Greetings, everyone!
Do you remember your very first Passover? Your anxiousness to have seriously examined yourself beforehand? Your eagerness to do everything right? To be in the best of attitudes to take the Passover in a worthy manner? Do you still feel that way? If not, why not take seriously Christ's warning in Revelation 2:5?
And you, fellow ministers, do you remember the very first Passover you conducted? Your eagerness and anxiety to serve as true ministers of Jesus Christ? To prepare yourselves thoughtfully beforehand? To do everything right and in the right manner? If not, you also need to meditate seriously Christ's warning in Revelation 2:5.
Unfortunately, through the years, some of us begin to take things for granted and consider them as routine. They lose sight of the real picture! I still remember the exemplary attitude of a man-years ago in France-who had thought that the Bible commanded eating nothing but unleavened bread for seven days during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He was much relieved when he learned that one could also have regular meals! What happened to him? Why isn't he still in the Church? He lost sight of the real picture.
These were some of my thoughts, this morning, as I began preparing this weekly report. Mr. Carl McNair left today for Sacramento and Portland. Mr. Meredith will be leaving tomorrow for Nashville. My wife and I are on our way to a reportedly "freezing" Montreal. I wonder if the so-called "heavenly" Montana would not have been a better (warmer?) choice for us!
Here is last-minute news…
FINANCE
Our treasurer, Mr. Fred Dattolo, handed me the following important instructions for all ministers:
"Please remind the brethren to use the pre-labeled green Holy Day offering envelopes when giving an offering on the Holy Days. Usually, about 20% of the Holy Day offering envelopes that Headquarters processes do not have the preprinted labels. This results in many extra hours of work needed to process the offerings.
"Also, please remind all the hosts and others responsible for returning the Holy Day Offering Report that all reports for each individual Church area need to be returned to Headquarters, even if the Church area combines with another Church area. In other words, each individual who receives a Holy Day Offering Report for his Church area, needs to return it to Headquarters whether his group combines with another Church area or not. If a group does combine with another Church area, it should be noted on the form and the individual that received the form should return the form."
Mr. Dick Ames, who will remain in California for the first part of the Feast, showed me the following encouraging and inspiring letter addressed to Mr. Meredith:
Thank you so very much for the on-line Bible Studies! I love being able to sit at the feet of the finest Bible Teachers in the World and study the in-depth meaning of every scripture. I IMPLORE YOU to teach us every scripture of the ENTIRE BIBLE in as great as detail as possible as you and your staff are able and as time permits. The whole world can be your students of the real truth of the whole Bible! What a magnificent opportunity and a wonderful blessing. Thanks again so very much. I eagerly look forward to each lesson. I copy them off with a wide margin on the left so I can punch holes in the pages and put them into a notebook. I feel like my dream of studying the Bible at Ambassador College has come true in a way I never thought possible!"
MEDIA
Finally, the Media Department just submitted the following message:
"Two more commercial TV stations have been added to the Tomorrow's World television log. KTFO, channel 41, in Tulsa, OK, began airing the telecast last Sabbath morning at 12:30AM; Mr. Wayne Pyle reports that it received an encouraging number of responses for a first airing. For viewers in the northeastern United States, the telecast will begin airing next Sunday at 9:30AM on WPXQ, channel 69. This station, based in Providence, RI, reaches all of Rhode Island, and also Bristol County in Massachusetts.
"If you have not yet received the March-April 2001 Living Church News, please remember that it is available online at the Church Web site. You can find it in the Member area at: www.lcg.org/members/lcn.htm
"Remember that to reach the Member area, you need to enter the word 'member' as your username, and 'galatians220' as your password."
That will be all for today. Our next Weekly Report will be dated April 20th .
Have a wonderful Feast!
Dibar Apartian