Letter to the Brethren: May 30, 2024

Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Greetings from the Five Cities of California. We came back here yesterday after a short trip to Phoenix, Arizona.

As has been the case recently, we also received another 20 translations of our English booklet titled The Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

Some of you may recall that I have never claimed that the translations were perfect. Instead, I have said that the following prophecy applies:

9 “Whom will he teach knowledge?  And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts?  10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little.”

11 For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people,  12 To whom He said, “This is the rest with which You may cause the weary to rest,” And, “This is the refreshing”; Yet they would not hear. (Isaiah 28:9-12)

Notice that even having some language difficulties seems to have been prophesied. And, I have been saying that about our translations for many years (e.g. watch Behind the Work 2016: All Nations, Tribes, People, and Tongues).

We are to reach people in multiple languages as a witness before the end comes (Matthew 24:14), despite the fact that most will not respond in this age. And we know that there may be difficulties caused by translations.

Rwanda Trip

Evangelist Evans Ochieng is back from Rwanda. The trip mainly went well, although our leader in Burundi was unable to come because of governmental border crossing issues. Evans Ochieng mentioned that he brought 100 or so of our BibleNewsProphecy magazines with him that were in the language of Kiswahili. While that is not the native language there, many in Africa read Kiswahili.

Moise Nshimiyimana, our leader in Rwanda sent the following photo and report related to the visit:

Peace to you Dear Pastor Dr Bob ,

I’m happy to give you this good report from Rwanda that God’s work is going well.

We thanks because Pastor Evans visited us in this past days. He helped us understand the questions we asked about the 7 churches of Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3 and about prophecy of Revelation chapter 13 and Daniel chapter 2 and 7 . We were also interested by the training He gave us especially as church leaders from Rwanda and Congo.

But we were all with delegation from Congo very happy as believers in general because of the teaching he gave us on the Sabbath day about the gospel of the Kingdom of God and being christian families. I have attached a photo of the Sabbath meeting.

So , in the name of the delegation from Congo as they say we thank you again for the financial support of travel and other things that were required for the meeting , for that , May God bless you.

However , the brother Norbert from Burundi could not come because of the situation especially that between the country of Burundi and Rwanda where the border are closed and from Burundi to Rwanda but passing through another country as Tanzania or Congo is expensive.

Let us we continue to praise God and to be believe God , who can do everything.

Best Regards ,

Moïse .

It is great that we are making inroads into those lands, but yes, there are governmental and other things that sometimes get in the way.

Meditation Sermon and a New Book

The recommended sermon for this sermon is about meditation.

While working on it, I thought that turning my sermon notes into a booklet could make sense. So, I did.

While the booklet still needs to undergo modification and formatting, here is a online link to it: Meditation for Faithful Christians.

We expect to have printed copies of it available this Summer or early Fall.

BBS Faith Network

In the Letter to the Brethren: May 23, 2024 last week, I mentioned that we were starting to go on a BBS Faith Network’s podcast channel.

We are scheduled to be on each week at 1:30pm to 1:45PM CST on Saturday,  then repeated 1:46pm to 2pm Sunday.

Here is what they have put online related to the program:

Bible News Prophecy with Dr. Bob Thiel

STATION 2 
VIDEO-TV and RADIO icons
– press to watch or listen –
     

Call In Live to 888-429-5471 or 323-744-4841
to speak to Hosts/Guests during show hours

Video:   https://bbsradio.com/bbsradiotv/bbs-radio-tv-2.html
Audio:   https://bbsradio.com/html5_player/html5_player2.htm

Bible News Prophecy

The Bible News Prophecy program broadcasts news and information in the light of the Bible and its prophecies. This includes proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ and the gospel of the coming Kingdom of God to the world as a witness (Matthew 24:14), teaching all things that Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:19-20), providing prophetic warnings of God’s impending judgments, contending for the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3), assisting in the calling of the full number of those to be reached before Jesus returns (Romans 11:25-26), explaining mysteries of God’s merciful (James 2:13) and loving plan (e.g. Romans 16:25-27), helping people better understand the Bible (Acts 8:30-31, Romans 10:14-15), explaining God’s loving plan of salvation (Psalm 68:30, John 3:16-17, Luke 3:6, Romans 11), encouraging people to live the way of Philadelphian (Hebrews 13:1) and agape love (1 Corinthians 13), and calling for personal (Acts 2:38) and national repentance (2 Chronicles 7:13-15).

The Bible News Prophecy program teaches the fact of God’s existence, the fact of Jesus being Savior, and the certainty of biblical truths. The program discusses what the future holds for humanity in the light of Bible prophecy. The Bible News Prophecy program analyzes news and world events by the light of the word of God and also explains matters that will happen in the future, based on Bible prophecy.

The Bible News Prophecy program is sponsored by the Continuing Church of God.

Jesus said His true Church would be a “little flock” and be around until He returns

The Continuing Church of God is a “little flock” that traces its history from the Book of Acts, throughout the ages, and into the 21st Century.

We trace our unbroken history to the start of the New Testament church in the Book of Acts. We are a pacifist church that teaches original Christianity as taught and practiced by Jesus Christ, the original Apostles, their early faithful followers, and others faithful to original Christianity throughout history. We have supporters and congregations around the world. We have free literature online available in over 1500 languages at ccog.org. We have churches in multiple countries (see Congregations of the Continuing Church of God ) and over 10,000 congregants around the world.

Our primary English speaking radio presenters for the Bible News Prophecy program on numerous AM/FM stations as well as shortwave stations are Steve Dupuie and Dr. Bob Thiel as well as James Martenet. The Bible News Prophecy program is also available online at biblenewsprophecy.net.

Dr. Thiel … more on him can be found in the article available at: https://www.cogwriter.com/cogwriter.htm…

Dr. Thiel writes daily news and prophecy articles which are available at https://www.cogwriter.com/

The YouTube channel link is: Bible News Prophecy channel.

So, we will see in time how this is working to reach the world with our biblically-based messages.

Phoenix Trip

As mentioned, my wife Joyce and I are back from a trip to Phoenix, Arizona. David Stevens, who originally counseled with the late deacon Richard Close, was finally baptized on Sunday. Here is a photo:

Jesus taught:

7 I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’ 10 Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (uke 15:7-10)

So, there was joy in heaven this past week.

While in Phoenix, Joyce and I also ended up meeting with a couple who said that they wanted to come to the CCOG after realizing serious errors in a group that had been affiliated with (RCG).

Support to Africa

We provided some support to Pastor Tiongik Sawek and a part of the CCOG in the Chilani, Kenya referred to as ‘the Daughters of the Kingdom.’ Pastor Sawek sent the following in response:

Hello and I believe you are doing well. Following the funds sent, I have managed to withdraw and I have also given to the Daughters of the Kingdom. We are much thankful for the funds, and pray for you all . The previous months we experienced a lot of financial crisis and especially widows and orphans and but all is well. The Chilani women are struggling also in providing assistance. I have shared the women photo too.

Regards,

Pst. Sawek

The Apostles wanted church leaders to “remember the poor” (Galatians 2:20), and though we did not receive a specific request in Chilani for assistance, we were fairly sure that the poor there needed to be remembered and we provided some.

Suggested Sabbath Day Services