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2 Minutes Why did God create Adam and Eve separately? God wanted Adam to recognize that aloneness before God, developed in him a unique spiritual connection. Elsewise the concept of union with God would have been communal instead of individual. It was only “not good” for man to be alone after learning of the likeness of his kind to fulfill God’s purpose. Adam and Eve are shown as interdependent, yet one of other, as part of God’s “very good” creation. Adam was not lonely. He was in the presence of his Creator. He simply learned that to fulfill God’s purpose he needed a suitable companion. He was learning himself. Notice that both Adam and Eve were created on the same day. In his unfallen state it is doubtful that Adam could have experienced loneliness in the way we do. Adam was not in the least idle. He was learning his responsibility; he was naming every creature according to why God created them according to the common characteristics of their genus. Remember, Adam had an unfallen mind that was given such a capacity to assimilate maximum data with the power of scalability and performance comparable to high-speed networks. He had a mind imaged after the mind of God. God wanted Adam and Eve to recognize their uniqueness. Eve was not brought forth from the dust of the earth. The woman is taken from a living and vital part of the man. No two of any other creatures shared this kind of intimate connection. Eve comes forth from Adam as the church bride comes forth from Christ. Adam came forth in the figure of he who was to come. Our walk is to image the communion between God the Son and God the Father.

THE WORD OF GOD IS A MOST POWERFUL INDUCEMENT TO THIS...WE SHALL SEE OF WHAT VAST CONSEQUENCE IT IS TO US THAT WE BE HOLY IF WE CONSIDER THE ACCOUNT WE MUST EVERY ONE OF US, SHORTLY GIVE OF OURSELF TO GOD. THE STRICTNESS OF GOD’S WORD MUST CONCERN US NOW AS TO HOW WE WORK GOD’S WORD. THE SOLEMNITY OF THE COVENANT IS ESTABLISHED BY AND CONDITIONAL UPON A FAITH THAT WORKS. HOW CAN SO MUCH GRACE BE DISPENSED UNDER THIS COVENANT? WE LOOK FORWARD TO THE COMING OF GOD’S SON WHO REPAIRED ALL THE INJURY DONE TO GOD'S HONOR. In God’s divine call to prophesy again are shown several powerful phenomena that occur in heaven. So intense are these happenings that God allows us visionary access to the sanctuary. And following the revealing of the phenomena we see the ark of God’s testament, His covenant. Let’s look at what the testament, what the covenant infers. Testament is seen as a relation between God and humanity (the new testament), covenant tends to show the relationship between Hebrews (Israel) and God. First, an angel of God assesses us...do we worship God in Spirit and in truth. Do we make God's glory our end and His word our rule? Does our conversation become the gospel? Revelation 11:1 God’s most faithful witnesses who attest the truth of His word and the excellency of His ways. These witnesses will have deep bearing in our prophesying. War will be raged against the witnesses and for a time they will appear dead, but will not be buried. The Lord will revive a people. We can detail the phenomena, with that referenced and notated above. It is the showing of the ark that we might want to gather wisdom concerning. This was in the holy of holies. This is the expression of God’s favor in the propitiation of Jesus Christ. A reminder that God is implacably opposed to everything that is evil, that His opposition may properly be described as 'wrath', and that this wrath is put away only by the atoning work of Christ. This is the only mention of the real covenant in the book of Revelation. Our covenant with God is current and relevant. Revelation 11:19 Reconciled in the opening of the temple that the contents of the ark may be known are two apparently exclusive principles: that only the elect will be saved and that God is perfectly just. This is an extremely important event when God’s temple in heaven opens to show the real ark of the covenant. It happens at an extremely important time in the book of Revelation. Its purpose was to signal the certainty of Christ’s reign over the world; that we are in the final phase of prophecy; judgment and reward are determined. This is a very sacred and serious moment. The most sacred object, the ark of the covenant in heaven was opened. It contains evidence of the covenant, God’s promises that establish His relationship with His people. God is acting with the most severe and serious judgements, but He has not forgotten His promises. He acts in this manner because of His promises. The proper time has, at last, come. That is why at this time, God shows the ark of the covenant, the evidence of His promises. Compare the scene with God’s coming to Mount Sinai, including the opening and the great hail. Is Jesus ready to leave...what of the final act of God’s wrath opening the 1000 year sabbath in heaven. God’s true people moves to truth continuously. There will be those who grow further and further away from the knowledge of God’s Word by choice. It makes the truth God is revealing in His Word even sweeter to His believers and those that are searching for the whole truth. Divine revelation is the source of knowledge concerning ultimate truth and, therefore, ultimate reality. And the bible says we are to “continue” in the quickness of the word...that means in the life of the word and the word is not dead. John 8:31, 32 Hebrews 4:12 Hear what the word does once it is inside...it reveals all opposition to God’s truth...it discerns the thoughts, the intents, the attitude toward the word. But when the Holy Spirit works with the word it does more: it convicts us of our rebellion against God and subdues us; it leads us as sheep to the Good Shepherd. This is how we are born again. We hear God speaking, we know of the perfect demands of the law as well as God’s sure judgment, we realize our peril, we surrender ourselves and fall before the Lord in conviction of sin. The word is so powerful that it is sharper than any weapon used against it. Hebrews 4:13 What is this that the word opens up to us...it uncovers every heart, every act, every intention, every thought, and desire and brings them before the penetrating gaze of the living God. It is the gospel witness. I John 4:6 There is urgency in our studying the word of God. II Kings 22:8 Josiah began reading the bible the workers had found, and soon he tore his clothes to lament what had been absent from Israel’s life for so long. He gathered the godliest people around God’s Word to study it. Then they put into practice the things they read in the scriptures, and the result was a renewal of the covenant with God and the restoration of the blessings that come through faith in him. Through His Word, God Himself teaches us, rebukes and corrects us, trains us in righteousness, and equips us for every good work. When we come to God’s Word in faith, when we open up our heart and mind to the teachings of the bible, either as it is taught or in our reading of it, that Word comes alive within us because it is sent by God Himself for that purpose. He lives and acts in us through His living and active Word. Why is God revealing the ark of the covenant? SOP - The Lord has shown me clearly that the image of the beast will be formed before probation closes, for it is to be the great test [SEE THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER, WHERE THE GREAT TEST FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD IS SHOWN TO BE SUNDAY-LAW ENFORCEMENT.] for the people of God, by which their eternal destiny will be decided. 2SM 81 (1890). {LDE 227.3} Please note that the great test is not the Sunday Law for God’s people...it is the enforcement of the Sunday Law. God has a people standing with the Lamb before the mark of the beast...and they have a name written in their foreheads...they are sealed. SOP- God has not revealed to us the time when this message [the third angel's] will close, or when probation will have an end. . . . Letters have come to me asking me if I have any special light as to the time when probation will close; and I answer that I have only this message to bear, that it is now time to work while the day lasts, for the night cometh in which no man can work. {FLB 215.2} When Jesus rises up in the most holy place, and lays off His mediatorial garments, and clothes Himself with the garments of vengeance in place of the priestly attire, the work for sinners will be done. . . . The probation of all closes when the pleading for sinners is ended and the garments of vengeance are put on. {FLB 215.3} The case of every soul will have been decided, and there will be no atoning blood to cleanse from sin. . . . Then the restraining Spirit of God is withdrawn from the earth. {FLB 215.4} In that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor. The restraint which has been upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has entire control of the finally impenitent . . . . Satan will then plunge the inhabitants of the earth into one great, final trouble. As the angels of God cease to hold in check the fierce winds of human passion, all the elements of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old. {FLB 215.5} We have no time to lose. We know not how soon our probation may close.... Christ is soon to come. {FLB 215.6} When probation ends, it will come suddenly, unexpectedly--at a time when we are least expecting it. But we can have a clean record in heaven today, and know that God accepts us; and finally, if faithful, we shall be gathered into the kingdom of heaven. {FLB 215.7} Now let’s think again concerning the opening of the temple and the ark of the testament in light of the probationary truth. We had best consider and understand this... Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14 It does not say “do you hear”, it says “let us hear”. Teachers must themselves be hearers of that word which they teach to others, and must hear it as from God; those are not teachers who teach others and not themselves. Every word of God is pure and precious, but some words are worthy of more special remark, offering greater insight. There is a conclusion to the matter. Set aside doubtful disputation. The old covenant dealt specifically with the law and rightfully so because God covenanted obedience above sacrifice. If never there was disobedience...And so with the new covenant unbelief is regarded as the sin that is pre- eminently offensive to God. Hebrews 4:3-11 Unbelief is a tragic and increasing trend among God’s people. It is the principal one of which we are guilty and so we trampled on the blood of His Son. All sin has its root in unbelief. John 16:9 Unbelief is not simply a casual incredulity nor a difference of opinion, rather, it is a total rejection of God’s messenger, message, and God’s word. Unbelief puts self at the center of things. People who deny or refuse to believe what God has revealed about Himself are in a state of unbelief. Hebrews 3:7-19 Unbelief in the face of evidence is either stupidity or sin. Why is God opening the temple showing the ark of the covenant to His last day people? Unbelief... is always proud...always conceited. Unbelief is in itself the fruit of an evil heart. Unbelief was the first sin, and pride was the first-born of it. Disobedience and unbelief are two sides of the same coin. Unbelief in the biblical view is not passive, an innocent but inaccurate view that has unfortunately 'got it wrong' at a few points. Rather, unbelief is active, driven by a dark energy. Unbelief is at the bottom of all our staggerings, unsteadiness, at God's covenant promises. The real heart of unbelief is seeking your own way to fix God’s way as your way. Unbelief is not failure in intellectual apprehension. It is disobedience in the presence of the clear understanding of God. When we neglect to ask God, we may hold an erroneous conception of God's way. James 1:5, 6 What we can know about God, we must know about God. While God has entered into agreements with humanity, His designated, peculiar people, is the only people with which He has entered into a blood covenant relationship. Yet not forgetting that the blood of our Lord and Savior was typified in the sacrificial offerings by faith. Jeremiah 31:31-33 God’s covenant likewise is established referentially to His Son’s looming death. How does scripture verify this truth both positively and negatively? No one can legally, morally, or spiritually transfer God’s covenants with His people to another people. God therefore will fulfill His covenantal promises to His people, not to descendents of Ishmael, nor to the world, nor to any other people who does not come to Christ in belief of the promise. Galatians 3:29 Hebrews 10:16; 8:5 Better promises?? Deuteronomy 27:3 Psalms 105:42-45 I John 2:25 And the deeper truth still concerning this “ark of the testament”... Mark 14:24 Jesus unites his offering with the promise of God given Abraham and at Mt Sinai. The new covenant not only enlarges and fulfills all the promises of the Abrahamic covenant, but also supersedes the Mosaic covenant, the law. It does what the Mosaic covenant could not do - not because the law itself was deficient, but because of a deficiency in the people who received it. Hebrews 8:6-10 It might be now that we have understanding why God opens the temple in heaven to the ark of His testament. It is the re-affirmation of His intentions...promise fulfilled. The commandments... Exodus 20:1–17. The judgments... Exodus 21:1–24:11. The ordinances... Exodus 24:12–31:18. These covenant principles govern God’s people’s moral, civil, and spiritual life as we live under the everlasting covenant. Jesus fulfilled his role as the mediator, he now is the enactor of the new covenant. Hebrews 13:20, 21 The new covenant provides blessing through Christ to the whole world. Thus, believers today come under the blessings of the blood of the covenant. Therefore, by faith and by blood appropriate from the mountain of God’s throne the mediatorship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Please remember this better covenant...God’s law written upon hearts, minds. Jesus Christ has ratified the new covenant, but has not yet enacted it. Its unenacted status is what necessitates that Jesus be the guarantee of the new covenant. Hebrews 7:22 If enactment had already occurred, no need for the guarantee would exist. The Lord Jesus Christ himself is that guarantee for the enactment with the people of God of that better covenant. The enactment is Jesus’ coming to bring his people to the Father. Two distinct and separate events. The ratification by blood has only made the future enactment of the new covenant with God’s people most certain. The opening of the temple, the ark of the testament by the Father, is the guarantee of its future fulfillment...Jesus’ work done. Remembered by few, forgotten by most, the bread, the cup; these tokens recall the sacrifice that ratified the covenant until God enacts the covenant itself at the Lord’s return. And so we wait, we suffer, we patiently endure till he come. In the meantime, we have a place, a promise, an answer, a good report, a family, at the altar before God. We have Jesus Christ in us.

18 Minutes God knows what it is like to lose a Son. But God forsaking God...no man can fathom this. What was meant by Jesus when he asked his Father to take away this cup from me? Because Jesus’ love for humanity was so great he was not praying for a way out of the pain and suffering. He was praying for strength to face the pain and suffering he knew he was about to bear. The cup he was relating to was the adversity of the human will. Consider the eternal relationship that has existed between God the Father and God the Son. Understand this relationship. They had never been separated by anything for any length of time in any way, shape, or form. Nothing had ever come between them in the way of will, desires, intentions, thoughts, or purposes. This was a sovereign transaction completed in the counsel of determination. God and Christ knew there would come a day that he would bear the sins of the world and the righteous judgment of God in his body. We have a difficult time grasping this, since we don’t know what it is like to live in such a relationship at all, let alone for all eternity. All our relationships, even those that are thought to be the most loving, have areas of discord and misunderstanding. But God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit always are in a perfect relationship and perfect unity. Jesus had not gone to Calvary without purpose. God would never have allowed this had it not been in His plan. Christ would never have submitted to this awful death had he not been willing to purchase our redemption. It was when Jesus took on my sin, became a curse for me...that was a time of separation from his Father. Not an abandoning, a brokenness. Jesus’ faith was that he would rebuild this temple. If we could but understand the despair, the agony we bring to God when we sin. Jesus is God and he is not a God-forsaken God. God is not forsaking Jesus. He is handing His Son over to humanity to show the dearth of our love for he who dies to save us. Trace God’s speech and God’s silence, God’s presence and God’s hiddenness. Jesus had to understand what the full impact of separation from God was because of sin. Jesus never sinned. He had to experience the pain and turmoil of what it is like to be a sinful human being separated from God. Jesus came as a human being yet being fully divine to rescue us from our sinful plight and in so doing, experienced almost everything he could as a human. He never really experienced the fearful and agonizing predicament of what sorrying to repentance and receiving forgiveness. It should dawn upon us that losing our life because of sin denounces God’s sovereignty. God was in the flesh of humanity. This is the prayer of Jesus that he be glorified with God Himself and that we be made clear in the matter. II Corinthians 7:9-11 But when Jesus took my sin upon himself on that cross...the crushing despair of how we should feel when we sin was sounded from the Son of God as if he had been sin altogether for eternity. The total sum of the miseries brought by sin upon all the past, present, and future generations of the human race and the holy horror of Jesus bearing physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually in thought and deed all the woes of mankind caused by sin in this life, and in that which is to come all being completely placed upon this one man. We are so numbed in our souls that when we sin we except the next breath as though it is owed us. The cry that Jesus made should be the heart cry of every single human being on earth. It is the cry we should voice since the beginning. It was Jesus giving voice to our pain, our fear, our hurt, our despair, when we are one with him. God Himself came to earth, to us, to feel this anguish of suffering for Himself. Because of the wonder of Christ when we feel despised and rejected, abused and slandered, misunderstood and forgotten, our God will not forsake us. It is sin that makes us feel separated from God, and this is the feeling Jesus expressed on the cross, and is one reason Jesus went to the cross, to take our sin and bear it away into death so that we can see that God has not left us, has not abandoned us, and has not forsaken us, but has fully entered into our pain, our suffering, and even into our sin, so that He might show us how much He loves and cares for us. This truth is explained in reasoning with God that we may know the atoning done for us. We must learn to truly hear what the word of God is saying in every particular. For He Himself spoke it. Hebrews 13:5, 6 The deepest part of sadness must be when we forsake God. God is holy. He kept us in the womb. He is present in our trials. We look for God in our circumstances yet ignore Him in the consequences. I think of the intimacies of praise, thoughts, words that Jesus offered the Father. We’d best know Him for who He is, what He has done, and what He will do. We are to persevere to the end with absolute trust. God gave His Son to bear our sin that we might be prepared for the judgment. The judgment due us, God’s wrath, instead of being poured upon us was poured upon Christ. For God so loved the world...He gave him up to suffer the weight of all the sins of all of His people and the judgment for those sins. We cannot begin to fathom all that this would mean between the Father and the Son. And I pray we never have to. Here is where we see into the determinate counsel of the Godhead. When Jesus was hanging on the cross he did not say “let me quote Psalms 22 here”. He was in his moment of agony. What words we will say in the depth of our trial either is in us as the very essence of our calling or it is not. And if it is in us, then we give vent at the worst moment of our life with the appointment of what our Father scripted for us in the counsel before the foundation of the world. That is what hit the heart of Jesus. That is why he declared in the counsel “send me”. There is no curiosity in faith. Jesus could not see through the portals of the tomb, yet his words were “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” Our faith is to be our triumph. We ought to cease looking for a theological answer to somethings. We should bring a real cry of spiritual desolation with words reasoned with God that are second nature because our whole life is scripted by God...all will go according to His plan. Jesus was not asking the question “my God, my God why has thou forsaken me” for an answer. This “cry of abandonment” is the voice of our salvation. He was enduring a real sense of forsakenness for our sake. He was not dying for his sin. It is our sin that was upon him. He was expressing desolation, not asking for an answer. This cry was not occasioned by unbelief. Unbelief is the denial of truth and that is doing sin. Jesus was pointing his hearers to the prophesy that would teach them that as the Savior Messiah the petition was answered. The language of the prophesy was designed to give us a pattern for praying in times of extreme suffering and need. It movingly expresses the common emotional experience of God’s last day people when they are alone and afflicted. Jesus is demonstrating his oneness with us. Our fully God, fully human Savior identifies with us in every way, even in our weakest moments, even when we feel like God has abandoned us. Through Christ’s total identification with us, He gives us permission by his own example to pour out our hearts to God. Jesus shows us that trusting God means lifting up the very worst of life to God in prayer. He was amazingly fulfilling scripture in the horror of it all and witnessing to the perfection of the plan of salvation. With these words, Jesus beckoned us to make the connection and recognize prophetic implications as given in the Psalms. Who was the fulfillment of the Psalms prophecy? Who is the fulfillment of the prophecies to come in Revelations? What is shown us in these prophecies? It was necessary for God to withdraw that the fullness of God’s love for humanity should be realized. Do we not understand that God so valued us that He abandoned His Son, as sin, that we might be saved. God loves us so much that He could not save His Son from this suffering unto death. Do we not hear Jesus’ dependence upon God and his gratitude for the benevolence of God? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me is the cry recognizing the desperation of humanity that hung upon Jesus then and will so likewise be upon us and even in that agonizing moment, his voice called out to show that only God could deliver him...for he did no sin and only God will deliver us as we enter into the suffering with Jesus and cease to sin. It is here that God becomes truly vulnerable for the sake of His creation knowing that as God He cannot die, yet He must allow death to arise that salvation is to be secured for all His faithful. And this omniscient offering removed all barriers between us and God. Let us term it “justification”. Never again was a blood sacrifice required. The relationship that we were created to have with God was now possible again. Ultimately, it comes down to an exchange or substitution...God for us. We were given the covenant truth and expression to be able to understand in some way the need for God to demand justice for the offense of human sin. We despised the goodness of God when we first offended Him in the Garden and because of that we have all lived under the curse. We became an imperfection in the good thing that God created us to be. Sacrifices had to be perfect animals. We were not, are not perfect from birth. Only Jesus would be able to satisfy the demand for a perfect sacrifice because he was perfect from before conception. Only Jesus could pay our price, only Jesus could suffer in our place. The language of sacrifice allows us to begin to comprehend our need and the remedy for that imperfection: a sacrifice of blood. However, the question does present itself, how effective is a sacrifice that has to be renewed continuously? Is there some way to pay the price forever? God had this very thing in mind from the beginning. The early sacrifices were in place to help us to understand what Jesus would do when he came to walk among us. Jesus knew that God could not look upon sin and would withdraw His favor. Habakkuk 1:13 I repeat this again that it might be heard...the burden is now fully upon His Son and the reality of God’s wrath for sin reveals itself in full. Here is where Jesus cries out “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” In this moment there is the despair of death, but in the words of the Psalm that he rails, there is also hope for deliverance. Jesus still has trust in the God of the Universe. He has submitted to God’s will to that very last moment. There is a terrible beauty in this death in that it shows us that God loves us by taking our place on the cross and dying in our stead. There, we have heard it again. Do we better understand what was said and why? Jesus’ last words are not a pleasant phrase; they are full of despair. It was misunderstood by those close by when he said it and today it can be difficult to understand without placing it into its appropriate context of Psalm 22. You cannot leave it by itself. Jesus was calling us to the full Psalm just as he knew that his followers would understand when they figured out what he had said. Yes, that was a moment of ultimate pain and loss as only the burden of sin could cause. Jesus was telling us that sin is not just relationally ruinous, but spiritually separative. But also, there was still hope in the promise of God’s deliverance and that there would be resurrection on the other side of death. Psalm 22 shows us Jesus’ utter dependence upon God, even when he could not feel anything but the weight of the sin of the world. We are invited to do the same in our lives. To depend on God, trust in his love, and believe that eternal life is offered to us through the sacrifice of Jesus his son. When I begin to think of who God is and His character, one of the most endearing parts of God’s character is His faithfulness. When we understand the truth that is expressed in every word of God and that He is faithful to every truth spoken, every word written, we are to be confident that the work begun in us will be finished. Philippians 1:6 God is doing the work. I hope we see why this truth is so powerful and should lead us to be thankful. This should lead us to worship...the doing of thankfulness for God. His great love is born out of His character. And His love is the great goodness that He continually pours upon us. It is by knowing His character and who He is which is the only proper response we are to have in worshipping Him. He will never leave us...we should never cease to worship Him. Let our hearts be genuine that pure worship will flow back to the God who truly deserves it. We do not know all the hells we will have to endure. We do not know the particular darkness in which we will have to descend to suffer with Christ. We do not know the rejection we will have to bear this very day, nor the quiet desperation in which, forsaken, we will cry out. We know only Him whose love, unlike our own, does not end in death. Thanks be to God. Our response to God in our suffering is to be with an attitude of gratitude. In the way of Jesus we are called to lament evil, yet speak the truth for God. We must do this in the presence of other people. There is something about speaking out loud when other people can hear that allows us to kindle hope in our lives, and theirs. Even Jesus himself knew this when he was on the cross. He spoke his mind to God. God is present to us through other believers. Our friends that are believers in Jesus, can make God present to us in the power of the Holy Spirit, just by their presence. What joy in seeking out friends and family who have faith in Jesus. And the deeper their faith, the more they will be able to reason with the mind to God that our conversation not hinder the process of gathering instruction and wisdom from the word of truth. What a blessing always...to hear from God who knows all things. For even from the beginning our God, who is a god that cannot lie and cannot die was familiar with death. For it was in the counsel that God committed to death that we might have life eternal. And it is that that answers my prayers of why hast thou forsaken me...this is my dolorous lament from the lowest pit of misery. In Christ, mine is no more to be measured and weighed in the sanctuary. That which is love endured my every trial and the triumphant shout of, "it is finished” showed there is no forsakening of my God. Faith triumphs. The mere truth that Jesus said “My God, My God”, is the evidence of his faith substanced. If my faith be of Jesus, I am assured to never be without my God. The appropriation is in the word "my"; but the reverence of humility is in the word "God”. This God is ever my God. As was for His Son, I have no question. It is in that probe that we hear reasoning. For Jesus knew most distinctly the sufficient cause of why his Father darkened the scene...that none could see the spiritualnearness that God was for him and with him in a certain unquestionable sense. Yet there was no contact with sin. God was not against him...it was what he was made to be...for us. Only the ear of God could know the purity and truth in the words. We cannot see all that is there. But what we can see is the resolve of submission. In the very words spoken Jesus does not draw back, he does not quit the business of justice. He did not ask this forsaking to end prematurely. My Jesus rather dedicates himself anew to God by the words, "My God, My God," and by seeking to understand the ground and reason of that anguish which he is resolute to bear even to the bitter end. The cry sounds to me like deep submission and strong resolve, pleading with God. This was an amazing experience for such a sacred and pure being. For one to be made a sin-offering who so abhors sin. And found guilty by God. Can we not see that there was here a glance at his eternal purpose, and at his secret source of joy? That "why" is the silver lining of the dark cloud, and our Lord looked hopefully at it. He knew that the desertion was needful in order that he might save the guilty, and he had an eye to that salvation as his comfort. He is not forsaken needlessly, nor without a worthy design. We can make a life-study of that “why”. Was he saying this for himself or to gives us certainty that God would never leave us? That is why it was not a question. Jesus knew the outcome of this suffering, the reason for it. Not only did my Jesus take my sin...he took the separation from His Father, my Father for me. And since he did no sin and sin is what we do, this truth might be heard of us...God loves us more than we could ever love ourselves.

9 Minutes Mark 12:50 and Luke 10:27 God is love. And that is the only criteria that establishes the strength of spirituality in a person. Theological knowledge is not the measure of spiritual maturity or strength. Knowledge without love is a sure sign of the lack of both. Ask yourself this question; why would anyone show such a disdain for what Jesus was doing as to desire his death? You see, with all that preaching, with all that teaching, with all that scripture study, the Pharisees were just noisy voices. Where was their love? In doing all they could to harm the character of the one who desired their salvation. It is true that as believers we are called to love everyone, but our love should especially be toward our fellow brothers and sisters. Jesus actually said that the world would know that we are his disciples by the love that we show toward one another. We are to love even our enemies, but our love for the family of God is vitally important. This is why God designated the sixth church Philadelphia. Philadelphia, from “philos” which means love or affection and “adelphos” meaning brother. The term originally meant affection for someone from the same womb, blood relatives. But it is used several times in the New Testament to describe the love that fellow believers have for one another, especially since now they are a part of the same new family. As believers we have been born again into the family of God, so that we call each other brother and sister in the Lord. It is vitally important to realize that love for the family of God actually becomes a test of our real conversion. Any who speaks ill of another is still in darkness. The kind of love that the bible talks about is not a natural love. The world naturally loves its own, and has an affection for pleasures and pursuits. But having an “agape” love for others is not natural. It is not natural to love the way Jesus intends his followers to love. This love actually comes from God. When a person is “born again,” the Holy Spirit comes and abides, or lives, inside of us. It is the Holy Spirit who then teaches us to love. You must be “God taught”. I Thessalonians 4:9 How is the love? that you show?...that you preach? Love that extends no farther than self has no bearing for others. The type of love that is to abide in God’s people must be a concerned love. Concern of brothers and sisters in the Lord is always about faith in Christ. The most important aspect of love that a fellow believer can have is a desire to “establish and exhort” a brother or sister in their faith. Trials will inevitably come, and family looks out for one another. We are always ready to help each other persevere in our faith and love for Christ and one another. Is this not what we teach? We encourage the babes in Christ. But we must first love deeper in our minds. Judgmental minds are the workplace of evil. Humble consideration is a better place to build knowledge. The only love we have to love with is the very love of God, which we cannot measure. This brings a spiritual perspective to our reasoning through circumstances and events that bind us as God proposed in the gathering. Ours, if we are Christ’s, should never lack of love in words or acts of unkindness, thoughtlessness, or irritation. Love is not a commodity to be withheld or bartered out. Familiarity – how we see things...spirituality – how things really are. We continually try to exorcise God’s mind. This is what God was teaching us, knowing that there are somethings we need not know. Genesis 2:17 Knowing good and evil will cause dispute in the mutual love between God and man and man and man. In learning the true nature and origin of love, we can let go of our belief in our knowledge of evil, just by refusing to partake of it. Any particular situation you may be struggling with at any given moment is nothing outside of your own consciousness, over which you have ultimate control by the spiritual strength of the indwelling spirit. Wake up, it was just a dream. Evil is real. It can produce both emotional and spiritual turbulence. No one is required to love an evil intent expressed or done, but to see its untruth. Then it is easy to love that person. This means putting aside a human sense of love and its interdependencies; it means not being so easily sidetracked by some rude word or deed. When we truly understand that the only love we have to love with is the very love of God, which cannot be measured or meted out in part, only then can we love freely, even in the face of personal affront or indignity. This is the same love that Jesus expressed. It is a love that heals. Please never struggle with resentment toward another. Suffer and sacrifice as did Jesus. You are strengthened beyond measure. Encourage one another, teach one another, eat the fruit of the Spirit which evidences love. Love compels. Push past cultural or personal imposed boundaries. Lay down your life for your sister, your brother. Slow down, hear their cry. The enemy likes to stick a finger in any opening to widen it to put his foot in, to begin to walk up and down in it. In small groups, we have to avoid unhealthy togetherness. This is where there isn't separateness between two people's thoughts, feelings, fears and values. We must fight for healthy togetherness. This includes respecting others as separate individuals, being honest and clear. This requires a strength of spirituality to let go of self and follow Jesus withersoever he goes. The Holy Spirt is very interested in the value of our words. He inspired the bible and it is the standard for word values. Why would we devalue the word? The words that we exchange are to be for profit. Love does not separate, it does not disintegrate, it does not devastate. Love builds. Too many people are using the word "love" as in inferior measure...a lesser content. The life of Jesus was a love-offering. What are our lives...a like-offering? What kind of measure are we using for “love”? Deuteronomy 7:6-9 It is a wonderful thing that God does not have love for us. For then it might falter as does our love...instead, God is love. He is it. More powerful than life. An unbreakable bond. A One of a kind. And Jesus is the revelation of that covenant love of which we are to be in agreement. We are united in him in mercy, brought to God by his grace. Why would God’s people allow anything to fragment and scattered their unity? Some or all, are falling into fallenness...an invisible spiritual dimension that can only be overcome with the strength of spirituality that is mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. II Corinthians 10:3-6 We have to put aside those “finger openings”. I Peter 2:1-3, 21, 25 Let not our trust in reasoning falter. Too concerned with what lies behind us and what lies before us, weakens our reasoning to what lies within us. Self- righteousness produces pride, not love. Pride is the root of contention, division, and separation. The next time you say “I love you”, think about it. The source of the strength of spirituality is loving the word of God to guide us to know the biblical principles, and yet a whole other thing is to live them out. Straying from principles we know to be true...we suffer as a result. The principle of love is scripturally lived out in terms of behavior and attitude. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love fulfills the covenant. Hebrews 10:16 The life that Jesus lived, the price that Jesus paid should encourage you and me too to keep striving to love better. This behavior keeps our spirit connected to his Spirit, fills us with overwhelming care and concern, perfects and purifies our hearts. We are in hard testing times...we can do better. Our strength of spirituality is not measured quantitatively but rather qualitatively. Consider reasoning of that statement this way... the letter of the law is quantitative, while the value of the law is qualitative. Qualitative consist of developing character traits. Quantitative is finite. Reason further...you ever hear a doctor ask on a scale of 1 to 10 what is your pain? That’s quantitative. Might my faith, my suffering have something to do with how the impact of pain is felt? Ask Jesus what scale was his pain on. Consider the blessing of the sabbath. It's not quantitative...God does not count how many sabbaths you keep. He weighs in the sanctuary, according to His way, your faith in the sabbath, your obedience to it. Look at how your enthusiasm for the sabbath grows higher and higher beyond measure. The man on the cross without keeping the sabbath rested in the faith of who Jesus is and was assured of the kingdom of Heaven. In the times of trial let nothing level out your strength of spirituality regarding the sabbath...no plateau. The strength of spirituality in a person causes them to learn from the trial, initiating new growth. If you are not willing to overcome by the presence of the Holy Spirit, you will be overcome with discouragement and regress downward. What are the strengths of spirituality to be displayed: faith, zealousness, sincerity and humility, steadfastness, obedience, kindness, forgiveness, self-discipline, wisdom, reason, virtue...let’s conclude this list...display the fullness of the character of Jesus Christ. The character strength of spirituality involves our capacity to dig deep and find the greater meaning in God’s word, to align ourselves with a purpose that extends beyond ourselves, to find relationship and unity with something greater such as God. We can, through the Holy Spirit strengthen ourselves by renewing our mind, to know and understand God's will and purpose for our lives. When we focus on Jesus, and what he has done and is doing for us, we can move from strength to strength, no matter our circumstances. When we suffer and melt in sorrow let’s rely on God’s way in the sanctuary... love’s way is not the way of weakness and defeat, but of strength and victory...love triumphs over hatred and fear...love develops and matures...love suffers long and is kind...love endures all things...love rejoices in the truth. In the Person of God love is the most powerful force in the universe. The strength of spirituality in a person is cored by the overpowering presence of hearing the words of Jesus. Acts 9:4-6, 15, 16, 20-22 This strength is power and ability to understand and explain the word of God. God wasn’t refreshing Saul/Paul’s body to survive another day; God was filling him with power to do the impossible in Christ. That is the strength God wants to give us. It is graced by Jesus. It is deep in our souls. Romans 4:20, 21 II Timothy 2:1 This strength is to be spent in love toward others. May God be glorified.

7 Minutes When the Roman legions destroyed Judaea and Jerusalem in A.D. 70, Josephus says that more than 1,100,000 Jews perished and nearly 100,000 were taken captive. In Rome’s ancient forum, the Arch of Titus, which still stands, depicts Jewish captives in chains and Roman soldiers carrying the seven-branched temple candlestick on their shoulders. Yet, while the Jews suffered starvation, slaughter, and capture, their fellow Christians in Jerusalem escaped. How were the Christians spared? About thirty-seven years before the destruction, Jesus had foretold the terrible events that would follow his death. He warned his followers to immediately flee Jerusalem when the signs he predicted occurred. The Christian community carefully watched for the signs and followed the Savior’s warning. The Lord first identified the situation leading up to destruction: Many would deceive the people by saying that they were prophets or even Christ himself. The disciples would be delivered up and afflicted, hated of all nations. Betrayal and iniquity would abound, and the love of many would turn cold. The Lord then taught of two major signs that would alert believers to flee: “When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.” (Luke 21:20) He also said, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) “Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: “Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: “Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.” (Matt. 24:15–18) Of the abomination of desolation to which Jesus referred, Daniel wrote, “They shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.” (Dan. 11:31) The abomination had happened in 170 B.C. when the Syrian king Antiochus IV ordered a massacre in Jerusalem, profaned the altar of the temple, and carried away the temple treasures. The horrifying events under Antiochus were familiar to every Jew, and those who heard Jesus’ reference to Daniel vividly understood the Savior’s prophecies. Among the tragedies that the Lord said would happen was the destruction of the temple. The magnificent structure Solomon had built had already been destroyed and rebuilt twice. It would be destroyed again, and the Jews scattered to the four corners of the earth! Unfortunately, the New Testament is silent concerning the fulfillment of the Savior’s prophecies in Matthew 24. History, however, reveals that his prophecies were realized. It also reveals the stunning fact that the believers obeyed the warnings, fled Jerusalem to a town called Pella, and thus saved themselves. The early Christian scholar Eusebius wrote: “The whole body, however, of the church at Jerusalem, having been commanded by a divine revelation, given to men of approved piety there before the war, removed from the city, and dwelt at a certain town beyond the Jordan, called Pella.” Epiphanes also attested to the Christian escape, according to Bible scholar Adam Clarke. The latter wrote: “It is very remarkable that not a single Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem, though there were many there when Cestius Gallus invested the city; and, had he persevered in the siege, he would soon have rendered himself master of it; but, when he unexpectedly and unaccountably raised the siege, the Christians took that opportunity to escape. ...“[As] Vespasian was approaching with his army, all who believed in Christ left Jerusalem and fled to Pella, and other places beyond the river Jordan; and so they all marvellously escaped the general shipwreck of their country: not one of them perished.” Pella must not have been the only destination of fleeing Christians, but it was the most prominent at the time. The flight to Pella took place in A.D. 66 during the attack by Gallus. Four years later came the fall of Jerusalem. Titus laid siege to the capital, and his battering rams broke down the great walls. The Jews, who were already suffering from plunder, murder, pestilence, and famine among themselves, were easy prey for the fire and swords of the Tenth Roman Legion. The Master’s chilling words concerning the fate of the temple in Jerusalem were completely fulfilled: “Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” (Mark 13:2.) The building the Lord called “my house” (Matt. 21:13) had stood on “immense foundations of solid blocks of white marble covered with gold.” Some of the blocks were 67 1/2 feet long by 9 feet thick. The temple towered 100 feet into the air, fronted by two immense columns. The imposing structure was laid waste, with no part of the building left intact. Only a part of the original wall that had surrounded the temple mount remained. Jesus had given adequate warning, and those who heeded the prophecies survived, while most others perished. Pella continued as an important Christian center for more than seventy years, during the time that Jerusalem remained desolate. Extensive ruins of Pella lie near the modern village Tabaqat Fahl in the northern foothills of the Jordan Valley—perhaps the“mountains” Jesus referred to—fifty-three miles north of Amman and two and a half miles east of the Jordan River. Why is the flight to Pella important to us in the last dispensation? The prophecies of Jesus concerning Jerusalem and the temple are not a lesson of the past only. In this case, history presents a type of what will happen again. The Lord told us that the signs that preceded the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple shall occur again, including the abomination of desolation. Our warning signals include hearing of “wars, and rumors of wars” and the “elect [being] gathered from the four quarters of the earth. ... “Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes. ... Iniquity shall abound, the love of men shall wax cold. ...[The] Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come, or the destruction of the wicked.” The Christians who fled to Pella “and other places beyond,” such as Antioch and, later, Ephesus, were saved. Would we have been among them? We must treasure every word of God in the wholeness of its truth that we be not deceived...