All posts by Nathaniel Stalling Jr.

About Nathaniel Stalling Jr.

I am founder and pastor of Burning Bush Temple of Christ. I have been preaching and teaching the word of God since 1986. I also have a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit named: Burning Bush Community Enrichment Services. I worked for Chrysler (FCA, LLC) for 23 years. I am married to a wonderful woman, Teresa, and together we are invested in helping people and communities.

THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT

The watchman

The president of the United States of America is our watchman.  We expect him/her to be the first to sound the national alarm when there is danger.

“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me:” Ezek. 3:17 


As we approach the fourth quarter of the year 2020 the moral of the country has fallen to a level not seen for over two generations.  In the first three months of the year we witnessed, what came to be known as, covid-19 or, coronavirus.  A deadly virus that would eventually get the attention of the whole world.

By mid-January word of this virus had already breached the White House.  The President received word of this deadly intruder in his daily briefing.  Unfortunately, this was an election year, and to this President, all things were political.

Danger! Should have rang out across the country like the sound of a five-alarm fire.  But instead we were comfortable in our homes recuperating from long Christmas family get togethers and, the New Year’s parties, oblivious to the danger lurking in our country.

The President and his men were huddled in the west wing coming up with a strategy to keep everything on the down low.  After all, he couldn’t have anything in the media that could hurt his re-election chances.

In the Bible, God commissioned Ezekiel to be a watchman for the nation of Israel.  He was appointed to guard the nation, keep watch over them and, to alert them of any danger that threatened so that they could take action to save their lives.

Covid-19 has completely ravaged our nation.  We are like a rudderless ship in a storm.  Scientists and experts project that by the end of the year we will have lost an estimated quarter of a million lives to this virus.  What was once unthinkable is upon us.

If there was any nation on earth that should have been prepared and able to meet and deal with this pandemic the United States of America should have been the one.  We are the richest, have the best medical universities the world over and, we have the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).  We set the global standard that every other country looks to for guidance and support.

Is it fair to say our leaders have failed us?  Well, recent reports have been revealed that our president openly admitted playing the dangers of the virus down.  He knew as early as March that it affected children just as badly as adults.  Despite there being no national plan, he encouraged large and small businesses, as well as churches to reopen.  He discouraged the use of masks and belittled anyone who did wear them.  He even threatened to withhold federal funds from states that refused to go along with him.  He held in-door rallies where people didn’t wear masks or social distanced.  In the wake of reckless governance tens of thousands of innocent people lost their lives.

Our president, commander in chief, leader of the free world was supposed to be helping us.  But instead he was helping the virus.

 

Nathaniel Stalling Jr.

 

BEING FULLY TAUGHT

Acts 18:24-26 (Apollos); Revelations 2:12-16 (Nicolaitans)

John identifies the teaching of Balaam with two problems: “eating food sacrificed to idols” and “sexual immorality”.

The early church constantly struggled with compromises with paganism, as we see in Paul’s long discussion in 1 Corinthians 8 – 10, as well as in the conclusions reached in Acts 15:20, 29.  Both of these centers on food offered to idols, Paul’s conclusion being that one could eat such food if purchased in the marketplace, but one should not go to a meal in a pagan temple.

Following this Pauline rule, however, would cut one off from membership in trade guilds, patriotic celebrations (including ceremonies honoring the emperor, considered essential to good citizenship) and many family celebrations.  We can easily see the pressure to rationalize and thereby develop a compromise.

The issue of sexual immorality is more difficult, for it is also mentioned in Revelation 2:20, 22, in the case of Jezebel (an Old Testament code word for a New Testament woman leader of the church in Thyatira, indicating her spirit and God’s evaluation, rather than the woman’s actual name).  On the one hand, sexual immorality was a problem in the early church, as Paul’s discussions show (1 Corinthians 5:1; 6:12-20; compare Hebrews 13:4).

In the middle of a pagan society that accepted the use of prostitutes (although wives were expected to remain faithful), it was difficult to remain obedient on this point and relatively easy to compromise.

On the other hand, “sexual immorality” was used in the Old Testament for involvement with pagan deities.  For example, the Old Testament Jezebel was not to our knowledge physically immoral – she was likely faithful to Ahab all her life – but she did lead Israel into Baal worship.  Since Israel was Gods’ “bride”, such involvement with other gods was called “adultery” or “sexual immorality”.

If then, John is taking the Old Testament examples as the basis for his discussion; sexual immorality is figurative, standing for their worship of other deities, which was implied in their attending feasts in idol temples.

The Nicolaitans, then, appear to be a group that corrupted Gods’ people by suggesting compromise with the culture of the day.  Whie the exact issues are different, similar compromises face the church today.  Each society has its own “idols” that it expects all its citizens to worship, whether those idols be the government itself or some values or practices of society.  Furthermore, the Nicolaitans are still with us under a variety of names, for there are always people who in the name of being “realistic” or under any number of other theological justifications counsel compromise with the dominant culture.  This passage warns us that Jesus will not “buy” these justifications.  He demands nothing less than total loyalty to his own person and directions.  Anything less than this will put those who compromise in danger of his judgement.

From CNN: Top administration officials said last year threat of pandemic kept them up at night

Christian

Top administration officials said last year threat of pandemic kept them up at night https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/03/politics/kfile-officials-worried-over-pandemic-last-year/index.html

PROVIDENCE

Christian, Straight Talk, ,

PROVIDENCE

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We live in a world governed by a system of laws, natural or spiritual. But in the back of all law, natural or spiritual, there is One who upholds and controls them all, and uses them for His glory:
“…who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power,” … Hebrews 1:3 NKJV
With so much going on around the world, especially in the United States of America, it is no wonder anxiety is high. Many people are forced to stay home from work because safe distancing has become the new order of the day. Then there are others who must work to keep the rest of us safe. The first responders, emergency medical technicians, police officers, doctors, nurses; they all stand on the front line to thwart the invisible dangers head on. They too, are beginning to fall victim to this ravaging virus that have broken out among us.
I would like to offer another perspective on what appear to be a hopeless situation. I would like to steer your attention to a book that I hold above every other book on the planet. The Bible. In this book there’s a story titled after a woman named Esther. If you ever want to see and understand the Providence of God, how He work behind the scenes and, bring everything to a good and perfect end, this is the book for you. The intelligence and wisdom of Providence is revealed in this book.
A man once said, “Fate is blind. Providence has eyes. Fatalism says, whatever is, must be. Providence says, whatever God ordains must be.”
What’s really peculiar about this book is that the name of God is not found in it. Yet, His fingerprints are everywhere. From the time Esther’s’ name was placed in contention to replace Queen Vashti in the Persian empire God stood at a distance, not showing Himself openly.
This is the distinctive feature of Providence in a broad sense. Providence is secret, mysterious, and even unintelligible until its ends are revealed.
We can be sure that God is working for our good, even if we can’t see it, or understand it we can rest with confidence that:
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose”. Romans 8:28 NKJV

Nathaniel Stalling Jr
Elder

THIS TOO WILL PASS.

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If there is one thing, we the human race, know to be true, it is we will survive. After all, we are the crown of Gods’ creation. For there to be any other outcome would not prove we failed, but that He (God) did. We know for sure God does not fail.
Let’s look at some examples:
• When we (humans) threaten to use the divine law of unity for evil (Genesis chapter 11) God had to intervene to save us from ourselves. 4They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” 5The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6The LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. 7“Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. 9Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth”.
• When we (humans) had sank low into immoral depravity and ungodliness during the days of Noah, a preacher of righteousness, God provided safety for eight people to start again. “And every living thing on the face of the earth was destroyed–man and livestock, crawling creatures and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah remained, and those with him in the ark”. Genesis 7:23
• Persecution of the early church had occurred sporadically and in localized areas since its beginning. The first persecution of Christians organized by the Roman government took place under the emperor Nero in 64 AD after the Great Fire of Rome.
These are only a few instances, out of many, that we as Christians and, as human beings, survived.
This virus that is plaguing the whole world, this Covid-19 virus, will not win. We have faced plagues, floods, famines and persecutions before. None have proven to prevail. I can say with complete confidence that ‘THIS TOO, WILL PASS.

Nathaniel Stalling Jr