The Forgotten Commandment

Here in the Houston, Texas area, there is a Christian radio station whose motto is “God Listens.”  And because God does listen, we need to be paying more attention to what I’m calling the Forgotten Commandment.  Which commandment is that? It’s this one:  “You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.”  This commandment is in both Testaments. Exodus 22:28 says, “You shall not blaspheme God, nor curse a ruler of your people.” We find this repeated in Acts 23:1-5:

Paul, looking steadfastly at the council, said, “Brothers, I have lived before God in all good conscience until today.”
The high priest, Ananias, commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth.
Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit to judge me according to the law, and command me to be struck contrary to the law?”
Those who stood by said, “Do you malign God’s high priest?”
Paul said, “I didn’t know, brothers, that he was high priest. For it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’

For believers, it gets even harder. It turns out that it’s not just rulers we shouldn’t speak evil of.  As believers, we shouldn’t speak evil of anyone, because men are made in the image of God.  James puts it this way:

With it [the tongue] we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who are made in the image of God. Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. James 3:9-10

My brothers (AND sisters) I agree with James that these things really ought not to be so, despite what that other political party is doing.  So I am doing the only thing I know to do:  I am praying Ephesians 4:29 over all of us, that in this very fraught political season we believers will take Ephesians 4:29 to heart and “Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but only what is good for building others up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear.” 

Please agree with me in prayer.

Margot Armer

All scriptures on this page are quoted from the World English Bible (WEB)

Balaam’s Prophecies Were Very Good, but His Teachings Were Very Bad

Balaam feared the Lord, but he didn’t fear Him enough. When it came to Balaam’s teaching ministry, even though he had already spoken some beautiful, world-class, God-given biblical prophecies over Israel, in the end Balaam “loved the wages of wrongdoing” (2 Peter 2:15) taught what the Bible calls “the error of Balaam” (Jude 1:11) and died by the sword (Joshua 13:22).  

Balaam’s Prophetic Ministry

Balaam’s four prophecies about Israel are found in Numbers 23 and 24. Each prophecy occurs after Balak, the king of Moab, hires Balaam to curse Israel; each time Balaam ends up blessing Israel instead.

Prophecy 1: Numbers 23:7-10

7 He took up his parable, and said,
  “From Aram has Balak brought me, 
    the king of Moab from the mountains of the East. 
Come, curse Jacob for me.
   Come, defy Israel. 
8 How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? 
   How shall I defy whom the LORD has not defied? 
9 For from the top of the rocks I see him. 
   From the hills I see him.
 Behold, it is a people that dwells alone,
   and shall not be listed among the nations. 
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, 
    or count the fourth part of Israel? 
  Let me die the death of the righteous!
    Let my last end be like his!” 

Prophecy 2: Numbers 23:18-24

18 He took up his parable, and said,
  “Rise up, Balak, and hear!
    Listen to me, you son of Zippor. 
19 God is not a man, that he should lie, 
    nor a son of man, that he should repent. 
  Has he said, and he won’t do it? 
    Or has he spoken, and he won’t make it good? 
20 Behold, I have received a command to bless. 
    He has blessed, and I can’t reverse it. 
21 He has not seen iniquity in Jacob. 
    Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel. 
 The LORD his God is with him.
   The shout of a king is among them.
22 God brings them out of Egypt. 
    He has as it were the strength of the wild ox.
23 Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob; 
    neither is there any divination with Israel. 
 Now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, 
    ‘What has God done!’ 
  24 Behold, a people rises up as a lioness. 
    As a lion he lifts himself up. 
  He shall not lie down until he eats of the prey, 
    and drinks the blood of the slain.” 

Prophecy 3: Numbers 24:3-9
2 Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes; and the Spirit of God came on him. 3 He took up his parable, and said, 
  “Balaam the son of Beor says,
   the man whose eyes are open says; 
4 he says, who hears the words of God,
    who sees the vision of the Almighty,
    falling down, and having his eyes open:
5 How goodly are your tents, Jacob,
    and your dwellings, Israel!
6 As valleys they are spread out, 
as gardens by the riverside, 
   as aloes which the LORD has planted,
   as cedar trees beside the waters. 
7 Water shall flow from his buckets. 
   His seed shall be in many waters. 
  His king shall be higher than Agag. 
   His kingdom shall be exalted. 
8 God brings him out of Egypt. 
   He has as it were the strength of the wild ox. 
  He shall consume the nations his adversaries, 
   shall break their bones in pieces, 
   and pierce them with his arrows. 
9 He couched, he lay down as a lion, 
   as a lioness; 
   who shall rouse him up? 
  Everyone who blesses you is blessed. 
   Everyone who curses you is cursed.”

Prophecy 4: Numbers 24:15-19

15 He took up his parable, and said, 
  “Balaam the son of Beor says, 
    the man whose eyes are open says; 
16 he says, who hears the words of God, 
     knows the knowledge of the Most High, 
     and who sees the vision of the Almighty, 
     falling down, and having his eyes open: 
17 I see him, but not now. 
    I see him, but not near. 
  A star will come out of Jacob. 
    A scepter will rise out of Israel,
and shall strike through the corners of Moab, 
   and crush all the sons of Sheth. 
18 Edom shall be a possession. 
     Seir, his enemy, also shall be a possession, 
   while Israel does valiantly.
19 Out of Jacob shall one have dominion,
    and shall destroy the remnant from the city.” 

Balaam’s Teaching Ministry

We know from the Bible that it was God who inspired Balaam’s prophecies about Israel, but we also know from the Bible that Balaam’s teachings were evil.

Moses said to them, “Have you saved all the women alive? 16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the congregation of the LORD. 17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. (Numbers 31:15–17)

forsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wrongdoing; (2 Peter 2:15)
Woe to them! For they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in Korah’s rebellion. Jude 1:11) 

But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. (Revelation 2:14) 

What Does the Bible Say About Miracles?

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are gifts; they are not merit badges, and they are not fruit. In other words, a person’s spiritual giftings don’t say anything one way or another about a person’s character. The Bible lists the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith [*or, faithfulness],  gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (WMB)  

So how do we tell the good guys from the bad guys? It isn’t by the miracles they do or don’t perform. According to Jesus, we will know them by their fruit:

“By their fruits you will know them. Do you gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree produces good fruit; but the corrupt tree produces evil fruit. A good tree can’t produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn’t grow good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?’ Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’” (Matthew 7:16-23)

Margot Armer

As usual, scriptures on this page are quoted from the World English Bible (WEB)

God Originated “From the River to the Sea.” But He Gave That Land to the Jewish People.

In the aftermath of October 7 2023, pro-Palestinian activists worldwide have been chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” But in Deuteronomy 11:24, it is the Jewish people who are told by Moses that “Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.” (HCSB). 

“Palestine” is not a Bible name. The Bible never refers to Israel as Palestine. In New Testament times, the Holy Land was divided into three parts: Galilee in the north, Samaria in the center, and Judea in the south. Back then, Ioudaía (“Judea”) was a Roman province that included Judea, Samaria, and Idumea. (Idumea was south of Judea.) 

“Palestine” is a name given to the Holy Land by the Roman emperor Hadrian in the wake of the Bar Kochba revolt.  In 135, the Romans merged Galilee and Judea and named the enlarged province Syria Palaestina. The Roman name “Palaestina” is derived from a Latinized corruption of the Greek “Philistia,” and Philistia was the land of the Old Testament Philistines, an ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age. The giant Goliath was a Philistine. Hadrian used the name Palaestina in order to sever all Jewish connection to the geographical area covering current Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and the western part of Jordan. Hadrian then renamed Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina and turned it into a pagan city.

As for me, I really don’t mind hearing people say “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” I believe it will be free.  It will be a part of the Holy Land.  It will be a part of Israel.

Margot Armer

New Testament Believers Aren’t Born. They are Born Again.

Within living memory, Jews who believed in Jesus self-identified as Hebrew Christians.  Today most former Hebrew Christians now self-identify as Messianic Jews. Their beliefs remain the same--only the label for those beliefs has changed.

According to the (now) Messianic Jewish Theologian Arnold Fruchtenbaum, writing as a Hebrew Christian in 1983, “ A person who at some point in his life personally received Christ as the one who made atonement for his sin experiences what it is to become a Christian. Thus if anyone says that he was born a Christian, this is an obvious sign, according to the New Testament, that he is not a Christian. (Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Hebrew Christianity: Its Theology, History, and Philosophy (Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries, 1983), p. 12.)

How To Be Born Again

Dr. Fruchtenbaum points out that The basic content of faith (that is, what one must believe) is found in 1 Corinthians 15:1–4:

Now I make known unto you, brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received, wherein also ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except ye believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures.  (Hebrew Christianity, p. 11)

What he must do is described in John 1:12:

“But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (Hebrew Christianity, p. 11)

For more on this topic, see Messianic Milestones.

Shocking News for Many Christians

I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but washing your hands before you eat isn’t a biblical teaching. I say this because “Cleanliness is next to godliness” isn’t something the Bible emphasizes.  That saying is attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas, who lived in the thirteenth century hundreds of years after the New Testament was written. 

Hear me on this: I am not against handwashing.  It has its place. According to foodsafety.gov:

Handwashing is especially important when handling food and at other times when you are likely to get and spread germs. Protect yourself and your family by washing your hands at these key times: Before, during, and after preparing food. Before eating.

But it may be the case that Jesus Himself didn’t always wash His hands before eating.  I say this because we know for sure that His disciples didn’t:

Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered together to him, having come from Jerusalem.  Now when they saw some of his disciples eating bread with defiled, that is unwashed, hands, they found fault. (WMB Mk 7:1-2)

Here’s what Jesus told the multitude after His run-in with the Pharisees and scribes:

He called all the multitude to himself and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. There is nothing from outside of the man that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”  When he had entered into a house away from the multitude, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, “Are you also without understanding? Don’t you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can’t defile him, because it doesn’t go into his heart, but into his stomach, then into the latrine, making all foods clean?” He said, “That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man. For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile the man.” (WMB Mk 7:14-23)

I personally think (based on Romans 14:3-8) that it’s not our place as New Testament believers to tell other believers what to eat. I do think, however, that our Bible translators should stick to what the Bible actually says instead of adding and subtracting words to fit with their theologies.  They have done a terrible job  with Mark 7:19, the passage I cited above.  In Greek, the last four words of Mark 7:19 are καθαρίζων πάντα τὰ βρώματα, translated above as “making all foods clean.” They should be translated as “purging all the food.”  “Purging all the food” is the literal translation of καθαρίζων πάντα τὰ βρώματα. But here’s how some other “translations” have handled this:

• The KJV doesn’t even try to translate καθαρίζων πάντα τὰ βρώματα -- it simply leaves those four words out.

• CEV:  By saying this, Jesus meant that all foods were fit to eat.

• ESV:   (Thus he declared all foods clean.)

• HCSB:  (As a result, He made all foods clean.)

• NASB 1995: (Thus He declared all foods clean.)

• NET:  (This means all foods are clean.)

• NIV:  (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)

• NLT:  (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.)

So what WAS Jesus saying here? It seems pretty clear that He was saying this: 

• It is what comes OUT of a person's heart  that defiles him

• And He was saying nothing about diet or hand washing - ceremonial or actual.

Margot Armer

The Best Celebration of Life Sermon Ever

When I got married 13 years ago, it was a second marriage for us both. I had been single since 1969; he had been single about 10 years. Mary Reeves, my husband’s ex mother-in-law, did the flowers for our wedding reception. (Flowers for the wedding ceremony were already in place.) Needless to say, she won my heart! This video from her celebration of life is a little off-topic for this particular website, but I couldn’t resist posting it because it’s the best celebration of life or funeral sermon I have ever heard. The preacher is Rev. Andy Smith; the church is New Life Methodist Church in La Grange, Texas.

The Meaning of Shavuot

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you. (John 14:26 WMB)

On the modern Jewish Calendar, Shavuot begins the evening of Tuesday, June 11.

The Hebrew word Torah can refer to any kind of instruction or teaching, but is most commonly used to refer to the first five books of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. 

According to Jewish tradition, Moses received the Torah on Shavuot, also known as Pentecost.   On that very first Shavuot, God gave the Teaching to the Jewish people. Approximately one and a half millennia later, on that very same Jewish holiday, the earliest Messianic Jews received the Holy Spirit. And so we see that on the very first Shavuot the Jewish people received the Teaching, while in the Book of Acts, those first Messianic Jews received the Teacher.

Don’t forget to ask the Teacher to help you understand the Teaching. And don’t forget to be faithful in your Bible reading.  Always remember that the Holy Spirit can’t remind you of something you haven’t heard or read.

A Messianic Communion Service

(Pastor Tim recently asked me to lead a short communion service during our regular Saturday morning service at Shalom. This was as short as I could make it.)

For the sake of time, please start coming up now to get your communion elements now, return to your seats, and when we’re all ready we’ll all take Communion together.

Jesus instituted Communion at the Last Supper, and what we now call the Last Supper was actually a Passover seder.

According to Chosen People Ministries, it was the Pharisees who were responsible for creating the same order for the Passover service that we observe today. The four cups of Passover wine, reclining at table, and retelling the story of Exodus were already part of Passover during Jesus’ earthly lifetime.

So what DO you do to prepare for Passover?  Every Jewish person knows that the first thing you do to prepare for Passover is to get rid of any leaven you may have in your house.  When it comes to Passover, leaven is a symbol of sin. 

In a moment I’m going to ask all of us to get rid of our leaven as we prepare to observe the Lord’s Supper. We are going to get rid of our leaven by asking God to take it from us. This is what Paul told the Corinthians to do in order to prepare for Passover. In 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 (NIV) he said: 

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Before we all take Communion together, I am going to pray a prayer that says Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we have sinned in thought and/or word and/or deed, and in what we may have left undone. We are truly sorry, and we humbly repent. Please cleanse us all from the leaven of sin. And then I’m going to say Amen. 

If you can pray that prayer sincerely, please say Amen with me. But if there’s some sin in your life that you aren’t willing to repent of, please don’t say Amen--and if you cannot say Amen, then please don’t take Communion, because taking Communion in an unworthy manner is very dangerous.  Paul put it this way:

So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world. 

That’s First Corinthians 11:27-32 (NIV)

Does everyone have their Communion elements?

Let’s ask for forgiveness.  Repeat after me:

Almighty God, our heavenly Father,
we have sinned in thought and/or word and/or deed, 
and in what we may have left undone. 
We are truly sorry, 
and we humbly repent. 
Please cleanse us from the leaven of sin.
Amen.

And now let’s take Communion!

Take the bread in your hand, and after I read 1 Corinthians 11:23-24, let’s all eat together.  “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’” [Eat bread.] (At Shalom, the bread would be a tiny piece of motzo.)

Verses 25 and 26 say: In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 1 Corinthians 11:25-26 (NIV) [Drink cup.] Amen!

Margot Armer

Putting the Carnal Above the Spiritual

Derek Prince was possibly my all-time favorite Bible teacher.  In his book Blessing or Curse: You Can Choose he wrote:

To put human ability in the place of divine grace is to exalt the carnal above the spiritual. The effect will be manifested in many different areas. For example: 

Theology will be exalted above revelation;
intellectual education above character building;
psychology above discernment;
program above the leading of the Holy Spirit;
eloquence above supernatural power;
reasoning above the walk of faith;
laws above love. 

All these errors are different manifestations of one great, basic error: putting man in a place God has reserved solely for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Source: Prince, Derek. Blessing or Curse (p. 103). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Margot Armer

Be Fruitful and Multiply

Almost every Christian is familiar with the passage in Genesis 2, in which God tells Adam he must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  But how many realize God gave mankind ANOTHER commandment before the Fall? This other commandment is found in Genesis 1:28, and says in part, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it!”

I suspect that back in Genesis nobody had any problem with Part A of that commandment (Be fruitful and multiply!) But in Genesis 11 we see that mankind seems to have had trouble obeying Part B (Fill the earth and subdue it!) Instead we read, “Then they said, “Come, letʼs build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise we will be scattered across the face of the entire earth” (Genesis 11:4 NET Bible). 

God wanted mankind to fill the earth and subdue it. Mankind wanted to stay right where they were. Verse 8 says, “So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth, and they stopped building the city.”

If we here in America don’t obey God’s mandate to be fruitful and multiply—well, others will.  And those who will become our successors will probably be a group—a very large group—of people who have obeyed that very first commandment recorded in the Bible: the one that tells us to be fruitful and multiply. 

Margot Armer

The World

In the Bible, the “world” can refer to the world of people (as in “God so loved the world”) or it can refer to the created world (as in God saw all that He had made--and it was very good). But there is another “world” referred to in the Bible that isn’t the world of people or the world that God created but another world--the world or realm of Satan and of sin. If anyone loves that world, the love of the Father is not in him. 

James says, “Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever decides to be the worldʼs friend makes himself Godʼs enemy” (James 4:4 NETBible).

John says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father, but is from the world. (1 John 2:15-16 NETBible).

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (NIV). 

Which world will you choose?

Margot Armer

The Insanity of Sin

All sin is insane.  You know God is the Creator of the Universe. You know He judges sin. You know He can see what you’re doing. And you’re going to do WHAT??? 

Unfortunately many of the so-called “moral” choices made by some of our fellow citizens are absolutely, insanely illogical. For example: in all too many states, you can face fines, penalties, or imprisonment for animal cruelty, but abortionists are free to murder pain-capable pre-born babies on a daily basis.  Some people think pre-born babies are part of their mother’s body. Biology says they aren’t.  A mother’s DNA is different from her baby’s DNA. If this weren’t true, mothers could never give birth to sons.

There are people out there who think the death penalty is wrong.  Most of these people think it’s wrong to execute mass murderers who have been found guilty of horrific crimes, but all right to murder innocent babies in their mothers’ wombs.

We are horrified by the Natzi holocaust that killed six million Jews--and rightly so. But America’s abortion holocaust has claimed the lives of over sixty three million babies since Roe v. Wade. What are we thinking? And what are we doing about it?

Margot Armer

God Only Gives Good Gifts

“Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6 NET)

Most churchgoers believe God exists.  Why else would they bother to go to church? But in order to please God, we must also believe He rewards those who seek him. We need to believe He answers prayer. 

Our God is a prayer-answering God. Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:7-11 NET)

The expression “be careful what you wish for” implies that if you get what you think you want, there may be unforeseen and unpleasant consequences. But “The blessing from the Lord makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow to it” (Proverbs 10:22 NET). Don’t be afraid to seek God. Our Father in heaven knows how to give good gifts to those who ask him, and he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

Margot Armer

Covet Earnestly

For the most part, the Bible forbids covetousness. We are commanded very emphatically not to covet anything that is our neighbor’s (Deu 5:21).  There is, however, something the Bible does tell us to covet earnestly, and that is the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are told to covet earnestly the best gifts (1 Cor 12:31) and to covet to prophesy (1 Cor 14:39). 

Why should we covet the gifts? (Besides the fact that the Bible tells us to?) We should covet the gifts because they are the best evangelistic tool I know. Statistically speaking, Christianity is thriving in the global South--South America, Africa, and Asia--but declining in the global North. What is it that the global South is doing that the global North has been neglecting? Signs and wonders. Missiologists have a term for this.  They call what the global South is doing “signs and wonders evangelism.” 

My prayer for every believer is that we will all covet the gifts of the Spirit, that we will all pray to receive them (ye have not because ye ask not) and that we will use the gifts God gives us to evangelize the people we come in contact with. May God give all of us the grace and the courage to be the church God has called us to be!

Margot Armer

What Pulpit Do You Preach From?

Rome often persecuted the earliest Christians, yet God used the Pax Romana and the Roman roads to facilitate the spread of the Gospel. Chinese Communists also persecuted Christians, yet   Chairman Mao’s roads allowed Christian missionaries to reach distant Chinese mission fields far more easily than had ever been possible before.

Back in the 90s, the Internet was often referred to as the information superhighway. That was prophetic. Today God is using the Internet to spread the Gospel—especially in places like Israel, where most bookstores don’t carry Christian Bibles and Israelis who want to learn about Yeshua face persecution by anti-missionary activists. 

You may not like everything you see on the internet, but according to Erez Soref, President of One for Israel, in Israel “the street ministry today is not in the local square but online and with social media platforms.”

President Theodore Roosevelt referred to his office as a "bully pulpit."  Today, thanks to the Internet, we need to realize that all of us have a bully pulpit.  Go ye therefore and preach the gospel.

Margot Armer

May 12 Is Mother’s Day

My husband and I recently found ourselves behind a car whose bumper sticker read, “AS A FORMER FETUS, I OPPOSE ABORTION.” I hope all you former fetuses can say the same.

Writing about the early Christians, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said this: “Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God intoxicated to be ‘astronomically intimidated.’ By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests.” Little did Dr. King know that in the 21st Century those two ancient evils would be with us again.  

Dr. King wrote his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in 1963, ten years before Roe v. Wade would legalize infanticide. As for gladiatorial contests (I’m thinking now of football) nobody knew back then exactly how dangerous football really was or that it would cause its heroes to suffer from CTE, which has symptoms including memory loss, confusion, depression, suicidal ideation and dementia. But as devastating as football-related CTE can be, the impact of CTE is nothing when you compare it to the infanticide of over 64 million babies since Roe v. Wade was passed.

I’ll close with this: (1) Mammas, don’t let your babies grow up to play football and (2) Mammas, please let your babies grow up. 

May the Lord be with you in every decision that you make.

Margot Armer

God’s IF-THEN Statement

Any programmer would recognize 2 Chronicles 7:14 (WMB) as a simple If-Then statement: “IF my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, THEN I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 

God hasn’t healed our land as yet.  From this I deduce that God’s people haven’t done what God requires in His IF statement.  Yes, we’ve had lots of prayer meetings, but I suspect that for the most part we haven’t humbled ourselves, and I suspect that we also haven’t turned from our own wicked ways. What have we been binge watching? Do we really love our neighbors? Do we practice what we preach? Are we obeying the “greatest commandments” Jesus emphasized in Matthew 22:37-40? 

Many of us have been praying for revival for many years now.  What is God waiting for? Brothers and sisters--if you have already established a relationship with God, if you are already one of God’s people--then I suspect God is waiting on us.

Margot Armer

What Was Matthew Thinking?

Matthew 2:23 (NET) says, “He came to a town called Nazareth and lived there.  Then what had been spoken by the prophets was fulfilled, that Jesus would be called a Nazarene.” “Spoken by the prophets” can be interpreted two different ways.  It can either mean it was spoken by more than one prophet, or it can mean that the prophecy is recorded in a section of the Hebrew Bible known as “The Prophets.”  But the word Nazarene doesn’t appear in the Hebrew Bible.  So what prophecy was Matthew referring to? 

In the New Testament, Jesus’ contemporaries called Him a Nazarene. Calling Jesus a Nazarene didn’t just mean He lived in Nazareth. The residents of Nazareth were considered to be the lowest of the low.  “Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also wrote about – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’ Nathanael replied, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’” (John 1:45-46a NET). 

To the literate Jews of Matthew’s day, calling someone a Nazarene was synonymous with calling them trash or riffraff or the scum of the earth, or (another Jewish insult) an am ha’aretz--a member of the unlearned rural masses. And that’s why Matthew saw being called a Nazarene as a fulfillment of Isaiah 53:3--“He was despised and rejected by people. . . people hid their faces from him; he was despised, and we considered him insignificant.” (NET)  Little did they know that the Nazarene they despised would one day be acknowledged as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!

Margot Armer

The Fig Tree Generation

“The first way God uses Israel is this: Israel is God’s time clock to the nations. In other words, whether they know it or not, Israel is the means by which God declares to the nations exactly where we are in His program. There is no other way of knowing where we are in the program of God.”
Lance Lambert, 1988

Sometimes I just can’t help setting dates.  Please note that both dates set here are actually “on or before.”

The parable of the fig tree appears in all three of the synoptic gospels--in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. I believe we’re all living now in what could be called the fig tree generation. 

In Matthew, Jesus says:

Now from the fig tree learn this parable: When its branch has now become tender and produces its leaves, you know that the summer is near. Even so you also, when you see all these things, know that he is near, even at the doors. Most certainly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things are accomplished. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. (WMB Mt 24:32-36)

When will Jesus come again?
In Matthew 24:36 and Mark 13:32 Jesus tells us nobody knows the day and the hour of the Second Coming. However, I believe the parable of the fig tree does tell us the generation.  In order to interpret this parable correctly, we need to know three things: 1. What is the fig tree? 2. How long is a generation? and 3. When did the fig tree put forth its leaves?

What Is the Fig Tree?

We know what the fig tree is.  In Hosea 9:10, God said, “I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season” (Hosea 9:10).  God sees individual Jewish people as figs. Figs grow on fig trees.  The fig tree is the place where God has chosen to plant His people. Today, that fig tree is planted once again in Israel.

How Long Is a Generation?

I don’t understand why so many people have gotten this so wrong, because the Bible actually tells us how long a generation is. In Genesis 15, God told  Abram:

“Know for sure that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years. I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth; but you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full. (WMB Genesis 15:13-16)

Do the math. If four generations are four hundred years, then one generation is one hundred years. 

When did the fig tree put forth its leaves?

This one is a little trickier. In Matthew 24:34 Jesus said the generation that would see the fig tree’s branch become tender and produce its leaves would be the generation that would not pass away “until all these things are accomplished.” 

We do know that we are now living in what I call the fig tree generation—the hundred year period in which Jesus will come again.  We know this because the fig tree—Israel—has already put forth its leaves, and it is already bearing fruit. The only question in my mind is when the fig tree generation started. We do know Israel’s date of birth:  Israel was born in a day on May 14, 1948. Since one generation is one hundred years, if we are counting from Israel’s date of birth then “all these things” will be accomplished on or before May 14, 2048, which will be a hundred years--one generation--from the day Israel was born.

On the other hand, if the fig tree was planted in 1948 but only put forth its leaves when the Temple Mount was captured and Jerusalem was reunited during the Six Day War, then the fig tree generation would have started on June 7, 1967 and “all these things” will be accomplished on or before June 6, 2067.

Please note that the dates above only apply to the last possible date for Jesus’ return (according to my calculations). But He could come at any time within the fig tree generation—the generation I believe we’re living in right now. So “Watch therefore, for you don’t know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming” (Mt 25:13 WMB).

Margot Armer