Dear Brethren and Co-workers with Christ,
Do you feel as though you are no more than a number in an impersonal world? Good luck calling your credit card company and reaching a live person to answer your question. Instead, just press “1” to hear the next four options! How many hoops did you jump through to finally speak to someone whose accent you could barely understand? Please do not misunderstand. Once we do reach a live person, we should treat that individual with courtesy and respect. He or she is human just as we are, and is simply trying to earn a living. As my old trucking friend from the mountains of North Carolina once wisely opined when it came to accents, “We all come from someplace.”
Most of us possess a driver’s license and have a federal government number. In the United States it is a Social Security Number, and in Canada it is the Social Insurance Number. At age 18, I had to register for the military draft and was given a number. Thankfully I do not have to remember that one any longer to prove who I am, but I do have to stand in a line occasionally waiting my turn for my number to be called. Sadly, we are often treated as no more than a number.
Even we here at Tomorrow’s World and Living Church of God give you a Personal Identification Number. We don’t like having numbers any more than you do, but your PIN saves us thousands of hours in processing literature requests—thus wisely using the donations you send us. It also helps ensure accuracy for receipting your donations, but I hope we are never guilty of treating you as a mere number.
Do you realize, dear friends, that to God you are much more than a number? A few days ago my wife and I returned from a trip and I noticed a small bird lying upside down in our garage. Apparently, it flew in a few days earlier and was trapped when we closed the door. It had no food or water and succumbed as a result. I was saddened to see its lifeless body, and I imagine some of you are saddened as well. But that small bird was significant to its Creator! As Jesus stated, “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God” (Luke 12:6). And He went on to explain regarding you and me, “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (v. 7).
Yes, if a sparrow is significant to God, you dear friend are much more. The potential of a human life is far more valuable to Him than most people realize. Many believe God simply wants us to be good people in this life and at the end He will give us what I refer to as “the candy store in the sky.” But God has something far greater than that in mind. We are to be sons and daughters of God, heirs and co-heirs with Christ, His very brothers and sisters (Romans 8:14-17; 2 Corinthians 6:18). Think about that! Do you get it? Read those scriptures for yourself.
The hope of the resurrection is not a vain, ethereal hope or religious fairytale. This life is a testing ground to see what is truly important to us. Even if you live to be 100, what is that compared to eternity? The future is the reason for our existence. We are hardly just a number to God. If He takes time to number all the stars in this seemingly limitless universe, even naming each one (Psalm 147:4), we are surely never forgotten.
From His sovereign height, “The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works” (Psalm 33:13-15). Yes, God is fashioning us, molding our hearts. As the Master Potter, He is allowing trials and tests in this life to prepare us for eternity. “But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand” (Isaiah 64:8).
What a wonderful plan God has for each of us. If you have not read our booklet explaining the purpose for which you were born, please let us know and we will be thrilled to send you a free copy of Your Ultimate Destiny. But if you order it, please read it. Too many people order, but go no further. Please let that not be you.
We sincerely hope you do not feel that you are simply a number to those of us here in this Work. We cannot know all of you personally, but we care for you, pray for you, and ask God to mold and shape you to fit into His Kingdom as it pleases Him. Your support of this Work, whether financially, in prayer, or in both, shows that you have a sense of purpose in life, that you see our world is going in a wrong direction, and that there is a better way that is coming.
Our world is going the wrong direction because there is a spirit power behind its degeneration. Few realize who the god of this world truly is, and yet the truth is there in the Scriptures for anyone to read. We know that God our Creator, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has all power and is over all, but how many realize that God long ago delegated to a powerful angelic cherub the throne of rulership over this world. This cherub was, as described in Ezekiel 28:12-16, the seal of perfection, but in the course of time he corrupted his ways and became vain in his thinking, even to the point of thinking he could knock God off His throne. We read of this in Isaiah 14:12-14: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’”
He is still on that throne until Jesus returns to cast him out. In the book of John, Jesus three times referred to this spirit being, known as the Devil or Satan, as “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). Paul explained why we see our world going in such a wrong direction. “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us . . . might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:1-4, 7).
Why is this important part of Scripture left out of today’s churches? Ministers may talk of the Devil or Satan, but why do they fail to explain that God is currently leaving him on the throne of this world until Jesus returns to replace him? Notice carefully what was prophesied about the coronation of Jesus: “I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14).
And when is that coronation to take place? Jesus Himself tells us it will be at the end of the age right before His return. Here it is in His Parable of the Minas: “Now as they heard these things, He spoke another parable, because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately. Therefore He said: ‘A certain nobleman went into a far country [heaven after His crucifixion] to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. . . . And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom’” (Luke 19:11-12, 15).
There is so much in the Bible that is indisputable, but few are willing to believe what it says. I hope you appreciate the fact that God knows you personally and that He is working with you in a very special way. Your mind is being opened to the greatest truths the world could ever know. We understand these things not because we are smarter or more righteous than others, but because God has called us, the weak or ordinary of the world (John 6:44; 1 Corinthians 1:26-29). May none of us forget nor take this for granted.
Before closing, I want to pass along some wonderful news. This month our Spanish YouTube channel reached more than 50,000,000 lifetime views and we now have more than 353,000 subscribers to that channel! Subscribers are those who say, in effect, “We like what you have—give us more!” And we started a new congregation near Guatemala City. Meanwhile, our Work here in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere around the world continues to grow. This is a result of God blessing our collective efforts.
Thank you sincerely for your prayers, donations, and moral support. It is amazing what we are collectively doing with so few of us, yet the true source of our strength is not found in numbers, but in the One who owns the entire universe, containing trillions of galaxies, each containing hundreds of billions of stars—each of which He has numbered and named.
Sincerely, in Christ’s service,
Gerald E. Weston