September 4, 2009

“He Who FAINTS in the day of adversity his strength is small” (Proverbs 24:10).

Continued from August 28, 2009

Dear Brethren,

Just before He was crucified Jesus Christ said to His disciples:

“These things I have spoken to you, that YOU SHOULD NOT BE MADE TO STUMBLE. They will put you OUT of the synagogues [in our time- Corporate Churches of God - some of us have already experienced this including me]; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you, because they have NOT known the Father or Me. But these things I have told you, THAT WHEN THE TIME COMES, you may remember that I told you of them. . . .” (John 16:1-3).

As I wrote in the previous writing—after viewing and reading of what is now taking place in this country, I would be very depressed and terribly frightened, if it were not for knowing and understanding the future that our Father and Jesus Christ have promised us just beyond these short-lived problems.

It is with all of this in mind that I am continuing this series of writings to all of you. Hopefully, this will help us to GET OUR FOCUS where it should be and strengthen us sufficiently in mind and spirit to meet, face, and overcome, whatever obstacles we may find in our ongoing path toward our meeting Christ in this earth’s atmosphere as Spirit Beings – never, ever, to experience again the tragic problems of human life.

There are the others through the millennia who have endured real hard trials and remained faithful in spite of what Satan used leaders and even family members to do to them (Hebrews 11).

They were being faithful to the love for God that all of us must continue to have for Him regardless of heavy trials even to beatings, prison, death, or whatever. (Luke 14:26-27)

Sadly, members have experienced the fullness of Satan’s wrath on them from the very beginning of God’ true Church from Nero and the Jewish leaders.

And this will continue even into the time of the martyrdom of the saints before and into the Great Tribulation (Revelation 6:9-11).

Nameless Examples —

To enable all of you to better understand, I intend to cite just a few of the many trials God’s people have experienced in past years that I personally was involved with while trying to help them. While you read of these members, it is my hope you will ask yourself: What would you have done in similar circumstances?

More than trying to put yourselves into the shoes of these people that I will cite, please realize what they had to endure is to soon come on the Church big-time, and will affect all of us in one way or another until the elect is very probably thrust out!

A Wife and Mother, California —

In the mid-1950s a woman left her husband because of a divorce and remarriage problem. The husband had her picked up and taken to the mental ward of a hospital to have her examined for insanity. She was confined in a very small room all by herself for 3 days with nothing but her Bible.

At the conclusion of this period of time two psychiatrists who had questioned her recommended to the judge she be declared mentally incompetent and not be allowed to have custody of her children. The reason: She went too much by the Bible teachings.

Due to the lack of signatures on the paperwork by the psychiatrists, the judge threw the case out. Quite some time went by before she was able to rejoin her children. When I took her to pick them up her baby no longer knew her and cried because of being in the arms of a strange woman.

What would you have done in similar circumstances? Would you have said, “I cannot possibly endure this kind of a trial! It is too hard for me to have to give up my children, my baby, and possibly be committed here with the insane and demon-possessed people for a very long time to come!”

There was much more mental suffering afterwards for this lady before it was all over! And over the years to come there were the other trials she had to endure before her life ended a few short years ago; but she remained faithful all the way to the end.

A Wife and Mother, Louisiana —

A similar situation took place in Louisiana. Another woman was put into a mental institution by her husband and remained there for some period of time because of her religious beliefs.

Even the doctor knew she was there for the wrong reasons!

He said as much during one meeting with her: “There is nothing wrong with you except you are ‘hep’ on your religion!” She asked him to make this known to her husband. Nevertheless they kept her in that place until her husband said it was all right for the officials to release her.

During her confinement she told me that all the patients were lined up one day to be given the oral polio vaccine on a sugar cube that was to be placed on their tongues. She was going to spit it out at the water fountain but another patient warned her against doing it, saying, “They will put you in a strait jacket and force you to do it.”

Because of the urging and crying of their children, her husband had the doctors to release her.

After returning home, and in fear of being put back into the mental institution again, she watched for an opportunity to flee the home and her husband. And when it came she took her children and fled to the San Diego, California area where I was. After some months her husband came and made promises that he would not interfere with her religious beliefs any longer. They then returned to Louisiana.

How would you have fared under similar circumstances? Would you have said, “This is enough I am going to leave God’s Church for I do not want to be locked up with demon-possessed people and be in a place where they lock up people and keep them confined even though it is acknowledged there is nothing wrong with me except for my religious beliefs? They throw away the key! I cannot handle this! No more of this for me!”

A Wife and Mother, West Virginia —

Because of her religious beliefs a young woman in her early 20s, and mother of a small baby, was being highly pressured by her husband to give up this crazy religion. It would appear that after they had a very emotional encounter one night, and a threat by him that he was going to have her put into a mental institution, she called her parents.

Deeply troubled, while in her nitie, she went out for a short walk in a secluded wooded area back of their home to be alone with God, which she sometimes did.

While she was there two law officers came up to where she was and made her get into a police car and took her to jail. They would not even let her dress.

At the same time her parents were driving into the town where she lived and arrived about midnight. As they drove by a service station they saw her in the backseat of a police car and knew she was being taken to jail.

I was called by her parents early the next morning and joined them at the jail. They let me go up to see her and then permitted her to come down from where she was imprisoned to see her parents.

She had no personal belongings, not even a comb. I loaned her mine to comb her hair which was very much in need. Amazingly she was calm and talked quietly to us about the situation.

This young mother had been jailed on the top floor of an old three-story building. In this large room was an old mattress in the middle of the room with no covers and the windows were open, but barred. It was cold.

I saw all this when the jailers let me go up to see her before they let her come down to where her parents were.

She was released a little later in the custody of her parents.

How would you have reacted under similar circumstances? Would you have said, “God, where are You? Why did You not deliver me from such an awful and humiliating experience? Why did I have to experience this terrible thing and not be with my baby? I cannot handle this anymore! It is too much!””

A member in the Union Town, PA Church

I baptized a young woman living in West Virginia. Her husband took strong objections to her becoming a member that he considered to be an undesirable cult.

Late one afternoon she called in tears begging me to come to her aid. She said her husband and family members were in her home and strongly trying to make her give it all up.

The pressure on her by her husband and family was so intense that she felt, as she said to me, it was like being in the great inquisition.

I explained there was nothing I could do for they would not even let me in the home. As I recall, he would not let her come to services any longer. All I could do was pray for her.

How would you have fared under such circumstances?

A Different Kind of a Test —

Some years ago, I had a woman to tell me of a very pathetic and tragic situation that had involved herself and a top official in the Church that had taken place some few years before she talked to me.

This man was married with grown children but was attracted to this young woman. He wrote love letters to her. She took this to a leading minister who went to Mr. Armstrong about it.

Mr. Garner Ted Armstrong and others defended this official by saying this was based on lies and she was trying to destroy the man’s reputation. Mr. Armstrong was led to believe she was lying by believing his son and the others with him. He dispelled her from attending Ambassador College and sent her home.

I had known this woman since she was a teenager, and knew the people involved. Because she felt close to me she felt the need to tell me what had happened to her. After hearing what she had to say I felt very sorry for her believing she was totally innocent. Even though she had the letters to prove her innocence; they were not shown to Mr. Armstrong. She died a few years ago without Mr. Armstrong ever knowing the truth.

A top minister made an honest statement about Mr. Armstrong; when he said the wrong decisions that were made by Mr. Armstrong were due to the wrong things that were said to him by top officials.

This woman had been misjudged, and by God’s apostle. She had every reason to be embittered from a human point of view against God’s apostle and the officials under him in authority. Yet she only seemed saddened and hurt by it rather than permitting herself to become embittered.

What would have been your reaction under similar circumstances?

An added note: Based on this example, I cannot help but wonder how many other members were hurt, lied about, and whatever else over the years by other ministers. As the result the question could be asked: How many of them became so embittered they left the Church. Undoubtedly, some endured, and others probably didn’t.

Could something like this have been your sticking point?

Bitterness —

I know of bitterness overcoming one man who was a preaching elder, and also a faculty member, highly intelligent, and a very able man. Over time he watched other men being promoted into higher offices in the ministry while he remained in the same office. Knowing the others who passed him by, and also knowing they were not his equal, became a real problem to him.

He said to me at the Feast of Tabernacles in Mount Pocono in the latter 1960s, “One thing we both know, you and I will never be raised in rank!” I was later (after 17 years of serving as a local elder); he never was. It was sad for me to learn that he become very bitter in the closing years of his life. I loved that man.

It is true that many of the ordinations were not really from God but rather because of who they knew or were political. Some undoubtedly were overlooked that should probably have been elevated, while others were ordained that should have never been! We have come to realize this from what we have observed in the past few years.

It should not matter to any of us what area of service, or whatever level of office, or whether we even have an office, the important thing is that we should want to be used in whatever capacity God chooses to use us.

Knowing the human nature we all have, there is the need of a continued struggle within ourselves to have a right heart and spirit so that God can use us to be helpful to His people.

Bitterness can come easily and for any reason big or small. This should be realized by each one of us and Satan will do his best to get us into this kind of an attitude. As Mr. Armstrong once stated to a few of us ministers assembled before him, “Fellows you can have faults and God will forgive you, but do not ever let your attitude go bad for if you do there is no hope for you! (Please read Hebrews12:15)

The Difficulty in Accepting Correction —

Mr. Armstrong has often said the most difficult thing for anyone to admit is that he or she is wrong! There are those who cannot handle correction and will sometimes become bitter after having received it. After being corrected, the thought is too often like this: “If this is the way it is, I quit! I just won’t do anything anymore!”

I know this to be true for that is what I experienced years ago after being corrected by Mr. Armstrong at the very beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles in Big Sandy, Texas regarding part of my responsibility of preparing the organization for the Feast.

Without going into a lengthy writing on this, I will only say that though he saw my overall problem he was wrong in other areas in which he scolded me. He did say in my favor that had I known what I was doing wrong I would not have done it.

Afterwards, I said to myself— “Then, I won’t do anything!”

It was only a fleeting thought for I continued with my responsibility. However I will add that was not my most enjoyable Feast of Tabernacles; but it was a very memorable one. I often have reflected on this with the realization that I needed what he told me in his correction.

Always, we should want to be corrected when we are wrong so we will not harm anyone or ourselves with the wrong. And if and when we are corrected by anyone, whether they are right or not— fight like everything to not let bitterness take us over and possibly destroy us (Hebrews 12:5-17).

Meaningless Things —

In one Church area in which I worked as an associate pastor, I was told by the pastor that he had received a phone call from one of the members stating that he and his family were leaving the Church. Upon checking into the reason for their leaving it was found to have started over an extremely small trivial matter.

While attending the Feast of Tabernacles in Squaw Valley, California, this family and another from the same Church area had rented a house in which both families were to live throughout the Feast.

One day a decision was to be made by the two wives regarding a meal to be cooked by them. It was to be chicken and a falling out developed between the women over how it should be cooked. This is where it started and BUILT UP over some little time to the point, one family was going to leave the Church.

This is easy to laugh at but so very often it is the little things that can bring about resentment that can lead to bitterness, and sometimes cause division within the Church of God, and sometimes departure from it.

Has this ever happened to you? Is it now happening with you?

Being Put on the Spot —

In past years I have questioned some members about this or that involved wrongdoing on their part and some have intentionally lied to me or withheld the truth.

Three members in past years admitted later they had lied to me. Though there was no excuse for it in the first place it was good to know they knew they could not live with it. They came and freely admitted they had lied to me.

What about you in similar circumstances? What would it take for you to lie to retain a friendship, relationship, or whatever? It is both tragic and appalling to realize how often this kind of a thing can go on with an individual or a corporate Church.

Is A Lie Ever Justifiable? ----

Recently I read in the “Journal” (A Church publication), the elders in charge of the largest corporate Church of God were going to discuss at a later date “whether it is ever all right to LIE!”

This is hard to grasp!

Discuss whether it is ever justifiable to lie? Was there not a commandment given by God at Mount Sinai regarding the bearing of false witness, which is lying (Exodus 20:16; Revelation 21:8)? Is it still valid, or was it done away -- as we were told by the apostate ministry of WCG?

How can any true member sleep on as if there are no real problems within this Church!

We would do well to remember the example of Ananias and his wife Sapphira who were put on the spot by the apostle Peter. When questioned both lied and died immediately because of lying to God (Acts 5:1-11).

Trying Tests and Problems

Brethren, we must overcome the present problems to strengthen us to meet the real challenges and threat to all that we hold dear and precious to us that will be fully realized before too much longer.

To Be Continued—

So far we have only seen the tip of the iceberg regarding trial and persecutions. Are we prepared for them and determined nothing will separate us from the love for God and His truth? (Romans 8:31-39)

I will be focusing more on this area in my next writing as well as offering counsel what we must do in order to survive them.

Until next time, your brother and servant in Christ,

Don Billingsley

http://bodyofchristonline.us/     http://cog-ff.com     http://www.ezekielwatchman.org/   http://worldnewsbulletin.com

The pictures above are intended for educational purposes only.
Brought to you by the Church of God Faithful Flock