Recent Articles and Sermons

Copied from the sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

May 7, 2023

Scripture Reading:  Genesis 8:11:

“And the dove [bird] came in to him [flew back to Noah who was still in the ark] in the evening; and, lo, in her [the bird’s] mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off [from the live olive tree]: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.”

If the waters covered all the earth, higher than the tallest mountain, wouldn’t the oceans cover all the different kinds of trees, including the olive tree, in most instances by many miles?  Wouldn’t the flood destroy all vegetation with its salt derived from the oceans?  So, how could the dove, fly from the ark and retrieve a live olive leaf shortly after the flood, if all the trees and all the vegetation had been destroyed for over a year?

Genesis 7:4: “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.”

According to this mistranslation, does it mean that the flood was world-wide?  That there were no giants, no evil seed line and no one else left alive on the earth?  That there were only eight people, of the same race, on the earth just 4500 years ago?

by Walter Giddings

April 30, 2023

Scripture Reading:  2 Corinthians 5:1-5 

(Matthew 7:13-14).  Does the mainstream media love The Truth?  Does the mainstream church preach The Truth?  Does Jesus equate The Truth to himself?  Is the word mainstream equivalent to the broad “way that leadeth to destruction”? 

       p    13 Enter ye in at the strait gate:  for

              wide is the gate, and broad is the

              way, that leadeth to destruction,   

              and many there be that go in thereat :

       c     14 Because strait is the gate, and nar-

              row is the way, which leadeth unto

              life, and few there be that find it. 

                                                        Matthew chapter seven. 

“Few there be that find it.”  Why so few?!!  Would The God of our Fathers fail to admonish us; would He fail to warn us?

Daniel

by Jim Jester

April 23, 2023

SCRIPTURE READING: Daniel 5:10-12

Daniel is said to have descended from the royal family of David, a true Israelite. He was carried into the Babylonian captivity when he was very young, in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim of Judah, in 605 BC.

The ten northern tribes had long been taken away in the Assyrian captivity, never to return to the land of Israel as a whole. The siege of Judah by the Chaldeans covered many years. While King Jehoiakim had been captured, the city of Jerusalem with subsequent kings remained until the final assault by the Chaldeans in 586 BC.

Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon (the Chaldeans) and did not know the God of the Israelites. Through the events described in the book of Daniel, the king came to “praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven.”

It is fully established that it was Israelites (not jews) who were captives of the Chaldeans in Babylon

by Alan Breitenstein

Presented in 2 parts on April 16 and April 23, 2023

Audio not available.

Ask and you shall receive. I asked what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. Sometimes in order to figure out what is in the Kingdom you must see what is not in the Kingdom. I am going to play Walt and ask questions. 

Could the Kingdom of Heaven be compared to the 40-year journey that our ancestors made in the wilderness?  So, in comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to the journey in the wilderness what are the similarities?

God is and was there.  Need there be anything else?  The Israelites had everything they needed to sustain. What was it that irritated the Israelites about God? Maybe we can answer that question.

Jeroboam

by Garry Maddux

April 16, 2023

Opening Scripture Psalm 49:12-20

Like today the modern Israelites are under punishment again. We have also followed the ways of Jeroboam.

After the death of Solomon, the 12 tribes were split (Judah, and Benjamin), and the other 10 northern tribes were. Jerusalem was the capital of Judah and Sechem was the capital of the northern tribes. Jeroboam was made King of the Northern 10 tribes while Rehoboam was the king of Judah.

The story of how Jeroboam came to power...

by Brian Jones

April 9, 2023

Scripture Reading: Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews 13:8

Overall Lesson: God's judgement never changes.

The following verses are explored:

Copied from the sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

April 2, 2023

Scripture Reading:  Romans 7:4

Who was the Apostle Paul’s brethren?  Paul said in the Holy Scriptures that he was of the tribe of Benjamin of the kingdom of Judah/Israel (Philippians 3:6).  So, his brethren would be those of the tribes of Israel.  He also predicted that his brethren would become dead to the marriage law and would be remarried to the resurrected Christ. This cannot be applied to anyone else besides Israel, for they were the ones that were married to Him previously.  One can only be REmarried if they had been married once before.

Ephesians 2:21-22 “Habitation”

by Walter Giddings

March 26, 2023

In our 1st Lesson on The Temple we ended with a question:  Is it “manifest” or evident that “the first tabernacle” is not “standing”? 

Hebrews 9:6-8:  "Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.  But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing."

Our question: Is it “manifest” that “the first tabernacle” is not “standing”?!  Did we answer by showing the destruction of every last Temple was fulfilled in A.D. 70.  Our last question is:  Is there no New Testament Temple?  ().  If there is a New Testament Temple, what and where is that building?

Hebrews 9:11   "But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building."

What is this greater and more complete tabernacle?  And how can we say it is “not made with hands”?

by Pastor Jim Jester

March 19, 2023

SCRIPTURE READING: Isaiah 53:1-8

Every year on Good Friday, or Passover, Christians take time to meditate on Jesus’ sacrifice for us in a humiliating and torturous death by crucifixion. It’s a time to dwell on what our Lord suffered for us, in all its pain and intensity, without rushing straight ahead to the good news of resurrection and new life.

The seven last statements of Jesus Christ from the cross reveal much about our Savior’s personality. The first two words reveal his deity; the remaining five reveal his humanity. One of the ways Christians have traditionally meditated on the events of this day is by reading and reflecting on the seven last words of Jesus from the cross.

A person who anticipates being crucified does not prepare a speech for the occasion. Even less so Jesus, who had advised His disciples: ”But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak. For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” (Matt. 10:19-20)

So let us spend some time at the foot of the cross and listen to the precious words and try to understand their meaning. Perhaps they will reveal God to us more than the longer speeches of Jesus, which involved some preparation, whereas the words on the cross were spontaneous expressions of himself.