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Letter to the Brethren: July 18, 2024

Letter to the Brethren: July 18, 2024

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Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Greetings.

We hope and pray you have had a spiritually profitable week.

We received additional translations to our English language booklet, The Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Sometimes, though we have had to rework some.

You may recall that I have never claimed that the translations were perfect. Instead, I have said that the following prophecy applies:

9 “Whom will he teach knowledge?  And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts?  10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little.”

11 For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people,  12 To whom He said, “This is the rest with which You may cause the weary to rest,” And, “This is the refreshing”; Yet they would not hear. (Isaiah 28:9-12)

Notice that even having some language difficulties seems to have been prophesied. And, I have been saying that about our translations for many years (e.g. watch Behind the Work 2016: All Nations, Tribes, People, and Tongues).

We are to reach people in multiple languages as a witness before the end comes (Matthew 24:14), despite the fact that most will not respond in this age. And we know that there may be difficulties caused by translations.

Now, please notice the version of Isaiah’s language statements in the New Testament:

21 In the law it is written:

“With men of other tongues and other lips I will speak to this people; And yet, for all that, they will not hear Me,”  says the Lord. (1 Corinthians 14:21)

So the New Testament is clearly also prophesying that other languages would be used–and we in the Continuing Church of God have been doing so in more languages than any other COG has ever done.

LE LIVRE DES CANTIQUES BIBLIQUES 

We now have a French language version of our  English language songbook, The Bible Hymnal, available. Here is a link: LE LIVRE DES CANTIQUES BIBLIQUES.

We have been trying to get this for years and finally we have it!

Again, we would like to thank Eglise de Dieu LE SIÈCLE A VENIR Association Française for their assistance, as well as Gisele Haddon, for the translations.

As mentioned before, Eglise de Dieu LE SIÈCLE A VENIR Association Française has, for over decade, had a distant affiliation with us in the Continuing Church of God. They first provided us with some translations of some of our literature many years ago.

That said, we ordered some copies of the French hymnal to be sent to Rwanda, France, and Canada. We expect to send more out once they have been received and reviewed.

In addition to English and French, our songbooks is available in the Spanish language Himario Biblico, Kiswahili Nakala ya Nyimbo za Biblia and Serbian-библијска песмарица.

Mediation Booklet

For odd and illogical reasons, Amazon Kindle declined printing our booklet, Meditation for Faithful Christians.

Their machine-based responses continued to say I needed permission from the author to print it.

Despite my repeated emails telling Amazon Kindle that I was the author, their system seemed to go into sometype of illogical loop which prevented a proper outcome.

So, we went to Barnes and Noble to have them print it.

It has now arrived.

We mailed it to our supporters several days ago.

However, because it was not printed by Amazon Kindle, this will greatly delay the booklet arriving in New Zealand.

That said, it is available online for Meditation for Faithful Christians.

In case you have not watched it, or perhaps you suspect watching it again may be helpful, we recently put out a sermon related to meditation:

1:17:21

Christian Meditation

Is meditation mainly based on repeating a sound from the Vedas? What about Eastern meditation or Transcendental Meditation? What about mantras such as used by Hindus and Buddhists? What does ‘om’ (AUM) mean? Could Psalm 37 or 73 help some who are facing difficulties? What does the Old Testament teach about meditation? What does the New Testament teach about meditation? Are there differences between men and women when it comes to the brain and meditating? Are Christians to live a contemplating life as opposed to being involved with others? What about love, the Ten Commandments, and the reality of the Kingdom of God? What did Jesus say about what goes on in the heart and then actions? What about meditating on the Sabbath or while fasting? What did the old Worldwide Church of God teach about meditation? When should you meditate? What did the Apostle Paul teach Christians were to think about? Dr. Thiel addresses these issues and more by quoting numerous scriptures.

Here is a link to the sermon: Christian Meditation.

Donation Receipts Mailed

While we used to try to mail donation receipts to our USA financial supporters, we have reduced that to twice per year.

Anyway, we mailed receipts for donations from 1 January 2024 to 10 July 2024 to our USA supporters. If you are one, you should receive that soon.

Hunger in Kenya

There have been news reports about spreading hunger in Kenya. Evangelist Evans Ochieng

 I’m getting more requests from … poor members and widows…  Even now I received a request from a blind person from Bomet … Our government has made life to be so tough in Kenya. And people are really suffering.

So yes, we provided assistance.

James wrote:

27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, (James 1:27)

14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. (James 2:14-19)

We show our faith and love by doing what the word of God tells us to so.

Africa updates

Moise Nshimiyimana sent the following photo and report:

Dear general Overseer Pastor Dr Bob ,

Greetings from CCOG Rwanda , Congo , and Burundi .
Dear Pastor I want to three reports in different sections .
This past Sabbath I visited the church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and we was a good Sabbath then the brothers and sisters in the Congo they are grateful for the help you gave them to buy a room to gather for worship. So this week we will pay where we will choose , after that we will give you a full report of what was done .
Attached , there is a photo I took this past Sabbath when I was in the Congo.
Moïse.

Moise Nshimiyimana also sent a report along with the first photo we have received related to our first congregation in Burundi:

Dear Pastor , the CCOG in Burundi they are doing well and in past week , brother Norbert from Burundi send to me the picture of their congratulation via his Facebook page. Then he created page of Continuing Church of God Burundi .
Attached there is a photo of Burundian.
Moïse.

In other African news, we received thanks for proving meeting hall assistance in Mozambique from pastor Radson Mulozowa:

Greetings from Malawi and Mozambique churchThanks for the help for the church of Mozambique …May God bless youBest regardsRadson

We try to go through the doors around the world, and various ones have opened in Africa.

Suggested Sabbath Day Services

Here is a suggested Sabbath day service for our scattered brethren and other interested people:

Note: If you have a slow internet connection, you can watch these by starting the video, then below it (and towards the right) look for an outline of a gear–if you click on that, it will allow the YouTube video to be played with lower video quality, but at least it will not stop often–you can select a quality as low as 144p. If your internet connection is still too slow (as my home one is) and/or you prefer audio messages to audio-visuals ones, go to the YouTube link for the message, click on SHOW MORE related to the description. You will then see something that says, “Download MP3.” Below that is a link to an MP3 file. Most computers (and even some mobile telephones) will allow MP3 files to be downloaded and played. This is an option we have made available (but we are also looking into ways to improve that as well)–and, of course, we have written article options. Some people have found that if their internet connections are not fast enough, that they can simply listen to the messages that are found at the Bible News Prophecy online radio channel.

IN CASE YOU DO NOT RECEIVE A ‘LETTER TO THE BRETHREN’ FOR ANY WEEK, REMEMBER THAT THERE ARE MANY SERMON MESSAGES ON THE ContinuingCOG channel AND MANY SERMONETTE MESSAGES ON THE Bible News Prophecy channel. There are also some messages at the CCOGAfrica channel. There are also messages in the Spanish language at the CDLIDDSermones  channel.

In case one or more of our video channels are unavailable, down, restricted, or ?, understand that we are on multiple platforms.

For sermons in English:

ContinuingCOG YouTube channel. Dr. Thiel has produced video sermons for this channel.

Also available at BitChute COGTube https://www.bitchute.com/channel/cogtube/

For sermonettes in English:

Bible News Prophecy YouTube channel BibleNewsProphecy https://www.youtube.com/user/BibleNewsProphecy.

Bitchute Prophecy https://www.bitchute.com/channel/prophecy/,

Vimeo at Bible News Prophecy https://vimeo.com/channels/biblenewsprophecy

Brighteon Bible News Prophecy https://www.brighteon.com/channel/ccogbnp.

Rumble https://rumble.com/c/biblenewsprophecy.

DailyMotion https://www.dailymotion.com/dm_e24c8ac0050c5e7445cd5573711869c6/videos

For animations in English:

CCOG Animations YouTube channel.

Also available at BitChute COGAnimations https://www.bitchute.com/channel/coganimations/

Sermons and sermonettes in Spanish:

CDLIDDSermones channel.

African videos:

CCOGAfricaYouTube channel.

Also available at BitChute COGAfrica https://www.bitchute.com/channel/cogafrica/

Audio messages:

Bible News Prophecy radio. This is an audio version of the Bible News Prophecy videos on one of our internet stations as well as our radio broadcasts in English. The BibleNewsProphecy.net website also has information about our international radio presence for Europe, Asia, and North America. That page is also available as a mobile app.

Bible News Prophecy International radio. This has links to our non-English language online radio station as well as materials in multiple languages.

There is also additional information at the Continuing Church of God Multimedia page.

World News Items

Jesus warned:

4 Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.  (Matthew 24:4-8)

While many will be deceived about prophecies, consistent with Jesus’ warnings, we have seen reports of famines in Africa and Gaza as well as wars in those locations, as well as Ukraine (see MS: A Time Of Famine, And A Time Of War) and unrest in places like the USA.

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump (see Donald Trump shot, then was defiant, and appears to be fine; Gunman is dead and ‘America is not ready for what comes next’ and Elon Musk ‘fully endorses’ Donald Trump for president and says Secret Service head must resign and An inch away from a civil war? Trump assassination attempt ‘Seems Likely to Tear America Further Apart’), his vice presidential pick (see Donald Trump officially nominated at RNC, picks J.D. Vance as his vice-presidential choice), and items related to the Republic National Convention have dominated the news. But, of course, as Christians, we are to seek first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33; see also RNC, DNC, or the Wonderful World Tomorrow?).

Concluding Comments

God wants people to be successful. The book of Proverbs is filled with information to help one be successful. Here is something from it and another book that Solomon apparently also wrote:

1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:

2 To know wisdom and instruction,
To perceive the words of understanding,
3 To receive the instruction of wisdom,
Justice, judgment, and equity;
4 To give prudence to the simple,
To the young man knowledge and discretion —
5 A wise man will hear and increase learning,
And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel,
6 To understand a proverb and an enigma,
The words of the wise and their riddles.

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
But fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:1-7)

10…But wisdom brings success. (Ecclesiastes 10:10)

So, having the fear of God and the wisdom that helps bring are a important steps towards success.

Jesus taught that He came to essentially help people become a real success:

10 I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)

Of course to be a Christian success, one must first be a Christian.

How does that happen? The Apostle Peter wrote:

38…”Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” (Ecclesiastes 10:10)

The New Testament teaches that Christians are to strive for perfection:

1 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. (Hebrews 6:1-3)

20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. (John 17:20-23)

Christians are not perfect, nor are they perfect before baptism. The Apostle Paul admitted that he had not attained that in this life:

12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

But perfection should be a goal.

Notice that Jesus taught:

48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

Brethren, we can succeed.

If we strive to follow God’s ways and do not give up, we cannot fail:

13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  (Philippians 4:13)

6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;  (Philippians 1:6)

Yes, YOU will be a spiritual success if you truly heed God.

Sincerely,

Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer