Dear Brethren and Friends,
Dr. Meredith asked me to write this issue’s “Dear Brethren” letter and Editorial for him while he and Mrs. Meredith were traveling in Australasia. By the time you read this, he will have returned home from his 20,000-mile trip and shared with you details of his extensive travel and meetings with brethren and ministry.
We thank God for blessing His Work through weak and limited human beings who have been called into the body of Christ. Every member of His body can contribute to the effective working and accomplishment of the Great Commission. The Apostle Paul wrote: “But, speaking the truth in love, [we] may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:15–16).
Notice that “every part does its share” and “every joint supplies” what is necessary for us to be joined and knit together—particularly by God’s love working through us. Every member’s heartfelt prayers, acts of service in the local congregation and in spreading the gospel, words of encouragement, and financial support of the Work, all combine to move the Work of God forward. When each of us is filled with God’s Spirit, the body will mature and “grow up” in “Him who is the head—Christ.”
In what direction should we walk? As human beings, we will always have “setbacks.” Even God’s Work faces setbacks from time to time. When the Work was hindered, Mr. Herbert Armstrong used to compare this to the cocking of a gun. The gun’s hammer, though pulled back a short distance, was being prepared to strike the bullet and propel it forward at a faster pace. And so God propels His Work forward at a faster pace when He determines to do so. But we must always be ready to move forward when our Red Sea opens for us. When the Israelites were stymied at the Red Sea, God opened the sea and told Moses: “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward” (Exodus 14:15).
Anchored in the “faith which was once for all delivered” (Jude 1:3), our spiritual and mental outlook must be on the future and the goal God has set before us. Most of us know Matthew 6:33 by heart. Here Jesus instructed us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Are you looking forward in your spiritual outlook? Certainly, we must learn the lessons of the past—we have the whole Bible and our own life experiences to teach us lasting lessons. The Apostle Paul, who had experienced great success as a Pharisee, nevertheless wrote: “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Paul counted his past achievements as “rubbish” in comparison to his goal. He experienced persecution and pain as a servant of Christ, so he earnestly anticipated the resurrection. Paul desired “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (vv. 10–11).
How earnestly are you seeking the Kingdom of God and the resurrection? Many of God’s long-time faithful servants are growing very old and are dying in the faith. They will be in the first resurrection when Jesus returns! We also must be wholehearted in our commitment and our vision of the future. The Apostle Paul continued: “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (vv. 12–14).
Hard-hearted Israelites never crossed over the Jordan into the Promised Land. They had heard the Gospel, but they did not act on it in faith (Hebrews 4:2). Today, spiritual Israel is striving to live by faith (Hebrews 10:38) and to finish the Work with the same commitment and attitude Jesus had (John 4:34). God’s Work has always been a work of faith (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 2 Thessalonians 1:11)! Be sure to read “How to Live by Faith” by Mr. John Ogwyn in the March- April 2002 Living Church News. As the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:7: “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” The key is to “keep on keeping on” because we trust our Leader, Jesus Christ! He is the one who opens doors. “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens’: I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name’” (Revelation 3:7–8).
Do we trust Christ to continue opening doors as He has done in the past? He has the power to do so, as when Paul reported in 2 Corinthians 2:12–13: “Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel… a door was opened to me by the Lord…” We all should be very thankful for the doors Christ is now opening to us. Mr. Wayne Pyle, Television Production Coordinator, gives us this report:
“During the first three months of this year we received 21,716 responses from the Tomorrow’s World telecast. This is 42 percent above the 15,276 we received during the same period last year.
“The addition of new TV stations has really helped to boost the response. Since the end of March last year, we have added 46 new TV stations airing the Tomorrow’s World television program. Presently, we have 140 TV stations around the globe, including 120 TV stations in the United States and 20 in other countries. The US stations include 18 commercial TV stations and 102 public- and leased-access TV stations.”
WGN and Canada’s Vision network produce the greatest response. But the recently acquired KDOC in the Los Angeles area and KCWE in Kansas City also produce excellent response as the third- and fourth-most productive stations. Notice also the growing number of new television and radio stations listed in each issue of your Tomorrow’s World magazine.
We all have our part in preaching the gospel effectively, but it is God to whom the glory belongs. As the Apostle Paul wrote: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:6–9).
There are many “fellow workers” in the body of Christ. Everyone’s effort helps! Many of you have helped acquire public access television stations, volunteered for the cardholder program and waiting room program, or served in your local congregation providing transportation, sending greeting cards and helping with hall setup and takedown. Everyone’s example and light (Matthew 5:16; Philippians 2:15–16) contributes to spreading the Gospel through “doors of faith.” (See “The Power of Example” on page 3 of this issue). God rejoices in our serving attitudes and labors of love: “For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister” (Hebrews 6:10).
Every little act of service, every heartfelt prayer, every encouraging word you give, energizes the body. God multiplies our efforts. As Proverbs 14:23 tells us: “In all labor there is profit, but idle chatter leads only to poverty.” The key is to ensure that God is working through us. “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13). When Christ lives in us, our labor produces good results. In this end-time Work, we need to encourage one another and contribute to the body of Christ. As Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:11, “Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.”
As fellow workers and good neighbors, we must strive to help one another and all who are neighbors in need. In our walk toward the Kingdom, we must not tire of charity and serving. “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:9–10).
Some of us are very old and weak. Yet, through Christ in us, we can “do good” to others and persevere to the end. Attending my first Feast of Tabernacles, in Big Sandy, Texas in 1961, I met an elderly gentleman who said that he was too weak to walk. But he told me: “I just move one foot in front of the other, and God gives me the strength to walk.” All of us need to walk spiritually with spiritual power and faith. One meaningful hymn gives us that encouragement: “Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war; with the word of Jesus, going on before.”
We understand that our calling is to complete the mission Christ has given us. We will face spiritual enemies but we cannot allow them to halt our march toward the Kingdom. Men and women of faith (cf. Hebrews 11) have led the way for us. In the Living Church of God, we are grateful for Dr. Meredith’s continuing example and leadership; he has led God’s people through difficult times, and has consistently exhorted us to look forward in living faith (see his article “Living Faith,” in the September-October 2001 Living Church News), carrying out the Great Commission given by our Savior.
Given the examples of so many men and women of faith, what does Scripture exhort us to do? Hebrews 12:1–2: “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Brethren, let us move ahead, looking unto the “Captain” of our salvation (Hebrews 2:10, KJV). Set your eyes on the goal while running, marching and walking in faith. May we all “Go forward”!
