What time was it that Herod had diligently enquired of the wise men? King Herod was an Edomite, not an Israelite. He would be known as a Sephardic Jew in today’s world. He questioned the wise men very thoroughly to find out when the future king was born, so he knew at what age his murderous rage would occur. The evil king murdered every child that was under the age of 2 years old in about a 10 mile radius! Why would he murder children under the age of 2 years old if Jesus was a new born infant? In verse 11 it says that the wise men found the baby Jesus in a house, not a stable. Does that mean anything?
Why would this Edomite/Jewish King get so upset about the birth of a young child? Why would he attempt His murder when He was only 2 years old? He wouldn’t be one that would challenge Herod’s rule for several decades, for He was too young. And Herod died shortly after this incident, when Jesus was just an infant. What a vicious hatred the Jews had for the birth of Israel’s king!
But we live in a different time period. Our government is similar to the government that was in Judah over 2000 years ago. Edomite/Jews controlled the kingship, the Pharisees, and the judicial courts. But ours is sort of like the “Wizard of Oz.” It is based on deception. The wizard ruled behind the curtain. No one knew who he was--he just gave out his instructions over a loud speaker. Everyone just obeyed his instructions, until the day that he was finally exposed.
That’s the way our government now operates. There is a “wizard” behind the curtain that tells the elected officials what they are to do and say. Once one figures that out, they are on their way to understanding what they have to do to save their country from total disaster. They have to expose the person(s) who is/are giving the instructions, but is behind the curtain.
“Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord.”
I mentioned recently, as well as being a common retort, that we live in exciting times (for both fearful and joyful people), but the pendulum also swings, for the rest of humanity, as a time of mediocrity and boredom. What's the difference between excitement and boredom? I think it's whether or not people judge things. In other words, making a decision as to whether something is right or wrong. Sometimes being a Christian can be extremely difficult. Being a watchman on the wall can be like bamboo shoots growing through your fingernails. It is painfully excruciating to watch what is happening to America; a generation without a moral compass. Ancient Israel had guards who would stand upon the walls of Jerusalem and in the towers and look out upon the land. What were they looking for? Enemies! They were guarding their city against opposing forces, invading aliens. I've yet to see in the classifieds an ad in the 'employment opportunities' section that said: Need a blind, deaf and mute security guard i.e. sees no evil, hears no evil and speaks no evil. To hire such people would be counter-productive to say the least. This is how God evaluated Israel's watchmen in the days of Isaiah the prophet, “Israel's watchmen are blind, all of them, they know nothing; all of them are mute dogs, they cannot bark; they dream, lie down, and love to sleep. They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough. They are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way, they seek their own gain. Come, let me get some wine, let's guzzle some beer; and tomorrow will be like today, only far better!" Isaiah 56:10-12. Do the presumptuous defenders of our faith and people understand what's happening today? Unfortunately, they do not and we have reached a judicial conundrum.
Last Sunday I had not even started on my message for this week. I had one certain topic that I was considering, but when I saw an article in the newspaper, I was interested in what it said. As I investigated, it got even more intriguing as I had never known about this situation at all. I had no knowledge of this event that is one of the most celebrated events in the world. It certainly opened my eyes and I hope that it opens yours if you have never heard about this subject.
As you read Jeremiah 7 you have to ask yourself this question: What was it that provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger? What were the descendants of the Kingdom of Judah doing that made Him so mad? The children of God were worshipping the gods of the Canaanites, in particular the Queen of Heaven.
Who is the Queen of Heaven? What peoples worshipped this Queen? And if Israelites were guilty of this sin in their history, are they guilty of this sin today? Do they worship the Queen of Heaven today?
The Assyrians did, the Babylonians did, the Canaanites did, the Syrians did, the Greeks did, and the Romans did; in fact, most of the world did and does today. Let’s study some history!
The progressive understanding of God's will is learning how to yield ourselves completely to God. Our actions determine our destiny.
Any White person can mature spiritually if they develop practical action steps and everyday habits. As we deal with things in life, we learn to use the Word of God as our standard of measure. As we see the vision of overcoming the adversary, we mature in Christ as we approach a closer proximity to the Kingdom. But we need the glue that connects our people; that bonding agent which is the shining light of glory.
Today's scripture reading is the only reference to a crossroads that I could find that is located in the Bible. It tells of the evil that the Edomites did when they cut off the Israelites that had escaped the destruction that they were facing in their captivity. The Edomties stood in the crossroads and killed the escapees.
The father of rock ‘n’ roll and king of the Delta Blues, Robert Johnson, met the devil who had taken the form of a huge black man at a crossroad. The devil took Johnson’s guitar, tuned it, and proceeded to play before handing the guitar back to Johnson. From that point on, Robert Johnson had mastery of the Blues and the guitar. He was able to play incredible new songs instantly without taking the time to write the lyrics or compose any music.
A memorial to Johnson reads: “Robert Johnson stands at the crossroads of American music, much as a popular folk legend has it, he once stood at a Mississippi crossroads and sold his soul to the devil in exchange for guitar-playing prowess.”
Who is told to “Come out of her” [mystery Babylon]? It is “My [the God of Israel’s] people.” There is a warning for the covenant people of God to come out of something that is “the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird” Revelation 18:2.
It says that “all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication….” And that “all the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies” Revelation 18:3. So, God’s people can be in something that is world-wide, rich, powerful and wrong. It is so wrong, that our God warns us “to come out of her.” If we stay in, then we will partake of her sins and receive her plagues.
Part 1: Is the Roman Catholic Church a true church or is it a false Christian Church? What about the Protestants? Have they changed in the last two hundred years?
Part 2: Do you know how Crossroads Church got its beginning about 20 years ago? It is a fascinating story. It is one of the fasting growing churches in the world.
We are creatures of habit sometimes moreso than creatures of God. The first thing most people do when they wake up in the morning is to wake up, stretching, yawning and other bodily functions. Then you shuffle to the kitchen to get a pot of coffee going in order to wake up and smell the coffee, which is also a euphemism used to tell someone that they are wrong about one thing or another and need to pay attention to what is really happening. I woke up last week to a smoke alarm blipping; there was no fire, it's just that the batteries were low. It got my attention and I was immediately focused to correct the situation. Most people wake up to their routines and are not yet focused on what is really happening. Their only alarm is their alarm clock and you turn it off as it so rudely interrupts a dream you were having. The body and mind are activated to get out of bed. But, how long does it take to charge your spiritual batteries? What if our habitual routine of things were preceded by something completely different. What if the Holy Spirit took charge right off the battery of life before the demands of body and mind. This is what is called a paradigm shift, a change from one way of thinking to another. Let's suppose that the first thing we do, the first minute of waking from sleep, whether laying down or sitting on the edge of your bed, your eyes are open and you contemplate the invisible presence of God and your second thought is that this could be the day that He makes His presence visible. Quite a profound prospect don't you think?
What did the Kingdom of Judah do which enabled themto have rest from their enemies? They made a covenant with their LORD God; just like the Vortrekkers of South Africa did in 1838. This covenant gave the covenant seed of Jacob/Israel another miraculous victory; one that saved their race from complete annihilation in South Africa by the Zulus.
In fact, the covenant that Judah and many of the righteous people of the House of Israel, who had come to Judah, was a covenant with a death penalty attached with it. Any person who failed to participate in making this covenant was to be put to death. It was a serious covenant that each person who was living in Judah made.
This is my first sermon of 2016. If I were to encapsulate last year with one word I would say that it was the year of thunder. I think there was an escalation of political, religious and economic rumblings and a whole lot of shaking going on; loud noises coming from all quarters. Before we moved to Kentucky from Washington state, we had never heard thunder as loud as it gets here. We live an area of northern Kentucky where the cold Arctic currents of wind clash with the warm winds coming up from the Gulf of Mexico and thus a great amount of thundering results. Thunder usually precedes the winds of a storm. Therefore, observing the signs of the times, 2016 looks like it will be the year of the winds, not only meteorologically, but the three components mentioned above, which happen to constitute Mystery Babylon. Last year I wrote a two part sermon simply called 'Wind'. Since I've been indulging in prophecy, I can now see a prophetic significance to wind, being that it has a lot to do with spiritual warfare. In today's Scripture reading, verse 24 speaks of a whirlwind that separates the worthless chaff from the grain (“and shall take them away as stubble”); Israel is likened to wheat, because it bears godly fruits. However, there are other seeds that never should have been planted i.e. the seeds of hybridity, half breeds, and that is the “many waters” that the “great whore” of Babylon sits upon (Rev. 17:1), the world of mongrelization and the “chaff” that supports and promotes it. The good guys in this spiritual warfare are opposed to the “many waters” and “chaff,” and they are called racists. Nobody wants to be called a racist, except the racial messengers of God. White lives matter. The Bible calls it “the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7) breathed into the DNA of Adam by God; anyone who believes this is a bigot i.e. by God. This breath or righteous bigotry was only given to the White race. This Bible is the book of Adamic genetics (Gen. 5:1) to have the discrimination of God.
This sermon will be different than most of the ones that I have brought. First, we won’t have an introductory Scripture. This will not continue in the future, but I didn’t know what Scripture to use without giving the answer to who “King Palindrome” was.
Naming a child is one of life’s most unusual gifts. Does the name affect the child as he grows up? Some thinks that it does. A strange name certainly might. But what if you name them with a palindromic appellation, one with perfect symmetry and balance—meaning one that reads the same backwards and forwards.
For example: Hannah. It reads the same backwards and forwards: H + A + N + N + A + H.
Other examples include: Bob, Anna, Eve, Nan, Ada, and Otto.
And there are palindromes that are long sentences, ignoring punctuations and capitals:
Won’t cat lovers revolt? Act now!
Or, a word square in which every row and column reads as a word in both directions:
Now, let me give you a couple of clues and see if you can guess who is this King Palindrome that is the focus of our study today:
This King is in the Bible.
He was one of the Kings of Judah.
He has a very short name, three letters.
He is listed in the Bible as a king that “did that which was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God.”
He was the third King of Judah.
Does anyone know what his name is?
Yes, it was King Asa: A + S + A. And today’s sermon will be a study of King Asa’s life as found in 2 Chronicles chapters 14-16.
The father of rock ‘n’ roll and king of the Delta Blues, Robert Johnson, met the devil who had taken the form of a huge black man at a crossroad. The devil took Johnson’s guitar, tuned it, and proceeded to play before handing the guitar back to Johnson. From that point on, Robert Johnson had mastery of the Blues and the guitar. He was able to play incredible new songs instantly without taking the time to write the lyrics or compose any music.
In today's Scripture reading, verse 24 speaks of a whirlwind that separates the worthless chaff from the grain (“and shall take them away as stubble”); Israel is likened to wheat, because it bears godly fruits. However, there are other seeds that never should have been planted i.e. the seeds of hybridity, half breeds, and that is the “many waters” that the “great whore” of Babylon sits upon (Rev. 17:1), the world of mongrelization and the “chaff” that supports and promotes it. The good guys in this spiritual warfare are opposed to the “many waters” and “chaff,” and they are called racists. Nobody wants to be called a racist, except the racial messengers of God. White lives matter. The Bible calls it “the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7) breathed into the DNA of Adam by God; anyone who believes this is a bigot i.e. by God. This breath or righteous bigotry was only given to the White race. This Bible is the book of Adamic genetics (Gen. 5:1) to have the discrimination of God.
