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friends Jesus works to sustain life in the present world, even as the sign points toward the ultimate life he alone can offer. We are covenant friends with Jesus and as such our obedience is of faith knowing the tables were   the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables and that the work of God is that we believe on him whom He hath sent. The costs were unavoidable if Jesus was to do the work God set before him. The world could not come into being without the work of Christ in the beginning. The world could not be restored to God’s intention without the work of Christ on the cross. Our work may also call for costs that are not fair to us, but which cannot be avoided if we are to complete our work. Jesus worked to bring true life to others. As faithful friends of Jesus we do not depart from the pattern set for us by the Lord Jesus. The attitude of humble service should accompany all we do. We work for God, but in a spirit of friendship and collegiality. It is in the fullest sense of the term a family business. We are family business active participants in the world creation/restoration that fuels the loving relationship between the Father and the Son. We do the work of the Son and Father, and we join the intimacy of the Son and the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Father shows His love for the Son by allowing him to share in the glory of world formation and re-creation. The Son shows his love for the Father by ever and only doing His will, making and remaking the world for the Father’s glory according to the Father’s biddings in the power of the Spirit. The discipled friends enter into this ever-flowing love of the Father, Son, and Spirit, not only by faithful reflection but also by embracing the Son’s mission and working as he did. The call to share in the love is inextricable from the call to share in the labor. The prayer, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me, is matched by, as thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world, and it issues forth in lovest thou me,…feed my sheep. The creation memory is to become the means of our spiritual connection as being who work alongside one another, and in so doing enter into God’s labor to bring creation to its fulfillment. The promise of effectiveness echoes Jesus’ words; verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. Greater works than these would then mean more converts than he himself made. Jesus is speaking to his friends so this must refer to the whole range of work to which believers are called. Service is the active service to others form of love. Through God’s grace, our work should be the arena where we live out our relationship with God and others through loving service. However humble or exalted it may be in others’ estimation, becomes the place where God’s glory is displayed. By God’s grace, as we work, we become living parables of the love and glory of God. Remember the two immutable things –God’s covenant and God’s oath. In Christ this brought the new covenant, a new commandment that is the same yet with now the human divineness is displayed not in a servile obedience, but a friendship obedience. Those who are Jesus’ friends obey His commands; it is what characterizes them. The whole of this is filled with salvation-historical meaning. Jesus is telling us that we are recipients of the blessings of Abraham, the forever friend of God, through the new covenant. The relationship is not one where God is dependent upon the spiritual Israelites, but the relationship functions the other way around. To be considered a “friend of God” is different than something like the relationship between David and Jonathan. The intimate aspect is there, but being a friend of God means that He has dedicated Himself to securing our redemption. Though there is definitely an element of companionship within friendship with Jesus, that is not the primary emphasis here. This is connected with everything Jesus said about our need to “abide in the vine”. What makes the new covenant so essential…by blood Jesus is dedicating Himself to our redemption. No longer just servants…friends! So what of the salvation- historical meaning. We are the seed form, making large what Jesus was talking about. He is speaking about the change of relationship. This is a reference to what new covenant obedience looks like. abide in the vine Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem Mt. Sinai which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. When we reason with this truth, we see that what Jesus is saying is that the disciples and all new covenant true believers relate to God not just in a servile relationship, but in friendship. He has dedicated Himself to our redemption. This is what he means when he says for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth. In times past God’s covenant people were not informed of God’s saving plan in the full measure now accorded Jesus’ chosen election. Although there is much we still have not grasped, within that constraint Jesus is telling us everything he has learned from his Father. Jesus is the source of our life and the source of our love. He is God. The fruit that we reap comes from Him. And that fruit will be shown as his friends love one another as he loves us. New covenant love lays down life for the sake of friends. And we are Jesus’ friends, so we are willing to lay down our lives for him. Don’t look for something we have to “do” in this truth, it’s not there. There are no imperatives for us where God’s love is. We are the recipients of the friendship of Christ and all the blessing which He bestows. We are the ones who have been brought into Jesus’ “all that I have heard from my Father”. All that I have heard from my Father But this is what we “do”…abide and love. We remain in Christ and as we do this, we find that we are motivated to love one another. We are friends. Jesus is absolutely dedicated to those who are His friends. He is dedicated to those whom He has called and those whom He has chosen. We rest in this! By his knowledge and by his own life, Jesus loves without limit, and he makes it possible for us to be like him, transformed by everything he shares with us. For Jesus, friendship is the ultimate relationship with God and one another. Only those who love can willingly suffer for, die for another. The aspect of ancient friendship is important for understanding friendship in ancient the context of the word. To lay down one’s life for one’s friend is completely unprecedented today. Frankness of speech, by common report and belief, is the language of friendship. The bible writings were not created in a social vacuum. These two dimensions of friendship in the world - the gift of one’s life for one’s friends and the use of truthful and open speech - provide the words to describe and name who and what Jesus is, for he did both of these and as a friend he gives us every word that he has heard from his Father. How much of the Holy Spirit’s revealing to our mind do we open up to others. In sharing we enable our friends to participate in the intimacy and trust that reasoning with God reveals to us. Jesus did not merely talk about laying down his life for his friends. Jesus enacted the ancient ideal of friendship - he laid down his life for his friends. What Jesus teaches, he lives as an embodied promise and gift. The love that led him to do this can be replicated and embodied over and over again by his followers. To keep Jesus’ commandment is to enact his love in our own lives. Jesus affirms the significance of this commandment by stating that his followers become his friends to the extent that they keep his commandment. Our life of faith must be reassessed. If we take Jesus’ commandment to love seriously, and if we long to be called “friend” by Jesus, then the believer is to give love freely and generously without counting the cost and without wondering and worrying about who is on the receiving end of our limitless love. Because this, too, is how Jesus loved. What counts most is the embodiment of God’s love in the count the cost world, not the character of those who receive this love. What will be asked of us and what may we be able to give in Jesus’ name. Jesus loves his own “to the end”. “To the end” means simultaneously “to the end of time” and “to the full extent of love.” To love to the full extent of love means that Jesus loves perfectly, and that in Jesus’ act of love we see love perfected. The faithfulness of a friend is transformative love, when in conversation, nothing is held back as the speaker risks herself in the speaking; the listener risks himself in the hearing. The next time you hear the word "friend", think of Jesus. He calls you His own; he knows everything about you - and still chooses to love you; who desperately longs to spend time with you and listen to you; he is always there for you; he never stops thinking about you; he is someone who cares deeply for you, and prays for you. God has designed us and chosen us for intimate participation in love. We are not the best of ourselves alone. This is why friendship is not extra but essential. Friendship expresses principles of Christ’s own affection for us. Friendship is a form of communion, where we meet Christ's own love for us. This is why friendship is not extra. Friendship reminds us that we are not alone, but that love is at the core of who we are. Friendship is a mirror to remind us of who we are. Friendship reminds us that we are acceptable, that we are able to love and to be loved. Acceptance liberates us to face the truth about ourself, the full truth about who God has made us to be. We gain a deeper level of context about who we are purposed to be for God. Friendship reminds us that love is gratuitous and surprising. God gives us to one another, and He knows what blessing we will be to each other. These new bonds require intentionality and effort to blossom into love that is familial in nature. Family is built on trust, love, and friendship. Some friends we wouldn’t have picked for ourselves are given to us as gifts from God. They cross denominational, socioeconomic, racial, and national lines. They will be our family. We will look like what heaven will be. Move forward in faith in friendship. The blood of Christ commits us to God and to one another, not only now but for eternity. Jesus calling us family is an honor we should strive to live up to. Dare to believe that we can help someone be perfect in Christ. FRIENDS & FAMILY

When Love Hurt God Let’s consider initially if it’s possible for our God to hurt. God made us in His image and likeness. We were made to have a body, soul, and spirit. We have a soul which inhabits our will, mind, and emotions. And our God is so all powerful until He is not fearful of our reflecting His traits. The truth that God hurts when we hurt, found full expression when it was revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. In Christ the immense love that hurt God is shown. Christ is God in the flesh – even the Son of God. This is a mystery, not a contradiction. God was, in Christ, connecting Himself to us. Christ is the same nature of God’s Being. Divinity and humanity belong to Him. And the full resource of the Spirit is made available to man in His justice and compassion, begetting and being begotten, giving and receiving. Because of Christ, we are sons and daughters reserved unto salvation who by regeneration and new life receive the life of God. Because of sin, moral purity alone is not enough to connect us to the nature and life of God. He had to be like us. In this one unique body, we can be like Christ and one with the Father. In perfect love condescension, the Holy Ghost came upon the chosen vessel and the power of the Highest overshadowed her. This is when love hurt God…when man rejects this union to be reborn by hearing the Word of God and receiving the Spirit of God, we reject the Creator. I almost shudder to write this. Praying that the reader reasons with God’s word to come to the truth of knowing that as Jesus was, so are we in this world. We are a new kind of people. Born from God’s spiritual DNA, united to human flesh. Why should we tolerate sinful thoughts and actions. In our lives we are to reveal God’s heart. It was determined that God had always hurt when His people hurt. But He did so in a real, tangible manner through the Incarnation - through the event that began in Bethlehem. II Corinthians 4:6 Every aspect of God will eternally prove to be the most holiest fascination, that could ever be known or realized. And two of these aspects are His love and His hurt. Love caused God to do the only thing that could both vindicate His character and make a way for our salvation. He delivered up His Son to suffer and die. Redemptive suffering is the most beautiful and perfect love. Answering our cries for mercy, and saving our souls after we’ve been enlightened, cause God more suffering in that each sin places His Son on the cross again. Love hurt God to hear His Son cry “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me”. Love hurt God in that He foreknew by watching a daughter or a son, self-sabotage through disobedience every caring opportunity, every pursuit of the Holy Spirit, every warning offered in the word of God. Love hurts God as He watches us go through a painful situation, that’s for our ultimate good. God loves us to the height of heaven and the depth of the sea. We might ought to reason with what’s happening to us, in light of how deeply God cares. He desires our conformity more than our comfort. Truth reveals to us the certainty from which we can draw great strength in the knowledge that God is suffering with us. He hurts when we hurt. God with us is the name of His Son. Love hurt God as He showed us His heart through all of the humiliation and abuse endured by His Son. Love hurt God in that His is an unrelenting concern for our well-being, knowing the cause of the untold grief and pain in this broken world. God does not love us because He hurts, He hurts because He loves us. He hurts because He is love. It's His character, His nature, and God suffers in His love for us. God’s unrelenting, self-sacrificing, unrequited, hurting love for us… To know we are loved like this, despite our failings, our weaknesses, should change us. To know we are loved like this, by the God of the universe, should give us confidence and strength and purpose in this world like nothing else. When we sin against Him. When we resist Him, reject Him, rebel against Him, when we don’t believe in Him, when we turn our backs on Him, when we choose godlessness instead of godliness, when we break His commandments, and when we love, worship, and serve ourselves instead of loving, worshiping, and serving the Lord – His heart grieves. But God counts the joy of our salvation worth the hurt. We will know both the joy and the hurt of this love in the soon coming days, when we are asked to lay down our lives for our friends. We are to reason with truth to where we see God the Creator having such great hurt in His heart, because of how the whole of mankind has gotten perverted. And as God, even the Holy Ghost is grieved by our sinful attitudes. In that love is so powerful, and love is mandatory, it will collide with much hurt because we are called to be in the world, but not of the world, and the world today is filled with sin. God so loved the world and we are to love the people, but Jesus tells us that the world hated him first, and the world will hate us because we have been chosen out of the world. There are two things in this world that effect every relationship – love in a relationship and hurt of a relationship. That relationship could be one of marriage, common siblings, friendship, or spiritual community. Even God is not immune from hurt. And we know that it is true that God is love. It hurt God when He told Samuel that we rejected Him. When we fail to come to God to reason as He asks, we break the relationship, and we lose out on the truth that love wanted us to know. The truer the love, the more excruciating the hurt. The same mouth that prayed with you may one day rebel against you. Yet, God’s people learn through reasoning that as love hurt God, the only thing that is more powerful than hurt is love. When we are hurt, the best weapon or remedy to use is, love. If we use any other weapon we will lose. Any other remedy, we will not heal. What advantage are we given in reasoning with God? We come to understand the difference between weakness and wickedness. Our loved ones may suffer the weakness of wisdom because they reason not with truth. Wickedness only results from rejection of truth. Christ was a victim of both weakness and wickedness and still his love bade forgive them. It was this love for His people that hurt God. It was this love meant for our good, not our hurt. Let us love as does God. In every hurt endured for Christ there is a blessing to bring us to a deeper reconciliation with God. Love is a heavenly act done in an earthly creation. And sin entered that love and hurt God, because God did not create us for this kind of world. Thank God that blood memory endures, that we might reason the shedding of Christ’s blood in the Garden, that wrought remission of sin. But praise God for the breath of His spirit, that we have always with us that which remains of the image that formed us, that the spiritual memory that comes from above is the higher attainment of the great lovingkindness that draws us. Love hurt God Love hurt God and love will hurt us, because neither God nor we will abandon our love for people. God designed love to be eternal. And love will last beyond those who choose to abandon God. Love hurt because it cares about what God cares about. God hates sin. Therefore, love hates sin. It’s hard to see those we care about affected by evil. Jesus cried when his friend Lazarus died. He knew he would soon resurrect Lazarus in a short while. So why cry? Jesus cried because of the effects of sin on his friend. Who among us have not cried for similar reasons? God uses all things for our good. God uses sin to give greater power to love. Any of us who claim to hold real love for another has no choice but to see them the way God sees them. In this sense, love serves as the great connector between God and man. Hurt, like love, unites us. Thank God that love can bear hurt. Christ loved on the cross by experiencing deep hurt for us. His love endured to the point of death, and three days later he loved through death itself. God does not offer a hurt-free life. But He does offer a love-filled life in Christ. God kept love on this earth because He knew He was not finished with us. Love is the speech of Heaven. And there, that language will have no words in its vocabulary to describe hurt. There will no longer be a need. Love existed without sin. Love existed without hurt. Love still exists, but there is sickness, infidelity, abuse, scorn, anguish, as we lower loved ones into a grave…the world is cruel. The sufferings God sends come not from hate, but from love. They do not express God's condemnation, but His consecration. Love hurting God is not altogether a bad thing. Hurt brings trouble, trials that create a catalyst for discussion, for reasoning, that leads to revealed truth that expresses greater faith in God’s plan. Love hurt God does not mean there is something wrong with His love. The wrong is with us — our sin. God must root out our sin, and that is hurtful for us to take. That hurts God as He is perfecting His love in us. Think about the messages to the churches, especially Laodicea. Jesus expresses disgust towards those in Laodicea, declaring that he is on the verge of vomiting them out of his mouth. Yet, he affirms his love for them! May I boldly suggest that it is precisely because he loves his people, that he refuses to tolerate their lukewarm indifference toward spiritual matters? In other words, the harsh words, the firm discipline evoked by their backslidden behavior, together with his strong counsel, are all motivated by our Lord’s love for his own. This is the nature of divine discipline. Living for Jesus holds forth the potential for much hurt. Love hurt God when we fail to love Him for all He is doing to save us. If you have a child, have you ever had to put correction upon him or her? Do you love ‘em? Did it hurt? Love can hurt, can’t it? But you are saving a soul. The measure of true love is the pursuit of righteousness. God is passionately committed to making us holy. There is no love in providing comfort to someone in sin…love hurt God. Jesus is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. When our Father has to perform spiritual surgery to excise the tumor of sin and rebellion and unbelief, it hurts, it’s confusing, it’s inconvenient, but above all else, it’s loving. Love hurt God as His Son hung on that cross. Laodiceans have a hard lesson to learn. Will they grasp truth and repent? The natural mind does not understand God’s doing whatever is necessary to draw us to Himself. Amos chapter 4 - God withheld food to make His people hungry. He stopped the rain to make them thirsty. He corrupted the fields to ruin their harvest. Most devastating of all, He even killed their loved ones. He withheld food, “yet you did not return to me.” He withheld water, “yet you did not return to me.” He ruined the fields, “yet you did not return to me.” He even killed their loved ones, “yet you did not return to me.” God’s purpose was not destruction, but reconciliation. His motivation was not revenge, but compassion. He wasn’t wielding His power and justice mainly as punishment, but as invitation. In every ounce of suffering, He calls to His people, come back to Me. God is willing to withhold anything to bring His people home to Himself. Again and again, the hurt He allows is designed to lead us to comfort and hope and healing, not despair. Love hurt God to hurt us. The hurt may feel like God’s fierce anger in the moment, but it actually serves to reveal His warm compassion toward us. Isaiah 55:7 Joel 2:12, 13 Hosea 6:1 Love hurt God, but in His love we will come to a deeper, more durable joy in our sorrow and suffering. When we begin to see all that God does for us through adversity whereby which He loves us, we not only learn to tolerate our weaknesses and afflictions, we boast all the more gladly in them. In the end, the sweetest gift God gives us when He wounds us, is that He gives us more of Himself. When we return to God, we get God. It is this love that hurt God to do unto us what He must do because He loves us. This love hurt God because He knows that we will either choose to meet Him one day as a precious son or daughter. But if we refuse, we will meet Him as an enemy, and our suffering will be far worse. Love hurt God when we wound His love through rejection. heartache Love hurt God in that it made Him vulnerable to our circumstance. Love hurt God because His heart had to be wrung and deeply broken when His Son had to die for our sin. Love hurt God because every soul lost to Him is lost at such great cost. It hurt Christ, but he kept on loving, even at the cost of His life. Love hurt God when we take not the opportunity to be for Him in every way as He is for us. Jeremiah 8:18-22 As believers, we must realize that having offered our hearts to God and made the decision to follow Him, doesn’t exempt the love He has for us from hurting God. Yes, we have pleased Him by surrendering our lives to Him, but there are times we go against what He wants us to do. There are times we neglect to reason with Him and allow the word to lift us to the higher understanding. There are times we forget how He teaches knowledge and go seeking solutions elsewhere. Love hurt God when we fail to hear the word of God. The things that hurt God, hurt those who desire to know Him as well. When love hurt God, it reveals to us the challenge and call for God's wisdom to be understood in the things which bring grief to God's heart. We are to be preparing for passionate engagement in the great commission as followers of Christ, so that we can intercede for the very things that are causing hurt deep within Jesus’ grace-filled heart. The life of Jesus describes to us what it is like when God is close to God’s people, and how much God desires to be close to us. And God loves us even when we turn from Him. That is God. God loves so deeply that it hurts. God remembers His promises and His covenants. The servants of God hurt because of disobedience. They are chastened for their sin; as it is written, “You only have I known of all the people of the earth; therefore I will punish you for your iniquities.” Sin in a child of God cannot go unchastened. The rod of chastisement is included in the covenant; and if we are in the covenant, the Lord will keep His promise. “If His children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.” Oh, the abundant compassion of our God, that as soon as ever these people, smarting under the result of their sin, began to cry to Him, “He regarded their affliction when He heard their cry". Love hurt God, yet he is tender and full of compassion. There is something very powerful about the cry of a child to its own parent; and God, the tenderest of all fathers, cannot bear to hear His children cry.

Mazzaroth Genesis 1 [14] And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: [15] And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. [16] And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. [17] And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, [18] And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. [19] And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night ; and let them be for signs , and for seasons , and for days , and years ”. Here, we see that the Lord separated the day from the night, creating two different lights in the sky. The one was called a “greater light” while the other, “lesser light”. Today, we call them the sun and the moon. He also divided light from darkness. Why? God sees the end to the beginning. He cannot be caught by surprise. He is God and there is no one else like Him. SOP – The Desire of Ages - The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. It was a revelation of "the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal." Romans 16:25, R. V. It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God's throne. From the beginning, God and Christ knew of the apostasy of Satan, and of the fall of man through the deceptive power of the apostate. God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence, and made provision to meet the terrible emergency. So great was His love for the world, that He covenanted to give His only- begotten Son, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. {The Desire of Ages, Page 23} At the creation of this earth, satan was already cast down, darkness was already here, representing satan's refusal to continue in the light in which he was created. Man was created on the sixth day, after all things were created, after the sun, moon, stars, fowls of the air, water beasts, and land beasts. Man was the final crowning act and to him was given an assignment to name all the living creatures of land and air (Genesis 2:19), but Man was to recognize the signs, the seasons, the days, the years, but especially the signs in the sky. Psalms 147 [4] He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. In this study, we will find that, century after century, epoch after epoch, the names and the meaning of the stars have evolved based upon the nation which ruled and the philosophies that governed their education system. The stars were arranged by the Lord. When Christ Jesus created the heavens, the stars were set forth in a certain order that would provide us of not only a glimpse of His glory, but the story of man’s redemption. Job 38 [6] Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; [7] When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? That cornerstone was laid at the very dawn of this earth. The stars were called morning stars because they signaled the coming of daylight and were situated in such a way for a man to look higher, directing them to seek, to enquire, and to consider. The Antediluvians read the constellations which, during that time, was bright and vivid. Science describes the sky in the evening before the flood as of a golden magenta hue. It was composed of golden sheets called the “rikiah”. Each star in the universe is of a different color and every color of every star emits a different sound. Stars are prophetic melodies that accentuate the majesty of God. When we could hear them, they sounded like an heavenly orchestra. They were created on the fourth day of creation and witnessed God’s glory in their rejoicing. The Wise Men sought meaning for the stars and they diligently searched the sky, mapping them out to determine if there were any changes. This is how the Wise Men understood the Star as a sign. Matthew 2 [9] When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. [10] When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. The brightest light in the deepest darkness is what led the Wise Men to Christ. As they followed the light, so are we to follow Christ in the time of deepest darkness. Daniel says that in the last days “the wise shall understand”. So, in these last days, we are to be wise as a serpent, harmless as doves. "Those who would not fall a prey to satan's devices, must guard well the avenues of the soul, they must avoid reading, seeing, or hearing that which will suggest impure thoughts", Acts of the Apostles, Page 519. You see, God spoke satan into being. Satan was created with the fullest of wisdom, not for growth. Adam was formed, not created, by the Hand of God. As long as Adam lived, he would continually grow spiritually, morally, mentally, and physically. God named the stars, but the holy pair were to be educated by Christ Himself and the angels, to learn about the meaning and import of them. SOP – Patriarchs and Prophets - The holy pair were not only children under the fatherly care of God but students receiving instruction from the all-wise Creator. They were visited by angels, and were granted communion with their Maker, with no obscuring veil between. They were full of the vigor imparted by the tree of life, and their intellectual power was but little less than that of the angels. The mysteries of the visible universe-- "the wondrous works of Him which is perfect in knowledge" (Job 37:16)-- afforded them an exhaustless source of instruction and delight. The laws and operations of nature, which have engaged men's study for six thousand years, were opened to their minds by the infinite Framer and Upholder of all. They held converse with leaf and flower and tree, gathering from each the secrets of its life. With every living creature, from the mighty leviathan that playeth among the waters to the insect mote that floats in the sunbeam, Adam was familiar. He had given to each its name, and he was acquainted with the nature and habits of all. God's glory in the heavens, the innumerable worlds in their orderly revolutions, "the balancings of the clouds," the mysteries of light and sound, of day and night--all were open to the study of our first parents. On every leaf of the forest or stone of the mountains, in every shining star, in earth and air and sky, God's name was written. The order and harmony of creation spoke to them of infinite wisdom and power. They were ever discovering some attraction that filled their hearts with deeper love and called forth fresh expressions of gratitude. {Patriarchs and Prophets, Page 50.3} Yes, Man was perfect in physical form. Yes, he had the image of Christ. Yes, he was increasing in learning, in understanding, and wisdom, but all of this was elemental at its core. There was heart work to attain. His character must be developed. He had to encounter test and trial which would mature him. We must remember that, at creation, everything was beautiful and perfect in their eyes. At this time, they were called "the holy pair", Man and Woman. They had not known the experience of pain or distress, sadness or heartache. They had no concept of what evil was and its consequences. That was a foreign, strange thing that would never have entered into their minds had they not disobeyed. It is not in surface reading that secret things are revealed. We must educate our minds; we must dig deeper within knowledge to discover hidden truths. But, above all, we must believe God. We must believe His truth. The Man and the Woman did not embrace as life what God had said. They did not believe the consequences of disobedience. So, when the serpent said, "yea shall not surely die", she believed the serpent's words over the Lord's words, and the Woman was deceived. Then, when Man, knowingly, willingly, acquiesced, that brought sin to both. They both lost faith in God at that moment. And now, with a lack of faith, sin enters, and their eyes were opened to know good and evil, and the light of the stars dimmed. Now, the meaning of the stars dissipated. The sun and the moon mark the passage of time, just as do days and months. The stars reside in their relative celestial family consisting of the sun and the moon. These three manifestations are for our appreciation and understanding, just as Adam and Eve were to learn. We must spiritually recognize their object and purpose. The moon, the sun, the stars offer a most wonderful message to God’s people. At night, we see the sky illuminated by the moon and the stars. But the moon and stars become invisible at the coming of the sun. The darkness of sin may overcome the world, even as God’s people are in the world, but when the Son comes, darkness will be blotted out. Did you notice how that we faded as the splendor of the Son shown? He must increase, we decrease. Yet, we remain gloriously reflective of His light. Matthew 24 [29] Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: This verse tells us prophetically, the condition of the world and its inhabitants, when we will see the Word of God obliterated from the minds of all those who reject Christ. He tells us that, even those who faithfully serve him, will no longer be able to offer the invitation to come to Christ. The words of the Son are obscured. The moon, which reasoned with the tide of the waters, the flow of the people, will no longer provide encouragement. The stars, whose voices spoke from God’s mind, no longer receive His response to the faithless prayer of the wicked. The former sources of light: the sun, the moon, the stars, no longer represent the principal sources of guidance. Job 38 [31] Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? [32] Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? [33] Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? The word “Mazzaroth” is a Hebrew word meaning “zodiac” and each month, on an elliptical traverse, the seasons, star pictures, repeat and echo; each month, they uphold and undergird prophecy, from the birth of the church to the final harvest. Pleiades, Orion, Arcturus, these are all constellations, stars in the heavens. Focus on that part where it asks “canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season?”. The Lord here, is connecting the stars with seasons, the passage of changing times. Now, don't think of the word "zodiac" and imagine the horoscope in the daily newspaper; the one where people turn to find out if they are going to have a good day tomorrow, or check to see if they are going to have bad luck the next day. No, no! The constellations were made for our good, but what God made for our good, satan tries to use for evil purposes. The horoscopes are a device of satan, and man, being used of satan, has perverted the meaning of the constellations. The constellations tell the Story of Christ and His people. “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven”, “the eleven stars made obeisance to me”, “turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever”. The stars are literal AND physical AND symbolic AND spiritual. Returning to Job 38:31, we see the constellations Pleiades and Orion. And the Lord asks us if we can bind them together as he has knit them together, for they cannot stray from there proscribed position. It is similar in human families; there is a binding together that “binds the sweet influences” and unites the family members. Note the familial terms of Arcturus and his seven sons? In the sight of God, this constellation is one, living family that is fixed, never to be separated until the voice of God shakes them. SOP - The time is not far distant when the test will come to every soul. The observance of the false sabbath will be urged upon us. The contest will be between the commandments of God and the commandments of men. Those who have yielded step by step to worldly demands and conformed to worldly customs will then yield to the powers that be, rather than subject themselves to derision, insult, threatened imprisonment, and death. At that time the gold will be separated from the dross. True godliness will be clearly distinguished from the appearance and tinsel of it. Many a star that we have admired for its brilliance will then go out in darkness. Those who have assumed the ornaments of the sanctuary, but are not clothed with Christ's righteousness, will then appear in the shame of their own nakedness. {Patriarchs and Kings, Page 188.1} Job 9 [6] Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble. [7] Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars. [8] Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea. [9] Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. Stars are the pillars of heaven; they support the universe as God’s people are the pillars of truth that support the gospel. Here, we find the same three constellations mentioned together and there is a reference to the chambers of the south. When the Lord repeats, it is for emphasis, he wants us to pay attention. He wants us to study it out. Sanctuarially speaking, it points us to the south side where the candlestick of witness stands, pouring forth golden oil. Exodus 27 20 And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always . In the earthly sanctuary, the only light within the tent was from the candlestick, and the candlestick was without measure, fed by the oil olive beaten, indicative of persecutions, tribulations, or chastisement, and in close proximity: light upon the shewbread, the Word of God. Arcturus is the Harvester, Orion “coming forth as light” also called the “Coming Prince”, and Pleiades alternatively called Ursa Major, the Big Dipper, the Great Bear, and the Greater flock, all of which points to the grand finale, the true harvest of the world. How is the zodiac connected with seasons? Well, in rotation, the months pass through each season, from spring to summer to autumn to winter. And God asks us, can we change the seasons? Do we, in our finite mind, have the power to modify one iota of the Lord’s plans? No! the resounding response bellows throughout the earth, we cannot change one iota, we cannot retard one tuber from growing in the autumn, nor can we force one flower from blooming in the springtime. Praise the Lord! God designated the constellations to indicate the beginning of the seasons and the years. We know that if we see a certain constellation in a certain position, that this is the beginning of the year. God set the beginning of the year in April, Abib, the Hebrew meaning "to be green, tender", in the springtime, when the flowers are just beginning to sprout, peeking out after a cold winter. To signal the coming end, God permissioned satan to have a minor effect upon the climate, which prompts man to disregard God’s beckoning signs for salvation. Exodus 13 [4] This day came ye out in the month Abib. Abib is a month of beginnings. God’s church was born in the month of Abib, Jesus was born in the month of Abib. Remember it was a star that heralded the advent of Jesus. It is a time of birth. The antediluvians timed the months based on the cycle of the moon, from full moon to full moon, a thirty-day cycle, and they knew the particular order of the months by the position and appearing of particular stars until the flood ruptured earth and its axis tilted, thus disrupting the harmony of the relationship between earth and the stars, rendering the months shorter or longer than thirty days. That is why we plant according to the moon, when there is a gravitational push and pull, planting based on root vegetables or fruits, called waxing or waning. "For the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon," Deuteronomy 33:14. January, February, March etc., are man-made pagan names. Julius Caesar modified the calendar after a civil war victory in 46 BC, setting the beginning of the year in January, in the dead of winter when all things are lifeless and barren. After his assassination, he was given a month, named "July" for Julius. The number twelve: twelve tribes of Israel, twelve gemstones on the breastplate, twelve disciples, twelve foundations of the New Jerusalem city, twelve months in the year, and twelve zodiac signs, or Mazzaroth – the number twelve pertains to God’s perfect government, God’s ultimate authority, the cyclical path of the earth for twelve months positions the stars in certain locations. In the night sky are star pictures, the zodiac, the bible calls it Mazzaroth, and these star pictures reveal prophecy, the coming season, the coming month, the coming events. The opening up of the Constellation Orion signals the soon return of Jesus from the East. This earth has been enveloped in spiritual darkness for 6000 years, "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings" "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever". That is the Three Angels Message. That is our proclamation to “Cry Aloud”. There is no reason, no excuse to despair, just look up to the night sky and read what it reveals. Jude [14] And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, [15] To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Enoch looked back to Adam, then looked forward to the last days. It would be only four generations later when Noah and his sons entered the ark and in the three sons, there was blood memory, a knowledge of the gospel, a preservation of everything that their father had taught them and from what he was taught and learned. SOP - If Adam had not transgressed the law of God, the ceremonial law would never have been instituted. The gospel of good news was first given to Adam in the declaration made to him that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head; and it was handed down through successive generations to Noah, Abraham, and Moses. The knowledge of God's law, and the plan of salvation were imparted to Adam and Eve by Christ Himself. They carefully treasured the important lesson, and transmitted it by word of mouth, to their children, and children's children. Thus the knowledge of God's law was preserved. {1 Selected Messages, Page 230} The antediluvians had minds that were so brilliant, so intellectually astute, so gifted that they did not need to recall or record anything. They had before their eyes, an image of the constellations which, if rightly understood, would give them hope of a Redeemer to come and an Enemy to vanquish. For roughly two thousand years the world was without a written revelation from God. Their revelation was in the stars. Good and Evil were portrayed in the stars in the sky. It was through the sons that the knowledge of Genesis 3:15 was transmitted and their first attempt to preserve that knowledge was in pictorial form. When Noah’s sons evacuated the ark, they endeavored to remain in close connection, which became sin as the population increased. They built a city and a tower in the land of Egypt, which became one of the repositories of knowledge. Temple of Esneh In the Temple of Esneh in Egypt, there is a great sky painting in the portico on the ceiling which shows the whole picture of the zodiac beginning with the Virgo, the virgin birth, and ending with Leo, or the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Note the circle on her head? That is the zodiac. The problem with hieroglyphics is that most geologists do not see through a spiritual lens and view things through their carnal eyes. The pictorial shows a woman's head and ends with a lion's behind. This does not mean that the antediluvians were cutting and pasting, splicing and unraveling DNA sequences (though they likely did, according to Genesis 6:5), but this image shows a passage of time, from a woman to a lion. These were not merged biologically, but indicates the beginning of Genesis 3:15 and ending with the triumph of Revelation 5:5, as in the zodiac. The woman begins with Virgo in Genesis, the virgin and ends with Leo, or the Lion of the Tribe of Judah in the book of Revelation. As God told Abraham “I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven”, he was directing Abraham to look up to when the world is completely dark and record that there will be individual lights in that darkness who will stand up and out, here and there. Those stars are children of the light, not of darkness. 1 Thessalonians 5 [5] Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Matthew 5 [14] Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. [15] Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. [16] Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. We are light bearers. We are to BE light and emanate light and share light with others, while walking on the earth, but living in a higher sphere, in an heavenly atmosphere, we are already there, in heaven, by faith. We are the stars that shine in the midnight darkness. And our Lord, in His infinite wisdom, and manifold mercy, left for us a message in the constellations, surprisingly, in the zodiac. Romans 1 [17] For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. [18] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; [19] Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. [20] For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: [21] Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. [22] Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, [23] And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

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The Son, who is Michael? - Part 6 Price $0 Duration 33 Minutes < Back About the Course The Son, who is Michael? - Part 3 Exodus 3 [ 2 ] And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. The Son, Part 3 - Who is Michael_8 .pdf Download PDF • 159KB Your Instructor White Stone Learn more and more about Jesus