Greetings from the Five Cities region of California.
I have been working a bit with potential groups in Brazil as well as in Haiti. Please pray that God will open the eyes of all who are Philadelphian Christians around the world to unite and support the work of the CCOG, the Philadelphian remnant church.
We still have been facing some internet obstacles, but have had most of the malware removed. Then some CCOG websites went down again, but they are being worked on. And though there still may be issues, many of our literature translations are back online.
Furthermore, we have again resumed connecting and uploading translations of our English language booklet The Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
Steve Dupuie started to upload the 40 we received in November 2024 that we held up because of malware. We also received an additional 60 translations on Tuesday. So, that is 100 more languages/dialects!
Some members have suggested putting up COGwriter news posts and some other items on a service called Substack.
It is not something that I personally heard of before.
Here are some comments from a member who wanted me to consider this:
Substack… It would be a copy and paste of COGwriter articles daily, including the pictures with attribution and links back to the site, we can even add further reading links at the bottom of articles.
Substack now offers sections, so at the top bar we could different sections such as:
Research Articles – your long form research papers
Books – We could add the first chapter of the books then link to the PDF of the books. Or perhaps we could add the first chapter and then add the next chapter on a regular basis.
Substack now offers Notes – which would be a good way to promote books you have written, or new long form articles. The notes section is published more like a social media app but is extremely valuable if used correctly, such as promoting the Lost Tribes and Prophecies, or any of your other books, especially the expected book on Trump. The Note section is public and would draw people to the BNP Substack. It is a great promotional tool in and of itself.
It does not have to be this in depth, Of course, our Substack page does not have to be done in such great detail, but the option is there. The ability to bring much of “The wWork” together, with the ability to link back to the original sites while still being able to read in Substack, would be a powerful tool. The idea is to keep your work exactly as you have created it and have another (free) platform to proclaim the work.
Substack makes their money on paid subscriptions, which is why there are no ads, and why it is free. Of course, none of our Substack would be monetized for us, but that does not matter to Substack.
If you enter your email and click on the Subscribe button, it will send you email reports.
If you click the “Let me browse first >” link below that button, it takes you to a page with various articles.
Thailand
My wife Joyce and I are expecting to fly to Phuket, Thailand next week.
Deacon Sani Mao
Deacon Sani Mao and his wife deaconess Mary Thomas Chithung are expecting to fly there from India to meet with us.
Thailand does NOT require citizens of India or the United States to get a visa to visit, so this looked like a good place for us to meet, which we plan to do later next week.
Furthermore, since we expect to be in Phuket Thailand, if anyone from Thailand wishes to attend Sabbath services with us on February 1, they can email me: COGwriter@aol.com
Water Project in Ethiopia
A while back deacon Koang Deng sent me the following:
Again, I thought of things that can bring a more help to our members also for the feasts celebration in Ethiopia. In gambella, some areas in the region suffering from fetching water daily.
Due to this, regular clans competition on properties benefits it delay the regional government to provide water equally in the region. … In this region, one water container is selling with (80,000 ETB) birr with some process of making the foundation of the container will be equivalent to (1000 USD).
Please, put this in a plan for the coming months,
I thought that, this will be the source of business both of Ethiopia-South Sudan members.
Best regards,
Koang.
This week, he also sent the following in an email:
Again, in this Months, January-February will be the months in gambella, people can lack fetching from ground water.
Please, I want you doing this even though things running through plans.
Anyway, we are now assisting with this. We expect this to help provide clean water for our brethren in Gambella, Ethiopia as well as help some earn a living by providing clean water.
Magazine Award?
On Friday, I received the following email:
Hi CCOG Magazine Team,
My name is Anuj Agarwal, I’m the Founder of FeedSpot.
I would like to personally congratulate you as your magazine CCOG Magazine has been selected by our panelist as one of the Top 15 Bible Study Magazines on the web.
When I went to the link, it shows that we are number 7 on that list.
We received something like this before, and while we are not sure what the criteria FeedSpot used, we are pleased when others will promote our literature and other biblical teachings.
That said, we suggest caution before any one give them their email address, etc. as we have no real relationship with this worldly organization nor did we submit anything to be considered for their award.
The Apostle Paul was inspired to write:
15 Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: 16 The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; 17 but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. (Philippians 1:15-18)
So, whether FeedSpot is promoting us for spreading the truth or for “selfish ambition,” we can rejoice that their promotion of our magazine helps preach the gospel.
Unintended Consequences Book
Last Friday, my latest book, Unintended Consequences and Donald Trump’s Presidency, was uploaded to Amazon Kindle Direct.
The plan was to have this submitted to Amazon before Donald Trump took office and that was accomplished. The other part of the plan was to make the Kindle version free for the five day period that Kindle allows. However, they changed how that is done and we will not be able to offer it free for about a month. But that is the plan.
Anyway, the reason to announce it here anyway is that any of you who want to try to set up a podcast for me might find that having this book available might assist.
Books like this are another way we strive to reach others that we might not reach otherwise.
Suggested Sabbath Services
Here is a suggested Sabbath day service for our scattered brethren and other interested people for the Last Great Day Sabbath service:
2-3 hymns (our songbook, The Bible Hymnal, contains the materials from the 1974 Bible Hymnal from the old WCG with new covers, plus ten additional hymns; there is also some Choral Accompaniment online).
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 cellular 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.
World News Items
The ceasefire in Gaza resulted in three Israeli hostages being released. But the ceasefire agreement has already shown that Hamas has not been eliminated (see Hamas publicly re-emerges). While a temporary peace deal will occur in the Middle East per Daniel 9:27, unless this deal is modified it is NOT that deal (watch the sermonette: Hamas Israel Ceasefire and Daniel 9:27).
American Democratic or Republican politicians are not what the USA needs.
The USA needs repentance, the return of Jesus, and the coming Kingdom of God.
Concluding Comments
Jesus said:
24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ 26 then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ 27 But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’
28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. 29 They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. 30 And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.” (Luke 13:24-30)
Brethren, some left us last year because they disagreed with our outreaches to Africa and because they rejected proper Philadelphian era church governance.
But we are to reach people there as well as in Asia and elsewhere with the type of governance that the word of God endorses.
Do not be like those who think that they are fine, but will be cast out.
Remember, “indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”
