Archive for June, 2018

Please… Please Listen to Forgiveness

Posted in Gospel with tags , , , , , , , , on June 30, 2018 by paulthepoke

Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

ἄφεσις/aphesis is the Greek word for “forgiveness”. The term is used 19 times in the New Testament.  The word is defined as: a sending away, a letting go, a release, pardon, complete forgiveness, remission, or deliverance. “Forgiveness” is releasing someone from obligation or debt. This is a legal term.

“Forgiveness” is primarily used in relation to the debt of sin in the New Testament. The obligation of sin is death.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ezekiel 18:4 Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.

 

The primary word in the Hebrew regarding “forgiveness” is salach. The word is used 47 times in the Old Testament. It means to forgive or pardon. Salach is the word used in relation to God’s forgiveness in the Hebrew texts. Definitions provided by Strong’s Concordance.

 

Despite what the critic may say, “forgiveness” is built into the Mosaic Law. God has always been forgiving. God extends “forgiveness” to the individual as well as the nation of Israel. Below are a couple of many examples.

God is not a male chauvinist pig. God stands up for women’s rights. He forgives women and girls even when opposed by men or fathers. In fact, this is the first time the word “forgiveness” or salach is used in the Bible. God’s first example of “forgiveness” is granted to a female in regards to an overbearing father.

Numbers 30:5 But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers, no pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. And the LORD will forgive her, because her father opposed her.

The high priest made a sacrifice to the Lord on behalf of the nation Israel for sin. As a thought, do we have a high priest who sacrificed Himself on behalf of His people?

Numbers 15:25 And the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the people of Israel, and they shall be forgiven, because it was a mistake, and they have brought their offering, a food offering to the LORD, and their sin offering before the LORD for their mistake.

 holy grailThe new covenant in the forgiveness of sins is promised from the Old Testament prophet of Jeremiah. Jesus Himself confirmed this “new covenant” in the upper room with His disciples.

Luke 22:20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” -Jesus

 

The forgiveness of the “new covenant” is quoted completely in Hebrews 8:8-12.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

 

Rapture compressed

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/731160

Available in ebook and paperback at Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Rapture+Bride+Redeemed

Also available online at Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, and Inktera

 

Be Living Water

Posted in Christine "Clarity" McDonald, Culture with tags , , , , , , , , , on June 29, 2018 by paulthepoke

Matthew 25:35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me… -Jesus

Christine McDonald

Featuring Christine “Clarity” McDonald

Christine is a Member of the Missouri State Advisory Council for Behavioral Health & Substance Disorders.

Trigger warning. Do you see them? The unseen all around you?

So yesterday we did street outreach. Every time I hear these words from women when I offer them food…

“I am starving, I have not eaten in days” or “I have been trying to figure out when I was gonna be able to eat again.”

I hear the almost tears as they say thank you for the food. I continually pray I never forget all those years I was hungry. I was just wanting someone to see me, to see my pain, see my hopelessness, my longing to be cared about. I just wanted my simple humanity to be noticed.

There are times when we all want to slip into crowds unnoticed. But there is still a part of us that deeply longs to be known and seen and cared for. Jesus offers this to believers. Being known by the Creator of the Universe is the most profound “knowing” we could possibly experience.

However, the world around us is full of broken individuals who feel invisible because they don’t yet know Christ. The rest of humanity either ignores them or only sees them when they can be used.

water well

In John Chapter 4, we read the story of Jesus and his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. The most profound aspect of the story isn’t that Jesus calls her out for being married multiple times. Nor is it that He knows that the man she is currently living with isn’t her husband. What is profound is that He truly knew her. He saw her. Because Jesus was able to see her. When He offered her living water, she believed.

We claim to feel moved by the hurts and sufferings of others. Yet we fail to truly see those who are hurting as individuals. Our efforts to relieve suffering or bring healing fail. Sometimes, such efforts even do more harm.

God doesn’t ask us to take on the world, but to offer the world hope. We are His ambassadors to a hurting world. Being intentional and thoughtful in our interactions can go a long way in offering hope to those in our sphere of influence. What if we open our hearts to Him? Let Him help us see those around us as He does.

Each and every soul on this planet was fearfully and wonderfully made. Each one is a treasure to the One we love most. He is calling us to see them as precious treasures too.

Psalm 139:14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

 

“Love your neighbor… ALL of ’em!” -Christine “Clarity” McDonald

Disbelief Is the Issue, Featuring Phil Kulis

Posted in Phil Kulis with tags , , , , , , , , on June 28, 2018 by paulthepoke

philkulis-picIn the Garden of Eden, Satan came in the form of a serpent and the result was sin entered the world.

In the Exodus, Moses went before Pharaoh – the ruler of the world empire. When Aaron cast Moses’s staff before Pharaoh as God told Moses to do, it turned into a serpent – the symbol for sin. In return Pharaoh’s men cast their staffs down and their staffs also turned into serpents. But the serpent of God ate the serpents of Pharaoh. God’s symbol for sin took away the sins of the world. Aaron then lifted up the serpent and it turned back into a staff. But the serpents of Pharaoh were no more.

rod-of-asclepius

Later while wandering in the desert the Jews were complaining, so God sent fiery serpents to bite them and they were dying from being bitten. They asked Moses to pray to God then God told Moses to make a serpent of bronze and put it on a stick on a hill. Whenever anyone was bitten by a fiery serpent all they had to do was look at the bronze serpent and they would not die.

The only other mention of the bronze serpent is when Jesus sets up the most famous verse in the Bible.

John 3:14-18 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Sin is not the issue.
Disbelief is the issue.

Trend Update: Recep Erdogan Wins Re-Election in Turkey, June 2018

Posted in Ezekiel 38-39, Prophecy, Trend Update with tags , , , , , , , on June 27, 2018 by paulthepoke

Ezekiel 38:1-3 The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him and say, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.

https://godinanutshell.com/2017/08/04/ezekiel-38-who-is-magog/

Ezekiel 38:6 Gomer and all his hordes; Beth-Togarmah from the uttermost parts of the north with all his hordes—many peoples are with you.

According to the prophet Ezekiel, Russia will be joined by several countries in their future invasion of Israel. One of those countries is modern day Turkey. Scripture says Turkey is a player in the Ezekiel 38-39 scenario, the Gog and Magog War and invasion of Israel. The brothers of Magog (Meshech, Tubal, Gomer and his son Togarmah) appear to point to modern day Turkey.

https://godinanutshell.com/2017/08/08/ezekiel-38-who-are-meshech-tubal-gomer-beth-togarmah/

See the video link below for additional analysis.

erdogan 4
photo: Bloomberg

June 25, 2018: Turkey’s Recep Erdogan was re elected to four more years as President. This should come as no surprise. Erdogan called for the elections a couple of months ago. He was not calling for an election and expecting to lose. As a result of the victory, Erdogan’s power has broadened and increased. The president declared the big winner was the people of Turkey.

 

Recep Erdogan will be in power four more years until 2022 without further elections. Erdogan now has the authority to do away with the position of Prime Minister. He can dissolve parliament if needed. The president can make changes at the central bank and affect economic policy. He controls the political party’s bloc in parliament. Erdogan effectively can not be prosecuted. The opposing party has essentially no path to impeachment.

https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/turkey/turkey-elections-erdogan-s-win-paves-the-road-toward-autocracy-1.6202003

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Erdogan on his victory.

“The head of the Russian state stressed that the outcome of the vote fully confirms Erdogan’s great political authority, broad support of the course pursued under his leadership towards solving vital social and economic tasks facing Turkey, and enhancing the country’s foreign policy positions.”

“The Russian president confirmed readiness to continue substantive dialogue, close joint work on a bilateral, regional and international agenda, stressing that no doubt, this meets vital interests of the Russian and Turkish people, and is in line with maintaining peace, stability and security on the Eurasian continent.”

http://tass.com/world/1010842

putin erdogan

Photo Credit: via protothema.gr

Russia and Turkey are drawing closer together… just like Ezekiel said they would.

 

 

Straight Talk… God’s Glory & Dividing Truth, Rodna Epley

Posted in Rodna Epley with tags , , , , , , on June 26, 2018 by paulthepoke

Rodna LightKnowledge of the glory is the only way we can “rightly divide” and accurately handle His Word of truth. The devil is doing everything he can to make sure minds stay blinded to this knowledge of the glory

2 Corinthians 4:4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Even Christians like Thomas can be “unbelieving”. Anything outside of knowledge of the glory (knowledge of the Father) whom Jesus chooses to reveal (Matthew 11:27) is just us trying to use human reasoning to figure the Word out instead of the wisdom that comes from above (James 3:17).

Matthew 11:27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

James 3:17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

tornveil

Just as the “Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world…” so was everything before His crucifixion and after already completed before the world was. The fact that we are still being perfected and “pressing on toward the goal” on earth doesn’t mean God didn’t already glorify us. It means where glorification is concerned, we received glorification when we were born-again in Christ, but releasing the glory from within us, which transforms our minds, happens “from glory to glory” on earth. It happens much more quickly to those who have made the willful decision to enroll in the school on the glory (so to speak) and walk so closely with the Holy Spirit as to learn how to operate in the glory. The church’s understanding of who the Glory is (the Father, see Exodus 33) and how He operates in man has been the problem all along.

Look closely at 2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The glory of the Father is transforming our minds now on earth for those who are in Christ. And the veil has been removed. It’s not someday. The process is now on earth.

Trend Update: Kushner Visits the Middle East, June 2018

Posted in Peace Plan, Prophecy, Trend Update with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 25, 2018 by paulthepoke

Ezekiel 30:3 For the day is near, the day of the LORD is near; it will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations.

June 24, 2018: Senior Presidential Adviser Jared Kushner has been traveling around the Middle East. He has been meeting with kings and heads of states in the name of peace.

Kushner recently completed an interview with the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds (this is the Arab name for Jerusalem).

Jared Kushner ME 6 24 18
Photo: axios.com

“I am ready to work with President Abbas, if he wishes. You deserve to have a bright future, now is the time for both the Israelis and Palestinians to strengthen their leaderships and re-focus them to encourage them to open up towards a solution, and not fear trying.”

 

“If President Abbas is ready to go back to the negotiations table, then we are ready to participate in the discussion, but if it’s not the case, then we are going to make the plan public.” Senior Presidential Adviser, Jared Kushner

Details of the Trump peace plan are beginning to emerge. East Jerusalem is believed to be designated as the capital of Palestine. Economic incentives for infrastructure are part of the package and plan. The status quo will remain for the religious sites on the Temple Mount.

“They all insist that al-Aqsa Mosque should continue to be open to all Muslims who wish to pray.”

President Trump is reportedly agreeable to a two state plan if both sides support the notion.

abdullah jordan
kingabdullah.jo

Kushner is traveling with President Trump’s Mideast Envoy Jason Greenblatt. Their travels have seen these two in meetings around the Middle East. The focus of the talks is Palestinian-Israeli peace. Stops included a visit with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Bin Salman.

 

Discussions took place in Qatar with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

A trip to Jordan resulted in talks with King Abdullah II of Jordan.

In Egypt, Kushner met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The latest stop includes meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador David Friedman.

http://news.trust.org/item/20180624014742-x4sxf

 

1 Thessalonians 5:3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

Jeremiah 6:14 They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.

 

Rapture Promo

Available in ebook and paperback at Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Rapture+Bride+Redeemed

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/731160

Also available online at Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, and Inktera

 

 

 

Our Daily Bread… Featuring Paul Beverly

Posted in Paul Beverly with tags , , , , , , on June 24, 2018 by paulthepoke
race relations twitter
photo: twitter

When reading the Bible, I notice that the color of one’s skin isn’t mentioned. Many scholars believe that Moses’ wife, Zipporah, was black, along with the Queen of Sheba & many others. The Bible doesn’t mention their skin color because it isn’t relevant to God or Jesus. What’s important to God is someone’s heart. We have to stop seeing color & look at each other’s hearts & character. See a man or a woman, not as such & such colored man or woman. See each other as nothing different than yourselves. We are all God’s children & He doesn’t have favorites. Racism sucks!

 

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Acts 10:34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality.”

Have a color free week my friends!!!

Please… God’s Grace in the Old Testament

Posted in Gospel, Prophecy with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 23, 2018 by paulthepoke

The notion God is not gracious in the Old Testament is ridiculous. He is not a mean, sadistic God who is looking to squish people with His foot. He has always been gracious. Look at the people who received God’s grace in the Old Testament.

Laban recognized God’s grace and favor through Jacob.

Genesis 30:27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.”

Joseph was extended grace by God via a prison guard.

Genesis 39:21 But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

 

The nation of Israel was granted favor on the way out of Egypt.

Exodus 11:3 And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.

Exodus 12:36 And the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

 

Moses received God’s grace throughout Exodus 33. See one of many examples to Moses below.

Exodus 33:12 Moses said to the LORD, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’

 

Gideon received grace and favor from God personally via a sign in Judges 6:11-27.

Hannah was granted grace and favor in the birth of Samuel in 1 Samuel 1.

King David was anointed with grace.

Psalm 45:2 You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever.

 

Grace is given by God to those who walk in truth.

Psalm 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

 

God blesses the afflicted with favor and grace.

Proverbs 3:34 Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor.

 

God’s grace for His nation Israel is eternal.

Jeremiah 31:1-3 “At that time, declares the LORD, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people.” Thus says the LORD: “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest, the LORD appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you…”

 

God’s Grace is better than material wealth despite what the culture says.

Proverbs 22:1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.

And yes, God’s grace in Jesus Christ is promised from the Old Testament prophet Zechariah.

Zechariah 12:10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn…”

 

SATAN: Angels, Fallen Angels & Devils ~ trey smith

Posted in Prophecy with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on June 23, 2018 by paulthepoke

John 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.

1 John 5:19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

2 Corinthians 2:4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Ephesians 6:11-12 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

This is what we are up against…

SATAN: A documentary on Satan, Angels, Fallen Angels & Devils. A documentary on Satan, Satanism, Luciferianism and the Fall of the Angels. A documentary on demons, and origin of demons. A documentary on birth of the Illuminati (Illuminati documentary) Satan: Angels, Fallen Angels and Devils is part one of a two part on Angels, Fallen Angels and Devils from the God in a Nutshell Enoch documentary / and Enoch study being done on the God in a Nutshell website. Satan: Angels, Fallen Angels and Devils is available here on Youtube in a 30 minute version. On the God in a Nutshell website “Satan: Angels, Fallen Angels and Devils” is available for immediate streaming as a roughly two (2) hour (Trey Smith) documentary. Satan: Angels, Fallen Angels and Devils ~ In this documentary on Satan, Fallen Angels and Demons Trey Smith along with guests Derek Gilbert, Scottie Clarke, Bob Enyart, Skywatch TV, Jane Clement, Donne Clement, Jim Bakker’s sister, etc…. The documentary Satan: Angels, Fallen Angels & Demons starts at Mount Hermon in Israel where according to the Book of Enoch two hundred (200) Fallen Angels made entrance to earth. These Fallen Angels (under Satan, Azazel, and others) played little gods and kings with mankind. It was this entrance of the Fallen Angels covered in both Genesis 6 and Enoch 6 that gave birth (it is believed) to the many “Fallen Angel” accounts of the Greeks, the Romans, etc…. in their mythologies. Satan: Angels, Fallen Angels and Demons focuses on the first ritual and Satanic / Luciferian human sacrifice site ~ at the base of Mount Hermon. At Mount Hermon there is a cave called “Pan’s Cave”. It is here were Luciferian ceremonies took place, at the very spot where the fallen angels are believed to have made entrance.

 

Acts 26:18 …to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me…

http://godinanutshell.com/

 

Cry Purple

Posted in Christine "Clarity" McDonald, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , on June 22, 2018 by paulthepoke

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Romans 11:6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

 

Featuring Christine “Clarity” McDonald

cry purple

Cry Purple, by Christine McDonald, is the story of the author’s long journey from nearly two decades of homelessness, street-corner prostitution, crack addiction, and many stints in jail to her present life of total blindness, motherhood, and happiness.

The first two-thirds of the book tell the grim story of her youthful unhappiness, how and when she got into prostitution and drug addiction, the horrendous levels of violence that she and some of her fellow prostitutes suffered, and how the drugs eventually reduced her to an almost animal-like state. It was only when she hit rock bottom that she finally found the will to seek help and change her ways.

However, after getting clean and then engaged, she had numerous other difficulties and sorrows ahead of her: losing her sight due to a disease and having both her eyeballs removed, having a special-needs daughter that she had to give up for adoption due to her inability to care for her, and  watching her relationship with her children’s father dissolve.

Christine McDonaldShe currently lives in the St. Louis, Missouri area with her young son, Ricky. She practices an open adoption relationship with her daughter’s adoptive parents. She loves doing motivational speaking, and she does all she can to help and to advocate for ex offenders, addicts, and prostituted and trafficked women.  One of her largest passions is educating people out side of these circumstances to help them have a better understanding of the barriers society has placed before these under served populations to put their lives back together.

Filming for “Cry Purple” the movie is set to begin in October 2018. Interviews and writing are currently being completed. Release of the movie is tentatively set for sometime in 2019.

“Love your neighbor… ALL of ’em!” -Christine “Clarity” McDonald

 

To contact Christine directly send a E mail to:

Christine.crypurple@gmail.com

http://www.crypurple.com/

To purchase at Amazon.com, click on link below.

 

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