Waiting on God the LORD’S Visits
January 2022 • Volume XX Number 05
”But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. “ (2 Corinthians 3:18)
THOUGHTS FOR CONSIDERATION:
ARTICLE REVIEW:
Greetings again my Brethren. Happy New Year! And I hope 2022 will be a happy year for you all. But please know whether you have a happy new year or not is not up to God, but up to you. It is God’s intention for you to have a happy year, a prosperous new year not in the way of money, a new car, or a new house, maybe a new job, but a biblical prosperity which has nothing to do with things mentioned above. Biblical prosperity (all throughout the Bible) is to push forward in God. When Joseph was in prison God said (Genesis 39:2) he was “prosperous man.” And what did he own maybe a loincloth. Love not this world nor the things in it (1 John 2:15) in 2022, for if you do the love of the Father is not in you. Okay let us continue looking at some diverse attitude toward the Lord’s (Jesus, remember LORD is the Father in Scripture) visit. Last month we looked at how His visit was often unwanted. The last thing we want is for the Lord to show up when we are doing things we know we ought not to be doing, but that is when He needs to show up. Unless we are walking with the LORD in the place we ought to be we will not truly welcome or even appreciate a visit from the Lord. It is all about our heart condition my friend. So this month we will look how unexpected the Lord can be when He visits. In Mark we read, “Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” (Matthew 24:40-42) Here the Lord is talking in the future not present day. Now to get a complete understanding we must know there are two other pairs and in Luke 17:34 there is a third, two men in one bed, but in all three stories are talking about a separation of people, in the future, (some say during the resurrection or what some call the rapture) where one group was doing things correctly for God and the other groups were doing things wrong. Two women in the field. What does the field represent? That is right the world, the place where sowing and reaping of the Gospel message happens for a harvest. The Lord shows up in a visit and does not take the harvest, but the sower and reapers. The harvest will be gathered in later. The lady that was doing things correctly was taken the other lady was left. Two women grinding (working for God) at the mill. What does the mill represent? The processing of the word of God. One women was taken the golden grain of the Gospel and removing the chaff, weeds, and the tares correctly and the other women was not so she was left. so, why was she left I do not know, maybe so that she could learn how to correctly process the grain again I do not know and I believe nobody really knows. All I know is God said it in His word and I believe it. You know my friend we can only defend the word of God only as far as what we can read, anything else is speculation and assumption and you know what too much assuming can make of us? Two women were working the Lord visits and He takes one and leaves the other. In Luke, two men were in bed and He takes one and leaves the other. What does the bed represent? The bed is always represented of a place of sickness or death. Like a sick bed. Here two men were in the bed of sickness or death and the Lord shows up and takes one and leaves the other. One could have been saved, the other not. One could have been healed by the LORD the other not One could have lived from their sickness the other could have died. Again like with the women we do not know why one man was taken and the other man left. But let us not miss the point I am trying to make, the women and the men were NOT expecting the visit from the Lord. All throughout Scripture we see where we have to be ready for a visitation from the Lord. The disciples (maybe all 82 of them) asked Jesus, “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 24:3) Or when will you visit again. And Jesus replied,
“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. 44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?” (Matthew 24:43-45) did you get that? Read it again. They ask when will all of these supernatural and spiritual things happen and Jesus said, “be ready for in such an hour as ye think not.” Jesus does not have to tell us when He will come for a visit, He just shows up. We like to have things all arranged, well not so with Jesus. He likes just showing up. Maybe He wants to see our reaction. I do not believe He wants to see if He can catch us doing things we ought not to be doing. That is not the Jesus I serve, but at any rate when he shows up He plans to separate some and leave others.
More next month as we continue to look at more diverse attitudes towards the Lord’s visit. Do you see Him draw near? Please know God is near to them who are near to Him. Do you feel His presence? Do you see His hand in your life? He is waiting on us to make our first move. Written by David Stahl
God’s Unknown Nature
God brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt across the Red Sea, through the Wilderness of Shur and Sin to have a face to face meeting with Him. We read in Exodus, “And all the people saw the thundering, and the lightning, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” (Exodus 20:18-19), but they had no desire to meet God because they did not understand His nature. Under the circumstances the Israelites had no desire to approach God. There are people who will approach God under certain circumstances yet will not approach Him otherwise. God may manifest Himself to certain individuals who will not respond. Here at Sinai God approached the people with manifestations which they could not understand and therefore they feared. When God does things to fit our understanding we more readily accept Him and His work. We are likely to feel uncomfortable with the unknown. Suppose we are walking alone and suddenly come up to a 5 foot bright blue creature with crumpled skin walking like a man. Would we readily and comfortably approach it? Doubtful. Most of us would avoid extremely strange creatures and probably shun totally strange circumstances. This is why some Christians can not readily accept certain truths, truths that are foreign to them. If we can conveniently fit truth new to us into our present way of life, then understanding is not too difficult. In any given level of spiritual growth, the believer will meet truth which they cannot handle. They can find no place in their present life into which it will fit and they are not yet willing to have it worked into their life. Sometimes it is quite convenient for the believer not to understand truth. It is less troublesome not to understand certain things than to understand them. Here we can apply the oft repeated statement, “The truth which I do not understand does not brother me; it is the truth I do understand which disturbs me.” There is one way in which we can approach the unknown without fear. The Lord at times will lead us in an unfamiliar way. All through our Christian life we will meet the unfamiliar, things we do not understand. We cannot afford to make our approach to the things of God on the basis of understanding alone. Doing so will head us nowhere. All we need is a desire to hear God, to obey Him and to know Him. These people whom Moses brought to meet God did not want to hear Him. In Jesus’ parable of the sower hearing becomes the foundation of receiving. “But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Exodus 13:23) Understanding comes later hearing always comes first. Some people want to understand all about it before, they make their approach. What are these thundering and lightning? What are the trumpets blowing and why all this smoke? If we do not understand all these things we cannot meet with God. Too bad, so sad. There is no faith. Where there is no faith, there is no approach to God! Can God Himself be understood by mere man? No! He must be approached by faith. God is eternal. Eternity cannot fit into man’s small mind. The extensive greatness of God’s love and grace cannot be contained in the restricted human understanding. God will always be drawing man into the unknown, the unfamiliar. Man, responding to God, will always be learning. No matter how far into the unknown we are taken to experience spiritual revelation, and understanding, we will always have the unknown in God before us. Now the unknown is frightening to most individuals. In the case of the spiritual; realm, any approach by God which is not understood frightens most believers. At these times we must be still and know. Charles Haun tells this story of his Bible School class of 200 students. The entire school body became still and silent although the Lord could not be seen, He was heard walking in the chapel, up and down the aisles, they could hear His garments rustling, this happened until a girl screamed in fear. She could not understand what was happening. That ended the manifestation of the Lord. The Lord cannot bring very much from the unknown to the believer fearing it! The Lord can visit us with an usual manifestation. If there is not a proper and correct response in such a visitation, the Lord will not hang around for long. Not all manifestations of the Lord are dramatic and spectacular. Some are so dull or ordinary that most believers would not recognize or respond to them as a manifestation of God. But, revelation will be brought to that one who wholly seeks and desires the Lord. Care must be taken not to place our desires in the wrong areas. A wrong area may be to desire God to do something for us, to give us something for self-satisfaction, or to know and understand certain things to satisfy our curiosity about the Lord. The right area is a desire for Him alone! Remember we are to: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)
Desiring the Lord will be the foundation upon which revelation is brought to us. God’s heart responds to the heart desiring Him. A hunger and thirst for righteousness characterizes this desiring heart. The heart of God desires this same thing, righteousness in human hearts. Thus, kind is answering to it own kind. Remember this basic principle, since it will determine the extent to which we will progress in God. Kind is attracted to kind. This principle is true, not only true in the spiritual realm, but also in the social realm and animal realm. “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.” (Psalms 42:7) As much as we desire what God desires to that extent God brings us into Himself and we become more like Him. Written by David Stahl
THOUGHTS FROM KAREN:
Danger Will Robinson Danger!
I bet that got your attention huh?! Way back in the 1960s there was a weekly television series called, “Lost In Space” and whenever danger was afoot the gigantic robot would say “danger Will Robinson danger,” Will being the youngest child to the Commander of the space ship who palled around with the robot. Sometimes the robot would swing his arms around for more of an effect. If you have a half decent dog they would also warn you of danger—-well at least if someone was walking by your house. If you’re watching TV sometimes alerts will come on the screen. I get alerts on my phone if a lightning strike is nearby. Unfortunately, our lame stream media likes to “warn” us about what they perceive as “danger” in our country. Actually, they are calling good evil and evil good. The Prophet Isaiah writes, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!” (Isaiah 5: 20-21). Way back in the Old Testament times various prophets would warn the children of Israel if they strayed from GOD and HIS ways. whether they listened or not is another matter, some did, some didn’t. So what danger could I possibly be talking about today? Well, the danger of thinking you are saved, but you really are not! I can’t tell you how many people we know of different religious persuasions who think they are saved and going to Heaven when they die. Or worse yet believe they’re going to do a quick stint in purgatory to “burn off a few sins” then go to Heaven. Now I know it is God who looks at the heart, knows all things, and it is Him alone that posts our soul and spirit in Heaven or Hell based on our confession of His Son. But folks wait a minute, if it ain’t in the Bible it ain’t gonna happen. Purgatory IS NOT IN THE Bible, not even the Catholic Bible! You can’t go to a place that doesn’t exist! Now Heaven exists and so does Hell, remember the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16: 19-31? No purgatory there or JESUS would have said so. If you have more faith in purgatory then faith in the FINISHED work of Christ on the cross; you have severe problems, because the notion of purgatory is a deceptive lie. It totally discredits the work of Christ on the cross, and the Father to make a way for us sinners to be saved. Are you saying Jesus’ blood was not enough to save us? Purgatory is a bold face lie. Straight from the pits of Hell! And just because you believe in it with all your heart doesn’t make it so! I can believe I am a truck, sit in our garage and even go beep beep, but that will never make me a truck. My friend it matters what we believe and if what we believe is not in the Bible we are believing a lie. There in is the danger for many of our friends and family. You must – read – your- Bible. Notice what Paul instructed Timothy before he was martyred. “All scripture is given by inspiration of GOD and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of GOD may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Timothy 3:16). There is no other source on which to stake our eternal soul to. I’ve said this before, GOD went through a lot of effort and men have gone through great pains to give us the Bible. Evil people and the devil himself have tried every step of the way to thwart GOD’S efforts. The Catholic Church strangled then burned a man named William Tyndale at the stake for his part in translating the textus receptus manuscripts into English. (1536). Since then many people have watered down the word of GOD in their various attempts to make the Bible, “easier to understand and more user friendly.” Not so my friend this is ungodly thinking. The Catholic Church itself forbid the reading of the Scriptures for decades ( If not centuries!) , because they knew if people read the Scriptures for themselves—-they’d be out of a job as would A LOT of pastors and ministers in other denominations. Now please let me state this, if pastors and priests really knew and believed the Bible they would get out of their denomination. My friend, we are “saved by grace through faith” in Jesus Christ. Not saved by sacraments or “doing” anything for any religion. Brethren, concerning church doctrine if it does not line up with the word of GOD (the Bible) why are you following it? Religion is to line up with the Bible NOT the other way around! Paul tells us in Colossians, “As ye therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:…..” (Colossians 2:6-10) Folks we can’t believe Jesus died for our sins and live anyhow. Grace gives us the chance to REPENT not slide into heaven anyhow. Way too many people (I can’t call them Christians because they are not) think they can act anyhow, think anyhow, and do anyhow, and be saved. Read your Bible! We are to repent–turn away from our sins! Repentance is not a one-time deal. It’s a daily thing, a daily choice we make. We make choices every day. Are they righteous choices or unrighteous choices? GOD ain’t no joke my friend. HE is a Holy GOD and guess what He expects us to be holy and that is not living anyhow and believing any foolishness from man and their religions. And holiness does not mean putting on a show so the rest of the folks think you’re holy. Believe me most people with any kind of discernment can see through that charade pretty fast. Nothing unholy will enter the gates of Heaven. I beg you please open your Bible, ask GOD to reveal Himself, and his Son Jesus to you. Ask Him what is salvation? What is His will for your life. The unadulterated word of GOD is seldom preached in “churches” any more, it behooves us to READ the word (Bible) of God for ourselves. I end with this thought from Solomon, “Fear GOD, and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. For GOD shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12: 13-14) Where is the danger you would ask? Yes, great danger in not heeding Solomon’s words. Read your Bible. Written by Karen Stahl
Written by Karen Stahl
NEEDS NO WANTS:
- In Dobrich, Bulgaria Pastor Niki Marsov and in SilistraPastor(s) Yanko, and Marcho. Times are troubled in Bulgaria much prayer and support is needed.
- Constanta, Romania Pastors Luke and Jacob at Bethel Church and Ian at the Romanian Center for Cross-cultural Studies Bible School.
- Pastor S. J. Peter, Founder of DAWN Ministries in Hyderabad and Pastor Wilson and his son Pastor Julian in Sankaraguptham, India.
- Dan, Cathy, and members of Uskudar Son Buyruk Kilisesi in Istanbul, Turkey.
- Pastor Elieti Msangi in Dar Es Salaam and Pastors Isreal Mutaitina and John Balone in Bukoba, Tanzania.
- Pastor Tek Dahl at Gethsemane, Church (his church) and their radio station “Good News 105.1 FM” in Kathmandu, Nepal.
- Bishop John, Samuel Kamanzi (from the Congo), and, Emmanuel Ndolimana in Ruhengeli,Rwanda.
NEXT HOME GROUP MEETING:
18 January 21 at 7:00 pm
At 232 Everett Drive
Sneads Ferry, NC 28460
7:00 pm please RSVP
Home: (910) 741-0489
FUTURE SCHEDULE:
January: Local Ministry
February: Local Ministry
March: Local Ministry
Email: charliegolfone@outlook.com
ROCK FELLOWSHIP ON THE RADIO:
On WJCV Jacksonville, NC
1290 AM or 98.3 FM
Every Sunday morning at 9:00 am
I am still available to share what God has given me at churches and/or home groups. If God moves on your heart to support BHG or other ministries we personally know we would be honored to serve as a go-between. Remember, if we want a blessing from God the spiritual principle is we must bless others. Remember, God is to you what you are to God.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Address:
David and Karen Stahl
232 Everett Drive
Sneads Ferry, NC 28460
Phone:
Home: (910) 741-0489
Mobile: (910) 382-9287
FAX: (910) 741-0489
Email:
dstahl@beholdinghisglory.com
Website:
www.www.beholdinghisglory.com/
Blog:
http://bhisglory.blogspot.com/
NEW OFFER
Booklets on Spiritual Authority, Spiritual Leadership, Prayer, Body of Christ, and Righteous Living the Four Anchors of God are now available by contacting us and requesting one. You can see them on our home page. Get one now.
The Author House link below will lead you to our latest book, “Thoughts for Consideration.” Just copy it into your web browser and return. Also you can purchase two of our other books “Adventures with God.” and “God Still Performs Miracles: A Book of Personal Encouragement.”
http://www.authorhouse.com/AuthorCenter/Protected/BookHome.aspx?bookID=61464
Please take a minute and take a look, they all make for a great encouraging gift, giving hope and sharing God’s love through a deeper teaching that someone can enjoy again and again. All of our books can be purchased at all book stores like Barnes and Nobles, Borders, Book-A-Million, and etc., any Christian Book Store that orders, and all book ordering on-line companies like Amazon.com. Or if you are like me from the old school just contact us, we will let you know the price and then we will mail it out to your home address. Postage and handling is on a case by case basis.
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