SABBATH ANNOUNCEMENTS & REMINDERS 

United Church of God, an International Association

North Canton & Youngstown, OH; Pittsburgh, PA; Wheeling, WV Congregations

SABBATH, AUGUST 10, 2019

Youngstown –11 a.m.                      Wheeling – 10 a.m.

North Canton – 2 p.m.                     Pittsburgh – 2:30 p.m. 

Greetings brethren,

We hope your week has gone well—and that you’re ready for our weekly day of spiritual and physical rest. What a blessing is God’s Sabbath!

In separate emails I will forward you a letter to the ministry and membership from our UCG Council of Elders chairman Dr. Donald Ward. The second email will contain the meeting agenda for the next quarterly Council meeting at the home office in Cincinnati on Monday to Thursday, August 19 to 22. 

These are important meetings for the spiritual and physical health of God’s Church and His Work. Please pray for the travel and meeting safety for the twelve Council members (which now includes myself), and especially pray that God’s wisdom will prevail as we strive to plan for and to do God’s Work of preaching the gospel.  

Below, please find this week’s set of chapter summaries for our local Bible reading program. We’re reading the book of Isaiah by the Feast of Tabernacles. Due to the concentration of “world tomorrow” (millennial) prophecies this program should help prime our spiritual pumps for God’s Feast of Tabernacles! Enjoy.

Keep the true faith—and spread it,
Randy Stiver, Pastor 

Pastor’s contact information:  PO Box 1474, Massillon, OH  44648.  Home phone: 330-809-0566, cell phone: 740-739-7248. Email addresses: randy_stiver@ucg.org  or rpstiver@gmail.com (both come to the same location). For emails regarding scheduling (church events, visits or counseling), please copy my wife Linda ldstiver@gmail.com. Announcements should be sent to my email and copied to our daughter Amanda at anstiver@gmail.com as she helps process them each week.

1.    Church Circuit Schedule 

August 10	Sabbath services	Youngstown – 11 a.m.; North Canton – 2 p.m.; Wheeling – 10 a.m.; Pittsburgh – 2:30 p.m.
August 17	Sabbath services	Youngstown – 1 p.m.; North Canton – 2 p.m.; Wheeling – 10 a.m.; Pittsburgh – 2:30 p.m. North Canton Sabbath Bible Study – 12 noon.
August 23	Bible Study webcast	7:30 p.m. EDT  –  Title to be announced  https://www.ucg.org/congregations/north-canton-oh/webcast
August 24	Sabbath services	Youngstown – 11 a.m.; North Canton – 2 p.m.; Pittsburgh – 10 a.m.; Wheeling – 2:30 p.m.
August 31	Sabbath services	Youngstown – 1 p.m.; North Canton – 2 p.m.; Pittsburgh – 2:30 p.m.; Wheeling – 10 a.m.

 

LOCAL PRAYER REQUESTS: 

·         Rose Szymkowiak (North Canton) – Doing well healing up from the fall that caused a sacral fracture. She says “thank you!” for your prayers.

·         Dale Harmon (North Canton) – We have no update on Dale this week as I was not able to get in to see him when I visited the care center in Youngstown.

·         Ian Healey (grandson of Louis & Carol Petit in NC) – awaiting a kidney donor.

·         Steve Richmond (Cambridge) – Fighting liver and colon cancer.

·         Todd Bickel  (North Canton) – Bursitis and high blood pressure.

·         Dave Ritter (North Canton) – Upcoming prostate surgery.

·         Kathy Kinsella (Salem, Oregon) – Update on the prayer request about her Lupus condition complication after hip surgery. The good news is that her breathing is normalizing, but there is still a good way to go to be healthy and strong. We know all her family and that they would personally, if they could, thank you for your prayers!

2.    FRIDAY NIGHT BIBLE STUDY – SUMMER CHANGE (reminder)

We will have only one Bible Study webcast in August. It is Friday evening, August 23 at 7:30 p.m.

3.    SPOKESMAN CLUB  - September 8 

The next meeting of our local, four-church Spokesman Club will be Sunday morning, September 8 at the YWCA in Steubenville, OH. For those of you men who haven’t yet gotten involved for Spokesman Club, this could be your first meeting!  Please talk to Mr. Stiver, Freeman Kuhns, Keith Wilson or Jim Kocher to get involved in the premiere personal growth and leadership training program in God’s true Church from 1960 to 2019!

4.    LOCAL BIBLE READING PROGRAM

Starting with our most recent Bible Study webcast entitled, “Bible Biography – Isaiah the Prophet” (still available to view on the North Canton website), here is our latest set of chapter summaries to go along with your Bible reading leading up to the Feast of Tabernacles. Each week we’ll post the summaries for the upcoming week’s reading assignments. If you have Bible Study questions, please send them to Mr. Stiver.

ISAIAH Bible Reading Project leading up to the Feast of Tabernacles            

Human author: Isaiah, the son of Amoz.  Written: approx. 740-698 B.C.           

DATES                                 WEEK               CHAPTERS

July 28-Aug. 3            --Week 1            --1-6

August 4-10               --Week 2            --7-13

August 11-17             --Week 3             --14-20

August 18-24             --Week 4            --21-27

August 25-31             --Week 5            --28-34

September 1-7          --Week 6            --35-41

September 8-14        --Week 7            --42-48

September 15-21      --Week 8            --49-55

September 22-28      --Week 9            --56-59

Sept. 29-Oct. 5          --Week 10          --60-63

October 6-12             --Week 11          --64-66

ISAIAH CHAPTER SUMMARIES  

(Each week we’ll publish a brief summary of the chapters to be read.)

ISAIAH 14 – v. 1-2: A great World Tomorrow / Millennial reversal prophecy of when Israel will govern Assyria and Babylon. The gentiles will serve the Israelites then—an important time for the non-Israelites to learn God’s way by the example of the Tribes. V. 3-11: Prophecy of the future fall of the King of Babylon. “Proverb” here means a highly figurative poem, typically prophetic as well as historic. Isaiah wrote up to 214 years before the Babylonian Empire was destroyed by the Medes and the Persians. The poem then denounces an ultimately evil ruler called “the oppressor” (Satan) who constantly and cruelly oppresses mankind (v.6-7). The world will rejoice when that oppressor has fallen (which is at Christ’s return, Rev. 20:1-3). V. 11 mentions music used for evil by Satan—compare that to the rampant amount of music generated in the past 60+ years that blatantly advocate sin. Verse 12-21 – the direct prophecy of the Devil’s (Lucifer’s) fall from archangel power (phrasing couched in terms of conquering a physical ruler). V. 12-15 very clearly describe Satan’s hardened attitude of intense hatred toward God—and toward anything that God created.

        Chapter ends with prophesies of God’s judgment on the kingdoms of Babylon (v. 22-23), Assyria (24-27) and (Philistia). The final verse (32) prophesies of Zion (meaning Jerusalem) as the ultimate city of spiritual refuge.

ISAIAH 15 – “Burden” here means a prophecy against Moab (descendants of Lot and his daughters, see Gen. 19:30-38, and Num. 22-25; Deut. 1:5). The Moabites today are a primary part of the population of the Kingdom of Jordan. The imagery is of the Moabites fleeing from invaders and mourning. Note Isaiah’s concern for even those who come under God’s judgment: “My heart will cry out for Moab…” (v. 5). 

ISAIAH 16 – Prophecy of the destruction of Moab. Sela (v.1) is an ancient city site located in the rugged mountains south of the Dead Sea. It is a natural fortress-like location not unlike Petra which is a number of miles further south toward the Israeli city of Eliat on the north shore of the eastern tip of the Red Sea called the Gulf of Aqaba. “Sela” (in verse 1) means “rock” in Hebrew like “Petra” is “rock” in Greek. 

        God promises a place of safety—physical protection—during the Great Tribulation for His elect (see Rev. 3:10; Dan. 11:40-41). This prophecy of Moab (now modern Jordan) seems to indicate “outcasts” somehow dwelling with endtime Moab. We don’t know how God will make these things happen, but “the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save…” (Isa. 59:1). Thus, we carry on doing God’s work of preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God to the world as a witness (Mat. 24:14) and let God work out whatever prophetic details He sees fit.

        V. 16 shows both Isaiah’s and God’s concern for Moab—as well as for its modern descendants in Jordan.

ISAIAH 17 – A prophecy against Damascus that refers to both ancient and modern Syria. “The glory of Jacob will wane” (v. 4) prophesies the endtime weakening and collapse of the modern nations descended from the tribes of Israel (specifically here the northern 10 tribes of Israel (ancestors of NW European and British nations plus America). Verses 7-8 are a Millennial prophecy. Verses 9-14 are an endtime prophecy about the destruction of the cities and nations in all the world.

ISAIAH 18 – A prophecy against Ethiopia which essentially symbolizes all of Africa except Lower Egypt that reaches to the Mediterranean Sea. V. 7 – A Millennial prophecy of when all the African nations will also come to Mount Zion in Jerusalem to worship the true God.

ISAIAH 19 – The judgment of God will also come upon Egypt and their idolatry will collapse in the endtime. An endtime “fierce king will rule over them” (v. 4) just as indicated in Dan. 11:42-43. A great drought will occur, drying up the River (the Nile) in verses 5-10. God denounces Egypt’s leaders of the time in verses 11-15. In verses 16-17 is a prophecy that has been fulfilled in modern times (since 1948) “…the land of Judah will be a terror to Egypt.” The rest of the chapter is a Millennial prophecy of God’s blessing on Egypt. V. 23-24 ends with a world tomorrow prophecy about the unity and peace between the Israelite nations and two of their biblically historic enemies:  Assyria and Egypt!

ISAIAH 20 – “Tartan” was the chief officer of the Assyrian army, probably commander-in-chief. Ashdod was a coastal city in the inheritance of the Tribe of Dan. Later, when Dan had migrated elsewhere, it was part of the Kingdom of Judah. God had Isaiah walk about clothed raggedly and scantily in sackcloth—just as the captives of the House of Judah would be undressed as captives of the Babylonians after the fall of Jerusalem in 597 to 586 BC. But before that in 700 BC the army of Assyria conquered a number of cities in Judah and took captives back to Nineveh. God made Isaiah be a walking prophecy of that time of trouble. - end