The Daily Manna

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8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Exodus 20:8

Throughout our lifetime we are taught important dates in order to caution us to be vigilant about the importance of them. Remember the Maine, remember the Lusitania, remember the Alamo, remember Pearl Harbor, remember September 11, 2001, and as we go on into the future there will be other dates that live in infamy as President Roosevelt said about the attack on Pearl Harbor that happened on December 7, 1941.
God cautioned the Jews to remember the Sabbath Day and to keep it forever holy. In our time we do not observe the Sabbath Day but we do observe Resurrection Day every Sunday, the first day of every week. What is so sad in our time is that most people don't.
The importance of the First Day of the week is that it is the day our Lord was risen.
He came forth from the tomb on this day and on this day we are called upon to remember that most momentous event in all of human history and to honor it and to praise God for it. Why? Because as Paul said: "19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. 21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (I Corinthians 15:19-20) Have a very happy Memorial Day but never forget what price has been paid that we might have it to celebrate.
God bless and go and have a great day.
The Daily Manna (May 27, 2021)

 

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8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.
10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Romans 8:8-9

Paul created a lot of problems for the unsaved as well as the saved with his teaching. He did not let that bother him too much except that I am sure that his greatest frustration was that people could not seem to catch on to much of what he was saying. Here in Romans he is teaching the difference between those who let their flesh dictate to them the things that they would do and those that were saved and sanctified would allow the Holy Spirit direct their lives to help them to avoid living in the sins of the flesh. Those that live in the flesh CANNOT please God. That is a simple statement that complicates things for a lot of people. Many say that they feel sorry for those who believe they can and should live sinless lives. "oh", they say, "How miserable it must be for them as they try to live a life like that?" Let me clear up something for you. I do not live a miserable life full of regrets because the sinner having more fun than me. I have had times when this life has presented me with issues I had to pray about and seek solutions to but for the greatest part of my life it has been just joy as I have served Jesus Christ with few regrets. I have had more fun serving Christ than any sinner can claim to have had by serving sin. I learned a long time ago that I am no longer dictated to by the flesh but led by the Holy Spirit. He dwells in me as does Christ and, by the way, you cannot have the one without the other. I died and Christ now lives in me Oh, what a relief it is to live a life that is in Christ and not in sin.
God bless and go and have a great day.
The Daily Manna (June 3, 2021)

 

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1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
3 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 1:1-3

For over 48 years I pastored church of God congregations from Oklahoma to Arkansas, Ohio, and Indiana. One thing they all had in common, a desire to be one with all of the church from one end of the world to another. How can we best define the church of God I am speaking of? Look at verse 2 of today's passage. "them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord..." These are our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. This is the church of God. It is not a denomination, it is a movement that pursues God's truth in order to teach it to whosoever will hear it and live by it. I love the church of God because it does not exist to do battle with anyone but Satan and do battle with Satan it will.
Like Paul, I was called by God to this appointment in His church. What a joy it has been to serve God in this manner. I am a sickly older man now but i have not lost my enthusiasm to know the truth and to share it. This is what Paul wants for the church of God in Corinth. I served the church as a pastor but Paul was called to be an apostle which carries a lot more authority and responsibility with it. In any case to serve God faithfully in whatever calling you are called to is the thing. To serve God in His church is such a blessing. We should all do it and do it well.
God bless and go and have a great day.
The Daily Manna (June 8, 2021)

 

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9 God is faithful, by whom you were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
11 For it has been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. I Corinthians 1:9-11
Just how important is unity to Christ and His church? It is of the utmost importance. To be contentious withhout a cause is one of the most heart breaking things to Christ ( I believe) there is. Paul is addressing this in Fiirst Corinthians because it exist in the church there and, elsewhere. It has through the centuries since then split the church and kept it that way. It is not helping much when it comes to winning the world to Christ. Who is right and who is wrong is a question the world keep asking itself. Where can I go to hear the truth? I wish I could say that every church of God congregation and its leaders are bearers of the truth and the guardians of it. But even that name (church of God) has been taken by some in order to teach an imangined truth instead of it.
I have been privileged over the years to have sat at the feet of great teachers. I want to know God's truth so that i can teach it and the only place that I can be certain of it is in God's Word itself. I never ever want to teach my opinions. I want to teach the Word as it is written and handed down to us. Much of the written Word is hard to be understood so we must not pretend we know something when we don't. It can be understood but only by much study and through the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit never lies. I want to be able to fellowship with all of God's church wherever it may be found. How about you?
God bless and go and have a great day.
The Daily Manna (June 9, 2021)

 

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I have some sad news on the one hand but expecting good news on the other.

Pastor Paul Kirby has been sick for some time now. He had been told he had cancer and they would start him on a chemo therapy regimen. He seemed to be holding his own but yesterday I received a text from him saying he had just been to the doctor and received discouraging news that he was not prepared to talk about at this time.

This tells me that it is worse than they thought and they see no hope for him.
This is devastating news,
I know because I've been there and done that.
The doctors told me the same thing last year and that I only had maybe a few weeks to live at most and there was nothing more they could do.
This is where Gods Glory and Grace and Mercy can best be shown, when everyone else gives up.
Pastor Kirby has been a faithful child of God for many decades, he has faithfully preached Gods word and prayed for his many parisheiners and now it's time for us to pray for him. God wants to heal him but He needs our prayers.
So please pray for God to strengthen him and give him the same victory that God gave me, total victory.

By the way, I'm having my right knee replaced this coming Monday, but before they would operate the doctor wanted proof that I no longer had cancer, he didn't want to replace the knee of a dying patient. Well the test and cat scan came back and the cancer is GONE. I knew it was. PRAISE GOD.

I just received this text from Pastor Kirby.
Thanks ever so much. I have cancer in my colon, pancreas, stomach, esophagus, and all of them would have to come out. So far my liver and kidneys are not affected. I have faith in God and no matter what happens I will submit to him and his will.

 

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Today, I am 81 years of age. In other words, today is my birthday. Eighty one years ago I was born to Lawrence and Linnie Kirby at Hoppes Clinic in Madison County Indiana. I have, however been born again by the grace of God as a child of God and have been thus for the past 71 years. I am grateful to be serving Him and to be a child of my natural parents as well.
I have stage three stomach cancer and am battling to stay here on this earth to serve Christ in whatever manner that I can. To serve Him is my highest goal in life. In order to do that I must make my family a high priority as well. I cannot begin to tell you how blessed I am to have them. They have been there to encourage me and to help me out in so many ways.
God is good and we all need to keep that in mind. For that matter, He goes beyond being good, He is great. 2 Peter 1:3-4 says: "3 According as His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." Just how precious are His promises? You would have to have a personal relationship with Him to know. It is too difficult to explain otherwise. I have learned a lot about Him and about myself over the past two years. I thank God for all my friends and family who have been praying for me and who have visited me and who have sent me cards and letters encouraging me and making phone calls. You will never know how precious you are. In turn I have prayed for you. God bless you all.
The Daily Manna October 4, 2021

 

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1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2 Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;
3 And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram;
4 And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon;
Matthew 1:1-4

I am going to attempt to start the Daily Manna again. I cannot guarantee that it will be a daily thing but I will try to be consistent with it.
Matthew 1:1-4 is just a portion of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. The entire genealogy runs through verse 17. It has been on my mind lately to study the persons whom God chose to be part of the human side of the Person of Christ. Not all of them of course but those of the New Testament such as Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and the wise men and Herod. It appears to me that there is so much tradition which has taken the place of fact that we need to address as we approach the season of the year that we call Christmas.
One of those things that needs to be addressed is the fact that though Jesus is called the son of David He later makes if very clear that He is the Lord that David called "my Lord" in his day. Though Jesus' lineage can be traced all the way back to David the king, He pre-existed him and was with God in His place of glory before the earth was ever created. Jesus lays claim to being the Son of God but also lays claim to being he son of man. He is both at the same time but being the Son of God takes precedence over being the son of man. By that I mean that Jesus was born into this world to be God's only begotten Son who takes away the sin of the world and that is exactly what He died on the cross to do. He died to save us from our sins which is what He came into this world as a human being to do. If He had come as a God alone He could not have died to that end because God cannot die. He was God and man and chose to be that for the sake of our salvation. We will discuss more about the Christ child later.
It is my hope that these manna will help and not hurt but we want to clear up the facts and to
separate fact from fiction. The church is complicit in continuing to keep the traditions and to teach them as fact when such is not so.
God bless and to and have a great day.
The Daily Manna (October 8, 2021)

 

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16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. Matthew 1:16-19

We are introduced to Joseph the espoused husband of Mary. He is Mary's promised husband and has not yet had any carnal relations with her. He is an honorable and upright man and is careful about his and her reputation in the community. This very thing is going to cause him a lot of anguish in the near future.
In verse 16 we find that Joseph is the son of a man named Jacob. We know very little of this man but we can suppose that he was a very good man as well to have raised a son like Joseph. These were all awaiting the coming of the promised Messiah but we must also remember that it had been over 400 years since God had raised up a prophet in the land of Israel now occupied by the Romans. How all of them must have been feeling disappointed that this messiah had not yet come. Joseph and Mary as well as the rest had to feel that same way. I am sure that they never expected to be central to God's plan to bring Messiah into the world but, they were. Joseph was just your average every day man who was a carpenter and who did not otherwise standout in a crowd. He had met and fallen in love with Mary and she with him and they were promised to each the other. Having been promised to each the other they were expected to seriously live as though they were already married to each other and remain chaste. Before they came together as man and wife, Mary was already pregnant and this caused Joseph to think that she had been unfaithful to him but even then he wanted to protect her and sought to quietly end the relationship. This speaks a lot when it comes to his character. He was a just man, a very conscientious man. We need more men like him in God's church today.
God bless and go and have a great day.
The Daily Manna (October 12, 2021)

 

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This is from Pastor Earl Knoph of the South Venice Christian Church. Venice, Fl.

As the church in the world, the church is the people who truly believe, We are to be unified with one heart and one mouth. We are to take care of each other. No member of each other's place of worship should be in hurt or need. I say need not want. We are a servant of Christ because Christ is a servant of God. If Christ is in us we need to remember my oft stated one liner that comes from Gal. 2.20. It is no longer I who lives but it is Christ who lives in me. He now must live through us then. I see too many people going to church on Sunday for that one hour and they think their job is done so they do not live like Christ the rest of the week. I truly know that person is not a Christian. If you love God, you will love HIm all the time, not just for an hour. We are not to think of ourselves as being superior to anyone and we are not the least below anyone. We are to be all equal therefore no one should suffer that we can help.

 

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20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:
25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.
Matthew 20-25

Joseph was deeper than most of us give him credit for. He thought (meditated) on the events that had suddenly taken over his life. God was aware of his distress and sent the angel of the Lord to him to speak to him via a dream. In this dream He spoke to Joseph and instructed him as to what these events meant. The baby that Mary was carrying was no ordinary baby, He was conceived in her by the Holy Ghost. God even told Joseph what the name of the child was, His name is Jesus which means Savior. He was to be named this because He would save HIS people from their sins. This is a direct response to prophesy where it is written that a virgin would be with child and would bring forth a Son whose name would be Emmanuel which means, God with us. At this point Joseph awakens from his sleep and being obedient to God's instructions, took Mary to be his wife but, he had no sexual relations with her until after she had given birth to Jesus .
I want to address this last part. Joseph was a just man, a true man of God. Mary was a just woman, a true woman of God. It could have been no other way. He was a man like many other men and Mary was a woman like so many other women. They were flesh and blood people who did not stand out in a crowd and who had no particular reason to do so. This is why Joseph was so upset when he found out that Mary was pregnant with the baby who was the promised Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world. If it had been any other man in their day, the reaction that Joseph had about this would have been the same. The man would have thought that he had been betrayed in the worst way by his intended bride. The only way that Joseph could have known that Jesus was the Savior of Israel was by the direct intervention of God by this dream. Praise the Lord! As we enter into the season of the year when we celebrate the fact of the birth of Christ Jesus our Lord, let us think on these things ourselves and thank God that He cared enough to send this Child to us in the manner that He did so that we too would have Him to put our faith in and on.
God bless and go and have a great day.
The Daily Manna (October 20, 2021)

 

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1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
2 Saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him.
3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
Matthew 2:1-3

Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. It was understood that the Messiah was coming-the Christ. The "wise men" from the east only agitated him all the more. He called for the priests to explain where Christ would be born and likely, just when. The priests could only give him generalities and not specifics because they did not understand prophecy much better than he did. They told him that Christ would be born in Bethlehem of Judea. They should have understood much more but they did not and their study of prophesy did not avail them of much more information. Much like it is today, most people understand prophecy in a biased light and interpret it in that light which is not light but darkness. So many are just as troubled today and stand around guessing about the next appearance of Christ just as they did then. Instead of prayerfully preparing themselves for that coming of Christ they want to go in sin until they imagine He will appear and then get ready for that appearance but it will not come on their schedule but on God's. Understand this. Only God knows just exactly when Christ will come again and no one else does or will until that day God says to His Son, go and get your bride. Then Christ will come. The first appearance of Christ came suddenly and without fanfare so shall His next appearance.
We have a lot of "Herods" and many "high priests" who are talking much about the second coming of Christ and when and how it shall be when it comes about. We all need to be praying for personal holiness and for God's truth to be shown to us about ourselves and the world we live in. Speculation does not do much for us. Faith in the words God has given us will do much more. We know He is coming and we need to be working all the harder to get people saved and into the kingdom of God that Christ is coming for and blessed will be those that Christ finds so doing when He comes.
God bless and go and have a great day.
The Daily Manna (October 22, 2021)

 

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5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
7 And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. Luke 1:5-7

It is amazing to me how that God had in place all of just the very right people to bring about the birth of His only begotten Son. In order that all prophecy concerning Him be exactly fulfilled this had to be the way it was. Zacharias was a "certain" priest of the "course of Abia. According to Adam Clarke:
"When the sacerdotal families grew very numerous, so that all could not officiate together at the tabernacle, David divided them into twenty-four classes, that they might minister by turns, each family serving a whole week, Abiah was the eighth in the order in which they had been originally established."
This particular week fell to Zacharias. Zacharias was married to Elisabeth and they were growing old and had no children. This is about to change. They are going to have a son named John who will become better known as the baptist. John will be the prophesied forerunner of the son of Mary who is the Christ or the only begotten Son of God. All of this had to be done in order that Jesus could be validated as the true and only person in all of time that is the Christ or Messiah of God.
Even Herod will do the will of God without intending to do it as most all pretenders to the throne of heaven do. God will use them even though they resist Him and think they are using Him to do their own will.
Zacharias had no idea that God was going to bless him and his wife with a son when he entered into that holy office that particular day when it fell his lot to do so. He had done this many times before without any particular incidents taking place. Today would be different and it would make all of the difference to him and Elisabeth and, I might add, to us as well. John would introduce the baptism of repentance and Jesus would show us the way to repent in order to qualify for that baptism. We are so blessed to have both. God is so great in all of His determinations.
God bless and go and have a great day.
The Daily Manna (October 25, 2021)

 

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9 According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.
10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.
11 And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
12 And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
13 But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elisabeth shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
14 And you shall have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. Luke 1:9-14

It was time to burn incense and to pray and it was Zacharias' turn to offer the incense and to pray while outside of the temple others gathered in great number to pray as well. This time would be different for Zacharias and the difference would have an impact on the world from that time forward. An angel of the Lord came and appeared to Zacharias. He stood on the right side of the altar of incense and, of course this troubled Zacharias. The angel spoke to him and brought good news to him. Zacharias had been praying for years for a child to born to him and Elisabeth but it seems that his prayers would never be answered. This angel sent from God was there to tell him that at long last his prayers had been heard and that Elisabeth would would bear him a son and that he was to call his name John. As a result not only he would have joy over this event but that many others would rejoice as well. This too is a part of the story of the birth of Israel's long awaited Messiah.
I believe that it was O'Henry that wrote that the mills of God grind exceedingly slow but that they ground exceedingly fine. There are times when we pray and pray and pray and it seems that God is not paying attention at all to our prayers. This is never true when we pray in faith believing. God is always paying attention but there are times when He simply says no. Then, there are times when He says yes. Then, there are times when He says that we need to be patient and wait for the yes answer when it will be most effective in our lives as well as in the lives of others. Quite often the latter is true. I have been praying for years for God to redeem my children as well as my grandchildren and am praying for the redemption of my great grandchildren. He has answered me in part and I expect a positive answer in the whole. I trust God for the answer in His time and in His way. We must do that in every instance. He is great all of the time in every way. Praise His holy and righteous name.
God bless and go and have a great day.
The Daily Manna (October 27, 2021)

 

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Have a great Veteran's Day and remember the sacrifices that were made that we might have it. May God bless all of our Veteran's today and may what they served this nation to achieve be the way it is.

Magi-Oriental scientist from an eastern country. These are thought to be prophets from the kingdom of Saba in Arabia who were of the same family of Abraham who, like the Jews awaited the promise of God and taught in His name. The Bible does not explain this but these are those who looked to the stars to seek a sign and finally beheld that sign that the true King of the Jews was finally born.
They saw His star and followed it to the place where He was living once they got to Jerusalem. All evidence points to the fact that they believed that he would be born in Jerusalem but they did not seem too disappointed to find out that it was actually in Bethlehem where Messiah would be born.
This indicates to me that they were students of the prophet Isaiah because he makes it very clear that the "promised One" would be born in Bethlehem.
Matthew 2:1-2 says this about them: "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
2 Saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him."
I think it is an amazing thing that they went to all of that difficulty to come to find Him in order to worship Him in their day when so many find it so very inconvenient to rise up out of bed to go to a worship service to worship Him today. I have heard a lot said about individuals who say that they can worship God and Christ just as well in the woods or down at the lake or some other place other than church excusing themselves from such a thing. However, God's word tells us that we are to assemble ourselves with others in order to worship. The wise men could have avoided the hardship of all of that travel in their day but they chose to go where the Christ child was in order to put their gifts personally to Him. I wonder how one can do this in the woods or down at the lake or some where other than down at the local church where others are gathered to offer the sacrifice of their breath and other gifts to He who came down from Heaven to offer us an opportunity to go their and gather with others to worship God? Praise the Lord for our local congregations where those that want to find Christ gather in order to do so.
God bless and go an have a great day.
The Daily Manna (November 11, 2021)

 

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3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 2 Thess. 2:3-4

The admonition here is not to be deceived into an arrogance by an arrogance that God despises. It is common in our time for people to be dismissive of God the Father in heaven on in the earth and to gravitate to the worship of a man or woman or a group of them who set themselves up to be gods or goddesses who are worthy of such love (which they are not worthy of by any means). This leads to the type of chaos we see in our societies today around the world. There are leaders a nations who think they can wantonly destroy anything and anyone in their path to the type of success they imagine for themselves. The United States of America is not indestructible nor are other powerful nations that can be found such as Iran, Russia, and, China. We are none of us lone owners of the world in which we exist. We are here for a time and when that time is over (and that is determined by God), we will be gone. Politics and the leaders thereof will answer to God for the way that they choose to lead.
We are approaching the day on which we celebrate the birth of Christ. Why do we do that? Because He provided and is still providing by heavenly means the type of leadership that should be known by us all and shown by us all whether in politics or the pulpit. God expects that of us. He sent His only begotten Son to us to save us from ourselves and to save the world from us. There are those who use the message of Christ in the pulpit for personal gain promising that if people will do as they say they will get rich and live in mansions and drive expensive cars and wear expensive clothes. I don't remember reading that in the Bible, do you? God help us all to get back to the main thing which was and has always been the main thing and that is to what the shepherds did and the wise men and to bow before Christ and worship and adore Him and to pattern our lives after Him. If we don't we will suffer the loss of having failed to do so. God bless all who read this and may you all have a very merry Christmas and very godly New year.
The Daily Manna (December 20, 2021)

 

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9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Luke 2:9-10

Fear defined in this context is to be very, very afraid-to be alarmed. It also can mean to reverence.
An angel in the context of this passage is a heavenly messenger sent to deliver a specific message to a specific person or, in this instance, group of people. These are the shepherds who are attending to and keeping watch over their sheep at night. They are there to protect the sheep from scavengers and any one who might dare to steal them from their rightful owners. Shepherds are comparable to pastors who are given the responsibility over a congregation who might just be invaded by persons or spiritual invaders who have the same intent and that is to scatter the sheep so that they could pick them off one by one. The angels were there to deliver the message to these shepherds that the Son of God was born and was to be found lying in a manger in Bethlehem. The "glory of the Lord" radiated in the air that night and that was something these shepherds had never experienced before so far as it can be known to us. This was something different, quite different so the angels told them not to be alarmed by their presence for that came to bring to them (and us), a message: "Behold, I bring you good news of great joy". This message was not to them alone, it was to all people then, since then, and, even now.
The shepherds heard that message then and since them countless numbers of other have heard it as well. It is the here and now that concerns me. It appears that countless numbers in our time are no longer listening to this message. It is intended for them but they are not listening. God sent His Son into the world not to condemn it but that it might be saved through Him. Isn't it strange that so many are running around trying to buy that one specific gift that will impress that one particular person in their life that means the most to them. They are in this manner celebrating what they have come to call Christmas. They miss the meaning of the day. It is for the celebration of that great gift that God sent to us that cannot be duplicated or out gifted, the Son of God. Wow! I am impressed by it all, are you? Shouldn't you be?
God bless and go and have a great day.
The Daily Manna (December 21, 2021)

 

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1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David
5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. (Luke 2:1-5)

God is never too early nor is He ever too late. This passage of Scripture begins with the words: "It came to pass in those days". Caesar Augustus was just another tool in the hands of an infinite God. He did not wake up one day and decide that "all the world should be taxed", God directed this decision so that Mary and Joseph would be forced to go to Bethlehem so that Jesus would be born there for this is where it was prophesied hundreds of years earlier that He would be born. What would the Christmas story be like if He had been born anywhere else?
It has been a tradition in our household that this story be read from the Gospel of Luke every year. It is a story of one miracle after another being engineered by God and it is the real and only reason to celebrate Christmas. So many go crazy in so many ways trying to "create" the "Christmas spirit" They go extremes decorating and looking for gifts that impress and miss out on the true "miracle" of the day they call Christmas. The only and real reason for this day is the birth of the King of kings and the humble way He came into the world. May you go to the Gospels of Luke and Matthew and read about His birth and young childhood and then go to John 3:16 and 17 and understand that God sent Him as an expression of His love and concern for you personally and how extremely He wants to save you from your sins.
God bless and go and have a great day.
The Daily Manna (December 22, 2021)

 

[flightsimmer]

14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14) The Hebrew word for "virgin" is almah which means damsel, virgin.
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23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. (Matthew 1:27) The Greek word for "virgin" is parthenos which means a maiden, unmarried daughter, a virgin.

26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.
28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, you that are highly favored, the Lord is with you: blessed are you among women. (Luke 1:26-27)

That Mary, the mother of Jesus was a virgin is an essential part of the teaching of the church of God.
There is no mistaking the Bible's intent when it comes to this understanding. It was prophesied by Isaiah and fulfilled in the New Testament as recorded in Matthew and Luke. No one questioned it then and no should question it now. To argue otherwise is to argue against God's written Word and His living Word. So, rest in peace on this subject and have yourself a very merry Christmas and may that happiness carry over into the New Year. God is great all of the time and He makes no mistakes concerning whom He chooses to carry out His purposes on the earth and in His heaven
God bless and go and have a great day.
The Daily Manna (December 23, 2021)

 

[flightsimmer]

It is with a heavy heart that I inform everyone here that my Pastor and friend, Paul Kirby has passed away at the age of 82.
He passed Thursday morning 2/10/22.
He was in hospice care for only a day or two and was very sick from cancer.
He was a prolific writer of the Daily Manna until he became to sick to publish it anymore. His writings will be sorely missed by many.
His showing and graduation celebration service will be held in southern Indiana east of North Vernon on highway 50 in the town of Nebraska at the Church of God at 11:00 am Tuesday, 2/15/22 if you would like to attend.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

I was very sorry to read this yesterday. I enjoyed his writing very much.

My prayers to all his friends and family.