Letter to the Brethren: March 23, 2017

Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Greetings again from Grover Beach in California.

We have been working on many things, including literature, Africa, website matters, and future sermons.

Our websites were down for a couple of hours last Sabbath because of some type of, what we think, was a robotic attack that filled up storage space. While we have protection for that in certain places, this particular attack succeeded for a time. But this was noted and corrected. We do not think this was a humanly deliberate attack against us, but Satan was probably more directly behind it. We also upgraded some aspects of the websites Sunday, which also made them temporarily unavailable. But the websites have been functioning fine since.

Radio

Got an invitation Friday to be on the radio this past Monday. This was on The Andy Caldwell Show on 1440 am KUHL, Santa Maria, California. I wrote a post for COGwriter to announce it on Sunday, but it ended up posting on Saturday. This resulted in some anti-Church of God snide comments against me and the station on the internet. It was claimed:

Radio KUHL is a small 5000 watt AM radio station out of thinly populated Santa Maria. The signal only reaches some 20 miles and has no Arbitron Rating, because the market share , even in the San Luis Obispo area is so negligible.

Likely fewer than 50 people will hear the broadcast. In fact, he is getting more attention here at this website than he will get while being on air.

The anti-COG writers overstate their own importance and seem willing to post as ‘facts’ items that are inaccurate.

While it is true that there is no Arbitron Rating, KUHL is a major ‘talk’ radio station in the area and its market is ranked 169 in the USA. Furthermore, the show’s producer (Charlie Kears) told me KUHL’s signal reaches all of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties–which have a total of about 700,000 people. He also said the stations reaches much of Ventura County and as far north as Salinas in Monterrey County. The Andy Caldwell Show is itself fairly popular. The producer said thousands listen to each program.

The producer asked me if I could go to the studio in Santa Maria to do the interview. The studio is about 20 miles (30 kilometers) away from where I am typing this letter. Although I had been interviewed on KUHL prior to the official formation of the Continuing Church of God, this is the first time since CCOG formed and this was the only time I have ever been to the studio. Anyway, I was able to personally meet Andy Caldwell and it went well.

During the interview we discussed end-time prophecies and the decline of the USA. Subjects covered included the future rise of the Beast power Europe, abortion, LGBTQ matters, pornography, hypocrisy, and the rise of debt in the USA. The Bible teaches:

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)

And that is part of what I was doing on KUHL.

We continue to go through the open door of radio when we have the opportunity.

As mentioned before, a short radio interview is scheduled for March 29, 2017 at 10:45 am Central Daylight Time on station KORN 1490 am, out of Mitchell, South Dakota with Randall DeWitt. But it will be recorded then and played later. I plan to let everyone know when, which I may not find out until March 29th, if not later.

April 17 and 22 in Florida

As mentioned before, my family and I expect to be in Florida for the Last Day of Unleavened Bread, which will be April 17, 2017. We also plan to be in Florida for Sabbath services on April 22, 2017.

Please pray that we may find an acceptable and reasonably priced location to hold services those two dates. The first facility we contacted in Stuart apparently was not interested, and we have since tried another place there–but it still has not responded. We are looking for something on the eastern side of that state, probably near West Palm Beach or Boca Raton. If you are in Florida and may wish to attend, please email me: cogwriter@aol.com

African Language Magazines

We have more African language magazines available as we recently finished the magazine in Kiswahili and Luo:

Here is a pdf link to the Kiswahili edition of BNP magazine of the Continuing Church of God: Unabii wa Habari za Biblia Januari – Machi 2017.

Here is a pdf link to the Luo edition of BNP magazine of the Continuing Church of God: Kor  Mawuok  E Muma. Due mar achiel  – adek 2017.

Malawi and Mozambique

We received an overwhelmingly encouraging report on the growth of congregations in Malawi and Mozambique. Those there also asked for another visit, which, since many there do NOT have a Church of God background, is more critical than it may seem. Evangelist Ochieng and I are looking at when a visit can next be made.

Mau, Kenya

Pastor Thomas Sawek sent in the following report related to Mau, Kenya:

Receive greetings in Christ’s name.

We are fine here in Kenya – Rift-valley.

We are thankful of your visit to Kenya and for Alexander to visit our churches.

Thank you for the work you came and did in Kenya – ordaining pastors, this was our first to witness such kind of work being undertaken by many countries and nations.

Many have learn of the continue church of God.

We also learnt from these that Pst. Ochiech has really done great work.

Pst. Sawek will be in-charge of Rift valley region for any request for churches since he has visited almost all the churches in Rift-valley and he understands most of the challenges like in Mau, the church needs construction and are not in hunger.

Parts with starvation  – Chilani in Transmara.

Pst. Ochieng understands where there may be problems and where help have been received.

We agreed with all the Pastors as such.

\May God bless you

Pst. Tiongik Arap Sawek

World News Items

Over in the United Kingdom, it was announced that Prime Minister Theresa May intends to send a letter to the European Union next week to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty for the UK to leave the EU (see ‘Article 50: Theresa May to trigger Brexit process next week’). This is another step towards the separation for the Anglo-Saxon nations and the Europeans. This will not end well for the UK, or the other Anglo-Saxon descended nations either (cf. Daniel 8:24-25; 11:39).

In London, another Islamic terrorist struck (see Muslim terrorist hits London: More terrorism is expected). Police thwarted another attempted attack in Belgium today (see Belgian terrorist thwarted and Islamic State claims London terrorist responsibility–USA and Australia expect to defeat the Islamic State). Expect more incidents in the future (cf. Deuteronomy 32:25).

The Vatican announced the Pope Francis intends to visit Fatima, Portugal to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the appearance of an apparition to three young children (see Catholic murdering in Rwanda; Pope to visit Fatima). Pope Francis is quite ‘Marian-focused’ and has been highly interested in the demonic apparition that appeared in 1917. In my view, this is helping set people up for the prophesied appearance of signs and lying wonders that the Apostle Paul wrote about (2 Thessalonians 2:8-12).

Over in the African nation of Angola, there is a proposal to ban all abortions (see Angola proposes outlawing all abortions). It is interesting that in the 21st century we are seeing nations in Africa, as well as Russia, taking biblical stands against aspects of Satan’s plan. Russia has taken stands against cursing and aspects of the LGBTQ agenda, as have nations like Uganda. As far as Angola goes, it is my hope and prayer that a door to that nation will be opened–Angola was a place I discussed with leaders when I was in Africa last month. As far as Uganda goes, we have had some interest from Uganda and may have a congregation there fairly soon. Evangelist Ochieng was born in Uganda and has contacts there.

Over in the USA, a senator from the State of New York has proposed more censorship (see NY Senator proposing more censorship: Can this lead to Amos’ prophesied famine of the word?). This proposal wants the government to be able to remove content from the internet that it does not like or even considers to be “irrelevant.” The Bible tells of a coming ‘famine of the word’ (Amos 8:11-12) and censorship steps in the USA and elsewhere are setting the stage for its fulfillment.

Suggested Sabbath Service

Here is a suggested Sabbath service for this week:

• 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, which for many who receive this letter via email will be a recorded one. The one suggested for this week is Mystery Babylon USA, Mecca, or Rome? Other sermonettes are available at the Bible News Prophecy channel.
• Announcements (if any; though for many it will be this letter) and one hymn.
• Sermon, which for most who receive this letter via email will be a recorded one. The one suggested for this week is: Proverbs 20-21: Modern Christian Living. Other sermons are also available at the ContinuingCOG channel.
• 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 new 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 BibleNewsProphecy channel. There are also some messages at the CCOGAfrica channel.

Concluding Comments

Notice the following from the end of the Book of Ecclesiastes:

13 … Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. 14 God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad. (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)

Brethren, our duty is to believe God enough that we obey His commands. We all will be judged, including for what we do when we do not think anyone is watching.

Sincerely,

Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer