Our Father in heaven,

We come to You to uphold Multifavs and family in prayer. Place upon the mother Your healing hands. Grant her relief in times of pain and discomfort. Strengthen her body Lord that she may recover from her illness. We ask too for Your grace to be upon Multifavs. Let Your Presence be felt in her troubled times, a leading hand on uncertain paths and a piecing light during clouded minds.

Grant Lord Your protection and grace on the whole family. In the name of Jesus we ask, Amen.

Hello folks. Today marks the second installment in the hymn per week series, which will happen on most weekends. Today is an 18th century hymn known as God Himself is Present. All hymns are freely available from the Open Hymnal Project.

Open Hymnal Project (2014 Hymnal PDF): http://openhymnal.org/OpenHymnal2014.06.pdf



Video (Lutheran hymn, but works well for all denominations including Catholics):
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Bible Portion: “Balak” NUMBERS 22:2-25:9

This is the famous story of Bilam, who was asked to “curse” Israel, and instead, “Blessed” Israel, yet before this, his donkey spoke to him. The name “Bilam” or Balaam” might be a shorter version of the name “Baal-haAm” (lord of the people). Some believe that he was a true prophet of G-d, while others believe he was a false or corrupt prophet. It seems like he was the latter, yet YHVH used him to bless Israel.

The princes of Balak, king of Moab, offered money to Balaam to curse Israel, so, Balaam consulted Adonai as to what he should do. Elohim answers;

“Thou shalt not go with them, thou shalt not curse them for they are blessed” (Num 22:12) What the LORD has blessed, stays blessed, what the LORD has cursed, stays cursed UNLESS the LORD himself lifts the curse and changes the curse to a blessing. Or, a person can go against God's Word and become a rebel, thus, inviting a curse into being.

Balaam tells the princes, “I cannot go with you” yet Balak is stubborn, and wants Israel cursed, he offers more money, and fame, re-sends his princes, and asks them again to propose to Balaam; “Stay here tonight and I will see what the LORD will tell me” says Balaam.

But didn’t Adonai already say NO? What more is there to ask again? Or…is there a hidden reason? Maybe a money reason? We can see perhaps a greedy prophet trying to see if “God will change his mind”. Just a little curse for a lot of money? However, Adonai says; “Go with them, but only say what I tell you to say”. So, the word of God says that in the morning, Balaam saddled his ass and went with the princes of Moab, BUT…God was angry because he WENT!

There is a problem here, didn’t Adonai already give his permission for Balaam to GO, yet he was angry because he WENT! What is the root of interpretation here? Adonai gave his permission for Balaam to go PHYSICALLY with the princes of Moab, Yet, Balaam in his heart was GOING ALONG WITH THE IDEA, to curse for money, greed was in his heart. One thing is to GO, another is to GO ALONG WITH THE IDEA or be in unison to do evil. This is why the anger of the LORD was kindled, Balaam had in his heart the IDEA or the DESIRE to GO CURSE ISRAEL for riches. It was all about the “inner motive” of Bilaam, Adonai knows the heart above all things. We can all “go” places, but if our hearts carry evil intentions, then, the “going” will bring a curse upon yourself.

Here is another idea. God gave permission for Bilaam to go, only that he made known the plan to bless Israel, yet Bilaam did not tell the second group of emissaries that he would bless Israel. He allowed them to think that he would pronounce a curse upon Israel. In this type of deceit, Bilaam would “blaspheme” the name of God, knowing one thing, and hiding it on purpose. Perhaps Bilaam thought that if he told the group that he would only “bless” Israel, then, he would not receive payment. It would then be a “financial setback”. (ill-gotten greed).

Now Adonai used Balaam’s donkey to “wake him up” as to what is happening. Then, “Malach-YHVH” the (Angel of the LORD) stands in the way, and the ass avoids him, three times until Balaam strikes his donkey three times for going off the road. Finally, the LORD opens the mouth of the donkey and the donkey is made to speak;

“Why have you smitten me these three times?” Wouldn’t you wonder that Balaam would have been impressed that an animal would speak? Hebrew at that? Even the Angel spoke; “Why have you smitten your donkey these three times?”

Some wonder about the number “3” does it have meaning? There are “3” entities in Elohim, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Yeshua was in the ground for 3 days, there are 3 parts of the Bible, the Torah, the Prophets and Hebrew poetry, and the Brit HaDASHAH (New Testament) Yeshua asked Kefa 3 times “Do you love me?” The Angel of Elohim gave “3” warnings to Balaam, yet he did not SEE, or perhaps, did not WANT to see or heed the warnings, until his donkey, “alerted him.” So, the donkey saw the danger, the Angel of the LORD with a sword in hand, and Balaam did not! So, who's the real "Jackass?" the "stubborn guy who needed to be "awakened?"

Another thing we can see is that God is concerned about the treatment of animals. Those who have pets should treat them with love and tender care, not mistreat them, for if the angel saw the donkey being struck and called Balaam’s attention on that, the LORD sees how YOU are treating your pet, (hopefully, no one has a pet crocodile running around the house, yet there was a case of a family that DID have indeed a PET CROC in the house) Also, a man had a pet Tiger in his NYC apartment.

Balaam meets Balak, and again, they go to “3” separate places to view Israel, and Balaam orders “7” altars to be built. 7 bulls and 7 rams would be sacrificed. “7” is the perfect number, yet all three times, Balaam opens his mouth to BLESS Israel, Whom YHVH has blessed, no man can curse. Even in the third blessing, Balaam echoes the blessing of Abraham; “Blessed be every one that blesseth thee and cursed be everyone that curseth thee!”

What can we learn from all this? We must always support and bless Israel, bless our brothers and sisters in our congregations, not let money be the main interest in our doing “good” if we wish to bless our neighbor, with our prayers, labor, favors, etc., let it not be guided by monetary gain, but our sincere desire to bless and be a witness to Yeshua our Messiah. Oh yes, and treat your cats, dogs, birds, turtles, tropical fish, etc. with TLC! Adonai is watching! (Tarantulas too?)

But let’s look at the blessings that Bilaam said to Israel, and Yes, Balak was fuming! This is to show that G-d even works among heathen prophets, to shower blessings on his people; (23:8-10) We see various things of interest here: Bilaam states:

“How can I curse whom Elohim has not cursed?” “It is a people that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations” “Who hath counted the dust of Jacob or numbered the stock of Israel” “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let mine be like his”

“A people that dwell alone.” One might think about the meaning of this. One way to look at this is that Israel is a “unique’ (Yachid) people, that is not given to worship idols like the other nations, but given and chosen to worship Adonai only, therefore, “Not reckoned among the nations.”

Adonai did not curse Israel, but later, Israel brought upon itself a curse because the Israelites hooked up with the prostitutes of Moab and entered into the pagan rites of the Moabites (persuaded by Bilaam) He must have said to the king that God cannot curse them but they can bring a curse upon themselves though!

Israel is unique, no nation like Israel. The word for “unique” is “Yachid” and is different from the rest of the nations, because Israel believes and worships only “One G-d” YHVH! The rest of the nations at that time were pagan idolatrous nations.

Why is Jacob/Israel compared to dust? Can anyone count “dust?” yet dust will last forever. The desire of all is to “die like a Tzadik!” a righteous person, but Bilaam did not die like a Tzadik, he died like a pagan prophet who was, unwillingly, used by YHVH. The next blessing is from 23:19-24.

“God (EL) is not a man that He should lie, Neither the Son of man that He should repent”

The word for God in this verse is “El” (the strong one who leads and instructs) and through the Torah, Adonai shows us the way to Mashiach! Yes, God is NOT a man, He is Spirit in the pure essence of His being, yet He became flesh, in Yeshua, to die for our sins, and Yeshua never needed to repent of anything since He was and IS sinless!

‘None hath beheld iniquity in Jacob nor seen perverseness in Israel”

Yet didn’t YHVH want to wipe Israel from the earth for past sins and rebellion? Yes, BUT, Moshe interceded for them as Yeshua intercedes before the Father on our behalf. YHVH was looking at Israel through Messiah Yeshua, He sees Israel as if Israel had never sinned, being righteous! Are we any different? Our flesh is black like sin (figuratively) because our flesh is dead and dying, yet inside us lives our soul-spirit, and it is white as snow, purified through the Blood of Yeshua. The third blessing is from 24:3-9.

“How goodly are thy tents O Jacob and thy dwellings O Israel”

This is the beginning of one of our daily prayers. The tents and dwellings symbolize the whole people of Israel, the ones who dwell inside the tents. “Water shall flow from his branches, and his seed shall be in many waters” Yeshua is the “Living Water” (Mayim Chayim) many waters can symbolize the “multitudes” of peoples since the Hebrew letter “Mem” symbolizes both ‘water’ and the “masses” (of people) His is the “Seed of faith” which has been scattered among all the nations of the world. The blessing ends like the promise of Abraham, “blessed be those who bless thee, and cursed be those that curseth thee” and in HIS SEED shall ALL the world be blessed, “HaZeman Yeshua” (the seed of Yeshua) the seed of “Faith”

I could go on but I have to end this somewhere. Balaam pronounced three great blessings, plus the demise of Midiam and Moab at the end.
He said what God told him to say, yet gave evil advice to King Balak, that they send their prostitutes to the camp of the Israelites so as to entice the men and bring a curse upon themselves. Israel takes vengeance and in the end, Bilaam is killed with the sword of justice! (Joshua 13:22)

We must remember to evaluate our service to God. What are our motives? are we serving out of love and obedience? or for money's sake?
Money comes and goes, our service and godly influence will bring rewards in the World to Come. Are you investing in the "here and now?" or in the "here-after?" Don't be a "burro" like Balaam, make the right choice!

Ben Avraham

Welcome, that's a cool name; "Wewoka". Is that from the Oklahoma town?

Welcome!

Anonymous9090 said:

Praise & Thank Jesus Christ for ensuring that President Joe Biden used Godly Wisdom to exit from the presidential race due to his health problems:

Joe Biden drops out of election, upending race for White House

President says decision is in interests of country, but endorsement of vice-president to take over is not a done deal.

www.bbc.com

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Amen to this.

Jipsah said:

I don't find any references to Creation in the Creeds of the Church, nor do I find any record in Scripture or elsewhere that the disciples taught anything out of Genesis to 1st century Roman converts. Maybe the Gospel of Christ is sufficient, reckon?

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Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

ViaCrucis said:

So in this I am opposed to violent action in general, and believe in choosing non-violence and non-violent solutions as a matter of moral imperative, and principle. I confess that there can come times when, tragically, violence is necessitated by extraordinary circumstance; in which case it may be justified in order to prohibit greater evil. If I know that someone intends to kill many innocents, and if my only option is to violently stop them, then I believe such is justified. I consider this an extraordinary, rather than ordinary, act however.

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The problem I have been pointing out can be brought against your own position. You say we should not kill anyone, except in grave circumstances. The OP then asks, "Does this rule apply equally to Christians and non-Christians?" Obviously the first part applies to all, Christian and non-Christian alike. The second part, "...except in grave circumstances," would seem to also apply to Christian and non-Christian alike. Thus the question arises: In what way does it matter at all whether our potential victim is a Christian?

My guess is that the reason it does not matter is because we are talking about strict obligations, without room for exceptions. On your view we have an obligation not to kill and we have an obligation defend "many innocents," and these obligations do not admit of exceptions such as, "...Unless the potential victim is a Christian." Forms of favoritism towards Christians (as well as forms of supererogation) can only obtain in a case where we are not obliged to act.

Valletta said:

In the case of Supreme Court justices the Biden administration did not enforce the law--putting the lives of Supreme Court justices in jeopardy.

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Non sequitur
That has nothing to do with the topic

Valletta said:

In this case the Biden Secret Service deliberately allowed Joe's political opponent, the leading presidential candidate in the polls, to go on stage despite knowing there was an imminent credible threat to his life.

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It is not Biden's Secret Service. It is America's Secret Service.

Valletta said:

People should have already been fired, not doing so sends the message it is open season on Trump.

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People should be fired? LOL!!!!

Trump should tone down the bitter and vicious rhetoric as he is making it very difficult for security to protect him.

dzheremi said:

A bit of a long story. I was Roman Catholic and not being well-fed in those circumstances. I tried to connect with various Eastern Catholic churches, but also couldn't really connect with those. At the time I was also taking Arabic language classes in college, so as part of my searching the internet for more Arabic-language Christian materials (since I didn't want to learn about Muhammad or Islam), I came across some sermons by HH Pope Shenouda III, the Coptic Orthodox Pope at that time (2008-2009), that had English subtitles, so I decided to study them to learn more vocabulary. But instead I was impressed by the faith that was transmitted through them, and became interested in the Church through that. I didn't live in an area with any Coptic Orthodox churches, so it took three more years before I could go to my first liturgy, but I used that time to really study and pray to try to make sense of where I should be.

I began attending a Coptic Orthodox parish (St. Bishoy, in Albuquerque, NM) in 2011 and was baptized in 2012. So now here I am, a dozen years later.

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Congrats on your journey. And hey, Catholics and Orthodox are still close brothers, and we both believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Michie said:

My mothers family is from the South.

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A lot of Celts settled in the South. Celts are supposed to be red haired, aren't they.

I'll look it up

(Time passes)

Yes, they are.

Mikkadugeec said:

God does not care about the affairs of the people of this planet... He has self-acting Laws for this

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?????

The Bible says that there is no balanced scale on Earth. The righteous are poor and die oppressed while the wicked are well-fed and live long.
It is in the Judgment, and the coming of Christ in John 14:1-3 that the saints are rewarded. Dan 7 says the saints are tormented in this life and that this is the case right up until Christ comes and takes over. It says the entire time the judgment in heaven is going on - the righteous are treated poorly on Earth.

Mikkadugeec said:

and that is how the world and the universe have always worked!

1. The law of retroactive action = karma for a person, what you sow is what you reap.. Everything that a person sends into space has energy, like an electric current that flows and cannot be seen.

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?????

Mikkadugeec said:

3. Law of weight .. light rises, heavy falls .. This Law is manifested especially after death, because a heavy soul, too dark people will fall down to the low planets of darkness .. light souls, good and not dragged by the dark will rise up to the light, where is beauty, splendor, lightness

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?????

LayHong_Loves_Christ said:

Did church also mean Christianity?

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The Word Christianity refers to those who follow Christ and His Church. In 100 AD through 1500 AD it was pretty simple and evident. Today many call themselves Christian who are not.

Do a You Tube search on "Trump wanders off" and see what you find. Once, he even got lost walking off an airplane.

Astrid said:

What nonsense

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He was doing his best. He's a little less alert late in the day.

Puts him in with Lyndon Johnson, who also "saw the writing on the wall".

Here is an easily understood (and probably 99% correct) overview of what happened.

So, it looks like Cloudstrike Falcon got adminstrative permission from Microsoft to operate within the sacrosanct Microsoft kernel, but then gave itself permission to breach Microsoft's protection of the kernel to do a lot more in the kernel than Microsoft intended anything should do. I think that makes Cloudstrike Falcon a Trojan Horse by perfect definition.

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ImaginaryFiction said:

What kind of a country do we live in where gays can openly oppose a bill that would make buying sex with children a felony? They claim it will hurt the gay community.

If america had any sense of morals, values and standards these people would be arrested for opposing a bill that is against having sex with children. They should become registered sex offenders just for this alone.

Anyone that isn't against diddling kids has no place in a civilized society. It just goes to show how emboldened the gay community has become when they do this publicly and openly.

If they claim it will effect gays more then doesn't that tell us all something about gays? Maybe tells us gays will be impacted because the gays are having sex with kids the most?

May God help America, because we really could use his help.

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God has given many over to a reprobate mind so that they are unable to turn to God in repentance and faith. It's not something new to this generation, but it is spreading and taking over some communities as like never before seen. If you are paying attention, the wide spread of reprobates and the ever growing apostacizing in the church are signs that the end is near. How near no one knows. Be faithful and true to the Lord Jesus Christ and be ready for His glorious appearing. Amen. Amen.

Hans Blaster said:

We won't have any other voting system this fall. You are bargaining with fantasy.

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Yeah, that is the sad reality. Our voting system would probably not change for many more decades. We will keep on getting not very good candidates for a while until things change.

OP’s link is broken. This one appears to be the same thing:

Fox News learned from the source the kill shot was a single shot taken by a Secret Service counter sniper whose view was obscured.

The Secret Service sniper who killed Crooks could only see Crooks’ gun scope and the top of his eye and forehead because the lip of the roof was blocking the sniper’s view.

lol, since when does firing through cover at a partially obscured target constitute a “one in a million” shot? It’s a good shot, sure, but when you can see part of the target and know what the human body looks like, it’s not hard to figure out where the rest of it is. This is a mechanic in literally dozens of video games.

SimplyMe said:

All the delegates have been selected for the Democratic National Convention and they will attend. Prior to Biden stepping down as a candidate, they were required to vote for Biden in the first round of voting (which would have given Biden the nomination). Now, they are "free agents" -- since Biden is not a candidate anymore, they are free to vote for whatever candidate they like.

So, there will be nominations for President at the convention and the delegates will vote for their choice of candidates nominated. This will then continue until a single candidate gets a majority of the vote. This may happen smoothly, where a majority agree quickly to vote for a single candidate, or it may be something that lasts for several rounds of voting. If there are several rounds, there likely will be back room deals where lesser candidates are convinced to drop out, telling their supporters to vote for another candidate, in exchange for the candidate dropping out to be guaranteed an office in the new administration, such as becoming the VP candidate.

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From what I have seen so far, Biden has not released his delegates yet, so as of now they would still have to vote for him on the first ballot. Though expect him to release them in the near future once things settle out a little bit.

I haven't seen the report myself, but my wife informed me that the last activity the alleged shooter had on the internet was to view pornography.
Does that sound like the sort of activity someone would engage in when plotting to shoot the former President of the United States?

Vambram said:

I have a couple of Jon Gibson cd's in my collection from a long time ago. He has more than a few songs that I really do like and that glorify God.

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Cool! He's got a real soulful voice, doesn't he? I haven't met many folks who have heard of him. Yep a long time ago indeed.

Valletta said:

The only part of this that is a partisan issue is the choosing of unqualified people. Security is for Democrats and Republicans, and people should have already been removed for the horrific failures. A shooter on a white roof so close to President Trump for so long, despite the CS team and all electronic surveillance, whether from drones or helicopters, is beyond belief. Then they failed to protect Trump. After Trump ducked down they should have completely covered him and kept him covered as they evacuated him.

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Isn’t it your side who keeps telling us how bad government is at doing things?

This should be vindication of such views, but somehow you’d like for the Secret Service to be “better” for some reason?

My Respond: COGIC WORSHIP-

I worship the True one God Jesus Christ that rules over all , A God who overcomes sin, God of subjection, God of peace to all. A God that is the cup of blessing, God of communion, God of Bread, God that is blood of significance. A God that is the kingdom. A God that is always making a way of escape from temptations of sins.