How Not To Be Discouraged...According to the Philadelphia Church of God

Leave it to a fun loving privileged little white boy at the Edmond compound to tell the struggling Philadelphia Church of God members how not to be discouraged.  Discouragement can be eliminated if PCG members support the church.  Their spiritual lives will improve too.

Michael Cocomise writes:

Hearts in the Work 

If we lack vision, we lack hope. If we lack hope, we cannot do God’s Work. If we fail to do the Work, we fade spiritually. Hold on to the vision God gives us in the Bible by doing the Work. In the process, we will increase our depth of vision, and that will give us greater hope. 

Sometimes “put your heart into the Work” can become cliché and we shrug it off. You might be thinking right now, We hear that all the time! Just put your heart more into God’s Work. I am not at headquarters; I am not a staff member. How can I put my heart more into God’s Work? 

No matter where you are, you are involved in the most crucial aspect of God’s Work. The Work does not thrive at headquarters or in the field because of new machines or clever thinking. It thrives because of God’s people pouring their hearts into it through prayers! It advances because of God’s people deeply studying their Bibles, fasting on occasion, raising strong families, sharing godly conversation, raising funds together, spending time together. 

Cocomise then continues with this little list of vital things that you can do to stop discouragement.  As usual, Jesus is nowhere to be found.

Do not believe that you are not a vital part of God’s Work! That belief does not come from God. If you would like some specific ways to pour your heart into God’s Work more, here are three:

• You can listen to KPCG.fm 
• Read The Philadelphian (members only) 
• Listen to Stephen Flurry on the Trumpet Daily 

Doing these three things will eliminate most discouragement, however deep discouragement requires something harder.  You must FAST!

None of these tips replaces or comes before our most important tools in battling discouragement: prayer and study. Fasting may even be necessary from time to time depending on how discouraged we may get. Nevertheless, these additional tools can serve as a great method to boost our resistance to discouragement when it arises.

Cocomise can't bring in any scriptures by Jesus on how he makes burdens light and carries the weight, instead he has to resort to an Old Testament hero that PCG places more significance upon.

Baruch was right there serving as secretary to God’s prophet, Jeremiah. He was right at the center of God’s Work. They had the vision, yet Baruch still found a way to fall into discouragement. No matter who we are, we can get discouraged. Baruch became selfish, and God had to remind him that even though life might have been easier if he were in a different situation, the only thing that would save his life for all eternity was holding on to the vision and delivering God’s message. Our situation is no different. If we deliver this message, hold on to the vision, and faithfully support God’s Work, we will defeat Satan and his effort to crush us through discouragement. God is ready and waiting to encourage you through His Work!

Big bad meanie Satan is out to discourage PCG members.  Apparently that discouragement never comes from the perverse teachings of Flurry, the abuse of Wayne Turgeon, the arrogance of the ministry, and much more.  Great would be the day any of this "men" ever took responsibility for anything.

Gerald Flurry, Beggars and Lives of Excess

The Philadelphia Church of God recently ran an article by a young woman from The Compound about how her life was "touched" by a poor beggar boy in South Africa while she and her privileged white family celebrated the Feast of Excessive Spending.

She writes:

That was at a Feast in South Africa in 2005. I was 11 years old and quite selfish, but that incident changed the way I looked at life. Living such rich lifestyles—as we do in America—can make a person begin to feel entitled to things, just like I felt entitled to a bigger, nicer vehicle, but we cannot think that way. It has all been given to us, and it can all be taken away just as easily, especially now in this end time. Mr. Gerald Flurry has even warned us be prepared to lower our standard of living because it is not always going to be rainbows and butterflies like it is now. 

Gerald Flurry and other  Church of God leaders have been touting Herbert Armstrong's "lower your standard of living" mantra for many decades now.  While Flurry, Pack, Thiel, Kubik and others spout the same drivel, they demand that their members continue to send in as much money as possible to keep their rich white lives maintained in their current standard of living.  Not once has Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack, Bob Thiel or any of the other so-called leaders ever lowered their standards of living.  Herbert Armstrong never set the example for them, so they have no idea how.

UCG and LCG are prime examples of that.  Both of these churches were started in order to maintain the current lifestyles of their leaders and ministers. Of them both, UCG was the most flagrant in their desire to maintain their ministerial perks.  Knowing that they were to to soon lose their jobs due to the doctrinal changes and the dramatic drop in income to WCG, ministers met and conspired in Kubik's and other ministers homes on campus plotting and scheming on how to take as many members and as much tithe money with them as possible.  Their new church they started was not so much over doctrinal changes, as most of them were the major enforcers of Tkach Sr. changes, but was really about the money.

When has Gerald Flurry ever taken a pay cut?  When has any of his intermarried family members ever taken away cut?  Instead, a million dollar facility is being built so that his grand-kids can practice Irish dance while PCG members struggle to make ends meet.

In the Church, we not only have many physical blessings from God, but we also have His truth and His protection. We have the hope of the World Tomorrow that is coming so soon. 

Whenever I feel down and discouraged, I always try to count my blessings. It actually does work! If you are sad like I was, it might be a result of selfishness and ingratitude. You cannot be unhappy if you are truly thankful. If that little boy had the blessings and truth we have, he would never be unthankful. 

Truth?  What truth?

Those "physical blessings" would all dry up the second members stopped sending in their
hard-earned money.  God isn't blessing the PCG, members are propping up.  If they all stopped sending in money for one month, the entire family enterprise would collapse.

Who in there right mind would want to live in a "world tomorrow" that is managed by PCG tyrants?  Imagine what a hellish life it would be with Wayne Turgeon lording himself over you and your family!  The lake of fire would start to look like a much better alternative.

As sad as that story is, God made it happen to teach me a lesson about gratitude. And maybe one day in the World Tomorrow, when we are teaching all the people, He will let me scoop that little boy up in my arms, squeeze him tight, and tell him that I love him—that everything is going to be okay, and that there are people out there who want the best for him. I’ll share the hope we have with him. And I will thank him for the valuable, life-changing lesson he taught me about being thankful.

For the sake of the world, may the day of PCG's "kingdom" never come!

LCG Member on Egyptair Plane That Crashed

This was sent to me from several LCG members this morning.  An LCG member from Paris was killed in what looks like a terrorist attack upon an Egyptair flight heading to Cairo.

Egyptair flight MS804: 'Terrorism more likely than technical failure', says Egypt – live

(CNN) EgyptAir Flight 804 vanished off radar on its way from Paris to Cairo with 66 people aboard, an airline official said Thursday. The plane was flying at 37,000 feet when it disappeared with 56 passengers and 10 crew members, the airline tweeted. 

Monique Dalle, member of the Paris congregation, wife of Jean-Jacques DALLE, is on the flight MS804 that disappeared en route from Paris to Cairo. Monique was to see their daughter Esther. Jean-Jacques and their son Nathan are at home in Paris without news from the authorities. Please pray for the family.