United Church of God

Pastor Letter (September 11, 2020)

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Pastor Letter (September 11, 2020)

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Pastor Letter (September 11, 2020)

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Weekly Bible Study, 7:30 PM Wednesday evenings – Panorama of End-Time prophecy                                                                                      Weekly radio program  WKDW – FM 97.5 FM Sundays 10-11 AM                                                                                                                                                                        Webcast from Vero Beach, 2 PM. Saturdays

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                           

What Does God Have to do 

            to get the Attention of This World?

 

     We live in an increasingly secular world…a world that does not want to acknowledge God, His master plan, or His laws. Society has steadily moved to throw prayer out of the classroom and out of the court judicial system while it has readily accepted and tried to validate other non-Christian belief systems. As Isaiah, Jeremiah and numerous other prophets have observed, society is eager to consult with soothsayers, astrologers, and various government leaders who thrive on deceit and dishonesty. (Isaiah 47:11-14) Meanwhile society worships rock stars, sports legends, movie stars, personalities, amulets, cars, homes, status, and vestiges of materialism. (Isaiah 2:5-8) The disinterest in the true God of the universe corresponds to what God told His prophet Samuel centuries ago: “Do everything that they say to you,” the Lord replied, for it is me that they are rejecting and not you. They don’t ever want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them out of Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods.” (NLT)

     With that in mind, we in the church find ourselves in a peculiar dilemma. We are requested by God to give society an end-time message of hope for the long range future and a strong warning for the coming catastrophic events of the near future. To do so we have to have a convincing presentation. We must be relevant and demonstrate a keen understanding of what people worldwide are going through. Although everyone needs a strong relationship with God, most do not understand that need at all.

     The pictures below give indication of where mankind’s priorities are at the present time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                           It probably will take a wake-up call

     As we look to the Day of Trumpets, we know that Jesus Christ will get the attention of this world. As he replaces Satan as God of this world, we realize that Satan will put up gigantic resistance to prevent Christ from succeeding. Satan will instigate war in heaven (Revelation 12:7) and great agony on the earth as society plunges deeper into the sufferings outlined in the 5th, 6,th & 7th seals of the book of Revelation. 

     The Bible decrees that the Great Commission of Matthew 24:14 will go out to the world as a witness of good things to come after the upcoming turmoil finally subsides. For example, the end of Hosea 5 and beginning of Hosea 6 indicates that many people will turn to God in future tribulation. Hosea’s message is further accentuated by God’s statement in Hosea 7:12 that “My congregation will have heard”. In other words, before final punishment is rendered on modern-day Israel, God will give modern-day Israel (which includes Britain, the U.S., and the Israelis, a loving warning to repent before the great Day of the Lord…a time period of perhaps one year in which worldwide society will be thrown into a panic.

     Although nothing less than dramatic intervention will seem to work, God will have also allowed the gospel account to reach millions with an attractive presentation that will resonate with many people who pay attention to our end-time media reach. It is described in Ezekiel 33:30-33:

     (30) “Son of man, your people talk about you in their houses and whisper about you at the doors. They say to each other, ‘Come, let us go hear the prophet tell us what the Lord is saying!’

     (31)  So my people come and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words but they will not do them for with their mouth they show forth much love but their hearts go after their covetousness.

     (32) and lo you are a very lovely song of one that has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument: for they hear your words but they do them not.

     (33) And when this comes to pass (lo, it will come) then shall they know that a prophet has been among them. 

     God allowed (but did not orchestrate) the events of 9/11, 2001 and some of us wondered if that would constitute as a wake up call. The sad reality was that after a month, churches again became relatively empty and society returned to its favorite activities, with no room for God. People could argue that the economic and social restrictions brought about by Covid-19 would be the ultimate wake-up call. However, it will probably take much more than the virus to reorient man toward his maker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Else Has to Happen …                                                                              for people to turn to God?

       Obviously …                                                                                                       9/11 was not enough

We are just at the beginning of sorrows with volatility with the economy, the threat of plagues, raging infernos of fires in the west, cities aflame amid endless and sometimes well-financed protests. Right now, the majority of mankind either has not heard our gospel message, or, for the most part, is disinterested in it.

      BUT that will change. 

The Great Tribulation is the great gamechanger.

According to Revelation 7:9, an innumerable multitude will turn to God for His blessings. That could only happen if they have heard the end-time message of both hope and warning. By this point, many people will become believers as everything else that they have been emotionally invested in, fails. This is where the result of our efforts – after these many years to plant and sow seeds of optimistic hope in a very negative world – will come to fruition. This constitutes a primary reason why we are to continue to do an end-time work. Millions will eventually count on the gospel message being true. The Day of Trumpets clearly carries this understanding as part of its purpose for being established by God.

CHURCH SERVICES

Tomorrow                                          Sept 19 Day of Trumpets

Fort Myers:             Chuck Smith                  Jeff Lockhart

Vero Beach:            Bob Orosz                                                 Braden Veller

               Ocala:       Braden Veller                                           Stan Braumuller

               Tallahassee      DVD                                              Lonnie Mooneyham

 

"The second plane is flying in the direction of the south tower - September 11, 2001" by manhhai is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0"DXO Newspaper Collection: U.S. Under Attack, Chicago Tribune, Evening Extra, September 11, 2001" by danxoneil is licensed under CC BY 2.0 the Daily Star Front Page on September 12th, 2001" by Coneee is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 "Mary!" by US Department of State is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0"USC Football crowd" by nsdis is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0"USC Football crowd" by nsdis is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0"casino! las vegas" by tricky (rick harrison) is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 This image was marked with a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license. "beach crowd" by Mario A. P. is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0"Atlanta Motor Speedway" by @CarShowShooter is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0"People of Berkeley - Meeting Place" by John-Morgan is licensed under CC.2.0"Army Rangers" by The U.S. Army is licensed under CC BY 2.0"At Risk of the White Plague: Children at the Preventorium (1925)" by postaletrice is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Ironically people fixate on seemingly anything but the true God