Dear Brethren and Friends, The Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread will soon be upon us. As we think about this and examine ourselves, we should try to truly become—even more—those people in whom Christ dwells. We, my dear brethren, should have a profound awareness that we have been forgiven of our sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. We should never be ashamed of His blood or His sacrifice—nor in any way attempt to minimize Christ's involvement with our salvation, and with His being a primary part of the true Gospel and the only way through which we can enter God's Kingdom. As the Apostle Peter was inspired to state, regarding Christ, "there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). And Jesus Christ Himself forcefully declared, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6).
Brethren, as I have stated in the past, we truly are "the Church of the forgiven." It is extremely helpful for us to realize this constantly, and to focus on how grateful we should be that our sins can be fully forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We should also remind ourselves that He must live within us daily, continually. When we take the emblems of the broken bread and the red wine, let us truly and thoughtfully meditate upon the suffering Jesus went through in allowing His body to be broken for our healing, and remind ourselves of the tremendous anguish He went through in shedding His blood for us, on the cross, to pay the death penalty for our sins.
Daily, we should cry out to God to send Jesus to live within us so that we can reflect Jesus Christ more and more and more as each month of our life passes!
The inspired Apostle Paul prayed that "with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:20–21). This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. How much is Christ "magnified" in your life—or in mine? We continually need to ask ourselves that question. And we need to study God's word fervently and "feed" on Christ (John 6:57). We need to pray fervently that Christ will live within us (Galatians 2:20). We need to meditate on God's word, carefully think through all the lessons we need to learn, and consider all the ways we can "do better" in the remaining years of our lives. We also need to exercise the wonderful tool of fasting, so we may more fully humble ourselves and draw closer to God in every way.
If we do these things, we can become much closer to the Father and to Christ so that He may be able to use us far more powerfully to complete His Work! As Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). A few verses later, we find even Jesus' emphasis on the importance of doing God's Work and bearing "much fruit." For He stated, "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples" (v. 8). We can only bear "much fruit" through an extremely close relationship with Christ— crying out and zealously yielding ourselves to Him so it is actually Christ doing the Work through us as simply "tools" in His hands!
As prophetic events speed up, and the horrifying Great Tribulation comes ever closer, we must do all we can to be truly powerful tools Christ can use to reach our peoples with the full Truth while there is time! Another of my favorite passages in the Bible is from the book of Proverbs. Please meditate carefully on the full meaning of these powerful words: "If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, 'Surely we did not know this,' does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?" (Proverbs 24:10–12).
Truly, we are among the extremely few people on this earth who sincerely "cry out" for the opportunity and privilege to warn our fellow human beings of what is coming! So we need to do everything we can to fashion ourselves—through Christ in us—as more fit instruments in His hands.
In that regard, I recall that the 55th anniversary of my ordination as an Evangelist was not long ago. As most of you probably know, I was ordained an Evangelist by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong on December 20, 1952—along with Herman Hoeh, Raymond Cole, Richard David Armstrong, and my uncle, Dr. C. Paul Meredith. In this group of five, I was fittingly ordained last and least—for I was the youngest physically and the "newest" in learning the full Truth of God. Yet, sadly, I am now the only one left alive of those original five Evangelists.
Naturally, I become a little sentimental as I think back on those "early days" in the Work when several of us worked so very closely with Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong in getting the college underway, in carrying out the baptismal tours, and in getting the Plain Truth and Good News magazines coming out regularly for the first time. That was a great privilege and honor, for which I will always be grateful.
When I think back on those early years of Ambassador College, and on the opportunity I had to help the Work of God really get going, I have never been sorry that I "missed out" on going to the parties and dances I would have attended if I had stayed in Missouri. I never have felt sad that I missed out on dating a variety of pretty girls in some larger college, or that I went without other social and personal opportunities.
When I deeply meditate on the lessons of those 55 years in Christ's ministry, I always realize that the only big lacks during those years were the times when I did not put God's Kingdom first in everything I was thinking, saying and doing. If I had to do it over, I would have studied even more zealously and thoughtfully. I would have poured out my being even more heartfeltly in prayer, meditation and fasting before God. I would have tried to be, even more, a "living sacrifice" in Christ's service, and would have tried more to "burn my bridges" as far as looking back on the world, wanting to have "fun" or anything else that I may have let distract my thoughts or actions when I was a younger minister of Christ.
Two of my early "heroes" were King David in the Old Testament and the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. I had the privilege of introducing the "Epistles of Paul" class into the curriculum at Ambassador College. I was inspired to do this after seeing how, on the baptizing tours, we were again and again asked questions about various technical points in Paul's writing. I realized how vital it was that Ambassador students be drilled on the details of Paul's writings, so they could truly understand what he taught. In teaching the class, I found—as is often the case—that it helped me even more than the students! For I had to "know my stuff" in order to help them, and to answer their difficult questions. In doing so, I came to realize—and I now realize even more—the powerful meaning of Paul's stated desire, "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death" (Philippians 3:10). Through the process of total surrender to Christ, and going all out in seeking Him, we may each come to know Him more fully as each year of our life goes by. Paul also wrote of his hope, "if, by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me" (vv. 11–12).
Dear brethren, I implore you in the name of Jesus Christ—as the end of this age comes ever closer—that each one of you learn to "press on" harder than ever, more sincerely than ever, more heartfeltly than ever, toward the goal of becoming a full member of God's Kingdom. Part of our overcoming and growing will obviously be reflected in how much we commit ourselves to doing Christ's Work and honoring Him in that way with all our hearts. Mr. Herbert Armstrong often said that the degree of one's conversion could be determined by how much each individual's heart was in the Work of God.
As Jesus Himself said, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work" (John 4:34). He went on to describe how, "he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together" (v. 36).
As I think about the 6.5 billion human beings on this earth, I meditate, over and over, about how our "little flock" will be able to reach these people with the message of Jesus Christ! We are indeed a "tiny" group of Christians. So, it is only through Christ powerfully living in us that we will be able to accomplish what needs to be done. As we meditate on Jesus Christ heartfeltly giving His very Being to pay for our sins, let us also think about how we, collectively, can heartfeltly give of ourselves in doing His Work, while honoring Him as we do it and zealously preparing for His Kingdom. This must be the passion of our lives! Then, when Christ returns, we can have confidence that we will be given a truly awesome reward—for we will know that we genuinely went "all out" in serving our Savior, and in doing His Work with all our hearts. As the Apostle John wrote, "And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming" (1 John 2:28).