ALWAYS   ACTS 5:41  and they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted --worthy-- to suffer shame for  HIS  name  --5:42--  and daily in the temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach  JESUS  CHRIST   PHILIPPIANS 1:29  for unto you it is given in the behalf of  CHRIST  not only to believe on  HIM  --but also to suffer for  HIS  sake-- MATTHEW 5:10  blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousnesses sake for theirs is the kingdom of  GOD JOHN 15:20  remember the word that I said unto you the servant is not greater than his  LORD  if they have persecuted  ME  they will also persecute you if they have kept  MY  saying they will keep yours also 1 CORINTHIANS 4:12  and labor working with our own hands being reviled we bless being persecuted we suffer it    PSALM 56:11  IN  GOD  HAVE  I  PUT  MY  TRUST  I  WILL  NOT  BE  AFRAID  OF  WHAT  MAN  CAN  DO  UNTO  ME MATTHEW 9:38  pray you therefore  THE  LORD  of the harvest that  HE  will send forth labourers into  HIS  harvest    LUKE 21:34  and take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life and so that they come upon you unawares  --21:36--  watch you therefore  --AND  PRAY  ALWAYS--  that you may be accounted worthy-- to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before  THE  SON  OF  MAN   PROVERBS 16:7  WHEN  A  --MANS  WAYS--  PLEASE  THE  LORD  --  HE  MAKETH  EVEN  HIS  ENEMIES  TO  BE  AT  PEACE  WITH  HIM 2 THESSALONIANS 1:11  WHEREFORE  ALSO  WE  PRAY  ALWAYS  for you that our  GOD  would count you worthy of  HIS  calling and fulfil all the good pleasure of  HIS  goodness ---and the work of faith with power---   PSALM 66:18  if I regard --INIQUITY-- in my heart  THE  LORD  will not hear me    LOVING  THE  LORD  JESUS  CHRIST

I saw the title and thought that Ephesians would be a good source........and then saw that this is exactly where Scripture was quoted from..............

Really enjoyed the clear speaking in this devotional today, regarding the amazing characteristic of Christ living in and through His church! As the first line says, "The church is not an entity separate from the Person and work of Christ." WOW!  Ephesians has such a wonderfully high vision of the ekklesia!  Consider verse 22 in the second chapter - "In Him you are also being built together for a dwelling place of God in Spirit."  What words can be used to express this?  As the song says, "It is joy unspeakable and full of glory and the half has never yet been told!"  "And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:22-23 The church is not an entity separate from the Person and work of Christ. We should not think of the church as something different from His Person and work. The church is a description of Christ with the fullness of His Person in His Body resulting in a testimony of all that He has accomplished in His work to produce us as His expression. So the church is simply a manifestation, an extension, of Christ's Person and Christ's work. Coming from various backgrounds, we may have different ideas of what "church" means. The church is a building, or the church is an assembly of people, or the church is what we experienced for years and maybe were disappointed with. "Church" could mean many different things to us. But we need to see a simple and clear revelation of the church--it is nothing less and nothing more than the Person and the work of Christ embodied and expressed through His people. This is the way we need to consider the church. Properly speaking, the church is an extension of Christ's Person and His work. When the Bible says that we are His Body, it adds, "the fullness of Him who is filling all in all." This is how we are Christ's extension. It is by His filling us. As we are being filled, there is an expression of all His riches. Look at His Person, look at His work. Then you know the church. The church is simply Christ Himself and all that He is dispensed into all of us, with all the riches of His Person and His work flowing from each one of us to express His fullness. What a marvelous realization of what the church is. It is just Christ and more of Christ filling all His organic members. From The Supplied Life by B. Freeman

Dan 9:25, The call went out to "restore" Jerusalem, what does that mean? Is it meant to say that the call went out from a gentile king to restore the complete religious system of Israel along with the city? Or is it meant to restore the city alone without necessarily meaning their religion? --- In one sense, according to the Dan 2 statue, Jerusalem cannot be fully restored until the gentiles are no longer ruling the city. That is when the toes end (1967). The statue begins when Jerusalem falls to Babylon. The statue ends when Israel rules the city again (1967).  The entire times of the gentiles (ToGs) is from Gold Babylon until the end of the iron and clay, the whole length of the statue.  The ToGs that Jesus talked about in Lk 21:20-24, 24, was 70 AD until 1967. It was the 2nd part of the statue, the ToGs. This second part of the statue, from 70 AD- 1967, is the subject in the Revelation.   Interesting. I am now thinking about how Jesus is the Ark of the Testament. I did see the imagery in Rev 11:19 where Jesus is revealed.  But now I am thinking of Him being the embodiment of the Ark in His everyday life. Teaching the people, doing miracles, and showing mercy as the living Ark of the covenant. Quite a concept, thank you for sharing those thoughts.     The covenant that Jesus confirmed for 7 years, Gal 3:17, was not ended until 37 AD when most of Israel rejected the new Pentecost gift of the Holy Spirit covenant. It  was not ended when Jesus was killed. His death was from before the world began and a necessity for the new covenant to begin. It was not because they killed Jesus that the covenant was ended, it was because they rejected the new Pentecost covenant. That is the reason that Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. If they would have accepted the new Pentecost kingdom, then they would have been forgiven and protected from the gentiles.    The AoD was Titus in 70 AD, in the temple. Titus, son of Caesar/Perdition. Mk 13:14.   John 19:34-37, this scripture was fulfilled at the death of Jesus. It is past and not future. The thought that Israel will have some kind of future miracle eye opening is not scriptural.  The sign to Israel was the resurrection, Matt 16:4. The sign to present Israel is the restoration of Jerusalem, 1967, Matt 24:30-31, the 5th trumpet. ---- Rom 11:26, " .... all Israel shall be saved, ...", Who will be saved?  Who is "all Israel"? Rom 9:6, "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel." It means that not everybody who is a flesh descendant of Israel is of the Spirit of Israel. That is, just because you are descended from the flesh of Jacob it doesn't mean that you have the spirit of Jacob, that leads to salvation through obeying the gospel call to a covenant with God. The gentiles are adopted into the family of Israel. So when it says that, "all Israel will be saved", it means that all those who are Israel after the Spirit and who have obeyed the gospel will be saved, Jew and gentile, but not those descendants of Israel after the flesh who are unbelievers. These present children of Israel have continued to reject the gospel Pentecost kingdom.   Not everyone has, but apparently not enough to keep the covenant protection over them.   The 3 1/2 times is not years. The 3 1/2 times of the Revelation is 70 AD- 1967.  This is the second part of the Dan 2 statue that Jesus said would complete the ToGs, Lk 21:24. Israel has already completed the time in sack cloth mourning for Jerusalem. The Law and prophets are being taught which witness/testify about Jesus. The time of the gentile trampling is ended and is not future.     Since Jerusalem is restored, 1967, it is impossible for the statue to exist any longer. The Roman iron does not control the people in Israel or Jerusalem any longer. ---- Dan 2:33-34, The feet were iron and clay already before the stone strikes them. " .... which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, ..."  

Dennis, you certainly have put a lot of time and effort into your response. Very nice! I don’t expect to receive any further comments that offer such a response so, if you do not mind, I will try and have a discussion with you on the little horn (and I believe you also agree the “little horn” is a literal person but the “anti-Christ” is NOT  a literal person but is someone who goes against God, His Word, etc. Thus, if I or anyone rejects Jesus, or preaches a different gospel, and does not obey His commands is one that exhibits an “anti-Christ” spirit or behavior.  Consequently, we might simply need to focus on who this little horn is, what does he do to meet the characteristics or attributes of the “little horn,” and perhaps the most important factor is to identify WHEN he arrives or has arrived.    If you would like to move forward with this exercise, on a slow, step by step basis, we might start with Daniel where he is first revealed.    So, assuming you will agree to move forward, I will begin with my thoughts and you might respond- for or against or add and subtract from these comments. 1) the 4 and only 4 kingdoms in Nebuchadnezzar’s image reveals Rome as the 4th kingdom in chapter 2. 2) within the 4th kingdom which is composed of iron (legs and feet of iron), there are two other entities/persons, etc., that are symbolized WITHIN the iron kingdom (specifically shown within the feet).        a) the clay (yet to be identified as to what type of clay) represents the Jews who are now back in Jerusalem (70 weeks of years prophecy at the time of the expected Messiah), and the 10 toes at the end of the feet. At this time in their revealing, God has labeled them as “toes” NOT KINGS. These “toes” have also not be revealed at this time, but will be clearly identified in chapter 7 when God gives us His next vision of the 4 kingdoms and how they have progressed since the time of Nebuchadnezzar. I will stop here and ask for your opinion and thoughts on the above. I would ask you to consider these comments above which come out of Daniel 2 (no need to bring in Revelation, Matthew, Isaiah, etc., at this time.    Let me know if you would like to continue.. thanks, Charlie