It’s Time to Use Your Gifts

We read about the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12.  I personally believe that at least one gift is given to every born again believer.  First Corinthians 12:7 (WEB) says “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all.” (1 Corinthians 12:7 WEB)

Notice that these demonstrations of the Spirit are gifts, not merit badges. They aren’t something we learn or earn.  They aren’t something we achieve through good behavior or lose through bad behavior. Like salvation, they are gracious gifts from God, and Romans 11:29 says “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” (WEB).

Let me ask you this: are you using your gift(s)?  Since the gifts of the Spirit are irrevocable, it’s not a case of “use it or lose it,” but a gifting may be dormant for a season.  If your gifting is dormant at the moment, it is your responsibility to fan it into flame. As Paul wrote Timothy, “For this cause, I remind you that you should stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. (2 Timothy 1:6 WEB)

Margot Armer

What Would Corrie ten Boom say?

Yesterday afternoon (US time) the Times of Israel ran a story headlined “Dozens detained in Amsterdam as pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters again defy ban on demonstrations.”  

According to TOI, it was the demonstrators who were accusing Israel of genocide.

On November 7, hundreds of Israelis huddled in their hotels after 10 Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer fans were injured. “Many said that Dutch security forces were nowhere to be found, as the Israeli tourists were ambushed by gangs of masked assailants who shouted pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel slogans while they hunted, beat and harassed them….Police said the attackers were mobilized by calls on social media to target Jewish people.”

TOI said that last Thursday’s violence was carried out by local Arab and Muslim gangs, and “Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof termed the attacks an incident of ‘unadulterated antisemitism’. Police said the attackers were mobilized by calls on social media to target Jewish people.”

Amsterdam is only 16 miles away from Haarlem, Netherlands, where Corrie ten Boom’s family had “The Hiding Place” during the Nazi holocaust.  In Corrie ten Boom’s day, the antisemites were the Dutch and German Nazis.  These days, they are pro-Palestinian Arab and Muslim gangs, and apparently not the native Dutch themselves.

Please ask God to guide and protect all Jews and all lovers of Israel—especially those located anywhere in Europe.

Margot Armer

Lost In Translation 2: The Biblical Distinction Between Soulish and “Spiritish”

This is the second of two very geekish posts.  I promise to be way less geekish starting Thursday.  So let’s look at what’s been lost in translation.

Last week I mentioned how much I’ve been enjoying David Bentley Hart’s The New Testament: A Translation.  Jude 1:19 is what Dr. Hart calls his “acid test” for any new Bible translation. (His own translation of Jude 1:19 reads this way: “These are those who cause divisions, psychical men [psychikos men], not possessing spirit.”)  

In 1 Th 5:23, Paul says, “May your whole spirit [pneuma], soul [psyche], and body [soma] be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (WEB). To change these nouns to adjectives, change the endings.  The Greek words for spiritual, soulish, and bodily are pneumatikos, psychikos, and somatikos.  

I have now noticed--thanks to Dr. Hart--that Jude 1:19 isn’t the only Bible passage to mention “psychical” men.  Dr. Hart’s translation of 1 Corinthians 2:14 says this:  “But a Psychical man does not receive the things of God’s Spirit; for to him it is folly, and he is unable to know them, since they are discerned spiritually.”  And his footnote on this verse says: “here is the first appearance of an antithesis, crucial to Paul’s larger argument, especially in chapter fifteen, between “psychical” life (which comes from psychē or, in Latin, anima: hence also “animate” or “animal” life) and “pneumatic” or “spiritual” life (which is of a radically different nature).” 

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says:

Thus also the resurrection of the dead: it is sown in perishability, it is raised in imperishability; It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; It is sown a psychical body, it is raised a spiritual body.ad If there is a psychical body, there is also a spiritual. 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 (The New Testament: A Translation)

And in his footnote Dr. Hart explains:

The distinction is between a σῶμα ψυχικόν (sōma psychikon) (a body literally “ensouled,” “animated,” or “animal,” given life by psychē, the “soul” or organic “life-principle”) and a σῶμα πνευματικόν (sōma pneumatikon) (a body that is of a “spirited” nature, or constituted from or made to live entirely by deathless spirit, pneuma). As is even more clear in the succeeding verses, this is also a distinction between earthly and heavenly origin; and, as is clearest of all in v. 50, resurrection for Paul is not a simple resuscitation of the sort of material body one has in the fallen world, but a radically different kind of life. 1 Corinthians 15:44 (The New Testament: A Translation--italics added)

Paul finishes his discussion of our present earthly bodies by saying this:

So it has also been written, “The first man Adam came to be a living soul,” and the last Adam a life-making spirit. But not the spiritual first, but rather the psychical, the spiritual thereafter. The first man out of the earth—earthly; the second man out of heaven. As the earthly man, so also those who are earthly; and, as the heavenly, so also those who are heavenly; And, just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man. And I say this, brothers: that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither does perishability inherit imperishability. (1 Corinthians 15:45-50 (New Testament: A Translation)

My take on all of this is as follows: We don’t know what the heavenly man is going to be like, but we di know it’s going to be good. So like Paul, I am praying this: “May our whole spirit [pneuma], soul [psyche], and body [soma] {including mine!!!} be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Th 5:23 WEB).

Margot Armer

Lost In Translation: The Biblical Distinction Between Soulish and “Spiritish”

I have been thoroughly enjoying David Bentley Hart’s The New Testament: A Translation, and I want to thank Olive Tree Bible Software for making it available electronically, unlike all the other Bible software programs I also love and use. If you only want to read Dr. Hart’s translation (as opposed to, say, reading it in parallel with a Bible commentary) it’s available from Amazon as a Kindle book, an audio book, and/or an audio CD.  And in case you’re worrying about Dr. Hart’s academic credentials, don’t.  His publisher is Yale University Press. 

Fair warning: I confess to being a bit of a Bible geek.  If you’re not a Bible geek, I suggest you skip this post and the one that follows it on Monday.  After that, I promise to try to be less geeky.

Mark Twain famously wrote that “a camel is a horse designed by a committee.” Like Mark Twain, Dr. Hart doesn’t like committees—especially when it comes to all the committee-driven decision-making that goes into arriving at most new Bible translations. It turns out that Dr. Hart judges all other New Testament translations by looking at Jude 1:19.  He says: “A sort of “acid test” for me is Judas [or Jude] 1:19, a verse whose meaning is startlingly clear in the Greek but which no collaborative translation I know of translates in any but the vaguest and most periphrastic manner.” 

Dr. Hart himself translates Jude 1:19 this way: “These are those who cause divisions, psychical men, not possessing spirit.”  

The Greek word for soul is psychē, and it is Jude 1:19 that (when translated correctly) makes a distinction between people who are “soulish” or psychical, and people I will now start calling “spiritish” (people Jude describes as “possessing spirit.”)  “Spiritish” is my bad--don’t blame it on Dr. Hart.  Dr. Hart says this:

Despite its long history of often vague and misleading translations, this verse [Jude 1:19] clearly invokes the distinction between psychē and pneuma (soul and spirit) as principles of life, and between “psychics” and “pneumatics” as categories of persons. There is most definitely no reference here to the Holy Spirit: given the construction of the sentence, the absence of the definite article alone makes this certain; and the reasoning of the sentence makes it all the more so. 

And then he adds: “See 1 Corinthians 2:14 and 15:44-47, along with my footnotes, as well as my remarks on the words psychē and pneuma in my postscript.”  

I think we’ll do that next week.  It’s going to be another blog that only a Bible geek could love. I have every intention of behaving myself after that.

Margot Armer

I Had Lunch with Corrie ten Boom

My cousin Sukie once asked me who I’d choose to have lunch with if I could have lunch with anyone. I said I couldn’t think of anyone, whereupon Sukie said that she would like to have lunch with Corrie ten Boom. I felt really bad about telling her I’d already had lunch with Corrie ten Boom.

Back in the early seventies my mother and I attended Pittsburgh Church of the Brethren. Its pastor, Russ Bixler, was one of the pastors involved in putting together the annual Greater Pittsburgh Charismatic Conference. He asked for volunteers. My mother and I raised our hands. Our assignment—and we did choose to accept it—was to pick up a speaker named Corrie ten Boom at the airport, take her and her nurse to their hotel, and provide whatever transportation they needed. We were happy to do it, and we were also thrilled to be able to buy them lunch.

Our assignment didn’t last long—several bigwigs were eager to help us with our “chore.” But I can tell you two things that were on Corrie ten Boom’s mind:

(1) Corrie ten Boom did not believe in the Rapture. She had just come back from Africa. While she was there, some Christians were murdered. Within a week after she spoke, half the Christians in that African church were murdered. She felt that Christians in America were too busy singing “I’ll Fly Away” and eren’t being prepared to stand on verses like James 1:12, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”

(2) Corrie ten Boom also said Christians needed to stay away from the occult, especially from secret societies like the Masons. I can’t remember much about what she said on this one, but in my own defense, it was over half a century ago.

Margot Armer

A Christian Witch Story

Some people are living under a curse because of their own sins. 

Other people are living under a curse because of their ancestors' sins. 

Still others are living under a curse because someone has actually pronounced a curse on them. 

Back in the late seventies I was working in the advertising department of a store named Joske’s, and I used to get my hair done in their beauty salon because I got an employee discount.  One day I was having my hair done. I was witnessing to my hairdresser, and he was witnessing to me.  Only his religion was Wicca. He told me he was a witch, and he also mentioned that he could put a curse on me so that I would turn black and die.  He didn’t say he would--he just said he could. And since he was doing my hair, he had just laid hands on my head. 

Well, as soon as I got back to my office, I prayed.  I reminded God that the Bible says the curse causeless shall not come. I reminded the devil that I was a blood-bought child of God. I did NOT curse the witch who had said he was able to curse me.  Romans 12:14 says “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” I’m pretty sure I didn’t bless that hairdresser--this happened decades ago--but I am sure I didn’t curse him. And the following day, he simply didn’t show up for work.  His boss tried to call him, but didn’t answer his phone.  And in the following weeks he never did show up to collect his back pay.  As far as his boss knew, he had simply vanished. And I always wondered if he had tried to curse me, and it had boomeranged on him.

Margot Armer

Even Christians Can Have Demons

As Halloween approaches, I want to remind you of the dangers of the occult. The Bible tells us the source of occult deception: “The great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him” (Revelation 12:9 MEV).

The devil deceives the whole world, not just a part of it.  In other words, we North Americans aren’t any more immune to deception than people who live in China or India or Africa or South America. The whole world is in trouble. We need to realize that the spirit world is real, that evil spirits exist, and that while most curses are self-inflicted through involvement in the occult or in other sins that we commit ourselves, Christians can also suffer from curses that are brought on by other people.  Curses brought on by other people would include curses placed on believers by people who practice witchcraft OR by curses believers inherit because of the sins of their ancestors.

The good news of the Gospel is that if you are willing to repent of your own sins and the sins of your ancestors, and if you are willing to repent of any involvement in the occult, then there is a cure for almost every curse and almost every case of demonization.  In fact, at the moment I can only think of one case in the Bible in which God didn’t heal a believer of demonization, and that was the apostle Paul: in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 (MEV) Paul writes, “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me, lest I be exalted above measure. I asked the Lord three times that this thing might depart from me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

The apostle Paul was demonized by a messenger of Satan, but please note that Paul’s thorn was only in his flesh. I hope the apostle Paul will forgive me for using the word “only” about something that tormented him like that.

To learn more about deliverance (getting rid of evil spirits) start here.

Margot Armer

Simchat Torah / Shemini Atzeret

Sukkot lasts seven days. The day after Sukkot is called Simchat Torah and/or Shemini Atzeret. (Shemini Atzeret means Eighth day of Assembly; Simchat Torah means Joy of Torah.)

Simchat Torah is the day immediately following Sukkot--an eighth day on which Jews are no longer required to live in sukkahs.  For today’s rabbinic Jews, Shemini Atzeret is also the day on which Jews finish reading through the Pentateuch and start reading again in Genesis. 

In the Bible, Jews are commanded to “rejoice in your feast” during Sukkot, and while today’s Jews do rejoice during Sukkot, their rejoicing reaches a climax during Simchat Torah. Last year, however, Simchat Torah fell on October 7. Early that morning, on the very day Israeli Jews should have been rejoicing, Hamas started the Israel-Hamas war with a land, sea, and air assault during which whole families were burned alive, men and women were raped, and the Geneva Conventions were totally ignored by the invaders.

This year, Simchat Torah starts tonight.  I’m praying that this year’s Simchat Torah brings Israelis only joy.

Margot Armer

How To Have Peace In Perilous Times

“Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”
(2 Peter 1:2 NIV 1984)

If you want grace and peace in abundance, then this is how the Bible says we get it.  We get grace and peace through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 

How then do we receive the knowledge of God?

We get to know God the same way we would get to know anyone else.  We get to know God by spending time with Him in prayer, by talking to God, and by asking Him to talk to us. We get to know God by hanging out with Him.  We get to know God by reading His Word. We get to know God by asking Him about Himself.

In Exodus 33:11 the Bible tells us that the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.

And in verse 13 we read that Moses asked God:  “Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight.”  

I’m paying that for me, and I’m also praying that for you.

I’ll finish with this.  As the expression goes, this is last but not least.

The Apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 1:3-4,

“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Do you really want to know God? You will need to know His Word. We can get everything we need--we can get all things that pertain unto life and godliness--through the knowledge of Him. And how do we receive the knowledge of Him? We claim the exceeding great and precious promises that He has given us in His Word. 

Margot Armer

Sukkot Is Going To Change

Today is Day One of the seven-day biblical holiday of Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Ingathering, the Feast of Booths, the Feast of Temporary Shelters, and the Feast of Tabernacles. (A sukkah is a booth or temporary shelter. Sukkot is the Hebrew plural of sukkah—the English equivalent would seem to be sukkahs.)

Deuteronomy 16:13-15 commands the children of Israel to rejoice during Sukkot: “You shall rejoice in your feast . . .you shall be altogether joyful.”  

The Bible doesn’t tell us how to build a sukkah. The very complex specifics of sukkah construction followed by today’s Jews are derived from the Talmud, especially in the tractate Sukkah, which contains elaborate instructions on how a sukkah should be built. The Bible itself doesn’t give us any specific instructions about how to build a sukkah, but it does tell us that during Sukkot all native Israelis must live in temporary shelters for seven days: 

You must live in temporary shelters for seven days; every native citizen in Israel must live in temporary shelters, so that your future generations may know that I made the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.ʼ” Leviticus 23:42-43 (NET)

Today, Sukkot isn’t just celebrated by native-born Israelis―many American Jews and some American gentiles also celebrate Sukkot. (I don’t know what happens in other countries.)  Most Americans don’t travel to Jerusalem in order to celebrate―they build their sukkahs here. But according to Zechariah, a day is coming all the nations―or perhaps representatives from all the nations―will be required to travel to Jerusalem to attend Sukkot to worship the God of the Bible and to celebrate Sukkot:

Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the LORD afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. Zechariah 14:16-19 (ESV)

To which I can only say (in Aramaic) Maranatha!

Margot Armer

Miracles Don’t Validate a Ministry

According to Jesus, ““Not everyone who says to me, ʻLord, Lord,ʼ will enter into the kingdom of heaven - only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, ʻLord, Lord, didnʼt we prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and do many powerful deeds?ʼ Then I will declare to them, ʻI never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!ʼ” Matthew 7:21-23 (NET)

How is it possible that people can prophesy in Jesus’ name, cast out demons in Jesus’ name, do miracles in Jesus’ name, and actually call Jesus Lord, and still not enter the kingdom of heaven?  It’s possible because the gifts of the Spirit are exactly that—they’re gifts.  Gifts aren’t earned.  If they were earned, we’d call them wages—as in “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Sinners earn death by sinning.  But just because someone is able to heal the sick, cast out devils, and foretell the future doesn’t mean that person is necessarily a man or woman of God.

So how do we tell the good guys from the bad guys?  Jesus says we will know them by their fruit: “In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree is not able to bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree to bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will recognize them by their fruit” (Matthew 7:17-20 NET).  And what constitutes good fruit? We find this in Galatians 5:17—“the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23 NET).

In 1973 Kathryn Kuhlman told Christianity Today “I resent very much being called a faith healer, because I am not the healer. I have no healing virtue. I have no healing power. I have never healed anyone. I am absolutely dependent upon the power of the Holy Spirit.”  I know how she felt. I’ve been a believer for over half a century now, and during that time God has allowed me to experience many miracles. I’ve seen food multiplied.  I’ve experienced divine protection. I’ve been transported in the spirit.  I’ve seen God heal cars. I’ve seen God heal people.  I’ve seen one storm stop in an instant. Can I do any of these things by myself?  I can’t.  Do these things happen every time I pray?  They don’t.  But I believe God wants me to let you know He really, truly still works miracles today.

Margot Armer

Impossible Things

In Through the Looking-Glass, Alice in Wonderland told the White Queen “One can’t believe impossible things.”  The Queen told Alice, “I daresay you haven't had much practice.  When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” 

Through the Looking-Glass is fiction, but the White Queen had a point.  Believing impossible things takes practice. The more miracles you see, the easier it is to believe God will give you a miracle the next time.

Here’s what Jesus told us to do:

“Have faith in God. I assure you: If anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, all the things you pray and ask for — believe that you have received them, and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing. Mark 11:22-25 (HCSB)

The more often we see impossible things happen, the stronger our faith becomes.  I came to faith in Jesus because I saw the impossible happen--and I saw it happen not just in Kathryn Kuhlman’s services in Pittsburgh in the seventies, but I also saw it happen when what used to be called Jesus People prayed for my mother’s friends and neighbors. Once you’re convinced that miracles happen today, it’s a lot easier to believe your miracle will happen.

One last thing:  when you’re praying for a miracle, it’s important to forgive everyone for everything they’ve ever done to hurt you. “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14-15 WEB)  Over the years, I’ve seen a number of people instantly healed right after they forgave someone who had hurt them badly.

Think about this:

Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?”

Jesus said to him, “I don’t tell you until seven times, but, until seventy times seven. Therefore the Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who wanted to reconcile accounts with his servants. When he had begun to reconcile, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But because he couldn’t pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, with his wife, his children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, have patience with me, and I will repay you all!’ The lord of that servant, being moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.

“But that servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, who owed him one hundred denarii, and he grabbed him, and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’

“So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will repay you!’ He would not, but went and cast him into prison, until he should pay back that which was due. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were exceedingly sorry, and came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him in, and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt, because you begged me. Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you?’ His lord was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors, until he should pay all that was due to him. So my heavenly Father will also do to you, if you don’t each forgive your brother from your hearts for his misdeeds.” (Matthew 18:21-35 WEB)

Margot Armer

It’s October 7. Keep Israel in Prayer.

I’ve heard it said that history is His story, and this is particularly true of Israel. It is a miracle that Israel exists at all.  In 1948 Israel was born in a day, just the way the Bible said it would be.  Ever since then, it has experienced numerous out-and-out wars and large-scale military operations—nineteen so far, according to my count. But Am Israel chai—the people of Israel live.

There are 22 Arab countries in North Africa and the Middle East, all of which are members of the Arab League. There is only one Jewish country, and it continues to need our prayers.  Psalm 122:6 (WMB) says this: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Those who love you will prosper.”

In the aftermath of last year’s October 7 invasion, pro-Palestinian activists worldwide have been chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” But according to the Bible, it is the Jewish people who were told that “Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.” (Deuteronomy 11:24 HCSB). So if anyone is going to chant about who belongs where, it should be those of us who are pro-Israel, and in addition to our praying we should all be chanting, “From the River to the Sea, Israel is God’s decree.”

Margot Armer

Rosh Hashanah Began Last Night

I am biblically Jewish: in biblical Judaism, genealogies go through the father’s side. 

In rabbinic Judaism, Jewishness is carried through the mother, even though a person’s priestly standing is carried through the father. By priestly standing, I’m referring to the distinctions rabbinic Jews make between Cohens, Levites, and “all Israel” when it comes to the order in which people get called up to read the Jewish Bible in their synagogue.

Why do I make a difference between biblical and rabbinic Judaism?  Only because there is one.  If you don’t believe me, believe Lawrence H. Schiffman, the highly respected Orthodox Jewish professor who wrote FROM TEXT TO TRADITION A History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism. After the Second Temple was destroyed, it wasn’t too long before Jews began believing that tradition trumped the Torah.

In the Torah (the Jewish Bible), Rosh Ha Shanah (“Head of the Year”) is known in Leviticus 23:24 as Zikron Teruah (a reminder by blowing of trumpets) and in Numbers 29:1 as Yom Teruah (a day for blowing trumpets).  The Hebrew word Teruah can also be translated as “a very loud sound.”  So Yom Teruah could be translated as Loud Sound Day, or Blast of Noise Day, or Shofar Day.  And some people do call Yom Teruah the Feast of Trumpets.

I should also mention here that the biblical New Year falls in the spring on Nisan 1, even though rabbinic New Year happens in the fall.  How do I know biblical New Year happens in the spring?  Exodus 12:2 says, “This month [the month in which Passover is celebrated] shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.”  That, my friends, is in the Bible. God said it, and that settles it.

According to God, Jewish New Year is actually in the spring, but I still pray you’ll still have a happy New Year, Jewish or not, whenever you choose to celebrate—whether it’s today, or January 1, or on the first of the Jewish month of Nisan.

Margot Armer

God Said Israel Would Be A Blessing

Just before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, Moses told the Israelites, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants” (The World Messianic Bible, Deuteronomy 30:19). Benjamin Netanyahu referred to this passage in his September 27 speech at the UN.  (You can read a transcript of his UN message here.)

There is another famous Bible passage that refers to blessings and curses found in God’s call to Abraham hundreds of years before the time of Moses:

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treats you with contempt. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” (The World Messianic Bible Genesis 12:1–3)

Israel is a tiny little country.  If you rank countries by population, Israel would probably be number 100 in terms of population and number 150 if going by geographic size. And yet Israel has made HUGE contributions to the world’s welfare.  Because the world is so anti-Israel these days, I thought it would be to list just some of the ways in which Israel has contributed to world welfare--and for the sake of time, I asked Chatgpt for help.  Here is what Chatgpt came up with:

Israel has made significant contributions to global welfare across various sectors. Here are some key areas:

1. Technology and Innovation

• Start-Up Nation: Israel is known for its vibrant tech ecosystem, producing numerous innovations in fields like cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and software development.

• AgriTech: Innovations in agriculture, including drip irrigation and drought-resistant crops, have helped improve food security worldwide.

2. Medical Advances

• Healthcare Technology: Israeli companies have developed groundbreaking medical devices and technologies, such as robotic surgical systems and advanced imaging techniques.

• Pharmaceuticals: Israel is home to major pharmaceutical firms that contribute to global healthcare through new medications and treatments.

3. Water Management

• Desalination: Israel is a leader in water desalination technology, providing solutions for water-scarce regions globally.

• Water Conservation: Techniques developed in Israel for efficient water use are implemented in various countries facing water scarcity.

4. Humanitarian Aid

• Disaster Relief: Israel has a history of providing immediate assistance during natural disasters, sending rescue teams and medical aid to affected areas.

• Refugee Assistance: Israel has accepted and supported refugees and displaced persons from various regions.

5. Education and Knowledge Sharing

• Training Programs: Israel offers training programs and workshops in agriculture, technology, and disaster management to developing countries.

• Scholarships: Various institutions provide scholarships for international students, promoting education and cultural exchange.

6. Cultural Contributions

• Arts and Literature: Israeli artists and writers contribute to global culture, promoting dialogue and understanding through their works.

7. Environmental Initiatives

• Renewable Energy: Israel is advancing solar energy technologies, contributing to sustainable energy solutions worldwide.

• Biodiversity Conservation: Research and initiatives aimed at conserving biodiversity are shared with other nations.

These contributions reflect Israel's commitment to global welfare and its role in addressing various international challenges.

[Here ends the reading from Chatgpt]

Miracles Aren’t the Measure of a Ministry

I believe in miracles.  I became a believer because I witnessed miracles, and I’ve experienced many miracles since I came to faith.  But miracles aren’t the measure of a ministry.

Let’s look at Matthew 7:21-23. This is where Jesus said,

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ 

Elijah did a lot of miracles, and Elisha performed twice as many miracles as Elijah did. But it was Elijah, not Elisha, who appeared with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration. John the Baptist did no miracles, whereas Jesus’ disciples healed the sick and cast out demons. Yet Jesus told his disciples that “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11).  So what DID John the Baptist do?  John the Baptist fulfilled Gabriel’s prophecy to Zechariah that John would “bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.” 

God doesn’t see the way man sees.  Man looks at the outward appearance--miracles included. God looks at the heart.  Not only that, but most miracles only affect things that happen here, whereas salvation affects how we’ll spend eternity. From God’s point of view, soul winning is far more important than miracle working.  But I know of nothing that stops believers from experiencing both.

Margot Armer

In The World But Not Of It

Being in the world but not of it is like paddling a canoe on the Mississippi River.  The river is huge, the current is strong, and the water is toxic.  Snakes live there.  If you want to get where you’re going, you need to keep your boat in the water, and you need to keep the water out of your boat. Getting too much water in your boat will sink any boat I know of.

Jesus prayed,  “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from  the evil one.” (John 17:19 NASB). If God took us out of the world, we wouldn’t be able to share the Gospel with the world.  But “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15 NASB). We need to see the world’s polluted water for what it is. Is your boat taking on too much muddy water?  Paul says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may  prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2 NASB).

Margot Armer

What To Do When Someone Tries To Save YOU

Not too long ago, two young Bible-carrying women rang my doorbell.  They were Jehovah’s Witnesses. I invited them in. After all, it isn’t every day two unsaved people come to my door actually wanting to talk about the Bible!

JWs get a lot of things wrong. They believe Jesus is the archangel Michael. They believe the Holy Spirit is a force and not a Person. They have other unbiblical beliefs as well.  But JWs do get one thing right: the God of the Bible does have a Name, and judging from Exodus 3:15, He wants to be remembered by it.

Modern English translations render God’s Name as Yahweh, but according to the Karaite Jewish Author Nehemia Gordon, the pronunciation of that name--the Tetragrammaton--may very well be Jehovah.

Meanwhile, if the Lord should bless you with a couple of JWs on your doorstep, here are some pointers. Invite them in. Be cordial. Be loving. Share your testimony. (No one can argue with your testimony. You’re the expert when it comes to your own experiences.) If they offer you literature, take it. (Shred it after they leave--that will be one piece of paper they can’t give to someone else who might be taken in by it.) And meanwhile be prepared.  If nothing else, order or download Rose Publishing’s pamphlet,10 Questions & Answers on Jehovah's Witnesses.

May God bless all of us with lots of opportunities to share the Gospel!

Margot Armer

God’s Sovereignty - Part 5

Here Are SOME of the Reasons Why Bad Things Happen

Sometimes God takes the righteous to spare them from future calamity:

Isaiah 57:1 says
The righteous man perishes,
and no one lays it to heart;
devout men are taken away,
while no one understands.
For the righteous man is taken away from calamity;

Sometimes God allows bad things to happen to urge them to turn to God

Isaiah 9:12b-13
For all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.
13 The people did not turn to him who struck them,
nor inquire of the Lord of hosts.

Sometimes bad things happen to keep us from committing the sin of pride:

In 2 Cor. 12:7 ESV Paul said

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

Sometimes bad things happen for the glory of God

When Jesus healed the man born blind, “his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:2-3)

Sometimes bad things happen to encourage fruit in the fruitless.

In the parable of the fruitless fig tree in Luke 13, when the owner of the vineyard told the keeper to cut it down, the keeper of the vineyard said, “Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: 9 And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.” I’d like to point out here that two bad things happened to the fruitless fig tree: not only did its roots get disturbed, but to add insult to injury, the keeper of the vineyard then fertilized it with manure.

Sometimes bad things happen to bring more fruit to the fruitful.

I’ve already said that sometimes bad things happen to encourage fruit in the fruitless. But sometimes seemingly bad things happen to bring more fruit in the fruitful. John 15:2 NIV, “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”

Sometimes bad things happen for training purposes:

This is the “no pain, no gain” principle found in Hebrews 12, beginning in verse 7:

7 Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline — which all receive — then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had natural fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but He does it for our benefit, so that we can share His holiness.n 11 No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Beloved, God loves us. He says, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline” (Rev. 3:19)  And the prophet Jeremiah wrote,  “For the Lord will not cast off forever. Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men” (Lamentations 3:31-33 ).

God doesn’t afflict willingly!

In closing, I have a word from God for all of us -- Revelation 3:19-22:

19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 21 The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

Margot Armer

God’s Sovereignty - Part 4

At this point in time we may not understand all there is to know about the problem of evil, but I believe God has revealed enough about this subject in the Bible so that if our hearts are in the right place we can trust and love God no matter what happens. 

In Exodus 33:13 we see that Moses prayed this prayer: “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.” God answered that prayer. Psalm 103:7 says, “He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.” And Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The hidden things belong to the LORD our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.”

So today let’s look at the revealed things.

First of all, we need to know that God is not the source of wickedness. 

God may in fact create calamity, but God is not the source of wickedness or wicked acts. First John 3:8 ESV says, “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”  

James 1:13,14 NIV, “13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 

In other words -- and this one passage deserves a sermon all by itself -- God cannot be tempted to sin and He doesn’t tempt anyone else to sin. However, the devil can tempt you if you allow it by not dealing with your own evil desire. James 1:14 says that “each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.”

So first, we need to understand that God is not the source of sin and wickedness.

And second, we need to know that even though God is not the source of wickedness, He often uses wickedness, in the form of wicked people, evil spirits, and even Satan himself to perform His own purpose. 

Psalm 76:10  states, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." Here we learn that God will take man's wrath toward Him and turn it into praise. Any leftover wrath--wrath that won’t end up in praise to God--is leftover wrath that will be restrained.

We see this principle in operation in Job. In Job chapter 1, the Lord said to Satan that everything Job had was in Satan’s hands, but--and I quote--”on the man himself do not lay a finger.”

After Job’s children were killed, Job said, "the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD" (Job 1:21 ). And Job was right! In Job 42:7, God says to Eliphaz the Temanite, "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” Job said God had given and taken away his children (as well as his cattle and other possessions). And God told Eliphaz that Job had spoken the truth about God. So both are true. Satan killed Job's children, and God was responsible because He had allowed Satan to do that.

But all’s well that ends well.  In Job 42:10 (NIV 1984), we learn that  “After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before.” 

Job got double for his trouble.

In chapter 1, Job had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters.

In chapter 40, Job had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters.

If God doubled Job’s animals, why didn’t God double Job’s children?  Why didn’t Job have 14 sons and 6 daughters? I’ll tell you why. For those who believe the Bible, what we have here is mathematical proof of life after death. If we could ask Job today how many sons and daughters he has there in heaven with him, his answer would be 14 sons and 6 daughters.  

Those first ten children didn’t die after all--they simply had a permanent change of address.

Margot Armer