How it all started... my first blog posting Saturday, December 17, 2011

 How it all started... my first blog posting

Saturday, December 17, 2011

First Class Tomorrow - Koinonia Institute!

Tomorrow, 12/18, I start my first class with Chuck Missler's Koinonia Institute:

Survey of the Old Testament is a Bronze Medallion course that reviews the Old Testament with an emphasis on the integrity of deliberate design found throughout the entire Bible. With 66 books penned by over 40 authors and over a period of several thousand years, virtually every detail in the text — every number, place name, even the structures hidden beneath the text itself— reveal a master plan which transcends the perspective of any of the individual writers and demonstrates an extraterrestrial origin from outside our time domain.

There is so much depth to the Bible and again, the more I learn the more I know I have to learn. I've long had a heart centered connection to Jesus, however, in these last days I want to better be able to defend the faith. I'm not sure what a Bronze Medallion represents but the knowledge gained will be helpful.

I've downloaded several of Dr. Missler's teaching in MP3 with a slideshow presentation format. His DVDs take up far more computer storage space and the main difference is being able to watch Dr. Missler rather than listen to him. I'm happy to hear him while viewing the relevant slides. In addition to the slideshow version, there is an audio only format that I can load to my smart phone. Dr. Missler goes into great detail in his teachings.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

A little Bit More....

Another eBay post I wrote in reply to a member's question about the Bible

I believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God.

I recently enrolled in the Koinonia Institute.  Here is part of what I wrote in the KI Discussion Boards' Introduce Yourself:

I'm from a very small town in Michigan. I can't remember a time as a child that I wasn't in Sunday School. As a teenager I sang in both the junior and senior choir. I was in a rather conservative protestant church, however, for a few years in grade school my best friend was the local Baptist Pastor's daughter so I received a more through introduction to the Bible there. Her father was called to another city but I never forgot the peace I found in that church.

I was a young mother of two and divorced in college. The church I attended with my former husband made sure my children and I had a ride to church Sundays. After college I started to drift away from church membership and am thankful that God is so forgiving. I played at the edges of the so-called New Age and New Thought, you know, the all roads lead to God. Thankfully I belonged to the Lord from such an early age that He never really let me go. Now older and far more discerning I've been delving deeper and deeper into the Word for several years. The more I study and attend Bible studies the more I hunger.

I finally decided that I have an unusual mission field. I've been a member of eBay for years, both as a buyer and seller. I stumbled into a chat room and read incorrect doctrine and lots of Christian bashing. My concern is that far more people read these online threads than reply. I try to correct posts such as Allah is the same God as in the Old Testament.

I moved around a lot after graduating from college in the 60s and now am retired and live in Quartzsite, Arizona where I attend a local Baptist church. Summers I spend in Michigan in a park with it's own Chapel. I am truly blessed.

As an aside and back to 2023, more than a decade ago, I promoted Slideshows over DVDs, nearly a 1 to 90 ratio of storage required. Now I store volumes of Chuck's teachings on very small media,  a valued treasure trove. AIlthough I'm still a buy/ seller on eBay, I no longer post there rather to Facebook, a huge mission field, possibly to Twitter in the near future. 

Thinking Outside the Box, What if Adam...

Another of my musings from outside the box. We all know about the fall in Chapter 3 of the Book of Genesis. The serpent appealed to Eve's pride, her desire to become as God. She took one little bite of the forbidden fruit and offered it to Adam, Adam who ate knowing the penalty. Eyes now opened, Adam and Eve realized they were naked. Typical of humans they tried to cover their sin with figleaves. God had another plan and provided them with animal skins, a foreshadowing of God's requirement of a blood sacrifice for sin. Thousands of years later it would be Jesus who was our propitiation.

But back to my musings. What if Adam stayed in Eden rather than taking a bite out of the "apple." What would happen to Eve after being forced out of Eden. Without Adam would Eve have fallen to such a lowly and lost state that she would have accepted Satan as her god? Would Eve have become the bride of Satan and created a race of fallen angels?

Would God have created another bride for Adam and would they be restricted to an area in Eden guarded by cherubim? Would such a restriction mean the planet would not be populated by the race descending from Adam and his second wife?

Cherubim were posted at the entrance to Eden to keep Eve out and away from the Tree of Life. Would Eve be able to see past the cherubim and see her husband Adam with a new bride? Satan uses the eyes is a portal to man or in this hypothetical case Eve. Would she become jealous and seek to aid Satan in his battle against God?

God uses hearing as the portal to man, again in this case, Eve. Perhaps Eve would remember enough of her conversations with God in the Garden to resist Satan out in that cold lonely and hostile world. Would she unite with God in defeating Satan and eventually redeem herself in the eyes of God? Would God provide Eve with a husband? Would we then decend from Eve and her second husband. 

God Said “Go Close the Windows” Revisited

Today I was once again at a Gospel performance featuring Michael and his father Ed Cullipher. Ed sang a song that likely touched  even the hardest heart, “Go Close the Windows.”

As Jesus hung on the cross “Angels cried Father please stop them" and God answered "Go close the Windows." What anguish God must have felt, nevertheless, as the Suffering Messiah Jesus was to serve as the propitiation for sin. 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.” This is the one time Jesus called His father God as He, Jesus, was the  conciliation that permitted us to stand before our  righteous God. 

 

Once more as I listened to Mr. Cullipher I thought back several years to when Pastor Bruce talked about “The Seven Sayings of Jesus on the Cross.” All those many years ago Pastor Bruce inspired me to look into some of the Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled while Jesus hung on that cross. Sadly Pastor Bruce went home to be with the Lord, a victim of Covid-19.

 

The following is from my earlier blog postings:

# 1. Forgiveness: Luke 23:34, “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”

Numbers 15:26, “And it shall be forgiven all the congregation of the children of Israel, and the stranger that sojourneth among them; seeing all the people were in ignorance.”
Psalm 22:18, “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.”

#2. Salvation: Luke 23:43, “And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

Isaiah 40:3, “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

John 1:29, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John the Baptist is often referred to as the end of The Old Testament.

#3. Relationship: John 19:26-27, “When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.

Psalm 69:8 “I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children.”

#4 Abandonment: Matthew 27:46, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?”

#5 Distress: John 19:28, “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.”

Psaml 69:20, “Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.”

#6 Reunion John 19:30, “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost."

Psalm 69:21 They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

#7 Triumph: Luke 23:46, “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”

Psalm 31:5, “Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.” 

Tetelestai means, “It is finished.” Jesus paid the price, it is up to each of us to choose to accept or reject the gift of Grace. 

The Tola Worm Revisited

 The Tola worm was mentioned during last Sunday's sermon. As an aside, the Tola worm brings to mind the scarlet thread that runs throughout the Bible, a subject for another time. 

But I digress; the Tola worm. Psalm 22 reads like it was dictated by Jesus from the cross and includes “But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.” Psalm 22:6

On the cross Jesus gave His life as a propitiation to bridge the gap between a righteous God and fallen man, something of a similitude to the Tola, the scarlet worm, who gives her life so that her young may have life. 

When the Tola, the scarlet worm. reproduces, the female attaches herself permanently to a tree and covers her eggs with her body. The worm gives her life to feed her baby worms resulting in a crimson liquid that after three days leaves a red stain on the tree and a white shell.

Isaiah 1:18, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord : though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

Perhaps there is a deeper meaning in the use of the word worm and the expression son of man in Job. “How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? 5 Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. 6 How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?” Job 25:4-6.

Our righteous God could not look at Jesus on the cross as Jesus represented our sin.

Matthew 27:46, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
In fulfillment of another prophecy prophecy.
Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?”

Worm - H8438 - tôlâ‛ - a maggot, the crimson grub, in this connection of the color from it, and cloths dyed therewith: - crimson, scarlet, worm. [Strong’s]

Chuck Missler's Teachings

Years ago I posted this on the Koinonia Institute wall, it dealt with DVDs vs Slide show's. I'm still pushing for a file of slides be provided for studies that don't include slide shows.

"I feel like Don Quixote's tilting at windmills, a followup to my March 31 post. I unsuccessfully brought up the suggestion with KI management that in the event that slideshows are not available it would be great if a file of CM's slides as presented on his DVD would be included with the audio. I pointed out that not only are the DVD more expensive than the slideshows, they take up far more hard drive storage. 

As an example, I mentioned that a friend who bought the DVDs Learn the Bible 24 hours required about 45 gigabytes hard drive storage as compared to less than half a gigabyte storage for the slideshows that I bought.

It's been my experience that CM mentions things on his DVD/ slideshows that are not always in the PDFs. For me it is easier to find these nuances with the slides, at least I have some idea where in the hour lesson to look rather than once again listening to the full hour.

Full disclosure, I am not one for shuttling DVDs on a computer. My choice is to download the slideshows and have them at my fingertips so to speak. I have both a summer and winter home so it is easier to carry my computer around that a bunch of DVDs.

I seem to be fortunate in the nearly 40 courses that I have taken through KI all had slideshows available. Back when I took the basic Issachar courses I was able to download both MP3s and PDFs with slides. I could listen to the audios while "flipping" through the slides while offline.

I am currently taking two courses with KI, the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah and Isaiah part two. Ezra and Nehemiah does not have slideshows available. Fortunately, the Isaiah downloads do. This is been a learning experience for me and I will avoid any KI courses that do not provide slideshows in the future. Unfortunately two courses that I really want to take, Exodus and Joshua, do not have slideshows with them so...."

Time for Awareness

 The following a an interesting dream I had a few years ago. I was being analytical in my dream rather than just being an observer as is usual for me. I rarely feel fear in my dreams but a month or more ago I was feeling threatened in a dream. I remember thinking to myself this is a dream and I can come out of it and I woke up.

From 2018:
"Although  I am usually an observer  during my dreams, in the last few weeks I've had dreams where I'm analyzing my situation. A week or so ago I dreamt that there had been/ was about to be an EMP incident, solar or nuclear I'm not sure. I was taking an inventory of what I had and how to protect it in faraday bags. For some time I've been concerned about our power grid and how vulnerable we are to an EMP incident.

In last night's dream I was with a group, family or friends, not sure which. We had been told that we were to be forced to take a chip. My associates didn't seem to be very concerned about it but I was packing to get away. I was being rather analytical as to what I would be taking. My cell phone and charger and my tablet and charger. I was very specific in that these were small enough to be carried. I was packing enough clothes to last a day or two. I vaguely remember meeting up with one of my friends and asking are you really going to take the chip and he answered in the affirmative. Then in that between sleep and waking up I remembered my solar chargeable audio Bible and decided to include that as well. Interesting as it should have been first to pack.
I felt no fear and either of these dreams just a sense of needing to be prepared."

Fast forward to March of 2021, a time for discernment and to pay attention to the prompting from the Holy Spirit.

A couple Bible verses come to mind:

Matthew 10:16 KJVS
"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."

1 Peter 5:8 KJVS
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour::

2021 Review of the Unconditional covenants made by God with Israel

February 2016 I posted, “As for the United States, again and again the POTUS and his minions fail to support Israel and actually undermine her in mockery of God’s Word. Isaiah 5:5, “And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:” So much for the hedge of protection around America. As America has done to Israel….”

We had a four year reprieve during the Trump/ Pence Administration which was very supportive of Israel. Just one accomplishment was to finally move our Embassy to Jerusalem.  Now the election of 2020, questionable as it was/ is, removed God’s Warrior Jehu from office.  

Now that we have a Biden/ Harris administration in Washington DC that some refer to an a third Obama Administration, what of Israel? At least the US Senate nearly unanimously to keep our Embassy in Jerusalem. That said, I expect that the new administration will be less than supportive of Israel.

So it is time once again to review the Four Unconditional Covenants made by God with Israel:

The Abrahamic Covenant:

 “And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting  covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:7-8).

The Land Covenant:

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 Israelites would be strangers in a land not theirs, however, when they would come out of a period of enslavement they would be given an unconditional title to land as described in verse 18 through 21. This was a unilateral land covenant granted to Abram and his descendants.

The Davidic Covenant:

Nathan the prophet told King David God’s unconditional covenant. 2 Samuel 7:12, “And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.” 2 Samuel 7:16, “And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established forever.”

The Everlasting Covenant:

God promised Isaac in Genesis 26:3-4, "Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."

Now with the current administration will we lose God’s blessing? 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.”