Who Really Owns the Land? 507 - 1 - 8

God owns everything including the land He gave to His chosen people!

In Genesis 15 God instructed Abram to construct an offering and then caused Abram to enter a deep sleep. God foretold of the time that the Israelite's would be strangers in a land not theirs. When they would come out of this time of enslavement they would be given an unconditional title to land as described in verses 18 through 21. This was a unilateral land covenant granted to Abram and his descendants.

Fast forward to the 20^th Century. As result of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 a considerable amount of land was set aside for a Jewish Palestinian homeland. In 1923 the British took 75% of this land to form the Arab Palestinian Nation of Trans-Jordan. I remember studying world history in high school and hearing the expression that for centuries the sun never set on the British Empire. Perhaps it was their treatment of Israel as now the sun now sets on the British Empire.

On to the 21th Century. President Obama has taken the position that Israel should return to the 1967 lines leaving Israel with nearly indefensible borders. Of course, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused spoiling Obama’s hope for the legacy of being a peace maker. This only intensified the hatred that Obama has for Israel.

We may never know how thoroughly involved the Obama administration was in bringing United Nations Resolution 2334 to a vote. Originally it was to be proposed by Egypt but President-elect Trump personally and successfully intervened to keep it from coming up for a vote. However, four other countries on the Security Council, Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal, and Venezuela "snatched the resolution away from Egypt" and put it up for a vote Friday, December 23, and Obama attained his revenge on Israel.

"Defying extraordinary pressure from President-elect Donald J. Trump and furious lobbying by Israel, the Obama administration on Friday allowed the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution that condemned Israeli settlement construction."

[http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/world/middleeast/israel-settlements-un-vote.html?_r=0]

"UN Resolution 2334, which passed on December 23, says the settlement enterprise “has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law” and calls for a complete end to all construction in areas Israel captured after the 1967 Six Day War."

[http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-envoy-says-abstention-on-security-council-vote-not-revenge/]

To add insult to injury, December 28 Secretary of State John Kerry bloviated for 70 minutes about his vision for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Kerry stated that Israel could either be Jewish or she could be a democracy but not both. You think?

My prayer is that after President-elect Trump becomes president he'll find some way to reverse UN resolution 2334, however unlikely.

Unfortunately, Obama still has three weeks to create a disaster for Israel. There is to be a 70 Nations Meeting January 15, 2017 to possibly “Part the Land of Israel!” What the world seems to be forgetting is that God protects the apple of His eye. Hopefully it is not too late to counter this nefarious plan of splitting Israel. God will not be mocked in his hand cannot will not be stayed forever.

Added later:

Just as Joshua had to lead his people into battle, today Israel has to battle to protect her tiny bit of land, a land much smaller than that given her by God.

“To ensure that there is no doubt about the land’s boundaries, Scripture also indicates the different groups of people that occupy it: "...the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” We know that these peoples lived in what is today Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, part of Asian Turkey, and of course all of Israel, including Gaza and the West Bank.”

[http://chosenpeople.com/main/index.php/israel-articles/545-taking-it-literally-the-biblical-boundaries-of-israel]

Meditation and Prayer 507 - 1 - 6

The word meditation is found in the Psalms: 5:1, 19:14, 49:3, 104:34, 119:97 and a favorite, 119:99, "I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation."

Meditate is found 14 times throughout the Bible including Joshua 1:8, "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, …..."

A few of the references to meditation made by CM includes:

Deuteronomy 32:46, “Set your hearts unto all the words…”

Proverbs 4:26, “Ponder…”

Haggai 1:7, “Consider…”

Luke 9:44, “sink down into your ears….”

To me meditation is a quiet time of reflection as I meditate on all that God has/ is doing. Prayer is more of a conversation. While I don’t hear an audible response, I often feel the presence of the Holy Spirit.

A great woman of God recently passed away, Caryl Matrisciana. Caryl warned of the more modern concept of meditation (revisited Eastern religion) through mantras, drugs, and music.

First a little background from her book, Out of India, “When I was twenty years old, my family returned from India, where I was born and lived for most of my life, to England, our homeland. It was during the turbulent sixties, and I was about to be introduced to a movement that didn’t even have a name yet. How could I have possibly known then that the strange and mystical religion I had been surrounded by in India would someday be at the heart of a spirituality that would influence millions around the world?”

Caryl writes of certain music, “The songs reflect the use of drugs and meditation and belief in Hinduism, UFOs, and astral projection. With the sound of sitars and hypnotic music, I was led to knowledge of the power of the mantra (the repetitious chanting of the names of Hindu deities, vibrations, and other mysterious code words).”

Further into her book, "My hunger for new emotional experiences led me more deeply into the introspection of Yoga and meditation. To my surprise, I began to realize I was experiencing the same thrills in Yoga as I attained on my drug-induced travels into altered states of awareness.

Finally, "From the hands of Jesus the Great Physician, however, is true healing, and the advice of Jesus the Wonderful Counselor surpasses any human technique or psychology."

Caryl adds this warning, "This consciousness, brought about through meditation, leads to certain philosophical and theological conclusions. First of all, it leads to the belief that God is everything, and everything is God. Second, due to the boundary-erasing sensations of this altered state of mind, an individual can reach only one political conclusion— that there is no community but global community.”

Yoga is mainstream and taught even in churches. A tool to be used to further the OWG agenda?

Caryl’s website lives on, caryl.tv/. Caryl has produced several very informative DVDs including her “Wide is the Gate” three volume series; Volume 1, The Emerging New Christianity, Volume 2, The Emerging New Christianity and Volume 3 The Emerging New Christianity.

Coming Destruction of Those Who Oppose Israel Including the United States? 525 - 12 - 8

Genesis 12:3, “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Oops, President Obama, Secretary of State Kerry and the rest of Obama’s minions have ignored this declaration from God. They can’t say we were not warned.

Zephaniah 3:8, “Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.” 

The United States has long been blessed by God due in part to our blessing God’s chosen people, Israel. While we’ve usually stood with Israel our behavior has not always been exemplary. When it was obvious that the holocaust was on the horizon we did a little to allow Jews into this country. Then when we knew trains were bringing Jews into the death camps by the thousands we refused to divert our planes to destroy the railroads.

After 9/11 politicians started referring to Islam as a peaceful religion and referring to Israel as occupiers. President Obama has taken the position that Israel should return to the 1967 lines leaving Israel with nearly indefensible borders. Of course, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused spoiling Obama’s hope for the legacy of being a peace maker. This only intensified the hatred that Obama has for Israel.

President-elect Trump personally and successfully intervened to keep the measure, proposed by Egypt, from coming up for a vote on Thursday, as scheduled.

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/trump-saves-the-day-on-obama-backed-anti-settlements-unsc-resolution/2016/12/23/.

Trump was acting more presidential than the current POTUS, nevertheless, today Obama attained his revenge on Israel.

"Defying extraordinary pressure from President-elect Donald J. Trump and furious lobbying by Israel, the Obama administration on Friday allowed the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution that condemned Israeli settlement construction."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/world/middleeast/israel-settlements-un-vote.html?_r=0

However, four other countries on the Security Council, Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and Venezuela "snatched the resolution away from Egypt" and put it up for a vote Friday afternoon.

New Zealand, no! In little more than the last 24 hours there have been more than a dozen "weak" earthquakes and two "moderate" earthquakes in New Zealand. During November, there were four "severe" earthquakes in New Zealand ranging from 6.0 to 7.8 in Magnitude. Just saying that God knows our hearts. Prayers for protection of Chuck Missler, Koinonia House NZ and those living in New Zealand.

Is Gibbons’ five reasons for the decline and fall of Rome a model for the downfall of the United States. 525 - 11 - 3

Five Reasons for the Decline and Fall of Rome:

Reason 1: The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home as the basis of society;

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), September 21, 1996, defined marriage for federal purposes as the union of one man and one woman, and allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states. Genesis 2:24, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” 

Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) defined the word marriage to mean a legal union between one man and one woman. Section 3 was ruled unconstitutional in United States v. Windsor June 26, 2013. A complete departure from the command of God that marriage is between one man and one woman resulting in the denigrating of the family unit.

Reason 2: Higher and higher taxes; the spending of public money for free bread and circuses;

US Debt Clock, US National Debt is closing in on 20 trillion dollars, debt per citizen is greater than 61 thousand.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

Reason 3: The mad craze for pleasure; sports and entertainments (ever more violent);

Sport figures are paid an inordinate amount of money while our first responders including our military face great danger and are paid a fraction of these million dollar salaries. We’re not quite in the days of Rome with his gladiators but cage fighting is popular.

Reason 4: The building of great armaments, even though the enemy was within;

 Unfortunately, our enemy is without as well as within. Cyber warfare has been added to the many weapons in the arsenal of countries. It would be wonderful if the money that goes towards defense could be spent to pay down our debt, however, not possible in this fallen world.

Reason 5: The decay of religion, fading into mere form, losing power to guide the people.

 Are we in the time of lukewarm Church in Laodicea?

The resent president election was a revelation to me; many have gone pass being lukewarm to being openly hostile to God. Here a Beatitude of Jesus is being mocked to try to make a very unbiblical political point.

Paul warned us that once we stray from Biblical truth we lose our moral compass.

2 Timothy 4:3-4, “3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 

There are many movement such as The Faith Healing Movement that tickle itching ears via proponents including Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland. Last year I wrote about the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR)

http://sallycp-inthebeginninggod.blogspot.com/2015/10/days-of-savage-wolves-who-distort-truth.html

In summary, the “New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) is a dominionist movement which asserts that God is restoring the lost offices of church governance, namely the offices of Prophet and Apostle. They place a greater emphasis on dreams, visions and extra-biblical revelation than they do on the Bible, claiming that their revealed teachings and reported experiences (e.g. trips to heaven, face-to-face conversations with Jesus, visits by angels) cannot be proven by the ‘old’ Scripture.”

Biblical references for Christ’s return and rule on earth. 525 - 11 - 2

Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” After Satan bruises Jesus’ heel by masterminding the crucifixion, Jesus defeated Satan by His resurrection and will eventual rule on Earth, presently the realm of Satan.

Genesis 49:10, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” Scepter, H7626. to branch off; a scion, a stick ruling and more. Once the Sanhedrin lost the authority to pronounce capital punishment they were distraught not knowing that the scepter/Jesus/ future ruler had incarnated.

Micah 5:2, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

Many verses refer to the earth as “My footstool. Footstool, Strong’s G5286 includes “of thee, thine, something under the feet.”

Psalm 110:1, “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”

Matthew 22:44, “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.”

Mark 12:36, “For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD (Jehovah) said to my Lord (Adoni), Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Here the claim is that The Messiah would be both Man and God. As David's Son, He would be human. As David's Lord, He would be divine.

Our Cornerstone is Jesus. H2106, in the sense of prominence.

Psalm 118:22, “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.”

Matthew 21:42, “Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?” And again in Matthew 12:10, Luke 20:17 and Act 4:11.

Ephesians 2:20, “And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;”

1 Peter 2:6, “Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.”

Jude 1:14, “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,… To execute judgment upon all… 

Daniel 2:44, “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.“ Jesus is the stone that was cut out without hands. He will destroy the four kingdoms of the molten image and rule over the whole earth forever.

Isaiah 61:1-2, “1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;”

At His first incarnation, Jesus came as the suffering Messiah. However, He will return on the “day of vengeance” and claim his kingship.

What does God require of me? How am I to do it? 525 - 10 - 1

What does God require of me? Micah 6:8, “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” A very tall order for a fallen human attempting to be a bondservant of Jesus. First and possibly foremost God requires that I recognize and declare my need for the redeeming grace provided by Jesus. To recognize that I cannot do what God requires of me by relying on myself. Recognition and declaration of this need is expressed in many wonderful praise and worship songs/hymns.

You Are My All In All Lyrics

"Taking my sin, my cross, my shame

Rising again I bless Your name

You are my all in all"

Yes, Jesus is my all in all and without His gift of grace I’m lost.

Jesus I need You Lyrics

"Jesus I need You

Every moment I need You

Hear now this grace bought heart sing out

Your praise forever"

Yes, I will sing out the praises of Jesus eternally.

Lord I need You Lyrics

"Lord, I need You, oh, I need You

Every hour I need You

My one defense, my righteousness

Oh God, how I need You"

Again, oh how I need the Lord in this lost and confused world.

Then the promise of Micah 7:19, “He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”

Here compassion is by implication to love, have compassion upon, love, shew mercy

Subdue can be to conquer, subjugate, bring into bondage, bring into subjection.

Cast is to throw out, down or away.

Depths can be a deep place of water.

When I declare that I’m broken and in need of the redeeming grace of Jesus God will show me compassion and my sins are cast away into a deep place of water; “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:12.

To be a Paul and really internalize Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Covetousness Revisited 525 - 10 - 8

Although this started out as what God expected of our leaders it quickly morphed into a discourse on covetousness. From a DQ written shortly before the presidential election of 2016, “’From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” Louis Blanc first used the expression in 1839, however, Karl Marx made the slogan popular. Bernie Sanders and his followers took this to heart with their demand for free college tuition rather than questioning the high cost of an education that often results in no employment or underemployment, free medical and more. As the iron lady of England once said, “Eventually you run out of other people’s money.”’ Not much has changed since the election of Donald Trump except for excuses and attacks by the left.

Years before taking this course I came to an understanding that many of the ills of society could be minimized by adherence to the commandment, Exodus 20:17, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.” In my opinion, God anticipated the many injustices would be done in the name of covetousness. He again repeated this commandment, Deuteronomy 5:21, “Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's.”

Years ago, I hosted a chat room called ”The Politically Incorrect Club. Both there and in another chat room I argued that the progressive income tax structure had much to do with covetousness on the part of both many taxpayers and politicians seeking to secure votes, that the harder one worked to earn more income the more he or she was punished with higher taxes. Although there were many atheists in the chat rooms, some still had limited knowledge of Scripture. Matthew chapter 25 was often misapplied as most didn’t understand that Jesus was referring to the treatment of Israel rather than the more modern term, "The redistribution of wealth."

Was God looking down the corridor of time to the “Death Tax,” Eminent Domain and other ways of extorting land when he prompted Micah to write In Micah 2:2, “And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.” What of the theft of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite by Jezebel in 1 Kings 21, a prototype of things to come not only with the medieval Roman Catholic Church but with modern politicians?

With the election of Donald Trump as the 45^th president of the United States of America I’m optimistic about the future of our country for the first time in years. Is Donald Trump our Cyrus? Time will tell, for now I think yes.

Why is Micah 6:8 is so often misunderstood 525 - 9 - 3

Micah 6:8, “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

I’m not so sure that Micah 6:8 is misunderstood, rather it is rejected as too simple and eliminates man’s control through works.

 “Micah 6:6-8 What does the Most High seek in return for this? Not extravagant animal sacrifices! Certainly not human sacrifices! But justice, and mercy, and humility. Verse 8 describes what God requires; to obey this a person must have divine life. An unconverted person is totally incapable of producing this kind of righteousness.” [Believers Bible Commentary]

The gospel is so very simple. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” Our salvation/ justification rests upon the substitutionary character of the death of Christ, Ephesians 2:8-9, “8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Jesus was the propitiation for our sin, Isaiah 53:5, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

I’m reminded of the serpent in the garden, “Did God really say that.” Can it be this simple? No requirement for burnt offerings, for works? Satan would have us believe that we take part in our own salvation. Not so, it is a gift which seems to go against man’s pride in doing it his way.

Grace justifies us not works, however, good works tend to follow. As we work out our sanctification, we are to do justly, to love mercy and to walk by God. Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” As God’s creation, we are “that which has been made, a work, of the works of God as creator.” [Thayer]

“He - God hath already told you in his word, with what you ought to come before him. To do justly - To render to every one their due, superiors, equals, inferiors, to be equal to all, and oppress none, in body, goods or name; in all your dealings with men carry a chancery in your own beasts, and do according to equity. To love mercy - To be kind, merciful and compassionate to all, not using severity towards any. Walk humbly with thy God - Keep up a constant fellowship with God, by humble, holy faith.” [John Wesley Commentary]

How are “the way of Balaam;” “the error of Balaam” and “the doctrine of Balaam” are reflected in today’s culture? 525 - 9 - 5

Per CM there are three errors of Balaam:

• “Way of Balaam”: making religion his source of wealth.

• “Error of Balaam”: attempting to oppose God’s will and curse Israel

• “Doctrine of Balaam”: marriage with the world.

“Way of Balaam”:

2 Peter 2:15, “Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;” Very descriptive today’s mega-churches leaders. As an example, Joel Osteen’s net worth of 40 million. [http://net-worths.org/joel-osteen-net-worth/] Joyce Meyers is a very entertaining motivational speaker, however, short on biblical truth. There are several others in the mega-churches who have gone the way of Balaam, an exception being David Jeremiah who stays with Biblical truth.

“Error of Balaam”:

Jude 1:11, “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.” There are those who are redacting the Bible. An example is The Message by Eugene Peterson. Mr. Patterson changes Job 19:25, “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:” (KJV) to “Still, I know that God lives—the One who gives me back my life—and eventually he’ll take his stand on earth.” Mr. Pearson has added to the verse and exchanged the concept of my Redeemer to a more imprecise God and the latter-day for eventually.

Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and pastor at Saddleback Church has promoted Chrislam, something in my opinion that is an insult to both Christians and Jews. Pope Francis is courting the Eastern Orthodox Church trying to bring them under the umbrella of the Roman Catholic Church, can you say the coming one world religion? But I digress.

“Doctrine of Balaam”:

To the church at Pergamos, Revelation 2:14, “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.”

Balak, king of the Moabites, feared the Israeli so he sent messengers to Balaam and asked him to curse Israeli. Balaam was a soothsayer, a “prophet for profit,” for hire. He agreed to use his ability contrary to God’s will.  God intervened. Numbers 22:12, "And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed."

At first Balaam refused to curse Israel but money is money so he eventually traveled to Moab. On the way, Balaam had a conversation with his donkey who saw an angel blocking their path. As it turns out whenever Balaam tried to curse Israel it came out as a blessing them in accordance with God’s word. Finally, he used the doctrine of Balaam, “to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel,” to cause them to be unfaithful to God so He would then “turn His hand against them.”

As an aside, God can use something meant for evil for good. Balaam was paid to curse Israel and instead blessed her with a Messianic prophecy. Numbers 23:17, “I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.”