Greetings from Charlotte!
Today, during a Headquarters staff meeting here in Charlotte, Mr. Meredith encouraged all of us to work with increased zeal, with love and compassion for one another in performing our daily duties to fulfill our mission so that the more than 6 ½ billion people on the earth may be reached with the witness of God's soon-coming Kingdom. Mr. Meredith also exhorted us to become closer to God to be able to face with courage and faith the challenging times ahead.
Dr. Douglas Winnail has arrived safely in Adelaide, Australia, where our Australasian regional offices are located. He will be conducting the first of several international regional ministerial conferences there on Sunday and Monday before flying to Manila, Philippines, on Tuesday, January 29. This is just the beginning of Dr. Winnail's long and arduous working tour! Your prayers for the success of these ministerial conferences, and for Dr. Winnail's safe travels, are appreciated.—Dibar Apartian
Church Administration
Pastors Conference—May 19-21, 2008
Important Notice: Plans are being made for a Pastors Conference to be held here at Headquarters May 19-21. Mark your calendars—more details will be forthcoming.
Mr. James Sweat Appointed as Associate Pastor
Last Sabbath, January 19, at a combined service in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Mr. Bob League—Area Pastor of the Nashville, Chattanooga, Crossville, Tennessee; and Athens, Alabama, congregations—was very happy to announce the appointment of Mr. James Sweat, an elder in the Chattanooga congregation, as the area's Associate Pastor. Mr. and Mrs. Sweat have served faithfully through the years and welcome the opportunity to serve in a greater capacity. Congratulations to the Sweat family!
Public Lecture in Fairfax, Virginia
Eight subscribers, together with more than 40 members and prospective members, attended a public Bible lecture on January 19 in Fairfax, Virginia, entitled "Become a Member of God's Family: Vision, Purpose, Fulfillment." Mr. Ray Clore, who presented the lecture, commented, "Brethren who attended, including many young adults, contributed to the uniformly positive, joyful and energetic ambience… One new man wanted to attend services immediately." There will be a follow-up lecture in Fairfax next Sabbath, January 26. All those present at last week's lecture indicated that they would also attend the second lecture on January 26!
United Kingdom Update
Mr. Rod King, U.K. Regional Director, reports: As you remember, when we lost our place on Inspiration Network, we dropped to 50 responses a week to the television program. We prayed for God to open another door and He answered in a big way! I have explained how one of the directors of the LoveWorld network called us to ask us if they could air our programme for free. Since we began airing on LoveWorld, we have received about 2,000 responses, which is around 300 responses a week. The monthly response statistics show that December 2007 brought in the highest number of phone calls since the telecast began airing in the U.K. in April 2005. December's count came to 1,135 phone calls. This was the first month for more than 1,000 calls to be received. The increase is due to LoveWorld's addition.
Two weeks ago we ordained Mr. Gilbert Foster as deacon in the London congregation. Everyone was pleased because he has been doing a good job already in that area. Last week I talked with him about having a fortnightly service in the south of London, as we have more and more people coming along from the southern counties. If everyone were to attend our services in Radlett, we would have about 50 compared to 18 when I first arrived here in 2006.
Media
Most Read Booklets Online in 2007
The most-frequently-read booklet on TomorrowsWorld.org was The Ten Commandments, which was read 142,168 times last year. On our French website, the most-frequently-read booklet in 2007 was Le Christianisme Contrefait de Satan (Satan's Counterfeit Christianity). Last year on our German website, the most-read booklet was Der Nahe Osten in der Prophezeiung (The Middle East in Prophecy). To see the full list of the most-frequently-read booklets and articles and most-watched telecasts and sermons, as well as to see what has changed on our website, be sure to visit www.LCG.org. –J. Charles Ogwyn
Finance Department
We are off to a strong start for 2008 thanks to some generous special offerings. Regular income is also on track, which is a real blessing as we try to be good stewards of the resources that God supplies. As we analyze the end of the year, of particular interest and encouragement is the increase in co- workers and donors. For 2007, co-workers numbered 3,504, up 26.7% for the year. Donors numbered 2,971, up 13.5% for the year. We can't thank often enough for the support in prayers and donations.—Davy Crockett
Comments
Are You Teachable? The Scriptures reveal that one of the important qualities of character that God is looking for in Christians and in future leaders in the Kingdom of God is teachability—the desire and willingness to listen and learn. Abraham was teachable and responsive to God's instructions (Genesis 12:1-4). Moses was a very capable leader, yet most humble and teachable (Numbers 12:3). David's attitude comes through in Psalm 119:33 when he writes, "Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes." Solomon recognized his human inadequacies when he asked God for wisdom and an "understanding heart" so that he could learn to rule wisely (1 Kings 3:9). When Jesus said the meek and the poor in spirit are blessed, He was emphasizing their teachability and their willingness to learn and grow (Matthew 5:3-5). The Scriptures also make it plain that when we harden our hearts to God's instruction, we will reap serious consequences (Proverbs 28:14). We have been called to reign with Christ in the Kingdom of God, and being teachable is one of the keys to attaining that reward.
Have a profitable Sabbath,
Douglas S. Winnail
News and Prophecy—January 24, 2008
Catholic Church: Reverting to Pagan Roots. For the first time since the Vatican II council (1962-1965), the Pope held mass two weeks ago in the Sistine Chapel using the original altar. The altar faces away from the people, and "Using the old altar meant that Pope Benedict occasionally celebrated the liturgy with his back to the people, a posture called 'ad orientem' or 'towards the east' in the traditional phrasing" (Catholic News Agency, January 15, 2008). As most of us know, the Catholic Church, and many of its traditions, rose out of the sun-worshiping Holy Roman Emperor Constantine's conversion to a "Christianity" that he helped create. In this "worship service," the Pope carried out an act God directly warns against, "'…Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.'…about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east. And He said to me, 'Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here?...'" (Ezekiel 8:15-17). God purposefully oriented His temple so that those worshiping Him would bow down with their BACK toward the rising sun. The Roman church also uses the "sun disk" image on a pole during the Eucharist ceremony. During this ceremony, churchgoers actually bow down before this image of the sun.
Plague—an Emerging Threat Worldwide! Spread as bubonic plague by infected fleas or as pneumonic plague by people coughing or sneezing, the Yersinia pestis bacterium killed about 75 million people around the world during the fourteenth century—and may be reemerging as a global threat! According to Reuters (January 15, 2008), a report by the journal PLoS Medicine warns that plague is on the increase. "Although the number of human cases of plague is relatively low, it would be a mistake to overlook its threat to humanity, because of the disease's inherent communicability, rapid spread, rapid clinical course, and high mortality if left untreated," the journal reported. Plague moves with ease through the animal world, as it is nearly impossible to eradicate the rodents that host plague-carrying fleas. University of Liverpool ecologist Michael Begon notes that, for the first time on record, there have been major plague outbreaks in Africa; in the last five years, the World Health Organization has reported 1,000 to 3,000 cases of plague per year, with most in Madagascar, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi and Uganda. In 2006, the Congo suffered a large outbreak of pneumonic plague. By contrast, the United States has 10 to 20 cases of plague annually. Over the millennia, plague has been used as a punishment by God and by man, a "weapon of mass destruction." "Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds, and the plague broke out among them" (Psalm 106:29).
More Weather Disasters Forecasted. "The number of weather-related disasters has quadrupled over the past 20 years and the world should do more to prepare for them, the aid agency Oxfam says… An average of 500 such disasters are now taking place each year, compared to 120 in the 1980s, the report says" (BBC, November 27, 2007). During the same time, the number of floods worldwide has increased by more than 600 percent! World population is increasing as disasters increase. And as more people are forced to live in areas prone to natural disasters, more devastation will continue to occur—a sad downward spiral for humanity. "Unless the global aid community begins preparing for the future growth in weather-events, Oxfam warns, its ability to respond to natural disasters will be overwhelmed" (ibid). End-time prophecies predict a time when rain will fail in some locations and others will be inundated with floods (Amos 4:7-9). Famine and disaster are also telltale signs of the end of the age (Luke 21:9-11; Revelation 6:5-8). These are events that God said "must shortly come to pass" (Revelation 1:1, KJV). God is obviously allowing weather events to speed up and they will fit perfectly into His end-time plans.—Don Davis and Scott Winnail