The Plan of God - A Journey Through the Bible - “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). And so
begins your story. Not only your story, but the story of your parents,
grandparents, and great-great-great-great grandparents.
Your story has an end, located in the last
few chapters of the book of Revelation.
These chapters describe the return of Jesus;
the banishment, temporary and permanent, of
Satan and his demons; the establishment of
God’s kingdom on earth; the first through
third resurrections; and the relocation of
God the Father’s throne to a transformed
earth. (Note: In PDF Format - You
will need a PDF Reading Program)
MANY
ARE CALLED, FEW ARE CHOSEN - I’m a
regular guy. I like sports, particularly
football. I enjoy action movies and silly
sitcoms. Occasionally I watch cartoons,
giggling like a kid at the antics of Bugs
Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Yosemite Sam. I’d
like to posthumously punish whoever invented
suits and ties. When I visit McDonald’s and
Wendy’s, I don’t order the salads. If you
give the remote to me, I won’t return it
until I flip through 100 or so channels at
breakneck speed, twice.
- Have you ever said, "I feel so guilty because I ---------------" Of course you have. We all face the problem of guilt.
Because we have a conscience, guilt is a problem. Conscience has been balled by many "the voice of God within us--the knowing part of man which agrees with God's revelations of right and wrong. "It was created in us by God to operate according to divine law. Since the testimony of conscience rests upon divine law, it's beyond our control.
GOD - I'M Tempted-
Temptation has been defined as "an effort to try to persuade, induce, entice especially to something sensually pleasurable or immoral." It means "to arouse a desire." Basically, temptation is that inner voice that says "go ahead and do it" when you know you should not.
Like a story been told of a man hunted in vain for a parking space and in desperation left his car in a no parking zone with a note on the windshield: "I’ve circled this block ten times and I have an appointment to keep or lose my job. Forgive us our trespasses."
Most Christians face the same problems
non-Christians face. However, many Christians are unaware that God has
provided principles in His Word to help handle life's pressures and
problems.
You have to understand and examine some of man's basic problems in the
light of God's Word. I am aware that simplistic answers do not solve the
sticky problems of everyday life. I am also aware that there are some
Scriptural principles that deal effectively with problems of all kinds.
No single problem stands alone. Usually it is inter-related with others.
Taking time to think about the above problems I started with number one
"I'm depressed."
Why Does God Allow Evil?
-
Vincent Genovese was a moderately successful
businessman who sold aprons and coats to businesses in Bay Ridge,
Brooklyn, one of the five boroughs of New York City. He and his wife
Rachel had five children. They had named their eldest child Catherine.
One day in 1954 Rachel witnessed a shooting near home. Scared and
disgusted, Vincent and Rachel decided to escape the mean streets of
Brooklyn. So they and their children packed their bags and moved to New
Canaan, Connecticut.
However, their eldest child Catherine, known affectionately as "Kitty,"
stayed behind. She was 19, pretty, headstrong, and independent. Like
most girls her age, she was interested in conquering the world, and New
York City seemed like a good place to start. New York was big, exciting
and mysterious; New Canaan was not.
TERRORISM
AND PROPHECY- “Why do they hate us?” was
a common question after 9/11. I detest that question because it hints
at the presumption of American guilt. Put another way, “What did we do
to deserve this?” Of course many but not all of us would say,
“Nothing!” However, “while the great majority of Americans reacted more
or less instinctively—having been attacked, one was obliged to defend
oneself and hit back—there was on the campuses and among the literary
intelligentsia a school of thought, not perhaps large in numbers but
loud and aggressive, that if there had been such an attack, America had
had it coming and it must have been its own fault.”
In PDF Format
THE
DAY OF ATONEMENT AND SATAN’S FATE -
Satan hates you. If you’re a Christian
who obeys God’s commandments, Satan wants to destroy you: “And the great
dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and
Satan, who deceives the whole world….And the dragon was enraged with the
woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring
(symbolically, the Church or children of God), who keep the
commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”
(Revelation 12:9, 17).
This isn’t mere hyperbole. Satan is venomously upset because you, as
“heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17), will inherit
what he has been trying to get his hands on: the Kingdom of God. And he
will try desperately to prevent you from receiving your inheritance.
THREE
DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS -
“Liar!”
they must have screamed. “You promised the Kingdom, but look at you:
bloodied to a pulp, nailed to the stake like a common criminal,” they
must have thought. “You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild
it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God,” they
sarcastically taunted, “come down from the cross” (Matthew 27:40).
There’s hardly anything uglier than an angry mob. And it was a mob who
with one voice declared, “Crucify Him!” Why were they so venomously
angry at Jesus? After all, He had healed many of them. He had
performed miracle after miracle. He had preached love and mercy. He
said, “Love your enemies,” but the angry mob had no use for such
advice. At that moment, they were convinced that Jesus was their enemy.
Is God A
Trinity -
“Variety’s the very spice of life,” said
William Cowper. If Mr. Cowper was correct,
then life is indeed very spicy. Consider
religion. Of the six billion people on
earth (give or take a few hundred million),
2 billion are Christians, 1.3 billion are
Muslims, 900 million are Hindus, 350 million
are Buddhists, and 14 million are Jews.
Almost 900 million don’t believe in God
(atheists) or don’t know what to believe
(agnostics). And the list goes on.
Biblical Prophecy Explained -
Approximately one-third of the Bible is prophecy, much of which
concerns the return of Jesus. This article will not explain all the
nuances of such prophecy; that would require a book. However, this
article will answer the following questions:
Why will Jesus wage war upon
His return (Revelation 19)?
Whom will He fight?
The "beast" and "false prophet" - who are they?
Where and what is Armageddon?
Book of
Proverbs -Here's how you can better understand the
Book of Proverbs! - MOST people think they understand the Book of Proverbs but
they really do not! Have you noticed that the first nine
chapters of Proverbs are not the proverbs of Solomon at all?
Have you noticed, also, that in this introduction God is
speaking to you direct, in the first person? Solomon was
merely the instrument in God's hand. Though Solomon wrote these
words through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God nevertheless
is speaking direct to you!
Destination Heaven or Destination Earth?
- “No one has ascended into heaven, but
He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man” (John 3:13). Jesus
did not promise eternal life in heaven. However, He promised
eternal life on earth. Must we do something to attain immortality?
Some days feel like an eternity. What will we do for eternity?
Most Christians believe they have an immortal soul. Upon
death, this soul will either ascend to heaven or descend to hell.
Yet, the Bible does not contain the words “immortal soul.”
Rather, Paul stated that only Jesus has attained immortality (I Timothy
6:16).
PASSOVER
OR EASTER - WHICH IS BIBLICAL? -
God warned us -
Israel then, Christians now - not to adopt pagan customs. However,
we have chosen not to heed God’s warning. Many traditional
Christian doctrines and celebrations - such as going to heaven or
hell when we die, the immortality of the soul, and Christmas - are
rooted in paganism. So is Easter.
SATAN
EXPOSED! -
Who is Satan? Where did he come from? Why does Paul call him the "god of
this world"? Indeed, Satan is the quintessential liar. But what are his
lies?
THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS -
Many Christians cannot reconcile these contrasting images of Jesus.
They’d prefer to worship a Jesus who, while on the stake, asks His
Father to forgive His murderers, accusers, and mockers. They’d prefer
not to dwell on a returning, angry Jesus who "judges and wages war,"
whose "robe is dipped in blood," and whose teeth clenches a very "sharp
sword."
HELL
IS A MYTH
-
“You can fool some of the people all of
the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool
all of the people all of the time” (Abraham Lincoln). Lincoln was
correct: You can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
However, Satan has come close to accomplishing just that. Satan is
the “god of this world” (II Corinthians 4:4) who has deceived the entire
world (Revelation 12:9). He’s the quintessential liar (John 8:44)
who masquerades as an “angel of light” (II Corinthians 11:14), and his
demons disguise themselves as “ministers of righteousness” (verse 15).
In other words, most of the people, most of the time, have believed
satanic lies. One such lie is the common Christian belief of a
hell in which people are tormented endlessly.
PENTECOST & THE MEANING OF LIFE
-
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Nietzsche, and many other
philosophers have asked the same question: What is the meaning of
life? Likewise, Job and David pondered life’s meaning, and how it
relates to God. Others like Solomon and Sarte saw only vanity and
drudgery in life.
THE
FEAST OF TRUMPETS AND THE RETURN OF JESUS
-
Few people see
the connection between these verses. Revelation 19 describes the
return of Jesus. In the book of Numbers, God commanded the
Israelites to observe the Feast of the Memorial of Blowing of
Trumpets. How does an ancient Hebraic festival (Leviticus
23:24-25; Numbers 29:1) relate to the return of Jesus?
SATAN DOES NOT WANT YOU TO READ THIS ARTICLE
- Satan has deceived the
world, and specifically, mainstream Christians. For example: We do not
have an immortal soul. Immortality belongs only to God (I Timothy 6:16) and
spirit beings (angels, demons). Jesus said that “No one has ascended into
heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of
Man” (John 3:13). And God said to Adam, “By the sweat of your face you
will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken;
for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19).
WHY HAVE CHRISTIANS
ABANDONED THE SABBATH? -
The Pharisees
and Sadducees accused Jesus of disobeying the Law of God, especially
the fourth commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work,but
the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you
shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your
male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your
stranger who is within your gates.For in six days the
LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in
them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the
Sabbath day and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11).
THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES, CHRISTMAS, AND
THE KINGDOM OF GOD-
This article is very
ambitious. It will debunk a major Christian myth, and reveal Satan’s plot to
obscure the plan of God. This article will also describe God’s plan and
Kingdom, and our roles in it. God’s plan is very ambitious, and has a happy
ending.
The Divine Destiny of
America
- “The United States bestrides the globe like a colossus.
It dominates business, commerce and
communications; its economy is the world’s
most successful, its military might second
to none.”
“Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a
well; his branches run over the wall.
The archers have bitterly grieved him, shot
at him and hated him. But his bow
remained in strength, and the arms of his
hands were made strong by the hands of the
Mighty God of Jacob (from there is the
Shepherd, the Stone of Israel). By the
God of your father who will help you, and by
the Almighty who will bless you with
blessings of heaven above, blessings of the
deep that lies beneath, blessings of the
breasts and of the womb. The blessings
of your father have excelled the blessings
of my ancestors, up to the utmost bound of
the everlasting hills. They shall be
on the head of Joseph and on the crown of
the head of him who was separate from his
brothers” (Genesis 49:22-26).
Most people don’t realize the connection between the above quotes. The
first quote states the obvious: The United States is extremely
powerful. “Like Britain in the nineteenth century, the United States in
the twenty-first century has power to spare. In fact the U.S. has more
power than Britain did at the height of its empire, more power than any
other state in modern times. It deploys the world’s only blue-water
navy of any significance and the world’s most powerful air force; its
armed forces have expeditionary capability undreamed of by any other
power; its economy, powered by unceasing technological innovation, is
the biggest and most dynamic on earth; its language has achieved a
ubiquity unrivaled by any tongue since Latin; its culture permeates
distant lands; and its political ideals remain a beacon of hope for all
those ‘yearning to be free.’”
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man's word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from
the pages of your own
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The Church of God, Ministries
International 1767 Stumpf Blvd.
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