Daily Devotional, Year 3: October 31 (Noble Bereans, Part 27: “A Testing Time For The Church”)

By admin On February 17th, 2021

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Daily Devotional, Year 3: October 31

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Noble Bereans,

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Part 27:

“A Testing Time For The Church”

To read part 1, click here…”September 2nd (Noble Bereans?)”

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So, in this little series, the subject of those noble Bereans has been introduced. And today, it is still worthy of a little more exploration into another area of concern.

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Let’s look at the key Bible passage… “And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming there, went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” Acts 17:10, 11

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St Paul Preaching in Athens (Raphael, 1515) Wikipedia US public domain

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AN OPEN-MINDED SPIRIT IN BEREA

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Okay, so those in Berea were more noble, because they: 

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1. “Received the Word with all readiness of mind.” 

.http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Bible,_Notre-Dame_du_Taur,_septembre_2011.jpg

2. “And searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”

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And so, the Bereans were ready to receive new teachings, which no doubt, conflicted with the supposed, “orthodox” teachings of that day.

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Thus, there was an open-mindedness which permeated their hearts, and a willingness to continually search the Scriptures daily, in hopes that these seemingly new teachings were indeed true!

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La Bible, Notre-Dame – cropped image – Wikimedia – Share-Alike License

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“SOME THINGS HARD TO BE UNDERSTOOD”

2nd Peter 3:16

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A very reasonable and pertinent question which the Reader would want to ask his or her own self is this: “Why has God given three messages which will obviously be very difficult for almost every church-goer to accept?”http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:At_a_loss.svg

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After all, these three messages of Revelation 14, and their respective messengers all suffer the scorn and derision of both the world as well as the church-world. “So why didn’t God just give us a nice, easy-to-believe message? After all, these messengers are among the most despised persons in a very “orthodox church-world! And to make matters worse, the timing of these messages goes entirely against those who are “Pre-Tribulation Rapture” adherents!

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So why did God do this, if indeed, God had anything to do with these messages?

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Many might surmise, saying…“Maybe, just maybe, these are false messages, given by the Devil to confuse and deceive us!”

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Question Marks – At a loss – svg – Wikimedia Commons – Share-Alike License

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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anti-Christian_sign_in_Federal_Plaza_Chicago.jpg MUCH SCOFFING, SCORNING AND OPPOSING!

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Yes, these messages create an extremely high and difficult hurdle to clear! As a matter of fact, there may be a great many secularists, and even church-goers, who will end up scoffing, scorning and opposing these messages.

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So why would God do this?

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Protests – Anti Christian sign in Federal Plaza Chicago – Andrew Ciscel – cropped image – Wikimedia Commons – Share-Alike License 2.0

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“GOD SHALL SEND THEM STRONG DELUSION!”

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Yes, why did God give such a high and difficult hurdle for His people to clear?

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Well, listen to the Bible…“Even him (“the man of sin”), whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2nd Thessalonians 2:9-12

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Yes, in these last moments of time, the Bible reveals that God will send the apostate church a very strong delusion which will deceive all those in the Church who have never truly received the love for truth.

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Audience hands – cropped & altered – Wikimedia – Universal Public Domain

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“Before Him (Jesus) shall be gathered all nations…as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats”

Matthew 25:32 

.http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Global_warning%5E_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1719373.jpg

In other words, as this above verse from Matthew 25:32 reveals, this message of the Three Angels, is intended to divide the Church into two separate camps: those truth-seekers who are “noble Bereans”, but also those who still love and live for this present fallen world with all its selfish desires.

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These are the two camps: the “wise virgins” and the “foolish virgins”. Or they might be called, “the sheep”, and “the goats”, or even “the wheat” and “the tares”.

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Global Warning – Judgment – Christ Coming by Julian Osley – cropped image – Wikimedia – Share Alike License

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NOBLE BEREANS OR STIFF-NECKED SKEPTICS?

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But regardless of how the Bible addresses these two camps, one thing is for sure: only those who are truly “noble Bereans” will discover the truth of these three messages!

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http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USMC-06831.jpg

In other words, only those who are willing to prayerfully study and search the Scriptures daily, weekly, and even monthly with an open-minded Spirit will eventually come to the conclusion that these three messages are indeed, Heaven-sent!

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The rest will be swept away by delusion so strong that it will seem like irrefutable truth!

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But these erring ones made the fatal mistake of studying this message to see if these things were NOT SO”, while the true noble Bereans “searched the Scriptures daily to see if these things WERE SO!”

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This is what happened back in Paul’s day, and this will be repeated in our day!

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USMC – Prayer before Bible study – Wikimedia – Public Domain

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“Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter in!”

Mark 10:15

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Starry_Night_at_La_Silla.jpg

And so, the plea goes out today to all those who hear these things and take up the task at hand, to search out these messages: we must cry out to God to mercifully give us an open-minded Spirit and a truth-seeking heart!

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And all those who truly receive this open-minded, truth-seeking Spirit of child-like meekness will not be disappointed!

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And as they look up and lift up their heads to behold God’s message inscribed on the heavenly scroll, even from sky-to-sky, they will rejoice in the truth that has saved their soul!

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And may you, dear Reader, be in that blessed number!

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ABOVE PICTURE – Starry Night at La Silla – cropped/altered image – Wikimedia – Share-Alike license

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https://www.pri.org/stories/2011-08-10/revelations-book-revelationTO READ PART 28, CLICK HERE…

November 4 (Noble Bereans, Part 28: “The Messages of the 3 Angels” CONTINUED)

3 Angels Message – Wikipedia via www.pri.org – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

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TODAY’S PRAYER…http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holy_bible.jpg

“Dear Lord, Help me to be an open-minded seeker of truth, even if it means giving up a very highly regarded Church opinion! Let me be willing to investigate any seemingly new teaching if it appears to have some biblical validity…

ABOVE PICTURE: Holy Bible – cropped image – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Lic.

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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Question_book_magnify2.svg

READ MORE…

To explore deeper into this subject, please read… ” FEBRUARY 10 (The Deserted Island Theologian!)”, 

Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license

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THE END

.Soldiers of the Cross - Armor-Up!

 

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TODAY’S FEATURED HEAVENLY SIGN

Info & pics of constellations on this site from Wikipedia & International Astronomical Union (click here)

 

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FINALLY WALKING UPWARD INTO THE HIGHWAYS OF ETERNITY

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Day by day, you will find yourself walking, like the Disciples, spreading the precious Gospel seed wherever the Spirit leads.

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Taking the lovely name of Jesus, with every word spoken. Walking through this sin-darkened world, witnessing to those who take notice that of a truth, Jesus is present within you. Even like faithful Enoch, walking through the highways and byways of life in this world, spreading the Gospel-seed of unpretentious love.

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Day by day, you will become more and more closed in with God. Moment by moment, your heart will become intertwined with God’s heart, eventually two hearts beating as one heart.

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And just like Enoch, when the appointed time of sojourning on earth is finally done…you will walk onward…and upward…and into the highways and byways of eternity. (“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” Genesis 5:24).

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ThomasCole – Pilgrim of the Cross at the End of His Journey – wikimedia – US public domain

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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Question_book_magnify2.svg

READ MORE…

To explore deeper into this subject, please read… “Castor and Pollux & The Mystery Ship of Scripture”

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https://theheavensdeclare.net/the-fleeing-revelation-12-woman-constellation-the-message-of-habakkuk/TOMORROW…

November 1 (The City of Morality, Part 8: “Living The Dream!”)

ABOVE PICTURE: Unfunny Judgment Day Cartoon – a party tonight – signsofheaven.org

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20+ MINUTE AUDIO JEREMIAH STUDY

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ALL ‘NOBLE BEREANS’ (open-minded seekers of Bible truth) ARE ENCOURAGED TO BEGIN FOLLOWING THIS 650+ AUDIO BIBLE STUDY THROUGH THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH EACH DAY ON THIS DAILY DEVOTIONAL. 

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THIS IS STUDY #302 PRESENTED BY THE LATE HAROLD CAMPING…

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Prophet Jeremiah – www.christianimagesource.com – Public Domain

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Click on image credit links below each photo, for licensing names, details, and tags, etc…. 

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