From Ronald L. Darts Program Notes

Jeroboam

September 15, 2014Volume 19, Number 9

Christian Educational Ministries

Never take council of your fears.Andrew Jackson is the one whosaid that, but it may have comeearlier than that. He also plainlyread his Bible. Its fascinating howoften fear strips a man of victoriesalready won. This was the case ofJeroboam, the son of Nebat. Afterthe death of Solomon, God handedhim the largest portion of Israel,Ten of the 12 tribes of Israel. Hewas a good man, an energeticleader, but he was afraid that afterhaving made the break withSolomons son Rehoboam, thepeople would eventually return tothe unity of the Temple and indeedit was not an unreasonable fear.

The commandment of God said,Three times in a year shall all yourmales come to appear before Godin the place that he shall choose(Deuteronomy 16:16). The Biblelays out Gods annual Holy DaysIsrael had to observe, and of coursethat place was Jerusalem, at theTemple that Solomon built.

Jeroboam thought this over andconcluded that, Every year, comeFeast of Tabernacles time, thesepeople are going to get nostalgic forJerusalem, and they are going towander back down to Jerusalem

and nostalgia will cause themeventually to return to the rulershipof Rehoboam. Then theyll want tokill me and Ill lose the kingdom.Never mind that God had given himthe kingdom and stood surety for it.This was Gods promise and hewould have stood by him comewhat may, but he was afraid and hisfear led him to a decision withdisastrous long term consequences

The Story of Jeroboam

The story begins with, The kingtook advice from his counselors and

made two calves of gold, and hesaid to the people, Its too muchfor you to go up to Jerusalem, thisis just too big a deal, behold yourgods O Israel, that brought you outof the land of Egypt. And he set

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Jeroboam From Ronald L. Darts notes ........ 1How Often Should You Give God an

Offering? .................................1Lets Do Gods Work Together By Wes White ............................ 2Affordable 2014 Feast Offers Fun,

Food, Fellowship ......................4

continued on page 3 . . .

How Often Should You Give God an Offering? . . .You may have attended a church where the offering plate is routinelypassed every Sunday morning. But is that Scriptural? The Bible says weare to give God a tenth of the first of our increasethats giving him atithe. Is your tithe all God requires? If you have attended our worshipservices, you may have noticed that only three times in a year do we passthe offering plate. You can read for yourself when those times are inDeuteronomy 16:16. It stipulates that every man shall give as he is able.In other words, what you give depends on the blessings you havereceived. We are approaching the last commanded day that God requiresan offering of youThe Feast of Tabernacleswhich well becelebrating at the Green Acres Baptist Church Retreat, on Lake Tyler, inWhitehouse, Texas beginning the evening of October 8th, and goingthrough October 16th. We invite you to join us. Check out our website atwww.cemnetwork.com or call Linda Benton at 1-888-BIBLE-44 formore information on this exciting, God-ordained, spiritual Feast wherethe offering plate is only passed once in eight days. Wed love to haveyou join us.

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Lets Do Gods Work Together

Good Christian writing is not thewriter talking about himself. GoodChristian writing is talking aboutsubjects that will encourage thereader to look to Christ. So pleaseforgive me because I am going totalk about myself for just a moment.Ron and Allie recently asked me tocome on board as a volunteerconsultant to see if there are anyopportunities for processimprovement within the CEMoffice. Poking around CEM andasking questions about theoperations has been interesting andfun. Its nice to see the innerworkings of a ministry devoted topromoting Jesus Christ. At this time, I would like to saythank you for those of you whoallow us to serve you. And thankyou to those who support CEM.May I tell you a fictional story? Ithas to do with time travel.

Lets pretend that we couldtravel back in time (which wecant) to about 1600 AD. And letspretend we could bring someoneback to our current daysomeonewho is knowledgeable about theworld of his time over 400 yearsago. And lets take this person on atour of our present world.

We would start by taking him toEurope and showing him thatEurope today is composed of manynations trying to achieve somedegree of unity, but cant because ofdifferent languages and religions.Upon seeing this, our time travelingvisitor would say, Thats how itwas in my day 400 years ago.Then we would take him to Chinaand show him that China is a hugeauthoritarian empire that is hindered

by government bureaucracy. Hewould say, Thats how it was inmy day.

We would show how theMiddle East is a cauldron ofIslamic infighting. We would showhim how sub-Saharan Africa issuffering from disease andstarvation. And show how Japan ishomogenous and mistrustful ofoutsiders. We would show him howLatin America has many richoligarchs, but is hindered by themajority of its citizens living inpoverty. To all this, our visitorwould say, Thats how it was inmy day. In most of the world, therehas not been much change in the last400 years.

But then we take him to NorthAmerica and show him a nationwith a vibrant economy and apopulation that is successful when itcomes to great inventions, arepresentative system ofgovernment, a splendid highwaysystem, innovative research anddevelopment programs, aconsiderably wealthy population,and really good health care. Hisjaw would drop. Hed say, Wow!In 1600 this continent was sparselypopulated and had absolutely noknowledge of the Bible! In the last400 years, the North Americancontinent is where there has beenimmense and incredible change.This is the world we live in.

Although CEM serves peopleall over the world, its primarysupport comes from the U.S. Again,we thank you for your support nomatter where you live.

But I have been asking myselfthis question a lot recently: What

are the people of this great landdoing to promote the Gospelmessage? I have come to theconclusion that the answer is, Notenough! Not nearly enough!Considering the assets that thiscountry possesses, we are not evencoming close to doing what we canto promote Jesus saving grace.Rather than putting their efforts intopromoting the Bible to all nations,our people are more preoccupiedwith polarizing politics, sports, andreality TV. This is wrong!

At CEM, we do not attempt tojudge any individual in matters suchas good works. These things arebetween each person and God. OnlyHe can judge.

But we do feel the necessity toissue a warning: We dont knowexactly why God has blessed thisnation so greatly. We can onlyponder the thought that, if we dontdo Gods Work, is it possible Godwill remove these wonderfulblessings from our country? This isnot a prophecy or a prediction. It isonly a question.

Many of Gods people arediligently supporting the Work ofGod through various ministries.CEM does not claim to be the onlyministry doing Gods Work. Wehave brothers and sisters in otherorganizations who are doing GodsWork. We applaud them and prayfor them.

The point of this article is toencourage you to support GodsWork and to encourage others tosupport Gods Work. And not justwith financial assistance. AsChristians, we should be using our

continued on page 4 . . .

By Wes White

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Jeroboamcontinued from page 1 . . .one of them in Bethel in the southernend of his kingdom, and the other heput in Dan in the north. This thingbecame a sin, the people went toworship before the one in Bethel,and before the other as far as Dan,and they even went all the way upthere, if they had to, rather than goto Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:28-30).This incident is uncannily similar towhat Aaron did while Moses wasupon the mountain receiving the TenCommandments. He made a goldencalf (Deuteronomy 9:16) of a godand he said, These will be yourgods, O Israel, which brought youout of the land of Egypt. Itsastonishing, Jeroboam had to knowthat, and yet he still did it.

The seduction to idolatry in thatworld must have been extremelypowerful, and since a lot of it wasbased on sex, that probably hadsomething to do with it as well.What Jeroboam did here was tosubstitute a political religion for thereal thing.

The Sins of David and Solomon

The lesson learned from David andSolomon is so easily lost. If youhave read the story of Davids life,you would know that David was asinful man and he did a lot of badthings. He made many serious moralerrors. He committed adultery withanother mans wife then had the mankilled in combat (2 Samuel 11). Allthese things he did were wrong buthe never, ever went to another god.There is no taint of idolatry inDavids kingdom or history. When

Solomon came along, he married700 wives, some from pagansocieties (1 Kings 11). He begins tobuild shrines to these other godsand the Israelites, the Judeanpeople, began to worship thesegods. This cost his son, Rehoboam,the kingdom.

Jeroboam was about to make thesame mistake. The important thingto understand from this is that, inspite of all the errors that Davidmade, the fact that he never wentafter an idol, left the way back toGod open to him. He always had anavenue to repent. But once youleave God, once you go after anidol, once you begin to worship afalse god, the way back is gone, itslost.

The Temple and its rights weredesigned to centralize the worshipof Jehovah. It was the majorunifying symbol to the nation. It wasmore than that; it also pointed theway back to God anytime anyonebecame lost.

Well, Jeroboam went further; hemade a house of the high places andhe made priests of the lowest of thepeople, who were not of the sons ofLevi. He didnt want strong peoplein the priestly office because heknew, well enough, the priestlyoffice was an office of power andhe didnt want any conflictingpower (1 Kings 12:31-32).

Jeroboam ordained a feast inthe eighth month, on the fifteenth dayof the month, like the feast in Judah,and he offered upon the altar. Hedid it in Bethel. He sacrificed to thecalves that he had made, He placedin Bethel the priests of the high

places he had made and he offeredupon the altar which he had made inBethel on the fifteenth day of theeighth month. He had devised thesethings out of his own heart and heordained a feast to the children ofIsrael and he offered upon the altarand burnt incense. Jeroboam didthis out of his own heart without anyauthority to do this. God gave him akingdom, not a new priestlyauthority.

This whole story is a series ofbad decisions by people who hadevery reason to know better.Jeroboam had every reason to knowbetter than what he did and he did itanyway. One lesson you should gainfrom this is, whenever you feel Godhas told you something, its a goodidea to trust him enough to do asyou are told. Some people operatefrom a different set of rules. Whenall else fails, then do as you aretold. But first we have to find outfor ourselves and sometimes wefind out at a great cost to ourselvesand to the people we love. The richlessons on this CD, titledJeroboam, are vitally important foryou to understandthat turning yourback on Gods commands is a verybad idea. Sins such as Jeroboamshave been passed down throughgenerations. They have impactedeven the days Christians keep holy.Return the enclosed card or call usat 1-888-BIBLE-44 so we can rushyou this most important andfascinating CD. I promise youlllearn and enjoy it.

page 4Lets Do Gods Work Togethercontinued from page 2 . . .

PO Box 560 Whitehouse, Texas 75791 phone: 1-888-BIBLE-44

fax: 903-839-9311e-mail: adm@borntowin.netwebsite: www.borntowin.net

That the man of God may be proficient andequipped for every good work.

Christian Educational

Ministries

time, talents, and treasures topromote Gods Work.

Now the skeptic is going to say,Wes is making an attempt atfinancial gain. No. I am not on anysalary. I am retired and feel aresponsibility to assist whateverbrethren and ministries I can withinmy time limits.

May I get really frank at thispoint? Some skeptic might now bewondering that this is all perhaps acynical ploy to increase money onbehalf of Ron and Allie. Let me tellyou what I have recentlydiscovered. Ron (who has been aneffective servant of God and hispeople for decades) makes a lowersalary than I did before I retired asa contract analyst in a rural hospitalsystem. Allie makes no salary from

CEM at all. Their primary source ofincome is from real estate that Alliehas been working on for years.CEM is a labor of love for theDarts and they are not getting richfrom it.

Have I been too blunt? Pleasepermit me to be even more blunt. Itis the desire of Ron and Allie toonly continue spreading Bibleknowledge at this time. It is alsotheir desire for the CEM ministry tocontinue after they go to sleep withtheir fathers. I believe in themission of CEM, so I too desire tosee CEM continue for decades. Youknow that Rons teachings aretimeless and will be of value 50 or100 years from now, just as they aretoday. Are you in agreement withthis?

Again, we thank you forallowing CEM to serve you. Wethank you for your support. And notjust financially. Please continue topray for this ministry daily. Yes,daily. Please dont let a day go bywithout praying for CEM. We needGods blessing which comes fromyour prayers. Please stay connectedwith us via social media. Forexample, you can friend us onFacebook. Then, when CEM puts outa post on Facebook, you can share itwith others whom you are friendswith. You can encourage people youknow to tune into our weeklySabbath services. You can encourageothers to request our literature.

Please share your thoughts withus. We look forward to hearing fromyou.

Yes, you can afford to join us at theGreen Acres Baptist Church Retreatin Whitehouse, TX. Low-priced onebedroom, one bath hotel-type roomsare available at the Retreat Centerbut numbers are limited. First come,first served. Call Debbie at 903-523-1116 to make your reservation.CEM will provide a coffee/donutbar each morning and a deliciouslunch every day except the Sabbath.The Magnuson Hotel, located aboutseven miles from the retreat isoffering CEM a wonderful rate of$70 a night if you call them directlyat 903-593-3600. There are severalRV parks in the Tyler/Whitehouse/Bullard area. KE Bushmans Camp,903-894-822, at 51153 US Hwy 69N in Bullard is new with manyamenities. For more information

Affordable 2014 Feast Offers Fun, Food, Fellowshipabout the area check outwww.borntowin.net and www.lake-tyler.com/lake-tyler-lodging-cabins-hotels.htm. The 2014 Feast speakersinclude Mardy Cobb, Dan Botha,John Beasley, and Wes White. Theactivities include a picnic, pie andice cream game night, old fashionedpraise and worship sing-along, agolf outing, a CEM office openhouse and movie night and much,much more. God really opened thewindows of heaven and poured outan enormous blessing when heprovided us with this outstandingspot for you to celebrate the Feast.Nestled among the East Texas treesand right on Lake Tyler where youcan fish, swim, or boat. The settingis conducive to drawing near to ourCreator God. Please dont miss this

opportunity to join us. We areplanning more opportunities forfellowship and friendship bonding ina relaxed atmosphere. We willworship together, learn together, singtogether, laugh together, and breakbread together. Come join us for amost memorable Feast! We love youand want to see you there! CallLinda Benton at the CEM office, 1-888-BIBLE-44 (1-888-242-5344)for more information.