Podcasts about Woe

Today's Topics: 1, 2, 3, 4) Father Charles Murr joins Terry Gospel - Luke 6:20-26 - Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. "Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way." Bishop Sheen quote of the day

Gospel Luke 6:20-26 Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. "Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way." Reflection At the time that Jesus spoke these words, there was an understanding that people who follow the law would be prosperous in the world. The rich were a sign that God favored them over others. Jesus is acknowledging the mystery of emptiness, poverty, being without as the catalyst that truly is to reaching out for something to take care of us and help us. Poverty is really, in a way, a stepping stone spiritually into the richness in the fullness of God living within us. Closing Prayer Father, bless us with the patience that we need to go through the dark and difficult things that you place in our lives so that we can become more open, more receptive, more patient with others. Let us see this gift and let us engage in it. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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"Woe to you who are blessed..."

Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said:"Blessed are you who are poor,for the Kingdom of God is yours.Blessed are you who are now hungry,for you will be satisfied.Blessed are you who are now weeping,for you will laugh.Blessed are you when people hate you,and when they exclude and insult you,and denounce your name as evilon account of the Son of Man."Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.For their ancestors treated the prophetsin the same way.But woe to you who are rich,for you have received your consolation.But woe to you who are filled now,for you will be hungry.Woe to you who laugh now,for you will grieve and weep.Woe to you when all speak well of you,for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way."

In this episode, Fr. Anthony examines the nature of ultimate reality—God, gods, and the arche'—through Scripture and the Fathers. With insights from Journey to Reality, he shows how God transcends all categories and draws us into worship and transformation.  Enjoy the show! ------ Ultimate Reality: God, gods, arche' Fr. Anthony Perkins; 10 September 2025 Text: Zachery Porcu, PhD. 2025. “Chapter 2 – Ultimate Reality” in Journey to Reality; Sacramental Life in a Secular Age.  Ancient Faith Publishing. Verses to Frame the Discussion Exodus 24:10. And they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. Exodus 33:11. Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tent. Isaiah 6:5. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” HE IS GREATER EVEN THAN THIS (SOME FUN WITH AN “INCONSISTENCY”  Exodus 33:17-20. And the LORD said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “I pray thee, show me thy glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD'; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live.” St. Ambrose: “Who shall see my face and live?” Scripture said, and rightly so. For our eyes cannot bear the sun's rays, and whoever turns too long in its direction is generally blinded, so they say. Now if one creature cannot look upon another creature without loss and harm to himself, how can he see the dazzling face of his eternal Creator while covered with the clothing that is this body? St. Gregory of Nyssa: He would not have shown himself to his servant if the sight were such as to bring the desire of the beholder to an end, since the true sight of God consists in this, that the one who looks up to God never ceases in that desire. For he says, “You cannot see my face, for man cannot see me and live.” Scripture does not indicate that this causes the death of those who look, for how would the face of life ever be the cause of death to those who approach it? On the contrary, the divine is by its nature life-giving. Yet it is the characteristic of the divine nature to transcend all characteristics. Therefore he who thinks God is something to be known does not have life, because he has turned from true being to what he considers by sense perception to have being. Job 38:19-20.  “Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness,   that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home? 1 Timothy 6:16. I charge you to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ;  and this will be made manifest at the proper time by the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,  who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. John 1:18. No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known. On the resulting religion: Revelation 9-11.  And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing,  “Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created.” 2 Corinthians 3:18.  And we all, with unveiled face, beholding[a] the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. St. John Chrysostom.  The Spirit is God, and we are raised to the level of the apostles, because we shall all behold him together with uncovered faces. As soon as we are baptized, the soul beams even more brightly than the sun because it is cleansed by the Spirit, and we not only behold God's glory, we also receive from it a kind of splendor. Segue to the book chapter (theosis requires a repentant mind) Religion should be more than our consumer society would lead us to believe it is. “What is the nature of reality?”  What does it all mean? Mankind wants to know, and he has tried to provide answers.  Many involve a mysterious higher power we call God. The problem with the word “God.” [Psalm 94:3.  For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.] [Isaiah 45:5.. I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.] Zachary Porcu's solution: Arche' Other solutions? Capital “G” God.  “I AM”.  Unmoved Mover. Light.  True God. Tian, Brahman, Absolute. What is the Arche' like? (P. 25; J) Life (essence).  Light (essence) Arche compared to gods, angels, men, and rocks. Last paragraph of chapter; So then, when we ask about whether there is a God in this sense, we are not asking whether there is some specific superhuman entity that orders or governs the universe.  That is thinking far too small.  We are asking about the arche' of all being: the source, principle, the thing that is being itself.  This is the highest of all questions; there is nothing the answer does not affect.  NOTE: The question of whether the God of the Old Testament was the arche' or a demiurge was settled decisively: God was, is, and always shall be perfect and uncreated.

+ Holy Gospel according to St. Luke 6: 20 – 26 And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.The Gospel of the Lord

Read Online“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.” Luke 6:24–26Is it dangerous to be rich, to be filled, to laugh, and to have all speak well of you? According to Jesus, it appears so. Why would Jesus warn against these things? And before that, why would He pronounce it blessed to be poor, hungry, weeping and insulted? Essentially, Jesus was condemning four common sins—greed, gluttony, intemperance, and vainglory—and promoting their opposite virtues.Poverty, in and of itself, is not sufficient for holiness. But in Luke's Gospel, Jesus declares it blessed to be poor, literally. This goes further than Matthew's Gospel which says it is blessed to be “poor in spirit.” To be poor in spirit is to be spiritually detached from the material things of this world so that you can be fully open to the riches of God. One common tendency among those with material wealth is to rationalize that even though they have many things, they are detached from them. Hopefully that is the case. However, in Luke's version of the Beatitudes, Jesus directly says, “Blessed are you who are poor” and “woe to you who are rich.” In this teaching, we discover a second blessing not found in Matthew's version. In addition to spiritual detachment (poverty of spirit) being identified as a blessing, literal poverty is proclaimed as the easier way to achieve this spiritual detachment. Material wealth, though not a sin in and of itself, brings with it many temptations toward attachment, self-reliance, and self-indulgence. Thus, spiritually speaking, it is easier to be detached when one is poor, rather than when one is rich. This is a hard truth for both the poor and the rich to accept. The poor often want to be rich, thinking that if they were, they would share their wealth with others and remain detached. The rich often enjoy being rich and believe that they are more spiritually detached than they actually are.Being “hungry” is also identified as a blessed state, whereas being “filled” is a dangerous state. When you are literally hungry, either from fasting or from lack of an abundance of food, it is easier to turn your hunger and thirst toward God so as to be filled by Him and to more easily trust in His providence. An abundance of food, especially fine food, tempts you with a gluttonous satisfaction that makes it difficult to hunger and thirst for God and His holy will in a complete way. Therefore, if you refrain from indulgence and experience hunger, you will be blessed to be free from gluttony and even the temptation toward it.“Laughing” and “weeping” in this case are not referring to joy and despair. Rather, they are referring to those who are always seeking fun and an indulgent life. Many people live for fun, entertainment, and momentary pleasures. Weeping refers to those who have discovered that the fleeting pleasures of the world can never satisfy. Constant entertainment, therefore, brings with it a real temptation, whereas the loss of that form of fleeting pleasure helps eliminate that temptation.Finally, Jesus declares it blessed to be hated, excluded, insulted, and denounced as evil on account of Him rather than being spoken well of by all. In this case, Jesus is referring to the praise that comes from things that mean nothing from an eternal perspective. When all speak well of us, praising qualities and accomplishments that are not true Christian virtues, we will be tempted to rely upon that praise for our satisfaction. But this form of satisfaction is nothing other than vainglory and never truly satisfies in the end. However, when one sees and praises the virtues of God within us, God is praised first and foremost, and we are blessed to share in God's glory. Reflect, today, upon whether you prefer to be rich, to indulge in the best of foods, to be constantly entertained and to be the envy of others, or whether you see the temptations this type of life brings. Reflect also upon the concrete spiritual blessings that come to those who are literally poor, hungry, temperate and humble. This is a very demanding teaching from Jesus. If it doesn't sit well with you, then know that it is a sign that you still have various attachments in life. Reflect, especially, upon the beatitude that is most difficult to embrace, and make that beatitude the source of reflection and prayer. Doing so with honesty and openness will result in you being among those who are truly blessed in the eyes of God. My blessed Lord, You were poor, hungry, temperate and humble to the perfect degree. For these reasons, You were filled with perfect virtue and were satisfied to the greatest degree. Please open my eyes to the deceptions of this world so that I can live with You a life of true holiness, experiencing the riches of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus, I trust in You!Image: Sermon on the Mount by Danijel Dukić, license Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 InternationalSource of content: catholic-daily-reflections.comCopyright © 2025 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission via RSS feed.

Lk 6:20-26Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said:"Blessed are you who are poor,for the Kingdom of God is yours.Blessed are you who are now hungry,for you will be satisfied.Blessed are you who are now weeping,for you will laugh.Blessed are you when people hate you,and when they exclude and insult you,and denounce your name as evilon account of the Son of Man."Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.For their ancestors treated the prophetsin the same way.But woe to you who are rich,for you have received your consolation.But woe to you who are filled now,for you will be hungry.Woe to you who laugh now,for you will grieve and weep.Woe to you when all speak well of you,for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way."

“Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar.” — Psalm 120:5 As a Christian you have to live in the midst of an ungodly world, and it is of little use for you to cry “Woe is me.” Jesus did not pray O that you should be […]

Isaiah 12 - Thanksgiving expressed. Micah 1-4 - Destruction in Israel and Judah. Woe to oppressors. Rulers denounced. Peaceful latter days. 2 Corinthians 11 - Paul defends his apostleship.

187 : Psalms 120 1. In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me. 2. Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue. 3. What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue? 4. Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper. 5. Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar! ; AB church Lausanne

Faith for the Coming Wilderness (1) (audio) David Eells – 9/3/25 Father, You say in (Eph 2:8)  for by grace (unmerited favor) have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. 9  not of works, that no man should glory. Interpretation: By unearned favor God gives us His gift of faith to be what we should be. And He tells us that we don't have anything that we didn't receive from Him so how could we be proud of anything that we are able to do? With that in mind I ask     in the name of Jesus, you would let Your anointing be in our midst and to bless us all to have eyes to see and ears to hear. Give us all discernment from Your Spirit, Lord. We thank You that everything that You have done for us through Jesus Christ has all been accomplished at the cross, and we praise You for it, Father. We thank You, Lord, for using this unworthy vessel to share with the brethren a little bit more of the Word. Amen. I want to talk to you about the First-fruits and encourage you about how you can be part of that ministry. One major question that people have concerns the difference between those who will be in the First-fruits and those who will be in the in-gathering. In Exodus 23, the Bible speaks of two harvests. (Exo.23:14) Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. (15) The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep: seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it thou camest out from Egypt); and none shall appear before me empty: (We cannot bear fruit except by the unleavened bread of the pure Word. If we have done this the proof will be in the harvest.) (16) and the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labors, which thou sowest in the field: and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when thou gatherest in thy labors out of the field. The first-fruits are the first harvest and the rest are harvested at the end. The harvest is being brought into the Kingdom through the unleavened bread. We've learned that the First-fruits harvest is the Man-child ministry, and the ingathering harvest is those who are brought in later. Jesus was called the First-fruits who raised up His two witnesses who went out two by two to continue the harvest. (See Hidden Manna for the End Times, Chapter 7, “Maturity and Harvests,” which is available in PDF at ubm1. org), but what people want to know is, “How can I be in the First-fruits?” We'll find our answer if we examine the different types and shadows of the First-fruits. Two of the major types, of course, are Moses and Jesus. One thing we can see immediately from Moses and Jesus is that they went through a common experience, which prepared them to bring the people of God into the wilderness and teach them how to be overcomers. Moses went into the wilderness for 40 years (Act.7:30-34) and he overcame to lead the Israelites in the wilderness. Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days (Mat.4:1; Luk.4:2) and He overcame to teach the disciples. The number 40 represents “trial” or “tribulation,” so both Moses and Jesus overcame in their own trials. (Rev.2:26) And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations. (Rev.3:21) He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne. In other words, dominion is given to the people of God who overcome in their wilderness trials. So where is this “wilderness” and what does it entail? Well, the wilderness is everywhere there is a Christian. We're not looking for a literal, physical desert somewhere to go into, so don't be thinking that! (2Co.3:6) Who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. Anywhere God's people are, there is a wilderness available to them. Why do I say “available”? That's because God's people are like Israel when they were in Egypt, and they don't necessarily want to go into that wilderness. In some cases, God even has to force them into that wilderness. Israel had to be forced into that wilderness by Pharaoh's army behind them and by God parting the Red Sea before them. But both Moses and Jesus each went out into their personal wilderness first; first they overcame their own temptations and trials before God used them to bring others there. The wilderness is a place where you are tempted and tried, and if you want to be used to bring others there, you first have to pass the test. Let me share with you some things the Lord has taught me about this wilderness. Not long after I became a Christian, by the Lord's grace and mercy, I started going out into the wilderness because I began getting the revelation of what it entailed and what it meant. To put it very simply, in the New Testament, a “wilderness” is any place and any trial in which you are believing and acting upon the Word of God. For instance, there is a mark of the Beast coming, and most Christians know that they won't be able to buy or sell with the world anymore, unless they take that mark. They will be put into a wilderness experience where they can't go back to Egypt, just like the Israelites out in the wilderness. The Israelites were tested to see if they were really going to believe in the promises of God, which was the only thing that would sustain them in their wilderness. We're coming to the same situation in our day. If you want to be like Moses, or if you want to be like Jesus, or if you want to be like Joseph, if you want to be like these different types and shadows of the First-fruits, you have to go out into your wilderness now. These men didn't wait for the crowd to go; they led them where they had already gone. I want to tell you quite frankly that if you are not living in the wilderness, you are not living as a believer. You are rebelling against the Word of God. If you are satisfied to go along with whatever the other religious people around you are doing, that won't put you in the First-fruits. You have to act upon what you see in the Word. Let me explain this wilderness to you a little bit more before I share a few testimonies. The Word of God says that our salvation has been accomplished. It's done. The Lord has already healed us. He's already delivered us. He's already perfected us. (Joh.19:28) After this Jesus, knowing that all things are now finished, that the scripture might be accomplished, saith, I thirst. (29) There was set there a vessel full of vinegar: so they put a sponge full of the vinegar upon hyssop, and brought it to his mouth. (30) When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up his spirit. Jesus said, “It is finished.” (Joh.16:33) These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye may have peace. In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. You see, the Lord has already overcome the world for us, and He did it by His sacrifice. He gave His Life for us. (1Pe.2:24) Who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed. Notice, these are past tense. (Heb.10:14) For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. This was all accomplished at the cross! (Joh.1:29) On the morrow he seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world! He was the Lamb of God Who took away the sins of the world and there is a reason for that. The Bible says that God chose the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are. (1Co.1:27) But God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong; (28) and the base things of the world, and the things that are despised, did God choose, [yea] and the things that are not, that he might bring to nought the things that are. The “things that are not” are these promises that we don't see manifested in this physical realm. God says you are healed, you are delivered, you are perfected, and your sins are all taken away, but you say, “Well, David, I don't see that in this physical realm.” That's exactly right, but the Word of God is still true! When you hold fast to these past-tense promises, you will definitely see them come to pass because that's what faith is. Faith is believing and acting on these promises. God gave awesome promises to the Israelites when they went into their wilderness, and He was very much offended that they did not believe those promises. Let's look at what He said to them, since it was basically His whole problem with Israel in the wilderness. (Num.14:11) And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have wrought among them? (12) I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they. (23) Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me see it. (Because they did not believe in Him.) So, the Lord swore He would bring them into that land, but He changed His mind because all the promises of God are functional and based on our part of the Covenant, which is faith in the promises. We have to believe! (Mar.9:23) And Jesus said unto him, If thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth. (24) Straightway the father of the child cried out, and said, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. Jesus taught that we are supposed to believe that we have received everything that we pray for. For instance, (Mar.11:24) Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever (What does “all” leave out? Nothing!) whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye received them (This is past tense in all the ancient manuscripts. It's just that the translators didn't understand why you should believe you have received something when you don't see it.) believe that ye received them, and ye shall have them. God expects us to believe before we see; He expects us to believe we've received everything the Bible promises us. (Heb.11:1) Now faith is assurance of [things] hoped for, a conviction of things not seen. If you believe you received something when you prayed for it, what are you going to do to try to bring it to pass? If you say, for instance, that you believe by the stripes of Jesus you were healed, yet you continue trying to get healed by some worldly means, what you are proving is that you don't believe the good news that Jesus already healed you at the cross. For many years, I've never missed receiving a healing. I've raised five children and they have all received healing from the Lord. They were born at home (except for my oldest) and received healing for anything they ever needed. It didn't matter if it was broken bones, diseases, or whatever. They were always healed because I acted on what I saw in the Word of God concerning healing. His Word says that you don't have to accomplish healing; you have to receive it as a free gift, just as you receive every other form of salvation as a free gift. Since “God chose … the things that are not” to bring to nothing “the things that are,” how does He do that? (Rom.4:17) … God … calleth the things that are not, as though they were. Well then, how do we do that? We just speak it as done. Every miracle that Jesus ever did, He spoke it first. Nothing was there. He spoke it first, and it came to pass. And what the Lord wants us to do is speak in agreement with the Word. (Amo.3:3) Shall two walk together, except they have agreed? We need to speak in agreement with the Word of God. If the Bible says we're healed, we need to agree with that. If we have to call for the elders to anoint us with oil so we can put our faith together to agree with that, then that's what we should do, but we need to agree with that. (Rom.6:11) Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. You are delivered from sin. Consider it done. Why are so many people anxious and troubled about their sins? It's because they don't believe the Gospel! Why are so many people anxious and troubled about getting a healing? It's because they don't believe the Gospel! Why are so many people trying to deliver themselves? It's because they are not believing and acting upon the Gospel. Salvation in any form is a free gift. You accept it by faith. You speak it by faith. It is yours. (Col.1:12) Giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; (13) who delivered us (past tense) out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love. If you are attempting to save yourself and not accepting that you were delivered at the cross, then what you are proving is that you don't believe the Gospel. You believe in salvation by works. All of your self-efforts are hindering God from giving you what He wants to give you because He chose the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are. The “things that are not” are these promises. The “things that are” is the curse. Look around you; God says He healed you and sometimes you don't look healed. He says He delivered you from sin and sometimes you don't think you are delivered from sin. He says He delivered you out of the power of darkness and sometimes you think you might have demons. Apostle Paul said, (Php.4:19) And my God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Every need! Wow! That's awesome! “My God shall supply every need of yours.” Think about that. You need to know and confess that all of God's promises are true anywhere you are. When you get into that wilderness, God is going to be there. God told Paul in (2Co.12:9) And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. His power is true power when we are weak, when we give up our own efforts to save ourselves. In the wilderness, there was no visible means of support for the Israelites. There was no lush land or a wondrous place to raise sheep and goats and crops. It was a desert. God brought them there to prove to them that He was Jehovah-jireh; the Lord my provider. (Gen.22:14) And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh. As it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. He brought them there to prove that He was their provider in all things, but they moaned, and they complained, and they wouldn't believe God, and so they fell in the wilderness because they walked by sight and not by faith. God is about to send us into a wilderness. We are coming to a place where the world will no longer cooperate with us, but will turn against us, persecute us, and separate us from their benefits. They will blame us for the judgments that are falling upon the world. There will be a brief recovery of the economy and then a collapse and wilderness.  The governments are going to look for whomever they can blame and cut off because their resources will be gone. Remember that Egypt was completely ruined by the time the Israelites went into the wilderness (Exo.10:7). But before the Israelites went into the wilderness, they had already eaten the Passover lamb. Then they came out of Egypt and passed through the Red Sea, which Paul called a “baptism.” (1Co.10:1) For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; (2) and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; (3) and did all eat the same spiritual food; (4) and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ. So they were saved, they were baptized, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and went right into the wilderness. If you believe the Word of God, that's exactly what you do! You go immediately into the wilderness, even if you are a baby Christian. You walk into that wilderness, you walk into that place where you receive your sustenance out of Heaven from God and you no longer receive your sustenance from man by his methods, by the works of the flesh. When the Israelites went into their wilderness, they carried all of their provisions out there with them, but in only three days, they started running out (Exo.15:22). In spite of their own efforts, they found themselves still dependent on the hand of God. Many Christians today think that we're going to store up all these things and get prepared for the coming wilderness, but God said that “My power is made perfect in weakness.” God is bringing us into a wilderness to multiply the food (Mat.14:13- 21; Mar.6:30-44, etc.), to bring the manna out of Heaven (Exo.16:31,35; Num.11:7,9, etc.), to bring the water out of the rock (Exo.17:6; Num.20:8, etc.) He's going to do all these miraculous things and more to provide for His people, yet His people are still of a mind of salvation by works. They think, “We don't have to walk by faith! We are going to save ourselves!” Well, I can tell you that exactly what happened to the Israelites is going to happen to the Church. In the wilderness, they are going to run out of everything, and they are going to be back depending upon God because that's His plan! We have to learn to use those promises, we have to learn to use the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are. Even though we see that the promises are not yet fulfilled in this physical realm, we have to use them to provide ourselves with the things that we need. Jesus already provided us with everything right there at the cross, and only through our weakness is God's power going to be made perfect (2 Corinthians 12:9). Many years ago, I was driving down the interstate and I passed over the River Jordan, except it was spelled “Jourdan” instead of “Jordan.” And when I passed over it, the thought came into my mind, “Oh, boy! Thank You, Lord! I'm going to the Promised Land!” But God immediately corrected me. He said, “No, you're not. I'm sending you through a wilderness so that you can tell My people that I still supply there.” That's what happened, and at the time, I was in a wilderness. I had been in it for many years, but the Lord helped me to explain it better. My wilderness was simply that I believed the Word of God when I was a baby Christian. I didn't have any religious background; I was raised a Catholic, but I didn't know anything about the Bible, so at home I started reading the Bible. I was just consumed with a love for the Bible! I knew that this was the truth, and so I began to act upon those awesome, precious promises that God has given us, and I began to see some wondrous miracles before I ever became mixed up with any religion. I just knew that those promises didn't pass away with the apostles. The Lord taught me in this wilderness how to receive provision from Him, and He taught me that so that I can teach it to you. It's exactly as He told me: “I'm sending you through a wilderness so that you can tell My people that I still supply there,” because we are going into a wilderness. The Tribulation period is the wilderness (Rev.12:6, 17:6). And we have to prepare for this wilderness, but not in the way that carnally-minded Christians have been teaching. I can tell you right now that how they are getting prepared is not going to last. To get prepared to walk through this wilderness, you need to walk by faith in the promises of God. You need to act on what you read in the Word, and if you will do that, you will be weak. That's because you can do nothing to bring to pass a promise that God says He's already given you. If He says that He has healed you and you go running to man for healing, then you prove you haven't believed that verse yet! And you are not in the wilderness because, when you are in the wilderness, you are in a place of weakness to the flesh. The flesh cannot save itself in the wilderness; it has to turn to God. God started teaching me these principles of just acting upon the Word, and before I knew what a wilderness was, I was going there. So you don't have to wait to go into the wilderness. In fact, if you go there and you overcome now, you will be one of those whom God will use to bring others there and teach them the ways of the Lord. (Isa.55:8) For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. (9) For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. The ways of the Lord are not our ways. He has methods that are not our methods. You don't have to read the Gospel very far before you realize that. Jesus didn't use the methods of the world to bring about the deliverance of God's people. When did Jesus send anybody to a psychiatrist or a doctor? He spoke the Word of God! He called the things that are not as though they were. We're going to do the same thing! If you make it through that wilderness, you are going to do the same thing. Some of what God began to teach me about living in the wilderness had to do with my finances. For instance, I have been ministering for 55 years now, and I've never taken an offering. “Taking” an offering is an oxymoron! You can't “take” an offering; it's supposed to be freely given! Now, I have preached in other assemblies where people have taken up offerings for me.  And some of them, I'm sorry to say, were use to their preacher's “beatings” to make them give through condemnation. But the Lord taught me at the beginning, (Mat.10:8) … freely ye received, freely give (Deu.15:10; Psa.112:9, etc.). God wanted me to give everything that He gave to me, to just give it freely, knowing that He is Almighty God and that He will take care of me. And when I ministered, I never asked for an offering, nor do I talk about money in our local assembly. I know that in most churches, they talk about money every time they meet, but I don't talk about money because God puts it in people's hearts to meet the needs of the brethren. So I freely give and for the past 55 years, God has freely given to me. Truly, if you prove God's Word, you will be very impressed with God. I'm very impressed with God! I know He watches over me, I know that He knows my needs, I know that He provides for my needs and I know that I don't have to stand around and beg Him or beg men. I've never taken an offering and I continue to freely give of my ministry to people. We freely give away our materials and our books on our website, but God puts it in people's hearts to give back. (Luk.6:38) Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again. Wow! That's awesome! And I've never had to condemn people into giving to me, either. I don't even have to mention it. I have taught on giving, of course, but I've never taught on giving to me, and I've never taught on putting people under the Law to give to me. The disciples never took up an offering for themselves but for saints who were suffering elsewhere. For instance, you can't find the command to tithe in the New Testament. Jesus said that tithing was of the Law. (Mat.23:23) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done (under the Law), and not to have left the other undone. There's no place in the New Testament where God commanded Christians to be tithers. That was a law that was given in the Old Testament to the Old Covenant people. If a preacher drags it over into the New Covenant, it's because he's not obeying Jesus. He's not freely giving and freely receiving. What he's doing is condemning people into supporting him because he has no faith. When Jesus sent out the disciples, they were men of faith, or He would not have ordained them, and He would not have sent them out. And when He sent them out, He told them, “Freely ye received, freely give,” and that's what they did. They didn't take up any offerings. They didn't throw any pity parties. They didn't cry about all of their needs. They trusted in Almighty God! He can take care of us and, by the way, He is not poverty-stricken! I learned very quickly that tithing was something that churches used because they didn't trust God, so they were putting God's people under the Law, which was pronounced to be a curse. (Deu.28:15) But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee. (Jas.2:10) For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one [point,] he is become guilty of all. I learned that Jesus said, (Luk.14:33) So therefore whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. We are not stewards of 10% and owners of 90% anymore! Read the New Testament! We are called “stewards” of 100%!  We handle it for God. We've been bought with a price (1Co.6:19-20; 7:23). We are not our own and neither is anything that we have. We are bondservants, and everything that we have belongs to our Master. He's the One Who tells us what to do with it, how much to give, where to give and to whom. Yes, we do in type and shadow, bring our tithes into the storehouse (Mal.3:10), which in the Old Testament was in the middle of the temple, but in the New Testament, God's people are the temple. When Jesus returns to judge the nations, He's not going to say anything about the tithe. (Mat.25:34) Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: (35) for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in (Notice its all about how we treat the temple.); (36) naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. (37) Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? or athirst, and gave thee drink? (38) And when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? (39) And when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? (40) And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me. You see, you bring your “tithes” into the storehouse by how you treat the temple. At times, God has even called on me to give away my car and my house, but anything that I gave away, He always gave back to me and, in most cases, even better. He has never failed me! When I've been to minister as an invited speaker at other assemblies, I always appreciated it if they chose to give me an offering, but I never asked for one. I also learned that it pleased God if I didn't tell everyone my needs. I just told Him my needs. There's not one instance in the Bible where an apostle took up offerings or told anyone their own needs. The only time they took up an offering was for someone else; they took up an offering for the saints in Jerusalem who were in desperate need, because when they came to Christianity, the Jews around them were plundering them. (Heb.10:34) For ye both had compassion on them that were in bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your possessions, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one. And so Paul had the churches take up offerings for the saints (1Co.16:3; 2Co.9:5; 12:16-18; Php.4:15-19), but he never took up an offering for himself and nobody else did, either. They were men of faith, and they walked by faith. They knew they were working for the Father and that the Father would pay them. You get to see the glory of God if you don't do things in the flesh. I'll give you one little instance. But first please remember that we have nothing to brag about. Everything comes from our awesome God by unmerited favor through faith which is His gift to us. When my children were young, I was impressed that I needed to go to Louisiana to visit some relatives. Well, this was at a time when I didn't have any money whatsoever. Even my children asked, “How are we going to Louisiana?” It was a pretty good drive, four-and-a-half hours from where we lived, and I told them, “We are going to go by faith.” I never let on to anybody in our assembly, “Well, I'm going to Louisiana and I don't have any money.” The next day, we all piled into our car, which was out of gas, and we headed out to Louisiana. Now, as I was going out of the door, I saw where a sister had left her Bible on the table, so I picked it up and I said, “We'll drop this by on our way.” You know, I was convinced that God was just going to put gas in my car because He had done it many times before. And when we stopped by this sister's house, I knocked on her door and I handed her the Bible when she answered. I said, “You left this at our house and I didn't want you to go through the weekend without having the Word.” I turned around to leave, but she said, “David, the Lord is telling me to give this to you,” and she handed me a $20 bill. Now, in those days, a $20 bill would fill up even a big station wagon, which is what I had with five kids in it. So I thanked her and I turned around and went back to town, and I took that money and filled the tank up with gas.  We were excited because the pump clicked off at $20. Folks, you never saw a tank of gas in a big gas hog car like mine go as far as that tank of gas went! And when we took off for Louisiana, we still didn't have any money because we had put it all in the gas tank. After we got to Louisiana and were visiting, an assembly over there somehow found out I was in town. They decided to invite me over to preach and, sure enough, they took up an offering and blessed me. I came back with a whole lot more money than when I left. Praise be to God! I remember taking my kids to the beach when we didn't have any gas in the car and God put gas in the car. And I remember one time a friend called me to come and pick him up because he had run his car off the road, and he was stuck. That was when my car was empty. It had been empty for days, and I had been driving it that way for days, and he was on the other side of town. I said, “Lord, Your Word says, ‘Give to him that asketh of thee' (Mat.5:42; Luk.6:30), and he's asking, so I'm going!” I got in my car that I'd been driving for several days without any gas in it, and I went over there and I picked him up where he was stuck alongside the road. I dragged him out and came back home. You know, I drove that car for a week and it never ran out of gas. There was another time I actually did have plenty of money, but the gas stations were closed. When I lived over in Baton Rouge, I once had to go to work very, very early in the morning, and I didn't realize that all those stations weren't open that early. I went to a couple of them, and they were closed, but I decided, “Well, Lord, nothing is stopping You from putting gas in my tank. I'm going.” So I jumped up on the interstate, and before I had gone anywhere, I saw that gas tank needle start climbing; I think it climbed up about a third of a tank while I was driving down the interstate, and then it stopped. I asked, “Well, Lord, why didn't You just go ahead and fill it up?” And I heard Him answer, “Well, I always give you what you need.” I said, “That's right!” It didn't matter to me if I ran out because I've seen my car run without any gas in it. It makes no difference to God. We must become as a child in trusting our Father. To such belongs the Kingdom of heaven. God bless you to believe and trust in His promises you find in the Word of His provision and care for you!

Amos - Israel Has Not Returned to God, A Lament and Call to Repentance, The Day of the LORD, Woe to the Complacent, The LORD Abhors the Pride of Israel, Locusts, Fire and a Plumb Line, Amos and Amaziah2 Corinthians - Generosity Encouraged

Special Guest Speaker Karen Rodriguez brings this week's message, “God is Not Your Good Luck Charm." Key Verse: 1 Samuel 4:1-11 ESV: “And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped at Aphek. The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field of battle. And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.” So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. As soon as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded. And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, “What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” And when they learned that the ark of the Lord had come to the camp, the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “A god has come into the camp.” And they said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness. Take courage, and be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and fight.” So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell. And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.” 2 Samuel 6:1-11 ESV: “David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale-judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim. And they carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart, with the ark of God, and Ahio went before the ark. And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez-uzzah to this day. And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household.” If you enjoyed the podcast, please subscribe and share it with your friends on social media. For more information about PNEUMA Church, visit our website at mypneumachurch.org. Connect with Us: Instagram: https://instagram.com/mypneumachurch YouTube: https://youtube.com/mypneumachurch Facebook: https://facebook.com/mypneumachurch Time Stamps: 00:00 - Introduction 00:30 - Welcome 01:44 - 1 Samuel 4:1-11 ESV 04:15 - God is Not Your Good Luck Charm

Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

durée : 01:00:18 - A Tale of Woe - par : Nathalie Piolé -

Cancel culture seems to demand that we choose sides—cutting off, calling out, and canceling others with little room for redemption. But what does a Gospel response look like? How do we teach our daughters to stand firm in their faith without returning fire with fire?  In this Thursday episode, co-hosts Rachael Culpepper and Natalie Ambrose dig deep into how the divide created by cancel culture can be reconciled—not through compromise, but through Christ. Rooted in the ministry of reconciliation described in 2 Corinthians 5, this episode explores what it means to be a peacemaker in a polarized world and how to help your daughter hold truth and grace in tension.  From toddler playground scuffles to teenaged social dynamics, cancel culture is showing up in your daughter's life earlier than ever. But instead of teaching her to cancel back, this conversation invites you to cast a different vision—one that prioritizes empathy, identity in Christ, spiritual maturity, and prayer for those who oppose her.  You'll walk away with:  A Gospel-centered framework for responding to cancel culture  Real-life language to help your daughter approach conflict differently  3 practical jumping-off points to move her from canceling to reconciling  AHG resources like GRIT with Grace that equip girls to practice Biblical unity in their everyday relationships  As American Heritage Girls Founder & Executive Director Emeritus Patti Garibay reminds us in this week's Raising Godly Girls Minute, our differences are not a threat—they are an opportunity to celebrate the body of Christ in its fullness. Unity doesn't mean sameness; it means choosing love in the face of division.  Scripture References:  Genesis 6 – God grieves humanity's wickedness  Isaiah 5:20 – “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil...”  2 Corinthians 5:17–20 – Ministry of reconciliation  Romans 14:1–12 – Unity in the body despite differences  Matthew 5:43–44 – “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”  Revelation 7:9 – A vision of heaven's diversity: every tribe, nation, and tongue  2 Timothy 1:7 – Spirit of power, love, and self-discipline  Our girls don't need to be cultural chameleons—they need to be Gospel lights. Teach her to lead with conviction, but love like Christ.  Explore more resources to raise girls rooted in Christ at raisinggodlygirls.com.    To find or start an AHG Troop in your area, visit americanheritagegirls.org. 

Today's Topics: 1) Gospel - Matthew 23:13-22  - Jesus said to the crowds and to His disciples: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves. “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.' Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If one swears by the altar, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.' You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it; one who swears by the temple swears by it and by Him Who dwells in it; one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by Him Who is seated on it.” Memorial of Saint Louis of France Memorial of Saint Joseph Calasanz, Priest Saints Louis and Joseph, pray for us! Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2) Pope Leo recommends the moral teachings/theology of the great pre-Vatican II moralist and Saint, Alphonsus Ligouri https://southernorderspage.blogspot.com/2025/08/pope-leo-recommends-moral.html 3) Birthright citizenship is much more complex than media wants you to believe https://www.returntoorder.org/2025/08/birthright-citizenship-is-much-more-complex-than-the-media-wants-you-to-believe/ 4) United States: Conversions to Catholicism at highest level in 20 years https://fsspx.news/en/news/united-states-conversions-catholicism-highest-level-20-years-54011

Today's Topics: 1) Gospel - Matthew 23:23-26 - Jesus said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel! “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.” Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2, 3, 4) Damning exposé of Bugnini in so-called liturgist's rediscovered memoirs https://www.complicitclergy.com  /2025/08/15/damning-expose-of-bugnini-in-prominent-liturgists-rediscovered-memoirs/

Today's Topics: 1) Gospel - Matthew 23:27-32 - Jesus said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous, and you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets' blood.' Thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets; now fill up what your ancestors measured out!" Memorial of Saint Monica Saint Monica, pray for us! Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2, 3, 4) Terry and Jesse discuss today's Minneapolis shooting tragedy by a so-called "transgeder" woman, killing two children at Mass and wounding many others

Gospel Matthew 23:27-32 Jesus said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous, and you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets' blood.' Thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets; now fill up what your ancestors measured out!” Reflection When evil is involved, things don't stay the same, they get worse. The lies get bigger. The hypocrisy grows. And when that happens, there's such a terrifying end to it all. When we look at these men who Jesus has complained about being not good ministers of the temple. Now he actually says what their evil has led to. They, the ministry of the temple, is willing to kill the greatest prophet, the Son of God. Closing Prayer Father, help us to be aware of evil in our lives. Hypocrisy. Little lies that we think are not that bad, but then they grow. So help us always to pay attention to who we are and where we have weakness, give us strength to change and to grow, and to enter the light. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Jesus said,"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside,but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth.Even so, on the outside you appear righteous,but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing."Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.You build the tombs of the prophetsand adorn the memorials of the righteous,and you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors,we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets' blood.'Thus you bear witness against yourselvesthat you are the children of those who murdered the prophets;now fill up what your ancestors measured out!"

Good Noise Podcast discuss new releases from We Came As Romans, Signs of the Swarm, Hot Mulligan, Deftones, Three Days Grace, and more. Show reviews -Architects, Erra, Holywatr -Wage War, Tech N9ne -Chevelle, Asking Alexandria, Dead Poet Society Album reviews We Came As Romans, Signs of the Swarm, Hot Mulligan, Deftones, Woe, Is Me, and Three Days Grace Single reviews The Devil Wears Prada, Taylor Acorn, Windwaker, Silverstein / Cassadee Pope, Motion City Soundtrack / Mat Kerekes, Extortionist, Dayseeker, Greyhaven, Gore., The Barbarians of California, and Ryan Oakes Grab some GNP Merch!: https://goodnoisepodcast.creator-spring.com/ Check out the recording gear we use: https://www.amazon.com/shop/goodnoisepodcast Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/goodnoisepodcast Good Noise Podcast Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodnoisepodcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goodnoisepod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@goodnoisepodcast Discord: https://discord.gg/nDAQKwT YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFHKPdUxxe1MaGNWoFtjoJA Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/04IMtdIrCIvbIr7g6ttZHi All other streaming platforms: https://linktr.ee/goodnoisepodcast Bandcamp: https://goodnoiserecords.bandcamp.com/

If I take the wings of the dawn, if I settle at the farthest limits of the sea, Even there your hand shall guide me, and your right hand hold me fast. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 23:27-32, today's readings).Jesus said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing."Jesus condemns the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy; they appear beautiful on the outside and in adorning the memorials of the righteous, whom their ancestors killed. Yet, on the inside they are filled with "dead men's bones and every kind of filth" as they mask the inner decay of immorality and sin. As Saint Paul shares the Gospel in the first reading, he conveys the spirit of love that the Father continuously pours out on us, encouraging and insisting that those who follow Christ "walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his Kingdom of glory."God, as Saint Paul gives thanks unceasingly in sharing and receiving your word—not the word of men but the word of God—I ask for the grace to do the same. The Gospel acclamation describes the divine outcome of nurturing and keeping the word immanent, of persisting in prayer as Saint Monica did: "Whoever keeps the word of Christ, the love of God is truly perfected in him." The words of Christ to the Pharisees—"inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing"—penetrate deep within to help me recognize when I lose sight of the word and turn away from you. Yet, Lord, in your goodness, even there you attend to me, and the psalmist's prayer is mine as I say: "Even there your hand shall guide me, and your right hand hold me fast." Saint Monica, pray for us!Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Read OnlineJesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.”  Matthew 23:27–28This would not have been an easy thing for the scribes and Pharisees to hear. It is a hard truth, spoken by our Lord, partly in an attempt to shake them free of their sin. And even though they may not have enjoyed hearing this clear condemnation spoken, since it came from the Savior of the World, we can be sure that these are words of the deepest love and were spoken so that these men would repent and change their ways.Perhaps each of us, at times, feels like criticizing another. Most often, when we feel this way, it stems from our own personal sin of anger. Perhaps we were hurt by another and that hurt results in a desire for a form of vengeance that comes from anger. But this was not the case with Jesus.First, these words were spoken by Jesus to his disciples and to the crowds of people, not only to the scribes and Pharisees. So in many ways Jesus spoke this for the good of those who were suffering under the misguided leadership of these religious leaders. But Jesus knew that these leaders would also hear His words, so He spoke those words to them. But unlike us, He did it out of perfect virtue so as to care for their souls.At times, each one of us needs to hear Jesus rebuke us in love. If any of the scribes and Pharisees were open at that time, then Jesus' words would have first stung them to the heart but then had the powerful effect of challenging them to change. They needed this and so do we. When we become stuck in our sins, especially if obstinacy sets in, then we need to allow Jesus to challenge us firmly. Such a challenge can be rattling, but that rattling is sometimes necessary. Emotion and passion can lead to sin, but it can also lead to repentance and conversion. The passion with which Jesus spoke became an instrument by which their own passions made them sit up and take notice. The result was that they either became more steeped in their sin or they repented. And though most became even more steeped in sin, which ultimately resulted in their persecution and death of Jesus, we can hope that there were some who did repent, such as Nicodemus. Reflect, today, upon the strength of Jesus' words to these religious leaders. Though they were supposed to be both “religious” and “leaders,” they were neither. They needed Jesus' strength, courage and firmness. They needed to be confronted directly and receive the hard and clear truth about their sin.Reflect upon what it is in your own life that Jesus wants to say to you. Is there an area of your life in which our Lord needs to address you with passion, strength, clarity and firmness? Most likely there is. Perhaps not in an area of serious sin like it was with these scribes and Pharisees, but if we are open, Jesus wants to powerfully go after every sin within us. Open yourself to Him and allow Him to help rid you of the sins with which you struggle the most. And be grateful for this grace when He does.My passionate Lord, You hate sin but love the sinner. You perfectly desire to rid me of all sin and all attachment to sin. Please open my mind and heart to hear Your rebukes of Love so that I may respond to Your invitation to repent with all my heart. I love You dear Lord. Free me from sin so that I may love You more. Jesus, I trust in You.  Image via Adobe StockSource of content: catholic-daily-reflections.comCopyright © 2025 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission via RSS feed.

Gospel  Matthew 23:23-26 Jesus said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel! “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.” Reflection If religion loses its focus, if those who are in charge of a religious community lose a sense of what's really essential, it's often that they replace what is essential, what is most basic, with things to do. Ways to act without any reflection on transformation. So in this passage, we see so clearly Jesus saying, in place of the law, which are the Ten Commandments, you have simply turned all of that into a long list of how to wash dishes, how to clean a room, how to fix anything. It was turning from the essence of the law to simply things that gave you a sense that when you did them, you were pleasing God. Closing Prayer Practices in religion are important, but their goal is always to put us in touch with you, God. In a personal relationship where we feel your presence, know you are with us and engage with you so much so that we are able to share your gifts with others. Bless us with that kind of integrity and keep us away from busy work, that gives us the illusion that we are holy. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jesus said:“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin,and have neglected the weightier things of the law:judgment and mercy and fidelity.But these you should have done, without neglecting the others.Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.You cleanse the outside of cup and dish,but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup,so that the outside also may be clean.”

Daily Dose of Hope August 26, 2025   Scripture – Luke 11:14-54   Prayer:  Dear Heavenly Father, I come before you today with humility.  You are holy, you are perfect, and I am painfully flawed.  Forgive me, Lord, for the way I fall short over and over again.  Forgive me for not being loving, patient, and kind.  Jesus, I want to follow your example.  I want to have a clean and pure heart.  How I need you.  Create in me a pure heart, Lord, and renew a right spirit within me.  I love you.  Amen.   Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional that complements the New Hope Church Bible reading plan.  We are currently doing a deep dive into the Gospels and Acts.  Today, we finish up Luke 11.   Today's reading starts with Jesus healing a man possessed by a demon who makes him mute.  The healing leads the Pharisees to make some pretty serious misjudgments.  They were talking amongst themselves but Jesus knows their thoughts.  The Pharisees say that Jesus is healing through the power of Beelzebub, the Prince of Demons.  Jesus tells them that Satan won't drive himself out.  A divided Kingdom will not stand.    Why their resistance to belief?  Why are they so fiercely against Jesus?  Most likely because Jesus doesn't look, talk, or behave as they think a Messiah should.  He challenges their fundamental beliefs.  If we are honest, Jesus challenges some of our fundamental beliefs too.  The question is always:  Will we choose to believe or will we reject like the Pharisees?  Jesus says that whoever is not with him is against him.  There is no half-way with Jesus.    One other interesting tidbit about this part of the passage is at the end, when a woman from the crowd calls out, “Blessed is the mother who gave birth to you and nursed you.”  As a mom, I think this is kind of sweet, but Jesus clearly redirects her.  Blessedness doesn't come from biological connectedness.  Blessedness, according to Jesus, comes from obedience.  Mary was blessed but it was because she was obedient to God, not because her womb was somehow holy.   The people, including the religious leaders, continue to want signs and miracles.  Jesus calls them a wicked generation.  He knows that more miracles will not make them believe.  Afterall, he has already done incredibly ministry with all kinds of miracles of healing and abundance.  Jesus has already performed the miracles that the Old Testament spoke about – the blind see, the deaf hear, the oppressed are set free.  What kind of sign would it take for them to really believe?   He tells them that the only sign they would get would be the sign of Jonah.  Remember that Jonah avoided Ninevah by jumping on a ship and trying to hide from God.  He ended up being swallowed by a large fish and he stayed in the belly of that fish for three days before God allowed him to be spit up and see the light of day.  Thus, the sign of Jonah, for an unbelieving people, is a reference to Jesus' impending death, followed three days later by resurrection.  Will that make them believe?    Next, Jesus talks about the eyes being a lamp which lights the entire body.  The eyes are like the doorway to our souls.  When Jesus referred to “good” eyes, he meant eyes that not only see well but also perceive well. It is not only what we see, but how we perceive what we see that makes the difference between godliness and ungodliness, between light and darkness. Bad eyes lead to bad perception, but if our eyes are good, our whole person will be illuminated. If we are in a lighted room, we see things clearly. We can move around obstacles and locate whatever we're looking for. But walking in darkness results in stumbling and falling.   Our reading today closes with the woes to the Pharisees.  The Pharisees notice that Jesus doesn't do the ceremonial handwashing before the meal and they are surprised.  Jesus responds with some pretty harsh words.  Basically, who cares if the outside of your cup is clean if the inside is filled with filth?  The Pharisees and teachers of the law looked so good on the outside, doing all the right things, but their hearts were filled with greed, arrogance, and evil.  Then, Jesus begins a series of woes:   Verse 42 - Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God.  They loved their religion more than they loved God and neighbor.  The Pharisees had a lot of religious busyness, a lot of stuff they did for God.  They were so careful to tithe 10% of their herb garden but they treated people poorly, they neglected the poor, they didn't care for their neighbor.  They didn't really love God.  They loved the idea of God.   Verse 43 - Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.  The most respected teachers and elders sat at the front of the synagogue facing the congregation. In fact, if you visit some old churches, they may have chairs on the platform for the elders, pastor, and other leaders of the church to sit. But is sitting up front wrong? No, it's sitting up front to be seen by others. The issue is their pride. The Pharisees loved receiving special honorary greetings in the marketplace too.   You see, if we are doing what we are doing for the wrong reason, if you are serving where you are serving for the wrong reason, then we are totally missing the point and woe to us.    Verse 44 - “Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.” In Israel tombs were white-washed (they still are) and this wasn't just so they looked pretty.  Not at all.  This actually was done to prevent people from accidentally stepping on them and contracting ritual uncleanliness. Numbers 19 says if you touch a bone or grave, then you would be unclean for a week until you underwent a cleansing process. Jesus turns this upside down.  He says, you guys are totally missing it.  In fact, you are missing it so much that when people come in contact with the you, Pharisees, they get infected and unclean.  That's how dirty your hearts are.  Ouch!    Verse 45 - One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.”  I picture Jesus kind of looking at him and thinking, duh?  But this is what he says, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.  These experts in the law would study the Old Testament Scriptures and develop guidelines for the people to follow.  Many of the rules that these experts would impose on the people were really burdensome.  The average poor Jew, someone who maybe worked in the fields, could not possibly carry out the Jewish law the way the experts in the law would say they should.    But the woes keep coming.  Verses 47-48, “Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. 48 So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. Jesus is saying to the teachers of the law, “Your ancestors killed the prophets. And you think that if you had been there, you wouldn't have done that.  So you build these tombs to the prophets to make up for that.  And yet, the prophet of all prophets is right here before you and you have rejected him.”  And of course, he is referring to himself.  This is where we have to be so careful about judgement.  We have this tendency to think “Well, if I had been there, I wouldn't have done that.  I wouldn't have killed that prophet.  I wouldn't have persecuted that person.”  Friends, be careful.  That's kind of like saying, “We would never have called out Crucify Him.”  But we are weak people.  Recognizing the weakness and frailties of our heart is the first step.  We have to recognize that we are vulnerable and we are sinful.  We need the power and strength of Jesus in us to even have a chance to get our hearts right.  Let's finish the Scripture with verses 52-54, “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.” When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, 54 waiting to catch him in something he might say. Jesus tells them, “You aren't helping people understand God's Word.  You are making it harder, more convoluted.”  I think this is a really fair warning to all of us who are teachers and preachers and leaders in the church – are we making the Bible easier to understand or harder?  This isn't just in what we say but also in what we do.   One thing I think God has taught me through this passage is that I need to humble myself and make sure my whole heart is right with God.  Think about it.  The Pharisees thought they were doing it all right.  They thought that what they were doing was what made them acceptable to God.  They thought they were being righteous gatekeepers.  And Jesus said, YOU ARE TOTALLY MISSING THE POINT!  Jesus saved his harshest words for the religious people and last time I checked, that's us. Y'all, it is so very easy to be religious, it is a lot harder to be loving.  It is so very easy to “do the stuff that appears to make us look like good Christians.”  It's a lot harder to do the stuff that actually makes us good Christians, to really, really love God and to really, really love others and to acknowledge that those two things can't be separated.    Jesus could care less about the outside.  He doesn't care about steeples.  He doesn't care about stain-glass windows.  He doesn't care about the façade we present to the world.  He doesn't care if I wear a nice dress and heels.  None of that matters to him.  He cares about our hearts.  He can see our hearts.  He knows us through and through.  He knows what we value.  He knows what we think about others.  He knows.  He doesn't just see the outside of us.  He sees us.  The Pharisees believed the lie that God sees as man sees.  They were wrong.  God sees with ex-ray vision the true nature of our soul.    And that sends me to the foot of the cross.  More tomorrow.   Blessings, Pastor Vicki      

O LORD, you have probed me and you know me; you know when I sit and when I stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. My journeys and my rest you scrutinize, with all my ways you are familiar. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 23:23-26, today's readings).“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.”Jesus addresses the scribes and Pharisees for taking advantage of their position to distort Mosaic law for self-serving purposes. In doing this, they also bring others into this dysfunction by setting an example. Jesus affirms this by calling them guides, but they are blind guides, neglecting more meaningful aspects of the law such as "judgment and mercy and fidelity." By contrast, in the first reading, Saint Paul describes the example the apostles set as they shared the Gospel with the people of Philippi: "Rather, we were gentle among you, as a nursing mother cares for her children. With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you not only the Gospel of God, but our very selves as well, so dearly beloved had you become to us." How does Christ call us to share "our very selves" in his mission of mercy?God, you call me continuously to love as you love and to be merciful as you are merciful. Jesus commands the Pharisees to be attentive to the weightier things of the law: judgment and fidelity and mercy. You alone, Lord, are perfectly just and merciful. Give me the grace to work on this today as I strive to remain faithful to your will. The opportunity may not come again, or I may not recognize it at another time. Make clear to me today how you work with me in the way of interior sanctification, in the way of cleansing the inside of the cup so that the outside may also be clean.Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Tuesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary TimeMatthew 23:23-26“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.You cleanse the outside of cup and dish,but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup,so that the outside also may be clean.”

Read Online“Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.” Matthew 23:24–26Imagine if someone were to offer to wash the dishes after dinner and all they did was to wash the outside of the cups and bowls but left the inside untouched and then placed them back in the cupboard. The next time you would go to use them, you would find them looking good until you took them down and saw the dried liquid and food inside. This is the image that Jesus uses to describe the Pharisees. They only cared about the external appearance and ignored the more important interior of the soul.Jesus also used the contrasting images of straining out the gnat and swallowing the camel. This was a reference to the laws in Leviticus that forbade the Israelites from eating “swarming creatures,” such as gnats and other bugs, (Leviticus 11:41–45) as well as the meat of camels (Leviticus 11:4). Saying that the Pharisees “strain out the gnat and swallow the camel” was a figure of speech by which Jesus accused the Pharisees of distorting the smallest details of the law while ignoring the most important ones. For example, the Pharisees required everyone to strain all liquid before drinking it, just in case a gnat accidentally was present in that liquid, but they cared little about true justice when it came to killing the Son of God. For these reasons, the Pharisees had become “blind guides” and “hypocrites,” incapable of leading people to holiness.The bottom line is that Jesus is telling us that we must truly become holy, not just appear so. God sees the heart and judges the heart. The only other person who can see your heart is you. Therefore, we must also hear this condemnation of the Pharisees so that we will understand the importance of looking into our own souls first and foremost. From there, from the holiness within, our exterior will also radiate the holiness of God.One of the documents of Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, beautifully speaks to us about the conscience: “Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths” (#16). This “secret core and sanctuary” within us is what Jesus is most concerned about. Very often we are tempted to be far more concerned about how we look to others than how we truly are inside. For example, the person who lives a sinful double life may go to great lengths to look holy to others, doing all they can to hide their sin from others. On the contrary, someone might be living a very holy life but be falsely accused by another publicly, causing much pain. In the former case, as long as the person is not found out, they appear at peace. In the latter case, even though the person is living a good and holy life, if they are falsely accused, they may be tempted to despair as their public image is shattered.What others think and say about us is ultimately out of our control to a lesser or greater degree. What is within our control is that which is within us. Our interior life, that secret core, that sanctuary within where we meet God, must become the focus of our energies. Exteriorly, it ought not matter that others praise us or criticize us. What matters is that which is true, and only you and God can look into your heart to see that truth. The Pharisees failed to understand this essential truth. They put all their energy into their public image, neglecting that which was most important, making them incapable of leading others to God. Reflect, today, upon your soul. How often do you look inside yourself? Are you able to be honest with yourself, acknowledging your sin and being grateful for your virtue? Or are you among those who are more concerned with how you look to others? Turn your eyes to the secret sanctuary within because it is there, in that secret core, that you will meet God, grow in holiness and then radiate that true holiness within our world. When that happens, God will also be able to use you to be a true guide to holiness for others. Lord of true holiness, You desire to cleanse my soul, and You invite me to meet You there within. Please give me the grace I need to care more about my holiness within than the external perceptions and judgments of others. May I become holy, dear Lord, and learn to become an instrument of that holiness for others. Jesus, I trust in You.Image via Brooklyn MuseumSource of content: catholic-daily-reflections.comCopyright © 2025 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission via RSS feed.

Gospel Matthew 23:13-22 Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves. “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.' Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If one swears by the altar, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.' You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it; one who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it; one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who is seated on it.” Reflection As a minister of the church today it's really hard to listen to these woes, these criticisms of the Pharisees and the scribes, and the fact that they were playing at being what they were supposed to be. And there's always that temptation when you have a role that exalts you and puts you above others, it's hard to be humble. It's hard to accept your faults or even talk about them. So the problem with these men were that they were so caught up in a system that gave them automatic authority without earning it, and this was the disaster that happened to the temple. Not only did the Pharisees not lead people to God, but they themselves wouldn't even go near God as he truly is, leaving the impossibility that those who teach could ever find God. Closing Prayer Father, help us to understand that we need to face very clearly anything in us that inflates us, that makes us feel better than we are. Integrity, authenticity is what was missing in the scribes and Pharisees. Help that not to happen to us. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men.You do not enter yourselves,nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.You traverse sea and land to make one convert,and when that happens you make him a child of Gehennatwice as much as yourselves.“Woe to you, blind guides, who say,‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing,but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.'Blind fools, which is greater, the gold,or the temple that made the gold sacred?And you say, ‘If one swears by the altar, it means nothing,but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.'You blind ones, which is greater, the gift,or the altar that makes the gift sacred?One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it;one who swears by the temple swears by itand by him who dwells in it;one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of Godand by him who is seated on it.”

Are you wrestling with your purpose in life? Wondering, "Why am I here? What's my calling?" In this powerful Sunday morning sermon from #UnfilteredChurch, Pastor Chris Gregg dives deep into 1 Corinthians 9, unpacking how the Apostle Paul ran with gospel-driven purpose in every step. Drawing from Paul's defense of his apostleship—"Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?"—Chris shows how purpose is rooted in calling, not comfort, and why we must lay down our rights for the gospel, just like Paul who said, "We endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ."Explore everyday examples like soldiers, farmers, and oxen deserving their share, and learn why Paul chose to preach freely: "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" Discover the joy of serving others by becoming "all things to all people" through contextualization, not compromise—adapting to Jews, Gentiles, and the weak to win more for Christ. Plus, get inspired by the discipline of athletes in the Isthmian Games: "I do not run aimlessly; I discipline my body" for an imperishable crown.Chris ties it all to the mission of the church—running as a team with 5 ways to run together: Warm Up Well, Play Your Position, Stay With the Pack, Give Your Best Effort, and Recruit to the Team. No matter your age or stage, from survival in your 20s to succession in your 70s, God has purpose for every season of life. End with Paul's humility: from "apostle" to "chief of sinners," running not out of guilt, but gratitude for grace because Jesus ran to the cross for us.If you're tired of spiritual sprints and ready for rhythms that align your life with eternal rewards, this sermon will challenge you: "Holy Spirit, what's my next step?" Don't miss this life-changing message on purpose, calling, laying down rights, serving others, spiritual discipline, and the gospel's blessings!Subscribe for more #UnfilteredChurch sermons, hit the like button if this resonated, and comment below: What's one right you're willing to surrender for the gospel? Share with a friend who's searching for purpose! #RunWithPurpose #1Corinthians9 #GospelDriven #SpiritualDiscipline #ChurchMissionTimestamps:0:00 - Intro: Wrestling with Purpose2:45 - Purpose Rooted in Calling, Not Comfort7:30 - Laying Down Rights for the Gospel12:15 - Serving Others to Win More17:00 - Spiritual Discipline for Eternal Prize22:45 - Aligning with the Church's Mission28:10 - Purpose in Every Season of Life33:20 - Response: Run with Gratitude

Sing to the LORD a new song of praise in the assembly of the faithful. Let Israel be glad in their maker, let the children of Zion rejoice in their king. The Lord takes delight in his people.A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 23:13-22, today's readings).“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.”Out of frustration but also out of love for the Father and those who hear him, Jesus criticizes the scribes and Pharisees for obstructing themselves and others from the path to God. “You do not enter [the Kingdom of heaven] yourselves,” Jesus says, “nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.” Jesus points out that these “blind guides” swear by the gold of the temple and the gift on the altar and believe that makes them obligated—all while neglecting to recognize what makes the temple and altar that make these things sacred. Jesus directs the gaze of the scribes and Pharisees beyond the constricting rituals that produce children of Gehenna to the perfect love and mercy of the Father enthroned in heaven and incarnate in his Son.Father in heaven, redirect my gaze to you when I get caught up in hierarchies and orders of things that end up only keeping me from you. Let me hear the invitation to stay close to your Son, as I hear in the Gospel acclamation: “My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me.” As Jesus says, one is not obligated to or by the gold of the temple or the gift on the altar but by you who make all that is sacred. Give me the grace, Lord, to look to you and you alone and not what surrounds you, to go to you where I find you truly present—body and blood, soul and divinity—in the Eucharist.Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Monday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary TimeMatthew 23:13-22Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men.You do not enter yourselves,nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter."

Read Online“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.” Matthew 23:13Today begins Jesus' “Woe to you…” condemnations of the scribes and Pharisees. He issues seven subsequent condemnations. The one quoted above is His first. At the time, Jesus' condemnations of these religious leaders fell mostly on deaf ears. They were obstinate and would not listen to what Jesus had to say. But it's useful to note that these condemnations appear to actually be spoken about the scribes and Pharisees to the disciples and the crowds to whom Jesus was speaking.Though there are many lessons we can learn from our Lord, let's consider the first thing He says. He condemns hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is essentially saying one thing and doing another. It's a disconnect between what we say and what we do. Hypocrisy can also come in the form of trying to present oneself as if one has every virtue under Heaven but in reality cares little for the clear doctrine and moral precepts given us by God. In the scripture passage, the scribes and Pharisees claimed to be leading people to salvation, but they were condemning the very source of salvation. On one hand, some of what they taught was true, but they failed to teach with the virtue that comes from God. On the other hand, some of what they taught was flat-out erroneous, because they were more concerned about their public persona than they were about the truth. Essentially, they were hypocrites, because their words and actions were neither united in the truth nor lived through the virtues given by God.These two opposing tendencies seem to be a source of much division within our Church today. On the extreme “right,” we have those who preach doctrine but fail to exercise the necessary virtue so as to be effective instruments of those truths. And on the extreme “left” are those who act as if so-called virtue is all that matters. They deemphasize the clear and unambiguous moral and doctrinal truths that were given to us by our Lord, so that others will praise them for appearing kind, accepting and compassionate toward all. The problem is that one cannot exclude truth from virtue or virtue from truth. Compassion is not compassionate if it lacks truth, and the truth is not true if it is not presented with the virtues by which our Lord wants them brought forth. And though the scribes and Pharisees appear to be more focused upon their interpretations of various truths to the exclusion of virtue, their struggle with hypocrisy is just as real for those on both extremes today.Reflect, today, upon the importance of embracing each and every moral and doctrinal precept given by our Lord. We must embrace everything He says with every fiber of our being. Reflect, also, upon how you express these teachings of Jesus to others. Do you strive to present the full Gospel with the greatest virtue? The deeper the truth, the more necessary is the virtue with which it is presented. And the more virtue you have, the better instrument of the full truth you will be. Strive to overcome every form of hypocrisy within your life by working toward true holiness. Holiness is wholeness. The Truth united to virtue. Only then will you escape from the condemnation of our Lord, but you will also thrive as a pure instrument of His saving grace.My saving Lord, You desired deeply that the religious leaders of the time be powerful instruments of Your saving Gospel by presenting all truth in pure love. Please free me from every error so that Your holy Word will be alive in me and will be sent forth to others through the manifestation of the many virtues You wish to bestow. Jesus, I trust in You.Image: James Tissot, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsSource of content: catholic-daily-reflections.comCopyright © 2025 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission via RSS feed.

The Phantom Phinders eat some fungus Make sure to rate and review us on iTunes and then reach out on Twitter or to our email to get an NPC named in Carrefour! Check out our new website: QMtabletop.com and the new Delta Green Podcast Directory https://twitter.com/QMoftheTableTop https://www.instagram.com/quartermastersofthetabletop/ https://www.tiktok.com/@qmottt https://youtube.com/@QuartermastersoftheTabletop https://linktr.ee/qmottt Chaos Springs Eternal Season One: City of Woe is set in Carrefour Louisiana and follows the members of the Phantom Phinders, a public access ghost hunting TV show as they explore the strange and weird happenings. We use the Delta Green TTRPG rules. Warning: The podcast does contain violent themes and explicit language as well as potential mental hazards. Nyarlathotep reigns. Imla ìbaz ehccema iam Lehpar. intro/outro music is: Cocytus by Pawns or Kings background music is from Hideous Hiss (https://www.youtube.com/@hideoushiss) Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this podcast are ©Chaos Springs Eternal excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

In this message, we explore what it truly means to be sent by God. Being sent starts with an encounter, leads to a response, and is lived out in obedience. Isaiah's experience gives us a clear picture of this calling. 1. Encountering God's Holiness – Isaiah 6:1–5 “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up...” The vision of God's glory and the cry of the seraphim — “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” — shake Isaiah to the core. Understanding God's Holiness: The weight of His presence is undeniable. Recognizing Our Unworthiness: Isaiah says, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips...” Compelled to Respond: An encounter with God demands a response. 2. Willingness to Go – Isaiah 6:8 God asks, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Isaiah's response is immediate: “Here am I! Send me.” God's Call: A question still being asked today. Isaiah's Response: Bold, surrendered, and without hesitation. Availability Over Ability: God uses those who are willing, not just those who feel ready. 3. Obedience in Action – 1 Samuel 15:22 “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.” Importance of Obedience: God values our obedience more than our outward offerings. The Cost of Disobedience: Choosing our way over God's comes with consequences. Facing Doubt and Fear: Obedience often challenges us, but it aligns us with God's purpose. This message is a call for all of us—not just to hear God's voice, but to respond.

Matthew Week 105 Matthew 18:7-9 ESV   7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! 8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.       Matthew 18:10 ESV   10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.       Acts 23:8 ESV   8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.       Psalm 103:20-21 ESV   Bless the Lord, O you his angels,   you mighty ones who do his word,   obeying the voice of his word!   21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts,   his ministers, who do his will!       Hebrews 1:13-14 ESV   13 And to which of the angels has he ever said,   “Sit at my right hand   until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?   14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?       Romans 2:4 CSB   4 Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?       Colossians 2:18-19 CSB   18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. 19 They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.       Matthew 16:23 ESV   23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”       1 Corinthians 1:23 ESV   23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,       Romans 14:13-15 ESV   13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.  

This morning Pastor Ryan continues our series in Matthew with his sermon, "Woe to the Hyprocrites....Part 1."

This evening Pastor Ryan continues our series in Matthew with his sermon, "Woe to the Hypocrites.....Part 2."

Rewards of Giving and Receiving (audio) David Eells – 8/17/25 Father, we thank you so much for being in our midst. We are so privileged, Lord. The overwhelming majority of the world doesn't know You and we'd certainly like to be Your vessels through whom You reveal Yourself to them, and we pray toward that end earnestly. Lord, forgive us of our sins and our foolishness. Give us Your grace. Please rise up in us and do Your wonderful work in these days. Please anoint us and give us wisdom. Lord, we want to return to what You gave the early church and even go beyond that. We want You to teach us, Lord; show us how to walk in Your steps. We just ask for Your mercy and grace today. We see old world crumbling around us and we need Your wisdom now. We want to come out of this world and totally into Your kingdom. We want to know the difference and know Your principles. Lord, we've been reading them and studying them, and we ask You to help us put them into effect in our lives and in our midst. We just need You, Lord. We need You now more than ever. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen. So we're hidden in Christ. Most people never think to pray about those kinds of things, to be hidden from the Beast and take our name out of their system. There is a new Beast in town that is much more favorable to Christians. I believe the Lord is getting ready to prepare us to separate somewhat from this new system soon because it's rising only to fall again as history repeats. There's no use in us continuing to hemorrhage Kingdom supplies to the Beast. As I've said, we're headed back to the Book of Acts. We know we're going there, and you need to be prepared. Failure doesn't have to happen for us because we live in a different Kingdom, and we need to be living according to that Kingdom and according to the Word of God. We have a precedent in the scriptures to follow, and we know from the scriptures that it's important for us to work. I had a lady ask me years ago, “Was I supposed to be working in a secular job?” I said, “Well, why don't you go ask the Lord that?” And so she did. And she came back and said, “No, the Lord told me you were doing exactly what He told you to do”. And I said, “Well, that's right”. But it wasn't always that way with me. I worked for a long time, enjoyed it, and I had a very fruitful ministry when I was doing what the world calls a part-time ministry. But it really wasn't part-time ministry because I got to minister to a lot of people I never would have touched otherwise. Toward the end of that kind of a ministry, I was working for Exxon, and we had gatherings every day of men and women from across the plant. It was a very large plant, which took up a good portion of downtown Baton Rouge on the river. When Christians around the place heard that we were having Bible studies, they would flock from every corner of that plant and join in. We started having two meetings like that -- one in the field and one in the central mechanical building, and we had a large church assembled out there, and lots of miracles were happening. Multitudes of religious people were finding out that God was bigger than they originally thought. They were coming out of their structured churches and fellowshipping with other Christians and learning that there was more to Christianity than what they thought in their little sheltered clique that they were in. I believe the same thing is going to happen soon. I really believe that there are many people for us to reach, and that's going to happen. I think one way it's going to happen is that we will have something in common with them, with other Christians, and that is, we're coming into tribulation soon. Even before The Tribulation, we're coming into tribulation, and that kind of draws people together. It causes them to drop their sectarianism for the sake of survival. I'm not worried about survival. I don't know about you, but I'm not doing this because of survival; I'm doing it because it's scriptural. I believe that if we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these other things will be added unto us. We won't have to worry about a thing. But if we're seeking God and His righteousness, let's face it, we're going to be doing some things that those first disciples did. If we get what they got, we'll do what they did, as I've said so often. And if we do what they did, we'll get what they got. And so we have a precedent here in the scriptures. The apostle Paul worked for many years in a fruitful ministry, tent making, which led him from city to city with other people in the same business. He didn't like relying on people; he didn't like being a burden on people; he said so. And I felt the same way. I mean, I didn't get out of my ministry at Exxon, and having Bible studies. I didn't get out of that and start into what they call the full-time ministry because I wanted to wait on the Lord and this was bearing fruit. I just told the Lord, 'Hey, Lord, I need more time to study; I'd like to have more time to share,' but I waited. And I waited for a few years until the Lord told me, Okay, it's time. I didn't choose that for myself; the Lord is the one Who has to open the doors. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. We have to be led of the Lord. We shouldn't be making steps on our own. Now we know from Paul's testimony that he did this, and we know it's scriptural. We'd all like to just live by our faith and sit out there and meditate on God and let Him drop manna out of heaven, and there's no doubt we'll get into situations where He's going to do just exactly that. But the Lord has multiplied food for me and even put it in my stomach when it wasn't there, so I know God's a mighty God. And Jesus multiplied the fishes and the loaves, and we're going to do the exact same thing. But where did the fishes and the loaves come from? Have you ever thought about that? Well, somebody had those fishes and loaves before Jesus multiplied them. So, I believe that it's scriptural for us to be effectively working, according to the scriptures. I'll just share a few with you. (1Th.4:11) And that you study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your hands even as we charged you... You think there's any difference today? I don't think so. Now, we know that we're in the process of easing ourselves out of this worldly business and into the King's business all the time, and that's good. Ultimately, that's all we're going to be doing because soon the world is not going to accept us doing any business with them anymore, and so God's going to use that to put us totally in the wilderness. But there's no reason not to be walking out a little into that wilderness right now because we're going to need to prepare for what's coming. I believe it's good and right and proper for people who have good-paying jobs to continue to work because, if we're successful in doing what they did, a lot more of our finances are going to stay with us and a lot less of it is going to go out into the world. And for people who have jobs, there is still a need for money to pay monthly bills, etc.. I mean, be useful where you are until God moves you. I found a very useful, very fruitful ministry while working at Exxon and I was enjoying that, and when I went into what they call the full-time ministry and God moved me to Florida. I was there a little while when I said, 'Lord, I think I was bearing more fruit there doing that than I am now.' But I was studying the Word and digging in the Word, and I asked, “Lord, do You want me to go out and knock on doors?” He said, “No, I want you to do just what you're doing now, except a lot more of it”. I said, Okay. There is a very fruitful ministry out there among the people who won't come into a church; they won't listen to a preacher. You know, you can talk to them where you are. So I'm not talking about departing from that yet, but I am saying this: Some of us have some time on our hands that we could fulfill some other things that we see in the scriptures. (1Th.4:12) ... that you may walk becomingly towards them that are without and may have need of nothing. So he says to work with your hands so you won't have any needs. Well, we can pray it all down out of heaven, can't we? Yes, but it's scriptural. You still have to obey these principles. And certainly, when we get into a spot, and we will get into spots where we need a miracle, a creative miracle, praise the Lord, these creative miracles are going to convert a lot of people. I received many of them in my wilderness before the Lord moved us to TN. I believed we could have good association with the people around this area too. There are a lot of Christians here and there are some innocent people here. Some of them might be ignorant, but that doesn't make them evil because, if you're walking where you know to walk and you're walking as close to the Lord as you understand, you are innocent and the Lord looks upon them that way and we should look upon them that way, too. We're supposed to be making friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness so that they can receive us into eternal tabernacles, right? (Luk.16:9) So we're supposed to use everything around us, to have associations with these people, not to go into the corrupt lifestyles that some Christians are in or into the apostasy that they're in, but we still have to love them, and we still have to share with them graciously. We're going to be close together in the end times and I believe that when we start living the way we see in the scriptures, we'll be able to associate with them and they will see some things in us and they will want some things we have.  We'll be able to share, not just how to bake bread with them or how to raise chickens with them, but more about the Gospel. You'll have something in common. We all have a need, right? So I think what he says right here is very plain: “So we can walk becomingly towards them that are without and have need of nothing.” (Eph.4:27) Neither give place to the devil. But let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need. So, one reason we work is not just for ourselves, but to give to people who have needs, which I did for many years. There are a lot of people who won't know where we're going right now, and they're going to have needs because they haven't been prepared, and that's going to put them at the mercy of God and, in some cases, at our mercy. So we work in order to be prepared to give to those who have need. There will be many Christians and many neighbors who have needs. We are about to have great abundance and we can give. This world is going to persecute Christians and do what they have done in the past; they're going to separate them, and they're going to plunder them. The further we separate from the dependency upon this system, the better. We don't need to be dependent upon this system; we need to be dependent upon God. That's what the wilderness was about. Now, we've been studying faith and that is good; you'll need that all the way through the Tribulation, but there are some things I believe we can do to be more like the early church and less dependent upon this world. You know how often you need to go to the grocery store, right? You know how often you need what they have. Well, I believe we ought to come to the place where we need a whole lot less of what they have and not be dependent upon them because the powers that be are using that dependency to bring you under their thumb. There are a lot of ignorant people out there who are walking with God where they are, who are going to take the mark of the Beast because they don't know God supplies. They don't know that they don't have to because they haven't been taught the Truth of the Gospel. They don't know that God supplies. They don't know how a Christian community works because they go to church, as a spectator, they get up, and they go home. They don't know that God still does these things because they've been lied to. So, when we rub elbows with them, we share with them the Good News that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. So, he says, “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need.” (2Th.3:6) Now we commend you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly... I might say, there are some people who judge saying, “they just have to have faith”; I've run into them. It's not an evil in them, necessarily. Many don't see examples of people who live by faith in their churches. They want to serve Jesus, and all true Christians want to serve Jesus. But they're imbalanced. They need some help; they need some wisdom from those who are older in the Lord, because we can serve Jesus anywhere. Anywhere we are, we ought to be serving Jesus. We work as unto the Lord. As the Bible says, we are to work like we work for the Lord. We're not here to be men pleasers, right? We're here to work for the Lord, in whatever ways we can serve His Kingdom. We either work in ministry or at a secular job while we minister. (6) ...Withdraw yourselves from every brother that walks disorderly and not after the tradition which they received of us. (7) For yourselves know how you ought to imitate us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; (8) neither did we eat bread for nought at any man's hand, but in labor and travail, working night and day, that we might not burden any of you. (9) Not because we have not the right, but to make ourselves an example unto you that you should imitate us. (10) For even when we were with you this we commanded you: If any will not work, neither let him eat. Some tough love there, isn't it? And, of course, sometimes people don't have jobs and they don't think they can work, but I really believe that can change. And I think some ideas are going to come from each of us that are going to show us a way to do this. (11) For we hear of some that walk among you disorderly, that work not at all, but are busy-bodies. (12) Now, them that are such we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. (13) But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing. (14) And if any man obeyeth not our word by this epistle, note that man that you have no company with him, to the end that he may be ashamed. You know, there is something almost anybody can do to serve in the Kingdom and to be able to meet the needs of other people. I believe we're about to see a lot of needs presented before us very soon. The dollar is dying very fast. It's going to crumble. The whole system they have is going to crumble. They know it, they're forcing it, they're doing it on purpose. They want a New World Order. They have set up the NESARA and QFS plan, and soon there will be the new world currency and then total digital. All will have to work who can work to receive their income. They know that if we are totally dependent upon them, we'll be at their mercy. But we're not totally dependent upon them and we need to get prepared to live in the Kingdom like a body would. We know that the world doesn't know anything about this. But a body meets its own needs. We are all built for some service in God. Praise be to God! Our ministry is even now supporting missionaries on other continents and we are about to be able to do much more. I can see  that God's going to bring all we need into this ministry in order to meet people's needs so the Gospel can be sent to the World. He showed us that very plainly. We're waiting for that to come and it's on the way now; but at the same time, we still have to obey the scriptures and every one of us ought to be giving and receiving. You know, there is no reward in the scriptures for buying and selling whatsoever. The reward in the scriptures is for giving and we can be doing that weekly or daily. Some will work at secular jobs and others will have their hands free to bring the Gospel to the world and some will do both. He's promised a great reward multiplied many times over in the Kingdom forever, so He wants us to do it. Let's do it. Giving brings an eternal reward. Some people could supply milk, some could raise beef. We will inherit cows for meat and milk and fields. We will have Tesla free energy. Some could supply feed, some could supply corn and some other vegetables. Some could supply chickens and eggs. Some could be butchers and some could be mechanics. Some could be cooks. Some would say, “Thank you for your milk.”  Another would say, “I have something to give you.” Or “I'll meet your needs in some other way.”  We're going to get equipment to plow those fields. We're going to get equipment to plant and harvest those fields. I think all of this is coming, but again, we are learning how to live differently. We're learning how to fellowship with one another about this work and to have more in common with one another than we do just coming to what people call ‘church'. Some people know how to make bread; they're very good at it. They can teach others. There are some people who have poultry, eggs, turkeys, chickens, rabbits and so on and so forth. Just some ideas here. If anyone feels led to go in any direction, that's what I'm asking. What do you feel led to do? Everything you do, you need to be led of the Lord. I'm just putting these ideas out there to share so you can think about it, because the Lord spoke it to me a few nights ago in the middle of the night, and I don't want Him to talk to me again about this in the middle of the night, so I'm going to share it with you. I like talking to the Lord in the middle of the night, but not having to repeat the same things. Some people are good at vegetable growing. I was telling somebody the other day that the house I moved into several weeks before my family moved here, I found one tomato plant on my property that somebody had forgotten about. It was behind a wood pile, and nobody had ever staked up the plant; it was just lying up on the ground, growing this way and that way. And I got to walking around behind this wood pile, and I saw there were tomatoes all over the place down there, so I had been eating tomatoes every day ever since then. That's just one tomato vine. Then the frost got them one night. I decided that I had better go out and gather what tomatoes were still there. So I got them; however, the frost had gotten a few of them, but I was able to gather a few tomatoes from it. I just placed them on the windowsill. But I sure enjoyed being able to eat plenty of tomatoes from one vine that somebody forgot about. The landlord was telling me, “Hey, you can eat the fruit off that tree over there”, and I said, “Hey, I've been eating your tomatoes ever since you left here”. I was watching some brethren make some soap the other day. That was pretty neat. I said, “Hey, you need a machine to grind that”. They were hand-grinding. I believe some people can make soap in order to have soap for their neighbors. You've been paying way too much for soap, and it doesn't work nearly as well as these folks' soap would. And some people would be good at distributing the products to the people. There are people good at doing taxes; there are people good at law. They can offer their services to the brethren and vice versa. Carpentry, mechanics and electricians, handymen, techies, etc. You can think of a lot of things, all kinds of services you can give to others, and they can give to you. And this giving and sharing is just part of being a Christian. In some cases we will hire the world to be laborers while we will be priests and ministers of the Lord. Isa 61:5  And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners shall be your plowmen and your vine-dressers. 6  But ye shall be named the priests of Jehovah; men shall call you the ministers of our God: ye shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.  These are all part time jobs. No one is going to have to slave to stay alive for God has given abundantly and the ministry will make sure all needs are met as it was in Acts. Our main job will be to put the word and gifts of the Spirit in our hearts so we can give this to others. The world is buying and selling. God kept complaining about the buying and selling and the marrying and giving in marriage, and we see that that's the way of the world. Suretyship is the way of the world. Borrowing and mortgaging and guaranteeing to pay back -- that's the way of the world. The Bible teaches against “suretyship.” (Pro.11:15) He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it; But he that hateth suretyship is secure. The Hebrew word there actually means “to be a guarantor of an agreement; to give or to be security”; in other words, “to mortgage.” It's making a guarantee to pay back what has been borrowed, but we can't even guarantee that we'll be here tomorrow. The Bible also warns us against making promises, pledges, or guarantees of any sort. I think the Amish have something to teach us there. They all gathered together and built the house. Okay, we'll build you the house, and you won't be going into debt either. We can gather together and build a few chicken coops and rabbit coops, and whatever. We can do these things. The ministry can help some of you get started in what some people have called a cottage industry. We can give you something that will, for example, get you a grinder that will grind soap all by itself. Just some ideas. We already have Telsa free energy here waiting to be turned on. we've received several prophecies about a virus that's going to shut down the Internet and the grid but that may be out in the world. The worldly church has no way to know this is going to happen because they're not led by the Spirit, and they're not aware of these warnings in dreams and prophesies. We don't have to stop; we've been warned. We can listen to God and ask, “Hey, God, what do you want me to do about this?” Well, He's giving us some ideas. But we know the Lord is going to supply all our needs according to His riches in glory. That's what He said, right? But we just need to believe and obey Him to receive all needs. We also know there's small earthquakes coming through here to separate the land from the mainland. The Lord showed us that. That's going to run people off and make this a peninsula. But we know it's going to happen and we just need to be ready. Even bartering is taxable, so giving freely and receiving freely is the best policy and has heavenly rewards. We're headed toward the mark. Some people are going to take the mark because they don't know that they have a choice. And we can show them not only some supernatural choices, but we can also show them some natural choices because we live the way we're supposed to live toward one another scripturally by meeting one another's needs and working to make sure everybody's needs are met, making sure that there is equality. And the Lord spoke in 2 Corinthians about equality. He wants equality in His church. He wants all of His people to have their needs met. And the way of the world is, I'm in a race with my neighbor: I gotta have the biggest car, the biggest house, swimming pool, etc.; but that's not us. We're here to serve and to lift up our neighbors and to be a community, a body, in order to make sure that everybody's needs are met through giving and receiving, right? The idea of gaining from your neighbor is less important to us than making sure our neighbors' needs are met and our needs are met. It's a control thing with the DS. They think that if they bring down the economy, we will be under their control. And it's true; for an awful lot of Christians, it's true. We can give them a choice here. I believe that if we do a little bit of specializing and less duplicating, we can get this thing up and going pretty fast. Everybody does not need a lawnmower. Some are already set up to do this. Our trips to the store will be for almost no staples and pay their exorbitant prices, and that money will go to feed the Beast; we don't care about that. Whatever we make, we would like it to totally serve the Kingdom. That's the way. I'm not talking about names and storefronts and things like that. These are things we have to avoid. We want to have a low profile where we're going. We want to avoid open rebellion against the system because they'll come to get you. They'll figure out a way to do it. We know we're protected by God and hidden in Christ, but we don't want to dare them, right? And we can do a lot of things just the way we normally do them, just naturally. The way of the world, of opening a big storefront, saying, 'We're not buying and selling, we're bartering'; they'll tax you and figure a way to shut you down. They want control and they don't want anybody to be independent. We can be very independent if we give and receive individually, and we can bring in a lot of Christians who don't know what's coming. We'll enjoy fellowshipping with them too, and not just around these things, but around the Word of God. So we can share with others this way. In Acts 6:1-4, there were some people complaining about their system not working very well, so they chose and ordained some deacons to make sure that the widows weren't missing out. We have lots of deacons in our ministry. “Deacon” just means “servant” in the Word of God. We have servants who do all kinds of things in our ministry. People have many different gifts and talents with backgrounds and training in several areas. This is one we need to move toward, too: People whose whole concern is to make sure that everybody's needs are met, that the system is working, it's not breaking down somewhere. So we'll be thinking about this, and you be thinking about this, too, because it's definitely going to be needed. As the apostle said, they did it at that time so that they could continue in prayer, be able to study in the Word of God and teaching, and these ordained brothers can handle this. Many Man-child families are coming here. Man-child reformers will teach and minister in our bible schools that the Lord has given us. Other specialty teachers will be here too. Let me also say this: Because you're a deacon does not negate you from being an elder or being one of the two-witnesses or being in the Man-child. It doesn't negate that at all. Remember, Jesus was called a deacon, too. In the scriptures, in every way people served others, the word diakonos was used; it just wasn't always translated that way. So, if we translated it the same way every time, we would find out that Jesus was a deacon, all of His disciples were deacons, and everybody was a servant in one form or another. But deacons do not have to be elders. And our ministry has lots of servants. Many people are coming together here to serve the Word of God to people and to make sure it's prepared properly. I'm not bringing this up for any other reason than I feel like the Lord brought it up to me, and I'm not bringing it up in desperation because I'm worried about what's coming. I'm not in the slightest bit worried about what's coming. I am eager to get the Gospel out to the world and we shall. We can be giving and receiving. We can receive the benefits of the eternal kingdom. God's already taken care of all of this. I'm doing this because we can offer blessings to the people by just learning to give to them and making sure their spiritual and physical needs are met. And as we read in the Scriptures, they worked for more than just me, my, and mine; it was for the purpose of giving to other people who were in need. We're going to see multitudes in need. God's giving us property, schools, meeting places and houses here. There are going to be many people, refugees from all over this country and from other countries coming here, and we want to be hospitable. We want to be able to take care of them and help them to move into something that, even if they don't have a secular job, the ministry can meet their needs and meet the needs of people around them. Now, we're not trying to build what the world would call a commune here. You won't see anybody in our ministry running around giving orders. It's a little different than a lot of ministries you've been involved in, or heard about, I'm sure. Most of the people in this ministry who are deacons in this ministry, they have that because it was in their heart to do it, and they came to us and said, 'Hey, I'd like to do this', or ‘I can do this', and so praise God. We want people to be free to do these things from the heart. If you give from your heart, that's a good sacrifice before the Lord, according to 2 Corinthians. From the very beginning of our ministry, we've never charged for anything; we just give it. If people want to give back, that's fine; if they don't, they still receive what they ask for, so we can't really call it bartering when you're not demanding anything in return. We're not talking about hoarding either; we're just talking about meeting needs. Well, we can do some workshops here, people showing other people how to do things, and people gathering together to get these things started in a really good way. And, as I said, I felt the Lord told me that the ministry could also contribute money toward things that people need to get started in this way. Everyone does not belong here for God has not called them to a refuge but tribulation. We can take a lesson from the Amish. They gather together and do something in a group that they could never do individually, or at least, it would take a lot longer time. We don't have a long time. We are not needing to build houses or many buildings that are already provided. I know that we have people to fill every specialty and we can get up and going quickly. And of course, this is all voluntary, whatever a person feels their gift is or the Lord is guiding them to do. The funny thing is, I'm visiting people's houses, and the house I'm living in now, and they are all electric and we have free electricity. One of the Bible colleges has natural gas. There is a rich deposit of gas right here, and that's free energy. We had a brother whose family came down and visited us, who was just north of us, and he has a gas well in his backyard, and I'm thinking, why aren't more people punching holes in the ground around here? That's free heat; that's energy. Well, if you have a community of people who aren't far apart, or if you want to, use it to pressurize it and run vehicles. When I was young, we used gas tractors, gas trucks, and we had the old International Harvester trucks that were converted to run on gas because it was readily available, so you can do the same thing today. People are talking about all different kinds of ways to keep your car running when gasoline becomes hard to find, which it will. Not necessarily here, but it will. But certainly, if you have the availability of a gas well you can buy the converter kits for tractors. We will have electric cars. Birds are hand-to-mouth, aren't they? They don't worry about storing it up; they just eat it. Well, I think you got the idea, so really just pray and ask the Lord if He wants you to do something and, if so, what, and just be ready and willing for Him to use you. You can train people in what you know, and you can be trained by others, and we can all come together with what we each know the Lord is leading us to do. And the ministry would be glad to contribute to anybody who wants to get a start, so you all think about it and pray about it, and we'll see where it takes us. But only consider coming if God says so. Lord, we just ask you, Father, in the name of Jesus, to give us all wisdom. You know what's coming down the road. You see the end from the beginning. We see nothing, Lord; we just trust in You. We want to be led by Your Spirit. We are the sons of God by faith, and we're asking You to lead us and guide us into something that will be very useful, not only to us, but to the people around us and to get the Gospel out. Lord, we thank You for Your mercy toward us, and we know that we have nothing to worry about; we just put all of our faith in You. We know that You are an absolute miracle-working God and You will multiply the fishes and the loaves. And You will bring us manna out of heaven, and You'll do everything that's necessary to provide for Your people. So we just trust in You and we just want to be useful to serve. And we thank You for it, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.   Greed and the Tithe (by David Eells) Paul gave Timothy a revelation of the false prophets and those who follow them in the “last days”. (2Ti.3:1) But know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come. (2) For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, (3) without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, (4) traitors, headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; (5) holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof: from these also turn away. These men, who are identified by their egotistical appetite for money, prestige, pleasure, and position, love their religious “form of godliness”. Among these are the false prophets who lead captive the like-minded apostate religious sects. (6) For of these are they that creep into houses (of worship), and take captive silly women (sects of God's people - Isa.4:1, 32:9) laden with sins, led away by divers lusts, (7) ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Those who love to justify their own sinful ways respect these “impostors” and their “form of godliness”. (13) But evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. These false prophets are identified as “lovers of money”. These are the merchants of religious Babylon (Rev.18). They make “Father's house a house of merchandise” (Joh.2:16). Since God will not support their personal kingdom-building, they peddle books, tapes, trinkets, chicken dinners, tours, etc. This is the way of the world, and for those who have an impoverished God. Why would anyone who was sent by God and believed the promises of our provision through Christ do this? Our examples in the early leadership of the Church certainly did not. (Joh.2:13) ...Jesus went up to Jerusalem. (14) And he found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: (15) and he made a scourge of cords, and cast all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the changers' money, and overthrew their tables; (16) and to them that sold the doves he said, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house a house of merchandise. They peddle the promises of God's provision to those who give to their ministry. They make “merchandise of the word of God” (2Co.2:17 [in Greek]). They peddle the Word for salaries like hirelings. When a person is not sent by God, he does not have faith that “God shall supply every need” (Php.4:19). Where God sends, He supplies. Without God's supernatural supply, people have to resort to other tactics to support “their” ministry. The Lord has not changed His mind, “the righteous shall live by faith”, not salaries. He commanded His ministers, “Freely ye received, Freely give. Get you no gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses”. A man who lives by faith has to walk with God because “if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness toward God; and whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight” (1Jn.3:21,22). God's command that His leaders walk by faith ensures righteous leadership. The early Church leadership was not in the habit of taking up collections, but when they did, it was not for themselves but for the saints in persecution and had needs, as it was with Jerusalem. (1Co.16:1) Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I gave order to the churches of Galatia, so also do ye. (2) Upon the first day of the week let each one of you lay by him in store, as he may prosper, that no collections be made when I come. (3) And when I arrive, whomsoever ye shall approve, them will I send with letters to carry your bounty unto Jerusalem. Notice that Paul didn't handle the money, but approved brethren did. He preferred to not even be present when the collection for the saints was received, so that there would be no extortion involved, as it was with the Macedonian collection. He also didn't use the Macedonians' presence to shame and extort the Corinthians. (2Co.9:3) But I have sent the brethren, that our glorying on your behalf may not be made void in this respect; that, even as I said, ye may be prepared: (4) lest by any means, if there come with me any of Macedonia and find you unprepared, we (that we say not, ye) should be put to shame in this confidence. (5) I thought it necessary therefore to entreat the brethren, that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your aforepromised bounty, that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty, and not of extortion. Ministers received free will offerings and did not demand their rights through condemnation or legalism. (1Co.9:11) If we sowed unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we shall reap your carnal things? (12) If others partake of [this] right over you, do not we yet more? Nevertheless we did not use this right; but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. (13) Know ye not that they that minister about sacred things eat [of] the things of the temple, [and] they that wait upon the altar have their portion with the altar? (14) Even so did the Lord ordain that they that proclaim the gospel should live of the gospel. (15) But I have used none of these things: and I write not these things that it may be so done in my case; for [it were] good for me rather to die, than that any man should make my glorifying void. Paul said, “we did not use this right...that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel”. Even the world sees through the “gimmee gospel” and its con men, and they disrespect the true Gospel because of it. In obeying the command “freely ye received, freely give” we leave no room for suspicion. (2Pe.2:1) But there arose false prophets also among the people, as among you also there shall be false teachers, who shall privily bring in destructive heresies.... (3) And in covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you. One way they “make merchandise of you” is to put God's people under the Law to support them when the Scripture clearly states that our giving is “not of necessity” (2Co.9:7). “[Let] each man [do] according as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly, or of necessity (this is not according to the law of tithing): for God loveth a cheerful giver”. In the New Covenant, God wants an offering from the heart from those born of His Spirit. God made the Old Covenant with natural Israel and refused the Gentiles. (Psa.147:19) He showeth his word unto Jacob, His statutes and his ordinances unto Israel. (20) He hath not dealt so with any nation; And as for his ordinances, they have not known them. Now the New Covenant is made only with the Church and is refused to those under the Law. If a doctrine like tithing is not in the New Covenant, then it was never made with you! It will only separate you from Christ and grace. (Gal.5:4) Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace. Jesus rebuked the false prophets of His day saying, “Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin (even their seasoning), and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these you ought to have done (this is past tense in all ancient manuscripts, Numerics, and the Received Text), and not to have left the other undone” (Mat 23:23). Jesus clearly said here that tithing was both in the past and under the Law. Some say tithing was before the Law. Yes, circumcision and animal sacrifice were before the Law, too, but they were included in the law and we are not under Law to do them anymore either. Paul also said tithing was of the Law in Hebrews 7:5-11. There is no New Covenant command or request to tithe because we are no longer stewards of ten percent. Jesus taught that we have to renounce ownership of the other ninety percent, or we cannot be His disciples. (Luk.14:33) So therefore whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. “All” here means all possessions, rights, and will. Those who claim possession of the other ninety percent are thieves. The Holy Spirit and the New Covenant commands were given to establish where, how much, and to whom we give. We are merely stewards of what He has put in our hands. The church's system of tithing is extortion and graft. It is not even righteous when compared to the Old Covenant tithe. Under the type and shadow of the tithe, ten percent was taken from eleven tribes and given to one tribe, the Levites ([ministers] Num.18:24). Then the Levites gave one ten percent (tithe) to the high priest (25-28). This left the Levites with ten percent from ten tribes. That is an average of what the other eleven tribes had to live on. Even when Israel's economy grew, they still lived on an average income. Today, with a larger percentage of the people doing the supporting, coupled with the fact that the pastors have usurped the authority of the rest of the five-fold ministry (Eph.4:11), ministers have become fat and filthy rich. This is a great stumbling block to both the world that sees through this and to the ministers. This also makes the people of God bad stewards. We have made God's house a “den of robbers” (Mat.21:13). (Eze.34:2) Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, even to the shepherds, Thus saith the Lord: Woe unto the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the sheep? (3) Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill the fatlings; but ye feed not the sheep. These men make it plain that we are not under the Law except when there is a profit involved and then we are told to “bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse”, which is a command of the Old Covenant. Of course, they falsely claim to be the storehouse. In Old Covenant type and shadow, tithes were cast into the treasury, which was in the midst of the temple (1Ki.7:51; Mar.12:41). In the New Covenant, the temple is God's people, and Jesus said that we would be judged by whether we meet the needs of His people (Mat.25:31-46; 1Jn.3:16,17). This is how we store up treasure in heaven (Luk.12:33,34). We are taught to not store up our treasures on earth (Mat.6:19-21) but to meet the needs of the brethren so “that there may be equality” (2Co.8:14). Those who will not renounce ownership and become stewards of one hundred percent are not being disciples for “we were bought with a price”. We are now bondservants of Christ. The Holy Spirit now tells the disciples of Christ how much, to whom, where, and when to give. Amen. Now, the Bible specifically says you get a reward for giving, and the interest is much better. The interest is “good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over.” I've tried God on this and it works. He is faithful — consistently faithful. He is our surety. I learned that you just give and meet the needs of the brethren around you, and not worry about what you have left because God is never going to fail you. Never. From the time the Lord showed me about faith and how He forbade debt to His people, I haven't stored up or borrowed any money, and the Lord has never failed to make sure we had a good car, a good house, and all our needs met. The world says that you have to store up the money until you have enough, or even more commonly, borrow it from the bank, which is debt. But you don't need to go the way of the world, because God can bring it in a lump sum. He did it for us many times. Men serve insurance companies, H.M.O.s, banks and store up their treasures on earth for the security they think it gives them. But we are told in (Mat.6:19) Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal. Y2K revealed the paranoia and lack of trust in those who stored up their treasures on earth contrary to our Lord's command. Quite a few people that I showed these principles to went home to give their store away and found it full of bugs, just as Jesus said, “thieves break through and steal.” Jesus told of a man who found peace in the insurance of storing up his goods in greater barns (Luk.12:18). He said to himself, (Luk.12:19)… Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, be merry. (His misplaced trust brought judgment.) (20) But God said unto him, Thou foolish one, this night is thy soul required (Greek: “they require thy soul”) of thee; and the things which thou hast prepared, whose shall they be? (21) So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. Notice that it was his stored-up treasures that required his soul. Jesus promised the unfailing kingdom provisions to those who would store up their treasures in heaven by giving. (32) Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom (33) Sell that which ye have, and give alms; make for yourselves purses which wax not old (That means you're not storing it up or keeping it for a long time.), a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief draweth near, neither moth destroyeth. Give alms. Meet the needs of people around you. That's what He calls “a treasure in the heavens that faileth not.” Any treasure you store up on earth is going to fail. The world is going to plunder you, folks, and, if not the world, the devil is going to plunder you by the curse, but you're going to be plundered. Let me tell you how not to get plundered: Give! Meet the needs of the brethren around you. Give and then it will be coming the other way because it says in (Luk.6:38) Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again. That's how it works. You can make a living by giving. It works. (Luk.12:34) For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Some people tell me, “It's okay to have it. Just don't set your heart on it.” That's not what Jesus said. He said, “If you have it, your heart will be on it.” “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” If you're thinking, “Well, David, doesn't it say that Joseph stored up for the years of plenty so that he could give it back in the years of famine?” Yes, but let me point out to you who Joseph very clearly represents in type and shadow. Joseph was among the elders of Israel, but his own brethren sold him into bondage to the Gentiles for silver, just like Jesus. Joseph was lied about by the harlot, Potiphar's wife, just like Jesus. Joseph was persecuted by them and he was cast into prison, just like Jesus. Jesus went and preached to the souls in prison after He was crucified and what did Jesus do to the souls in prison? He decided who went to Abraham's Bosom and who went to Hades; in other words, He judged between the good souls and bad souls. The same thing happened to Joseph when he was cast into prison. He decided between the butler, who came out of prison and went up to serve Pharaoh, and the baker, who lost his head. When Joseph came out of prison, he was ruler over all of the earth, second only to Pharaoh, who was worshipped as a god. And when Jesus came out of prison, He was ruler over all of creation, second only to God. The types and shadows are all there to show that Joseph represented Jesus. If you store up on this earth, you are disobeying Jesus. It's only good for spending, and then you learn to walk by faith. (Jas.2:5) Hearken, my beloved brethren; did not God choose them that are poor as to the world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to them that love him? God chose those who are poor of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom. A person who is rich in faith will never go without. God always provides for them. So how do you store up under the hand of “Joseph”? How do you store up your treasures in Heaven under Jesus? You do that by giving alms, by making yourselves purses that wax not old, by meeting the needs of the brethren. You give and it will be given unto you. When you get out in that wilderness, don't you want to have something stored up in the Bank of Heaven? He said, “A treasure in the heavens that faileth not.” If you pack food out there into that wilderness, it will fail you. If you pack gold out into that wilderness, the world will plunder you. But if you store it up by giving, God said He will give unto you. Now I'm not asking for anything; I'm just telling you how to get prepared for what's coming because a lot of you have been hearing a bunch of baloney from apostate preachers. That is not how you get prepared for the wilderness. If you want to be prepared, you store up your treasures under the hand of Jesus in the Kingdom of Heaven, and then you can get it back when you need it. “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom.” The way to make money in the world is not to store up, it's not to bring people under the Law, it's not to tell everybody your needs. Those are the methods of Egypt, but God wants you to stay in the wilderness. The Israelites cried out to go back to Egypt. They didn't like the trials of their faith and they wanted to go back to the ways of the world. The way of God is to give what you have and then God will multiply it back. It's happened to me many, many times that when I did not have enough money to take care of my needs, I would just go and give it. And you know what? God has never failed me, not once. I walked by faith and raised five children, and God always met our needs. Now, one time we were forced into a fast as a trial of our faith, and that's the only time we were ever put in that position, but we got in a position many times where God literally multiplied food, multiplied money and even multiplied gas in our tank. We got to see wondrous miracles from God and we're still seeing them! God sees to it that His Word is fulfilled. (Jer.1:12) Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I watch over my word to perform it. He stands behind His Word, and He will never fail you. He cannot fail. One thing I've learned about God is that He can do everything but fail. He will supply your every need according to His riches in glory. Our brother, Curt Bryan, had always given sacrificially to our ministry. He had given testimony several times where he had written checks to pay his own bills without the money in the bank to cover them, believing God to have the money there in time. In his business, many of his customers were walk-ins, so income was hard to predict. Whenever he had stepped out by faith in this way, God would always come through. A sudden rush of customers would come in, or a generous tip would be given to him. (2Co.9:6)… He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. An opportunity to give can also be an opportunity to sit on, or eat the seed. We can only reap to the extent we sow. God multiplies it back, not to make us rich but to make us channels of His blessing to the needy. He multiplies our seed for sowing, not hoarding. (10) And he that supplieth seed to the sower and bread for food, shall supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness. God's promise to those who are faithful in giving is here. (8) And God is able to make all grace abound unto you; that ye having always all sufficiency in everything, may abound unto every good work. This is one of the most powerful, all-encompassing promises of provision in all of the Scriptures. Here are a few other testimonies from our site of how the Lord miraculously provided financially when people acted in faith.   Give and It Will Be Given Gideon Smith - 03/08/2012 My wife and I had a medical bill we couldn't afford to pay, so we told them we couldn't afford it. We then gave some money to a ministry that helps our brothers and sisters who are persecuted. The next day, my wife was contacted by the medical people and was told that the bill was cleared, and we owed them nothing. God blessed us five times the amount that we gave by taking care of that debt. When my wife told me this, I was amazed and said, “Wow! Since we had some of that money set aside to pay the bill from our income tax, we should give again.” So right at the table tonight, l prayed, “Lord, if You want us to give again, You will send someone to us in need. Well, I went to the grocery store and had to get some stuff, but I forgot to get everything, so I had to go back. When I went back, I first began to murmur, but instead I praised God. When I left the store, a man approached me with an empty gas container, asking if I could help him. I said, “Sorry, I don't have any cash.” But then I remembered the prayer I prayed. At this point, I said, “Give me the tank. I will fill it up for you. I filled the container up and went to the ATM to get him some cash. When I got back to him, I told him about my prayer and let him know that it was Christ Who just showed him and me this miracle. I am so in awe of God's direction and all His works. Praise the Lord, in Jesus name! You want proof of Christ, there you go. Hallelujah!   Trusting God for Finances Anna Higareda - 04/28/2010 Hello, Brother Eells. This is the first time I have written you. The Lord has put it on my heart to send you a great THANK YOU, as I am sitting here listening to your teaching, Wilderness Living Now. My husband, Jon, has written an email to you once before regarding a dream he had, and you actually spoke about it in one of your teachings. My husband and I have been listening and learning from your teachings and reading your books now for about two years, and we have recently been brought to a point of weakness and have been forced to live in the “wilderness”, as you speak of in your teachings. I wanted to send you a great THANK YOU; it is because of the good Lord and your teachings that we have learned to live by pure faith, and we have also been able to teach our kids to look to God and thank HIM every day. Your stories of faith and your life experiences have really inspired us and given us all the more faith to trust in the Lord for everything we need. As a matter of fact, besides your ministry, my husband received word to be faithful to one other ministry here in Campbell, CA. He was helping at that ministry last Thursday evening (he helps set up and take down all the technical stuff) and when they were taking down and putting things away, one of the elders told him, “I just had a vision, out of nowhere, that you were putting on your coat and it was made of money”. So my husband said, “Hmm, wow, that's pretty neat!” Then he continued on with putting things away, and the elder said to him, “Jon, well ...?!” So my husband looked dumbfounded, and the elder motioned for him to feel his pockets. So he put his hands back in his coat, and he felt paper; it was a $100 bill in his coat pocket! My husband was shocked and in disbelief because it wasn't too long before that, he had had his hands in his pockets and his pockets were empty. My brother-in-law was also there that night, and my husband asked him, “Did you do this?” He said, “No way. I couldn't have done that. I only brought $4 with me tonight”. Then my husband asked the elder the same question, and the response was, “I didn't do that; I guarantee!” This was truly amazing, Brother Eells, because no one knew we had been going through any type of financial struggle. We kept it all to ourselves and that morning I got my paycheck, and my entire check went towards the bills. What was left over after paying bills was $266 and I thought to myself, “That's funny. I thought we would have $366 left over yesterday after bills. There is no way we could make it with this amount until the next time I get paid”. I ended up with $100 less than I thought I would have after bills. Then I talked to God at my work desk and told him, “Lord, I know you have provided many times before and I have faith you will provide again for my family, so I am not going to worry; it's in your hands!” I thanked God and moved forward with my day, and then that night, the Lord put that extra $100 in my husband's pocket at the ministry. I saw my brother-in-law two days later, and he asked, “Did Jon tell you about what happened at the ministry with his jacket?!” I replied, “Yes, isn't that amazing!” Then he said, “I know! Jon asked if one of us had put it in his pocket, but I am telling you, Anna, there is no possible way that anyone put that money in his pocket that night”. I then told him and his wife about the rest of the testimony, and they said, “Thank you, Jesus!” :) God is amazing! So I want to say thank you so very much for all the hard work you do for HIS kingdom; it is truly inspiring! My family and I have been abundantly blessed to have come across your ministry two years ago! Thank you and I wish you and your family all the best! So, Saints, don't fear the wilderness. God designed this wilderness. He's ordained this wilderness. He's even ordained the Beast that's going to cause this wilderness. He's ordained Pharaoh's army to get behind God's people and force them out there into that wilderness. God is not going to fail you. Learn to walk by faith because the wilderness will be nothing for the people who walk by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7). But for those who are fearful and murmur and complain and walk by sight (Numbers 11:1; 1 Corinthians 10:10; Jude 16; Revelation 21:8; etc.), they are not going to make it through. Why is God doing this? He's doing this because He's raising up believers. (Heb.10:38) But my righteous one shall live by faith: And if he shrink back, my soul hath no pleasure in him.

THE APOCALYPSE WERE:Tony Capuano - Guitar, Lead VocalsJohn Shorb - Alto SaxGene Meros - Tenor SaxGreg Novik - Bass, Backing Vocals (guitar on Stormy Monday)Oggie Hamilton - Drums, Backing VocalsFeaturing The Apocalypse playing:“Good Good Lovin'” and “Try Me” by James Brown“Hi-Heel Sneakers" by Tommy Tucker“The Shadow of Your Smile” by Mandel & Webster"I Don't Want To Cry" by Dixon/Jackson“Sack of Woe” by Cannonball Adderley“Think” by Lowman Pauling"The Midnight Hour" by Steve Cropper & Wilson Pickett"Shout" by The Isley Brothers“Stormy Monday” by Aaron 'T-Bone' Walker"Song For My Father” by Horace SilverALSO FEATURED/DISCUSSED:“Stainless Soul,” “Wichita Lineman,” and “Watch Your Step” by The New Apocalypse from Stainless Soul, 1969. Listen via Demir Kelebek on YouTube"Moanin" by Bobby Timmons recorded by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers on Moanin', 1959Excerpt from Hot Rod Hulbert's WWIN Show via RadioMaven77The Herald Times obituary for Ogden HamiltonThe Baltimore Sun obituary for Greg Novik“Greg's Goodbye” by Leah Erskin for Baltimore Magazine, 2017----LINKS-----

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7qy-dTUtTA4Most men have learned how to clean up well.We look calm. Composed. Put together.We show up to church, crack a few jokes, keep the peace; and no one would know what's actually happening in our hearts.But Jesus isn't fooled by appearance. He sees straight through the polish and into the pain.In today's episode, Kaleb unpacks what it means to “clean the inside of the cup.”He shares a raw story about how God confronted him in the middle of the night, while he was busy rehearsing a bitter argument in his head, and revealed just how much unhealed junk was still living in his heart.This isn't about behavior management. It's about soul work.Because your wife doesn't need a perfect version of you. Your kids don't need a dad who looks impressive.They need a man who is whole on the inside.In this episode:The hidden difference between external discipline and internal healthHow to know if you're just “managing the outside”The biblical call to clean the inside of your cupWhat makes a man useful to GodWhy your family needs a healed version of you—not a polished one"Woe to you… You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. First clean the inside of the cup…”— Matthew 23:25–26Resources:Bring A Conference To Your Church: https://www.dadtired.com/conferencesSupport the mission: https://www.dadtired.com/donateToday's Sponsor: Hands On Kids Bible by TyndaleGo deeper:If this episode hit you—share it with a friend or take 30 seconds to leave a review. It helps us reach more men who are ready to do the hard work of becoming whole.

Wait a minute — that's not Todd! Today on Wretched Radio, Fortis Institute Fellow and Way of Manhood host Dr. Adam Tyson explores how seeing God's holiness exposes our sin, fuels worship, transforms our speech, and empowers us to forgive. Segment 1 • Seeing God's holiness exposes your sin and demands a response—repent or reject. • Isaiah's vision shows God's majesty and your unworthiness: “Woe is me… I am a man of unclean lips.” • Real encounters with God lead to humility, repentance, and mission: “Here am I, send me.” Segment 2 • Psalm 84 reveals that pursuing God's presence fuels passion and endurance, even through dry seasons. • Like sparrows finding rest at the altar, your soul finds peace near God. • “Better is one day in Your courts…”—God's presence is better than anything this world offers. Segment 3 • James 3 warns: your tongue controls your life like a rudder on a ship or a spark that ignites a wildfire. • No one can tame the tongue—except Christ working through a changed heart. • If God has cleansed you, your words should now build up, not destroy. Segment 4 • Jesus' parable reminds us: forgiven sinners forgive others—no exceptions. • You've been forgiven an $8 billion debt; refusing to forgive a $30,000 offense shows an unforgiving heart. • Release bitterness and extend mercy—not because it's easy, but because you've been forgiven much. ___ Thanks for listening! Wretched Radio would not be possible without the financial support of our Gospel Partners. If you would like to support Wretched Radio we would be extremely grateful. VISIT https://fortisinstitute.org/donate/ If you are already a Gospel Partner we couldn't be more thankful for you if we tried!

Fr. Mike reveals yet another prophetic message that points towards the coming of Christ, explaining why the Book of Isaiah is often called the Book of Woe and the Book of Consolation. He also touches on the powerful prayer we hear as we end our journey with Tobit. Today's readings are Isaiah 11-13, Tobit 13-14, and Proverbs 10:13-16. 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.

Pastor Jonathan Laurie shares lessons from the story of Jonah, a reluctant evangelist who ran from God’s calling. Notes: Focus verse - Jonah 2 Matthew 23:25–27 (NKJV)“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. “Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.” Jonah 4:3 (NLT)“Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.” #1 God Appoints Circumstances to Bring Us Back Sometimes we think God is punishing us. God paid Jesus back for our sin. Jonah was a historical, biblical character.2 Kings 14:25 Matthew 12:40 (NKJV)“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” God appoints circumstances and storms.Not to pay us back, but to bring us back. #2 God Still Sees in the DarkJonah 2:1 (NLT) Read: Jonah 2:1–9 (NLT) While Jonah sat in darkness inside the great fish, he prayed.God heard and delivered Jonah out of his fishy prison. Psalm 139:11–12 (NLT)I could ask the darkness to hide meand the light around me to become night—but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.To you the night shines as bright as day.Darkness and light are the same to you. Israel worshipped one God — the true Creator. Romans 12:1 (NKJV)I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Read: Jonah 2:10 –3:5 (NKJV) #3 Saved From and Saved For God rescued Jonah from darkness so Jonah could reach others in darkness. 2 Corinthians 5:18–20 (NLT) Mark 16:15–16 (NLT)And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Romans 10:14 (NLT)But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? Learn more about this year's Harvest Crusade! --- Learn more about Greg Laurie and Harvest Ministries at harvest.org. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners. Support the show: https://harvest.org/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.