Basic HTML Version
HE will withdraw His support!
A month or so later, I was walking down a graveled
country road west of Eugene, Oregon, to preach in a one-room
country school house. I had no automobile. I had to walk. A
resident of that neighborhood who had heard me preach stopped me
along the roadside, and said, "You'll never get far, Mr.
Armstrong."
"I won't? Why?" I asked.
"Because you're preaching the straight truth of the Bible
-- that's why! The Bible's like a sharp two-edged sword -- it cuts
both ways. Your preaching makes people realize how wrong they are
-- you show them their sins -- and people don't want to be told
they're wrong! No Sir-ee! That straight BIBLE preaching makes
people uncomfortable. It hurts! No one dares preach the BIBLE,
full strength, any more. People won't support it! You can't keep
going without support. People won't support you!"
"I'm not looking to PEOPLE for support," I replied. "I
know -- and the living GOD knows -- that PEOPLE won't pay to be
criticized, reproved and rebuked, and shown their sins. Yet God
commands me to CRY ALOUD, and show the people their sins! Christ's
ministers are commissioned to 'Preach the Word' -- the BIBLE --
'keep at it in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all patience and doctrine' (II Timothy 4:2). And this same Word of
God PROMISES: 'my God shall supply all your need, according to His
riches in glory by Christ Jesus' (Phil. 4:19). If I can't
believe that and rely on it, I can't believe ANY of the Bible.
I'll go just as far as the living JESUS CHRIST wants me to go, for
He has called me as His instrument."
That was over 31 years ago. Yes, God then let me walk
because I didn't have a car. But later, when a car became a NEED
for His Work, He supplied me with a 5-year-old second-hand car.
And when it became a need to drive weekly from Eugene, Oregon, to
Seattle to broadcast and to preach, He supplied me with a better
car that would get me there.
Jesus Christ started this great Work of broadcasting and
publishing almost immediately after that. It started, like the
grain of mustard seed, the smallest possible. An opportunity to
speak on the air for the first time in my life came that October.
It was only 15 minutes for one week. But it cost me nothing. The
mail response caused the radio station owner to suggest I start a
half-hour broadcast every Sunday.
Mr. Frank Hill, owner of the 100-watt KORE, Eugene, knew
I didn't have the money -- so he fixed the cost for the time at
only $2.50 per week. A few personal friends pledged a little over
half of that. I took the opportunity ON FAITH, trusting God to
supply the other half. God supplied it. He never failed us. A
few times we came up to a half-hour before broadcast time without
the money, which I was then required to pay in advance each Sunday
morning. Once, just as Mrs. Armstrong and I were starting for the
radio station (we walked), with no money, a man we scarcely knew