Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:
Greetings from the Five Cities region of California.
We continue to work on matters around the world as well as updating literature.
Of course, we continue to produce videos and audio files for online and radio uses.
The prophet Isaiah was inspired to write the following:
1 Cry aloud, spare not;
Lift up your voice like a trumpet;
Tell My people their transgression,
And the house of Jacob their sins. (Isaiah 58:1)
That is something we in the CCOG do.
And that is part of why 1/2 of the recommended sermonettes in the past 8 weeks have covered various sins.
Here are links to three of them:
- BibleNewsProphecy: Tattoos: Dangers and Scriptures
- BibleNewsProphecy: USA’s Ponzi Debt Scheme
- BibleNewsProphecy: STIs – Risk and Elimination
And here is a link to the one recommended for this Sabbath: Rape: There Shall be Terror Within. Speaking of rape, at a major music festival in France, some women were pricked by needles that were suspected to contain drugs making it easier for them to be raped (see Raping, drugging, and stabbings at French music festival Fete de la Musique–hundreds arrested). That is horrifying and points out yet another danger in this world.
The Bible teaches:
8 Now go, write it before them on a tablet, And note it on a scroll, That it may be for time to come, Forever and ever: 9 That this is a rebellious people, Lying children, Children who will not hear the law of the Lord; 10 Who say to the seers, “Do not see,” And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things; Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits. 11 Get out of the way, Turn aside from the path, Cause the Holy One of Israel To cease from before us.”
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:
“Because you despise this word, And trust in oppression and perversity, And rely on them, 13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you Like a breach ready to fall, A bulge in a high wall, Whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant. 14 And He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel, Which is broken in pieces; He shall not spare. So there shall not be found among its fragments A shard to take fire from the hearth, Or to take water from the cistern.” (Isaiah 30:8-14)
Since we do not despite the word of God nor trust in oppression and perversity, we do not restrict our teachings to “smooth things.”
That said, Jesus said:
16 Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. 17 But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. (Matthew 10:16-17)
And the Apostle Paul added:
18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints — 19 and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. (Ephesians 6:18-20)
Yes, pray that we will have the wisdom and proper discretion to boldly speak as God wants us to.
Feast of Tabernacles’ Update
We continue to try to establish a location for a Feast of Tabernacles site in Australia.
We plan to announce such a site here if one is finalized.
Yes, the Feast of Tabernacles is coming soon.
Church services for the Feast in 2026 are to begin the evening of September 25th and run (including the Last Great Day) until sunset October 3rd.
Overseeing Pastor Samuel Ofosu Gyeabour of Ghana emailed me and said that the festival is scheduled to be at the JERICHO BIBLE STUDY AND PRAYER CENTRE Kumasi. For more, information his email address is fosusamuel81@gmail.com
Here is a link to the expected location of our sites around the world: Feast of Tabernacles’ Sites for 2026.
Burundi
Augustin Mpawenimana sent the following from Burundi:
To the respected senior pastor who leads the continuing church of god (ccoG). we have the great honor to write to you to inform you of the following.
.
after the inauguration of Gateri church in Buganda zone, bukinanyana commune, Bujumbura province. We asked for a house in the houses that were built for the immigrants who were evicted from the village, the authorities gave it to us, now they have brought the inhabitants. After giving you the house we looked for a place nearby. For this purpose we have prepared the place and put tents to continue the work of worship. We do not lose the faithful. It is easy for us because it is the time of the year.
This sounds like we may be able to meet some of the final needs for church registration in Burundi.
After getting Augustin Mpawenimana’s email, I spoke with Aaron Dean of the United Church of God (UCG) to tell him that if this development will also help them to legally function in Burundi that would be fine. He and I have had several conversations over the years about how our churches can function, and cooperate at times, in Africa to deal with various governmental issues. That said, as I have written before, we are NOT discussing any type of a merger.
UCG has assisted us over the years on matters related to songbooks and other matters. And we appreciate their assistance.
Suggested Sabbath Services
Here is a suggested Sabbath day service for our scattered brethren and other interested people for this 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).
- Opening prayer.
- Sermonette: Rape: There Shall be Terror Within. Other sermonettes are available at our Prophecy channel on BitChute https://www.bitchute.com/channel/prophecy/
- Announcements (if any; though for many it will be this letter) and one hymn.
- The suggested sermon is: Lessons from the Book of Jonah. Other sermons are also available at the COGTube channel on BitChute https://www.bitchute.com/channel/cogtube/
- Final hymn.
- Closing prayer.
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
There were more primary elections in the USA on Tuesday. And we are seeing sharper and greater divides in the USA politically than we have probably seen for over a century (see Democratic Socialists, Tucker Carlson leaves GOP, USA more divided). Jesus warned:
25 … Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. (Matthew 12:25)
24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. (Mark 3:24-25)
17 … Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls. (Luke 11:17)
Notice that God inspired this to be written three times in the Gospels.
God normally seems to repeat something in scripture for emphasis.
The division is a BIG DEAL.
Tuesday’s election results show that the trend is continuing (see Socialists gain grounds, Democrat calls them parasites, while Donald Trump claims America will not become communist).
The end of the USA is coming (cf. Daniel 11:39; Habakkuk 2:6-8) and sharpening divisions look to be a factor that will contribute to that end.
In other news, we continue to see more automation and digitization of finances and financial markets. The Europeans are working on their supercomputers as well as taking other steps that will lead to the ‘666’ controls of buying and selling Revelation 13:16-18 warns of (see ‘Why Financial Markets Are Becoming One of the Most Automated Industries on Earth’–Two Views).
Concluding Comments
The Apostle Paul wrote:
11 This is a faithful saying:
For if we died with Him,
We shall also live with Him.
12 If we endure,
We shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him,
He also will deny us.
13 If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.14 Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. 15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:11-15)
Brethren, Jesus will not deny us as He is faithful.
We need to be faithful and diligent, and that is one of the reasons we have a new sermon which has gone over another complete book of the Bible which we are recommending you watch this Sabbath.
Sincerely,
Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer