The title is:
Personal - Pray for Our Financial Growth!
This old phrase is, of course, the old stand-in for
"we need money". Because it
sounds much more pious to ask for prayers than money. But, amazingly, it seems you simply can't
grow an organization just on prayers, so...
First, the usual positive introduction to get you in
a giving mood!
Dear Brethren and Friends,
I can honestly and sincerely tell you that this recent Feast of Tabernacles
celebration was the most unified and inspiring Feast many of us have ever
experienced.
For the
love of all that's good and sacred give this old canard a rest already!
The MOST
unified? Most inspiring? ever
experienced? They can't all be the
bestest ever. From high to higher to
higher yet, a veritable one-way rocket trip to unimaginable heights of
inspiration and unity! The dude must be
on a permanent high from such constant levels of inspiration each of which consistently
transcends the last one.
Then, the
"God works miracles" part to trigger the awe factor and, well, get
you more into a giving mood.
Also, as a number of our “updates” have reported, Almighty
God intervened at least several times in acts of divine protection and
direct healing that took place at Feast sites all over the world. Thank
God!
Never mind
the details. If the past is any guide,
these "interventions" are entirely indistinguishable from chance and
circumstance.
In spite of bad weather all around
the site, our heavenly Father blessed us with much less rain and bad weather
than many other areas nearby. So the weather did not stop our meetings
Uh huh,
just as suspected. Indistinguishable from
chance and circumstance. So he blessed
you but cursed those poor souls who got the bad weather. Also, I love the ambiguous phrase "much
less rain and bad weather". Imagine
if the Almighty was just a teeny bit more mighty, you could have had "no
rain and no bad weather". Whatever,
now let's get to establishing how important this Work is that you must send in
money for.
Brethren, as the end of this age approaches, and as the
power of our Work increases, there will undoubtedly be great persecution
in the years just ahead. Each of us needs to beseech God to grant us—and all
of our brethren—the faith and the courage to keep going and
growing!
The above
implies that your "Work" is growing, which seems to contradict what
you imply below, that it is not growing or at least not anywhere near like it
used to.
One special prayer that I would ask all of you to join me in
praying is this: let us all together beseech God to grant us in this
Work at least half of the financial increase that He gave Mr. Herbert W.
Armstrong for about 35 years!
If I were
a member, I would think that would be a silly thing to pray. If the "Work" is of God, which he
wants done, and indeed has promised to do, and it is the most important thing
going on, even to God himself, then why do you need to beg him to increase it? Rod talks almost as if it's something HE
wants and hopes God will grant him. Oh,
wait, maybe I'm onto something.......
So, let us together beseech God, as this terrible
society around us deteriorates more rapidly, as the wars and violence and
weather upsets and earthquakes increase, that He would grant us much greater
power to do the Work by giving us such a financial increase.
Yes,
because before modern times there really weren't all that many societal
problems, or wars, or violence, or bad weather or earthquakes. Society was much better when, for example,
criminals were crucified or slavery was common.
But I digress.
Again, if
it's so important to God, and part of his Master Plan, why does he need you
begging him to give it greater power through increased funds? The dichotomy of thought is amazing. On the one hand, this is God's most important
Work of all time, the Gospel that has been prophesied to be preached, where
events are inexorably taking place all according to God's master plan, the gates
of hell shall not prevail against his church, etc. etc. On the other hand, if we don't pray and
"beseech" this God to let it all happen as prophesied, it might not
happen! Cognitive something or other.
By the
way, what is it with the word "beseech"? People who use it don't seem to know that it's
a quaint and outdated term that nobody else uses anymore. Continuing:
Perhaps none of us have the tremendous personalities and magnetism
that the Armstrongs had.
I think I would
scratch the "perhaps".
He is working through us right now, and—as these
terrible end-time events approach—we really need to shake the world with
the knowledge of His Kingdom far more than we have ever done.
Remember, brethren, we are only “beginning to fight.” We
have not yet finished!
Yes,
because unless and until you finish your work, the end cannot come! Oh how dependent your God is on the whims of
human beings. Will they send in
money? If not, the work will languish
and God cannot get on with his business!
So again, since Jesus told us: “ask and you shall receive,”
we can with faith ask God to give us at least one-half of the financial
increase He gave His Church all those years when
Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong were still alive and doing the Work. That would be a 15
percent financial increase of this Work year by year.
15%
growth? Not likely. Not likely at all unless you see a major
uptick in membership rolls, which is almost certainly not going to happen in
the increasingly non-religious country that is the U.S.
I hope all of you will sincerely and zealously do your
part.
Ah, now we're
getting down to the brass tacks. Prayer
is all fine and dandy but in the end it boils down to whether or not your money
arrives at HQ.
But I am not going to “press you” on that. For that is up
to you and between you and God as you “walk with Him” in the fear of
God.
Ha! I love it.
I'm not going to press you, but it's up to YOU if you want to face the
fear and wrath of God if you don't send in more money!
Then, we could go on far more television stations, greatly
increase our impact over the Internet—which is certainly the “wave of the
future”—
Um, you
mean the wave of the present, right?
What is this future "internet" you speak of? Sounds interesting...
... increase our personal appearance campaigns and “grow” the
Work in every possible way.
Uh-oh, does
every possible way include a new Big Beak and Young Ambassadors? God I hope not, but then again I'm not too
concerned.
When I first began this present Work back in 1992, I was a
little embarrassed to ask for money.
Yeah,
rrrright. Too embarrassed to ask, uh-huh. Sure.
If you read some of the old [HWA] co-worker
letters today, as many of you brethren have kept some of them, they were almost
“hair-raising” in the power they had!
Yeah, come
to think of it, they were hair-raising, with their dire predictions of calamity
always within 5-10 years, and the need for the "final push", the
final lap, impending collapse of society and return of JC always around the
corner throughout the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. Duh, of course they were hair-raising -- fear
is what those co-worker letters were all about. Fear and guilt, I might add.
And
naturally those hair-raising warnings all turned out to be wrong, but hey, who
cares, the letters did what they were designed to do, which was increase
income.
But because this world so desperately needs what we
have to give, I urge you to join me along with our top ministers in beseeching
God to grant us at least 15 percent increase in our financial resources
year by year and therefore enable us to really get going far beyond
what we have yet done so this world will have a powerful “witness” of the Plan
of God
I hope you
will join us to beseech (almost starting to like that word) God that you will
send us more money. Please beseech God
to make you send us more money.
Dear brethren, some of you may wonder why I am coming on so
strong at this time.
Uh...
desperation, perhaps?
After Mr. Armstrong’s death, God’s Church came apart in many
ways. We have been truly scattered into many different groups and
denominations. The power and effectiveness of the Work has been shattered
beyond belief.
Oh, great. Because you guys didn't have enough faith,
and broke up into a hundred splinters, now the world has to wait another who
knows, 30 or more years in Satan's clutches.
Damn. And to think, JC was just
about to arrive like HWA was saying.
Damn.
All of the little groups that have clung to at least part
of the Truth are literally unknown to 99 percent (or more!) of the
world’s population! Most of you realize this. If you go around your
neighborhood you find virtually no one who has heard of the Living
Church of God or any of the other groups that are trying to do God’s Work
today.
No one has
heard of LCG?! No kidding? Shocker! Why I thought LCG and UCG were household
names by now.
So I hope all of us can begin to fast and to pray fervently
and ask God to help us stir ourselves to do our part far more
zealously and begin to serve our Creator with zeal and to give of our
physical substance sacrificially as we are able.
That
wonderful phrasing again: Ask God to stir us up to send in more money!
Love that physical
substance! Fasting, praying and zeal are
all fine, but give me some physical substance any day.
Some of our brethren are already doing this. But I am fully
aware that many of our brethren—often fine brethren who mean well and who are
already giving a little bit of their substance—are nevertheless sitting on
hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars worth of money, property
and other resources they very rarely touch to help do the Work of the living
God at the very end of this age.
Oh for the
love of rationality, please do not send one dime in to this guy who's telling
you to do so or else God can't do His Work that He is supposedly going to do
anyway, and besides we might paraphrase Captain Kirk who once asked "What
does God need with a starship", as follows: "What does God need with
your money, for crying out loud he (supposedly) created the cotton-pickin'
universe ex nihilo".
RCM, on
the other hand, desperately does need
your money as he has no ex nihilo powers and is forced to resort to begging for
money in articles like these.
Brethren, as our beloved peoples of America, Canada, Britain
and other Israelite-descended nations ....
No, no,
no, no, no, the genetic evidence says otherwise. Don't you guys keep up on these things?
...it is obvious that God will soon shake us beyond what
we have ever experienced before. It is obvious that our own standards of
living will greatly diminish more than what many of us can perhaps
imagine. It is obvious that many millions of people of the descendants
of Israel will go into captivity—experiencing anguish and suffering
which they have never before experienced.
Now you're
getting with it, Rod! Hair-raising like
HWA. Although I have to admit HWA was
better at it. Nuclear winters, parents
forced to eat their children, diseases of rotting flesh, that kind of
imagery. A little more specific and
visual imagery would have scaled up the fear and helped bring in more dollars. But then again, HWA was a pro.
It is in that spirit that I am asking all of you to
become more truly zealous and “sacrificial” in the way you give of your
resources. We in America, Canada, Britain and Australia often have far
beyond what we actually need to lead a comfortable life, and far, far more
than we need merely to subsist.
WTF? You mean you won't be satisfied unless your
members sacrifice their money to you so that they are on
"subsistence" levels? Should
they be living in the woods off berries and mushrooms? Certainly no one should own a house, car or
have more than one set of clothes (far, far above what's needed to
"subsist").
And of
course, you're going to set the example first, right Rod? Right?
So, “God is watching and testing” our attitudes in this
regard. I am just asking you to do what some of us are already doing to a
degree.
Pure
bullcrap. Oh wait, maybe they've
hesitated on getting that second coffee-maker.
Sacrifice, after all.
I hope all of you can see the “signs” of the soon-coming end
of this age. We all know what this means.
Lessee, I
see wars and rumors of wars (whatever that means), earthquakes, volcanoes,
crime, hurricanes, disease, etc. all of which have been going on for all of
human history or for millions of years earlier, even before they were
prophesied.
We know that it means that we have just so much time
to get out Christ’s message so that people all over the world will know that
our God is real, and that He is now beginning to intervene with
increasing power to set up His Kingdom on this earth.
And if you
don't get that message out, then what....?
Really,
what a silly letter. So sad that there
are going to be some people who read this, get all excited and send their
hard-earned funds and or liquidated assets to this guy and his minions.
What
happens if LCG can't pay for a few TV programs, 2nd coming on hold?
What does
God need with a starship.
Or in this
case, a dingy boat.
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