Letter to the Brethren: January 9, 2025

Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Greetings from the Five Cities Region of California.

There have been highly destructive fires in the Los Angeles basin (see ‘Apocalyptic’ fires are the most destructive in Southern California’s history). Some have asked if my wife Joyce and I have been in danger from those fires, but the answer is no. However, one of our sons (who lives closer to them) has seen the smoke, and although Joyce and I had planned to go to Southern California this coming Sunday, we may not depending on factors related to the fire situation.

On other matters, we continue to deal with malware issues impacting our numerous church websites. Our man in Portugal is now involved in assisting on this, which should help us immensely. And although we believe we are making more progress (several issues were resolved), preventing recurrences is still not fully resolved. This is impacting our making our The Gospel of the Kingdom of God booklet available in as many languages/dialects that we have received. Please continue to pray about this.

Our hope is to upload and/or reconnect additional languages for the The Gospel of the Kingdom of God booklet.

Matthew 24:14 will be fulfilled and despite setbacks, we are preparing for the short work of Romans 9:28.

Another hope we have is that after we hit close to the available languages we can receive translations into, we will then start a similar process with another one of our booklets. Remember we are to reach “all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues” (Revelation 7:9) and we continue to work in preparation of that goal (see also Preparing for the ‘Short Work’ and The Famine of the Word).

Sermon

This week’s recommended sermon is titled Hebrews 1-2 & Angels: An Introduction. One of the reasons that the title includes “An Introduction” is that I hope to do a sermon with more information on angels in the future.  Perhaps a multipart series.

Previous videos, at least partially, related to angels include the following:

The Three Angels’ Messages. Here is a link to a related sermon in the Spanish language: El Mensaje de los tres angeles.

Is Jesus the Archangel Michael? Here is a a related video in the Spanish language: ¿El Arcángel Miguel es Jesús?

Did Angels Marry Women and Produce Giants? Here is a link in Spanish: ¿Se casaron los ángeles con mujeres humanas?

Mark 3-5: Healing, Demons, and Parables

Poltergeists and Lying Wonders.

The other reason that the recommended sermon title includes “An Introduction” is because it is an introduction to the canonicity of that book, as well as the first sermon in an intended multi-part sermon covering the Book of Hebrews.

In the recommended sermon for this week, Hebrews 1-2 & Angels: An Introduction, I quoted the late Pastor General of the old Worldwide Church of God, Herbert W. Armstrong who said in his comments associated with the Book of Hebrews on a radio broadcast:

we should be helping one other and we should be making things better for one another. 

We should all strive to do that all the time, and that is something we are working on with our videos and literature, despite our flaws and technical limitations.

When you watch the sermon, Hebrews 1-2 & Angels: An Introduction, that statement from Herbert Armstrong is what I decided to circle on my written notes after I read it out loud (it did not hit me the same way when I had read it silently in preparation for the sermon).

Youth Camp

On Friday, I received the following from pastor David Cheruiyot regarding the youth camp held in his area:

Dear Pastor Bob Thiel,

Christian greetings from Northern Rift Valley Molo-Njoro Kenya. I am glad to take this granted opportunity in the name of our lord and savior Jesus Christ who is soon coming king to rile this world.

I am delightful to inform you that the youth group meeting that ended on 28^th December 2024 was very successful and fruitful. Many attended, we were three hundred in number (300). The bus fare from njoro to molo was very expensive due to pagan’s holidays they call Christmas. God fulfilled his mission for our future generation.

We thank our brother Evans for the support, may God bless him. We pray for him for the good work done in Africa especially Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda etc. we received many calls in Kenya but the laborers are few, so we pray God to fulfil , Mathew 24:14.

Again I will not forget to inform you that pastor Ochieng’ will visit Molo on January next month 2025 to see the progress of the continuing church of God. After he will be done with the visit in the Nothern Rift valley – molo, I am having an emergency call in Maasai land the border of Kenya and Tanzania, please I need your prayers. Photos of the youth camp are attached.

Yours in Vineyard,

Pastor David Cheruiyot.

Please pray for our outreach to the Masai–I met with a couple of them in the CCOG during my last trip to Kenya.

In the end time, we are to work to, “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:6). Youth camps are just one way to help do that. And it is great that this one and the previous ones (see Letter to the Brethren: January 2, 2025) went well the past few weeks.

Baptisms in Malawi

Deacon Sosten Libungwa sent the following reports and photos:

Dear Evans,Bob

Church greetings,a video clip for the baptism in Malawi,this is conducted at Mpasa church yesterday on 5 January 2025,they were 45 candidates some was from nearest churches,this is the first baptism in Malawi in 2025,there is no dream in my life to join other fake group of churches,those are not churches but groups of games where boys are going for physical and belting,all my power,my strength and my dream I will die as ccog member,I have nothing to do with them ,I have done with them,what this people do is to buy people with money,I can’t do this,don’t think that I can do this, Sosten

Dear Evans,Bob.

See the lined up of baptism candidates at Mpasa ccog church yesterday,

Sosten Libungwa

Sosten Libugwa has long told me that he considers that those who left the CCOG and who contacted him to go with them to be “fake groups,” “fake ministers,” and “fake churches.” My position has been that they are not part of the Philadelphia remnant–God will judge beyond that.

Related to the baptisms, it is great that so many are responding. Remember that Jesus said, “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).

Improving BNP Quality

The past couple of weeks, Steve Dupuie and I tried to use an alternative to Skype to record the Bible News Prophecy program.

The attempt a couple of weeks ago to use a service called Riverside.fm, did not go well enough, so we went with Skype.

However, last week using Riverside.fm went fairly well and so the recommended sermonette for this week, The City is Full of Violence, was done through that, and not Skype.

We are striving to improve our presentations, including how they look and sound.

That said, the recording of my voice for this week’s recommended sermonette did not come out as well as hoped. Steve Dupuie and I later experimented with a microphone that I have and believe that the one we expect to record next Sabbath will be better.