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 RAPTURE- 2^ND COMING- 2 EVENTS?

https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/6-10-15-second-coming-rapture.zip 

 I was thinking about starting a new study and covering 1^st, 2nd Thessalonians.

Instead I decided to just copy a few passages about the 2^nd coming of Christ and talk about that.

I’m not covering everything you can on the subject .

My purpose in this short study is for you to see the simple- plain language when the New Testament covers this subject.

Many good men- scholars- do read these passages as speaking about separate events.

And this study gets long [convoluted in my mind] and digresses into different details [like the last trumpet sounding- or other different details of the same event].

And some have developed an intricate ‘system’ of how these same passages- that in my mind speak of the same event- are actually talking  about 2 different events-

One called ‘The Second Coming’ and another- called ‘The Rapture’.

And to justify this belief- they will teach ‘there is only one Second Coming- but it’s in 2 parts’.

Yikes!

To me- that means you are saying there are 2!

Others say ‘just like in the Old Testament they did not realize the prophets were speaking about 2 comings of Jesus [his birth- and the Second coming- true].

So in the New Testament- there are also ‘2’ comings [meaning a Rapture- then later- a Second Coming].

Now- in the simple field of Logic- these good men do not realize that this in itself is a contradciton.

Why?

Because they themselves are admitting that in the Old Testament there are ‘2’ events spoken about [the first- and the SECOND] meaning there are not THREE.

So- if you actually have a separate Rapture event spoken about in the New Testament- well- that makes 3 events [Jesus birth- the Rapture- then the Second Coming].

Understand- When you read the few chapters posted below-

Paul is penning these letters to these churches- who were actually doubting the resurrection of the Body [Corinthians]-

Or fearing that their dead loved ones would be left out of the hope of Jesus’ return [Thessalonians].

So he is comforting them by saying when Jesus returns- their dead relatives will be raised- and they too would ‘meet the Lord in the air’.

Now- I do believe this event will happen someday- it will happen when Christ returns.

The dead will be raised- those that ‘have done good’ [believers] to the ‘resurrection of life’-

Those that ‘have done evil’ –will face judgment.

Those who are alive at this event- the second coming- or if you want to say the term ‘Rapture’ you can.

We too will 'be caught up’ to meet the Lord in the air.

But- as I read these passages- we don’t go away for 7 years [which you see in the very popular End Time movies of our day].

But we THEN are changed- have our resurrection bodies- and yes-

There will be a new heaven and earth- all tears wiped away-

And we will be with Christ and our loved ones- in actual resurrected bodies- for eternity.

To read these passages- and to ‘see’ 2 different events- taking place over 7 years-

It’s not ‘heresy’ per se- but it would be very confusing for the early church- who were getting these letters-

Separately- to make any sense out of Paul using the same language- and talking about the same themes [we will be raised from the dead- don’t fear that your loved ones will miss out- Jesus will return- we will get new bodies- etc.]

And then to think he is actually talking about 2 different events-

I mean these young churches were questioning the resurrection from the dead- wondering what happened to their dead relatives.

See?

Paul is correcting them about some fundamental Christian beliefs- and for him to be ‘introducing’ a 2 staged ‘2^nd coming’ – well- that’s just doesn’t make sense to me.

As a student of Theology- I am familiar with both sides of this issue [Dispensationalism versus Historic view].

In this post I’m giving you the view that the early church held- and the view that most Christians hold today.

In the past I covered how the Rapture view came about [1800’s- John Darby- few others].

And I could go over all that again.

But- for this short study- I just want you- yourself- to read these chapters.

Does it sound like the Apostle Paul is speaking about 2 different events to you?

Below I’m pasting some of the main sections [not all] that talk about the 2^nd Coming-

I want you to see the context.

Over the years as I simply read these passages- it was obvious to me that some who teach these verses- are actually missing the main reason why Paul brings up the 2^nd coming- and the resurrection of the dead.

In the Thessalonians portion- some say Paul is speaking about 2 different events [the Rapture- a secret coming- 1 Thess. chapter 4. Then the ‘day of the Lord’ and the 2^nd coming- a whole other event].

If you simply read it- he is saying ‘the Second coming- the Day of the Lord- it is still yet to come- and your loved ones will not be forgotten’ [1^st Thessalonians].

Then- in 2^nd Thessalonians- it seems as there might have been a fake letter- written to them- claiming to be from Paul.

H says ‘don’t be disturbed- either by word- OR A SO CALLED LETTER FROM US’.

Don’t be disturbed that the Day of the Lord [or the Second coming] ‘is at hand’- or already happened.

Then in chapter 2 he goes on to talk about the Wicked one being revealed 1^st [antichrist- which we have much to say about in the future].

Paul is basically covering the same ground in 1^st and 2^nd Thessalonians.

He taught them that Jesus will come back- and our dead loved ones will not miss out on the future kingdom- they too will be raised from the dead- and we will all be together with the Lord.

Then in 2^nd Thessalonians he is saying ‘wait- don’t get fooled- again. Jesus did not come back yet- some stuff must happen first’.

Those who teach the Rapture have Paul talking about 2 different events here.

One- a secret Rapture- then- the 2^nd coming.

Remember- this church was obviously having some serious doctrinal problems.

And it would make no sense for them to have received these 2 letters [not in a book form- like the bible we have today].

And to ‘figure out’ that Paul is talking about 2 different events- using the same basic language that he uses in his letters to the other churches- about the 2^nd coming of Christ.

And for them to have discerned that this was a whole new ‘secret’ thing God revealed to Paul-

Well- it simply makes no sense to me.

As you read the passages below- see the language Jesus himself uses ‘after the days of the tribulation- THEN shall the sign of the coming of the son of man be’-

Jesus says the angels will be sent forth- gather together God’s elect-

All the language about the 2^nd coming seems to be speaking about one event in the New Testament [trumpets- etc.].

Those who each the Rapture- as a secret 2^nd coming- they ‘see’ the trumpet language [which is used about all the events- even those who say they are 2 different ones].

As ‘another trumpet’ and so on.

There are pro and con verses that both sides use in this debate.

I think the main point is- the language used about the 2^nd coming- or ‘the Rapture’ is obviously speaking about the same thing.

So- we start from there- then- if you develop an End Time view of things- no matter how you see all the other future events to come-

You don’t ‘add’ another- secret- 2^nd coming in there-

To me- that’s going too far.

1Thessalonians 4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

1Thessalonians 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

1Thessalonians 4:15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

1Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

1Thessalonians 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

1Thessalonians 4:18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

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1Thessalonians 5:1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.

1Thessalonians 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

1Thessalonians 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

1Thessalonians 5:4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

1Thessalonians 5:5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

1Thessalonians 5:6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

1Thessalonians 5:7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

1Thessalonians 5:8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

1Thessalonians 5:9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

1Thessalonians 5:10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

2Thessalonians 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

2Thessalonians 2:2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

2Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

2Thessalonians 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

2Thessalonians 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

2Thessalonians 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

2Thessalonians 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

2Thessalonians 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

2Thessalonians 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

2Thessalonians 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

2Thessalonians 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

2Thessalonians 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

 

1Corinthians 15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:

1Corinthians 15:43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

1Corinthians 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

1Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

1Corinthians 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

1Corinthians 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.

1Corinthians 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.

1Corinthians 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

1Corinthians 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

1Corinthians 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

1Corinthians 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

1Corinthians 15:53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

1Corinthians 15:54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

1Corinthians 15:55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

1Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

1Corinthians 15:57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

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John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

John 14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

John 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

Matthew 24:27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Matthew 24:28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

Matthew 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

Matthew 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Acts 1:9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

Acts 1:10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;

Acts 1:11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

2Peter 3:4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

2Peter 3:5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

2Peter 3:6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

2Peter 3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

2Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

2Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

2Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

2Peter 3:11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

2Peter 3:12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

2Peter 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Revelation 19:11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

Revelation 19:12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

Revelation 19:13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

Revelation 19:14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

Revelation 19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

Revelation 19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

evelation 19:11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

Revelation 19:12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

Revelation 19:13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

Revelation 19:14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. [NOTE- in these passages I’m quoting ones that say ‘Jesus comes back with the saints- from heaven’- This verse can refer to Angels- Christians- or both. Now- I don’t want to be demeaning here- but a big part of this discussion revolves around ‘see- Jesus comes back with the saints- therefore- there must be a Rapture- or how else did they get there’! Look- read the context of the verses I’m pasting- in Paul’s letters he’s dealing with the fear that Dead Christians might be forgotten about- so- for him to say ‘Jesus comes back WITH THEM’ Well- that fits the whole theme- Not of another Rapture- apart from the 2^nd Coming- but when he returns- he brings them back- in short- to answer the question ‘How did those saints get there’- They DIED.]

Revelation 19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

Revelation 19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

Revelation 22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

Revelation 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

Revelation 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Revelation 22:15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

Revelation 22:16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Revelation 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

Revelation 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Revelation 22:20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Revelation 22:21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

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Matthew 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

Matthew 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

 

Matthew 24:26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not [Jesus is actually warning against those who say he is in the ‘secret chambers’ or a ‘secret coming’. Paul- in 2^nd Thess. Does the same thing ‘don’t let anyone trick you into thinking he already came back’- sort of a secret event].

Matthew 24:27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Matthew 24:28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

Matthew 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

Matthew 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Matthew 24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Matthew 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

Matthew 24:37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Matthew 24:38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark [some teach that the Ark here is a symbol of the Rapture- that like Noah was in the Ark- so the Christians are taken ‘out of the earth’ for 7 years. The Ark is a type of Christ- not an earthly escape. So- you escape Gods coming wrath- by being in Christ. Also- the Ark did not take Noah and his family out of the earth- contrary- they stayed in the earth- and miraculously escaped the judgment].

Matthew 24:39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Matthew 24:40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

Matthew 24:41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

Matthew 24:42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

Matthew 24:43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.

Matthew 24:44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

NOTE- I added these verses in because those who teach the Rapture see these verses talking about different events-

For instance the passages they see as the Rapture- and not the Second Coming- Talk about Jesus coming- and to the unbeliever that ‘day will be like a thief coming’-

Jesus will ‘gather together the elect’-

And we will be ‘taken to him’.

In these verses- the exact same language is used- as in the ‘other’ portions of the bible- that speak about the Second Coming.

So- for those who see these as 2 different events- they have ways of making them fit-

But- the plain language- like Jesus saying ‘AFTER the tribulation of those days- THEN shall the sign of the coming of the Son of Man be seen’-

In normal language- Jesus is saying the 2^nd coming happens after the tribulation of those days.

So- the Rapture guys say ‘No- Jesus is not talking about the Rapture- but the Second coming’.

Yet- the same language is used ‘he will gather the elect- some will go- some will be ‘left behind’.

So- my conclusion is Jesus will indeed come back- there will be a resurrection from the dead.

We will indeed be ‘caught up’ to meet the Lord in the air [but we don’t go into hiding for 7 years- while nobody knows where we are].

There will be a resurrection of the unjust-

There will be a judgment of both the just and unjust.

Those that have ‘done good’ will be ‘raised to life’-

Those that have done evil will be raised to face judgment.

All this will indeed happen- but there is only one more coming of Christ.

The passage in 1^st Thess. Chapter 4 is indeed the 2^nd coming of Christ.

The same event Jesus himself is talking about in the gospels.

The same event we read about in 1^st Corinthians 15.

And the same event we read about in the book of Revelation.

John 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

Some of my past stuff on Scofield-

(790) EVOLUTION AND RACISM- Jesus said if you call someone a fool ‘without a cause’ that you would be in danger of ‘hell fire’. One of the most famous ‘Evolution versus Christian’ cases in the 20^th century was known as ‘The Scopes Trial’ [monkey trial]. I remember as a boy watching the made for T.V. movie ‘Inherit the Wind’. The movie portrayed the Christians as ‘ignoramuses’ while showing the defense side as ‘enlightened’. The key figures were Clarence Darrow [1857-1938] and William Jennings Bryan [1860-1925]. John Scopes was the teacher accused of teaching evolution from the book ‘Civic Biology’  by George Hunter. Tennessee had recently passed a law forbidding the teaching of evolution in their schools [Butler act]. Scopes was found guilty and fined 100 dollars, but the intent of trying to show the Christian fundamentalist as ‘backwoods idiots’ was achieved. Darrow managed to get Bryan to admit that the creation account of Genesis might be speaking of ‘ages’ when it says ‘days’ [the very popular gap theory was accepted by many fundamentalists at the time. C. I. Scofield's bible popularized this belief in the notes]. After the trial the fact that the A.C.L.U. lost the case was insignificant, they won in the media. Till this day many people see this event as a victory for freedom and human rights. What is not commonly known is that the book Scopes taught from was one of the most racist books of the age. It freely taught Eugenics [the stronger more ‘nobler’ races winning out over the less valuable inferior races!] it even had a scale showing the 5 races of humans from the most valuable and intelligent, to the least valuable and ignorant. The book had whites at the top and blacks at the bottom. Bryan was a defender of civil rights for all humans, he stood on the side of blacks and minorities being equal. The so called ‘advanced’ bunch [the evolutionists] were on the side of the K.K.K., they espoused the doctrine of white supremacy as taught in the book Scopes used. Bryan felt the danger of this so called ‘scientific theory’ was that it would lead to disaster and the degrading of human dignity. It is an historical fact that Hitler read and believed in Eugenics and Evolution, he felt his atrocities against the Jews were simply mans way of ‘wiping out the inferior races’. His demonic attack would occur a few years after Bryan’s warnings. Now, for those who view the famous ‘Monkey Trial’ as a great victory for humanity, I have one response ‘the men who wrote and espoused such racist beliefs were quite obviously FOOLS!’

 

 

 

 

 

VERSES [These are the verses I either quoted or taught from on today’s post- Links to all my sites below]

2Corinthians 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2Corinthians 5:2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

2Corinthians 5:3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

2Corinthians 5:4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

2Corinthians 5:5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

2Corinthians 5:6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

2Corinthians 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

2Corinthians 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

2Corinthians 5:9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.

2Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

2Corinthians 5:11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

2Corinthians 5:12 For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart.

2Corinthians 5:13 For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.

2Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

2Corinthians 5:15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

2Corinthians 5:16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

2Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

2Corinthians 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

2Corinthians 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

2Corinthians 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

2Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

John 14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

John 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

John 14:4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

John 14:5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

John 14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

John 14:8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.

John 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

John 14:10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

John 14:11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.

John 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

John 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

John 14:14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

John 14:17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

John 14:18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

John 14:19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.

John 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

John 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

John 14:22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

John 14:24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.

John 14:25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

John 14:28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

John 14:29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.

John 14:30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

John 14:31 But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

Isaiah 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

Isaiah 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Isaiah 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

Isaiah 53:8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

Isaiah 53:9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

Isaiah 53:11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

Isaiah 53:12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Matt. 24

Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

James 1:21

Hebrews 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

Hebrews 5:13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

Hebrews 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

John 3:9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

John 3:10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? 1^st. Peter 4:17

9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. 1cor. 6

Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. John 14:11

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: Gal. 3:13

But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.  Luke 12:48

 

 

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2^nd Corinthians 6

 

But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

Job 32:8

 

Links to my sites here and the bottom of every post- https://ccoutreach87.com/links-to-my-sites-updated-10-2018/ 

 

I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. Hab. 2:1

2^nd Cor. 6 videos-

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https://youtu.be/cMfz02bFo_Y 

 

ON VIDEO

.David- Solomon- Moses- God gave them a Divine pattern [Tabernacle- Temple]

.Jesus gave us one as well- the simplicity of the seed sower

.Prison epistles of Paul- even in prison the ‘ministry’ of Paul could not be stopped

.He wrote letters from jail- they were sent out- and the churches he established were built upon the Spirit and Christ

.They were not dependant on some external structure- they were indeed the people of God

.The lost quotes? [Explained on video]

.The Essenes [Dead Sea scrolls- Qumran community] Essenes - Wikipedia 

.Geek philosophy and Logos

.Answering the critics [An apology- meaning apologetics]

.They copied us! [The Jewish prophets pre- dated both the Essenes and Greek philosophers]

.Patience is a weapon

.Tabernacle of David

.Watchers on the wall- a type of the prophetic ministry

.Know the acts of God thru the history of the church

.The Tertullian quote [Shown on the video]

.Rejoice in suffering too

.The goal is not personal comfort- but finishing your mission in life

.Simple ‘Church planting’- it’s easier than you think

.When Paul was in jail- he said the Word of God was not bound

.His apostolic ministry was not hindered- because the Spirit of God was operating in ‘the church’- even while he was sitting in jail

.The ministry was not dependant on some outward organization- or funding- but the New Testament churches he founded were thriving because God was dwelling in his people

.Oral tradition in both Old and New Testaments

.Septuagint

.Biblical separation versus legalism

.Grace in all things

.My encounter with a Muslim at the Kingsville fire dept [See note below]

.The field is the world

 

NOTE- On the video I shared a story about speaking to a Muslim student who was walking around the fire trucks one day. He did not realize we were inside the dorm.

 I mentioned on the video that something made me suspicious after this encounter. I forgot to mention it on the video.

 About a month later the Federal government sent out a warning to all Fire Departments that they had intelligence that radicals might try and steal a fire truck or ambulance for the purposes of terrorism.

It made me wonder later on about the intention of the student.

But most of all I had a chance to witness and tell the story of Abraham and his sons- and how Jesus came to redeem all men unto himself.

 When I asked the student if he had ever heard this before [The Gospel] he had told me no.

This was the ‘real’ reason he was there that day.

 

2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;

3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Isa. 54

 

 

.So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward. 2^nd Samuel 5:9 [These are some of the verses I quoted on the video- all verses below]

 

 

 

PAST POSTS [These are links and parts of my past teachings that relate in some way to today’s post- verses below]

https://ccoutreach87.com/1st-2nd-corinthians/

https://ccoutreach87.com/hebrews-links-updated-10-2018/ [I mentioned chapter 12 on the video- here are links to the whole study]

https://ccoutreach87.com/acts-links/ [I also talked about Acts 15- here’s my complete study]

https://ccoutreach87.com/james-2015/ 

 

 2ND CORINTHIANS 6- Paul tells them to not receive Gods grace ‘in vain’. He quotes a very popular verse among Evangelicals ‘now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation’. He says the Lord heard their prayer and ‘accepted/saved them’. Paul is referring to salvation in the sense that after his first letter, they repented, asked God for forgiveness and responded in the right way. Now in this letter he’s saying ‘look, God heard your heart. He has received you. Don’t keep repenting over the thing’. Paul also gives another list of his trials. He gave one in chapter 4, will give another one in chapter 11. I like the part where he says ‘we are unknown, yet well known’. In today’s Protestant/Evangelical churches, we are often ‘well know, yet unknown’. Let me explain. In Paul’s day he raised up quite a stir. In the book of Acts we see how when he was at the temple in Jerusalem someone finally recognized him and accused him. He wasn’t’ well recognized/known like we are today. Yet his writings and the communities of believers he was establishing were well known. People knew his message and gospel. Yet today, we have so many Christians who follow a cult of personality. They associate ‘the church they attend’ with the main leader. Often these men are well meaning, in some cases their public persona is known world wide. Yet the average viewing audience has no grasp on what they are teaching. They see our famous images [well known] yet what we are speaking is often irrelevant [unknown]. And last but not least Paul teaches what I like to call ‘an incarnational ecclesiology’- in simple terms, God lives in his people in a real way. The real presence of God in society is manifest thru his actual people. Often times the historic churches will emphasize the Eucharist as the way Gods presence is in the world. Some argue for ‘an incarnational sacramental’ view of Christianity. They teach that because God manifested himself in a material way thru Christ [the incarnation] that this principle continues today thru the sacraments that the churches practice. I respond this way; while this is true that God has/does manifest himself in real ways in the world, the primary method of him dwelling in the world in a real way is thru the people of God. Paul refers to us as Gods temple in the world. While the history of Israel in the Old Testament is somewhat liturgical, I feel to carry sacramental theology too far into the New Covenant misses the point. Jesus did give us the communion meal, and we do ‘show his death’ while celebrating it. But Gods primary means of ‘showing’ himself to the world is thru the charitable deeds of his saints. They will ‘know we are Christians by our love, by our love’. This theme is woven thru out the entire New Testament. Its’ fine for believers to have ‘sacred space’ [church buildings] to celebrate liturgy and traditional forms of Christian worship, but to keep in mind that we are the actual dwelling place of God in the world, we are his temple. During the first millennia of Christian history the church developed an idea that said because Jesus did come in the flesh, therefore it is now permitted to have Icons [special religious paintings that have special meaning in the Greek/Eastern Orthodox churches] and physical ways for Gods presence to manifest. The western church [Catholic] would struggle over this issue. One of the Popes would condemn iconography and some would destroy these religious paintings from the church buildings. Eventually an Orthodox theologian [I think John of Damascus?] would develop the theology that I explained above and the church would accept the practice of God manifesting himself in a special way thru religious objects. I personally enjoy the Catholic/Orthodox and traditional expressions of Christianity, but I think they over did it in this area.

[Parts]

I mentioned Bultmann and the Herodians on today’s video- below are some past teachings I did on them-
During the time of Jesus you had a divided people. In 1st century Palestine the Jewish people split into 4 basic sects. 2 of them are pretty well known- the Pharisees and Sadducees- they are mentioned often in scripture.
The other 2 are less well known- the Zealots and the Essenes. The Zealots are named in the bible- but only in passing. We have no references to the Essenes.
The Pharisees were sticklers for the Torah [Jewish bible] and the Sadducees centered their life around the Temple- they were more of a political/religious type group.
They stuck to the Torah alone. That is they only received the actual first 5 books of the Old Testament- which is the Torah [also the term is used to speak of the entire Old Testament] and that’s why the Sadducees rejected miracles and angels and stuff. Most of those stories are found in the other O.T. books.
The Zealots were a group of people who hated compromise- they were actually a 1st century ‘terrorist’ group- who carried out assassinations. Not on Rome- but on their own people!
The zealots hated those who compromised with Rome- and if they felt a leader was too chummy- they killed him.
The Essenes were a separatist group who lived in ‘the hills’ [Qumran community] they simply gave up completely on any political solutions for the day- and went and lived in the hills. These are the ones responsible for hiding the Dead Sea scrolls [old bible books found in the last century] in a cave.
It’s interesting to note that Jesus had both a Zealot on his team [Simon- not Peter who also went by that name] and Matthew- a Tax collector. Tax collectors were considered the biggest sell outs of all- they actually worked for Rome and scammed their own people- it must have been hard for Jesus to lead this group [the 12 disciples] who came from such opposite ends of the political spectrum.
Yet Jesus did lead them- he was even offered earthly rule a few times [once from satan- and once from the people who heard him] he rejected it both times. His kingdom was not ‘of this world’.
In the New Testament book of Philippians- the bible says that though Jesus was in the form of God [deity] yet he became a man and humbled himself to the death of the Cross- a shameful way to die.
We have one letter written in the N.T. by a ‘family’ member of Jesus- that’s the epistle of James.
Protestants believe that Mary had other kids after Jesus was born- our Catholic friends teach that she remained a Virgin her whole life. My purpose right now is not to get into that.
James was considered the ‘half brother’ of Jesus [Mary was the mom of both boys- Joseph was the dad of James- Jesus’ father was God]. Okay- James was slow to believe in his brother- but over time as Jesus was declaring himself to be the Messiah- I’m sure James had to wonder- you know- think back ‘gee- come to think of it- I can’t’ remember a time where my brother got in trouble’.
Wait- now I remember- yeah- that time when Jesus was 12- we all went to Jerusalem for the big feast- and Jesus stayed behind while we started the trip home. Yeah- we went 3 days before we realized he was gone. Boy was mom mad that day.
So we went all the way back to get him- and when we found him- he was sitting in the temple- asking these questions- I mean questions that only theologians knew- Jesus was still a kid.
Mom said to him ‘son- why did you stay behind- we were worried’! Yeah- she was mad- if there was ever a time my brother came close to getting in trouble- this was it. But Jesus said ‘why were you worried- didn’t you know I would be doing my Fathers business’ yeah- he sure seemed different- but the Messiah- come on.
So as the ministry years of Jesus role by- there are all these reports of miracles and healings- blind people seeing- dead people coming back from the grave.
Yeah- James has got to be wondering now- but no- he could not accept that his own brother was the promised Son of God- no- too much.
Then the day came- that terrible day where mom had to watch Jesus die on that rugged Cross- on Golgotha- man the hill looked like a skull.
Yeah- it was a strange site- I mean the sky got dark- an earthquake shook the place- and even the Roman soldier who witnessed my brother die said ‘surely this was the son of God’. Wow- too much- my bother has carried this thing too far- even in his death he won’t let this obsession go.
Then James hears some disturbing reports- his friends are saying that Jesus has come back- that he pulled it off- the greatest miracle ever- the one Houdini himself couldn’t do.
But are the reports true? I mean if anyone could tell if this guy walking around is really Jesus- James would know.
We don’t read of the account- but all we know is James became a believer- a believer that his brother was indeed the Messiah- the Son of God.
I guess it went something like this- Jesus sitting there with his men- James shows up and sees his brother- the perfect one- not a spot on his record. Maybe Jesus looked up- maybe he said ‘brother- do you now see’ and yeah- he saw.
James would go on to be one of the leaders/Pastors of the church at Jerusalem- we read about him in Acts chapter 15. Most scholars believe this was the same James who penned the short letter we find in the N.T. that bears his name.
One thing James hits on a lot in his letter- is he defends the poor- the downtrodden- and he rips into the rich- the elite of the day. He warns us not to be biased- not to use ‘uneven scales’ when dealing with people.
James hit on social justice issues- he picked them up from his brother.
We need to be concerned about the world- if a raped woman is forced to marry her rapist- then we ought not say ‘she was pardoned’. When we critique one person for past failures- then we must do that to all.
But at the end of the day- Jesus never took the earthly crown- he did not see the solution to be a political one- he brought Simon and Matthew together on the same team- and he showed them what it means to lay your life down for others- to live without the praise of men- the earthly standard of success- he chose another way- and he left that path for us.
[Parts]

 

2^nd Corinthians- Links

 

Chapter 1

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/07/sunday-sermon-text_12.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.com/2020/07/12/sunday-sermon-text-45/

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1129014278838173696?referrer=ccoutreach87

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87/post/efamx3lej2xc7qxeiypqcq

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/sunday-sermon4915463

https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/sunday-sermon-124

https://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite/post/sunday-sermon-23

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/48746086-sunday-sermon

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104500654638626975

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/sunday-sermon-d9e7fd58d11f?source=---------2------------------

https://steemit.com/bible/@ccoutreach/3zmee5-sunday-sermon

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/sunday-sermon-34253d13-77ee-4dbb-a9c0-d16cac3c5142

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/sunday-sermon-121

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2176132/sunday-sermon

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/07/12/sunday-sermon/

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/2020/07/sunday-sermon.html

 

Chapter 2

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/08/sunday-sermon-text.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.com/2020/08/02/sunday-sermon-text-47/

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1136635064196055040?referrer=ccoutreach87

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87/post/5yrhkdf1wuf0x7n1xice3g

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/sunday-sermon2770276

https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/sunday-sermon-126

https://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite/post/sunday-sermon-25

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/48849165-sunday-sermon

https://snacpia.com/link/feed/?idx=217830

https://www.publish0x.com/ccoutreach87/sunday-sermon-xdrxwxx

https://share.par.pw/post/537c71bc6c5347039b281105c3d6aca1

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104619707250871955

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/sunday-sermon-e94b2c16d064?source=---------2------------------

https://steemit.com/bible/@ccoutreach/vyggg-sunday-sermon

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/sunday-sermon-ca98f17f-b264-4bf8-8006-bdaaad1c2d15

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/sunday-sermon-123

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2193930/sunday-sermon

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/08/02/sunday-sermon/

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/2020/08/sunday-sermon.html 

 

 

Chapter 3

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/06/sunday-sermon-text_21.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.com/2020/06/21/sunday-sermon-text-42/

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/sunday-sermon4998591

http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/sunday-sermon-121

https://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite/post/sunday-sermon-20

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/48637496-sunday-sermon

https://vk.com/wall533663718_4108

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1121406032009469952?referrer=ccoutreach87

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104381777807592789

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/sunday-sermon-39d49dc0f7de?source=---------2------------------

https://steemit.com/bible/@ccoutreach/emyd5-sunday-sermon

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/sunday-sermon-ad34ccd7-aab9-4281-bb21-a443abcfb371

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/sunday-sermon-118

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2157898/sunday-sermon

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/06/21/sunday-sermon-text/ 

 

Chapter 4

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/08/2nd-corinthians-4-text.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.com/2020/08/11/2nd-cor-4-text/

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1139881550783184896?referrer=ccoutreach87

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87/post/g1mu3okcuioivr0ognwtcw

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/2nd-cor-4

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/48899156-2nd-cor-4

https://snacpia.com/link/feed/?idx=219069

https://www.publish0x.com/ccoutreach87/2nd-cor-4-xolwzek

https://share.par.pw/post/db448124ed01498d871fd59ed8482898

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104670411716420924

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/2nd-corinthians-4-4f89d4740b27?source=---------2------------------

https://steemit.com/bible/@ccoutreach/2nd-cor-4

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/2nd-cor-4

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/2nd-cor-4

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2201667/2nd-cor-4

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/08/11/2nd-cor-4/

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/2020/08/2nd-cor.4.html

 

Chapter 5

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/08/2nd-cor-5-text.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.com/2020/08/25/2nd-cor-5-text/

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1144955197949075456?referrer=ccoutreach87

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87/post/nv2ggybtprpsifxd8jx9qq

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/2nd-cor-5

https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/2nd-cor-5

https://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite/post/2nd-cor-5

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/48964452-2nd-cor-5

https://snacpia.com/link/feed/?idx=220863

https://www.publish0x.com/ccoutreach87/2nd-cor-5-xdrlmjv

https://share.par.pw/post/b81b6e4229be497da5d2db6e0afd839d

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104749736269196325

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/2nd-cor-5-7564c730aab1?source=---------2------------------

https://steemit.com/bible/@ccoutreach/2nd-cor-5

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/2nd-cor-5

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/2nd-cor-5

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2214552/2nd-cor-5

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/08/25/2nd-cor-5/

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/2020/08/2nd-cor.5.html

 

WHAT ARE THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS?
OCTAVIAN- A GOD?
CICERO- MARK ANTONY [or Anthony if you like].
WHO WERE THE ESSENES?
DID THE CHURCH ENGAGE IN A GRAND CONSPIRACY?
END NOTES [I posted the video for this portion a few days ago- it goes along with Hebrews 7-9 video/post] The past few weeks I had a few friends ask me about the Dead Sea Scrolls- and a few other questions about the ‘lost books of the bible’ and some other common- and mistaken ideas [like the original sin being Eve had sex with the serpent].
So- I figured I would cover a little Jewish history- which would help in this study of Hebrews-
And also hit on a few of these subjects.
As we read Hebrews- it helps to also understand some of the history that we don’t have in our bibles [though the Catholic bibles do have some of it in the Apocrypha].
Ok- the ruling empire at the time of Christ was Rome- just prior to the appearance of Jesus- the Roman Emperor- Caesar Augustus- consolidated the Roman Empire under his rule-
Rome was ruled by a senate- some famous names from history were in it- Cicero being one.
Caesar Augustus was the nephew of Julius Caesar- his real name was Octavian [Octavius].
After the death of Julius Caesar- there were some power struggles that took place- between some other famous people.
Marc Antony being one of them [Cleopatra too- he was in love with the girl for sure].
Now- we read about Augustus in the New Testament- and we read in the book of Revelation about the Mark of the Beast- and that those who don’t worship- give homage to the Beast- they will be killed.
So- Many Christians would be killed because they would refuse to give homage to Caesar Augustus [meaning son of the Divine].
‘Wow- how did he get a name like that’ [there was more than one Caesar by the way- as well as more than one Herod- who did play a part in these power struggles- it can get confusing- even to me].
When Octavian defeated Marc Antony at Actium [32 BC].
Herod [The Great] had a problem- he had previously sided with Antony and found himself on the losing side.
Yet he was smart- did some ‘brown nosing’ as we say-and patched things up.
Herod had 3 sons- who would eventually take positions of authority in the Roman government at the time of Christ.
Herod Antipas was over the region that we read about in the New Testament where Jesus did most of his ministry- Galilee.
Ok- Octavian claimed deity because of a heavenly sign associated with his rise to power- and this is how he became called ‘Caesar Augustus’.
He sort of saw himself as a ‘re-incarnate’- of his great uncle Julius Caesar.
‘John- what in the heck does this have to do with the Dead Sea Scrolls’.
Ok- good question.
The Jews had various responses to the empires that ruled over them during various times.
Alexander the Great instituted Hellenization- a sort of cultural compromise over the people he conquered.
They could keep their religious/cultural roots- but would be subservient to Alexander and Greek rule.
Some Jewish people rejected any compromise- we call them the Essenes- they moved out of town- so to speak, and lived in what we refer to as the Qumran community.
This was a few centuries before the time of Christ- and this was where the Dead Seas Scrolls were found in the 20th century.
A Bedouin boy was looking for his goats- threw a rock in a cave right off the Dead Sea- and that’s how we found the scrolls.
The scrolls might have been hidden there by the Essenes-
Now- when my friends asked me about them- I told them that it’s been a while since I read up on any of this- but to the best of my memory the thing that made them significant was the fact that they were very old manuscripts- from the bible- and they backed up what we had had all along.
I did read up this week- and basically had it right.
The earliest Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament we had previously dated back to around 900- 1000 A.D.
These manuscripts went back about 1000 years earlier- and they contained portions from almost every book of the Old testament- and some complete books.
The only book missing was Esther.
So- this was indeed a very significant find for scholars.
But the Scrolls also contain some of the writings from the Essenes themselves- things we never had before- so this too was significant.
There were Jews at the time of the first century who tried to ‘get along’ with Rome- and with the person in charge of their region [one of the sons of Herod the Great at the time of Christ].
These are referred to as Herodian’s in the bible.
Some wanted a revolution to rid Rome from Jerusalem- these were the Zealots [one of Jesus disciples was in this group].
Some thought if they returned to a legalistic obeisance of the law- that this would bring in a deliverer- like the stories we read about in the Old testament- these were the Pharisees.
And some took more of a political compromise- these were the Sadducees.
Eventually a war with Rome would be fought [By the way- Josephus- the famous 1st century historian- fought on the side of the Jews in the war- and after Jerusalem was sacked in A.D. 70- he went to Rome and wrote his great works- thinking he would make a case for the Jewish people with the Romans. This is why we have his works today- which are very valuable to scholars].
NOTE- In time I’ll try and cover how we ‘got our bibles’ [called the Canon- meaning Rule/ Measurement].
Frankly- there is a lot of confusion in the general public about conspiracies [like the Catholic Church had some type of plot to keep certain books out].
Or stories about how the Church taught Mary Magdalene was a prostitute so they could discredit her.
Actually- we read in the gospels that Jesus cast out ‘spirits’ from a woman who was probably living this type of life-
And Jesus had a ministry to the down and out- it is indeed possible that Mary was one of these women-
And if true- it would not demean her in any way-
That’s how this tradition more than likely developed- But- we don’t know for sure.
So a few years back the Church officially said ‘we don’t know’.
Ok- Plot?
No- just being careful.
So there are other misguided beliefs like this- that sincere people have- and over time I hope to get to them.
I’ll do one more in keeping with this post.
I mentioned above that Caesar Augustus did indeed take the title of ‘son of God’.
And some critics of the Church say ‘see- there were all types of religions that had Sons of God’.
I watched one show a few years back- and it stated that these religions had ’12 disciples- a leader named Lord and Savior- and he healed and claimed to be God’s Son- and rose from the dead’.
Ok- that show was ‘fibbing’ to put it lightly- they went too far [historically speaking] in trying to diminish the Christians claim of Christ by doing this.
Now- is there some truth to this at all?
Yes- like I just mentioned above- Octavian did indeed claim deity- a ‘son of god’.
So- how do we explain this?
In the book of Galatians the bible says ‘in the FULLNESS of times God sent forth his Son’.
Jesus came at a set time in history- in fulfilment of the Jewish Prophets- to be who he was- and to do what he did.
Now- this is not special pleading here- but I find it a masterpiece that God’s Son came at a time when the Roman Empire had one sitting on the throne- who too claimed deity.
Yet Jesus was in a region of the lower class- his men were not highly educated- and his followers were people under oppression.
Augustus lived in the wealthy and influential capital of ‘the world’- he had all you could ever ask for- he was worshiped as a god.
Yet in 3 short centuries- one of the heirs of the empire- Constantine- would have an experience – not with a former Caesar- but with a vison of a Cross-
He would convert to Christianity- and declare Christianity to be the religion of the realm.
He would then ‘convert’ the pagan temples- into churches for these followers of Christ.
So I don’t see the fact that Augustus claimed to be a son of god right before Christ- as some type of discredit to the claims of Christ.
No- I see it as God’s way of pulling the rug out from the oppressor- see? [Oh- by the way- only one of them rose from the dead- can you guess?]
[parts]
THALES AND THE PRE-SOCRATICS

Ok- let me do a little teaching- maybe finish it tonight.

 

Christianity is not simply ‘made up stories’ from some bible.

 

No- the history of Western Thought- Philosophy- ideas- all of the various World Views are imbedded with God- our concepts of God- and ask the ultimate question ‘where did all this come from- and why are we here’.

 

We usually trace the beginning of Ancient Philosophy to the 6^th century BCE.

 

A thinker by the name of Thales sought to find ways to describe natural phenomena without the use of Greek Mythology.

 

Even though Philosophy deals with Metaphysics [things beyond the natural- physical realm- Physics] yet Thales wanted to find explanations for existence- without leaning on Myth.

 

He is considered a ‘Pre Socratic’ thinker [before Socrates] and espoused an idea that water was the key source of all things.

 

These guys were looking for a singular thing to explain stuff.

Sometimes referred to as a unified theory- the same thing that Einstein was seeking to find some 2 Millennia later.

 

So- Thales surmised that water was the key thing.

 

There are various ideas of why he came to this conclusion- but one reason might have been the idea of motion.

 

Many Geek thinkers were looking for the source of motion- where did it come from?

 

And to the natural eye- if you observe the ocean- rivers- etc. - there does seem to be no cause for the moving of water- so to these guys it seemed like water itself was the source- motion came from water.

 

Now- there were other religions who taught a sort of idea along these lines.

 

Some pagan religions said that the ‘god’s’ moved upon the water- and life came that way.

 

If you read the Christian account of creation in Genesis- you will notice that God did move upon the waters- and the account in Genesis does indeed say that he brought forth life from the water.

 

Thales came from for Miletus- in Asia Minor.

 

He was famous for the prediction of a Solar Eclipse that occurred on May 28^th- 585 BCE.

 

The earliest account of this is found in the writings of Herodotus.

Thales is considered one of the 7 sages of the time.

 

Christianity was born at a time where Greek thought/ideas were a big part of society.

 

We do find the early apostles using the language/ideas of the Greek philosophers when describing the reality of Christ.

 

The apostle John refers to Christ as THE LOGOS- The word Logos- is a Greek word for ‘word’.

 

Jesus is called ‘the word of God’.

 

Now- the Greek thinkers were in fact seeking for the Logos- they used this term to describe the ultimate answer to all tings.

They were on a search for some Divine principle that could explain things.

 

So- the writers of the New Testament were in a way saying ‘look- we have found the Logos- the thing that you guys are looking for- it is Christ- the Divine Logos’.

 

We also see the apostle Paul debating with the Greek thinkers in the city of Athens [the seat of Geek philosophy- the city/state where Socrates was forced to drink cyanide].

 

In Acts chapter 17 he is preaching to these guys on Mar’s Hill- he says ‘In him we live AND MOVE and have our being’.

Now- today as we read this- we don’t get the full import of what he was doing.

 

But- to the Greek mind- the source of motion was a big thing.

 

Paul was a smart guy- and he was saying ‘in him we move’ showing that yes- the ‘source of motion’ [Thales water] is not found in the natural world [Physics] but the source comes from the Metaphysical world [God].

 

He also says ‘when I was walking thru your town- I saw one of your altars- to the unknown god’.

 

At the time many believed in a Pantheon of gods- and to cover their bases- they had an altar for any god they might have missed- smart thinking!

 

So Paul says ‘him I declare unto you’.

Notice how Paul was able to debate- converse with them- and at the end actually use their own ideas- to present the gospel.

In this chapter- Acts 17- we read of the only 2 groups of philosophers mentioned in the bible.

 

The Epicureans and the Stoics.

 

The Epicureans were an early form of what we call Hedonism today- the idea that pleasure is the principle purpose of man.

 

The Stoics believed in ‘stoicism’ that man should have no emotional response to pain or pleasure- that’s why we call people today ‘Stoics’- when they seem to not be moved by anything.

 

Ok- that’s it for now- might make some comments tonight- but I’m getting ready to fly out soon- and trying to wind down before I leave.

If I don’t write tonight- I’ll talk again when in North Bergen- God bless you all.

[Parts]

 HERACLITUS- Ok- lets pick up on my philosophy stuff.

Heraclitus lived in the 6^th/5^th century BC. - He was from Ephesus and his key thought was Ever Present Change.

 

That is he saw everything as being in a state of continual flux- one of his famous sayings was ‘No man ever steps into the same river twice’.

 

He is called the Weeping Philosopher- sort of like the prophet Jeremiah in the bible- also called the Weeping Prophet.

 

Heraclitus is known for his concept of the Logos- the Word- or thought/reason.

 

Now- this aspect of his thought plays a role in the development of the Christian understanding of Christ himself- in our New Testaments [written in Greek] Jesus is indeed referred to as the Logos- or Word of God.

 

The Greek philosophers understanding of the Logos was not the same as the Christian view- mainly expressed thru the writings of John [The gospel- the 3 epistles- and Revelation].

But- some see the Greek view as a precursor to Christ.

 

In the work of one of the early church fathers- Hippolytus ‘The Refutation of all Heresies’ he attacks Heraclitus view of the Logos as an early form of heresy.

 

The apologist Justin Martyr is more gracious- he [Like Ulrich Zwingli- the great Swiss reformer of the 16^th century] viewed the early Geek thinkers as ‘pre- Christian’ or ‘Christians before Christ’.

 

Though many reject this view- yet there is some scripture to back it up.

The apostle Paul said in his letter to the Romans that if the Gentiles [non-Jews] do by nature the things contained in the law- then they are justified in God’s sight.

 

Of course these things are debatable- but I add this to show you that some great Christian thinkers did indeed view the early Greek thinkers- who did live by a moral code- as being right in God’s eyes.

 

And the bible does teach a theme that we will be judged according to the amount of light [understanding] that we had at the time.

 

I should note that Plato [one of the 3 titans that arose after Heraclitus- from the city/state of Athens] disagreed with Heraclitus on all things being in a state of constant change.

 

When [if?] we get to Socrates- Plato and Aristotle- I’ll try and cover the ways they advanced- built upon- the thought of the pre Socratic thinkers.

 

As a side note- the most famous student of Aristotle- who was the most famous student of Plato- who was the most famous student of Socrates- was Alexander the Great.

 

This goes to show you how great an influence Greek philosophy had on the ancient world.

 

A few nuggets from Heraclitus- ‘all things come to pass in accordance with this Logos’ ‘follow the common’ ‘not having their own judgment’.

 

Recently I covered Acts chapter 2- and we see some of these ideas in the early Christian movement.

The first Christians did ‘follow the common’ they sold their goods- and had ‘all things common’ [communal lifestyle].

 

The apostle Paul teaches the early church to all ‘speak the same thing- that there be no divisions among you’.

And the New Testament also says the scripture should not be given to Private Interpretation- meaning- ‘not having your own personal judgment’.

 

All in all- we do indeed see a sort of pre Christian thought in the pre Socratic thinkers- they did indeed speak of the Divine- God- though there understanding of him was not the same as the Christian church.

 

In a sense- Heraclitus idea that in life- the only ‘constant’ is the fact that there is no constant- that life itself is made up of an ongoing journey- we live day by day- not ever knowing what ‘the next day will bring forth’- Jesus.

 

Yeah- the man had some good points- the later Stoics would consider Heraclitus as the father of their movement.

And in the study of Philosophy- the Stoics- who had a good run from a few years before the Common Era- were overtaken in the 4^th century [as the main influential philosophy of the time] by some new and lasting philosophy- started by a man named Jesus Christ- who his followers claimed rose from the dead.

Yeah- this New Way was called Christianity- and this philosophy has endured now for over 2 thousand years.

 

[Parts]

So- the Roman Empire of Jesus day [who at one time were under the rule of the Greek Empire] continued to write in Greek.

 

It wasn’t until around a few centuries after the time of Christ that the first Latin bible was written [by Saint Jerome].

 

But even his bible [the Latin Vulgate] used the Greek Old Testament [called the Septuagint] instead of the Hebrew- for his Latin translation.

 

Ok- the point being- the Greek world did indeed have a strong influence on the early church.

 

And the church had to refute the belief that all matter was evil.

 

The Christian doctrine of creation [developed under saint Augustine- the 4^th-5^th century bishop of Hippo- North Africa].

 

Was the teaching that matter was good- that God created the material realm- so it is not  inherently evil.

 

But- after the fall of man [Genesis 1-3] a curse did indeed come upon the earth [some times when the bible says ‘the world’ it is speaking of the earth- but other times it is speaking of the fallen order- the sinful realm of man. That’s why there is some confusion- till this day- among Christians. They might read verses like this- and think the bible is saying the earth itself- the planet- is wicked. Actually in those verses it is speaking about the fallen order of sinful men. See? ‘For all that is in THE WORLD- the lust of the flesh- the lust of the eyes and the pride of life- is not of the father- but is of the WORLD- and the WORLD is passing away’- this is one example from the epistle of John- here the World is not saying the planet- but the world of sinful man- a fallen ‘world’ order.]

 

So- in conclusion [if I ever get there!] we- as believers- reject the belief that all matter is evil.

 

No- man was created in the image of God- and God is the creator of all things- both visible [earth- man- etc] and invisible [mentioned in the above chapter].

 

The evil we see in the ‘world’ today is simply a result of mans sin- mans choice to live in rebellion against God.

 

We can’t escape ‘this world of sin’ by simply denying ourselves [though that is one aspect of the Christian life].

 

But God sent his Son into the world to redeem man- Christ died for all men- and this is the Divine act of Salvation.

 

When we as humans partake of this Salvation- we are then free- free to enjoy this life- that God gave us- and we don’t have to have the mindset of a Socrates- who saw this natural life as evil.

 

The apostle Paul says in his letter to the Romans;

 

‘Present your bodies as a living sacrifice- HOLY and acceptable to God’.

 

See?

 

Our bodies- the actual flesh we live in- can be Holy- sanctified- when submitted to the will of God.

 

 

[Parts]

. HEBREWS 10-13

https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/5-20-15-hebrews-10-13-kant-john-mill-moral-theory.zip 

There’s more on the video- Kant, John Mill- Moral Theory- Utilitarianism, Kantianism. Dead Sea Scroll-s ‘Lost Books’ of the bible- Septuagint- Jerome- Alexander the Great- Ptolemy- Seleucids- Essenes- Qumran community- Ecclesiology- Local Church  etc.

https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/5-17-15-aristotle-and-the-city-of-god-real-windy.zip

[Parts]

 GALATIANS 5- Paul’s main theme is if we possess the Spirit as believers [being indwelt by God’s Spirit] then let us also walk in/by the Spirit, as opposed to trying to please God by the law and being circumcised. Paul will use the somewhat controversial term ‘ye are fallen from grace’ which simply means that these Gentile believers started by faith and went back to the old Jewish system, much like the themes in the book of Hebrews. Paul says when you go back to the law you have left grace. Christ has ‘become of no effect to you, you who are justified by the law’. This is a good example of how words and certain phrases can develop over the centuries of church history and develop a different meaning over time. In essence the bible does teach that a person can ‘fall from grace’ but this does not describe what the modern reader might think. The first church father who attempted to formulate the Christian doctrine of the Trinity was a man named Tertullian, he lived in the second century and was what theologians refer to as one of the Latin fathers [as opposed to the Greek ones- Origen, etc.] Tertullian was famous for the sayings ‘what does Jerusalem have to do with Athens’ and ‘I believe because it is absurd’ he was resisting the influence of Greek philosophy on the church, he felt that Greek wisdom was influencing the church too much. He was trained in law before becoming a theologian [like Luther and Calvin of 16^th century Reformation fame] and he used the words ‘God is one substance/essence and also three persons’ later church councils would agree with this language. But the word ‘person’ at Tertullian’s time was the Latin word ‘personi’ which was taken from the theater and meant a person/actor who would put on different masks during the play; the word had a little different meaning then what we think of today as ‘person’. Later centuries would come to condemn certain Christian groups who seem to have formulated language on the Trinity that expresses the same thing as what the original developer of the doctrine meant to say, but because words and their meanings change over time we get ourselves into disputes that might be getting us off track. Paul also tells the Galatians that if they become circumcised that they are obligating themselves to keep all the law. Of course the medical procedure that many have done in our day is not what he is speaking about, but in Paul’s day getting circumcised was the religious rite that placed you into the religion of Judaism, and this is what Paul is refuting among the Galatians, he tells them not to go down that road. This chapter has lots of good ‘memory verses’, the famous lists of the works of the flesh versus the fruit of the Spirit are found here, and it seems pretty clear to me that Paul identified circumcision with the moral law of the 10 commandments, that is he saw being circumcised as an act that obligated you to ‘keep all the law’ some theologians are discussing whether or not Paul meant the law of Moses when speaking about going ‘back under the law’ some think Paul was speaking only of the ceremonial law and the system of animal sacrifices when he was telling the gentiles that they should not go under the law, I believe if you read Paul in context both in this letter and the book of Romans, that he is speaking of the moral law too, not just the ceremonial law. All in all Paul exhorts these believers to fight for their right to be free from the past restraints of religion and bondage, he tells them to not desire to go back under a system of bondage, that Christ has made us free from that legalistic way of life and he has liberated us by giving us the Holy Spirit- if we ‘walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh, for the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, and these two are contrary one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would’ amen to that.

[Parts]

The church has debated for centuries on whether or not Philosophy should be taught to Christians. One of the early church fathers- Tertullian- said no- his famous quote is ‘what does Jerusalem have to do with Athens’.
Meaning what does Philosophy have in common with Christianity [Athens- Greece was the seat of philosophy in Jesus’ day].
For the most part- the early church fathers would embrace the study of philosophy- and try to make arguments for the Christian faith by presenting Christianity as ‘thee’ philosophy that best answers the questions of man.
These early Christian thinkers are called Apologists- men like Justin Martyr are in this class.
Apologist is a word we use to describe those who defend the faith- it comes from the Apostle Peter’s letter in the N.T. where Peter says ‘give an answer to those who ask you about the faith’. In the Greek language- the original language the N.T. was written in- this phrase is talking about a defense- an ‘apology’ in the sense of ‘making the case’ not in the common sense of apologizing.
In the book of Acts- chapter 17- we read the famous sermon of the apostle Paul- given at Mars Hill. He was in Athens at the time- and he was debating with all the philosophers of the day. He tells them ‘as I was looking around town- I saw that one of your altars is addressed to The Unknown God’.
He would go on and declare unto them that this Jesus is the true God- the one raised from the dead.
Paul also said ‘in Him we live and MOVE and have our being’. Kind of a popular verse quoted by preacher’s today- but we often overlook the significance of the MOVE part.
I mean- why say we MOVE in him too? Paul was a smart guy- he knew these children of Socrates questioned where motion came from [Remember Thales?] So he was basically saying ‘I am declaring to you the one true reality- the true 5th Element- the missing God particle from your system’ and he went on and preached Christ- being raised from the dead.
Paul knew that you can’t really do true philosophy- to grapple with the questions of life and being and ‘motion’ without realizing that God is indeed the ultimate answer to all things.
Even Peter Singer- who claimed that you don’t need God or religion in order to do Ethics- even he unknowingly quoted Jesus in attempting to give a basis for his Philosophy- yes- he quoted a God- one unknown to him- just like the altar at Athens- but a God never the less.
An inescapable 5th element- the missing part to the whole puzzle.

[Parts]

OVERVIEW- Lets over view a little today- in the last post I mentioned how we will be getting into Marx, Freud and Nietzsche in the coming months- yet I have so many things going on at this time that just in case I never get to them I want to lay out some stuff. First, most challenges to the Christian faith/God- have come from the point of view that said ‘yes- we believe that there is some being out there- God- but we challenge the purveyors of religion and how man has used religion to control- manipulate the masses’. It was not until the rise of these men that the popular approach of ‘no God’ would take a foothold in the minds of many unsuspecting ‘masses’. Before we delve into the ideas and contradictions of these men- let me explain why most thinkers of the Enlightenment did not take the atheistic approach- and instead opted for some form of Deism/Theism. The original debate of ‘where did everything come from’ did not start during the Enlightenment- it dates back as far as 4-5 centuries before Christ- the question is obviously older- but you can read the debate taking place in the great minds of the Greek philosophers; Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Though the idea of God in the minds of these Greek thinkers was not the same definition that Christianity would hold to- yet they did believe in some type of being who for the most part was what we would think of as God- they referred to him as The Prime Mover- a term that the great Catholic thinker Thomas Aquinas would use in the 13th century as he too argued for the existence of God. Okay- the Greeks taught that the universe/cosmos always existed- and there was an initiator who started the ball rolling [motion]. Their ideas about how the solar system worked were primitive- the famous idea espoused by Ptolemy had a sort of crystalline sphere surrounding the earth and the stars and planets were ‘stuck’ to this shield and as the sphere rotated- that’s what caused the heavens to change. Obviously the breakthroughs in cosmology that occurred under Copernicus and Galileo would bring us into a more perfect idea of how everything functions- yet the Ptolemaic view prevailed for centuries. Now- over the centuries those who began to challenge the church- they would hold to a view that while it is obvious that some Divine being exists [yes- very obvious- get to it in a moment] – yet they were not sure about the existence of the universe- did it always exist like the Greek philosophers said- or did the universe- and all things- have a beginning point? It is important to realize that those who would later on [18th- 20th centuries] challenge the actual existence of God- these very intelligent atheists [not joking] understood that if modern science ever taught a view that said ‘there was a point in time where nothing existed’ these men realized if this were true- then the gig would be up- if there was a time where nothing existed- not even God- they knew beyond all doubt that you would have nothing today. In my view these atheists were the smartest. Yet the breakthroughs in Physics during the era of Einstein did finally prove- beyond all doubt- that there was a time in the past where Time, Matter, Space- that all things did indeed have a starting point. This scientific fact [not religious fact] is absolute- beyond all doubt- irrefutable proof that God does indeed exist- and that he does possess all the attributes ascribed to him by Christian theology. If there was a time where nothing existed [not even God] then you would have nothing today- that’s fact- not belief. So- this is the way the world has debated about the subject for thousands of years- and for the recent theories to try and go back to the idea that the cosmos always existed- well that’s stone age thinking- that’s a rejection of what is commonly referred to as Big Bang cosmology- and no serious thinker rejects Einstein’s theories any more. So- where does that leave us? As we get into the many ideas people have come up with about God- religion- etc. we want to give the critics their chance to make the case- I have been reading [and refuting] Christopher Hitchens book these last few weeks [God is not great- Hitchens is a famous atheist] and I’m giving him a fair hearing- but not going easy on his blunders as well. A while back I got into a debate on a scientific type site- it was Christian in nature- but as I read the feed I realized there were a bunch of scientists going at it- smart men- some on the side of faith- others against it. I added [hesitantly!] my 2 cents worth. At one point- one of the scientists made a major blunder in logic while making his case that there is no God- I wasn’t too mean [heck- he was mocking Christians- I had to be a little mean] and as I posted my correction- proving him to be wrong- not in my area of faith- but in his area of science- he left the debate and never came back. As I checked the posts the next day- I saw another scientist anonymously posted a comment- agreeing with me, about a scientific fact- and admitting that his friend was indeed wrong. The point? It is too easy in this debate to think ‘surely these men must be right- after all they wouldn’t be so popular if they were wrong’- the fact is- this debate is not new, and yes- there are many popular writers/thinkers who are teaching an atheistic view- and these guys are making major mistakes in logic, fact, even in their own fields- they have been proven wrong- time and time again. So for those who are fans of the thinkers I will be refuting down the road- keep an open mind- don’t assume that these men are beyond fault- major fault in my view- and realize that the most prevalent idea espoused by the atheistic thinkers today- has indeed been proven false. You cannot get something from nothing- if there were a time where nothing existed- then nothing would exist today.

[Parts]

On today’s video- I attempted the impossible- to tell the story of ‘everything’ in 1 hour.

Ok I bit off more than I could chew.

It took 2 hours [the next video ‘history of the world- part 2’ will finish it].

But- to sum up today’s video.

Is the biblical account of creation accurate?

We read that God made everything- by speaking.

Is this even possible- or some silly fable?

Over the history of time we read the story of the Jewish people- their trials and failures.

That’s the majority of the history of the Old Testament.

They believed the story in Genesis- while others questioned whether or not all things actually had a beginning point.

In time- we see the rise of the Greek philosophers- during what we call the intertestamental period [the 400 years between Malachi and Matthew].

These thinkers were looking for the answer to these questions- and the Greek word they used to describe this answer- was LOGOS- which is the Geek word- for WORD.

Then we had the appearing of Christ in the 1^st century- and the apostle John calls him the LOGOS.

Hmm?

That’s the same word that the Greeks were looking for- John says ‘we have found him’.

Remember- this is Jesus Christ- the living Word.

Ok- over time we had the great movements of history- the Renaissance- the Reformation- the Enlightenment- the scientific revolution- the industrial revolution.

Most scientists believed that all creation was eternal- so- for them- the answer to ‘everything’ was- it was always there.

In the 20^th century we had the great breakthroughs of Einstein- and we call one of them the Big Bang theory- meaning- all things did not always exist.

They had a beginning point- which we call the point of singularity.

Ahh- now we are back to ‘where did it all come from- if at the start- there was nothing’.

Yes- ‘In the beginning God spoke’.

 So- at the end of the story- of everything- we find the answer at the beginning.

In the beginning God spoke-Yes- the early followers of Jesus called him by this name- THE WORD.

 And science and logic show us that all events need a cause [even the 'event’ of creation].

So- this history of the world- recorded in the scripture- was true all along!

Surprised?

 

[Parts]

 

VERSES [These are the verses I either quoted or taught from on today’s post- Links to all my sites below]

2Corinthians 6:1 We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.

2Corinthians 6:2 (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)

2Corinthians 6:3 Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed:

2Corinthians 6:4 But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,

2Corinthians 6:5 In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings;

2Corinthians 6:6 By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,

2Corinthians 6:7 By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,

2Corinthians 6:8 By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true;

2Corinthians 6:9 As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed;

2Corinthians 6:10 As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

2Corinthians 6:11 O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.

2Corinthians 6:12 Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.

2Corinthians 6:13 Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.

2Corinthians 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

2Corinthians 6:15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

2Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

2Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.

2Corinthians 6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Isaiah 49:8 Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;

Isaiah 52:12 For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.

2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;

3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

Isa. 54

So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward.

2^nd Samuel 5:9

8 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

9 According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

10 And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.

Ex. 25

Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

Heb. 8:5

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Gal. 5

All this, said David, the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern.

1 Chron. 28:19

After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:

Acts 15:16

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

James 5:16

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

Job 32:8

Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

2^nd Tim. 2:9

 

For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

Lk. 21:15

Philippians 2:12

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Phil. 2:12

I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

Hab. 2:1

The sower soweth the word.

Mark 4:14

John 20:30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:

John 20:31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not;

22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body: not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

Col. 2

From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Ps. 61:2

And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. Ps. 18:10

Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:

Ps 104:4

 

And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.

Heb. 1:7

 

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https://www.dailymotion.com/ccoutreach87/videos [India]

https://www.bitchute.com/channel/jsS961GkXUSn/ [Most viewed]

https://vk.com/videos533663718 [Russia]

[My Facebook videos]

https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1/videos/?view_public_for=288613861341347 

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos?lst=1779330793%3A1779330793%3A1546906912 

https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello/channel/ [IGTV]

[Ukraine-Most viewed]

https://ok.ru/video/c2081847?st.cmd=video&st.m=ALBUM&st.aid=c2081847&st.ft=album

https://www.brighteon.com/channel/ccoutreach87 

https://vimeo.com/user85764413 

https://bittube.video/accounts/ccoutreach87

https://open.tube/video-channels/corpus_outreach/videos 

Note- https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/bit-open-tube-review-8-2020 

 https://ccoutreach87.com/youtube-catalog-2020/ [Youtube catalog- 2020]

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

Cloud sites- 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg0G_aInmCi8XUC-C

https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=kZ1sXP7ZardKGRUxFByiFYi667jeup7MD1Sy 

https://mega.nz/#F!7WQCSIJR!-4v9-zUQRq4MIQbBfI2n4A  

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d43nhtrgysqg493/AAAlCszxZXJoRtk8UudtuR9ma?dl=0 

https://ln.sync.com/dl/3e1f4c5e0/tcnm9p32-xiwe4nbu-zjbkitqj-4fvemf6m 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg0MwmUCJ1XM3q9ui  

https://icedrive.net/dashboard/#/cloud 

Cloud sites- https://ccoutreach87.com/cloud-links-12-2018/ 

 

Inactive- work in progress-

http://johnchiarello.doodlekit.com/ 

http://corpus-christijohnchiarello.simplesite.com/ 

https://spark.adobe.com/page/6INKwX1tFT7WA/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxWXKfaFDZrfNUzloSqg8Kg?view_as=subscriber 

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

Beta

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYlLmUkKiB6VoWE9CB1UQew?view_as=subscriber ccoutreach87

https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel&eid=ARCo7sBBI_1fHMUwrHJbFUGf73C6FmpZxtgTcWET2gVwpdHCKmXSGxs6wyeA-qGCnbsr2ILaXqpd4ACt

 

Note- Please do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on-  Copy text- download video links- make complete copies of my books/studies and posts- everything is copyrighted by me- I give permission for all to copy and share as much as you like- I just ask that nothing be sold. We live in an online world- yet- there is only one internet- meaning if it ever goes down- the only access to the teachings are what others have copied or downloaded- so feel free to copy and download as much as you want- it’s all free-

 

Note- I have many web sites- at times some question whether I’m a ‘bot’ because I do post a lot.

I am not a ‘bot’- I’m John- so please- if you are on the verge of deleting something- my contact email is ccoutreach87@gmail.com - contact me first- thank you- John

 

 

 

9-21-20 7:35 am

 

UPDATE- Instagram has now banned my account and just wanted to give the update. I was warned by them yesterday that they did this to ‘Protect our community’- I appealed and thought it was fixed- so I just uploaded and shared a video- and it told me it was ‘sent’- then I checked- and it was not sent [We call this shadow banning]. So obviously I can’ trust the site. My facebook videos seemed to work. They are both the same company. I was hesitant to use either of them again on a regular basis. Some of you might not be aware that in the last month alone Facebook banned over 100,000 sites [Yes- one hundred thousand]. Most of these were Conservative sites- some were Christian. [I read the article from a reputable source]. That’s why you see me on all the other sites.

John

 

 

 

2^nd Corinthians 7

 

2Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

 

 

Links to my sites here and the bottom of every post- https://ccoutreach87.com/links-to-my-sites-updated-10-2018/

 

2^nd Cor. 7 videos-

https://youtu.be/eNG6bc43OVo

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=387636055733517&extid=2V03Dh5Y3dvoP7Mw

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMj2tMupBeAPc1LohM 

 

ON VIDEO

.Homeless story

.What is biblical separation?

.In the world- but not of it

.Christian recovery from addiction

.To be established- you must walk in righteousness

.Did Paul regret that he was so hard on the Corinthians?

.I think he did- then was glad for their response

.How did Titus comfort Paul?

.Christian correction - done in love- but needs to be done at times

.Interesting notes from John Calvin on this chapter [From the Geneva bible]

 

Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

Jn. 20:17

For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Heb. 2:10

 

PAST POSTS

 [These are links and parts of my past teachings that relate in some way to today’s post- verses below]

 

1ST CORINTHIANS 7:1-15 Paul addresses divorce. It is interesting that Jesus himself actually raised the bar from the Old Covenant practice to the New. In most other areas he emphasized grace as opposed to law ‘the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath’ but in this area Jesus said ‘Moses made an exception under the law for divorce, but from the beginning this was not Gods plan’ and Jesus restricted divorce to the cause of adultery [fornication- actually the word for pornography] only. Here Paul gives some direction. First, you shouldn’t divorce. You also shouldn’t be married to an unbeliever. Well, what should happen to those who were unbelievers when they married, but now one is a believer? Paul says if the unbeliever is ‘pleased’ to stay in the union, then that’s fine. Well what does ‘pleased’ mean? If the unbeliever is physically abusing his spouse, then that doesn’t seem ‘pleasing’ to me. Paul will say if the unbeliever departs, let them go. The believer should not feel condemned by this. He/she had no control in this case. But if there is a divorce, let the one who left remain unmarried. So what happens if you were forced into it, can you re marry? Paul does not specifically say. He does say to the one who left the marriage, they should not remarry. Divorce is a tricky issue. When attending the fundamental Baptist church they taught that if one were divorced they could never be ‘a Pastor’ [even though no one was ‘a pastor’ in this way in the first century church!]. Many teach that Paul’s instructions on Bishops/Elders said a divorced person should not be an overseer. Paul actually said ‘they should be the husband of one wife’. This most certainly could simply be saying they shouldn’t be in a plural marriage. This was common in the first century, so you could take it this way. Overall I find it strange that someone could have been a murderer [Paul] or any other type of sinner, but the divorcee’ seems to be the only sinner that is excluded. The other problem is how much of ‘a believer’ were you at the time of your divorce. There have been well known preachers who initiated the divorce from their wives, they remarried and later wanted this to be treated as any other sin, just forgive and forget. The problem is if you were wise enough in the lord to have known better, then true repentance would entail making things right. Whether that’s reconciliation or simply remaining single, but it sure seems like these types of brothers who went into the whole remarriage thing with their eyes wide open, they should be held to a higher standard. Overall, we should not be in bondage to things that were out of our control. Those who were victimized and the partner left you, you should not be condemned for something that was out of your control. Believers who initiate the divorce from someone who was willing to stay in the marriage, they should not remarry. There have been too many cases where believers divorce other believers, without biblical grounds, and then remarry someone from the church. These situations are not permitted. If the believing spouse was simply ‘difficult to live with’ then that doesn’t cut it. In situations where there was actual physical abuse, well I don’t believe the Lord wants you to stay in the house under these circumstances. But the only biblical excuse for divorce, according to Jesus, is adultery. In all of these gray areas, wisdom must be applied. The high profile ministers who have initiated their divorces and remarried, without the proper biblical grounds, should not be simply ‘forgiven’ and permitted to continue in their public role in ministry. True forgiveness and restoration would entail some sort of repentance and a public change in the situation. Like Paul says ‘to the rest speak I, not the Lord’. I am giving you my opinion on some of this stuff, but I too think I have the Spirit of Christ.

 

(962)1ST CORINTHIANS 7:16-24 ‘Were you circumcised when you were called into the Christian life? Then don’t become uncircumcised’ [that would be quite a feat!] ‘Were you uncircumcised when called? Don’t get circumcised’. What’s Paul saying? Basically he is keeping the decrees that were made at the Jerusalem council [Acts 15]. He is stressing the importance of Christ’s spiritual kingdom. To the Jew, he is not saying ‘keep trying to become justified by the law and sacrifices’ but he is saying ‘I am not trying to wipe out your culture and heritage, I am trying to bring you into the fullness of what the Prophets have foretold’. This is Paul’s ongoing defense in the book of Acts ‘I stand condemned because I believe that what the prophets said would happen, did!’. Paul says the thing that matters is ‘the doing of Gods commandments’. When we studied Romans I showed how Paul did say ‘the hearers of the law are not justified, but the doers shall be’. Here again Paul stresses the importance of the Christian life being one of true conversion. Those who believe are changed and become doers of Gods law by nature. The mechanism of conversion is Faith, the outworking of that conversion is obedience. So even though Paul is not putting the law on the gentile converts, yet he does teach that they will by nature keep the law [Romans again]. Now he says ‘were you a slave when called? Seek not to become free. Were you free? Don’t become a slave’ and ‘be not the servants/slaves of men’. We actually have hit on this a few times in recent months. Once again Paul says ‘don’t see this new faith as an opportunity to mount a civil disobedience campaign’ but at the same time he makes it clear ‘don’t put yourself under servitude either!’ The New Testament does not justify the institution of slavery or racism! The basic ethos of this new kingdom is freedom from bondage, it was only a matter of time before this new movement would shake the foundations of society and uproot this evil. Make no mistake about it, the anti-slavery movement was instigated by the people of God [William Wilberforce, Charles Finney and many others].

 

(963)1ST CORINTHIANS 7: 25-40 let’s be a little unconventional today. This passage deals with Paul’s counsel on celibacy and marriage. The historic church has had a bad rap on this issue. It is common today to say the church devalued marriage [and sex] and therefore we should exalt it. Sometimes this attempt at trying to correct the perceived imbalance puts a stumbling block in the way of those who are truly called to live the single life. Though marriage is an honorable thing, a true gift from God, yet living the celibate life can also be considered a very noble thing. It is rare in contemporary evangelicalism to leave this option open. Paul does say this option is not only available, but a noteworthy calling! He also makes it clear that only those who are called to this single lifestyle should attempt it. The church should not force celibacy on people. Now, do our catholic brothers force it upon the Priests? In a way, yes. But don’t forget that no one is ‘forced’ into the priesthood. Some feel like the scandals of catholic priests who abused children can be blamed on forced celibacy. The problem with this idea is many protestant ministers have also fallen sexually, and they were not celibate! The point being we need to be careful when we brand any Christian denomination with an accusation. Now, Paul also makes an interesting statement that we need to look at. He says ‘for the present distress I give these guidelines’. Is it possible that Paul’s seeming harshness on marriage was due to the fact of some type of distress that he saw coming? Possibly the Neronic persecutions? If so, Paul could be saying ‘because of the upcoming severe persecution I recommend everyone just laying low for the time, if married, seek not to be single and vice a versa’. This is possible, we need to keep this in mind when reading this section of scripture. But most of all I think the modern evangelical church needs to retool her message in this area. Marriage and sex are good, God ordained these things in their proper place. But living single and celibate is also considered a very noble calling, we do not normally reflect this balance in the present atmosphere. Also as an aside, a few years back it was common to teach ‘the world/public schools have taken sex and taught it to our kids. They have usurped the job of the family/church’ while there is some truth to this, the problem was some well known TV evangelists began to discuss sex in the Sunday morning setting that was improper in a way [If you local Pastors who read this have done this, be assured I am not talking about you!]. I remember watching a national minister speak openly, with grandma’s and children in the service, and say ‘now speaking about sexual climax’ Yikes!! Just because the family/church dropped the ball on these issues, this doesn’t mean there are no barriers at all while dealing with these issues. Those who do this type of stuff seem to be saying ‘sex is not a dirty thing, therefore we need to bring it out into the open’ while this is true to a degree, there are also age appropriate subjects that should be taught in a private setting. If the church feels the need to delve into these subjects, we need to be careful that we are not crossing boundaries when doing it.

 

· MORE PROOF FOR GOD- Okay, what’s up with ‘dark matter’? In the 20th century the amazing breakthroughs in science showed us that what we thought was a limited universe, was actually a growing universe that was expanding at a faster rate every day. The further out you got, the faster it was expanding. This discovery [Hubble] worked in harmony with Einstein’s theories. This discovery also created a problem. If the universe is so much more vast than previously thought to be, then the amount of known matter needed in the universe in order to maintain the proper gravitational force was not there. Basically you need so much matter to exist in order for this newly discovered expanding universe to hold together and function right. The problem is that the matter is not there![some say it is still not detected]. So the theory of ‘dark matter’ [unseen, undetected matter] has been floated. This invisible matter is supposedly the single greatest matter in existence, though we have no proof that even one tiny particle exists! Ahh, when stuff like this happens, we need to pay close attention. Why? Well some who defend the young earth theory of creation use this to back up their claim of a young universe. It’s kinda technical stuff, but this ‘dark matter’ has to be there to defend the old age theory [for some!]. Another problem is we have absolutely no proof that this dark matter exists. It is simply believed in because the naturalistic explanation demands it! Sort of like coming to a part in a puzzle where a piece doesn’t fit, so you simply make something fit. Now, the bible does teach that the vast universe is held together [a key role of so called dark matter] by Christ’s absolute power. The other explanation for how the vast universe is able to function smoothly, without the needed matter to create the huge amount of gravity, is that God himself is holding all things together by his omnipotence. In essence, we need God for this puzzle to fit. I am not saying the idea of dark matter is totally false, but as far as we know today, there is no proof that it exists. We as believers should not take an anti scientific stance on everything, to the contrary, true science always backs up the Christian world view [in general] but we also need to be suspicious when science floats an idea that can be explained by the existence of a creator. If the idea is simply out there, with no proof at all [the multi-verse] then we certainly have the right to challenge whether the whole thing is a bunch of ‘dark [invisible] matter’!

 

I quoted from Galatians 6 on the video [2nd Cor. 7] Here’s my complete study-

https://ccoutreach87.com/galatians-links-2020/ 

 

 https://ccoutreach87.com/protestant-reformation-luther/

https://ccoutreach87.com/christian-recovery-from-addiction-long-version/ [Talked about this on the video]

2^nd Corinthians- Links

 

Chapter 1

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/07/sunday-sermon-text_12.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.com/2020/07/12/sunday-sermon-text-45/

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1129014278838173696?referrer=ccoutreach87

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87/post/efamx3lej2xc7qxeiypqcq

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/sunday-sermon4915463

https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/sunday-sermon-124

https://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite/post/sunday-sermon-23

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/48746086-sunday-sermon

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104500654638626975

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/sunday-sermon-d9e7fd58d11f?source=---------2------------------

https://steemit.com/bible/@ccoutreach/3zmee5-sunday-sermon

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/sunday-sermon-34253d13-77ee-4dbb-a9c0-d16cac3c5142

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/sunday-sermon-121

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2176132/sunday-sermon

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/07/12/sunday-sermon/

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/2020/07/sunday-sermon.html

 

Chapter 2

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/08/sunday-sermon-text.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.com/2020/08/02/sunday-sermon-text-47/

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1136635064196055040?referrer=ccoutreach87

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87/post/5yrhkdf1wuf0x7n1xice3g

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/sunday-sermon2770276

https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/sunday-sermon-126

https://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite/post/sunday-sermon-25

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/48849165-sunday-sermon

https://snacpia.com/link/feed/?idx=217830

https://www.publish0x.com/ccoutreach87/sunday-sermon-xdrxwxx

https://share.par.pw/post/537c71bc6c5347039b281105c3d6aca1

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104619707250871955

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/sunday-sermon-e94b2c16d064?source=---------2------------------

https://steemit.com/bible/@ccoutreach/vyggg-sunday-sermon

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/sunday-sermon-ca98f17f-b264-4bf8-8006-bdaaad1c2d15

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/sunday-sermon-123

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2193930/sunday-sermon

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/08/02/sunday-sermon/

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/2020/08/sunday-sermon.html 

 

 

Chapter 3

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/06/sunday-sermon-text_21.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.com/2020/06/21/sunday-sermon-text-42/

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/sunday-sermon4998591

http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/sunday-sermon-121

https://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite/post/sunday-sermon-20

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/48637496-sunday-sermon

https://vk.com/wall533663718_4108

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1121406032009469952?referrer=ccoutreach87

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104381777807592789

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/sunday-sermon-39d49dc0f7de?source=---------2------------------

https://steemit.com/bible/@ccoutreach/emyd5-sunday-sermon

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/sunday-sermon-ad34ccd7-aab9-4281-bb21-a443abcfb371

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/sunday-sermon-118

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2157898/sunday-sermon

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/06/21/sunday-sermon-text/ 

 

Chapter 4

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/08/2nd-corinthians-4-text.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.com/2020/08/11/2nd-cor-4-text/

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1139881550783184896?referrer=ccoutreach87

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87/post/g1mu3okcuioivr0ognwtcw

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/2nd-cor-4

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/48899156-2nd-cor-4

https://snacpia.com/link/feed/?idx=219069

https://www.publish0x.com/ccoutreach87/2nd-cor-4-xolwzek

https://share.par.pw/post/db448124ed01498d871fd59ed8482898

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104670411716420924

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/2nd-corinthians-4-4f89d4740b27?source=---------2------------------

https://steemit.com/bible/@ccoutreach/2nd-cor-4

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/2nd-cor-4

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/2nd-cor-4

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2201667/2nd-cor-4

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/08/11/2nd-cor-4/

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/2020/08/2nd-cor.4.html

 

Chapter 5

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/08/2nd-cor-5-text.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.com/2020/08/25/2nd-cor-5-text/

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1144955197949075456?referrer=ccoutreach87

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87/post/nv2ggybtprpsifxd8jx9qq

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/2nd-cor-5

https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/2nd-cor-5

https://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite/post/2nd-cor-5

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/48964452-2nd-cor-5

https://snacpia.com/link/feed/?idx=220863

https://www.publish0x.com/ccoutreach87/2nd-cor-5-xdrlmjv

https://share.par.pw/post/b81b6e4229be497da5d2db6e0afd839d

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104749736269196325

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/2nd-cor-5-7564c730aab1?source=---------2------------------

https://steemit.com/bible/@ccoutreach/2nd-cor-5

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/2nd-cor-5

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/2nd-cor-5

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2214552/2nd-cor-5

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/08/25/2nd-cor-5/

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/2020/08/2nd-cor.5.html

 

2^nd Cor. 6

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/09/2nd-cor-6-text.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.com/2020/09/10/2nd-cor-6-text/

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87/post/upyzlsffd5cswycz-fecow

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1150771822111387648?referrer=ccoutreach87

https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/2nd-cor-6

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/2nd-cor-6

https://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite/post/2nd-cor-6

https://wt.social/post/cvsp0f65332469862006

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/49058811-2nd-cor-6

https://snacpia.com/link/feed/?idx=222947

https://www.publish0x.com/ccoutreach87/2nd-cor-6-xoldnyz

https://share.par.pw/post/ac8e3590948847b78e92d68b0491dbc1

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104840600887833753

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/2nd-cor-6-55c4a07937a5?source=---------2------------------

https://steemit.com/bible/@ccoutreach/2nd-cor-6

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/2nd-cor-6

https://www.plurk.com/p/nzz7w4

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/2nd-cor-6

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2230211/2nd-cor-6

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/09/10/2nd-cor-6-text/

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/ 

 

)ROMANS 9: 1-8 Paul returns to an earlier theme ‘Christ came, as pertaining to the flesh, in response to the covenants that God made with Israel’ [my paraphrase!] Paul says that natural Israel played a very important role in the coming of Messiah. He was [is] the fulfillment of the prophecies that came as a result of Gods interaction with ‘the commonwealth of Israel’. Now Paul again says ‘they are not all Israel, which are of Israel, but “in Isaac shall thy seed be called’”. Understand something here, Paul is not teaching ‘another’ natural lineage to Christ. The mistake of the worldwide church of God [Herbert Armstrong] which teaches British Israelism, trying to trace the natural lineage of Europeans and saying ‘these are the lost tribes’. Paul is simply saying ‘those who are of the Law, the natural tribe of Israel [Jews] are not automatically counted as ‘the seed’ [children] but those who ‘are of promise’. Paul also uses this in Galatians 3 and 4. ‘Of promise’ is simply saying ‘those who have been born of Gods Spirit [Jew or Gentile] are the children that God promised to Abraham’ he is the father of ‘many nations’. All who would believe. These themes are building upon Paul’s earlier theology in this letter. This letter [Romans] has a little more ‘weight’ than say a pastoral epistle [Timothy, Titus]. Now, I am not saying it is ‘more inspired’ but I want you to see that even in the book of Acts you see Paul place special emphasis on ‘I must make it to Rome’! Paul fully realizes that this letter will be read among the believers and Jews at Rome. Rome is the capitol city of the Empire. He wants the early believers to understand the role and purpose of God for Israel. Paul’s efforts are being seen by some Jewish believers [Jerusalem] as antagonistic. Paul wants to make it clear that he was not trying to start some type of movement that rejected natural Israel. At the same time he wants natural Israel ‘my kinsman according to the flesh’ to receive their Messiah! So in this context Romans is a theological treatise saying ‘God wants to bring both Jew and Gentile together as one new man in Christ [Ephesians]’. When he argues ‘they that are the children of the flesh ARE NOT THE CHILDREN OF GOD[verse 8] but the children of the promise are counted for the seed’ he is simply saying ‘all people, both Jews and Gentiles [which includes all races that are ‘non Jews’ even Arabs!] can partake of this free gift by grace’. The promise is to all who ‘will believe’.

(849)ROMANS 9:9-23 now we get into predestination. Paul uses the example of Jacob and Esau [I spoke on this in the Genesis study, see chapter 25], he says God chose Jacob over Esau before they were born. He also uses the story of Pharaoh and says God was the one who hardened his heart. Paul says these things show us that God’s mercy and choice are a sovereign act. He specifically says ‘God chose Jacob, not on the basis of any thing he did [or would do!] but because of his own sovereign choice’. Now, this is another one of those arguments where Paul says ‘you will then say to me, how can God find fault? If everyone is simply doing the things he preordained, fulfilling destiny, then how can God justly hold people accountable’? First, I want you to see that this statement, that Paul is putting into the mouths of his opponents, only makes sense from the classic position of predestination. Second, if predestination only spoke of Gods foreknowledge of the choices that people were going to make [like asking Jesus into their heart!] then the obvious response to the argument would be ‘Oh, God chose Jacob because he knew what a good boy he was going to be’. Not only would this be wrong, Jacob [the supplanter] was not a ‘good boy’, but Paul does not use this defense in arguing his case. He simply says ‘who are we to question God? Can the thing formed say to him that formed it “why have you made me like this”? It seems as if Paul’s understanding of predestination was in the Augustinian/Calvinistic Tradition. A few years back a popular author on the west coast, Dave Hunt, wrote a book called ‘what kind of love is this’? He took on the Reformed Faiths understanding of predestination. Dave was a little out of his league in the book. He seemed to not fully grasp the historic understanding of the doctrine. He quoted some stuff from Charles Spurgeon that made it sound like he was not a believer in predestination. Spurgeon did make strong statements against certain ideas that were [are] prevalent in classic Calvinism. Some taught that Christ’s Blood was shed only for the elect. This is called ‘particular redemption’ or from the famous ‘Tulip’ example ‘limited atonement’. Spurgeon did not embrace the idea that Christ’s Blood was not sufficient to cover the sins of the whole world. The problem with Hunt using this true example from Spurgeon, is that he overlooked the other obvious statements from Spurgeon that place him squarely in the Calvinistic camp. Some refer to this as ‘4 point Calvinism’. I myself agree with Spurgeon on this point. The reason I mention this whole thing is to show you that major Christian figures have dealt with these texts and have struggled with the obvious difficulties involved. I think Paul does a little ‘speculative theology’ himself in this chapter. He says ‘what if God willing to show his mercy and wrath permitted certain things’. He gives possible reasons for the seeming ‘unfairness’ of this doctrine. The point I want to stress is Paul never tries to defend it from the classic Arminian understanding, that says ‘God knew the way people were going to choose, and he simply ‘foreordained’ those who would choose right’. To be honest, this argument does answer the question in the minds of many believers, I simply don’t see it to be accurate.

(851)ROMANS 9:24-29 Paul quotes Hosea and Isaiah to show that God has a purpose for both Jew and Gentile. He uses a few verses from Isaiah 10 and 13 to say ‘except the lord had left us a remnant, no one would be left’. Now, once again we come up against the mindset of always reading ‘saved’ as meaning ‘born again’. In context, God ‘saving’ a remnant simply means ‘he spared them from ruin and total destruction’. There is a verse in Revelation that says ‘the nations of them which are saved shall enjoy the new heavens and earth’. Some commentators will show you how some versions leave out ‘which are saved’ which would leave the text as saying ‘the nations [that are left, remain!] shall walk in it’. This is the context here. Paul is saying God always had a few from Israel that remained, he didn’t utterly wipe them out. Now, this of course fits in with ‘having sins forgiven’, being ‘saved’ or redeemed. There are prophets who say ‘the Lord will turn away ungodliness from Jacob’ [delivered from sin] and ‘the lord comes to those who have turned away from their sin’ speaking of Israel. So I want you to grasp the biblical concept of God saving [sparing] a remnant. The word ‘remnant’ actually speaks of the part of cloth/ material that is ‘left over’ from the whole piece. Jesus also said ‘unless those days were shortened, their would no flesh “be saved”’. Once again meaning ‘no human would survive unless God cut short his wrath’. Paul also uses this language here ‘the lord will do a quick work on the earth and cut it short [shortened!] in righteousness’.

(853)ROMANS 9: 30-33 ‘What shall we say then? That the Gentiles which followed not after the law of righteousness have attained it, even by faith’. Paul concludes the chapter by summing up his ‘righteousness by faith’ argument. Natural Israel, who sought to become righteous by law, who were always striving for perfection thru the keeping of the law. They did not attain that which they sought after. Why? Because they sought it ‘not by faith, but by law’. No law could ever make a man righteous. The Gentiles, which were not even looking! They got it. Why? Because they simply believed in the Messiah, it was the best message they ever heard. They were told their whole lives ‘you are separated from Gods promises. You are not included in the commonwealth of Israel’. They never dreamed that the Jewish Messiah would say ‘neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more’. They received Gods righteousness by faith. Israel ‘stumbled’ at the stumbling stone. Jesus is called a precious stone and also a rock of offence. To those who believe, he is great, precious. To those who don’t believe he is this tremendous obstacle. The unbelieving world doesn’t know what to do with him. I was watching Ravi Zacharias the other night. He is a good Christian apologist. He was telling the story of being in Russia and speaking to a large group of Atheists. During his talk they were really aggressive, making motions with their hands and all. He was told ahead of time to be prepared. At the question and answer time a Russian Atheist asked ‘what are you talking about when you say God? I have no idea what you mean by this false concept’. Ravi asked him ‘sir, are you an Atheist?’ He replied yes. ‘What is an Atheist’? Ravi asked. The man responded ‘someone who denies God’. Ravi said ‘what exactly is it that you are denying’? The unbeliever has come up against this ‘rock of offence’. He tries to get around it, to develop all types of systems and philosophies to deny it. The rock is there, you can either ‘fall on it’. That is admit he is who he claims to be. Submit and be ‘broken’. Or it will eventually ‘grind you to powder’. You will pass from the scene and the next crop of Atheists will rise and face the same dilemma. This rock ‘aint going away’.

(854)ROMANS 10: 1-13 Many years ago I referenced all the back up scriptures for this chapter [and book!]. The study was intense because I saw a fundamental ‘fault line’ that ran thru many in the Evangelical church [the revivalist tradition]. The ‘fault line’ was reading this chapter as in if it were saying ‘ask Jesus into your heart, or you won’t be saved’. Now, I have no problem with those who trace their conversion to an experience like this. But I want to give you my understanding of this chapter, based on the exhaustive study I did years ago. Also, I will probably quote some verses and you will have to find them later [I forget where they all are]. Paul begins with his desire for ‘all Israel to be saved’. I taught in chapter one how come the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Because all who believe ‘become righteous’. After 9 chapters of Romans, we have seen that when Paul refers to ‘justification by faith’ this is synonymous with ‘believing with the heart unto righteousness’. Here Paul’s desire is for Israel to experience ‘all facets of salvation’ [present and future] to ‘be saved’. Now, he will say ‘Christ is the end of the law to all who believe’ Israel did not attain unto ‘righteousness’ because they sought after it by trying to keep the law. But it comes only by faith. Then Paul quotes a kind of obscure verse from Deuteronomy saying ‘Moses says the righteousness which is by faith’ [note- this whole description that follows is describing ‘the righteousness that comes by faith’] and says ‘the word is near thee, in thy mouth and heart’. Paul then says ‘whoever calls on the Lord will be saved, with the heart a man believes and becomes righteous [which according to Paul means ‘justified’] and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation’. In this text, Paul once again is ‘dividing’ the common understanding of ‘salvation’ meaning ‘getting initially saved’- which is ‘believing and being justified’. And simply saying ‘believers will inevitably call and be saved’ [in a generic sense]. Why would he do this? In the context of his argument, he is simply showing the ‘righteousness which is from the law’ [the man under the law is described as ‘doing something’ continuing under the load and strain of law] versus the ‘righteousness which is by faith’ [described as a person who believes and speaks, as opposed to ‘does stuff’]. It is not inconsistent for Paul to use the term ‘confessing and being saved’ as speaking of something different than meaning ‘accepting Christ into your heart’. Paul is simply giving a description of those who believe ‘all who believe will call’. And yes, they will and do experience ‘salvation’. It’s just in this example Paul is not saying ‘they are saved initially upon confession, calling’. At least not ‘saved’ in the sense of ‘getting justified by faith’. Why? Because the rest of the chapter doesn’t make a whole lotta sense if he were saying this. ‘How can they call on him in whom they have not believed’? He already showed us that ‘believers are justified’. The very argument Paul makes distinguishes between ‘believing unto righteousness, and calling unto salvation’. You can see it like this, there is a verse I stumbled across years ago. It is in one of the prophets [Old Testament] and it says ‘Gods wrath will come upon all them WHO HAVE NOT CALLED UPON HIM’. In this context Paul can be saying ‘whoever calls upon God will never enter judgment/wrath’ [a description of a particular lifestyle, remember Paul said Gods Spirit makes us cry ‘Abba Father’] in this light Paul can be saying ‘all who call [both Jew and Gentile- simply making an argument for inclusion. God accepts ‘all who call’] will not come under future [or present!] wrath’. This would be in keeping with Peters scathing sermon in Act’s where he quotes the Prophet Joel and says ‘whosoever calls upon the Lord shall be saved’. If you go back and read Joel you will see that in context he is saying ‘at the future time of God’s revealed judgment, those who cry for deliverance will be spared’. Peter quotes it in this context as well. He shows Gods future time of judgment and ends with ‘all who call will be saved’. How do we know that Peter was not quoting Joel for some type of ‘sinner’s prayer’ thing? Because after the Jews say ‘what should we do’? He doesn’t lead them in a sinners Prayer! I don’t want to be picky, I simply want you to see context. Paul has already established multiple times thru out this letter how righteousness comes to those who believe. One of the descriptions of ‘those who believe’ are they ‘call upon God’. They even call upon God ‘to save them’. In this chapter the reason Paul uses ‘whosoever calls upon the lord will be saved’ is to simply show God will deliver both Jews and Gentiles. His promise of salvation is ‘to all’. When he uses ‘believing and being made righteous’ along with ‘calling and being saved’ he obviously can not be speaking about the same thing! He even states it this way in his argument. ‘How can they call unless they already believe’? He was simply giving a description of ‘those who believe’. This ‘calling for salvation’ that ‘all who believe’ partake of can speak both of a ‘present tense’ being saved, that is from any and all types of bad things, and a ‘future tense’ deliverance from wrath. Even when Paul quoted David in Roman’s 4, he is ‘describing the blessedness of the man unto whom God will not impute sin’ [Psalms 32] if you go back and read that psalm David says ‘for this shall EVERY ONE THAT IS GODLY PRAY UNTO THEE’. David uses this in the context of his confession of his sin. So the ‘everyone that is Godly’ describes ‘the righteous’ and they WILL CALL! Also in 2nd Corinthians Paul quotes Isaiah ‘now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation’ in the context of ‘God heard you and saved you’. Why would Paul use this in 2nd Corinthians? They need not be told ‘pray and get saved’. In context he used it to encourage them to return back into full communion and fellowship after their restoration and reproof he gave them in the first letter. He is saying ‘I rebuked you guys harshly, you repented and asked for forgiveness. God ‘heard you’ in his acceptable time, now get over it and ‘be restored’. Salvation to them came by ‘calling’ but it was not describing an initial conversion experience. Well, I didn’t realize I would go so long, but this is a good example of having a ‘holistic view’ of scripture. You try and take all the quotes the writers are using, put them in context of the broad themes of scripture. Add that to the immediate context of the letter [Romans] and then come to a deeper understanding of truth. I am not against those who see this chapter thru an evangelistic lens, I just think the way I taught it is more faithful to the text. [NOTE- Thru out this site I have taught the doctrine of ‘the salvation of the righteous’. I mentioned it earlier in Romans and have spoken on it before. If you can find these entries they will add some insight to this chapter. NOTE- verse 20 actually has Paul quoting Isaiah ‘I was found by them who did not ask for me’. This would sure seem strange to say in the same chapter that taught a concept of ‘all who ask for me will enter the kingdom’. It is quite possible to ask and pray and confess everything ‘just right’ and still not find him. And according to this verse, the ones who did ‘find him’ [Gentiles] did not ask! After years of coming to the above understanding I read a church council [Council of Orange?] and I was surprised to see how they actually dealt with the issue of believing versus ‘calling upon God’. They quoted some of these texts to show that before a person could call upon the Lord, he first needed faith. They used this example to show Gods sovereignty in salvation. I though it interesting that they came to the very same conclusions that I did. They even used the same examples! This shows you how the corporate mind of the church is manifestly expressed thru out the ages. I think the council was in the 8th or 9th century?

(855)ROMANS 10:14-21 [Just a note for the previous entry. In the conversions recorded in scripture [Acts] do you know how many times there is a reference to ‘calling upon the Lord’ during the conversion? Surprisingly one time. The conversion of Saul [Paul]! During one of the ‘re-tellings’ of his own story he says ‘I was told to arise, and be baptized. Washing away my sins while calling upon the Lord’. Wow, could we have arguments over this one! Do you identify the ‘washing away of sins’ with baptism or the ‘prayer’? I actually previously taught [somewhere on this long blog!] how in the 1st century Jewish mindset ‘washing from uncleanness’ and water were related. I taught it in a way that did not teach ‘baptismal regeneration’ but more along the lines of ‘discipleship’ you might find the entry under ‘my statement of faith’. The point I want to make here is Paul spent 3 days after the Lord appeared to him before he actually got baptized and made an open confession of faith. Paul’s reputation was so bad [he killed Christians!] that his conversion and confession needed to have all the weight possible. Others needed to know that he now ‘confessed Christ’. Most commentators will look to the appearance of Jesus to Paul on the Damascus road as his conversion. The point I want to make is in the book of Acts, the main ‘altar call’ was actually baptism. This was the normal means to identify with the believing community. We also see the fact that once people believed, they then were baptized. The same distinction can be made with ‘confessing’. Neither can take place until one believes. I would assume that Paul said something like this at his baptism ‘O Jesus, please forgive me for what I have done. I killed your people and have committed a terrible crime’. There obviously were some serious things he needed to confess! But the overall view of conversion in Acts does not show a ‘sinner’s prayer’ type conversion.] Paul indicts Israel ‘The word did come to you, you didn’t believe’. He also quotes Moses ‘God said he would provoke you to jealousy by a nation who were “no people”’. We are beginning a portion of Romans where Paul will try and explain the dynamic of Gods purpose for Israel, and his ‘use’ of the Gentile nations to ‘make them jealous’. When we studied the parables we saw this dynamic at work. Israel was offended that God [Messiah] was offering equal access to the promises of Israel thru Jesus. Israel was jealous of this free grace. Paul shows them that Moses prophesied that this day would come. You also see this in Stephens sermon in Acts chapter 7 ‘Moses said the Lord would raise up a prophet like me [Jesus!]’ and then Stephen shows how Israel also did not recognize that Moses was the intended deliverer of the people. So likewise 1st century Israel also did not recognize their Messiah [the first time around!]. God’s acceptance of the Gentiles was difficult for Israel to embrace. It took a divine vision for Peter, and he still ‘fell back’ into a caste system mentality. God is not finished with these dealings [Paul will say in the next few chapters] and he will make every effort to show both Jews and Gentiles that they are both important pieces to this ‘divine puzzle’. He will even warn the Gentiles ‘don’t get proud, if God cut off the true branches to graft you in, watch out! He might do the same with you.’ Paul is striving for both Jew and Gentile to live in harmony as much as possible, he did not want to come off as a defender of the Gentiles only. He was ‘defending the gospel’.

(857)ROMANS- Let me overview a little. This entry goes along with the last one [#856- those of you reading this straight from the Romans study will need to find it under one of the ‘teaching’ sections]. Paul deals with the issue of ‘being provoked by/to jealousy’. Many times believers remain divided because of pride and jealousy. We often do not want to accept the fact that God actually is working thru other camps, groups of Christians who are ‘not like us’. It challenges our very identity at times! We feel like ‘well, my whole experience with God has been one of coming out of [name the group- for many it’s Catholicism] and I KNOW that I have found and experienced God by leaving mistaken concepts about God. Therefore any other ‘defender’ of Catholics is challenging my core experience’. I myself attribute my conversion to ‘leaving religious ideas’ and reading the bible for the first time. Though I had various believers witnessing to me, it was the actual reading of Johns gospel [and the whole New Testament] that clinched it for me. The reality of ‘whoever believes’ as opposed to religion. But my own experience should not limit [in my mind] the reality of others who also embraced the Cross without ‘leaving’ their former church. It is quite possible that other ‘Catholics’ arrived at a serious level of commitment to the Cross, while remaining faithful to their church. Now I realize this in itself can become an issue of contention, all I want to show you is we should not limit the power of the gospel to our own personal experience. During the recent controversy [2008] over certain Pentecostal expressions of ‘revival’ some old time churches simply made a case against all the Charisms [gifts] of the Spirit. The fact is most theologians accept the gifts of the Spirit as being for all ages of the church. Sure, there have been problems with them, even early on [the Montanists] but the fact is there has always been some type of Charismatic expression of Christianity thru out the church age. But the more Reformed brother’s sound [and are often!] more ‘biblical’ than some of the crazy stuff that happens under the banner of ‘Pentecostal/Charismatic’. So the divisions exist. In this chapter [Romans 11] Paul is dealing with a very real dynamic that says ‘I find my whole identity in the way God has worked with me for centuries [Judaism]. The fact that he began a new thing with other groups who I detest [Gentiles] has offended me to the point where I can’t even experience God any more’. Israel could not see past her own experience with God. The fact that God was ‘being experienced’ by other groups in ways that seemed highly ‘unorthodox’ did not mean that their former experience was illegitimate. It simply meant that Gods experience with them was always intended to ‘break out’ into the broader community of mankind. They lost this original intent and used their ‘orthodoxy’ as a means of self identification. An ‘elite’ religious class, if you will. I find many of these same dynamics being present in the modern church. We should stand strong for orthodoxy, we also need to expose and correct error when it gets to a point where many believers are being led astray. But we also need to be able to see God at work in other groups, we should not use our own experience with God [no matter how legitimate it is!] as the criterion of what’s right or wrong.

CHAPTER 11: [see commentary on Acts 21]

‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, FOR BY IT THE ELDERS OBTAINED A GOOD REPORT [JUSTIFIED]’ This is the key verse to the chapter. Paul will go on to prove that all the Old Testament figures that ‘pleased God’ did it by faith, and not by works! ‘Through faith WE UNDERSTAND that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear’ Faith is not ‘blind’. It informs and gives understanding. This understanding is real! Let me show you what I mean. All of the universe and creation had a beginning point. Science did not always know or believe this. Today science teaches this. It is called ‘the point of singularity/density’. Science has traced back the origins of all things and has found scientific evidence to prove that all things had a ‘beginning point’. Now if you were to ask science ‘what did you have right before the beginning point’? They are stumped. Some of course believe in God and will boldly proclaim him at this point. To the others they can not answer this question. Why? Because they realize, thru science, that matter is not infinite.

Some have theorized that either all things always existed [which science has now disproved] or that at one point nothing existed [which science also teaches that if this were true then you would have nothing today. You can not get something from nothing!] So all true science has gone back to this ‘point of singularity’ and can not see what is right before ‘the point’. The Christian ‘sees’ God at this point! He ‘understands’ that by necessity there has to have been something that existed before creation, science teaches this. This something can not have been created also, because then where did the ‘being’ who created ‘it’ come from? So science teaches us that whoever got the ball rolling [Saint Thomas Aquinas calls this the ‘prime mover’] had to have been preexistent/ self existent in order to have done it. And we know that creation couldn’t have done it by itself, so therefore all reasoning and understanding leave us at the philosophical point of ‘there had to have been something/someone who existed forever in order for anything to be today’. So now you see how ‘by faith we understand that all things that now exist were brought into existence by someone who we can not see’. FAITH UNDERSTANDS!

As we go thru the rest of this chapter I want you to focus in on all the references of justification by faith. You will be surprised [I think?] on how many examples Paul gives to Israel from their own history [his too!] on God justifying people by faith. I will also try and show you [if I remember] how this chapter links the division between Paul’s epistles to the gentiles [Romans, Galatians] with James letter to the Jews. James was one of the lead Apostles at Jerusalem [Acts 15] and the Judaizers who were always accusing Paul of preaching grace in a way that justified sin, they came out of Jerusalem. James and Paul were rivals in a sense. James had the difficult job of overseeing the Church at Jerusalem, who had all the Pharisees who believed, while Paul was preaching this radical message of grace. This is why James’s letter [book of James] focused so much on faith and works. James was seeing the Genesis 22 account of Abraham’s justification when he offered Isaac on the altar. James will say ‘see how Abraham was justified by his works’. While in Paul’s letters he focuses on the Genesis 15 account of Abraham believing God and being made righteous. James was not contradicting Paul; he was showing the actual outcome of the life of a person who was previously justified by faith. James was saying ‘When God made Abraham righteous [Gen 15] he later actually became what God made him!’ [Gen. 22].

Now when Abraham would later do righteous things, he only did them because he previously had faith in Gods promise. But the fact still remains that when Abraham did a righteous act, God still justified him [in a sense, God has the prerogative to say ‘good job son, I am pleased with you’ so this can be described as an act/function of justification]. Well, now that I already showed you all this, I guess I wont have to remember telling it to you later. The point is in this chapter Paul will go down and show all these examples of Jewish leaders acting by faith and doing righteous deeds. This sort of bridges the gap between the strong emphasis on faith in Paul’s letters, with the strong emphasis on works in James letter. Paul is telling Israel ‘yes, all the old saints did do good works that pleased God, but they did them by faith!’ ‘Faith without works is dead’ [James]. So in a sense this single chapter bridges one of the key divisions in the early church between Jerusalem and Antioch [Acts 13 and 15]. Note; I believe all the chapter references above are correct, I write all this from memory so you might want to go back and double check the references. I know all the stories are right.

‘By FAITH Able offered …by which he obtained witness that he was RIGHTEOUS…by FAITH Enoch was translated…he had this testimony that he PLEASED GOD…without FAITH it is impossible to PLEASE HIM [all these ‘please him’ references are like saying ‘being justified’ when a person is justified by God, God sees him as acceptable, pleasing. ‘Thou art my beloved son in whom I am well PLEASED’ God to Jesus!] By faith Noah… prepared an ark to the SAVING of his house…and became heir to the RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS BY FAITH [wow, he makes this one real plain] By faith Abraham…went out into a strange land…and sojourned’ interesting, both the aspect of ‘going out to a new land’ and ‘staying in it when you get there’ are both functions of faith. Let me throw in some practical stuff here. Over the years of ‘doing ministry’ I have seen and been a partaker of both of these experiences. Sometimes it takes an act of faith to uproot us from familiar territory and move on to the next level. And do you know what can happen next? The enemy will try to intimidate you once you get in the land of promise, and tell you ‘you cant stay here, look at all the people who hate you. Look at all the mistakes you made’ and it often takes an act of faith to STAY IN THE LAND. Don’t leave the land of your destiny; all true leaders will go thru both of these dealings.

‘For he looked for a city which hath foundations [Jesus is the foundation of this city!] whose builder and maker is God’ All of these great heroes of the faith were looking forward towards a future promise of being in Gods true church, the ‘City of God’ the Bride, the Lambs wife. Paul shows Israel that this 1st century appearing of Messiah was for the purpose of Israel coming into the ‘new land’ the Body of Christ. It is important to see this. There are many preachers today who are treating natural Israel as in if everything is just fine. It isn’t! They need Christ as much as the Muslim does. God was telling Israel ‘come into this new city’ [New Jerusalem versus Old Jerusalem] he wasn’t appealing for them to stay in ‘old Jerusalem’ and be a ‘completed Jew’. [I know this sounds harsh, but I want to emphasize to all my evangelical friends that Jews need Jesus, they play a special role in Gods plan, but ultimately they need Christ!]

‘Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed’ it takes faith to produce spiritual offspring! It might look impossible, but with God all things are possible. ‘Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky and the sand by the shore’ sometimes God will allow you to bring forth one ‘seed’ [person or act of ministry] and you will be surprised how much fruit can come forth from this singular effort. This is why it’s so important to simply hear and obey God. Often times in ministry we do tons of ‘leg work’ which is OK. But when God gives you an idea or mode of function that you weren’t even thinking of, go with it. These are usually the ‘little seeds’ that produce the great harvest! ‘THESE ALL DIED IN FAITH, NOT HAVING RECEIVED THE PROMISES’ I want to emphasize here that it is possible to live your whole life in faith without actually seeing the fulfillment of all that God has told you.

Now faith does obtain promises [verse 33] but sometimes we also see things many years down the road and we must realize that the measurement of faith is not whether or not you are currently getting the actual promise. In the above [and below] verse’s we see Abraham and Sara being told that their offspring would number in the millions. They believed these promises, but it is obvious that they didn’t live to see it fulfilled, but they sure knew that after they were gone it would come to pass. So I want to exhort you to believe to see certain things fulfilled in your life time, but have some greater goals that you initiate while here on earth, knowing that after you depart they will be fulfilled. ‘And truly if they had been MINDFUL of the country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned’ what is Paul saying here? The greatest threat to the gospel taking root in the Hebrew community was the desire to go back to old law and culture. How many believers ‘revert’ back to an older form of church simply because they missed the old culture and ‘feelings’ that they had when they were younger? Many of the Jews would not go all the way with the gospel because they were ‘mindful’ of the good old days of law and sacrifice.

I just watched a show the other day that told how even some gentile believers began celebrating certain feasts of Israel with their Jewish neighbors. While it is good to understand and see the significance of the feasts, yet we know Paul wrote the early believers and said ‘you observe days and times and feasts, and I am concerned about it’. So when we [or 1st century Israel] are ‘mindful’ of the ‘good old days’ then there is always a danger of going back! ‘By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac…of whom it was said in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure’ Abraham exhibited characteristics of the Father [God] as well as Isaac being a type of the Son [Jesus]. It’s interesting that these verses show that Abraham knew for a fact that God was going to give Isaac millions of children, Abraham also knew the voice of God so well that when he ‘thought’ he heard God say ‘offer up this boy’ that in the mind of Abraham, the only way these 2 things could be reconciled, is he came to the conclusion ‘I guess God will have to raise him up, being he has told me this boy will have millions of children, plus he is telling me to kill him’. Most of us would not have come to this conclusion! We would have doubted either the original promise, or said ‘surely this can’t be God telling me to offer Isaac’ [most likely we would have doubted the latter!].

There is a real important reason for Abraham to have been a real man of faith. God wanted this ‘picture’ of the offering up of Isaac for a type of the Cross and Resurrection. The only way he could have shown this example was to have had someone so radically filled with faith, that he would have come to this conclusion of ‘well, I guess God will just raise him’. It was necessary for the figure to have been truly fulfilled. It took Abraham many years of hearing and believing God before he would get to this stage. The part of Abraham’s mind that said ‘God will just have to raise him up’ was important for the figure to truly work. God knew he could only bring someone to this conclusion by arranging the whole scenario around a person of faith. It truly took a real person of faith to have come to the conclusion of resurrection as being inevitable! [For Abraham to fulfill the type of God, he had to have been convinced beyond all doubt that after he offered up his son, that he would be raised again. This is exactly what the Father [God] believed and knew about his own Sons death. So not only did Isaac fulfill the type of Jesus in this story, but Abraham also fulfilled a type of God!] [NOTE; Today is September 22, 2007. Israel’s Day of Atonement. I just heard a brother preach on the feasts of the Lord [I have done this also] but he preached it in a way that said ‘because God said you were to observe these feasts perpetually, therefore all gentile believers need to start observing these days’ he added ‘I know Paul taught the law passed and all, but these feasts are supposed to be forever because God said so’.

How are the feasts ‘perpetual’? Thru the fulfilling of them in Christ! Paul makes this plain all thru the New Testament [as well as this letter!] I was surprised to hear the brother preach that the first 2 feasts [out of the 3 main ones] were fulfilled and memorialized, but the 3rd one [Atonement/tabernacles] has yet to be fulfilled! What? Jesus fulfilled Passover and Pentecost for sure, and they are still being ‘fulfilled’ God is still bringing people in thru the blood of Christ and the Spirit is continually being poured out on people, and of course the ultimate reality of our atonement thru our high priest is a daily reality [he ever lives to make intercession] that is ‘fulfilled’ all the time[ I understand what the brother meant, that both Passover and Pentecost were fulfilled at the Cross and the day of Pentecost, and Tabernacles still has a future fulfillment. That Jesus will ‘ingather’ all peoples to himself at the end. The way he said it was in a way that he said Atonement, the beginning of Tabernacles/booths, still has to be fulfilled. It really came out badly!] I just thought it worth noting that today is natural Israel’s feast day, and we hold this feast in reality 24/7!]

‘By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of pharaohs daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward…by faith the harlot Rahab perished not…’ I want you to see that faith in Moses situation caused him to forsake great riches and leave a successful future. This is in keeping with all the times Jesus called people in the Gospels ‘forsake all and follow me’ mentality. We too often equate the ‘treasures of Egypt’ with following Jesus; the scripture puts a different spin on it! Also Rahab ‘perished not’ because she ‘believed’. Paul teaches in Corinthians that those who believe are ‘being saved’ and those who don’t believe are ‘perishing’. I want you to see that Paul is really making a theological argument for ‘being saved by faith’ in this chapter. Even a harlot can be saved! Wow. The law seemed to have no mercy on someone like that!

‘Who thru faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, stopped the mouths of lions…women received their dead raised to life…others were TORTURED not accepting deliverance…others had mocking and scourging and bonds and imprisonment, they were stoned, cut in half, were slain with the sword… being destitute, afflicted, tormented…they wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth, ALL THESE [both the ones who shut the mouths of lions as well as the one’s who were tortured without deliverance] OBTAINED A GOOD REPORT THRU FAITH, AND RECEIVED NOT THE PROMISE’ Faith does not always cause you to be better off in this life. I am very familiar with all the verses of God blessing us and providing for us ‘the blessing of the Lord it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow to it’. I believe and claim these verses just like the next guy. I also don’t want to tell people ‘give your life to Christ and all will go well’ did it go well for the ones who were tortured not getting delivered? Sure did. It went well the moment they saw the face of God. The same for those who were cut in half. It also went well for the women who received their dead raised to life. The point is ‘going well’ is not always defined by your outward circumstance.

We must see the overall biblical worldview of all things here being temporary, while all true spiritual riches are eternal. Moses actually was ‘less rich’ by the choice to follow Christ. But he was ‘more rich’ in that he fulfilled Gods purpose. It is important to see that many of these great heroes of the faith died without fully seeing the promise in this life. Now the last verse does say ‘that they without us should not be made perfect’ and this does show that the promise is now fulfilled thru Christ. We have all become recipients of eternal salvation thru Christ. The Old Testament patriarchs have ‘found that city’ in that we are all now members of the great ‘City that comes down from God out of heaven’ we are all in Christ today, even our Old Testament brothers who had faith. The point is don’t always measure a persons faith by their outward wealth and condition. James rebuked this idea in his epistle, he taught us not to show partiality to people who were rich while despising the poor.

When believers see faith only from the standpoint of outward things, they are missing the true riches. Jesus taught that all these outward things were not the true riches; I am surprised how many believers spend so much time hoarding and storing things that will all pass away some day. Let’s close this chapter on a good note. Paul has offered Israel all of their Old Testament heroes as an example of being justified by faith. He is saying ‘look, all the great fathers of the faith pleased God, just like you have said and taught for ages. I am declaring unto you they were all ‘justified/pleasing to God’ by faith, not law’. Therefore if you want to follow the example of Abraham and Moses and all the other wonderful fathers, then you too MUST BELIEVE!

CHAPTER 12:
‘Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses [all the heroes of the last chapter!] let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us’ a few practical things. Paul compares the journey to a marathon, not a sprint! The patient runner who paces himself will receive a reward. The sprinter will look good at the start, but you never see him again! I have been blessed by so many gifted people over the years. Some who were on radio, or were doing some type of ministry for the Lord. The gifts and callings were truly on these people. A few years would go by and they were no where to be found. Where did they go? Some of them jumped on the latest ‘Christian movement’ [I am not against movements from God, I just feel we get enamored by them and give up on the main thing the Lord has called us to] some walked away from the Lord.

I have come to realize that God will put certain things in you from the early days, things that he predestined for you to fulfill before you were born. These are the things that you should be faithful to. Don’t abandon the original calling, it’s still there! You can spend your whole life leaving one ‘track’ and ‘sprinting’ in another. But God wants you to stay on the original course and run it with patience. It might not seem as glamorous or exciting as the newest race in town, but at the end you will receive a reward. ‘Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him ENDURED the cross, despising the shame and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that ENDURED such contradiction of sinners…and ye have forgotten the exhortation that speaketh to you as children [remember what we said about this type of privileged language in Hebrews? It is speaking to Israel] my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art REBUKED of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons’.

Now, for many years I read this just like you. That God was telling Christians that he disciplines them. True enough. But in context what is Paul saying here? He spent 11 chapters ‘reproving’ Israel. He told them that all the sacrifices and wonderful holidays and family traditions are no more. That Messiah has fulfilled it and you can’t keep doing it. Now, how would you feel if some know it all preacher came along and totally dismantled your whole way of worship? And you knew in your heart he was right! You would take offence. You would feel like you just got ‘chastened’ up and down and all over. Your initial reaction would be ‘this is too much correction in one letter, I am tired of reading it!’ so Paul is telling Israel ‘Don’t take all this reproof the wrong way, Gods intent is to get you to move on with the program. He loves you guys; don’t forget that scripture [Old Testament] says ‘who God loves he chastens’ hey, God is just dealing with you as children who he loves’ get it? ‘We have had fathers of the flesh that corrected us…shall we not much rather be in subjection to the father of spirits and live?’ Paul is saying ‘you guys want to live [eternal life] then you need to submit to the correction the father is giving you’.

‘For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness’ Now, God does chasten believers for the purpose of holiness. Scripture says ‘those who have suffered in the flesh have ceased from sin, that they should no longer spend the rest of their days in the flesh pursuing the desires of the flesh, but the will of God’ ‘before I was afflicted I went astray, but after I kept thy word’ ‘thou in faithfulness hath afflicted me’ ‘though he were a son yet learned he obedience from the things he suffered’ ‘the captain of our salvation was made perfect thru suffering’ [the last 2 are in this letter, the others are some where in scripture, I just quoted them off the top of my head. As you can see I have some familiarity with this subject! Ouch] In context Paul is saying to Israel ‘you have tried to attain holiness thru legalistic means, by keeping the law [Romans 9-the last few verses] but until you submit to Gods chastening, and have faith in God, you will not truly have his ‘holiness’ [righteousness].

So God is disciplining them thru this letter so they will ‘believe and become righteous’ as opposed to staying in the old system of law. ‘Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous [old brother Paul, he sure knew how to understate things!] nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of RIGHTEOUSNESS to them that are exercised [or exorcised! Just kidding, but it can feel like this at times] thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down…and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame [broken] be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed’ David said ‘restore to me the joy of your salvation that the bones which YOU HAVE BROKEN may rejoice’ The danger of chastening [both for Christians and Israel] is that we get so broken that we never fully recover. Paul is telling Israel ‘I know it’s been hard on you guys to hear so much rebuke. Don’t walk away totally discouraged. There is a danger that you might respond to Gods correction the wrong way. Lift up your hands, shake off the depression, and let yourselves be healed. God wants to restore you!’

‘Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for HE FOUND NO PLACE OF REPENTANCE though he sought it carefully with tears’. This is another reason why reading Hebrews in context is important. One of the themes of this letter is ‘if you miss out on it now, you can’t repent later!’[Chapter 6]. We know that Pauls other letters to the churches leave open future repentance for those who have sinned. In Paul’s letters to the Corinthians we see this being done. But in Hebrews the idea is ‘if you pass on the Cross, you can not find repentance thru any other means. There is no other place for repentance’. So this is the reason why Hebrews has this theme of ‘no future repentance’ thru out the letter. Paul is certainly not telling Israel that if they decide to repent and accept Christ at a future date, they can’t! But he is saying ‘if you pass over this sacrifice of Christ, all the other ‘sacrifices’ and means of repentance that are contained in the law will have no future effect, remember Esau!’

‘For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched…but ye are come to Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem [the church]…and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Able’ Here Paul comes back to a ‘scarlet thread’ that runs thru out this letter. He says ‘hey, you think the first covenant was a fearful thing, watch out! If you disregard this covenant [Jesus blood] then you have gone against something that is much greater than the law’. Also the ‘blood of Able’ cried out from the ground for vengeance, the blood of Jesus cries out from heaven for mercy and forgiveness! It ‘speaks’ better things than that of Able! ‘See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth [Moses and the law] much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him which speaketh from heaven’ again Paul repeats themes he hit on earlier in this letter. He says ‘Moses spoke Gods Word [law] to you from an earthly mountain and place, you are come to a heavenly mountain [Sion-spiritual Jerusalem] and Jesus is speaking to you from heaven. This is much more strict than he who spoke from earth’.

‘Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom that can not be moved, let us HAVE GRACE, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire’ Though Paul doesn’t say it [I think he should have!] but this alludes to the ‘God’ of Moses day, who did not consume the burning bush, compared to the ‘God’ of today [new covenant] who will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire! This fits in with the theme of a harsher punishment for those who reject the covenant of grace as opposed to those who rejected the covenant of law. I know these themes are not popular, but this is clearly the way Paul is presenting them. I also am not saying the ‘God’ of the Old Testament is different from the ‘God’ of the new [this is the heresy of Marcion! I think that was his name. He was an early Christian heretic who comprised the first canon of scripture for a ‘new testament’ it included basically Paul’s letters, and he taught that The God of the new testament was different from the God in the old] but Paul is presenting the new covenant in a way that says ‘don’t neglect this new way of salvation, those who do will receive a harsher judgment than those who rejected the law’.

 

 

VERSES [These are the verses I either quoted or taught from on today’s post- Links to all my sites  below]

2Corinthians 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

2Corinthians 7:2 Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.

2Corinthians 7:3 I speak not this to condemn you: for I have said before, that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you.

2Corinthians 7:4 Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.

2Corinthians 7:5 For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.

2Corinthians 7:6 Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus;

2Corinthians 7:7 And not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more.

2Corinthians 7:8 For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season.

2Corinthians 7:9 Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.

2Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

2Corinthians 7:11 For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

2Corinthians 7:12 Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you.

2Corinthians 7:13 Therefore we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all.

2Corinthians 7:14 For if I have boasted any thing to him of you, I am not ashamed; but as we spake all things to you in truth, even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth.

2Corinthians 7:15 And his inward affection is more abundant toward you, whilst he remembereth the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him.

2Corinthians 7:16 I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things.

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Hebrews 12:4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

Hebrews 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

Hebrews 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Hebrews 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

Hebrews 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

Hebrews 12:10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

Hebrews 12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Hebrews 12:12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

Hebrews 12:13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

Hebrews 12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

Hebrews 12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

Hebrews 12:16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

Hebrews 12:17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

Hebrews 12:18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,

Hebrews 12:19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:

Hebrews 12:20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:

Hebrews 12:21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

Hebrews 12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

Hebrews 12:23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

Hebrews 12:24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things that that of Abel.

Hebrews 12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

Hebrews 12:26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

Hebrews 12:27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Hebrews 12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

Hebrews 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.

Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

Jn. 20:17

For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Heb. 2:10

The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.

Matt. 11:19

 

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

Gal. 6:1

1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.

2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

Matt. 7

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Phil. 2:12

The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

Ps. 34:17

But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble.

Ps. 37:9

2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;

3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

Is. 54: 2-3

 

 

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Cloud links- https://ccoutreach87.com/cloud-links-12-2018/

Archive- Text posts only- https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/archiv.html 

 

Some of my studies-

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/reformation_12.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/overview-ofphilosophy-thales-andthe-pre.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/romans-links-1-2019.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/colossians-links-2019.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/corinthians-links-4-2019.html 

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/ephesians-links.html 

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/acts-links.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/galatians-links.html

 

 

 NOTE- Every so often some of my sites think I am Spam- or a Bot- I am not. My name is John Chiarello and I post original content [all videos and text are by me]. I do share my past posts from my other sites- but it is not spam. I post 8 videos a night to many of my sites, and text posts 3 times a week. I realize that is a lot for some sites, yet this is the system I felt the Lord led me into. I NEVER take money- or ask for money- ever. Everything is free- to some sites this makes a difference- so I wanted to say that here.  Thank You- John.

 

 

 

ALL MY SITES [Please Like, Share, Connect, Follow and Subscribe to the sites below- Thanks]

 

Web sites-

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com  [Main site]

https://ccoutreach87.com/ 

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello 

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/  

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/ [France]

https://ccoutreach87.jimdo.com/ 

http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/__blog.html?r=20171009095200 

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/ 

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/ 

http://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite 

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/ 

http://ccoutreach87.strikingly.com/ 

https://ccoutreach87.webs.com/ 

 

Social Media sites-

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5?ref=bookmarks  

https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1

https://vk.com/id533663718  [Russia- Our largest group outside the U.S.]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-chiarello-b27340ab/ 

 [Our largest group]

https://twitter.com/ccoutreach87 

https://www.plurk.com/ccoutreach87/public [Japan]

Plurk update- I will remove this link [Below] after they restore my site [Link removed] 

https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello/channel/ 

https://ok.ru/profile/589985645111 [Ukraine- Our 2^nd largest in Europe]

http://johnchiarello.tumblr.com/ 

https://mewe.com/i/johnchiarello 

https://steemit.com/@ccoutreach

https://mastodon.social/@ccoutreach87

https://www.minds.com/ccoutreach87 

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87 

https://parler.com/profile/Ccoutreach87 

https://snacpia.com/link/profile/51155   [Korea]

https://www.publish0x.com/@ccoutreach87 

https://wt.social/u/john-chiarello 

https://sharfly.com/Ccoutreach87

 

 

Link sharing sites-

https://www.pinterest.com/ccoutreach87/

Mix- [Link at the top of this post or from my main blog] 

https://trello.com/b/swhF9Vr8/ccoutreach87com

https://www.reddit.com/user/ccoutreach 

https://buffer.com/app/profile/5b1be0280852690407c54007/analytics/posts 

https://flipboard.com/@johnchiarel4hvs/ccoutreach87-q213nqldy 

https://voat.co/u/ccoutreach87/submissions 

 

http://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/one-link_18.html [Link to past teaching]

 

Video sites- [Can view and download my videos free of charge]

Streaming sites-

Youtube  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4GsqTEVWRm0HxQTLsifvg?view_as=subscriber

Youtube Playlist- https://ccoutreach87.com/youtube-playlist/ 

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ccoutreach87/ [Most viewed]

https://www.dailymotion.com/ccoutreach87/videos [India]

https://www.bitchute.com/channel/jsS961GkXUSn/ [Most viewed]

https://vk.com/videos533663718 [Russia]

[My Facebook videos]

https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1/videos/?view_public_for=288613861341347 

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos?lst=1779330793%3A1779330793%3A1546906912 

https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello/channel/ [IGTV]

[Ukraine-Most viewed]

https://ok.ru/video/c2081847?st.cmd=video&st.m=ALBUM&st.aid=c2081847&st.ft=album

https://www.brighteon.com/channel/ccoutreach87 

https://vimeo.com/user85764413 

https://bittube.video/accounts/ccoutreach87

https://open.tube/video-channels/corpus_outreach/videos 

Note- https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/bit-open-tube-review-8-2020 

 https://ccoutreach87.com/youtube-catalog-2020/ [Youtube catalog- 2020]

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

Cloud sites- 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg0G_aInmCi8XUC-C

https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=kZ1sXP7ZardKGRUxFByiFYi667jeup7MD1Sy 

https://mega.nz/#F!7WQCSIJR!-4v9-zUQRq4MIQbBfI2n4A  

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d43nhtrgysqg493/AAAlCszxZXJoRtk8UudtuR9ma?dl=0 

https://ln.sync.com/dl/3e1f4c5e0/tcnm9p32-xiwe4nbu-zjbkitqj-4fvemf6m 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg0MwmUCJ1XM3q9ui  

https://icedrive.net/dashboard/#/cloud 

Cloud sites- https://ccoutreach87.com/cloud-links-12-2018/ 

 

Inactive- work in progress-

http://johnchiarello.doodlekit.com/ 

http://corpus-christijohnchiarello.simplesite.com/ 

https://spark.adobe.com/page/6INKwX1tFT7WA/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxWXKfaFDZrfNUzloSqg8Kg?view_as=subscriber 

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

Beta

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYlLmUkKiB6VoWE9CB1UQew?view_as=subscriber ccoutreach87

https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel&eid=ARCo7sBBI_1fHMUwrHJbFUGf73C6FmpZxtgTcWET2gVwpdHCKmXSGxs6wyeA-qGCnbsr2ILaXqpd4ACt

 

Note- Please do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on-  Copy text- download video links- make complete copies of my books/studies and posts- everything is copyrighted by me- I give permission for all to copy and share as much as you like- I just ask that nothing be sold. We live in an online world- yet- there is only one internet- meaning if it ever goes down- the only access to the teachings are what others have copied or downloaded- so feel free to copy and download as much as you want- it’s all free-

 

Note- I have many web sites- at times some question whether I’m a ‘bot’ because I do post a lot.

I am not a ‘bot’- I’m John- so please- if you are on the verge of deleting something- my contact email is ccoutreach87@gmail.com - contact me first- thank you- John

 

 

 

 

2^nd Corinthians 8

 

Hebrews 13:12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.

Hebrews 13:13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

 

 

Links to my sites here and the bottom of every post- https://ccoutreach87.com/links-to-my-sites-updated-10-2018/

 

Check out my most recent sites- the 2 at the bottom are new-

 

Connect on Minds https://www.minds.com/ccoutreach87 

Connect on Gab  https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87

View on Ello  https://ello.co/ccoutreach87 

Connect on Parler  https://parler.com/profile/Ccoutreach87 

Connect on Snac [Korea]  https://snacpia.com/link/profile/51155 

Connect on Publish-ox  https://www.publish0x.com/@ccoutreach87 

Connect on WT social  https://wt.social/u/john-chiarello 

Sharfly  https://sharfly.com/Ccoutreach87

Telegram https://t.me/ccoutreach87 

 

 

2^nd Cor. 8 Videos-

https://ccoutreach87.com/links-to-my-sites-updated-10-2018/

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMkARpUg9bElUC8OMB

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=356129065703754 

 

.

TEACHING [More teaching below]

 

In this chapter Paul talks about his ministry of gathering offerings from the churches for the sole purpose of meeting the needs of the poor Christians at Jerusalem.

 

This was a pattern of the apostle.

 

He mentions an un-named brother [Some think it was Luke or Barnabas] who went along to make sure the money was used for this purpose.

Paul says that this person vouched that the money would not be spent on anything else- but used for the poor.

 

I mentioned on the video that using God’s name ‘in vain’ is a sin.

In this chapter ‘Giving to God’ meant giving to the poor.

 

The brother who went along on the mission made sure the money was not used for any other reason.

Paul did not use this offering for himself or others who were part of the ministry.

The brother who vouched for this was making sure it was not being misused.

 

In our day- many times you hear it said ‘Give to God’- often it is said in a way that means giving to a Church- or TV Evangelist- or some Christian organization.

 

While there are indeed times when this is OK- we need to be careful when we tell people ‘Give to God’ without really thinking about what we are saying.

 

The general use of the phrase ‘Give to God’ is tagged on to many appeals for money.

Often the money is used for church salaries- or huge church budgets- or misused by preachers who are appealing for offerings that they themselves will use to enrich themselves.

 

There are many well meaning Pastors who do not realize they are doing this- simply throwing out the phrase ‘Give to God’ and using the money for many other things.

 

Some do it unconsciously- not realizing the appeal they are making can be in the category of ‘Using God’s name in vain’.

 

Because they simply assume that appealing for money from a ‘church’ standpoint allows the leaders to use the money for the running of the organization- or for the enrichment of the minister himself.

I say this not to be mean- but to show the context of this chapter.

 

Some use this chapter itself to justify all types of giving for modern day ministry.

To the good men out there that do this- I simply ask for you to re-think before you appeal with the words ‘Give to God’.

 

The meaning of this in Paul’s day was much different than the way it is used today.

 

To those who use the term to personally enrich themselves- they will have to answer to God some day.

 

I did not have a chance to review the video yet- so this post will have no bullet points.

But I felt I should write this short section to get right to the point- which hopefully was done.

 

John

 

Theses are the main verses from the chapter that speak about what I just wrote-

2Corinthians 8:1 Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;

2Corinthians 8:2 How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.

2Corinthians 8:3 For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves;

2Corinthians 8:4 Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. [Poor Christians at Jerusalem]

2Corinthians 8:18 And we have sent with him the brother, whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches;

2Corinthians 8:19 And not that only, but who was also chosen of the churches to travel with us with this grace, which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord, and declaration of your ready mind:

2Corinthians 8:20 Avoiding this, that no man should blame us in this abundance which is administered by us: [That the money was not used for any other reason]

2Corinthians 8:21 Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.

 

 

 

PAST POSTS [These are links and parts of my past teachings that relate in some way to today’s post- verses and links at the bottom of this post]

 

I mentioned chapter 6 and 7- Here’s my complete study- https://ccoutreach87.com/acts-links/ 

 

I talked about chapter 15 of Romans- here’s my study- https://ccoutreach87.com/romans-links-1-2019/

 

The same with 1 Cor. 16  https://ccoutreach87.com/1st-2nd-corinthians/

 

The first book I wrote deals with some of the issues of this post- https://ccoutreach87.com/house-of-prayer-or-den-of-thieves/ 

 

And mentioned Hebrews 13-  https://ccoutreach87.com/hebrews-links-updated-10-2018/ 

 

 

 2ND CORINTHIANS 8- Paul talks about giving in these next 2 chapters. It’s important to see the context in which he is speaking. Many fine men [pastors] and believers will use a verse or two out of these chapters and apply them in a wrong, or out of context way. We find verses like ‘he that sows [plants] sparingly will reap sparingly’ or ‘God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory’. These verses [as well as a few others] are to be seen in the context of giving in a charitable way, doing it by ‘choice’ and not by force, and giving freely to help the poor saints that were living at Jerusalem. But too often these verses are used to tell believers if they do not tithe 10 percent of their income into a Sunday morning offering, they will be cursed. Or appeals are made by the TV preachers that say ‘sow into this ministry and reap a harvest’ in many of these scenarios there is tremendous force and manipulation used to get the saints to give money for all types of  projects, or to fund the rich lifestyles of charismatic figures. These things ‘ought not to be done’. In this chapter Paul says he that gathered little had ‘no lack’ how often have we taught believers to ‘get a full harvest’ and said it in a way that says unless you ‘gather much’ you will be in lack? Here Paul says those who gathered ‘just enough’ those who were satisfied with the basics ‘had no lack’. Or ‘give according to what you have, not according to what you don’t have’ how many appeals are made all the time telling believers ‘if you don’t have it, make a vow anyway’? We tell people to give according to what they don’t have all the time. And the churches of Macedonia did give ‘out of their poverty and great affliction’ you do not measure the success or spirituality of believers by the amount of financial wealth they have, these giving churches had ‘poverty’. All in all we need to rethink much of what the contemporary church/ministry does when it comes to money. In these chapters Paul teaches voluntary giving along the lines of helping the poor, we often use all these verses and simply apply them to our ‘churches’ ministries or personal callings. We err. In the next chapter Paul will quote Psalms ‘he hath dispersed abroad, HE HATH GIVEN TO THE POOR, his righteousness remains forever’ again, the whole context is giving to the poor. I know we mean well as believers, but we need to get back to really reading what the text is saying and applying it in that way. To give to churches, or ministries is fine. To give 10 % of your income is fine. To meet the needs of laboring elders/pastors is fine, but we should not use these types of scriptures in a condemning way when exhorting the saints to give, doing that is ‘not fine’.

 

2^nd Corinthians- Links

 

Chapter 1

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/07/sunday-sermon-text_12.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.com/2020/07/12/sunday-sermon-text-45/

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1129014278838173696?referrer=ccoutreach87

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87/post/efamx3lej2xc7qxeiypqcq

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/sunday-sermon4915463

https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/sunday-sermon-124

https://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite/post/sunday-sermon-23

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/48746086-sunday-sermon

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104500654638626975

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/sunday-sermon-d9e7fd58d11f?source=---------2------------------

https://steemit.com/bible/@ccoutreach/3zmee5-sunday-sermon

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/sunday-sermon-34253d13-77ee-4dbb-a9c0-d16cac3c5142

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/sunday-sermon-121

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2176132/sunday-sermon

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/07/12/sunday-sermon/

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/2020/07/sunday-sermon.html

 

Chapter 2

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/08/sunday-sermon-text.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.com/2020/08/02/sunday-sermon-text-47/

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1136635064196055040?referrer=ccoutreach87

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87/post/5yrhkdf1wuf0x7n1xice3g

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/sunday-sermon2770276

https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/sunday-sermon-126

https://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite/post/sunday-sermon-25

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/48849165-sunday-sermon

https://snacpia.com/link/feed/?idx=217830

https://www.publish0x.com/ccoutreach87/sunday-sermon-xdrxwxx

https://share.par.pw/post/537c71bc6c5347039b281105c3d6aca1

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104619707250871955

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/sunday-sermon-e94b2c16d064?source=---------2------------------

https://steemit.com/bible/@ccoutreach/vyggg-sunday-sermon

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/sunday-sermon-ca98f17f-b264-4bf8-8006-bdaaad1c2d15

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/sunday-sermon-123

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2193930/sunday-sermon

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/08/02/sunday-sermon/

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/2020/08/sunday-sermon.html 

 

 

Chapter 3

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/06/sunday-sermon-text_21.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.com/2020/06/21/sunday-sermon-text-42/

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/sunday-sermon4998591

http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/sunday-sermon-121

https://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite/post/sunday-sermon-20

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/48637496-sunday-sermon

https://vk.com/wall533663718_4108

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1121406032009469952?referrer=ccoutreach87

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104381777807592789

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/sunday-sermon-39d49dc0f7de?source=---------2------------------

https://steemit.com/bible/@ccoutreach/emyd5-sunday-sermon

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/sunday-sermon-ad34ccd7-aab9-4281-bb21-a443abcfb371

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/sunday-sermon-118

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2157898/sunday-sermon

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/06/21/sunday-sermon-text/ 

 

Chapter 4

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/08/2nd-corinthians-4-text.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.com/2020/08/11/2nd-cor-4-text/

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1139881550783184896?referrer=ccoutreach87

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87/post/g1mu3okcuioivr0ognwtcw

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/2nd-cor-4

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/48899156-2nd-cor-4

https://snacpia.com/link/feed/?idx=219069

https://www.publish0x.com/ccoutreach87/2nd-cor-4-xolwzek

https://share.par.pw/post/db448124ed01498d871fd59ed8482898

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104670411716420924

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/2nd-corinthians-4-4f89d4740b27?source=---------2------------------

https://steemit.com/bible/@ccoutreach/2nd-cor-4

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/2nd-cor-4

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/2nd-cor-4

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2201667/2nd-cor-4

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/08/11/2nd-cor-4/

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/2020/08/2nd-cor.4.html

 

Chapter 5

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/08/2nd-cor-5-text.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.com/2020/08/25/2nd-cor-5-text/

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1144955197949075456?referrer=ccoutreach87

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87/post/nv2ggybtprpsifxd8jx9qq

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/2nd-cor-5

https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/2nd-cor-5

https://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite/post/2nd-cor-5

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/48964452-2nd-cor-5

https://snacpia.com/link/feed/?idx=220863

https://www.publish0x.com/ccoutreach87/2nd-cor-5-xdrlmjv

https://share.par.pw/post/b81b6e4229be497da5d2db6e0afd839d

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104749736269196325

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/2nd-cor-5-7564c730aab1?source=---------2------------------

https://steemit.com/bible/@ccoutreach/2nd-cor-5

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/2nd-cor-5

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/2nd-cor-5

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2214552/2nd-cor-5

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/08/25/2nd-cor-5/

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/2020/08/2nd-cor.5.html

 

2^nd Cor. 6

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/09/2nd-cor-6-text.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.com/2020/09/10/2nd-cor-6-text/

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87/post/upyzlsffd5cswycz-fecow

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1150771822111387648?referrer=ccoutreach87

https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/2nd-cor-6

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/2nd-cor-6

https://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite/post/2nd-cor-6

https://wt.social/post/cvsp0f65332469862006

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/49058811-2nd-cor-6

https://snacpia.com/link/feed/?idx=222947

https://www.publish0x.com/ccoutreach87/2nd-cor-6-xoldnyz

https://share.par.pw/post/ac8e3590948847b78e92d68b0491dbc1

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104840600887833753

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/2nd-cor-6-55c4a07937a5?source=---------2------------------

https://steemit.com/bible/@ccoutreach/2nd-cor-6

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/2nd-cor-6

https://www.plurk.com/p/nzz7w4

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/2nd-cor-6

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2230211/2nd-cor-6

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/09/10/2nd-cor-6-text/

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/ 

 

2 Corinthians 7

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/2020/10/2nd-cor-7-text.html?m=0

https://ccoutreach87.wordpress.com/

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87/post/viwp8p4heumgzmrsjofkpq

https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/2-cor-7

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/most-recent-posts/2-cor-7

https://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite/post/2-cor-7

https://wt.social/post/lm57psc5338504991382

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/49182353-2-cor-7

https://snacpia.com/link/feed/?idx=225223

https://www.publish0x.com/ccoutreach87/2-cor-7-xwnzykz

https://share.par.pw/post/94958e738aab461181562710cc4d1175

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87/posts/104959250275901516

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello/2-cor-7-969bf555a086?source=---------2----------------------------

http://ccoutreach87.mystrikingly.com/blog/2-cor-7

https://www.plurk.com/p/o11ybr

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/blog/2-cor-7

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/blog/params/post/2253257/2-cor-7

https://ccoutreach87.jimdofree.com/2020/10/01/2-cor-7/

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/2020/10/2-cor.7.html 

 

CHAPTER 13:

 

Once again we will see an image in this chapter that Paul will take from the Old Testament and use to describe the sacrifice of Christ. It might even be the best image yet! But let’s start with some basics. ‘Let brotherly love continue’ the other day I was shopping at Wal Mart and saw some Cowboys shirts. I have a homeless friend who I have known for 15 years who loves the Cowboys [The football team!] So I bought him a 13 dollar shirt [they had a nicer Jersey for around 40 dollars, but I am not that spiritual yet]. So I bought him the cheaper one. Sure enough he’s been wearing it ever since! Sometimes it’s the little things, the ‘brotherly love’ stuff that we need to do. We are so obsessed with doing ‘religious stuff’ and attending ‘religious meetings’ and ‘tithing’ that we really do not see the underlying reality of going out of our way for others. We will read in this chapter the 3 sacrifices God does want from us, after all the teaching Paul does on ‘no more sacrifices’ he will give us the spiritual sacrifices that God requires of us. They don’t even touch what we think is important!

 

‘Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them’ a regular part of my prayer life includes praying for our fellow brothers and sisters ‘in bonds’. A few years ago a brother from our area got sent to jail for stealing money from a famous Christian mission that he worked for. I met him a few times over the years. He used to go to the church I attended. I really didn’t like him to be honest with you. I loved him as a brother, but a little to ‘I am a Christian, cant you see’ type thing. I don’t want to judge him, but this was how I felt. Well many years later when he got sent to jail he became the talk of the town. I started regularly praying for him and haven’t stopped since. This has been around 5 years or so. I also recently included some other Christians who also did some public crimes and were sent to prison, a girl who was found guilty of murdering her foster child. I also pray for those around the world who are in prison for the faith. True persecution. I want to exhort you to pray for those in bonds. Paul knew how hard it was, he was in jail often. ‘Marriage is honorable in all… but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge’ Paul made it clear in all his letters that he was not preaching a gospel of grace that condoned sin. He will say this time and again thru out his writings. He was accused of preaching a sinful gospel, but he wanted to make it clear that in all of his preaching about the law and sacrifices passing away, that in Christ people by nature will do what is right [Romans]. At the end of this great treatise to the Hebrews he makes it clear ‘don’t go on sinning’.

 

‘Let your conversation [lifestyle] be without covetousness; and be content with such things as you have: for he hath said ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee’ Paul once again deals with avoiding a materialistic mindset. He isn’t urging them to believe God for millions of dollars, or to set a goal of what you want and then to use scripture to get it. He tells them ‘you have Jesus, so be happy. Don’t be always trying to find fulfillment in things, they pass away’. You will find this mindset all thru out scripture [read 1st Timothy 6!] so many Christians today think that this mindset is ‘tradition’. But it is in scripture!

 

‘Remember THEM which have the rule over you’ to be fair, I have done a lot of teaching in the past against the authoritarian one man rule over believers. I want to submit to you that both here, and in every other New Testament letter that leadership is always plural. It is ‘them’ not ‘him’. Also there are a few other passages that use the term ‘rule’ you could  also interpret these as ‘those who watch over you, have care for you’ and use more amicable terms. There are actual reasons why the stronger language is used, I don’t really want to get into the whole thing here, but some feel it had to do with the time that the English bibles were being translated. The kings of the time [England] wanted to maintain a strong hierarchy within their ‘nation states’ as they broke away from the Papacy of Rome, and the translators made a conscious decision to use the more authoritarian terms to keep the people under authority. A whole book has been written on this dynamic. But for now I simply want you to see that Paul is addressing a community of people and saying ‘submit to the eldership of your area, they have responsibility for your spiritual growth, they will give an account to God. So listen to them’ this is not a verse to be used to justify the present office of the singular Pastor in the Protestant church!

 

‘Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them which have been occupied therein’ I like this verse. It summarizes so much of the Christian life. The whole point of this letter is to establish people in grace. To see that in Christ we have been accepted with God. Our main message isn’t all the interesting doctrines and stuff that we like to argue about. It really is Christ and Gods grace being freely given to us thru him. A lot of the reproving I do is not for the purpose [I hope not!] of just arguing about things that don’t matter, but it is for the purpose of bringing Gods people back to a platform of grace. I teach ‘you are not under the tithe [law] but give all you can in love [grace]’ we are all living our lives openly before the face of God, we shouldn’t be running around trying to ‘one up’ the next guy. Or showing everybody how smart or spiritual we are. We are all here to become more like Jesus and to simply see our requirement as living a thankful life and doing good deeds and sharing our goods with others [the 3 sacrifices that we will see later in this chapter!] I like this verse a lot!

 

‘We have an altar [the Cross] whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle [those under the tabernacle system, the law!] For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp [the main area where the tabernacle and all the holy things of God were located]. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate [right outside the City of Jerusalem at the hill of Golgotha]. Let us go forth therefore unto him [leave the Old Covenant and all of its sacrifices, and move on unto perfection found only in Christ] without the camp [outside of the rules and regulations of the law and all of its shadows], bearing his reproach [those who left their Jewish heritage for Christ suffered extreme reproach and ridicule from their friends and family. It was a very unpopular thing to do for the 1st century Jew] for here we have no continuing city [natural Jerusalem], but we seek one to come [spiritual Jerusalem]’ Paul sees significance in the fact that the bodies of the animals whose blood was used for atonement were burned outside the camp. There were different types of sacrifices that took place around the system of the tabernacle. Some were totally burnt [burnt offering] others were eaten [Passover] and for the one whose blood alone was used, these bodies were taken to a place outside of the camp and were disposed of by burning. It was purely a utilitarian purpose. They had to get rid of the bodies and they burnt them. Now Paul sees this as a prophetic symbol of Christ. Paul says ‘remember that place where those bodies were burnt? It is a type of Jesus who suffered outside of the city. It was showing that there would be a day where a sacrifice would be made, outside of the law system, that would sanctify all the people’! Amazing, once again Paul sees things in scripture that no body else is seeing, until now! Paul’s mind was consumed with seeing Jesus in everything. He sees hidden shadows of Gods preplanned coming of Messiah and how God all along would require people to ‘leave the camp’ and come unto Christ. In essence Paul is saying ‘even in the tabernacle system God prefigured a once for all sacrifice that would take place outside of the law’ Bravo!

 

Also you will notice how Paul says ‘here we have no continuing city’ [Jerusalem] but we seek one to come [The heavenly city, the bride the Lambs wife, the church!] Paul does not do what many modern Evangelicals do. He does not exalt Israel’s natural heritage. Interesting that a first century Jewish believer [Paul] writing to a 1st century Jewish audience, downplays their ‘holy land’. If you go back and review everything in this commentary, you will see that there are no references to the prophetic significance to the land of Israel as a geographical ‘holy place’. As a matter of fact the main theme is ‘leave your dependence and cultural pride that comes from your natural heritage, and come into this ‘new city’ that all of our fore fathers were looking for’ there is this amazing lack of exalting the natural city of Jerusalem [which the New Testament calls ‘Sodom’ in a spiritual sense! Revelation] and a plea for all nations, including natural Israel, to come unto Christ.

 

‘By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased’ Paul gives us 3 main sacrifices that the New Covenant priest/believer can bring. Praise, doing good and giving of your goods and money to meet the needs of those around you [communicate means this here]. ‘Obey THEM that have the rule over you and submit yourselves’ again we see leadership in plurality. Every city has spiritual leadership, they are responsible before God for how they lead the people in their area. They are also responsible to bring the people to maturity and independence. A place where people are not co dependant upon leadership. I believe much of the modern system has failed in this respect. The modern system has actually taken these types of verses and used them to tell people ‘your main role is to come to church on Sunday and passively listen’ we have built this audience/ spectator mindset into people, and we have failed in this respect. ‘Pray for us’ I have found this simple request to be one of the most important things you can ask others to do for you. Enlist prayer support. Pray for me! Ask people to pray for you! We all need this desperately!

 

‘Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever amen’ What a great way to end this letter! It is thru the blood of Jesus Christ that we are accepted and perfected in every way. We can only live and function because of the blood! We have true forgiveness for all of our sins because of what Christ has done for us. Paul has penned 13 chapters of revelation showing us the great significance of Christ’s sacrifice. He has urged his fellow country men ‘come out from trying to make yourselves holy and acceptable, and receive the once and for all sacrifice of Christ’ he has trumpeted this theme all thru out this letter. I want to exhort you guys to see the sufficiency of the Cross. We get so caught up in what we are doing that there is a tendency to rely on ourselves and our own ability to change things [even us!] we need to re-focus on the biblical priority and necessity of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He truly is the way, the truth and the life. No man can come to the Father but by him! God bless you guys,

 

John.

 

Hebrews 13:1 Let brotherly love continue.

Hebrews 13:2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Hebrews 13:3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

[Try and do this- I have this verse painted on a sign in my yard- I have a consistent prayer time- early in the morning- it includes nations- world issues- many subjects that God is concerned with. During this prayer pattern- which I have done for 30 years now- I also pray for the prisoners- and this verse asks us to do just that. I have friends- even Pastors- who simply do not pray- regularly.

I would encourage all of you- learn a routine pattern of prayer- not a selfish time where you focus on yourself and your needs [though that can be a small part of it]- but a prayer time that consistently covers the issues that scripture teaches us to be concerned with].

Hebrews 13:4 Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

[This past year- I have talked to my friends about this issue- sleeping around. Many of these friends- are still friends- but I felt my associations with them- sort of ‘overlooking’ this very issue- made them feel like ‘well- John will have to learn to live with it’- meaning they felt like I could still do ministry stuff with them- still hang out- all the things I have done for many years. But time is rolling on- and I fear that these friends- yes- even Christians- think this issue of adultery is a minor thing. The scripture makes it VERY CLEAR- that those who do these things cannot I inherit the kingdom of God.

I am not trying to be mean to these guys [and gals] but this issue must be dealt with in this life- not the next.

And I want my friends to get this issue dealt with- and that’s one of the reasons I have stopped ministry activity with some of the guys].

Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

[Over the years I have heard it taught that if you are content with what you have- you are in sin. Because you must believe God for increased wealth- to fund ministry projects. Many of the people who preach this are good men- but I fear the do not see it is a violation of scripture. This is just one- of many verses in the New Testament that warns against a wealth building mindset. The writer is saying when God meets our basic needs- and we show the world that our joy does not come from the things of this world- then that itself is a witness for God].

Hebrews 13:6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

Hebrews 13:7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

Hebrews 13:9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.

Hebrews 13:10 We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

[The altar ‘we have’ is the Cross- he is saying that if the Jewish brothers stay in ‘the tabernacle’- meaning the law covenant- then they can’t partake of the benefits of the final sacrifice of Christ- this verse is not talking about church buildings- as some have said].

Hebrews 13:11 For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.

Hebrews 13:12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.

Hebrews 13:13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

[The references to ‘without the camp/gate’ refer to the whole theme of this letter ‘you must go forth- move on from the Old Covenant mindset- and suffer the reproach of being a follower of the Messiah’- it was difficult for the early Jewish believers to embrace Christ. It brought scorn on them from family and friends- it was a price that many of us in the modern day don’t experience. So at the end of this letter the writer exhorts them to bear the reproach- become a believer in the Messiah- it will be worth it in the end].

Hebrews 13:14 For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

[He is speaking about the church here- I already pasted some of the verses in this post that show us this].

Hebrews 13:15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

Hebrews 13:16 But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

Hebrews 13:17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

Hebrews 13:18 Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.

Hebrews 13:19 But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.

Hebrews 13:20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

Hebrews 13:21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Hebrews 13:22 And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation: for I have written a letter unto you in few words.

Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty; with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you. [Frankly- this sounds just like the apostle Paul- these are reasons why I still lean towards Paul being the writer of this letter].

Hebrews 13:24 Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy salute you.

Hebrews 13:25 Grace be with you all. Amen.

 

 

 

Masada.

Hadrian.

Judaism in transition.

Did they ‘move on’ ?

Who was Elazar ben Yair?

 

 

In the last video I spoke about what happened to the Jews after the letter to the Hebrews was written.

In a way- the Jewish people made a transition- though forcibly- into some of the exhortations we read about in this letter-

They no longer offered animal sacrifices- why?

The Jews saw the destruction of their city and temple in AD 70 under the Roman leader Titus-

Some continued to resist Rome- they took over the fortress of Masada- a great fortress built by the late King Herod- Herod the Great.

They held the fort for around 3 years- until the Romans built a rampart to invade it.

The fortress was built high on a cliff by the Dead Sea-

The only way to get to it was from a narrow road- called the snake.

It had no ‘hand rails’ or walls to protect you- it was built this way on purpose.

So when the Roman soldiers tried to capture the Jews in the fortress- a small group could easily fight back- and hold the fort.

So the Romans built this rampart- it took about 2 years- and right before they reached the fort- the Jews holed up inside killed themselves.

They chose 10 men by lot- who would kill all inside the fort [women and kids too].

Out of the 10- they drew lots for one of them to kill the other 9- then he killed himself.

Elazar ben Yair was the leader of the Jewish resistance- we read the account in the writings of Josephus Flavius- the great historian who too fought against the Romans.

Here’s a quote from Elazar ben Yair “Since we long ago resolved never to be servants to the Romans, nor to any other than to God Himself, Who alone is the true and just Lord of mankind, the time is now come that obliges us to make that resolution true in practice …We were the very first that revolted, and we are the last to fight against them; and I cannot but esteem it as a favor that God has granted us, that it is still in our power to die bravely, and in a state of freedom.”

Falvius wrote 4 great works [we read about this account in Jewish Wars] – after the rebellion was over- Josephus was brought to Rome- and he began writing his historical works in order to show the Romans that the Jewish people were a great people- with a great history.

Many scholars refer to Josephus works [mostly Antiquities] because they give us history that we don’t find in the bible- it sort of fills in the gaps- and gives us historical context.

The Bar Kokhba Revolt-

The Jews had their last revolt against Rome around 130-132 AD-

Under the leadership of Shimon Bar Kokhba they resisted Rome- Emperor Hadrian would eventually prevail- and ban the Jews from their land- and make laws outlawing Jewish religious practice.

Over time the Jewish people learned/adapted to practice their religion- without Temple/Priest or sacrifice.

The Seder meal became the memorial of Gods deliverance from Egypt- they use the bone of a lamb- but they do not actually have the Passover sacrifice [which the letter to the Hebrews exhorts them to do- to not practice animal sacrifices any more].

The priests were no more- but the people had Rabbis- one in particular tried to help the people transition after such a cultural loss.

He taught them that the ‘new way’ of sacrifice and worship would be thru acts of charity- and prayer ‘sacrifice and offering I do not want’ a quote from the Old testament Prophets.

So- in a way- the Jewish people did ‘move on’ from the Old sacrificial system- and embraced a ‘more Christian’ view of religion.

Of course there are Jews today who fully embrace Jesus as the messiah- but over all- as a people- their Old Law system was done away-

Today you have various forms of Judaism- ranking form the most strict- to the most liberal [we see this in Christianity as well].

But none of them practice ritual sacrifice any more-

Some Christians [and Jews] actually believe the Temple will be restored- and at that time the sacrifices will be re-instituted.

I actually do not hold to this end time view-

But for now- that system has been done away with [or put on hold- if that’s your view].

And the ‘new works’ of religion- are charity and prayer and Mercy-

The same theme we read in this letter to the Hebrews-

5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith , Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: Hebrews 10:5

By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is , the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. Hebrews 13:15

 

ACTS 6
https://youtu.be/Vqgm3E4k95A Acts 6
https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/3-23-17-acts-6.zip
Acts 6:2 Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.
Acts 6:3 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.
Acts 6:4 But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.
ON VIDEO-
.Cookie parable
. ‘Wandering aimlessly’- who said this?
. ‘Another world’- ‘Not in the Bluff’- mouth of 2 witnesses
.Flour Bluff Park
.Prayer altars
.Church as community
.Feeding the poor
.Greek speaking Jews
.Alexander the Great
.Why Greek and not Latin?
.First Deacons
.Timon[s]
.Hahn
.Going to court
.Trump [yes- more ‘wire tapping’ stuff]
.NBC NEW ‘Fake news’ again
PAST POSTS- [Past teaching I did that relates to today’s post- ‘Acts 6’]
https://ccoutreach87.com/james-2015/
https://ccoutreach87.com/house-of-prayer-or-den-of-thieves/
https://ccoutreach87.com/overview-of-philosophy/
https://ccoutreach87.com/galatians-links/
https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/01/18/acts-1/
https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/01/26/acts-2/
https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/02/02/acts-3/
https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/02/09/acts-4/
https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/03/23/acts-5/
(739) ACTS 6- There arises the first controversy in the Jerusalem church. The fact that they were doing this daily massive food distribution led to an area of prejudice. The ‘Grecians’ [Greek speaking Jews] were being neglected. They were seen as a little lower on the scale of racial purity. They were speaking a language less pure than the Hebrew tongue. So the Apostles heard of the problem and said ‘pick out 7 men of good report, who have favor and wisdom and put them in charge of ‘this business’. In essence these were the first Deacons. The business was simply speaking of the duty of serving the food. Up until now the Apostles were involved with the distribution. But they said ‘we will devote ourselves to prayer and the Word’. This chapter is important, many well meaning church communions trace their practices of church government to this time. Are Deacons positions who ‘do the business of the 501 c 3’? Not really. Well, not at all! Are there ‘Pastors’ here in the modern idea of the office of a person who is over the flock and is the weekly speaker whom the people see every ‘Sunday’. No. Are these practices all wicked and from the devil? Of course not! But it does help to see what is actually going on. This early community saw the need for the leaders to devote time to the word and prayer. Fulltime ministry? Really more of a community adjustment allowing those with greater insight to propagate the gospel. Paul will later show us this doesn’t mean each separate community had ‘full time ministers’ who were forbidden to work secular jobs. He will continue to make tents thru out his life. But he will also teach that it is all right to meet the material needs of those who are ministering spiritual food. We also see the Apostles lay their hands on these first deacons. Is this some type of official ordination [recognition, licensing] from a seminary? Of course not. Is it wicked to attend seminary and have an ordination? Of course not. The principle of the ‘school of the prophets’ in Elijah’s day shows the possibility of God working thru these universities. It’s just we need to be careful we are not reading ideas into the story that are not faithful to the text. My reading of this chapter shows an organic community of people who were ‘the church’. They did have leadership and sought God for direction and weren’t imprisoned by any specific form of ‘church’. The main ingredient was a group of people sharing the life of Christ and living this life out as a community. All church communions have a tendency to read there own story into ‘Gods story’. That is we find isolated verses of scripture and say ‘see, this is why our church government does it this way’. It’s OK to a degree, but then when you see ‘our church government’ as the only true church government, that’s where problems arise. I think we should avoid looking for prescriptive patterns of ‘church government’ from the book of Acts. We should read the story as a community of people who are experiencing God and learning to walk out this experience as the Body of Christ. The great mystery is that God is ‘no longer dwelling in Temples made with hands’ but in a vibrant Body of people! [p.s. Stephen will quote this prophetic scripture in the next chapter as he does one of the most masterful jobs of an Old Testament survey to be found in the New Testament].

[parts]
[parts]
Alexander sought to implement the ideals of his teacher- he wanted to unify the known world under one people/culture- a belief that Aristotle held- a sort of ‘unified theory’ [Einstein] that would seek to bring all learning/knowledge together under one supreme [Divine] principle.

Alexander’s experiment was called Hellenization- which was the Greek worlds attempt to impose Greek culture/language on all their conquered enemies- and at the same time allow them to hold on to the their own culture too. Alexander did amazingly well at this experiment- at the young age of around 24 he had accomplished most of his mission. The cities were a sort of composite of Greek culture mixed in with their own culture- this is where we get the modern term Cosmopolitan.

Alexander died young and his kingdom was divided between 4 generals- one of them- Ptolemy- would himself make it into the history books because of his keen intellect.

The system of cosmology developed under him would last [and work!] until some 17-18 hundred years later when it was overthrown by the Copernican revolution during the time of Copernicus and Galileo.

Alexander’s generals would do their best to carry on the system of Hellenization- and other nation’s generals would keep the system going even after Greece fell. One of them- Octavian [Roman general] makes it into the history books by another famous name- Julius Caesar.

Alexander established a great library in the Egyptian city of Alexandria [named after him] and many of the great writings were preserved during this time.

The writings of Aristotle would be discovered again during the time of Thomas Aquinas [13th century Catholic genius/scholar] and this would lead to Scholasticism [a peculiar school of thought developed/revived under Aquinas] and give rise to the Renaissance.

Okay- before the birth of Christ- the Jewish people resisted the imposing of Greek culture upon them- you had the very famous resistance under the Jewish Maccabean revolt- where the Jews rose up and fought the wicked ruler Antiochus Epiphanies- and till this day the Jewish people celebrate this victory at Hanukah.

Eventually Rome would conquer the Greek kingdom and the Jewish people were allowed to keep their culture and temple- yet they were still a people oppressed. Hassidism [getting back to the beginning] developed during this attempt to not lose their Jewish roots- the Pharisees of Jesus day came from this movement.

Alexander was pretty successful in his attempt to unify language- even though the bible [New Testament] was written by Jewish writers- living under Roman rule- yet the original bible is written in the Greek language.

Bible scholars till this day study the Greek language to find the truest meaning of the actual words in the bible [I have a Greek Lexicon sitting right in front of me].

It would take a few centuries before a Latin version appeared on the scene [the great church father- Jerome- would produce the Latin Vulgate].

Yet it would be the re- discovery and learning of the Greek texts [under men like Erasmus- and the Protestant Reformers] that would lead to the Reformation [16th century] and other movements in church history.

The Jews had various responses to the empires that ruled over them during various times.
Alexander the Great instituted Hellenization- a sort of cultural compromise over the people he conquered.
They could keep their religious/cultural roots- but would be subservient to Alexander and Greek rule.
Some Jewish people rejected any compromise- we call them the Essenes- they moved out of town- so to speak, and lived in what we refer to as the Qumran community.
This was a few centuries before the time of Christ- and this was where the Dead Seas Scrolls were found in the 20th century.
A Bedouin boy was looking for his goats- threw a rock in a cave right off the Dead Sea- and that’s how we found the scrolls.
The scrolls might have been hidden there by the Essenes-
Now- when my friends asked me about them- I told them that it’s been a while since I read up on any of this- but to the best of my memory the thing that made them significant was the fact that they were very old manuscripts- from the bible- and they backed up what we had had all along.

[parts]

VERSES-
Acts 6:1 And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.
Acts 6:2 Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.
Acts 6:3 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.
Acts 6:4 But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.
Acts 6:5 And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:
Acts 6:6 Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.
Acts 6:7 And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
Acts 6:8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
Acts 6:9 Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.
Acts 6:10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.
Acts 6:11 Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.
Acts 6:12 And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council,
Acts 6:13 And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
Acts 6:14 For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.
Acts 6:15 And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.

James 2:5
Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?
Matthew 26:61
And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Mark 14:58
We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
John 2:19
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy thistemple, and in three days I will raise it up.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

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[Parts]

 

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2Corinthians 8:1 Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;

2Corinthians 8:2 How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.

2Corinthians 8:3 For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves;

2Corinthians 8:4 Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

2Corinthians 8:5 And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.

2Corinthians 8:6 Insomuch that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also.

2Corinthians 8:7 Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.

2Corinthians 8:8 I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.

2Corinthians 8:9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

2Corinthians 8:10 And herein I give my advice: for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago.

2Corinthians 8:11 Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have.

2Corinthians 8:12 For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.

2Corinthians 8:13 For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened:

2Corinthians 8:14 But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality:

2Corinthians 8:15 As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack.

2Corinthians 8:16 But thanks be to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you.

2Corinthians 8:17 For indeed he accepted the exhortation; but being more forward, of his own accord he went unto you.

2Corinthians 8:18 And we have sent with him the brother, whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches;

2Corinthians 8:19 And not that only, but who was also chosen of the churches to travel with us with this grace, which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord, and declaration of your ready mind:

2Corinthians 8:20 Avoiding this, that no man should blame us in this abundance which is administered by us:

2Corinthians 8:21 Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.

2Corinthians 8:22 And we have sent with them our brother, whom we have oftentimes proved diligent in many things, but now much more diligent, upon the great confidence which I have in you.

2Corinthians 8:23 Whether any do enquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellowhelper concerning you: or our brethren be enquired of, they are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ.

2Corinthians 8:24 Wherefore shew ye to them, and before the churches, the proof of your love, and of our boasting on your behalf.

Hebrews 13:12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.

Hebrews 13:13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

Hebrews 13:14 For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

Acts 6:1 And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.

Acts 6:2 Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.

Acts 6:3 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

Acts 6:4 But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.

Acts 6:5 And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:

Acts 6:6 Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.

Acts 6:7 And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

Acts 6:8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.

Acts 6:9 Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.

Acts 6:10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.

Acts 6:11 Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.

Acts 6:12 And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council,

Acts 6:13 And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:

Acts 6:14 For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.

Acts 6:15 And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.

00001. 

This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.

Jn. 12:6

00002. 

For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor.

Jn. 13:29

13 Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

2 And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him;

3 Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;

4 He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.

5 After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

6 Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?

7 Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.

8 Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.

9 Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.

10 Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.

11 For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.

12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?

13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.

14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.

15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

16 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.

17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

18 I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.

19 Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.

20 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

21 When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.

22 Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake.

23 Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.

24 Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.

25 He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it?

26 Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.

27 And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.

28 Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him.

29 For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor.

Jn. 13

And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples,

2 Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.

3 Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas,

4 And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.

5 But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people.

6 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,

7 There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.

8 But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?

9 For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.

10 When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.

11 For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.

12 For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.

13 Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.

14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests,

15 And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.

16 And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.

Matt. 26

After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death.

2 But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people.

3 And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.

4 And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?

5 For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.

6 And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.

7 For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.

8 She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.

9 Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.

10 And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them.

11 And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him.

Mk. 14

Acts 19:21 After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome.

Acts 19:22 So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus; but he himself stayed in Asia for a season.

Romans 15:25 But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.

Romans 15:26 For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.

Romans 15:27 It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.

Romans 15:28 When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain.

1Corinthians 16:1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.

1Corinthians 16:2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.

1Corinthians 16:3 And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem.

1Corinthians 16:4 And if it be meet that I go also, they shall go with me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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http://corpus-christijohnchiarello.simplesite.com/ 

https://spark.adobe.com/page/6INKwX1tFT7WA/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxWXKfaFDZrfNUzloSqg8Kg?view_as=subscriber 

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

Beta

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYlLmUkKiB6VoWE9CB1UQew?view_as=subscriber ccoutreach87

https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel&eid=ARCo7sBBI_1fHMUwrHJbFUGf73C6FmpZxtgTcWET2gVwpdHCKmXSGxs6wyeA-qGCnbsr2ILaXqpd4ACt

 

Note- Please do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on-  Copy text- download video links- make complete copies of my books/studies and posts- everything is copyrighted by me- I give permission for all to copy and share as much as you like- I just ask that nothing be sold. We live in an online world- yet- there is only one internet- meaning if it ever goes down- the only access to the teachings are what others have copied or downloaded- so feel free to copy and download as much as you want- it’s all free-

 

Note- I have many web sites- at times some question whether I’m a ‘bot’ because I do post a lot.

I am not a ‘bot’- I’m John- so please- if you are on the verge of deleting something- my contact email is ccoutreach87@gmail.com - contact me first- thank you- John

 

 

New Jersey 2020

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87/post/bxj5m9h2knzt30uma5odoq 

 

Links to my sites here and the bottom of every post- https://ccoutreach87.com/links-to-my-sites-updated-10-2018/

 

 

11-5-20 The commitment [New Jersey Videos- 2020]

]https://youtu.be/bWc_aWlsZb0 

https://fb.watch/1zUb6Gop3f/

11-6-20 Whose builder n maker is God

https://youtu.be/x-TJoxgzwPY

https://fb.watch/1B7f4OOiVP/ 

11-9-20 Jacob to Moses

https://youtu.be/qAEDsp6_iOo

https://fb.watch/1FfeNQJSqR/ 

11-12-20 Closing Time

https://youtu.be/PzDheFFzQy4

https://fb.watch/1J5BVe5LkF/ 

 

MY SITES-

 

Blog- [Post nightly] https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/ 

Site- [Post nightly] https://ccoutreach87.com/

Site-  http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/__blog.html?r=20171009095200 

Site-  https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/ 

Site-  http://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite 

Site-  https://www.minds.com/ccoutreach87

Site-  https://ello.co/ccoutreach87

 

 [Please Like, Share, Connect, Follow and Subscribe to the sites below- as well as all my sites linked at the bottom of each post-Thanks]

 

Follow us on Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5?ref=bookmarks 

Page-  https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1 

Subscribe to our Youtube channel- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4GsqTEVWRm0HxQTLsifvg?view_as=subscriber

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello/channel/ 

Friend us on VK [Russia- Our largest group outside the U.S.] https://vk.com/id533663718  

Friend us on OK [Ukraine- Our 2^nd largest in Europe] https://ok.ru/profile/589985645111 

Follow us on Tumblr http://johnchiarello.tumblr.com/ 

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ccoutreach87 

Connect on Linkedin [Our largest group] https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-chiarello-b27340ab/ 

Follow us on Medium https://medium.com/@johnchiarello 

Friend us on Plurk [Japan] https://www.plurk.com/ccoutreach87/public 

Plurk update- I will remove this link [Below] after they restore my site [Link removed] 

Contact/Friend us on MeWe https://mewe.com/i/johnchiarello 

Follow us on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/ccoutreach87/

Follow us on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/user/ccoutreach 

Follow us on Mix https://mix.com/jchiarello 

Follow us on Flipboard https://flipboard.com/@johnchiarel4hvs/ccoutreach87-q213nqldy 

Follow us on Steemit https://steemit.com/@ccoutreach

Follow us on https://mastodon.social/@ccoutreach87

View on Trello https://trello.com/b/swhF9Vr8/ccoutreach87com

View on Voat https://voat.co/u/ccoutreach87/submissions 

Connect on Minds https://www.minds.com/ccoutreach87 

Connect on Gab  https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87

View on Ello  https://ello.co/ccoutreach87 

Connect on Parler  https://parler.com/profile/Ccoutreach87 

Connect on Snac [Korea]  https://snacpia.com/link/profile/51155 

Connect on Publish-ox  https://www.publish0x.com/@ccoutreach87 

Connect on WT social  https://wt.social/u/john-chiarello 

Sharfly  https://sharfly.com/Ccoutreach87

Telegram https://t.me/ccoutreach87 

SkyRock  https://ccoutreach87.skyrock.com/ 

Wattpad  https://www.wattpad.com/user/JohnChiarello/conversations 

Thinkspot  https://www.thinkspot.com/discourse/2008/forum/ccoutreach87/a-href-https-ccoutreach87/101953 

Vero  https://vero.co/ccoutreach87 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watch our videos here-

[Most viewed] https://www.flickr.com/photos/ccoutreach87/

[Most viewed] https://www.bitchute.com/channel/jsS961GkXUSn/ 

https://www.dailymotion.com/ccoutreach87/videos

https://vk.com/videos533663718 [Russia]

https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello/channel/ 

[Most viewed- OK] https://ok.ru/video/c2081847?st.cmd=video&st.m=ALBUM&st.aid=c2081847&st.ft=album [Ukraine]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4GsqTEVWRm0HxQTLsifvg?view_as=subscriber

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

My Facebook videos-

Profile videos-

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos?lst=1779330793%3A1779330793%3A1546906912 

Page videos- https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1/videos/?view_public_for=288613861341347 

https://bittube.video/accounts/ccoutreach87

https://open.tube/video-channels/corpus_outreach/videos 

Note-  https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/bit-open-tube-review-8-2020 

 

Cloud links- https://ccoutreach87.com/cloud-links-12-2018/

Archive- Text posts only- https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/archiv.html 

 

Some of my studies-

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/reformation_12.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/overview-ofphilosophy-thales-andthe-pre.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/romans-links-1-2019.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/colossians-links-2019.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/corinthians-links-4-2019.html 

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/ephesians-links.html 

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/acts-links.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/galatians-links.html

 

 

 NOTE- Every so often some of my sites think I am Spam- or a Bot- I am not. My name is John Chiarello and I post original content [all videos and text are by me]. I do share my past posts from my other sites- but it is not spam. I post 8 videos a night to many of my sites, and text posts 3 times a week. I realize that is a lot for some sites, yet this is the system I felt the Lord led me into. I NEVER take money- or ask for money- ever. Everything is free- to some sites this makes a difference- so I wanted to say that here.  Thank You- John.

 

 

 

ALL MY SITES [Please Like, Share, Connect, Follow and Subscribe to the sites below- Thanks]

 

Web sites-

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com  [Main site]

https://ccoutreach87.com/ 

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello 

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/  

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/ [France]

https://ccoutreach87.jimdo.com/ 

http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/__blog.html?r=20171009095200 

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/ 

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/ 

http://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite 

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/ 

http://ccoutreach87.strikingly.com/ 

https://ccoutreach87.webs.com/ 

 

Social Media sites-

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5?ref=bookmarks  

https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1

https://vk.com/id533663718  [Russia- Our largest group outside the U.S.]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-chiarello-b27340ab/ 

 [Our largest group]

https://twitter.com/ccoutreach87 

https://www.plurk.com/ccoutreach87/public [Japan]

Plurk update- I will remove this link [Below] after they restore my site [Link removed] 

https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello/channel/ 

https://ok.ru/profile/589985645111 [Ukraine- Our 2^nd largest in Europe]

http://johnchiarello.tumblr.com/ 

https://mewe.com/i/johnchiarello 

https://steemit.com/@ccoutreach

https://mastodon.social/@ccoutreach87

https://www.minds.com/ccoutreach87 

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87

https://ello.co/ccoutreach87 

https://parler.com/profile/Ccoutreach87 

https://snacpia.com/link/profile/51155   [Korea]

https://www.publish0x.com/@ccoutreach87 

https://wt.social/u/john-chiarello 

https://sharfly.com/Ccoutreach87

https://t.me/ccoutreach87 

https://ccoutreach87.skyrock.com/ 

https://www.wattpad.com/user/JohnChiarello/conversations 

https://www.thinkspot.com/discourse/2008/forum/ccoutreach87/a-href-https-ccoutreach87/101953 

https://vero.co/ccoutreach87 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link sharing sites-

https://www.pinterest.com/ccoutreach87/

https://mix.com/jchiarello 

https://trello.com/b/swhF9Vr8/ccoutreach87com

https://www.reddit.com/user/ccoutreach 

https://buffer.com/app/profile/5b1be0280852690407c54007/analytics/posts 

https://flipboard.com/@johnchiarel4hvs/ccoutreach87-q213nqldy 

https://voat.co/u/ccoutreach87/submissions 

 

http://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/one-link_18.html [Link to past teaching]

 

Video sites- [Can view and download my videos free of charge]

Streaming sites-

Youtube  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4GsqTEVWRm0HxQTLsifvg?view_as=subscriber

Youtube Playlist- https://ccoutreach87.com/youtube-playlist/ 

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ccoutreach87/ [Most viewed]

https://www.dailymotion.com/ccoutreach87/videos [India]

https://www.bitchute.com/channel/jsS961GkXUSn/ [Most viewed]

https://vk.com/videos533663718 [Russia]

[My Facebook videos]

https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1/videos/?view_public_for=288613861341347 

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos?lst=1779330793%3A1779330793%3A1546906912 

https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello/channel/ [IGTV]

[Ukraine-Most viewed]

https://ok.ru/video/c2081847?st.cmd=video&st.m=ALBUM&st.aid=c2081847&st.ft=album

https://www.brighteon.com/channel/ccoutreach87 

https://vimeo.com/user85764413 

https://bittube.video/accounts/ccoutreach87

https://open.tube/video-channels/corpus_outreach/videos 

Note- https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/bit-open-tube-review-8-2020 

 https://ccoutreach87.com/youtube-catalog-2020/ [Youtube catalog- 2020]

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

Cloud sites- 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg0G_aInmCi8XUC-C

https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=kZ1sXP7ZardKGRUxFByiFYi667jeup7MD1Sy 

https://mega.nz/#F!7WQCSIJR!-4v9-zUQRq4MIQbBfI2n4A  

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d43nhtrgysqg493/AAAlCszxZXJoRtk8UudtuR9ma?dl=0 

https://ln.sync.com/dl/3e1f4c5e0/tcnm9p32-xiwe4nbu-zjbkitqj-4fvemf6m 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg0MwmUCJ1XM3q9ui  

https://icedrive.net/dashboard/#/cloud 

Cloud sites- https://ccoutreach87.com/cloud-links-12-2018/ 

 

Inactive- work in progress-

http://johnchiarello.doodlekit.com/ 

http://corpus-christijohnchiarello.simplesite.com/ 

https://spark.adobe.com/page/6INKwX1tFT7WA/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxWXKfaFDZrfNUzloSqg8Kg?view_as=subscriber 

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

Beta

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYlLmUkKiB6VoWE9CB1UQew?view_as=subscriber ccoutreach87

https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel&eid=ARCo7sBBI_1fHMUwrHJbFUGf73C6FmpZxtgTcWET2gVwpdHCKmXSGxs6wyeA-qGCnbsr2ILaXqpd4ACt

 

Note- Please do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on-  Copy text- download video links- make complete copies of my books/studies and posts- everything is copyrighted by me- I give permission for all to copy and share as much as you like- I just ask that nothing be sold. We live in an online world- yet- there is only one internet- meaning if it ever goes down- the only access to the teachings are what others have copied or downloaded- so feel free to copy and download as much as you want- it’s all free-

 

Note- I have many web sites- at times some question whether I’m a ‘bot’ because I do post a lot.

I am not a ‘bot’- I’m John- so please- if you are on the verge of deleting something- my contact email is ccoutreach87@gmail.com - contact me first- thank you- John

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another facebook update. As most know- I accept all invites and friend requests- if after I accept them they post bad stuff- I unfriend them. I saw a notice from a group ‘We like university teens”? I’m sure I must have accepted the request when I ‘group accept’. It sounded ‘bad’ to me [Just the title] so I went to block the group. Facebook does not allow that. Ok- I simply left the group- reported them- and blocked any future invites. I think just the title of the group alone should be banned. Side note- one of my sites was shut down this week- Parler. Those who follow the news know that big tech targeted them. So they should be back after about a week. Out of all the on-line platforms that host ‘radical groups’- Hate to say it- but Facebook is number 1. The real radical groups [Not just conservatives or christians] have more private groups on facebook than all other social platforms combined. Maybe around 850,000? Thats my estimate. Parler had around 721 groups that you could say were ‘Radical’. Just to keep you informed.  John

 

MORNING UPDATE- Just a quick note. I noticed this morning that YouTube has a Skyrock [Website] Link to the video shares. Skyrock is an UNSAFE site- not to be trusted. I had an account for about a week- I got rid of it and the links to my posts. Steemit [Dtube] actually robbed all their users of Bitcoin a few years ago [I do not do Bitcoin or any other monetizing- making money from sites]. I deleted Dtube and Steemit and removed the links from my sites and posts. I’m shocked that YouTube now has the Skyrock link on their actual platform. My advice? If you use YouTube and have an account- do not share from the Skyrock Link. If you have Steemit- delete it.  John

DA Mark Gonzales is known gang member- we call om him to step down today [Just made]

 

Links to my sites here and the bottom of every post-

https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/links-to-my-sites-1-2021 

 

John Medina Arson case- DA Mark Gonzales is a known gang member- we call on Texas Rangers to investigate

 

https://business.facebook.com/ccoutreach1/videos/2610003669296669/

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMkD84y9AaHF0NlUla?e=13u89e

https://youtu.be/50Uc4Ql7_SI 

 

TD BANK FRAUD  

 

My name is John Chiarello- My mom died 11-5-20. I’m closing her final affairs. T.D. bank of North Bergen [7815 Kennedy Blvd. N.B. N.J.] Has held back by fraud 4,000 dollars she had in a checking account. Her Name was Patricia Chiarello. I have sent all legal documents to the bank [Letters Testimentary- Will- Death Certficate- My I.D. and all legal paperwork needed. I have proof they received the packet [Sent certified by U.S. overnight mail. They refuse to send the money. They did this before while my mom was living- She had a C.D. of over 10,ooo dollars. She contacted them and they told her they decided to keep the money because she had no contact with them for 6 months. My uncle sent a letter to the bank at the time stating they stole her money and would pursue legal action. Then they gave her her money. I am sending this letter to multiple agencies today [U.S. justice Department- Governor of New Jersey. Mayor of New Jersey- Nick Sacco- who was my school principle as a boy in North Bergen and a long time family friend. I am a retired firefighter living in Texas. My dad was a retired Captain with the North Bergen Fire Department. I am also reporting this bank fraud to the legal authorities today.  Thank you- John Chiarello

 

   966 Crossbill C.C. Texas 78418.

The account at T.D. Bank is 436 175 4265- Checking account with over 4 thousand Dollars.

Her address was 9115 Smith Ave North Bergen New Jersey.

My phone number is 361- 461-0588

Email- ccoutreach87[at] gmail.com

Ccoutreach87 [at] proton mail.com

I am also the Pastor of CCoutreach 87 and a retried firefighter from Texas.

Please respond as soon as possible- Thank you.

 

3-7-21 STATE OF THE UNION [Just made the video- it is already being banned in the U.S. So I made a post- with multiple links-  John ]

 

As of now-  Facebook has banned it.

 

 https://youtu.be/QOtvyDqP5pk

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMkEzOHJwjZRsS6AYH 

https://dai.ly/x7zrd47

https://ok.ru/video/2283589667383

https://mega.nz/file/7SokAY6D#_exBvWrwLXoJlG4jlF9zl5Y_rXU1rVoYY4UADT36kys

https://www.bitchute.com/video/OHptoQjYCbib/

https://ln2.sync.com/dl/eeb995bc0/pid27q5w-icf44xpe-qj8g9dah-qjrzue66

 

 

 

Youtube and Facebook blocked the video- than after they saw me by-pass them- they seemed to let it upload. So those links [Sites?] might go down. So I just made a post and will publish  it on every site.

 

Links to my sites here and the bottom of every post-

https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/links-to-my-sites-1-2021 

 

 

Release Joshua James- NOW!

 

Links to my sites here and the bottom of every post-

https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/links-to-my-sites-1-2021

 

3-12-21 Release Joshua James- NOW!

 

https://dai.ly/x7zwjjg

https://www.bitchute.com/video/0LMbJt5nF3kj/

https://mega.nz/file/iaYWELJJ#E0LMxTaeWHTHMtMT6cx9sMEcnNMYBSWnjRCjsVN_SCo

https://business.facebook.com/ccoutreach1/videos/520643019312766/

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMkE1nkcUkVRIcQfDh

https://youtu.be/vixypF-xtb8 

 

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/03/shock-report-fbi-sends-military-vehicle-turret-2-vans-6-fbi-vehicles-3-local-police-vehicles-arrest-young-father-attended-jan-6-rally-unbelievable-interview/ 

Legal notice- Ello

 

My name is John Chiarello- I work and have contact with people on my sites who have problems- some I ‘talk down’ from suicide. Sad- but true. As of tonight my former Ello site has been taken down without warning. Because I deal with many sites- and for confidentiality reasons I can not disclose any personal information of those who I was in contact with thru my site [Which Ello took down] Before moving ahead with further legal action I simply started this site now to give Ello a chance to simply restore the site.  Here’s the link to the site    https://ello.co/ccoutreach87 

 

Captain Chiarello- Retired Civil Service  

Ello note-

 

Links to my sites here and the bottom of every post-

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/my-sites.html

 

I used Ello as a ‘short Link’ to about 50,000 posts on 50 sites- worldwide. Meaning those text posts had Ello as the main link to continue viewing the rest of the post. The reasons I chose Ello for this was because the site allowed long text posts- all sites don’t do this. But I wait before I use a site for this, because if the site is not trustworthy- and they go down- it eliminates about a year of work and about 50,000 posts on 50 sites are no longer functional. I can never go back and change all those links. The damage is done. I can only change the main Ello link to my web sites. The link to those posts are now ruined. If people click the link that site was taken down. So a simple click of a web host to delete the first Ello site [ccoutreach87] caused tremendous damage to what I do.   John

 

MY SITES-

 

Blog- [Post nightly] https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/ 

Site- [Post nightly] https://ccoutreach87.com/   

Site-  https://www.minds.com/ccoutreach87

Site-  http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/__blog.html?r=20171009095200

Site-  https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/

Site-  http://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite 

 

 [Please Like, Share, Connect, Follow and Subscribe to the sites below- as well as all my sites linked at the bottom of each post-Thanks]

 

Follow us on Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5?ref=bookmarks 

Page-  https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1 

Subscribe to our Youtube channel- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4GsqTEVWRm0HxQTLsifvg?view_as=subscriber

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello/channel/ 

Friend us on VK [Russia- Our largest group outside the U.S.] https://vk.com/id533663718  

Friend us on OK [Ukraine- Our 2^nd largest in Europe] https://ok.ru/profile/589985645111 

Follow us on Tumblr http://johnchiarello.tumblr.com/ 

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ccoutreach87 

Connect on Linkedin [Our largest group] https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-chiarello-b27340ab/ 

Follow us on Medium https://medium.com/@johnchiarello 

Friend us on Plurk [Japan] https://www.plurk.com/ccoutreach87/public 

Plurk update- I will remove this link [Below] after they restore my site [Link removed] 

Contact/Friend us on MeWe https://mewe.com/i/johnchiarello 

Follow us on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/ccoutreach87/

Follow us on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/user/ccoutreach 

Follow us on Mix https://mix.com/jchiarello 

Follow us on Flipboard https://flipboard.com/@johnchiarel4hvs/ccoutreach87-q213nqldy 

Follow us on https://mastodon.social/@ccoutreach87

View on Trello https://trello.com/b/swhF9Vr8/ccoutreach87com

View on Voat https://voat.co/u/ccoutreach87/submissions 

Connect on Minds https://www.minds.com/ccoutreach87 

Connect on Gab  https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87 

Connect on Parler  https://parler.com/profile/Ccoutreach87  

Connect on Publish-ox  https://www.publish0x.com/@ccoutreach87 

Connect on WT social  https://wt.social/u/john-chiarello 

Sharfly  https://sharfly.com/Ccoutreach87

Telegram https://t.me/ccoutreach87 

Wattpad  https://www.wattpad.com/user/JohnChiarello/conversations 

Thinkspot  https://www.thinkspot.com/authors/profile  

Vero  https://vero.co/ccoutreach87 

WhatsApp  https://wa.link/gwuicp 

WhatsApp Group  https://chat.whatsapp.com/G6K5dWjUK5vEiXuZ3B3IqX 

Follow using Wix app http://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite

Connect on Ruqqus https://ruqqus.com/@ccoutreach87

Connect on Quora  https://www.quora.com/profile/John-Chiarello-1 

Connect on Pocketnet https://pocketnet.app/ccoutreach87 

Connect on SpaceHey https://spacehey.com/profile?id=110939 

Connect on Freedom book https://www.ourfreedombook.com/Ccoutreach87?fbclid=IwAR2byyAtqFRbykFUlzmcvjd_EaT8aHFaLcaO1XIJR4qVWNCkgSLCK2Blnxg 

Connect on https://ello.co/ccoutreach 

 

Watch our videos here-

[Most viewed] https://www.flickr.com/photos/ccoutreach87/

[Most viewed] https://www.bitchute.com/channel/jsS961GkXUSn/ 

https://www.dailymotion.com/ccoutreach87/videos

https://vk.com/videos533663718 [Russia]

https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello/channel/ 

[Most viewed- OK] https://ok.ru/video/c2081847?st.cmd=video&st.m=ALBUM&st.aid=c2081847&st.ft=album [Ukraine]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4GsqTEVWRm0HxQTLsifvg?view_as=subscriber

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

My Facebook videos-

Profile videos-

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos?lst=1779330793%3A1779330793%3A1546906912 

Page videos- https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1/videos/?view_public_for=288613861341347 

https://bittube.video/accounts/ccoutreach87

https://open.tube/video-channels/corpus_outreach/videos 

Note-  https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/bit-open-tube-review-8-2020 

 

Cloud links- https://ccoutreach87.com/cloud-links-12-2018/

Archive- Text posts only- https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/archiv.html 

 

Some of my studies-

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/reformation_12.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/overview-ofphilosophy-thales-andthe-pre.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/romans-links-1-2019.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/colossians-links-2019.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/corinthians-links-4-2019.html 

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/ephesians-links.html 

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/acts-links.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/galatians-links.html

 

 

 NOTE- Every so often some of my sites think I am Spam- or a Bot- I am not. My name is John Chiarello and I post original content [all videos and text are by me]. I do share my past posts from my other sites- but it is not spam. I post 8 videos a night to many of my sites, and text posts 3 times a week. I realize that is a lot for some sites, yet this is the system I felt the Lord led me into. I NEVER take money- or ask for money- ever. Everything is free- to some sites this makes a difference- so I wanted to say that here.  Thank You- John.

 

 

ALL MY SITES [Please Like, Share, Connect, Follow and Subscribe to the sites below- Thanks]

 

Web sites-

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com  [Main site]

https://ccoutreach87.com/ 

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello 

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/  

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/ [France]

https://ccoutreach87.jimdo.com/ 

http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/__blog.html?r=20171009095200 

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/ 

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/ 

http://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite 

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/ 

http://ccoutreach87.strikingly.com/ 

https://ccoutreach87.webs.com/ 

 

Social Media sites-

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5?ref=bookmarks  

https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1

https://vk.com/id533663718  [Russia- Our largest group outside the U.S.]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-chiarello-b27340ab/ 

 [Our largest group]

https://twitter.com/ccoutreach87 

https://www.plurk.com/ccoutreach87/public [Japan]

Plurk update- I will remove this link [Below] after they restore my site [Link removed] 

https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello/channel/ 

https://ok.ru/profile/589985645111 [Ukraine- Our 2^nd largest in Europe]

http://johnchiarello.tumblr.com/ 

https://mewe.com/i/johnchiarello 

https://mastodon.social/@ccoutreach87

https://www.minds.com/ccoutreach87 

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87

https://parler.com/profile/Ccoutreach87 

https://www.publish0x.com/@ccoutreach87 

https://wt.social/u/john-chiarello 

https://sharfly.com/Ccoutreach87

https://t.me/ccoutreach87 

https://www.wattpad.com/user/JohnChiarello/conversations 

https://www.thinkspot.com/authors/profile  

https://vero.co/ccoutreach87 

https://wa.link/gwuicp 

https://chat.whatsapp.com/G6K5dWjUK5vEiXuZ3B3IqX 

https://ruqqus.com/@ccoutreach87 

https://www.quora.com/profile/John-Chiarello-1 

https://pocketnet.app/ccoutreach87 

https://spacehey.com/profile?id=110939 

https://www.ourfreedombook.com/Ccoutreach87?fbclid=IwAR2byyAtqFRbykFUlzmcvjd_EaT8aHFaLcaO1XIJR4qVWNCkgSLCK2Blnxg 

https://ello.co/ccoutreach 

 

 

 

Link sharing sites-

https://www.pinterest.com/ccoutreach87/

https://mix.com/jchiarello 

https://trello.com/b/swhF9Vr8/ccoutreach87com

https://www.reddit.com/user/ccoutreach 

https://flipboard.com/@johnchiarel4hvs/ccoutreach87-q213nqldy 

https://voat.co/u/ccoutreach87/submissions 

 

http://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/one-link_18.html [Link to past teaching]

 

Video sites- [Can view and download my videos free of charge]

Streaming sites-

Youtube  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4GsqTEVWRm0HxQTLsifvg?view_as=subscriber

Youtube Playlist- https://ccoutreach87.com/youtube-playlist/ 

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ccoutreach87/ [Most viewed]

https://www.dailymotion.com/ccoutreach87/videos [India]

https://www.bitchute.com/channel/jsS961GkXUSn/ [Most viewed]

https://vk.com/videos533663718 [Russia]

[My Facebook videos]

https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1/videos/?view_public_for=288613861341347 

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos?lst=1779330793%3A1779330793%3A1546906912 

https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello/channel/ [IGTV]

[Ukraine-Most viewed]

https://ok.ru/video/c2081847?st.cmd=video&st.m=ALBUM&st.aid=c2081847&st.ft=album

https://www.brighteon.com/channel/ccoutreach87 

https://vimeo.com/user85764413 

https://bittube.video/accounts/ccoutreach87

https://open.tube/video-channels/corpus_outreach/videos 

Note- https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/bit-open-tube-review-8-2020 

 https://ccoutreach87.com/youtube-catalog-2020/ [Youtube catalog- 2020]

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

Cloud sites- 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg0G_aInmCi8XUC-C

https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=kZ1sXP7ZardKGRUxFByiFYi667jeup7MD1Sy 

https://mega.nz/#F!7WQCSIJR!-4v9-zUQRq4MIQbBfI2n4A  

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d43nhtrgysqg493/AAAlCszxZXJoRtk8UudtuR9ma?dl=0 

https://ln.sync.com/dl/3e1f4c5e0/tcnm9p32-xiwe4nbu-zjbkitqj-4fvemf6m 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg0MwmUCJ1XM3q9ui  

https://icedrive.net/dashboard/#/cloud 

Cloud sites- https://ccoutreach87.com/cloud-links-12-2018/

 

Today I’ll just post this update and wish you all a great Easter tomorrow. To my new friends thanks for the comments and likes- I’m sorry I don’t have the time to interact with each one personally. Here is  the most recent list of my sites-

 

Connect on Minds https://www.minds.com/ccoutreach87 

Connect on Gab  https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87 

Connect on Parler  https://parler.com/profile/Ccoutreach87  

Connect on Publish-ox  https://www.publish0x.com/@ccoutreach87 

Sharfly  https://sharfly.com/Ccoutreach87

Telegram https://t.me/ccoutreach87 

Wattpad  https://www.wattpad.com/user/JohnChiarello/conversations 

Thinkspot  https://www.thinkspot.com/authors/profile  

Vero  https://vero.co/ccoutreach87 

WhatsApp  https://wa.link/gwuicp 

WhatsApp Group  https://chat.whatsapp.com/G6K5dWjUK5vEiXuZ3B3IqX 

Follow using Wix app http://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite

Connect on Ruqqus https://ruqqus.com/@ccoutreach87

Connect on Quora  https://www.quora.com/profile/John-Chiarello-1 

Connect on Pocketnet https://pocketnet.app/ccoutreach87 

Connect on SpaceHey https://spacehey.com/profile?id=110939 

Connect on Freedom book https://www.ourfreedombook.com/Ccoutreach87?fbclid=IwAR2byyAtqFRbykFUlzmcvjd_EaT8aHFaLcaO1XIJR4qVWNCkgSLCK2Blnxg 

Ccoutreachministries  https://ccoutreachministries.wordpress.com/ 

FBU  https://fightingbackuncensored.com/miembros/johnchiarello/ 

 

The ones at the bottom of the above list are most recent- The last one I started today. Love you all-  John

 

P.S. I have lots of web sites besides the ones you see me on- This site is good  for a view of all my posts and other sites- http://ccoutreach87.strikingly.com/

 

 

 

Links to my sites here and the bottom of every post-

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/my-sites.html 

 

 

 

MY SITES-

 

Blog- [Post nightly] https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/ 

Site- [Post nightly] https://ccoutreach87.com/   

Site-  https://www.minds.com/ccoutreach87

Site-  http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/__blog.html?r=20171009095200

Site-  https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/

Site-  https://ccoutreachministries.wordpress.com/ 

Site-  http://ccoutreach87.strikingly.com/ 

 

 [Please Like, Share, Connect, Follow and Subscribe to the sites below- as well as all my sites linked at the bottom of each post-Thanks]

 

Follow us on Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5?ref=bookmarks 

Page-  https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1 

Subscribe to our Youtube channel- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4GsqTEVWRm0HxQTLsifvg?view_as=subscriber

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello/channel/ 

Friend us on VK [Russia- Our largest group outside the U.S.] https://vk.com/id533663718  

Friend us on OK [Ukraine- Our 2^nd largest in Europe] https://ok.ru/profile/589985645111 

Follow us on Tumblr http://johnchiarello.tumblr.com/ 

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ccoutreach87 

Connect on Linkedin [Our largest group] https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-chiarello-b27340ab/ 

Follow us on Medium https://medium.com/@johnchiarello 

Friend us on Plurk [Japan] https://www.plurk.com/ccoutreach87/public 

Plurk update- I will remove this link [Below] after they restore my site [Link removed] 

Contact/Friend us on MeWe https://mewe.com/i/johnchiarello 

Follow us on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/ccoutreach87/

Follow us on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/user/ccoutreach 

Follow us on Mix  https://mix.com/jchiarello/christian-bible-god 

 

Follow us on Flipboard https://flipboard.com/@johnchiarel4hvs/ccoutreach87-q213nqldy 

Follow us on https://mastodon.social/@ccoutreach87

View on Trello https://trello.com/b/swhF9Vr8/ccoutreach87com

Connect on Minds https://www.minds.com/ccoutreach87 

Connect on Gab  https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87 

Connect on Parler  https://parler.com/profile/Ccoutreach87  

Connect on Publish-ox  https://www.publish0x.com/@ccoutreach87 

Sharfly  https://sharfly.com/Ccoutreach87

Telegram https://t.me/ccoutreach87 

Wattpad  https://www.wattpad.com/user/JohnChiarello/conversations 

Thinkspot  https://www.thinkspot.com/authors/profile  

Vero  https://vero.co/ccoutreach87 

WhatsApp  https://wa.link/gwuicp 

WhatsApp Group  https://chat.whatsapp.com/G6K5dWjUK5vEiXuZ3B3IqX 

Follow using Wix app http://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite

Connect on Ruqqus https://ruqqus.com/@ccoutreach87

Connect on Quora  https://www.quora.com/profile/John-Chiarello-1 

Connect on Pocketnet https://pocketnet.app/ccoutreach87 

Connect on SpaceHey https://spacehey.com/profile?id=110939 

Connect on Freedom book https://www.ourfreedombook.com/Ccoutreach87?fbclid=IwAR2byyAtqFRbykFUlzmcvjd_EaT8aHFaLcaO1XIJR4qVWNCkgSLCK2Blnxg 

Ccoutreachministries  https://ccoutreachministries.wordpress.com/ 

FBU  https://fightingbackuncensored.com/miembros/johnchiarello/ 

 

 

 

Watch our videos here-

[Most viewed] https://www.flickr.com/photos/ccoutreach87/

[Most viewed] https://www.bitchute.com/channel/jsS961GkXUSn/ 

https://www.dailymotion.com/ccoutreach87/videos

https://vk.com/videos533663718 [Russia]

https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello/channel/ 

[Most viewed- OK] https://ok.ru/video/c2081847?st.cmd=video&st.m=ALBUM&st.aid=c2081847&st.ft=album [Ukraine]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4GsqTEVWRm0HxQTLsifvg?view_as=subscriber

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

My Facebook videos-

Profile videos-

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos?lst=1779330793%3A1779330793%3A1546906912 

Page videos- https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1/videos/?view_public_for=288613861341347 

https://bittube.video/accounts/ccoutreach87

https://open.tube/video-channels/corpus_outreach/videos 

Note-  https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/bit-open-tube-review-8-2020 

 

Cloud links- https://ccoutreach87.com/cloud-links-12-2018/

Archive- Text posts only- https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/archiv.html 

 

Some of my studies-

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/reformation_12.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/overview-ofphilosophy-thales-andthe-pre.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/romans-links-1-2019.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/colossians-links-2019.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/corinthians-links-4-2019.html 

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/ephesians-links.html 

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/acts-links.html

https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/galatians-links.html

 

 

 NOTE- Every so often some of my sites think I am Spam- or a Bot- I am not. My name is John Chiarello, I am a retired firefighter living in Texas, Born in Hoboken New Jersey- raised in North Bergen. I post original content [all videos and text are by me].  I post 7 videos a night to many of my sites, and text posts 3 times a week. I NEVER take money- or ask for money- ever. Everything is free- I sell nothing- to some sites this makes a difference- so I wanted to say that here. There are no buildings- staff- salary- anything. Just me teaching- doing outreach- and reaching out thru my sites. All my teachings- videos- studies are free to download from all my sites. Make as many copies as you want- they are there for you to use. Thank You- John.

 

 

ALL MY SITES [Please Like, Share, Connect, Follow and Subscribe to the sites below- Thanks]

 

Web sites-

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com  [Main site]

https://ccoutreach87.com/ 

https://medium.com/@johnchiarello 

https://johnchiarello.webs.com/  

http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/ [France]

https://ccoutreach87.jimdo.com/ 

http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/__blog.html?r=20171009095200 

http://ccoutreach87-1.mozello.com/ 

https://ccoutreach87.site123.me/ 

http://ccoutreach87.wixsite.com/mysite 

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/ 

http://ccoutreach87.strikingly.com/ 

https://ccoutreach87.webs.com/ 

 

Social Media sites-

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5?ref=bookmarks  

https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1

https://vk.com/id533663718  [Russia- Our largest group outside the U.S.]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-chiarello-b27340ab/ 

 [Our largest group]

https://twitter.com/ccoutreach87 

https://www.plurk.com/ccoutreach87/public [Japan]

Plurk update- I will remove this link [Below] after they restore my site [Link removed] 

https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello/channel/ 

https://ok.ru/profile/589985645111 [Ukraine- Our 2^nd largest in Europe]

http://johnchiarello.tumblr.com/ 

https://mewe.com/i/johnchiarello 

https://mastodon.social/@ccoutreach87

https://www.minds.com/ccoutreach87 

https://gab.com/Ccoutreach87

https://parler.com/profile/Ccoutreach87 

https://www.publish0x.com/@ccoutreach87  

https://sharfly.com/Ccoutreach87

https://t.me/ccoutreach87 

https://www.wattpad.com/user/JohnChiarello/conversations 

https://www.thinkspot.com/authors/profile  

https://vero.co/ccoutreach87 

https://wa.link/gwuicp 

https://chat.whatsapp.com/G6K5dWjUK5vEiXuZ3B3IqX 

https://ruqqus.com/@ccoutreach87 

https://www.quora.com/profile/John-Chiarello-1 

https://pocketnet.app/ccoutreach87 

https://spacehey.com/profile?id=110939 

https://www.ourfreedombook.com/Ccoutreach87?fbclid=IwAR2byyAtqFRbykFUlzmcvjd_EaT8aHFaLcaO1XIJR4qVWNCkgSLCK2Blnxg 

https://ccoutreachministries.wordpress.com/ 

https://fightingbackuncensored.com/miembros/johnchiarello/ 

 

 

 

 

Link sharing sites-

https://www.pinterest.com/ccoutreach87/

https://mix.com/jchiarello/christian-bible-god 

https://trello.com/b/swhF9Vr8/ccoutreach87com

https://www.reddit.com/user/ccoutreach 

https://flipboard.com/@johnchiarel4hvs/ccoutreach87-q213nqldy  

 

http://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/one-link_18.html [Link to past teaching]

 

Video sites- [Can view and download my videos free of charge]

Streaming sites-

Youtube  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4GsqTEVWRm0HxQTLsifvg?view_as=subscriber

Youtube Playlist- https://ccoutreach87.com/youtube-playlist/ 

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ccoutreach87/ [Most viewed]

https://www.dailymotion.com/ccoutreach87/videos [India]

https://www.bitchute.com/channel/jsS961GkXUSn/ [Most viewed]

https://vk.com/videos533663718 [Russia]

[My Facebook videos]

https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1/videos/?view_public_for=288613861341347 

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos?lst=1779330793%3A1779330793%3A1546906912 

https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello/channel/ [IGTV]

[Ukraine-Most viewed]

https://ok.ru/video/c2081847?st.cmd=video&st.m=ALBUM&st.aid=c2081847&st.ft=album

https://www.brighteon.com/channel/ccoutreach87 

https://vimeo.com/user85764413 

https://bittube.video/accounts/ccoutreach87

https://open.tube/video-channels/corpus_outreach/videos 

Note- https://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/bit-open-tube-review-8-2020 

 https://ccoutreach87.com/youtube-catalog-2020/ [Youtube catalog- 2020]

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

Cloud sites- 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg0G_aInmCi8XUC-C

https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=kZ1sXP7ZardKGRUxFByiFYi667jeup7MD1Sy 

https://mega.nz/#F!7WQCSIJR!-4v9-zUQRq4MIQbBfI2n4A  

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d43nhtrgysqg493/AAAlCszxZXJoRtk8UudtuR9ma?dl=0 

https://ln.sync.com/dl/3e1f4c5e0/tcnm9p32-xiwe4nbu-zjbkitqj-4fvemf6m 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg0MwmUCJ1XM3q9ui  

https://icedrive.net/dashboard/#/cloud 

Cloud sites- https://ccoutreach87.com/cloud-links-12-2018/ 

 

Inactive- work in progress-

http://johnchiarello.doodlekit.com/ 

http://corpus-christijohnchiarello.simplesite.com/ 

https://spark.adobe.com/page/6INKwX1tFT7WA/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxWXKfaFDZrfNUzloSqg8Kg?view_as=subscriber 

Youtube note- http://ccoutreach87.webstarts.com/blog/post/youtube-problems

Beta

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYlLmUkKiB6VoWE9CB1UQew?view_as=subscriber ccoutreach87

https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel&eid=ARCo7sBBI_1fHMUwrHJbFUGf73C6FmpZxtgTcWET2gVwpdHCKmXSGxs6wyeA-qGCnbsr2ILaXqpd4ACt

 

Note- Please do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on-  Copy text- download video links- make complete copies of my books/studies and posts- everything is copyrighted by me- I give permission for all to copy and share as much as you like- I just ask that nothing be sold. We live in an online world- yet- there is only one internet- meaning if it ever goes down- the only access to the teachings are what others have copied or downloaded- so feel free to copy and download as much as you want- it’s all free-

 

Note- I have many web sites- at times some question whether I’m a ‘bot’ because I do post a lot.

I am not a ‘bot’- I’m John- so please- if you are on the verge of deleting something- my contact email is ccoutreach87@gmail.com - contact me first- thank you- John

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4-10-21 News Update

 

Links to my sites here and the bottom of every post-

https://corpusoutreach.weebly.com/my-sites.html 

 

 

 

Video 4-10-21

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ5qsAP0E3U

https://dai.ly/x80j44s

https://www.bitchute.com/video/DuQ2tWcIfBcP/

https://mega.nz/file/nO5n2K4R#xTIL7SCCNEU6oqz3tUDvoCHI62uBaxFVrvd84LnOUyY

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Note- I have many web sites- at times some question whether I’m a ‘bot’ because I do post a lot.

I am not a ‘bot’- I’m John- so please- if you are on the verge of deleting something- my contact email is ccoutreach87@gmail.com - contact me first- thank you- John

Here r few scattered posts I found when trying to gather all the posts together-

STUFF- A-2014

 

2011

 

THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH

 

Let’s cover the chapters for the week.

 

John 13-15.

 

Jesus sits with the 12 disciples and gives them an example- he washes their feet and tells them that he- as their Lord- is a servant.

 

He shares the meal with them- he tells them it is his broken Body- his death experiences- that are going to give life to them.

 

In chapter 14 he talks about coming to them- that first he must leave them- and they are sad about it.

 

The bible says that ‘he knew that his time had come that he should depart out of this world’.

 

THIS WORLD- he spent just enough time in his present location- with the guys he was working with- and he knew this period of time had come to an end.

 

And the bible says ‘sorrow filled their hearts’.

 

His men were upset- they were really his friends- remember the accusation the religious leaders made against Jesus?

 

THE FRIEND OF SINNERS.

 

He talks about the Spirit of Truth.

 

I find this interesting- the way he will reveal himself after he leaves them Bodily [in death] is by sending the Spirit of Truth [the Holy Spirit].

 

In chapter 14 the disciples are confused;

 

‘How will you show yourself to us- and not to the world’?

 

He says if a man loves him- he will KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS- and he and the Father [God] will come and manifest themselves unto those who do the will of God.

 

 

But the world- those who do not keep the word of God- Jesus will not manifest himself to them.

 

A key requirement of having God reveal himself to us- is we must keep his commands.

 

 

A few weeks back I had an interesting experience.

 

Today is the first day of May- and I can tell all my friends- I have been clean all year.

 

Clean?

 

I told someone the other day- not in a boasting way- but I was ‘pissed off’ as they say [yeah- that’s the only sin I have committed in 5 months- I sill get mad.]

 

I told them ‘you know- I have been more ‘sin-less’ in the past 5 months than in the last 25 years!’

 

And yet- it seemed like my prayers were still getting about the same results [now- I’m a person who for whatever reason- prays for hours on end. As God is my witness- I got up today at 3 am- prayed for just under 2 hours- that’s normal for me- no bragging- that’s just my thing].

 

So- for someone who has been doing this for years- I always thought ‘geez- if I ever get clean- God’s gonna answer all these prayers’.

 

Yet it seemed like nothing really changed [by the way- I was wrong!].

 

 

So- maybe a good month or so now- one day I was doing the normal ministry routine- getting with the guys- dealing with those who ‘relapsed’ not being judgmental at all.

 

But I realized- some of my friends who are clean from some stuff- they are still messing up in other areas.

 

Honest?

 

Lots of my friends think staying off the booze is the goal- and they sleep around- all the time.

 

 

Look- I told them I think that’s worse- and it destroys your ‘soul’.

 

But- I don’t judge- just saying.

 

And maybe some are on pills and stuff- things I just wont do.

 

 

So- after a few months of being in the mix- it hit me one day- that I was trying to show them some new things I was learning- new experiences with God.

 

And they just couldn’t get it- not that they did not want to- but as long as they ‘walked in the dark’ they were never going to walk this part of the road with me.

 

 

Then it hit me- Jesus is saying ‘the Spirit of Truth’.

 

Many of the guys were just not being honest- lots of the stuff I spoke about this last month or so- yeah- tough stuff- not easy to discuss- but I felt I had to be up-front- honest.

 

 

Then in chapter 15 [John’s gospel] Jesus says every branch that is not bearing fruit is cut off- taken away.

 

 

Jesus spent 3 years with his men- he taught them stuff- he modeled it for them- and he was brutally honest with them.

 

 

He was going to die- that was a fact.

 

He was going to leave them.

 

 

But- those who remembered what he said- and DID GODS WILL- they got real with themselves and others.

 

To these he would ‘come back’ [by the Holy Spirit- Comforter] and would walk with them again.

 

In a way that others- who did not choose to do God's commands- would not be able to experience.

 

 

Yeah- I liked these chapters- it was like Jesus was speaking in code- he was dropping hints that some would see- others would not.

 

 

As I walk this new journey this year- new in a way that I have not experienced in a long time.

 

At times I see stuff- thru the Word- in daily experiences- things that I want to share with my friends.

 

But if I see them have a slip- you know- when they slip- they slip [Crack- meth- etc.]

 

I realize they have disqualified themselves from ‘seeing’ what I’m ‘seeing’ at that point of the journey.

 

 

It’s like the Spirit of Truth can only reveal things to those who are walking in truth.

 

If we lie- live a lie- to ourselves or others- God is still merciful- he still is patient.

 

But he can not manifest himself to us at that point- until we get real.

 

 

 

 

 

2012

 

CHRISTIANS AND THE COURTS

 

I wanted to hit a few more verses from yesterdays post.

 

‘If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin- but now they have no cover for it’

 

‘You did not choose this, but I did- that you should go and bear fruit’

 

‘But this happened- so that the law would be fulfilled’

 

‘If you know these things, happy are you if you DO THEM’

 

 

Obviously Jesus is speaking about his life and ministry- because he walked among men sin-less- that left humanity with no more excuse.

 

But this year I applied some of this to my own situation- talking about things- sharing my struggles- so others too could face up to their own demons.

 

 

As I posted this past year- I spoke about open community- people being real about their trials and stuff.

 

A key verse from the start of the year was ‘God saw the light- that it was good- and he divided the light from the dark- and he called the light DAY’.

 

This is in Genesis chapter 1.

 

In a symbolic way I applied it to ‘walking in the light’.

 

That is- finally getting to a point in life where we hide no more.

 

 

Another verse says ‘God made the greater light to rule the day- and the lesser light to rule the night’.

 

For many years I felt like we- lots of us- people in ministry- we have walked- so to speak- in the Lesser Light.

 

That is God used us- in a limited way- but it was a ‘lesser light’.

 

I have had ministry friends over the years- who were embroiled with stuff much worse than my stuff.

 

I have also seen the familiar faces of high profile people- caught in scandals and stuff.

 

And some of these public cases were never really resolved- not in a biblical way.

 

 

Maybe they had ‘plea deals’ that never said ‘ok- did you do such and such’.

 

 

Or others outright lied- maybe they justified it by thinking ‘God forgives me- therefore I will not be ‘lying’ if I say ‘no- I am innocent of the charge’.

 

But- if they misled- in a court of law- or anywhere else- then they will have to some day give an account.

 

So- the biblical standard is you tell the truth.

 

Now- my stuff dealt with a situation where at times- like when you actually do have whats called blackouts [no lie- for real].

 

Then you do the best you can.

 

I’m proud that I at first said I was sorry- even though I truly did not know all the details- and there were things that later did seem to say some stuff [not all] was possibly made up.

 

But- all in all- from the start- I took the Sunlight approach.

 

 

The Apostle Paul says to the Corinthian church ‘why are you taking one another to court- are there no wise men among you who can judge these things’.

 

He was rebuking them because they did not practice open community with each other- because they wanted their rights- they were suing one another.

 

 

Now- in today’s world- I don’t fault people for going to the courts- the point I’m making is we often choose ‘lying’ as the first defense- even Christians!

 

That should not be so- regardless of the consequences- we should not do that.

 

 

Now- in some cases- I see how people might be tempted to lie- because there would be very serious consequences.

 

At the end of the day- It’s better for these things to come out now- then at the judgment.

 

 

Okay- I went a little long.

 

 

I did want to do a little week in review type thing- I want to mention the danger of the present Drum beats for involvement in Syria.

 

I fear we might be going down a bad road- again- with the way things are going.

 

 

Yes- Syria is bad- and we want the violence to end- but all the ‘limited’ actions being discussed [no fly zone- bomb this part but no more].

 

All these things are the same mistakes we have made- over and over again- yet we keep going down this same rabbit trail- sad- so sad.

 

 

Maybe I’ll hit on it tomorrow- but for today- try and read these 3 chapters in John’s gospel [13-15].

 

See what a high standard Jesus puts on Truth- the Spirit of Truth.

 

In any of the above cases- men- well meaning men- that take the ‘less than honest’ route- and then later want to move ahead in ministry- in things that require Truth.

 

 

I think if we don’t get the foundation right- then the rest of the house is being built on sand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2013  

 

REMNANT

 

Was thinking about the idea of Remnant last night.

 

Remnant?

 

Yeah- in scripture there is sort of a scarlet thread- a teaching- that runs thru both the Old and New testaments.

 

It goes like this;

 

There are times when there are bunches of people following God- on the Bandwagon so to speak.

 

Often times all is great- you know- ticker type parade in NY type stuff.

 

Then- lo and behold- stuff gets hard- and people bail out.

 

 

Okay- the Remnant are those who after the bailout- they are still standing in the rubble.

 

Got it?

 

There are a few notable stories like this in the bible- Gideon’s ‘army’- etc.

 

 

Jesus taught this in his Parables-

 

He said the kingdom was like someone planting seeds- some fall on good ground- others- not so good.

 

He said some ‘endure for a while- but when tribulation arises because of the word they are offended and leave’.

 

Same concept.

 

 

The other day I taught a little form John’s gospel- chapters 13-15.

 

I didn’t’ hit on a conversation Jesus and Peter had.

 

Peter ‘why can’t I follow you now- I am willing to die for you’?

 

Jesus ‘’Willing to die? Before the rooster crows you will deny me 3 times’.

 

The very thing Peter stated as his mindset- being sold out to death- was in fact the actual thing that kept him form following to death- he was afraid to die.

 

 

We all know the story- he denies the Lord and falls hard.

 

Jesus told Peter ‘I have prayed for you- that your faith fail not- and after your are converted- strengthen your brothers’.

 

Converted?- after the change has come.

 

Peter was a type of the remnant- he told Jesus at one point- right after others walked away [John’s gospel chapter 6- because Jesus said unless you drink my Blood and eat my Flesh you have no life- The Jewish followers were forbidden to eat blood from the teachings of Moses- so after Jesus said this many left].

 

Jesus asked Peter ‘will you go too’?

 

Peter’s reply ‘where can we go- you have the Words of eternal life’.

 

In essence- even though things got very hard at that stage- Peter was around long enough to recognize that Jesus was speaking to them at a different level- he seemed to be ‘more real’ than the many preachers of the day.

 

So- Peter and a few others stayed.

 

 

The other day I mentioned my buddy Tim- the homeless friend who I  have been running into on my walks.

 

I saw Tim a few weeks back- he stopped at ‘my camp’ [my spot by the water where I pray and hang out].

 

He was heading into town- he was gonna stop at my favorite spot- half price books- and get some stuff to read.

 

I had my Dylan book [Chronicles- came out in 2004- excellent book] in my Navy Sea Bag- and I asked him if he liked Dylan.

 

He told me he loves Dylan.

 

I gave him the book- he was grateful.

 

 

It was the 2^nd time I read it- I have given away many of my books over the years- I see it as ministry.

 

One piece of advice I liked;

 

Dylan was asking a buddy about his move to NY city- he told Bob ‘get some good boots- you’ll be doing a lot of walking’.

 

I laughed- I have been walking in work boots for the past 4 months- I mean hundreds of miles [yeah- hundreds!- some days I do about 15- 20 in a single day].

 

 

As we all have our own journey to walk- I’m trying to document- and share relevant stuff- things that will last.

 

 

One of my favorite journalists of all time was Hunter Thompson.

 

He’s the character that Johnny Depp played in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas- a Thompson book turned into a movie.

 

Hunter wrote for Rolling Stone back in the day- he covered politics and eventually wrote for ESPN.

 

He lost his edge as the years went by- and he knew it.

 

One day he had his family over- they enjoyed a good day together- after the many years of drugs and stuff he got into.

 

 

He was sick at the end- and he walked out of the house- his family heard a shot- Hunter took his life.

 

 

It was sad- but he felt like he had nothing left to give.

 

Yet he lives thru what he wrote.

 

Morrison [the Doors] was a student of philosophy and a smart guy [did you know that?]

 

That’s where he got the name for the group- Doors.

 

 

He said we only live on thru our songs and poems- sort of the legacy we leave behind.

 

It’s important to document stuff for the next generation- for the Remnant- if you will.

 

 

Sure- there will be some who walked with you for only parts of the journey.

 

And that’s fine- God had a purpose for you and them at that stage.

 

Hunter had a saying- he loved riding Harleys- and he said some times he would still get on his bike and head out late at night.

 

He would up the speed- to a point of No Return.

 

 

Sort of like that Runners High- you get to a point where you are feeling high [I get that in my walks- but only after hours of walking with no stopping].

 

 

Hunter said- when you reach that point- some slow down.

 

But he said others- they go past that point- and that’s where they see stuff that you can only see when you push past that point.

 

 

I feel like the Remnant- those who stick around like Peter- they have good stuff coming.

 

It just takes time to let the dust settle- to re-gain your equilibrium-

 

 then get back on the bike.

 

 

 

 

 

2014

 

DIVIDED NATION?

 

 

Having taken about 3 months away from news watching- I mean I have watched/read some- but no where near the usual amount.

 

It has given me some time to sit back and observe the scene from a distance.

 

And what I have seen is sad- to be frank about it.

 

Why?

 

Our country has become polarized- in my view- like never before.

 

Now- we have always had haters on the extreme right and left- that’s not new.

 

But even if you watched the media coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing- as the president spoke- you could tell that one of the main things on his mind was how fast he would call it ‘terror’.

 

Yeah- he seemed to be more worried about what the ‘right’ would say- then the actual bombing itself!

 

 

This past Sunday Israel hit Syria for the 2^nd time in a couple of weeks- and the 3^rd time this year.

 

They took out some long range rockets that Iran was supplying for Hezbollah- the group that has been operating out of Lebanon for years.

 

They are the ones who send rockets into Israel whenever things flare up on their mutual border.

 

So- it seems as if Syria [Iran] was possibly trying to expand the current war in Syria- and make it a broader ‘The West against the Arab world’ type thing.

 

 

Look- our strategy in the entire so called Arab Spring has not gone well.

 

 

There our nations/leaders who were at one time allies [Mubarak] - we sat with them and had peace agreements with them.

 

Then- after a short amount of time- we were siding with those who were going to hang them and their families.

 

Yes- this created a severe mistrust of the U.S. - the allies of the U.S. felt like we were throwing them under the bus.

 

Now- Assad- the leader in Syria- was called a reformer by Hilary Clinton.

 

A year or 2 later- we are on the verge of siding with groups who are affiliated with Al Qaeda- and basically backing those who are about to kill Assad- and more than likely his family as well.

 

 

So- if the leaders of these nations- who are just as bad as the ones we support.

 

 

Yes- we support the corrupt monarchy of Bahrain- and these guys are just as bad as Assad.

 

But we have a Naval Fleet stationed off the coast of Bahrain- se we overlook their oppressive rule.

 

 

But we side with those who are seeking the overthrow of other Arab nations- and our policy is simply inconsistent- to say the least.

 

So- what about Syria?

 

A few months ago Obama did draw a Red Line that he probably now regrets.

 

He said the use of Chemical Weapons would be a ‘game changer’.

 

So- there have been reports of them being used.

 

 

Some think the rebels themselves have used them- in order to ‘play us’ and get us involved.

 

Others reported the use of ‘Chlorine’- okay- this is a chemical- and Bob Shieffer even said this was ‘using Chemical weapons on HIS OWN PEOPLE’.

 

 

Did we describe the killing of one of the Boston Marathon guys as ‘the U.S. killed their own people’?

 

Look- Syria is in the midst of a brutal civil war- and I feel for the innocent ones caught in the middle.

 

But- there are many ‘terror’ splinter groups in this thing- and some are indeed ‘home grown’.

 

So yes- if you want to call Syria’s action ‘against his own people’

 

 Then fine- but that’s simply a propaganda tool for U.S. involvement.

 

And if you say using Chlorine is crossing a red line for war- then what about outright bullets in the heads of ‘your own people’.

 

Yes- many in the media think the killing of people is legitimate- that is actual killing in war is ‘ok’.

 

But- using Chlorine- well now- that has to stop!

 

 

Do you see how the media can manipulate the public here?

 

 

I don’t know what the answer is in Syria- but U.S. military intervention is not the solution- period.

 

 

We are going to have hearings in a few days on the Benghazi debacle.

 

And we should.

 

But understand- the group that killed our ambassador- we enabled them to operate out of Libya because we sided with those who killed Gadhaffi- who by the way was another so called ally of the U.S. [like Mubarak].

 

So- we want peace- we abhor killing- on all sides.

 

 

But- we are a divided people- we are polarized- we can’t seem to function as a nation- as a governmental entity any more.

 

I don’t know what the answer is- but we as a people are heading for trouble.

 

One short example;

 

The other day I was talking to a friend- he was surprised to hear my views on stuff like this.

 

 

In my part of the world it’s rare for a blogger- a Christian ‘web site’ to hold to these more liberal views.

 

 

I gave him the example of the ‘low’ level of education that our present media has been pumping out to the public on a daily basis.

 

 

One day I was watching Glen Beck.

 

He was hailed as a great historian by one of the guys on the show.

 

And during the show- some one gave a quote ‘A NATION DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF CAN NOT STAND’.

 

 

The person said this quote came from a contemporary source.

 

Ahh-

 

Beck was quick to correct the man.

 

‘So and so did not say this- but Lincoln did!’

 

Beck quipped.

 

The guests were dumb founded- they were corrected- on national TV- by the ‘historian’ on the set.

 

Yeah- they submitted like one of Pavlov's dogs- tail between their legs.

 

 

One thing- Lincoln didn’t coin this phrase either.

 

 

It came from Jesus Christ- it’s in the New Testament for heavens sake.

 

 

So- the current state of Western media has been held hostage by a sort of media fantasy land.

 

Our media is based on what the public wants to hear- what the ratings are.

 

When we allow national media figures to be so misinformed- and to have forums on a national set- then yes-

 

Just like Lincoln- and Jesus- and the other guy said

 

A NATION DIVIDED CAN NOT STAND.

 

I fear they did get that one right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2015

 

NO DEAL?

 

Thanks for all the great comments guys- I’m still trying to get my stuff resolved and close this chapter.

 

Yesterday I did my ‘darndest’ to settle the thing.

 

Really!

 

Broke all the rules- dropped the lawyer- and told them the whole truth- like I have been saying all along!

 

My lawyer led me to believe I might have to do a year in jail and pay a 4 thousand dollar fine.

 

This was months ago.

 

I took out 4 grand from my retirement- and told them if I can do the ‘time’ in New Jersey- lets go!

 

They had no idea what I what talking about [yeah- maybe I am nuts?]

 

Anyway- the reason I flipped out yesterday was because I told my lawyer months ago- lets just do a plea- get me the best deal you can- and where done.

 

She was out of the country and just got back yesterday- then called me and told me we won’t have the trial till July.

 

I was fuming.

 

I said ‘let just plea- cant we just do a plea’.

 

She told me that prosecutors are busy people- on and on.

 

I walked down to the courthouse [got a ride half way].

 

Went to the court- asked some lady in the hall how to do the deal myself.

 

She was the judge!

 

She tells me go in and sign the paper that your dropping your lawyer.

 

I did.

 

Then I sat with 2 prosecutors and old them the TRUTH- everything- what ever will be will be.

 

 

They asked me if I actually flashed the girl.

 

I told them no- but I don’t care- lets do a plea.

 

They said it will be on your record.

 

 

I DON’T CARE!!

 

I got warned for using the F word one time.

 

As I recounted the story- for the umpteenth time in these past months.

 

They seemed fixed on a certain statement.

 

 

I told them that as the months went by- we came to believe Shelby was lying about the flashing part itself.

 

I told them I really didn’t care- I was still going to plead guilty.

 

Then I told them Nicolle called my daughter- told her the mom asked her to lie- the whole thing.

 

I said at that point I was mad- I wanted to find out what she asked her to lie about.

 

Then I told them it wasn’t what I thought.

 

But she asked her to lie about Chris breaking my van window.

 

That I didn’t care about that- I was never going to report it- I felt like it would be ‘playing dirty’ and all.

 

 

But- I think I just reported it to them [without realizing it].

 

They asked me if I saw my window broken.

 

I told them after I got home- of course- I fixed the darn thing!

 

Anyway they seemed to think this was important- I don’t know why for sure- I never lied about anything from day 1.

 

At this point they seemed to not want me to take the plea.

 

He told me it would be unethical for me to plead guilty to something I did not do.

 

I told him I don’t care- I’ll do the year in jail right now if they can transfer the thing to N.J.

 

They had no idea what I was talking about.

 

 I told them that’s what my lawyer had me believing this whole time.

 

 

I said ‘what’s the best deal you can give me’.

 

He said 6 months in jail.

 

I told them could I start right now.

 

They kind of laughed- like they were just telling me 6 months because they didn’t want me to plea.

 

 

Then they said they could give me 30 days in jail or 40 days in a work program.

 

My lawyer was going to delay this for months- maybe next year- and this is all I wanted from the start.

 

I told them I’m going to take this deal right now!

 

I think because they wanted to do something about the broken window- maybe press charges- that they convinced me to do a bench trial next Tuesday- we will all be there.

 

I asked him if I lose- will the deal be off.

 

He said no- if you lose the trial- the deals the same.

 

 

They simply did not want me to plea to something I did not do.

 

 

I was on the verge of taking the deal- I need to leave Texas and start over.

 

 

But I did always want to see the people in this case before I left.

 

Not to get even- but I don’t want everybody mad- I want it over for all of us.

 

Trust me- I did not even want to report that the kid broke the window!

 

It came out while I was spilling the whole thing- I was mad- not at the kids- but that my lawyer was making it sound like it would take month’s to even get a plea.

 

Geez- I got a deal that I would have taken if the prosecutor accepted it- he was the one who convinced me to do the bench trial!

 

 

So- to all the ‘kids’ reading this- to the mom- don’t worry- please.

 

We will all go to court next Tuesday- just tell the truth- that’s all.

 

 

If I lose- that’s fine- I was going to take the same deal yesterday- it's really no big deal.

 

The thing that upset me was my lawyer putting this off for months- who knows- maybe years!

 

The county is doing a ‘2 for 1’ deal right now [yeah- sounded strange to me too?]

 

If I take the 30 days- I only do 15 in jail- great!

 

Or if I take the 40 work days- I only do 20.

 

That’s fine- I’m thinking of doing the county time- and maybe start a little group bible thing- I have done this before.

 

 

So- that’s it for now- all this will be settled by next Tuesday- I always felt like I needed to see all the people in this before I left.

 

I want to apologize for the part I did play- even though the whole charge was not true.

 

 

And I did not want to leave without telling the people I was sorry.

 

Now I’m sorry for Chris- the kid that broke the window on the van.

 

Trust me- I could have reported that long ago- I never did.

 

It just slipped out when I was talking to them.

 

Lets just end this-

 

 

Talk to you later- John

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2016

 

THE WIDOW AND HER KID

 

I want to write a little bit on perspective- how we should view ourselves- and others- when going thru difficult times.

 

For those who have been following the posts- you will know what I’m talking about- for others- you might still get something out of this.

 

One of the main things I have emphasized about ‘ministry’ and ‘church’ over the years is that God’s main concern is not how religious we are- or pretend to be.

 

But God’s concern is how we treat our brother- the poor- our neighbor.

 

One of the parables of Jesus- sometimes called the parable of the unjust judge- goes like this.

 

 

 

This was in a certain city a woman- and she had a complaint- a legitimate issue- that she wanted justice on.

 

So she goes to the judge [the cops- law- etc.] and she says ‘avenge me of my adversary’.

 

She wants justice- which is a good thing.

 

Now- the judge does not really care about God- or the woman.

 

But the bible says she keeps coming to the system- because she wants justice.

 

 

Finally- the story says- that even though the judge did not really care about the case- he helped her- because she was persistent.

 

The moral of the story at the end is Jesus says ‘how much more will God help his own people who call unto him day and night’.

 

 

Now- in all the verses about helping the poor- meeting the needs of people.

 

The main verses I have always believed were the important themes of Christianity.

 

These same verses also speak about treating the ‘widow and orphan’ well.

 

 

Okay- in the bible- widow does not just mean a lady whose husband died.

 

 

It also can mean the single mom- and her daughter.

 

Now do you see?

 

God defends the mom- who comes to the system- and wants what’s right for her kid.

 

And often times the system treats the lady bad.

 

God is just as concerned about her- and her daughter- as he is about the poor.

 

 

 

Lincoln once said ‘it’s not whose side God is on- but our we on his side’.

 

 

We often pray about the best outcome for us- for ‘our side’.

 

We see things thru the perspective of ‘God will help me’.

 

But Gods is concerned with everyone in his court- in his world.

 

 

In the last post I mentioned how I spoke with the prosecutors about my situation.

 

Trust me- I did indeed tell them everything- all that I honestly knew.

 

 

At this stage- I’m ready to end this thing.

 

 

At one point he asked ‘are you saying you were just an innocent guy …’.

 

No way- I told him everything- but in all honesty- that one part never happened [at least what I do honestly remember].

 

So- I am not covering up anything [for those aware of this situation].

 

 

At one point- one of the prosecuters said ‘say if I put it like this- say if you did not actually have to do the offense- actually flash someone- in order for the charge to still hold’.

 

 

I told him at that point ‘that’s great- lets sign right now- I’m ready’.

 

See?

 

I want the ‘other side’ to see- for real- I’m not making stuff up- God’s concerned for your side too.

 

 

At that point- the younger prosecutor said ‘wait- I think he actually had to do it in order for the charge to stand’.

 

They had some confusion- they looked in the law book right there- and the first guy said he was sorry- he was mistaken.

 

In order for the charge to be true- you actually have to have done it [in the way most people understand it].

 

 

I was upset- once again.

 

I said ‘I thought you said it does not actually have to happen- in that way- in order to plead guilty’.

 

 

I wanted him to have been right- because I wanted to settle the thing- and be honest- for real.

 

 

Then he said no- in order for this charge to be true- it didn’t fit what I had done.

 

 

I was upset- and said ‘you know- it doesn’t make a difference any more- I’ll plead guilty anyway- that’s okay’.

 

He did not want me to do it- he asked ‘did you do it- do you remember actually doing it’.

 

I told him- in all clear conscience- no.

 

 

Not that part.

 

 

Why is this so hard- for everyone?

 

 

When I pray- I realize that God is concerned for the single mom- and for her kid.

 

That’s the ‘widow and child’ in the story.

 

And God wants her to have justice- for the daughter who was wronged.

 

That’s God’s concern- not mans.

 

 

So- at times- I thought ‘maybe it would be better to just plea to something- though that aspect actually did not happen’.

 

To me- at various times- it was no big deal.

 

 

But as I sat with the prosecutors- I even said the same thing- enough did happen that to me its okay to say- to just plead guilty.

 

They did not want it.

 

 

Maybe all this will help the ‘widow’ maybe she does not know this.

 

I’m not trying to persuade anybody- trust me.

 

I know I have had very bad mood swings- and some days I’ll post and be mad.

 

 

I’m going to try very hard not to do that.

 

I’m okay with where we are at- that we can finish this by Tuesday.

 

 

Some days I feel very bad for the ‘widow and daughter’.

 

 

There is a young girl that helps us at the halfway house.

 

She has had lots of problems in the past.

 

I guess she’s in her young 20’s.

 

 

As I was talking with the guys I asked her of she had any questions- about the bible- stuff she wanted to ask.

 

She did- she picked up the bible the guys had there- and she opened up to a chapter.

 

She said she was reading it the other day- she felt God lead her to it.

 

I tried to tell her what it meant- and I felt so bad for her.

 

 

The bible is real small print- and the poor kid was doing her best to hear God.

 

 

So- I made it a point to buy her a bible the next week.

 

I stopped at Wal Mart and could not find a simple girls bible.

 

The only one was a new moms bible- it was pink- and I liked the notes- it was nice- a bit more expensive than I was looking for [about 25 bucks].

 

So I looked at the others- but kept coming back to the moms one.

 

 

The problem?

 

 

Just last week- when at the halfway house- the guys told me ‘so and so went down to have an abortion’.

 

She has no kids- got pregnant- and went to abort the baby.

 

So- as you can see- buying the ‘new moms’ bible might not be the best.

 

Heck- I liked it- I bought it for her.

 

 

I gave her the bible- she loved it.

 

 

She never got the abortion- so- she will be a new mom soon.

 

She told me she felt like that was a sign from God.

 

 

This is so sad.

 

See- God really cares about the ‘widow- and her kid’.

 

 

 

2017

 

I CAN’T DIG- OR BEG

 

 

Okay- let me do my best to try- really try- to end this chapter.

 

As much as I want to not talk about this any more- I just can’t seem to get past it.

 

About a year ago I was accused of flashing a girl while very drunk.

 

 

Drunk to the point where you don’t even know if you did it.

 

I was what you would call a black out drinker- which is very bad.

 

 

At the time- I simply confessed- sort of- on face book- said I did not remember doing it- but if I did- I was vey sorry.

 

 

As the months rolled by- my wife and daughter- and their friends [who all knew each other] were reading this on-line.

 

They thought the flashing charge was made up.

 

 

I did not want to hear that- because I was resigned to just go thru and plead guilty.

 

 

As time went on- my wife would say ‘she said you stopped the van here- opened the door- etc’.

 

 

That part I remembered- and I knew that here- at least- this was not true.

 

 

There were 2 other kids [young 20’s] who were there too.

 

I always said ‘just ask them- they know I did not flash their friend’.

 

 

But- I never knew what they said.

 

 

Maybe they said- yeah- he did.

 

 

So finally the last few weeks I did hear what they said.

 

 

The boy made no statement.

 

And the other girl- who I’m sure is a very nice girl.

 

 

She said she ‘turned her head’ [did not see].

 

I knew they lied when I heard this.

 

 

She did not want to lie outright- and say ‘no- my friend is wrong’.

 

So- she said this.

 

Okay- this is where we now realize the girl lied.

 

This girl should not have said this.

 

 

Not asking you to lie- but to have said the truth- at least about the part where we were all there at one time.

 

 

 

So- the last few weeks- I saw that more than likely the charge was false.

 

 

 

Okay- was I totally innocent?

 

 

No.

 

 

And yes- I could come on today and write- and manipulate- and ‘shape’ the story to make it look like I’m better than I am.

 

 

 

But there are about 5 or so people who would say ‘see- this guy claims to be a Christian- helping the homeless guys- and look- he’s a liar’.

 

 

Should I just ‘sacrifice’- that is not care about that small inside group- and heck- lie.

 

No.

 

Then these ‘kids’ will live the rest of their life knowing we are all the same- we all lie to make ourselves look good.

 

 

And that would be wrong.

 

 

No- there were things that did come up- things that I forgot [not real bad- but things you that are not real good].

 

And when I heard about them- I once again was confronted with the past.

 

 

So- yes- I put this in for you guys- the small group- who also knows this.

 

 

I want you all to see I have tried so hard in this thing- and at times questioned so much- and don’t want to leave Texas this way.

 

 

 

Okay- I did a no contest plea and will do a 40 day work period [actually 20].

 

 

I wish I could start today and work straight thru- but it will take a month to finish.

 

 

 

 

Why am I leaving?

 

Isn't it obvious?

 

I’m leaving because of this- not what others said about me- but because of this whole thing.

 

 

Make no mistake- it’s not some great ‘call from God to go save the bums in New York’.

 

No- I feel like my life is over- that’s how I have felt from day one.

 

 

When people drink- are actively drinking- you don’t ‘feel’ the consequences of stuff.

 

The bible even says this ‘when a drunk wakes up- he goes right back to it’.

 

 

But- when I quit [since Jan. 3^rd] I ‘feel’ all the consequences- in a big way.

 

So- make no mistake about it- yes- I’m running from my past- I’m going to ‘hide’ in a crowd up north.

 

 

Yes- all the things you would do if this happened to you.

 

 

 

I was talking to my wife last night- telling her I’m glad it’s going to be over- I’m so ready to leave.

 

 

Of course my family is staying in Texas.

 

 

As I was talking- she was crying.

 

‘What’s wrong now!’

 

 

As you can imagine- there has been a ton of friction since this happened.

 

 

She just said something like ‘don’t you know’.

 

 

I realized she has been hoping I was going to change my mind as the weeks- months went by.

 

That I would stay.

 

 

I just can’t.

 

 

 

One day not too long after this happened.

 

 

I was reading the parable of the unjust steward.

 

 

Some guy is the money manager for some rich man.

 

 

He gets caught stealing- and the boss hauls him on the carpet to give an account.

 

 

He does not try and hide the wrong doing.

 

But- he quickly analyzes his situation and comes up with a plan.

 

Jesus is telling the story- it’s a parable.

 

 

The guy says ‘what should I do- I won’t beg- I can’t dig ditches’.

 

And he goes on and makes a plan and God commends him for being wise.

 

 

The part of the story that caught my eye was he immediately knew his options.

 

He eliminated some things right from the start.

 

 

About a month after this incident- I knew it was ‘over’ for me.

 

 

It took a while before I quit the homeless ministry here in the Bluff.

 

 

But it’s been 6 months now- and I haven’t seen the guys.

 

 

I took all the ad’s I was running in the papers down.

 

 

I knew there were some things that would ‘be no more’.

 

In essence ‘I won’t dig- or beg’.

 

See?

 

 

 

And I’m sorry to my dear wife- I know she was hoping I would change my mind.

 

I just can’t.

 

 

I’m not mad.

 

 

It’s just over- this whole chapter is over.

 

 

For those that I  did wrong to- the parts that were indeed wrong.

 

I’m so sorry- you have no idea.

 

 

To all the people- I don’t do anything in the Bluff any more- please don’t be worried about running into me.

 

 

I am going to move as soon as the punishment is done.

 

 

And to all my friends on line- thanks for the support.

 

I’m so sorry you had to see all this.

 

 

 

 

2018

 

A GAY WITCH?

 

There are things that I want to cover- stuff that pertains to the recent stuff- but some of this will take time to develop.

 

I want to be careful- for all involved- when we talk about it.

 

Why?

 

In this recent case- the stuff I have been blogging on- I ‘see’ everyone involved thru the lens of ‘what’s Gods’ ultimate will for all’.

 

For instance- I don’t view this as ‘me against them’.

 

Or ‘let me use the blog/face book to my advantage’.

 

No- I see everyone as people caught up in something- that was instigated by my very bad choices [drving for years drunk- and at times black out drunk].

 

 

Now- everyone will also be held accountable for the wrong they did after the fact.

 

 

At the start of this- I posted- in a very serious way- that it’s not a joke- to law enforcement- to lie in a criminal case- or to ask others to lie.

 

 

As time went on- I [as well as both sides of the case] did see that yes- the person lied- about the most ‘important’ thing.

 

 

As I recounted the story- many times- I would say ‘look- most of this is my fault- I’m no ‘innocent man’ who got framed’.

 

But- the actual charge- well yes- that’s false.

 

 

It took time for me to see it- because the girl gave her self away- when she herself said it happened- when there were 2 other people there.

 

That’s when I knew- for a fact- that she made that up.

 

Then- when I saw the actual statements- I knew she lied.

 

Okay- why?

 

 

 

Over the next week or 2- I’m going to tell another true story- something that makes this look like ‘child’s play’.

 

 

It has to do with a former church member from a church I started years ago.

 

He was involved in sorcery and witchcraft- and he also was involved with ministry.

 

 

This person- who in the coming days I will reveal- had an all out assault against me and my family in Kingsville.

 

 

All out?

 

Yeah- it was very bad.

 

 

When this person joined the little church I started- I was warned that he was really an ‘undercover sorcerer’ who just joined churches to ruin them.

 

Okay- I thought maybe the person- who was my age [we were both in our 20’s] was dabbling in bad stuff- but who knows- maybe God had a purpose for him.

 

 

Okay- to cut to the short of it.

 

 

Over time- one of my friends told me ‘John- you would not believe what so and so is saying about you’.

 

 

He started a rumor- that we were gay lovers.

 

Okay- as you can see- I really did not want to get into this- now.

 

But- as I was praying this morning- I felt God wanted me to tell it- because in the coming weeks- there's much more to this story than meets the eye.

 

Okay- at this point- I have no reason to lie about anything- I have already been very open with all.

 

 

The fact is- this guy lied.

 

 

Now- I have friends who are gay- I know there are very good people who are gay- and I try not to ‘judge’ people.

 

 

But- this has never been ‘my thing’.

 

My temptation has always been the classic one- going back to the garden.

 

Yes- the simple reality that women are attractive- so that’s it.

 

Now- the way I dealt with the guy who said we were gay- is I took a mutual friend with me one night and we drove to Manuel’s house.

 

The friend in the car was the guy Manuel told this to.

 

His name is Emmet.

 

 

I knocked on Manuel's door- and I confronted him about the story.

 

Emmet was in the car- hearing.

 

I told Manual ‘Emmet said you told him we were gay lovers- is this true’.

 

 

He acted shocked- and of course denied it.

 

Then Emmet got out- he knew he was busted.

 

 

This began a couple of years of an all out assault against me and my family by Manuel.

 

I worked at the fire house- he sent people to my house [while I was at work] at 2 am to harass my family.

 

He broke the window of my car while parked at the fire house.

 

 

He set fires in abandoned buildings- and when I got there he was watching.

 

This never stopped..

 

He had a friend call the fire house and threaten me- I was pissed- I told him to come down right now- I was waiting outside.

 

The guys at the station knew I was mad- it was funny- they shut all the blinds and stuff- they thought someone was gonna do a drive by!

 

 

Had the tries slashed to my car- etc.- etc.

 

 

Eventually I moved to Corpus- because of this.

 

 

So- as you can see- any false charge does affect me.

 

 

Now- to be very clear- I do not see any one in this recent case like this.

 

 What happened in this case is some girl was indeed offended- and in her way- to get justice- she lied about being flashed.

 

 

That’s what happened.

 

 

At first I thought the mom knew- but then later was not sure.

 

I know the girl knows- and her 2 friends.

 

So yeah- I get it.

 

 

What maybe added to ‘the lie’ was the very real fact that I was so drunk that I made a confession to the girl on face book and said- even though I don’t remember- that I’m sorry.

 

 

At that point they must have thought ‘wow- this guy does not even know’!

 

 

So- trying my best to be honest added to it.

 

 

Okay- that’s why I’m really not that mad at the people.

 

 

Because my past experience- with the really terrible false charge- makes this look like nothing.

 

See?

 

 

One of the things I want to cover in the coming weeks is unjust scales.

 

 

And the biblical teaching on how- at times- justice is not even.

 

For instance- I think the girl-  maybe felt like in order to get justice- they needed to make up the charge.

 

Okay- I actually do see that- for real.

 

So- while in a normal case maybe the person accused would be very mad- it is after all not a good thing to say- especially when it’s not true.

 

 

But- compared to the other situation- I don’t see the accuser’s in this case as bad people at all.

 

 

See?

 

 

So- maybe this will give everyone some perspective.

 

 

In the coming days- I’ll cover a very serious thing that happened these past months- and it is directly related to this whole experience.

 

 

There are many verses in the bible that talk about false accusations- and how there is a severe penalty on those who make them.

 

 

I knew- from the beginning [because of the above situation] that some of the ‘kids’ in this case did not realize what they were getting into.

 

 

That is- there would be a high price to pay- simply because this was being put in ‘Gods court’.

 

It will take some time over the next few weeks to explain this- but it has to do with Gods desire to purge all of us- yes both those who make false accusations- and those who are falsely charged.

 

 

So- over time- hopefully we will get to it.

 

So- for today- understand that in Gods’ dealings- false accusations carry with them a very high price.

 

 

In some cases- like the one that happened years ago- the price is high.

 

In the recent case- I already know that the people involved had no idea it would be like this- but I did know.

 

I had past experience with it- I almost felt like ‘no- don’t make a false charge like this- it’s gonna come back and bite you’.

 

[It looks like charges are already being filed- not by me- on the ‘other side’]

 

I knew this from day one.

 

 

So- to be clear- I do not see these 2 cases as the same.

 

I see the recent case as good people- yeah- all of those involved.

 

And that in some type of way to try and get justice [what they felt like was right- but- when you lie about a charge- then you corrupt the system- and justice can’t happen] well yes- they made up something that did not happen.

 

That even the other witnesses- who were the accusers friends- they basically backed up my story.

 

So yeah- over time- everyone knew the actual charge- the worst charge- was indeed false.

 

 

At times- even those in the system that seemed to know the girl made that part up.

 

They would say things to me like ‘John- the system is not concerned with whether or not you did it- that’s not their job’.

 

Huh?

 

I was shocked.

 

One investigator told me ‘oh yeah- even if the person goes down to the police station and says she’s sorry- she made it up- they will threaten her to not change her story and tell her if she does they will file a charge against her for making a false report’.

 

So- along the way- I learned some bad things about ‘the system’.

 

Okay- that’s it for now.

 

 

For you bible studiers- look up what the bible says about false accusation.

 

It’s vey harsh.

 

In the end- God’s not vindictive- but he purges us- he puts ‘pressure’ on us- to get us clean.

 

He does this with everyone in ‘his court’.

 

He’s not about getting even- or ‘siding’ with one side against the other.

 

 

He’s about creating truth in all of us.

 

 

That’s the proper perspective.

 

 

NOTE- Then why did I plea No Contest?

 

From the start- I told everyone- even the prosecutors- that I was very drunk- black out drunk.

 

Yes- I took a huge risk by dropping my lawyer- and telling the prosecutors this.

 

They could have stacked multiple DUI’s on me- and that could have been  jail time in Texas.

 

But- I let the chips fall.

 

 

But- over time- because of what I explained above- I realized- to my surprise- that yeah- the girl made the flashing charge up.

 

Who’d a thunk it?

 

 

But- the prosecutor- who seemed to believe me- also said ‘how can you defend yourself when you’re admitting you don’t remember half of the event’?

 

So- that’s the reality.

 

Yeah- maybe if I lied from the start- the outcome would have been different- but that’s how this turned out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2019  

 

MY FRIEND- THE WITCHDOCTOR  

 

Let’s pick up where we left off last.

 

First- this situation with my friend- the ‘Christian witchdoctor’ is rare.

 

For the most part- when you hear stories of Christian leaders who are entangled in some sin- for the most part- they are true.

 

For instance- over the years- I would see/read a case where some famous leader is caught with a girl.

 

Maybe in a motel room- then some of my friends- who were followers of the leader would say ‘wait- I heard he was just witnessing to the prostitute’.

 

IN A MOTEL ROOM?

 

 

So- I’m not the type that fell for stories like that.

 

 

In my situation- the person who made up the charge [years ago] was dabbling in both the occult world- as well as Christian ministry.

 

So- I think he really was lost- confused.

 

And it is true that there were strategies- by occult followers- to make up charges against people [talking about the gay relationship charge- last post].

 

 

But- for the most part- I am not into the whole ‘spiritual warfare’ scene- where there is a demon- or satan worshipper behind every bush.

 

Got it?

 

 

Okay- when I moved my family to Corpus- I still worked at the Kingsville Fire Dept- and finished my 25 years.

 

Manuel came by over the years- admitted what he did- yes- he told me he was sorry for making the charge up- and I forgave him.

 

 

He eventually came by with his boy- who came to my little church when he was young.

 

He was older now- his dad loved him and was proud of him.

 

I’ll never forget- one day they both came by the station.

 

Manuel asked me to pray for them.

 

Of course I did.

 

As I prayed- his boy started crying uncontrollably.

 

 

I knew God was working.

 

As the years went by- I would see Manuel off and on.

 

One time I showed up at work and the guys told me ‘hey John- we picked up some guy who had his throat slashed- he was asking for you- he said you were his pastor’.

 

That was Manuel.

 

 

His boyfriend cut his throat and almost killed him.

 

Yes- Manuel was gay and lived out the lifestyle.

 

 

 

I felt bad for him over the years.

 

Others never knew I forgave him- and we became friends again.

 

He did threaten my family- and I never told my wife I forgave him.

 

 

Now- this is the hard part.

 

It was during that time that I learned to ‘put things in Gods court’.

 

There are verses in the Psalms- called Imprecatory Psalms.

 

Huh?

 

Those are the verses where king David is praying for God to ‘get his enemies’.

 

Christians have different ideas about these passages.

 

Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies- not to try and get even.

 

Yet these portions of the Psalms seem to say the opposite.

 

 

Over the years- I have come to the understanding that all God’s wrath is redemptive- in the end.

 

 

Now- this gets into a heavy theological discussion- that we don’t have time to get into now.

 

 

But basically it means- when we pray these verses that seem to ask God to ‘get our enemies’.

 

What we are really praying is for Gods wrath- his ‘pressure’ to be on everyone in 'his court’ and for it to produce righteousness.

 

 

So- I learned to pray this way back then.

 

 

Okay- you pray like this whenever there are people accusing you- falsely- of anything.

 

It seems to bring everyone into Gods court- you in essence are saying ‘okay God- come and work in all of us- what ever will be will be’.

 

 

Now- this can get serious- very serious.

 

The bible talks about believers having authority from God  

 

 

‘Whoever’s sins you forgive- they are forgiven’

 

‘Whoever’s sins you retain- they are retained’.

 

 

The long and short of it is this- when you pray in this way- you have no control over the outcome.

 

 

When I went thru the situation with Manuel- I prayed like this.

 

 

This last 6 months- I had to do it again.

 

Why?

 

 

Not to get even- but some who did indeed make false charges- after I tried my best to do what was right- they saw it as a game.

 

At one point- in the beginning- the girl put on face book ‘wow- this is so cool- I'm at a real line up’.

 

 

I guess she was at the police station and looking at pictures [note- my wife told me this- I have never read any of this on line].

 

Now- when you falsely charge someone- and think it's a game- that’s very serious.

 

 

I think the girl just did not realize that this is not a joke.

 

 

So- I simply brought us all into Gods court- I placed us all under this umbrella.

 

See?

 

 

Okay- now pay close attention- this is the scary part.

 

 

Over the last 6 months- during my long walks- I stopped at a McDonalds and would sit and have coffee and pray.

 

 

One day- March 29th to be exact.

 

I brought an old bible I had for years.

 

I noticed on the front page- I wrote some notes and stuff.

 

One of the notes said I had a meeting with ‘Pastor Don’ that day.

 

It was strange- because I had written that note in 1992- and I was to meet him- at this exact location where I was sitting.

 

It was sort of a sign in a way.

 

To see that note all those years later- in the meeting spot.

 

 

I also saw another note I wrote.

 

 

It was a License plate.

 

 

It was the LP of Manuel.

 

Yeah- years earlier when I went thru the problems- I too was going to retaliate at one time- and I got his car License plate.

 

 

When I saw it- I told the Lord I was sorry.

 

That I too have tried to get even- or have lied about people that wronged me- it was a moment of true repentance.

 

 

I wrote the date in a little journal I have been making this year.

 

That’s why I remember the date- 3-29-13.

 

 

 

Now- this is all happening at a time when I- in a sense ‘re-opened’ the court.

 

Are you getting this?

 

I know I might be losing some of you- but this is the best I can do.

 

 

I ‘released’ Manuel in a new way- even though I had forgiven him- for a very bad accusation- yet I had to also repent of my anger towards him.

 

 

I did this repenting some 23 years after the fact.

 

Less than a month later- I was driving with my wife.

 

She says ‘oh- by the way- your old friend was killed’.

 

Huh?

 

Yeah- I think his name was Manuel.

 

Juan Manuel Garza was stabbed to death on April 25^th- 2013 [look it up if you want- Kingsville Texas]

 

 

Less than a month after I repented of any wrong I had done towards him.

 

 

 

I felt God was telling me that ‘this court’ was very serious.

 

That the bar has been raised very high.

 

 

I don’t want any one to miss read this.

 

 

We [Christians] are not in the business of praying for the deaths of ‘our enemies’.

 

 

Jesus told us to pray for those who wrong us.

 

But he said- when we do really forgive- and release them- we are ‘pouring hot coals on their heads’

 

 

This releases the redemptive judgment of God on all in ‘the court’.

 

 

Manuel was killed by his lover- the same man who stabbed him years earlier.

 

His name is Barbour- I have him on my prayer list- with all the other prisoners I pray for.

 

 

 

The reason I bring this up now is because we- all of us- don’t realize the seriousness of false accusation.

 

I’ll admit- in the case with Manuel- that’s about as bad as it gets.

 

 

As a young Pastor- it was a miracle that I didn’t just quit the ministry all together.

 

 

But when I moved to Corpus I started an outreach to the homeless guys- and this in a way was my salvation.

 

 

So- once again- I’m in transition.

 

I do believe God still has a purpose for all of us- but a lot has changed- things have changed for good.

 

 

 

I mourned the death of Manuel for a few days.

 

I think my wife was surprised- she knew what he had done.

 

I told her I had forgiven him- and I still felt responsible for him in a way- that he still saw me as his Pastor.

 

 

Yeah- she was surprised- me too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2020

 

THIS MOUNTAIN

 

‘If you have faith- just like a mustard seed- the smallest of all seeds [less than zero?] you would say to THIS MOUNTAIN ‘be removed and be cast into the sea’ and it would do it’!

 

 

Jesus says lots of neat stuff ‘I am the door of the sheep- by me- if any man enter in he shall be saved’.

 

Door?

 

Yeah.

 

You mean hinges and stuff?

 

Well- not really- you’ll see soon.

 

 

 

The other day I caught an interview with Julian Assange.

 

He’s the WikiLeaks founder who has been hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy.

 

The U.S. is hunting him down- and he’s staying there as a shelter.

 

Why are we hunting him?

 

He was the recipient [not the leaker!] of thousands of emails and texts that Bradley Manning ‘illegally’ downloaded to his computer disk- and gave them to WikiLeaks [a site that exposes the secrets of corrupt governments].

 

 

Now- I am not saying I agree with all the leaks he did- but some were exposing corruption.

 

The most damaging of the leaks showed secret recordings between the U.S. and other govts- things that are indeed bad- some real bad.

 

The worst thing leaked was the video of a U.S. chopper killing civilian reporters [by accident].

 

The problem?

 

There were kids in the van- and we kept shooting!

 

On the video- you hear our guys realizing there were kids that we might have shot.

 

Our guys say ‘that’s what they get for bringing there kids’.

 

These were civilian reporters for heavens sake!

 

 

Okay- that’s the worst of what Assange REPORTED.

 

 

The U.S. govt. is trying to catch the guy- if we do- he will never see the light of day.

 

 

We tried Manning on charges that could have merited the death penalty.

 

For what?

 

National security secrets?

 

No- for what I just told you.

 

 

So- we are trying to execute- imprison- and stop folk- who exposed some bad stuff.

 

Yeah- now your ‘getting’ it.

 

 

I was reading the book of Revelation the other day.

 

I like the imagery of the powerful angels.

 

They are putting chains on satan- casting great stones into the water.

 

These images show us stuff.

 

Stones into the water?

 

Yeah- one angel cast a great millstone- ‘like a mountain- into the sea’.

 

Hmm?

 

Sounds like the verse at the top.

 

 

Mountains represent kingdoms- power structures.

 

When these ‘mountains’ become corrupt- they are ripe for getting thrown into the sea.

 

So- in Jesus day they had this custom.

 

We read in the bible [Acts] that there were those who made/worshipped idols at the time of Jesus.

 

You could have your own little idol statue made- for a price.

 

Those who renounced these practices- after becoming Christ followers- they would take these idols and throw them into the sea.

 

Yeah- like casting a stone into the water.

 

Now- the bigger the rock- the bigger the splash.

 

One day Jesus was walking with his men- rumor has it that they were right next to a spot where you would take these statues- stones- and cast them into the water.

 

 

Right up the trail there was this strange sight.

 

It’s still there today.

 

There are these 2 mountains.

 

But one of the mountains has its ‘top’ cut off- and the other mountain has ‘extra’ on top.

 

 

The story goes that king Herod- a corrupt king who ruled Palestine at the time of Christ.

 

 

He had the slaves literally cut the top of one mountain off- and put it on top of the other.

 

Yeah ‘king of the hill’ type thing.

 

 

He built this palace/penthouse on top- so all the world could see who was the king of the hill.

 

 

Now- you have this radical revolutionary- Jesus- who has come in the footsteps of John the Baptist.

 

John was a mad man- dressed in loin cloths and ate grasshoppers!

 

 

One time Herod had John put in jail- but John couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

 

He kept yelling ‘Herod- you took your brothers wife- your committing adultery!’

 

Herod was afraid of John- but the misses- well now that’s another story.

 

 

You could imagine the anger- she had to hear this rugged prophet- day in and day out- telling everyone what she did [John was the original WikiLeaker!]

 

So- one day Herod’s wife’s daughter dances this sensual dance for the king.

 

The king says ‘wow babe- that was the best lap dance ever- name your price’.

 

 

She asks her mom ‘what should I ask for’?

 

Now- the mom is sneaky- and she says ‘tell him you want John’s head- on a platter’.

 

Yeah- the deed is done.

 

 

So- that’s the Herod that Jesus knows- the one who beheaded his friend/cousin.

 

 

So- one day Jesus is walking with his men- they know the scoop- that these stones- when you cast them into the sea- well- it’s representing a kingdom- an idol- coming down.

 

 

Now- in this context- standing right by Herods Mountain top Villa.

 

Jesus says ‘IF YOU HAVE FAITH- YOU CAN SAY TO THIS MOUNTAIN- GO- AND IT WILL’

 

 

See?

 

 

Well you know the story- Jesus gets crucified- there are various Roman Emperors who will come after and destroy Gods people.

 

 

There was this general by the name of Constantine- a great military ruler.

 

 

In the 4^th century he comes to fight for the rule of Rome- he wants to consolidate the Roman Empire under one rule.

 

He has this dream before the big battle.

 

In the dream he sees a vision of a Cross in the sky.

 

He hears a voice ‘in this sign conquer’.

 

The next day he paints this Cross on the shields of his men.

 

 

He wins the battle- becomes the new emperor- and in a short time he will declare Christianity the new religion of the realm.

 

 

Yeah- even this mountain fell- just like Jesus said.

 

 

Note- Door of the sheep.

 

In Jesus day you had these circular walls- they were stone sheep pens- in a circle.

 

Problem?

 

They had no gate- no door.

 

When the sheep would enter in and bed down for the night- the Shepherd himself would lie down in the entrance.

 

He became the door.

 

No sheep could leave- or wolves enter- unless they passed over the door.

 

See?

 

That’s what Jesus meant when he said HE was the door of the sheep- he would lie down [in death] for his sheep- friends.

 

 

UPDATE 7-2013

 

It has been 6 months since I started our little program [how to get free from addictions].

 

I am happy to say- at least for me- it has indeed worked.

 

Yes- I have not acted out- not a single time- since we started.

 

Why?

 

There are many reasons- as a Christian I of course credit God.

 

But- because this program has been based on some simple studies I did on addictive behavior- the simple reality is the brain/mind of the addict WILL INDEED change after a short period of not acting out.

 

These truths work for anyone- Muslim, Christian, Jew- even the Atheist!

 

So- just wanted to do this annual update- to keep myself- as well as you guys- honest.

 

 

One note I wanted to add.

 

I don’t remember if I shared this in the study- but it came to my mind recently.

 

I read a book by Victor Frankl- the famous Psychologist who was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp during WW2.

 

The book is famous- Mans Search for Meaning.

 

I liked one of the observations he made- it pertains to this study.

 

He said because the Nazi’s had them on a very low food intake- and a very high energy output- they had NO desire to think or engage in sex.

 

One of the habits I formed over the past year has been to walk- for miles on end!

 

I have always been a very low intake eater- for years I have only eaten one main meal a day [and maybe a snack before bed].

 

So- for the most part- I was a one meal a day person- for many years.

 

When I quit drinking- I lost about 50 pounds in a couple of months- yeah- that’s how much I was drinking.

 

I did not increase my food intake- so- I in a way did what the concentration camp guys did.

 

 

In the bible- Jesus and his men practiced fasting- Jesus even said some ‘unclean’ spirits only come out in this way.

 

They also WALKED all over the area where Jesus ministered.

 

In essence- they too practiced a low food intake [called fasting] and a high energy output.

 

The bible also puts gluttony and laziness in the category of sin.

 

 

The point being- for those of us who have struggled with addictive behavior- try these tools- simple as they are- but proven.

 

I do not see one particular ‘trick’ that does it [like some of the material I read- some think ‘aha’ this is the trick!].

 

No- over all- the simple forming of new healthy habits- to re-place bad ones- does work.

 

The replacing of sinful situations- what you view- where you go-etc.

 

These basic things will work over time.

 

‘My’ above program is really not mine- but it’s a compilation of the most recent data on addictive behavior.

 

Many of my friends swear by older type programs- which have played a role in the past.

 

But- many see ‘their program’ as THE answer- almost in a cultic way- I think that’s a major problem in today’s recovery movement.

 

Okay- that’s it- God bless you all.

 

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com 

Note- Do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on. Thanks- John. Don’t forget to scroll down on the timeline [Facebook] - I have posted lots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2021

 

THEY WILL NOT BELIEVE- EVEN IF SOMEOME CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD