Dear Brethren and Friends, As I write this, many of us here in Charlotte are just now back from a truly inspiring Feast of Tabernacles! From all reports I have heard, the Feast was outstanding for Living Church of God brethren around the globe. We had a little over 9,000 people attending, in total, but the exact numbers are still coming in, and will be mentioned on page 18 of this issue in the article describing the activities at many of our Feast sites around the world.
From what I hear, however, the most inspiring growth has been in the spiritual maturity of the brethren and the spiritual depth of the sermons. As we surrender to our heavenly Father, He works with us—through His Spirit—to give us more and more of His mind, His character, His very nature. As the Apostle Peter wrote in his final letter, he described God’s “divine power” and His precious promises that “through these you may be partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:3–4).
As we grow in God’s very nature, we will automatically put more total trust in Jesus Christ as the real Head of the true Church of God. So we will have genuine faith that Christ’s form of Church government is correct, and that He—as the living Head of the Church (Ephesians 1:22)—will truly guide His Church if we are willing to organize it His way. As most of us have just experienced at the Feast, the biblical approach to Church government does bring about a great degree of unity and harmony and trust in Christ beyond all the other humanly devised forms of Church government.
For, as I am sure all of us learned through this Feast, we today are “called” to actually be those kings and priests whom Jesus Christ will use to assist Him in His soon-coming Kingdom! How can we possibly imagine that we should follow a “different” form of Church government today than the theocratic form of government we will be specifically charged to administer in Christ’s soon-coming Kingdom? How can we go one way now, expecting God to use us to go an entirely different way in His coming Kingdom?
Dear brethren, let us all “get real.” Let us actually obey what the Bible clearly teaches on this vital subject, since the whole message of God is about the coming “Kingdom” or government of God to be set up on this earth! As I am sure most of us found during the Feast, the spirit of service and “brotherhood” is best experienced when we do all things God’s way—the way the Bible clearly indicates.
In my 63 years in God’s Work, I have seen repeatedly that God blesses and guides His people most of all to the degree that we really do things God’s way and put our trust in Him. He certainly allows trials and tests to come along even then. But in the end He guides it for good—as many of us have experienced. To those who “water down” various aspects of Christ’s teachings, He sometimes “works with them” over time, to help them, and does eventually guide those who are willing to have a deeper understanding of His full will. But they will never have the degree of God’s guidance or the degree of God’s power in doing His Work as those who are willing to put their full trust in the living Jesus Christ and do everything His way to the best of everyone’s ability—helped, of course, by God’s Holy Spirit. That is undoubtedly one reason why—even though we are humanly weak—the living Christ is doing more of His Work with fewer people in the Living Church of God than He is anywhere on earth today. We are grateful for this. And yet we realize we can all “do better.” And, dear brethren, we must do better and keep growing in every possible way “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).
So, I hope and pray—now that you brethren have for some time been back from the Feast, where you received a concentrated menu of spiritual meat in just a few days—you will between now and the next Feast try to go even deeper into your Bible and ask God for a full understanding of His will. Ask Him to guide you, teach you, rebuke and chasten you, fashion and mold you and make you into the “full image” of Jesus Christ! Then, all of us can truly honor the God we serve. Then, all of us who do this will—in the perilous years just ahead—have developed the faith and courage to genuinely trust God even through horrible persecution, beatings, imprisonment or even death if need be. For we will have learned—in nearly every facet of our lives and conduct—to genuinely trust that God’s way is right, and to put that trust into action in our lives and in His Church.
In all of this, we will be truly “Restoring Original Christianity”—as is the new title of my booklet along that line. Obviously, this must be a basic theme in all of our lives. It is something all of us should become very familiar with so we can help others in this confused world to “get the picture” as the terrible weather events and earthquakes and disease epidemics begin to strike—driving thousands more to ask themselves, “What’s going on?” and perhaps be willing to listen to the Truth. We have to realize how important this concept is. For we are not just a “Sabbath-keeping Church.” We are, in fact, among the very few who are genuinely restoring the original Christianity of Christ and the apostles. We should be grateful for this opportunity. And we should be zealous in telling others about this in the right way and helping them understand so that they, too, may be in the first and “better” resurrection (Hebrews 11:35).
Brethren, I want to strongly encourage all of you to genuinely go “all out” in backing the very Work Christ is doing through us on this earth today! I know that most of you are doing this. But many do “let down”—especially after the Feast when the income for God’s Work often drops for a number of weeks. But above and beyond that, I not long ago received a letter from one of our fine ministers who has in recent times had the experience of several older people dying in his congregational areas.
This very sincere and serving minister—not a “money grubber”—wrote me: “Of them all, two were moderately wealthy. Neither looked or acted wealthy but they were farmers and left quite an inheritance. One left $300,000 and a nice home, the other left 300 acres with quite a bit of nice river frontage. At $1,500 per acre that would be $450,000. At $2,000 per acre that would be $600,000. This is why I mention it. The one man said strongly the one thing he wanted to avoid was having his stepchildren, who seemed to hate him, inherit. He left no will, so of course the stepchildren got it all. Dr. Meredith, I feel we are missing a special opportunity by not bringing the possibility of leaving all or part of their inheritance to the attention of the Church.”
Brethren, following through on this suggestion from this fine minister, I would like to take the opportunity now to encourage many of you who are growing older to think about giving a good part or all of your estate to the Work of the living God. Many of you, no doubt, would like to do this but “simply have not gotten around to it.” Many want to do it, as this one man said—but simply put off making out a will so that your intentions will be carried out when you die. God’s word encourages responsibility and wise estate planning. “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous” (Proverbs 13:11). Pray that God will give you wisdom in planning for how your assets may be helpful to your children—and to God’s Church—after you die. And it is important that you think about this, because if you just “do nothing” your estate may go to people who will not appreciate what you are leaving behind, or it may even go to the state and be part of the budget of some government treasurer to use as he desires!
As the end of this age approaches, each one of us needs to focus on the profound statement Jesus Christ our Savior made in the Sermon on the Mount, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19–21).
If we truly have our “hearts” in God’s Work, we will obviously want to give generously! This should not be a mystery to any of us. So we should each think about how we can best do this. A wonderful example as a“hero of the faith” was Raymond Jorgensen, the Iowa farmer who willed his entire farm with the buildings and equipment and everything to God’s Work enabling us to move to our new Headquarters in North Carolina! Some of you remember his wonderful example. By giving that entire property—which was valued at nearly a million dollars—he certainly indicated to our Father in heaven exactly where he stood! His wonderful gift will never be forgotten by me, nor by many of us who are profoundly thankful that God put this action into his mind and heart.
Obviously, those of us who can help the Work in this way will certainly be honoring God and a genuine reward will be given us from the God who gives all of us life and breath. He will never forget what you are trying to do in leaving Him—through His Work—much or all of what you have accumulated during this short human lifetime. You know your own personal family situation, and you know your own heart. So, you know what is appropriate in your circumstances. Please think about it and pray about it—and, if you wish to do this—take action before it is too late. Even now, I hear from time to time about brethren who left the Worldwide Church of God many years ago, but failed to update their wills, and when they died their families were shocked to see bequests go to an apostate group from which they had departed years ago. So, if necessary, be sure to update your will. If you need help in this, or in other aspects of planning your bequest to the Church, I urge you to contact our Legal Affairs Department at Headquarters. For contact information, please note the box at the end of this article.
Again, thank you for all that you do and for all of your love and encouragement for my wife and me—and for others like us in older age and facing severe health trials—and for your service in God’s Church. We really had a wonderful Feast of Tabernacles, and are looking forward to a spiritually uplifting year ahead. We need to thank God by the way we live, the way we speak and in every facet of our lives. For I am sure all of us truly want the “living Christ” to live His life within us so that we may hear these words in the resurrection, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
With Christian love,
