Podcasts about o israel

2026년 성경통독 시리즈 (Bible Reading Plan Series) 26 2026년 7월 19일 레븐교회 주일예배 설교 (박기범 목사) Text: 호세아 (Hosea) 14:1-6 Title: "호세아: 주 너희 하나님께로 돌아오라 Hosea: Return to the Lord Your God" 호세아 (Hosea) 14:1-6 [새번역/ESV] 1 이스라엘아, 주 너의 하나님께로 돌아오너라. 네가 지은 죄가 너를 걸어 거꾸러뜨렸지만, Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. 2 너희는 말씀을 받들고 주님께로 돌아와서 이렇게 아뢰어라. "우리가 지은 모든 죄를 용서하여 주십시오. 우리를 자비롭게 받아 주십시오. 수송아지를 드리는 대신에 우리가 입술을 열어 주님을 찬양하겠습니다. Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. 3 다시는 앗시리아에게 우리를 살려 달라고 호소하지 않겠습니다. 군마를 의지하지도 않겠습니다. 다시는 우리 손으로 만들어 놓은 우상을 우리의 신이라고 고백하지도 않겠습니다. 고아를 가엾게 여기시는 분은 주님밖에 없습니다." Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,' to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.” 4 "내가 그들의 반역하는 병을 고쳐 주고, 기꺼이 그들을 사랑하겠다. 그들에게 품었던 나의 분노가 이제는 다 풀렸다. I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. 5 내가 이스라엘 위에 이슬처럼 내릴 것이니, 이스라엘이 나리꽃처럼 피고, 레바논의 백향목처럼 뿌리를 내릴 것이다. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; 6 그 나무에서 가지들이 새로 뻗고, 올리브 나무처럼 아름다워지고, 레바논의 백향목처럼 향기롭게 될 것이다. his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon.

Welcome to The Daily. Partner with us in Project23. Grab your Hosea Scripture Journal. Our text today is Hosea 10:9-12: From the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel; there they have continued. Shall not the war against the unjust overtake them in Gibeah? When I please, I will discipline them, and nations shall be gathered against them when they are bound up for their double iniquity. Ephraim was a trained calf that loved to thresh, and I spared her fair neck; but I will put Ephraim to the yoke; Judah must plow; Jacob must harrow for himself. Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. — Hosea 10:9-12 Hard hearts don't just suddenly harden. They harden slowly, over time. Today God points back to Gibeah—a dark moment in Israel's history marked by sexual corruption, violence, and moral collapse—and says: "There they have continued." In other words, the sin never stopped. Sins that once shocked them slowly became acceptable. What once produced sorrow now produced silence. This is how sin hardens the heart. At first, sin bothers you. Then you tolerate it. Then you manage it. Then eventually, you stop feeling much at all because you become accustomed to the sin. And the dangerous part is that you can still look functional while this is happening. You can keep attending church, keep saying the right things, and keep maintaining appearances while your inner life quietly grows cold toward God. This is why God says to them: "Break up your fallow ground." "Fallow ground" is hardened soil. Land left untouched for so long that it can no longer receive seed properly. Before anything healthy can grow again, the hardened surface has to be broken open with a sharp spade, pickaxe, or jackhammer. Some hearts today are spiritually hardened (fallowed) by years of compromise, distraction, pride, entertainment, bitterness, pornography, greed, political obsession, comfort, and constant noise. The soil has become hard. Truth hits the surface but never sinks in. And yet God says: "It is the time to seek the LORD." Not tomorrow. Not someday. Now. Before hardness grows deeper. Before the conviction disappears further. Before compromise becomes your identity. Hardened hearts can be softened up. God would not call them to seek Him if restoration were impossible. So don't ignore the places where your heart has grown hard. Bring them to God honestly. Ask Him to soften what has become resistant. Ask Him to break apart what has been hardened by sin, pride, fear, or compromise. Because God does beautiful things with broken ground. Sometimes the first sign he has is just feeling the conviction of his Spirit again. DO THIS: Spend time honestly asking God where your heart has grown cold, numb, resistant, or distracted—and invite Him to soften it again. ASK THIS: Where has my heart hardened? What conviction have I been ignoring? What would it look like for me to seek God seriously again? PRAY THIS: God, break up the hardened places in my heart. Soften what has grown numb, awaken what has drifted, and teach me to seek you again with sincerity and surrender. Amen. PLAY THIS: "Run to the Father"

In a monarchy, the royal crown is passed down from parent to child. It's not a position the child earns by merit; it's passed down to them by birthright. But in today's message, Pastor Jeff reminds you that salvation isn't something that is passed down like a birthright. The Israelites did inherit the blessings that God gave to Abraham, but that did not buy them access to God's throne room. They had a front-row seat to what God was doing in this world, but each person has to choose to follow God for themselves.

Consequences Hosea 9-10 9 Rejoice not, O Israel! Exult not like the peoples; for you have played the whore, forsaking your God. You have loved a prostitute's wages on all threshing floors. 2  Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them. 3  They shall not remain in the land of the LORD, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. 4  They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD, and their sacrifices shall not please him. It shall be like mourners' bread to them; all who eat of it shall be defiled; for their bread shall be for their hunger only; it shall not come to the house of the LORD. 5  What will you do on the day of the appointed festival, and on the day of the feast of the LORD? 6  For behold, they are going away from destruction; but Egypt shall gather them; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver; thorns shall be in their tents. 7  The days of punishment have come; the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool; the man of the spirit is mad, because of your great iniquity and great hatred. 8  The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God; yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God. 9  They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins. 10  Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers. But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved. 11  Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird— no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! 12  Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them till none is left. Woe to them when I depart from them! 13  Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow; but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter. 14  Give them, O LORD— what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. 15  Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal; there I began to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels. 16  Ephraim is stricken; their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death. 17  My God will reject them because they have not listened to him; they shall be wanderers among the nations. -- 10 Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built; as his country improved, he improved his pillars. 2  Their heart is false; now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars and destroy their pillars. 3  For now they will say: “We have no king, for we do not fear the LORD; and a king—what could he do for us?” 4  They utter mere words; with empty oaths they make covenants; so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field. 5  The inhabitants of Samaria tremble for the calf of Beth-aven. Its people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests— those who rejoiced over it and over its glory— for it has departed from them. 6  The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria as tribute to the great king. Ephraim shall be put to shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol. 7  Samaria's king shall perish like a twig on the face of the waters. 8  The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. Thorn and thistle shall grow up on their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,” and to the hills, “Fall on us.” 9  From the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel; there they have continued. Shall not the war against the unjust overtake them in Gibeah? 10  When I please, I will discipline them, and nations shall be gathered against them when they are bound up for their double iniquity. 11  Ephraim was a trained calf that loved to thresh, and I spared her fair neck; but I will put Ephraim to the yoke; Judah must plow; Jacob must harrow for himself. 12  Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. 13  You have plowed iniquity; you have reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your warriors, 14  therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people, and all your fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle; mothers were dashed in pieces with their children. 15  Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel, because of your great evil. At dawn the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off.

TAKING GROUND: Opposition In The Soul Steve Parrish ‭‭‭‭‭Philippians 3:12–14 (NIV) Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.Following Jesus is a Journey, leading you to Taking Ground, one step at a time in your DiscipleshipRelationshipsMinistryCareerCommunityTalents/GiftingsFinancesEtc.This concept is:Mirrored in Adam's charge to take dominion over EarthMirrored in the Promise/Command to AbrahamMirrored in the Moses' Exodus from EgyptMirrored in Joshua's push into CanaanMirrored in the building of the Temple and the OT KingdomDeclared in New Testament in Kingdom of Heaven Teaching: John 1:43 (ESV) The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”Matthew 13:44 (ESV) “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.Philippians 3:12–14 (NIV) Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.SOUL (Mind, Will & Emotions) Opposition to Taking GroundNot an enemy without, but an enemy withinOften difficult to seeDeceptive in natureOften a deeply rooted enemy in your experience, your relief system, your character, your auto-responses, your identity, the voices in your head,.Fortunately, we have the Holy Spirit leading us on this journey…John 16:13 (ESV) When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.Mirrored by the Pillar and the Angel that went with MosesMirrored by the Angel of the Army that met JoshuaOPPOSITION IN THE SOUL: GrumblingComplaining that echoes the unthankfulness of the soulExodus 16:1–3 (ESV) They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”lun (534a); a prim. root; to murmur:—growl(1), grumble(4), grumbled(7), grumbling(2), making(1).1 Corinthians 10:9–13 (ESV) We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.There is one to complain to - THE LORD!Complaining to others poisons you, them, your atmosphere and your futurePsalm 102:title–11 (ESV) A PRAYER OF ONE AFFLICTED, WHEN HE IS FAINT AND POURS OUT HIS COMPLAINT BEFORE THE LORD. Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you! Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call! For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread. Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh. I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop. All the day my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse. For I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink, because of your indignation and anger; for you have taken me up and thrown me down. My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass.Psalm 120:1 (ESV) In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.Deuteronomy 26:7–8 (ESV) Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders.OPPOSITION IN THE SOUL: Fear/Anxiety/UnbeliefFear/Anxiety/Unbelief - allowing the physical to eclipse the promise of GodDeuteronomy 20:1-4 ESV When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.We overcome by fixing our eyes on Jesus! Hebrews 12:1–2 (NIV) Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.Isaiah 43:1–7 (ESV) But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

The world can be a scary place – so many things that strike fear in our hearts. And yet over and over again, God says "Do Not be Afraid." What does that mean? How does that work?   Spiders and Snakes I don't know about you but as I look around, it seems to me that the world can be a scary place. Take spiders and snakes – I mean, depending on where you live in this world, they are either dangerous or they're not. Here in Australia we are seriously over represented in the world's "top ten" list of most venomous creatures, so when I was growing up as a child I had good reason to be afraid of them. And still today, the idea of a spider crawling into my bed … ! It's one of the scariest thoughts I can come up with. Let me tell you a funny story. One of the most venomous snakes on the planet is the death adder – great name isn't it? When I was in the Army training to be an officer at the Royal Military College Duntroon, we were one day out doing some grenade practice and that meant you had to sit in bunkers and the person who was throwing the grenade would go out and throw their grenade. Now we had New Zealanders as well as Australians at the Royal Military College and in New Zealand there are no venomous animals at all, so when the Kiwis come across the ditch to Australia, they are petrified of our snakes and our spiders. Well one Kiwi, we'll call him Rock – I've got to tell you this death adder story. He went out of the bunker to go and throw his grenade and we had a dead death adder. So we positioned it in the bunker so he had to sit down right next to it when he came in. Well he came in and he sat down and he looked at it and I've got to tell you, his legs were going before his backside was up off the log and he was running out. We can laugh about it now but the world can be a scary place, especially with friends like me. In my defence I was a young man at the time. So this week we are starting a new series on the programme, it's called "Do Not be Afraid". There is a reason for that – there are lots of people in this world who spend much of their lives living in fear. Sometimes it's because they are living in a war zone – I mean there are plenty of people listening to this programme today who know that only too well. People in the Democratic Republic of Congo for instance, where there is war raging in parts right now – some of those people are sitting in their homes listening to this programme today wondering whether they will see tomorrow or next week or next year. Other times there are different life threatening things that happen. We can have a health scare. The morning I sat down to prepare this message was the morning of the funeral of a friend of mine. Now, he was just a couple of years older than me and he died suddenly of a heart attack. It's easy to be afraid – and it rocks our confidence. And yet other people, they just live lives with a real sense of dread. There is always something there for us to be afraid of or to dread. There is always something lurking out there. For me honestly, if I allowed it, I could be afraid of quite a few things. I mean, I have some things in my life right now that could cause me to experience fear – and that's the thing. It doesn't matter who we are or where we live or … whatever, we all go through times of fear. And that fear can rob us of life itself but time and time and time again, you read in God's Word, these words from God to His people. He says, "Do not be afraid." And He speaks them right at the time when the people He is talking to have every reason to be afraid. They have got people and circumstances coming against them and conspiring against them and they're experiencing fear and yet God wades in and says, "Do not be afraid." Now if God doesn't want me to be afraid when I have every reason to be afraid, you know something? I want to have a piece of His brand of confidence. Don't you think? I mean, think about it! What's the point of God saying, "Do not be afraid", when we have no reason to fear? It's right in the middle of our fear that we need His confidence. I definitely want that – how about you? Well, how can we have that confidence? That's a good question – that's what today's programme is about – that's what this whole four week series is about … "Do not be afraid." So I invite you to come on a journey with me. We are going to start that journey with an account of a time when God's chosen people, Israel, had every reason to be afraid. They were in exile – they had been living in the Promised Land for about five hundred years and yet they had struggled with God. They had worshipped idols and other gods and eventually the Lord their God lost His patience. So in around 586BC, the Babylonians, who were the dominant world power of the day, invaded Jerusalem. They destroyed the place – they destroyed the temple, the place where God's presence dwelt and they took this remnant of God's people back to Babylon as slaves. Talk about a crisis of confidence! Think about it – God made all these promises to Abraham and to Isaac and Jacob and then when Israel was enslaved in Egypt, He sent Moses and did amazing miracles and the whole Red Sea thing and the exodus and the manna from heaven … everything that got them to the Promised Land. And when they got there, with Joshua as their leader, they fought battle after battle against nation after nation that was bigger and stronger than Israel itself and yet God was with His chosen people and they took the land that God had promised them. And now … now Babylon wins! God's own temple is destroyed! Where is God? What happened? Are the Babylonian gods stronger than our God? They have a loss of confidence – it's a big thing. I mean we hear people talking about shareholder confidence and consumer confidence and that feeling when you go to sleep at night, you know, you get that falling sensation and you wake up in a panic, grabbing onto the bed. Confidence is the trust that the earth beneath our feet won't move. It's the trust that the stock market won't fall; it's the trust that the plane we are flying in won't fall off the sky; it's the trust that our governments will do the right thing – it's about trusting, whatever. And then, it's like the rug gets pulled out from under your feet and you lose confidence and panic and fear set in. Why? Because we no longer feel safe – we are no longer able to trust in the things that we have always trusted in. That's where Israel was – there was a complete loss of confidence in their God. Now He was punishing them but they couldn't quite see that. It was like they were flying in a plane at thirty two thousand feet above the ground and all of a sudden, all the engines are silent – panic, fear! And fair enough too! So what does God say to them right in the middle of their fear and panic ... what does God have to say? We are going to take a look at that next.   I am Your God So here is Israel in this scary, fearful place. They have in slavery, exiled in Babylon for the best part of three generations – that's a long time – so only a handful of Israel's elders who can even remember Jerusalem in its heyday. So what does God have to say to these people of His who are cowering in fear under the yoke of slavery? If you have got a Bible, grab it and open it up at Isaiah chapter 41, beginning at verse 8 – he says this: But you Israel, My servant Jacob whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, My friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corner, saying to you, "You are My servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off. Do not fear for I am with you. Do not be afraid for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My victorious right hand. See, the first thing that God does is He reminds them of His promises to Abraham. When Abraham stood in that Promised Land, centuries before, this is what God promised him – just flick back to Genesis chapter 15, verse 18: On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying, "To your descendants I give this land; from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, the land of the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Rephaim and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Girgashites and the Jebusites. See, God's promise is that God had chosen them; God had chosen Abraham, their ancestor, God had promised this land and God said, "I will do this." Notice it is all about God! Do not fear, I am with you; I am your God; I will strengthen you. I will help you; I will uphold you with My victorious right hand. The whole thing that God relies on here in talking to His people in their fear and in their despair, is not who they are or how strong they are or how clever they are, or how well they have done because they haven't, they are there being punished. No, He is saying to them, "Look who I am, My promise, I am your God, I am with you," but how does that help them? Isn't He the God who failed them seventy years earlier? Okay, so He sends them some prophet, Isaiah, to tell them this – BIG DEAL! And that may well be what you are going through right now. You look at your circumstances – they are so fearful! Okay, so God sends you some joker on the radio with a smooth voice who says "Do not be afraid", but how can you put your confidence in that? It was exactly the same problem that the Israelites had. Their circumstances, the Babylonians, looked so much bigger than their God. I mean, you think about it in your head and you know God is bigger than the things that we are confronting but in your heart, it's so hard to believe in your heart – the fear is destroying any confidence that you might have in God. God knew that – that's why He also said this to them: have a listen to this … this is powerful stuff! So let's pick it up in Isaiah chapter 40 – this is the chapter before the one we have been looking at, verse 18. Have a listen to what God says about Himself: To whom then were you likening God or what likeness compare with Him, an idol? A workman casts it and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. As a gift one chooses mulberry wood – wood that will not rot – then seeks out a skilled artisan to set up an image that will not topple. Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? Hasn't it been told to you from the beginning? Haven't you understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches the heavens out like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to live in; who brings princes to nothing and makes rulers of the earth as nothing. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely are they sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when He blows upon them and they wither and the tempest carries them off like stubble. "To whom then will you compare Me, or who is My equal?" says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them by name, because He is great in strength and mighty in power, not one of them is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord and my right is disregarded by my God?" Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint and grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable." Do you see how powerful this is? God is saying, "Look, I am God. I created the whole shooting match. See those trillions of stars up there – lift up your eyes, have a look, who do you reckon put them there? I know the Babylonians worship them but I created them. They are out there every night because I tell them to march out there. This is Me who is talking to you – not some crummy idol like the stuff that Babylonians worship – I am bigger than your circumstances. It makes absolute sense to put your confidence in Me.' See, God is speaking this stuff into the hearts of His people when they are afraid; when they have no hope and no future, God comes along and says, "Do not be afraid. Not because of who you are; not because of your circumstances, no, do not be afraid because of who I am. I will come to help you; I will fight your battles for you; I will be your God; I will keep My promises to you."   A Part for God to Play The hardest thing I think in overcoming fear in life is actually getting to the point where we have a high level of confidence in God; in who God is, what He has done – His might and His power and His sovereignty. That all sounds great in theory but what about the practice; what about when the rubber hits the road, then what? See, I used to think it was up to me and I guess in part it is, but not completely. That's just as well because you and I, we're human. We can't conjure up confidence; we can't take this theory about who God is and let the theory somehow wipe away the fear because fear is real. Now, I need something more than that; I need something more than promises on paper and fortunately, that's exactly what God had planned too. He didn't want to leave it all up to us – He wants us to actually experience His peace – not our strength – but a "peace" and a "strength" that come from Him and Him alone. Let's pick up the rest of this story in Isaiah chapter 40, beginning at verse 28. This is what it says: Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. Great, there was the theory again! But now, watch for what comes next! Verse 29: He gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Do you see the point? The power and the strength, where do they come from – do you or I conjure them up? No, they come from God. He gives those things to us, why? Even youths will faint and be weary and the young and the strong will fall exhausted, but….." And here's the 'but' – the glorious, wondrous, powerful 'but,' "but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not grow faint." You know what it means to wait? It does not mean to wait with a bad attitude; it does not mean to wait with grumbling in our hearts and on our lips; it doesn't mean to stand there paralysed by fear either. No, it means to wait expectantly; to wait on God with the expectation that He is who He says He is and that He will do what He says He is going to do. To wait, right in the middle of our fear – boy that's hard – with our emotions on a rollercoaster; with our enemies around us; with our hearts cast down but with an expectation, never the less, that somewhere deep inside, that God is going to act. Who knows – will God give us victory over our enemies today? I don't know! I mean there were more Christians martyred in the twentieth century than in the whole two thousand years before that, combined. We all die sometimes – is He going to heal this cancer or let it take its course? I don't know! But this one thing I do know, that: those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they will mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. God is saying, indeed He is commanding us through His Word today, "Do not be afraid" instead, wait on Him. You know, when we are waiting in fear and when we are waiting in pain and when we are waiting and it is uncomfortable and unpleasant, we want to grumble and whinge and complain and blame everyone else and have bad stuff coming out of our mouths and have grumbling in our hearts … isn't that what we want to do? We don't like being uncomfortable; we don't like being afraid, we just want it all to finish – "God what are You doing? Come on, move along, let's get over this." But those who wait….who wait expectantly for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. See, come what may, if I am diagnosed tomorrow with terminal cancer, I still am going to put my confidence in God who has given me a life eternal with Him. Because Jesus said to His disciples when they were afraid…..listen to this, John chapter 14, verse 27: Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I don't give it to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not let them be afraid. And yet, so far as we know, each of these disciples, other than Judas, went on to do mighty things for God and then … then they died for their faith. So often, we are focused on the here and now but God's plan for my life and for your life is a life eternal. God's perspective is an eternal perspective and that … that my friend is why you and I can put our confidence in Him. When we are afraid ... when we are in this place that is so scary, we can go to His Word and say, "You know what it says – it says here that 'those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength'." You know, you never feel big; you never feel strong when you are waiting for God. When we are afraid we feel so small – you know, I think God means it to be that way. When we humble ourselves and we just come before God and say, "God, I can't do this. I don't know. I'm afraid; I don't know what to do next. I'm just going to wait on You. I'm just going to wait for You – I don't know what You are going to do – I don't know if You are going to show up, I don't know if You are going to talk, I don't know. I am going to put my faith in You and I am going to wait on You and I know my emotions are going to go up and down. I know it is going to be hard but I'm just going to wait for my God." That's an eternal perspective – that's a God perspective. Jesus had to put His faith in God. Jesus lay all His glory aside and He was there in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before He was crucified – struggling – He was afraid and He was hurting and He just put His trust in God. Do not be afraid. God gives us His peace; that's what this passage from Isaiah says: "Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength," the strength comes from God. The "mounting up with eagles" doesn't come because we flap a lot; it comes because we waited on God. The 'running and not being weary' comes from God. "Do not be afraid" – take God's peace from Him – go and wait ... just go and wait before Him and let Him pour His love and His peace into your life. It doesn't matter how big or bad or ugly the enemy is. It doesn't matter how fearful we are. It doesn't matter how dire the consequences of this particular situation might be. Why? Because God is the God who created the whole shooting match – every star in the sky, every part of creation -–God created it. God has an eternal perspective and when we wait on Him, He gives us His peace. That's the promise my friend! "Do not be afraid." Let your confidence rest in God Himself and then, let Him do the rest. Wait on the Lord and you shall renew your strength. Wait on the Lord and you shall mount up with wings like an eagle. That's the promise – it's a God thing!

Friends of the Rosary,Today's Gospel (Matthew 10:16-23) continues Jesus' mission discourse, with apostles sent “like sheep in the midst of wolves,” so Christ calls them to be both wise and innocent. Catholic discipleship is not naivety. It is courage without fear.In the first reading, "Return, O Israel, to the LORD," we observe that God does not merely demand repentance; He promises healing. “I will love them freely.” The Psalm answers with the prayer every sinner needs: “Create a clean heart in me, O God.” Before we can witness before others, we have to let God restore the heart within us.Also, the martyr saints of today, Sts. Rufina and Secunda highlight the Gospel's message. These Roman Christian martyrs show us that fidelity and love for the Lord are costly.So let's be gentle, not weak. Wise, but not calculating. If pressure comes, let's trust that the Spirit of the Father can speak through us at the hour we need Him.Ave Maria!Come, Holy Spirit, come!To Jesus through Mary!Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.Please give us the grace to respond with joy!+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New YorkEnhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University app:Apple iOS | New! Android Google Play• ⁠July 10, 2026, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET

Confira os destaques do Jornal da Manhã desta sexta-feira (10): Israel repassou aos Estados Unidos informações de inteligência sobre um suposto plano do Irã para assassinar o presidente Donald Trump. O alerta foi enviado antes dos recentes ataques americanos contra instalações nucleares iranianas e descrevia uma ameaça considerada mais específica do que as já acompanhadas pelas agências de segurança dos EUA. Após o comunicado, as medidas de proteção ao presidente foram reforçadas, embora autoridades americanas afirmem que não há indícios de uma ameaça iminente. Desde a morte do general iraniano Qasem Soleimani, em 2020, Washington mantém monitoramento permanente sobre possíveis ações de retaliação contra Trump e outros ex-integrantes de seu governo. Reportagem: Paulo Édson Fiore. Durante uma agenda pública em Campinas, no interior de São Paulo, a ex-ministra do Meio Ambiente e deputada federal Marina Silva reagiu às declarações do governador Tarcísio de Freitas e o acusou de preconceito político de gênero. Segundo Marina, o governador adota "dois pesos e duas medidas" ao considerar natural sua atuação política em São Paulo, mas questionar a dela e a de Simone Tebet. A parlamentar também afirmou que há uma postura machista nos ataques da direita e declarou que as mulheres têm o direito de fazer política onde quiserem, sem serem tratadas como estrangeiras ou excluídas do cenário político. Reportagem: Misael Mainetti. O pré-candidato à Presidência da República Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) fez duras críticas ao presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) e ao senador Flávio Bolsonaro (PL). Caiado classificou como "inaceitável" a postura de Flávio ao pedir aos Estados Unidos o adiamento de tarifas contra o Brasil para evitar desgaste político. O governador também acusou Lula de tratar o tema de forma ideológica e de provocar o presidente norte-americano Donald Trump em meio à crise envolvendo as tarifas. Reportagem: Misael Mainetti. A ex-primeira-dama Michelle Bolsonaro anunciou nesta quinta-feira (9) a criação do movimento “Imparáveis”, após deixar a presidência do PL Mulher. Em publicação nas redes sociais, Michelle afirmou que “milhares de Mulheres e Homens de Bem são agora, imparáveis” e declarou que ela, seus apoiadores e o Brasil não vão parar. Segundo a ex-primeira-dama, o movimento nasce com a união de pessoas que compartilham os mesmos valores e objetivos. Reportagem: Marco Viana. A Polícia Federal revelou que um grupo ligado ao ex-banqueiro Daniel Vorcaro, do Banco Master, oferecia contratos de até R$ 2 milhões para influenciadores e jornalistas publicarem conteúdos com críticas ao Banco Central e manifestações favoráveis ao banco. Segundo a investigação, a campanha, chamada de “Projeto DV”, previa acordos de confidencialidade com multas elevadas em caso de descumprimento dos contratos. Reportagem: Janaína Camelo. O presidente da comissão especial da Câmara dos Deputados que analisa a redução da maioridade penal para 16 anos, o deputado Aluísio Mendes (Republicanos-MA), afirmou que a votação da proposta será realizada apenas depois das eleições. Para comentar o adiamento e discutir o andamento da proposta, a Jovem Pan entrevista o deputado federal Mendonça Filho (PL-PE). Os Estados Unidos interromperam os intensos bombardeios contra o Irã em uma tentativa de evitar uma escalada do conflito. A estratégia adotada envolve ataques pontuais e deliberados, intercalados com pausas táticas, permitindo que negociações e esforços diplomáticos nos bastidores atuem para buscar a estabilização da região. Reportagem: Eliseu Caetano. O recesso parlamentar do Congresso Nacional adiou a análise de diversas pautas para o segundo semestre. Para comentar os impactos da pausa nos trabalhos legislativos e os próximos passos no Legislativo, a Jovem Pan entrevista o deputado federal Pedro Uczai (PT-SC). Essas e outras notícias você acompanha no Jornal da Manhã. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some promises come with an expiration date. A coupon is usually only good for a few months, a check is typically void after 90 days, and a job offer needs to be signed and returned in order for you to start your new role. Now, there are many Jews today who haven't yet accepted the gift of Jesus, even though He meets all of the Bible's prophecies surrounding the Messiah. However, Pastor Jeff teaches you today that the Israelites still have time to recognize Jesus as Lord. But their time is running short!

Welcome to The Daily. Read more about our mission to teach every verse of the bible in what we call Project23. Grab your Hosea Scripture Journal. Our text today is Hosea 9:1-2: Rejoice not, O Israel! Exult not like the peoples; for you have played the whore, forsaking your God. You have loved a prostitute's wages on all threshing floors. Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them. — Hosea 9:1-2 Not all joy is real. Israel was celebrating, but God told them to stop. Why? Because their joy was disconnected from the reality of a living relationship with Him. They were celebrating life while abandoning the God who gave them a reason to celebrate. And God says that kind of joy won't last. I love this line: "The new wine shall fail them." The very things they trusted for temporal happiness were about to leave them spiritually dry. You see, you can stay entertained and still feel empty. You can have more and enjoy less. You can build a full life and still feel hollow. Because intoxication with things may provide temporary relief, but they will not bring fulfillment like God. They cannot sustain you. They were not meant to sustain you. They are circumstantial. They fade. They demand more. They will eventually, it leave you restless. When this happens, this is not God taking joy away. This is God exposing a joy that was never true joy. So turn the question inward: What is my joy built on right now? Where am I seeking joy? If it is built on temporal comfort, success, or escape, it will fail you. Those things were never meant to carry your soul. Real joy is rooted in God. And it doesn't disappear when life shifts. Here's the hope. It's not too late. If your joy feels thin… return to the Lord. If your soul feels tired… return to the Lord. Because real joy isn't found in running from God. It's found in coming back. DO THIS: Notice what you reach for today when you want relief, and turn to God first instead. ASK THIS: Where am I looking for joy apart from God? What has stopped satisfying me? What would it look like to return? PRAY THIS: God, show me where I've settled for shallow joy. Lead me back to you and restore what only you can give. Amen. PLAY THIS: "Graves Into Gardens"

Introduction: 1 Corinthians 10:6 - Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 1 Corinthians 10:11 - Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. My Idolatry... (Exodus 32:1-35) Disgraces ME and Dishonors the LORD. (Ex 32:1-6) Exodus 20:3 - “You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:4 - “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath.” Exodus 20:7 - “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.” Exodus 20:14 - “You shall not commit adultery.” Will Not Go UNNOTICED . (Ex 32:7-14) Cannot Be EXPLAINED AWAY or BLAMED ON OTHERS. (Ex 32:15-24) Leads to SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES . (Ex 32:25-29) Can Be FORGIVEN . (Ex 32:30-35) 1 Timothy 1:15 - The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. Titus 2:11-12 - For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age... Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! For Our Example: Ancient Warnings for the Church Today - Do Not Be Idolaters Taylor Brown Download Audio Transcript 00:48So please turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter 32.00:52Exodus chapter 32.00:57Have you ever been warned against doing something, but you did it anyway?01:02Have you ever been given the option between learning the easy way or the hard way and chosen the hard way?01:11Every single one of us would say yes to both those questions.01:16Do you want to hear about a time when I had to learn the hard way? When I was warned against doing something, but I did it anyway. Well, in 2018, my side of the family planned a vacation to Hilton Head, South Carolina. But there was one problem. The trip went from Saturday to Saturday, and my wife Kate and I were booked to photograph a wedding on that first Saturday. So we were already going to miss a big chunk of the vacation.01:44And I thought to myself, I have a great idea. That ended up not being so great. My idea was after working a 12-hour day in the hot sun, let's drive 12 straight hours through the night to Hilton Head, South Carolina. I'll be fine. Every single person I shared that plan with said that's a really bad idea and you shouldn't do it. I heeded none of those warnings and I took a risk.02:13And again, I was totally fine until about 5 a.m. At that point, Kate had been asleep for hours, and I was trying to keep myself awake with caffeine and true crime podcasts, but my eyes were heavy. I was trying, I was opening my eyelids, I was slapping myself, I was trying everything. And I kept thinking to myself, this isn't good, this is going to be bad, but then I kept telling myself, just a few more minutes, just a few more miles.02:43Everything will be fine.02:46As it turns out, everything would not be fine.02:48One moment, I was conscious and kind of alert.02:53And then one minute, I was awakened by the sound of slamming into multiple traffic barrels on the highway.03:01Worst wake-up call in the history of my entire sleeping career.03:06Thankfully, I was able to steer away from the traffic barrels and get over to the shoulder.03:10I checked on my wife who had woken up and was not very happy with me. And I went out to inspect the damage. Our entire hood was destroyed. There was a traffic barrel shoved under the front of the car. I was able to get it out and put it back where I found it. It wasn't as good as new. It looked pretty bad. But the car was drivable. So Kate said, I'm driving. So I get in the passenger seat while mentally beating myself up while Kate drove the rest of the way.03:40And no, I was not able to fall asleep during the rest of the trip. Learning the hard way isn't a fun road to drive on. But many of us willingly drive down it anyway, don't we? Learning the easy way is a far simpler path, but for some reason, it doesn't appeal to us in the moment. It doesn't seem like the best route to take on the journey of life. Thankfully, the Lord knows.04:10our destructive tendencies.04:13And he fills his words with warnings of what we shouldn't do.04:17He fills his word with warnings of where we shouldn't go.04:23And many of these warnings take place in the Old Testament.04:27As we see the Israelites make the same mistakes over and over and over again.04:34A few months ago, Pastor Jeff preached on 1 Corinthians 10, verses 1-13, in which Paul makes it clear that Israel's shady past of disobedience should cause us to be obedient today. We should look to their negative examples and avoid what they did. Listen to what Paul says in verse 6 of chapter 10. He says, these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. And he goes on to say, now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instructions. The Israelites learned the hard way so that you could learn the easy way. This morning we are starting a brand new series called For Our Example, Ancient Warnings for the Church Today. We will study the books of Exodus and Numbers that we can receive four specific warnings from God Himself. Do not be idolaters.05:39Do not be doubters. Do not be fake repenters. Do not be complainers. And this morning we're going to focus on the first warning from God. Do not be idolaters. Do not give other people and other things the worship and love that God alone deserves. Do not put anything or anyone else on the throne of your heart. Do not take God off the top of your priority list.06:10I know what some of you are thinking at this point. Pastor Taylor, I don't want to obnoxiously call you out, but Pastor Jeff did preach a sermon on idolatry pretty recently. I guess you weren't paying attention. You know what? Pastor Jeff, you did preach a sermon on idolatry, didn't you? That was a good sermon. Let me ask you, have you committed idolatry since you heard that sermon? You have?06:39Me too. Have you committed idolatry many times since hearing that sermon? Yeah, me too. It sounds like we need to hear it again. It sounds like we need to receive this warning from the Lord again. So let's go to the Lord and ask for His help. Please pray for me that I will faithfully proclaim God's Word while I pray for you that you will faithfully receive it.07:10Father, we come before you as your people to acknowledge we so often forget what you say.07:17We do not live in light of what you say.07:20We've heard this kind of sermon many times, but we often fail to keep it.07:26Lord, give us eyes to see, ears to hear, a heart to receive, and hands and feet that are willing to do what your word says this morning.07:35May your word do your work.07:37May you bring transformation and change because I cannot. We ask all these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen. So before we dig into Exodus chapter 32, we have to rewind to the beginning of the books that we can understand the backstory. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. For years they were mistreated, abused, and sentenced to back-breaking labor.08:07Pharaoh even commands the Egyptians, yeah, get the Hebrew boys and throw them into the Nile River whenever they are born. They are suffering. The worst fate imaginable. But God did not forget them. God heard their cries for help. He saw their suffering and he raised up Moses to deliver them out of Egypt. He told Moses, tell Pharaoh to let my people go. And Pharaoh repeatedly refused.08:38that command. So God sent ten plagues upon the nation of Egypt. And eventually Pharaoh said, fine, get out of here. The people of God pack up and head out. And they are led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And at one point Pharaoh's sitting there thinking, what have I done? My entire workforce is gone. I've made a huge mistake. So he stalled up his army and they went after the people of God.09:07Did that go well for Pharaoh? Was that a great plan? No. The people of God pass through the Red Sea by a miracle and then the Egyptians are swallowed up by that same water. And after this divine intervention, the Israelites are brought to Mount Sinai. They're commanded, stay at the base of the mountain while Moses goes up for 40 days and 40 nights to receive the Ten Commandments and other instructions from God.09:37Backstory leads us to one of the most depressing stories in the entire Bible. In Exodus chapter 32. After experiencing God's goodness and provision over and over and over again, the Israelites quickly lose sight of God and they turn to idolatry. And as we move forward, I want to encourage you to resist the temptation to look down upon the Israelites. To feel superior to them.10:07Instead of thinking, yeah, they did this horrible thing way back then, I want you to instead think, yeah, I do this horrible thing all the time. I want you to honestly evaluate yourself and make this admission, my idolatry is no better than their idolatry. Actually, in a lot of ways, my idolatry is worse than their idolatry.10:37So on your outline, let's get personal, let's get specific by focusing on my idolatry. My idolatry. First up, my idolatry disgraces me and dishonors the Lord. My idolatry disgraces me and dishonors the Lord. Let's pick up the story in verse 1, chapter 32. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. Have you ever noticed that when you are impatient, you forget a lot of basic facts? You make a lot of dumb decisions. You believe a lot of untrue things. You come home from a long day of work.11:37Your family's too excited to see you. You get impatient with them because they seem rude, so you act rude in response. You get the rumbly in your tumbly. You get impatient. You get hangry. You start getting snippy with people. That's what happens in this passage. Dad is away on a business trip with God, and the Israelites get restless. They get impatient. They forget that God is the one who who rescued them from slavery and will go before them into the promised land. They believe the ridiculous lie that they have no idea how long Moses will be gone and when he's going to come back because he told them exactly what the plan was in Exodus chapter 24 verse 14. And they make an extremely dumb decision. And they corner Aaron and tell him, make us gods who will lead us from now on.12:36We don't want God anymore. We want new gods. And sadly, Aaron goes along with their really dumb decision in verses 2 through 4. So Aaron said to them, take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, these are your As I said before, this is one of the saddest passages in the entire Bible. Aaron collects the earrings of the people, and with that gold, he makes a golden calf. I have to ask you, how are the people able to have these earrings in the first place? Who gave it to them?13:35God allowed them to plunder the Egyptians as they left. They twist, abuse, misuse God's good gifts for their evil purposes. When you commit idolatry, you use God's gifts to worship what is not God. You use the gifts of waking up and being above ground to worship at the altar of greed. Money.14:08You abuse the gifts of breath in your lungs and active vocal cords to mistreat others with your words. To lie and deceive because your idol is the praise and opinion of others. You use the gift of a mind that God has given to you and instead of using it to trust in Him, you use it to be anxious, to be worried, to stress out about versions of the future that God is not in control of.14:40You misuse the precious gift of time by giving next to none of it back to the Lord.14:47You act like a rebellious teenager who takes advantage of his or her parents' kindness by using his or her allowance money to buy alcohol to party with underage friends.14:59You take advantage of God's kindness to you, and in the process you disgrace yourself.15:06and you dishonor God.15:09You disgrace yourself and dishonor God by abusing His good gifts.15:12You also disgrace and dishonor God by believing that idols can provide you something that He cannot.15:20Look again at the end of verse 4.15:22And they said, these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.15:28Isn't that a devastatingly wicked thing to say and think?15:34The Israelites actually believe that these false gods, this idol, can do something for them that God cannot. That this idol that can't move is capable of things that God is not capable of. You and I convince ourselves the same exact lie all the time.16:04or a married guy in this room and you are facing extreme sexual temptation right now. Instead of turning to the Lord for help and fleeing from sexual immorality, you are turning to pornography and fleeing from the Lord's help. You think to yourself, this will fulfill me, this will satisfy me, this will meet my needs. But the more you give yourself over to it, the deeper and deeper deeper into the hole of addiction you find yourself. It gets worse and worse and worse. You believe that the idol of lust will provide you with something that God cannot. Maybe some of you have a spending disorder. Your idol is the idol of more. You think more and more money will make you happy. More and more stuff will solve your problems. A bigger and better trip.17:04will scratch that itch for adventure and rest. A new car, a new upgrade to your house, that will do it. You think the idol of more will give you what God cannot. Maybe you are amusing yourself to death. You're living for the weekend. Your primary passion is your hobbies. And this idolatry is negatively affecting you and your entire family. You neglect your duties at home, or even worse, You draw your kids into this idol. The most important thing in their lives becomes their travel team, their sport, their activities, and not the Lord. You think the idol of fun will give you and your family what God cannot. But no matter the idol, no matter the addiction, the result is always the same. You lose out on joy, and God is shortchanged of the glory.18:04he deserves every single time.18:10You not only disgrace yourself and dishonor the Lord by abusing his good gifts and believing that I can provide something he cannot, you also disgrace yourself and dishonor the Lord by allowing sin to take you further than you ever expected.18:27Look at verses 5-6.18:30When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, before the calf. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast day to the Lord. And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. So while the Ten Commandments are being written onto stone by God Himself at the top of the mountain, the Israelites are breaking at least four of the Ten Commandments.19:00At the base of the mountain.19:02The first commandment is broken.19:04You shall have no other gods before me.19:09Strike one.19:10The second commandment is broken.19:13You should not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath.19:20Strike two.19:22The third commandment is broken.19:24You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.19:29Aaron tries to make the best of a bad situation. He tries to salvage this whole thing by rolling the worship of this idol into the worship of God. But by doing so, he broke the third commandment and took the Lord's name in vain. Strike three. I know in baseball you'd be out by now, but they have one more strike. The seventh commandment is broken. You shall not commit adultery. And you may be thinking, wait a minute.19:58They break that commandment.20:01Look again at verse 6.20:02And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings.20:06And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.20:11The original Hebrew, sat down to eat and drink, doesn't bring to mind a peaceful and innocent meal with family and friends.20:18It brings to mind a drunken party.20:21And the rose up to play phrase doesn't bring to mind a game with your friends on a Friday night.20:28It's detailing sexual sin.20:34That escalated quickly, didn't it?20:36One minute, Israel is impatiently waiting for Moses at the base of the mountain, and the next minute, they're worshiping false gods and committing gross acts of sexual immorality with one another.20:50That's how sin works.20:52It escalates. It jumps to the next level.20:55It gets worse, worse, worse.20:57You drift further and further away. You break more and more commandments. Until one day you look in the mirror and you don't even recognize yourself anymore. You look at your sin. You look at what you've done and you think to yourself, how did I get this bad? I never thought this would happen. Brothers and sisters, you have to snap out of it and calculate the costs of your idolatry. Consider what you are doing.21:27to yourself. Consider what you are doing to your God.21:35My idolatry disgraces me and dishonors the Lord. Secondly, my idolatry will not go unnoticed.21:45My idolatry will not go unnoticed.21:51Let's read verses 7-10.21:55And the Lord said to Moses, go down your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.22:01They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them.22:05They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it and said, these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.22:15And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.22:21Now therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation out of you. Does this blasphemous and immoral party escape the attention of God? No, it does not. Is he pleased with what he sees and hears? Not one bit. The first hint that God is upset comes in verse 7 when he says, go down for your people whom you brought to the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. Throughout Exodus, God He constantly refers to Israel as my people. Now what is He calling them? Your people. You know what this reminds me of? When the kids are over the top obnoxious and bad, and your spouse calls or texts you to say, you wouldn't believe what your kids have been up to today. Your kids have been a real treat. Exactly what's happening here in this passage. The Lord instructs Moses to back away because he's about to clear the board of these stubborn idolaters and start over with a new nation for Moses. Put yourself in Moses' feet. How would you respond to that? What would you say back to God? Moses' reaction in verses 11 through 13 may surprise you. Look at what he says. But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people?23:57whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand. Why should the Egyptians say with evil intent that he bring them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the heaven. In all this land I have promised, I will give to your offspring.24:26and they shall inherit it forever.24:31Moses could respond in a much different way than he does.24:36He could say, you know what, God, I'm going to take you up on your offer.24:40These people stink.24:41All they do is nag and complain.24:43I could really use some new recruits.24:47Is that what Moses says?24:50Is that how he responds?24:52No, he asks the Lord for mercy.24:55He points the Lord back to His past investment in Israel, His promises to Israel, His reputation among the nations pleads for mercy. Let's see how God responds in verse 14. And the Lord relented from the disaster that He had spoken of bringing on His people. God hears this passionate plea and He chooses to show mercy.25:26upon his idolatrous people.25:30I really don't want you to learn the wrong lesson from this passage.25:35I don't want you to read this and say, well, I guess idolatry is not that big of a deal.25:39God let them off scot-free, so whatever.25:42I can do it and have no consequences.25:48Sure, Israel is not wiped off the map instantly, but there will be consequences.25:54They will have to answer for what they have done. God has noticed their idolatry. It's the same today. Your idolatry is noticed by God, even if no one else notices. You may be able to fool your friends. You may be able to fool your wife, your husband, your kids. You may even be able to fool Pastor Jeff, myself, and the other elders.26:24You cannot fool God.26:28Do you realize He hears every thought that you think?26:34He hears every word that you speak.26:38He sees every action and reaction that you carry out.26:43You can hide nothing from Him.26:46Don't try.26:48My idolatry disgraces me and dishonors the Lord.26:52My idolatry cannot be explained away or blamed on others. My idolatry cannot be explained away or blamed on others. So Moses has heard about the people's idolatry, but now he's about to come face to face with the people's idolatry. We all know that hearing about something and seeing something horrible bring about very different reactions, right? Hearing that your house has been vandalized is much different than seeing the results of the vandalism. Hearing that your dog has made a massive mess on the carpet is much different than stooping down and cleaning up the mess yourself. Check out Moses' response to seeing their idolatry in verses 15 through 20.27:52and the two tablets of the testimony in his hand. Tablets that were written on both sides, in the front and on the back they were written. The tablets were the work of God and the writing was the writing of God engraved on tablets. When Moses heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, there is a noise of war in the camp. But he said, it is not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of the cry of defeat, of singing that I hear.28:24And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot.28:30And he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.28:34He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.28:47Moses gets why God is so angry.28:49In verse 11, God was burning hot. And in verse 19, Moses is burning hot. You may think that Moses overreacts here by breaking the Ten Commandments and making an idle smoothie for the people to gulp down. That may seem harsh, but I have to tell you this is not an overreaction. This is the guy who just got on his knees and begged for these people not to be turned to a massive crater.29:20He cares for these people. There has to be a response. And what He does is not senseless. It has great purpose. By physically breaking the Ten Commandments, He is showing the Israelites, you have spiritually broken the law of God. By force-feeding them this idol smoothie, Moses is showing the people how disgusting and bitter idolatry is to God.29:53And after these public demonstrations, Moses turns to his brother Aaron, who he put in charge while he was gone, to see how this could have happened.30:04Sadly, Aaron does not respond in the right way.30:07In verses 21 through 24.30:10And Moses said to Aaron, What did these people do to you, that you have brought such a great sin upon them?30:16And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my Lord burn hot.30:19You know the people. They are set on evil. For they said to me, Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. So I said to them, Let any who have gold take it off. So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf. Aaron acts like a victim and shifts the blame. And he makes the worst excuse in the history of excuses.30:49This is worse than the generic, my dog ate my homework. This is worse than an excuse I heard as a library collector, library debt collector years ago in seminary. I told this woman on the phone, you return your book, your fine will go away. And she said, well, I can't return the book. I said, why? She said, well, it, It burned up in my boyfriend's meth lab. Bad excuse. Not an acceptable excuse. But here's the doozy that Aaron gives to Moses. I took the earrings from the people and I threw it into the fire and the melted gold formed in the image of a cow and just hopped out of the fire. Isn't it crazy when those things happen? When was the last time you threw some leftover food and garbage in to a fire and an idol jumped out against your wishes. It's never happened and it will never happen. Again, it's easy to come down on Aaron for the things that we do all the time. You and I give Academy Award winning performances in playing the victim. You and I are expert blame shifters. You and I are professional excuse makers.32:19Instead of accepting responsibility for your bad decisions, you blame your past. Oh, it's not my fault. It's how I was raised. Well, it's not my fault that I lie. I had to lie growing up to survive in my family. My overdrinking isn't an active choice that I make. It's just a family disease that I cannot get away from. Listen, past hurts can explain present behavior. But past hurts can never explain.32:49Excuse present behavior. Past hurts cannot excuse your present behavior. You also cannot blame your present behavior on current challenges. Work is just so overwhelming right now. I'm so stressed out. My spouse never encourages me. My spouse never supports me. I feel so alone. I need something to get me through the day. Well, my health and the health of people I care about is really bad right now.33:19I have a lot of bad influences around me and they keep pressuring me to do the wrong thing. Hey, hey, the excuses end today. Sin can never be justified. Sin can never be explained away. Avoid Aaron's negative example and refuse to say my idolatry is everyone else's fault. Instead, own your sin.33:49and say, my idolatry is my fault and no one else's. Mine alone. My idolatry disgraces me and dishonors the Lord. My idolatry will not go unnoticed. My idolatry cannot be explained away or blamed on others. My idolatry leads to serious consequences. My idolatry leads to serious consequences.34:23The idle smoothie is not the only consequence. The people of Israel will suffer. A much worse penalty falls upon them in verses 25-29. And when Moses saw it, the people had broken loose, for Aaron had let them break loose, the derision of their enemies. Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, put your sword on each side of you and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor and the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses and that day about three thousand men of the people fell and Moses said today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord each one of you at the cost of the son of his brother so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day 3,000 are put to death by the sword. Most likely, these were the ringleaders of the idolatry. These are the men who pressed upon Aaron and led this immoral rager. But once again, you may be thinking to yourself, 3,000 people dead? That seems so harsh. The judgment of God always seems harsh to those who do not fully appreciate the character of God. God is holy. God is pure. God cannot stand the sight of sin. God must punish sin or he would not be God. 3,000 seems like such a big number on its own, doesn't it? But compare it to how many Israelites there were. Two to three million. I'm not a math guy, but I crunch the numbers.36:19is.1 or.15% of the population. Does that seem harsh now? Does that number seem too big now? Imagine during service someone hacks all of your various accounts and takes away.1 or.15% of all your money. Would that be hard? Would that be difficult? Would that be a concern? Sure.36:49Would you be destitute financially? No, because it's such a small amount in comparison to what you could have lost. And these 3,000 dead are such a small number in comparison to what God could have done because 100% of them deserve to be dead. 100% of the Israelites deserve to be wiped out, but God shows mercy.37:19as they deserve.37:22But God still needs to demonstrate that sin leads to serious consequences.37:26He needs to prove that idolatry invites injury.37:32I have to ask, what consequences are you experiencing right now for your idolatry?37:41What injuries have you invited into your life?37:46Maybe you've convinced yourself that your anxiety is not that big of a deal. Being stressed out and worried all the time, not a big deal. It gives you some semblance of control, but all it's doing is hollowing you out and making your life miserable. Maybe your sexual sin has isolated you, created distance in your marriage and devastated your spouse. Maybe no one really wants to be around you right now because you constantly blow your top and the idol of your wants and your preferences is not met. Maybe you're dealing with the physical consequences of a lifetime of bad decisions. Are you going to learn the lesson that God is teaching you through these consequences? Or will you continue in your rebellion? Will you open your eyes to the warnings of the Lord that are all over your life and all over His Word?38:46to what He wants you to see.38:50Will you pay attention to the consequences?38:54My idolatry disgraces me and dishonors the Lord.38:57My idolatry will not go unnoticed.39:00My idolatry cannot be explained away or blamed on others.39:05My idolatry leads to serious consequences.39:08Finally, and most importantly, my idolatry can be forgiven.39:15My idolatry can be forgiven. Moses gathers the people for a quick meeting in verse 30. The next day Moses said to the people, you have sinned a great sin. And now I'll go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement. I can make payment for your sin. The people have messed up big time. And Moses isn't sure if he can atone or pay for their sin on himself. He's not sure if God's going to rubber stamp this plan that he has. Let's see what God has to say in verses 31 to 35. So Moses returned to the Lord and said, alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now if you will forgive their sin, but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written. But the Lord said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.40:16But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you.40:20Behold, my angels shall go before you.40:23Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.40:28Then the Lord sent a plague on the people because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.40:35As it turns out, Moses himself cannot pay for the sins of the people.40:40The people do experience God's merciful forgiveness to a certain extent, but they will continue to suffer the consequences for what they have done. God sends a plague upon the people, and we're not told how bad this plague was or how devastating the results were. And that is the end of the chapter. And you may be thinking, that's it? That's the end? Where's the hope in this passage?41:10is the hope. Well, I can tell you this. Moses is not the hope in this passage. He's a great leader. He tries to clean up Israel's mess, but he can't. Moses was used as a savior during the exodus out of Egypt, but he is not the Israelites' ultimate savior. He cannot pay for their imperfection before a perfect God. The only hope in this passage is the only hope in your life.41:42The only hope in this story is the only hope in your story.41:47This hope is a leader far greater than Moses.41:50This hope is a savior far greater than Moses.41:53Moses could not go up the mountain to pay for Israel's sin.41:57But there is one who came out of heaven to pay for your sin.42:04To take the penalty for your idolatry.42:08Who is this hope?42:09Who is this savior?42:10Jesus Christ, God Himself. Paul cruelly spells out the mission of Jesus and shows how this mission personally affects Him. In 1 Timothy 1.15, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. You see the personal language there?42:40I am the worst of sinners. Christ came to save me. Can you say that this morning? Jesus Christ came to save me. Jesus came to live the idol-free life that you never could. Unlike you and me, He always put His Father first in everything. Jesus came to pay the penalty for your idolatry upon the cross so that you would not have to pay the penalty Penalty in hell. Jesus came to rise again so that the idols in your life could be smashed to pieces and have no power over you. You know, this passage, this sermon has been very personal. It's focused on my idolatry. But as we end this morning, I want you to answer a very important question. Has my idolatry been forgiven?43:43It's the most important question you're going to answer today. Has my idolatry been forgiven? If your answer is no, I want you to understand that it can be. Your idolatry can be forgiven by Jesus Christ if you ask Him to. Reject your sin and receive Jesus as Savior. Smash your idols and submit to Jesus as Lord. He alone can give you what you are looking for. He alone can give you peace with God. He alone can secure your position in heaven. Has my idolatry been forgiven? If your answer is yes, live in the awareness of your forgiveness. Remember what Jesus has done for you. Rejoice in what Jesus has done for you. Be empowered by what Jesus has done for you.44:40Listen to what Paul says about this in Titus 2, 11-12. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. Christian, walk upon the conquered ground that Jesus secured on your behalf. In Christ, you are not helpless. In Christ, you are not hopeless. In Christ, you can't be can learn the easy way instead of learning the hard way. In Christ, you can avoid the negative examples of the Israelites in your past self. In Christ, you can say no to idolatry and yes to godliness. Let's pray. Father God, we come before you and we acknowledge our sin. We acknowledge our idolatry.45:40We acknowledge that we deserve nothing from You except Your judgment. We deserve nothing from You except eternal punishment. But we thank You that You sent Your Son to take that punishment upon Himself. To take Your wrath as rightly ours. In exchange, we receive His perfection. We receive His holiness. We receive all that He has.46:10doesn't make sense, but we thank you that it's true.46:15We thank you that there is more mercy in you than sin in us.46:20Father, if there's anyone in this room who has not truly accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, may today be the day.46:29May today be the day when the idols are set aside, the idols are cast down, and Jesus Christ is worshipped.46:38Jesus Christ is loved and served. And for the rest of us, Lord, help us to not put anyone or anything in your rightful position in our lives. May you be most important because you are the most important. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Let us stand and worship the Lord together. Small Group DiscussionRead Exodus 32:1-35What was your big take-away from this passage / message?What is idolatry and why is it so serious?How are you using your God-given talents and resources to worship false gods?What excuses do you make for your sin? How have you blamed others for your sin? BreakoutPray for one another.

Message from Elder Ronnie Loudermilk on June 28, 2026

Group Guide Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week. 2 Samuel 19:40-20 Spencer Cary Download TranscriptGood morning. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. We are continuing to walk through the book of 2 Samuel. We'll get towards the end, you guys. We're going to be in chapter 19, verse 40.We're going to go all the way through chapter 20 today. It's on page 310 in those black Bibles. And to 311, I encourage you to follow along with us as we walk through 2 Samuel. We are kind of having a moment in our country right now because the World Cup is here. And it's not just, which if you didn't know, that's soccer, you guys. It's not just that we're actually winning and it seems like we're pretty good.It's that people from all around the world have come to America. And they love it here. I've watched so many of these videos, it's ridiculous. There's so many videos of people from Europe, from Africa, from Japan, that are just so excited about Buc-ee's, about free refills, about Costco, and ranch. Ranch dressing is having a moment. But it's wonderful because there's all these things that they love.It's like, you know what? We've got some good things going on. We're just kind of celebrating a moment as a country. We're all united joyously for the first time in a long time. And the reason that it feels like it's the first time in a long time is because I don't know if you've been paying attention. The last decade plus has been a lot.It's been a lot of hostility. It's been a lot of disunity. I mean, it's been a lot of just tribalism and hate. And man. And I just want to capture that. I want to read some quotes.And these are from public figures, political leaders. But this kind of captures the last 10 years of kind of what we've been in. It's been just at each other's throats. There's a few different quotes from a few different people. We will root out the communist, Marxist, fascist, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin. That's talking about fellow citizens.Live like vermin. There's another one. If you see anybody from that cabinet, that political cabinet, in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gas station, you get out and create a crowd. You push back on them. You tell them why they're not welcome anymore anywhere. That's another one.The third one. We need a national divorce. We are two completely different countries living under one flag. And one side is trying to destroy the other. Straight up calling for it. A national divorce.Last one. You could put half of his supporters into what I call a basket of deplorables. So half of someone's supporters deplorable. Now, you can say, well, that's politicians. And many of them are like the worst of us. And I'm not going to fight you super hard on that because there might be some merit to some of that argument.But it's not just leaders like that. That's trickled down and been reposted and been recirculated on social media and break rooms and shop floors at family get-togethers. We've seen this over and over again. So much to the point where the word Nazi and commie has almost lost its meaning entirely. We've heard destroying America, threat to democracy, enemy from within, fascists, on and on and on and on and on. If you've been insulated from this, brother or sister, blessed are you.It's kind of hard to miss it. But if you've had any touch points with people, the Internet, there's a lot of angry people right now with a lot of alarmist, heightened, extremist rhetoric that is symptomatic of a deeper problem of deep disunity that many of us have observed and felt for a long time at this point. And we're getting ready to celebrate our 250th birthday. And I think the story we have in 2 Samuel is timely because it's going to highlight what happens when you have unresolved conflict that weaves its way through a nation. And that, paired with heated, intensified rhetoric and words, brings about consequences that we should be careful to take notice of.And as Christians, we should consider on a national level, on a local level, and within our own church, that we are called to live differently than many who are trying to tear each other apart today. And as we take a big step back from this, as we walk through this story, my hope is that we see Christ as our ultimate hope in the widening rift that we are currently living in. So let's pray, and then we'll walk this together. Heavenly Father, I thank you that our hope is in Christ alone. And that message resounds in beautiful, wonderful, unifying ways against the backdrop of history that is filled with broken people fighting for their own interest.God, I pray that you'd help us see the truth of the Scriptures, the hope of the Gospel, and that we leave here in faith and obedience and repentance. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, so last week when Chet ended, where he ended, it was a moment after the civil war between Absalom and David where there was a lot of good happening. There was the pardoning of enemies. There was the rewarding of individuals.And this is exactly where Chet ended last week in verse 40. It says, The king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went on with him. All the people of Judah and also half the people of Israel brought the king on his way. Okay. So that last sentence is really important context here.And it's a problem. Because after the civil war, they should be coming together, unified, and taking David back. But what's happened is, is it says, All of Judah and half of Israel. And what that is, is political positioning. All of Judah to put influence, to gain influence with David as he's being reestablished in Jerusalem. And half of Israel.That's a problem, y'all. If the American civil war ended, and afterwards the north said, You know what? We're going to give the south, I don't know, five to ten senators. And we're going to have forty to fifty. It would have restarted. Because that's not unifying.That's how you have unequal representation. That's not how it's supposed to go. And the people of Israel see this, And they are upset. Verse 41. Then all the men of Israel came to the king, And said to the king, Why have our brothers, the men of Judah, stolen you away?All right, pause there. Israel sees this, And they go to David, And they're like, Why have the people of Judah, our brothers, stolen you away? Now that kind of gets lost on us in the English. But in their language, in their context, With this being used throughout the scriptures, That's fighting words right there. That is a massive accusation. You are stealing our king.Why are they stealing you away? And it says, And brought the king and his household over the Jordan, And all of David's men with him. So, They level this accusation. Verse 42. All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, Because the king is our close relative, Why then are you angry over this matter? They say, Because we're related to him.Like more than you. Like you're a distant cousin. We're close cousins. This is David we're talking about. Of the tribe of Judah. So, Why are you angry about this?They continue. Have we eaten at the king's expense? Or has he given us any gift? Have we taken advantage of the situation in a way that promotes us? Have we taken bribes? Have we taken favors?Why are you angry? Verse 43. And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, We have ten shares in the king. And in David also, We have more than you. Why then do you despise us? Were we not the first to speak of bringing back our king?All right. Pause there. They're saying, We have ten shares. We have ten tribes. What are you doing? How do you as one tribe get all this influence with David?Why do you hate us? Why do you despise us? And they just keep going. It says, But the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel. And you can see them devolving into a shouting match. And the words of the men of Judah were fiercer.Fiercer. Harsher. Louder. Intensified. Talking. Yelling.Over. One another. And what's happening here is the widening of an ongoing rift that is never going to heal in this nation. Wounds are not going to be healed that come out of this. And it shows that words matter. They matter.Israel comes in hot. They say, Why are you stealing our king? And Judah doesn't slow down. They answer back. Israel answers back. The words get more fierce.More intensified. And now they're at it again. In conflict. Raging. Now. Pick up in chapter 20 verse 1.There's somebody present. Who is going to take advantage of the anger in this moment? Verse 1. Now there happened to be there a worthless man whose name was Sheba. The son of Bichri. A Benjaminite.Okay. So. While they're all shouting at each other. There's a man named Sheba from the tribe of Benjamin. Son of Bichri. Okay.And he is an opportunist. Now he's described as a worthless man. We're going to see why in a moment. He's an opportunist. Who is going to seize on all the anger that is happening right here. It says, And he blew the trumpet and said, We have no portion in David.And we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents. Oh, Israel. So as they're shouting and yelling and the words are fiercer and fiercer and fiercer. He blows the trumpet. Gets everyone's attention.And declares independence. He says, We have no share in this mess. No share in Judah. Done with this. We're going to our own tents. Who's with me?Verse 2. So all the men of Israel withdrew from David and followed Sheba the son of Bichri. But the men of Judah followed their king steadfastly from the Jordan to Jerusalem. So in the heat of this argument, an opportunist steps in, declares independence. And because they're so angry, they're like, Yeah! And we're going home free!And that signals to the people of Judah, Oh no, we might be back in a civil war again. And they get around David, escort him all the way back to Jerusalem, keeping him safe. And when David gets back to Jerusalem, he has to both put together his household again, that's been broken, and also put down another rebellion. Verse 3. And David came to his house at Jerusalem, and the king took the ten concubines, whom he had left to care for the house, and put them in order, put them in a house under guard, and provided for them, but did not go into them. So they were shut up until the day of their death, living as in widowhood.So you want to get this little explanation that kind of finishes up this part of the story. It goes back to when Absalom was starting his rebellion, and it's very sad. Remember the events of Absalom, and what he did with David's concubines with his wives? After all of this, when David gets back, because of some prohibitions in the law, what he does is he cannot maintain this relationship with these wives in the way that he had before, so he puts them in houses, makes sure they're provided for, but they live in practical widowhood the rest of their lives, which is just sad. Women that were abused, women that now have to live in that shame and widowhood for the rest of their days.That is what happens in war, and it is awful. And that once he does this, he has to begin to put down this rebellion, starting in verse 4. Then the king said to Amasa, Call the men of Judah together to me within three days, and be here yourself. So Amasa went to summon Judah, but he delayed beyond the set time that had been appointed him. Okay. So Amasa, if you remember from last week, is now the commander of David's army, right, of the military.He replaced Joab. David is still upset with Joab because Joab killed his son Absalom in battle. Okay. So Amasa is now in charge. And y'all, Amasa doesn't seem to be a very competent general, doesn't seem to be very competent at all. Amasa, if I'm honest, kind of just fails up.It's like a lot of U.S. politicians that, I mean, you see sometimes they lose an election, and then they get elevated to a position of power in their political party. Or they commit an offense, and they rise in the polls. They just, this happens. It's not unique to American history. It's all over history. People just fail up all the time.But what's happened is, is Amasa led the rebellion with Absalom against David. That should be a strike against him. Another strike should be a failed rebellion. He didn't even win. He lost. So he fails at that, and now he's elevated to be the commander.And it's like, then he's given this job where it says, you need to go. You have three days time. Go. Let's gather the men of Judah together. We have to go and fight. And it says, but he delayed beyond the set time that had been appointed to him, which means he didn't get it done in time.You might think, well, that's a lot to ask to gather troops in three days. You know what? It's not. Because Judah is about the size of Lexington and Richland County. Okay? Not a very massive area.So you've got a bunch of men under you. You've got a thousand soldiers that are right near you. Just get them. Go. Go to every town, every neighborhood. Bring them back.He doesn't. And now David can't wait any longer. So it says in verse 6, and David said to Abishai, now Sheba the son of Bichri will do more harm than Absalom. Take your Lord's servants and pursue him lest he get himself to fortified cities and escape from us. All right.It's a lot of names in 1 and 2 Samuel. So Abishai, if we remember, is Joab's brother. So he looks at Abishai and says, all right, I don't know what Amasa is doing, but we don't have time for this. You need to go. Take some men. We need to put down this rebellion before it gets any worse.And Abishai isn't going out alone. Verse 7, And there went out after him Joab's men and the Cherethites and the Pelethites and the mighty men. They went out from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba, the son of Bichri. So Abishai is loyal to his brother and says, Hey, come on. Let's go.So he takes them, the mighty men, the mercenaries and said, We're going. We're going out together. And that isn't good because if you've been around with us for a bit, you know that Joab is an unsavory person to say the least. Pretty violent, gruesome person. Verse 8, When they were at the great stone that is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Now Joab was wearing the soldier's garment and over it was a belt with a sword and its sheath fastened on its thigh.And as it went forward, it fell out. And Joab said to Amasa, Is it well with you, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. But Amasa did not observe the sword that was in Joab's hand. So Joab struck him with it in the stomach and spilled his entrails to the ground without striking a second blow.And he died. So Joab, being a very violent man who holds grudges, has a plan of revenge and he assassinates and murders another threat. He keeps doing this. And this is not like, Oh, the sword spilled out. Oh, a moment. This was planned.He goes up to do a traditional greeting, which is like kiss on both cheeks. That's their equivalent of dapping him up. And the sword spills out on purpose. He picks up the sword and he violently thrusts it into him. One shot kill. And this is, listen, Amasa, I'll be honest, should have seen this coming.The moment he sees Joab, he should have said, Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He should have had men surrounding him. But he isn't very competent. He's very unsuspecting. He's very naive. And he goes up to a man with a history of violence, with a history of wanting to be in control and just unsuspectingly is murdered.It says, Then Joab and Abishai, his brother, pursued Sheba, the son of Bichri. Verse 11. And one of Joab's young men took his stand by Amasa and said, Whoever favors Joab and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab. That's a key part for me that just lets you know, Oh, this was planned. So he murders him and then he has one of his men come by and say, If you're with David, you're with Joab.If you're with Joab, you're with David. Joab's in charge now. Let's go. You're following. And they all, the men who just were following Amasa are kind of stunned at what's happening. Verse 12.And Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the highway and anyone who came by seeing him stopped. So you got to think this is happening very quickly. All of a sudden, there the general of the army is lying. It was a one-shot kill, but he's not dying immediately. He's wallowing in his blood in the ground and they're all seeing this. A man that just, who was just their leader, they're looking at this and they're hearing the call.They're following Joab and that's a lot to absorb. And the people who are with Joab realize this. The man who just yelled that says, And when the man saw that all the people stopped, he carried Amasa out of the highway into the field and threw a garment over him. And it's like, all right, don't be confused. He's gone. Whoop.All right, we're going. Follow us, Joab. Here we go. And those men are going to fall in line or you'll die. And they do. Verse 13, When he was taken out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab to pursue Sheba, the son of Bichri.Verse 14, And Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel of Beth-Maacah and all the Bichrites assembled and followed him in. Okay. We've got to read that very carefully because it's very good context for what's happening here. Remember, Sheba was an opportunist and he yelled, Everyone to his own tent! Declaring independence! But then, as we can see, he goes through all the tribes of Israel and Abel of Beth-Maacah is up in the north.It's about as far north in the promised land before you leave the promised land. So it looks like he's gone through all the different tribes trying to say, All right, you coming with? And what does it say? And all the Bichrites assembled and followed him. Y'all, that's his cousins. That's his clan.He's gone through all the promised land all the way of Israel trying to gather steam and everyone's like, Ah! I don't know about that. Which, listen, if you're a man, this makes a lot of sense. You really, I understand this. There are times where you get very angry and testosterone's flowing and all of a sudden someone says something that you think seems reasonable in the moment. It's like, Oh yeah, they did disrespect us.You know what? This can't stand. Oh, we gotta take care of this. Yeah, we should. Let's go.We're gonna go take them out. We're gonna go show them they don't do that again. And then you hop in the truck and you're going and you're like, once it starts to settle down and you're like, Ah! I don't know about this. I'm an adult now. This is assault.I now have a job. I don't, you know, honestly, I think I'm just gonna get off to the next stop. I don't really wanna, I don't wanna do this. And it just, it's what happens. Everyone at first is like, Yeah! We're going to our tents.And then they have some time to think about it. It's like, Well, I'm kind of tired of Civil War. I'm tired of death and dying. And, you know, honestly, I don't even know this guy, Sheba. So, it's got a weird name anyways. You know what?I'm out. And it doesn't work. And listen, that's just some free advice for the men in this room. Sometimes you just need a few minutes to calm down. You know, go on a walk, pray, breathe, let oxygen flood the brain again, and then come to reason. Also, for the women in this room.Wives, friends, just let them have some space for a minute. It's on us to calm down. But that's what happens. They calm down. They don't join them. And now, it's just Sheba and his cousins.Verse 15, And all the men who were with Joab came and besieged him in Abel of Beth-Maacah. So, they catch up. They're ready to fight. And it says, They cast up a mound against the city and stood against the rampart. And they were battering the wall down, wall to throw it down. So, they engage in some ancient tactics of war.They show up to the city, which they are in. They start building a mound against the rampart. They start getting a battering ram, ready to take this out. They're ready to tear this city apart. when a wise woman realizes what's happening and steps up to the plate. Verse 16, Then, a wise woman called from the city, Listen, listen! Tell Joab, come here that I may speak to you.And he came near her. And the woman said, Are you Joab? He answered, I am. Then she said to him, Listen to the words of your servant. And he answered, I am listening. Then she said, They used to say in former times, Let them but ask counsel of Abel.And so they settled a matter. I am one of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. You see, to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel, why will you swallow up the heritage of the Lord? She says, Joab, you know the reputation of our city. We are a peaceable city. We settle disputes.We don't fight. Why are you trying to kill us? Can we have a conversation about this? Why would you destroy the heritage of the Lord? Don't destroy us. What's going on?Joab answers. Verse 20, Joab answered, Far be it from me, far be it, that I should swallow up or destroy. That is not true. But a man of the hill country of Ephraim called Sheba, the son of Bichri, has lifted up his hand against King David. Give up this man alone. I withdraw from the city.So Joab says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We don't have a problem with you. There's somebody in your city that we have a problem with. He's a problem. We're here for him. Now you might think, well, why did they let him in the city in the first place?And this is a Middle Eastern cultural thing that we don't understand here. In the Middle East, even into today, when you have someone who comes to you, you're hospitable, you take them in. And then they become your responsibility. So when they come to the city, it's just immediately, hold on, you're not, this is our responsibility. So it's a lot in the Iraq and Afghanistan war that some of those families would take in U.S. soldiers and protect them and care for them.That's what's happening here. It's, oh, oh, oh. But then she's like, wait a second. This is the most violent leader and all the mighty men. Can we have a conversation? Then she hears, oh, oh, he's a terrorist.Oh, he's a traitor. Okay. Now I understand why you're so upset. And the woman said to Joab, behold, his head shall be thrown to you over the wall. She doesn't hesitate. She's like, oh, okay.We're going to toss the head over. It'll be good, right? And Joab's like, ha ha. And then she goes to her people. Verse 22. And the woman went to all the people in her wisdom and they cut off the head of Sheba, the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab.So he blew the trumpet and they dispersed in the city every man to his home. And Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king. So she successfully persuades the people. Sheba gets his head cut off and the fighting is over. Everyone goes home. And the chapter ends with really a summary of the leadership that's really going to stay in place that we're getting towards the end of David's reign.This is the leadership list that's in place throughout the rest of David's reign. Verse 23. Now Joab was in command of all the army of Israel, which that just tells us, y'all, Joab, David's not fighting Joab anymore. He's done with this. He is going to keep him in power.Joab is going to get what's coming to him, but it ain't right now. And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was in command of the Cherethites and the Pelethites. And Adoram was in charge of the forced labor. And Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was the recorder. And Sheba was secretary. And Zadok and Abiathar were priests.And Ira the Jairite was also David's priest. And that's how chapter 20 concludes. Now, at the beginning, I said that this would be, what we would see is the widening of a rift between Judah and Israel. But the fault lines were there. Influence in the nation was being fought over. And this widening is continuing.Now, as this split is coming many decades later, one of the people we just read about, Adoram, is going to be the first casualty in that civil war. So I want to skip to 1 Kings chapter 12 because this helps us see where this is going. So let me give some context before we read this together. This will be on the screen, but stay with me for a moment. This is David's grandson, Rehoboam. So David has Solomon, who's the king next, and Solomon's son, Rehoboam, takes over.Rehoboam immediately doesn't recognize the situation because Israel and Judah, this widening has continued and continued. Even through Solomon's reign, it's continuing. And Rehoboam listens to some foolish younger man's advice on, you know what? You need to be strong and you need to enforce more harshness on the Israelites. He doesn't read the room at all. And this division is widening and not coming back.So that's where we pick up in 1 Kings. When it is widened so far, verse 16, And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, hear this, What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel, look now to your own house, David. Now, what does that sound like? That's what Sheba said.That's almost a verbatim quote. They remember what he said and his rebellion didn't work, but they bring it back and they quote him. That's intentional. And they say, No, we are done with this. What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance of this.To our own tents, Israel. They're declaring independence. So Israel went to their tents, verse 17, But Rehoboam reigned over the people of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah. Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, that's who David put in place, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. And King Rehoboam hurried to mount his chariot to flee Jerusalem. So Adoram later receives the first violence in a civil war that never heals.This nation is never the same again. From this point forward, it is not the 12 tribes of Israel. It is the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. It never heals. And you can trace it throughout history and you can see it in the story we saw today, just this widening that happens. And from this point forward, there's only violence, there's only hatred, there's only disunity.And this is the result of it that goes forward. They could have at any point slowed down, could have at any point hurt each other, could have at any point reconciled, but they choose harsh words, fierce words, which we read. They speak fiercely, they choose their sides, they dig in their heels, and all the people that were once unified as children of the covenant of Abraham. They're now enemies for centuries to come. Now, what I want to do is I want to help picture what's happening in this division over time and ultimately the only hope that shows up in fixing this. So, as I said, around 930 B.C. is when Israel and Judah permanently divide.That's the situation with Rehoboam. So, they divide at this point and you have the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. And they're never the same, never with each other again. Now, Israel quickly devolves into a lot of pagan practices. They mix their faith with some idolatry and they quickly over the next two centuries start to really fall apart to the point where God brings judgment on the northern kingdom of Israel and sends in the Assyrians over a period of time to completely destroy their kingdom. And, next slide, 720 B.C. that's what happens.Israel is completely destroyed. The northern kingdom is done. So, they destroy them. It's never a national kingdom again. And then, they send, they bring people out, they bring some foreigners in and they leave some of the Israelites behind and those Israelites end up marrying with those people and many of them settle down into a region called Samaria. And, in Samaria they have some of the old faith mixed in with these idolatrous practices and they stay there for centuries to come.So, the descendants of Israel, the northern tribes, are there while Judah keeps going. And, over time, Judah has its own judgment that comes upon them but the people of Judah stay together and they later are called the Jews. So, the people, the descendants of Judah is where we get Judaism from, the Jews. So, the descendants of mostly Judah and Benjamin but the kingdom of Judah. So, the people of Judah continue but then they're still living side by side with Samaritans and they hate them. They hate them.They hate Samaritans. They hate that they share some bit of faith. They hate them for their old differences, this widening rift that continued for so long. They hate them. They're racist towards them. I mean, you have to, if you live both in northern Galilee to get through Samaria or to get to Jerusalem, the straight line is to go through Samaria but they wouldn't do that.They go all the way around Samaria because they don't want the dust of that people on them. They don't want to see them. They don't want to deal with them and that continues with that kind of hatred and that kind of division for centuries. So, you can trace what happened in our story and it continues and it continues and it continues over time where these people are just hating each other. And then, centuries later, Jesus comes and Jesus begins to speak of a kingdom that's not of this world. He begins to speak of a kingdom that is going to last for eternity.He begins to describe and picture what this kingdom is going to be like and one of the things that Jesus does in His ministry is instead of going all the way around Samaria, He goes straight into it. And when Jesus begins to minister around 27 AD, He goes into Samaria and He meets a Samaritan woman in John chapter 4 and He has this wonderful conversation. If you've never read it, you should sit in it today. It's beautiful as He articulates the gospel to a lost woman and He declares to her that He is the Messiah and He hints at that this old division is going away. And then Jesus takes that ministry to the cross where He dies for hostile, angry, disunified people and He resurrects creating a new people that are no longer to reflect the divisions of this present world.And then He commissions His church. He ascends at the right hand of God the Father. And then when you get to the book of Acts, which, by the way, that's our next book. We get done with this book at the end of this month. We're going to be in the book of Acts for the next season. So, spoiler alert.When you get to the book of Acts, one of the things that we're going to see is that as the church begins to spread, they go into Samaria just like Jesus did. And then when they minister in 33 to 35 AD, when they start ministering to Samaritans and they start bringing the gospel to them, the people that had been disunified for almost a thousand years are now finally unified again. And it doesn't stop there. The gospel continues to spread and it starts reaching other Gentiles, Romans, Greeks, Ethiopians, Ephesians. And then you see that this household of faith is going to have a whole bunch of different people.But what unifies this people is Christ primarily. And when you hear the book of Ephesians as they're addressing some of these differences between Gentiles and Jews, God through His servant Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2, for He Himself, this is Jesus, is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that He might create in Himself one new man and the place of two, so making peace that Jesus Christ through His redemptive work breaks down walls of hostility, breaks down differences that we cling to in this present world because it's in Him that we are unified. The most important thing about Christians is Christ Jesus and it says and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross thereby killing hostility that through the cross of Jesus Christ every petty difference, every temporary difference, everything that we make primary in this present life that separates us goes to die because the primary expression of unity is found in Christ in His people. And that gospel continues to spread.It spread and spread and spread. And then, as God's people unified in Him, caring most about what we have in Him, not caring about the racial differences, ethnic differences, political differences, philosophical differences because the most important thing about us is Christ. We have a different way of speaking. And in James chapter 3, ministering to a church, teaching them how they might speak, verse 5 and following, it says, so also, the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire.And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. But that is a reminder that your tongue, that our speech, is powerful in a way that when it is used for ungodly purposes, can set communities on fire, can destroy unity amongst peoples. And then when you skip to verse 10, it says, from the same mouth flow blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not be so. Now, that leads us back to where we started.We live in a culture that only blesses their friends and curses their enemies. That's the way we do this today in our culture. You bless your friends, you curse your enemies. Enemies now are defined by us and them. And them is defined by not from our tribe, not from our political party, not from our region of the country, not from our race, not from our sex, not from our people. It's them.They're the problem. And that's how our culture rages right now. And that leads to violence, to dehumanization, to evil prevailing. And the more the culture rages, the more angry it gets. We of all people who belong to Christ, a God who reconciles us who was once enemies of him to make us friends in him, to see Jesus as most primary about us, descendants of Israel, Judah, Rome, Ephesus, Ethiopia, and beyond. All of us should be the people who understand what it means to be on the same page.The most important person is Christ in us. And therefore, everything that this world is clinging to, all the power plays, all the frantic energy, it's like, we don't, it's not us. We're not doing that. We're going to choose love. We're going to choose peace. We're going to choose to bridle our tongues and to restrain our speech.We're not going to engage in other-side-is-evil business. We're not going to do that. We're not going to dehumanize people. We're not going to be people of tribes of this world because we belong to the most beautiful, wonderful tribe that is Christ Jesus. And that means we change the way we operate in this culture. Listen, I love America.I love America. This Saturday, I'm going to go so hard. I'm going to America 250 so hard. I'm serious. I do love, I love this country. As Jeremiah prophesied to the people he was prophesying to, he said, seek the good of the land that you are in.I want to seek the good of the land that I'm in and I'm thankful for all of our bright spots and I'll seek to evangelize through everyday mission and all the parts that are broken. But not for a moment should we forget where our main citizenship is. It is not here. It is in heaven. And from it, we wait a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would transform these broken bodies to be with him in glory for eternity. That's where our hope is.So, that means that the present divisions that we see everywhere around us, if you have gotten wrapped up in them in any way, shape, or form, you need to repent. I have had to do the work of repentance. I'm having to repent. If you have gotten caught up in the frantic nature of everything's falling apart, no, no, no. We need to be grounded in what is eternal and what is true. That the vile language that is unbecoming of Christian living has to go.It cannot be reposted. It cannot be said in jokes. It cannot be said in conversations and shops, rooms, and break rooms, and community groups. And it's got to go. It has to go. So, may we be a people that are salt and light and a culture filled with darkness that if this continues in a direction that it is going, will breed more violence and more violence and more violence and more hate.May we be a people that stands in the middle of it and says, no, there is a better way and that better way is Jesus. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you might help us compel us to gospel hope that doesn't put hope in all the present divisions that are at play right now that we would as Christians repent where we've spoken harshly and fiercely about other people. As that's trickled down into how we think about each other in our own church, may we repent that we speak kindly, speaking the truth in love, that we embody wise speech that flows out of a primary allegiance to you. And Lord Jesus, if there's anyone here that's put their hope in this present world and all of its political forces and all of its temporary hope, may you compel them to primary faith and allegiance to you.In Jesus' name. Amen.

Fr. Mike shortly touches on David's honest prayer in Psalm 109 before diving into the unending love God has for his people. As we continue to journey through our readings, we will begin to see the words of the prophets come to fruition as those who return to the Lord in faith will experience his undying love and forgiveness, despite their unfaithfulness. Today's readings are 2 Kings 9, Hosea 11-14, and Psalm 109. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Welcome back to Gnostic Insights and to the Gnostic Reformation on Substack. Last week was part one of my interview with Bishop Nathan Wilson of the Gnostic Union, and he explained to us a bit about who the Gnostic Union is and what they believe in. At the beginning of that episode, I read from the Gnostic Union website their history and mission statement. And my brother Billy called me up and said, “Oh, but there’s a point of their theology that’s all wrong. I know they’re ecumenical and all, but we mustn’t fall into the error of wrong teaching.” And, you know, I totally agree with that concept, not teaching anything that is incorrect or that doesn’t make sense, according to the Gnosticism that I share with you here. And it created a very large discussion between my brother and me. And I don’t even have enough time in this short introduction to go into the point that Bill brought up out of their statement of beliefs. So we’ll wait and we’ll do that when these interviews are all over and that way we can go into depth and give the topic the attention it deserves. You see, the Gnosticism that I share with you here mostly comes from the Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi. And the Tripartite Tractate is a very unusual book. It is not a book of mythology. It is not a book of ancient myths concerning angels and demigods and great battles in heaven and so forth. It’s not that kind of book. We think of it as physics. It’s literally a book that describes the cosmology and the cosmogony, that is, how consciousness came to be transmitted from the base state of consciousness that we call the Father or the Source, and all the way downstream into, ultimately, us. We’re sitting here talking and thinking about it. This is pure consciousness we’re talking about. It’s not particularities. You understand? Gnosis itself we think of as that river of consciousness. That’s what gnosis is. So, I often say, if my dog can’t understand the gnosis, it’s not really gnosis—it's a knowledge claim. If a blade of grass or a tree in the forest can’t bask in the gnosis, then it’s not really gnosis. It’s a human knowledge claim. This is the reason why here at Gnostic Insights and on the Gnostic Reformation, we do not dwell in the history of things. We dwell in the understanding or the gnosis itself. The cosmogony and cosmology of Gnosticism that I share with you here is a logical step-by-step rollout of the consciousness of the Father or the Source. It doesn’t really matter what you call it. It’s the base state. It’s the matrix of consciousness itself and how it flows down to us. There are necessary steps described in the Tripartite Tractate for how that consciousness is differentiated and particularized and then rolled down. And how it is that we material beings are different than the ethereal beings. How could that have possibly happened? It’s like that. It’s a logical progression that necessarily comes out of an a priori statement of consciousness as the ground state. That’s quite a bit different than mythologies of how these angels fit in with these gods and goddesses down here on earth and so forth. Because those particularities definitely come out of the mind of humans. They can be inspired. Okay, I’ll give you that. But they are knowledge claims. They’re not necessarily gnosis and because of that they can go wrong. They can be wrong. Whereas starting with this a priori notion of consciousness ending up in us and how does that occur? By what means does that possibly happen? And how is it that we earthlings plug into that illimitable consciousness? That’s a different thing. That’s a description of process. That’s an understanding or a gnosis of what it is that we are part of. 15 steps in Gnostic Cosmology So I’m not knocking the history or the particularities that Bishop Wilson shares with us. But the gnosis that leads you to enlightenment is simply this: We come from the Father [El Elyon] or from the Source or from the Mother-Father or from the Great Mother—whatever you want to call it. We come from that Source, that unlimited well of consciousness and life and power and might and love. And then we will return to that. That’s all you have to know. We come from Above and we return to Above. And with that knowledge, that’s your base state. That’s what the blades of grass and the dogs and the trees all understand. All the rest of the particularities of who and why and how, those are just details being filled in. Some of them out of gnosis, but most of them out of tradition or history. So we’ll be proceeding now into part two of my interview with Bishop Nathan Wilson of the Gnostic Union. And later on, we’re going to talk some more about the difference between mythology and the process of gnosis. That is what this podcast specializes in. That’s what my brother Bill and I have parsed out and discovered out of direct mining of the Tripartite Tractate. Our gnosis comes from that and it proceeds in an orderly fashion that doesn’t require any extra research. It’s all about gnosis and what must be. But here, let’s go back to this interview with Brother Wilson. **************************************************************** Cyd: Well, tell me more about your Bible that you wrote. What do you call it? You call it… Bishop Nathan Wilson: I call it The Gnostic Christian Truth Bible. I actually asked one of the older bishops that trained me, Bishop Jason, and he started that. So, I like the name. So, I thought, okay, I want to put Gnostic Christian in there. So, I was going to call it first the Truth Bible. He requested that, but I thought, well, Gnostic Christian makes it less likely for the Catholics to come after me as well, and the Protestants. Many do not like my translations. They are quite upset that I’ve done this, but they don’t put too much light on me. So, it’s best not to give me too much attention, basically. So, the less attention I have, the less people know about this, but which is something unique about mine. I don’t just offer my translations. I offer the original Koine Greek with it, so they can look at the actual text. So, even if my translation, say, could be wrong, they could look straight at that text and go argue with the text that they see, which I also wanted to include for their own reason, and when I included the alternative English, it’s so I might read it one way, but someone else is going to read it another way, and that can teach me something new. I feel, oh, I didn’t understand it like that. So, that’s why I wanted to keep that in there too, and a couple of words I kept in there were Greek. So, I kept Logos. I kept Kosmos, Zoe, Sophia, Archon. Magus. I kept all these words. So, very, very Gnostic, and you won’t find these in the English translations. They have gone out of their ways to censor them. I also kept the word daemon or daimon, daemon, so I did not put that down as demon because that’s not what it means. So, I kept the original Greek context of use, and I also add a Greek, Koine Greek, index in my translation so people can actually look at little snippets of what these words mean. So, I have some things in here. So, this is just on one page on basically all Greek with English meaning. So, there’s Logos, which I explained means God’s word, God’s authority, God’s reasoning, song, and speech, and utterance. So, when you see Christians speak that Jesus is speaking the Word, or in the beginning there was Word, they are doing a disservice to what’s being implied. This is the word of God. Very different, and even the word God we use is very English. I did keep up, but for the English sake of things. So, English people wouldn’t freak out too much on me, and another thing is also a safer mouthful, because this Word means supreme deity, deity of deities, which is very interesting. Otherwise, we would go into a god, which is lesser gods as well. So, we have a pantheon. So, it was very different, like even monotheism would evolve into what we think it is today, but in the ancient past with ancient Jewish people, they did believe in other gods, it’s just they chose to worship one god. So, this would be not the same as monotheism now, where you completely reject them as non-existent. This wasn’t that case. So, they had a very different mind. So I kept Sophia being wisdom. I mentioned this is how this is feminine wisdom, God’s feminine wisdom, coming from the Hebrew word Chokmah. Sometimes those are called Chokmah. So, I kept that in there as Sophia. Zoe, I kept too, meaning basically when you see eternal Zoe, that’s eternal life. So, that’s implying the feminine wisdom again, but also the spiritual benefits one receives with a spiritual relationship with God, or what’s with mine. So, I kept that in there. So, it’s very feminine, and that’s being removed. They would not want you to know that life is Zoe, and there’s other words they could have used for life or soul, but they chose to use the word Zoe, and that’s important. So, I kept that in there. And I’ve also got Megas. I’ve already mentioned that, but Magus comes from—here’s two words that are entwined, but the thing was the church has used a later translation, which would be terrible, but that’s kind of wrong, and this is because the language would evolve over time. It came to words Megus and Magos, which basically would be Magi, and then great and powerful, larger than life. So, Jesus was also called Iesous Magos. So, Jesus the Great, Jesus the Wise, has been censored because of Magus, and they don’t want you to know about Simon Magus. They don’t want you to know anything about Gnosticism. So, this has been censored, and I’ve also put some passages where find this. I kept Daemon in here, or Diamon. Gehenna, I also translated in here. I kept Gehenna. I did not use hell because hell is German. It’s realm of light in German, so it’s a Germanic word. So, I kept the word Gehenna, which is ultimately what we would kind of call hell, but it’s not what people think it is. That’s an evolved tradition. So, Gehenna or even Abaddon, these are two different words, but the same thing. Gehenna was the place where the soul was destroyed or purified. So, the text can translate to eternal punishment, but that’s not strictly bound to it. That’s more would be a later theology bound to that translation where it means period of time. So, it doesn’t necessarily mean all these different things. It’s like the word soma where it’s all about Jesus’ body. It can be living body, dead body, or a carcass, or even the living body of the church, which is more symbolic, but fascinating. I also kept in here a couple words, such as I explained Hades, which is mentioned with Sheol and how that’s separate from Gehenna. I’ve kept Helios, Selene, Astron, or Asterios, as well as Aletheia. These words are very interesting because they are all gods. They’re all Greco-Roman gods. So, the scholars or, I really should say, a Christian apologist, that state there’s no pagan gods in the New Testament—they are entirely wrong. It’s just that they have looked at it in a modern Greek eye instead of looking at an ancient past—they would have seen the gods being mentioned. So that’s very interesting. So when Jesus says that the stars and the sun is falling, he’s not speaking about the sun and stars. He’s speaking about the Helios, the Roman sun god is falling, and the stars and goddesses falling, as well as Selene, the moon, so the moon goddess. That’s the falling of the pagan Roman gods that was subjecting the Jewish people. So very different theology. So theology matters. So we have to look at how people believed back these times. [Jesus speaks of the stars, moon, and sun in Matthew 24:29, Mark 13:25, Luke 21:25. Assigning them as gods and goddesses is Bishop Wilson's interpretation.] The Jewish people did not like the Romans. Not saying that all of them did not. We had some that were pro-Roman. One of the Romans that was involved in the Jewish revolt, fighting against the Jewish people, was Jewish, which is cool. And he was related to Philo of Alexandria. So very interesting. I think he might be his grandson. Cyd: Let me jump in for a second as we’re speaking about gods and the God Above All Gods versus lesser gods. Is it your thought that the God of the Jews of the Old Testament, Jehovah, is a lesser god as opposed to the God Above All Gods? Bishop Nathan Wilson: Yes. Cyd: Okay, so Jehovah is the tribal god of the Old Testament? Bishop Nathan Wilson: Yes, a bit of a mix. So there’s two gods. Well, there’s a couple, if you’ve got to go every single god being mentioned. But what they’re describing is, say, Deuteronomy 32:8, you have El Elyon dividing up the nations according to the Elohim being children of El, and Yahweh received his inheritance from the most high God. So Yahweh was more like a guardian deity, basically. He was a brother of Baal. But some Canaanites believed that Yahweh was Baal. So Yahweh kind of came later after Baal. But the first to worship Yahweh were the Sashu of Yahweh. So they were Canaanite raiders. Hebrew was also a Canaanite language.  [The earliest trace of Yahweh isn't Israelite—it's desert-born. Egyptian inscriptions speak of the “Shasu of YHW,” nomadic peoples on the edges of Canaan, sometimes regarded as raiders. It suggests the name of Yahweh may have emerged out of the wilderness before it was ever claimed by Israel. Even Hebrew itself comes out of the same Canaanite linguistic world.] So I see the views—the ones that were worshipping El would be the ones that would become the Essenes or Jewish mystics. So the Essenes worshipped El. They didn’t worship Yahweh. They viewed Yahweh as a lesser god, which is one reason they challenged the temple, because they viewed, you guys aren’t worshipping God, you’re worshipping the lesser deity, you’re worshipping an angel. And so they rejected the temple. And the priesthood was corrupt. So then you also had the Magharians or Magarites. They were first century BC era Jews. They were proto-Gnostic, so that’s a scholar term. So they were Jewish mystics. They believed that Yahweh was a demiurge and that he was a lieutenant. So not an evil demiurge, but he was ignorant of the most high Father El Elyon, but that’s not a name to them. That was just a title meaning most high God. So they didn’t believe in God with a name, the unknowable Father, they believed was beyond sex as well. So Mother-Father, basically. So beyond all things. Too perfect to interfere with matter. And they believed that the Torah had been corrupted. So that’s fascinating. So that’s a group that we want to talk about. So we had about 25 different versions of Judaism during that time with all different beliefs. So what type of Jew was Jesus? This makes a big, big difference. So not all Jews worshipped Yahweh. Some viewed him as a lesser God and some viewed him as the devil, which is whack. So the only Gnostics or proto-Gnostics would use that word devil at that time. So we have the wisdom of Solomon, which is the first text adored by Christians that they would say, look, this is our Messiah mentioning he’s a dying and rising Messiah calling himself the Son of God and he’s been crucified. So this means that just like our text, he would die a shameful death. But this text mentions that through death, the devil enters the world. So the Pharisees didn’t believe in the devil. The Sadducees didn’t either. But what’s interesting about the Pharisees and Sadducees and the Herodians, which kind of made up both these groups, they were a part of both, just the Herodians mostly supported King Herod. They believed that either King Herod was the Messiah or his family would be, or they belonged to the Sadducees and didn’t believe in a Messiah. So the Sadducees didn’t believe in angels. They didn’t believe in an afterlife. They believed once you were dead, the soul turned to dust. God was too perfect to interfere with humans. So that’s an interesting belief. But we had different subsects of Sadducees that had a different opinion to that. They believed that God did interfere with humans, but we had total free will. So they could interfere with some things, but there was no Messiah. There was no angels. So they believed that a human could be a messenger of God. That was about it. So like Moses. Then you had the Pharisees. They believed that Satan served Yahweh. His job was to test humanity or seduce humanity away from God. So that way mankind had free will. But some Pharisees didn’t believe that. They believed that Satan, Hasatan, was just symbolic for mankind’s inclination towards evil. So they didn’t believe in an evil being. So their belief was that God ordained good and evil, basically, would use evil for his own will. So that’s trippy, very trippy. So the Pharisees had a very different belief. They didn’t believe in the adversary against God. They didn’t believe in fallen angels. Later on, they would take on this belief, borrowing it from mystics and zealots. So funny enough, they would be influenced by Jesus’ teachings, such as saving a life on the Sabbath. The Pharisees would not do that. But to be fair, some Essenes wouldn’t do that either. Some Essenes were very warlike, wanting to join God’s angelic army fighting at the Armageddon of the last days of the world. But these mystics, they are the only groups that believed in fallen angels and believed in a place of punishment. The only groups. And that’s fascinating. So they believed in a physical adversary against God. And these beliefs are carried on in the Christianity with the Armageddon day, or even the belief that God basically allows Satan to do what he wants, but he’s going to conquer over him. That was an Essene belief. They believed that Belial was the adversary against God, a fallen angel, leader of the fallen angels, and God would allow him the sin because he would destroy him in the end. So that was an Essene belief, but not all that belief. Some believed that basically fallen angels chose to rebel against God, so they had free will and that God would overcome them in the end. So that’s different. So we have to look at those beliefs because that makes a big difference in theology as well. And one reason I chose to keep daemon or daimon in the text is because this doesn’t mean Jesus is casting out evil demons, but rather, well, the ghost of the mystic belief of pagan gods were fallen angels. So he’s casting out pagan gods, or he’s just casting out unclean spirits, depending on what the definition of word is, because that daimon or unclean spirit, for instance, isn’t always referenced to a pagan god. It’s just someone who’s died vengeful or angry at God, and is now just a ghost causing haunting. So it depends on how it’s being used. So I kept those words in there. So if the word said unclean spirit, I kept that as unclean spirit. But if it was going into a daimon for a pagan god, basically I’ll keep it as that daimon, so they could choose how they’re going to read it. Because sometimes you’re dealing with two things at once. Sometimes you’re dealing with an unclean spirit, then a pagan god’s being mentioned too. So this archon ruler’s having little other minions subject under him. So we even have an archon ruler being mentioned. So an archon of the daemons, ruler of pagan gods. So other gods had dominions, basically. So they viewed these other gods having their own realms of power, which we also see in the Gnostic text. So I kept all that. I also kept the archon of the synagogue, which is a ruler of the synagogue. So it’s not always a bad thing. Sometimes it’s just political rulers that are mentioned. So an archon of the Gentiles, for instance, is just a ruler of Gentiles, just a politician. I have kept archons in the sense of Yahweh somewhat, I believe, as being the devil. Because in John 8:44, we have Jesus going up to the Pharisees and Sadducees and Herodians who made up the high priesthood. He says, You are of your father, the devil. But if only these Gnostic Jews believed in the devil and their God is Yahweh, who’s he calling devil? And then when the daemons are calling him Son of the most high God, they’re calling him huios, which means son. Huios tou theou tou hypsistou, which is Greek for Son of the most high God. But if you put this in the Hebrew, it’s Son of El Elyon. So this is what the pagan gods are calling him. So the lesser gods. And then he’s also saying that we’re all the children of El Elyon, which is also fascinating. And also the word for son they’re using just means child. It can be male or female. But again, they’re wanting a male audience. So they restricted it, which is a shame. Cyd: How about the word aeon? A E O N. What do you do with that word? You know, in my work with the Tripartite Tractate, it seems to me that most references of aeon in the New Testament translate it as time, a period of time, or the end of the ages, the ages. Whereas I tend to see it always as eternal beings from the ethereal plane. What do you think about that? Bishop Nathan Wilson: I love that. I think that too. I think it’s a mixture of all these things, which is also, I keep, it depends on the context of use. But a lot of times you do see the text that is referring to a higher being, which is beautiful to mention, especially when you’re looking at Gnostic works. But you do see this in the New Testament as well. So you see one text mentioning, for instance, who is this Sophia and this higher power? And that’s how the text can translate too, which is fascinating. So that means who’s this unknown higher power. And then it mentions about the Aeon. And so you see all this sort of stuff being mentioned. Yes, it means an eternal being or an angelic being, but it can also mean eternity or a period of time. So depending on the context of use. So words have power as well. So that’s interesting. So again, how it’s used can make a world of a difference. And it’s interesting when they’re using certain words because there are some times that they could have chosen to use a different word. So when they’ve used a certain word like that, that can change the entire context of meaning. Cyd: Right. Like saying there’s some reference to judgment at the end of the age. And I’m always thinking that it’s judgment from the Aeons when I see that. But I’m not translating from scratch, I’m taking biblical translation, so what do I know? Bishop Nathan Wilson: You’re spot on though. So you’re correct. So it can translate that as well. And we have to realize that we have different versions of Christianity. So that’s certainly appropriate for a first century understanding. Most people are looking at from fourth century. So you’re looking at it from a first century point of view. And so you’re ahead of others in that sort of case, which is beautiful to see. So that’s rare. And I chose to keep that for that reason. So people can have their own conclusions, not having it forced onto them. Cyd: You are very much into the history of things. You’re an historian. I am not at all interested in history per se. I’m always talking about what other people believed in other times. That is not pertinent to our gnosis here and now. So what do you view the purpose of this deep historical knowledge that you have concerning the Jews and the Essenes and whatnot? And is it necessary to go into all of that? Bishop Nathan Wilson: If you want to, I guess, teach from a historical perspective as well as a spiritual one, then yes. But if you want to go for spiritual, you can just go by the heart. There were plenty of spiritual teachers that were illiterate, that could not read, that could not write, and they had a beautiful message. So there’s something more powerful that we can receive within that you won’t obtain from books. But ultimately, you can also have wisdom gained from books. It can be a form of worship or a form of connecting with the divine as well. We have many forms of worship or many forms of experience what’s divine or having that intimate moment with what’s divine to reflect and to deepen our purpose. I wanted to know the historical man we call Jesus and ultimately put into practice what he put into practice. So I wanted to look at the history side of things and especially also, what’s another word I would like to use, decondition myself, decondition past beliefs that were harmful, that did not serve me and ultimately not serving others, and also find out that I was wrong about many things, which I wanted to know as well. So what brought me to this was to know the man we call Jesus, Yeshua, or Yehoshua, whichever term you like, whichever name you want to use. So I want to know not just that, but I want to know his practices, what he did with his life, how his first followers lived, how the first Christians lived, and what I could use for my own spiritual path and how I could put that into practice. So that’s why I want to look at the history side of things. I think if you want to put into practice the different techniques of all the many different Gnostics, then you’re going to have to look at some of the history side of things to find those practices. That doesn’t mean that every single practice is necessary for you. So what works for me might not work for others. What works for others might not work for me. So double-edged sword. Cyd: What sort of practices are you referring to? Are these rituals? What’s the practices? Bishop Nathan Wilson: I go into some of the ancient rituals as well. Some of them I might look at the prayers that they would use, the diet they would take, or means of worship. So how they would go about their forms of private practice. So that sort of stuff. And then I might apply it into my own life and see how I can go. There’s still more I’d like to go and check out more. So I’m still studying a couple of some of the ancient practices as well. So from different or religious perspectives as well. And then I can see how I can put it to my own form of use. So I looked at a lot of Jewish Christians, they would do the shema for instance, before their meditations. And I’ll do that as well. [“Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one… You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength…”] They also did breath works back then, which would also induce a sense of intoxication if you want to use, or light headness. And in turn that can also open a new state of reality. So entering the spiritual realm can be a vehicle, if you will, to get there. So to open the mind. And that’s also a practice that’s been used in ancient past. And we can certainly use that today. We have modern practices, say like Wim Hof, that teach breath work in meditation. That’s also useful. So sometimes looking at the past, we do see stuff in today’s world that’s not really new. It’s just being basically reentering this world again, from past knowledge gained of old. And I find that in a lot of Gnostic stuff. When you look at history, you kind of see that Gnostics kind of did a lot of things first, that what we’re doing now that we think is modern, but it’s not. It’s ancient. Cyd: That’s why conventional Christians who read my books, they say, oh, you’re just all new age. And I’m like, no, it’s not new age at all. It’s ancient. Bishop Nathan Wilson: Which is a shame that Christians have been shut off into their own world, which is kind of funny. I actually tell most Christians that they are, in fact, new age, because these beliefs are ancient. And what they are going by is, depending on what version of Christianity, if you’re Protestant, that’s 16th century, I believe. Non-denominal, 18th century. Protestant, 16th century. Catholicism, late second century. Orthodoxy, as we know it now, would be about 14th century. But older Orthodoxy, which would be the split from the Catholic church, is fourth century. So it’s when you go to Gnostic Christians, first century, and we’re really the only groups that are surviving, the Jewish Christians got killed. They ultimately were wiped out or would convert to mainstream Judaism or would become Christian or Islam, they would follow as well. So some would be converted to Muslims, which is also interesting as well. We as Gnostics were also harmed by these other groups, by Catholics, Protestants, Muslims as well. At one point Zoroastrians, but that was only one particular era. And we’ve basically arisen from all that, from that underground, and we’ve still survived, which is fascinating. It’s beautiful that we have. And also the texts that have been rediscovered, this is not accidental. This is all happening for a reason. What’s divine is experiencing itself where it can experience itself and express itself again safely in today’s world. In ancient past, it was dangerous to have diversion after the fourth century, which is a shame because the Catholics would kill those who came before them. They didn’t like that. And they even knew that some of the Gnostics, they had older writings, but they still denied them, which is funny. So it’s why such the hate, which is such a shame. So it goes back to that control of power, my way or the highway, basically. And it was never meant to be like that. It was meant to be very universal. It was meant to be very diverse. The first Christians were Gnostics and Jewish Christians, a mixture between strict law observing Jews and a mixture of Gentiles. And then you had the Jewish mystics that became the Christian mystics, which is fascinating. That was the original groups. And the original groups would argue amongst each other. The strict law observing Jews wanted circumcision, where the mystics said, no, no circumcision of the hearts, let the Gentiles come. That’s fine. So even when we look at the word, say, ethnos, for instance, in the Gospels, when you see kingdom against kingdom, nation against nation, these are the same things. So what they’re actually talking about is Gentile against Gentile and kingdom against kingdom. So the Jewish people didn’t have a kingdom at this stage. It was a mixture of Judea, Galilee and Samaria. So we’re the Samaritans. So that’s also something to take into account, too. So they didn’t like that. They were looking for a messiah to reunify the Jewish people, restore the Jewish faith and make Israel a kingdom again. And so some of them didn’t like the fact that Jesus wasn’t after this, for instance. So they didn’t like some of these teachings. It was a bit different. But if you look at the mystics, they had a very different interpretations. They did believe in a renewal of the Jewish faith, but a renewal back to El Elyon and a rejection of Yahweh. So that’s very different. So when you look at repentance, for Israel to repent, meaning for all of Israel to return back to El Elyon. And if you look at for the Gentiles conversion, that would be referring to not converting to any religion, but converting to God. So God outside religion. So fascinating. So you see all this in the original text. Cyd: And why do you suppose, this might be an unanswerable question, but why do you suppose conventional modern Christians are so, you know, extremely antagonistic towards Gnostic Christians? Is it fear or what? Bishop Nathan Wilson: Well, they’ve been told you're the enemy, basically. And yes, some of it is fear. Fear as well of the unknown. And also because of the need of an opponent. So they believe that they are doing a good thing. And if they don’t do this, they can be punished. So it’s the case of where a victim becomes an abuser. So most Christians have never even heard about Gnostics. It’s only the real ones who are into spiritual warfare, basically, and really full on extremist dogmatic ones that are familiar with, and apologetics. But they are now feeling like they’re losing the battle because more people were interested in Gnosticism and especially interested in other Jewish groups and the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as the Nag Hammadi. So they’re realizing their other texts and there’s other options now. And that’s great. And regarding even my translations, one reason I chose to do it that I did, I found out that no modern English Bible translates from one source material. They’re all a mixture of different sources. So we have the Codex Sinaiticus mixed with the Latin Vulgate, mixing with Germanic copies, and then mixing ancient Koine Greek into modern Hebrew, putting it back into Greek. And that’s not good at all. So we’re just changing—we’re swapping chapters because we feel uncomfortable with them. So I was mortified when I was looking at that. And so I realized I couldn’t trust basically my Bible anymore. So I thought, well, I’m making this myself. And then I thought, well, I’m going to release it. Let’s go and share it too and do what they will with it. And it opened a lot of doorways to me, actually. So that’s one reason I wanted to give that out so people can have their own faith in their own interpretation and also believe in the message of Yeshua, bringing people back to the Most High God, to the Unknowable God, the Living Father, the Mother-Father. And we also see the Mother being mentioned in other texts too. It’s just mostly blocked out by mainstream Christianity, which is unfair, unfair to women and unfair to humanity with their approaches. It’s been very violent. So we need to remove that violence because that’s nothing to do with Yeshua’s teachings. He didn’t teach us to go around fighting each other. He said, Those who are for me are with me. They don’t understand his message. They very much follow the Catholic teachings of Paul that they’ve been given. And so they can look at the Gnostic teachings of Paul as well, which are also in there. Paul’s letters, we now know they’re mostly all forgeries. We don’t have any original copies either. They’re all later fourth century and we have some second century fragments. But the oldest reference to Paul is from the Ten Letters of Marcion. And he’s the man who compiled the first Christian Bible. And some people can argue, some people don’t believe he was a Gnostic. Others think he was a Gnostic. I think he was a type of Gnostic because he believed in a demiurge. So he believed that the God of the Jews was Yahweh and not the Supreme God of Jesus. That is a very Gnostic belief. But the thing is, the word Gnostic was given to us by the Catholic church, was a way of separating us and identifying us. But we wear it as a badge of honor because we understand they’re just calling us knowledgeable Christians, which is kind of funny. So language is powerful and the Catholic church certainly forgot it. So because of them, we now use daimon as demon. So they’ve basically demonized Jesus. They’ve demonized the Holy Spirit, which is their greatest sin. And they’ve demonized God and every other God. So they don’t know what damage they’ve done. And that’s not good. So I wanted to reverse that damage and bring people back to what I believe is the message of Yeshua, of Jesus, and to have their own spiritual relationship with God, an individual relationship, which is something that I want to see more of. That’s a very beautiful thing. You can’t define that intimate experience without living it. Cyd: Right, right. Well, that's all we have time for in this episode. We'll pick it up again next week for part three of my interview with Bishop Nathan Wilson of The Gnostic Union Church.  I like the way he talks, huh? Until next week, onward and upward and God bless us all.

Welcome back to Gnostic Insights and to the Gnostic Reformation on Substack. Last week was part one of my interview with Bishop Nathan Wilson of the Gnostic Union, and he explained to us a bit about who the Gnostic Union is and what they believe in. At the beginning of that episode, I read from the Gnostic Union website their history and mission statement. And my brother Billy called me up and said, “Oh, but there’s a point of their theology that’s all wrong. I know they’re ecumenical and all, but we mustn’t fall into the error of wrong teaching.” And, you know, I totally agree with that concept, not teaching anything that is incorrect or that doesn’t make sense, according to the Gnosticism that I share with you here. And it created a very large discussion between my brother and me. And I don’t even have enough time in this short introduction to go into the point that Bill brought up out of their statement of beliefs. So we’ll wait and we’ll do that when these interviews are all over and that way we can go into depth and give the topic the attention it deserves. You see, the Gnosticism that I share with you here mostly comes from the Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi. And the Tripartite Tractate is a very unusual book. It is not a book of mythology. It is not a book of ancient myths concerning angels and demigods and great battles in heaven and so forth. It’s not that kind of book. We think of it as physics. It’s literally a book that describes the cosmology and the cosmogony, that is, how consciousness came to be transmitted from the base state of consciousness that we call the Father or the Source, and all the way downstream into, ultimately, us. We’re sitting here talking and thinking about it. This is pure consciousness we’re talking about. It’s not particularities. You understand? Gnosis itself we think of as that river of consciousness. That’s what gnosis is. So, I often say, if my dog can’t understand the gnosis, it’s not really gnosis—it's a knowledge claim. If a blade of grass or a tree in the forest can’t bask in the gnosis, then it’s not really gnosis. It’s a human knowledge claim. This is the reason why here at Gnostic Insights and on the Gnostic Reformation, we do not dwell in the history of things. We dwell in the understanding or the gnosis itself. The cosmogony and cosmology of Gnosticism that I share with you here is a logical step-by-step rollout of the consciousness of the Father or the Source. It doesn’t really matter what you call it. It’s the base state. It’s the matrix of consciousness itself and how it flows down to us. There are necessary steps described in the Tripartite Tractate for how that consciousness is differentiated and particularized and then rolled down. And how it is that we material beings are different than the ethereal beings. How could that have possibly happened? It’s like that. It’s a logical progression that necessarily comes out of an a priori statement of consciousness as the ground state. That’s quite a bit different than mythologies of how these angels fit in with these gods and goddesses down here on earth and so forth. Because those particularities definitely come out of the mind of humans. They can be inspired. Okay, I’ll give you that. But they are knowledge claims. They’re not necessarily gnosis and because of that they can go wrong. They can be wrong. Whereas starting with this a priori notion of consciousness ending up in us and how does that occur? By what means does that possibly happen? And how is it that we earthlings plug into that illimitable consciousness? That’s a different thing. That’s a description of process. That’s an understanding or a gnosis of what it is that we are part of. 15 steps in Gnostic Cosmology So I’m not knocking the history or the particularities that Bishop Wilson shares with us. But the gnosis that leads you to enlightenment is simply this: We come from the Father [El Elyon] or from the Source or from the Mother-Father or from the Great Mother—whatever you want to call it. We come from that Source, that unlimited well of consciousness and life and power and might and love. And then we will return to that. That’s all you have to know. We come from Above and we return to Above. And with that knowledge, that’s your base state. That’s what the blades of grass and the dogs and the trees all understand. All the rest of the particularities of who and why and how, those are just details being filled in. Some of them out of gnosis, but most of them out of tradition or history. So we’ll be proceeding now into part two of my interview with Bishop Nathan Wilson of the Gnostic Union. And later on, we’re going to talk some more about the difference between mythology and the process of gnosis. That is what this podcast specializes in. That’s what my brother Bill and I have parsed out and discovered out of direct mining of the Tripartite Tractate. Our gnosis comes from that and it proceeds in an orderly fashion that doesn’t require any extra research. It’s all about gnosis and what must be. But here, let’s go back to this interview with Brother Wilson. **************************************************************** Cyd: Well, tell me more about your Bible that you wrote. What do you call it? You call it… Bishop Nathan Wilson: I call it The Gnostic Christian Truth Bible. I actually asked one of the older bishops that trained me, Bishop Jason, and he started that. So, I like the name. So, I thought, okay, I want to put Gnostic Christian in there. So, I was going to call it first the Truth Bible. He requested that, but I thought, well, Gnostic Christian makes it less likely for the Catholics to come after me as well, and the Protestants. Many do not like my translations. They are quite upset that I’ve done this, but they don’t put too much light on me. So, it’s best not to give me too much attention, basically. So, the less attention I have, the less people know about this, but which is something unique about mine. I don’t just offer my translations. I offer the original Koine Greek with it, so they can look at the actual text. So, even if my translation, say, could be wrong, they could look straight at that text and go argue with the text that they see, which I also wanted to include for their own reason, and when I included the alternative English, it’s so I might read it one way, but someone else is going to read it another way, and that can teach me something new. I feel, oh, I didn’t understand it like that. So, that’s why I wanted to keep that in there too, and a couple of words I kept in there were Greek. So, I kept Logos. I kept Kosmos, Zoe, Sophia, Archon. Magus. I kept all these words. So, very, very Gnostic, and you won’t find these in the English translations. They have gone out of their ways to censor them. I also kept the word daemon or daimon, daemon, so I did not put that down as demon because that’s not what it means. So, I kept the original Greek context of use, and I also add a Greek, Koine Greek, index in my translation so people can actually look at little snippets of what these words mean. So, I have some things in here. So, this is just on one page on basically all Greek with English meaning. So, there’s Logos, which I explained means God’s word, God’s authority, God’s reasoning, song, and speech, and utterance. So, when you see Christians speak that Jesus is speaking the Word, or in the beginning there was Word, they are doing a disservice to what’s being implied. This is the word of God. Very different, and even the word God we use is very English. I did keep up, but for the English sake of things. So, English people wouldn’t freak out too much on me, and another thing is also a safer mouthful, because this Word means supreme deity, deity of deities, which is very interesting. Otherwise, we would go into a god, which is lesser gods as well. So, we have a pantheon. So, it was very different, like even monotheism would evolve into what we think it is today, but in the ancient past with ancient Jewish people, they did believe in other gods, it’s just they chose to worship one god. So, this would be not the same as monotheism now, where you completely reject them as non-existent. This wasn’t that case. So, they had a very different mind. So I kept Sophia being wisdom. I mentioned this is how this is feminine wisdom, God’s feminine wisdom, coming from the Hebrew word Chokmah. Sometimes those are called Chokmah. So, I kept that in there as Sophia. Zoe, I kept too, meaning basically when you see eternal Zoe, that’s eternal life. So, that’s implying the feminine wisdom again, but also the spiritual benefits one receives with a spiritual relationship with God, or what’s with mine. So, I kept that in there. So, it’s very feminine, and that’s being removed. They would not want you to know that life is Zoe, and there’s other words they could have used for life or soul, but they chose to use the word Zoe, and that’s important. So, I kept that in there. And I’ve also got Megas. I’ve already mentioned that, but Magus comes from—here’s two words that are entwined, but the thing was the church has used a later translation, which would be terrible, but that’s kind of wrong, and this is because the language would evolve over time. It came to words Megus and Magos, which basically would be Magi, and then great and powerful, larger than life. So, Jesus was also called Iesous Magos. So, Jesus the Great, Jesus the Wise, has been censored because of Magus, and they don’t want you to know about Simon Magus. They don’t want you to know anything about Gnosticism. So, this has been censored, and I’ve also put some passages where find this. I kept Daemon in here, or Diamon. Gehenna, I also translated in here. I kept Gehenna. I did not use hell because hell is German. It’s realm of light in German, so it’s a Germanic word. So, I kept the word Gehenna, which is ultimately what we would kind of call hell, but it’s not what people think it is. That’s an evolved tradition. So, Gehenna or even Abaddon, these are two different words, but the same thing. Gehenna was the place where the soul was destroyed or purified. So, the text can translate to eternal punishment, but that’s not strictly bound to it. That’s more would be a later theology bound to that translation where it means period of time. So, it doesn’t necessarily mean all these different things. It’s like the word soma where it’s all about Jesus’ body. It can be living body, dead body, or a carcass, or even the living body of the church, which is more symbolic, but fascinating. I also kept in here a couple words, such as I explained Hades, which is mentioned with Sheol and how that’s separate from Gehenna. I’ve kept Helios, Selene, Astron, or Asterios, as well as Aletheia. These words are very interesting because they are all gods. They’re all Greco-Roman gods. So, the scholars or, I really should say, a Christian apologist, that state there’s no pagan gods in the New Testament—they are entirely wrong. It’s just that they have looked at it in a modern Greek eye instead of looking at an ancient past—they would have seen the gods being mentioned. So that’s very interesting. So when Jesus says that the stars and the sun is falling, he’s not speaking about the sun and stars. He’s speaking about the Helios, the Roman sun god is falling, and the stars and goddesses falling, as well as Selene, the moon, so the moon goddess. That’s the falling of the pagan Roman gods that was subjecting the Jewish people. So very different theology. So theology matters. So we have to look at how people believed back these times. [Jesus speaks of the stars, moon, and sun in Matthew 24:29, Mark 13:25, Luke 21:25. Assigning them as gods and goddesses is Bishop Wilson's interpretation.] The Jewish people did not like the Romans. Not saying that all of them did not. We had some that were pro-Roman. One of the Romans that was involved in the Jewish revolt, fighting against the Jewish people, was Jewish, which is cool. And he was related to Philo of Alexandria. So very interesting. I think he might be his grandson. Cyd: Let me jump in for a second as we’re speaking about gods and the God Above All Gods versus lesser gods. Is it your thought that the God of the Jews of the Old Testament, Jehovah, is a lesser god as opposed to the God Above All Gods? Bishop Nathan Wilson: Yes. Cyd: Okay, so Jehovah is the tribal god of the Old Testament? Bishop Nathan Wilson: Yes, a bit of a mix. So there’s two gods. Well, there’s a couple, if you’ve got to go every single god being mentioned. But what they’re describing is, say, Deuteronomy 32:8, you have El Elyon dividing up the nations according to the Elohim being children of El, and Yahweh received his inheritance from the most high God. So Yahweh was more like a guardian deity, basically. He was a brother of Baal. But some Canaanites believed that Yahweh was Baal. So Yahweh kind of came later after Baal. But the first to worship Yahweh were the Sashu of Yahweh. So they were Canaanite raiders. Hebrew was also a Canaanite language.  [The earliest trace of Yahweh isn't Israelite—it's desert-born. Egyptian inscriptions speak of the “Shasu of YHW,” nomadic peoples on the edges of Canaan, sometimes regarded as raiders. It suggests the name of Yahweh may have emerged out of the wilderness before it was ever claimed by Israel. Even Hebrew itself comes out of the same Canaanite linguistic world.] So I see the views—the ones that were worshipping El would be the ones that would become the Essenes or Jewish mystics. So the Essenes worshipped El. They didn’t worship Yahweh. They viewed Yahweh as a lesser god, which is one reason they challenged the temple, because they viewed, you guys aren’t worshipping God, you’re worshipping the lesser deity, you’re worshipping an angel. And so they rejected the temple. And the priesthood was corrupt. So then you also had the Magharians or Magarites. They were first century BC era Jews. They were proto-Gnostic, so that’s a scholar term. So they were Jewish mystics. They believed that Yahweh was a demiurge and that he was a lieutenant. So not an evil demiurge, but he was ignorant of the most high Father El Elyon, but that’s not a name to them. That was just a title meaning most high God. So they didn’t believe in God with a name, the unknowable Father, they believed was beyond sex as well. So Mother-Father, basically. So beyond all things. Too perfect to interfere with matter. And they believed that the Torah had been corrupted. So that’s fascinating. So that’s a group that we want to talk about. So we had about 25 different versions of Judaism during that time with all different beliefs. So what type of Jew was Jesus? This makes a big, big difference. So not all Jews worshipped Yahweh. Some viewed him as a lesser God and some viewed him as the devil, which is whack. So the only Gnostics or proto-Gnostics would use that word devil at that time. So we have the wisdom of Solomon, which is the first text adored by Christians that they would say, look, this is our Messiah mentioning he’s a dying and rising Messiah calling himself the Son of God and he’s been crucified. So this means that just like our text, he would die a shameful death. But this text mentions that through death, the devil enters the world. So the Pharisees didn’t believe in the devil. The Sadducees didn’t either. But what’s interesting about the Pharisees and Sadducees and the Herodians, which kind of made up both these groups, they were a part of both, just the Herodians mostly supported King Herod. They believed that either King Herod was the Messiah or his family would be, or they belonged to the Sadducees and didn’t believe in a Messiah. So the Sadducees didn’t believe in angels. They didn’t believe in an afterlife. They believed once you were dead, the soul turned to dust. God was too perfect to interfere with humans. So that’s an interesting belief. But we had different subsects of Sadducees that had a different opinion to that. They believed that God did interfere with humans, but we had total free will. So they could interfere with some things, but there was no Messiah. There was no angels. So they believed that a human could be a messenger of God. That was about it. So like Moses. Then you had the Pharisees. They believed that Satan served Yahweh. His job was to test humanity or seduce humanity away from God. So that way mankind had free will. But some Pharisees didn’t believe that. They believed that Satan, Hasatan, was just symbolic for mankind’s inclination towards evil. So they didn’t believe in an evil being. So their belief was that God ordained good and evil, basically, would use evil for his own will. So that’s trippy, very trippy. So the Pharisees had a very different belief. They didn’t believe in the adversary against God. They didn’t believe in fallen angels. Later on, they would take on this belief, borrowing it from mystics and zealots. So funny enough, they would be influenced by Jesus’ teachings, such as saving a life on the Sabbath. The Pharisees would not do that. But to be fair, some Essenes wouldn’t do that either. Some Essenes were very warlike, wanting to join God’s angelic army fighting at the Armageddon of the last days of the world. But these mystics, they are the only groups that believed in fallen angels and believed in a place of punishment. The only groups. And that’s fascinating. So they believed in a physical adversary against God. And these beliefs are carried on in the Christianity with the Armageddon day, or even the belief that God basically allows Satan to do what he wants, but he’s going to conquer over him. That was an Essene belief. They believed that Belial was the adversary against God, a fallen angel, leader of the fallen angels, and God would allow him the sin because he would destroy him in the end. So that was an Essene belief, but not all that belief. Some believed that basically fallen angels chose to rebel against God, so they had free will and that God would overcome them in the end. So that’s different. So we have to look at those beliefs because that makes a big difference in theology as well. And one reason I chose to keep daemon or daimon in the text is because this doesn’t mean Jesus is casting out evil demons, but rather, well, the ghost of the mystic belief of pagan gods were fallen angels. So he’s casting out pagan gods, or he’s just casting out unclean spirits, depending on what the definition of word is, because that daimon or unclean spirit, for instance, isn’t always referenced to a pagan god. It’s just someone who’s died vengeful or angry at God, and is now just a ghost causing haunting. So it depends on how it’s being used. So I kept those words in there. So if the word said unclean spirit, I kept that as unclean spirit. But if it was going into a daimon for a pagan god, basically I’ll keep it as that daimon, so they could choose how they’re going to read it. Because sometimes you’re dealing with two things at once. Sometimes you’re dealing with an unclean spirit, then a pagan god’s being mentioned too. So this archon ruler’s having little other minions subject under him. So we even have an archon ruler being mentioned. So an archon of the daemons, ruler of pagan gods. So other gods had dominions, basically. So they viewed these other gods having their own realms of power, which we also see in the Gnostic text. So I kept all that. I also kept the archon of the synagogue, which is a ruler of the synagogue. So it’s not always a bad thing. Sometimes it’s just political rulers that are mentioned. So an archon of the Gentiles, for instance, is just a ruler of Gentiles, just a politician. I have kept archons in the sense of Yahweh somewhat, I believe, as being the devil. Because in John 8:44, we have Jesus going up to the Pharisees and Sadducees and Herodians who made up the high priesthood. He says, You are of your father, the devil. But if only these Gnostic Jews believed in the devil and their God is Yahweh, who’s he calling devil? And then when the daemons are calling him Son of the most high God, they’re calling him huios, which means son. Huios tou theou tou hypsistou, which is Greek for Son of the most high God. But if you put this in the Hebrew, it’s Son of El Elyon. So this is what the pagan gods are calling him. So the lesser gods. And then he’s also saying that we’re all the children of El Elyon, which is also fascinating. And also the word for son they’re using just means child. It can be male or female. But again, they’re wanting a male audience. So they restricted it, which is a shame. Cyd: How about the word aeon? A E O N. What do you do with that word? You know, in my work with the Tripartite Tractate, it seems to me that most references of aeon in the New Testament translate it as time, a period of time, or the end of the ages, the ages. Whereas I tend to see it always as eternal beings from the ethereal plane. What do you think about that? Bishop Nathan Wilson: I love that. I think that too. I think it’s a mixture of all these things, which is also, I keep, it depends on the context of use. But a lot of times you do see the text that is referring to a higher being, which is beautiful to mention, especially when you’re looking at Gnostic works. But you do see this in the New Testament as well. So you see one text mentioning, for instance, who is this Sophia and this higher power? And that’s how the text can translate too, which is fascinating. So that means who’s this unknown higher power. And then it mentions about the Aeon. And so you see all this sort of stuff being mentioned. Yes, it means an eternal being or an angelic being, but it can also mean eternity or a period of time. So depending on the context of use. So words have power as well. So that’s interesting. So again, how it’s used can make a world of a difference. And it’s interesting when they’re using certain words because there are some times that they could have chosen to use a different word. So when they’ve used a certain word like that, that can change the entire context of meaning. Cyd: Right. Like saying there’s some reference to judgment at the end of the age. And I’m always thinking that it’s judgment from the Aeons when I see that. But I’m not translating from scratch, I’m taking biblical translation, so what do I know? Bishop Nathan Wilson: You’re spot on though. So you’re correct. So it can translate that as well. And we have to realize that we have different versions of Christianity. So that’s certainly appropriate for a first century understanding. Most people are looking at from fourth century. So you’re looking at it from a first century point of view. And so you’re ahead of others in that sort of case, which is beautiful to see. So that’s rare. And I chose to keep that for that reason. So people can have their own conclusions, not having it forced onto them. Cyd: You are very much into the history of things. You’re an historian. I am not at all interested in history per se. I’m always talking about what other people believed in other times. That is not pertinent to our gnosis here and now. So what do you view the purpose of this deep historical knowledge that you have concerning the Jews and the Essenes and whatnot? And is it necessary to go into all of that? Bishop Nathan Wilson: If you want to, I guess, teach from a historical perspective as well as a spiritual one, then yes. But if you want to go for spiritual, you can just go by the heart. There were plenty of spiritual teachers that were illiterate, that could not read, that could not write, and they had a beautiful message. So there’s something more powerful that we can receive within that you won’t obtain from books. But ultimately, you can also have wisdom gained from books. It can be a form of worship or a form of connecting with the divine as well. We have many forms of worship or many forms of experience what’s divine or having that intimate moment with what’s divine to reflect and to deepen our purpose. I wanted to know the historical man we call Jesus and ultimately put into practice what he put into practice. So I wanted to look at the history side of things and especially also, what’s another word I would like to use, decondition myself, decondition past beliefs that were harmful, that did not serve me and ultimately not serving others, and also find out that I was wrong about many things, which I wanted to know as well. So what brought me to this was to know the man we call Jesus, Yeshua, or Yehoshua, whichever term you like, whichever name you want to use. So I want to know not just that, but I want to know his practices, what he did with his life, how his first followers lived, how the first Christians lived, and what I could use for my own spiritual path and how I could put that into practice. So that’s why I want to look at the history side of things. I think if you want to put into practice the different techniques of all the many different Gnostics, then you’re going to have to look at some of the history side of things to find those practices. That doesn’t mean that every single practice is necessary for you. So what works for me might not work for others. What works for others might not work for me. So double-edged sword. Cyd: What sort of practices are you referring to? Are these rituals? What’s the practices? Bishop Nathan Wilson: I go into some of the ancient rituals as well. Some of them I might look at the prayers that they would use, the diet they would take, or means of worship. So how they would go about their forms of private practice. So that sort of stuff. And then I might apply it into my own life and see how I can go. There’s still more I’d like to go and check out more. So I’m still studying a couple of some of the ancient practices as well. So from different or religious perspectives as well. And then I can see how I can put it to my own form of use. So I looked at a lot of Jewish Christians, they would do the shema for instance, before their meditations. And I’ll do that as well. [“Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one… You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength…”] They also did breath works back then, which would also induce a sense of intoxication if you want to use, or light headness. And in turn that can also open a new state of reality. So entering the spiritual realm can be a vehicle, if you will, to get there. So to open the mind. And that’s also a practice that’s been used in ancient past. And we can certainly use that today. We have modern practices, say like Wim Hof, that teach breath work in meditation. That’s also useful. So sometimes looking at the past, we do see stuff in today’s world that’s not really new. It’s just being basically reentering this world again, from past knowledge gained of old. And I find that in a lot of Gnostic stuff. When you look at history, you kind of see that Gnostics kind of did a lot of things first, that what we’re doing now that we think is modern, but it’s not. It’s ancient. Cyd: That’s why conventional Christians who read my books, they say, oh, you’re just all new age. And I’m like, no, it’s not new age at all. It’s ancient. Bishop Nathan Wilson: Which is a shame that Christians have been shut off into their own world, which is kind of funny. I actually tell most Christians that they are, in fact, new age, because these beliefs are ancient. And what they are going by is, depending on what version of Christianity, if you’re Protestant, that’s 16th century, I believe. Non-denominal, 18th century. Protestant, 16th century. Catholicism, late second century. Orthodoxy, as we know it now, would be about 14th century. But older Orthodoxy, which would be the split from the Catholic church, is fourth century. So it’s when you go to Gnostic Christians, first century, and we’re really the only groups that are surviving, the Jewish Christians got killed. They ultimately were wiped out or would convert to mainstream Judaism or would become Christian or Islam, they would follow as well. So some would be converted to Muslims, which is also interesting as well. We as Gnostics were also harmed by these other groups, by Catholics, Protestants, Muslims as well. At one point Zoroastrians, but that was only one particular era. And we’ve basically arisen from all that, from that underground, and we’ve still survived, which is fascinating. It’s beautiful that we have. And also the texts that have been rediscovered, this is not accidental. This is all happening for a reason. What’s divine is experiencing itself where it can experience itself and express itself again safely in today’s world. In ancient past, it was dangerous to have diversion after the fourth century, which is a shame because the Catholics would kill those who came before them. They didn’t like that. And they even knew that some of the Gnostics, they had older writings, but they still denied them, which is funny. So it’s why such the hate, which is such a shame. So it goes back to that control of power, my way or the highway, basically. And it was never meant to be like that. It was meant to be very universal. It was meant to be very diverse. The first Christians were Gnostics and Jewish Christians, a mixture between strict law observing Jews and a mixture of Gentiles. And then you had the Jewish mystics that became the Christian mystics, which is fascinating. That was the original groups. And the original groups would argue amongst each other. The strict law observing Jews wanted circumcision, where the mystics said, no, no circumcision of the hearts, let the Gentiles come. That’s fine. So even when we look at the word, say, ethnos, for instance, in the Gospels, when you see kingdom against kingdom, nation against nation, these are the same things. So what they’re actually talking about is Gentile against Gentile and kingdom against kingdom. So the Jewish people didn’t have a kingdom at this stage. It was a mixture of Judea, Galilee and Samaria. So we’re the Samaritans. So that’s also something to take into account, too. So they didn’t like that. They were looking for a messiah to reunify the Jewish people, restore the Jewish faith and make Israel a kingdom again. And so some of them didn’t like the fact that Jesus wasn’t after this, for instance. So they didn’t like some of these teachings. It was a bit different. But if you look at the mystics, they had a very different interpretations. They did believe in a renewal of the Jewish faith, but a renewal back to El Elyon and a rejection of Yahweh. So that’s very different. So when you look at repentance, for Israel to repent, meaning for all of Israel to return back to El Elyon. And if you look at for the Gentiles conversion, that would be referring to not converting to any religion, but converting to God. So God outside religion. So fascinating. So you see all this in the original text. Cyd: And why do you suppose, this might be an unanswerable question, but why do you suppose conventional modern Christians are so, you know, extremely antagonistic towards Gnostic Christians? Is it fear or what? Bishop Nathan Wilson: Well, they’ve been told you're the enemy, basically. And yes, some of it is fear. Fear as well of the unknown. And also because of the need of an opponent. So they believe that they are doing a good thing. And if they don’t do this, they can be punished. So it’s the case of where a victim becomes an abuser. So most Christians have never even heard about Gnostics. It’s only the real ones who are into spiritual warfare, basically, and really full on extremist dogmatic ones that are familiar with, and apologetics. But they are now feeling like they’re losing the battle because more people were interested in Gnosticism and especially interested in other Jewish groups and the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as the Nag Hammadi. So they’re realizing their other texts and there’s other options now. And that’s great. And regarding even my translations, one reason I chose to do it that I did, I found out that no modern English Bible translates from one source material. They’re all a mixture of different sources. So we have the Codex Sinaiticus mixed with the Latin Vulgate, mixing with Germanic copies, and then mixing ancient Koine Greek into modern Hebrew, putting it back into Greek. And that’s not good at all. So we’re just changing—we’re swapping chapters because we feel uncomfortable with them. So I was mortified when I was looking at that. And so I realized I couldn’t trust basically my Bible anymore. So I thought, well, I’m making this myself. And then I thought, well, I’m going to release it. Let’s go and share it too and do what they will with it. And it opened a lot of doorways to me, actually. So that’s one reason I wanted to give that out so people can have their own faith in their own interpretation and also believe in the message of Yeshua, bringing people back to the Most High God, to the Unknowable God, the Living Father, the Mother-Father. And we also see the Mother being mentioned in other texts too. It’s just mostly blocked out by mainstream Christianity, which is unfair, unfair to women and unfair to humanity with their approaches. It’s been very violent. So we need to remove that violence because that’s nothing to do with Yeshua’s teachings. He didn’t teach us to go around fighting each other. He said, Those who are for me are with me. They don’t understand his message. They very much follow the Catholic teachings of Paul that they’ve been given. And so they can look at the Gnostic teachings of Paul as well, which are also in there. Paul’s letters, we now know they’re mostly all forgeries. We don’t have any original copies either. They’re all later fourth century and we have some second century fragments. But the oldest reference to Paul is from the Ten Letters of Marcion. And he’s the man who compiled the first Christian Bible. And some people can argue, some people don’t believe he was a Gnostic. Others think he was a Gnostic. I think he was a type of Gnostic because he believed in a demiurge. So he believed that the God of the Jews was Yahweh and not the Supreme God of Jesus. That is a very Gnostic belief. But the thing is, the word Gnostic was given to us by the Catholic church, was a way of separating us and identifying us. But we wear it as a badge of honor because we understand they’re just calling us knowledgeable Christians, which is kind of funny. So language is powerful and the Catholic church certainly forgot it. So because of them, we now use daimon as demon. So they’ve basically demonized Jesus. They’ve demonized the Holy Spirit, which is their greatest sin. And they’ve demonized God and every other God. So they don’t know what damage they’ve done. And that’s not good. So I wanted to reverse that damage and bring people back to what I believe is the message of Yeshua, of Jesus, and to have their own spiritual relationship with God, an individual relationship, which is something that I want to see more of. That’s a very beautiful thing. You can’t define that intimate experience without living it. Cyd: Right, right. Well, that's all we have time for in this episode. We'll pick it up again next week for part three of my interview with Bishop Nathan Wilson of The Gnostic Union Church.  I like the way he talks, huh? Until next week, onward and upward and God bless us all.

Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!

The Indictment Hosea 4:1-5:15 4 Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; 2  there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. 3  Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away. 4  Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest. 5  You shall stumble by day; the prophet also shall stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother. 6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. 7  The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame. 8  They feed on the sin of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity. 9  And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds. 10  They shall eat, but not be satisfied; they shall play the whore, but not multiply, because they have forsaken the LORD to cherish 11 whoredom, wine, and new wine, which take away the understanding. 12  My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore. 13  They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the whore, and your brides commit adultery. 14  I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin. 15  Though you play the whore, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty. Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven, and swear not, “As the LORD lives.” 16  Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; can the LORD now feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture? 17  Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone. 18  When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring; their rulers dearly love shame. 19  A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices. -- 5 Hear this, O priests! Pay attention, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor. 2  And the revolters have gone deep into slaughter, but I will discipline all of them. 3  I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled. 4  Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the LORD. 5  The pride of Israel testifies to his face; Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt; Judah also shall stumble with them. 6  With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the LORD, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them. 7  They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD; for they have borne alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields. 8  Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound the alarm at Beth-aven; we follow you, O Benjamin! 9  Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of punishment; among the tribes of Israel I make known what is sure. 10  The princes of Judah have become like those who move the landmark; upon them I will pour out my wrath like water. 11  Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after filth. 12  But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah. 13  When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king. But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound. 14  For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and no one shall rescue. 15  I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me.

Armed for Victory – The Sword of the Spirit In this concluding episode of For Zion's Sake, hosts Shelley and June Volk wrap up their weekly theme on the link between the Spirit of God and the Word of God. Moving from foundational principles to practical spiritual warfare, they break down the famous "Armor of God" passage to show how believers can actively live out a victorious life. Key Takeaways The Ultimate Combination (Ephesians 6:17): The episode anchors itself on the final piece of spiritual armor: “the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Shelley notes that if any single scripture perfectly bridges the Holy Spirit with the written Word, it is this one. The Armor as a Way of Life: June reframes how we look at Ephesians 6. Rather than viewing the armor as a physical set of clothes you put on and take off each morning, she explains that it represents an internal, permanent lifestyle. The Helmet of Salvation protects our mindset and feelings. The Breastplate of Righteousness means living inside Christ's righteousness. The Shield of Faith isn't a physical block we hold up, but Christ Himself walking ahead of us to quench the enemy's attacks. God as the Rear Guard: June highlights a unique structural detail about the Armor of God: it offers absolutely no protection for a person's back. However, she reassures listeners that God explicitly promises in His Word to step in and be the believer's "rear guard" against ambush. A Living, Piercing Tool (Hebrews 4:12): The hosts connect the "sword of the Spirit" to Hebrews 4:12, emphasizing that the Word of God is living, active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. Shelley shares how this sword cuts out doubt, fear, and apprehensions to bring people to salvation, while continuing to divide soul and spirit for daily guidance. The Pattern of "It Is Written": To demonstrate the proper use of the Sword, Shelley points to Jesus being led into the wilderness to be tempted. Jesus defeated Satan not with human arguments, but by repeatedly declaring, "It is written." June adds that because the devil tries to twist scripture out of context, believers absolutely require the Holy Spirit's discernment to know exactly how and when to apply the Word. Ministry & Contact Information This program is proudly sponsored by the Psalm 127 Fund. Mailing Address: P.O. Box 244, Kannapolis, NC 28082 Official Website: shellyandjunevolk.com The Friday Fellowship (The Shema): As Jewish believers, Shelley and June conclude their Friday broadcast by uniting with their kinsmen to recite the Shema: “Shema Yisrael adonoi Eloheinu adonoi echad” (Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one). Shelly has served the body of Christ as a Pastor for over 35 years. He is a bible teacher and conference speaker on the subjects of The Kingdom of God, The Mystery of Israel & The Church and for God’s people to be prepared in their hearts for the end of this age. https://shellyandjunevolk.com/Support the show: https://shellyandjunevolk.com/product/partner-with-us-psalm-127-fund/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD: and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (Deuteronomy 6:4–5) As stat... More...

Awakening the Next Generation: What Are We Passing On? Guest speaker JonnyMac shares a simple family pancake recipe to illustrate how naturally people pass down habits and traditions, then asks what is being passed to the next generation—especially faith. Citing Judges 2:10, he warns that a generation can grow up not knowing the Lord if families and churches go on autopilot and delegate responsibility. He references a study noting that more people in the region have never been to church and traces Israel's decline from Deuteronomy through Joshua into Judges, describing how disobedience and compromised worship led to spiritual drift. Using Deuteronomy 6 and the Shema (“Hear, O Israel”), he calls listeners to love God fully and to teach God's words diligently in everyday life, urging Bible reading at home, discipleship across ages, fighting generational sin, and remembering Christ through communion.00:00 Pancake Recipe Legacy01:05 Silly Traditions Chat04:10 What We Pass On05:26 Judges Warning Verse07:03 Church Growth Shifts09:00 Israel Timeline Setup13:12 Dan Altar Dark Turn15:45 Call to Awaken22:20 Deuteronomy Shema Plan26:16 Live It Daily29:02 Scripture at Home31:04 Message to My Kids32:43 Communion and Prayer

Second Sunday after Pentecost Old Testament: Genesis 12:1-9 1Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." 4So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother's son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7Then the Lordappeared to Abram, and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. 9And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb. Psalm: Psalm 33:1-12 1 Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous; *        it is good for the just to sing praises. 2 Praise the Lord with the harp; *        play to him upon the psaltery and lyre. 3 Sing for him a new song; *        sound a fanfare with all your skill upon the trumpet. 4 For the word of the Lord is right, *        and all his works are sure. 5 He loves righteousness and justice; *        the loving-kindness of the Lord fills the whole earth. 6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, *        by the breath of his mouth all the heavenly hosts. 7 He gathers up the waters of the ocean as in a water-skin *        and stores up the depths of the sea. 8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; *        let all who dwell in the world stand in awe of him. 9 For he spoke, and it came to pass; *        he commanded, and it stood fast. 10 The Lord brings the will of the nations to naught; *        he thwarts the designs of the peoples. 11 But the Lord's will stands fast for ever, *        and the designs of his heart from age to age. 12 Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord! *        happy the people he has chosen to be his own! Old Testament: Hosea 5:15-6:6 15I will return again to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face. In their distress they will beg my favor: 1"Come, let us return to the Lord; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. 2After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. 3Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth." 4What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early.5Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have killed them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. 6For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. Psalm: Psalm 50:7-15 7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak:  "O Israel, I will bear witness against you; *        for I am God, your God. 8 I do not accuse you because of your sacrifices; *        your offerings are always before me. 9 I will take no bull-calf from your stalls, *        nor he-goats out of your pens; 10 For all the beasts of the forest are mine, *        the herds in their thousands upon the hills. 11 I know every bird in the sky, *        and the creatures of the fields are in my sight. 12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you, *        for the whole world is mine and all that is in it. 13 Do you think I eat the flesh of bulls, *        or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving *        and make good your vows to the Most High. 15 Call upon me in the day of trouble; *        I will deliver you, and you shall honor me." Epistle: Romans 4:13-25 13For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. 16For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, 17as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations") —in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become "the father of many nations," according to what was said, "So numerous shall your descendants be." 19He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. 20No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22Therefore his faith "was reckoned to him as righteousness." 23Now the words, "it was reckoned to him," were written not for his sake alone, 24but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification. Gospel: Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 9As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him. 10And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" 12But when he heard this, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.13Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners." 18While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, "My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live." 19And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. 20Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, 21for she said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well." 22Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." And instantly the woman was made well. 23When Jesus came to the leader's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, 24he said, "Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him. 25But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. 26And the report of this spread throughout that district.

Welcome to The Daily, where we study the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, every day. Get your Hosea Scripture Journal now. Listen to our text today, Hosea 4:15-19: Though you play the whore, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty. Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven, and swear not, "As the Lord lives." Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; can the Lord now feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture? Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone. When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring; their rulers dearly love shame. A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices. — Hosea 4:15-19 You don't have to join sin to be shaped by it. Watching it is often enough. That's the warning God gives to Judah (the Southern Kingdom). Israel (the Northern Kingdom) had already drifted into idolatry and compromise, but Judah was told not to follow. In other words, don't go where they go or adopt what they've adopted. Do not follow their example. I have told my kids this numerous times when I see one of their friends walk down a sinful path. And it's a good reminder. Then Hosea says: "Enter not into Gilgal… nor go up to Beth-aven…" These were once sacred places, but they had been corrupted. What used to be holy had become dangerous, so God tells them to stay away. And notice that even their language had become empty. Saying, "As the Lord lives," sounded right, but their lives no longer matched their words. They were no longer men of their word. God describes Israel as stubborn, unwilling to be led, until there comes a point when people cling to sin so tightly that they no longer want freedom. Their pattern is straightforward. When one indulgence ends, they move to another. There is no restraint, only repetition. Even their leaders "love shame," celebrating what should be rejected. This is identical to how "Pride" is celebrated in the month of June. Then come the results of sin and shame. "A wind has wrapped them in its wings." Judgment comes swiftly, and everything they trusted fails them. What they thought would save them only exposes them. Consider your own life today. You may not be doing what the culture is doing, but are you getting too close to it? Watching it. Accepting it. Slowly becoming shaped by it. What you tolerate, you accept. What you accept, you imitate. Don't become what you're watching. DO THIS: Create distance from one influence that is quietly shaping your thinking away from God. ASK THIS: Where are you being influenced more than you realize? What are you tolerating now that you once resisted? Are you setting boundaries or drifting closer? PRAY THIS: Father, help me see clearly what is shaping my life and give me the courage to walk away from anything that pulls me from you. Amen. PLAY THIS: "Run To The Father"

Today’s Topics: 1) Gospel – Mark 12:28-34 – One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked Him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel!  The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind,  and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, He is One and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, He said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask Him any more questions. Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2, 3, 4) Father Dave Tomaszycki joins Terry to discuss the new book Father compiled and edited: Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: On the Demonic

Welcome to Day 2876 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom – Progressive Christianity and the Northern Kingdom: A Repeated Rebellion. Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2876 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps!   I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day 2876 of our Trek.   The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Our current series of Theology Thursday lessons is written by theologian and teacher John Daniels. I have found that his lessons are short, easy to understand, doctrinally sound, and applicable to all who desire to learn more of God's Word. John's lessons can be found on his website   theologyinfive.com.   Today's lesson is titled:  Progressive Christianity and the Northern Kingdom: A Repeated Rebellion. After the division of Israel, Jeroboam feared losing his kingdom if the people continued worshiping in Jerusalem. Rather than abolish religion, he reshaped it. He placed golden calves at Dan and Bethel and declared, “Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt” (First Kings 12, verse twenty-eight). He kept the name of Yahweh but changed the worship to fit political and cultural needs. Progressive Christianity walks the same path. It keeps the language of faith while redefining the terms. Jesus becomes a moral teacher rather than the risen Lord. Sin becomes injustice rather than rebellion. Salvation becomes social healing rather than spiritual redemption. Just like the Northern Kingdom, modern progressives offer a god who is familiar in name but foreign in nature. The First Segment is: “Open-Minded” Idolatry The people of Israel did not see themselves as rejecting Yahweh. They simply wanted to be open to other spiritual options. Baal was worshiped for rain, Asherah for fertility, and Molech for prosperity. The land was filled with high places, groves, and alternate shrines. In their minds, it was not apostasy. It was balance. It was maturity. Progressive Christianity mirrors this impulse. Its leaders are often proud to affirm all religions as valid paths to the divine. Jesus is presented as one example among many. Interfaith services blend Scripture with mantras, chakras, and meditation. This “open-mindedness” is not new. It is the same spiritual adultery that the prophets condemned as whoredom. God does not share His throne. The second Segment is: Pagan Intrusion in Sacred Clothing The Israelites introduced forbidden elements into their worship. They practiced divination, consulted mediums, and used cultic rituals they learned from their Canaanite neighbors. They may have justified these things as “spiritual tools,” but the prophets saw clearly what was happening. Paganism was creeping into the house of God. Today, angel cards, energy healing, astrology, aura readings, and manifesting are all being imported into churches, especially those influenced by progressive and New Apostolic Reformation theology. These practices are often wrapped in Christian language. They speak of light, Spirit, and destiny. But they are no different from the forbidden rituals of ancient days. Their power does not come from the Holy Spirit. It comes from the same deceiving spirits that always wait behind the idols. The Third Segment is: The Rise of Prophetic Theater In the Northern Kingdom, the prophets became professional performers. They declared victory and blessing without requiring repentance. They contradicted the true prophets, promising peace while ignoring rebellion. Jeremiah lamented, “They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you'” (Jeremiah 23, verse seventeen). Today's “prophecy schools,” such as Bethel's School of Supernatural Ministry, follow a disturbingly similar pattern. They claim to train individuals to “activate” prophetic gifts, to decree and declare realities into being, and to access heaven's secrets at will. But true prophecy in Scripture was never a skill to be mastered or a sensation to be invoked. It was a calling given by God to speak His Word with fear and trembling. At Bethel and similar movements, prophecy becomes performance. It centers on personal revelation, emotional experience, and “manifesting” outcomes rather than repentance, obedience, and holiness. Like the prophets of the Northern Kingdom, these teachers proclaim peace where there is no peace and glory without the cross. The emphasis on “prophetic activation” closely mirrors the divination condemned by Moses, where the divine is manipulated for human ends rather than received with reverent submission. The Fourth Segment is: Cultural Syncretism Rebranded as Revival Ancient Israel thought it could have both Yahweh and Baal. It thought it could use Canaanite worship styles to honor the God of Abraham. But Yahweh had already spoken at Sinai. His worship was not negotiable. Israel's attempt to blend cultures resulted in divine rejection. Progressive Christianity makes the same mistake. It borrows the language of self-help, the values of humanism, and the practices of mysticism. It attempts to wrap them in Christian terms, calling it “revival” or “awakening.” But Yahweh does not share His glory. He is not worshiped on the high places. He is not accessed through emotion, technique, or personal preference. He demands covenant faithfulness. The fifth segment is: The Prophets Were Never Popular In the Northern Kingdom, the true prophets were persecuted. Elijah was hunted. Amos was silenced. Hosea was scorned. They did not tell people what they wanted to hear. They told them what God said. The people preferred the false prophets who promised peace, affirmation, and national greatness. Today, biblical voices that warn against false spirituality are called judgmental. They are told they are stifling the Spirit. They are accused of division and fear-mongering. But their words match the prophets of old. God does not change, and neither does the nature of rebellion. The sixth segment is: The Consequence of Compromise The Northern Kingdom fell. Assyria crushed it, and its people were scattered. The fall was not just political. It was spiritual. The gods they welcomed could not save them. The prophets they trusted led them into ruin. God gave them over to what they had chosen. Progressive Christianity is on the same path. It trades revelation for reinvention. It welcomes what God forbids. It builds golden calves and calls them Jesus. Its trajectory is not renewal but collapse. A house built on sand will fall. In Conclusion The Northern Kingdom did not fall because it rejected religion. It fell because it redefined it. It kept the name of God while reshaping everything else. It embraced the gods of the age and called it progress. Progressive Christianity is repeating this rebellion. It is time to choose whom we will serve. For further study, consider these Discussion Questions Why do you think Jeroboam chose to redefine Israel's worship rather than abolish it outright? How does this reflect the way progressive Christianity reshapes faith today? What are the dangers of being “open-minded” about spiritual truth? At what point does openness become compromise, and how can we recognize the difference? How do modern practices like angel cards, manifesting, and prophetic activation parallel ancient forbidden rituals? Can these practices ever be redeemed or are they inherently incompatible with biblical faith? Why were the true prophets in Israel often unpopular and rejected? How does this help us evaluate popular spiritual leaders today? If the Northern Kingdom's downfall was theological more than political, what does that suggest about the long-term consequences of doctrinal compromise in the Church today? Join us next Theology Thursday to learn The Bible as a Polemic: Confronting the Powers that Rebelled Kingdom:. If you found this podcast insightful, please subscribe and leave us a review, then encourage your friends and family to join us and come along tomorrow for another day of  ‘Wisdom-Trek,  Creating a Legacy.'                          Thank you so much for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and, most importantly,   I am your friend as I serve you through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal. As we take this Trek of life together, let us always:           

Original Post Date: June 6, 2024 === Gospel Mark 12:28-34 One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these." The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, He is One and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." And no one dared to ask him any more questions. Reflection It's important to realize there were those who lived by the rules and laws of the temple that recognized in Jesus who he was. He had truth. He had wisdom. And in this story, when it comes down to what is really the temple there for? What is religion's goal? What is it asking of us? It's asking us to enter into a way of life that's called the Kingdom of God. And it's all about love. Loving God, loving ourselves, loving each other. And that's not a feeling. That's not an emotion. It's a powerful force that lives within us, that heals and transforms. Everything depends upon love. It is the power of God in the world. Closing Prayer Father, awaken us. Open us always to the simplicity of the message of God and the mystery that it contains. When we open ourselves to a gift that is the beginning of our ability to be who God calls us to be. We're called to allow him to be a source of love to all those around us, and thereby establishing his kingdom here. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary TimeMark 12:28-34One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,"Which is the first of all the commandments?"Jesus replied, "The first is this:Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.The second is this:You shall love your neighbor as yourself.There is no other commandment greater than these."

Without God's perfect love, we cannot be free from condemnation and the bondage that we all face here on earth. But with God, we can live life and live it abundantly. Before knowing the Lord, Marina was living in bondage. Hear Marina’s incredible testimony and the ways God is using her story now as she serves in the Samaritan’s Purse Germany office. This episode was created by Samaritan's Purse and is part of their On the Ground with Samaritan's Purse podcast content, shared with permission. Resources: Listen to “Fighting Spiritual Battles: Human Trafficking in Berlin,” to hear more about Alabaster Jar and how God is transforming hearts amid spiritual darkness. Marina Nobiling, director of national programs at the Samaritan’s Purse Germany office, shed light on the current cultural and spiritual climate of Germany and talked about the ongoing Samaritan’s Purse projects in the country. There is an immense need for the Gospel to be preached in Germany and for Bible-believing churches to step up and lead. “We want to stand for the Gospel. We want to stand for Jesus … And we want to show in our programs and projects what it's like to be with Him; to be living with Jesus.” – Marina Nobiling Before coming to Christ, Marina said she was not merely neutral towards God, she was an enemy. Marina was in bondage—she battled an eating disorder and anxiety for years to the point of planning to take her own life. But when Marina had an encounter with the Lord, everything changed. “And I had a voice in my head: ‘I want you to live. And you can do it with my help’ … It was beyond any doubt clear. That's Jesus. My whole life I had the wrong thinking. That's not true. God exists.” – Marina Nobiling Marina went from believing that the Gospel was an old superstition to knocking on the door of the nearest church, asking to be baptized. She was on fire for God. Marina now takes this compassion to the streets of Berlin, ministering to women who are trapped in prostitution. She remembers what it was like to be in bondage and desires for others like her to be free; to be transformed by the love of Christ. Life can be hard, and Marina still struggles, but she has something to turn to that cannot be shaken: God’s Word. Marina created a “first aid kit” with Psalms and Scriptures that speak to her when she is fighting lies or feeling weighed down by fears. Her favorite verse, Isaiah 43:1, reminds her that she belongs to the Lord—nothing can take that away. “But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.’” – Isaiah 43:1, ESV If you’d like to keep up to date with more stories from On the Ground, please visit SamaritansPurse.org. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Jeremiah 18:1-6 (from the Archive)New Living Translation18 The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2 “Go down to the potter's shop, and I will speak to you there.” 3 So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. 4 But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.5 Then the Lord gave me this message: 6 “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand.Music: "Rest in the Shadow" by Julian & Melissa Wiggins,Used with permission.

Key Verse: Psalm 130:7 - O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.

This week we are featuring an episode from "On The Ground with Samaritan's Purse". Guest Marina Nobiling, director of national programs at the Samaritan’s Purse Germany office, sheds light on the current cultural and spiritual climate of Germany and talked about the ongoing Samaritan’s Purse projects in the country. There is an immense need for the Gospel to be preached in Germany and for Bible-believing churches to step up and lead. Resources: • Listen to “Fighting Spiritual Battles: Human Trafficking in Berlin,” to hear more about Alabaster Jar and how God is transforming hearts amid spiritual darkness. https://ontheground.samaritanspurse.org/podcast/fighting-spiritual-battles-human-trafficking-in-berlin “We want to stand for the Gospel. We want to stand for Jesus … And we want to show in our programs and projects what it's like to be with Him; to be living with Jesus.” –Marina Nobiling Before coming to Christ, Marina said she was not merely neutral towards God, she was an enemy. Marina was in bondage—she battled an eating disorder and anxiety for years to the point of planning to take her own life. But when Marina had an encounter with the Lord, everything changed. “And I had a voice in my head: ‘I want you to live. And you can do it with my help’ … Itwas beyond any doubt clear. That's Jesus. My whole life I had the wrong thinking. That's not true. God exists.” – Marina Nobiling Marina went from believing that the Gospel was an old superstition to knocking on the door of the nearest church, asking to be baptized. She was on fire for God. Marina now takes this compassion to the streets of Berlin, ministering to women who are trapped in prostitution. She remembers what it was like to be in bondage and desires for others like her to be free; to be transformed by the love of Christ. Life can be hard, and Marina still struggles, but she has something to turn to that cannot be shaken: God’s Word. Marina created a “first aid kit” with Psalms and Scriptures that speak to her when she is fighting lies or feeling weighed down by fears. Her favorite verse, Isaiah 43:1, reminds her that she belongs to the Lord—nothing can take that away. “But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel:‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.’” – Isaiah 43:1, ESV If you’d like to keep up to date with more stories from On the Ground, please visitSamaritansPurse.org. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

And Rehoboam went to Shechem: for to Shechem were all Israel come to make him king.2 And it came to pass, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was in Egypt, whither he fled from the presence of Solomon the king, heard it, that Jeroboam returned out of Egypt.3 And they sent and called him. So Jeroboam and all Israel came and spake to Rehoboam, saying,4 Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve thee.5 And he said unto them, Come again unto me after three days. And the people departed.6 And king Rehoboam took counsel with the old men that had stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, saying, What counsel give ye me to return answer to this people?7 And they spake unto him, saying, If thou be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be thy servants for ever.8 But he forsook the counsel which the old men gave him, and took counsel with the young men that were brought up with him, that stood before him.9 And he said unto them, What advice give ye that we may return answer to this people, which have spoken to me, saying, Ease somewhat the yoke that thy father did put upon us?10 And the young men that were brought up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou answer the people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it somewhat lighter for us; thus shalt thou say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins.11 For whereas my father put a heavy yoke upon you, I will put more to your yoke: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king bade, saying, Come again to me on the third day.13 And the king answered them roughly; and king Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the old men,14 And answered them after the advice of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.15 So the king hearkened not unto the people: for the cause was of God, that the Lord might perform his word, which he spake by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.16 And when all Israel saw that the king would not hearken unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? and we have none inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to your tents, O Israel: and now, David, see to thine own house. So all Israel went to their tents.17 But as for the children of Israel that dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.18 Then king Rehoboam sent Hadoram that was over the tribute; and the children of Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. But king Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem.19 And Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day.

The Idols We Don't Call Idols by Autumn Dickson The Israelites were delivered by incredible miracles. The plagues were immense in and of themselves, but the parting of the Red sea was next level. The Lord had freed the Israelites through marvelous power, just as He promised. A short time later, the people find themselves in the wilderness. Moses is lingering up on the mountain away from everyone, and the Israelites have gotten antsy. They convince Aaron to make them an idol to worship. Aaron tells them to bring their earrings, he melts them down, and makes a golden calf. Exodus 32:4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. I grew up thinking these people were ridiculous. You just saw the sea part, and you forgot that fast? How could you be so blind? Why would you follow after another deity? As I got a bit older, I remembered that they had just been slaves. Despite the miracles, I assume they were still very young in the doctrine of Christ. How much were they taught in the midst of everything else Moses was trying to take care of in freeing them? Maybe I'm late to the party, but as I read the verses this time, I started to wonder if they really followed after another god at all. There was an Egyptian god that was represented by a cow, but ancient Near Eastern studies also explain a connection between bulls and calves and mounts and thrones for deity. Maybe they were just trying to build a physical representation of their God to carry with them. In the verse we read, we even see that Aaron tells Israel, “This is the god who brought you out of Egypt.” Perhaps they weren't worshipping a different god at all. Perhaps their worship was merely corrupted. Maybe that's why Aaron didn't put a stop to it. Maybe he thought it was fine because he thought it was one way to worship the true God. Maybe he thought it was great that they were sacrificing their gold and trying to worship the God who had delivered them. Obviously we don't know. There aren't enough details. However, there are principles we can learn about the gospel from studying it from either angle. Today, I'm going to speak as if this angle (corrupted worship over following after a different god) is the true angle, simply so we can explore it more effectively. However, before I begin, I completely concede that we don't know for sure whether this is the truth of the account. Fortunately, whether I have the story's details correct isn't completely relevant. What's important is that the principles I want to talk about are correct. So that's what we're going to talk about. Maybe the Israelites were hoping for a symbol of Christ, not a separate idol to worship. Plot twist. When we don't worship how the Savior prescribes (like building a golden calf), we run into danger of turning that symbol into an idol. I guess we're talking about corrupted worship and worshiping idols. Now, following another god is crazy after everything the Israelites experienced; worshiping in a corrupted manner is more understandable. However! Despite it being more understandable, it is still dangerous and needs to be corrected and prevented regardless of whether their hearts were in the right place. Sometimes the world looks at sin and gives a pass when your heart is in the right place. We can be understanding of a good heart and still make the correction; it is loving to make the correction. When I was around 10 years old, I remember my mom walking into my room when I was saying my nightly prayers. I had a picture of Christ sitting in front of me while I prayed because I wanted it to help me remember Him. It made my mother a little bit uncomfortable (at least that's how I remember it when I was 10), and she told me it wasn't a great idea. The practice stopped that night. Some would call this silly. Why not let a child put a picture in front of them to help them focus on Christ? I understand the sentiment. Having something in front of you to focus your thoughts and help you be reverent so you can focus on Christ can be a good thing. But there's another side to that coin too. It could be fine. I could have kept the picture of Christ and never run into dangerous ground. I don't think I would have worshiped the picture, but let's talk about a couple of perspectives I might have adopted had the practice continued. I could have gotten to the point where I didn't feel like I could pray without the picture there. I could have gotten ultra-protective of the picture. I could have wanted to carry the picture with me to make me feel safe even though I was perfectly safe without it. I could have attributed more power to the picture than the picture held. I could have given it power over me even though it had no power innately. Even if I didn't consider the picture my “god,” it still could have affected my life. And in perfect honesty, that's how most idols work these days. People don't call their priority their god; they don't consider themselves worshiping idols. They just give all their time and energy and resources to something, hoping it will bring them deeper happiness than it is capable of giving. We are worshiping incorrectly when we attribute power to things that don't have power. We are worshiping incorrectly when we give things power over our lives and place all of our hopes for happiness on those things. Even if we don't call them “gods,” we're still worshiping wrong and hurting ourselves. People do stuff like this all the time. Superstition is rampant in our world. It's easy to start giving things power when they hold no power. Maybe I would have never been so silly as to give the picture any power, but I'm not totally sure. Let's look at another example. I got plenty superstitious as I played tennis through high school. I went through the same routine between each point, worried that if I changed it, I might lose. Plot twist 2. I lost a lot of the time anyway. And yet there I was, making sure I always did the short handshake with my partner in between points. I made sure I bounced the ball three times before serving, and then I would start over if I messed something up. I literally remember messing up my rhythm in between points and feeling cursed. I was convinced I had ruined the point before the point even began. Needless to say, I basically gave those points away. The Israelites have just left Egypt behind where they were surrounded and ruled by people who worshipped things like the golden calf. It was dangerous to their spiritual health. Even if it was meant to represent Christ, it would have been very easy (as we see throughout the rest of the Old Testament) for them to turn it into their god instead. For example, when they run into problems, did they feel a need to go and talk to the calf or did they pray to God? If something happened and the calf was damaged, would they have cursed themselves by assuming they were cursed for hurting the golden calf? I gave away points in tennis because I attributed more power to my routine than it actually held. What would the Israelites have given away because internally, they were giving more power to the golden calf than it actually held? We worship how the Savior asks us to worship. That's when we are at our most spiritually powerful. That's when we are going to be led in the right direction concerning His character and decisions regarding us. That's when we're going to be able to get closer to the truth, and therefore, closer to happiness. I testify that the Lord has revealed His own character and the way that He wants us to worship. I testify that He did this because He wants to protect us and keep us close to the truth of things. I testify that as we follow what He has given, we see reality more clearly and find deeper joy. Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR's 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award. The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Exodus 19–20; 24; 31–34 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson appeared first on FAIR.

What’s Next: Section Two WEEK FORTY-THREE: WEEKLY READING PAGE 120 Masei “journeys of” Torah: Numbers 33:1–36:13 Ketuvim: Writings-Narrative: Job 39-42 Nevi’im: Prophets/Poetic: Isaiah 63-66 Brit Chadashah: New Testament: 3 John - Jude Scripture Memory: Mark 12:29-31 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. 30 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

What’s Next: Section Two WEEK FORTY-THREE: WEEKLY READING PAGE 120 Masei “journeys of” Torah: Numbers 33:1–36:13 Ketuvim: Writings-Narrative: Job 39-42 Nevi’im: Prophets/Poetic: Isaiah 63-66 Brit Chadashah: New Testament: 3 John - Jude Scripture Memory: Mark 12:29-31 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. 30 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

What’s Next: Section Two WEEK FORTY-THREE: WEEKLY READING PAGE 120 Masei “journeys of” Torah: Numbers 33:1–36:13 Ketuvim: Writings-Narrative: Job 39-42 Nevi’im: Prophets/Poetic: Isaiah 63-66 Brit Chadashah: New Testament: 3 John - Jude Scripture Memory: Mark 12:29-31 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. 30 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Preacher: Michael Beck Gracenet Community Church

To become a follower of Jesus, visit: https://MorningMindsetMedia.com/Jesus  ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ ⇒ Join the MMM Prayer Team: https://MorningMindsetMedia.com/PrayerTeam ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: 1 Kings 12:12–16 - So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king said, “Come to me again the third day.” [13] And the king answered the people harshly, and forsaking the counsel that the old men had given him, [14] he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” [15] So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by the LORD that he might fulfill his word, which the LORD spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. [16] And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, “What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, David.” So Israel went to their tents. (ESV) ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ FINANCIALLY SUPPORT THE MORNING MINDSET: (not tax-deductible) -- Become a monthly partner: https://mm-gfk-partners.supercast.com/ -- Support a daily episode: https://MorningMindsetMedia.com/daily-sponsor/ -- Give one-time: https://give.cornerstone.cc/careygreen -- Venmo: https://venmo.com/CareyNGreen  ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ NON-ENGLISH VERSIONS OF THIS PODCAST: SPANISH version: https://MorningMindsetMedia.com/Spanish CHINESE version: https://MorningMindsetMedia.com/Chinese  ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ CONTACT: Carey@careygreen.com  ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ THEME MUSIC: “King’s Trailer” – Creative Commons 0 | Provided by https://freepd.com/

In this episode, we reflect on the truth that God deals with nations according to His perfect plan, as clearly demonstrated in Scripture through His dealings with the Moabites and Amorites. The command rings out through history: “Hear, O Israel… love the Lord thy God,” and let His words dwell first and foremost in the heart. Obedience to God's Word has always been the foundation of blessing.We also consider how America has been uniquely blessed because godly preachers stood firm, faithfully proclaiming and preserving the Word of God. As a result, citizens have enjoyed the freedom to worship God openly and to pursue their God‑given talents without coercion. Under a system of limited government, established by the consent of the governed, no other people have lived with such liberty.This episode reminds us that God's Word is true, His promises never fail, and His perfect plan brings blessing to individuals and nations that honor Him. True freedom flows from faithfulness—and history bears witness to that enduring truth.The Voice in the Wilderness does not endorse any link or other material found at buzzsprout.More at https://www.thevoiceinthewilderness.org/

True happiness is not something you can chase down or manufacture on your own -- and the Bible has a surprisingly clear answer for where to find it. In this episode of Marked by Grace, Pastor Heath Lambert unpacks what happiness really is, why pursuing it directly always comes up empty, and how Scripture points us to the one source of happiness that never fades.0:00 -- Introduction: What Is Happiness?1:07 -- The Dictionary Definition and What It Reveals2:33 -- Happiness Is Always a Passenger, Never the Driver3:38 -- The Character of Your Happiness Depends on What Delivers It5:19 -- Deuteronomy 33:29 -- Happy Are You, O Israel6:34 -- What Delivered Israel's Happiness?7:02 -- Psalm 32:1-2 -- Blessed/Happy Is the One Whose Sin Is Forgiven7:41 -- The Only Happiness That Never Ends: Jesus and Forgiveness of SinLike this episode? Subscribe for more biblical teaching from Marked by Grace. Share your thoughts in the comments below about how understanding the church as people rather than a place changes your perspective.

Opening Prayer and Why We’re in Leviticus on Easter Lord God, thank you for this morning. Thank you for an opportunity to celebrate your resurrection. Lord, it is such a sweet truth that so often throughout our lives we forget or put on the back burner. I’m grateful that we live in a society where, even though most people do it wrong, they at least set aside a day to remember that you have risen. As we come to your Word this morning, as we open up the book of Leviticus, help us remember and be in awe of what it means to be in your presence and of how significant an act it was for you to go to the cross. In your name, amen. Well, he is risen. All right. This is not a church that does that very well, so I figured we’d try. This morning I’m doing one of our NGM lessons. It covers five lessons the kids are going over over the next several weeks, because we don’t have NGM today and we don’t have NGM on the 25-year anniversary service. So this is our Leviticus overview. The last time we touched the kids’ curriculum, we were in Exodus back in February. I don’t expect anyone to remember it, so let me lay the groundwork for what we’re talking about today. In Exodus, God’s presence returned to his people, but there was still a significant distance. So God gives them sacrifices, priests, the Day of Atonement, and then says, “Now live like people who belong to me.” That is the arc of what we’re going to be talking about today. The main point of our story this morning is that God built an entire system to teach his people that earning their way into his presence is impossible. However, we sit on this side of Calvary, so we must remind ourselves daily of this distance that the cross had to cross. It happens to be Easter. It wasn’t planned this way, but as I reviewed what I was supposed to teach, I thought, man, this is a perfect preview to Resurrection Sunday. From Sinai to Separation Let’s open up our Bibles, and we’re actually going to start in the book of Exodus. When we read together, we’ll be reading in Exodus 33. But let me give you some background. In our February NGM lesson, we walked through three chapters in Exodus. God brought Israel to the base of Mount Sinai. He had carried them out of Egypt, parted the Red Sea, fed them manna, and when they arrived at the mountain, he spoke to the entire nation. God himself, out of the fire and the smoke and a shaking mountain, directly spoke to his people, giving them the Ten Commandments with his own voice. They were terrified. They begged God to stop talking. They told Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen, but don’t let God speak to us or we’ll die.” So Moses stepped in as a go-between. He went up into the thick darkness where God was, and the people stayed at the base of the mountain. This was the first time in the story where the need for a mediator was obvious. Then God gave Moses seven chapters of a construction plan for a tent: measurements, materials, furniture, fabrics, detail that feels endless in a reading plan. And he did it because he wanted to live with them. The people had just begged God to stop talking to them, and his response was, “No. Make me a tent. Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.” The tabernacle was his answer to the distance that sin had created. He is both holy enough to kill anyone who touches that mountain and willing to live in a tent in the middle of their camp. That’s the tension the gospel shows us. While Moses was up on that mountain receiving those plans, Israel was at the base making a golden calf. Aaron, the guy who was the voice for Moses, who had walked through the Red Sea on dry ground, asked for every piece of gold and melted it down and said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you from the land of Egypt.” He assigned the credit for what Yahweh had done to a piece of metal that had barely even existed in that form. Then he put God’s name on it: “Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh.” So he made this graven image and then named it God. This wasn’t just rejecting God. It was redefining him. God told Moses he was ready to destroy them. He said, “Let’s start over.” Moses argued with God, not on the basis of Israel’s character, but on God’s. He appealed to God’s ownership of the people, God’s glory, God’s promises to Abraham. So God relented, but 3,000 men still died on that day. The sons of Levi went through the camp with swords. These were everybody’s friends and brothers, and Israel felt the weight that their sin had caused. Then Moses went back up to God and said, “If you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out from your book which you have written.” Moses said, “Take me instead.” And God said, “No.” He said, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book.” Moses couldn’t ransom them. He could not be the mediator. He could not be the true payment for their guilt. That’s where we ended two months ago. We ended at Exodus 32. We knew that God is just, because God killed 3,000 men for their sin. And we knew that God is merciful, because he carried forward a people that didn’t deserve to be carried. After the golden calf, God tells Moses he’ll still give Israel the land. He’ll still send an angel to drive out their enemies. But he says this in Exodus 33:3: “Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up in your midst because you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you on the way.” They still get what they were promised. They’re going up to the land. But they don’t get the most important part: God. And the text is very clear about the reason. God didn’t withdraw his presence as punishment. He did it to protect them: “lest I consume you on the way.” His holiness is so pure that his presence among a stiff-necked people would destroy them. That word stiff-necked is an agricultural term. An ox that stiffens its neck against the yoke refuses to be led. You can pull all you want; you’re not moving that ox. He’s stiff-necked. He won’t be led. That is what God was calling Israel: a people that would not be led. He speaks to them and they build a calf. He commands and they do what is right in their own eyes. The text doesn’t hold Israel up as an example of repentance. They mourn when they hear this news. They strip off their jewelry as a sign of grief. But this is the same people who will grumble for 40 years in the wilderness. They didn’t really understand what they did. They just didn’t like the punishment. God didn’t just refuse to dwell in their midst. He physically separated himself from them. Moses takes the tent of meeting and pitches it outside the camp. Exodus 33:7 says he put it a good distance from the camp. So if you want to seek Yahweh, he’s not in your midst anymore. You have to leave the camp. You have to go a good distance. You have to see a physical picture of the reality that God is not existing among you anymore, because God’s glory and human sin cannot coexist. Then Moses goes into that tent and prays. He doesn’t point to anything in Israel. He reaches for God’s own character. Moses says, “You have said, ‘I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.'” His intercession rests on God’s initiative, not Israel’s improvement. That word favor is the same Hebrew word that shows up throughout the Old Testament for grace. It’s unmerited. It’s already in motion before Moses opened his mouth. This is the picture of New Testament grace. Paul says in Ephesians, “By grace you have been saved through faith, not of yourselves. It’s a gift from God.” The pattern is the same with Moses. God moved first. The entire sacrificial system in Leviticus exists because God chose to be gracious. Israel didn’t design it. God did. So when we read Leviticus, we should read it thinking, this is a gracious gift from our Lord. Every word in this book is a way God made so that he could be among his people. The next morning Moses climbed Sinai alone, and God descended in the cloud and stood there with him, and he called upon the name of Yahweh. In Exodus 34:6–7, God speaks about himself: “Then Yahweh passed by in front of him, Moses. And Yahweh called out, ‘Yahweh, Yahweh, God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and truth, who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.'” In these verses, God is defining himself. He calls himself compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin—three different words for sin, and God forgives it all. Then, in the same breath, God says he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. He forgives sin and he punishes sin. If you don’t feel the tension in that sentence, you’re not paying close enough attention. How does a God who abounds in lovingkindness and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished deal with a stiff-necked people that he’s chosen to love? This isn’t resolved in Exodus. Frankly, it’s not resolved in Leviticus. Every sacrifice, every priest, every Day of Atonement is God saying, “I’m holding both of these truths at once, and I’m giving you a system to live under while you wait for the real answer.” The Question Leviticus Exists to Answer After Moses’s intercession, after God proclaims his name on the mountain, and after the tabernacle is finally completed, the people built it exactly as God commanded. So God keeps his promise. Turn a couple of pages to Exodus 40. “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle, and Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had dwelt on it, and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle.” God is near. God came back. God chose to dwell in the middle of his people. And even Moses—the man who just saw God’s back on the mountain, the man who has spoken to God face to face—can’t even walk in. The glory fills the place so completely that no human can enter. That’s the question Leviticus exists to answer. The same God who told Moses, “No man can see me and live,” is now dwelling in the center of a camp full of sinful people. How can they survive? How can anyone get near him? The answer isn’t something the Israelites figured out on their own. God himself built a system. He designed every sacrifice. He appointed every priest. He established every ritual because the gap between his holiness and their sin was too wide for them to cross. So he said, “Let me build a bridge.” That’s the story that leads us to the book of Leviticus. That’s where we stand when we open it and ask, “Why all of these rules?” The next lessons in the curriculum for the kids go through that answer. Over the next couple of months, they’re going through Leviticus, and this is an opportunity for us to show them how important this book is for every Christian. God’s glory fills the tabernacle. He’s now in the middle of his people. The first thing he does from that tabernacle is speak, and he gives Moses instructions for the sacrifices. In these, God establishes the cost of being near him. The Cost of Nearness: Blood, Atonement, and the Offerings Leviticus gives us five different types of offering: the sin offering and the guilt offering, which dealt with the problem of sin; the burnt offering, which expressed total dedication to God; the grain offering, which honored God’s provision; and the fellowship offering, sometimes called the peace offering, which celebrated the restored relationship between God and his people. Five offerings, each doing something different. But the system has a logic to it, and this logic matters more than the mechanics of it. When the offerings were brought, the order was fixed. Leviticus 9 shows this order of offering: sin offering first, then burnt, then fellowship. You can’t skip to peace with God. Sin has to be dealt with. You can’t dedicate yourself to him before you can be dedicated to him. And you have to be dedicated to him before you can enjoy fellowship with him. Sin, burnt, fellowship. The order isn’t arbitrary. The order is the gospel. You don’t start with fellowship. You start with the blood. In the last lesson, we talked about the bronze altar, the largest piece of furniture in the entire tabernacle complex, and the first thing inside that gate. You couldn’t skip it. You couldn’t go around it. Two lambs every day, one in the morning, one at night, plus whatever individual offerings were brought throughout the day. The four horns of this altar were smeared dark with blood. It was probably never fully clean. The next day, it would start again. This wasn’t necessarily a spectacular event. The person bringing the offering did most of the work himself. Look at Leviticus 1:3–5: “If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall bring it near, a male without blemish. He shall bring it near to the doorway of the tent of meeting that he may be accepted before Yahweh. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf. Then he shall slaughter the young bull before Yahweh.” The person bringing this offering brings the animal himself. He lays his hand on its head, and then he kills it. I’m not a hunter. I’ve never field-dressed an animal, because that sounds like a terrible thing to do. I have no desire to do that. But this process is doing that before the animal ever dies. He draws the blade across the animal’s throat while his hand is still on its head. The animal bleeds out while the man’s hand is still pressing down on its skull. Blood pours onto the ground at his feet. The animal’s legs buckle. Its body convulses. And the man stands there with blood on his hands because God designed this system so that the cost of sin would be something you felt. They held the animal down while it struggled. Then the person who brought this offering kept working. He skinned the animal himself. He cut it into pieces, removed the internal organs, and the priest arranged the pieces on the altar. Then the priest offered up all of it in smoke, a burnt offering, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to Yahweh. The whole area smelled of blood and burning flesh. This is the aroma of worship under the old covenant. This is what it costs to come near to a holy God. I think we sanitize this. We’ll read, “He shall slaughter the young bull before Yahweh,” and our minds skip right to the theology. But God designed this process to be experienced and felt, with blood running down your arms, soaking your feet in the dirt, and the smell of an open carcass—which, I’ll tell you what, is awful. Back in the day, I did a Tyson chicken and International Beef Packers tour project, and walking into that space when it was not cooled will punch you in the face. I was proud. I was the only one that did not puke. Standing there in that moment must be atrocious. The cost of sin must feel like so much weight. It’s not just a hymn. This was not theological abstraction. This was life draining out of an animal while the offerer holds a blade in his hand. And God wanted his people to feel that every single time. This should have been you. You should be the one bleeding. You should be the one dying. The cost of your sin is life. Have you ever dealt with blood? Not like the paper cut I got yesterday moving cardboard. Real blood. Significant blood. That’s why I don’t want to do anything in the medical industry either. Blood is not cool. I’m good without it. I have to tell myself it’s just Hershey’s chocolate. They dye it red. This was flowing with blood. It stains everything. And God chose to use blood as a means of atonement, not water, not oil. Leviticus 17:11 says: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.” Blood equals life. God designed it that way so that when blood was shed, we could see the cost of sin. The cost of sin is not effort. It’s not good intentions. It’s not a scale where your better acts outweigh your bad acts. Something has to die so someone else can live. The blood on the altar is visible, physical, unavoidable proof that sin is a life-and-death situation. And God is the one who provided the solution. The priest splashed blood around the altar, blood on the altar, blood at the doorway. There’s no way to approach God in this system without passing through blood. The author of Hebrews says, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.” This isn’t just theology. It is the architecture of the system God built. There’s a grain offering too. It’s not about atonement. It’s a gift. Leviticus 2:1 describes fine flour mixed with oil and frankincense, offered to honor God’s provision. But even here he says there is no yeast. Throughout Scripture, yeast represents sin. You can’t bring an offering to God while clinging to the thing that separates you from him. Even the non-atoning offering teaches holiness. The guilt offering dealt with sins that caused specific harm to another person or to God’s holy things. Leviticus 6:5 describes someone who swore falsely or defrauded their neighbor. You didn’t just sacrifice a ram. You made full restitution, giving 20 percent more, and you gave it back on the day you brought your guilt offering. You had to make it right. There’s a phrase that repeats throughout these chapters: “The priest shall make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven.” Over and over. Atonement, forgiven. This is the system God created, and the worshiper walks away forgiven. But he’s going to sin again, and he’s going to need another animal. The priest will need to do this again—over and over and over, next week, next month, next year. The repetition is the point. If this had been sufficient, he would have only needed to do this once. Hebrews 10:1 says: “For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.” The author of Hebrews is making an argument about the whole system. It is a shadow. It shows you the shape of something real, but the shadow itself can’t do what the object does. That’s what the law is. That’s what the sacrifices are. God genuinely accepted them, but they could never make the worshiper permanently right with God. They could never change the heart that kept producing the sin. The people living under the shadow were being trained year after year, sacrifice after sacrifice: recognize what the real sacrifice will be. Every animal that died on that altar was God teaching Israel the same lesson: you need this, and this isn’t enough. The system didn’t fail. It did what it was designed to do. It created a desire for something better. The Priesthood and the Danger of Casual Access What they needed was a mediator, and that’s the priesthood. God’s presence fills the tabernacle. The sacrificial system is now in place. Someone has to stand between God and the people and carry the blood past the curtain on behalf of a nation. So God chose the last person we probably would have expected: the guy who just made a calf. He chose Aaron and his sons, sinful men, to stand in his presence on behalf of the nation. God gave them what they needed to wear to be set apart. He put a plate on Aaron’s forehead to show that he doesn’t belong to himself; he’s in God’s service. He had a robe with bells on, just in case he died. If you don’t hear bells, you know the sacrifice didn’t work. He had a breastplate with 12 stones, one for each of the tribes of Israel. When he walked into God’s presence, he carried the entire nation with him. He goes in so they don’t have to. That is what a mediator does. He stands where the people cannot stand, and he carries them with him. We don’t have time to work through all of the details this morning, but they are worth reading and understanding. After all of this preparation, the priest still has to offer a sin offering for himself before he can offer anything else for the people. The man standing between God and Israel is a sinner, and he needs grace before he can even administer the sacrifice for the people. So every time he serves, the preparation begins over again. The priesthood is God’s provision for the gap, but it’s also a reminder of how wide this gap is. If the mediator himself needs atonement, what does that tell you about the distance between a holy God and the people he’s mediating for? God tells them what this is for. In Leviticus 9:6: “This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded you to do, so that the glory of Yahweh may appear to you.” The sacrifices weren’t just a list. They were a condition of seeing God’s glory. Obey the system he built and he will show up. Then, jumping down to verses 23–24: “And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, then came out and blessed the people, and the glory of Yahweh appeared to all the people. Then fire came out from before Yahweh and consumed the burnt offering and the portions of fat on the altar. And all the people saw it, shouted, and fell on their faces.” Fire from the presence of God consuming the offering is God accepting the offering. God saw the blood, accepted the substitute, and demonstrated that the way was open. In that moment, the system was functioning exactly as God designed it. But it didn’t take long for us to screw it up. Leviticus 10, starting in verse 1: “Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective fire pans and put fire in them. Then they placed incense on it and offered strange fire before Yahweh, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of Yahweh and consumed them, and they died before Yahweh. Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘It is what Yahweh spoke, saying, “By those who come near me, I will be treated as holy, and before all the people, I will be glorified.”' So Aaron kept silent.” The same fire in chapter 9—the fire from God’s presence—consumed the offering and the people shouted for joy. Then in chapter 10, the fire from God’s presence consumed the priests and everyone went silent. Same God, same holiness, same fire. The only difference was how God was approached. One chapter earlier, the entire nation was on its face in worship because God had accepted their offering. Now two of Aaron’s sons are dead, burned up in the tabernacle, because they decided the details of God’s instructions were flexible. The exact nature of their violation is debated. The text may hint they were drunk, because immediately after their death God gives Aaron a direct command about not drinking wine or strong drink when entering the tent of meeting. The specific violation matters less than the principle: “By those who come near me I will be treated as holy.” God defines the terms of nearness, and Aaron’s sons decided those terms were optional. The fire that had just accepted the sacrifice turned on the men who thought they could improvise. Aaron kept silent. His two oldest sons are dead on the ground, and he doesn’t say a word. He was grieving, but he knew Moses was right. God’s holiness is not negotiable, not even for a father’s grief. The silence is heavier than any words Aaron could have said at that moment. He stood there in his priestly garments, the blood of his ordination still probably on his ear and his thumb and his toe, and he had nothing to say. Because what do you say when you know God is just and your sons were wrong? You stand there in silence. We approach God every day, every week. We pray, we sing, we take communion. Christ secured that access for us. Nadab and Abihu are permanent reminders that access and casualness aren’t the same thing. The God we approach through Christ is the same God whose fire consumed unauthorized worship. His holiness has not changed. What changed is the sacrifice. A better priest offered a better sacrifice, and our access is permanent. But the God on the other side of that access is still the God whose fire fell in Leviticus 10. We come boldly, as Hebrews tells us, but we must come on his terms. We must come honoring his holiness. The Day of Atonement and the Two Goats The next lesson for the kids is on the atonement. The atonement sacrifice happens once a year, every year. These daily sacrifices are in the individual lesson: one person, one offering, one act of forgiveness. I’ve often wondered how long the line is for that. If it’s like Disneyland, you’re waiting for an hour. There’s no FastPass. But sin doesn’t just affect the sinner. It defiles the priests who handle it. It contaminates the tabernacle where God dwells. So the Day of Atonement addressed what the daily sacrifices couldn’t. Once a year, the high priest entered the room no one else could enter, carrying blood into the immediate presence of God. In Leviticus 16:2, Yahweh says to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat which is on the ark, so that he will not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat.” This first instruction is a warning: don’t come in whenever you want. You will die. The Holy of Holies is not an empty room. This is where God’s presence is. It’s unmediated by blood, and it will kill you. On this day, the high priest enters alone, burning incense so the smoke covers the mercy seat before he can even look in that direction. Without this incense, he will die. He brings blood first from a bull for himself, because the high priest still has to be atoned for before he can atone for anyone else. Then he slaughters a goat for the people and brings its blood inside the veil. Inside the ark sit the stone tablets, the law that every person in the camp has broken. Above the ark is the mercy seat, where God appears. The law underneath, God’s presence above, and the high priest sprinkles blood on the mercy seat and in front of it. Leviticus 16:14 tells us he sprinkles this blood seven times. That blood is the only thing standing between a nation of sinners and the holy judgment their sin deserves. It satisfies God’s judgment so that his mercy can reach his people. There are two goats brought for the people’s sin offering. The first goat is killed. Its blood goes inside the veil: payment for sin. But the second goat isn’t killed. In Leviticus 16:21–22: “Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins. And he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it out into the wilderness by the hand of a man ready to do this. And the goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an isolated land. And he shall send out the goat in the wilderness.” This is both hands, a full confession, a full transfer. The text uses, once again, the three different words for sin that we saw earlier: iniquities, transgressions, and sins. All of it laid on this goat and sent into the wilderness. The first goat dies as a payment, and the second goat signifies a removal. These truths are what God does with sin. He pays for it, and he carries it away. Eric read from Isaiah 53 on Friday, and it uses this same language. Isaiah 53:4–6 says: “Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried away. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. But Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.” Both of those goats point to Christ. The goat that died is Christ paying the penalty for our sins. The goat sent away is Christ removing our sins as far as the east is from the west. Two goats on the Day of Atonement, because it takes two pictures to show what one Savior accomplished in a single act. And once every year, that’s what Leviticus 16:34 says: “This is a perpetual statute.” If this had solved the problem, once would have been enough. But every year the high priest goes back behind the curtain. Every year the blood is sprinkled. Every year God is teaching Israel, “This isn’t the final answer.” In those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Hebrews 10:11 tells us, “And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God… For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” Every priest stands. You stand when your work is not complete. Christ sat down at the right hand of the Father. He offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, and he sat down. The distance between those two realities is the distance Christ crossed, and we cannot fathom that distance. Scott talked Friday night about Matthew 27. In verse 51, when Jesus died, the veil of the sanctuary was torn from top to bottom. The veil existed for one reason: to keep people out. Not even the high priest could pass except once a year, covered in blood, hidden behind incense, and scared to death. For 1,500 years this curtain was saying, “You can’t come in here.” No animal sacrifice could remove it. The veil stayed because the sacrifice that could tear it had not yet been offered. When Christ died, God tore it from top to bottom. The sin that required the separation was dealt with permanently. Again in Hebrews 10:19: “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from every evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” We are not trembling high priests. We’re not sitting in clouds of incense when we walk in here on a Sunday or when we sit in our quiet time. The blood of Jesus did what the blood of bulls and goats could never do. So draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Our nearness to God cost the Son everything. And now he sits. The job is complete. Be Holy: What the System Was Pointing Toward There’s one last lesson in the curriculum, and it’s in Leviticus 19. After everything we’ve walked through this morning—after the presence, after the sacrifices, after the priesthood, after the Day of Atonement—God says one more thing to his people. Leviticus 19:2: “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I, Yahweh your God, am holy.'” The reason for holiness isn’t self-improvement. It’s to reflect God. God’s people look like God, not like the surrounding nations, not like whatever feels comfortable. “You shall be holy because I, Yahweh your God, am holy.” When we walked through holiness in the attribute series a few weeks ago, we looked at how Charnock described it. He called holiness the beauty of the Godhead. Power is God’s hands. Omniscience his eyes. Mercy his heart. Holiness is his beauty. Every other attribute is glorious, but holiness is what makes every other attribute beautiful. Power without holiness is tyranny. Sovereignty is oppression. Even love without holiness is sentimentality. Holiness is the purity that makes everything else about God trustworthy. And God says, “Be like that.” The commands in Leviticus 19 touch everything: honor your parents, no idols, leave grain in your field for the poor and the foreigner, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t take advantage of the deaf, don’t put a stumbling block before the blind, don’t pervert justice for anyone, rich or poor, don’t hate your brother in your heart. Holiness is more than don’t steal or cheat on your wife. The commands in this chapter push into territory that most people would consider optional. Leave part of your harvest in the field for people who can’t afford food. Keep your body clear of markings for the sake of being set apart as God’s holy people. Pay your workers on time. Don’t hold a grudge. Holiness touches your wallet, your body, your calendar, the conversations you have when the other person isn’t even in the room. Holiness is comprehensive. It’s relentless. It leaves no corner of your life untouched. And God says, “Be holy.” Leviticus 19:18 says, “You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.” Jesus called this the second-greatest commandment, and this is the first time you see it. Some of these commandments carry into the New Testament, and some were fulfilled in Christ or belong specifically to Israel’s identity as a nation set apart from its neighbors. But the principle beneath every single one of these commands carries across every page of Scripture. God’s people are different, not because we’re better, but because God’s people belong to a holy God. And belonging to him changes what you do with every part of your life. Here’s where this section serves our main point this morning: nobody kept it. Nobody looks at Leviticus 19 and goes, “I did every single one of those perfectly.” Not fully, not consistently, certainly not for long. The call to holiness reveals the same thing the sacrifices revealed, the same thing the annual Day of Atonement revealed: there’s a distance. Even after God provides the presence, the sacrifices, the priests, and the atonement, the people still can’t close this gap on their own. God gave them the command, “Be holy.” He gave them detailed instructions for what holiness looks like, and they couldn’t do it. The law is perfect. We’re not. And the system teaches that we need him. That’s the whole point. Leviticus 19 is the last piece of evidence in the case that God has been building for us this morning. His presence is real, and still the people can’t be what God calls them to be. We need more than a system. We need the one the system was pointing to. And on this side of Calvary, what God commanded from the outside he now accomplishes from the inside. As Ezekiel 36:27 says, “I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.” Christian, God gives you the power to be holy. It is a new power that you have when you commit your life to Christ. So that’s what these five lessons talk about. They talk about God’s presence. They talk about sacrifice. They talk about the need for a mediator and an atonement and holiness. Five layers of the same truth. God drew near to a sinful people, and he built an entire system so that they could survive his nearness. Every piece of that system worked, and every piece of that system was insufficient. The sacrifices had to be repeated. The priests needed their own atonement before they could offer. The call to holiness exposed what everybody already knew: we couldn’t do it. And the system did exactly what it was designed to do. It taught a people, and it teaches us, what we need. Then Christ came. The presence that filled the tabernacle became flesh and dwelt among us. The sacrifice that had to be repeated was offered once for all time. The priest who needed his own atonement was replaced by one who knew no sin. The Day of Atonement that came back every year was fulfilled in a single afternoon. The holiness that no one could keep was credited to everyone who belongs to him. The depth of our gratitude for what Christ accomplished is directly tied to how well we understand what he replaced. That’s why we spend time in Leviticus. That’s why we have Leviticus, so we can truly understand what Christ’s death replaced. Closing Prayer Lord God, many of us have heard the truth that you went to the cross to die for our sins our entire lives. We grew up either in the church or in a society that just assumes that. And yet we grew up 1,500 years or 3,500 years removed from these words on the page. This sacrificial system that was so significant and so difficult and so vivid—what it means to see a life taken for our sins—are words on a page. Lord, help these words on the page to penetrate our hearts, and help us to be lost in, to be consumed by, the truth of what your death on the cross meant. So this morning, as we celebrate your resurrection—because your resurrection shows that not only did you defeat sin, but you defeated death, that the work was finished—Lord, as we celebrate that, help this day not to be about family, but to be about you. Lord, we love you. Amen. The post Equipping Hour: Presence, Priesthood, and Atonement appeared first on Grace Bible Church.

The Easter Vigil The Story of Creation Old Testament Genesis 1:1-2:4a In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. And God said, "Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. And God said, "Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it." And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. And God said, "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth." And it was so. God made the two great lights--the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night--and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. And God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky." So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind." And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." God said, "See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. The Psalm Psalm 136:1-9, 23-26 Page 789, BCP   The Flood Old Testament Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18, 8:6-18, 9:8-13 The Lord said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground." And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. On the very same day Noah with his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons entered the ark, they and every wild animal of every kind, and all domestic animals of every kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every bird of every kind-- every bird, every winged creature. They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in. The flood continued forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent out the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more. In the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw that the face of the ground was drying. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. Then God said to Noah, "Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh-- birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth-- so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth." So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, "As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth."   The Psalm Psalm 46 Page 649, BCP Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac Old Testament Genesis 22:1-18 After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you." So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you." Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, "Father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." He said, "The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham said, "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together. When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place "The Lord will provide"; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided." The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, "By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice." The Psalm Psalm 16 Page 599, BCP   Israel's deliverance at the Red Sea Old Testament Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21 As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them. In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, 'Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness." But Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still." Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. But you lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the Israelites may go into the sea on dry ground. Then I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and so I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots, and his chariot drivers. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gained glory for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his chariot drivers." The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. The Egyptians pursued, and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh's horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. At the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptian army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, "Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt." Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers." So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing. And Miriam sang to them: "Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea." The Response Canticle 8, The Song of Moses Page 85, BCP   Salvation offered freely to all Old Testament Isaiah 55:1-11 Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.   The Response Canticle 9, The First Song of Isaiah Page 86, BCP Learn wisdom and live The Reading Baruch 3:9-15, 3:32-4:4 Hear the commandments of life, O Israel; give ear, and learn wisdom! Why is it, O Israel, why is it that you are in the land of your enemies, that you are growing old in a foreign country, that you are defiled with the dead, that you are counted among those in Hades? You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom. If you had walked in the way of God, you would be living in peace for ever. Learn where there is wisdom, where there is strength, where there is understanding, so that you may at the same time discern where there is length of days, and life, where there is light for the eyes, and peace. Who has found her place? And who has entered her storehouses? But the one who knows all things knows her, he found her by his understanding. The one who prepared the earth for all time filled it with four-footed creatures; the one who sends forth the light, and it goes; he called it, and it obeyed him, trembling; the stars shone in their watches, and were glad; he called them, and they said, "Here we are!" They shone with gladness for him who made them. This is our God; no other can be compared to him. He found the whole way to knowledge, and gave her to his servant Jacob and to Israel, whom he loved. Afterwards she appeared on earth and lived with humankind. She is the book of the commandments of God, the law that endures for ever. All who hold her fast will live, and those who forsake her will die. Turn, O Jacob, and take her; walk towards the shining of her light. Do not give your glory to another, or your advantages to an alien people. Happy are we, O Israel, for we know what is pleasing to God. or Proverbs 8:1-8, 19-21; 9:4b-6 Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out: "To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live. O simple ones, learn prudence; acquire intelligence, you who lack it. Hear, for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is right; for my mouth will utter truth; wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are righteous; there is nothing twisted or crooked in them. "My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, endowing with wealth those who love me, and filling their treasuries." To those without sense she says, "Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight." The Psalm Psalm 19 Page 606, BCP   A new heart and a new spirit Old Testament Ezekiel 36:24-28 Say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. The Psalm Psalms 42 and 43 Page 643-645, BCP The valley of dry bones Old Testament Ezekiel 37:1-14 The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord God, you know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord." So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act," says the Lord. The Psalm Psalm 143 Page 798, BCP The gathering of God's people Old Testament Zephaniah 3:14-20 Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak. The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival. I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it. I will deal with all your oppressors at that time. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time I will bring you home, at the time when I gather you; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord. The Psalm   Psalm 98 Page 727, BCP God's Presence in a renewed Israel Old Testament Isaiah 4:2-6 On that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel. Whoever is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, once the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over its places of assembly a cloud by day and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Indeed over all the glory there will be a canopy. It will serve as a pavilion, a shade by day from the heat, and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain. The Psalm   Psalm 122 Page 779, BCP   At the Eucharist The Collect Almighty God, who for our redemption gave your only- begotten Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. or this O God, who made this most holy night to shine with the glory of the Lord's resurrection: Stir up in your Church that Spirit of adoption which is given to us in Baptism, that we, being renewed both in body and mind, may worship you in sincerity and truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. The Epistle Romans 6:3-11 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. The Psalm   Psalm 114 Page 756, BCP The Gospel Matthew 28:1-10 After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.' This is my message for you." So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

"Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God, Jehovah is one. You shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

Pastor Randy BradleyAll Biblical references:Acts 20:28 (KJV)...to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.1 Timothy 2:5 (KJV)For [there is] one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;1 Timothy 3:16 (KJV)And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.Matthew 1:18,20 (CSB)18 The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit.20 ...don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.Psalm 65:2 (NKJV) O You who hear prayer, To You all flesh will come.Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (KJV)4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.Mark 12:29-30,32 (KJV)29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:Galatians 3:20 (NKJV)Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one.Galatians 3:20 (CSB)Now a mediator is not just for one person alone, but God is one.James 2:19 (KJV)Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.Isaiah 44:24 (NKJV)Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself;Isaiah 45:5-6 (KJV)5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me...6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.Isaiah 44:6,8 (KJV)6 Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.8 Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.Exodus 20:3 (KJV)Thou shalt have no other gods before me.John 10:30-31,33 (NKJV)30 “I and My Father are one.”31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.33 The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”John 14:7-10 (NKJV)7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father'?10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.2 Corinthians 4:6 (KJV)For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to [give] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.Colossians 1:15 (NKJV)He is the image of the invisible God...Hebrews 1:1-3 (NKJV)John 1:1-2,14 (KJV)John 8:58-59 (NKJV)1 John 5:7 (KJV)Galatians 4:4 (KJV)Hebrews 1:5 (NKJV)Isaiah 43:10-11 (KJV)Hosea 13:4 (KJV)Luke 2:11 (KJV)Titus 2:13 (KJV)Colossians 2:9 (NKJV)Zechariah 14:9 (KJV)1 John 5:20 (KJV)Revelation 21:22-23 (KJV)Revelation 22:1,3 (KJV)

From “In the Beginning” to Amen // Love + Obey Note for online notes section only:Here in the first 12 chapters of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses reintroduces the law and the promises of God to the next generation who will be the ones to enter into the promised land. Moses reinforced the character of God and the importance of His covenant of love with His people, warning the Israelites to be faithful to the Lord, unlike their fathers who had rejected the Lord and His promises just 40 years prior. Deuteronomy 5:1-21 (ESV)“And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our fathers did the LORD make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. The LORD spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, while I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the LORD. For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain.' He said, ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. You shall not murder. And you shall not commit adultery. And you shall not steal. And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.'”    The Lord your God X 132  For your Good X 14 Fear the Lord X 8 Three Benefits of Obedience We Reap the Fruit of His Righteous Life  Deuteronomy 6:3 (NKJV) “…that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD… promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.”  Proverbs 14:14 (ESV) “The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.”  John 14:15 (KJV) “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” We Announce What God is Like Deuteronomy 4:5-10 (ESV)“See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.' For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children— how on the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.'” We Have Confidence in Truth Proverbs 14:12 (NKJV)“There is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death.” Psalm 119:160 (ESV)“The sum of your word is truth.”  Psalm 19:7 (ESV)“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” Deuteronomy 7:6-8 (ESV)“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.”

Today’s Topics: Joshua Charles joins Terry for Friday with the Fathers 1) Gospel – Mark 12:28-34 – One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked Him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” The scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You are right in saying, He is One and there is no other than He. And to love Him with all your heart, with all your understanding,  with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, He said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask Him any more questions. Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2, 3, 4) Terry and Joshua continue discussing Early Father of the Church: Saint Pope Leo the Great

Gospel Mark 12:28-34 One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these." The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, He is One and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." And no one dared to ask him any more questions. Reflection It's clear in this passage that Jesus has a clear message as to what the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God is going to be like. It's a constant evolution of consciousness that moves people more and more into one single focus to love, to love God, to love who we are, to love our brothers and sisters, to love everything that God has created. Love is the most important thing because it is the one thing that brings the essence of the Kingdom of God together. It's called Union Communion. Oneness. That's what we long for. An end to the isolation, the fear, the anger, the shame that keeps us separated. Love unites us. Everything else tends to divide us. Closing Prayer Father, you give us a prayer that we are taught to recite over and over. It's the only time you taught us how to pray. And one of the key lines in it is we pray thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So bless us with knowing and also longing for this union and communion that love can bring to your kingdom and make it real for all of us. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Read OnlineAnd when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more questions. Mark 12:34Among the scribes and Pharisees, the scribe in today's Gospel stands out. He got it right, and Jesus praised him for his openness and understanding. The scribe began by asking Jesus a question: “Which is the first of all the commandments?” At that time, the scribes and Pharisees often debated the question of which commandments were most important. From the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, they derived 613 commandments. Among them were the Ten Commandments and numerous ceremonial and civil laws by which they were to abide. Some religious leaders taught that all 613 of the commandments were equally important. In addition to these commandments, rabbinic traditions also offered detailed commentary on how they were to be fulfilled.Jesus enters this debate and answers by quoting the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4–5 and Leviticus 19:18: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” These two commandments were clear articulations of the most central duties to which we are called—love of God and love of neighbor. Furthermore, they were a twofold summary of the Ten Commandments, the most important of the Old Testament Laws.While many scribes and Pharisees were scrupulous about keeping the external law in a detailed and ritualistic manner, they often failed to perceive and live its central meaning. Jesus clarifies this meaning in His concise answer. He does not dismiss the importance of God's many commandments but highlights their central purpose. The ritualistic laws and moral commandments, while essential, are ultimately means to an end; they direct us to love. Jesus shows that love of God and neighbor is the true fulfillment of the Law, uniting both aspects into one comprehensive commandment that sums up everything God asks of us.Jesus was not rejecting the necessity of the commandments themselves but was emphasizing that their observance must flow from the heart. God's Law is not just about external compliance but about cultivating a heart transformed by love. The laws and rituals of faith, such as fasting in Lent, attending Sunday Mass, and going to Confession, have their rightful place in our spiritual lives. They shape us and help keep us close to God. However, we must always remember their deeper purpose: They are meant to foster a greater charity for God and others. Without that charity, even the most rigorous external observances can become empty.Reflect today on how obedient you are to God's Law. Most importantly, ponder the depth of charity you have. True charity toward God and neighbor will enable us to fulfill all external observance of God's Law, but it will not stop there. There is no limit to love. We can always increase it. We must increase it. Charity, while requiring our active cooperation, ultimately flows from God's grace working within us. Without His grace, our efforts to love are incomplete. If we understand this and seek to love with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, then, like this scribe, Jesus will say to us, “You are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven.”My loving Lord, You call us to love You with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. You fulfilled this commandment perfectly, and You promise us the grace to do the same. Help me to obey every detail of Your divine will and grant me the Gift of Understanding so that I will understand and live Your Law in the way You intend. Jesus, I trust in You.  Image: The Scribe Stood to Tempt Jesus by James TissotSource: Free RSS feed from catholic-daily-reflections.com — Copyright © 2026 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. This content is provided solely for personal, non-commercial use. Redistribution, republication, or commercial use — including use within apps with advertising — is strictly prohibited without written permission.

God and Guns Podcast GNG 365 - Waiting on the Lord   Intro: Welcome back to Episode 365 of the God and Guns Podcast . I'm your host, Troy. (Doug) And I'm your other host Doug. (Troy) We use this podcast to talk about  God, guns, and the responsible Christian gun owners' interests. On this week's God and Guns Podcast we ask are you waiting on the Lord?   Want to thank our sponsors:  Bandwidth Sponsor:   Firearms Radio Network - Other Shows - Content   Patriot Patch Co   This Week's God and Gun activities: Doug: God: Church Sundays   Guns: EDC . Havent been doing much. Work is keeping me busy. Got in a wreck monday and have been dealing with insurance to get it fixed. Goes into the shop Monday.    Troy: God: Daily Bible Reading, Church, Church Security   Guns: Went to the range down here and punched holes in targets. Dry fire training. Practiced reloads. Ordered some more AR magazines and 300BO subsonic.    Family: house is getting girls bathroom remodeled and shop finished out. We are waiting for them to wrap up so we can return.    Farm: Not much right now   Ham: I got nominated for President of CKARC, I turned it down as I told them I would be traveling too much, then they voted me in as Vice President. I've now been asked to take over as treasurer & secretary.  EDC Check: Troy: Shadow Systems XR920n a Crossbreed Super-Tuck Holster, using a STOG Enhanced Life Saver, Sof-T Tourniquet, steam light    Doug:  Sig P365 with Romeo Zero optic on it.. Hornady critical duty ammo. Benchmark OTF.    Feedback:  ITunes   Comedy An old preacher was dying. He sent a message for his banker and his lawyer, both church members, to come to his home. When they arrived, they were ushered up to his bedroom. As they entered the room, the preacher held out his hands and motioned for them to sit on each side of the bed. The preacher grasped their hands, sighed contentedly, smiled, and stared at the ceiling. For a time, no one said anything. Both the banker and lawyer were touched and flattered that the preacher would ask them to be with him during his final moments. They were also puzzled; the preacher had never given them any indication that he particularly liked either of them. They both remembered his many long, uncomfortable sermons about greed, covetousness, and avaricious behaviour that made them squirm in their seats. Finally, the banker said, "Preacher, why did you ask us to come?" The old preacher mustered up his strength and then said weakly, "Jesus died between two thieves, and that's how I want to go."   On this day in History: 1894 - Coca-Cola sold in glass bottles for the first time   Bible Verse ‭‭Exodus‬ ‭32‬:‭1‬-‭6‬ ‭ESV‬‬ “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” ‭‭Exodus‬ ‭32‬:‭1‬-‭6‬ ‭ESV‬‬   Main Topic Waiting on the Lord   Show Sponsor: Patriot Patch   How you can help out the show: Patches and Stickers Using the following links help support our show. Subscribestar GodandGuns you have to set up for repeat donation if you want it monthly. www.subscribestar.com/god-and-guns Powertac Lights - godandguns Crossbreed Holsters - GNG Armed Citizen Armed Citizen® Today At 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 8, two males wearing ski masks broke into an apartment in Jackson, Miss. A woman in the apartment, fearing for her life, fired on the intruders, killing one. The other suspect fled but was soon apprehended and now faces charges of burglary and murder. The armed citizen was interviewed and released, with authorities noting the shooting was justifiable. (clarionledger.com, Jackson, Miss., 2/9/26)    From the Armed Citizen® Archives – December 1991 Alerted when she saw a strange car drive up and the occupants knock on the door, a 19-year-old woman got a rifle and hid in a bedroom closet. When the men broke through a cellar door and entered the bedroom, she stepped out of the closet, trained the gun on them and ordered them out. They fled. (The Lawrence County Advocate, Lawrenceburg, Tenn.)   Wrap Up: -Send feedback to GodandGunsTV@gmail.com -Please tell your friends about us, leave an iTunes review, and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/godandgunspodcast -Subscribe to us and follow us on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrKWNsJr5LlrUcBYOe-oSLw -And search for us on Instagram too. -We are on Rumble too GodandGuns -Website - Http://www.godandgunspodcast.com -Until next time, Have a blessed week. And keep your guns close but your bible closer.  

Welcome to Day 2803 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom. Day 2803 – Wisdom Nuggets – Psalm 115:19-18 – Daily Wisdom Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2803 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day 2803 of our Trek. The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. The title for today's Wisdom-Trek is: The Living Choir – Trusting the Maker of Heaven and Earth Today, we are continuing our grand expedition through the Egyptian Hallel, that magnificent collection of praise songs sung by the Jewish people during the Passover festival. We are stepping into the second half of Psalm One Hundred Fifteen, covering verses nine through eighteen, in the New Living Translation. To properly set the stage, we must remember the theological fireworks from our previous trek. In the first eight verses of Psalm One Hundred Fifteen, the psalmist drew a sharp, mocking contrast between the God of Israel and the gods of the surrounding pagan nations. He declared that our God is in the heavens, doing whatever He pleases, while the idols of the nations are nothing more than dead blocks of wood, silver, and gold. They have mouths but cannot speak, eyes but cannot see, and feet but cannot walk. The chilling warning was that those who make them, and trust in them, will become just like them—spiritually deaf, blind, and paralyzed. Now, in this second half of the psalm, the tone shifts from a theological argument, to a vibrant, liturgical choir. Having exposed the absolute uselessness of the pagan idols, the psalmist turns around to face the congregation of Israel. If the idols are dead, where should we put our trust? The answer rings out in a beautifully structured, responsive song. We will see the congregation divided into three distinct groups, receiving a threefold call to trust, followed by a threefold promise of blessing. Finally, the psalm concludes with a profound statement about cosmic geography, revealing our true human purpose on this earth, and the urgent necessity of praising God while we still have breath in our lungs. So, let us enter the temple courts, and join the choir. Psalm One Hundred Fifteen: verses nine through eleven O Israel, trust the Lord! He is your helper and your shield. O priests, descendants of Aaron, trust the Lord! He is your helper and your shield. All you who fear the Lord, trust the Lord! He is your helper and your shield. Imagine being in the temple courtyard. The worship leader, perhaps the High Priest, stands on the steps, and calls out to different sections of the gathered crowd. This is a responsive liturgy, designed to engage everyone present, regardless of their status or background. First, he addresses the entire covenant nation: "O Israel, trust the Lord!" This is the baseline of their identity. They are the people brought out of Egypt, the physical descendants of Jacob. In a world full of glittering, tempting idols, they are commanded to place their entire weight, their complete confidence, on Yahweh. Second, he turns to the religious leadership: "O priests, descendants of Aaron, trust the Lord!" The house of Aaron...