingdom—not to domineer, exploit and abuse, much less to slaughter and eat.
God designed everything to perfection, including their respective digestive systems for their specified diets which never involved killing and the spilling of blood, for “the life of the flesh is in the blood.” Lev. 17:11. Before the fall and the curse of sin there were no “clean and “unclean” animals or man. All were physically and morally clean, for God “saw that everything was very good” at the end of creation week. Gen. 1: 31; 2: 1-6.
On the sixth and last day of creation week, the Creator personally hand-crafted from the dust of the ground the father and representative of the human race–a different order of created beings. As the Creator’s crowning act and masterpiece, Adam alone was made in the image and likeness of God, endowed with free moral agency for a high and noble purpose—to honor the Creator as His human counterpart.
As a free moral agent, he was given a will that is the governing power in the nature of man to intellectually, spiritually, and willingly choose to obey his Creator out of love that is greater than hope and faith.
