Greetings:
As we now enter the month of March, we are planning field visits for the Passover season. Mr. Meredith considered going to the New York City area, but proper arrangements could not be made. He has decided instead to go to Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida for Passover and the First Day of Unleavened Bread, and go to the New York City area for Pentecost. Mr. Meredith will keep the Last Day of Unleavened Bread with the Louisiana brethren at Alexandria, LA.
Mr. Richard Ames will conduct Passover in San Diego, and keep the First Day of Unleavened Bread at a combined service for Southern California churches in Corona, CA. His Last Day of Unleavened Bread location will be announced later.
Mr. Dibar Apartian will keep Passover with brethren at Montreal, Quebec, CANADA, and he will be in Toronto, Ontario, CANADA for the Last Day of Unleavened Bread.
My wife and I will keep Passover and the weekly Sabbath with brethren in Portland, OR. The First Day of Unleavened Bread we will be with the Oregon and Washington brethren in a combined service at Centralia, WA. The Last Day of Unleavened bread we will spend in — guess where?
Heavenly Montana!
Mr. Don Haney report on Mr. Meredith's visit to Medford, Oregon:
"We had approximately 70 people in attendance on the wonderful sunny Sabbath of February 17th for Dr. Meredith's visit to Medford, Oregon. Mr. Meredith stayed two hours after services to answer questions and visit with the brethren. Mr. Meredith then went to one of the brethren's homes for a Church potluck and a couple more hours of fellowship, questions and Bible discussion. Most of the brethren also came to the potluck for further visiting. I cannot even begin to tell you how thankful the brethren were that Mr. Meredith would come up and spend so much time with them.
My wife and I personally were extremely pleased to be able to spend such quality time with our good friend and leader in the work, Mr. Meredith. We had new people who had only read the Tormorrow's World magazine and people from other Church of God fellowships—as well as brethren from Portland, OR; Eureka, CA, and the Medford Rouge Valley area come for our open house service and fellowship with Dr. Meredith. This trip was a real boost for God's people and a way to open the door for others to fellowship with us as well."
Mr. Fred Dattolo,Financial Affairs, — please announce in Sabbath Services:
Mail income for the month of February was 8.5% above February last year. This brought our year-to-date increase to 6.0%. However, the month of March is always the first "benchmark" month of the year for income. Also, it is normally the first month that we begin to contribute tithe of the second tithe. The tithe of the second tithe is used to help pay the common expenses to conduct the all of the annual Holy Days. We use tithe of the second tithe for the Holy Days, beginning with the spring Holy Days, to rent meeting halls and pay expense for traveling ministers from headquarters.
Please remember the tithe of the second tithe fund at this time. It helps greatly to defray the festival costs that benefits the entire membership.
MEDIA:
Dr. Meredith's new Internet Video Bible Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew began on Thursday, March 1; new segments of this 32-part series will be added to the Church Web site every Monday and Thursday for the next 16 weeks. Commentaries are available in video, audio and text format at URL:
www.lcg.org/commentary.htm
Last Wednesday, Dr. Meredith and Mr. Ames taped four more Tomorrow's World telecasts: Dr. Meredith's programs were on "Is There a True Church Today?" and "New World SUPER Power," and Mr. Ames' were on "Rise and Fall of Nations" and "Where Is Hell?". Dr. Meredith's programs will air on June 10 and June 17; Mr. Ames' will be the first of the new season on September 23 and September 30.
FEAST OF TABERNACLES INFORMATION
This year the festival office will conduct a pre-registration on the weekly Sabbath of June 9th, 2001. Each congregation will be sent a form, which will ask for a hand count of how many plan to attend which site. There is no firm commitment asked for, and if plans change, that is all right. We just need a ballpark head count for planning. You will be sent the form with instructions in early May, so everyone can make their plans in time for the pre-registration Sabbath count.
In past years we have only had about 50% of the pre-registration forms sent in that were in the LCN. We hope to get a better picture of where our members plan to go, by using this method.
Don Davis
From Ken Frank regarding the OCEAN CITY Feast site:
Our Festival services at Ocean City will be held in the
Roland E. Powell Convention Center
4001 Coastal Highway (and 40th St.)
Ocean City, MD 21842
1-800-OC-OCEAN 1-410-289-8311
1-410-289-0058 FAX
www.ococean.com
Ocean City is a long and narrow island. Coastal Highway is the main road running north and south through the island and becomes Philadelphia Avenue on the southern end. It is intersected by numbered streets from 1st St. (in the south) to 146th St. (in the north). Most of the accommodations are along or just off Coastal Highway.
Ocean City offers a variety of accommodations. Helpful visitor and accommodation brochures may be obtained from the toll free number or web site above. Other helpful web sites:
www.ocean-city.com
www.oceancity.md
www.mdisfun.org
www.vgnet.com.
From Mr. Doug Winnail:
Please note the following correction for the telephone number of the Arklow Tourist Office. Also, please remember that Ireland's time is 5 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time!
Michelle Hogan phone: 011-353-402-32484
Arklow Tourist Office hours: 11am-4pm
Arklow, Co.Wicklow, Republic of Ireland
Conclusion:
As we come into the Passover season, we begin to focus on the first step in the Plan of Redemption — the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the remission of our sins.
Most of those who profess Christ (or accept Christ as their Saviour), have little or no comprehension of the meaning of Passover. Instead of Passover, they observe a Pagan holiday assimilated into the Church in the second century, while calling it (Easter) "Passover."
This early pagan doctrine is defined thus: "Easter… the English word comes from the Anglo Saxon Eastre or Estera, a Teutonic goddess to whom sacrifice was offered in April, so the name was transferred to the paschal feast" (The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Vol. II, article EASTER). The article continues, "The Jewish Christians in the early church continued to celebrate the Passover, regarding Christ as the true paschal lamb, and this naturally passed over into a commemoration of the death and resurrection of Our Lord, or an Easter Feast."
Folks who forsake the Truth lose understanding of the Truth. The Passover was NEVER an Easter Feast — and it is blasphemous to associate Passover as the apostate leaders did.
Why is this important to us today? Because many of our brethren have forsaken the Truth of God and are now following the path of the apostates in the second century!
How does this happen? For a significant portion, it began with coveting that which is Holy — tithes. I know some that first reasoned that the third tithe was "not proven" to them — first and second tithe was not questioned. Then they began to compromise with the second tithe (for personal festival use), reasoning that they could not afford to save it. Finally, they began to steal the first tithe that goes to God, presuming that He had no right to claim it.
It seems that the more God blesses, the more man covets. Typically, the poor and needy recognize their need for God far more than the rich do! It has been said, "The richer your friends, the more they will cost you!"
So, some have reasoned themselves out of friendship with Christ on His Holy days. "There is nothing more fatal to friendship than the greed of gain" (Cicero). This saying is true when one covets that which is His.
This is why it is important for each of us to examine ourselves "whether we are in the faith." There is a broad way in the world — which leads to destruction. It is the way of compromise. It is the way of assimilation of the customs of the heathen nations. God has called us out of that way into His way. Let us never forsake Him by carelessness or by deceit.
It is very easy to ridicule and cynically attribute wrong motives to those that fear God and serve Him. It seems there is never an article about Mr. Armstrong or the Church of God teachings that honestly assess the teachings on the subject of tithing.
As to the claim of some that there is no "proof" of first, second or third tithe, I suggest that they read our articles more carefully. It would also be helpful to proper understanding if they would review history and honestly accept the practice of Israel under faithful leadership. Perhaps they also should talk with God about His commandment; "Thou shalt not covet."
Have a great Sabbath!
Carl E. McNair