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The Power of Thought
Fred R. Coulter—September 2, 2023
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We have another 100 of Restoring the Original Bible by Dr. Ernest Martin. So if you haven't gotten a copy, be sure and write for it, we'll send it to you, and you will find it's very interesting. But you will see that there are some things that he leans toward the Protestants, and later in his life he really leaned greatly toward them.
He also said that Peter went to Rome to get Paul's Epistles, but I'll cover that at another time in a separate segment, because Peter never went to Rome! Remember, he was a fugitive from the Roman government because he escaped prison, and then when he fled, he went to Babylon.
Now then, a new booklet: A Biblical Repudiation of So-Called 'Replacement Theology' by our editor, Phil Neal. He did a real good job because the Protestants:
- claim that the Church has replaced Israel
that's because:
- they know nothing about the Millennium
- they know very little about the return of Jesus Christ
- they have created their own religion in the name of Christ that is against the Truth of God
Some people say that the Protestant leaders are blinded. That is true! But:
- How did they get that blindness?
- Could they have known the Truth? Yes, indeed!
I've got some writings from Carl Franklin that he did a number of years ago. The admission of all the Protestant denominations concerning the Sabbath. They know that it is from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. When anyone rejects that, they are blinding themselves, and then more blinding comes on top of that because they reject the Word of God.
We have to understand. We can't just look at them and say, 'Oh, they're blinded.' No, we have to look at them and say, 'You are blinded, but here is the Truth.' Of course, whether they will hear the Truth or not, it's just like everything that Russell Kemp brought out with his study of Habakkuk—Lessons from the Prophet Habakkuk—that even if the wicked don't listen, they must hear the Truth.
Do we see at any time that any of the prophets lowered the threshold of their message to try and have an opening toward those people who reject God? No! Never did they compromise it!
However, remember this, and we have that available online: Herbert Armstrong, in his own words told many of the world leaders that the God in heaven above and Allah are the same. That is lowering the standard of God to try and please the one who is hearing, because that is absolutely false!
I do know from first-person testimony that Herbert Armstrong repented of those things during the last two years of his life. So, I'm sure God has accepted his repentance, but we need to learn the lesson.
When we talk about the wickedness that is taking place, we follow what God told Isaiah in Isa. 58, 'Cry aloud, spare not, and show my people their sins!' That's where we are with all of the things that we are doing.
I have an article, which I'll have Ron post online, which is:
Leading Scientists from Around the World Declare There is No Climate Emergency
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More than 1,600 leading scientists from around the world have signed a "World Climate Declaration" stating there is "no climate emergency."
The truth concerning CO2, that is carbon dioxide, that it is necessary for life, because plants, trees, grass takes in carbon dioxide and release oxygen for us!
They're trying to say that because of all the ships crossing the ocean, there's too much CO2 falling into the ocean. What happens? It's changed into oxygen and released into the air!
It shows every one of the scientists who believe in climate change are political. Every politician who espouses it has an agenda to put controls and clamps on proper 'legal' use of petroleum products.
For all of those who say, well, you know, we've got to go 100% electric. Well, the contamination of that will be more than whatever they're claiming on the CO2. And when the batteries go kaput, what are they going to do with the residual that's left over? Is that not more pollutant than having carbon dioxide coming into the air and having converted back into oxygen? Yes!
The things that they have done to restrict the other contaminants going into the air have worked very well, like with cars.
Deuteronomy 32:13: "He made him... [Israel] ... ride on the high places of the earth so that he might eat the increase of the fields. And He made him suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock."
Did you ever think that you would see in the Bible where God endorses drilling for oil? Some of these politicians who say they believe in God, they better go to Deut. 32:13 and show that that's perfectly fine.
Who created the oil? It's not from dinosaurs that have died! It's constantly being created! One of our elders—Bill Wax—works in the energy field, and his specialty is helping old wells to bring in new oil, because it's always being created! So, that takes care of climate change.
Remember that the last mini-ice age only ended in 1850.
Now then, I have another very extensive article that's very interesting because it talks about China. China has a great number of problems that are building up within China, and China is not going to be the great superpower that they're pretending that they're going to be.
As a matter of fact, they have so much debt and so much bankruptcy in the trillions of dollars that that's going to catch up with them, and they are not going to be the power that they are trying to be, because they may have a complete economic collapse!
How does that affect what we know as the BRICS, which is Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. They want to form a new international trading currency. They recently had a meeting in South Africa where Saudi Arabia, United Arab Republic, Ethiopia, Iran, and a couple of other minor nations joined them. But when you think about the weakness of the currency of all of those countries except Russia, Russia is the only country that has a strong currency thanks to Biden.
The Chinese currency is very weak and has been devalued at least 20% in the last couple of months. So, the Chinese yuan is not going to be a new international currency. All the other nations have weak currencies, as well. So this tells us that the BRICS are not going to become a superpower.
Eventually it will become part of the world organization as we find in Rev. 13. So, this shows there's a whole long way to go before the end comes.
The Strategic Intelligence Report entitled The Myth of a Superpower China is Failing.
They can say that we want to get rid of the dollar, but who is the largest trading partner that China has? America!
*****
The power of the tongue, the power of words; those tie in to our behavior and our relationship with God and with one another. Think about how powerful God is. He spoke and the heavens were created. Think about that!
God has reduced it down to very simple terms for us. When Jesus was tempted by Satan the devil, 'If you're the Son of God, why don't you turn these stones to bread?'
- Jesus could do that, couldn't He?
- What would that have been?
That would have been a transgression against the Father, and He would have been obeying Satan the devil.
Though he could have gotten a benefit—having fasted 40 days and 40 nights—to have a little strength from a few little crumbs of bread.
What did Jesus answer? This is the simplest thing! He said, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God!' Now think on that.
That's the first thing that the Protestants miss because they think they can live on some of the words of God, but not all the words of God!
- What comes in conjunction with that?
- What does God desire us to do?
Remember the three words: Obey My voice!
Between that and the first one, this is how everything is going to function in our lives.
- the way we think
- the way we react
- how we study the Word of God
- how we pray to God
- how we deal with each other
All of those things are all tied together in one great big sphere!
- What are we to do if you think you're offended?
The first thing to do is stop and ask yourself
- Are you really offended?
- the Greek word for offense is 'skandalos'—scandal
- the Greek word for judgment is 'crises.
Whenever you hear them talk about crises that's a judgment from God.
God's eyes are everywhere. He's got the seven eyes that go through the whole earth. He knows exactly what's going on at any time, any place, any where in anyone's life. So, let's take the words of Christ. What are we to do when offense occurs?
- the first thing to do is examine yourself
- the next thing to do is to make sure that you understand what you are doing
- then you need to understand how you are going to resolve this
The first step is not to run right up to someone and say, 'You offended me!' No! You pray! You think about your own thoughts!
There are some people who are so easily offended that if you just look at them they think that you have evil thoughts in your mind against them. But that's not so! So, Jesus made it clear.
Matthew 18:15: "So then, if your brother sins against you..."
- a tale bearer is sinning
- a gossiper is sinning
How do they sin against you?
"...go and show him his fault between you and him alone...." (v 15).
You don't get on the phone and talk to someone else about it. You go pray and you go to the person. Maybe he did offend you and didn't know it. Maybe you were offended at something, which was not really an offense, but you got your feelings hurt.
"...If he is willing to hear you, you have gained your brother" (v 15).
If it gets a little more serious than that. Then he says to take one or two others, and in the mouth of two or three witnesses everything will be established."
Then if it doesn't get resolved that way, then it goes to the Church. Now, the Church means church members, not the elders. An elder probably should be in charge of whatever group of church members getting together to solve the problem.
Now, generally it's solved in the first two steps. That's what God wants, which tells us that elders are not the correctors of brethren!
The Word of God is the corrector of brethren! So, IF you let the Word of God correct you, THEN you won't have to hear of any sermons coming from the pulpit correcting you. That's the simplest way to handle it!
Here's one thing that too many people do: when you think someone has offended you, you brood on it, you think on it! You're not willing to forgive even if it was something that wasn't right, and you magnify it in your mind, and then it festers and foments. When you finally go to the person, you explode!
The person that you think offended you didn't know anything about it. Maybe or she had far different thoughts toward you than you suspected.
Matthew 7:1: "Do not condemn others, so that you yourself will not be condemned...'—judging critically to condemnation! 'I know him!'
Verse 2: "For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged; and with what measure you mete out, it shall be measured again to you."
Here's the first step, which combines with the prayer that we already said; here's what we were to do:
Verse 3: "Now, why do you look at the sliver that is in your brother's eye, but you do not perceive the beam in your own eye?
Maybe even the thought you have that you're offended is part of the beam!
So, this all gets back that you need to have righteous judgment, beginning righteous judgment of yourself and what you were thinking and what you were doing, and not be blaming other people for your troubles! Now they may come.
Verse 4: "Or how will you say to your brother, 'Allow me to remove the sliver from your eye'; and behold, the beam is in your own eye?"
So, he says, v 5: "You hypocrite..."
Look at that word; you make a hypocrite out of yourself because you're not following the Word of God to correct it. You are not taking care of your own faults and your own sins by repenting and drawing close to God so that you can go to your brother and resolve whatever problem there may be if there is one.
I have found that there are some real troubles and real problems. Some of them, the only way you can solve them is pray about them. Then if you need to go to the person, do it. But do it in humility and do it in questions, and find out what was really on that person's mind.
We'll talk about this, because what happens here? Whenever you don't solve the problem and you mull on it and mull on it, it increases in your mind, then you think you know what the other person is thinking.
Only God knows the thoughts! So, that's what you need to do.
Verse 5: "You hypocrite, first cast out the beam from your own eye, and then you shall see clearly to remove the sliver from your brother's eye."
That's what we are to do. Now let's look at some things that can also help us in understanding.
Proverbs 16:1: "The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, are from the LORD." God made it so:
- we can think
- we can reason
- we can understand.
He gave that to us, but we have to do it rightly! Because if we don't do it rightly, then we can never correct ourselves to get the beam out of our eyes. Here's why—for the one who's offended and the one who's the offender—both can think they're right.
Verse 2: "All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirits."
Everyone thinks he's right. Look at the world today with everything that goes on. Let's look at it concerning foolishness in the world.
Proverb 14:24: "The crown of the wise is their riches; the foolishness of fools is folly."
That's what we, that's a perfect description of the mainstream media, and many people today; that's absolutely perfect in understanding what's going on in the world.
Proverb 15:14: "The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge..."
That's why it's better to listen when you need to than speak! That will give you knowledge.
"...but the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness" (v 14).
That's what all this transgender nonsense that is going on in the world today!
- it is total sin
- it's total foolishness
- it is 100% guaranteed failure
because there's no way anyone can change their gender!
Here's how we control the tongue; it starts in the mind:
Proverbs 16:3: "Commit your works unto the LORD, and your thoughts shall be established."
That's what God wants. What is the whole goal of conversion in the mind of Christ within us? To have the laws and commandments of God written in our heart and mind!
We learn to think with the Word of God rather than our own feelings and our own emotions. We learn from the Word of God how to control ourselves, control our thoughts. That's how God wants it.
Verse 4: "The LORD has made all for His own purpose; yea, even the wicked for the day of evil."
That ties in exactly with what Russell Kemp did with his message: Lessons from the Prophet Habakkuk!
It's hard for us to understand that, but that is true. It goes back to everything:
- to father and mother
- the breakup of the marriage
- the lack of education
- to all of the things that all of these so-called Christian ministers today reject, because they reject the laws and commandments of God
They operate on the plane of just an emotional nice little thought and everything will be good. No! There is nothing good about the ways of man unless they are centered on the commandments of God!
What did James write? If you break one commandment You've broken them all!
Verse 5: "Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; though joined hand in hand, he shall not be unpunished."
Their day will come! But for us, here is how we:
- control our mind
- control our emotions
- control our thoughts
Verse 6: "By mercy and Truth iniquity is purged..."
God's mercy and His Truth and your confession of your sins and your drawing close to God purges sin! Gets rid of it!
"...and by the fear of the LORD men turn away from evil" (v 6).
What happens when you do that? All the words of God are powerful and always are actively in motion!
As Jesus said, 'The flesh profits nothing but the words that I speak to you, they are Spirit and Life.' That means all the words of God! So it's quite a thing when you really grasp that.
Verse 7: "When a man's ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him."
That's quite a thing! Yes indeed! Let's see something else: Why we are not to try and judge another!
Job 42 tells you the whole story of the book of Job. The book of Job is one of the most difficult to understand because all of the arguments of men:
- about life
- about sin
- about God
- what is good
- what is evil
Job was righteous! God said he was righteous! But he got all wrapped up in himself and he thought that he was as good as God!
Even wanted to have a referee to be between him and God so that the referee could declare to God that Job was really righteous. It got so bad that he thought he was as righteous as God!
Until Elihu said, 'No, you're not.' Job even said, 'Oh, I wish God would speak to me.' Well, God did!
Here's a lesson for all of us. Let's never get carried away with what we perceive as our righteousness and what we perceive as our knowledge. Because when God talked to Job, the first thing He said was, 'Job, where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?'
Now you think about everything that God does. Job learned the lesson. This is the great lesson that we never get so righteous that we think that we're as good as God.
Read what the popes say of themselves; they reason, 'Well, how can you come up with any other conclusion but that I'm God?'
Job 40:1: "And the LORD answered Job and said, 'Shall he who contends with the Almighty instruct Him?....'"(vs 1-2).
Is there anything that any man can teach God? I mean, think about it!
Yet, the world today is filled with more God haters and God deniers than ever before. What condition is the world in? Terrible condition!
"...He who reproves God, let him answer it" (2). Is anybody going to correct God?
- God is perfect
- God is righteous.
- God is Holy
- God is true
- He cannot lie
Every purpose of God will be fulfilled in His time and in His way! So, Job finally got the lesson:
Verse 3: "And Job answered the LORD and said, 'Behold, I am vile!....'" (vs 3-4). Think about that! He finally got the lesson!
"'...What shall I answer You? I will lay my hand on my mouth. Once I have spoken; but I will not answer; yea, twice, but I will proceed no further.' And the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said" (vs 4-6).
Here's how to prove yourself that if you are what you think you are, and if you can do this, then I will agree with you.
Verse 7: "Gird up your loins now like a man. I will demand of you, and you declare unto Me. Will you even annul My judgment? Will you condemn Me so that you may be righteous? And have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like His? Deck yourself now with majesty and excellency, and array yourself with glory and beauty. Cast abroad the rage of your wrath; and behold everyone who is proud, and abase him. Look on everyone who is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in darkness. Then I will also confess to you that your own right hand can save you" (vs 7-14). No, you cannot!
That's a lesson for all of us! That's why we never cease to learn; we never cease to overcome!
Never think if there's a dispute that you know what the other person is thinking, because only God knows the thoughts!
Job 42:1: "And Job answered the LORD and said, 'I know that You can do all things, and that no thought can be withheld from You'" (vs 1-2).
We'll see how God does that, and He can do that! What did Jesus say concerning the judgment day? That He's going to judge the secrets of the heart!
- only God can purify the heart
- only God can make it right with His Spirit
This is why God tells us, 'Love one another.' If you have a difficulty, work it out:
- with God's way
- with His Spirit
- with His Truth
- with humility
Job had to be completely humbled, almost totally wasted before he got this point!
Verse 2: "I know that You can do all things, and that no thought can be withheld from You. You asked, 'Who is he who hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore, I have spoken that which I did not understand; things too wonderful for me; yea, which I did not know" (vs 2-3).
Another good lesson from this: admit what you don't know! It's easy to do. All you have to say is,
- I don't know
- I didn't know
- I didn't realize
- I didn't think about it
That's not so hard to do, especially if you have a difficulty with someone.
Notice what this will do. All of these things combined together help us grow in grace, knowledge and understanding in our relationship with God and with each other.
Verse 4: "Hear, I beseech You, and I will speak; You said, 'I will ask of you, and you will declare to Me.' I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You" (vs 4-5).
You understand God for what He is and His power and His majesty and everything combined!
God loves all the brethren, doesn't He? Doesn't He even say of the Laodiceans, 'As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten'? Yes, He does! God loves us, but He wants us to come to have the mind of Christ. So here's the kind of repentance that comes:
Verse 6: "Therefore, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
That's quite a thing; that tells us an awful lot!
Now, let's understand something else. That doesn't mean we are not to have discernment. But we are not to say, 'I know what He's thinking'—because we don't!
- we know them by their fruits
- we know them by what they produce
Who knows, maybe if they produce something that is not good, maybe they're already sorry in their heart that they did it, and maybe they've already repented of it before you had a chance to even get to them.
Maybe when you go to them because you have a complaint or an offense, maybe you would find out that they had already repented of it. Who knows?
But in dealing with people, you can never know what they think! Only God!
Matthew 7:13: "Enter in through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter through it... [that's what we see all the time in the world] ...for narrow is the gate and difficult is the way..." (vs 13-14).
- What's the hardest thing to do?
- What is the most difficult thing to do?
- Control your mind!
Not let your imagination run away with itself and you suppose a lot of things that are not true!
Verse 14: "For narrow is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it."
It says in another place, 'if the righteous are saved with much difficulty, where will the sinner and ungodly be?'
Verse 15: "But beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, for within they are ravening wolves."
- What happens?
- What happens when a false prophet gets mixed in?
- they can be friendly
- they can be nice
- they quote a lot of Scriptures
- they can be hunky-dory
- they can be loving
because they have an ulterior motive to destroy you!
That's what happened with the Worldwide Church of God!
Verse 16: "You shall know them by their fruits...." Look at their fruits, their works!
- What are they producing?
- What is the end of it?
Don't just look at the immediate. Consider the long term.
"...They do not gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles, do they? In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a corrupt tree produces evil fruit. A good tree cannot produce evil fruit" (vs 16-18).
Why? Even though you sin? Because if you repent, you're not producing the fruit of evil, you're getting rid of it!
Verse 19: "Every tree that is not producing good fruit is cut down and is cast into the fire." So, God is going to take care of it himself!
Verse 20: "Therefore, you shall assuredly know them by their fruits."
You don't know their thoughts. Sometimes you know what they think, or at least the leaders think, and I'll phrase that in terms of Protestantism and the Sabbath.
How do you know what people think when you can't know their thoughts? Sooner or later, they'll reveal them, or they will write them down, and they will reveal themselves!
I've got at home some work that Carl Franklin did a number of years ago, The Confession of Every Protestant Church Concerning the Sabbath Day. They have blinded themselves because they refuse to believe God. we can see that is their fruit by what they say and what they do!
Verse 20: "Therefore, you shall assuredly know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me 'Lord, Lord' shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven..." (vs 20-21).
It's not just your words, but out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks! But if you are double-tongued or double-minded, thenyou're unstable in all of your ways, and you're not being accurate to God, and you're not being truthful to yourself.
"...but the one who is doing the will of My Father, Who is in heaven" (v 21).
Always the will. It gets right back to where we started. 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God obey my voice.' Those two phrases together tell the whole story of the Bible, in everything that there is—Old Testament, New Testament—all the way through the writings of Paul, the writings of the apostles.
Here comes the judgment day. So, we need to understand this. There are a lot of things going to happen on that judgment day. Who alone knows the heart? God does! That's why God wants us:
- to love one another
- to forbear with one another
- to work out our differences between one another
Never go around with a grudge in your heart, it will just eat away like rottenness! And we've seen that happen to some people.
That's why prayer and study and yieldedness to God. Because the power of words is tremendous! That's why we have the Bible.
Verse 22: "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy through Your name? And did we not cast out demons through Your name? And did we not perform many works of power through Your name?' And then I will confess to them, 'I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who work lawlessness'" (vs 22-23).
- perfect description of James 2—'If you break one of the commandments, you break all of the commandments.'
- perfect description of what Paul wrote in Rom. the 7—that sin is exceedingly sinful and that the commandment is Holy, spiritual, righteous and good
There we go, but they didn't!
"'...And did we not perform many works of power through Your name?' And then I will confess to them, 'I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who work lawlessness.' Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and practices them, I will compare him to a wise man, who built his house upon the Rock" (vs 22-24).
That's how we were to build our spiritual life and that Rock is Christ.
Let's see what else God does. Let's talk about thoughts.
The Psalms have a lot to do with the heart, with what you believe, and your thoughts.
Psalm 48:8: "As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God. God will establish it forever. Selah. We have thought of Your loving kindness, O God, in the midst of Your temple" (vs 8-9). So, those are the kind of thoughts we are to have.
Now let's look at the book of Proverbs again. There's a lot there. Like I said, IF you study through the book of Proverbs, THEN you will learn a lot about:
- how to think
- what to do
- what to say
- how to react
Proverbs 12:14: "A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth..."
In other words, blessings coming from God, because of what you speak, which is because of what you think.
"...and the reward of a man's hands shall be given to him. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who listens to advice is wise" (vs 14-15). All of that helps us grow and overcome!
Proverbs 11:13: "A talebearer is a revealer of secrets, but one who is of a faithful spirit keeps the matter hidden." You take it to God!
- ask God for the solution
- ask God for the help
- He'll help you
- He'll be with you
- He will lead you in it
This is a description of repentance:
Psalm 119:59: "I considered my ways and turned my feet unto Your testimonies."
- What did we talk about last time?
- What is the best kind of correction?
The correction that comes from God through His Word and His Spirit to you and me, and all the rest of the brethren, that we correct ourselves! That's the ideal way.
Verse 60: "I made haste... [He didn't waste any time] ...and did not delay to keep Your commandments." That's how you overcome!
Verse 113: "I hate those who are double-minded, but Your Law do I love."
Now then, you apply it to yourself. Don't let there be any double-mindedness in you.
2-Cor. 10 and we'll just re-emphasize this again. This is the whole story of:
- growing
- overcoming
- getting rid of sin
- drawing close to God
- fighting the good fight of faith
because it is a fight living in the world the way it is today.
We can learn by going over this again and again! Think about this. How much of the Word of God do we really know and have internalized within us? We need to have as much as we can so that we can use:
- to direct our steps
- to direct our thoughts
to give us
- right judgment
- love
- mercy
- truth
- understanding
Working with the brethren, working with each other!.
God wants us all in the Kingdom of God. We can encourage each other and love each other and be aware of what we need to do, and are self-controlled with God's Spirit and with God's Word. Those are the weapons of our warfare!
Verse 3: "For although we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal... [you can't work it out with psychological thoughts; must be the Word of God] ...but mighty through God to the overthrowing of strongholds" (vs 3-4).
The toughest things to overcome, to bring into captivity and to expel evil thoughts that come! We have a lot of those thrown at us all the time, from everything. You pick up your cell phone and you can come across something pretty carnal, right? You can be watching television and the ads that are on television and the things that they present.
Look at all television and movies of which 99.99% of it is all satanic imagination! Every bit of it. That's why the world is crazy today.
You go to Church at Home and you watch the series, Satan Out of the Closet. That's a five part—each half hour—series. That will tell you what's going on in the world today.
Then you go on the next series, and I'm not quite done with it yet, which is The Sexualizing of the World. What they are doing to people, to kids, in schools, in movies, in whatever. You can't even have non-homosexual Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts nowadays.
Verse 5: "Casting down vain imaginations... [which are thrown at you and those that you have] ... and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God..." That's what Satan fosters, all of it!
There's even a book out now, Hi, I'm An Atheist by David G. McAfee. Be happy! Be an atheist! Well, who's giving him a little joy at the present time? Satan is! But the judgment of God is going to come! So when it comes, he's not going to know what hit him!
Verse 5: "Casting down vain imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing... [continuously doing, applying] ...into captivity..."—that means to control! Don't let your mind and your imagination run wild:
- control what you think
- control what you say
- control what you let into your own mind
"...bringing into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ" (v 5).
Verse 6: "And having a readiness..."
- you are armed
- you have God's Spirit
- you have God's Word
Now you're able to use that to execute the righteousness in your life to resist all of the evil of Satan, the world, and thoughts within your own mind.
Verse 6: "And having a readiness to avenge all disobedience, whenever your obedience has been fulfilled."
That tells us an awful lot. This is the power of words and the power of the tongue, and it all comes from God.
So, as we head to the Feast, let's all come together
- in love
- in truth
- in understanding
- having our heart and our mind purged from all of the evil thoughts of self-righteousness
- to love one another and have a great Feast
Scriptural References:
- Deuteronomy 32:13
- Matthew 18:15
- Matthew 7:1-5
- Proverbs 16:1-2
- Proverbs 14:24
- Proverbs 15:14
- Proverbs 16:3-7
- Job 40:1-14
- Job 42:1-6
- Matthew 7:13-23
- Psalm 48:8-9
- Proverbs 12:14-15
- Proverbs 11:13
- Psalm 119:59-60, 113
- 2 Corinthians 10:3-6
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- Isaiah 58
- Revelation 13
- Romans 7
Also referenced:
{the following found at TruthofGod.org}
- Book: Restoring the Original Bible by Dr. Ernest Martin
- Booklet: A Biblical Repudiation of So-Called 'Replacement Theology' by Philip Neal
- Message: Lessons from the Prophet Habakkuk by Russell Kemp
Church at Home {churchathome.org}:
- Satan Out of the Closet
- Sexualizing of the World
Article: Leading Scientists from Around the World Declare There is No Climate Emergency
{https://weatherboy.com/leading-scientists-from-around-the-world-declare-there-is-no-climate-emergency/#:~:text=More%20than%201%2C600%20leading%20scientists,is%20%E2%80%9Cno%20climate%20emergency.%E2%80%9D}
Book: Hi, I'm An Atheist by David G. McAfee.
FRC:bo/po
Transcribed: 9/6/23
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