Zemke

John 20:22 And when he had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit" Luke 24:45 "Then He opened their minds to understand the scriptures." 1John 2:20, 27 "But you have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know." "And as for you, the anointing you received from him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him." Being born again is what abides in us, we receive the Holy Spirit at new birth. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost convicts the world of sin, empowers the church to be witnesses, and graces, or gifts the people of God to make disciples. The disciples had the Holy Spirit in the upper room as in the new birth, they understood the scriptures, but the church was not yet until the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. The reverse will happen, in a sense, the church proper will no longer function. The ship will come to trouble waters, and we will need to be good swimmers, so to speak. A cry came out at midnight, some had oil, and some did not. He comes like a thief in the night. We go into great tribulation and are rescued from the worse part, Gods Wrath. "The sun will turn to darkness and the moon to blood before that great and glorious day come." Peter, Acts 2

Clothing, garments, nakedness from the beginning on thru to Revelation deal with the spiritual state of the person. Adam and Eve were provided a proper garment by the Lord to cover their nakedness. There's more to all that theologically but then we see Laodicea in Revelation 3:14 being naked. Jesus goes on to tell them to "buy of me...white garments. Jude speaks of pulling your brother out of the fire,....hating the garment spotted with the flesh. Isaiah and Micah were told to prophecy naked, not nude naked but outer garment naked, at one point. It was a sign to the people coinciding with their message. They were no longer covered, their sacrifices were no longer accepted. The demoniac that Jesus healed was sitting at Jesus feet, CLOTHED, and in his right mind. He had been naked. When Moses was instructed to bring the people out of the camp to meet the LORD one of the repeated orders was for them to wash their garments. The scriptures go on and on like this. But to shorten things, the proper garment is the garment of salvation. Only Jesus can provide this garment. The parable is speaking spiritual while we tend to have the same problem they had by thinking of His words physically. Hope this helps, blessing on your day.

The houses that are in question are a total of six. They are owned by Jews. the Arab Muslim families quit paying rent and were also making structural changes which were against the contract. By contractual law he Jewish owners are not allowed to kick them out unless of coarse the contract is broke, such as not paying rent and changing the property without consent. There are 23, I think, properties like this in that neighborhood and for some reason these 6 went rogue. It's been in the courts for some time and is now in the Supreme Court. Again, The properties belong to Jews already and by law they could not take the houses back. That's why it's in the courts. The people for some time have broke the contract. That's a far reaching interpretation of scripture and a confusion of some facts.

There is more to be said to fully understand the situation but in short many aspects of the Scripture are pattern. Abraham goes down and comes out of Egypt, his descendants go down and come out of Egypt and Jesus goes down and comes out of Egypt. "Out of Egypt I have called my Son." In context in Hosea that is speaking of the Jews but Matthew is saying it pertains to Jesus. There are many patterns and shadows in the scripture. Elijah had his Mantle fall to Elisha at the Jordan on the plains of Jericho and Johns ministry was at the Jordan on the plains of Jericho. Geography plays into relationship many times. Elijah went to the same mountain and had a similar experience as Moses and we see them together at the transfiguration. A wicked woman turns the king against Elijah and a wicked woman turns the king against John. They had the same spirit as in ministry. He was not a reincarnation, he was John. In some way the spirit of Elijah will manifest before Jesus comes again. Some believe it will be Elijah but we can only speculate up to a point. But something akin to the first coming where people had to go out to here one crying in the wilderness to hear good teaching and preaching will be part of it.

Well thanks, Mike, but I will give you space to quantify your response. The choice of wording may have been unfortunate, especially for a message board. Stating that if we "aren't in the battle" would have been better. More in line with James when he wrote, "Consider it joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance." Boards in themselves are a battle field and no matter how we intend our writing to be understood it many times is chopped up to pieces. And thanks again about the response but the time spent with other brothers during the weeks of Resurrection and Passover time were wonderful this year. The Lord was gracious in our gatherings and many were saying how blessed they where by what leadership had put together.

That's a great question. It's right in the heart of our discipleship, being built up and maturing in the faith. The only thing that is free in this world is salvation, but growing in Christ comes at a cost. We are told in Romans to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice which is our reasonable service. When Jesus tells us to pick up our cross and follow He is saying to lose your life in this world for My sake. Render the old man dead. Crucify the old man of sin. We drop our cross in numerous ways but over time and with much repentance we grow. Jesus was 100% earthly good because He was 100% heavenly minded. Remember? He said set your treasures in heaven. Colossians 3:2-3 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are upon the earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Philippians3:10 ..that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death. Paul goes on in Romans talking about the retched man that he is, the spirit being willing but the flesh being weak. Our life will be a struggle but our struggles are for us to work out our own salvation to learn to be content, to grow in love for Jesus and to walk in the power of His resurrection. So it's our old nature that needs to remain dead. Remember Jesus' words. Those that seek to save their life in this world will lose it, but they who lose their lives for My sake will gain life, and life everlasting. There's an old song that goes something like, "Sin will take you where you do not want to go" Choose good, that you may live. Focusing on the sin, like what psychology does, will not work. Paul in Colossians again. 2:23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom......but are of no value against fleshly indulgences.

When the church wanes and compromises with the world we shouldn't expect anything less than worldliness. People who are not saved are dead in their trespasses and sins, they are dead, Jesus Christ came to give life. As Jesus said, "Let the dead bury their dead." Jesus died for dead people as we also where dead in our sin. And what is behind the fall of America is darkness. It's simply getting darker and we are experiencing that darkness. The unity God had in the garden with man and woman has been under attack from the start. The serpent struck at the heart of it all. We now have Homosexual marriage, abortion, divorce.... Nothing new under the sun. Romans 1 tells us when we believe that which is unnatural our minds start to go, and eventually we will be given over to a messed up mind. Even those who stand on the sidelines agreeing with these things are captured. I believe this is what we are seeing, minds that have been given over to darkness. The day of the Lord is always spoken about in reference to darkness, and it's getting darker. After the people cried out for a saditionist, a terrorist to be released and Jesus crucified, He spread out his arms and said, "Forgive them, they know not what they do." The world is a mess and always has been. We have lived a good life in the west comparably to the rest of the world but that is coming to a close. Jesus is coming and we need to get right, and as Rahab did, set about getting as many as would listen into her house. A smart gentile she is.

Everyone goes through these times. God loves you and He has your hand. We grow in faith a number of ways in diverse trials but the main way is by trusting in the Word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. At first I seemed to read with amazed wonder and a certain level of understanding the bible and when I started having difficulty, for lack of a better way to describe it, hearing from the Lord when I read I went through he same thing as your describing. I didn't feel God was in my reading. The more mature believers around me just smiled and encouraged me to keep reading. God is with us and will never forsake us. He's just putting you on our feet to learn to walk. He has your hand.

I watched a video of a live news broadcast of a governors race from 2018 using the same machines and software, in a split second 560 votes were added onto the contender and 560 votes exactly were subtracted from the incumbent. It was a 1,120 vote swing in a second. The feed comes from the software tabulating office from all the voting centers to the television feeds. They have known about these machines for a while now. The contender won with around 5,ooo votes and that one second represented over 20% of that total. Then they played a video of the Pennsylvania live tally and same thing there was over 19,000 votes added for Biden and the exact same number over 19,000 subtracted for Trump. One second and almost 40,000 vote swing. There is a reason for the media blackout of the evidence and the big push to move on. And that is just one example of the problems. So I would love for all this to be legit and moving on but it isn't and it won't. Our fight is not against flesh and blood but there are plenty of people engaged in that battle. This could get interesting if any traction comes of it. But that's a big if.

The apostle John, in his second epistle, stated the teaching expressing Jesus didn't come in the flesh is antichrist. The Greeks had a problem with deity becoming flesh. That's what Hercules was all about, a fleshly mother and a god having a child. Hercules was not a god but more than a human.(superhuman). So for the Christ to be God he could not have been in the flesh in the Greek mind. He had to be an illusion of some sort, not flesh. So if you were walking with Jesus in the sand there would only be one set of footprints, yours. Paul also was coming against this in his opening statements to the Colossians. It was a major problem of a false teaching/false gospel in the early church. Well, if Jesus was not Deity, 1John would not have come against this teaching and 2John would not exist because the Greeks would have never started this teaching. It's obvious the apostles and early church knew and taught Jesus is God. This explanation can get technical but it's a practical explanation I like. When things get technical there always seems to be a technical rebuke. This one is functional in a sense.

Well how far is the night? Ask them, when is the night? And why does He compare himself to a thief? Jesus said, "Work while it is the day, night comes when no man can work." Peter in Acts 2 said the sun will turn to darkness and the moon to blood 'before' that great and glorious day comes. Always dark, always night. The cry the virgins heard was at midnight. The old and the new is consistent with the day of the LORD and darkness. About the drinking and marrying; The prophets and apostles were consistent with looking for and waiting for the Lord. Isaiah 8:16,17 "Bind up the testimony seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait for the LORD who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob; I will even look eagerly for Him." Philippians 3:20 "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: What I believe Jesus is speaking of is people going about everyday oblivious to what is about to come. We are to be looking eagerly for the Lord. I think it's commendable, even though I disagree with pre-trib, to have the expectation of the Lords return on the ON switch when more and more of the church is sliding away from even talking about Him coming. Unpopular in many circles. So I embrace that aspect of the pre position in that respect there is no clear scripture stating that kind of timing and even Clerence Larkin who was the man who wrote "The Dispensational Truth", and other books with drawings, in the early twentieth century said it wasn't clearly biblical but he and others just didn't know where to put it and with their dispensational belief it was the only place it seems to fit. Clarence was a man who loved Jesus and he eagerly looked for Him and that's what I appreciate. I just think it's a good possibility He is coming sometime in the night and not before. What we need to be alert for is what Jesus warned us more about than anything else concerning His coming and the end of the age. "Do not be mislead." "False teachers, false prophets, deception to deceive the very elect if possible." If the teaching is solid and and you are growing in Jesus having faith it's where the Lord has you right now, keep the rapture stuff light. Many Calvary Chapels have that strong statement "If two do not agree, how can they walk together." I don't think the rapture timing should be placed in that category but some of their churches are buggy about it. Love the Lord and His people. Time is short, eagerly wait for the appearing of the Lord. Remember he can come for anyone of us tonight or the next day but the rapture, no, unless it's the night.

That's interesting Jayne, It got me thinking of other times also, Jerusalem was told to be silent or not to say anything more to the Asyrians and Jesus before Herod said nothing. It is heaven that is silent. Just a thought pattern but the silence in what could be looked at as the coming invasion of our Lord on the world also might have a connectivity to the silence during the invasion of the land. Jericho. A series of sevens and out of the seventh another series of sevens, shouting "this city has now become the city of our God" in Rev, "The kingdoms of the earth have now become the kingdoms of our God", Two spies, two witnesses, and silence. A gentile woman being rescued. I don't look at this with timing in mind. I'm not sure what all that means but I mostly think on the activities of Rahab in the middle of it all as more of application concerning importance of the hear and now. After all she is in the hall of faith and line of the Messiah.

Well the bigger picture is this world is still in the hands of the wicked one and slavery and submission is part of the devils hate for humanity. We are but grass and we do not know what we are doing and it's why we either submit to Christ and become bond servants or become slaves to the darkness of this world. The smaller picture is faith and the Christian community. I know many couples that have the man working and the woman doing the work of homemaking and they do well. Granted the Christian community is strong among them and families help one another but they just do it. Some of them have great incomes but most are pretty much the standard like most of us. We've taken special collections for families going thru a rough spot. Our deacon is a great older gentleman and has the liberty to disperse anything under $800, and anything over that needs church congregational approval. When situations arise we all receive mail for a vote to extend funds or are informed of a special offering will be taken that coming Sunday. And there are people in the fellowship always bringing up how we can do more. In this current economy for the last 50 years it really takes faith and a faith community. Without Christian community I'm not sure many could pull it off without strife and divorce. The world is set up for it. The serpent came after the heart of Gods creation, the unity between God, man and woman. The world is full of divorce, homosexuality and abortion. Nothing new under the sun.

It's always interesting to ask questions like this. And to further that it can be asked why Matthew said "He shall be called a Nazarene" when there isn't a verse that says exactly that in the Old Testament. I do know that the Gospels present Jesus as the Christ in varying ways but that's what they are doing, proving He is Messiah We could be hung up on a language translation from the way Matthew was putting forth proof of prophetic fulfillment. It is a Jewish perspective written to Jews so it may be more of reading a middle eastern text with a western mind that creates questions for us that would not for a Jew living at that time. Which is a good thing! - Questioning, that is.

I didn't say it was not scriptural, I said it was not clearly scriptural it will be a "peace" plan or deal. Confirming a covenant doesn't have to mean making a covenant from scratch but possibly strengthening a covenant that exists. One of the reasons I rarely get involved with conversations is the extracting from a paragraph a statement creating an argument when there really isn't one. What I was saying is we can't say affirmatively this is the seven year covenant that is confirmed. And that covenant being specifically a peace plan isn't clear. It might be a peace plan but that is what I said isn't clearly scriptural, that it will be specifically a peace plan.