Part 2: Sacrificial Living (Ezekiel 45)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          There are times where I wonder if I ever do enough to please God in all that I say and do. I mean, do I lay my life down for the neighbor that lives just below me? Do I treat her with the respect she deserves or do I render judgment on her than take up my faith as Christ requires of me? I find that often I lack the things required of me even though I know that in order to please God I ought to have faith and to love others as He first loved me by being a willing and living sacrifice. After all it is written, "Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship" (Romans 12:1, Berean Study).

Part 1: The Sacred Portion (Ezekiel 45)

by Benjamin H. Liles

          Sometimes certain scriptures are easier for me to discern and teach on, while others such as this chapter of Ezekiel take time in prayer and in the wisdom of God. Therefore, when I say this it's from His view and not my own. Even though God talks to His people of Israel mostly in the Old Testament, I believe He means all of Israel and not a portion of. Within Revelation He does this: "And I heard the number of them that were sealed, a hundred and forty and four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel" (Revelation 7:4). Of this number twelve thousand are sealed within every tribe of Israel giving us a full 144,000 people sealed by God.

Be Pure and Holy (Ezekiel 44)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          "This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut. As for the prince, because he is the prince, he may sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gateway, and go out the same way...No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter My sanctuary, including any foreigner who is among the children of Israel...It shall be, in regard to their inheritance, that I am their inheritance. You shall give them no possession in Israel, for I am their possession" (Ezekiel 44:2-3, 9, 28, New King James).

The Self-Taught Programmer (Book Review)

By Benjamin H. Liles

           Even though Cory Althoff's book The Self-Taught Programmer was released in early 2017, he still asks those who have either bought his book or received a complimentary copy to give a review of the book. I have spent some time going through his book as I have previous experience as a programmer. Years ago I got started in it as a kid having an Atari 400 (Atari 400 is an old 8-bit console that hooked up to your television). It came with a couple of games, as well as games my dad purchased for us to play on.