Friday, November 30, 2007

Throughout the time that I’ve spent in the Church of God World Mission Society, many friends and family members have been telling me the same thing. “You’re reading too much into the Bible verses.” If you’ve recently come to the Church of God World Mission Society and have tried to show at least four people anything that you’ve learned in the Bible, chances are that you too have heard this line.

Just last week I was in a book store and I saw a guy my age looking at Bibles. He asked me if I knew which Bible was the best one for him to buy. I told him that they all say the same thing but some are just worded differently. He continued to ask me about the different versions so I started to tell him about our Heavenly Father Christ Ahnsahnghong and Heavenly Mother through the Bible. I showed him that they all testify Heavenly Father and Mother the same way.

Unfortunately when we finished, he looked at me and said “I think you’re reading into these verses way too much.”

Even though he doubted what he saw, something about him seemed very earnest in trying to understand the Bible. So I turned to Romans 15:4 “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scripture we might have hope.” This verse clearly shows us that the things written in the Bible were written to teach us. However, what the Bible teaches us is not only morals, it teaches us about our hope for salvation and the kingdom of heaven. The goal of our faith is the salvation of our souls so this is very important

We can’t afford to be mistaken when understanding the Bible because our salvation depends on the teachings of the Bible.

Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed from a lack of knowledge. ‘Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God,”. According to the Bible, we will be destroyed because we do not know God.

The Bible shows many examples of what happens to those who do not pay careful attention to what God says. 1 Samuel 15:1 is a story about King Saul who was commanded by God to completely destroy his enemy. Instead, King Saul took some of his enemy’s best possessions to sacrifice to God. Even though Saul had a very good mind to sacrifice to God, God said that Saul did evil because he did not fully obey Him and rejected him as king.

Such a terrible fate for a once great king! God clearly tells us that we should closely follow the commands he has given us.

1 John 2:3 “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.” John 17:3 “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

The gentleman I met finally understood that we cannot afford to take God’s word lightly because our salvation depends on it. He was also happy that there is a church that understands God’s commands and KEEPS them. This is all thanks to our Heavenly Father Christ Ahnsahnhong and Heavenly Mother because they came so that we may know God.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Throughout my life, I have always asked my parents, priests, pastors, members of different churches, how do we get to the kingdom of heaven. I received different answers. The most common answer I received was just to believe and have faith in God. About three years ago I started to look at the lives of the apostles and Jesus in the Bible because I felt that just to believe and have faith in God was too simple. Why would God give us the entire Bible if just believing is enough. God could of just gave us a couple stories of miracles and said to believe. However, the Bible is full of commands, morals, and great acts of faith.

It wasn’t until I came to the Church of God World Mission Society that I understood was it means to have faith in God. My dad always tells me just to have faith in God and you can go to heaven but I showed him some verses in the Bible that describe what it means to have faith in God.

First, Jesus says “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”, John 13:15. Clearly Jesus did many things for us to follow and do as he did. Jesus kept the Sabbath, Luke 4:16 and he kept the Passover, Matthew 26:17.

My dad returned with his favorite verse, Romans 10:9 which says that if you confess that Jesus is Lord, you are saved.

So I asked him, “then why did Jesus do so many things and tell us to do as he has done for us?” Matthew 7:21 says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my father who is in heaven.” This states that action will allow us to enter the kingdom of heaven. Also Hebrews 11:4 shows us how all the fore fathers of faith received their reward in heaven by showing their faith by their actions.
James 2:17 also says, “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” With this last verse my dad understood that we keep the Sabbath, Passover, and all the Feasts of God because of our faith in God.

I give thanks to our Heavenly Father Christ Ahnsahnghong and Heavenly Mother because they revealed this truth to us. Without Them, I would not even know what true faith is. Christ Ahnsahnghong and Heavenly Mother let us see that our faith is judged by what we do, not what we believe.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Today I showed my coworker the Bible testifies that God is our mother. She saw that Christ Ahnsahnghong had to come to bring salvation through the Passover. When I showed her about Heavenly Mother in the Bible, she became a little skeptical when we read Revelations 22:17, “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever whishes, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”

My coworker firmly believed that the bride is us. It is true that through baptism and Passover, we are married to Christ, but this is not to be confused with the bride in Revelations 22:17.

My first point to her was that the Spirit and the bride are giving the water of life which is eternal life (John 4:14). So I asked her, can any of us give eternal life? If we could then we wouldn’t need God but we can’t give eternal life. Only God can give eternal life, then the Spirit and the bride must both be God.
Secondly, Revelations 22:16 says, “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.” Jesus says this testimony is for the churches, and then he testifies about the Spirit and bride. If the bride is the church or the people, then why would Jesus give this testimony to it? In other words, why would Jesus testify the church to itself? This doesn’t make sense if the bride is the church and this testimony is for the church.

Another verse, Revelations 21:22 says, “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” This took place after John saw the bride the wife of the Lamb, the Holy City Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God (Revelations 21:9). So when John saw the bride of the Lamb, he didn’t see a temple, the church, or the people but only God Almighty and the Lamb.
After these verses, my coworker smiled at me and finally understood that she has to come to Father Christ Ahnsahnghong and Heavenly Mother to receive the free gift of the water of life.

I was showing one of my friends about Father Christ Ahnsahnghong and Heavenly Mother in the Bible. He became upset though because he said that I just flipped around the Bible showing him only a few verses “here and there”.

So I asked him how should I read the Bible? He said, “You have to read it from front to back to understand the meaning.”

I told him that it might work for a general idea of the Bible, but to truly understand the Bible, you have to read verses that explain the same things. We do not need to interpret the Bible because each verse can be explained by a subsequent verse in the Bible.
He asked me “how can we know which random verses go together?” I said, we as mere men can’t know by our power. I showed him Romans 15:7-13 to see how the apostles testified about Jesus. In the same way, they testified Jesus with a verse in Samuel, Psalms, Deuteronomy, and Isaiah. We can see that even the apostles of
Jesus preached the same way two thousand years ago.

I could see that my friend was not fully satisfied with this answer, so in hopes for him to fully understand, I showed him one more verse.

Isaiah 34:16 says, “look in the scroll of the Lord and read: None of these will be missing their mate. For it is his mouth that has given the order, and the Spirit will gather them together.” The Bible says that every verse has its mate and the Holy Spirit will gather them together. We have to read the Bible by matching the appropriate verses; however, this can’t be done by men.

The Holy Spirit has to gather them for us. This is why we give thanks to Heavenly Father Christ Ahnsahnghong and Heavenly Mother. Father Ahnsahnghong is the Holy Spirit in the flesh who came to gather all the Bible’s verses for us to understand.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

When I first told my dad about Christ Ahnsahnghong and Heavenly Mother through the Bible, his first reaction to Genesis 1:26, was that we cannot confine God to male or female. I’ve actually heard this from many people. My dad said God is everything and God is above the categories which we use to characterize ourselves such as male or female. For many of us, God just cannot be confined to human characteristics.

Genesis 1:27 says that we were made in God’s image, male and female. Then who had a male and female image first, God or us? Of course God existed first and then created us in Their image. Since God existed first then male and female is not merely a human characteristic but actually a characteristic of God.

When God says image, it doesn’t mean a physical image right? (My dad’s next comment). God is talking about a spiritual image or characteristics of personality such as the love and mercy of a woman and righteous anger of a man. So I took out a dictionary from the bookshelf and asked him to read the definition of image.

As the famous Merriam Webster states, image means:
1: a reproduction or imitation of the form of a person or thing; especially : an imitation in solid form : statue
2 a: the optical counterpart of an object produced by an optical device (as a lens or mirror) or an electronic device b: a visual representation of something: as (1): a likeness of an object produced on a photographic material (2): a picture produced on an electronic display (as a television or computer screen)3 a: exact likeness : semblance b: a person strikingly like another person 4 a: a tangible or visible representation : incarnation barchaic : an illusory form : apparition

That seemed to be clear enough for him; image is clearly something with a physical manifestation. I did not add the Bible reference either, check it out for yourself.
I didn’t want my dad to have any doubts so I showed him two more verses, Romans 1:19 and Revelations 4:11. Romans states that God created everything to show about his divine nature. God created us, animals, plants, birds, etc. with a male and female counterpart so that we would not be confused about God’s true nature as male and female. Revelations also states that God created all things by His will, then everything has God’s will and purpose in it.

May all thanks be to Father Christ Ahnsahnghong and Heavenly Mother for allowing us to see and know true almighty God.

Friday, November 2, 2007

The other day I had lunch with a friend that I went to school with. He was always into debating religion and the Bible. I tried to explain to him that the Bible states Christ will come again and reveal His bride to us.

The Bible clearly testifies that Christ Ahnsahnghong is Second Coming Christ, God almighty. However, he refused to believe that God has a female image. I showed him many verses in the Bible that testify Heavenly Mother is really in the Bible.

He couldn't get past Genesis 1:26 where God says that He made man in his own image. My friend said "look, it only says that God made man in his image." Despite the fact that it says in 1:27 that God made male and female in His own image, he refused to accept it.

So I showed him Genesis 5:1 where it says that God created male and female, blessed them and called THEM man. Clearly God is talking about men and women when He says "man" in Gen. 1:26. My friend quietly returned to eating his lunch because Gen. 5:1 completely cleared up his confusion about the female image of God, our Heavenly Mother.