Subtitle: The Department of Schooling

An Article written by Sam Sorbo for APPI specifically to Pastors

We should change the name of the Department of Education to the Department of Schooling because one cannot claim the title of “education” while ignoring the most important book in human history: the Bible. This historical book has informed humanity for millennia, and that isn’t a religious statement. It is the most quoted piece of literature, the basis of our legal system, and the source for many of our most common phrases. 

​Former congressman Bob McEwan has said that traditions are solutions to problems we’ve long since forgotten. While that might be true of things like marriageand the golden rule (both Biblical), school is not a tradition so much as a long-running experiment with a very limited, largely ignored control group:homeschoolers. Two hundred years ago everyone was homeschooled, and our self-taught founders created the greatest country the world has ever seen. Although they didn’t attend grade school, they did possess an extensive knowledge of the Bible.

​Teddy Roosevelt said that thorough knowledge of the Bible was worth more than a college education. Was he just some old white guy no one should listen to? Perhaps people don’t need to bother reading their Bibles anymore. The Department of Schooling and the “educators” seem to think so. Those same teaching institutions taught us to send our children to strangers for their “education.” That’s called misplaced trust.

Christians either believe in the Good Book or not.The middle ground is hypocrisy, and it affects our children.

​Children who attend government schools on weekdays but whose parents bring them to church on Sundays see this hypocrisy and wonder – though maybe not out loud – “Mom and Dad say the Bible is the inerrant Word of God and that we should revere it and follow it.” Simultaneously, they are learning in school, if only by omission, but often with ridicule, that the Bible is irrelevant, outdated, and full of fantasy. This sets up a conundrum for the child. Either Mom and Dad are ignorant or the school is unwise, but Mom and Dad tell me the school knows how to teach me better than they can, so Mom and Dad must be dumb and the Bible is just a silly collection of fairy tales that no one in their right mind would bother reading, much less believe!

​If parents insist their child attend church while he or she has already subconsciously concluded the hypocrisy, it can severely undermine the parents’ authority and the child’s reverence even more. 

​Meanwhile, the statistics are in: over eighty percent of graduating, proclaiming Christian high school seniors lose their religion in their first year of college. That is not because colleges actively turn them against their church; it’s because they had no foundation from home. 

​If pastors don’t insist on the Bible as a way of life, they spoil their church and corrupt The Church. God’s design for the family is for parents to pass on theirtraditions to the children, and the children’s relationshipswith their parents to transfer up to God the Father as theymature. 

Secular “educators” taught us that only with proper schooling could children succeed in this material word. And they defined success as material wealth. Christiansrecognize the material world, but are not of that world. 

​Most adults had K-12 indoctrination of the goodness of – not God – but of the secular style of “education.” It isn’t education. It’s indoctrination in secularism, humanism, socialism, and anti-Christianity. Most adults, including many pastors, have bought the lie of, “Don’t try this at home. Leave it to the experts: the educators!” That’s just job security for them.

​Why aren’t we trusting God, who wrote the guidebook? Nowhere does it say to find a good school for children, or to institutionalize them, or to make sure children spend vast hours of their days around other children. All that is the collective construct of our schools – this grand experiment in social organizing and control. God’s plan is for the parents to train their children in His words and laws:

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ~Deuteronomy 6:6-8

​Belief in the Bible must show evidence. 

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. ~Matthew 23:27-28

​Belief in God must evidence trust.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. ~Proverbs 3:5-6

By ignoring God’s Word, schools make hypocrites of believers. Straight A’s may be beautiful on the outside but, starved of the truth that lives in the Bible, the child dies on the inside. Schooling is not education.


By: Rev. Joshua Omolo (Gwara)

The hustle and bustle of life has captured many people today such that men do not
have time to seek for their maker who is our God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible gives clear instructions of life that we should seek first the kingdom of
God and its’ righteousness and the rest of important things shall be added to us
(Mathew 6:33). Majority of me today prefer running after the things of the world,
materials wealth of the world and then the kingdom matters later. The church
hasn’t been spared neither. There is need to have a paradigm shift in our mindset
as far as our value systems are concerned. Men needs to stop worshiping material
things, and instead chose to worship the true God by giving to God what belongs
to God, and the answer here is seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness.
i. Kingdom Seekers Embrace Kingdom mentality
Kingdom seekers will always think like the king and embrace the values of the
kingdom they represent. True kingdom seekers will always ensure that the interests
of the King are given priority number one when they are about to make critical
decision in any matters pertaining to life. Kingdom seekers are those believers in
Christ who are ready and willing to pay any price for the sake of the interest of their
faith in Christ. This world is controlled by the principalities and powers of darkness
and their value systems. The values of kingdom seekers are always under
opposition by the spiritual forces in the dark places, and the prime target of the
battle formation is in the mindset. Every believer in Jesus Christ needs therefore to
guard their mind against such demonic invasion.
When you read in the book of Genesis 3:3 – He said to the woman, “Did God really
say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden?” then that marked the beginning
of spiritual warfare and the target was to poison the mindset of the woman to
embrace lies that God did not really mean that eating the forbidden fruit would
lead to death. The outcome of every battle in life begins in the mindset. David
looked and saw Goliath as a target too big to miss while the Israelites army looked
at Goliath and saw him as a giant too big to defeat, it was all in the mind and the
fear of God.

David feared God and that is the reason why he was able to operate in a positive
mindset which is victory focused. Godly controlled mindset will never bow to the
influence of the dark world. Challenges may arise but the echo of the spirit of a
winner will always submerge the waves of fear and doubt. The ability to learn,
think, choose, and reason is the essence of what makes us human or inhuman
depending on whether you are under the influence of the power of the Holy Spirit
or forces of Satanic world. Your thoughts become a reflection of who you really are.
“What affects you is not what people think about you but what you think about
yourself”
The book of Colossians 3:2 – says, “Set your affection on the things above not on
things on the earth….”
The revelation God is teaching us here is that we need to stop thinking small
because the things above are superior and special. The things above are precious
immortal in nature and rare to find. I love the things above because they never lose
their value, they are immune to the principles of depreciation. Any rich man who is
looking on the best destination for investment where profitability is assured should
vouch for this option. God is telling us to think big and better. The DNA of our
prosperity is defined by the content of our thinking capacity.
God has given you power to decide the coordinates of your mindset and the
contents within, how you utilize that power is what matters whether you will
become prosperous or not. The whole idea squarely depends on the choices of
what you will allow to cook in your mind. Mathew 6:19-21- Lay up for yourselves
treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do
not break in and steal. Many are not able to perceive this because their minds are
blurred. I was shocked to discover that almost everyone wants to go to Heaven
when I did a small research, but their mindset cannot allow them to make a choice
to go to Heaven.
Spiritual mental health is such a critical element in determining the outcome of
every spiritual battle we go through. Most people are the victims of their own
negative thought process, they suffer from self mental incarceration. The mental

prison is so deceptive such that they even don’t even know that they are in it.
Greatness begins from the mindset then manifests in the physical. All scientific
discoveries begin in the laboratories before it becomes a reality in the practical
world. One major reason that has made Africa to lag behind in comparison to other
continents of the world is the consistent brain drain. Many Africa scholars are
thriving in their careers in Europe and other parts of the world simply because their
countries of origin did not have the capacity to accommodate their intellectualism.
God has given us power to set up our minds and to determine the bandwidth
capacity of what we would like our minds to accommodate. As a man thinketh in
his mind so he is (Proverbs 23:7). God created you and one of the special gift which
was given to you by God is a positive mind. The duty to think is a delegated
obligation by God to all men. Every man has the power to choose the content of his
thought process. When you allow garbage to settle in your mind then you will
deliver garbage out in your moral compass.
Set your mind to embrace positive thinking about the word of God then you will
qualify the test of the fear of God. The fear of God is the basic ingredient that
produces self-determination, perseverance, self-confidence, and hard work that
leads to greatness. Great leaders also know that positive thinking evokes more
energy, it’s a reflexive attitude developed or imbedded overtime that pushes you
to accept fair and desired results.
ii. Discover the powers devolved to men by God
Kingdom seekers understand and enjoy unmatched power and authority given to
them by God, they also understand the responsibilities that comes with such
benefits. Those who seek the kingdom of God also knows how to use every talent
given to them by God to the glory of the kingdom of God.
Our God through His generosity has made sure that He does not work alone and
one of the strategies He uses is the principle of delegated authority and power to
faithful men. Some of such devolved powers include the power to get wealth,
power to cast out devils, authority, power to choose, ability to love and
stewardship. Fear of God is the key to accessing these kingdom privileges and

powers given to men by God the father of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. The big
challenge we have today is that many believers are operating minus these divine
endowments from God, hence denying the uniqueness of godliness life.
The Power to get wealth
Deuteronomy 8:17-18 – “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He
who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He
swore to your fathers, as it is this day”
The power to get wealth is no longer with God the father as per the scripture above.
It is amazing to discover one secret from this scripture that, God is not in the
business of giving people wealth but He gives people power to get wealth, meaning
that if one does not utilize the power given to him by God the father of our Lord
Jesus Christ then they will remain in that bondage of poverty the rest of their life.
Every believer has the potential to become wealthy by virtue of being a child of God
the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The identity of being a child of God is such a
powerful tool that gives believers such a big advantage over their peers. When you
begin a business for instance as a child of God you already enjoy a head start
compared to your peers operating the same business because you enjoy such a
great backup from heaven that no man can stop your business from thriving.
One thing we need always to remember here is that the power given to men by
God to make wealth comes with certain terms and conditions of covenant. God’s
interest in every portion of wealth owned by sons of God is that they should live
and operate in covenant with God in their quest to create wealth.
Economic empowerment will always require one to establish the spiritual
foundations that connects to their wealth. The reason for the spiritual foundation
is because every bit of economic empowerment is connected to a spiritual base,
and this forms the reason why God says that the purpose for empowering the saints
with wealth is for covenant, to use that same wealth in supporting the work of God.
War against poverty is easy when we master the principle of giving and tithing. The
dry bones existing in form of poverty in the life of many believers will never survive

within your territory the day you will walk and operate in this spiritual realm of
being in covenant with God. When you start operating in the power to get wealth,
every spirit of poverty will melt away from your vicinity just like that. There is a
language that only money can speak and that is the language that the spirit of
poverty can listen to (Ecclesiastes 10:19 – A feast is made for laughter, and wine
makes merry; but money answers everything). The many questions we ask related
to financial challenges can best be addressed by the voice of money. When money
starts talking then favor will start flowing into your life such that even your enemies
will want to bless you not because they love you but because the anointing to get
wealth is flowing in your DNA. Your peers will start addressing you with big names
that you never asked for because the power of wealth is flowing in your life.
Downloading the power to get wealth
I am feeling compelled by God to speak on this agenda because it will help to
provide an answer to many believers who are asking one question why they are
still living in poverty whilst they are born again.
Let us be candid and truthful with one another here and say that the fact of the
matter is that majority of those that claim to be born again are living in poverty
today as we speak, the reason here is that many believers are not living in financial
covenant with God and as such they are yet to down load the power to get wealth.
The power to get wealth can only be down loaded through the application of the
covenant of honoring God with our substance. The day we start worshipping God
through faithful giving, faithful tithing, first fruit and giving of alms then that will
mark the beginning of our deliverance from poverty.
Poverty is a disease worse than cancer. The number one killer disease on earth
today is poverty. The statistics indicate that life expectancy has dropped to about
40-45 years globally, and the main cause to this is poverty. Some of the economic
systems of the world today are deliberately designed to exclude the majority and
favor the minority. The begging question is this, “who voted in that corrupt
government?” It is the same poor guys who casted their votes to elect the corrupt
people into power because they were bribed during campaign period. Finally, the
poor get poorer and the rich continue to get richer.

Faithful giving encompasses also how we use the talent God has given us including
how we cast our votes, it entails hard work and working smart in every space
created to us by God. Joseph is on record of being an excellent performer in Egypt
while in Potiphar’s House. The Bible says in Genesis 39:2 – And the Lord was with
Joseph, and he was a prosperous. The story of Joseph in the Bible is a clear
manifestation of great things that can happen when we chose to remain faithful to
God with our talent. Joseph used his talent of interpretation of dreams faithfully
and God remembered him in his time of need.
Each one of us is gifted differently, and the first step one needs to make is to
discover the gift he or she has from God. After discovering the gift then there is
need to refine the gift before putting it to work so that it can attract the best results.
Some are gifted in the call into the ministry as pastors, evangelist, teachers and
bishop. Others are gifted in serving God using wealth by supporting the ministry
financially. The challenge comes in when we start comparing and competing each
other. God’s plan is that we need to complement each other.

The power to cast out devils
Mark 3:15 – And he gave them power to heal the sicknesses, and to cast out
devils……….
I believe in Jesus Christ the son of the living God who died and on the third day rose
again and is now a live seated on the right hand of God the father. The same Jesus
spoke to the disciples in the above mentioned scripture where he gave power to
the disciples including us to cast out devils and heal the sick. Every believer in Christ
Jesus has the power to cast out devils and render deliverance to the sick based on
this power. The church needs to learn to exercise this authority without fear.
Filling of the Holy Spirit should first precede the empowerment to this important
work of deliverance. Conducive atmosphere to facilitate the filling of the Holy Spirit
is crucial in taping the promised power from God. Jesus gave a promise to the
disciples then and even today that he will not leave them as orphans, but he will
send a helper who is the Holy Ghost. The disciples then were instructed by the Lord

Jesus Christ not to leave Jerusalem till they have received power of the Holy Spirit.
Our current generation is not able to make substantial impact in the work of the
ministry because of failing to accept the important role of the Holy Spirit in the life
of a believer. One must make a choice to fully dedicate their life to God and live a
holy life for the filling of the Holy Spirit to happen.
Prayerfulness is a major factor in cultivating a conducive atmosphere for the filing
of the Holy Spirit that leads to obtaining the power to cast out devils. The disciples
were in the upper room praying for ten days then the sound like a rushing wind
came and all the disciples were filled by the Holy Spirit. They all spoke in new
tongues (Acts 2:1-4) And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire,
and it sat upon each of them. There was such a great impact in the work of the
ministry after the event of filling of the Holy Spirit. The disciples who were fearful
of being persecuted came out strongly to preach Christ without any fear, all this
happened due to the power of filling of the Holy Spirit.
Many limitations the church is going through today could become a thing of the
past if only there could be a genuine filling of the Holy Spirit. I am tired of the
powerless Christians who purport to be representing the kingdom of Heaven but
has zero delivery. The harvest is still plenty but the laborers are few because of lack
of fire of the Holy Ghost. The divine promise given to men by our Lord Jesus Christ
of the coming of the Holy Spirit has become a debate today where section of
believers are questioning whether one must speak in tongues or not, it is so heart
breaking to witness the swelling numbers of nominal Christians who are simply

contented with classical worship and strict programs, where everything is pre-
arranged and God ‘s presence has no place in the worship session.

Church gathering has become a normal members club where men are in full
control, it has become a social get together where people come to connect and
strike a business deal. I pray that the filling of the Holy Spirit is going to invade our
fellowships like never before. The filling of the Holly Spirit is the only cure that will
become a game changer to the powerless church. God is seeking to see a new breed
of worshippers who can worship Him in truth and in Spirit, they are the caliber that

can cast out devils and set the captives free from the bondage of satanic world. No
one can worship in truth and in the Spirit without the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Authority
The book of Daniel 4:17 – “This sentence is by the decree of the Angelic watchers
and the decision is a command of the holy ones, in order that the living may know
that the most high is ruler over the realm of mankind, And bestows it on whom He
wishes And sets over it the lowliest of men”
The power of ruler-ship comes with immense super influence in the surrounding
and the people around the ruler. Rulership appears as part of the top thre gifting
God declared upon mankind immediately the first man appeared in the garden of
Eden. Some of the advantage of operating in the power of ruler-ship is that it will
provide a divine backup to your will as the vendor to prevail. Adam and Eve were
given power to subdue the earth.
The same power of ruler-ship can manifest the qualities of leadership in the life of
the carriers such that the carrier will not struggle with certain dreams and vision.
Many of our dreams have simply remained in the dream land never to see the light
of day.
God is looking for men who can bring back the authoritative leadership in their
respective household and restore order. Many Christian families today do not even
understand the need to raise an altar of worship in their homes because there is
no leadership with authority. Ladies in the house must wake up and understand
that liberalism and equality cannot substitute the God given protocol of leadership
in the family unit. According to God given authority man is the head of the family
hence the need for him to provide leadership.
The Power to Chose
The book of Deuteronomy 30:19 – Today I have given you the choice between life
and death, between blessings ad curses. Now I call on heaven and Earth to witness
the choice you make. The full power to make choices in life is with man. God has
fully given you the power to choose good or bad, curses or blessings. Free will is

the ability to make choices and decisions as seen in Genesis when God gave Adam
and Eve the choice to obey and disobey.
It is important to note that every choice comes with consequences. The choice of
disobedience made by Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden is what gave birth to
eternal death, while the choice made by the second Adam who is our Lord Jesus
Christ when he gave his life as a sacrificial lamb through his crucifixion is what gave
birth to life eternity. We are enjoying the fruit of salvation today courtesy of the
choice made by Jesus when God sent him on earth to come and die for our sins on
our behalf so that anyone who believes in him may not perish but have everlasting
life.
The free will to choose is with all men even today so much so that the decision to
accept Jesus as Lord and savior of our life still remains a personal decision, none
can be forced into it. God has given all men the power to decide whether they want
to go to heaven or to hell after this life is over. The point is that there is life after
death, but where you will spend eternity whether heaven or hell depends on the
choice that you make before you die.
Obedience to God’s instructions comes at a price and sometimes it can mean even
losing ones’ life just like Jesus did. We have so many cases of documented Christian
martyr across the world, many Christians who are being persecuted because of
their faith in Christ Jesus.
The power and ability to Love
Ability to love is considered a fundamental aspect of human nature, as it reflects
the divine nature of God. Love is the center piece as far as the character and
teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned. The Bible talks of loving your
neighbor as yourself and loving your enemies. This kind of love is usually referred
to as agape love, it is selfless, unconditional and seeks the wellbeing of others.
I want to put record straight by demystifying some of the things that are usually
perceived as love but they are not love at all. It is sad to note that today many
people under the influence of lust because of their desire to engage in illicit sexual
attraction will claim that they have fallen in love, to me that is lust. When

unmarried persons engage in sexual intimacy they are not under the influence of
the love of God. Our society today is advocating for certain slogans like, “obey your
thirst”, finally we become slaves to our feeling at the expense of disobeying God’s
instruction. The love of God is pure and it does not hold any grudge.
If we love God then we will strive to obey God and live according to the direction
under the guidance of the word of God. The way we treat our fellow human beings
will speak loud enough to show whether we love God or not, the style in which we
relate with those who are needy in our society will demonstrate whether we truly
carry the love of God in us.
The world around us is in desperate need of those who can show and demonstrate
love and compassion to humanity. It is my prayer that God will enable you to make
a radical decision to give a portion of your wealth, time and energy to the work of
God and charitable organization where the needy can be well taken care of. The
ultimate show and manifestation of the love of God is when you surrender your life
to Jesus, when you accept him as Lord and savior over your life, then you will have
no problem loving people.

Today as I observe and experience life in America I am shocked at how so many of my friends and family choose to be ignorant. Yes, I said it!

People who are calling themselves Christian today and turning their eyes away from the evil that is spreading like a plaque through our modern day churches, where the Bible is trampled and pages are ripped out so as not to offend someone, and being led by Pastors ignoring sin as described clearly in scripture are soon going to find themselves standing on the outside wondering what happened. This is not said in judgement but in concern for those who are following leaders who know how to tickle the ears and appeal to the flesh.

When our government passes laws that totally ignore God’s word and make it a crime to obey the basic tenets as given in holy scripture it is time for us as citizens to change that government and replace the evil with the good! This country’s founding fathers put in place the mechanism, if honored, that can peacefully change and manage our governments at all levels.

It is every Christian’s responsibility to stand strong on God’s word and to be active and to make the changes in our God given power to make these legal changes by utilizing these laws that are in place. These laws which also protect our rights to free speech and to worship without interference by the government, also give us the right and responsibility to select who we want to represent us in our government. This is most important for Christians because if we do nothing we are saying to evil, “you decide for me”, “you pick my representatives”!

This amazing country that we live in was most certainly founded on Biblical Judeo Christian values by men who were far from perfect but were given supernatural guidance. The true history of the Pilgrims and the Puritans has been so corrupted by todays education system of indoctrination that even the teachers that are teaching it are dumbfounded when they learn the truth! The history of patriotic pastors and the determination of their church members reveals that it was in fact the church that was the backbone that led to our independence as a nation. King George and his counselors proclaimed initially that the uprising in the colonies was brought on by Presbyterians.

It was the ‘Great Awakening” with George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, and others that brought spiritual unity across denominations and the Colonies together in such a way that the idea of a “united Nation” could actually be realized. It was the hand of God that truly moved through George Whitfield as he traveled from town to town preaching the gospel with power and authority, reportedly over 18,000 sermons throughout nearly all 13 colonies. It was the love of God and the appreciation of God’s word that brought the country back to the founding roots that reminded the colonists/settlers why their parents and grandparents came to America and why they were in America too. Our Christian history in the forming of this nation can not by denied or ignored and anyone who does so is not a friend of yours, of our country or of God!

I have studied the Bible for over 60 years and I love and believe it. I accept God as almighty and Jesus as His only son whereby only by faith in Him can anyone be saved! I have studied our American history for many years. I have heard many challenges to our humble beginnings and respect others ideas and beliefs, I respect that they can be sincerely wrong and misguided just as many in our churches today are. Our concern is that many are being led to a lifetime of deceit, misery and eternal damnation.

As a minister to Pastors let us insert here that we have many wonderful Pastors who are brave Champions for God serving throughout America today and we applaud them. Sadly there are many many more Pastors who are willingly silent as their sheep are being hurt by government and regulatory changes. These Pastors are feeling the same impact on their families and saying nothing and doing less. As a Pastor you can not allow someone to shut you up because they say “something is Political”. As a Pastor you must teach truth and right from wrong. It is not showing “grace” if your silence allows your congregants to go into eternity without a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ! 

If you are not calling sin out at all levels from personal lifestyle to governmental laws redefining marriage and God’s design for man and woman, then it may be time to step back and review your own relationship with God! Yes, this may sound hard but these and other sins are specifically identified in God’s Holy Word!

History shows that when God’s people turned away from His statutes and his commandments then His judgement would always come! It also shows that when His people repented and fell before Him he would forgive their sin. Pastor, I trust that you are in God’s word and faithfully study it. You may be a wonderful biblical scholar. Now I will challenge you to become an expert on our American History too, at least know how we began as a nation and how Pastors were a vital part of this.

Pastor you are not alone. There are many Pastors in your community that feel your pain, confusion and maybe your shame but now is not the time to hunker down in a fetal position. Now is the time to educate yourself. You become the expert. You “Shepherd” the flock God has given you with boldness. Prepare your flock by equipping them with knowledge and the truth of what is happening in our world today. You teach with authority of the scripture without fear of man but fear of God! Surround yourself with other Pastors who will join you. Start or join a Champions Table. Your family and congregation need you to be strong and above all don’t be afraid of your sheep. You are there to fight for them not with them!

There are four action items that I suggest:

#1 Read “The Black Robe Regiment” by Pastor Dan Fisher (a must for Pastors)

#2 Take the “Biblical Citizenship Course” offered by The Patriot Academy and FREE through “TPUSA Faith”

#3 Read “One Nation Under God” by Attorney David Gibbs, Jr, “Ten things every Christian needs to know about the Founding of America”

#4 Read “The American Story” by David and Tim Barton,  by America’s foremost authorities on America’s Founding Fathers

These 4 things will give an accurate historical foundation of this country that is Biblical and supported with actual documentation. It is what every Christian in America should know! (We have provided these links for you for convenience only. We have no tie to any of these authors other than being Christian brothers.)

As a prayer ministry we are constantly praying for our Pastors. We love and provide encouragement to Pastors around the world. If you would like for me and Linda to pray for you and start sending you our personalized e-prayer please register with us. We know how hard pastoring is and you need to know someone is faithfully praying!  

I pray that you will do the 4 things suggested and you will see for yourself why I say “The Past Reveals the Truth”

 

 

 

Ur was not the only center of the moon-god cult in the ancient world, but it was the most important. As we noted above, the akiti festival, which was eventually celebrated for gods at cities all over Mesopotamia, probably originated at Ur sometime between 3000 and 2500 BC. Throughout most of that millennium, other cities dominated the Fertile Crescent. After the decline of Uruk around 3100 BC (in our view, probably due to the confusion of language at Babel), “kingship” alternated between cities in Mesopotamia, including Uruk, Kish, Lagash, Mari, and Ur, down to the time of Sargon the Great. Around 2334 BC, Sargon of Akkad established the first pan-Mesopotamian empire since the days of Nimrod, conquering and controlling an area that stretched from the Persian Gulf to the modern border between Syria and Turkey. The great king attributed his success mainly to the elder gods of the pantheon (except for Inanna/Ishtar, goddess of sex and war): Sargon, king of Akkad, overseer (mashkim) of Inanna, king of Kish, anointed (guda) of Anu, king of the land, governor (ensi) of Enlil. 1 But as with all kingdoms, the Akkadian Empire eventually collapsed. It was overrun by the Gutians, barbarians from the mountains of western Iran, around 2154 BC. Fifty years later, Ur-Nammu came to power in Ur. He ran the Gutians out of the land and then defeated the city- states of Uruk and Lagash. Ur-Nammu and his descendants, the Third Dynasty of Ur, controlled the entire Fertile Crescent for the next 150 years, apparently collecting tribute from as far away as Canaan. Ur-Nammu was a builder credited with the construction of a number of buildings in Sumer, most notably the Great Ziggurat of Ur for Nanna/Sîn, the moon-god. You’ve probably seen pictures of American soldiers visiting the reconstructed step pyramid after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Saddam Hussein rebuilt the facade and the enormous staircase of the crumbling temple in the 1980s. Before the Gulf War erupted with “shock and awe” in 1990, it was widely reported that Saddam was rebuilding Babylon, perhaps seeing himself as a modern Nebuchadnezzar. 2 It wasn’t as well known that he also spent a lot of money reconstructing the ancient temple of Sîn. No wonder; as we’ve seen (pardon the pun), the spirit behind Babylon wasn’t Marduk—it was the moon-god. The ziggurat of Ur was immense, measuring 210 feet long, about 150 feet wide, and at least 100 feet high. Imagine that—a ten-story building made entirely of mud brick, still standing (though in disrepair) four thousand years after it was built. The temple was called Ekishnugal, the “House of Thirty, the Great Seed,” an obvious reference to the fertility aspect of the moon- god. The massive platform that formed the base of the temple was the E-temen-nì-gùru, which means “House-foundation That Is Clad in Terror.” Unintentionally prophetic. The brief renaissance of Ur came to an end around 2004 BC when the Amorites, probably with help from the Elamites and Gutians, stamped out the last Sumerian kingdom in Mesopotamia. After that, for our purposes, the important centers of the moon-god shifted north and west, to the heart of Amorite country. One of the reasons the moon-god is a focus of our study is the biblical connection between Ur and ancient Mesopotamia’s other major center of moon-god worship, Harran. That link is Abraham. Until about a hundred years ago, when the famed archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley excavated the fabulous Royal Tombs of Ur in the early 1920s, Bible scholars generally believed the patriarch of Jews, Muslims, and Christians had come from southern Turkey. That’s exactly where we find ancient Harran (spelled with a single r in the Bible), on the Balikh River about ten miles north of the Syrian border. In the early second millennium BC, after the collapse of the Third Dynasty of Ur, Harran was an important trading center on the caravan route between the Mediterranean coast and Assyria, in what was probably in a border zone between the Assyrians to the southeast, the Hurrians to the northeast, an emerging Amorite kingdom at Halab (Aleppo) to the southwest, and the Hittites, who were arriving in Anatolia to the northwest around that time. Close by Harran was Ura, a town known as a home base for traveling merchants, 3 as well as cities bearing the names of Abraham’s father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and brother—namely Serug (Sarugi), Nahor (Nahur), Terah, and, of course, Haran, the father of Lot. 4 Those cities are older than the time frame of the Bible. Working backwards from the Exodus, Abraham was born around 1950 BC. That puts the births of Terah, Nahor, and Serug around 2020 BC, 2049 BC, and 2079 BC, respectively. It’s probable that Abraham’s relatives were named for those cities instead of the other way around. At the very least, their names suggest a much stronger connection between Abraham and northern Mesopotamia than with Ur in Sumer, about six hundred miles to the southeast. Likewise, Abraham’s lifestyle as a tent-dwelling nomad is more consistent with the Amorite culture of the Levant than with Sumer. He was not a city-dweller, and neither were Isaac and Jacob. Based on Sumerian writings about the Amorites of the Syrian steppe, such a lifestyle would have been completely alien to someone raised in the sophisticated urban culture of Sumer. And this must be said: If Abraham’s father, Terah, really meant to go from Ur in Sumer to Canaan, he wouldn’t have ended up in Harran, not even by mistake. A map of the caravan trails of the ancient Near East makes it obvious. After following the Euphrates northward from Ur, Terah would have had to miss a left turn at Mari, near the modern border between Iraq and Syria. A well-known caravan trail there crossed the steppe to Tadmor (Palmyra) and Damascus before descending into Canaan by way of Bashan, the modern Golan Heights. Harran isn’t just a little out of the way; it’s ridiculously out of the way. Going from Ur to Canaan by way of Harran is like driving from Atlanta to Dallas by way of Chicago. It would not have happened like that. Most important, the Bible supports this theory. When Joshua called on the tribes of Israel to remember their origins, he said: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, “Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many.” (Joshua 24:2–3, ESV) The key phrase there is “beyond the River.” Ur in Sumer is on the west bank of the Euphrates River. Abraham would not have crossed it to get to Canaan. Harran, however, is on the far side of the river. As scholar Cyrus H. Gordon argued in 1958, “it is now clear that Abraham was a merchant prince…from the Hittite realm.” 5 Abraham was not from Sumer. He came from northern Mesopotamia and the pastoralist Amorite culture. The moon-god’s importance in Harran is no mystery; the city was founded as a trading outpost by the kings of Ur, city of the moon-god. 6 Harran, where the deity was mainly called by his Akkadian name Sîn, sat on the main east-west route between Antioch and Nineveh. From there, traders could follow the Tigris River south to Babylon, which, as we noted above, was just beginning its rise to power in the days of Abraham. The temple of Sîn in Harran was an important religious and political site for the Amorites of northern Mesopotamia. For example, Amorite tribes would meet at the temple of Sîn and sacrifice a donkey to ratify treaties. 7 That wouldn’t have been weird in Syria four thousand years ago. Donkeys were sacred animals to the Amorites, and they’ve been found buried after ritual slaughter at sites all over the Near East, like Mari, Jericho, and Avaris in northern Egypt. 8 In fact, Amorite kings rode donkeys, not horses. That tradition was still alive when Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, a point not lost on the people or the local authorities. 9 It’s important to remember that there was no separation of church and state back then. As we’ll see, that hasn’t changed in that part of the world over the last five thousand years. Farther west, another moon-god center is famous for being the first city conquered by Joshua west of the Jordan River. You see, the Amorite name for the moon-god was Yarikh, which is similar to the Hebrew form, yareakh. (That’s where yerakh, the old Hebrew word for “month,” comes from.) Transliterating from Semitic into English turns the y into a j, and Yarikh becomes Jericho. We’ll have more to say about Jericho in a bit. Another site at the north end of the Jordan River Valley was also home to worshipers of the moon-god. At the southwest corner of the Sea of Galilee is Bet Yerah (“House of Yarikh” or “Temple of Yarikh”), an important center for pottery production throughout the Early Bronze Age, from about 3500 to 2300 BC. 10 Artifacts at the site and at Abydos, an ancient city on the Nile in central Egypt, confirm that Bet Yerah traded with the First Dynasty of Egypt between about 3100 and 2850 BC. 11 However, after 2850 BC, following an unidentified crisis that resulted in the abandonment of a number of sites in the Jordan Valley, Bet Yerah was resettled by migrants from the area of modern Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. 12 Around that time, a megalithic, crescent-shaped stone structure longer than one and a half football fields was built eighteen miles (about a day’s journey) from Bet Yerah. Known locally as Rujum en-Nabi Shua’ayb, or “Jethro’s Cairn,” it was finally identified in 2014 as a monument to the moon-god. 13 So, during the Early Bronze Age, both ends of the Jordan River Valley, the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, were anchored by sites occupied by worshipers of the moon-god. Although Bet Yerah had fallen on hard times by Abraham’s day, with nothing left other than a small potter’s workshop, it points to the popularity of Sîn/Yarikh among the people who lived in the region for more than a thousand years by the time the patriarch entered Canaan. And, as we’ll see, the fallen elohim who passed himself off as the moon-god was a target of God’s wrath very early in the history of Israel. 1 Inscription found at Nippur. Amélie Kuhrt, The Ancient Near East C. 3000–330 BC: Vol. 1 (London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2009), 49. 2 “Saddam Does Battle with Nebuchadnezzar.” The Guardian, January 4, 1999 (https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/jan/04/iraq1), retrieved 2/7/19. 3 Cyrus H. Gordon, “Abraham and the Merchants of Ura.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Jan. 1958), 28–31. 4 Mark Chavalas, “Genealogical History as ‘Charter’: A Study of Old Babylonian Period Historiography and the Old Testament.” In Faith, Tradition, and History: Old Testament Historiography in Its Near Eastern Context (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1994), 122. 5 Gordon, op. cit., 31. 6 Tamara M. Green, The City of the Moon God: Religious Traditions of Harran (Leiden; New York: E. J. Brill, 1992), 20. 7 Minna Silver, “Equid Burials in Archaeological Contexts in the Amorite, Hurrian, and Hyksos Cultural Intercourse.” Aram 26:1&2 (2014), 342. 8 Kenneth C. Way, “Assessing Sacred Asses: Bronze Age Donkey Burials in the Near East.” Levant 42:2 (2010), 214. 9 Jack M. Sasson, “Thoughts of Zimri-Lim,” Biblical Archaeologist (June 1984), 118–119. 10 Raphael Greenberg, Sarit Paz, David Wengrow, and Mark Iserlis, “Tel Bet Yerah: Hub of the Early Bronze Age Levant,” Near Eastern Archaeology 75:2 (2012), 90. 11 Ibid., 95–96. 12 Sarit Paz, “A Home Away from Home? The Settlement of Early Transcaucasian Migrants at Tel Bet Yerah,” Tel Aviv Vol. 36 (2009), 196–216. 13 “5,000-year-old Moon-shaped Stone Structure Identified in Northern Israel,” Haaretz, September 16, 2014 (https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/5-000-year-old-monument- identified-in-north-1.5301928), retrieved 3/18/17.

This is a phrase every American should know and have repeated throughout their lives when they say the pledge of allegiance. The problem is not that many don’t know the phrase but that they do not believe it! There are others who absolutely have no faithfulness or respect for our great free country. We are now living in a time where freedom in America is taken for granted!

May I say that America is a great country but not a perfect country. Today we are seeing the very thread of Christianity being stripped away little by little. Our government seems to be waging war on the church and everyone who calls Jesus Lord. History shows that when a nation gives way to a carnal mind that it will fall and be destroyed. Even with this said you can be rest assured that the blood that has stained this land for freedom and bled on many other lands to keep it will not be in vain and the blood our lord Jesus shed will always give hope and victory!

The true history of America is filled with the stories of how our forefathers came to America to have the freedom to worship God as they saw fit and not under the heavy hand of English rule. The blood, sweat and lives they gave for us must be told and remembered. A God loving and God fearing people weathered more hardships than most today would even consider.

“One Nation Under God” is a powerful factual history book of early America presenting “Ten Things Every Christian Should Know About the Founding if America”! Dr David C. Gibbs, Jr. who is the founder of the Christian Law Association, has written this historical accounting of our history with an attorney’s professional eye to the accuracy of every detail.

When I started reading this book I found it easy to read and captivating too. I was not in a hurry to flip the pages because of the depth of who we are as an American people jumped off the page. I felt totally enlightened to the real truth of where we came from and the heart of those who led these freedom seeking pilgrims.

This book will open your eyes to see the birth of our government that was and still is, “by the people, for the people”. (we must reclaim it) You will clearly see how the church government and civil government worked together to create the greatest country in history. You will also see the struggles, disagreements and the compromises that it took to make it so!

Today I recommend you find “One Nation Under God”, and buy it, read it, and share it. Part of the problem we are experiencing today is because this part of our history is being rewritten to fit the narrative of those who hate and fear Christians who truly are committed to living for Jesus! If you are a minister of the gospel or a parent who wants your children to know the truth, then this is required reading. Every homeschooler or private Christian school needs to add this to their curriculum.

My people perish because of a lack of knowledge! Don’t allow this to be true for you!

Thank you Dr. David Gibbs, Jr. for putting this great work together!

Babylon was founded by an Amorite chief named Sumu-Abum of the Amnanum tribe, who got the party started around 1894 BC by grabbing land from a neighboring town, Kazallu. Babylon was so unimportant that the first four kings of the dynasty didn’t even call themselves “king of Babylon.” It wasn’t until Hammurabi put it on the map in the eighteenth century BC that the city became Babylon as we think of it. Beginning around 1792 BC, he conquered all of Sumer, Akkad, and the Euphrates Valley as far as Mari, where Hammurabi not only defeated his “old friend” and “brother,” the Amorite king Zimri-Lim, but he apparently ordered the ritual destruction of the palace and main temple there.

That points us back toward the theme of the book, which is identifying the spirits behind geopolitics—“theopolitics,” to borrow a phrase coined by my wife, Sharon.

Scholars typically define the name of Babylon’s greatest king as meaning “my kinsman is a healer,” from the Amorite term ʻAmmurāpi, derived from ʻAmmu (“paternal kinsman”) and Rāpi (“healer”). But rāpi is from the same root as the biblical word “Rephaim.” There isn’t a single example in Canaanite texts where the rapha are healers. It’s more likely his name means “my kinsmen are Rapha,” or more simply, “my fathers are the Rephaim.”

A genealogy of the dynasty of Hammurabi, compiled about a hundred years after he died, names one of the ancestors of the Amorite kings of Babylon as Ditanu, which, you’ve noticed, is the name of the ancient Amorite tribe that, as we showed in an earlier article, gave its name to the old gods of the Greeks, the Titans. That same Ditanu was claimed as an ancestor by the ruling houses of at least two other powerful Amorite kingdoms between the eighteenth and thirteenth centuries BC. Ditanu was one of “seventeen kings who lived in tents” named as ancestors of Shamshi-Adad, an Amorite king who ruled northern Mesopotamia around the time of Hammurabi.

About five hundred years later, the Amorite kingdom of Ugarit summoned a group called “the council of the Ditanu” from the netherworld during necromancy rituals, and a temple to the Ditanu confirms that they were believed to be among the gods.

The kingdom established by the Amorite dynasty that produced Hammurabi has cast a long shadow across history. It built on earlier religious and cultural traditions established by the Sumerians and Akkadians, but God called out Babylon and the Amorites specifically for their wickedness. The occult religious system of Babylon was so vile it became a symbol of evil from the time of Moses through the end of the apostolic age. John the Revelator used Babylon to represent the corrupt end-times church of the Antichrist.

Of course, the kingdom of Hammurabi’s Babylon was doomed to collapse almost as soon as he established it. After the great lawgiver’s death around 1750 BC, his successors kept the kingdom intact for a while, but Elamites from the east, Assyrians from the north, and people in the far south broke away, so that by about 1600 BC, the Amorite dynasty in Babylon once again controlled only the land around the city. Still, the power of Hammurabi was such that southern Mesopotamia has been called Babylonia ever since the time of Abraham.

In 1595 BC, an army from the new Hittite kingdom in central Anatolia (modern Turkey), led by king Ḫattušili I, conducted a long raid down the Euphrates. Bypassing the Assyrians in northern Mesopotamia, the Hittites sacked Mari and then ejected the Amorites from Babylon. The Hittite withdrawal back into Anatolia left a vacuum that was filled about twenty-five years later by the Kassites, a mountain people from western Iran who captured Babylon and controlled it and much of the territory once ruled by Hammurabi for the next four hundred years.

This makes the Kassites, not the Amorites or Chaldeans, the people who ruled Babylonia the longest, and the Kassite kingdom endured from the time of Jacob until the period of the judges in Israel.

Meanwhile, Amorites slowly assumed power in northern Egypt. During the time of the Hebrew sojourn, the rulers of Egypt—at least the part where the Israelites settled, the Nile delta—were Amorites. They were called “Hyksos” by native Egyptians, a word that roughly translates as “rulers of foreign lands.” Egyptologists refer to it as the Second Intermediate Period, which lasted from about 1750 BC to 1550 BC. It appears that after a series of weak rulers, Egypt was divided between a native kingdom in the south based at Thebes and the foreign Hyksos in Lower (northern) Egypt, whose capital city was Avaris in the northeastern Nile delta. The Hyksos brought with them their art, their architecture, their weapons, and their gods.

This helps make sense out of the greatest miracle that God performed during the Exodus. You see, even though the Hyksos were run out of Egypt by the Egyptians about a hundred years before Moses led Israel to Mount Sinai, the chief god of the Hyksos, Baal, was worshiped in Egypt for several centuries more. Ramesses the Great, who ruled Egypt about two hundred years after the Exodus, was a Baal worshiper. He set up a stela at Pi-ramesses, near the site of the abandoned Hyksos capital Avaris. The engraved memorial stone commemorated Set’s four hundredth anniversary of ruling at Tanis, but the god was depicted exactly like the images of Baal found in Syria, with a tasseled Canaanite kilt and conical headdress with a streamer. The gods of the Amorites influenced Egypt far more than we’ve been taught; the Amorite Hyksos and the Egyptian pharaohs who came after them worshiped Baal-Set as a single entity.

That’s the key to understanding the parting of the Red Sea: In Canaanite religion, Baal became king of the gods by fighting and beating the sea-god, Yamm. Amorite, Canaanite, and Phoenician sailors worshiped Baal as their patron and protector for more than a thousand years.

So, the parting of the Red Sea, which happened right in front of a place called Baal-zephon, named for Mount Zaphon, which the Amorites believed was the home of Baal’s palace, demonstrated Yahweh’s mastery over the chief god of Israel’s oppressors.

Have you ever noticed that God told Moses to turn the Israelites around and camp in front of Baal-zephon to wait for the Egyptian cavalry to catch up? God didn’t just deliver Israel from the hand of Pharaoh; He delivered Israel from the hand of Baal!

In short, the social and religious culture of the Amorites was the world from which God called the patriarchs and prophets to establish His chosen people in the land where His Name would dwell, Canaan. The language, customs, and, most of all, the gods of the Amorites dominated the world of the ancient Hebrews.

The Amorites faded from history after the conquest of Canaan, at least under the name “Amorite.” But their descendants continued to play important roles in ancient Israel. The Arameans, whom scholars generally agree were descended from the Amorites, set up kingdoms in Damascus and elsewhere in Syria after the so-called Bronze Age collapse, a period of violence and chaos in the eastern Mediterranean around 1200 BC. They were a thorn in the side of Israel (and Judah, after Solomon’s death) for hundreds of years. The Chaldeans, who established the Neo-Babylonian Empire in the seventh century BC, likely emerged from nomadic Amorite tribes who migrated from the west into southeastern Mesopotamia sometime around 900 BC.

The greatest Chaldean king, Nebuchadnezzar, is generally who comes to mind when we think of Babylon, but that city was around for a long, long time before the Chaldeans took it over. Think about the time scale—Hammurabi the Great died more than eleven hundred years before Nebuchadnezzar was born. Now, who was the king of England in 923 AD?

Exactly. Eleven hundred years is a very long time. Yet the gods of Mesopotamia were the same, with few exceptions.

Meanwhile, the Phoenicians, descendants of the Amorites who occupied the Mediterranean coast of Syria and Lebanon, brought their culture and religion into Israel from the time of the judges to the time of Jesus and beyond. For example, Jezebel, the infamous wife of Israel’s king Ahab, was from Tyre, which competed with the Greeks and Romans for control of trade on the Mediterranean for centuries. Carthage, a colony in north Africa established by Tyre around the time of Jehoash, king of Judah (circa 814 BC), nearly destroyed Rome in the late third century BC. Temples to Phoenician gods like Melqart, Baal-Hammon, and Tanit have been found as far away as Spain.

And tophets, ritual places of burial for infants and children sacrificed to Baal-Hammon, similar to the Tophet near Jerusalem where children were burned as offerings to Molech, have been excavated at Carthage and multiple sites on Sicily and Sardinia.

Here’s the point of this brief history: The iniquity of the Amorites still affects the world today. And the gods behind the Amorites are pushing the world toward Armageddon.

Two hundred years after their existence was confirmed by clay tablets found in Mesopotamia, the history of the Amorites is still debated by scholars. We don’t really know the details of their rise and fall, even though it was must have been spectacular. The truth is the Amorites set the cultural and religious tone of Mesopotamia, including Canaan/Israel, for about two thousand years, all the way down to the time of Jesus. So, it’s worth summarizing the history of the Amorites, but I’ll keep it brief—a detailed history would be way too long, mostly irrelevant, and probably boring.

The earliest reference of the Amorites is from about 2600 BC in the ancient city of Shuruppak, in what is Iraq today. The next mentions show up in the archives of Ebla, a city near modern Aleppo that dominated northern Syria from about 3000 BC until about 2250 BC, when it was destroyed either by Sargon the Great of Akkad or by Ebla’s main rival, the kingdom of Mari in southeastern Syria. The discovery of the ruins of Ebla in 1964, confirmed in 1968, included about 1,800 complete clay tablets and thousands of fragments covering a period from about 2500 BC to about 2250 BC.

One of the last rulers of Ebla, a vizier named Ebrium, married his daughter to an Amorite named Tidinu, “chief of the mercenaries.” Because you’re observant, you’ve noticed the similarity between the name of this soldier and that of the legendary Amorite tribe. Apparently, since Ebla depended on foreign soldiers, a marriage to secure the relationship between the government of Ebla and its Amorite contractors was good politics.

This highlights an important point: Even though they weren’t mentioned often in the texts from the third millennium BC, it appears that even at that early date, Amorites in general and the Tidanu/Ditanu in particular had a warlike reputation. 

This is reflected in a number of texts found in southeastern Iraq, the heart of ancient Sumer. The “Tidnumites” are among the barbarians blamed for the destruction of Sumerian civilization:

Below, the Elamites are in charge, slaughter follows in their wake,

Above, the Halma-people, the “men of the mountains,” took captives,

The Tidnumites daily fastened the mace to their loins.

Incursions by Amorites, who apparently found a way around the “Amorite Wall That Keeps Tidanu Away,” had weakened the kingdom of Ur by making travel between the cities of Sumer too dangerous for the cheap transport of goods. Imagine the price of a loaf of bread if armed guards had to protect farmers, crops, bakers, and truckers at every step of the process before the bread even reached your local grocery store.

That may have been a picture of the situation in Sumer in the last years before Ur collapsed. Records from the seventh and eighth years of the reign of Ur’s last king, Ibbi-Sin, show that the price of grain skyrocketed to sixty times normal! Finally, weakened by the breakdown in communications between the capital and the edges of its empire, Ur was overrun by invaders from Elam, a kingdom along the coast of the Persian Gulf in what is now western Iran. Around 2004 BC, Ibbi-Sin, the last Sumerian king of Mesopotamia, was carried off to Elam, where he was imprisoned and presumably killed.

This led to a dark age of about a hundred years in Mesopotamia. Despite the many tablets found at major archaeological sites like Ur, Babylon, Mari, and Ebla, scholars really don’t know what happened in the twentieth century BC. All that can be said for sure is that when the dust settled around 1900 BC., Amorite dynasties controlled every major political entity in what is now Iraq, Syria, southern Turkey, Lebanon, and Israel. It was the dawn of the Age of the Amorites.

Until the mid-1800s, the Amorites were known only from a handful of mentions early in the Old Testament. When scholars began pulling clay tablets out of the Mesopotamian sand in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the many references to Amorites they found convinced some that the Amorites had ruled a vast empire across the Near East around the time of Abraham. That wasn’t quite true; divisions between the Amorites, like the rivalries among the tribes of Israel, prevented any of the various Amorite kingdoms from ruling the Near East for very long.

The first Amorite kingdoms to emerge after the collapse of the Third Dynasty of Ur were the city-states of Isin and Larsa. Both were located on the Euphrates in what is southern Iraq today—Larsa, a little north of Ur, with Isin farther northwest, about halfway between the Persian Gulf and Babylon.

These two cities gave their names to the Isin-Larsa period of Mesopotamian history, which covers the time from the fall of Ur in 2004 BC until the defeat of Larsa by Hammurabi of Babylon in 1763 BC.

The first kings of Isin and Larsa were named Ishbi-Erra and Naplanum, respectively. Ishbi-Erra may have been an Amorite. He was described by king Ibbi-Sin of Ur as “a monkey from the mountains,” a “man of Mari with the mind of a beast” who was “not of Sumerian seed.” This suggests that Ishbi-Erra was either an Amorite or an Akkadian from a city that had frequent contact with Amorite nomads. Ishbi-Erra may have put those Amorites to use as mercenaries in support of his ambition to set up his own royal dynasty. (It also tells us something about the attitude of Sumerians toward people from the Amorite homeland in Syria.)

For his part, Naplanum of Larsa was definitely an Amorite. Both were clearly men of power during the last years of Ur. Ishbi-Erra had been made a governor of the territory around Isin and Nippur by king Ibbi-Sin of Ur, but Ishbi-Erra either had more ambition than the king realized, or he took matters into his own hands when it became obvious that the government of Ur was no longer powerful enough to enforce the king’s will. The fact that Ishbi-Erra was either an Amorite or had friendly dealings with the Amorites, the bandits who’d made it too dangerous for most travel and trade in the kingdom, is probably relevant. Ishbi-Erra may have encouraged the turmoil that led to the downfall of Ur, which led to his own rise to power.

Whatever his reasons, Ishbi-Erra became a king in his own right around 2017 BC, and he survived the Elamite sack of Ur in 2004 BC by about twenty years. In fact, Ishbi-Erra eventually marched downriver, drove the Elamites back out of Sumer, and recaptured Ur along with the important cities of Uruk and Lagash.

Meanwhile, Naplanum established a dynasty that ruled Larsa, only about twenty miles from Ur, as an independent city-state for nearly 250 years. Records of grain sales found at Ur mention a wealthy merchant named Naplanum, who may be one and the same, although some scholars believe Naplanum was head of the royal bodyguard for the last two kings of Ur. That could explain how he was able to establish an independent kingdom so close to the throne of his former boss. It also explains the title of rabium amurrim, “chief (or “great one”) of the Amorites,” which was used by the kings of Larsa for generations.

Over time, Naplanum’s successors realized that their location between Isin and the Persian Gulf gave them a strategic advantage over their northern rival. By blocking Isin’s access to the Gulf, the kings of Larsa controlled the lucrative trade route to the Indus River valley (now southern Pakistan), which was home to the prosperous Harappan civilization that reached into India and Afghanistan for nearly two thousand years. The Harappans traded with Mesopotamia and Egypt via the Persian Gulf throughout the second millennium BC, and for the first half of the millennium, that trade was controlled by Amorites.

A pattern that began with Nimrod has continued down to this day in the Near East (and, sadly, around the world): Cycles of war based on strong, charismatic leaders who rise to power, dominate a region and elevate his tribe, culture, or civilization for a time until another leader emerges, the kingdom collapses, and the cycle starts again. It’s like a pot of stew simmering on the stove: Bubbles form, rise to the surface, and burst—over and over. Some bubbles are bigger than others, but all of them collapse in the end. The Amorites didn’t invent the game, but they were very good at it.

During the lifetime of Abraham, who was born around 1950 BC, entered Canaan from the north around 1876 BC, and died in the Holy Land around 1776 BC, Amorite kingdoms emerged to dominate the entire Near East, from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. By the time of Isaac’s birth around 1850 BC, all of modern-day Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and even northern Egypt were ruled by Amorite kings and chiefs. Regional powers included Isin and Larsa, already mentioned; Mari; Yamkhad, based at Aleppo; Qatna, near modern Homs in west-central Syria; the kingdom of Northern Mesopotamia, centered on what later became Assyria; smaller Amorite kingdoms in Canaan, with Hazor near the Sea of Galilee the largest of those; and the most famous (and infamous) of them all: Babylon.

“The Shift” is an incredibly well written movie set in modern times but based on the story of Job in the Bible. This movie will have you sitting on the edge of your seat. The relationships of the characters are very authentic and most will identify with one or more of the characters at different times in your life.

This movie brings the supernatural to a new level of thinking for most Christians and will definitely grab the attention of the sci-fi fans as well. When Kevin Garner meets The Benefactor he is carried to the multiverse and the struggle between good and evil begins.

The very emotions that you can imagine that Job must have experienced comes to life on the big screen in epic proportions! In the movie Kevin’s personal life is under attack and his faith is questioned. He is carried thru the multiverse thru time and space. He even fights with himself! He meets many people along this journey some good and some not so good! Just like real life.

When watching “The Shift” you will feel all the struggle Kevin feels and will see the many temptations “The Benefactor” brings to try and break Kevin.

This is masterfully done and I believe it will appeal to todays audience whether Christian or not. I am purposefully being a bit vague because I do not want to spoil it in any way for you.

The cast is incredible with: Neal McDonough(Band of Brothers), Sean Astin(Lord of the Rings/Rudy), Kristopher Polaha(Wonder Woman 1984), Rose Reid(Finding You), John Billingsley(Star Trek: Enterprise), Emily Rose(Haven) and from (The Chosen) Liz Tabish, Paras Patel and Jorden Walker Ross.

This movie also has discussion guides prepared for your use as well as a five day reading plan that can be accessed in the website.

We are being blessed with another Angel Studio’s movie that is highly entertaining and very powerful! “The Shift” will touch lives that tradition will not. Now is the time for churches to embrace this as a great opportunity to reach the lost and offer hope to many who may never enter their church!

To learn more and get advanced tickets : Click Here

 

By: Pastor Joshua Gwara Omolo, Kenya, Africa


2Timothy 2: 20: – But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of
wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purges
himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use,
and prepared unto every good work
Definition of a vessel
The word vessel is often used in the Bible, and in English terms it translates to be either a
container such as a bowl or a jug, or either a ship or a boat. The Biblical meaning denotes a
person whom God calls and uses as a vessel.
God’s plan to all mankind is to use men for a special purpose and special calling to fulfill the
purposes of God. The primary purpose of God to all men is to worship God in truth and in the
Spirit.There are also numerous advantages and blessings that accompany the when an
individual accepts to be used by God as a vessel, there is a special level of honour and favor that
manifest when a believer choses to obey God’s command to be used by Him and those
blessings comes in handy to remove the shortcomings in the life of the carrier of the grace of
honour.
The power of being a vessel of honour
Some challenges can only persist in your life simply because you are yet to yield to the calling of
God. Becoming a vessel of honour is a choice in life. A person who has chosen to accept God’s
calling has the opportunity to undergo divine transformation process that leads to experience
of honour and favour from God. Greatness in life can only manifest in the life of a man who is
able to accommodate the process of sanctification and transformation that comes from God.
The call of Simon Peter by Jesus is what led him to be transformed from being a fisherman to
being an Apostle (fishers of men), “a chosen vessel.” The word “chosen” implies that he was
special, precious, valued and prized. Even before Peter started serving God he was special in
the eyes of the Lord.. Jesus is on record telling Peter, “follow me and I will make you fishers of
men” (Mark 1:16-20) and that comes with honour. All of us are very special to the Lord. All of us
have great value to God. We possess certain uniqueness in us different from the other people
around us.

The Purpose Driven Life
The purpose as to why God created man is to serve God. Our worship to God is the number one
assignment in life. Our God the father of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ is very categorical in
His word when He says in the book of John 4:23 – Yet a time is coming and now has come when
the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of
worshippers the Father seeks. God is looking for true worshipers whose hearts are inclined to
the word of God, this therefore calls for mankind to offer himself as a living sacrifice.
Our worship to God is always hindered due to the fallen nature of mankind. There are many
things in our life that requires purging for God to use us as vessels of honour; for us to become
carriers of the divine power of God it requires total sacrifice where we should purpose to live
selfless life fully dedicated to the master’s need. The need for us to purge ourselves from the
carnal desires is extremely important in order to create sufficient space for the Spirit of God to
sanctify us in readiness for the work of God.
Learn to purge yourself by choosing to live a holy life
Holiness is a choice and not a chance in life. The reward that comes with it is beyond
imagination. Holiness is the pillar on which God’s divine promises to successful life is pegged
on. The Bible says without holiness it is impossible to please God. We can engage in so many
activities in life but without holiness then all that we are doing is exercise in futility. There is
need for our value systems to go through serious purging process for us to be transformed to
be like Christ.
We carry a lot of dry bones within us after the fall of man and the process of sanctification is
inevitable for the purpose of our transformation.
The old nature which was the nature of the sinful man cannot qualify to become a vessel of
honour that can be entrusted by God to carry his glory. True believers must purpose to become
intentional faithful worshippers and deliberately invest serious capital in quality work of
spiritual development in order to acquire the gold status in the kingdom of God (Phil 2:12 –
work out your salvation with fear and trembling).
Kingdom of God operates on reward system
Salvation is purely by grace but the rewards from God are based on the good works. The
faithful followers of Christ must desire to live a life like Christ himself. Purging process is that
step of choosing to say no to ungodly behaviors and to say yes to those things that glorifies
God. Our salvation requires quality investment on character development. We need to be
accountable to one another, the church needs to develop the habit of reading and studying the

Bible. Application of the word in our day to day walk with Christ is the main proof of a new life
in Christ Jesus. Let every believer in Christ Jesus learn to not only hear the word but also
become doers of the word; meditating on the word day and night in order to make the word of
God dwell in us richly is key to spiritual development. Every level in our spiritual walk with God
attracts a given measure of favor commensurate to that level and every believer has an
opportunity to choose the level they want to belong.
It is important to remember that everyone shall be rewarded according to their works. The
quality of your investment and the value of the materials invested. In Genesis 5:24 – Enoch
walked with God and he was no more seen; for God took him away. Enoch simply allowed God
to increase in him till there was nothing left of him that death could claim. We need to learn to
reduce so that God may increase in us on daily basis. Quality work on our personality and
interest’s that conflicts against the intentions of God must be purged for the Spirit of God to
sanctify us in preparation for the next level. We must learn to sacrifice our time, finances and
energy by giving them fully to the Lord’s service then we will increase in the knowledge of God.
Four levels of vessels/workers in the kingdom of God: –

  1. Gold
  2. Silver
  3. Wood and
  4. Clay
    5 Kingdom Principles to becoming a vessel of honour
  5. Arm your soul with the power of love – Mark 12:30-31 – Love the Lord your God with all
    your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…
  6. Guard your soul/heart – Proverbs 4:23 – Above all else, guard your heart, for everything
    you do flows from it
  7. Purge yourself – 2Tim 2:21 – those who cleanse themselves from the latter.., James
    5:16:- confess your faults one to another
  8. Avail yourself for God – Isaiah 6:8 – whom shall I send and who will go for us. (Mathew
    24:38-39 – For as in the days that were before the flood…)
    -Mathew 9:37-38 – The harvest is plenty but the laborers are few…
  9. Build Trust – Luke 16:10 -Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted
    with much.
    Love covers a multitude of sin. – Mark 12:30-31 – Love the Lord your God with all your
    heart….

Love is a person and it is the person of God. Love determines the wellness of the condition of
your soul. When your soul is sick then you suffer acute limitations in living a purpose driven life.
Lack of love creates a high level deficiency of passion to please God in everything you do hence
leading to boredom. When you hear people say that they don’t find a meaning in life the reason
behind is that love of God is not present in that person. Many people who commit suicide fall in
this category where they try to substitute the love of God with other substances which doesn’t
work at all. Love is a force of God, it has power over hate.
Two forces govern this world: the force of hate and the power of love. John 3:16 – for God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him shall not
perish but have an everlasting love. Jesus was full of love and the Bible says he did good in
every place he went. Vessels of honour worthy to be used by God are supposed to be agents
and carriers of the love of God. The easiest way to defeat evil in the present world is to show
love even to your enemy.
We steal and cheat because we do not love. We commit immorality because we do not love.
Sex outside marriage destroys both parties involved. Government leaders embezzle public
resources because they do not love. In fact man sinned and channeled all evil into the world
because he chose to let go of God’s love. God is calling all men back to the first love through
effective repentance. Revelation 2:1-2 – Nevertheless I have this against you, that you left your
first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first work.. God
is raising case against the church in Ephesus about the lost love. Love is a force from God and
hate is a force from Satan (1John 4:7). You live in the light when you carry love. Just as light has
power over darkness so love has power over hate.
In the book of Hebrews 10:32, says “When the people were in the bloom of their first love,
were they enthusiastic! They put everything into their relationship. They yielded themselves to
God” The love for God surpasses everything in life because it is the core foundation of the
reason for our living. We are blessed the way we are today because of the great love God has
for us, and if we are indeed the children of God then we need to exhibit the same of the father
to the world. Ephesians 2:4-5 – But because of His great love for us , God, who is rich in mercy,
made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have
been saved.
Many wars and rumors of war happening in the world today are orchestrated by hate because
love is absent. Many families have become dysfunctional because there is no love. The
shootings in our public schools are happening because of hate. God is calling all men to
embrace His love by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and savior over our life for us to experience
the true love of God, it is impossible to share the love of God without the salvation of Jesus
Christ. When we receive Christ Jesus then we can become a vessel of honour.

Guard your soul/heart – Proverbs 4:23 – above all else guard your hearts………
Self-preservation is the enemy number one to spiritual prosperity. When we quit thinking about
ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of
consciousness ( By Joseph campell). Self-sacrifice is the heavenly language and the truest
weapon to guard our heart. The Bible says in Mathew 16:25 – “For whoever wants to save his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it” We must learn to carry our
cross daily and follow Christ.
The heart of a man is the center piece of his/her personality. Every bit of the destruction of a
man begins at the point when the heart is corrupted through perversion. Proverbs 4:23 –
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free
from perversity; keep corrupt talks far from your lips, let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your
gaze directly before you. The most effective way to guard your heart is by ensuring that the
four main gates in your body are properly manned. The two gates in human body are the eyes
and the mouth
Guarding your heart is essential in the context of sin because it helps you protect your inner
most self from the deceptive allure of sinful temptations. It involves making choices that align
with your moral and spiritual values, avoiding harmful influences, and striving for a pure heart.
In the Bible the heart is considered the seat of life or strength. Hence it means mind, soul, spirit,
or one’s full emotional nature and understanding.
Guarding your heart involves energizing your life with the transforming truth of God’s love and
God’s word. Never treat scripture like a collection of facts. Pay attention to all the instructions
given by God in His word. The servant of God Joshua was told by God himself to ensure to
mediate the word of God day and night and to observe to do all that is written in the word and
then God will prosper you together with your children. Listen closely to the word of God.
Engage in a routine spiritual service to clean your heart on regular basis by reading the word of
God which is the Bible and meditate on the word. Our character tends to follow the path of
what we constantly meditate about whether good or bad. When you form a habit of meditating
on the word of God then this will positively build high self-esteem. People who suffer low self-
esteem cannot perform to the expectation of their masters, as the Bible says in the book of
Proverbs 23:7 – As a man thinketh, so is he. This expression means that what someone says or
does is directly proportionate to what he thinks. The mind here becomes the primary breeding
ground for who we become.
The consequences of unguarded heart can manifest in so many ways for instance poor choices,
broken relationships, hurt and disappointments. But remember when we mess up and are not

the best version of ourselves, God is faithful to forgive and restore. The desire to press on and
walk closer to the Lord is all we need.
Purge yourself – 2Tim 2:21 – If a man therefore purges himself…….
Confession of our sins to God and one to another is the primary foundation means to purging
ourselves from sinful desires. You must make concrete and even extreme choices against that
which you have sinfully desired. There needs to come a time when you need to take a break
and move to a solitary place and call yourself to a meeting room where you dialogue with your
spirit, you need to reach a point where you take a vote on issues that matters not only in this
temporal life here on earth but also on matters regarding eternity. Self-assessment based on
the truth of the word of God is extremely important when you start evaluating your
performance in life. It is at this point that you can make independent decision which is devoid
of any human influence as the third party.
Vessels of honour are costly to make and they take time and a lot of sacrifice to produce. The
same principle applies when you reach a point where you must let go and let God have his will
and way in your life. Sometimes it will cost you to separate from some of the friends you value
so much. In some instances it will cost you to reject certain offers for the sake of Christ, but in
all these it’s worth paying the price for the sake of the prize ahead. I want to just remind us that
there is a crown awaiting those that will overcome in heaven, so there is need to keep
reminding ourselves this fact in order to make the wise decision to glorify God in all that we do.
I hope you believe in the say that goes, “in life no pain no gain”
Guarding your heart in essential in the context of sin because it helps you protect your
innermost self from the deceptive allure of sinful temptations. It involves making choices that
align with your moral and spiritual values, avoiding harmful influences and striving for a pure
heart. The reason David sang to the Lord saying, “Create in me a clean heart and renew your
right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). Only God can create in you a clean heart, all other human
efforts cannot achieve anything of this kind.
Allow God to constantly search your heart and show you if there is any evil that needs
attention. Always ensure that you carefully weigh your heart at all times to ensure it remains
pure. Prayerfully you can seek for God’s guidance and protection. Learn to set aside time when
you can dedicate yourself to the reading and meditation of the word of God so that he word
may dwell in you richly, this calls for discipline to overcome the temptation of being glued to
the gadgets and television.
It is prudent to learn to evaluate all information before you consume them. Social media is a
wash of much illicit information that comes with the intention to pollute people’s minds.
Pornographic images and literatures is a deadly poison to the heart.

Avoid rourmour mongering and spreading of lies and propaganda among your friends. Your
tongue must be bridled if you are to walk right with God. The tongue is a small part of the body
but it can wreak havoc if left unchecked at all time. All these are steps to becoming a vessel of
honour which God can use for noble purposes in the kingdom
Availability for God’s service – Isaiah 6:8 – Whom shall I send……
We are living in a very fast world where everything seems to be on the first lane, this culture
has permeated in the church where we are almost rubbishing the need for fellowship. Almost
everything is going virtual so much so that today many churches are having majority of their
members attending virtually especially after the covid19 effects.
Virtual fellowship is good but physical fellowship is better. We will never reach a point of
satisfaction by substituting our physical presence in the presence of God with gadgets. Jesus
second coming will not be virtual but physical, it’s the reason God wants you physically
regardless of your busy schedule. Hebrews 10:24-25 – And let us consider how we may spur
one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in
the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day
approaching.
God is looking for people whom he can send worldwide. The harvest is plenty but the laborers
are few because not many people are ready to avail themselves to be sent by God. Many
excuses that we keep on advancing cannot hold water at all. Some are waiting to serve when
it’s convenient, others are waiting till they retire then is when they can engage in the ministry.
Elisha was unable to stand mentorship of his master prophet Elijah when he tried to still hold
on to the things of the world and his people. Elijah had to rebuke him sharply that is when
Elisha saw the need to go back and slaughter the oxen then he came back and served Elijah
effectively and finally he got a double portion of his anointing.
You cannot become a vessel of honour till you refuse to remain an average Christian, carrying
average testimony, earning average income and living average life. God’s vision and dream for
you is abundant life (Joh 10:10 – The thief comes not but to steal, to kill and to destroy: I am
come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly). Double portion
anointing which was received by Elisha was as a result of total sacrifice and quality focus on the
things of God. Both your time and money are needed to be available for the Lord/s service.
When you serve God, you grow closer to Him. You learn more about His character and what He
desires for your life. As you draw near him he reveals more of Himself to you and gives you a
greater understanding of His will. Serving God also strengthen your faith and deepens your
trust in Him.

When you become available and serve God, you grow closer to Him and God promises to
establish your plans. You need to commit to Him every day and committing just means giving
your best every day to God. You don’t need to be perfect. Belong to a fellowship where you are
known by the leadership that you are a member. Participate in the programs of your church or
fellowship with the rest of the church members.
One of the best ways to know that you are available to the service of God is when the programs
of your church or fellowship are fairly accommodated in your diary. When you grow to the
point where you can decline certain rising assignment because you have already dedicated that
time to God in your calendar then that will be a sign that indeed you are available and ready for
growth. The only way you can be disciple to grow to maturity in Christ is when you allow your
spiritual mentor to determine a sizable portion of your diary. God through his servants who are
your mentors sometimes can change your personal plans you had already slotted in your diary
and you will not need to struggle so much to accommodate the God given instruction, which is
obedience.
The desire to make more wealth has remained today one of the main obstacle to availability for
God’s service. Many churches are struggling to gather sufficient quorum of congregation
because members are doubling from job employment to other businesses, many working for
over twelve hours a day in order to make the ends meet. Unfortunately the money is never
enough, this trend has turned around God’s plan where now people are serving money instead
of money being the servant to men.
Build Trust – Luke 16:10 -Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with
much.
Trusty deficit is a big challenge today not only among the spouses but also between man and
God. Many businesses have gone under based on lack of trust among the employees. Trust is
the currency that can never experience recession regardless of the season of life. Trust is like
the air we breathe, when it is present nobody notices; when it is absent, everybody notices.
Mistrust begets mistrust; trust begets accomplishment. Many pastor are struggling to accept
the concept of champions table because they are wondering whom they can trust with
sensitive information about them.
Many employees fail to get their promotions at their places of work because of trust deficit.
Majority of spouses have divorced because they suffered trust deficit in their marriage.
Corruption and economic challenges being experienced in many nations across the world can
be directly linked to mistrust among the leaders in government.
God is looking for men who can be entrusted with little so that they can graduate to much.
Always learn to do what you believe is right, even when others disagree, will lead others to

respect your honesty. Interestingly when building trust, you must be willing to upset others in
occasion. Do not be thirsty of affirmation from men if you want to build trust because most of
your decision will not be appealing to the majority around you.
Mathew 3:17 – And a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well
pleased!” This was God’s signature of trust He had on Jesus. Trust is the master key that opens
the strong room of great success that money cannot buy. Risking your heart by trusting
someone else to take care of it takes courage, and that’s the reason why when you choose to
trust another person, you step out of your comfort zone.
The Lord is telling us in Jeremiah 17:7-8 – Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, The man
who puts his decision based on the faith in God. The man whose value system is aligned to the
will of the Lord is that man who is ready to forego anything for the sake of relationship with
God. Abraham was ready to sacrifice his only son Isaac because He trusted in the Lord God.
When he fully obeyed God then it was counted righteousness by faith.
God wants to give you life of abundance, influence, greatness, confidence and balance if only
you trust Him. The journey of faith must begin with first and foremost trusting upon the Lord
Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior of your life. When you trust in the Lord he will give you
power to become the son of God. John 1:12 – But to all who received him, to those who
believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. Trust in the Lord is the seed
that begets life eternal in Christ through the washing of the blood of Jesus. You can change your
life today by choosing to become trust worthy in all your relationships. Above all you can be
saved if you choose to trust in the Lord with all your heart, with your entire mind and with all
your spirit
Trust can be built by placing block after the other, and with gradual commitment till it becomes
a powerful tool to make you become a vessel of honour .A vessel that God can use to bring
glory to His name. You should purpose to use every tool given by God which is the application
of the word of God to build trust with God and with the people around you.

God made a puzzling statement to Abraham while establishing His covenant with the patriarch, linking the time that Israel would sojourn in Egypt to the behavior of one group of people. 

Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” (Genesis 15:13–-16, ESV)

Iniquity is easy enough to understand; it means sin, vice, or immorality. But what did the Amorites do that God found so offensive? Who were these people and where did they come from?

The Amorites first stepped onto the world stage in the middle of the third millennium B.C. The earliest known reference to an Amorite was from the ancient city of Shuruppak, dated to about 2600 B.C. According to the Sumerian King List, Shuruppak, about halfway between modern Baghdad and the Persian Gulf, was the home city of the last Sumerian king before the Flood. That king was either a man named Ubara-Tutu or his son, the hero of the Sumerian flood myth, Ziusudra, the Mesopotamian Noah.

Scholars disagree on the location of the Amorite homeland. There are two main candidates: One is Jebel Bishri, a low mountain range along the west side of the Euphrates River in central Syria. The other is the Diyala River valley, which descends from the Hamrin mountains toward modern Baghdad. This is the traditional border between Iraq and Iran, and between Arab lands to the south and Kurdish territory to the north.

There is evidence for both theories. One of the peaks in the Jebel Bishri range, Jebel Diddi, may be named for an ancient Amorite tribe, the Didanu (or Tidanu, or Tidnum, depending on when and in what language it was written). Or it may be that the tribe was named for the mountain. Either way, the name is important.

Estonian scholar Amar Annus has demonstrated that the name of this ancient Amorite tribe was probably the origin of the name of the old Greek gods, the Titans. That’s significant, because it links the Amorites and their worship of gods connected to the netherworld, such as Molech, Dagan, Baal-Hammon, and the Rephaim, to the sinful angels mentioned by Peter and Jude—the “sons of God” of Genesis 6:1–4, called “Watchers” in Jewish texts of the Second Temple period such as the Book of the Watchers, or what we know now as the first thirty-six chapters of the Book of First Enoch.

Annus also showed that the Watchers were known as apkallu in ancient Mesopotamia long before the Second Temple period. They were considered sages who brought the gifts of civilization to humanity on behalf of Enki, the god of wisdom. That’s similar to the description of the Watchers in Enoch, although the Jewish and early Christian view of “gifts” like weapons, witchcraft, and mating with human women to produce giants was considerably less favorable than in, say, Babylon.

How do Watchers differ from run-of-the-mill angels? Unfortunately for us English speakers, our language lacks the richness of some others. The word “angel,” borrowed from the Greek angelos (“messenger”), hides the fact that there are several classes or categories of angel, such as malakim (“messenger”), cherubim, seraphim, ophanim (the wheels of Ezekiel’s vision), and others. Based on the use of the term in Enoch, it’s clear that Watchers were especially powerful and exercised free will. Their decision to commit what they knew was a sin suggests that they also had knowledge of good and evil.

Not coincidentally, the Bible tells us that these rebellious angels were cast into Tartarus, just like the Titans of the Greeks. Although your Bible probably reads “hell” in 2 Peter 2:4, the original Greek names Tartarus as the prison of these spirits. Tartarus is a separate place from Hades, a sort of maximum-security hell reserved for supernatural threats to the divine order. Yet the Amorites (and their descendants, the Phoenicians), Greeks, and Romans continued to worship the old gods, especially the king of the Titans, Kronos (Saturn to the Romans, Baal-Hammon to the Phoenicians). Their offspring, the demigod heroes such as Perseus and Hercules, were, by definition, Nephilim.

By 2000 B.C., the Tidanu tribe had developed a reputation across the ancient Near East of being mad, bad, and dangerous to know—so dangerous, in fact, that the last Sumerian kings of Mesopotamia ordered a massive public-works project directed at these savage Amorites. The kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur, a mighty city-state in what is now southeastern Iraq, built a wall north of modern Baghdad 175 miles long, from the Euphrates across the Tigris to the Diyala. This wall, which one smart-aleck scholar recently suggested was intended to “make Sumer great again,” was built specifically to keep the Tidanu away. We know this because the Sumerian name of the wall literally translates into English as, “Amorite Wall That Keeps Tidanu Away.”

The problem for Ur was that it didn’t keep Tidanu away. More on that later.

So, the big question for scholars is this: Did the Amorites come from the middle of Syria, or did they come from northeastern Iraq/northwestern Iran? The answer may be “yes” to both.

Some scholars believe that Amorites, specifically the Tidanu/Ditanu, began migrating east from around Jebel Bishri sometime in the middle of the tThird mMillennium B.C., moving through northern Mesopotamia and northwest Iran before descending the Diyala Vvalley and entering Sumer from the north. Evidence suggests that Amorites lived farther east into what is now Iran than previously thought, possibly following their flocks through the mountains or setting up trading posts along routes that connected Sumer to people living east of Mesopotamia. Lapis lazuli, a blue stone prized in the ancient world, is still found mainly in northeast Afghanistan, and it was used in art and jewelry in Egypt as far back as 3700 B.C. Merchants hauling cargo through the mountains needed places to eat, sleep, and care for their donkeys, and it appears that some of those ancient caravan stops on the eastern edge of Mesopotamia may have been staffed by Amorites by the time of Abraham in the early second millennium B.C.

We’re limited in how far back we can trace the Amorites. While it’s clear that the Amorites had their own language, most of what we know about it comes from deciphering Amorite names. Almost all of the early written records from the places they lived are in Sumerian or Akkadian. For example, while the moon-god was called Nanna by Sumerians and Sîn by Akkadians, he was Yarikh to the Amorites. But when Amorites came to power across the Near East after 2000 B.C., government documents were still written in Sumerian or Akkadian, even in diplomatic messages sent to faraway countries like Hatti (the Hittites, who controlled most of modern Turkey) and Egypt. So, piecing together Amorite culture and history from tablets written in Amorite will probably never happen. Tracing their movements is only possible by identifying Amorite names in Akkadian and Sumerian records.

While it can’t be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, evidence suggests that the cult of Kronos, king of the Titans, began where the Amorites were first identified. Stories of the old god did not originate in Greece. Instead, evidence firmly documents the earliest worship of Kronos in northern Mesopotamia (southern Turkey or northern Syria), and older circumstantial evidence points specifically to Jebel Bishri, exactly where the earliest Mesopotamian records place the Amorites.

At the risk of sounding like a television presenter (oh, wait—I am one), I have to ask It’s worth asking at this point: Is it possible that the Titans, called Watchers by the Hebrews, made an infernal bargain with the early Amorites? Was this why the Amorite kings who ruled nearly all the lands of the Bible in the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob traced their ancestry back to one Ditana, the legendary founder of the Tidanu/Ditanu tribe? Could this explain the pride of the Amorites who founded Babylon, whose magicians considered themselves masters of occult knowledge received from the spirit realm before the Flood? Is this why Amorite kings as late as the time of the judges in Israel summoned “the council of the Ditanu” from the netherworld through necromancy rituals?

More important: Is the child sacrifice demanded by the old god, Kronos (and his other identities, Saturn and Baal-Hammon), the reason the practice continues even today?

Almost five thousand years after they emerged onto the world stage, the iniquity of the Amorites is still not complete. The bad news is the Watchers/Titans were not the only gods they served.

God has blessed us humans with a marvelous ability to think—to reason, to “search out a matter,” which the Bible tells us “is the glory of kings.” Jesus even told us that we are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, and minds. Yet far too many Christians settle for two out of three, happily swallowing strange ideas based on nothing more than the unsubstantiated claims of dynamic leaders.

We all have a right to believe whatever we want. Just remember that some bad choices have eternal consequences.

God—YHWH, the God of the Bible—made sure that He left behind evidence for the hope we have in Jesus: eyewitness testimonies, archaeologists’ discoveries, and even the activities of demons themselves argue for the truth of the gospel.

Over the centuries, the principalities and powers Paul warned us about have played a long game, cultivating philosophies and doctrines opposed to their Creator. As human understanding of science grew, the Enemy shifted from portraying themselves as the true creators and masters of humanity to convincing the world, especially in the scientific West, that there are no gods, only highly advanced extraterrestrials. And since, per science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law, “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” those so-called ETIs have become, by definition, the gods we thought we knew.

Let’s give credit where it’s due: This strategy is brilliant. It appeals to our human vanity. If our gods are gods only because they have better gizmos, then we, too, can someday be as gods.

The principalities and powers, rather than compelling us to accept them as our masters at the point of a sword (or a ray gun), have spooled out line over the centuries, patiently waiting while more and more of us took their bait. Through spiritualists like Swedenborg and the Fox sisters, modern gnostics like Blavatsky and Bailey, occultists like Crowley and Grant, and storytellers from Lovecraft to Roddenberry (and we can add von Däniken and Sitchin to that category), a compelling message has been spread throughout the technologically advanced Western world: The spirit realm is real; we know who created you and where you go when you die; and your mission until then is to “work in the light.”

In other words, the spirits behind this movement have created a science-fiction religion. How do we know this? It’s a faith that promises to answer the Big Questions: Where do we come from, why are we here, and what happens to us when we die?

Remember, people who believe ETIs are visiting the earth outnumber truly biblical Christians in America three-to-one. The Enemy’s deception is working.

So, the recent fascination with “official disclosure” of the existence of extraterrestrials is something Christians must be prepared to address. The fact that we are not is a testimony to the lack of discernment among the Church today. Not only do we fail to recognize the Enemy, but most Christians in America don’t also even acknowledge the Enemy’s existence.

Knowingly or otherwise, the Enemy’s plans have been aided and abetted by the United States government, or at least by elements within it. The intelligence community’s use of UFOs as a convenient cover story is a matter of public record. Evidence for the IC’s role in famous cases like the Roswell crash or the non-existent underground base at Dulce, New Mexico (the Paul Bennewitz affair), to pick the most obvious, and the highly improbable links between people connected to early UFO sightings and the assassination of John F. Kennedy make it clear that critical thinkers should ask whether “official disclosure” might also be a intelligence op. Especially since we know that the U.S. military command specifically tasked with creating convincing deceptions, Joint Security Control, has been positively linked to the UFO phenomenon.

Next, we should ask why the UFO investigation community has been hijacked by hoaxers and New Agers. Why have serious researchers been pushed out of the way by those who don’t even try to hide their pro-ETI bias?

The big question, of course, is cui bono—who benefits? Who wins when the public buys into the idea that our gods are ETIs and that they’re coming back, if not here already?

If you have a supernatural worldview, which you should if you’re a Christian, the answer to that question should be obvious.

The issue here is that the ETIs aren’t coming back. They’re already here. They never left. The UFO research community, which has a black hole where critical thinking should be, more or less accepts the existence of aliens as a good thing. Why? The Age of Discovery, which was named by Europeans who did the discovering, didn’t work out well for the native peoples who were discovered. Why should we expect first contact to be like E.T. when it might be more like War of the Worlds or Independence Day?

For that matter, why do contactees believe what they’re told by these so-called ETIs? Assuming the channelers in touch with The Nine, Ashtar Command, and Ramtha the Enlightened One are hearing from something and not just playing us for fools, why do they think these entities are telling the truth? If they are hostile, would they tell us?

And if they’re friendly, why are they so coy? They’ve allegedly crossed interstellar space to get here. Don’t they have a radio? Webcam? Flare gun? Can’t they flash their headlights at us? Why do those who eagerly await “official disclosure” ignore basic, common-sense questions?

As Christians, we are commanded to test the spirits. Given the motives of the rebellious denizens of the unseen realm, the “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places,” then a PSYOP like this is exactly the kind of thing we should expect. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Beware, you “lightworkers” who serve the Ashtar Command. You know not what you do.

This gets to the heart of the matter. When we look at the evolution of ideas that form the core doctrines of the people pushing for official disclosure, the picture that emerges is much darker than they realize. For all their claims to spiritual enlightenment, the New Agers who dominate the official disclosure movement are mostly ignorant of the roots of their doctrines, a condition one scholar calls “source amnesia.”

It is no accident that the communications contactees have received from alleged ETIs have come through channelers instead of radios, telephones, or video screens. It is not a coincidence that the accounts of “alien” abductees are very similar to those of victims of satanic ritual abuse.

It is also relevant that Aleister Crowley, his successor Kenneth Grant, and the Round Table of CIA asset Andrija Puharich believed they were hearing from gods worshipped in Egypt three thousand years ago—and specifically, in the case of Crowley and Grant, the Egyptian god of chaos, Set.

Consider this: The gods of the ancient world are real. That’s not a guess, that’s biblical—and they’re under a death sentence. God has also decreed that those who put their faith in Jesus Christ will one day judge the angels. The only thing left for the rebellious elohim, the fallen angels who dared to rebel against their Creator, is to drag as much of His creation as they can into the Lake of Fire with them when they go.

And the conflict between the Creator and Chaos has been ongoing since before the creation of the Garden of Eden. Genesis 1:2 tells us the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters—waters that contained “the deep,” the abyss, tehom, or Tiamat, the Sumerian chaos-dragon. That’s the entity named Leviathan in the Bible.

Remember that occultist Kenneth Grant believed the god he channeled was Set, Egypt’s dark lord of chaos. Set was called Typhon by the Greeks, hence Grant’s religion, the Typhonian Order.

Grant further believed that horror author H. P. Lovecraft had tapped into that same spirit. And as bizarre as it sounds, it was Lovecraft’s fiction, and thus the spirit(s) behind it, that inspired Erich von Däniken to write the book that launched the Ancient Astronaut Theory, Chariots of the Gods.

In short, our culture’s fascination with ancient aliens may be a supernatural PSYOP in the long war between the god of chaos, Leviathan, and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

While YHWH defeated Leviathan before creating humanity by crushing its heads, it is not dead. Its future destruction is guaranteed, however. On the Day of the Lord, “He will slay the dragon that is in the sea” and when He creates the new heaven and the new earth, the sea—chaos—will be no more.

Here’s the takeaway: Our God spoke the universe into existence and all that is in it, including the small-G gods who rage and plot against Him and His creation—meaning us. We shouldn’t be afraid to address the question of whether we’re being visited by ETIs or how to respond to a future announcement that aliens have just landed in front of the United Nations building.

Based on the evidence that’s been made public, and the chain of ideas leading from ancient Greek philosophers to the modern UFO/UAP phenomenon, we don’t believe ET has come calling. Ever. True believers in the existence of ETIs have been duped by smoke and shadows, buying into a spiritual deception wrapped in a pseudoscientific veneer.

It’s a pity. They’ve sided with the JV team. Our God not only created them, He created the stuff He made them with. That’s the God who captains our army. And you, dear reader, were created as His “imager”—His moral agent on Earth. And no matter what happens to you or to the world, that’s a job title you never lose, even if a genuine ETI lands a spaceship on the White House lawn.

Ancient astronaut theorists, New Agers, and atheists longing for answers to the Big Questions that don’t involve the God of the Bible will keep pushing the governments of the world to disclose what they know about extraterrestrial intelligences. The principalities and powers behind the thrones of this world may oblige them someday with an event that looks like official disclosure.

Just remember: You are created in the image of God. You are His image bearer on Earth. That’s a specific set of attributes inherent in, unique to, and inseparable from the human race. The arrival of something claiming to be from Zeta Reticuli does not change your status. It does not change the need for a Savior or the plan of salvation. It doesn’t change who Jesus is or why he died, and it sure doesn’t change the established historical fact of his resurrection and the victory it achieved over the Fallen.

In short, although we don’t think this will ever happen, the legitimate discovery of an extraterrestrial intelligence should have no impact whatsoever on your Christian faith.

The disclosure of ETIs, ancient astronaut theory, and the old lie that is the New Age are just tactics by the small-G gods to lure unsuspecting and undiscerning humans to destruction. They deny the authority, identity, or existence of God, and offer instead the false promise they first rolled out in the Garden: Ye shall be as gods.

So, when you encounter the topic of Official Disclosure, please remember: We follow the One who created everything. Christian doctrine, and your worldview, is big enough to handle the “what ifs.”

After all, God gave us the definitive Book on the supernatural. The answers are in there if we just look.

By: Pastor Joshua Gwara Omolo, Kenya, Africa

Definition of social life
Three words are important here; Society, social life and relationship. A society is a group of
people that have common factors of life, and are therefore able to, not only co-exist, but also to
live together. The predominant factor of life they share here being culture. The fact that they
share the same culture empowers them to live in harmony in almost every aspect of life. That is
society. Many pastors are living in loneliness detached from the society and unable to feel the
Social life around them hence the reason All propastors international is addressing this
challenge by encouraging pastors to form champions table where they can defeat loneliness;
this is meant to empower them to master the individual’s manner of integration into the
society. Every man needs to understand and create an inbuilt capacity to correlate with each
member of the society and experience mutual benefit from the relationship
The perfect Relationship
Relationship on the other hand can be defined as, “the way in which two or more people or
groups regard and behave towards each other, and it is the state of being connected. God
never intended that any man should live in silos as it is the norm in many societies today
especially in the cities around the world. The book of psalm 133 clearly demonstrates the divine
benefits that can be achieved when people live together in unity, God pours his unprecedented
blessings in such kind of a fellowship beyond anyone’s’ imagination Allow me to say at this
point that the vast majority of the human population today is faced with the big problem of
broken relationship not only with fellow men but also with God the creator of Heaven and the
Earth.
The society we are living in today has become largely dysfunctional due to multiple systemic
failures which can be attributed to the broken relationship between man and God. When God
created the first man Adam he said it is not good for man to be alone then Eve was created to
complement and social life of Adam in order to solve the challenge of loneliness by providing an
effective companionship and to enable them to reproduce
Every level of relationship in life has a specific mutual benefit which should be realized by both
parties involved. The intention of God the author of the perfect relationship was to empower
mankind to develop an effective social life which is also dependent on God’s divine
supernatural relation with Him God the father. Many failures in the life of mankind today can be directly or indirectly attributed to the broken relationship between man and God; it is for
this reason that Jesus the son of God came and died on the cross in order to restore back the
original relationship between man and God. Jesus died for us to show God’s greatest love for
mankind and to restore our relationship with Him (John 15:13). In Jesus, God has shown us how
much He loves us, even while we are still sinners. In Christ we are assured of His constant love
that will never fail; this is the solid foundation for our relationship with God
Four Steps to Redeem our Relationship with God

  1. Receive the Gift of God who is Jesus
    Our spiritual birth is the perfect point of mending our relationship with God the father (John
    3:3-8). We need to believe in our heart that Jesus son of God died on the cross for our sins and
    on the third day he resurrected from the dead, then confess with our mouth that Jesus is our
    lord then we receive salvation immediately (Romans 10:9-10). Our restored relationship with
    God is the beginning of our ongoing transformation into Christ likeness (2Cor 5:17). The perfect
    relationship with God leads to perfect relationship with men.
    Only God can redefine our dysfunctional relationships in the society today. Embracing other
    items in an attempt to fill the void of the broken relationship cannot suffice at all. Many people
    have chosen to fellowship with gadgets instead of fellow men, but still the void of loneliness
    remains. God is the author of perfect relationship and we must admit that He is the only one
    who can restore this broken relationship.
    Many other things like pets too cannot substitute the place of effective relationship with fellow
    men. There is nothing wrong keeping these animals but God’s original plan was for men to
    relate with fellow men in accordance to the Patten and guidelines given by the scriptures in the
    Bible. The ultimate goal in the whole mix of relationship is to establish eternal relationship with
    God, relationship that knows no barrier so much so that even death cannot conquer it.
    Definition of social life
    Social life is a relational ability with fellow man. Healthy social life is the ability to build a
    healthy relationship with fellow man. You build the kind of relationship that enhances the well-
    being of each party involved. Your relationship with fellow man is built in such a way that each
    party involved draws optimal destiny benefits. It is a relationship that enhances mutual benefit
    for everyone involved. That is a healthy relationship.
    Not all relationships carry mutual benefit. Many relationships we form with fellow men are
    platforms of being used, in the end, only the user benefits. Some are platforms of being abused.
    Abuse is abnormal use. And at times the relationships are platforms on which people use us for very wrong things. You meet a house wife whose husband has turned her into a punching bag.

That is abuse. And that is not a healthy relationship.
Giving as a building block towards a healthy relationship
God has provided a very elaborate and well detailed protocol on how to engage and build a
healthy relationship through the principle of giving. The culture of giving is the master key to
almost every success. One story share by all those deemed to be successful in the world today
and this cuts across the divide is giving.
Offer your body as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing unto God. This is your spiritual act of
worship. Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind (Romans 12:1). Since our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, God is
placing this non-negotiable terms and condition that His friends must surrender their bodies to
be owned and utilized for worship. Holiness is the act of individuals decision to separate
him/her self from any form of sinful indulgence, it is a choice deliberately made by the man of
faith to honor God with his body. The man of faith must learn to live according to the covenant
of the word. Failure to take this action of living a life full of sanctity is what is referred to
engaging in the patterns of the world. The world has its own culture and ways of doing thing.
Quiet often, the patterns of the worldly life is offensive to God because they are contrary to the
kingdom principles of living right with God.
The word of God says it more blessed to give than to receive. Acts 20:35 – In everything I did, I
showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the word of the
Lord Jesus himself said; “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” But the hard reality today is
that the culture of giving is diminishing by the day in every culture.
America became a great Nation based on the platform of giving, but the culture is diminishing
each and every day and no wonder some other the Tigger nations are emerging with such a
great challenge to the economy of the USA. The newly formed BRICS alliance has but one
agenda to sideline the US Dollar in order to bring down the US economy.
The great funding for missionary works that used to flow from America to Africa has reduced
significantly and the many churches activities in the outreach ministries in African has also
reduced marginally, seminary colleges that used to sponsor theology courses are turning into
commercial training institutions in order to remain a float. The Bible is saying that we should
not grow tired in doing good because it will soon flow back to us (Ecclesiastes 11:1 – cast thy
bread in many waters: for thou shall find it after many days)
All these changes are sponsored by the new emerging trend of the culture of materialism
where people would want to be defined by the wealth they own instead of the God they

worship, hence this has broaden the gap between the rich and the poor. Many economies in
African countries today project a grim picture of inequality; a quick profile of a society where
1% of the population owns the 99% of the wealth in the land while the 99% population are left
to survive on 1% of the wealth in the country, what a big shame and what a negative contrast.
Healthy relationship can never exist in such unequal society where majority of people die of
hunger instead of disease. A healthy relationship is a platform for sustainable peace. Peace is a
relational state of being. It is a state in which conflict has no power to access and shake your
relationship. A relationship that is attaining the state of peace manifests in conflicts being less
frequent. But the intensity of the conflict is also less and less. It takes longer to experience the
next conflict.
A healthy relationship has friendship. The Greek word ‘philos’ from which we obtain the word
‘friend’ means associate.
Friendship as a building block towards a perfect relationship
A friend is someone you associate with. When couples are friends, they tend to always
associate with each other. They keep each other’s company. Not only do you associate
physically, you also do so internally. You easily divulge the secrets of your hearts to each other.
The purpose of champion’s table initiative by the All propastors international (APPI) is to enable
pastors to embrace this intimate level of fellowship of sharing the burdens with one another
just the way Jesus did with Peter, James and John. Learning to be compassionate and caring; is
quite a challenge but its rewarding.
This is what we see in John 15:15-16. In the beginning of this Scripture our Lord Jesus
announces to his disciples that he is the true vine and they are the branches. Then he speaks of
the need for the branches to abide in the vine. In vs 13 he says, “Greater love has no-one than
this, that he lay down his life for his friends” Then in this portion of scripture, he says,
I no-longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead I
have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my father I have made known to you.
You did not chose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit”
Abraham became a friend of God and he was accounted as righteous in the eyes of God. The
tag of friendship comes along with unmatched favor that opens many doors in life. Our Gog the
father of our Lord Jesus Christ is very much alive to this kingdom principle of friendship. And the
scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God (James 2:21=23). There are many gates
that God is will open in your life if only you cultivate and appreciate this kingdom principle. The
friendship pillar requires one to be sensitive of the need of the other party.

Friends will be careful not to venture into areas that can easily offend their counterparts.
Friendship requires serious investment of quality time and support; using every relevant
material that can add value to ensure that it remains sustainable. God is calling for effective
worship done in truth and in the spirit. You don’t need to be perfect to engage friendship with
God; God is the one who will make you perfect through sanctification. God does not call the
qualified but he qualifies the called ones and you can be a part of the called ones only by having
faith in God as earlier mentioned.
Affirmation as a building block towards effective relationship
True friends celebrate one another whenever there is achievement. Acknowledging the
strength in your friend is a key to winning confidence of that friend. Affirmation is one of the
good mannerisms in building friendship in a relationship that can stand the test of time.
Celebrate your fellow pastor by pointing out to him the area of his strength even as you
cultivate friendship in you champion’s table. Spouse need to learn to acknowledge the strength
in their partners and that will remain as a pillar of trust in their holy matrimony. Leaders need
to learn how to commend their followers in the areas where their performance has exceeded
expectation.
Many parents have lost control of their children simply because they have never affirmed the
strength in their sons and daughters. In Mathew 3:17 – And a voice from heaven said, “This is
my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased” This was a land mark statement loud enough to
erase any fear of doubt or contradiction about the identity of Jesus and his relationship with
God the father. God himself spoke expressly without using any messenger to send a very strong
message to the world that Jesus is the son of God and that God id well pleased with him. Our
sons and daughters are in need of similar affirmation for them to manifest and project their
strength effective in their generation.
Every man on the planet is born with a special talent and unique gifting. The challenge we have
in the society is that people are trying to compare and compete with each other instead of
complementing one another. Often many people have been broken and their self-esteem
destroyed because this same mistake of unhealthy competition. God’s plan was to ensure that
his strength is revealed in our weakness and this is the reason why we need to learn on how
depend on God at all times. Spouses can only walk the long journey of marriage successfully
when they learn to discover and appreciate the strength in their partners. The culture of blame
game and finger pointing which is common in many marriages is one of the main factors that
have led to collapse in many marriage institutions.

Effective communication as a building block towards healthy relationship
Dialogue is a key factor in enhancing effective relationship because dispute and disagreement is
bound to occur where there are two or more people. Proper communication channels and
communication tools must be put in place to facilitate this process. Effective communication
must ensure that that there is feedback as a confirmation that the message has been received
properly. The language involved must be made simple and understandable by the parties
involved, it must also be structured in a manner that is should contain elements of respect to
the consumer or receiver. Some of the other extraneous factors that can hinder effective
communication may include environmental stress factor like illiteracy, hunger, diseases,
insecurity and uncontrolled external information.
Jesus warned his disciples to be weary of the dangers the disciples were to encounter. In
Mathew 10:16 – Behold, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as
shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. The message here was to prepare the disciples
psychologically so that they can be made ready for tough times ahead; it also contains
measures that the disciples were to apply in order to overcome the difficult situations they
were to encounter. The symbols used in the message (sheep, wolf, dove and snake) are to
create a clear and simple understanding of the hostility that would come their way.
The world around us is today has become more hostile to the people of God and the situation is
not going to get any better. The anti-Christ movements are now come out in the open to
declare that they do not want God. We believers must therefore come alive to this fact that we
need to engage the strategies of communications that were shared by Christ himself. We must
begin by establishing clear channels of communications in our households then escalate it to
the outer most parts of the world.
A good communicator must also learn first to be a good listener. Failure to listen to the
feedback can destroy a relationship. Believers often find themselves in this league where we
only want to speak to God all our thoughts and once we are done then we leave God’s presence
thinking that we are done with our prayers. Effective prayers must include listening to what
God is telling with regards to the petitions made before him. God is the one to determine the
final answer to our petitions hence the need to want to hear from Him. Parents must learn to
listen to their kids. The habit of treating kids like they must only follow what they have been
told to do without being given an opportunity to share their take is an outdated approach is
positive parenting.

  1. Admit that we are sinners
    The first step to restoration of the perfect relationship between men and Go is to admit that
    the life we are living is headed in the wrong direction. We must accept responsibility because of
    the bad choices we keep on making on daily basis. In the book of Luke 15:11-17, the prodigal
    son made a choice to detach himself from the father; we need to acknowledge the sins that
    separates us from God the father (Romans 3:23) and its penalty of death. But for many of us it
    is very difficult to come to this conclusion of admitting our sins, and we tend to hide or blame
    others for our sins as did Adam. We still try to convince ourselves that life is good even on the
    face of this massive failure we can see in our society today. Admitting our mistakes like the
    prodigal son is the first step to restoration of our relationship with God.
  2. Return to God in repentance
    We need to climb down from our ivory towers with a repentant, humble attitude rather than
    hiding and covering (Acts 3:19; Genesis 3:10; Isaiah 59:2). Returning to God through confession
    and asking for forgiveness of our sins removes the sin that blocks our relationship with Him.
    When we confess our sins before God he promises to forgive us (John 1:9), and forgiveness is
    what restores relationship that has been broken. The prodigal son did not just plan to get his
    relationship right with his father but he practically took a step and returned back to the father.
    Many people keep on with procrastination of their step to returning to God by harboring many
    unnecessary excuses. God is saying in the book of 2Corinthians 6:2 – “In acceptable time I have
    heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you,” Behold, now is the accepted time;
    behold now. The prodigal son humbly acknowledged, “I am not worthy to be called your son”
    (Luke 15:19). He was simply acknowledging that he did not deserve anything from the father.
    This is the kind of spirit that we need to wear for us to return back to God
  3. Recognize that God will lovingly welcome us home
    No matter how far we have gone, our loving God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ welcomes
    us home. There are seven things that the father does in the story of the prodigal son – looking,
    running, kissing, giving clothing and ring and sandals, and throwing a feast (Luke 15:20-24).

These acts are a clear illustration of the heavenly father’s love for sinners. The story of the prodigal son gives us a clear picture of our heavenly father who is always ready to forgive all sins no matter how deep they may seem to be. In Isaiah 1:8 – God says, “Come now, let us
reason together,” says the Lord though your sin are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow.
He is a compassionate and loving father who runs towards us to give us a hug. Let us embrace
this unmatched love. Let each one of us consider this outpouring love of God so that we may
receive of His great salvation.

  1. Receive the Gift of God who is Jesus
    Our spiritual birth is the perfect point of mending our relationship with God the father (John
    3:3-8). We need to believe in our heart that Jesus son of God died on the cross for our sins and
    on the third day he resurrected from the dead, then confess with our mouth that Jesus is our
    lord then we receive salvation immediately (Romans 10:9-10). Our restored relationship with
    God is the beginning of our ongoing transformation into Christ likeness (2Cor 5:17). The perfect
    relationship with God leads to perfect relationship with men.
    Only God can redefine our dysfunctional relationships in the society today. Embracing other
    items in an attempt to fill the void of the broken relationship cannot suffice at all. Many people
    have chosen to fellowship with gadgets instead of fellow men, but still the void of loneliness
    remains. God is the author of perfect relationship and we must admit that He is the only one
    who can restore this broken relationship.
    Many other things like pets too cannot substitute the place of effective relationship with fellow
    men. There is nothing wrong keeping these animals but God’s original plan was for men to
    relate with fellow men in accordance to the Patten and guidelines given by the scriptures in the
    Bible. The ultimate goal in the whole mix of relationship is to establish eternal relationship with
    God, relationship that knows no barrier so much so that even death cannot conquer it.
    Definition of social life
    Social life is a relational ability with fellow man. Healthy social life is the ability to build a
    healthy relationship with fellow man. You build the kind of relationship that enhances the well-
    being of each party involved. Your relationship with fellow man is built in such a way that each
    party involved draws optimal destiny benefits. It is a relationship that enhances mutual benefit
    for everyone involved. That is a healthy relationship.
    Not all relationships carry mutual benefit. Many relationships we form with fellow men are
    platforms of being used, in the end, only the user benefits. Some are platforms of being abused.
    Abuse is abnormal use. And at times the relationships are platforms on which people use us for very wrong things. You meet a house wife whose husband has turned her into a punching bag.

That is abuse. And that is not a healthy relationship.
Giving as a building block towards a healthy relationship
God has provided a very elaborate and well detailed protocol on how to engage and build a
healthy relationship through the principle of giving. The culture of giving is the master key to
almost every success. One story share by all those deemed to be successful in the world today
and this cuts across the divide is giving.
Offer your body as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing unto God. This is your spiritual act of
worship. Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind (Romans 12:1). Since our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, God is
placing this non-negotiable terms and condition that His friends must surrender their bodies to
be owned and utilized for worship. Holiness is the act of individuals decision to separate
him/her self from any form of sinful indulgence, it is a choice deliberately made by the man of
faith to honor God with his body. The man of faith must learn to live according to the covenant
of the word. Failure to take this action of living a life full of sanctity is what is referred to
engaging in the patterns of the world. The world has its own culture and ways of doing thing.
Quiet often, the patterns of the worldly life is offensive to God because they are contrary to the
kingdom principles of living right with God.
The word of God says it more blessed to give than to receive. Acts 20:35 – In everything I did, I
showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the word of the
Lord Jesus himself said; “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” But the hard reality today is
that the culture of giving is diminishing by the day in every culture.
America became a great Nation based on the platform of giving, but the culture is diminishing
each and every day and no wonder some other the Tigger nations are emerging with such a
great challenge to the economy of the USA. The newly formed BRICS alliance has but one
agenda to sideline the US Dollar in order to bring down the US economy.
The great funding for missionary works that used to flow from America to Africa has reduced
significantly and the many churches activities in the outreach ministries in African has also
reduced marginally, seminary colleges that used to sponsor theology courses are turning into
commercial training institutions in order to remain a float. The Bible is saying that we should
not grow tired in doing good because it will soon flow back to us (Ecclesiastes 11:1 – cast thy
bread in many waters: for thou shall find it after many days)
All these changes are sponsored by the new emerging trend of the culture of materialism
where people would want to be defined by the wealth they own instead of the God they

worship, hence this has broaden the gap between the rich and the poor. Many economies in
African countries today project a grim picture of inequality; a quick profile of a society where
1% of the population owns the 99% of the wealth in the land while the 99% population are left
to survive on 1% of the wealth in the country, what a big shame and what a negative contrast.
Healthy relationship can never exist in such unequal society where majority of people die of
hunger instead of disease. A healthy relationship is a platform for sustainable peace. Peace is a
relational state of being. It is a state in which conflict has no power to access and shake your
relationship. A relationship that is attaining the state of peace manifests in conflicts being less
frequent. But the intensity of the conflict is also less and less. It takes longer to experience the
next conflict.
A healthy relationship has friendship. The Greek word ‘philos’ from which we obtain the word
‘friend’ means associate.
Friendship as a building block towards a perfect relationship
A friend is someone you associate with. When couples are friends, they tend to always
associate with each other. They keep each other’s company. Not only do you associate
physically, you also do so internally. You easily divulge the secrets of your hearts to each other.
The purpose of champion’s table initiative by the All propastors international (APPI) is to enable
pastors to embrace this intimate level of fellowship of sharing the burdens with one another
just the way Jesus did with Peter, James and John. Learning to be compassionate and caring; is
quite a challenge but its rewarding.
This is what we see in John 15:15-16. In the beginning of this Scripture our Lord Jesus
announces to his disciples that he is the true vine and they are the branches. Then he speaks of
the need for the branches to abide in the vine. In vs 13 he says, “Greater love has no-one than
this, that he lay down his life for his friends” Then in this portion of scripture, he says,
I no-longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead I
have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my father I have made known to you.
You did not chose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit”
Abraham became a friend of God and he was accounted as righteous in the eyes of God. The
tag of friendship comes along with unmatched favor that opens many doors in life. Our Gog the
father of our Lord Jesus Christ is very much alive to this kingdom principle of friendship. And the
scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God (James 2:21=23). There are many gates
that God is will open in your life if only you cultivate and appreciate this kingdom principle. The
friendship pillar requires one to be sensitive of the need of the other party.

Friends will be careful not to venture into areas that can easily offend their counterparts.
Friendship requires serious investment of quality time and support; using every relevant
material that can add value to ensure that it remains sustainable. God is calling for effective
worship done in truth and in the spirit. You don’t need to be perfect to engage friendship with
God; God is the one who will make you perfect through sanctification. God does not call the
qualified but he qualifies the called ones and you can be a part of the called ones only by having
faith in God as earlier mentioned.
Affirmation as a building block towards effective relationship
True friends celebrate one another whenever there is achievement. Acknowledging the
strength in your friend is a key to winning confidence of that friend. Affirmation is one of the
good mannerisms in building friendship in a relationship that can stand the test of time.
Celebrate your fellow pastor by pointing out to him the area of his strength even as you
cultivate friendship in you champion’s table. Spouse need to learn to acknowledge the strength
in their partners and that will remain as a pillar of trust in their holy matrimony. Leaders need
to learn how to commend their followers in the areas where their performance has exceeded
expectation.
Many parents have lost control of their children simply because they have never affirmed the
strength in their sons and daughters. In Mathew 3:17 – And a voice from heaven said, “This is
my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased” This was a land mark statement loud enough to
erase any fear of doubt or contradiction about the identity of Jesus and his relationship with
God the father. God himself spoke expressly without using any messenger to send a very strong
message to the world that Jesus is the son of God and that God id well pleased with him. Our
sons and daughters are in need of similar affirmation for them to manifest and project their
strength effective in their generation.
Every man on the planet is born with a special talent and unique gifting. The challenge we have
in the society is that people are trying to compare and compete with each other instead of
complementing one another. Often many people have been broken and their self-esteem
destroyed because this same mistake of unhealthy competition. God’s plan was to ensure that
his strength is revealed in our weakness and this is the reason why we need to learn on how
depend on God at all times. Spouses can only walk the long journey of marriage successfully
when they learn to discover and appreciate the strength in their partners. The culture of blame
game and finger pointing which is common in many marriages is one of the main factors that
have led to collapse in many marriage institutions.

Effective communication as a building block towards healthy relationship
Dialogue is a key factor in enhancing effective relationship because dispute and disagreement is
bound to occur where there are two or more people. Proper communication channels and
communication tools must be put in place to facilitate this process. Effective communication
must ensure that that there is feedback as a confirmation that the message has been received
properly. The language involved must be made simple and understandable by the parties
involved, it must also be structured in a manner that is should contain elements of respect to
the consumer or receiver. Some of the other extraneous factors that can hinder effective
communication may include environmental stress factor like illiteracy, hunger, diseases,
insecurity and uncontrolled external information.
Jesus warned his disciples to be weary of the dangers the disciples were to encounter. In
Mathew 10:16 – Behold, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as
shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. The message here was to prepare the disciples
psychologically so that they can be made ready for tough times ahead; it also contains
measures that the disciples were to apply in order to overcome the difficult situations they
were to encounter. The symbols used in the message (sheep, wolf, dove and snake) are to
create a clear and simple understanding of the hostility that would come their way.
The world around us is today has become more hostile to the people of God and the situation is
not going to get any better. The anti-Christ movements are now come out in the open to
declare that they do not want God. We believers must therefore come alive to this fact that we
need to engage the strategies of communications that were shared by Christ himself. We must
begin by establishing clear channels of communications in our households then escalate it to
the outer most parts of the world.
A good communicator must also learn first to be a good listener. Failure to listen to the
feedback can destroy a relationship. Believers often find themselves in this league where we
only want to speak to God all our thoughts and once we are done then we leave God’s presence
thinking that we are done with our prayers. Effective prayers must include listening to what
God is telling with regards to the petitions made before him. God is the one to determine the
final answer to our petitions hence the need to want to hear from Him. Parents must learn to
listen to their kids. The habit of treating kids like they must only follow what they have been
told to do without being given an opportunity to share their take is an outdated approach is
positive parenting.