United Church of God

Pastor Letter (April 23, 2021)

You are here

A Congregation of the United Church of God

Pastor Letter (April 23, 2021)

Downloads

Downloads

Pastor Letter (April 23, 2021)

×

Weekly Bible Study via Zoom in the book of Mark, Gospel accounts, 7: 30 PM, Wednesdays                                                                                                                                                     Weekly broadcast on WKDW – FM, Sundays, 10-11 AM, 97.5, Northport, FL.

 

Pastor’s Letter, April 23, 2021

      World’s Best-Kept Secret…                                                                                                                          And why you are Blessed to Not Know What it is…

 

        Some people can never keep a secret. Often the information involved is just too attractive, too provocative and too juicy for most people to leave alone. But sometimes knowing another’s secret can be a curse. Are there ever times when a  secret needs to remain secret?     

 

What secret is so big that it is better to leave it alone? Would an example be the JFK assassination? or Coca-Cola’s secret recipe for making its world famous coke? Or perhaps Captain Morgan’s buried treasure chest?

Secrecy is a commonly understood phenomenon of our culture. Because of the suspicion, greed and dishonesty that proliferates in this society, mankind commits to activity that often is enshrouded in deep mysterious secrecy. However in the Millennium there will be far fewer secrets in existence because people won’t have anything to hide nor will they fear anyone trying to furtively steal things from them. Yes, the day is coming when even employees of the US Secret Service, CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency will be out of work because there will be no more need of secrets.

 

     But today, there are so many deep secrets in this world such as:

  • How many nuclear warheads do the Israelis have?
  • What is the future of Iran’s nuclear program?
  • Who are the President’s chief advisors? 
  • Who will the Pittsburgh Steelers draft in the first round?
  • Does Vladimir Putin have a secret agenda?
  • Do the Chinese manipulate the gold market?
  • What has happened to every last person who has been kidnapped? 
  • Who killed J.R.?
  • How did Jimmy Hoffa die?
  • Exactly how do you build an anti-gravity flying object?                                                           
  • Who let the dogs out?

  

Questions run the gamut.

 

 

 

                          Until Christ Returns,  SWM – Secrets Will Matter

 

There is one mystery that defied imagination that occurred in the early 1900s when the world’s largest diamond  (3,106 carats) was shipped from S. Africa to London in secrecy. Those in charge of its safe-keeping created a diversion with the public. They gave the impression that the stone was placed on a steamship under heavy security when in fact the real stone was placed in a nondescript box and sent to England through the regular and very slow South African mail system. But since no one suspected that it would be sent via regular mail, it arrived securely.       


          In the Millennium, when God is in control and Jesus Christ begins to rule, all of the questions and mysteries enumerated above (and more) will eventually disappear because secrets will no longer be necessary. Society will be more open as people will have less and less to hide from each other. ..although, of course, no secret is secret from God. (II Chronicles 16: 9 and Proverbs 15: 3). This leads me to highlight perhaps the biggest secret on record…the exact day and hour of Christ’s return. It is so top secret that Jesus Christ guarantees that no one will know when it occurs.

           “For of that day and hour no one knows; not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only…”  

NKJV (Mt 24:36)    

This is top secret. The Bible says that Christ will come back at a time when people do not expect it to happen. Not even Jesus Christ knows when He is coming back. Therefore it is impossible for humans to claim that they know because they don’t.

 

Oh no, Wrong Again !

      Ironically, an endless string of theologians claim to have figured out the exact date of Christ’s return. They often have their charts, maps, and compelling mathematical equations that may suggest certain days based on certain calculations but they only succeed in making fools out of themselves in making predictions.

I remember meeting brethren who were sure Christ was returning on the Day of Trumpets in 1975. That was no improvement on William Miller who predicted Christ’s return on March 4, 1843 and then again for October 22, 1844.  As they say in the vernacular, “What part of “no man knows the day nor the hour” do they not understand ??? This is not to suggest that we can never perceive the urgency of the times we live in but that we have to be responsible with what we think we understand. Sadly, in one COG the pastor told his people that after the Feast they would not be returning to their homes. Oh no, wrong again!

 

                                               But What If We Knew…

          IF we knew the exact time of Christ’s return, there is a dangerously good chance that we would lean on our human nature to spiritually “ take it easy” and spiritually drift – perhaps  increasingly into more and more sin by inadvertently casting off self-discipline. People could rationalize, “Why should I dedicate all of myself to God when I could have all of these years ‘in the world’?  Christ did not go through a brutal crucifixion merely to encourage us to squander our future by trying to take a temporary vacation from God. God wants us to pursue Him and He is jealous enough for our allegiance that He refuses to play ‘second fiddle’ to any other false God whether Molech ,Baal, Marduke, Zeus, Saturn or the false god of materialism.

 

LOCAL HAPPENINGS

FT. MYERS     It was great to see Bob Branno able to make it to services this past week, after getting through post -surgery rehab for his hip replacement. His progress was nothing short of miraculous. This week Bob Orosz will be in town to speak. Services begin at 1:30.

 

TALLAHASSEE     For the second Sabbath in a row, wild weather including tornados wreaked havoc in the region and also affected our attendance, In spite of that we managed to have services both times at the farm. I appreciated visiting the Wests the other week. Our conversation could have gone on all night long if we let it. This Sabbath Court Greenfield will be speaking at the “farm” this Sabbath, beginning at 1: 30.

 

OCALA  The brethren had a terrific outing at the Greenfield’s home in Ft. McCoy this past Sunday. There were no snakes, bear, mosquitos or other predatory animals                   present. Garret Bunnell grilled the main courses to perfection and people fellowshipped all day and into the evening ...through the sunshine and the rain. Below you can see a few of the many celebrities that we had at our picnic. Rumor has it that this group would like to come back and do it all over again. This Sabbath Stan Braumuller will give the sermon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Top Secret" by Him_83 is licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. To view a copy of1/365 Top Secret" by Vs Heidelberg Photos is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

 

  •