Psalm 94

By Jim Jester

June 6, 2021

Scripture Reading: Psalm 52:1-9

This lament of David is different than most. It does not start out with the usual appeal to God to hear the petition for deliverance; instead, the psalmist immediately launches into an attack on the wicked man whose only commitment is to his wealth, and then sets forth the happy status of the righteous whose ultimate commitment is to God. Yes, the steadfast love of our covenant God endures “like a green olive tree.”

The historical occasion (q.v., I Samuel 22) in the title of this psalm is important to its interpretation. In verses, 1-4 is the commitment of the wicked; verses 5-7 tell of his fate (Who’s fate?); and verses 8-9 reveals the resolve of the righteous.

Who is this evil “mighty man” spoken of in the first verse of the psalm?

Copied from the sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

May 30, 2021

Scripture Reading  Psalm 16:10

“Systemic Racism in Chicago?

1. 2,240 Shootings, 440 Homicides from January thru July 2020.  Almost every shooter and homicides were black -- 97.7%; but Black Lives Matter and Chicago’s Democratic Politicians blame police and systemic racism.
2. The Chicago mayor is black.
3. The Superintendent of Police is black.
4. The Cook County State’s Attorney is black.
5. The Chief Judge of Cook County Circuit Courts is black.
6. The Illinois Attorney General is black.
7. The Chicago Fire Department Commissioner is black.
8. The Cook County Board President is black.
9. The State Senate Majority Leader is black.
10. The Illinois Lieutenant Governor is black.
11. The Illinois Secretary of State is black.
12. The Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County is black.
13. The Cook County Clerk is black.
14. The Chicago Treasurer is black.
15. The Chicago Police Board President is black.
16. The Chicago Transit Authority President is black.
17. The CEO of Chicago Public Schools is black.
18. The Commissioner of the Department of Water Management is black.
19. 40% of the City Council belong to the Black Caucus.
    
    1. Their average pay is $122,304 annually each, PLUS $122,000 per year in expenses.  Their pension for life is 80% of last pay.
    2. Republican head count in the City Council is ZERO.
    3. William Hale Thompson was the last Republican Mayor of Chicago in 1931.
    4. For 90 years Democrats have controlled the Chicago Mayor’s Office.
    5. At the end of fiscal 2019 the Chicago deficit was $838,200,000! 

Can someone please explain how white people in general are responsible for Chicago’s horrendously dismal condition?”

This sermon will attempt to answer this question. 

Psalm 90

by Jim Jester

May 16, 2021

Scripture Reading: Psalm 31:14-19

In this portion of Psalm 31, David confesses his faith in God, seeks deliverance from enemy persecution, and prays for the premature death of these enemies. “My times are in Thy hand,” means that God controls the events in his life and that He determines his future. David is trusting his God. “Let Thy face shine on thy servant” is an expression for a favorable response to his prayer; and is often found in Scripture. “Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy statutes” (Ps. 119:135). David expresses his gratitude in verse 19, “Oh how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee.”

To “fear” God is not necessarily a fear as we usually use the term, e.g., the fear of a fire or the fear of falling from a height. No doubt, God is to be feared by evildoers, for “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). But, to fear God is to respect and reverence Him by living in a holy or pious manner. Some synonyms for “piety” are: religious, godliness, devoutness, spirituality, saintliness, and reverence. These things true Christians aspire to and live by as much as possible.

Psalm 83

by Pastor Jim Jester

May 2, 2021

Scripture Reading: Psalm 64:1-10

Psalm 64

In the Scripture we read, David’s meditation or complaint, we see how evil loves to plot in secret against God and His people. Ever hear of “secret societies,” e.g., the Free Masons? What about government agencies, e.g., the CIA and NSA? Presidents like to speak about their “openness” before the public, while the complete opposite is true.

The Democrats secretly plotted a steal of the election. They were the real insurrectionists or revolutionaries, not the Trump supporters of January 6. And, where is the cry of “police brutality” over the death of, Ashli Babbit, who came through a window at the capitol and was shot? What is the name of the shooter who killed her? Why isn’t it made known? Ah, we have a new administration in Washington. And even if some Trump supporters exhibited limited violence, was it not justifiable under the present conditions of: clear vote manipulation, the refusal of the courts, and a vice-president who did not have the “guts” to have certain states re-certify their fraudulent elections. Knowing American history, wouldn’t our founding fathers have agreed and been very angry? Wasn’t it an insurrection when we broke away from king George? Besides, there were no guns at the so-called “Trump insurrection.” How can one have an insurrection without guns?

Verses 1-6 of this Psalm are David’s petition for preservation. His enemies (the wicked), “whet their tongues like swords” and “aim bitter words like arrows,” shooting suddenly in ambush at the blameless. Some interpret these words as references to the casting of curses or spells by those who practice black magic. Which reminds me, aren’t masks magic?

WHO'S YOUR DADDY?

By Walter Giddings

April 18, 2021

Greetings kindred.  We are on a first name basis here.  My name is walter.  This lesson comprises scriptures that have puzzled me for a long time.  We meet again on the Bible subject matter:   twins in the womb by two different fathers. 

Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth. 

At the end of Twins, Lesson 4 we juxtaposed two family lines together, found  mentioned very close to each other in Genesis :  the family of WCain and the family of Seth.  We posed two questions :   how old was Cain when he begat his first born son; and, two, how old was Adam when he begat Seth?  We got one answer :   Adam was one hundred thirty years old when he begat Seth. 

Has anyone studied or even read a scripture from our Bibles indicating how old Cain was at the time he begat his first born son Enoch?  Has anyone studied or even read a scripture from our Bibles indicating Cain’s age at the time of his death?

WHO CONCEIVED BY TWO?

By Walter Giddings

March 21, 2021

Greetings kindred and fellow sheep.  We are on a first name basis here.  My name is walter.  This lesson comprises Scriptures that have puzzled me for a long time.  We return to where we ended in Twins Lesson 3:   Romans 9. 

Romans 9:9-10

9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. 

10 And not only this;  butwhen Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; 

When we read these verses at the end of Lesson 3, we asked a question.  Shall we review briefly how we came to ask it? 

In Twins Lesson 1 we noticed a divine supplement from the Holy Spirit in Acts 28.    The Alexandrian ship that carried Luke and Paul and company off the island of Malta and on toward Rome had a sign or figurehead that represented the twins of heaven, Castor and Pollux,  These are two stars found in the Constellation Gemini, the tenth sign or house in the Zodiac.  Historically Castor and Pollux were two small “g” gods in the Pantheon of Roman mythology venerated by sailors as the patron saints who swept the seas of pirates.  That explains the worldly reason why the ship would bear the sign.  It did not explain why the Holy Spirit would call our attention to it for nineteen hundred years! 

We saw that Christians view the circle of the Heavens, the Zodiac, from Virgo the Virgin to Leo the Lion of Judah.  The Bible is God’s handiwork.  The second witness to the Bible are the stars in God’s handiwork, His heaven.  God arranged and named the stars in His heaven.  In Twins Lesson 2 we learned that the Bible story in the heavens had endured trespass.  Greek and then Roman mythology were the intruders, bringing a clever counterfeit in place of, or instead of the older and original composition.  This causes confusion even today.  A credible scholar of the Antiquities, E. W. Bullinger, taught us the greatest confusion occurs in connection with the 10th sign of the Zodiac, Gemini the Twins.    The chief cause of the confusion with Gemini, the Twins, hints at a profound secret or mystery.  Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians calls it “the hidden wisdom” which God ordained and kept until after Calvary.  Raymond Capt and E. W. Bullinger in their books The Glory of the Stars and The Witness of the Stars both show their readers that Gemini illustrates in the ancient names of the stars the twin nature of Christ on Earth, Very God of Very God, and Very man of Very man.  And Paul says that The Devil and his angels, “the princes of this world” did not know this Secret.  Shall we review that?

Copied from the sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

March 7, 2021

Scripture Reading: Acts 26:6, 7

6) “And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto OUR fathers:

7) Unto which promise OUR twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope’s sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.

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Who would call Raphael Warnock, one of the two new senators of Georgia, a valid Christian pastor? “America needs to repent for its worship of whiteness,” he preached from his pulpit. Warnock is a black pastor of a black church in Atlanta. It is the church where the former communist civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. (real name: Michael King) pastored. Warnock hates the military, the police, the nation and he is very, very, very pro-abortion. Is any true Christian, especially a pastor, pro-abortion? He also is a communist. And he is a so-called Christian pastor! Hogwash!

The second Georgia senator, Jon Ossoff, said the following: “I’m descended from Ashkenazi [Jewish] immigrants who fled pogroms in the early 20th century, and I grew up among relatives who were Holocaust survivors.” [Ossoff (has an Australian mother and a Lithuanian Jewish father, who came to the United States in the early 1900s) was born in Georgia in 1987. The second world war ended in 1945. Ossoff was born 42 years after the war was over. So, when Ossoff was growing up, it would be around the year 2000, (he would have been 13 years old), his relative holocaust survivors (on his father’s side) had to be at least 75 years or older. Do you think that he grew up among relatives who were Holocaust (death camp) survivors? Did all the survivors from the death camp, who survived, who he mentioned above, move to Atlanta from Lithuania? Or do you think he just said this for political advantage?