The End of Tyranny – Pt. 1

Ron Weinland

December 24, 2011

One area of discussion that I do want to share with the Church at this time here because of a timing and so forth, there are different things we’ve addressed that I’ll probably mention we go along here, but we’re fully gearing toward now, in a greater way, God has helped us to become incredibly organized as a Body and to have the opportunity to do a work that’s in front of us, in reference to last week’s sermon ‘The Meaning of Elijah’ and a work that God is doing at this particular time and is going to magnify that mightily here before long.  And again, a very humbling process to realize what’s taking place and what God is planning and preparing.  But because of the timing involved, some of the procedure of how some of you came into the Church, things you went through and so forth, we’re coming to a time when much of that is changing dramatically.  It’s going to be a matter that when people want baptism, basically they’re going to be able to be baptized as soon as they want it, desire it; that’s going to be a great part of the work of what’s going to take place.

I’m excited because I think of - which I’ll share with you, some thoughts I had there, and I’ll mention a little bit, and I’ll mention more in the future - I am awesomely excited because I understand in a greater way so many of you that have been called and drawn at this time here, the training you’ve received in the past 2½, 3½ years, that there is incredible opportunity ahead for you.  Every one of you God has called for a purpose.  He’s giving you great opportunities of things you can’t even begin to comprehend.  If I looked back, talking to an individual who’s here today that we’ve known for a long, long time, going all the way back to Toledo where all this began, and if someone had told us what we would be doing today 5 years ago, let alone 10 years ago, or back in 1994 when some of these things began, I would have thought that’s the most insane thing you could ever come up with, that you could ever conceive of in your mind, that we would have what we have today.  And yet, here we are.  And the number of ministers that there are out there now ready to do an incredible job, more who are going to be added as time goes along, but I want to share something with you. Please understand, when it comes to the ministry not everyone is called to that specifically.

There are going to be two primary areas of service when God’s Government comes to this earth.  Part of it’s going to be in the ministry, to serve in that capacity.  Another is going to be in government.  Some of it is combined by certain jobs; some of it is separated because of certain jobs.  Not only is it true in the ‘priesthood’ if you will, in the sense of that which comprises God’s Family that is changed, 144,000, there are going to be those who fulfill both roles in both areas depending on where God has them in the body, some who are going to have more to do with governing.  God is a very organized God, truly, very powerfully so.  I marvel when I think about this sometimes and think about where we are now, that God has prepared 144,000 during 6,000 years to help govern, lead, guide, and direct, teach His people around the world for a thousand years under Jesus Christ.  For a thousand years having that opportunity and responsibility of life – an awesome thing – that individuals are going to have the opportunity to do, to see God’s work grow, to see millions and billions be worked with during a thousand years.  To do what?  To prepare for the Great White Throne.  And so God is awesomely organized in how He’s going to work to bring salvation, to bring us into - all mankind that will yield and receive that - into His Family.  And so to think about this resurrection that’s coming up, 144,000, that’s going to be small compared to what happens at the end of a thousand years.

To grasp and comprehend what awaits you, the opportunities you have of serving, the places that God has prepared for you already is beyond comprehension.  See, I can speculate...there are things that I believe with all my being are going to come to pass as far as responsibilities in government and in the ministry, or serving in that capacity, that are going to be so fulfilling to you, so exciting to you, but you have an incredible opportunity at the very get go and that will come along with time.  And candidly, there is a reserve of individuals that are going to be able to come into the ministry rather rapidly after Jesus Christ returns, others are going to go into various areas of government as soon as Jesus Christ returns, but when you talk about the ministry, in the sense of a work that’s to be done, it’s from you that a lot of resources are going to come, that have to do with baptizing all over the world.  It doesn’t stop.

The 144,000 will not be involved with baptizing people, the ministry in God’s Church will be.  And that’s an incredible opportunity.  Government is an incredible opportunity, to work with people, because it’s still a teaching position in that respect when you understand God’s Government.  And so again, there are incredible opportunities out there that God has placed before us and it’s going to become more and more exciting as you go forward, as you yield yourself to God and what God is doing, and especially with so many young people who have come along.  That’s why you’re here.  Various kinds of opportunities and responsibilities, of organizing various things that have to do with God’s structure and God’s government, and those things will become clearer later on but they’re going to be awesomely rewarding.

One of the things I thought for a long, long time, is that out of our past, out of Worldwide, that there would be individuals brought back as a remnant who would be able to serve even now in the sense of the job that’s in front of us, but because of the short time left realize now that is virtually impossible.  There may be a few, but for most it’s not possible because it takes time to get your mind back to where it needs to be when you’ve been out there for so long.  It takes time to catch up with all the truth that God has given to us and to live it and have it a part of your being and a part of your mind.  So the farther we go into this the more excited I become, and I hope you do too, and I hope you are, because to grasp what we’re living - you really can’t; to grasp where we are in time - you really can’t; to grasp that Jesus Christ is about to return, that there will be a government set up by God very soon – we believe it but you can’t fully grasp that, you really can’t because we’ve never experienced it on this earth.

One thing I did want to mention here that did come out during the meeting has to do with a situation that does come up from time to time in people’s lives, and that has to do with marriage, more explicitly it has to do with divorce.  Because of various kinds of situations that sometimes happen in life those things are before people, men and women.  I believe that before the end of this age there will be others, there will be people who come along who are, in the short time we have left, who will come to that point in time; that there are certain environments that people can’t live within because certain individuals choose one thing, others choose another, and some are not pleased to dwell with you in your beliefs.

And so there are always choices in those areas of life, but one thing (just to let everybody understand) as a Church, because of where we are, because of a short time, there will be no remarriage, there will be no dating if those things happen in life – because of where we are – from this point forward.  Okay?  A decision has to be made at some point and this is that point and this is that decision, because of various things that are going to happen in people’s lives.  There are people sometimes who divorce who later remarry.  There are going to be all kinds of circumstances and situations arise and this is not a time to worry about that.  Because a divorce is a traumatic thing in life, people go through hardships, it’s a very emotional thing.  Death is a very emotional thing in people’s lives, so is divorce, and so the point being is that we’re not going to get bogged down or involved in in counselling people about what you might be able to do.  The reality is it’s just a blanket decision that God has inspired.  There will be no remarriage, no dating of such individuals allowed, until Jesus Christ returns, then the God Family will sort it out.  Okay?  I mention it because it’s a reality and something that people have to address in life from time to time sadly.

There are some environments that people don’t have to live in, and it’s a choice.  Some environments that are so oppressive and so bad sometimes that people have to make a choice in what they do and whether they can survive in that environment or whatever.  Sometimes it even turns violent, and that’s too bad that human beings are like that, but that’s the way human beings are.

It is not my custom to give the title of a sermon when I first begin speaking as I prefer somewhat of an introduction first at least, but today it’s different; this sermon is entitled, The End of Tyranny – Part 1.

If we can all see it in God’s Church, in one way or another all of us are witnessing the death throes of tyranny.  It’s not a pleasant thing to experience but the end result is beautiful indeed, because the end result is God’s Kingdom being established on this earth.

Kind of interesting here when I started going through this and thinking of this particular subject matter and the word ‘throe’... t-h-r-o-e; is an old word.  It’s not used very much, but it’s very descriptive of what we’re going through now at this particular time as we’re experiencing much of the struggle that is associated with it.  As I said, it’s a word seldom used and has some of its roots going back, they believe, to about the 13th century.  The definition is interesting:

1. A severe pang or spasm of pain, as in childbirth.

Now I, candidly, was a little shocked when I read this, because the word came to mind ‘death throe’, not understanding fully the word ‘throe’ because it’s not a word we generally use.  We use a different kind of word that sounds the same t-h-r-o-w, but this word is different.

A severe pang or spasm of pain, as in childbirth.

1. throes: A condition of agonizing struggle or trouble: a country in the throes of economic collapse.[1]

That’s the dictionary definition!  I thought, “WOW!  Incredible!”  Because that’s what we’re experiencing in the world right now.  Every once in a while they give a little bit of a shot in the arm to postpone the inevitable, because the timing is in God’s hands.  What’s happening in Europe right now is awesomely incredible to watch – right on the edge – and they’re being pushed into a corner to have ten nations come together...and some have already mentioned nine that they see coming together in agreement. Now, that’s awesome for you to be able to witness something like that, that since around 1950 when they had their first preparation of meetings in Europe they finally came up with the name, ‘The European Common Market’. ‘The Plain Truth’ was there.  Mr. Armstrong sent individuals to the meetings in order to report on it because he understood the significance of the prophetic things having to do with the end-time, of ten nations that would eventually come together in this last seventh revival of what we call ‘The Holy Roman Empire’.  Now, that’s awesome to understand you’re living in that time right now where you’re seeing them pushed into a corner where they have no other option but to scrap everything they’ve had to this point in time, because one thing has been proven to them: It can’t work under its present structure!  Already they agree that Great Britain is out.  They can come to the meetings, but basically have no say anymore.  They have no say!  And they’re not playing games anymore over there, it’s for survival, it’s for survival of the Euro.  If the Euro goes, Europe goes!  And who’s at the top of it all?  Exactly again, going all the way back before 1950 in what God gave to Mr. Armstrong.  He said Germany would be!  Why?  Because God gave him understanding of something that had to do with prophecy.  They are the Assyrian race!  They don’t even know it!  I marvel at that.

We went through that museum there in Berlin and they have so many relics from the Assyrian Empire.  To them it’s awesome and it’s an important thing, and they don’t even know that’s them!  That’s them!  That’s why they’re so in awe of it!  And the great eagle that’s stretched out with its wings and the pictures that are there that go back to the Assyrian Empire that they have to this day.  They design it a little bit different than our eagle.  Lions, eagles, different things that have been used in different times by peoples and because of representation of things, but some of the style of some of that has always remained the same – just like that crazy serpent around the pole!

I marvel sometimes at how ignorant the world is about religion, and don’t understand some of the simplest and most basic of stories in the Bible, and to understand that things are passed down from generation to generation.  Astarte, Ishtar, Eastre – it’s nothing new!  It goes back way before Jesus Christ ever came on this earth, in civilization, and yet in time even what is called ‘Traditional Christianity’ adopted those beliefs.  Crazy!  And just like the serpent on the pole that was during the time of the Exodus and all of the poisonous snakes, and people began to die by the thousands, and God told Moses to put this pole with a serpent around it and any time anybody was bitten they could come look upon that and they would live.  And they started worshipping the pole!  Seven hundred years later a king had to grind the thing up and destroy it because people were looking to it as some mystical power of healing!  And it was only for a one time use!  If you’re bitten by a snake in the wilderness you can go look upon it and you’ll live.  It was a matter of obedience and recognizing something, the beginning of obedience. Isn’t it difficult sometimes for human beings to finally humble themselves enough to obey God!  So if you know you’ve been bitten by a poisonous snake and you’re going to die like several thousand around you it’s not a big brainy thing to figure out, “I’m going to go look on that pole.  I’m going to obey God!  I want to live!” ...and then they go right back to their other ways as soon as they’re okay.  Human nature – it stinks!  Man has rebelled against God from the very beginning.

‘The carnal mind is enmity against God,’ meaning it’s an enemy to God, but people have a hard time believing that.  They won’t until they’re converted, then you come to understand, yes, the carnal mind does fight against God!  You fight against God.  I fight against God.  I hate that about my nature, my carnal human nature!  But we fight a battle there and we rejoice in the ‘inner man’ as Paul said.  There’s a battle that goes on.  We choose that, we choose God from the moment we’re baptized and we fight the fight!

So, anyway, what an incredible thing that now Europe is in a corner.  They have a little bit of a reprieve but there are leaders who know it’s still coming down the pike and they’re still planning, and they’re still preparing a different constitution, in essence, that gives power to a central government, and that’s what they’re calling it.  They recognize it’s going to be a federal government that comes out of this, whether the rest join or not in that part of it is immaterial, there’s going to be ten who come together who do agree, and it’s at the door now.  And just because they pumped a little money into some banks over there, because they followed an example from the United States, the solution to not having enough money is just to print more.  It’s called ‘quantitative easing’; it eases everything, makes more money available to everyone. And every country, every nation that’s ever done that has suffered immensely, a lot of times just flat going down the tubes and generally ending in war.

Isn’t that amazing today?  War.  I’ll get back to that in a little bit here.

But awesome to me!  See, I find things like this awesomely inspiring.  Thought comes into a mind, ‘The Death Throes of Tyranny’ – pray to God for a sermon because I have no idea what kind of a sermon to give.  I knew what the one last week was, but after that I had no idea where we were going.  I know what the one is coming up on January 7th; I know where that’s going because God already showed a long time ago that’s a big time in God’s Church.  It’s like crossing the Jordan River and circling around Jericho seven times – that example that God has given to us is not by accident.  Seven times, or seven days and then the last day is the total...and we’re about to enter the seventh period of time so I know what that sermon is about.  But in between here?  No idea; pray to God and there it is, ‘The Death Throes of Tyranny’.  Looked up the word, because how often do you use the word ‘throe’?  T-H-R-O-E.  I used it so seldom - just to be honest with you - I didn’t know how to spell it.  I’ve always heard the expression ‘death-throe’, I thought t-h-r-o-w. When you misspell something it gives you a different option there, ‘did you mean...’ or ‘do you mean...’ Yes, that’s what I mean, that looks familiar!  So anyway, I learned something that I didn’t know.  But then to see the definitions, to see how they fit with where we are?  Awesome!  Childbirth...the death throes, the throes of an economic collapse...

So, many of you are experiencing a hard and a painful struggle.  It isn’t getting easier out there, it’s getting harder.  Now, if it’s getting easier for you I’m thankful for you that you’re having that, but the pressure cooker is on out there and the closer we get...there is a reason for all this, of what you’re experiencing.  I was talking to some last night, talking about how that there were periods of time in Philadelphia...  I remember a period of time for about three years there, things just went along incredibly smoothly in the whole Church area and I was a little concerned about it because I thought in life things aren’t (and you’re in the Church), this may not be a good thing because we learn through trials, we learn through hardships, that’s the way it is.  I’ve been in the Church since 1969, baptized in September, and to this day I have never seen a time where things are so stirred up, where the attacks are so vicious, of things that are going on out there, so demented, so distorted, so ruthless.  Truly!  And people are being attacked in different ways.  We’re going through a lot of difficult things.

So, I know that you are experiencing that, as a whole, as a Church.  It’s not a pleasant time.  And there are things that God wants us to understand about all of this.  It’s not much longer, because you’re witnessing something very powerful here – the death throes of tyranny.

So, we’re not just talking about the word ‘throe’ here, but the word ‘death-throe’; it goes together in what we’re talking about here. That expression is being used in this sermon because, again, there is much suffering with God’s people, of what you are experiencing due to this very thing that’s taking place that now exists throughout the world.  It is so forthcoming that leaders of nations are now vocalizing imminent preparation for World War III.  World War III!  People are talking about it!  Not here in the United States.  People here in the United States, if they hear something like this, it’s like, “Oh, they rattle the sabres every once in a while out there but this isn’t real.  They don’t really mean that!  It’s not that bad!  Things are going to get better, they always have.”  No, they haven’t always gotten better.  The history of mankind is WAR!  The history of mankind is when you’re in a corner and things aren’t good you go to war to solve your problems!

China has been notorious for that!  Their history is steeped in that!  You have problems?  You have problems with your population?  Get them stirred up for something – war!  Focus the country on something else to take your problems off of yourself!  Let’s go to war with somebody, that’ll solve our problem!

Human nature is an incredible thing.  If you don’t know history of some of the things that have taken place in time it’s good to go back and think about some of those things, review some of those things.  The way of mankind - mankind can’t rule himself! His solution so often when he’s backed into a corner and there’s no other solution...go to war!  It’s only that now man can annihilate himself.  I saw here recently that they’re quibbling about how many nuclear weapons China really has.  It’s like the difference between 300 or 3000.  Give. Me. A. Big. Break!  300 will destroy the earth!  Does it matter that they have ten times or twenty times that?   ...and Russia, to boot, how many do they have?  Oh...they destroyed a lot of theirs, didn’t they....  We’re so gullible sometimes.  We think everybody is like us in this country, we think everybody thinks the way we do and “I can look at that man’s eyes and see a friend.”  That’s what one president said, “I can look in his eyes and ...” it’s like we have a kinship here.  No, he might be thinking how he’s going to bury you.  God condemned Israel in the Old Testament for stupidity like that, and who are we?  Well, the nation, it’s Israel.

And so these things are being openly vocalized now, preparation for World War III.  Read a thing here the other day, have it in my briefcase here, how that some papers have been sent to Russia from China, how they agree with what’s being said in Russia, that they have indeed told their military, especially their navy, coming from a General, coming from military leaders and now the president of the nation, saying that the only way to stop the west is a nuclear war, is to go to war, is World War III.  You think, “How Insane! Do they really mean it?  Is it possible...?”  Just like we understand, a day, a month, and a year that we passed up some time back, at some point here, it’ll come to a day that they already planned a long time ago that they’re going to do this?  They’re going to do it!  They’ve already planned to do it!  One general said a few years back, “We only want half the United States.  We only want the western half from Missouri on to the west.  You can have the eastern half.” Generous!  Generous man.  And we slough it off.  Does our mentality change because of their problems?  They have huge problems in that country – huge problems!  I can’t even begin to comprehend problems of population like that.  And people slough all this off as if it’s not real or if it does it’s going to be a long, long way before it happens.

Look at how things can change overnight.  You get one person who dies in a country who has nuclear weapons and they’re firing off missiles because they want to get those missiles to where they can actually go to, of all places, the United States.  Why would they want to do that?  We’re so stupid!  It just takes one to start a World War.  Someday it’s going to happen.

One of the greatest death throes of tyranny that we’re now witnessing is that of a collapsing world economy.  It’s hanging on by a shoestring, a thread, if you will, maybe that’s better.  A shoestring’s stronger.  Thread.  And for us in God’s Church we’re suffering because tyranny does not die easily.  It’s had a hold of the world for 6,000 years.  Now the definition for tyranny:

Tyranny:  cruel and oppressive government or rule

See, that can be in the home, that can be in a society, that can be in organizations, that can be in any form of government structure, and candidly, that’s the way it is.  Sometimes people don’t recognize it for how bad or how severe it really is, how oppressive.  I marvel at the sermons we had at the Feast about being able to be delivered out of oppression, out of slavery, out of Egypt.  That’s where we are in time.  That’s what Gods getting ready to do, and He’s excited by it.  He’s waited so long for this time to come about in ways we can’t even begin to comprehend.  I’m not just talking about 6,000 years, I’m talking about from the time that He allowed to take place what was to take place, the one being would be made the greatest of all in talent and ability in the spirit realm, who because of that would become lifted up in time in his own pride and hate God’s furtherance of His plan, become jealous of God’s plan, become envious of God’s plan, that God would have a plan to bring others into His Family with greater power than him and greater glory than him, because it would be the very glory of God Almighty.  And when that happened is that he became evil in his thinking, perverted in his thinking and turned against God and began to turn others against God.  That’s the way of tyranny.  That’s the way of oppressive thinking, to fight against God, to twist and distort things.

Another part of the definition here:

- oppressive or unjustly severe government on the part of any ruler

Even in the ministerial meeting we discussed the importance of understanding the difference; because it’s in the world and it affects us in our lives – all of us.  It has a hold, or hooks in us, and we’re coming out of it.  God is blessing us in coming out of the world and it takes time.  And so we find it pops up sometimes in various areas.  In one area within the Church, and within the ministry that God has wanted us to focus on since 1987 in a very powerful way is the difference between sheriffing and shepherding, between serving and ministering in spirit and in truth God’s way, and not controlling.  There’s a difference between attitudes of mind that want to control situations and control lives, or think that they have the best solution of how things should be done.  There’s a big difference.  And so we’re learning that more and more, we’re becoming even more refined in the ministry, something that God wants us to grasp now because we’re the beginning of a new age. You are the beginning of a new age in just a few months, and you’re going to be able to help others and teach others and be a vital part of that process.  And so God wants us to grasp at the get-go here that those are the kinds of battles you’re going to have, and to be alert to certain things so that you can help people and teach people and work with people.

The third part of tyranny here:

- undue severity or harshness, oppressive power and oppressive harsh or unjust act

That’s the way of the world.  Fair?  Is the world fair?  Is the world balanced?

So, asking the question; Are any of you experiencing the oppression of tyranny?  Women do often.  That’s why I marvel at what God has given to us in the Church, within the ministry, and in sermons we’ve had, about what He desires to see within the family – to go back to the beginning, to go back and reverse things, a way of life that began in the Garden of Eden, to reverse something that God never intended to be in the family in the first place, in husbands and wives in a right and a balanced and a joyful relationship that from the very beginning was marred and smeared and hurt.  Incredible!  So again, speaking of tyranny, you experience it on the job, you experience it in society, and right now there are things that are so stirred up more than ever that people experience this within families.

I have never seen a time in God’s Church where families are so hateful to one another, speaking of toward you.  Bitterly hateful!  That’s not of God!  Some of them think they’re Christian.  You think, “What kind of a Christian are you to espouse that you believe in God, to espouse that you want to live right toward your fellow man...? Where does hatred and bitterness come from?  It doesn’t come from God’s spirit!   So what are you doing?  Who are you?  How righteous are you?  Are you righteous?  I think you’re a hypocrite and a liar, snakes in the grass!!”  That makes them happy doesn’t it?  And so now because I said that they’re going to come at you even more because that’s what they are!  That’s what Jesus Christ called the Pharisees and the Sadducees, “You’re snakes in the grass!  You’re liars!”  Incredible!  And that doesn’t make people happy, does it?  So what do you experience when you tell the truth?  You experience tyranny.  That’s what you experience, and it’s nasty, it’s oppressive, it’s harsh, it’s cruel, it truly is, and it comes from one being.  One being started it all.

He had a beautiful name in the beginning – Lucifer – the opportunity to bring light...light, God’s way of life, God’s truth - and he became the adversary, Satan the devil, resisting God, fighting against God all the time.  Sad!  Sad.

And so again here, you experience these things even more so; so by my saying these things today there are going to be people out there even more stirred up and cause problems in families and come at you and say nasty and hateful things toward you more than ever.  Now I could sit back and I could rest a little bit from all this and I could give nice smooth and pleasing sermons that are easier for people in the world to receive and those who hate us to not hate us as much, but I’m not going to give them that luxury because God isn’t going to give them that luxury.  And their day is coming very soon, sadly.

I think about the Psalms and David’s prayers so often, for deliverance from those who hated him, who wanted to kill him.  That’s what hatred is, it’s the spirit of murder.  Truly is.  I think of a scattered group that last week was fasting.  I can’t help it, it’s my job...  and my heart goes out to them because they’re being mocked and made fun of and I know what that’s like.  Are they doing something correctly?  No, because they’re asleep.  But to hate them? ...to have a mean spirit? I don’t have that at all.  On the contrary, I look forward to the day they’re going to be able to repent and change and see the light and see where they’ve made errors and see how to better fast and pray before God and have those blessings again in their life.  Some that are going to come back before too long and some who have to die and be resurrected a thousand years from now; and my heart aches for them, it truly does, I can’t tell you how much.  So many of them I know!

But those who attack them?  Those who mock and make fun of them?  Their day is coming soon.  Because you see, they’re still God’s people; they’ve just been spewed out of His mouth for a time, as some of you were.  We were all, if you have a history in the past going back to 1994, before that, every one of us was spewed out of – the word means ‘vomited’ out of – God’s mouth, separated from God’s spirit, and God has the power to bring us back.  We are witness of that.  We are witness of the power of God to awaken people out of spiritual sleep, whether it be now in this life or after someone has died, to be awakened.  See, to be awakened physically is a simple thing.  God can resurrect anybody, anytime, give them life again – simple thing for God.  To awaken someone spiritually isn’t as easy because it’s spiritual and our mind resists God.  And so we have to experience different things sometimes to humble us.  And so God has a process there of saving people and to humble.

But those who mock and make fun?  I look forward to the day that their mouths are shut.  I look forward to the day that tyranny comes to a screeching halt, when God fulfills what He promises; you mock Him.... because anyone that you mock that is God’s, God says, “I will mock you in the day of your calamity.”  And that’s justice, a righteous vengeance that comes from God – not from mankind – but from God.  Their days are coming.

And you know what I hope happens to them, most of them?  Because it won’t happen to all of them.  Some of them are so far gone.... so far gone , they so hate...they’re so eaten up with hate inside that their ability to repent and change is being minimized more and more and more.  Their ability to be saved is being minimized.  There are going to be people who will not receive God’s truth no matter what happens - if they’re resurrected in the Great White Throne - who are still going to hate and resist God... into the millions!  And that may be hard for you to grasp and comprehend.  “Well how could that be?  People see the history of everything, see what God has done for a thousand years and they are given life again and they know they’ve been dead and they’re shown proof and evidence, the fact that they’re alive and that they look different now, they’ve got a younger body, they’re totally healed, they’re no longer missing the leg that got cut off just before they died with a battle axe – they’re whole again.”  That should be a sobering thing, but there are people who are so far gone, that hate so much that even that won’t humble them.

And so the great vacuum cleaner comes along – Satan.  He’s released out of his prison for a little while.  Not during the thousand years.  God says there’s going to be a thousand year Millennium and Satan is not released until afterward.  When is that?  Well, that’s more truth that God will give in time and explain it more thoroughly when it comes time.  But he’s a vacuum cleaner to pick up all the dirt and all the filth, and then when it’s all said and done he’s destroyed.  I look forward to that day when his presence is no longer around.

I hope you all understand this.  This is not where the sermon was going, but this is where it is. I hope you all understand the mercy and the love of God, to grasp and comprehend that it doesn’t matter who it is, if anyone is of a mindset, no matter who it is that you love - and we love family especially; in physical families we love each other - but I had to come to a comprehension of certain things a long time ago that no matter what happens in our lives, if someone chooses not to obey God and chooses that they don’t want God, we all have to come to this in our life at some point.  The merciful thing, if they will never change, if they will never repent before God, is that they do die for eternity, because that can’t be around any longer.  God’s desire is, ‘O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem.’  Finally peace and rest for His Family, for the angelic realm and for the God Family. That’s what God’s working toward.  It’s a beautiful thing.  And all who will receive that and have peace in their life, and not bitterness and anger and hate and resentment and jealousies and all the evil that goes with it...and that’s a beautiful thing when it’s right with God.  But to get there is not an easy thing.  6,000 years of tyranny, it’s in its death spiral right now, it truly is.  It actually goes farther than that beyond that, but we’re talking about the time of man on earth.

It isn’t much longer!  You’re suffering through things right now and I know that sometimes that it’s just difficult.  See, I believe with all my being that if I keep focused I’m going to make it to May 27th and I’m so glad it’s not any farther beyond that, because I don’t know if physically I could take any longer unless God performed some kind of miracle in my life.  I am drained.  I am worn out.  I feel so much like I’m at the end of the race and I think, “What a beautiful example.”  Because that’s what Paul talks about.  He talks about the race.  I’ve talked about that recently.

When I think about racing my heart starts beating a little faster.  I can’t help it!  I used to love racing in college and in high school.  We didn’t have a very big high school so that’s about all I got to do, was run, because we didn’t have a big enough team to have football or baseball or anything else so we learned how to run, and I loved doing it.  And right now my heart is beating a little faster because I think there’s something about being in a race, for me, because that’s what I did as I grew up, and especially at Ambassador College and some of the things we did there.  But I’ll tell you what...you’d pour everything into it, and you have to learn how to even pace yourself in some things because if you put it all in the beginning you’re not going to be able to have a finish, a proper finish, or if it is it’s one of walking or dragging or whatever.  So you have to pace yourself depending on the distance.

And I think of where we are and the need to pace ourselves and the need to keep fighting and pushing forward and the reality of a race right now that we’ve been running for, let’s just narrow it down to 3½ years, that’s when it began for us in great way when we talk about 1335 days or 1290, 1260 especially.  3½ years.  I think of a 3½ mile race at Ambassador.  I hated it!  If I went beyond 400 meters, to run 800 I hated it, to run 3½ miles I thought, “You’re all insane!”  But there was so much peer pressure to run that race.  It was like if the whole student body didn’t get involved in that particular race, “Meh, you’re kind of puny, weak.... chickening out.”  They didn’t exactly say those things but you felt that pressure, I’ve got to be in that race.  So I got in the race.  Saw a lot of things in a lot of people.  I learned so many lessons.  You learn so many things.  You can learn so much from sports.  Mr. Armstrong used to go out and watch the ministers play basketball.  He learned a lot about them, their personalities, things about them, their character, by watching them play basketball.  Did you know that?  He’d watch them play basketball, those who were going to go out in the ministry.  You can learn a lot about people.

I think of one individual, had everything going for him.  He had an uncle and a father in the ministry, and had an incredible name in the Church, had a reputation, sharp, intelligent, athletic, and we got in that 3½ mile race, just to give you an example, and we were only about a mile and a half down the road and because he couldn’t stay in the front of the pack he quit.  And it wasn’t too much longer after college he quit the Church.  And there are things like that sometimes we can learn from, that are very physical but they reflect things about our character and our thinking.  And that’s why I love the example of a race.

How many of you have ever been in a race?  You have this finish line at the end, but especially in the 3½ mile I think 3 ½ years, that’s apropos for me, because the last three years, and that three miles I kind of surprised myself that  I was able to keep in the race like that.  I didn’t know if I’d be able to make it or not; nowhere up front, but I stayed in the race.  And that last half mile...oh that was the killer of killers.  That last half mile, because now you see how far away you are, you see this distance closing in more and more, and the more you get closer, you want to put more into it, you want to run harder, you want to run faster, and you’re definitely not going to give up, but there’s this battle in the mind that you’re fighting yourself, and you know, our race is like that.  The closer you get the more worn out you are, but this is the time to pour it on more.  This isn’t a time to let up!  This is a time to become more alert!  ...to have a desire to finish no matter what!  And it means a great deal to me and I hope it does to you as well, that you feel that.

Do you feel more worn out now than you did 3 years ago?  I do.  I can’t even begin to compare it with 3 years ago.  I, in comparison, am worn out!  I am tired!  I truly am.  Just to be honest and candid with you.  That’s just the way it is!  I am worn out; I sometimes cry out to God that I don’t feel like I have another thing within me.  I feel totally poured out sometimes.  Do you ever feel that way?  It’s a race and we are at a point in time because of the pressure and the stress of a world around us, you can feel that way, but you have to be observant to it.  That’s not the time to let up then, because our human tendency, if we’re not careful, that’s the time we want things to go a little easier or we want to back away from certain things and we don’t want to have to address difficult things.  Don’t be that way! But we can think that way if we’re not careful – want to be like the world, to be oblivious to everything going on around them, ever how people do that when they shut off from the world.

Because people in this country don’t want to know the truth of what’s going on in the world.  They have no idea what’s happening in Syria.  We hear it on the news once in a while.  They have no comprehension what the Chinese and Russians and others are doing in that part of the world, and Turkey and what’s going on there and some of the things being said in the Middle East right now in some of these countries and the battles that are going on over there.  We hear certain things on the news as it affects us in a minor way, but to have a big picture of it?  People don’t have it and they don’t want to address it.  And the economy, the stock market, it goes up and then it goes down and they have to figure out how they’re going to prop it back up again and they  play these games.  It wears you out!  It can wear you out, but you’ve got to be alert to what’s going on and why it’s happening because now is the time to fight on a spiritual plane more than ever!  Face your battles head on!  Address them head on!  Ask God for help and strength!  Do not let up!

Ephesians 2:1 - And you has He make alive, God Almighty.  It’s talking about, in context here, in essence that which God gives.  ‘Quickens’ is the word I believe used in the Old King James, ‘quickens’.  It has to do with being made alive.  And it goes on to say, who were dead in trespasses and sins, so it says, now God has made us alive in Christ Jesus through the forgiveness of sin, whereas before we were dead in our sins, like the world is until they’re brought to repentance.  ...wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, it’s real!  There is a being out there who is a prince who is the head of it all.  Satan.  And he does broadcast!  It’s a spirit broadcasting and whether you receive that or not, and to the degree it affects you, has to do with your relationship with God.  Because it’s out there!  It’s not like you have to be ... let’s say you have a radio station and you want to listen to some music, you have to be fairly close to a particular tower.  Satan is not restricted by distance – it’s worldwide!  He can broadcast in spirit and other spirit beings who are part of that attack, disrupt life, make life miserable, to stir things up. There are things happening out there right now that are being reflected in things in the world, in news every once in a while that crops up, that makes it very clear that it’s from a spirit world...that people are being influenced by a spirit world.  It’s stirred up immensely right now.

I remember a period of time in the early seventies where these things were happening in the world and we saw it in the Church because God gives us the ability to see certain things that are happening.  Perhaps because they didn’t know the timing then.  Perhaps there was that doubt in some spirit beings minds that maybe 1975 has some possibilities.  I don’t know.  But anyway, it was stirred up out there, and I haven’t seen a time like that until now, going back to then and to the degree.  And right now, candidly, it’s passed it up immensely so, if that makes sense.

...the prince of the power of the air; Satan is called that for a reason.  Because it’s power that he has of broadcasting.

...the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience; When people choose not to obey God, and the more they choose to disobey the more that they can be receptive to a spirit world, the more they can be influenced to lose control of their own emotions, their own anger, their own bitterness, their own jealousies, their own envy.  That’s why the things that are wrong in life in human nature, those beings can make them intensified.  They will work to intensify that by broadcasting attitudes.

So the example of jealousy here: Let’s say an individual gets jealous about something, and there are spirit beings that knows of this, they can broadcast that spirit of attitude of jealousy to stir it up even more, to cause the mind to become more suspicious.  It’s a spirit because they’re communicating with the mind, and the mind can actually be receptive of that and all of a sudden lose a control that maybe they otherwise have to bring things into check, so they become insanely jealous, as an example, losing control totally.  Anger is the same thing.  There are a lot of crazy things that happen out here at times because some anger that someone has they like to stir it up to make it worse, to cause people to do things that are insane, to say the least.

...a spirit that works in the children of disobedience; among whom also we had our conversation, it’s the word for ‘conduct’ which can come out in conversation and how we speak and how people talk, how people treat each other, what they say to each other.  And so it shows that there has been that which has been in the world that’s not a part of God, that’s just a part of human nature.  ...in times past in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, those three things whereby man is so powerfully lead/controlled, ‘lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,’ that sums it all up, if we can understand that, by our carnal nature, by the way we think and so forth, the way we justify self and esteem self, lift up self.

...and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others: And so without God that’s the way the world is, some worse than others, some...if you want to look at degrees, of some better, try to live a better life, but it’s still a very selfish world that we live in and not yielded to the laws of God, the truth of God, the ways of God, to truly desire to obey God in everything.  That mind doesn’t exist without God’s help, without God’s calling.  And so again, it’s a reminder here of the past.

...but God, who is rich in mercy: We learn that.  Because of how God has been merciful to me I learn to be more merciful.  God is forgiving to me; I understand that, it helps me to become more forgiving.  That’s how God works with us.  The love He gives to us, the way He works with us, if we are receptive and receive that we will in turn live that toward others.  That’s what grace is.  All the things that are a matter of grace that God gives to us, if we’re receptive and we’re learning from it we will change because that’s what we want to be.  We will embrace that because we recognize the beauty and the value of it, of God’s love, of God’s mercy, of God’s patience, etcetera, and etcetera.

...rich in mercy; and God is showing that at this end-time in an awesomely powerful way.  To me I think, what an incredible thing to give to the world as a witness that reflects 6,000 years, how merciful God has been to man for 6,000 years.  Has He intervened at different times and corrected different times? Yes.  But as a whole even in that, whatever it is, God has given great mercy to mankind, He truly has.

For His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins;  ‘God so loved the world...’ a world that is enmity to God, resists God, fights against God, but He knows that about our nature.  He made us physical for a purpose and His desire is to save us out of that, but we have to experience that first so that we can judge righteously, that we reject this way and we choose His. That’s what repentance is all about.  That’s what the new covenant is all about.  God brings us to a point in time where we can objectively see both.  We see something that God offers and we come to realize, that’s what I want.  I want that which is a matter of peace, that doesn’t have jealousy, envy, anger, resentment, bitterness, vengeance - I don’t want any of that.  I want the way that is giving, that is serving, that is helping, that is sharing – because that’s where the richness of life is.  But now I can make that choice and decision because I’ve lived selfishness.  If you don’t live it you can’t judge righteously, you wouldn’t be able to make a distinction.  That’s what’s so beautiful about the thousand years.  Mankind is going to be able to more easily see a great difference between the first 6,000 and what God is doing in the following one thousand.

...but God who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins has quickened, that word again, or made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved), it’s how God delivers us and we receive that and we embrace that and we want that, we want to share that with one another.  We begin experiencing that within the Church.

Verse 6 - and has raised us up together, it’s like going under the watery grave, it’s like the resurrection of Christ; it’s giving us, He has raised us up; we go under the watery grave to walk in newness of life.  We come up a new person.  We’re to walk in newness of life, change, a desire to be changed and change.   ...and has raised us up together and has made us to sit together in heavenly ‘places’, in Christ Jesus: meaning not to go to heaven to be there, like the Protestant world takes this. “See, we’re all going to heaven!”  No, you’re not.  That’s not what it says.  And the word ‘places’ isn’t even in the scripture anyway, it’s something that they have added because they like to think that they all have these heavenly places up there.  It’s not that at all, it’s sit together in that which is from heaven, it shows the source.  God is the source of blessings that He plans for us in the Millennium and in the Great White Throne and beyond.

...that in the ages to come, see, for the 144,000 it’s going to be there, for those of you who live on into that period of time it’s for you to receive of those blessings at that time, to share in something that is so awesome, the pioneers, the beginning of an awesomely beautiful age.  You have no comprehension the excitement of what God has called you to.  Truly!  Just in the last few years, what we’ve seen take place in the Church...that’s nothing compared to what’s coming!  And that should be exciting to us, what God has given us.

...for by grace are you saved through faith; God gives that as well. It’s a matter of what we’re able to believe, the truth.  What we believe is what God gives to us, and then we chose to live by that, that’s what faith is.  You receive that which is true and you chose to live by it then you chose to live by faith.  That’s the result.  ...and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; these are beautiful verses because it shows that we have nothing to ever be lifted up by, we have nothing to lift ourselves up by and think we’re important or look down upon anyone else.  Never!  Never!  But to be of a humble spirit, to realize what God has given us to share together.  We are a family and there should be no jealousies, no envy’s, no anger, no bitterness, no wrong words spoken, but only desire to see each other make it and survive and come through this and be blessed on the other end of all this.  And we as a whole do have that, but sometimes we get caught up with physical life and physical situations.

...that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus:  for by grace you are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works: Are we to work?  Yes!  But not thinking that’s how we’re going to receive something from God.  Even in the example of prayer – you see this concept that if you pray so much it’s almost like God owes something to you, if you fast so much God owes something to you.  No, God doesn’t!  It’s a tool to draw closer to God, and that will bring blessings if our spirit is right; but if we think by doing certain things that somehow God owes us or that God’s going to give us something because of how good we are, then we miss the mark.  That’s not what it’s about.  It’s a matter of faith that we do what we do because we believe it. This is how we should live; it’s a matter of caring for each other, and loving each other, and serving each other, ministering to one another.

...not of works lest anyone should boast. Because I’ve lived through that period of time where I’ve seen that kind of boasting take place in the Church.  I loathe it, I hate it.  It’s been a part of my training to come to hate it so much so I can teach about it...that it’s not the way to go.

For we are His workmanship, beautiful!  God moulds and fashions us. God prepares us.  God has called us to put us into various areas.  He knows where to best put us, because wherever He’s putting us we’re going to be the most fulfilled in life – whatever that is – and if we just yield ourselves... but sometimes we fight against God because we want something different.  The two disciples of Christ, “Could we be on each side?  We want to be out there!”  Well, that’s not where they’re going to be the most fulfilled because it’s not designed for them, they wouldn’t be happy there.  If it’s by God’s design then we’re going to be happen where we are, we’re fulfilled, it’s going to be exciting and inspiring.  Satan wasn’t happy with where he was and a third of the angelic realm wasn’t happy.  They got to a place where they wanted something different.  Never let that be a part of your thinking.  Anyway, that’s part of what it’s talking about here.

We are His workmanship, I’ve come to see that and enjoy that and love that more and more in the last year than any other time in all the rest of my life put together in God’s Church since 1969. To come to understand this is awesome!  God moulds us.  He put stars out there!  He put galaxies out there!  And He moulded and fashioned them and none of them resisted Him; but He put them all out there.  And it’s all so meticulous!  Some of the pictures sometimes... I love looking at what the Hubble has brought back.  I have a couple of people in the Church that send me some of those pictures at times because I miss some of them and it is so awesome, the majesty of God’s creation, the magnitude of it, and to realize that not only does God put it there but He sustains it.  It’s there because He has the power to sustain it all.  I can’t comprehend that, so I think, that’s awesome, that’s beautiful; the Great God that does that can work with millions of people at the same time...at the same time by the power of His spirit.  I don’t comprehend the magnitude, the glory, the might of God!  We can’t because we’re physical, we’re carnal, even with God’s spirit we can’t grasp how great He is.  But God is great, awesome...and if we yield ourselves to His moulding, we’re far more important than the galaxies that are out there...far more important in God’s Family, what He has planned for us and what He wants to share with us.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained; He ordained it, He determined it before He started any of His creation, before anything was created and made.  That’s what it’s referring to here.  ...which God before ordained that we should walk in them. God had a plan before He started anything...meticulous in ways we can’t even begin to comprehend.

That’s why I’m in awe when I see some of the timing of how things work out. December the 17th – Roman calendar... going to read some things in a couple of weeks here that are just absolutely amazing, the timing of how God works with time and brings things to pass, like He talks about when He brought the children of Israel out of Egypt 430 days to the exact day, to the exact time.  God has the power to control, to work with things, to bring things about exactly as He plans, as He wants to do, everything under full control.  God is in control of my life - not that He controls us, because we have free moral agency.  My problem is that I still have resistance in my mind, in my being and we do until we’re changed, because we still have this in the mind.  We’re human beings, physical, but the more we yield to God and the more we grasp and comprehend “My life is in His hands, nothing can happen save it’s a purpose for God.”  In the Church that’s the way it is.  If you yield yourself to God nothing happens without God’s knowledge, without God’s caring, without God’s moulding and fashioning you in whatever circumstance and situation you’re in to make you better, to mould and fashion you to produce something greater to His glory and to His honour in His family.

Now, we believe those things but sometimes it’s kind of hard to live those things when trials come our way, when people oppress, when people do things.  Sometimes that can begin to be a little hard but it shouldn’t be, but it is, and so we pray and look to God and have a confidence and a boldness and an excitement in what God’s bringing about.  Keep up the fight!  Don’t let down.  This is a time... you’re not going faster but put more into it as though you (in the race, I’m giving an example of the race)...  I couldn’t put everything into the first part of the race or I wouldn’t have made it.  I couldn’t put it into at the halfway mark or I wouldn’t have made it.  I wasn’t sure I was going to make it anyway, but by the end I realized now is the time to put more into it.  Now, I know that I wasn’t able to go faster, but mentally and as far as my body was concerned I was putting more into it to make it to the end, to run as fast as I could though my body was weaker at that point in time.  And that’s the way it is with us.  Now is the time to focus more, to put more into it, to realize that this is the time to put it all there.  We don’t have much time left!  It’s beautiful!

Because the battles around us have intensified as the spirit world is so stirred up because it is coming to an end and they know it!  It’s coming to an end!  They believe God.  They don’t obey God but they know what God says He’s going to do that He’s going to do it.  They know!  They know their ‘Waterloo’, their time is coming, their end is coming.  They know they don’t have too much longer to harass mankind, that they’re going to be put away.  They know that God’s true to what He says, but they still fight against God and think that if they can overthrow any of that they’re still going to try to do it.  But there’s still that that’s there that they know is true about God.

Because of the world that is so stirred up because it’s coming to an end, again, we can sometimes feel worn out and exhausted yet we are encouraged to keep our eyes on the goal, on the mark, crossing the line.  Let’s turn over to Galatians 6. There are scriptures that come to mind when we are in such times of battle.  Verse 9 – it’s a beautiful verse.

Galatians 6:9 - And let us not be weary in doing well: in living this way of life, in what God has called us to.  The word means literally, ‘to grow weary or to lose heart’.  Because this way of life is not easy.  But not only that, we have to realize we’re at a time of a pressure cooker for this age.  This is the end of the age, this is the time of the death of tyranny, this is the time that a spirit world is more stirred up than it ever has been in that respect, because it’s in the death throes and it’s not going to go out mildly.  And so because of that some of our labour...in childbirth, some of that labour, obviously a great deal of it, frankly most of it is because of that.  That’s where our suffering comes from!  It’s coming from the intensity that’s growing in the world, of beings that don’t want to quit, that don’t want to give up, and they are stirred up more and more and more and guess who are the recipients of a lot of that?  We are!  They want to get at us more than any others!  And they want to get at the scattered group out there.  That’s why we need to have compassion upon them and look forward to the time they’re going to be able to come back, whether it be some now and some in the future, truly.

So it says, And let us not be weary/grow weary/lose heart in doing well, in living this way of life, because that’s what it’s talking about.  Because right now living this way of life is not so easy and it’s not so easy sometimes around your relatives, especially at this ‘joyful time of the year’.  I’m so glad this is the last ‘joyful time of the year’ that this world will ever have to experience again.  This is the last Christmas.  A couple years ago I thought maybe hopefully this is going to be... and I look back and think, “You fool...thankfully it wasn’t the last Christmas, because if it had been we would be suffering immensely more.  And I don’t know to what degree... I know we... the ability for man to come through it, to survive... God is so merciful!  Truly!  God is so merciful.  I’m thankful He’s God because sometimes the reality is we’d do things a whole lot different and that’s the problem.

...for in due season we shall reap; and I think of that; due season, it’s almost here.  What an awesome thing it’s almost here.  It’s just kind of surreal.  We believe it but we’ve never experienced it yet; but our whole lives are geared toward its coming.  Everything we do...everything we do is geared toward this way of life and where we’re headed, because of what we believe.  And you know what?  God is well pleased with that. That’s what it’s all about.  God is so well pleased with that!

...for in due season we shall reap, if we do not faint.  The word is very similar to the word ‘weary’ here but literally goes back to another word that has to do with ‘to become broken’, ‘to break’, ‘to give up’.  There wasn’t just one individual in that race that quit, there were others.  It’s hard.  It’s hard running a race.  This way of life is not easy.  It wasn’t meant to be easy.  But don’t let it break you.  On the contrary, God will see you through.  It’s a matter of our relationship with God.  Now is a time to pour more into our relationship with God and our closeness with God and our crying out to God and fighting against sin.  And will you sin?  Yes, we all sin; but you keep repenting.  Every time you repent you agree with God that He is right and you are wrong.  The problem is sometimes in God’s Church people quit repenting and they justify sin.  You can’t do that!  You’ve got to fight and fight with all your being because you’re going to be bombarded more and more as we draw closer to the end here.

2 Corinthians 4:16 – For which cause we do not faint/grow weary/lose heart: breaking into a part of a forethought here but it wraps some of it up, what we need to focus upon here...but although our outward man perish; we see that in the Church; we don’t get younger, we get older.  From the day that you’re born you start dying.  You don’t think that way.  Your life is running down.  It’s like sand in an hourglass.  Now, you’re going to go through periods of time you’re going to become stronger in life but as a whole your life is running down.  That’s just the way it is in physical life; it runs out.  But we don’t generally become really aware of that until it kind of starts slapping you in the face a little bit at 50 and it just slaps you more and more the older you get.  It kind of beats you around and your body doesn’t feel the same and all of a sudden you get up and you don’t move quite as fast.  Your mind thinks you can do certain things but you just can’t do it, and you have to be more careful because your mind doesn’t change as a whole.  Well, even that changes in time; you’re going to say, “What’d I come down here for?”  I’ve got to be careful; I’ll lose my place in the sermon.  But your mind thinks that you can do various feats and you stretch one way over and you realize you can’t do that.  You could do it a few years ago but you can’t do it now, and it’s so true what it says here...the outward man perishes, yet the inward person, if you will, because the word isn’t really about ‘man’, it’s about people, men and women.  People who translated this, it shows a bias. It showed there’s prejudice, deep prejudice back in the 1500’s and it’s perpetuated through time.  And I’ve always kind of hated some of these things anyway – man, man, man, man, man... what about woman?  Because some of these words weren’t even translated properly.

...but although the outward person perish, yet the inward is renewed day by day by day. It’s spiritual!  This body goes by the wayside but that which God is moulding and fashioning, that we’re yielding to that is in the mind, that’s what it’s all about.  He’ll put that in a different body.  It’s beautiful, awesome!

For our light affliction, beautiful verse.  Do you feel that what you’re going through right now, or what you go through at times, it’s just a ‘light affliction’?  Not while it’s happening.  Sometimes you feel pressed, pressure, stress.

We in the ministry were told, I think back in the mid to late 80’s especially, I remember the programs, refreshing programs we’d go to headquarters out in California, and we’d be told about things about stress, especially for men, because men tend to deny such things exist in their life.  Stupid.  Blockheaded.  Males tend to do that even more so than women do.  And came to understand in time that (after listening to this for a while), thought, yeah, I do stress.  I do have times of stress dealing with problems as a minister, dealing with situations in life that are unpleasant, battles that sometimes go on, marital things, childrearing things, and whatever brethren to brethren, sometimes the battles that happen, especially being as large as we were at that time because we were larger and had more opportunities to be together.  When that happens sometimes the more you’re together the more things pop up.  And so I came to realize that there are some situations out there dealing with, sometimes... because we come out of the world and we bring everything that’s with us out of the world into the Church.  We don’t change overnight.  And some things are really bad in life at times, and some of the things that people are fighting and trying to conquer are really bad.  And when you get involved in those things it can kind of wear you out and it can cause some stress to the point where there are times, from time to time, I have to take a bit of a break because I can’t listen to any more right now, I can’t deal with any more right now.  You see, because I have plenty of problems right here in my own life, see, and then you begin to deal with others’ situations and...  so that’s the way it is in life.

That’s the way of life as family, as parents and you’re dealing with situations that happen and so often you have to re-educate your children when they come home from school.  There are things you have to constantly be on top of because of what’s being broadcast out there, or what’s on TV, or what’s in music, and you have this constant battle and sometimes it gets wearisome.  You come home from work and you’ve had it all day long in the world; and generally it’s husband and wife both working anymore, the way the world is, both have to in order to make ends meet - and both come home and then there are difficulties at home sometimes to deal with, and especially men don’t want to deal with it because they’re worn out.  It’s just the way we are as human beings.  Does that make sense?  Do you see yourself?

And so sometimes we just have to come to admit what we have to go through and what we deal with in life and the reality is sometimes there are things that aren’t a light affliction.  We feel like it’s a big affliction because of what we’re experiencing at that time.  You go to work one day and you find out the boss is sick and tired of you having off for the Sabbath, or you’ve had your co-workers... they’ve been blah, blah, blah, blah... “You always let him off on Saturday and you don’t let us off!”  And they want to go to some game or something and after a while the pressure gets so great that he brings you in one day and says, “I’ve got to let you go.”  Because see, he’s tired of the stress.  He doesn’t want to deal with it anymore and so it’s easier for him just to let you go.  Well, now that causes a little bit of stress in your life, doesn’t it?  Now you don’t have a job, you don’t have a paycheque, you don’t have the money to bring home and in today’s society, in today’s world with jobs the way they are this is not a good time.  And so it doesn’t seem like a light affliction right now, does it?  It’s hard.  But God wants us to put things in proper perspective of our calling.

...for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, in the span of time it’s not going to last forever.  We will get through it.  We’ll get past this.  Just like the human body. Sometimes we go through the various aspects of illness and sickness and we’ll get past it one way or another.  It’s a short time.  When we talk about time...  I’ve lived 62 years and I see the outward man perishing. And I communicate with, visit with, hear people that are 70, 80, and they tell me stories of things, “You haven’t experienced anything yet!”  And I think, “Oh I am so glad I don’t have to!” because it’s not easy getting older.  It’s not easy for the body to wear down, it’s difficult.

But I don’t care whether you look at 60 years, 70 years, 80 years, 90 years...it’s a short span of time.  We sometimes don’t think it is, but when you look at things in the scheme of what God’s doing it’s really a blink of an eye, it’s just that we don’t feel that way.  To think about a thousand years that we’re getting ready to enter into, a thousand one hundred, ten thousand, a million...I can’t comprehend it...can’t comprehend it.  Short span of time, this light affliction, to get to where we need to go.

What we’re suffering through now is very light.

~~~end

1. 'Throe'

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