II Corinthians 4:5-7
"For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."
October 8th
"And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord...." Judges 3:12
THUS have also been Christendom's WANDERINGS IN SIN: and, unless YOU are but one out of thousands (different), then God's dealing with disobedient Israel, IS A MESSAGE UNTO YOU PERSONALLY, FOR YOUR GUIDANCE UNTO ABSOLUTE VICTORY IN YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE!
HEAR His Word: "YOU have done evil again in the sight of the Lord!" But HOW and WHEREIN – says the respectably living Christian. "I DO NO WRONG!" (Dare you postulate that GOD would agree?).... Look back to the ancient Record and behold GOD'S SWEEPING PROMISES UNTO ISRAEL * IF * THEY WOULD ONLY BE FULLY OBEDIENT UNTO HIS ORDINANCES. Among the multitude of His blessings-in-PROMISE, were complete protection and DELIVERANCE FROM ALL THEIR ENEMIES, NEITHER WERE THEY TO BECOME AFFLICTED BY ANY OF THE DISEASES COMMON TO THE EGYPTIANS! Christian: look back upon the span of your own life; have you known absolute deliverance from all your enemies? Have you been and ARE YOU FREE FROM THE DISEASES – "common to the Egyptians"? IF not, then you had better come around to God's perspective and realize that "YOU HAVE DONE EVIL AGAIN IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD!" Wherefore, He has delivered you into the hand of the Philistines "forty years"!
Think not that the "forty years" must be that many solar years in your own individual life. 40 is God's symbolic number for testing, for affliction and for trial. Business reverses, sickness, and your multitudinous trials are but the "forty years" IN THE POWER OF THE ENEMY!
The Shepherdsfield Update #4 (continued tomorrow...)