BEHOLDING HIS GLORY
April 2023 Volume XXI Number 08
”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:
Greetings again my Brethren. Okay let us continue to look at the “Oracles of God” as we continue to look at the diversity of divine communication. The word “diversity” these days can mean so many different things of which have little to do with God, but here it means different types of communications that we receive from God from a divine prospective. This month we will look at a very controversial topic, signs. In Hebrews 2:1-4, the writer whom I believe to be Paul writes, “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. 2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; 3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; 4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?” (Hebrews 2:3-4) Now to really get a true understanding of these verses we MUST get the context correct. First and foremost, Paul was not glorifying signs and wonders, but was talking about how the “great salvation” that Christ has made a way for us through His death on the cross and how can we escape our sin if we neglect this great salvation? Even if Angels and others tell us about wonderful signs and wonders and we neglect Jesus’ sacrifice we will not escape God’s judgment and wrath. You see that is what was being taught to the Hebrew (Jewish) people by other teachers. Angel worship, signs and wonders are greater than Christ while Christ was taking a back seat. So, Paul had to set the record straight. Keep reading and you will see where Paul deals with Angel worship and what I call hyper-spirituality that gets the focus off of Christ and His preeminence and puts it on man-centered (humanistic), Angel worship (which is huge today), and other types of worship rather than on Christ. Then second Paul was writing to Jewish people who always required a sign to believe which he was countering. Yes, God does speak to man through signs and wonders, but they are not for Believers. We are to believe the Gospel message and march on in our spiritual growth and development not laying again our repentance from dead works and faith in God. The Jewish people had to have a sign to believe. In John we see this exchange with Jesus and the Jewish people: “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. 30
They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work? 31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. 32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.” (John 6:29-33) They wanted nothing to do with this “bread from heaven” they wanted Jesus to do a few more miracles; turn more water into wine and multiply some more loafs and fishes. Like signs, today the “church” hungers and thirsts for, but do not have the stomach for the true bread of life from heaven. Anyway, Paul tells us signs are for non-believers. At the Church in Corinth the Gentiles had problems with signs and wonders too. Paul writes, “In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. 22 Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. 23 If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?” (1 Corinthians 14:21-23) Could it be secretly those who say they believe are no better off then the Jewish folks who needed a sign to believe? Now do not get me wrong, I believe in miracles, signs, and wonders they are for today, but they are not primary in our day-to-day Christ walk, but secondary, maybe even thirdly. Miracles are great, but they are not God’s best for our lives. If God has to do a miracle for us in most cases we probably have not done what He has told us to do. Live well within our means, give of our resources and ourself, and God will make sure we have all that we need to do that which He wants us to do. No need to do a financial miracle. Eat healthy, get exercise, get your rest, watch our attitudes and stress levels, allow God to work in our lives and He will not need to do a miracle to restore our health. God has already set these divine spiritual principles into motion and all we have to do is go after them and be obedient in them. No need for a sign, all we need to do is just believe in Christ and allow God to do His work in our lives, He will take it from there.
Next month we will continue looking at more Diversity of Divine Communication by looking at a few examples of communication. Do you hear Him draw near? He is speaking to us, but do we have the hearing ears to hear what the LORD is saying to us? Written by David Stahl
ARTICLE REVIEW:
Be Not Conformed
They say if you want to hide something from someone nide it in front
of them. As a school teacher I have learned the skilled talkers do not sit in the back of the room, but in the front. So too with Scripture. One of the most preached on and recited verse in the Bible is Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2), but it almost is the most ignored verse in the Bible. I find it amazing (God is so amazing) God allows us to live in an environment of cause and effect making our own choices and learning from them as we suffer the consequences. And a part of the learning process is the ignoring of Scripture meant for our benefit. I would like to get deep here for a moment by making a statement and then expounding on my thought. Where there is a lack of judgment the expression of mercy can be a fault. Wow I hope you were sitting down. In other words from lack of judgment the mercy we give may be wrong to give. I know this is deep, but we can get through it. For example: having a love for the truth is more important than knowing all truth. How we go hard after the understanding of truth when all we really need is just a desire for truth. Or having a love for God is more important than to be used in ministry and moving in God in powerful ways. How we go hard after being used in ministry by God when all we have to do is have a love for God and He will take it from there. The same truth holds true as we consider not being conformed by this world. Paul knew the look and actions of the outward man reflects the inward work in man done by God. Paul knew, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.” (Proverbs 23:7) He knew how we think inwardly will reflect us outwardly. No matter how hard we try we cannot change this divine spiritual truth. Thus, if you look and act like the world no matter how much you say you love God you love the world more than you love God. It all goes back to the duck . . . if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, smells like a duck, and sounds like a duck it probably is not a chicken. The Bible says, “come out of the world, and be separate” (the word “separate” means judgment) and the only way we can come out of the world is in our thinking and our approach to the things in the world. John knew this also, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15) Now I can find myself here at times loving things of the world. Did you get the end of that verse, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” not that we have sinned and on our way to hell, but “the love of the Father is not in us.” And why? Because we have the love of the world in us and good and evil cannot come from the same fountain. How can we say we love God and have our (Christians) bodies tattooed, our face and bodies pierced with shinny things, or our pants hanging around our knees, and so much more? All of these are
expressions of the world that project a message and thinking that is anti-Christ born of man’s exalting his flesh over Christ. I hear Christians say I am just expressing my artistic nature, no they are expressing their carnal ungodly nature that has not be dealt with by God. Now many would say David you are judging and I would say you are 100% right I am judging. Not judging is one of the biggest reasons why the Christians are is such a mess (and the world sees it) they have no ability to judge themselves, others, and ungodly situations that get them off track with God. Did you know there are some people you cannot hang around and there are some places you cannot go and still serve God. We are conformed to the world by our outward world-like appearance, like different colored hair, wearing the latest clothing styles (modesty in all things reveals a heart dealt with by God), following Hollywood and the “beautiful people,” but more from our inward heart condition that rejects a holy God and what He stands for. How can we say we love God and our life is so plugged in to hand held devices where technology has replaced time spent with the LORD? No my friend we have been deceived by the god’s of this world. Make no mistake there is a god of this present world called technology and the more Christians (even in our church services) go after it the less God will be welcomed into our lives. We will displace God and His Holy Spirit with the mind pleasing sensations and logical way of technology to connect with man instead of a holy God. Jesus is not hip nor is He on line. He is the savior of the world and we must come His way. Through the message of the Cross, death to our selfishness as He deals and judges in our lives. A few years ago we went up in a small little town far back in the mountains of Pinhook, VA over the 4th of July ministering with Pastor Niki from Silistra, Bulgaria and his wonderful family. Now Pinhook is in the kuntry (not country) back where you have to pump in sun shine. I was talking (to mainly older folks) about judgment and asked who carries their cell phone in their right rear pocket and many hands shot up. I was surprised, but then I said, who told you to put your cell phone in your right rear pocket? The hands slowly dribbled down in shame. They have been conformed (without them really knowing it) by the worldly practice of stowing a cell phone in a right rear pocket. How subtle and deceptive the world can be in small areas that always leads to bigger areas of our lives. They are hanging on trying to walk a Christian walk, but with no judgment of discernment. They are not able to tell what is going on around them in the Spirit or what the will of God for them is in their daily living, they are so drunk with “stuff.” These Christians have no clear judgment. How much of the self-gratifying pleasures are we drinking? How much do we load ourselves up with what the world has to offer? How much of this cup to we drink? Our self-centered, self-indulgences is greatly seen from the lack of judgment and the inability to judge
ourselves. One of the greatest dangers of being self-centered is the inability to know the difference between that which is darkness and that which is light. Their thinking and ability to make correct and righteous judgments about situations, others, and themselves is the difference between life and death. Before we can judge we need to have an ability of discernment to know the difference between righteousness and unrighteousness, holy and unholy, and Godly and ungodly. Without this ability we will not be able to judge ourselves nor will we be able to judge righteousness judgment. God began this divine spiritual principle in the Old testament in the Book of Leviticus, “Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out. 23And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. 24But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people. 25Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. 26And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.” (Leviticus 20:22-26) and has carried it forward into the New Testament. Peter knew something about judgment. “For the time is come that judgment (separation) must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17) Whenever we judge something there is always a separation. This tomato is ripe this tomato is not ripe so I will not select this unripe tomato. So too in our lives. This situation is ungodly this situation is not so I will separate myself from the ungodly situation. Right or wrong there is a judging and separation. Once we come to a judgment we judge it and it is either condemned or accepted. Whether it is unclean or clean is beside the point. If we judge it as unclean then it is unclean whether it is or not. We make a judgment so that we can separate things that are not of God, condemn them, and so that they do not follow us along our walk with the LORD, if not they will follow us to heaven. The main reason we are conformed to this world is because we have been deceived (our flesh revels in disobedience and deception) by the gods of this world and because we really do not have an understanding and a love for God. Where does Judgment begin and what are the results? When we are separated from others and become the LORD’s in a fuller way we are brought to development and growth. God expects us to grow into maturity to the extent that we will be able to judge ourselves and others. Self-judgment can only be
accomplished by those who have matured enough to see themselves in the perspective from how the LORD sees things. Sin CANNOT take root in us if we are “truly” convinced of God’s love for us and His forgiveness. Sin is not an issue with God, but it is with man. This understanding will also prevent us from desiring to willfully sin. We understand God’s desire towards us in a greater way, we hold the mystery of the Gospel in a higher esteem thus we have no desire to sin, we simply do right. Doing right becomes natural to us, it becomes our way of life. If we do not learn now to judge ourselves we will not be able, we will not have the ability to judge worldly things around us nor the Angels. We will not be free to move and touch lives with the life of Christ, even in the smallest matters, and why? Because within us is such a poor representation of the life of Christ. Written by David Stahl
THOUGHTS FROM KAREN:
They say whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. That is somewhat true, but life isn’t about us getting stronger in ourselves. Whatever doesn’t kill us should make us push further into GOD. Now bear in mind though a lot of hard times that we go through are brought on by OUR bad decisions, OR maybe GOD is trying to get our attention. We are here for His good pleasure, not ours and tough times are designed to push us into GOD. He allows us to go through certain things for our benefit. That being said, GOD will allow us to go our headstrong way, making dumb choices and decisions reaping bad results. IF we don’t consult GOD for His opinion on things —well we reap what we sow. But know this, He is there to pick up the pieces, IF we repent, and try to do His will in our life. GOD tailors the tough times (trials) to our temperament and our situations. What I go through won’t be the same as what you go through. Everyone goes through something—somewhere—somehow. The end result is to be the same though: to push us into GOD our Heavenly Father. Our GOD is a Holy GOD, and nothing unholy will make it to Heaven. This is the reason for us going through testing and trials now. Our holiness is Jesus, period. It’s nothing we can do, no sacraments, no church ordinances, and no personal sacrifices. Jesus is our salvation and our holiness. And by the way GOD doesn’t owe us anything. Our “rough edges” in our personality, and character may need adjusting (attitude adjustment) and our sinning must stop. Our sins were nailed to the cross, let’s leave them there and not pry them off every day repeating them again and again. GOD is no joke. Everything we do is written down, every idle word is written down, every eye roll caught on paper, every nasty thought. Why??? Because when we stand before a Holy GOD, there will be no excuse, no mistakes, no wiggling out of what we’ve done. Take heed, this year in 2023, we need to press into GOD. Change our crappy attitudes, read and study our Bible more and spend more time with GOD. Remember, “Wherefore seeing
we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. 4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” (Hebrews 12:1-4) Written by Karen Stahl
NEEDS NO WANTS:
1. In Dobrich, Bulgaria Pastor Niki Marsov and in Silistra Pastor(s) Yanko, and Marcho. Times are troubled in Bulgaria much prayer and support is needed.
2. Constanta, Romania Pastors Luke and Jacob at Bethel Church and in Agigea Pastor Jacob as the interim Director for the Romanian Center for Cross-cultural Studies Bible School.
3. Pastor S. J. Peter, Founder of DAWN Ministries in Hyderabad and Pastor Wilson and his son Pastor Julian at Gospel Assembly in Sankaraguptham, India.
4. Dan, Cathy, and members of Uskudar Son Buyruk Kilisesi in Istanbul, Turkey.
5. Pastor Elieti Msangi in Dar Es Salaam and Pastors Isreal Mutaitina and John Balone in Bukoba, Tanzania.
6. Pastor Tek Dahl at Gethsemane, Church (his church) and their radio station “Good News 105.1 FM” in Kathmandu, Nepal.
7. Bishop John, Samuel Kamanzi (from the Congo), and, Emmanuel Ndolimana in Ruhengeli, Rwanda.
8. Christian and Ina Kopjar Missionaries to the County of Liberia.
9. Brother John Vlad, (serving as the Operations Officer), his wife Cristina, and three daughters aboard the international ministry ship Logos Hope.
NEXT HOME GROUP MEETINGS:
25 April at 7:00 pm
At 232 Everett Drive
Sneads Ferry, NC 28460
7:00 pm please RSVP
(910) 382-9287
BEHOLDING HIS GLORY ON THE RADIO:
On WJCV Jacksonville, NC
“Pebbles of Truth”
1290 AM or 98.3 FM
Every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 7:30 am
FUTURE BHG SCHEDULE:
April: Local ministry
May: Local Ministry
June: Local Ministry
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:
Mobile: (910) 382-9287
FAX: (910) 741-0489
Email:
mtnebo@hotmail.com
Website: www.beholdinghisglory.com/
Blog: http://bhisglory.blogspot.com/
FREE OFFERS
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.
If you know someone you think would enjoy receiving this newsletter or if you receive this newsletter and do not wish to please let me know. Contributions to this ministry is always appreciated and needed the more time continues. Please feel free to contact us with the above information.
