Dear Brethren and Co-workers with Christ,
Warm greetings to all of you, and welcome to those of you receiving your first Member and Co-worker letter. These letters come out once a month, to thank you for voluntarily contributing to further the preaching of the good news of the Kingdom of God to this world and warn our nations about what is surely coming upon us if we do not turn around and go another direction. These letters are also sent to let you know what your donations and prayers are doing, to further enlighten you in spiritual truths, and to occasionally let you know of any special needs.
Do you realize how much our Creator loves us and is pleased with us when we do His will? His love is expressed in what may be the most famous verse in all the Bible. Sadly, that verse has been gravely misunderstood, as pointed out in our booklet John 3:16—Hidden Truths of the Golden Verse. That verse is about so much more than most people realize. We are more than happy to send you a copy of this booklet free of charge if you would like to learn the true depth of its meaning.
God’s great love and the pleasure He takes in seeing us obey and grow is also expressed in the parables of the Minas and the Talents. Each parable expresses encouragement to those who have overcome and done the will of God in this life. How wonderful it will be to come up in the resurrection to life eternal and hear our Creator say, “Well done!” Notice it in the Parable of the Talents: “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord’” (Matthew 25:20-21).
What are those “many things” that we are to rule over? The Parable of the Minas reveals that those who are called, chosen, and faithful during this life, are given the opportunity to rule over cities when Jesus comes back to straighten out the mess that we humans have gotten ourselves into (Luke 19:16-19). Yes, the message Jesus brought was a message about righteous government—something sorely missing today.
That may surprise some of you who are newer, but that is what the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is all about (Mark 1:14-15). That is the message Jesus taught for three-and-a-half years prior to the time when He paid the penalty for our sins by shedding His blood and dying on our behalf (1 John 1:5-7). He was resurrected and now works in a small group of people through the power of His Spirit, transforming us to think and act as He thinks and acts (Romans 8:6-9; Galatians 2:20). This same Jesus will return in power and glory to rule over the earth (Zechariah 14:9), and at that time, He will resurrect His servants to rule with Him on the earth for one thousand years (Revelation 20:4).
This is the same message given to the prophet Daniel. Notice what is revealed regarding this Kingdom to come: “The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him” (Daniel 7:27). The term saint has been greatly corrupted over the centuries and merely refers to faithful followers of God, not someone set up on a pedestal in the way many mistakenly believe. See 2 Corinthians 1:1 and Ephesians 1:1. Few Christians realize how far removed their denominational teachings are from original Christianity.
This is precious knowledge you are being given. It is knowledge not generally understood in the professing Christian world. It may be knowledge that some of you who are newer have not yet fully realized, but our booklet Do You Believe the True Gospel? explains this truth in greater detail and will unlock the scriptures that have been right there in the Bible all this time, ever since they were first written millennia ago. They are not difficult to understand and if God is opening your mind, all you need to do is read and believe what the Bible clearly says.
Dear Brethren and Co-workers, we all recognize this is a difficult time in our world. Even though this Work has for decades predicted tough times ahead—marked by weather-related disasters, disease pandemics, civil unrest, and eventually warfare on a scale never before seen—it is still traumatic when these things happen and it is easy to become stressed out by conditions out of our control. I know that some among us are struggling emotionally under the weight of it all, but if we keep our eyes focused on the big picture, as I have written above, we will make it through this time. Some of the most encouraging words ever recorded were written by the Apostle Paul. They are more than nice-sounding words and express truths that we can count on. Let me quote this whole passage here, and I hope you will meditate on what he says and consider what it means for you on a personal level.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39)
My dear friends, you have entered into the Work of the Living God and Jesus Christ. Even while our world is spinning out of control, the good news of the Kingdom of God is going out, and you are making that possible. We know that Jesus told His disciples, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. . . . he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together” (John 4:34, 36).
Even though none of us personally knows every Member and Co-worker, we can nevertheless pray for one another as a family. Thank you for your prayers and thank you for your financial support.
Sincerely, in Christ’s service,
Gerald E. Weston