Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:
Greetings from Grover Beach, California.
We received another 30 translations of our English booklet, The Gospel of the Kingdom of God, as we continue to work towards Matthew 24:14 and help set the stage for the fulfillment of Revelation 7:9.
Google Campaign
As most of you are aware, we have long had an outreach campaign on Google and for a lessor time (and with a much lower budget) also on Microsoft.
As far as our Google campaigns go, we are doing very well. We have now reached 525,000,000 impressions. That means computers (including ‘smart phones’) around the world have been reached over one-half billion times with parts of the good news for those who put in various search terms.
You may note that the results are not much higher than when I last reported about this in June. The reason is that Google came up with two different reasons to suspend our campaign. The first is that it claimed that we violated its new religious content policies.
We appealed that and won.
We were then told that there was a compromised site problem.
We appealed that and won.
However, there still seems to be something going on with Google, so we have again contacted them as the campaign has not resumed, even though a Google representative told me a couple of days ago that all was fine, etc. And was told yesterday the same thing–and we hope the campaign will resume.
Anyway, we have promoted information on church history, the true Church of God, and God’s plan of salvation around the world through our Google campaign.
We still think that continuing this is an appropriate use of funds as we as part of the work we are doing to assist in fulfilling Matthew 24:14, Matthew 28:19-20, and Romans 11:25. Please pray about this door of proclamation.
We also have a small campaign with Microsoft that targets and reaches Sabbath keepers–this has not been stopped and we continue to reach thousands that way.
Rift Valley Campaign
When he first started out in the ministry, the late Herbert W. Armstrong used to hold evangelistic campaigns in different cities. He often would do that in conjunction with other ministers.
This still happens from time to time in the Continuing Church of God.
This coming week, evangelist Evans Ochieng, along with pastors David Cheruiyot and Tiongik Sawek are planning on having campaigns in Mau, Bomet and part of Narok in the Rift Valley of Kenya. Please pray for the success of this campaign.
Suggested Sabbath Day Services
Here is a suggested Sabbath day service for our scattered brethren and other interested people:
- 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.
- The suggested sermonette is: Transhumanist Religion? 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, which for most who receive this letter via email will be: Jesus for Prophecy Skeptics. 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
The situation between Hamas and Israel keeps dominating the news. There are concerns that Hezbollah may get more involved (see Hezbollah attacks in northern Israel). There are also concerns about increased terrorism threats in the USA (see Might the Hamas-Israel war increase the risk of terrorism in the USA? and Increased terror threats in USA, plus Iran considers actions) as well as possibly more Iranian and Syrian (see Israel attacked two Syrian airports–will Damascus be turned into a ruinous heap? and Iran threatens pre-emptive actions and fiery bombs against Israel) involvement. If Iran and Syria get significantly more involved, we could see the fulfillment of prophecies such as Isaiah 22:6-9.
In the USA, its government is attempting to force government employees to use the preferred pronouns that LGBTQ+ type people sometimes want that is in contradiction to their biological sex or some aspect of the English language (see US Federal Government mandating obscuring English language with pronoun rule). While not the ‘famine of the word’ of Amos 8, this is a type of improper and perverse rule.
Concluding Comments
Notice some of what Jesus prophesied:
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 24:6-8)
Yes, there are wars and rumors of war.
Yes, we seem to be in the “beginning of sorrows.”
But brethren, do not be troubled as we are getting closer to the millennial kingdom of God.
Sincerely,
Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer