Valuable Objects in Nature Are Pruned or Refined

We Are Tried and Tested

     Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver, I have tested
you in the furmace of affliction. Isaiah 48:10, NKJV.

    THE FURNACE FIRES are not to destroy, but to refine, ennoble, sanctify. Without trial we would not feel so much our need of God and His help; and we would become proud and self-sufficient. In the trials that come to us we should see the evidences that the Lord's eye is upon us, and that He means to draw us to Himself. It is not the whole, but the wounded, who need a physician; it is those who are pressed almost beyond the point of endurance who need a Helper.

    The fact that we are called upon to endure trial proves that the Lord sees something in us very precious, which He desires to develop. If He saw in us nothing whereby He might glorify His name, He would not spend time in refining us. We do not take special pains in pruning brambles. Christ does not cast worthless stones into His furnace. It is valuable ore that He tests.

    The blacksmith puts the iron and steel into the fire that he may know what manner of metal they are. The Lord allows His chosen ones to be placed in the furnace of affliction, in order that He may see what temper they are of, and whether He can mold and fashion them for His work.

    It may be that much work needs to be done in your character-building, that you are a rough stone which must be squared and polished before it can fill a place in God's temple. You need not be surprised if, with chisel and hammer, God cuts away the sharp comers of your character, until you are prepared to fill the place He has for you. No human being can accomplish this work. Only by God can it be done. And be assured that He will not strike one useless blow. His every blow is struck in love, for your eternal happiness. He knows your infirmities, and works to restore, not to destroy.

    When trials arise that seem unexplainable, we should not allow our peace to be spoiled. However unjustly we may be treated, let not passion arise. By indulging a spirit of retaliation, we injure ourselves. We destroy our own confidence in God, and grieve the Holy Spirit away. There is by our side a witness, a heavenly messenger, who will lift up for us a standard against the enemy. He will shut us in with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, Beyond this, Satan cannot penetrate. He cannot pass this shield of holy light.—Signs of the Times, Aug. 18, 1909.

A Mystery Queston:

Please leave your thoughts, and ideas in the comments section.
Question for this week:

Why was Moses not allowed to enter the promised land?

God Bless your search for truth.

Revealing the Woman Standing On The Moon

Why is that Woman standing on the moon in Rev. 12:1?

The Sun, Moon, and Earth seem to be the main objects in this scene. “. . she is clothed with the sun, and the moon is under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: . . “ And she’s pregnant and ready to deliver. Amazing picture!

What’s the sun’s purpose here? To give Light to the Earth and Moon.

What’s the moon’s purpose? To reflect that Light to the Earth.

The Earth? It collects Light for life from the sun for daytime growth of plants, and then for animal life when the plants are eaten. Yes, I know. The food chain does not stop there. And it receives light from the moon.

The woman and the twelve stars? Later.

To see God's Purpose
First we must realize that the Bible is God’s story for us to learn about Him and His purposes. In John 4:24 “God is a Spirit . .”, John 6:63 “It is the Spirit that quickeneth (makes alive) . . the words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.” There are more references you may look up to see that God’s Spirit gives life, the words of understanding (the light of the world, the light of our understanding, Jesus is the Word (John 1:1-4 & 14), etc.) so we may not be in the dark as to what and who this God and His Son, Jesus, really are.

Symbolism Steps In
The sun gives light. The moon receives the reflects that light. The earth receives light from the moon. God’s truth hits the moon and reflects it to the earth. Now for the symbology of this. God is the source. The moon becomes His messenger (church). The earth takes the reflected truth and shares it to the rest of the world.

The woman enters the scene clothed with the sun (truth) and is known as the True Church where there is no distortion of His message to us on earth. A long time ago this truth about God was given to the twelve chosen tribes of Israel (the crown of twelve stars) who were to share this with the rest of humanity. They didn’t, and error of the truth began to propagate into other nations.

We see that she is pregnant with the “Word of Truth” (Jesus) in her to present God’s word of truth to the world, so they too may have that eternal life through acceptance of that Word through the Son of God.

Satan Cannot Win
Here comes that old snake, Lucifer, Satan or the Dragon (also known as the father of lies and the great deceiver) to destroy that holy thing in her belly, as soon as He is born. Satan can never succeed, and he didn’t. Jesus the Word, the Truth and the Life came to give us everything we need to overcome that deceiver, and become a child of God by faith. He showed us the way to God through Him, saying “Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me.”—John 5:39.

And now as a child, each of us must grow up day by day and learn of him now and forevermore, even by one verse a day.

Smile and rejoice, for the blessing is yours to keep.

God bless.




A Mystery Question. .

For fun and spruce-up your Bible knowledge, and understand Jesus’ purpose for His Father’s will in your life.
Please leave your thoughts, and ideas in the comments section below
Question for this week:

What is the genealogy of Mary (mother of Jesus Christ)?  Is it in the Bible?  If so, where?

God Bless your search for truth.

Emery Thompson

Father's Love — A given

He Really Cares

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.
Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”—1 John 3:1 & 2

A new convert came to a preacher saying, “No matter how much I pray, no matter how hard I try, I simply cannot seem to be faithful to my Lord. I think I’m losing my salvation. The preacher responded, “Do you see my dog here? He is my dog. He is house-trained; he never makes a mess; he is obedient; he is a pure delight to me. Out in the kitchen I have a son, a baby son. He makes a mess, he throws his food around, he fouls his clothes, he is a total mess. But who is going to inherit my legacy? Not my dog; my son is my heir. You are Jesus Christ’s heir because it is for you that He died. We are children of God and heirs of His kingdom, not through our perfection but by His grace.

What is Sin?
SIN is an acronym for Self Induced Need. Something you try to control, accomplish without God’s help, or without including Him in your plans. This leaves you alone in your pursuits, showing that you do not want or trust God or His partnership in this world or the kingdom to which He invites you. In Spanish the word ‘sin’ means ‘without.’ So it seems that, ‘without’ God you are in ‘sin.’

Can we be His sons while we choose to violate His laws?
Jesus, our Example of a true Son, Who came and lived with us to show us the way to love and worship the Father and live a lifestyle, which is contrasted by the sinful way Satan wants keep us so we lose our inheritance.

The Battle for the mind.
But the battle for us and God is the battle for our minds. Who do we wish to be with for eternity, and with whom we would rather choose to have as our best forever Friend, no matter where we are? He love us without preconceived rules, and has promised us an inheritance far beyond anything we could imagine.

Two choices. You must choose only one.
The choice should be clear; to chose and hold on to Jesus, our elder brother, who promises to show us the true character of the Father, and take us to Him at the end of this present world.

God Bless.

Beginning Of The Rest Of The Story

THE BEGINNING OF

THE REST OF THE STORY

Genesis 1 & 2
After the ‘beginning,’ the rest of God’s plan gets put into action. He needed to have His reasons and purposes fulfilled. And He needed you and I to help complete that plan. This gets exciting.

The Creation of Man
God formed Adam from the dust or clay of the earth and breathed the breath of life into His most perfect creation — MAN. Adam became a living soul. An intellectual being with an extra gift of being able to reason, which the other animals do not have.

A Spirit
An interesting side-note here: the Greek word ‘pneuma’ is air or breath, and is applied as the ‘spirit of man’ because it is inspired (drawn into) to keep life in and for the body. Other people have construed the word Spirit to have other meanings such as, a spirit (not having a form - like a ghost), or having a spiritual nature (again - no form) and then causing it to mean spiritualism (giving life to an inanimate object or dead body - which only God can do, but does not need to). After all, we are already born with His breath (spirit).

So God finished His Creation including placing man in the Garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. He was given his work to do; grounds keeper of the Garden, exploring what God made, eating all the right foods, drinking the best water, looking after the animals (even naming them as God brought them to him), having domain over all that creation as was given him to maintain, and just enjoying all that was set before him. He was able to talk to the angels who must have instructed him on how to live in this beautiful environment, and then during the day he would be able to walk and talk with God Himself. His joy must have been beyond our understanding. But . .

Here Comes the Woman
After a period of time he must have become a little lonely for another soul to communicate with, as he had seen the other animals had their partners, and he didn’t. So God caused him to sleep and took his rib and made a soul mate for him. She must have been very beautiful, the perfect mate for Adam to be with.

Now they were married as one flesh together, as God ordained it should be. And now they shared all things in the most perfect garden with a perfect Father, our Creator.

Later on we are told that there will be another Garden Of Eden when the earth is made new, where He will dwell with us forever, and where no sin will ever raise its ugly head, which started in that glorious ‘Garden of Beginnings.’

God bless.

His Story — A Preface

HIS STORY
-A Preface-

A Preface to His Story, subjects, topics, relevant, themes of Biblical connotations seems to be in order to let the readers know the purpose of the author.

My short story is that many years ago it was thought to write about God’s story to keep it simple and tell in a manner so my kids could understand the complex issues. But the timing, education and experiences were lacking back then. Now there are grandchildren to tell the story to. So here it is: KISS = Keep It Simple Saint.

Simply put, it is to tell what has been gleaned from His Word over the past decades, and to keep it from being an erudite treatise on the Bible, but the simple plan God put into motion so that “even a child could understand it.” And yet it is meant for everyone of all ages and backgrounds (cultures) in hopes that those who would want to see the real beauty of the character of God, His Son, Jesus, and the workings of His Spirit to lift us up to His peace, light and hope of the coming future He has promised on an earth made new.

If the author can succeed in this endeavor, then he has done his appointed job and peace reigns within.

If there are those, and there are many, who hold a different viewpoint on specific topics want to contest what is presented, they are free to do so. However, there will be no response for a debate, as it is the author’s conviction that the Word of God cannot be contested for He says “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it.” — Isaiah 55:11, and in another place; “I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything be taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.”— Ecclesiastes 4:14, and “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. —James 1:17, so that this promise is alive to us all: “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; . .” — Titus 1:2.

All quotations are from the King James Version. If there are any misspellings or outstanding grammatical errors, either forgive me and/or let me know - for correction.


Emery ThompsonHis Story
Earn A Life Ministry
support@earn-life.com (put “His Story” in subject line)


A Mystery Question. .
For fun and to spruce-up your Bible knowledge, and understand Jesus’ purpose for His Father’s will in your life.
Please leave your thoughts, and ideas in the comments section below

Question for this week:
Did Jesus Christ have a step father? Who was he?

God Bless your search for truth.

Until next time,
God bless

HIS STORY

The Five Most Important Words
In The Bible

When people come to the Bible for study or learning, they usually arrive with preconceived ideas from their childhood, their circumstances, their environment, previous training, and other thoughts, which can get in the way of what is being said to be understood. God’s word never lies — He doesn’t have to! We cause His words to be in error as we choose to change them. Watch now . .

The first five words in your Bible says . .

“In the beginning God created . .”—Genesis 1:1

IN
Why are these important? The first word ‘In’ denotes something special byty meaning there was a process in place. Not ‘At’ the beginning like there was some explosion or galactic event to precipitate life here on Earth (and no where else?). ‘In’ the process of something happening.

THE
Is ‘The” important, too? That word is a definite article indicating a description of the ‘In’ process is coming afterwords. So, pay attention to what follows. See how simple words can mean so much?

BEGINNING
Now we get into the depth of this first sentence of the Bible with the ‘beginning.’ Beginning of what? A process has begun at a point in time to do a great thing. But by what controlling power is this done, and for what reason, if any?

GOD
What God? Jesus describes Him as the Father. Other definitions call Him the Creator, and also YHWH. He answers to other ‘names’ also. What is amazing is that He answers! More on that in another message. God is the reason for us being here or that there is even a place to exist - called Earth. In the first languages of the Bible the word God was Elohim, which is the plural form of God. So there was at least another entity. Jesus, the WORD, which is what we find in John 1:1-4, 14. But now there is another entity mentioned — The Spirit, “Who moved upon the waters . .”

CREATED
Yes, that’s what He did in the beginning. He created! At the precise time He chose, and the precise location He chose to accomplish His creation. What did He Create? Heaven and earth. How? By His Word and through His Spirit.

So simple a child could understand it, and yet profound enough to befuddle great minds, even to lead them astray. Why do we make it so difficult to believe Him?

THE REST OF THE STORY
After the ‘beginning,’ the rest of God’s plan gets put into action. He needed to have His reason fulfilled. And He needed you and I to help complete that plan. This gets exciting.

God Bless

Emery Thompson