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of all, it was something that was very much on Mr. Armstrong's mind
all week and on my own, as a consequence of our talking about such
things as faith and healing. It's impossible to think about faith
without ultimately thinking about the world tomorrow.
In my hours that I spend here in Pasadena, primarily, and occasionally
elsewhere, fellow brethren will ask me what Mr. Armstrong thinks about
this or what Mr. Armstrong thinks about that. Sometimes they ask me
to help them interpret Mr. Armstrong's most recent article as it
might appear in The GOOD NEWS, The PLAIN TRUTH, or even, on occasion,
in the PASTOR'S REPORT. As a consequence I too am forced to think
again and again and to reflect more and more on just what Mr. Arm
strong, as Christ's Apostle, does mean and what he intends for us to
understand.
Having been trained to think in a rational manner and in an orderly
fashion, I have often found it helpful to clear one's mind by putting
down on paper what one is thinking about so that one can then see
what it looks like when it's put in a more concrete and definitive
form rather than just kind of floating around somewhere inside your
mind. And that's what I did during the week. But Mr. Armstrong has
covered it very well today and it would be presumptuous of me even
to try to add one word to it.
Yesterday I was privileged to hear him speak for two and a half
hours to the area coordinators and a few other persons who were
invited to their meeting. I'm really not considered by most people
to be an emotional person -- though I am known by those who know me
well to be sentimental, but not often moved to tears. But I can tell
you that yesterday, hearing Mr. Armstrong speak for two and a half
hours on the subject of faith and healing, I was moved to tears. And
we're very fortunate that we taped those comments because I'm going
to urge Mr. Armstrong to permit us to at least transcribe them so
they can be shared with the entirety of the Church.
Those two and a half hours had a very important effect upon me. Mr.
Armstrong's comments made me think again just how important an effect
on my life my having met Mr. Armstrong more than 20 years has had.
I tend to think a great deal about what that effect has been generally
on Saturday morning,because wherever I have been during the last ten
years travelling with Mr. Armstrong, he and I have almost always
attended church some place together or we have had a private Bible
study some place together. As a result, just kind of like habit,on
Saturday morning I find myself thinking about why am I here?; How did
it all come about?; and on what a difference it has all made in my life.
Sometimes I also like to speculate on what my life might have been,
but for the fact that more than 20 years ago I met Mr. Armstrong. And
it's a good exercise. It really is. Because I know �yself that but
for this Work of the Living God I think I would be like most of the
unfortunate in the world who, when they would have to think back over
what has happened in the last 20 years, they would have very little
to think about. All the days would kind of merge one into the other.
I think as they live their lives year by year, I would say any given
day in October would seem to them to be much different from any given
day the following July and any given day in the following October. But