Weekly Update

September 10th, 2015

Greetings from Charlotte,

We are certainly living in a changing world. This past week an American judge temporarily jailed a clerk who refused to issue a marriage license to two homosexuals because it was against her religious convictions. America has a long history of guaranteeing religious freedom. So it is astonishing to see a woman jailed for practicing something that is explicitly stated in the Bible, and which used to be the law of the land here in America, a country that once professed "In God we trust." Here in Charlotte, Dr. Meredith wrote a co-worker letter this week that was mailed to 13,361 members and co-workers. Mr. and Mrs. Ames will be in Kansas City for the weekend, and a number of Charlotte ministers will be traveling to other congregations for the Feast of Trumpets. As we gather together to celebrate the Feast of Trumpets and we see the strife and suffering that is so extant in this world, we need to pray fervently for the return of Jesus Christ and the soon coming Kingdom of God.—DSW

Church Administration

Contacting Headquarters or Pastors for Sabbath Services Information—Repeat Announcement

From time to time, brethren who are travelling may e-mail or call Headquarters, or contact a minister through our www.lcg.org Web site, to obtain information about Sabbath services near the location they are visiting.  We are happy to provide you with this information when you need it.  However, please be sure to e-mail or call Headquarters, or contact the minister early in the week—by mid-week, at the latest.  If you wait until Friday afternoon to request the information, you may not reach the pastor in time to receive the necessary details (he may already be travelling on his circuit, and may be difficult to reach) and the office closes at 4:30 p.m. on Fridays in the Eastern Time Zone, during the summer. Please note: the office will be closed from September 23 through October 7, for the Feast of Tabernacles break. No one will be available to take phone calls during that period.

Internet Department

New French Web Site Launched!

With invaluable help from our dedicated translators, the Internet Department has worked very hard to build entirely new French and Dutch language Tomorrow's World Web sites, modeled after our English-language Tomorrow's World Web site, as well as an entirely new French-language Living Church of God Web site. We are very excited to announce that the new French-language, Tomorrow's World Web site, www.MondeDemain.org, launched this week! In addition to the launch of the new French Web site, we are now completing testing of an entirely new Dutch Web site which, God-willing, should also launch before the Feast. These new Web sites incorporate the latest technology and will be very effective tools in helping us fulfill the Great Commission to preach the Gospel to all the world (Mark 16:15).—Wyatt Ciesielka, Director of Internet

Feast of Tabernacles

Sabbath Services at Palm Harbor Feast Site on September 26

Sabbath services will be held on September 26 at Palm Harbor for all who plan to be in the Tampa/Palm Harbor/Orlando area just before the Feast. We will meet at Innisbrook Resort in Stirling Hall, Salons O, P and Q at 2:30 PM.—John Strain

Holy Day Offerings

If you are traveling internationally for the Feast, it is recommended that you leave your Holy Day Offering in your home country. This will ensure that you receive proper documentation for a tax deduction, if your country allows it. You should make an additional offering at the international site you attend, and can plan accordingly. Your attention to these instructions and your use of the preprinted Holy Day envelopes is greatly appreciated.

Opening Night Service

The Opening Night service begins Sunday night, September 27.  Brethren are encouraged to make every effort to arrive at their Feast site in plenty of time to attend this "kick-off" meeting Sunday evening, the beginning of the High Holy Day which is the first day of the Feast.  There will also be a special DVD welcome from Dr. Meredith during this service.  Check with your Feast Coordinator for the time of the Opening Night service at your site.

2015 Festival Survey

Every year we take a survey to get valuable feedback from brethren attending the Feast.  We will again have the Festival Survey available online, as well as having paper survey forms handed out at the Feast.  The Web address for filling out the Feast survey will be fotsurvey.lcg.org.  We ask everyone at the Feast to be sure to fill out the survey form (either the hard copy or online version) during the Feast, as it provides us with helpful information to assist with Festival planning for future years.

Hymnals

Brethren are encouraged to bring a hymnal (one or two songbooks per household) from their local congregation's supply for use at the Feast, if they don't have a personal hymnal to take. For those who do take a congregational (blue) hymnal, please be sure to bring the hymnal(s) back to your congregation after the Feast, so that the number of hymnals returned to each congregation is equal to the number of hymnals taken. Please make sure that all hymnals are clearly marked as to which congregation they belong.

PayPal Payments Deadline September 18—Repeat Announcement

Online PayPal pre-payments for Festival activities for U.S. sites must be made by Friday, September 18.  This will give the Accounting Department at Headquarters time to disburse funds to the U.S. sites.  After September 18, brethren attending U.S. sites should wait until the Feast to pay for any additional activities.  Please check with your local Festival site coordinator for details of payment methods accepted at the Feast.  For international sites, please check with your Festival site coordinator for more information.

Sabbath Times/Contact Information for the Day of Atonement and Sabbath of September 26—Repeat Announcement

A chart listing the places, contact information, and times for Living Church of God services on the Day of Atonement and on the Sabbath of September 26 is now posted on the MyLCG Web site. Log in to your MyLCG account at the following address to access the chart: www.cogl.org. We hope this information will be helpful for you as you plan your travel, especially so you can minimize travel on God's Sabbath. Pastors, thank you for sending these details in. If any of you have information yet to send us, please do so and we will update the chart.

Streaming/Phone Connection for Shut-Ins—Repeat Announcement

If you will have to stay home from the Feast for health reasons, please note that many of our Feast sites will be providing live-stream or phone connection services for the areas assigned to that Feast site.  In this way you can listen to or watch a live service at your assigned Feast site, even if you have to stay home, and you can feel more connected to what's going on at the Feast!  For more information on what's available at your site, please contact the Festival Coordinator at your assigned Feast site.  If you need help, please contact your Festival Advisor.  For international sites, please contact the Regional Office. For your convenience, here is a list of the Festival Coordinators in the USA in 2015:

Living Youth Program

Friday Evening Youth Bible Studies Resume October 16—Repeat Announcement

Friday evening online youth Bible Studies are planned to resume after the Feast of Tabernacles, on October 16. Mr. Sheldon Monson is scheduled to continue giving the Bible Studies and everyone, regardless of age, is welcome to "tune in." Information about joining the studies will be available on the Living Youth Web site at http://www.livingyouth.org after the Feast of Tabernacles.

Finance

Holy Day Envelopes—Repeat Announcement

Green Holy Day envelopes for the fall Feasts were mailed on August 13. If you have not received them by now, please contact us at [email protected] or call the office at 704-844-1970 and we will send you a new set. Please include your Personal Identification Number on any correspondence.  (It is above your name on your address label on mailings you receive from the Church.) Using the pre-labeled HDO envelopes for your offerings speeds up the processing and saves the Work money. We also recommend that you place your envelopes with the Bible and notebook you take to services so you do not forget to bring them with you to the Holy Day services.—Jerry Ruddlesden

Hall Rentals—Repeat Announcement

October Sabbath hall rentals should be sent in to the Accounting Department on or before September 15 to ensure that we can process the request before the Festival break.

Human Resources

Employment Opportunity: Video Editor

God continues to bless and grow His Work and with more and more doors opening for the telecast—not only over cable and satellite television, but also over various Internet delivery platforms. This brings increasing editing responsibilities, for Webcasts, Living University lectures, special and feature films, etc. The Headquarters office is planning to hire another video editor in 2016.  Qualified candidates must be members in good standing, must be able to provide professional references and examples of work created, and should be experienced in Final Cut, Adobe Premiere or Avid video editing software or comparable non-linear editing platforms.  Applicant must meet the legal requirements to work in the United States.  If you are interested in this position, please send your résumé, along with a cover letter and a letter of reference from your Area Pastor, to:  Human Resources Department, Living Church of God, 2301 Crown Centre Drive, Charlotte, NC 28227; e-mail:  [email protected];  FAX:  704-844-1973.

Employment Opportunity: Secretary/Administrative Assistant

The office of Legal Affairs and Risk Management is looking for someone to provide secretarial and administrative support in a very busy administrative office.  Duties include: research; organize, maintain and archive files, working-copy binders, and unique information databases; schedule and/or track events, deadlines and required filings (for multiple organizational units); interface with and assist field personnel; track contractual agreements, request documents and certifications, produce correspondence and otherwise relieve administrator of minor to moderately complex administrative and business detail by performing a variety of tasks.  Ideal candidate is very organized and detail oriented, able to work under pressure with moderate supervision, has good communication skills and is familiar with standard business concepts, practices, and procedures within a particular field such as Business Management, Law, Banking, Insurance, Nonprofit Management, or Contract Administration (that brief list is not all-inclusive).  This is a position of trust and a high level of confidentiality is involved.  An ideal applicant has a college degree and/or equivalent work experience (a minimum high school diploma with 2-4 years of administrative experience in a field will be considered).  Experience as an administrative assistant or executive secretary (or similar) would be helpful, but is not required.  A more complete job description is available upon request. Résumés / CVs may be sent to Human Resources by e-mail to [email protected], or by fax to 704-844-1973.

Comments

Fall Holy Days: Over the next several weeks we will observe the Fall Holy Days that picture the culminating events in God's Great Plan of Salvation for all human beings. These days reveal how God is going to put an end to the evils, deception and suffering in this world by sending Jesus Christ to banish Satan and set up the Kingdom of God on this earth, where the saints will reign with Christ for one thousand years. After this, all who have ever lived and died without knowing God's Plan will have the opportunity to learn God's way of life (see Revelation 20). Although Satan has blinded the world to the meaning of these Holy Days, we need to remember that Jesus told His disciples, "blessed are your eyes for they see… because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given" (Matthew 13:11-17). As we observe the fall Holy Days, let's rejoice and be deeply grateful to God for the incredible privilege we have been given to understand and prepare to participate in the fulfillment of these "great and precious promises" (2 Peter 1:2-4).

Have a profitable Sabbath,

Douglas S. Winnail

News and Prophecy—September 10, 2015

Pope Expands Abortion Pardons: "In a letter released on Tuesday, the pontiff requested that women who have abortions—and the doctors who perform them—can be pardoned, during the church's self-declared 'Jubilee Year,' which runs for most of next year. According to Catholic doctrine, abortion is such a grave sin that those who procure or perform it are automatically excommunicated… 'I have decided... that during the Jubilee Year, all priests will have the faculty to absolve from the sin of abortion, all who have committed it and who ask forgiveness with heartfelt penance,' Francis wrote" (Deutsche Welle, September 1, 2015). "In Roman Catholicism, the Jubilee is a special year of remission of sin and universal pardon, called every 25 or 50 years" (ibid.). Although abortion is clearly murder (see "Abortion: A Modern Holocaust?"), Christ died so that all sinners can come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), and repentance is necessary for sins to be forgiven (Acts 2:38). However, nowhere in the Scriptures are human beings given the prerogative to absolve sins or place a time limit on one's opportunity to repent. God speed the day when all of humanity will learn about the power of Christ's shed blood to forgive sins (Matthew 26:28), and about the blessings that come with a life of obedience to God and His ways. To learn what the Bible teaches about repentance, read "Have You Committed the Unpardonable Sin?"

Potential EU Superstate? As the political landscape of Europe changes, "The euro's founding father has warned that Europe's latest plan for an EMU-wide finance ministry is a dangerous attempt to smuggle through political union, and breaches the basic tenets of modern democracy. Professor Otmar Issing… said it would be 'dangerous' to transfer control over tax and spending to the EU federal level before full political union has been established first on democratic foundations. Such a quantum leap in the constitutional structure of Europe—[is] effectively the creation of an EU superstate, with a parliament comparable in power to the US Congress…" (The Telegraph, September 6, 2015). Other events, such as the migrant crisis, have been pushing Europe into unfamiliar territory and are testing the stability of the union. "Greek authorities have sent troops and riot police to the island of Lesbos where tensions are rising between groups of migrants and locals" (International Business Times, September 6, 2015; Wall Street Journal, September 1, 2015). Scripture describes an end-time European superpower with the strength of iron and the weakness of clay (Daniel 2:42-43). This political-military "beast" will unify Europe for a short time as "ten kings" give up their "power and authority" to one leader (Revelation 17:12-14). Events in Europe are setting the stage for this "EU superstate" to arise. For more information on this topic, read The Beast of Revelation: Myth, Metaphor or Soon-Coming Reality?

Wild Fires Burn Western USA: A sobering headline from a recent news article read "Extreme Weather Watch: August 2015—The Western US Burns Up" (San Diego Free Press, September 8, 2015). This year, over eight million acres have burned, primarily in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and California (National Interagency Fire Center, September 6, 2015). Firefighters have come from around the globe, and the U.S. Forest Service is spending $10 million per day to fight fires (San Diego Free Press, September 8, 2015). "In 1995 16% of the Forest Service's budget went to fight forest fires. Today it's 52% with 70% predicted in the next decade if present trends continue… According to the Washington Post, there are only six other years that have seen more than 8 million acres burned—2012, 2011, 2007, 2006, 2005, and 2004—based on National Interagency Fire Center records that date back to 1960. It is hard not to notice that all of these years came since the year 2000" (ibid.). Long ago, God warned the Israelite nations that if they turned away from Him and despised His laws, "I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze" (Leviticus 26:14-19). The prophet Hosea warned, "Israel has forgotten his Maker… I will send fire upon his cities, and it shall devour his palaces" (Hosea 8:14). The prophet Ezekiel records that God will bring "disaster upon disaster" upon backsliding Israelite nations until they learn that they have defied the God who gave them the blessings that they have enjoyed (see Ezekiel 7). As the end of the age approaches, we will see even greater conflagrations as God uses natural disasters to get mankind's attention. For more on this subject read Who Controls the Weather?—Scott Winnail, Ron Ramsingh and Justin Ridgeway