37.

Dear Mary and Everyone I Know,

Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus.  Thank you for thinking of me.  Thank you for the mighty messages.  Thank you for personlizing these forwarded messages.

Rejoice!  This is a turning point in your life, and the things that you have built on the solid rock of Truth, righteousness and faith will withstand the storms of destruction that come against you.

I tell you honestly that no weapon fashioned against you will prosper, and not one enemy shall be able to stand against you. Rise to every occasion and press through without fear, for I will certainly manifest Myself in great and powerful ways to those who are loyal to Me, says the Lord.

Make the determination to receive healing in your soul where there has been damage done from the recent attacks. Hosea 6:1 Come, and let us return to the LORD; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.

Hosea 6:1-3 (New Living Translation)

"Come, let us return to the LORD! He has torn us in pieces; now he will heal us. He has injured us; now he will bandage our wounds.(2) In just a short time, he will restore us so we can live in his presence. (3) Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him! Then he will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring."

These verses contain several of the steps to recovery.  The people admitted their helplessness, viewing themselves as "torn" and "injured" (Step 1).  They conmmitted their lives to God, deciding to "return to the Lord" (Step 3).  They let God change them, affirming that He would "heal" them and "bandage" their wonds (Step 7).  They sought to improve their relationship with God, saying,"Oh, that we might know the Lord!"(Step 11).  Finally, they wanted to help others by encouraging each other in the process of retruning to God, "Let us prss on to know Him!" (Step 12).

God bless you and your family.

Your brother in Christ,

Bob  (The Life Recovery Ministry)

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38.

Dear Ron and Everyone I Know,

Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus.  Thank you for being my friend and patience in being my sponsor in AA.  Thank you for your comments.  Thank you asking me such a challenging question about Isaiah 9. 

I am thinking you may have been thinking of a different Scripture.  But since you did indicate this one, I will comment on it per your request.   Now I must say that before I comment on this, your ministry and the Course in Miracles might interpret this differently.  I am going to share my interpretation as I understand it to be.  I have been studying this chapter for days to summarize important issues.  I will also share it with others.  Since this chapter is 21 verses long, I will start with the first 4 as a starting point, but 5 to 7 predicts the coming of the Christ, or Messiah.

 Isaiah 9:1-7 (New Living Translation)

Hope in the Messiah

  (1) Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. The land of Zebulun and Naphtali will soon be humbled, but there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles, which lies along the road that runs between the Jordan and the sea, will be filled with glory. (2) The people who walk in darkness will see a great light--a light that will shine on all who live in the land where death casts its shadow. (3) Israel will again be great, and its people will rejoice as people rejoice at harvesttime. They will shout with joy like warriors dividing the plunder. (4) For God will break the chains that bind his people and the whip that scourges them, just as he did when he destroyed the army of Midian with Gideon's little band. (5) In that day of peace, battle gear will no longer be issued. Never again will uniforms be bloodstained by war. All such equipment will be burned.

    (6) For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (7) His ever expanding, peaceful government will never end. He will rule forever with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David. The passionate commitment of the LORD Almighty will guarantee this!

Isaiah 9:1-4

Issues of Method

If we are going to do biblical study rather than study of doctrine or interpretation, we need to be especially diligent that we hear the message of the text itself.  Then we can ask how that message might be applied within the context of our faith and our understanding of the revelation of God in Jesus the Christ.

Also, our study of the reading needs to begin somewhere much earlier than the New Testament passages and with assumptions other than seeing the text only as a prediction of the coming of Jesus 700 years before it occurred.

From this perspective, the theology is the important trajectory that runs forward toward the New Testament and the events to which it bears witness.  The historical dimension runs backward toward the Old Testament as the people could make better sense of its flow from the perspective of the new events later in that history.  They could understand the historical connection with the prophet Isaiah in 700 BC precisely because of the incarnation of Jesus the Christ after it happened.  And they could, at the same time, use the theological perspective that they had inherited from the Isaiah traditions to interpret the coming of Jesus, indeed, to define Jesus in light of those 700 year old understandings about God!

The Historical Context (I share this to those who desire to know the situation that existed at the time of the writing)

Isaiah of Jerusalems ministry (742-700 BC) focused largely on interpreting the Assyrian invasions and the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And since he was active in the Southern Kingdom, he was concerned with the threat the Assyrians posed to the South and the very existence of the Israelites as a people, using the destruction of the Northern Kingdom as an object lesson for the South.

Religiously and culturally, Isaiah read those historical events from the perspective of Gods covenantal relationship with the Israelites, their ongoing struggle with Baal worship (the idol god being worshipped at the time), and the difficulty they had with living as Gods people since entering the land some 400 years earlier. The ongoing Isaiah tradition would deal with later problems arising from the Babylonian Empires eventual destruction of Jerusalem and the Southern Kingdom and the task of rebuilding the nation after exile.  But that tradition spanning nearly 300 years is anchored by the Jerusalem prophets appeal to Israels 8th century BC kings to reverse their arrogant quest for power and to return to faithfulness to God.

In the middle eighth century BC (c. 745) Tiglath-Pileser III (called Pul in biblical traditions; 2 Kings 15:19) took the throne of Assyria . He quickly organized the warring Assyrian factions into a nation bent on conquest.  Soon, Assyria ruthlessly began building an empire.  As Assyria expanded to the west and south, the Northern Kingdom was vulnerable.  Decimated by a series of assassinations and weak kings, the leadership of the North was in no shape to deal with Assyria.  Menahem tried to appease Assyria with tribute, but the nationalistic factions within the nation would not tolerate it.  After another round of assassinations, the new king Pekah tried to forge an alliance with Syria and Judah to oppose the Assyrian advance, but it succeeded only in angering the Assyrians.

In 734, Tiglath-Pilesers armies marched around Israel and Judah along the coast (a path along to be where Gaza Strip is today) to cut off any assistance from Egypt to the south, and then turned back north to deal with Israel.  By 733 the Assyrians had taken most of the coastal areas, the northern territories of Israel and surrounding areas including Zebulun and Naphtali around the Sea of Galilee, and were poised to take Samaria, the northern capital (2 Kings 15:29). Later, they would strike further north and ravage the Syrian territories. The assassination of Pekah and a short-lived policy of appeasement toward Assyria postponed the destruction of the Northern Kingdom for only another decade.

It is against this background of the decimation of the northern territories of Israel (north of Jerusalem was called Israel and south was called Judah) that Isaiah 9 lies.  The Southern Kingdom was having its own problems both with Assyria and with its own leaders.  At just about the time that Israel lost Zebulun and Naphtali and the other northern territories, Ahaz came to power in Judah in the South (Southern Israel today). He proved to be a weak ruler who had no intention of returning the nation to the proper worship of God and was willing to do just about anything to remain in power.  Much of Isaiah of Jerusalems prophetic ministry was in interaction with the wrong policies of Ahaz.

One of the main longings of the people expressed by Isaiah was for a righteous king who would be the kind of leader idealized in David the shepherd King, the opposite of what they were experiencing with Ahaz. And there was also the very real problem of what the future held in light of the growing power of Assyria. They longed for security and rest from war and the threat of war. Much of Isaiah, both the 8th century prophet and the later Isaiah tradition that comprise the book of Isaiah, revolves around the issue of being Gods people in a land decimated by war and conflict. Theologically, this addresses the issue of the nature of the people of God, as well as Gods role in history with that people.

The Literary Context

While the book of Isaiah is not closely organized chronologically, and only loosely organized thematically, it is helpful to note the context of chapter nine within the book.  Beginning in chapter seven, the immediate historical setting is the alliance between Syria and Israel (the Northern Kingdom) and its aftermath. The time period is identified as the invasion of the Southern Kingdom by Pekah of Israel.  This places the setting for this section around 733 BC, although the actual writing may have been later.  Isaiah responded to the dual crises of the Syro-Ephraimitic war and the threat from Assyria with warnings to Ahaz of the consequences of his actions using, among other means, the naming of his three sign children.  These crises remain the focal point throughout chapter 8.

However, Ahaz had not heeded Isaiahs warnings, and Isaiahs response was simply to record his words for future reference.  The chapter concludes with warnings of the futility of seeking answers anywhere but from God.  Because Ahaz had refused to respond to Gods word, the prophet described the bleak future awaiting Judah in metaphors of darkness.  The contrast of darkness, symbolizing both sin and physical disaster as the consequences of sin, and light, symbolizing Gods grace and a new historical beginning, is a common theme throughout the book of Isaiah.

Chapter nine continues in the same setting, picking up the metaphor of darkness from chapter eight but quickly moving into the opposite metaphor of light.  The first verse of chapter nine is a transitional verse that clearly links the two chapters rhetorically, effectively placing chapter nine as a continuation of the preceding section.

Even though the historical setting moves ahead 30 years in the following chapters to the Assyrian invasions of Judah in 701, this shift back and forth between disaster and expectation continues through chapter eleven.  The devastation precipitated by the folly and sinfulness of Ahaz and the failure of the people contrasts starkly with the expectation of a future in which righteous leaders will bring peace and security to the land.  In fact, it is this contrast that lies at the heart of this entire section of the book. The canonical shaping of these texts will not allow chapter nine to be abstracted from the darkness of the "former times" no more than it allows the negative oracles of judgement to be abstracted from the light of the "latter times."

Analysis of the Text

For the most part the prophets were concerned with addressing immediate needs within the community. For a prophet of Israel, the answer to the Assyrian crisis did not lie 700 years in the future; it lay in Gods ability to enter history at any present moment and work his purposes for his people!  Even when they idealized the future, it was not far distant apocalyptic dreaming but the _expression of what they understood as a present possible reality by the hand of God.

The geographical locations in v. 1 all refer to the far northern sections of Israel. The "way of the sea" refers to a trading route that ran from Egypt along the coast from the south, turned westward into the Plain of Esdraelon at Megiddo, and continued to Damascus. It became a general designation for the coastal areas between Philistia and Mount Carmel, and probably refers to the territory Assyria incorporated into the province of Dor. The "land beyond the Jordan" or the Transjordan area was a general reference to the area around and to the southwest of the sea of Galilee on the western side of the Jordan. It likely referred to the Assyrian province of Megiddo. "Galilee of the Nations" was a semi-pejorative reference to the area to the west and south of the Sea of Galilee, a territory that the Assyrians included in the province of Gilead. The "nations" refers to the mixed groups of non-Israelites that were settled in the area following Assryian subjugation of this territory.

Zebulun and Naphtali were tribal allocations in the northern territory of Israel around the Sea of Galilee, although they diminished in importance and all but disappeared during the early monarchy.  Solomon absorbed the territory of Zebulun into the tribe of Asher.  Naphtali "lived among the Canaanites" and appears in the biblical traditions most often only as the name of an area.  The use of these two diminished tribes to designate the territory conquered and decimated by the Assyrians serves to further contrast the splendor of the "light" that was coming with the loss and dishonor of the past.

Preaching Paths

The passage is about more than longing and dreaming for better days ahead, although that is certainly a part of the passage. It is really about living under threat in a world that is beyond our control, a world that lies in the hands of leaders who make stupid and selfish and even cowardly decisions, who refuse to trust God.  There is a darkness in the world that we dare not deny, a darkness that comes because some, even many, perhaps even most, do not believe that there is any other way in the world than brute force. And so they live in a world, even create a world, in which struggles for power and control are the norm.  And so they bring the darkness, not only to themselves, but to everyone around them.

The question, then, for Gods people is how should we live in such a world?  Do we live under the control of the forces around us complaining about how bad everything is and hoping against hope that it may get better someday?  Or do we live in the light of Gods revelation of himself in the world, and trust that he will work his purposes in history, even when we have no idea what those purposes might be or how he will work?

Do we succumb to the despair of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, or do we live as if the God we read about and talk about and sing about is really God? Do we cower in the darkness only dreaming of a better future?  Or do we live as if the light of that future is as much a reality as the darkness around us?

The passage in Isaiah calls us, not to passive acceptance of the present realities around us, even if those realities are political and physical endings.  He calls us to embrace the God of new possibilities, who can bring light into the darkness, who can bring peace into warfare, who can bring security into instability, who can bring freedom into oppression and slavery.  It is not that it must be so according to our expectations of how it should be.  It is really whether we will live as Gods people in the reality of the expectation, not as a fantasy, but as a reality.

As a reading after epiphany, this text calls us to live in the light of the reality of that historical event of the coming of Jesus.  There is no denying that not all of the darkness has been dispelled even by his coming.  But the real question is whether we will choose to walk in the light that he has brought or continue to sit in the darkness.  Will we live as his people and live for the future that he is working to completion, and which we have a part in shaping.  Or will we simply sit in the darkness longing for something better?  Such a choice to live in the reality of Gods future is not fantasy.  It is simply how we choose to live as Gods people.  Will we sit in the darkness, or will walk in the light?

There are many ways that such a Preaching Path might be developed in terms of specific application.  One example can be both timely and timeless.  As we enter further into the third millennium after the coming of Jesus, we will increasingly hear the voices of doom, the voices of those who see nothing but endings in the world.  Some will even take great delight in seeing all the negative aspects of human existence and the exigencies of history as proof that their own negative view of the world is accurate.

Many Christians will even be swept up in the fervor, emotion, and psychology of the modern doomsday sayers.  There are many signs even in the Christian community of a totally pessimistic view of the world.  Many are concerned with the folly of government run amuck.  Some are preoccupied with the explosion of immorality in entertainment, the media, even in churches.  Some think the church is a failure and so start their own churches.  Still others are convinced that the world is under the control of evil forces, of Satan and demons, even to the point that God's people are controlled by evil influence.  So they spend all their spiritual energies in a totally negative battle against "this present darkness" rather than focusing on the Good News of the Gospel.  Many Christians just seem to have a negative opinion about almost everything.

Complicating this are various crises around the world that intensify the anxiety levels of people today.  Economic crises in many world areas threaten the global economy.  Internal political tensions in many areas threaten the stability of nations and governments.  The news brings daily reports of yet another atrocity or massacre somewhere.  It is not hard to collapse into a totally negative attitude and retreat into dreaming of the Second Coming in which God will just come and make it all right.

We should not abandon that dream.  But we also have to go on living in the world.  Isaiahs message, heard again in the context of our own version of the darkness, is that God is still God!  And even our present history for all its darkness may be pregnant with possibility!  God has not abandoned the world to wait for some future time next year or next century or next millennium in which to come and fix it all. God is not just the God of far off times, but is the God of present history!  And we are his people in the present.  And so he has called us to live as his people in the present.  He has called us to embrace the light of his coming, with the expectation that his coming into the world was to reveal that light so that people might not have to walk in darkness.

We do not have to wait for that far off future. We are called in the midst of our own present existence to embrace the coming of the light. This is nothing less than a call to live positively as his people, as people who have seen the light, who have experienced the light, and who have allowed that light to transform who they are. Gods people cannot live in a world of negativity, because we understand that God is still God. And God is not a God of darkness but of light. We will not deny the reality of the darkness. But neither will we deny the reality of the light. And we will affirm with both Isaiah and the Gospel writers that there is no gloom for those who walk in His light.

Isaiah 9:8-21 (New Living Translation)

The LORD's Anger against Israel

   (8) The Lord has spoken out against that braggart Israel, (9) and the people of Israel and Samaria will soon discover it. In their pride and arrogance they say, (10) "Our land lies in ruins now, but we will rebuild it better than before. We will replace the broken bricks with cut stone, the fallen sycamore trees with cedars." (11) The LORD will reply to their bragging by bringing Rezin's enemies, the Assyrians, against them(12) along with Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west. With bared fangs, they will devour Israel. But even then the LORD's anger will not be satisfied. His fist is still poised to strike. (13) For after all this punishment, the people will still not repent and turn to the LORD Almighty.

    (14) Therefore, in a single day, the LORD will destroy both the head and the tail, the palm branch and the reed. (15) The leaders of Israel are the head, and the lying prophets are the tail. (16) For the leaders of the people have led them down the path of destruction. (17) That is why the Lord has no joy in the young men and no mercy on even the widows and orphans. For they are all hypocrites, speaking wickedness with lies. But even then the LORD's anger will not be satisfied. His fist is still poised to strike.

    (18) This wickedness is like a brushfire. It burns not only briers and thorns but the forests, too. Its burning sends up vast clouds of smoke. (19) The land is blackened by the fury of the LORD Almighty. The people are fuel for the fire, and no one spares anyone else. (20) They fight against their own neighbors to steal food, but they will still be hungry. In the end they will even eat their own children. (21) Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, Ephraim will feed on Manasseh, and both will devour Judah. But even then the LORD's anger will not be satisfied. His fist is still poised to strike.

I may address the end of Isaiah 9 if anyone desires my comments at a later time.  Thank you, Ron, for your iquiry.  God bless you.

Your brother in Christ,

Bob

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39.

Dear David (and others I know),

Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus.  Thank you for your question.  Thank you for your comments.  Thank you for your prayers.

The Scriptures and commentary I write and send back to the individual who shared the scripture or a friend, and then I share it with everyone I know who might enjoy hearing about the Word of God.  Any message I share is not from Bob Erb, only our Father which art in heaven can inspire any person.  Only some of the words are mine.  Many of the words are derived from other books and commentaries I read.  The only twist I put in to them is seeing how the words fit into a 12 step program of recovery, dealing with significant life changing experiences, and how they might be being used in my life.  You have the same gift as you read the Word of God. 

God grant me the serenity,
To accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace.

Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it.

Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with Him forever in the next.

Amen

I enjoy your comments.  God bless you and your family.

Your brother in Christ,

Bob Erb

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40.

Dear Everyone I Know,

Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus.  As I am studying the Bible, I am led to James chapter 3.  God seems to be showing me that I am too self-centered.  So this message is really for me, and I share it for the world to recognize in me.

James 3:13-18 (New Living Translation)

True Wisdom Comes from God

   (13) If you are wise and understand God's ways, live a life of steady goodness so that only good deeds will pour forth. And if you don't brag about the good you do, then you will be truly wise!  (14) But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your hearts, don't brag about being wise. That is the worst kind of lie. (15) For jealousy and selfishness are not God's kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and motivated by the Devil.  (16) For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every kind of evil.

   (17) But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no partiality and is always sincere. (18) And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness.

Wisdom isessential to recovery.  It must, however, gbe godly wisdom, not earthly wisdom.  Earthly wisdom leads to selfishness and pride, invariably causing confusion and strife.  Tru wisdom is based on the knowledge of God.  It brings peace and leads to selfless living and faith that works; it never distinguishes between groups of people but treats everyone with respect and love.  Godly wisdom allows us to admit our failures and rebuild our life from the ashes of defieat.  It frees us from our destructive dependddency; it helps us live for others and builds relationships that will support our recovery.

These verses show the difference between men's pretending to be wise, and their being really so.  He who thinks well, or he who talks well, is not wise in the sense of the Scripture, if he does not live and act well.  True wisdom may be know by the meekness of the spirit and temper.  Those who live in malice, envy, and contention, live in confusion; and are liable to be provoked and hurried to any evil work.  Such wisdom comes not down from above, but springs up from earthly principles, acts on earthly motives, and is intent on serving earthly purposes.  Those who are lifted up with such wisdom, described by the apostle James, is near to the Christian love, described by the apostle Paul; and both are so described that every man may fully prove the reality of his attainments in them.  It has no disguise or deceit.  It cannot fall in with those managements the world counts wise, which are crafty and guileful; but it is sincere, and open, and steady, and uniform, and consistent with itself. May the purity, peace, gentleness, teachableness, and mercy shown in all our actions, and the fruits of righteousness abounding in our lives, prove that God has bestowed upon us this excellent gift.

Self-Seeking - A speaker once said, "Young people feel like they have to 'find themselves,' so they search this and that, here and there, all in an effort to 'find themselves.' So, what if you spend all this time and energy to find yourself, and in the end you discover nobody's home?"

Humorous but so true!  The loneliest people on the planet are those focused on themselves.  If I am brutally honest in recalling the lonelier times of my life, I was lonely mostly because I was focused too much on myself.  We learn to recognize self-focused people by their constant talking about themselves, their achievements, their experiences, their things, their opinions.  They drone on endlessly.  This sounds like me in the past, and I am hoping I am toning it down.  But I know I still have lots of work here.

One author writes, "People sometimes talk about themselves because there is nothing else rattling around in their heads."  Such people usually have a better way of doing almost everything, yet one often wonders why they are not more successful in life.  They ache to express an opinion and believe in their abilities so wholeheartedly that they must be restrained from taking charge.  My spnoser reminds me of this often.   One learns that, when around them, a person's value is significant only in regard to their personal plans, and they will seldom alter their course to fit another in.

As I look at what I am doing today, I test myself.  How much of our needs and desires fills our agenda each day?  Conversely, how much room do we make for others?  I used to say with pride, "I usually don't do anything I don't want to do."  I meant that I was master of my choices and in control of my life, but I was actually saying, "My plans, ideas, and schedule are far more important than anyone else's."

God bless you and your family.

Your brother in Christ,

Bob Erb @ http://www.thehawaiianportal.com/db_clients/613.php

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41.

Dear Edna and Everyone I Know,

Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus.  Thank you for your messages and ecard.  Thank you for you support in the ministry God has given me.  Thank you for sharing your time as you write to me.  Thank you for your blessings.  Thank you for sharing the Word of God in your ecard.  Thank you for your prayers.

 One of the ministry supporters and my friend, Genaro Bimbo, who designed the web site http://64.226.25.30/waikikibeachoutreachministry/is Philippine and just wondered if you had a chance to visit it.  It is not the way I would set up the site, but I am pleased that he was moved to create it.  It links to his travel agency if you have an interest in saving on travel.

Your ecard moved me to share the Scriptures in the ecard.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (New Living Translation)

(9) Two people can accomplish more than twice as much as one; they get a better return for their labor. (10) If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But people who are alone when they fall are in real trouble. (11) And on a cold night, two under the same blanket can gain warmth from each other. But how can one be warm alone? (12) A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.

Supportive friends and healthy relationships are absolutely necessary for successful recovery and attempts on dealing with significant life changing experiences.  When we fall down, we need help to get up again.  If we stand alone, we are especially vulnerable to inner enemies.  We must learn to trust others, to reach out to others, and to admit our needs to others.  This will give us added strength, wisdom, and protection against our dependencies and compulsions.

Ecclesiastes 9:9 (New Living Translation)

(7) So go ahead. Eat your food and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this!  (8) Wear fine clothes, with a dash of cologne!  (9) Live happily with the woman you love through all the meaningless days of life that God has given you in this world. The wife God gives you is your reward for all your earthly toil.  (10) Whatever you do, do well.  For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.

Because life is short, we should enjoy it fully, and whatever we do, do well.  The Teacher recognized that life "under the sun" was not the end of the story, but He never minimized the importance of our days here.  God wants us to enjoy the friends and family He has given us.  We may sometimes feel that our life is insignificant in the larger scheme of things, but we need to realize that our everyday life does make a difference.  God will use us to touch the lives of others if we follow His program.  Thai is one of the greatest lessons of recovery.

God bless you and your family.

Your brother in Christ,

Bob

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42.

Dear Mirtha (and others close to me),

Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus.  Thank you for recognizing what God is doing to me.  Thank you for expressing your concerns on how to win souls to Jesus.  Thank you for loving our Father.  Thank you for sharing God's Word which I have also commented.

I know there are many pastors who tell me how to do the work I am doing, but don't do it themselves.  Many suggest I share the Word of God before I give the homeless food.  But, God has made it clear to me to feed their stomachs and they will ask to know more abut how God might change their lives.  Many will just want to take, and they can have.  If only one wants also to know God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit, then those are who it is about.  I am to give and give and give and give and give.  Others will see what Jesus would do.  He would not force preaching to anyone; I never read that in the Scriptures.  But He did feed thousands.  Some did repent and were baptized in the Holy Spirit.  Some did not.  All persons are important, even if they don't want to know God YET.  There will be a day that they will need to choose and hopefully they will all make the right choice.  But, as Jesus said in Matthew 25:31 to end, there will be goats, too.  We won't know who they are, but God will.

I am fixing bridges here in the mainland as I am visiting my family.  God had something in mind before I left March 8th to just go to Las Vegas, that I had no clue until He seemed to guide me here to Ohio and Virginia to see my children.  All is good.  God is good.  I need to stay with my older son in Ohio until March 31 when he must go to court about his divorce proceedings and custody concerns.  He desires to keep the two boys, get a job ready for him in Hawaii, and move there with his children.  He must see what the judge decides and I must be here to testify for him.

I still expect to be back in Hawaii June 15th, set up a new operating facility for the Waikiki Beach Outreach Ministry, and find at least a 3 bedroom home that my son, his children and I can stay as God leads me to minister to the homeless in Waikiki (unless the judge determines something else that moves me to make different decisions).   

I can also see that you are a Godly and humble servant of God.  As God is leading you in the Great Commission doing what God wants you to do with cell groups, God is leading me in the Great Commission doing what God wants me to do by filling the stomachs first.  Hungry people don't make good decisions, I know.  I also see many die because of their homeless conditions with no one caring.  But those who know me, know I love them.

My present address at my son's home, Robert E. Erb, III is 503 Independence St., Fairport Harbor, Ohio 44077 and my phone is 1-808-497-6920.  All the information is also identified on the web sites http://www.volunteerhawaii.org/org/2280144.html and http://www.thehawaiianportal.com/db_clients/613.php amd in links noted within.

Proverbs 24:11 (New Living Translation)

(11) Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; don't stand back and let them die.

If a man know that his neighbour is in danger by any unjust proceeding, he is bound to do all in his power to deliver him. And what is it to suffer immortal souls to perish, when our persuasions and example may be the means of preventing it?

I am praying God might lead you to the Island of Oahu during your stay as you are visiting Maui.  God bless you and your family.

Your brother in Christ,

Bob Erb

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