Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:
Greetings again from the Five Cities region of California.
We continue to work to promote the truth, love, and the good news of the Kingdom of God as opportunities appear available.
Feast of Tabernacles
The Feast of Tabernacles will be here soon–in a little over 3 months.
As a reminder, those of you who are planning to go to the sites in either Aurora, Illinois, USA or New Brunswick, Canada, who have not let me or Herb Haddon know (his email address is hwhaddon@gmail.com), should let us know now, so we can plan better. Please respond as soon as you can.
My email address remains cogwriter@aol.com
Radio
Was again able to be on the Nutri-Medical Report on the Republic Broadcasting Network (RBN). This was at 1:00 pm Central Daylight Time on Monday July 11th.
There is also a radio interview scheduled tomorrow July 15, 2016 at 9:40 am on WRJN 1400 am in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This is a first time interview at that station, and is likely to be relatively short.
Radio exposure is another we in the Continuing Church of God have been able to reach people with the truths of the Bible who might not otherwise be able to hear those messages.
A New Group in Serbia
We are pleased to announce that a group from Serbia has declared that it wants to be part of the Continuing Church of God.
I have known about this group for a time, but it was only this week that we got the final email confirmation that they wish to be part of the Continuing Church of God as there were computer problems that interfered with us hearing from them.
The leader/host of the group did attend the old Ambassador College a couple of decades ago.
Serbia, itself, is in the middle of the Balkan peninsula. About ten people there have said they would like to be part of the Continuing Church of God. It is my hope and prayer that I may be able to visit there this year or next.
Malawi and Mozambique
Received a couple of emails from Sosten Libungwa of Malawi related to his trip to Mozambique and his preparations for the Feast in Malawi:
Dear pastor Dr. Bob:
Greetings from Sosten, glad to give you the report for June-July 2016. I went to Mozambique to visited and encouraging our brethren about our faith as the Kingdom of God is at hand. We had the good meetings and that some ask the baptism and I told them first to continue learning the words of God while waiting for Pastor Evans to come in future for this. I also give funds some brethren to come to Malawi to attend yesterday Sabbath of which they came on Thursday and they left today in the morning. You can see three brothers on our Church hall after service at Migowi Malawi. While I was on Mozambique. I also help the new leader with funds to complete his Church hall. If you can look the first pictures I sent to you last month, then if you compare with pictures am sending you now, you can see that it has more changes than before, this work I make sure to be done while I was there, thank God for this support from CCOG,WE PRAY FOR YOU ALL THE TIMES, You can see the youth inside of the Church are very much happy and singing in the beautiful hall after it has been covered with Iron sheets from both sides as you can see. May God bless you Doctor.
Dear pastor Evans,
Greetings from your son Sosten, as you know we have been renting hall for our Church activities like Sabbath prayers and many more, sometimes we get more confused because of this hall, as you remember this hall was sold and the second buyer told us to continue using this hall and every month we pay money to this building but the second one is not a good man to compare with the first man, why he demand more money sometime he told us not to conducting service when we delay to pay money for rent, because of this we started building our Church hall,
We finished the first stage of foundation has you can see pictures of this work, we mold bricks last year to prepare this work, pastor Evans knew about this, this year I told my Church people to bring sand of which with one accord we did, after the work was stared, we put one big room for us to keep Sabbath inside and some rooms so that other leaders must sleep inside during time of Feast of Tebernacles. This is one way of preparing the Feast of Tabernacle in October 2016.
Every time that Evans will be in Malawi he shall sleep in this building after get it finished it, instead sleeping at the Hotel ,he will use this building and we shall save more money for Hotel bills, we will put shower and Toilet for short call inside of it.
Problems,
The Cement get finished and we cannot continue because of this, we have enough sand and bricks but Cement is problem. Please pray for us, when God will provide us funds for Cement, the project will go on.my Church members are men that are building this hall while women bringing water and food to men that are working.
Sosten
Here are some photos he mentioned:
Note the date order is that commonly used in the world, other than the USA–these are July dates.
Report from Rift Valley, Kenya
We received the following report from Rift Valley , Kenya yesterday:
I greet you in the name of Jesus Christ. Here in rift valley Narok we
are doing well. Indeed we are experiencing a wonderful work the lord
is doing here ever since we joined the ministry of continuing the
church of God. We are also very much thankful for your continual
support through pastor Ochieng feasts, orphans, widows and other needy
brethren’s, although there are many people who are experiencing
physical problems which we are undergoing due to economic hardship we
are thankful on the support towards the construction of churches and
chair. The group of Mau includes;1. Osotua – 35 members
2. Nkoben – 25 members
3. Kewet – 18 members
The groups of Emurua Dikirr include;
1. Chilani – 37 members
2. Motosiet – 28 members
3. Takitech – 24 members
4. Kabolecho – 18 members
In Bomet there are 50 members.Yours Joseah Kipngetich
As can be seen above, there are many CCOG congregations in Joseah Kipngetich’s region.
Services and a Change in Minnesota
Terry Nelson sent me the following:
Hi Dr. Thiel, here are the Dates for upcoming Sabbath Services for Duluth/Superior Area. July 16, 23, 30. August 6, 13, 20, 27. Sept 10, 24 ; all held at the Superior Public Library. 10:30 to 1:45pm. Address is 1530 Tower Ave. Superior, WI. 54880. Ph# 715-394-2859.. New meeting place is Cloquet Public Library. 320 14th st. Cloquet, MN. 55720. Services will be held from 10:30-1:45pm on Sept 17th. Ph# 218-879-1531.
The normal attendees of this group are Terry Nelson and one or two of his children. In time, we hope and pray more will be attending there.
A New Sermon Series
Last Sabbath, I began a new sermon series. This one is intended to cover all of what is commonly referred to as the Gospel According to Matthew or more often, the Book of Matthew.
Why?
Well, because in the last verses in that book Jesus says:
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20)
As we getting closer to the end of this age, this is something we as a church need to be doing.
Why the Book of Matthew?
In the past, we taught all things He commanded as we covered Jesus’ words in the Books of Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. Matthew is one gospel account that we have not specifically covered.
Why in the Summer?
Basically, because this Summer, like last Summer, I have been part of a radio campaign to get many radio interviews. Doing radio interviews takes time to plan and actually do. This does not leave the usual amount of preparation time I have to put a sermon together. And since it normally takes less preparation time to go through a book of the Bible (though it does still take preparation time), this allows me to be more available to accept radio invitations (as well as sometimes to be able to work on other future sermon matters).
This year, the radio promotion is expected to run through the Fall and later I may need to come up with a plan to handle the Fall sermons (I have a few subjects in mind). But, for now at least, many of the Summer sermons are planned, allowing me to be currently available for radio interviews.
World News Items
The USA is still reeling from shootings by police officers as well as shootings in Dallas of police officers (see USA reeling over shootings–could the Dallas shooter have had ties to Islam?). Yesterday, CBS characterized Republic presidential candidate Donald Trump’s views on this ‘apocalyptic’ (see CBS: ‘Trump paints apocalyptic picture of racial tensions in U.S.’). Sadly, because they do not understand the love of God, we expect to see more racial unrest and violence in the USA.
In the USA, many are fearful of the results of its election this year–up to 81% according to a poll that was reported about today (see AP: ‘Fear Factor: Americans scared of their presidential options’). It hope be great if this fear moved Americans to repentance, but this does not appear to be likely.
Over in the UK, its Prime Minister David Cameron accelerated his resignation till yesterday (see UK’s David Cameron out this week and to be replaced with Theresa May) and was replaced by Theresa May (see Theresa May, now UK Prime Minister, appoints Boris Johnson Foreign Minister. What is Article 50?) We may well see a female leader also for the USA in several months. The Bible warns that this is not good (Isaiah 3:12). Also, Theresa May’s appointment of Boris Johnson as Foreign Minister has resulted in many European leaders getting more angry with the UK as they do not like nor often respect him. This does not bode well for the UK in the long run.
On other matters, the complaint that the Philippines raised about China in the South China Sea was decided in favor of the Philippines by the United Nations. China, however, said before the ruling it would not abide by it, and repeated that after the U.N. ruling (see U.N. court rules in favor of the Philippines on the South China Sea, but China says it will ignore the decision). I suspect that this will mean that the USA will continue its ‘Asian pivot’ policy that Hillary Clinton advocated when she was US Secretary of State. This, from a prophetic perspective, means that the USA will put resources in the Pacific region to deal with China and other perceived threats, while overlooking the prophesied threat to the USA that will come from Europe (cf. Daniel 11:39).
Speaking of the threat from Europe, yesterday the German Defense Minister announced that Germany is now ready to lead Europe militarily. The Minister got the German cabinet to approve her ‘white paper’ calling for increased military funding and troops for Germany (see German Defense Minister states that Germany is now ready to lead Europe militarily).
In archaeological news, it was reported that an ancient cemetery for the Philistines was uncovered. Foolishly, the article about that also had a claim that the Philistines were ‘completely destroyed in 604 B.C. (see Ancient Philistines’ cemetery uncovered, yet ‘researchers’ misunderstand prophecy). This is foolish, because biblical prophecy tells of events involving descendants of the Philistines in these end times (see Gaza and the Palestinians in Bible Prophecy). We always need to believe the Bible above modern ‘experts’ whenever there appears to be a conflict (cf. Romans 3:4; John 10:35).
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 most who receive this letter via email will be a recorded one: America’s Day of Reckoning 2017 Dollar Collapse? 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: Matthew 1-2: Greek or Aramaic, Jesus, and the Star? 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 Bible News Prophecy channel.
Concluding Comments
The Apostle Paul wrote:
13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. 14 For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 2:13-14)
Dear brethren, like the Apostle Paul, we are pleased that you have accepted the true gospel as well as keeping the practices of the original churches of God in Judea. We also are grateful for your support of proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God to the world as a witness.
Sincerely,
Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer